Baby Emil was now crawling, albeit backwards, and time and time again when I put him on his tummy with a toy to lure him forwards so that I can get a few things done, I was startled when his powerful little voice would suddenly shatter the stillness of the morning. And every time I would find him stuck underneath one of the arm-chairs, having gone backwards again, from where he would tell the world how badly he was used.
It was very difficult at this stage, as he was a very busy and lively child, and not at all happy anymore to sit outside for long spells while I do some gardening. As the only time I could work outside was between five when I woke up, and about eight thirty, and as he now was awake from six onwards, and slept from ten to twelve, I had to juggle the outside chores quite finely.
Jan took him over week-ends, and sometimes when he was at home, or not too busy, as we felt that he should not grow up distant from his family, and never maybe feel part of it. What a wonderful dad-cum-mum my son turned out to be, as he just naturally took over the care over that times, and people were astonished at his dexterity with cleaning the little bum, bathing the wee one, cooking veggies and bottling it, and keeping both the youngsters happy.
I decided one Saturday when Jan had gone to friends for the week-end, taking Emil and Andreas with, to try again to work down the heap of boulders that lay right in front of my window, and it did not look nice, and apart from that, it was covering my water pipes, and if something went wrong, it would be hellish to get to the pipes.I had decided that if I again encountered the big green frog, I will ignore his questioning and myopic eyes, and take him down to the pond, where he would be quite comfy.
So, this time with glove covered hands, I started on the arduous task of rolling the big stones down the heap, as they were too heavy to carry, my back not exactly as strong as that of a horse, but when they were down, I still had to get them to their allotted spaces, and that posed a problem! But when you need to do something, and you try real hard, anything is possible, and with a lot of sweating, and swearing, and asking for help from above, I managed to slowly but surely get the path laid out.
I still had about a meter and a half to do, when, at lifting a boulder from it's cozy nest, a bally mole snake that was having a beautiful morning nap woke up, gave me a very cold look, and crawled right over my (luckily) booted feet, and disappeared into the a crevice in the heap! Must say, nothing wrong with my throat, or my voice! After a good and strong bout of telling the snake where he can go to, I was ready to commence work again, as a molesnake is harmless, but it is just the sudden appearance of one right under your nose that is a bitty scary!
I felt quite at ease, knowing where the snake disappeared to, and decided to not immediately desturb the heap at that spot.
I was sitting on my backside, working loose a stone from the sand that was getting more plentiful the lower I went, when suddenly, from underneath me, a loud, hoarse 'Kwaak' cut through the air, and when I came to my senses again, after going very, very cold for a few seconds, I was standing on solid ground, my heart pounding like a bally race horse at full speed! And there was mr. bally green striped frog, again looking at me with those big black eyes, silently enquiring about the reason for demolishing his house.
I ran for a yogart holder that would be just big enough to catch the frog in, but when I got back, he was nowhere to be seen. I took out some rocks where he was sitting, but he must have had a very long tunnel, and I couldn't just lift the stones left and right.
I decided to call it a day when the mole snake suddenly appeared from underneath a big rock that I was going to move next, as with all this beasties that was in my way, I felt that I had earned a nice cuppa, and a rest, and hopefully snake and frog would decide that it would be in their best interests to move!!