Cheviot

The pictures in this post were taken over the course of a month. One Sunday afternoon in September, we drove through the local domain on our way home from church. The daffodils were in full bloom, and so beautiful! Esther wanted me to take a picture of her with Little Miss, so I did. While I was doing that, Mr. Diligence took a picture of me taking the picture!

The annual Dead Boring bike hike was the second Tuesday of September. Mr. Imagination rode in it, for the first time. I drove him the first 10 km or so, and then he rode his little bike for about 7 km.

We had left after the older children who rode their bikes the entire 21 km of the route, but soon passed all of them. However, Mr. Imagination went slowly enough that a lot of them passed him up. Here is Mr. Intellectual.

I always enjoy seeing the farm signs at the gates!

These curious cows went racing to the corner of their paddock to see the children riding by.

Mr. Diligence took Little Miss in a seat on the back of his bike. You can just see her helmet sticking up. She was thrilled to get to ride in the bike hike! Just in front of Mr. Diligence, who is wearing a blue-and-black striped shirt, is Mr. Sweetie, in a white shirt with vertical stripes.  They are about to pass Mr. Imagination, in his brown striped sweater. Mr. Diligence and Mr. Sweetie stayed together the whole way.

One day, Mr. Diligence found these wild ducklings huddled together by the duck pond. No mother was in sight, so he brought them in. Soon, though, she showed up, so he put them back with her.

This is as close as Princess wants to come to water. She, like a normal cat, minces delicately around puddles. Bandit, on the other hand, races right through them without seeming to notice he’s getting wet! One day, I watched him walk deliberately into the middle of a small puddle, about an inch deep, and start batting at the ripples he created! No wonder he’s usually wet and muddy.

This has been a common sight this year. Such a contrast to the last few years!

The cat wants us to shut off the rain—but the waterfowl are loving it!

The little children are loving it, too. Because of all the rain (four inches in five days a few weeks ago, and four and a half inches in the past five days), the creek in front of our house has been running. When it’s full enough, they boat down it in a half barrel. Yesterday we had a sunny morning, so these three spent time splashing and playing. The boys were having a toe-stomping fight.