On our return from the Bantam Swap, I placed the cage, with Kupa’s surprise, into the still empty turkey enclosure and left the cage door open while closing the pen door. This was so Kupa could see but not touch for a wee while. I had no idea how peacocks behave with strangers. 
Kupa was tranfixed with what slowly emerged from the cage and he sat down outside the door to the pen and gazed. The Duke of Kupa put on his best and most patient expression and waited. He waited outside the pen for hours. Just watching. 
After I could see that there were not going to be any problems, I let him into the enclosure so you could see his surprise too! I know this is an arranged marriage and I don’t want to overwhelm him but I hope he is not averse to having TWO wives. These girls were too beautiful to leave there for just anyone to take home.
Meet Tui (on the left) and Pania (on the right). Our two new peahens. I was not prepared for how beautiful they are. I thought they would be mousy and dull but they are speckled and fat and gorgeous, with green scarves around their necks and those delicate crowns. They look like large well fed thrushes dressed up for a ball. 
All afternoon they gently flowed about the large enclosure like a tiny school of fish. When Kupa moved left, they moved left, when he settled down so did they, when he flew to the roost they clumsily followed. Kupa is happiness filled. He will have to stay in there with them for a few days until they settle down and learn the peacock call. Which by the way is Neil Neil!! Thank you darling. When I call Neil Neil, Kupa appears and hops up to his feeding ledge, which luckily is IN the turkey enclosure. The girls will learn this too. Then he can lead them out and show them about. But not today.
They were in a good spot because later on in the afternoon the weather turned from bright and sunny to dark and threatening without warning. I guess if we had the weather channel we would have had warning, but we were working outside and don’t watch TV anyway. 
A squall of high wind and dust raced across the prairie straight at the house, then turned on a dime and wooshed back into itself. You can see from these shots how is came forward then whipped back up. 
Hmm, I said eloquently, is that a tornado! No, said our John, that is just a dust cloud! But it is strange. The wind was extreme so this conversation was discussed in stacatto shouts as we raced to and fro saving potted seedlings and buckets as they flew past. Then just as suddenly it stopped. Like when you raise your voice to speak to someone at a dinner party and suddenly the table goes completely quiet. Not by design of course. But always at the wrong moment. A surprised quiet dropped like a brick. Is it over? I said.
The local looked at the sky and turned pondering.
Then the phone rung from inside the house.
It was The Matriarch calling from town. Get into the basement, she said, the tornado sirens are going off here.
Is it really a tornado? I said, as John put down the phone and reached for the IPad. Wait, John said the connection is slow. Is it coming this way? I need to get animals in. I am out the door and pulling my gumboots back on. Wait, I will see. John is tapping at his stupid little box. He caught up with me in the barn. We need to get them in, he said. Forget the computer, look at the sky. He pointed to the horizon. A wide shaft of dark cloud was heading our way from town, not a tornado, but mean looking. This was not a dust storm. This was heavy and dark, it reached from the sky to the ground, and was widening as we watched, racing for us.
Now, you will remember that all my animals have their own call. And my voice was trained for the stage. So as the wind rose again so did my voice. I called everyone in one by one and John moved them through the barn to their pens. One at a time each paddock was cleared, fast, gates shut. I was running, so were the animals. No-one argued. Ton went down when he was told and leapt forward when he was told. Daisy had some trouble getting through her four foot gate at speed and Queenie was terribly surprised to be handed a Get Out Of Jail card so soon. Mama with her babies and Mia at her heel trotted into her sunroom. Hairy said, oh good, time for a wee lie down, and Kupa told his new flock to hold on to their perches. The pigs, three chickens and Mary’s cat were already bedded down in the pigsty so I shut all the big barn doors one after the other.
Just as John got the last vehicle under cover, and I slammed and latched the last barn door the rain began. Hard. By now the horizon was gone, the dark had come, the lightening and thunder were consecutive, like strobes with drums in a 70′s disco and directly overhead. I yelled at the Big Dog to get into the house as I raced for the porch, chased by lightening, the dog ran under the house and I smacked through the kitchen door followed by dark deafening thunder as the screen door slammed behind me.
We turned and dripped on the floor as we looked back out at the already raging storm. The air was thick with wind blown rain running horizontally. But we were OK. Everyone was where they were meant to be. All secure. It was just a storm. We could relax now. I reached down to pull at TonTon’s ear. Good job Dog. Dog was not there.
Where’s my dog? I said to John.
He look at the mat in the kitchen. He looked back outside. You are not going back out there, he said. It is too dangerous.
It’s not so bad. I said. I will be fast. I pulled on my sodden jacket again and stepped wet feet back into my green rubber boots.
You’ll be hit by lightening, he shouted, as I ran down the steps.
I’ve never been hit by lightening in my life, I laughed back. Already gone. Head down, eyes almost closed, gumboots filling with water. Fighting through the storm back to the barn.
TonTon was there where I had left him, with a Down command just inside a door, in a pen, surrounded by animals. He was so pleased to see me, he became the cork in a champagne bottle and beat me back to the house.
Good morning. The thunder and lightening disco rolled for hours in the night. All together so far we have had three inches of rain. And it is raining again right now. I have not been outside yet this morning but I don’t think we have sustained any damage, just a severe storm. I will let you know. Minty’s bottle is warming. Time to start work. It will be a wet day. Nice.
Have a lovely day yourself.
celi
I was working away thinking how the wind was catching some of the smaller bits of wool and maybe the sparrows would use it for their nests, when I heard a shushing sound from the barn behind me. A sound like, I don’t know, like twenty old working men rubbing their dried and worn hands together. Hands that have never seen lotion. 
The girls were decidedly underwhelmed. He shook and stomped and shushed some more and they wandered off to look at the pigs. I am not kidding they actually jumped into the pig sty and I had to shoo them back out.
