It's greening up...

The hay in our front fields is really taking off!

Now, remember Amber? She and her sister Abbie (formerly Aggie) came back from Greece with me in April and were adopted by a lovely young couple in Ottawa. Amber was very shy, but with the love and attention of her new owners, she is really coming out of her shell.

See?

Note that paw gently touching her Daddy's hand. 

Meanwhile, Archie and Annuk are still here and doing well!

Archie came in my office window the other day and settled right in!

Annuk has made herself at home too!

Here they are are sweet little kittens at the dump in Syros my friend Joan rescued them from...

Speaking of Greeks..

Archie was joined in the sunshine by Daisy (left) and Buttercup (right), two of the original Greek trio that arrived last fall!

Archie is QUITE the ladies' man!

This is Daisy who is uspposedly a barn cat. HAHAHAHAHA...

That's all going completely to hell in a handbasket!  Cats are in and out all day now. Sigh...

And my bees are keeping busy too!

Donkey kisses and various other farm happenings...

We have the bestest donkey in the universe!

Saul is so sweet and gentle! Today he came up to me at the fence was was just resting his nose against mine, ever so gently. He's adorable.

Such a good boy!

Meanwhile...

... Annuk the Greek goddess always has something to say!

And she likes to supervise the equines...

Can you see her on the fence post above Finney? And Pip is hanging out on the fence to the left.

There's Annuk again, supervising the ponies from her post!

And our old boy Tristan. He's having a tougher and tougher time getting around but he hasn't quite given up on life yet.

Meanwhile...

..Buttercup was also keeping an eye on things!

Isn't Annuk a gorgeous cat?

Tristan doesn't mind the ponies, but when the donkey approached he fence, he let out a big WOOF! He's not allowed in there with them. No doubt Saul would kick him down the paddock,

Buttercup was unimpressed with Archie's attempts to play with her! But mostly they get along. I wonder if they are related? They came from the same dump in Syros, Greece but were born a year apart.

And...

...Pip from Perth is lovely, as always.

The ponies and donkey are getting some grazing time now. I am getting a hay muzzle for Esme. I let her out for a very limited amount of time but because she is so prone to laminitis, I can't let her go nuts on pasture. It's a shame but it's for her own good!

And Redford...

...is the on-farm egg inspector!

Whereas Archie likes to hang out in the pig pasture!

He's a lovely boy!

He wants to make friends with Redford, but Redford is having none of it!

He thinks we have far too many cats here now!

And a random butterfly. I think it's called a Silvery Blue.

The temperatures dropped quite a bit today. In the end, I think it hit about 16C but it started out at 5C. On Monday it was 33C!! It's up and down and all over the place.

The creek was looking nice.

Gordon saw something splashing in here the other night that was bigger than a muskrat. We figure it was either an otter or a beaver. We have both around here. Our neighbour across the road had four otters in his ponds last summer!

There's Annuk again!

Have I mentioned how much I love this donkey? :)

Sigh...

I'd really like to be doing more than one blog post a week. It's been nutty around here lately, plus I'm taking a poetry course and spending a lot of time on my assignments. And then there's the billion animals I have to look after! ;)

Here's a pic from our trip to Ottawa on our anniversary a week ago. We went to the Canadian Museum of Nature and had sushi for lunch!

And here's a picture of my ass..

Sorry, but it's been NON-STOP ass jokes around here lately!!! Poor Saul!

He and the ponies are getting more and more comfortable with and tolerant of each other. Look how close Saul and Finney are eating! Speaking of Finney...

...I really need to do something with that mane!

We've started turning the all out on pasture. This week it was just 5 minutes a day. Esme will never be allowed any long periods on grass due to her unfortunately propensity for laminitis (founder.) It has been suggested to me that I get her a hay muzzle to control how much she can eat, so I am looking into that.

Look at this cutie! He is SO SWEET! Loves to have his ears stroked. He's a real darling with such a lovely nature.

Esme was having a wild and crazy mane day herself!

Meanwhile, in CATVILLE...

Two Greeks (Buttercup and Archie) and a Canadian!

And inside...

my little Greek Honey-bunny was having a nap.

Speaking of naps, I came out to this yesterday morning:

They look pretty comfy together, don't they?

And then there's this...

Gordon put some sort of paper-towel bird scultpure in my scone the other day!

Even Emily was impressed!

Have a great weekend! It's the Victoria Day weekend here in Canuckistan, so we have Monday off. Hooray!

How surprising... another addition to the farm!

Look who arrived last Saturday!

This is Saul the Sicilian donkey! He is utterly lovely.

He came to us from our neighbours down the road. They have several donkeys, but Saul wasn't getting along with another one of the males, so they were looking for a new home for him.

We couldn't resist! We've wanted  a donkey for ages. We arranged this back in November but couldn't manage to transport him until now.

Even though he had NEVER been in a trailer before, four of us get him in within five minutes, with the help of a bucket of grain and a strap around Saul's butt! He was really good.

My friends came over to help with introducing him to the ponies, which went very well! Finney chased Saul for five minutes and that was about it. There's still a bit of posturing going on and I saw Saul give Finney one well-deserved kick, but my sense is that they will eventually be friends, which would be great for Finney because he needs a youngster to play with! Esme turns 13 this year, Finney turns 4, and I think Saul is turning 4 as well.

I think he's looking forward to getting out on pasture!

Meanwhile Finney was having a crazy hair day!

We are continuing with our riding lessons, which are lots of fun...

I got to ride Missy the Haflinger at my last lesson. She was lots of fun and a really good girl!

Have a great weekend. Today we are celebrating our 22nd anniversary. :)