…disappeared this morning and it has been that glorious day the Mountain is famous for. Last week I cleared away a lot of the self-seeded bush that was shading the vege garden and got all that mulched up today so that it can further contribute to future vege gardens. It’s been a while since I’ve mowed the lawns, leading to Carmen’s comment last weekend “Growing hay again, are we?” so that was the other project this afternoon, although I did use the scrub bar instead of the mower so as to do exactly that: make some hay for the chicken run and the coop for the chickens when they hatch. I was just about done and just finishing off around the water tank when I bumped the storm water pipe and cracked the damn thing – to add insult to injury, the forecast for tomorrow afternoon is crappy so it really needs to get fixed first thing tomorrow…just goes to show that nothing is simple…

Those two brave little sparrows from the other day have decided that they are in luff with any and all shiny things inside the house and will exploit any door, window or other opening left unguarded to get inside and rattattatat against the stainless kettle, rubbish bin, and benchtop, mirrors and windows. It might be OK except they aren’t really house trained and, of course, my two big helpers get all angsty and excited when there are birds inside…

It’s been interesting listening to all the squawking from the Brits about how poorly the Americans treated them in Iraq. Of course, when you are making stunning statements like ‘..the top British commander in the country, Major General Andrew Stewart, told how he spent “a significant amount of my time” “evading” and “refusing” orders from his US superiors...’, and you cut and run from the theatre of war before the job is done, you can hardly wonder that your national credibility is questioned…Yes, the American military are different; yes, they are less than receptive sometimes to other ways of doing things; yes, they do tend to focus on their way of doing things BUT…BUT maybe that is because they are so damn good at what they do in the application of combat power. What other nation in Iraq not only admitted that it had got it wrong in the post-transition phase of OIF, but implemented a complete cultural shift to address the issues, restructuring its development and acquisitions programmes (killing some sacred cows along the way), AND aligning its doctrine for the complex environment not just across the DoD, but also across and into the rest of government too.  What other nation sat on its moral high horse, resting on its withered old laurels and former glories, and sniped at those who were doing the business?