Here is Mama last year. Such a difference from the overly burdened shaggy calm sleepy sheep we are Not Looking Directly At in the hope that she will have a few lambs while we are Not Looking.
Will she ever get her figure back? Well, a good start would be actually giving birth to all those lambs Mama. Not that we are watching mind you! Not that we are on the edge of our seats waiting. Not that we are up all hours of the night checking you in a nightie and gumboots with a dog holding the torch and cats sliding along the fences in the dark! No not that!
Yesterday was terribly windy. There are three stages of wind out here. 1. Windy (almost every day for most of spring.) 2. Pretty windy, (hats fly off, bent forward as you walk, can hear nothing but wind almost every afternoon windy) and then the worst Too Windy to Garden.
Otherwise known as Bendy Tree Day. I hate that kind of wind. It heaves and tears at you all day. It blows your brain straight out of your head. Leaving you tired and strained and not quite together, but you don’t know why because your brain has been blown right out of your head.
Did I tell you that the massively pruned pear tree is coming out. It had piles of flowers at the same time as the new pear trees which was a relief. Mia! No!
Mia I said NO. 
Oh Mia, you naughty sheep! 
Here is the first lettuce crop, we are already eating the baby leaves.
Good morning. Last night, the moment the Too Windy to Garden wind dropped, the thunder and lightening began. Out here on the plains sometimes the thunder rolls for ages, with lightening in the midst of it. They come together. The sound smashed and the lights flashed for almost thirty minutes. Nothing like the gentle little thunder and lightening storms in NZ. And then it rained, a fat tropical downpour! Bliss. You know already that I love the rain.
I had to get up and close the windows when it rained. I hate closing the windows. It feels like I have had my ears stopped up with wool when I close the windows. I like to hear what is going on in the night. But once the rain had stopped, I opened them all again and went back to sleep listening to the drops pattering off the roof and plopping into the rain buckets.
The frogs have already taken up residence again in the frog garden, did I tell you? They are not singing yet but I can hear them plopping back into the water as I pass. That garden is not planted yet so no photos!
Good morning. I received a delivery from a very nice delivery man yesterday who would not get out of his van because he thought TonTon, who had barked at him, would eat him. The man gave me the new electric fence wire by feeding the box out through the partially open drivers window. TonTon sat on the verandah like he had been told and smiled meanly at him.
The new fence is a high mesh fence, good for sheep and pigs too, and we are hoping that it will keep Daisy in. Last year as you remember she just raced around the field until she had enough speed up and then jumped the electric fence like a steeplechase racehorse streaking the wrong way, out of the track. She tucked her legs in and rose up and over the fence and landed in the grass on the other side, look Ma No Hands!! Then she would amble back into the barn through my garden. She did this again and again. I told her I was going to sell her to the circus! This fence will be fuller and hopefully more intimidating, plus she is 7 months pregnant!
So I shall put this fence up in Pats paddock, so we can graze that good grass more efficiently and then attach it to my solar powered electricity maker and see what happens. There will be some banging and heaving and maybe a little swearing but the day looks fine and clear and I want to get the job finished before the wind comes up. So off to work I go.
Have a great day.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
77 responses to “Mama last summer when she was svelte like!”
The lettuce looks wonderful!
tasty too.. morning Rosemary! c
I laughed out loud at TonTon smiling meanly at the delivery man. And then the threat to sell Daisy to the circus…, well, another reason to laugh out loud. I hope the fencing today goes well.
The fencing did go well and i am back in with my coffee now, addressing envelopes for postcards.. Daisy is lying right in the middle of her new field happy as a lark.. c
And how did you teach your dog to hold the torch? Ha!! Man, I love reading your blog every morning–your life is like the anti-mylife as I sit here at my desk in the manicured suburbs. Don’t know that I want to be doing all that you do, and yet there is a part of me who’d love to try! 🙂
TonTon is funny when he carries the torch because he never shines it in the right spot and then he will forget what he is doing and run off with it and all you see is a light bouncing through the fields. ! c
You put so much in your posts, Celia, it’s often hard to narrow down what to comment on! I’m going with the rain this time as your pleasure in it resonates with mine – and other readers too, no doubt. I grew up with a tin roof but now have ugly, sound-dulling tiles. Will we have photos of frogs? I think they will be elusive.
I have that one i took last year of a frog, in my postcard collection, I crept on my belly as slowly as a snake for ages to get him.. hopefully i will get more.. I love the frogs! c
Yes, I saw that amongst the postcards after I’d written. Still, frogs are delightful creatures and one can hardly have too many photos of them.
I’m with you on the wind thing 🙂 It’s still and blue and hot here, hot March! England! what is the world coming too. The poodles barked meanly at the Parcel Force Man just now and send their fondest dogwatchalert regards to Ton-Ton. Wishing I was a svelte as a pre prgnant sheep but that is by the bye xx Joanna
She is rather beautiful when she is in good form that sheep. She is very long! And a hot march for you! excellent.. Your garden must be looking great Joanna.. c
Oh I do hope by the time my comment is posted that Mama will have started with some signs of getting those lambies out of her belly. Come on Mama!!!
Heavy winds disturb my brain too!
Have a happy day Celi.
🙂 Mandy
Well Mama is now happily munching in the second new field i created by boxing Daisy in so maybe a big feed of good grass will help her feel ready! c
I’m so glad you’ve had some real rain at last. Even we – in normally drowned Normandy – are starting to pray for rain. The problem here is that when it does start, someone up there forgets to turn the tap off!
I’m sorry about your wind problem 😀 Solution? Plant more trees and hedges.
Fingers and toes still crossed for Mama.
I know and my little trees were being blown to the ground yesterday however they are all standing up again today.. I often choose fast growing trees for that very reason!! Morning Viv..c
The difference in Mama is amazing!
I know, i didn’t want to put up one from yesterday as it seemed too mean to make a direct comparison and anyway we are Not Looking at her ! morning mad!c
Oh wow! Look at Mama last year! Amazing. 🙂 And you know I never knew frogs “sing” until this past weekend when I had the chance to hear them. At first I was terrified. I had no idea what it was, but then I figured it out – how cool!
They can be noisy, I have one in the field that sounds like a creaking door, i have no idea what it is yet, still so much to learn about my own environment! c
You did tell me the lettuce was all ready to eat, but wow, that looks fantastic! Enjoy it.
And look at Mama! I am sure she will work hard on that figure:)
It was very tasty Ksenia, with a wee dash of your truffle oil it was dazzling! c
Celi, It appears you have your work cut out for you today. I hope the winds cooperate. I just wanna reach right into my screen to snatch a taste of that lettuce.
Enjoy the spring rains.
Jess
ps..Mamma, we are ready now.
After dividing Pats paddock, I let mama in with all the good grass for a wee while and it is wonderful seeing them all wander about in that spring plenty.. c
I expect Mama is hoping she´ll soon deliver too – and not out of the cracked open window of a delivery van. Honestly, what a big silly thing he was and I´m glad TonTon sat and gave him a look. Too funny!
Well TonTon can look pretty mad when he sees a van he does not know come up the drive. I sent him to the verandah and told him to stay as he would not stop the barking! It was kind of amusing but I guess these guys have to deal with some pretty mean dogs too.. c
I can’t even believe that’s the same sheep! Surely not. But, I’ve turned my head away and will Not Look, too. That lettuce is gorgeous. Do you have issues with rabbits at all there? Rabbits are mowing down my parsley and lettuces. Good luck with that fence. It sounds like quite a job unto itself to put it up, and I do hope it will keep Daisy the leaper at bay. Good morning!
Morning betsy, we used to have terrible trouble with rabbits until we got the two barn cats, it surprised me too. Until then John built beautiful fences around the gardens. I collect old draining racks and the racks from inside old dishwashers and place these over the lettuce and spinach, it keeps the nibblers (and the chickens) from wrecking a crop.. c
The draining rack is a great idea…thanks miss c!
I can’t believe how thin Mama was! I guess we’ve all just gotten used to her looking furry and pregnant…
We’ve been windy here too but had an entire day yesterday without rain or snow. What a relief!
Poor TonTon. How could anyone not love him? There’s something weird about those postal people…when my husband was hiking with our dogs he ran into two postal workers that were also hiking (I guess they had a conversation and that’s how he figured out they were postal workers) and when they came upon the dogs they threatened to spray them with pepper spray!! I couldn’t believe that story. Vizslas are practically the most loving dog on earth. And obviously postal workers are crazy. I told my husband he’s lucky I wasn’t there…ha! I would have said, “You go right ahead and try it and see what happens next.”
Have a wonderful day and don’t get blown away in all that wind! ~ April
poor guys were traumatised. I used to walk a lot in town when i lived in london and just opened my umbrella in the face of loose barking dogs, they ran off very fast!! c
Mama certainly looked different in her girlish days. I’m with you on wind — strong winds are my least favorite kind of weather. Let us hope the fence does the trick for keeping the errant cow where she should be and out of your garden.
It is holding up so far, in fact she has given up on pestering it and is lolling about in the field having a wee sleep! so far so good! c