To know Sheila is both a delightful experience, but also one of stress, as she had too many animals, and not enough space for them to roam, thus it was that not only her goats, but also her cows, and of course the bally peacocks were a constant thorn in my flesh! She is a strange mixture of kindness and heartlessness, but that only if you bother her about her animals, in which case she refuses to even listen to your complaints, and never taking any responsibility for the damage done by them.
But I went over to speak to her anyway, and showed her my injured hands and thorn damaged feet, but she just looked at me with her kind of 'oh bugger off!' look, and told me that if I wanted to keep the goats out, I would have to make the fence higher, then offered me a beer, which I declined, and stormed home to sulk!
But she must have thought about it this time, as I told her that I would shoot the stinky Randy if he ever jumped over the fence again, for early the next day a grumbling Bush came passed my house leading Randy on a rope, with the other goats following. I think poor Bush's dignity was a bitty tattered, as he did not look happy at all walking through the streets of Haarlem with such a rancid smelling billy goat on tow, and knowing the villager's quite sick humour, I sympathised with the poor guy.
But Randy must have reeked havock where he was put during the day, as about a week later he was back in his usual camp, but this time he had a leash around his neck, and was tied to a pole with a long rope so that he was free to graze, but unable to jump the fence! I don't think he had any grudges against me, as every time he saw me his tail would start wagging furiously!
My plums were now left in peace and soon ripened into lush, plump, juicy fruit, and I made lots of jams.
The peacocks were a bitty confused, as I don't think that their small brains could understand what happened to make their juicy strawberries disappear so suddenly, and every morning at about two I was rudely plucked from my world of dreams when they flew onto my roof from where they sat telling the world about their woes. It was not good for the nervous system, as they had the most savagy screams that almost made my bally heart stopped when they started with their early morning complaints!I was very happy with the fact that they were too stupid to work out that the strawberries were inside the many white bundles amongst the strawberry plants!
At Irma's place some kind of calm had dawned again after the episode in which Tembi had eaten up the swallows, but the poor dog, who had up to now enjoyed the freedom of the house, was banned from roaming freely , and had to spend her days sleeping on a rug on the stoep, and at night she was allowed to sleep on her pillow in the kitchen. The reason was not only because of eating up the birds, but Tembi had a fettish for rolling in anything that stank, and as she had such a long and thick coat, she usually smelled fit to make us wretch. When Irma was very busy with her painting, it was not always possible to give the dog a bath when she came back from her roamings smelling like a sewerage dump!