CHAPTER NINE


As you already know, apart from being budding gardeners, we still " deputize" for Noah's Ark's manager.

It took Digital and Rézéda, our new four-legged pets, a short week to agree to let us steer the Ark.Between you and me, I must confess we bribed them shamelessly with carrot and apple pieces, stale bread, sunflower seeds and peppermint.Well, whatever the truth of the matter, we had gained the know-how and things were going on smoothly.

Last week a couple of lifelong friends went with us to see and feed the horses. When we parked near the meadow, we immediately caught sight of Digital, but Rézéda didn't show up.  First we thought she had gone further down the field, but soon we had to face the facts : she was not there, either !
We called her out in vain : Rézéda had cleared out.
Digital looked panic-striken and kept pacing up and down the fence, then stopping and staring through the  bushes. Puzzled by his behaviour, we approached  him and to our great relief we could see the fugitive feasting on fresh new Spring clumps of grass in another meadow.
It is well-known that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence !
My husband could find a way in and managed to take the mischievous girl back to her place. But till he could see his sweetheart back safe and sound, 
Digital was in a tizzy, galloping along the hedges, head held high, ears forward and mouth open to locate his beloved mate.


We heaved a sigh of relief but a bit too early... In our wave of panic we had forgotten to close the door where the bales of hay are stored !! The two
accomplices had sneaked in and were celebrating their reunion on the sly !!
Fortunately we had some carrots left and they couldn't resist and went out of their Aladdin's cave. We locked the place in a jiffy and rushed out of the 
paddock before the two partners realized the trickery ! As we say :
Two can play at that game !

I hope such a mishap will not cool off our friends' eagerness and that they will join us again for other adventures full of twists and turns !

CHAPTER EIGHT


It is Spring and as the weather has been set fair for over a fortnight, we have decided to resign from our cleaning lady and pen-pusher jobs and apply for a part-time garnening post.
We were approved unanimously among blossoming shrubs, flowerbeds,hedges, and even brambles and other sneaky weeds join with the majority and agreed to show no resistance.

So, everyday after lunch we take wheelbarrows, rakes, spades, pitchforks and shovels out of the garden-shed, we put on our overalls and gloves (to prevent scrapes) and here we go !

We have undertaken a mammoth task : to widen and make nicer a tiny brook flowing shyly in the middle of our garden. That means digging the banks which are rather spongy and muddy, cleaning the riverbed ( disturbing the tadpoles and toads : they jump with fright and so do Canaille,my four-legged assitant, and I ! ).

So, last Sunday afternoon after squatting for over one hour by the brook in the shade of a chesnut tree, my back hurt and I went back home  and had a warm shower to relieve the pain. After dinner I was curled up among cushions on the sofa, listening with my hubby to our favourite Sunday evening programme, Le Masque et la Plume.Suddenly my head started itching. I scratched it, but the more I scratched the more it itched. I shivered inside and the word lice
crossed my mind. I didn't want to bother my husband, so I waited for the end of the programme worriedly. Needless to say I can't remember what films they talked about ! As soon as my husband turned off the radio, I asked him to check my scalp.He did it and declared mockingly : " Nothing to declare, move along ". " But it itches awfully !" I replied. He smiled  and said : " I guess you didn't put on your strawhat while working under the chesnut tree, so don't be surprised red bugs have found again their last Summer prey !".
Phew !! Just red bugs ! I couldn't have borne the idea of a louse-race on my head !
I fetched some lavender essential oil from the medicine cabinet, rubbed my scalp with it and the day after the itching invaders had packed up and gone to more hospitable countries.

That taught me a lesson I should remember because I am a worrier and that often robs my body of fuel :

Avoid making a mountain out of a molehill !

The itching episode is over, let's fly to other adventure !

CHAPTER SEVEN


All's well that ends well ! Yet I had started off on the wrong foot ..

Last Saturday while watching TV, I indulged myself in a licorice wheel. No sooner had I hear a little voice inside me saying  " Dany,you are too greedy '' than one of my crowns got loose and tickled my palate !! Too late !! '' Well '', I thought '' that serves me right !''. To see the funny side ot if, I toyed with the idea of hiding the crown under my pillow for the tooth fairy to bring me a small present, but my husband told me gently that I was living in cloud-cuckoo land !! So, I just dropped the victim of the licorice wheel revolution in a mouth wash till meeting my dear dentist..

After a good night sleep I had forgotten my misfortune and was as perky as ever.After lunch unfortunately, while preparing coffee, I knocked the glass coffee-pot against the granite worktop and, of course, it cracked and freed the hot beverage angrily on my brand-new white sneakers ! My husband just sighed and said : " Yesterday a crown, today a coffee-pot, all things come by threes, so let's flee from this bewitched place and sip our coffee at the seaside. So, off we went !
We had our drinks in a tiny typical buvette nestled at the bottom of a steep cliff, facing the ocean ( in the distance, in the clear weather you can see Sein Island). It is very quiet, far from the maddening crowds, only th locals know the place up to now ...Just the song of the seagulls and the backwash. I was on cloud nine and the Breton wind had almost blown away my little miseries.
But I had not taken into account the spell cast on me over the last few days..
We drove back home and in next to no time I felt sick and had to go to bed where I stayed for three days. Allergy to antibiotics : they cured my chronic sinusitis but crushed my stomach and intestines to a pulp !!

But as I told you at the beginning of this chapter, all's well that ends well.
I still feel a bit weebly-wobbly from time to time but I don't mind !

Every cloud has a silver lining.

PS : if you want to know more about the buvette, here is a link on Internet :

leguideduflaneur.com/la-buvette-de-pors-thelen.htlm

CHAPTER SIX


Here is a new episode of the adventures of Dany the Perky Busy Bee in the Far-West.
In the previous chapter I told you I was to look after my god-father's ménagerie. Well, I have always been a daydreamer and once more I haven't failed to my reputation.
When my god-father mentionned horses, I immediately pictured myself working in a ranch with Buffalo Bill.You know, wearing a checked shirt, cow-boy pants, pointed-toe boots, and maybe even a lasso wound round my waist, ready to break in the fiery foals !
As soon as we arrived in the meadow where they graze, I had to lower my sights.. Every  evening my favourite cow-boy and I will have to wade into ankle-deep mud, try to drag the horses back to the stable for the night. That won't be as easy as pie because, for example, Rézéda, a thirty-two-year-old mare is moody and whimsical, and demands many lumps of sugar to obey ..
Then,before saying good-night to our four-legged friends, we will have to clean the stable ( OMG, I have never seen so much manure !),fill up their buckets with fresh water and lug along bales of hay. Now I do understand the phrase : '' to eat like a horse ''.
I bet we will be bushed when coming back home and won't need any herbal tea to get to sleep.
I just secretly hope we will be awarded a medal of good and faithful service at the ende of our training.
Anyway, my god-father seems to think we are fit for service, so we will strive to be up to it !!