and this week...

It’s been a busy week…We got told last term that ERO would be visiting sometime this term. We then got told on the first Tuesday of the holidays, that ERO would be visiting on the first Wednesday of the new term. There’s no problems with that, except that they require a mountain of paperwork to be done and forwarded to them, before the visit. One teacher was in Amsterdam till Thursday of the second week. One was in Hanmer Springs till the same time. That meant the head teacher and I have spent this last week writing up all the needed ‘stuff’ and then as a team we spent Friday (which is what we normally do) setting up the kindergarten and doing our usual bits and bobs ready for a new term. So my holidays disintegrated rather quickly. Still it will be good to get ERO done and dusted for another few years. The actual visit is not a problem – we are well used to being observed and questioned and expected to articulate our practice – but the paper war that goes with it, is another matter altogether lol. Lucky the conference we were meant to be going to these holidays was cancelled due to the earthquake – we might have been burning the midnight oil if not lol.

At home, very little creating has been happening this week. We’ve been busy moving stuff around to accommodate my brother, who arrives with my Dad the end of this week (Hi Dad!! looking forward to seeing you two), and you know what that’s like – you shift one thing, and because you do that, you have to shift something else lol. We also needed to get a few things to make life a bit easier with Dad looking after the animals. At the moment if the front door gets opened, Archie is off to the neighbours in the hope of finding sheep poop, and Darcy shoots out after him but gets waylaid by the chickens, whom are of enormous interest to her…I’m thinking they are of enormous interest to her taste buds lol – so we’ve brought one of those baby gates for the lounge area where the front door is, that way Dad or us can get through there before hitting the front door, so should stop any escapees – well I’m darn well hoping it does. Dogs have also had their nails trimmed and their faces trimmed, so they are looking rather odd right now – but if we didn’t do it, they wouldn’t be able to see in a few weeks :-)


Today we headed off to Riccarton Market (where we can get very cheap soft toys for the dogs to kill!) and who did I run into, but that Heidi girl. Been so long since I’ve seen her in real life, nearly didn’t recognise her lol – she was looking at frogs (those of the stuffed toy type variety ) – did you find one Heidi?

This is what the table looks like when Vicki and I get together to scrap lol. No that wouldn't be junk food you can see...lol.


Now quite a few of you have asked about Grace the duck...Down the road from us is a biggish lake, and as Grace got older she went from our house, to our neighbours house (where she thought she was a sheep and would follow them around),and then one day she realised those things attached to her body had a purpose and that they were used for flying lol. And off she went down to the pond. For a while she would fly back for dinner, and if her quacking at the back door didn't alert us, she would fly to our glass doors and peck at them till food appeared lol. However these days I suspect there's a drake duck on the scene as we don't see her very often. This is all good - she was always a wild duck and we didn't want to clip her wings and keep her in captivity - that would have been for our sake, not hers. If we ever decide to get ducks they will be rouen's or another breed that don't fly and were bred for captivity. We just hope with duck shooting season now upon us, that she stays on the lake or heads to the reserve not far away, as shooting doesn't happen in either of those places.


The

These are the three newer girls, I don't think I've put up a photo of them.

Have a good week people.