Letter to a Sister 2

     Okay, so James suggested I join some facebook groups to advertise some of my articles. Good idea. Joined a German Shepherd Dog (GSD) group and then got lots of hits on my dog training article. Still good. Decided to join some more groups. Some are ‘closed groups’, so you cannot see any of the stuff on their timeline until you are accepted as a member. No problem, I thought, and joined a few. Ah. GSD also stands for ‘gender sexual deviation’. Saw some very unexpected photos. Thought they probably didn’t want to learn about dog training…….

     Not sure if Milly and Molly are pregnant or just enjoying their new food. At the end of May either we will have kittens or they will be on a very strict diet.

     Silver Call duck is nesting. The rats kept getting her eggs so she is now in a huge plastic crate with sheer sides. Male Call duck is sitting next to it in the hope she will emerge. (She only comes out at night to eat and swim – sensible duck!)

     Friday was the Lunch Club. The leader was away, so she had asked me to go round as people were drinking  their coffee, show them the menu and ask what they wanted to eat. Easy, you might think. The trouble is, I am usually tucked away in the kitchen, so I don’t usually see any of them and I don’t know their names. So, when I took their order, I wrote it next to their names and added a short description in the margin (wearing peach cardigan, dressed in red, that sort of thing.)

     All was going fine until some helpful person turned on the heating and they all took off their cardigans and jackets. There is something indistinguishable about a group of ladies with short grey hair all wearing home knitted jumpers. They looked identical. I kept asking people for the second time what they wanted to eat. They were confused, I was confused, the list was a mess. If I am asked to do it again (which I doubt) I will ask if I can put a small ink spot on their cheek when I have taken their order so I can keep track. Should go down well.

Hope all is well with you. Take care, Ax

Ugh, yesterday was a horrible evening.

In the afternoon was Baking Club (a few teenaged girls come round, we bake something nice and have a short Bible study.) Anyhow, yesterday was very hard work. I was feeling hormonal (grumpy) and we ran out of time, so the Bible bit was really rushed and not very interesting. We are trying to make cupcakes for a fundraiser. The idea is that we will invite all our friends and family round for an afternoon in June, give them a cupcake and a cup of tea and collect donations to help stop child trafficking. We started making them yesterday – each girl made thirteen, twelve to go in the freezer and one to take home. But it took ages. In the end, they made the cakes and the icing and I said I would put the icing on later, when the cakes were cool.

They all made different flavours. Suzie made chocolate ones, with chocolate icing made using Nesquik. I iced them (they looked good) and put them in the freezer. James then wandered into kitchen, saw the remains (all over kitchen) and asked if I had bought new Nesquik because the stuff in the larder was out of date. I checked. It was. Bother.

Then had one of those struggles with conscience – checked ingredients and it was just sugar and flavourings, no milk powder, so it would be okay. Wouldn’t it? But what if it wasn’t and I made everyone sick? What if I killed someone’s granny? Decided was not worth the risk. Texted Suzie’s mum and told her to not let Suzie eat the icing, then scraped all the icing off all the other cakes. After ages, decided it wasn’t coming off very thoroughly, so I would eat denuded cakes and bake fresh ones tomorrow and never mention it to Suzie.

Took naked cakes to freezer in garage. Freezer completely full because one in kitchen has died. Then David arrived to ask if dinner was ready. Told him I was having a crisis. He offered to make space in freezer while I cleared up. I believe it is now all in alphabetical order. Super.

Jim started to cook dinner (macaroni cheese with bacon and leeks and chicken pieces – I  killed two of the cockerels last week.) I continued to ice the other girl’s cakes. Then Becky arrived home. Went to do her washing and informed me that dog had pooped all over utility room floor. Was not very grateful to her for telling me. She left and hid in room for a bit.

Finally, cleared up poo, cleaned up very messy kitchen, finished making dinner and fed all the animals.

Had big glass of wine.

Hope your evening was better than mine.

x