Welcome home, Moosey...
Yellow Tulips
'Welcome home, Moosey' said the cool pink rhododendron in the driveway, and the Dogwood in the Island Bed, and the first rose Canary Bird. 'We survived the big wind, just for you' said the new frilly yellow tulips, and the Pond Paddock cherry blossom.
'Look at us! We didn't forget you' said the frothy sky blue forget-me-nots. 'In fact we made sure that lots more layers of us were flowering to greet you. It's in our nature (and our name)...'
Tuesday 25th October
Sorry if this sounds a bit childlike, but after all night awake on planes one loses mental depth. Oh boy - I had a real 'laugh out loud' welcome moment when I opened the house door. There on the floor was a gaggle of freshly painted garden gnomes, including three large new chaps. What an amazing surprise from my friends! I kept counting them (a dozen in total) to ensure they weren't an illusion, and peering in at the new ones. Over-night plane travel makes even the staunchest garden gnome collector wobbly-minded.
Gnome Welcome
All the big cats have checked back in, and young Minimus is back from her Cattery. Ginger Percy sulked up in the garage rafters until he was absolutely sure it was the real me and not a duplicate. Rusty is back - the kennels man said he was a very good, well-behaved dog, one of the best... A wise dog kennels' owner lessens the pain of the bill!
Fred Sheep :- Fred is the larger of the two sheep in this back-view thumbnail picture. The smaller sheep is the correct size. Hmm...
There's not such good news regarding fat Fred, my ex-pet lamb. He's 'gone down' (as old sheep do) and he's morbidly obese, like King Henry the Eighth at the end of his reign. And these are King Fred's last days - funny to remember him as a lamb, saved from his fate as the Christmas roast. Rest in Woolly Peace, big Fred.
I've cleaned floors and bench tops, washed chair covers, and vaguely cleaned up the house, which smells oddly dog-stale. The plan for the rest of today is simply to hang on to wakedness (is that the word?) for as long as possible. I really can't do any gardening, but I've taken photographs.
Cool PInk Rhododendron
And the Wisteria on the patio takes my breath away. Much more sweet smelling that my house, which also smells of dead fish. A huge bag of free fish pieces for the cats had hung, unnoticed, on the doorknob for four days. Oops.
Wednesday 26th October
I'm enjoying the temperate rain. And since when did my garden get so fluffy? Gardens in Rarotonga are definitely not fluffy. I'm peeping out through the Wisteria to clouds of flower fluff - the white Exchordas (my Brides) in their patio pots, blue forget-me-nots everywhere, creamy Choisya orange blossom shrubs, pink Clematis... My last rainy day was tropical, humid, and monochromatic (green). Travel broadens ones concept of rain, that's for sure.
My Fluffy Garden
A watershed (?) moment - either I am getting alarmingly wobbly camera-wise, or my time has finally come - to wear reading spectacles when on the computer. Or are the Moosey photographs just plain fuzzy and out-of-focus? Hmm.... Any professional photographers reading this journal need not reply.
Cat and Dog
Fluff-Fluff Loves Me...
I'm going to have a fun morning writing up some more holiday pages. Percy won't let me out of his sight, and big Fluff-Fluff loves me with more passion than I'd ever imagined possible. Try typing up a holiday journal with two large ginger cats competing for personal closeness. And as for little Minimus - soft eyes, she's happy again. Aren't I lucky? The only disappointment is Rusty the dog, who seems totally bored with me, unless I'm munching toast. Oh, I almost forgot - a headless rabbit (large) AND a dead rat in the hallway this morning. Aargh! Percy's idea of welcome home?
Personal pledge - I'm going to practise my Brahms piano twice a day for a week and then decide if I'm good enough to play it, hee hee. Makes sense...And I will check out Schumann's piano 'Humoresques' which I found on the plane's entertainment system and almost didn't listen to. I reckon Dvorak has a lot to answer for, writing that silly piece.