The Challenge 3rd April 2006
Ok, so I'm going to set a challenge to myself, to learn html so I can
put in fancy links, banners and pictures, and because I don't like
using things I don't understand, and I do like it when I do understand.
So, I'm going back to basics. Every nifty trick I do on my pages from now on will be because I know how to do them. In the meantime, it's bare. Shame you can't rely on the content really.
Instead of a photo, there is now empty space. Mr and Mrs Duck must have wandered onto the main road and are now together in ducky heaven. Tamsin and Angie are both gutted. Of course Tamsin is a sucker for any animal but the depth of Angie's reaction has come of something a surprise. We must be winning her over.
Tamsin couldn't help thinking it was a waste for two such fine specimins to lay on the highway and get flatter and flatter and she did think about experimenting with a raw food diet for the dogs for a couple of days. The plan only went on hold when Tamsin realised she would have to do some kind of plucking, and that, should another couple of ducks set up home there next year, that she might have a harder time convincing the dogs that dried duck and rice kibble are better than the real thing.
The plot thickens. The
duck plot that it. When Angie went swimming this morning, the duck
bodies were gone. Someone with greater plucking knowledge clearly had
the same idea. Following a day of mourning (I'm not exaggerating),
Tamsin met the farmer and told him about the ducks. "Oh no!" he said,
"the duck is in my barn sitting on 6 eggs. She's been there all day."
When we looked onto the big puddle on the marsh, low and behold, there
were two ducks! Here is the evidence. Are they Mr and Mrs Duck? Or Mr
and Mrs Duck II? Meanwhile, this evening, Tamsin was just planning for an early night when the cat flap went, Carlsberg chirped, and a baby rabbit shot across the kitchen. Tamsin sighed and shook her head. The rabbit went under the bureau. Tamsin made a path of boxes towards the open door (we stoked up the fire, it was freezing) but the poor rabbit wasn't going anywhere. Tamsin missed the end of Monk. She put on her gardening gloves and eventually worked up the courage to slide the rabbit out and catch it. It was wriggly so she had to let it go in the garden. It has the night to recover and Tamsin will see if a mercy mission is called for in the morning. It is now 22:31 and Tamsin is finally going to bed.
There is good news on the allotment front but you'll have to read about that another day. Now we must all go to bed.
When Father Christmas delivered a nice little red box of ocean bites for Carlsberg, I was pleased for her. I
didn't realise I would be handing over REAL LIFE WHOLE FISH with their googley little eyes looking up at me. Even Carlsberg
did a double take before she ate it. And that is the cat that eats a whole mouse or bird without a second thought.
Don't get me wrong, I don't believe in dressing meat up so it doesn't look like meat. If you're gonna eat it,
at least eat it for what it is. It was just a shock to have 20 pairs of eyes staring at me while I opened the
packet. Next time I will brace myself. And be glad I am vegan.
Today our new friend Hazel came for the afternoon. She said the dogs were on their BB. That's
"best behaviour" for the uninitiated. Which, of course, makes me out to be a liar when I tell of their terrible tales,
but I'd rather be a liar with BB dogs, than telling the truth about the ASBO brigade, especially when new friends are concerned. It puts me in mind of a time when I was making a new friend, Sandra, and we went to the beach for the first time. Beanz went behind some public toilets and ate something that I can't tell you here, suffice to say someone mustn't have had their 5p to hand. About 10 minutes from home I tried to casually disguise a terrible smell by opening the window, but there was no diguising this smell. Beanz had puked up her treasure down the side of the back seat of the new car (with my new friend in).
Anyway, end hazy memory sequence and back to the present day. Hazel came for a walk with us and it was all very nice. Note to self, don't try to cook when new friends come to tea. Or at least, make sure you have some form of ingredients in the house before they arrive, or they will be obliged to smile and say, "yum" when eating some mushrooms, kidney beans and a green pepper.
Well this is something I never thought I'd see. Yes, your eyes do serve you correctly. That is a photo
of Beanze wearing her Bronze Good Citizen Rosette. She earned it today at her exam. I was more nervous that I was when I did my degree for goodness sake. But Beanz
was cool as a cucumber and even managed a little sleep while she was waiting to do her "controlled walk though a door". The fact that she had been charging round
Rivington for 2 hours was nothing to do with it. She was very well behaved and I am very proud of her. 7pm: looks like Beanz used up all her Bronze Citizen behaviour at her bronze citizen exam. My mother was right when she told me pride comes before a fall. She (Beanz, not my mother) has barked at a jogger, 3 horses, 3 boys playing in the stream, 2 girls walking down a path and one unknown monster. That will stop me getting above myself. Beanz: profilaxis for arrogance. I guess profilaxis is one of those words I can say but have no idea how to spell. That and trayps. Ok ok, there are a few.