Aigha's Uncertain Memory

Monday. On Saturday we had a singing gig with the ensemble at a local LC meeting. The audience was not terribly large and they were rather stiff, of the kind that think a smile might be considered too frivolous, but in the end they were responsive enough. We did elicit many smiles, approving nods and foot-tapping, and afterwards quite a few came to thank us privately. We sang a few old Finnish standards from the 40s to 60s and some Abba, it was exactly the kind of thing that suited our audience. Hey, and we're even going to get sort of a performance fee: compensation for the journeys, plus they promised to sponsor us new blouses!

Yesterday we fetched our new family member from the breeder. Foxy is eight weeks old, and a charming little rascal. She's very bright and energetic, but at that age of course sleeps a lot, so she tires pretty quickly. She's just on and off, on and off. The other dogs are rather puzzled about this little creature, but that's perfectly natural and nothing to worry about.

Today I had to leave them, including the baby, alone for almost six hours as I went to work, but it doesn't look too bad. She's a tough cookie, really. ;)

It's cold again, -20 C, and the car is very low on fuel and I still have to go to the evening lesson tonight. I really must stop at the first petrol station to refuel. Hope quatorze is not very late with her shopping...

Been outside to try and cut the grass. I will not call it mowing the lawn since what is outside our house is not a lawn but an uneven area full of grass and hay and clover and weeds and wild flowers of various kinds. In a way, it's like our house was in the middle of a meadow, charming and fragrant in its way, but... There's the definite but that we and the doggies still would have to be able to move there.

So I was cutting the grass. And since it's so tall, one really has to use a scythe and not a lawnmower. Of course I had to further complicate matters by trying to avoid all the blossoming clover, so that they'd seed nicely and we'd have more of lovely and easy-to-manage clover around; I was swinging the scythe just over their heads to get to the taller grass. During the process I discovered that a morning of sunshine is not really enough to dry the grass/weeds after yesterday's downpour, everything was still soaking wet closer to the ground, and stuck to the blade of the scythe. There was also a suprising amount of chickweed that gathers water like no other weed I know. But it's a real case of having to make hay while the sun shines, with the rains there have been one can't wait too long for the grass to dry up. I wasn't there too long, but was sweating like a pig afterwards anyway.

Three of the doggies were with me. They are old and experienced enough, gave a wide berth to me and my scythe even to start with, and once again it was so amusing to see what they did.

After the initial run around, the Big Boy was lying on the terrace in the shade, comfortably relaxed but alert at the same time and occasionally he'd jump up and bark if there was a slower vehicle passing by.

The Little Bitch settled next to him, all attention, observing me and any movement around, sniffing the air and looking pleased with herself and slightly puzzled as to what I was doing. Occasionally she'd make these little tours around to sniff around in the grass, and then return to her vantage point.

The Dark Lady in turn did not take part in any running around at all. Instead, she immediately found a nice sunny spot on the sand quite next to the southern wall of the house, dropped down there and dozed off. She must be the laziest dog in the world, really. She'd lie there, panting in the sunshine, but yet too lazy to move to the shade. Although I do suspect she both loves the sunshine and chooses the spot because the foundation of the house is cool anyway.

Oh well, now I have to do some little cleaning in the house. quatorze's little brother phoned and said he'd come for a visit in a few hours. It'll be the second time we meet this year. Guess I'll have to try and make the house at least partially presentable.