gimme shelter

'tis often the case that the month of December, with it's short dark days and long cold nights, finds many creatures adrift, on the lookout for a safe place to stay; sometimes for a longer period, other times just for the night.....it just so happens that this is indeed the case in our household, as of today.....

 after a long day in the office I came home to a warm and busy welcome: Julie of Threading the Dog informed me a couple of weeks ago I was to expect the arrival of certain small beings looking for 'a place to stay' and then she asked me to forget she'd mentioned this, which I promptly did. So imagine my surprise on entering our house this evening to find the kitchen full of birds, the odd cow and a stray horse. My husband sighed a huge sigh of relief as soon as he saw me and said, 'Darling, we seem to have visitors'.......Followed by a 'they appear to be hungry, or something......', whereupon he managed to sneak out of the kitchen into the living room where he settled on the settee in front of the telly and instantly turned deaf to the clamour that arose from the assembled group. To be honest I couldn't really tell what they were on about, so I nodded in sympathy and did a lot of 'hmmmm, hmmmm-ing' ( a trick I learnt from aforementioned husband) ................. when all of a sudden they became very quiet and I realised they must be very tired after the long, arduous journey over the ocean. Without further ado I swept them all together and tucked them snugly in a basket on top of some beautiful fabrics they had taken with them (amazingly polite and thoughtful of them to bring their own sheets! they have also managed to smuggle loads of food in their luggage, which helps a lot in the organisation of the studio-Christmas dinner - which you all know I'm kind of nervous about) 

they seem to love grunkernmehl, which was something I had never heard of; have googled it and I think it's spelt flour; as there are quite a few chicks* this make sense as it could be used for porridge; will ask more tomorrow as I prepare breakfast
* turns out the chicks (with the notable addition of one of the young geese) are a boy choir and the pigeon is their music director - in my mind that's the music organised for the x-mas do! I love it when things start to go smoothly (although there's still loads to do apart from organizing Christmas, as we're also clearing out my mother-in-law's house, meaning stuff is being moved from there to here and from here to here as well, if that sounds muddled up, it's because I am too)

coffee & biscuits

huddled together in the basket just before they fell asleep

All is calm once more for they are fast asleep, I'll let them sleep in tomorrow morning. Plenty of time to introduce them to the gang in the studio once they're up and running. As we didn't know when to expect them no body will be missing them just yet.......

....and now for a bit of music to shake loose those legs and let the mind wander free....