Pony Poop: An Introduction

As promised:

 

A summer Robin?

Well I guess a Robin isn't only for Christmas!

 

 

This guy lives in the bushes behind Humphrey's stable.  The cat food is for Orbrey, the semi wild cat that also lives there.

 

True to form, my mum made her way to the field this morning - my older brother gave her a live on his way to work and my younger brother will be picking her up on his way back from his morning job.  Seems to work well, at least until she can get back on her bike, making everyone happy - she is being sensible but still gets to see her animals, leaving me to do the heavy work like clearing up Humphrey's mounds of poop.  And Wigsf thinks that clearing up after a dog is nasty!

Still only Wednesday?

Hm, I feel like it should be Friday already, but hey ho.

My mum made it back home again and seems to be coping OK - cooking, making tea, etc.  She still needs help with walking Spot and I am still sorting out Humphrey, but she is a lot better than we expected her to be.  Thanks for the well wishes!

Had a fun time playing Dungeons and Dragons last night.  It has been a long time, but we all got into it and had fun killing Goblins.  Looking forward to some more.

Phew, I just sorted out a huge headache dataset in Excel - took a bit of hard graft and clever thinking, but it is all sorted out now, ready to be mapped tomorrow afternoon, but that is the easy bit.

Think I will have an early night tonight - I have that feeling of not quite having enough sleep, which does not do me any good - the brain starts to go and I can get a bit irritable.  I know when I have gone too far that way when I say something and when asked to repeat myself (because I mumbled) I can't put the words together to say it again...

The Honeymoon is getting close!  Just over a month to go!  Oooh yeah, can't wait, we are more or less organised and should be collecting the tickets soon...

The Weekend

Was very busy.

 

We had already committed to having an evening out on Saturday.  We were going to see a band that features a guy who was in one of the bands I was in as a teenager, and we were really looking forward to it.

 

Of course, life was eager to throw a huge spanner in the works whenever we decide to do something for ourselves...

 

On Friday morning, my mum was on her way to feed Hunphrey...

 

 

...when the front wheel of her bike got caught in a pot hole.  She was thrown into the road, breaking a piece of bone off her elbow.  Despite her best efforts to avoid treatment (what would you expect from an old nurse?) she ended up in hospital while they fixed her up.  She will be there for a couple more days yet, so as usual, we and one of her neighbours have stepped up to the plate to look after her animals while she is away.  So I am up early to feed Humphrey and Orbrey the wild cat that lives with him, while our daughter is walking Spot in the afternoons.

 

However, this did not stop us going to see the band on Saturday!

 

The gig was in a blues bar at the far eastern tip of Kent.  This is the view across the bay...

 

The coast on the far side of the bay stretches down to Dover, with its famous White Cliffs and castle.

 

The gig was very good, although my guitarist friend is unwell and was struggling at times.  We had to leave early to catch the train home, which we missed by 2 minutes, leaving us sitting at the station for an hour waiting for the next one.  Back in our home town, I was gagging for a kebab, so we grabbed some, went home and ate them in bed while watching yet another episode of Dexter.

   Yeah, must do that again soon!  Well, maybe skipping out the missed train...

 

I won't talk about how much I regretted the late night when I had to get up to deal with Humphrey on Sunday morning....

 

Thursday? Yeah, I guess it is!

Just had the weekly lunch date with Mrs RC, who also brought along Number One Son.  Once again, we had blazing sunshine while we sat in the garden at the Uni.  Number One Son and I munched cakes (sorry, forgot to take photos) while Mrs RC had something much more healthy.

 

Mrs RC was very pleased with herself, having found a bottle of Coke with my name on it:

 

 

Yes, I am drinking the contents. 

 

Yes I am going to keep the bottle.

 

Meanwhile, I have finished my first group of spearmen for Macbeth's army.  Some of you are unsure about the size of the soldiers that I paint, so this one has a ruler in it:

 

These are the scruffy rabble in an army (I have about 100 of them at the moment), but I will be buying the richer guys soon - these aspired to look like Vikings!  Yeah, they really aimed high, didn't they?  I will also be getting a contingent of Irish immigrant mercenaries.....

A movie star in the making?

Possum is one of our rabbits.

There is a large cup and saucer in his run, which he sometimes sleeps in...

 

 

How dumb does that look?

 

In true rabbit fashion, he is rather more active at night than he is during the day.  One thing he does for entertainment is throwing his food bowl around.  He broke a couple of ceramic ones, before we relegated him to a nice plastic one that A won't break and B makes a not less noise when he bounces it off the concrete floor!

 

Last night we could hear him playing with his bowl again...

 

This morning it was like this...





Maybe that is what he was trying to do all along?  Maybe he wants to remake Space Jam?  Should we give him a ball and hoop to play with?

The Weekend

Well the weekend was pretty much as I had hoped.

Mrs RC got to spend a lot of time with her feet up, watching about 3 million episodes of Dexter, being supplied with food and drink, while I did the essential stuff like cooking, washing and doing the afternoon and evening dog walks.  Mrs RC still got up before me to do the early walks - she is much more of a "morning" person than I am...  Oh, and she is feeling much better too - thanks for the get well soon messages!

In between doing stuff, however, I was able to get out the paints and work on some toy soldiers.  Some are ones that are for a friend's Robin Hood game - a Bishop and monks waiting to be robbed, some peasants waiting for the handouts (bailouts?), and King Richard ready to arrive late and pardon everyone for reducing the country to anarchy.  This evening I am going to visit him to collect some more that need a painting - King John, The Sheriff of Nottingham, etc.   These will be good fun to paint too.  I hope I can make them appear suitably evil/nasty.  I will post a few photos once these are all finished with groundwork done.