Tea room 16 welcome to Shangri-la

[UniS]

Shangri-la = a hidden valley with beautiful views and crystal streams of course, and some inter-far eastern type of chalet things set around a Serene Courtyard with ever-blooming Japanese cherry trees, lots of refreshing fragrant teas, silk cushions, tinkling tiny waterfalls and bonsai trees, Gardens of Tranquillity etc.

Home to teh 16th Tea room, a haven for those with one or more or less children who like cake, tea, talking nonsense and oggling Mellors ( our handyman/ butler). If its your first vist, pull up a cushion .Mind out for the guinea pigs and other pets and do take care not to squash the teeny tiny naked mowhawk babies ( nmbs
, no longer naked and now toilet trained you will glad to hear)as they go about their duties helping Mellors.

Confused... come on, jump in and have a hot chocolate.

My Mom makes that. I'm sure I could rustle some up for you.

Pictures, CMOT, please! (Tiddler in fancy dress on hairy shetland.) Also envious of trained red kites.

Wriggle's project today - playing football with the chicks. As team members, I hasten to add, not as footballs, a Lewis Carroll. Not a resounding success, as they run away from the ball. She gave up after a lot of shouting a long coaching session, and went suspiciously quiet. I finally found her curled up in the hammock with a chick on her lap.

Had a lovely long peaceful Fathers' Day lunch in a local garden centre - it took an hour for our ice cream to arrive.

Well done,UniS, for remembering about vouchers. I can never find ones for anywhere I actually want to go to.

Ooh, lovely - one of those things that I can't make myself and really like. Will have to find a reason to go somewhere that does it soon - next US trip is to Philadelphia, so no chance

CMOT, I'm from Philly and we eat it!

I was so busy doing father's day for DH I totally forgot my Dad. Arse. Too late to phone him now, or pretend the card "missed" the post....

Have no pony advice Racing, but thinks shared pet arrangements sound fraught with expensive options for falling out with friends...

Love Wriggle-the-footie-coach. I got cross with DS couple days ago because he was shouting at the kitten running after it and shouting. When I removed him for being mean he burst into tears and said "but mummy, the kitten had got out of his basket where you put him and I was trying to get him back for you"
I think, rather horrifyingly, the shouting was his attempt to exert authority like me ...

oh well. hope all those who ailed now ail less. UniS did your DH make it home in the end?

RS, the risk is that although the bird itself might only be a little larger than a blackbird, his beak is a LOT larger (see the pic on the link)! And miniThumb's fingers could easily be mistaken for a piece of food, or a worm.

The magpies are way too risky because they "buzz" you - one of my friends here was telling me that at their old place, she couldn't hang out washing because they had a particularly belligerent young male magpie, very territorial, and every time they went out the back it 'buzzed' them. Very scary with little children. This is not uncommon - there's even a TV ad for something or other here that shows DC with boxes over their heads to protect themselves from the divebombing magpies! And they're a protected (and very territorial) species, so nothing can be done about them.

Very at Wriggle trying to teach the chicks to play football - no doubt they could do a better job than either the French or English team atm. MrThumb tells me the FRench have gone "on strike" and are refusing to train .

CMOTD - definitely please put some pics up!

OXeye - miniThumb has taken to shouting "Shu'up!" at both of us whenever we start to sing - because that's what I do whenever MrThumb breaks into his random singing refrains (over and over and over and over). This is mildly amusing - except when he did it on Friday while I was in the middle of a music sesh with another mum at her house. I was meant to be singing and this irate little body was shouting "SHU'UP, Mummy, SHU'UP!!" at me.

I didn't remember to phone Dad until nearly midnight - a useful thing about being here is that still gave me time, as it was only 3pm in the UK

Iced tea and lemon here please - need the Vitamin C atm, so does miniThumb. It's probably only the 3rd cold he's ever had, but he still can't blow his nose effectively

Morning all.

(RS, Shetlands are notorious for being strong-willed, and they're soon outgrown, but there's no particular reason why a well thought-out arrangement with people who are knowledgeable about horses shouldn't work? The cost of any pony is horrific these days, though)

I'm a bit like that woman who's friends with Hyacinth Bucket, I tremble when holding fine crockery, in case I drop it! Any chance of a bone china mug?

Oxeye - DD shouts at the cats quite a lot, it's a bit of an eye-opening for me. On the positive side, the cats don't seem to give a damn.

DD has in the last two days whacked me in the stomach to get my attention, and slapped me (on the arms) in a temper because she was jumping about in the shopping trolley and threatening the groceries so I wanted her to get out. I don't think she knows how old she is - at 2 she announced 'it's not FAIR!' and I laughed and said, 'how old are you, 13?!'; now she's behaving like she's 2 again (she's 6).

Mostly, I think it's just been a rather long school year.

I like to think Mary, that Ambers gorgeous china is, in fact, craft pottery. This results in large size mugs which are nice and strong - I am a dropper of things too.

Photos are on my profile - of me and tiddler in our respective classes. It was just a show at the stables this week - next week is the hairy shetlands at a proper show.

at the chicks as footballer

If you have a proper share agreement, I think the shetlands could work out. They aren't very high maintenance as they should live out all the time, not need any supplementary feed, and don't wear shoes normally, just get trimmed, so all those costs come right down

Thats OK, so long as the handles don't fall off! I have a mug given to me when I was 18, and its still in use. It says "Slagbag" on it. Its handle is still attached...

My particular piece of fine china has "Village Idiot" written on the side, and is indeed a large mug.

Racing - I think (from bitter experience) the issue about a 'share' of a pony is that you are guaranteed to both want it at the same time - so you need to have an agreement in place before you start re how you're going to do the share.

I had an ideal situation at one stage - I helped out with a horse - which meant that I agreed with the owner when I'd be down at the weekend - and I did the mucking out (winter), rode and turned out (or not) or she went down early and turned out and I went down later, rode, mucked out and bedded down for the night... I contributed towards shoeing and insurance, and I looked after more when she was away.

Riding school rememberance of the shetlands was that they tended to be a bit stroppy, were laminitus prone and VERY low down when you were trying to brush all the hair underneath!

Has everyone had a nice sunny weekend?

DH did get home in the end, thanks, and he sent me straight off to pub.
Busy weekend.
Today was preschool "day trip" to the miniature pony centre, so we saw lots of short hairy ponies and foals, all far to short to ride. Boy got as far as stroking a mini donkey and watching a falconry display. But otherwise ignored the animals and concentrated on tractors and trampolines.
I've given in, I'm building a compost bay, 2 plastic tardis type bins are not enough to cope with this garden.

Evening all! Glasses of your favorite tipple available.

remind me I DO NOT like diet Pepsi. Should have stuck to ginger beer.

We did wash down dinner with a nice glass of local scrumpy cut with apple juice and ice cubes. Just what was needed after an hour or two of work in the garden.

My Wombled compost corner is a thing of great joy.

I've been wondering about doing a little compost corner even though I don't garden for when BabyScout and I start planting seeds. Is it hard?

nope. There is masses written about making compost, but ultimately its just piling dead plant matter in a heap and waiting for it to decompose down to compost. If you have Very little space one of those plastic tardis things would be cheap and neat. I have more space (and a corner I can;t see from the house or else where in garden) so have built a 3 sided Bay into which I will pile garden cuttings and clippings. The 4 corners are wooden posts, 2 short sides are old gates and the long back is chicken wire and a strip of lino. I've not put a front on and I have another strip of lino laid over to keep it all from washing away in the rain.

Good Grief! I go to sleep in a vikings long house and when I wake up the world has changed!
It's a good job the priest hole moves with the tea room - I'd be completely lost otherwise.

I hope that Shangri-La has carrots...

Things haven't really improved, but hiding in the priests hole isn't going to improve matters... so here I am. Anyone seen my bucket?

Here you are Donki, and here's a nice ear rub to go with

Sorry things aren't great, but lovely to see you. It takes such time coping with death doesn't it - Mindy was saying re Dad's just yesterday

DCMB I am trying to be less shrieky. I am using the Child-to-Kitten monitor = it was better today.... a little.....

we saw coots being fed by their mum or dad yesterday. Very sweet. About as bucolic and animally as it gets our way.

Thanks Daisy - Tea is the universal panacea.

And I have a job interview tomorrow, so I thought that I had better get all the hay out of my coat/mane/ears etc. It wouldn't do to go to an interview with stray bits of dried grass sticking to me!

I must say that Mellors looks to be in particularly fine fettle!

Welcome back Donki - Mellors is a dab hand at grooming and hoof-shining, if you fancy it - he's using one of the little chalet type things as his room. He'll soon have you ship-shape for your interview - good luck with it!

I bought an e-book on the Ultimate Compost - it was very good but in the end MrThumb has ishoos over me using a corner of the garden for compost. Currently I have a sort of compost pile but it is really just the guineapigs' bedding in black binliners - the bottom ones are doing well but I'd like to do it properly. It's just finding an area that makes sense to both the house and the garden - the area I have been offered is about as far from sensible as they come, imo and is right under the front bedroom window anyway.

We are cold-ridden here - poor miniThumb had a rotten night, couldn't breathe properly, not even to suck his thumb . He's now lying on me watching Lion King 1 1/2 for the umpteenth time, complaining sporadically about the "bogies". No play group today of course but I hope he's better by Thursday.

lovely to see you again Donki, have been thinking of you. Good luck with the interview - what is the job like ?

The cats brought home a magpie yesterday. Amazing how far those feathers spread

Aaaaah!
Lovely bucket of tea CMOT. Thankyou.

The job is a part-time maternity cover for a science teacher in a school for the deaf...

I don't know what they made of my long ears - my hooves could be used as mirrors thanks to Mellors, and I think they liked the way he had plaited my mane with ribbons.

We were sent home after our interview (this is getting more common in schools - although you are still often expected to hang around in the stafffroom for hours whilst they make up their minds who they liked best). So now I am waiting for a 'phone call...