Only one cottage to clean today and that was a real treat - such lovely clean tidy people. It was further enhanced by the huge bundle of fruit and veg they left behind. A big bag of mixed lettuce leaves, lemon, apple, radishes, sweet corn, avocado, tomatoes - you name it! So no prizes for guessing I had salad for dinner tonight. There was even fennel! I should have lobbed in there at dinner time last night!

The down side was they commented there was no sound on the video. Since I have no clue about that sort of technology I concluded the easiest solution was to remove the machine and the videos so tonight's guest does not realise there is supposed to be a video available.

The chilly weather prompted me to cut some firewood and light the fire this afternoon. It is now a little too snug indoors, and I will need to have some for tomorrow so I will let the fire go out now it is close to bedtime.

Tomorrow is the joint 60th birthday of my old class at school so I had to whip up something to take as my 'plate'. Fortunately the big bag of groceries included a selection of pinkeyes, so i have friend up some bacon bits, boiled up and egg, chopped up some chives and with put it all together with some mayo tomorrow as a potato salad. Sprinkled with parsley from my garden - should pass I expect.

I also bought a selection of cheeses and some olives and quince jelly to go with them so we have a cheese platter as well, which I will dress with some lettuce leaves for the cheese to sit on.

Not sure where the quince jelly has got to though - it must be somewhere on the floor of the ute I suspect. Will have to go rummage for it before it is dark.

The tomatoes looked too good to leave on the vine, so they came home with me today and were eaten for dinner (on toast with cracked black pepper and ground salt).

The vines themselves are taking over the polytunnel and have engulfed the basil plants entirely. There is a cos lettuce gone to seed in there somewhere, so I am hoping to still be able to find it so I can harvest the seeds when they are ripe.

The tomatoes to the left (the orange ones) are some sort of heirloom variety. The tree in the middle of the planting is a red one and the one furthest from the camera is a black russian.

I had quite forgotten, when I agreed to clean cottages today, that I was supposed to be in the garden, but we managed to get the weeding out of the way in short order and I left Syche to finish the job while I pottered off to earn my keep.

There was, of course, the bank to do also so that was sorted out first of all.
 The wind has picked up now, and will apparently be even stronger tomorrow. Hope the roof holds good. I have written the number of the SES on the fridge door just in case!

we had two more showers this afternoon that delivered another couple of mm. which was nice.

Have spent some time leaning on the fence watching the pigs next door - they are quite amazing to watch. You would think those little squidgey noses would be too sensitive to plunge into the ground as they do, but no. They thrust them deep into the ground then plough up whatever is in their path before moving on to the next bit. Astonishing. I have never watched pigs in natural surroundings before (the ones at college were in a piggery and the one down the road is in a pen and let out to graze from time to time on grass pasture), and they are quite remarkable animals in action. They are also keen to get to know everything in their environment. A sheet of bright yellow plastic caught on a post of their pen had them all in a row watching it, and when it blew loose, they scampered off then converged on it again when it lay still. Obviously very curious creatures.

Another 14 mm yesterday and overnight - so a total of 44 mm. Pity the first lot fell so fast as it has mostly just run off, and very little went into the soil. Still there is a bit more promised over the weekend, so hopefully it will do the trick. At least by turning over the mulch I managed to get that all wet through. The zucchini clearly got some benefit as it has suddenly produced about 8 small fruits that should be ready to pick in short order. I had no idea I had planted a yellow zucchini, so there you go!

Two cottages and a visit to a friend today. And on our walk Seb and I found a nice hat which came home with me. It is one of those cotton 'fisherman's" hats but has the added advantage of a throat strap with toggle to reduce the chances of it blowing off my head (though apparently it has blown off someone's head). It will go through the washing machine before use.

The rain started just before bedtime and (apparently) kept going all night. I say 'apparently' as I slept through what must have been a bit of a deluge, if the loungeroom floor is anything to go by! Thirty one mm at 6 this morning and a further 12 or so to date today. So many things I could have done with that $135.00...... Oh well. This will at least mean I don't have to water the garden for a couple of days. But with the wind picking up, this benefit will not last long.

The piglets next door made a break for it this morning and were wandering at liberty around their back yard. They have only one strand of electric wire at chest height and of course the piggies jump over it, being very agile at that age. Two strands would be better, but I guess they will work that out eventually. They made an arc for them which is just big enough to house all four. That should be useful for about a week as they grow very rapidly at this point in their lives.

I was called back into the bank this morning which was alarming. But apparently I was supposed to have been changing my alarm code every three months and this has not been happening. They have changed the system so I now need a five digit number (previously it was six) so I had to delve back into memory and use the phone number we had up till I was six years old. It was drummed into our heads as children so we could phone home if we were stuck somewhere, or give it to the police if we were lost.

I will use the number for our place at Granton as the alternate one and hopefully be able to swap them about. I will be in strife if they want a third one as the next time we got a phone number it had six digits. Since i have no chance of remembering a new number I will have to see what we can do.

Only one cottage to clean which was soon done then I popped into quilting for lunch and wandered home - took the dogs for their long walk (well, took Seb as I didn't want Shadow to get wet if it started to rain), and we are  now all tucked in and dry for the evening.

I spotted them next door out on the street this morning as I was heading out so stopped and told them I was a bit concerned about having the pigs so close to the house. The explanation is that they are being used to clear the weeds and uproot the rubbish (of which there is a plenitude) buried in the ground so they can clear the pastures for the horses. Evidently it is intended they will be eaten, all bar one, who will be housed at some distance from me and used to breed piglets for eating (and selling on to cover costs). The stated intention is that they will be shifted from their present abode in about a month (sooner if they do a good job) and moved progressively around the property. It remains to be seen as to whether this actually happens (remember they have yet to start picking up horse poo in the paddocks where the horses are kept), but I will take it on good faith. He did say he didn't envisage running into any problems, which provided me with the necessary opening to let him know that pigs in built up areas are a no-no, but I did it as part of the conversation, not as a threat.

I asked if I could have a bucket of blood when they slaughter so I can have a go at making black pudding (still on my list) and that has been agreed, as also the proposition of a side of pork should the funds be available for such extravagance.

Since it was mild and overcast today I took the hoe down the bottom paddock and hacked out the scotch thistles that were starting to show heads (and all the rest of them as well) and found that what I had assumed was a willow starting up in the bottom paddock appears to be two trees of different species - no idea where they came from (or what they are) , but anything is better than nothing I guess.

The promised rain (100% certainty) has not so far eventuated. A light drizzle is all on offer at present. Looking at the radar, the wall of rain that is coming across the State splits as it gets to Oatlands and passes either side of my place - wouldn't you know it! I suspect we need more trees planted to provide the necessary stimulus.

The last three days have been fairly busy what with one thing and another, so sorry for the absence. Over the weekend we had the Southern Midlands Kennel Club twice yearly show in the oval. As a consequence our dogwalking routine was thrown out badly and we resorted to walking over at the railway station park for our shorter strolls. I also felt the dogs were a bit stirred up so I left Shadow at home and took Seb into Oatlands for a change of scenery. We had a lovely walk and ran into some friends so stayed for a chat (at which Seb got bored and wandered around at the full extent of his leash for much of the time). Then home we came and did the same the next day with the variation that instead of cleaning three cottages during the day I did several loads of washing.

Today was bank cleaning day, and on my return home I did a bit of housework then popped out to visit a friend. During my absence the neighbours came down the lane and fixed the four palings onto the fence that had fallen off some time ago which was nice. But then I discovered this was because they have just aquired four pigs. Only just past weaning by the look of them, but they will grow. Quite a bit. And pigs are escape artists. And the gate of the pen they are in is a good 40cm above ground level at one end (because of the slope of the land). And the paddock is bare, having already been grazed by the horses. And it is seven metres from my kitchen. What is more, it seems they intend to keep them there permanently as they have invested in a large water trough (which they should have got for the horses months ago) which is being plumbed into position. I despair at times.

A few hot days with warm nights - last night was so much so that I had difficulty getting to sleep. And it will be the same tonight. A foggy start to the day tricked me into thinking it was cooler than it actually was, so I was quite hot and bothered by the time i got home from the bank. But a change of shirt soon sorted that out. I really love having some short-sleeved cotton shirts in the wardrobe for a change!

There was a little fracas with the horses next door last night. One of them appears to have caught her halter on the metal crate full of rubbish they left in the paddock with them. Whether or not she then got a buzz off the electric fence (a horsewidth away from the crate), I don't know. But she startled away, pulling the crate into several smaller pieces and all three of them galloped off to the opposite corner, cannoning into the gate and then back again. Two of them seemed OK  but the third one was favouring a hind leg and on closer inspection, had the halter down around her withers.

So I toddled over to let them next door know (they had the telly on and had heard nothing) and finally convinced them they needed to go check on her (it was touch and go there for a while). We went down and the halter was not only down around her withers, she had somehow managed to get her front leg through the rest of it and it was tucked in under her elbow, completely hobbling her.

Luckily she escaped with some skin missing from various parts and one deeper cut inside her front leg which will require attention. I suggested bathing it with salty water as I doubt they will call in a vet.

I left them to it after they assured me they could get back to the house without a torch.

This morning they have been moved to new pastures - two of them together and the injured mare in a separate paddock - some distance from my boundary, lol.

After cleaning the bank I headed into the Community Garden where we weeded and whippersnipped till it was all restored to its former glory. Eleanor popped in and, as a result, I am now attending the presentation whether I want to or not. Personally I am not keen, but I guess I see her point.

Dug some spuds which will be boiled up with some mint for dinner tonight (in their jackets, they are Dutch Creams), then came home and popped dinner on. Apricot Chicken which I have not cooked for about forty years and which I am fairly sure involves dried apricots. My version involves fresh apricots, some fried onions, a dash of chicken stock in the flour I dusted the drummies with, and that's about it. It should be ready for consumption around 8pm as I have it on a low setting in the oven.

It seems we may have a dog show happening tomorrow as there are various stakes erected in the oval that were not there this morning and I saw one of the organisers driving back into town as I headed home. The dogs and I will take our exercise in the grounds of the railway station while it is on, as it will be too exhausting taking Seb down there with so many distractions.