The word went out last week that the local Weather Gods were getting ready to party. Alerts began pinging into our various social media accounts with increasing regularity late last week and so I began the consultation process with my various meteorological gurus of whom Philip Duncan is king. In a nutshell, it was going to be unseasonably warm and pretty gusty for us while, over the main divide aka the Southern Alps, the poor West Coast was going to get a massive amount of rain before it all turned Southerly and a bit wet for us as well. Which, don’t get me wrong, is pretty good news for us (save the gusty bit because of the aforementioned creaky trees – the tree guys have been called) as our place is pretty crisp right now.

Philip et al were not wrong. The beginning of the week was shirt sleeves weather, almost a little uncomfortably warm as I tackled another slice of the herb garden. The chickens quickly retired to the most sheltered bit of the coop to avoid the plummeting walnuts and Colin stuck close. He is not a great fan of the wind.

When the nor’west arch showed itself, I knew the southerly couldn’t be too far away

A quick round of The Homestead

confirmed all were dealing well with the blowy conditions. I did visit the goats, too, but they needed to tell me all their worries and woes and generally required a little pampering so photography went by the wayside.

The menagerie check is a little faster now as the Homestead no longer houses any ducks. Both Chip-chip and Indie, ladies of good duck ages, came to us with a bagful of idiosyncrasies and rather checkered pasts. They exited this life within a month of each other, simply falling asleep and not waking again; a pretty good end if you ask me.

Stormy nights are going to be a lot quieter around here without their joyful rain-dancing

Replacement ducks are not on the horizon. Brainstormed ideas for the duck enclosure include a more permanent pork project and hazelnuts but, for now, the lambs are enjoying tidying the place up a bit.

The rain did arrive (of course it did because Philip said it would) but I avoided all the feeding-in-the-rain (yay to Farm Girl and The Resident Engineer) being, as I am, playing town lady today.

I’ve spent my time partaking in very positive hospital check-up (out their windows, the rebuild continues), a quick bus ride past Hagley Park (the photos doesn’t show how gorgeously autumnal it’s all looking at the moment), lunch in the mall while a particularly violent downpour passed over, and a leisurely stroll to the Urban Homestead.

This time the Weather Gods were kind to us; love to those, wherever you are on the globe, who didn’t fare so well.