Is it summer yet?

Some of the photos from this week were actually
from late March, but it's been a bit of a dreary
start to April, so Ian doesn't get his camera
out so often.

The transfer has begun - moving out to our caravan for the summer season (hahaha, said slightly tongue in cheek) is always a process. We should make a list of everything that we need, but we would forget where the list was. We don't need everything at once anyway. Moving out to the caravan is not based so much on the weather - especially as they are forecasting snow tonight - but on the length of day. Ian was getting home later and later, until it became almost unworkable, especially when the clocks changed. 

This was unearthed in one of our 
greenhouse kitchen cupboards in 
the grand clean up. We have no idea
what created this intricate mud nest

This was one of the creatures inside it. Still
no idea, so if you know, do send me a message.

We moved out on Easter Saturday. I was off work on Good Friday so I tried to finish off the garment I was working on for my granddaughter. It was decided that the skirt would need to be a dress to avoid any wardrobe failures due to the weight of the skirt and it also needed some pockets. I found a nice piece of material that worked well with the skirt but then had to work out how to attach what will look like a waistcoat. It's nearly there but not yet. Good job she's not in a hurry for a new dress. 

Turbjørn's weight is still a bit of a worry. He really
could do with putting some weight on. He''s also
hungry, but it is not due to parasite infections as
Ian has checked that. What is so out of character
is that Turbjørn even began eating out of Ian's 
hand. He's never done that in the nearly 9 years we've
had him.

I said it had been gloomy

Saturday I spent trying to gather things together for the move.While I was putting stuff together at the apartment and getting the washing done to take out to the caravan, Ian was trying to transform his winter work domain into a more liveable space. Winter is not the best time to clean the caravan as it is a constant trail of mud, especially with the wet snow and the water for cleaning getting too cold too quickly, so that doesn't help. Besides giving the caravan a good clean, Ian spent time trying to create some space. Whilst it is much cleaner now with curtains and cushion covers washed, the creation of space is also a work in progress. Ian hopes to create a bit more space by doing some reorganising of the seating area that has cupboards resting on them anyway, so is not even a useable seating area. We'll get there.

So gloomy that the worms were climbing up the
greenhouse. 

Freddie doesn't seem concerned about the 
weather though.

We haven't had as many visitors this weekend as last weekend. Of course it is because we had announced we were open. I'm sure it always happens that way, we have more visitors before we announce we are opened than immediately afterwards. Maybe I'm just imagining it. Anyway, it is still interesting to hear where they are from or what they do. For example we were told one was a blogger and so we were a little surprised to see diplomatic number plates on their car when they turned up. So did you know that embassies employ bloggers? Well I didn't, but I do now. The other couple were taking a trip up to the nearest large town to us and had found out about us on an old article that listed us as one of the top-ten place to visit with animals. Both couples seem to be happy with the trip, despite the rather gloomy weather. 

The stork's are back and they are not that concerned
about the weather either.

In fact he was doing a bit of a dance.....

I have to mention that the cleaning fairy at our apartment put in a complaint this week that I forgot to mention him in last week's blog. The cleaning fairy is also feeling much maligned because his work went undetected for days. Now do not get too excited, the cleaning fairy actually only cleaned some sinks but I should have noticed their odd gleam sooner. I blame dim lights and lots of work and hence the lack of attention to detail. The water in our apartment has gone brown again and so the sinks were quickly losing their shine and I've been so busy I haven't been bothered with them. I knew that once we moved out, there would be time for a very thorough and deep clean. Cleaning fairies are ace though and should be encouraged, so I hope our's keeps up the good work. (Now I'm beginning to wonder if this story translates well, since I have a few that follow this blog who are not British. Oh well!).

.....before he set off on his way back to his nest....

.... and looking like he got entangled in a tree.
(Don't worry, no bird was hurt in the making
of this photo)

I had another revelation this last week, besides the one about the fact that people do really believe the conspiracy theories (no I hadn't come across that many on FB personally until this week and it was a bit shocking to say the least). Anyway the revelation was that feasting and fasting only differ by one letter. I am not sure why I had never noticed before. I blame dim lights and lots of work and hence the lack of attention to detail (Oh! I seem to have used that excuse already, never mind). I have come to the conclusion this is what is leading to me gaining too much weight over the last year, because every time I thought to myself that I really should do a bit of fasting from too much food, my body obviously thought I actually meant feasting. Hopefully traipsing about on our land should help to drop some weight, otherwise I'm going to have to give my body a stern lesson in the difference between fasting and feasting. 

A stunning sunset but very quickly over.

This set of pictures are from a few weeks ago, 
but the boys are definitely in spring mood with
hormones rising as they are more likely to fight
at the moment.

Sometimes they are practicing mating. Bodes well!
That's the wrong end Josefs!

Sometimes they just look like they are playing
Twister......

...or rugby without the rugby ball.

George looks ever so tall here, but he's really 
shorter than Josefs. One day they were fighting and
Brencis gave George a good telling off, that subdued
him for a few days. 

There is an alpaca under there....

...but don't worry, he's just a little dishevelled from
his experience.