Good neighbours

Laughing with my bloganonymous neighbour last week, I told her that it was like living next door to the Railway Children.

Smart, funny, musical, arty, caring, passionate - her kids are a real joy and always have been. They are just life-enhancing and warm the heart with an interior smile that lasts all day.

When we were chatting, their dad was busy creating a sort of paddock in the front garden for the latest addition to the kids' menagerie.

Meet Beauty. She is the one on the left with the straight hair.

When they go away, I look after the assembled multitudes, which now include Beauty, a miniature Shetland Pony who is sampling my lawn. I only hope moss isn't bad for SPs.

Multitudes ?

Well, without getting into Noah's ark territory, the last count was:

One delightful dog
One cat
Two rabbits, one excessively hairy, the other simply loopy
Four hamsters in two space-station style complexes
Two impossibly optimistic budgies
A lugubrious goldfish and his small shoal of groupies
Two guinea pigs

And that's it. I think. The roster changes as pets come and go, but the trend is definitely upwards.

Oh yes, and in the spring lambs often come to stay for a while.

In Garrison Keillor's words: Thank you, Lord, for this good life, and forgive us if we do not love it enough.