I saved an owl!

Yes, that's right! My chook (chicken) shed, which is currently home to a friend's 5 chooks while she's away, is split into 4 'enclosures', and has netting over the top of 2 of them. I did this years ago in a vain attempt to stop wild birds coming in and eating all the grain I put down for my chooks. But occasionally a bird would still manage to get in and get stuck inside for a while till they found one of the holes to get out.

Well, last night when I came home, I checked the chookshed for eggs (none!) and then noticed a bird hanging upside down from the netting in the next bit. It was flapping its rather large wings for a few seconds, then stopping and hanging there. It was too dark for me to do anything, so I went on up to the house, got some scissors, gloves and a torch and came back down. Then I discovered it was an owl (so sweet)! I wasn't sure how close it'd let me get, but it seemed to be happy for me to get closer and closer as I snipped away at the netting. Finally I got close enough for the netting to give way and the owl was free to escape!

Of course, he/she escaped into the netted area, not out of it! But I cut a big hole in the netting and had to hope for the best! And this morning when I came to feed the chooks on my way to work, there was no owl!!

Things like this make me feel so glad to be alive!

websites and stuff!

Well, I didn't quite make all of my list of things I was doing last weekend. Ended up not going to yoga class, and instead went earlier this week. As it was even though I'd felt fine all weekend rushing around, on Monday I was quite exhausted, had to leave work early and even found myself going to bed at around 8.30?!! Unheard of normally! However, that did the trick and I've been fine since then. Though I'm planning a quieter weekend this time, that's for sure!

The website meeting was good - I am going to do a simple one-page site for her as a placeholder, and later when she gets time to work on the main content, etc, then I'll re-do it. And I've also got another meeting next weekend about another website that should definitely go ahead. I've already done a (yoga) website for this person, and she's much more business-like! (Won't be a yoga one this time, but one for her new consultancy business.)

This is all probably not that interesting, but I do use this blog as my diary nowadays, and I guess life can be quite normal and subdued sometimes! On that subject (blogs) can someone tell me what's happened to Vanessa? (aka Mindbender blog)? Did I miss something? She (or her blog) has disappeared ... Just wondering, that's all <grin>

busy weekend

I've got a really busy weekend coming up! Tonight I'm off to a 'Friday 13th Trivia night' at someone's house - she's got 35 people coming!! (Help!!?)

Then tomorrow I'm getting my hair (such as it is!) cut. And yoga in the afternoon, and from yoga class I'm going straight to my aunt's for dinner which will be nice. And then on Sunday someone is coming to see me in the morning about a website she wants doing. And finally, in the afternoon I'm going to the inaugural meeting of a book-club! Should be interesting - as long as they don't want to read romance-type novels, or really really serious ones either!! But the first book we're going to read is The Life of Pi, which I haven't read yet so that should be good!

So ... that's my news, hot off the press on a Friday afternoon!

The Dreaming Festival ...

Yesterday a friend and I went up to Woodford to go to the Dreaming Festival. This is an indigenous music/drama/arts festival on the site of the Woodford Music festival that I usually go to each Christmas/New Year period. For some reason I'd always resisted going to the Dreaming Festival (this is its 4th year) but this year I thought I really needed cheering up (!) and decided to go.

And it was just wonderful! I had the best time ... :) Saw some wonderful music, and amazing dancing (not to mention wonderful theatre too).

These are the 'Chooky Dancers' - young Aboriginal guys from an island off Arnhem Land (in the north of Australia), most of whom can barely speak English. A few months ago someone put a video up on YouTube of them doing their own take on Zorba the Greek, and it just took off! Hilarious! They have now been invited to Greece to do it, and who knows where else! This (below) is one of the Youtube videos - of them doing a dance to Superman!



And these are another Aboriginal group of dancers with heaps of children joining in - doing a kangaroo dance!!

Then we went and heard Gurrumul singing. A just incredible Aboriginal singer. Blind from birth, mostly sings in his local language, was once in Yothu Yindi (Aussies will know this Aboriginal band!) and now also in the Saltwater Band (ditto!). He has such a beautiful pure voice ... and again, it was totally wonderful! At one point, for one song, you heard this didgeridoo in the distance, the stage had a dark background, and then these Aboriginal dancers came through the mist and darkness and were dancing on the stage too. It was eerie, mysterious and totally mesmerising!! Unfortunately the photos I took were very dark and don't do it justice at all.

I could go on - about the amazing Maori play set in World War 2 in Italy, the 3 Native American dancers, the campfires set up through the festival grounds where people sat around and talked ... on and on. It was truly a wonderful day, and just what I needed! I am slowly getting used to life without Mieke, though i did again burst into tears yesterday when I told my friend about it. But life goes on (as always!) and I know there are new and wonderful experiences coming to everyone, me included.

Very sad news about my Mieke pussycat

She's gone. Yesterday. I had to sign the form to authorise the vet to euthanise her, and I stroked her (and soaked her head with my tears) as it happened.

On Monday afternoon (when I was home sick from that sushi-overdose) she came in from outside and I could see she was having trouble breathing. I took her to the vets, and they ended up sending me off the the University's small animal clinic as it was too serious for them to deal with. The vets there told me it appeared she had a large 'mass' in her chest cavity which was leaving very little room for her lungs. Anyway, they kept her in overnight and did further tests on her. I had to go to the hospital on Tuesday morning to have my portacath flushed and get blood tests, so I went to the Uni clinic on the way back from that, in my heart knowing what was likely going to have to happen.

Supreme irony - it appeared likely that she had a lymphoma! But she wasn't going to survive it.

I've had to stop writing this a few times in an attempt to keep it together (I'm at work). I know it was for the best, that she was suffering. At least now it's only me that's suffering. And I will get over it. But right now ... I've had her for 12 and a half years. She was there with me when I broke up with my partner of 18 years. She was with me when I went through chemo for NHL last year. She has been a support and a companion through all of that.

I shall miss her more than I can say ...

I don't think the sushi was such a good idea!

Honestly, I love sushi, and I love those 'sushi train' japanese restaurants. But last night R and I went to a different one (after seeing Indiana Jones, which was fun!) and in the middle of the night my insides completely rebelled and couldn't get rid of it all fast enough! That's enough detail <grin> but suffice to say I am at home today still feeling pretty weak! Though, as it's been pouring with rain (hooray!) it was a good day to stay home from work, tucked up in bed!

:)