Good things.



My absolutely favourite kitchen gadget, this month, is my Spong's bean slicer - No.633.  It is such an antiquated machine, but never has a bean been better sliced.  It has been tucked away safely for years awaiting this exact moment in time to reappear and be useful, given to me by a dear friend who I hope will soon do the same, reappear and visit our new pad so we can catch up on years and years of life that has swept us by.

My absolutely favourite time of year, autumn.  Crispy golden leaves thrown down to the ground by the autumn fairy.  The last of the apples plucked high off the trees and crammed into crumbles rubbing shoulders with ginger chunks topped with lashings of plain yoghurt.

My absolutely favourite favourite thing to do, today, was spend some quality time in my new office.  It is a breeze block building, of sizeable proportions, with two doors, a sloping plastic roof and a wall of windows.  It has raised bays of note.  It is my growing room.  I have such potential to produce, but like everything else on the farm it will take some effort, manpower, and money to get it into a reasonable shape with many cubic meters of top soil required before anything much can be grown.

My absolutely favourite thing to watch, today, was my daughter watching her new kitten with a freshly caught mouse.  She has heard about the theory but never seen the result as yet,ie a dead mouse.  Today was a life lesson of note for her, that was absorbed quite lightly with no grimacing or questions.  We have spoken about things being dead.  We have made links between piggies and sausages - but one never really knows what goes in and what sticks in a four year olds brain.  She staged a reenactment - she showed me how the kitten ran up with the mouse in its mouth.  She scurried away being the mouse.  She then pounced and went 'chomp' and then stood up and simply told me that the mouse was then dead.  

Life is sweet, simple and good so far on the farm.  Our new hens are friends with the inherited bantams and we are getting regular eggs.  Word has spread and a neighbour came to introduce herself at the weekend - offering anytime support if required.  Nice.  Vermin is being rapidly depleted with our new feisty 4 month old kittens.  Still waiting for the hedge-man to come and cut our hedges....ditto the tree man to have a handful of monster cypresses down and logged...as I learnt right at the beginning, these things take time.



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