Visitors.

Yesterday it was hot.  Nasty on the concrete, and baking even in the shade.  These guys turned up.  The practical reinventor, about to go out, found them on the path between Marmalade Cottage and Daphne's place.

They're domestic ducks and only just starting to lose their fuzz for proper feathers.

We've no idea - really no idea - whose they might be.  Given their age, we suspect they were Christmas presents, which might explain them wandering loose on the street, as they're approaching adulthood and are a bit less cute than they were.

 They still squeak.

We put some big tubs of water in the front garden, where there's shade and hidey holes under the hydrangeas, and expected them to disappear.

They quite happily tucked into some chook food and snoofled about in the mud when we watered.

There's an ad on Gumtree and postings on several local facebook pages, but not a peep.

The Creative Reinventor would dearly love to keep them, but accedes that with two dogs, a cat and seven chooks, Marmalade Cottage is at capacity.

If no-one claims them in the next day or so, they'll go up the hill to lovely friend J's house where there are three ducks already.

In which the Creative Reinventor is outnumbered 10 girls to one.

 

Meet Maddie.  Years and years ago, we were around when lovely friends L and D rescued her.  They've had her for all those years and have just upped and moved to Canada.  Somewhat rashly the Practical Reinventor suggested, that if the worst came to the worst, and L and D couldn't find a new home for her in Melbourne, she'd be welcome at Marmalade Cottage.

And so it was the poor dog had the worst day of her life at the end of March.  Taken away from her home without even a blanket, loaded into a cage onto a plane and flown across the country to Perth.

And here's what you do when you're a bit settled in and you've had your first bath, it's a beautiful day, and there's a new park to explore.

She's a Maremma, an Italian sheepdog, and we suspect of quite a distinguished bloodline.
Jodie the neurotic kelpie is very, very slowly getting used to the idea of not being the only dog.  They're not friends yet, but after a fair bit of resentment and a bit of blood, they've reached some sort of detente.

And yes, with one wife, two girlie dogs, one girlie cat and six hens, the Creative Reinventor is the only boy in a multi-species household of girls.

It's the glory!

The local agricultural show is a time of great excitement at Marmalade Cottage.

This is the third year the practical reinventor has entered some produce

The jam and marmalade prizes remain elusive, but the garlic came second as did the pineapple relish.

But that was nothing - nothing - compared with the home grown and pickled beetroot.

Not only a first prize, but an OTT rosette for the President's Choice!

And a total of $6 prize money.

The force is strong with this one

Avid readers might remember waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the beginning of Marmalade Cottage, there was some discussion about whether the dessicated stick of grapevine in the back garden was still alive.

Here's your proof.  Not quite 18 months on and it's not only alive, but producing.  And producing a lot. 

The creative reinventor took a picture of our juvenile grapes to a viticulturist of his acquaintance who tells us they're table grapes.  Which is a little surprising since the former owner was Italian and grew a huge amount of veg.  We'd expected them to be wine grapes.  But, well, there you go.

A remarkable recovery

You  might remember how sad Joan and Joyce looked when we rescued them - beaks clipped, frightened and missing most of their feathers.

Joyce started feather-up almost immediately.  Joan, well, didn't.  She improved, but still had bald patches and didn't seem to be as healthy as Joyce.

Then, rather suddenly, and for no discernable reason

they are indistinguishable.  Both luxuriantly feathered and rather gorgeous.  We now have no idea who's who.

Subbing in

Coffee features heavily in Marmalade Cottage life.  So it was something of a tragedy when both of the espresso machines went on the blink.

The Creative Reinventor loaded them into the ute, muttering unsavoury things under his breath.  Lack of caffeine will do that to a boy.

Because he knows people, he got us a loaner. 

Pretty, isn't it?

In case you're wondering our machines are a Gaggia Classic and an ECM Botticelli, this one's a Nuova Simonelli Musica.