Down at the Farm: A mighty down pour, Mr He and One horn

So we walked out of the witches garden after a play in there this morning. Having just fed the goats in the paddock next door, Tom had a little chuckle to himself. 'Mr. He and One Horn', he said.

The two goats we'd been feeding were one large pushy one and a smaller one with one horn. While it was obvious to anyone who knew, that teats underneath meant she not he. The whole energy of the interaction had been of a more driven, masculine energy ... more physical, some pushing a bit dominant (I trust you read this as an energy thing not a statement about men and women). It was like Tom was walking out feeling that and the quirk of the younger goat having only one horn, feeling the humour and he mentioned it too himself.

One of many moments that were very endearing in a pretty special day at the farm.

The day began with everything at saturation point. It was bucketing down. Flora and Matilda arrived first with Flora's mum Jill even wondering the wisdom of being at the farm ... as I imagine most mums did yesterday morning. I knew that the rain was only going to ad to the wonder of our day and one look at Flora's face and I could see there was no way she wasn't staying.

A hearty welcome for Matilda, change of pants which were already waterlogged and Matilda was feeling great about staying too. We had the fire to warm ourselves by, in the ambience of the barn, with the rain crashing down on the tin roof. It doens't get better than that. I also knew that this meant the farm would most likely be ours and ours alone for most of the day and in a city the size of Melbourne, it that is a pretty special thing too.

Tom and Archie arrived all waterproofed with a generous change of everything needed, so they were set and instantly delighted by the ducks splish splashing just outside the barn.

... and I wonder if the power of our enthusiasm to enjoy the day at the farm even effected the weather for after a good drenching the sky opened up, the people stayed away and we had a really wonderful day.

Matilda and Flora were in total delight of each other and the both knew Tom, so a ton of friendship exploded there. Archie was very funny. He has such a deep wit and earnest sense of humour. At one point he said to me, 'Mummy animal' eyeballing me as he said it. I looked at him and said, 'Really Archie? Is mummy an animal?' He said, 'Yes.' I asked, 'What about Daddy?' He said, 'Daddy animal.' I asked, 'What animal is daddy?' He said totally dead pan, 'A Tow (that's T for C)' ... then smiled. I asked, 'Well what' animal is mummy?' He thought for a moment then said, 'Sheep' and smiled. I asked, 'What about Tom? Is he an animal?' Archie said, 'Yes ... ... a durkey (d for t) and smiled and smiled.

... and along with all these familiar faces we had a new little friend with us, dear little Polly. What a gorgeous girl. She was really brave with meeting us all and very generous with hellos to start the day and I'm so glad she came along. She was the perfect fit on our wonderful day.

She's also a fine wit too, with real depth to her character. At the end of the day, when we greeted mum at the front gate, she was standing behind a little shelf area in the fence that is like a shop window. She asked me and her mum Amy what we would like to eat, made us some food and I went to get mine and pay. I asked how much?' She said, '39.' I broke some little twigs up and gave them to her. She looked at them, then me and said, 'They're sticks.' Then picked up two stones and put one in front of Amy and one in front of me and said, 'There's money.' As if to say, 'Can you get real about this game, we all know sticks don't look anyting like money.'

What else did we do? On a day when the river was racing and high ...

We walked, we played, we hugged guinea pigs, visited Mickey the Donkey and one of the horses who was very happy to be hand fed. We visited the vege garden and ate cherry tomatoes and beans and tried figs straight from the tree. We played uner the fig tree for ages. It was a great place to rest and be.