I was again very sad when I saw the swallows gathering in huge flocks, and the Rowans starting to show off the lovely red berries, as I knew that my departure was not far away. I just loved Scotland, the freedom  to roam where I wanted, and the life so laid back. Of course I worked hard, as otherwise than at home, where a kitchen my size in Scotland would have about between six and ten people scuttling around, in Scotland it was only me and somebody washing up during the week, and over weekends I had an assistent.
The flight home was without incident, except that my tv screen wouldn't work, and after they tried just about anything, they apologized profusely, and left it at that. The next morning one of the hostesses brought the duty free trolley up to me, and said that to make up for the inconvenience of not having a screen, I could choose any perfume up to thirty pounds! What a bargain!
The weather was still not what it should be in Spring, as it was still cold and frosty, but all the same, it was nice to be home and see my kids.
I just sighed on entering my wee croft, as of course the spiders and frogs, and other beasties had taken

over, and it was a bit disconcerting coming from the clean and dustfree hotel. So again I just cleaned my room to sleep that first night, but the smell of amphibians were indeed so strong that I asked Nina for some air freshener spray, and of course that triggered my hayfever, and I had to scratch around like mad for an allergex!
The next day I started cleaning with vigour, and found about six frogs hiding in dark corners, and they were very upset with me trying to shoo them out, they just stared at me with their cold froggy eyes and jumped out of my reach. I have never known that a frog could actually jump so far! Then I got an idea, and left them to go and roost again in their corners, for my plan was to catch them and throw them out.
So armed with a small enamel bucket, I moved the first piece of furniture away and put the bucket over the sleeping frog then a piece of cardboard underneath, and voila, I had one frog which I deposited in a box.
I did that until I hoped that all the bally beasts were caught, so I went down to the river and let them loose on the other side, hoping that they would get lost and find another house!
After some hard slog my house was liveable again, and I turned my eyes to my garden! Oh good heavens, I could hardly see where my veggie beds were it was so overgrown with the Kikuju grass, and I must say, for the first time I was feeling a bitty dejected!
Skramunkel had now become a big horse, but relations between her and Nina had not become more friendly during the months I was away, and they hated each other with a vengeance. Irma and Nina had a lot of words because of the horse, as she was so clever, and could open just about any gate, but Irma refused to believe that, as she had on different occasions saw the gate being left open by the kids when they went down to the river. Jan and Nina's veggie garden was still a delightful source of titbits to the horse!
Irma had decided that she would not like to live in Belgium, so Karel was moving to South Africa permanently, and I was understandibly very glad, as I had one child away for twelve years, and did not like to lose another one.
Jan and Nina had also got a new dog, one of the most dangerous breeds, named Bubby, and from the beginning I did not trust him, as although he was still only a pup, he had a very challenging look in his eyes!
Hendrix had now moved back permanently to Irma.