Dash the Cat Strikes

We went to the Bulk Barn, buying a treat for the day. 
The children choose OKDOKEE bubble gum.
You have to eat all of this candy down to the centre to get your bubble gum.
Alice is very mad at Michael for he has sharper teeth and so has bitten down more layers.
She only licks her treasure and it is going to take a long time to get to the centre that way.

The power on Michaels cheeks is residue from that huge gob of bubble gum.

Betty's knee shows her scratches from Dash, the cat.

I spoke with Miranda again about the work she is doing on the cupboards.

There was a coat of finish last night, one this morning, one at noon and that will finish them off.

I saw her sanding down some of the finer points this morning.

In the same moment I heard Michael crying and now sitting on a lawn chair.

Betty with bubble gum residue on her mouth.

He had been running and landed on his side, his arm and his leg. Betty was also crying, coming down the road, and blood on her knee.

I looked and it was an old scab from where the cat had scratched her that was open again.

All of this made me think of the difficulty of doing work and how mothers can keep up with many jobs at the same time.

I let Alice take her first try at watering the grass last night.

Ramen noodles on their way to Alice's mouth.
I admit to admiring the gentle sway of the noodle 
held between her two hands.

She is not quite as enamoured with the water as Michael is.

She did want to test out the functions of the nozzle: soaker, horizontal, flat, spray, mist and jet.

As I was watering last night I noticed that all of the trees that are just at the window on the west side of the house, that had been cut down when the men were roofing, were trying to come back.

Some of the willows were already three feet high, so I took the clippers and went at them.

Betty shows me her bubble gum.

Michael came out in his pyjamas to help me.

He likes the fact that I go down low and find the most bottom part of the twig for him.

I like the company and his idle chatter, telling me about the cat and how dangerous it is to ever have a door open and let her out.

I reply that I would fear having an eagle swoop down and pick her up and he agrees.

Michael showing how noodles can be slurped.

Dash, the cat, did catch 2 mice the night before in the cabin.

I know for Miranda had to clean up what was left. I asked if that little domesticated feline knew that she should eat her catch, since I know her as a house cat. Miranda replied yes.

Concerning the watering of the small patch of grass in front of the cabin? I continue to monitor it, today focusing on spots of earth where the seeds didn’t catch.

I reseeded but first flipped off anything that has surface there as I have watered.

Betty, eating her noodles sideways.

I am always curious about what will surface after a few waterings: the dinner knife from a kitchen surface laying flat, just a hair’s breath under the earth; a hair elastic that has bobbles at each end of it; a rusty, fluted pop bottle cap; the white striated plastic cap from a tube of tooth paste; 2 inches of a the flexible curve of a drinking straw; a child’s four wheeled car, the wheels stuck to the chaise with dirt.

All detritus now.

Arta