A cloudy day.

Here I am, just about to go to bed and wondering what that niggling feeling that I have forgotten something is….
Yup. I forgot to do a blog post! Shame on me! 🙂

The kids and the Man all had the day off today so we spent the morning driving around doing some shopping and spending too much money at the local hardware, and the afternoon organising some giant garden beds for my new apple trees. 😀

To alleviate my guilt here is a photo I took this afternoon while we were driving home. See you on Monday!

Tin-kettling, chapter 2.

After posting my original tin-kettling entry on Friday I thought it might be the end of that subject, but I was wrong….

At a family picnic on Saturday (Happy first birthday Rocket!) my Dad pulled me aside and told me he had read the post. He then admitted to being guilty of tin-kettling in his misspent youth.

*shakes head disapprovingly* Dad, Dad, Dad…. tsk tsk….

I told him the only way he could make up for committing such a heinous crime was by emailing me about it so I could use it for a post in the coming week.

As instructed, on Sunday morning he dutifully wrote a brief account of his misbehaviour. As you will see, he and his fellow hobbledehoys weren’t as determined as the tin-kettlers in my previous post, so we might be able to forgive him for this evening of naughtiness 😉

Cute on the outside, a ratbag within…..

I have included this photo of him as a cute little boy, standing with his girl, just to show that even the most innocent can be enticed into a life of crime.

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I did go tin kettling when I was a kid, I must have been about 9 or 10 at the time.

A few of us found out a couple of just married people were moving into their new house, and were spending the night there. Her young brother told us and said we should do something about it. So about 10 or 12 of us got together and did something about it.

We all arrived at the house after dark armed with buckets, kettles, tins, sticks and stones. Anything that would make a noise.

When we got there we let loose and made as much noise as we could, banging buckets and kettles with sticks and then let fly with stones on the roof.

After a while a chap came flying out the door yelling and screaming and threatening us with everything.

It frightened us so much that we all went off in different directions and all got home safe and sound.

I did not do any tin kettling again.

Don’t think badly of me.

Dad.

Can you imagine your first night in your new house being attended by a dozen noisy 10-year-olds? There is probably a good chance any previously planned additions to this little family were put off for a while in light of this introduction to ‘Life With Kids’!

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Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal 26 May 1892 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article62727740

Here is another tin-kettling article, but this is an example of what can go wrong when someone objects to the annoying ‘celebration’.

In this 1892 report from Texas, tin-kettlers broke with tradition and arrived in time to disturb the ceremony.

Clearly the bridegroom was a man with a short temper; he secured a gun and two of the noisemakers were intentionally shot.

In retaliation, the tin-kettlers laid in wait for the wedding party and shot both the bride and bridegroom dead.

Hungry chickens….

Since their arrival late last year our chickens have become happy little family members and get visited quite a few times a day with scraps and treats.

They are very entertaining and as soon as they hear footsteps coming up past the washing line they rush to the fence to see what you might be bringing.

Unfortunately for me the chook run is right next to my vegie garden. That is a good thing for weeding, I don’t have to clean up after myself, I just chuck the bits over the fence and they run around madly trying to get the choicest pieces.

The bad part of it is that they have developed a taste for the tomato plants which are in a raised garden bed against one part of their fence. The poor tomatoes had to be re-staked to train them further away from the hungry beaks as the chooks were jumping up and sticking their heads through the fence to snatch a tasty morsel, doing their best to both strangle themselves and destroy the plants.

I also have a cherry tomato plant growing really well on the back verandah. Really well that was, until the rosellas ran out of seed and decided that pulling the flowers off the plant would keep them amused until the next meal arrived. Grrr… At this rate I will never get a home-grown tomato again!!

Mmmmm… juicy tomato…

An early Christmas visitor.

Number 2 son is well known for his love of bugs and small critters. Well, not all, they must have less than eight legs to get on his good list.

If there is ever a bug who has made its way into the house or caravan and needs evicting we call for him. It will be rescued with glee and returned safely to a more appropriate environment.

Last weekend this Christmas Beetle needed rescuing from Jack. It was hanging around near the glass back door and, because of the cold, couldn’t move too speedily. Because of this it nearly became a doggy breakfast entrée.

The beetle was saved, examined, warmed up in little hands, and escorted to the front yard, well out of canine reach.

Not breakfast.

A sunny weekend and too much hard work!

This weekend the weather was beautiful, the sun was shining, the birds were singing…. ahhh, wonderful.

What better time for the Man and I to spend working our fingers to the bone out in the garden for hours, and hours, and hours…..

That means I am so buggered tonight that I am sharing a photo of a Hover fly I saw hanging out on a daisy in our back lawn so that I don’t have to think of something else. 😉

Have a happy day, I hope you are having lovely weather too, and I’m off to bed 😀

Daisy and Hover fly.

Chickenwire hopper.

I took this photo over the weekend while the Man and I were out working in the garden.

At the moment the garden is full of tiny hoppers like this (less than 1cm) just hanging around although I expect that there are some other critters out there who are only too happy to thin their numbers….