I'm just a soul whose intentions are good (The Animals)

This one is about the animals.

Lambs - we now have 13 lambs - two sets of triplets in there as well. Typical females the ewes have decided to again give birth in the worst weather possible - all okay for them - they have huge fleeces but the poor little lambs have an immediate battle of survival to keep them on their toes. As I reported last time I've had to bury three lambs so far and a fourth dead one was in the paddock today. Poor little guy was a few days old but the runt of a three set and couldn't make it. A frost finished him off. A massive storm yesterday has not done any further damage thankfully.





The lambs grow incredibly quickly are we now need to sort out the ram lambs and dock them all.

Dookie is also growing fast - he's about double the size from when we first brought him home. Here he is in a real exclusive before The NZ Woman's Weekly get wind of him (Jade and I have decided that if he was a Hollywood actor he'd be Brad Pitt).



Love and peace - Wozza

I read the news today, oh boy (Part 2) - The Beatles

Yesterday I bought a replacement CD for my old long lost vinyl copy of the 1971 Loxene Golden Disc Awards - wow - the memories. One track stars Ray Columbus with a barking mad song called People Are People. The lyric is a smirk fest, and has the deep Ray thought that People are people all over the world!

In a twisted kind of way - he's right. I didn't mention the most important parts of our return to NZ - meeting up with the family!!

Ross and his family met us at Auckland International after our flight from Dubai. It was great to see them after eight months away. Then when we got back to New Plymouth from Biddy's funeral we were reunited with Jade (who is taking a break from study and transferring to Massey next year so she's back with the olds till then). We managed to catch up with Adam and Jenna in Hamilton and Samantha returned from her year in America to return to university in Wellington - we gave her a big welcome home! The only one we haven't been able to see yet is Keegan in Auckland but we plan a trip north soon so we'll catch up then.

The other significant event of late (apart from the all time consuming World Cup) was the return of our silver boxes from Qatar. You'll recall the picture of me inside one in our Doha apartment. In the end we needed two of them - weighing 234kg in total - to bring back our stuff.

One box obviously fell off a forklift coz it sustained major damage. Luckily though all that was damaged was one large picture that Jacky bought for our bedroom. Everything fragile like a china tea set, mirrors, Adam's oud, and the picture Reem gave us were in the other box and arrived without a problem. It was a 50 50 chance but God was smiling on us.

Needless to say it has taken a while to unload our 234kg of stuff, and we're still arguing over where various Qatari ornaments should go.

Speaking of family - one of the DVD sets I bought cheap in Doha was the Lost In Space trilogy. I loved this show when it aired in NZ in the late 60's. I've been making steady progress through the first series and it looks magnificent in HD (some things don't). Will Robinson (Billy Mumy) was my favourite family member and a re watch all these years later hasn't dimmed his power. A terrific actor!

Finally a few pictures of Jacky's new horse. Oh and PJ tells me it is 'due to' rather than 'owing to' in case you were in suspenders.




Love and peace - Wozza

Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire (The Beatles)

Well giday there - a catch up newsy post seems in order before the usual array of mind expanding posts which will surely follow (I know - don't call me surely).

It has been a long time between posts and that is due to (owing to? Help me PJ - I never got hold of that one) the change in lifestyle, temperature, lack of normality (normalcy?) and inclination as you'll see from the stuff below.

You'll recall that we left Doha in something of a hurry - to get back to see Biddy before she succumbed. Alas we were a day late but made our way immediately to Waipukarau for her funeral. It was everything Biddy would have wanted as a send off - mainly because she organised it all herself. She was a stunner! It was dignified, appropriate and included a fantastic section from the Holy Quran.

We stayed a week with Sallie in Waipuk and bought a car - more precisely a vehicle to tow horse floats (turned out to be a Jeep Grand Cherokee - a V8 beast that tows like a dream).

Back to New Plymouth we trekked and stayed a week with Michelle and Gavin while our new carpet was sorted out in our house. We brought Bazil back from Sallies and picked up an equally fat and healthy cat (Soda Pop) from Pusshaven.

Then came the tragedy of our beloved dog Finn passing away the day we picked him up from the kennels. Something of a mystery ailment struck the little guy down. This devastated us all but Jacky was understandably inconsolable. Finn - our little Yorkshire terrier - was such a special part of our family. It's going to take us ages to recover.

We finally moved back into our house and I started decorating the spare room! Took a week when Sallie came over to stay and help with farm work and take a mini break. After wallpapering/painting the spare room I needed to sort out our laundry - the new lino clashed with the old bright green cupboards (go figure) and was in dire need of surgery. That took another week.

All the while I realised I hadn't blogged the whanau. Thanks to all who have tried to give me a spur the last few weeks.

We've spent the last few days gearing up for Jacky's new horse - Ascot, and watching new lambs being born ( we've lost two so far with the frosts). Currently we have two sets of twins and the latest solo addition to the flock arrived this afternoon.

We've also welcomed a new puppy to the menagerie. I convinced Jacky that we needed a dog to provide company for Bazy and to salve the wounds from Finn's departure. We have a very cute little Cavoodle - half poodle/half cavalier spaniel. He's called Dukkaan - Dook or Dookie for short. Pictures of Ascot and the Dook to follow.

Life is, therefore, slowly returning to normal after our Doha adventure. We do miss it though and miss our new friends that we made there.

Until next time, inshallah - love and peace - Wozza