Beautiful Daughter, who you will remember is in Melbourne, still reads the Farmy pages every day. She was on the phone yesterday. Write more stories, she says. I said, it is summer here I don’t start the real writing until December 26. I cannot think of a single story in the summer. I am too busy or my brain is too hot or something.
She laughed, thinking of the many stories I cannot tell. Tell them. She said. Tell them how you made us jump off stuff for hours, when we were little, remember? So you could get a shot of all of us in the air. Tell them you were an avid photographer even then and your kids paid the price. Oh Sops, I said, I am sure it was not hours. We were exhausted, she laughed. I could hear her giggle at the memory on the phone, me in Illinois and she in Melbourne. I thought how strange this way of communicating was, using only the ears. I wanted to poke her shoulder with my fingertip as she laughed at me!. She laughed again, and you would say, Just one more jump! Just once more! Just to be sure! Get back up there and jump off! It is not high! Stop your moaning!
Well, I said. that was in the days of film. I was bracketing!
That girl.
Tell the fence story, she said. No, I said, I will not. What are you thinking, like I will tell THAT story. Why not? she says, across thousands of miles. Tell it.
Are you going to jump the ditch to see me when I am in NZ, I said.
Yup, she answers, I have the plane fare in an envelope in with my knickers. You are just like me, I said, I always save into seperate envelopes too. Duh, she said (well she didn’t actually say Duh, it was all on the inside , what she did was sigh just audibly enough to tell her mother that of course she saves into envelopes we ALL do! Then your savings are in their rightful places, labelled. Tell the fence story, she said. No, I said, it will make me look like a bad mother and anyway you were just a baby. Tomorrow, she said knowing when was the exact moment to extract the promise. Saturday, I said. Because I am the Mother!
I will try. Things are quiet at the moment, I could probably do a story.
I miss her so. Sometimes I miss my children so much my breath forgets to breathe.
Anyway. Yesterday. I had made a very good celery soup using my Mothers recipe and then set everything up for some exceptional food photography photos, I was really styling. But apparently Camera was not styling at all. It sat on the tripod and was silent. So I have no images of the soup. I will make this soup again though, there is a lot of lovely celery in the garden this year and it needs to be eaten up.
Later I took the poor unloved Purse Camera, shoved it into my french baggie and went about the business of farming with animals that refuse to behave like well behaved farm animals.
For some obscure reason Sheila pushed the bowl into the corner and then fell over the straining wire in the rush to get to the milk. 
And just stayed like that while they sucked down the milk. 
To take the time to stand up like a proper pig would have meant that Charlotte got more! Funny pig. Pigs love milk.
And peacocks like to sit under the light in the barn. 
Posing. Fat. Peahen. Fattened on my grapes.
Good morning. It is Friday here. Friday is always a busy day. So tomorrow I will begin to write the story of the boy and the fence. In fact there are few fence stories now that I think about it. But The Baby is right. They like the stories. Everyone needs a good laugh every now and then, particularly if they get to laugh at their Mum. Laughing at oneself is good too.
Have a lovely day.
celi
What were we doing on this day a year ago? Let me see. Oh! I made meatloaf. The Famous Meatloaf.
The Kitchen's Garden 
99 responses to “Pigs love Milk”
I love that line of yours about missing your children ‘my breath forgets to breathe’. I also agree with your daughter – tell the story/stories!
Your pig pics make me miss mine!
maybe this summer you will get another pig..?..c
no way!
maybe just a little one!! Ming could bring it milk.. c
I already tried the little one thing!
It grew right! well there is that! c
Haha! Funny pig indeed… proper little fatty :D… a pig after my own heart!
Proper little fatty indeed!! morning frugal.. c
g’mornin’ – though I can’t really say that any more… it’s 5pm…
…and poor Ton Ton sits in the background, hoping for a chance at some milk. Fat chance, with those greedy pigs hogging the bowl, making pigs of themselves!
They are the archetypal piggie.. c
Hmmm, Fence Story…child stuck under? Hung on by the overall straps? Escaped, when a section blew down in a storm, only to be found three hours later inside the vacationing next-door neighbor’s house, eating a stick of butter she’d stolen out of the fridge?
Oh, wait – that last one is MY fence story. My Bad. 😉
Your Baby is right – we all need a laugh. Sometimes, we’re laughing because we (and all our kids!) survived, right?
HAHAHAHAH!!! I wonder How C is going to top that?
I have no doubt that HER story will be orders of magnitude funnier than mine….she had more kids to work with than I did 😉
A stick of butter? You escaped and then ate a stolen stick of butter! You are brilliant!! c
Oh you guys, I did have a lot of choices! But I am certainly not funnier!!
Not me, Sweetie…Sarah the Butterfly, when she was two. As we combed the neighborhood calling for her, my 4-year-old kept saying, “We’re never gonna find her, Mommy….She’s GONE…” Helpful child, that one.
Marie, that made me laugh out loud!
Oh dear, so does she still eat a lot of butter!?.. c
Why not two well-spaced dishes for greedy pigs? And why don’t you use Skype to talk to beautiful daughter? It makes such a difference to SEE them -and it’s FREE. They can take me on a tour of the WIP which is their house makeover, I can see Grandson’s new haircut or latest drawing…..Such a comfort.
Skype keeps crashing out here where we have next to no signal. .it takes me over a minute to load each page I visit, I cannot watch utube either.. such a bore.. these greedy pigs do have two well placed dishes, the other one is out of the frame but they both have to finish one dish then try and beat each other to the next dish.. funny little fattys.. c
They seem about as competitive as sibling children!
they do, one eye on what the other is doing all the time.. c
Oh I am thrilled you are going to tell the stories – an extra big thanks to your lovely daughter for giving you the nudge.
I would love to know what was going through Ton’s mind watching the girls with their milk!
Have a beautiful weekend.
🙂 Mandy
he reacted to my shout of laughter and raced in to be on hand for a command, all he got was ignored!! c
Youth of today … why can’t your daughter walk across when the tide is out huh???? 🙂 Love love love these piggy pics and I am holding my breath for the fence story. 🙂 Laura
sshh that is a secret about the low tide, the aussies might notice and invade NZ! they are after our pavs! c
yep …. and the Green lipped Muscles and the oysters too!
I love the pics of the greedy pigs – and poor TonTon looking on wistfully.
Can’t wait to hear the fence story.
I had better get busy!! c
Hey Celi! I’m already looking forward to the story on Saturday! No doubt it’s a doozy as Beautiful Daughter feels it needs to be told! And your piggies! Just like ours, they race each other eating. We finally got two dishes as Bernadette is a bit bigger than Roxanne, and she manages to overpower Roxie eat more. Roxie had become a very fast, efficient eater, diving in to grab a bite before Bernie could push her away and doing that over and over from different sides of the bowl. The two dishes have worked well. xo
So sweet. Mine HAVE to drink out of one bowl, i fill two and sometimes three bowls but they just run together from one to the other.. afraid someone might get more!! c
Too, too funny!!!
No wonder I have no money. I never bought any envelopes in which to keep it. Now it doesn’t seem so bad.
Never mind! c
Sheila probably decided there was no point in getting back up until the milk was done.
I find that with my mum – I have taken on different habits and little things without noticing, things that outside of our family may not be how everyone else does things even, and then realize, eureka! it’s because my mum does it that way. 🙂 So it sticks, even though her and I live across the world from each other too.
Living so far away from your Mum, it is quite funny when you see the similarities popping up.. I hope you get to see her often.. c
I got to see her at a family wedding last month, and I’ll see her in October so, that’s not that long now!
Every day I wonder how it will feel to live 3,000 miles away from our son. It takes my breath away too. But such is life, I suppose. I will have to remember stories like your daughter is encouraging you to do.
What a silly pig! Was she able to get herself off that wire? I think Kupa likes to sit under the light…like a spotlight! ha
WE do ok, i think that being so far away we make sure to write and call and stay in touch but i do miss the sitting down to eat together.. we will do lots of that when I go home.. have you settled on a place now? c
No, still waiting for the house to sell! It’s all up in the air until then.
Your love for your family always comes through. I love how TonTon isn’t at all intimidated by those giant beasties!
Love the little tail through the wire fence……..
Sorry, I cried a little, missing your babies..I can not imagine being away, so far away…thank you for sharing your conversation! She sounds like a hoot! (fun)
Jess