Grumpy Christmas

Ol' Moonface, Bellows and the dogs next door were packed off to a sleepover yesterday afternoon - which allowed their father, The Cattleman, to stoke up some back yard handywork.

Clink, clink, 'oh, sh!t!', clink, clink. You know the kind of thing.

Yes, The Cattleman is one of these guys who's never so happy as when paving or concreting a natural surface. Or when supervising the assassination of a Cocos palm.

But paving was not all the sneaky bugger was up to.

Imagine my surprise on their return just then, when, glass pressed to the fence, I heard Moonface and Bellows squeal with delight.

Turns out The crafty Cattleman had planned the Cocos's demise to make way for a swimming pool!

Thirty seconds elapsed between squeal and splash. Then squeal returned. Finally, squeal and splash merged into a squelchy cacophony.

Hazel and I are in for a delightfully noisy summer.