A couple of goats and a giraffe, please.

I gave myself an exit pass from exercise this morning when a loud clap of thunder echoed around the valley just seconds after my alarm had gone off. I'm not one to be put off by a bit of rain, but I draw the line at running around outside with a thunderstorm directly overhead.

Trying hard to ignore the fact that the thunder rumbled off away into the distance and the rain stopped very shortly after we'd got up and put the coffee on (I figured that once I'd drunk my coffee it was too late to start exercising - didn't want to get a stitch...), I sat down at my computer and started to have a look through Allison's safari diary that she's asked me to edit (Hi Allison! :-) It made somewhat lighter reading than what I usually have to edit, and one thing I've definitely decided is that we NEED some giraffes here in our garden/land to EAT all the darned acacia trees (acacia being their favourite)!! Our land is choc-a-bloc with acacia, which seems to spread, multiply and grow at an incredibly fast rate. While it's good to use as kindling/firewood, it's an enormous task to keep on top of it - and one that we haven't really even begun yet. Even the few baby-sized acacias we have come across on the couple of olive tiers we've cleared so far have been viciously thorny (far worse than brambles) and impossible to get out of the ground - we're dreading having to tackle the ones that have been allowed to take hold further up the tiers and that are twice the size of the ones we've come across so far! (Allison: is there any chance you could sneak a giraffe out of the zoo for us when you go and spend the day being a zookeeper on Monday? Perhaps you could send it by DHL...)

After a couple of hours diary editing, while Stuart read his book and did some Internet research on constructing composting stations, it was almost time for lunch, so after I'd hung some washing out to dry in the by now baking hot sun, we sat down for some lunch on the patio.

Perfect Saturday lunch.

During lunch, I looked up and spotted some rather ominous looking black clouds behind the house, and crossed my fingers that they would blow over without shedding their load on my washing. We cleared the lunch things away and prepared for another trip to our favourite shop, Obi, for the necessary materials for constructing aforementioned 3-bin composting station. As we left the house we felt a couple of spots of rain - but hoped that it would only be a shower...

We spent a considerable amount of time in Obi selecting the right pieces of wood, then having them cut so that they would fit into the car, finding the right screws, chicken wire, and some more insect-netting with which Stuart has grand plans to construct a cat-containing safety porch (a construction whereby we can have the front door open, but without letting the cats escape once they arrive next week - we'll be aiming to keep them indoors for at least a couple of weeks so that they can adjust to their new home before we let them outside).

On searching for the right screws for the composting station, we were a bit confused by the fact that there was no price against the tray of loose screws - until, that was, we realised that they are sold by weight and, *just* like in the supermarket where you have to weigh your vegetables, you put them into a little bag, put the bag onto the scales, and print a ticket out according to which size screw you have selected!

Tomatoes? Potatoes? No, 100mm screws.

By the time we left Obi with our piles of wood, the sky over the mountains in the distance (and our valley) was as black as anything, and the air felt heavy with anticipation of a storm to come.

Now we have to load all of that into the car.

Our next stop was Arcaplanet, the 'supermarkets for animals' (we have visions of sending the cats here on to do their own shopping - once they've mastered the language...).

The supermarket for animals - check out the colour of the sky in the background!

Here, we bought a cat toilet, some cat litter, a box of sachets of cat food, a bag of cat biscuits, a litter scoop and some litter disposal bags. Today is a day of mixed emotions - we are SO looking forward to being reunited with our furry friends, but we know that today is going to be a sad day for Mum and Dad having to wave them off on their journey after they've grown very attached to them, and that today will just be the start of a long and traumatic journey for the cats. We know they are in good hands, and that the people bringing them over do this sort of thing all the time and know what they're doing, but I do wish we could somehow explain to Lucca and Florence what's happening and why, and that when we're reunited with them we will lavish them with love and affection (and brushing) and they will have all manner of fun playing with the multitude of small birds, mammals, insects, reptiles etc. in the garden!

As we headed for home we heard some rumblings of thunder and soon enough we spotted a forked bolt of lightning in the skyline ahead. By the time we got home the rain had started in earnest (large, large drops) and my washing was beyond the point of no return. Sigh.

Well, what would you know it - we'd just resigned ourselves to an afternoon indoors (Stuart was considering starting work on one of his construction projects from the shelter of the woodshed), when the rain stopped and the sun came out again! There was nothing else for it but for Stuart to get on with constructing his compost bin arrangement and for me to don my long trousers and head for the olive tiers, hedge cutters in hands.

Within minutes, sweat was quite literally pouring off me and it wasn't long before the irresistible smell of sweat woke the flies up and they decided to join the party. I made quite a bit of progress around the back corners of some of the tiers and even made it up as far as tier no.4 - still, there's a lot of tidying work to do on all of them, as I've only really managed a rough first pass. As I was struggling with the hedge cutters against the hefty acacia trees, tissue paper in ears, facemask over nose and mouth (yet I *still* managed to get two flies in my mouth!!), safety goggles steaming up, I couldn't help thinking that a couple of goats AND a giraffe would make light work of this tier-clearing business.

Stuart made excellent progress on the composting station, with just a couple of finishing-off bits left to do.

I did say "when are the rabbits arriving?", but actually this is a state-of-the-art three-bin composting station.

You start filling up one bin, then move onto the next while the first one er.. decomposes and use the third bin for when you want to turn over the compost in either the first or second. Something like that anyway.

We are starting to be able to see defined tiers again and the shape of the hill.

We both reached breaking point in the battle against the flies at around the same time, and since it was getting on for 7pm, we decided to call it a day, clean up, get showered and have a relaxing evening. Some rather dark clouds appear to be gathering over the hills, so I plan to rescue my washing before it gets another soaking!