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MAMALADE
Newsletter
April
Summer seems to be on its way out at last. It was the hottest ever! And dry! We are still on water restrictions, because the water level in the dams are low. I'm getting used to rising early on my alloted hosing days, before I'm properly awake, to rescue my gasping plants. We can use the hose only 3 days a week before 7 am. - or after 7 pm. when its too dark!
On the street
It was surprising how many plants we sold on our last street stall. I thought people wouldn't bother with them, now that its such a hassle to keep them alive, but we sold more than usual. The Uniting Church ladies had a stall near ours – a nice friendly group. A young girl came and set down a box of plants between the two stalls. I thought they must have been for the Uniting Church stall and started to move our plants up to make room. She went away and came back with another box of plants. She was looking bewildered. “I don't know which stall they are for,” she said. “A man gave them to me and said they were for the stall.”
“Did you know him?” I asked.
“No, I've never met him,” she said. “I was just walking past. He just handed them to me and drove off!”
The Uniting Church ladies didn't think the plants belonged to them and insisted that I take them. After a while, I recognised one of the plants as one that a friend often gives us. She usually gets her neighbour to bring them, so it must have been him!
We sold a lot of soft toys. (The kids had cleaned out their toy box.) A lady came along holding a tiny chihuahua on a cushion. She rummaged through the box of small soft toys and said to her dog, “Which do you want, this one, or this one?” Together they selected two toys.
Another interesting diversion was a bigger dog taking himself for a walk. He trotted past our stall on his own, holding the end of his lead in his mouth. Ten minutes later, he ran back again.
I arrived home feeling exhausted that afternoon and found that someone had left a pile of stuff on my patio for our jumble sales. I managed to drag it inside, making my lounge room look like the local dump. It took a couple of days to sort it out.
Sleepover
The school kids had the week off before Easter. Miles has been wanting to have a sleepover at my place, so it was a good opportunity. 4 year-old Hayley wanted to come too. “She'll be alright,” I assured her anxious parents. “I can ring you if she changes her mind.”
We had a lovely evening together. Miles had brought his picture encyclopedia. “Did you know...” and he read out all kinds of interesting facts while I cooked Spaghetti Bolognaise. Hayley sucked up the spaghetti off the back off her hand. “That's okay when its just us here,” I told her. “But you might have to eat it properly if you go anywhere else.” While I washed up, they both painted pictures to hang on my fridge. Then we got the beds ready. I had decided to sleep in the same room with them so they wouldn't feel strange.
“I might put the pillow down the other end,” I said. “So the cat won't jump on our heads when she comes in through the window.”
That was too much for Hayley to contemplate! “I want to go home!” She said. “Now!” Joel & Frances came straight away when I rang. I think they were really relieved. “You can have a sleepover another time, when you are ready,” Frances told Hayley.
“When you're 8, like me,” added Miles.
“No,” said Hayley firmly. “Not till I'm 10!”
I didn't bother moving the pillow down the other end of the bed after all, but I would have slept better if I had - Ollie came and went through the window at least 6 times during the night.
A mousey tale
But she wasn't as bad as Oscar! Another night last week, I was in my own bed this time, and I dreamt that Miles and Hayley were running up and down the hall. I woke and found Oscar was chasing a live mouse in the house.
I grabbed the cat with the mouse in his mouth and tried to put him outside, but he dropped the mouse. It ran across my foot and raced into the toilet, with Oscar after it. “Perfect,” I thought, closing the door on them both, “He can stay in there till he catches it!”
No way! Cats are claustrophobic! Oscar screamed till I let him out, leaving the mouse hiding behind the toilet. So it was up to me. I grabbed it by the tail and threw it out the door. It jumped over the side of the steps and disappeared. For ever, I hope.
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