*(Which is to say, I have been Russian madly!)
Apologies to those who have recently visited my blog and left pawprints, but have not had return visits. I have been reading all the email posts I can, just to keep up to date, but have lacked the time to visit actual sites. I will try to get back to that.
We have had more garden obligations, plus attending a garden club prizegiving, and I have also been involved in some tricky formatting technicalities. Inter alia.
For the occasion of Younger Daughter’s birthday on Sunday, she elected to go to an animal farm we haven’t visited yet. I would have thought she would have chosen scenery or a restaurant or something, but it would seem that what keeps the kids happy keeps her happy. Anyway, we went to the relatively new Winsome View at Shongweni and had a delicious cream tea, while meeting and petting a good selection of animals.
Young R looked at the size of ‘pony’ on offer for pony rides (well, at 14 hands, technically it still is one) and declared, ‘No way!’ Then she watched her sister delightedly riding, so changed her mind and did well. Even I had a brief ride to remind my muscles and reflexes how it is done.
Yesterday it came to pass that I needed to laminate some promotional pages. I put one in wrongly, and it came to a grinding halt. No amount of yanking would get the paper and melted plastic out of the innards, so the only solution was to get at the laminator rollers.
It is clear that the machine was designed by somebody even madder than Rasputin. In order to free the jam it is necessary to take the whole thing almost down to component parts. After taking off the shell to expose the innards, the circuit board has to come off one side and the motor off the other. Then one can start removing the sides proper, to get at the rollers. One of the screws either side one needs to unscrew for this purpose has a thin metal rod over the top of it, going into slots on either side. This rod won’t move due to a shaft up against it, to which it is apparently designed to provide resistance. It can be seen that if the shaft is slid out, the rod will be freed. However, in order to slide the shaft out, one needs to loosen the screw …………………….. but the screw has the rod blocking it! Talk about ‘hole in my bucket’ or Catch 22!
Anyway, I solved that using the old masculine standby of brute force and ignorance. A bit of bad temper was also involved. It is now un-jammed and working meekly and perfectly.
To close with, some water lilies on one of our ponds.
© October 2012 Colonialist (WordPress)
Those lilies look posh…what are they please?
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Actually, I’m blowed if I know the variety – the ‘fish nursery’ didn’t have them named. I must try and find out.
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They look a bit like waterblomeitjies – not sure if this is the correct spelling, They look different to the ones I have in my pond at any rate.
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I thought they were of that variety, but the flower petals seem wrong.
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I’m only guessing, like I said, I have never seen them in the wild, only pictures.
I’ll bet Sonel would know,even Kalinka.
Do we know what’s happening with p’kaboo, btw? Any clues?
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Sure one of my fellow garden fundis will know.
Not a clue wif P’kaboo – boo hoo hoo, now what to do?
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Beautiful photos especially the pony ride. Why are your gadgets always striking against you?
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They are dumb things and follow the examples of miners and such.
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It looks as if everybody had a great time.
I like the photo of the cock 😉
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He has a very cocky bearing, hasn’t he?
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She looks so natural on that pony! Very cute pics.
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She was thoroughly at home, and delighted.
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I used to love visiting an animal farm in PE when I was still a little kiddie. Then one day I stepped in a huge, warm pile of cow droppings and I never wanted to go back to that place…
The grand kids look like they are having a ball so I’m sure mom had a good time too 🙂
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Landing up in the moo poo shouldn’t have put you off! 🙂
A good time was had by all!
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The animal farm looks great. Your daughter looks just too cute on the pony! Glad I wasn’t there to witness the machine fixing exercise (get quite enough of that from hubby!) 😀
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It was good fun. I hope little J keeps her confidence!
A would-be DIY who has run into problems is certainly not the nicest person to be around!
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Sometimes a bit of bad temper and a good whack does wonders for recalcitrant machines 😉
Love the pond lilies – maybe, one day my pond will resemble that 😉
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In this case, a furious wrench did the trick!
I saw the lilies from the window, and left my computer to go and tak a pic.
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Looks like a great place for a birthday celebration . . . your granddaughter sits well in that saddle!
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She does! Poor kids have to start with swimming and riding rather early in our family – she could swim before she could walk!
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There’s a lot to be said for the percussion maintenance technique Col, glad you got it sorted. The young ones must have had a wonderful time with all the animals 🙂
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When all else fails, some good violence helps!
The kids simply adore seeing and feeding and cuddling varieties of animals.
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Sounds like you’ve been really busy. The grand kiddies look so sweet!
Nothing like a bit of masculinity to sort out machinery 🙂
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Busy hardly begins to describe it! The kids SO enjoy meeting farm-type animals.
When cunning and skill fail, strength and violence often do help!
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And those technical thingamabobs can enrich the language of expressions.
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They do wonders for the vocabulary, indeed!
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