The Inaugural Dinner with the Queen

Last night here at Candlestick Farm l hosted the Inaugural Dinner with the Queen! This funny concept came about when a group of us decided to get together for a meal. (just girls, Geoff was away watching the Rugby!) We decided it would be a nice opportunity to dress up. After all, who does these days? No one really and even if we do......it's not very often at all! So to set the standard l suggested we dressed as if we were having dinner with the Queen!
And so it evolved from there! The dining room was set to the most royal of standards!

Candles of course!

HRH WAS there! At the head of the table with her own dinner setting!

Looking most imposing and well..................regal!!

We had a great night!

And all enjoyed getting out the heels and pearls!

l think SHE enjoyed it too!

We have decided to hold this event on a regular basis. Different venue, different hostess each time. Same rules apply.. Dress for the Queen...She WILL be there..

.And where is Queen Bess now?????...............In the toilet of course! Above a throne of a slightly different nature... awaiting her next invitation..!

 

Still going!

Well Steven is now into day three of being away from his Mum and we can maybe now start to expect that he will probably pull through and be ok.

He is still very scared of us and isn't eating much at all which is a bit of a concern but he is  nibbling on grass and hay so we are happy with that.

He spent the afternoon in a baby chook pen which he liked and he seemed to be very impressed with the little red nesting box and spent considerable time in there as the day clouded over!

Chomping on a bit of hay!

Apparently lambs who have bonded with their Mums for a few weeks and then lose them can be very difficult to bottle feed (as we are finding!) they literally hate the taste of the formula milk and refuse to suck on the bottle (which is what he is doing!) He clamps his mouth over the teat, won't drink and it's quite frustrating and VERY time consuming! He is also grinding his way with his milk teeth through the teats and has chewed one virtually in half already! A trip to the Feed Store this morning to buy a few more!

They can also get depressed and need lots of scratches, cuddles and time spent with them so they cheer up. Also very time consuming! (sigh!)....................!

Poor little scrap!

 

A VERY unwelcome visitor!!!

For starters little Steven is still going well. Still drinking and no upset tummy. He's quite a feisty little character and  stomps his foot at me when l go near him!!  Ingrate!!!! l am the one who flies home  in my lunch break to feed him !He seems to prefer Geoff ! Maybe its because HE rescued him!? Or maybe it's just a boy thing........ Love his little black beauty spot!

Last night Lilli kept hopping on and off the bed (and driving me up the wall!) l sort of DID wonder why and it wasn't till 3am when we heard crashing and banging going on in the spare room that l realised l should have taken more notice of her earlier!!

Hello there!!!! l am a stinking peeing pooing Possum who has come down your chimney....trashed the room, peed and pooed everywhere and now l would like to go home please if you wouldn't mind getting me out of here???

 Agggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh. Possum pee STINKS... and it's so hard to get rid of the smell. It's everywhere. The wretched little critter must have been in there for hours. We ended up opening the front door in the hallway, closing all the other doors and Geoff shushed him out with a broom. He padded off down the veranda so goodness knows where he is now. He is only a juvenile , nowhere near fully grown but l am sure the amount of wee is just the same!! (sigh)

 

It was quite humorous though as its 3am, Geoff and l are standing there looking at this room with everything knocked over..... guitars ,lamps, ornaments.... l spotted the possum poo on the floor and Geoff determined it must have come down the chimney. We had a good look around and decided it must have gone back up and vanished as it was nowhere to be seen. We stood in the room for ages, when l looked up to the top of the curtain rail and then turned around and BAM!! There he was! Right behind us looking down with his beady bloody eyes!! Thank goodness he decided not to jump on our heads! It really was quite funny!........In a very NON funny sort of way..................

 

 

Steven With a V

Today we gained an unexpected and  totally unplanned for member of the family! Meet Steven (with a V)

Steven is a 2 week old Southdown Ram Lamb whose mother died last night. The farmer who is a good friend of ours (hence his namesake!!) knew we were on the lookout for a Southdown and kindly called us this morning to say if we wanted the lamb he was in the yard with his dead Mum and we could have him if we went and picked him up!

So Geoff did the mercy dash after work this afternoon to  pick up this poor little scrap who possibly hasn't eaten for 20 hours or so as we have no idea when exactly the mother died.

He is home here now in a little pen on a hot water bottle.

He has company on the other side of his pen and he has had a couple of small feeds of milk.

We shall now cross our fingers overnight and see how he is in the morning.....

 

Huge Amount of Catching up to do!!

l have files and folders of photos sitting here! l seem to have been a bit slack of late!
l suppose this time of year not much happens. Although strictly speaking that's not true. We have had birthdays, visitors, more frosty morning than ever before and lots and lots of treasures bought! l have a considerable amount of catching up to do indeed! This morning on my walk, (which now thankfully is no longer in the dark as the days slowly creep towards longer daylight hours!) l had a wonderful view of what it means to live 'above the fog line' as opposed to 'below it! The whole Valley was covered in her thick white heavy Winter blanket!

It was quite stunning and looked like a lake!

Back at the house it is always beautiful with the fog coming through the trees. l never get sick of it!

Ever!

This particular photo made me smile as l somehow caught a random bird scooting across the shot!

A Blackbird l think!

And picturesque as always. Standing in the morning mist...... patiently waiting for his breakfast......

And the noisy one........................NOT so patient!!

 Where IS it????

Snow to Sea Level!

Doesn't happen very often in Tassie! l don't mean snow..........that happens a lot! l  mean days when everywhere is covered. Right down to the beach in fact.

Last time it occurred was in 2005, so as you can see, it's an exciting event!

So Geoff and l along with just about every other Tasmanian, woke up this morning to various degrees of Winter Wonderland. We were pretty prepared, with cows, goats ,horses and sheep all snuggled up in barns, sheds and stables. It was a nice feeling l must say to walk out in the semi dark of the morning to go and say hello to warm fluffy sheep and fat contented dry cows! The cows are hard to spot here. Just a dark black line in the background as they munch on their hay.

We didn't have a massive heavy fall. Just enough to make everything slightly white!

Off to let the rather unimpressed chooks out! (and the even LESS impressed goats!) l don't think any beastie ventured outside much today!

At least the house was warm and cosy to go back to!!

l had time for a quick walk before work up to the top of the hill to see the snow much thicker and untrodden by anything except wallabies! At least l ASSUME these were wallaby feet?

Very beautiful...

And of course.....l had to build a snow man! l left him there on the side of the road. Ready to wave at everyone as they drove past!

Up to the top.............

Then back down the hill....

Back home and off to work l trudged. Roads open, no excuses to not go sadly!

But happy l got my own little bit of time to play in the snow! Till next time!