Oct 2006

The title of this blog entry comes from Earth Garden magazine (I highly recommend it) and is courtesy of the fact that we now have two chickens. The first was a Father’s Day gift from Milla and James (the sons of the head teacher). She is a white chook who has just started laying. We are about to enjoy her first offerings in pancakes for lunch! The second is a day old chick whose Mum deserted her (we hope it’s a she).

Soso brought her around to show us yesterday and Deb held it for a while. We then returned it to the nest it came from but an hour later it came back to our house and sat at Deb’s feet – obviously it decided Deb would be its ‘primary carer’. The challenge has been taken on. Although it lives in a box it prefers our laps and is currently sitting in a small gap under the warm laptop on my lap! Luxury accommodation!

Dingo is a bit jealous but so far has only had it in his mouth once and only flattened it with his paw twice. If it survives his affections we think they may become friends.

In addition to our chickens we have a visitor in our outside kitchen. Another chicken is hatching nine eggs there – she moved in while we were visiting Australia.

Yes, we have been back home briefly. We were lucky enough to be invited to Emily and Hugo’s wedding. Emily is a colleague of Deb’s from Rowville Secondary College and was in Vanuatu last year as a volunteer. The wedding was beautiful, held in Canberra’s Botanic Gardens. It totally suited the happy couple. We also met a few ex-volunteer friends of Emily and Hugo from their Vanuatu days. It was fun to compare notes.

The rest of the trip was spent with family and friends in Melbourne. It was fantastic to catch up but all too short and very tiring. It was much harder to say goodbye this time round. We were welcomed back into the village and are now back into our projects (when we’re not playing adoptive Mum to day old chicks or massaging the bruised ego of a displaced dog!)