[surfaces, dishevelled mane full of petals and the odd feather, smirking down at rumpled, grinning, lei-bedecked angel: pours sparkling rosé into crystal flutes, hands one to Lutra and raises other in toast] Welcome home, tenshi-ran...

[*glances around admiringly*... Holy moley... will you look at this place? Oooh! Lookit the trees! Pretty!

I am so chuffed! Thanks, guys!

*eyes widen at sight of bower/food/hybrid*

Um, I'll update later I think... just need to talk to 'lestrel about the dragonets... *unsubtle scurry and pounce...* ]

[relaxes back on fragrant white petals, arms behind head, watching the melodious sparkling trees... nothing now to do but wait...]

[wades out, shaking mane] Hn - better...Yes, OK, so I was a bit more than 10 minutes... So I indulged... Now, anything else I need to do?...


[wince] I'd forgotten how much the studded tail rings pinch...

Knew I'd forgotten something! Candles and music...

[lopes back with a night-time song-bird on each wrist and mane, plait and shoulders covered with glitterbugs - which all fly up and disport themselves about the willows] Heh - better.

OK - two large haunches now keeping warm in the hot-box, slices of shoulder marinading in wine and herbs, miniscule salad sitting in the coolbox along with tubs of chocolate mousse... Time for a swim...

[returns from planting reidou and letting kridessa loose in the gulley at the Oasis - heh, lively little beastlies aren't they? - and halts, blinking...]

Oh, pretty! (Now how did I miss that earlier? Too excited by the kridessa, perhaps?) And the lemony things smell wonderful. Highly appropriate too. [smirk *see, machii'n, told you so - there are such things as tactful Saiya-jin...*]

All much appreciated - Lutra will love it!

[gazes round] Not much more to do. Slaughter the whatever-the-thing-is we're eating and marinade some of it, pick the strawberries, make sure there's enough cream... [smirk] Then just get myself ready. Well that'll take all of ten minutes - dunk under the waterfall, quick thorough scrub with river sand and I'm done. [thinks] I'm sure I've forgotten something...

Right.

Petals renewed; fresh sleeping furs folded; bottles chilling in the shallow bit of the pool; turkish delight to hand. Dinner animal selected and marked for easy despatch, nets over the strawberry patch to protect the new fruits.

Everything else I can do tomorrow. Now I'm going for a swim...

Reindou sounds just fine: I'll plant it up as soon as it arrives. Thanks.


T-1 and counting...

T-2 and counting...

[flops back on petals with a tired sigh] Never let anyone try to tell you dragon-sitting is easy...

Still, they're back with mum now for a while - sorry Talon, she's protective at the moment and won't let anyone near but me. And possibly Lutra: we'll have to see. But I'll be looking for homes for them all in about three months, if you still want one. Please say you still want one... Onna - no teal or purple dragonlings, I'm afraid, just what you see. And the hatchings were fine, no problems whatsoever. Ryonan took off and left me to keep an eye on things: by the time she came back (with some kind of quadruped in her claws, to feed the hatchlings with) everything was over. [shrug] Very laid-back, that dragon.

I think I have just the place for breeding kridessa, over at the Oasis - a cool, quiet gully half-way up a mountain, shaded and overhung by trees and with lots of small caves in the sides. They can establish a colony there, and I can cull them as required. So whenever you're ready...

[sits up, cross-legged, and gazes round] Now, what else is there to do...?


T-3 and counting...

"That'll keep you busy." she said...

Heh...

So here you have (from the top down and right to left): -

Hoshiran
Koritsuki
Natsumori
Hiinami
Uchumoya

...I need an extra pair of hands... Or another tail or two...


T-4 and counting...

[smirks up into lemon tree, hovering at a slight distance] Heh - as long as you all keep the promises I won't hurt you. (Much...) Just remember it's Lutra's pond, and I want it perfect for her when she gets back. The bower is off-limits (and anyone bothering the Okapi will answer to me.)

But I may not be around for a little while: Ryonan's eggs look and sound as though they're about to hatch, and I should be there to greet the wee beasties, and make sure there are no problems - it is her first clutch, after all.

[inclines head, frowning thoughtfully] As for the offer of a "distraction"... Hn. Thanks, but I think I can manage ten days without. Besides, I have plans for when tenshi returns, and the more... uh, restrained I am now the more fun we can have then... [smirk]

[ki-carves a platter out of a wide bough and places piles of fresh grass, waterweed, lemon leaves, rose petals and mixed herbs at intervals along it: places within reach of the Okapi's thicket and withdraws to a safe distance, hands behind back, to watch... eyes widen as an amazingly extensive tongue reaches out to sample the offered greenstuff...] Ye gods - and I thought my tongue was long...

[Grins up at lemon tree...] Heh - the kridessa were - interesting. Very tasty, if a bit wriggly. I enjoyed them, thanks. Can you get me a breeding pair? And onna - the picture is great. Papa and maazi will be very impressed...

Join you in the lemon tree? Are you sure you want to risk it...?

[Sits cross-legged on rose petals, glowering...]
OK.... I've hunted down and eaten the vermin (well, all those Ghryff hadn't already dealt with), ki-pruned the trees/shrubs/grass, checked the pond (and culled the strange life-forms that snuck in in the last few days)... What can I do now?

[grumble] no-one in the lemon tree to play with... Oi! Thought Lutra told you to feed/amuse me while she was gone!

Could always go get some fresh petals, I suppose... Nah, bit early yet.

Heh, but the ningens have been buying things for Lutra. Soft and fluffy and shiny and sparkly things. She'll like them. Not sure I do...

[sigh] Well, better go check Ryonan's nest I suppose...

T-7 and counting...

[*glower*] It's too quiet here...

T-10 and counting...

This'll probly be my last post before I head off - unless I can't sleep from excitement *rolls eyes*
Oh and if I could ask people not to email me anything until I come back that'd be neat, thanks : )

Just got this in an email from Pete. ^.^

One day a mom was cleaning junior's room and in the closet she found a bondage S&M magazine. This was highly upsetting for her. She hid the magazine until his father got home and showed it to him. He looked at it and handed it back to her without a word. She finally asked him, "Well what should we do about this?"
Dad looked at her and said, "Well I don't think you should spank him."

Heh, almost done getting ready, just have to make my lunch, pack my toiletries, phone and charger, and write the luggage tags.
Woohoo!
My backpack is be-belled and jingles beautifully. I'm waiting for my mother to see my backpack with all it's pretty shiny danglys and roll her eyes, saying 'why? You're not 12 anymore!' *smirk* I'm not? Why didn't someone tell me!

We went - en famille - to Smorgy's for dinner tonight. I'm really not impressed with the place but when I asked the cubs where'd they like to go for dinner the night before I went away, they chose Smorgy's. Oh well. Their father paid for the meal, however, so it wasn't all bad. *smirk* And the cubs have been so cuddly the past week, it's very gratifying, I think they're going to miss me. : )

OK, going to go and get some sleep now. Bye y'all!
Be good 'lestrel! *smirk*

The Cubs Current Career Ambitions...

One wants to be a rock star, the other a magician *head in hands*...

Can't remember what I wanted to be when I was their age, but at sometime during primary school I had vague ideas of being a nurse and working with children.. until I had a look at a nursing text book my mum had left lying around (she was studying to be a nurse educator at the time) and found the pics of cadavers. Ick. In my early teens I dabbled with the fantasy of being a pop star, though that didn't last long, and my career ideas after that circled pretty freely between artist/photographer/writer/actress. Not that I did anything about pursuing any of these. Heh, I couldn't decide what I wanted to do. I didn't get the marks I need in Year 12 to get into the courses I wanted to do (Architecture and Graphic Arts) which was probably just as well as I was luke warm on those anyway. So I worked, dead-end, mindless clerical jobs, and later I studied part-time (Library technician) until I got married and had the cubs. I still don't have a clear idea of a 'career' for myself, though I would like to be able to support myself with writing. We'll see how we go.

Right, haven't done a lot of what was on my list of 'things to do'.
Did finish an AC chapter, and I did clean up the cubs' room enough so that their father can get to their clothes, but for the rest? Eh.
I bought a couple of small things to go into the cubs' advent calendars, xmas decos and animal key-chains that 'poo' when you squeeze them. Ah, I can hear the gales of high-pitched, hysterical laughter now...
I bought myself a box of 32 shiny purple ball-type bells, the sort of bells you find on neko collars only bigger.
No, I don't know what I'm going to do with them either, but they're purple *happy squeak*. Oooh! I can put some of them on my backpack...

*tired, yet satisfied smirk*
My next AC chapter is done, and Joules next chapter is almost done. They'll probly be posted together, tomorrow-ish - UK time.

The good thing about being without net access for 10 days is that when I get back, I'll have a backlog of Boy meets Boy and GlamourLust to catch up on. : )

How long am I on holidays for?
10 days... from thursday 14th november to sunday 24th of november. (2 of those days will be spent travelling on a train. Yay! I love trains! My dream is to have leisure/money enough to 'do' train journeys all over the world - except India, they don't look all that fun : ) 10 days without a computer *shudder*, but also no cubs, or their father and the particular stresses that go along with that relationship. *happy sigh*...

These little snippets of news came from Sue via Joules.
Wet myself laughing!

Irish police are being handicapped in a search for a stolen van, because they cannot issue a description. It's a special branch vehicle and they don't want the public to know what it looks like.
(The Guardian)

Commenting on a complaint from a Mr. Arthur Purdey about a large gas bill, a spokesman for North West Gas said "We agree it was rather high for the time of year. It's possible that Mr. Purdey has been charged for the gas used up during the explosion that blew his house to pieces.
(Bangkok Post)

Mrs Irene Graham of Thorpe Avenue, Boscombe, delighted the audience with her reminiscence of the German prisoner of war who was sent each week to do her garden. He was repatriated at the end of 1945, she recalled.
"He'd always seemed a nice friendly chap, but when the crocuses came up in the middle of our lawn in February 1946, they spelt out "Heil Hitler".
(Bournemouth Evening Echo)

After being charged £20 for a £10 overdraft, 30 year old Michael Howard of Leeds changed his name by deed poll to Yorkshire Bank PLC are Fascist Ba*tards. The bank has now asked him to close his account,and Mr.Ba*tards has asked them to repay the 69p balance by cheque made out in his new name.
(The Guardian)

'Would the congregation please note that the bowl at the back of the church labelled "for the sick" is for monetary donations only.'
(Churchtown Parish Magazine)

At the height of the gale, the harbourmaster radioed a coastguard on the spot and asked him to estimate the wind speed. He replied that he was sorry, but he didn't have a gauge. However, if it was any help, the wind had just blown his Landrover off the cliff.
(Aberdeen Evening Express)

A young girl who was blown out to sea on a set of inflatable teeth was rescued by a man on an inflatable lobster. A coastguard spokesman commented, "this sort of thing is all too common".
(The Times)

I'm currently ankle deep in anatomical drawings of the teletubbies... the cubs have been busy. (Though I should point out that the drawings are all theoretical, it's not like the teletubbies were vivisected or anything. We don't approve of such things in this house : )