HOT Thursday.

[dinky]

Good morning/afternoon ladies.,
It's nearly 2:30pm here and anther very hot day, around 29 degrees outside at the moment and it's hotter inside the house. I've got all the drapes pulled across and the windows and doors shut, but that's to keep the smoke out. Yeah, we've got a huge fire raging on the Port Hills , close by our house. it started up yesterday and firefighters have been working all night trying to contain it. We.ve got helicopters flying ,over, dropping water on the flames and unfortunately, strong winds are predicted for this afternoon, which they expect will make it worse. So far ,around 80 homes have been evacuated. I always feel so sorry for the animals involved.So far, it's a reasonable distance from us, but it's very close to the river where i used to walk Willow and it's destroyed the adventure playground nearby. My other house where I lived when I was married, is up on the hills but higher than the fire and the tenants in it say they're safe but I worry that the increasing wind might put them in danger - hopefully they won't have to evacuate. They'll let me know what's happening anyway. Last night ,janna and i stood in the front conservatory and watched the flames, which were pretty spectacular.

I've been staying out at Brenna's last week because Oren hasn't been very good. He refused to go home last week unless i went home with him and he won't do his school work or obey his parents Nobody's sure what has triggered this latest bout of defiance , but I've told him that he cannot come back and stay with me until he starts doing as he's told. Kicking holes in the hallway wall is definitely not acceptable. and Brenna and Jared really don't know how to deal with this. He is on medication, but this is being reviewed. He's such a sweet little boy with me, but i really think I'm doing more harm than good by taking him every weekend.

Gosh, it never rains but it pours ,doesn't it ? I've now had another row ,this time with another neighbour, about feeding the birds. This is a man who lived two doors down from me, who is a good friend of Anne's ,my horrid neighbour from over the back fence. it seems this guy doesn't want me to feed the birds either. He came down here Sunday night, holding a tiny (and i mean TINY) scrap of bird feeder in a paper towel, and told me that one of my birds had dropped this on his back lawn and he was furious about it. He told me ,with much swearing, to stop feeding in the birds. I don't actually know him, but he knew my name (he would have got it from Anne). I am so sick of people telling me what I can and can't do on my own property. I must admit, he does have a beautiful garden and lawn, but this has never happened before and I really don't want him coming here and swearing at me about it. It would have been Salty, my big seagull ,who must have picked a piece of feeder up in his beak and then flew away and dropped it on his lawn. I stopped putting the feeder out for the birds now, but I still feed them other food.

Oh yeah, I got 100% on both my last essays/tests for my Bible study. Yay !!! I'm just waiting on the college to send me the next lessons. I've nearly finished Exodus now and I can't wait to move on to something else.

Mushroom omelette for tea tonight, which is nice and easy for me. When I came back from Brenna's on Tuesday, Janna and I did a big supermarket shop, so we've got plenty of food for the next two weeks

PAMELA,I hope you had a good time in Birmingham, although it's always nice to get home again and sleep in your own bed. Thank goodness the plumber was able to fix that tap. Let's hope it doesn't happen again. I think there are a lot of street dogs roaming about in Thailand and other places like Indonesia. I would want to take them all home. Thank heaven for decent people who give their time to care for them. It sounds as if your weather is getting a bit better now - at least the sun was shining on Tuesday for you It sounds as if you had a good day, visiting your dad and going on a nice walk with your girls. Boy, that was a LONG walk for them. My friend, I'm glad you now have your boy back home where he belongs - not much of a comfort, I know, but at least it's something. I'll email you when this computer has a chance to cool down, either tonight or tomorrow.

SHELLEY,, wow, Jet sounds so beautiful. Cockerpoos are very popular here in New Zealand, and I'm so pleased that your dad has given him a wonderful new home. It sounds like the poor boy is in desperate need of some stability in his life and he now has it with your dad. Reuben would have wanted your dad to open his heart to another dog, I'm sure. I hope he had a good birthday and enjoyed the dinner. I agree with you about not liking Lord of the Flies. I also read it in school and I can't say i enjoyed it much, but Oren loved it and I also have the DVD which we watched, and it was really enjoyable. I've always read my kids classic literature - much better than reading Enid Blyton !!! We're going to start on Jane Eyre when I see him again, but that might not be for a while. Sorry about your car trouble at the weekend but hopefully you'll get it fixed quickly and without it costing too much. I also hope that youre enjoying your half term holiday this week, Shelley and taking the pups for some nice long walks

Well ladies, I'm off to see what's on TV Might be a quiz show It's just too hot to do anything much, but at least the predicted wind hasn't come yet.

Have a great Thursday Pamela and Shelley.. Sorry about al the grammar errors - I can't correct them ,as my computer will wipe my whole post. !!!