The fox returns and life continues

Who would have thought that toast would unite us as it did in my last post. I loved reading your comments because they made me feel like I was spending time with some wonderful people. Thanks for sharing your toast ideas. I'll try some of them. It was great to see some of the lurkers commenting too. Toast lured them out and that made me smile. Thank you toast - you did it again.

 This is Tricia, on the right, with her cloak of exploding ginger feathers.

Sadly, on Saturday, a fox killed our frizzle, Tricia. Tricia and her sister Kathleen have been with us for nearly four years. I noticed everything was quiet when I walked into the garden so I went into the chicken coop and found four chooks hiding under the nests. When I walked outside again, I saw the little frizzle body under the pecan tree. It's so sad finding a pet like that. I called Hanno and he found the other girls hiding in the palm trees. We were just about to go out for lunch with the family so we locked the girls in the coop and they happily stayed in there until 9am the following morning.

At our family lunch on Saturday. Jamie was eating a burger, and Hanno next to him, fish and salad. I've blocked three faces above because I didn't ask if I could use their photo here. 

Yesterday was spectacular. The sun was shining, Jamie was here, I had some light gardening to do, lunch was leftovers and generally the day went very well.  When I took a break I was knitting something for Eve's birthday, which was on Friday. I won't see her until next week so I'll continue knitting and hope to finish her little vest/shawl in a couple of days.

Our beautiful puppy Gracie is such a joy to be around. She loves Jamie but won't leave him alone so she's banished to the backyard most of the time he's here. Don't worry, she's well cared for out there. She has a little house just outside the back door so she sits in there, quite comfy-cosy, listening to the goings-on in the house. 

Every year I buy a tray of white alyssium and a tray of violas, this year they're mauve and yellow. On Sunday, I planted up half of them in a huge pot that will soon sit in the vegetable garden. The rest of the alyssium will be planted along the garden edges near the tomatoes and the rest of the violas will go in terracotta pots. I also repotted ferns, brought out the pot plants that had been summering in the bush house and placed them on the back verandah. I put up trellises for the tomatoes and pruned. I still have things to do out there but there is no hurry now that the vegetables are planted. I can do the odds and ends when I have time for them.

When I organised my ingredients for the biscuits, I realised I'd run out of brown sugar. Luckily I had molasses and white sugar in the cupboard so I made up some brown sugar (in the small bowl) and went ahead with the biscuits.

Inside the house I made a batch of Anzac biscuits, sorted out the ironing, organised some yarn and thought about cleaning the bathrooms. That cleaning will be done this morning.  I'll get as much as possible done today and tomorrow because my sister, Tricia, is coming for a visit on Wednesday. She'll stay about three weeks so we'll probably be out more than normal when she's here.

I stayed in the garden till around 3pm, Sunny was due back at 4.30pm to pickup Jamie, so I picked her a bunch of fresh herbs and came inside.  Then I talked Hanno into helping me reposition the bed in the room Tricia will sleep in.  It will give her better access to the window and light switches. I'll make up her bed today and do a bit more in the garden. The next few days will be busy.

What will you be doing this week?