Rats and Ferrets

Ruth spotted the male duck in our garden today (on the left) and it looked like he was keeping guard. From where I was standing I could see the mother duck checking out her nest (she is in the gap on the right of the photo). I feel so sorry for them. We have seen them walking around this week and they look lost without their little ducklings.
I had a really productive morning. By 9am I had the sour dough bread baked, a chocolate cake done and buttermilk rusks in the oven. The washing was on, yesterday's washing was packed away and the kitchen was even clean (quite a job after all that baking). The girls had played really well after breakfast and I was thankful for all that I could get done so early. It had warmed up nicely by then and as the sun was probably not going to last the whole day I suggested we head outside.
The girls had a great time playing with the rain water that had collected in the tricycle basket and boot. Ruth had a great time making mud in the sandpit.

Just after 10 Dad arrived home from work. I made sure Hannah had her boots on again so she could play in the puddles. So while Rachel and Ruth ran off to meet Dad, Hannah had some splashing fun. Just before Dad pulled into his car port she looked up and said "back". So I signaled for Brendon to wait and she had a short ride on the back of the ute.
Unfortunately Brendon had had a headache since he woke this morning and it was still there when he got home. He still helped me set up the fencing between these two poles for my sweet peas (which are already 15 cm high and really needing to be planted outside).
And we also got the zucchini planted as well as my tomato plant. It still amazes me how quickly these plants have grown. It's been great having them in the kitchen to watch, but they were desperately needing to get into the ground. So hopefully they will do well.
After lunch Brendon headed to bed as the younger two also had their nap. At 3 Hannah woke up and I popped in to see how Brendon was doing. Hannah then wanted to lie with Dad a bit.
This photo is not great but her face just makes me smile.
Unfortunately the nap (and 2nd lot of medication) had not helped Brendon's headache much but he decided to get up.
We watched Ratatouille together which was a lot of fun. We had borrowed it from the family we had lunch with after church last week and I had not even realized it was set in Paris. So it was fun for Rachel to feel that it tied in so nicely with her current unit study of France.

While we were watching a ferret ran across our patio. When I spotted one the other day I had said to Brendon that it almost looked like a meerkat. But then it had been outside our property. So with this one running past so close I had a much better look at it. They are very long and thin and it still amazes me that people in America keep them as pets. Here they are a pest and we are concerned for our chooks.

Thankfully Dad was still up to some fun times with the girls. Once they were in bed though, he had a shower and hopped into bed himself. The 3rd lot of medication had not helped really and so hopefully being in bed from just after 8 will give him the rest he needs. I do hope he is feeling better in the morning.