Ahlritey then. Let’s see if we can get this show on the road. Let me take you back. Way back. Back to Tuesday.

I was walking around the corner, towards the new goat fold. Through the wooden planks I spotted a blur of white. And thought to myself “Ah, there’s Mathilde”. Then I spotted another blur of white. And thought to myself “Hey, there’s… what?!”. A new goat. I thought at first that it would be Mathilde’s sister. But when I walked up close I could see it was a male.

The new buck.

Here with Mathilde. He doesn’t have a name, although they call him “bette ski'”. Which I won’t translate. He’s the son of “bette fis”, another buck they have had at the playground.

I will call him Buck. Because that seems to be a good name for a buck.

Per with Mathilde and Buck. I talked to him about the new guy. I have been talking a lot with the people at the playground, it’s nice.

He said that he didn’t know if I should go into the fold. Buck seemed nice enough. But the smell was bad. I didn’t actually notice the smell at first. But then it came to me. Powerful. If you’ve met a buck then you probably know the smell.

Truth to be told I don’t mind the smell that much. But if I’d gone in there with them then I’d end up stinking too. So I stayed out. Even from just scratching his head I still came home with a buckish odour on me.

He seems like a nice goat though. I was expecting some testosterone pumped crazy animal, charging at everything. But he was pretty calm. Sometimes when Magnethe or Mathilde came close to him he’d start sputtering these weird sounds, with his tongue out, almost licking them on their backs. And then mounting them. Magnethe did not seem thrilled. She butted him away several times. Mathilde didn’t have a problem with it though. She let him get up there and didn’t make a sound. She would butt him sometimes when they were walking around, but she didn’t push him off or anything. Love at first sputter.

With the new buck there, what happened to Mads? He was supposed to go off to fat camp, you’ll remember. But plans changed. With the new goat fold Buck and Mads can be kept separate. So Mads has been allowed to stay at the playground. Good for him. And me. I asked Kurt how long they were expecting Buck to stay. And he said that it might be to the middle of December. So that’s a month or so. Longer than I was expecting. I wouldn’t have been happy if Mads had been gone for a month. I’m glad he’s staying.

Although it’s not perfect for him of course.

He was walking around outside, looking in to the others. Per said you could see he wasn’t happy about it because his tail was down.

I didn’t see any real aggression between Buck or Mads. At one point Mads was sort of butting up against the planks while Buck was on the other side. But other than that they didn’t seem overly interested in each other. It seemed to me that they could actually be okay together, in the same fold. But I don’t know. Maybe it was the wooden fence that kept the tempers down.

He has to be on his own inside too. But he’s being a trooper. And everybody keeps saying that he’s lucky to have me to keep him company. Hehe. I feel appreciated.

I was starting to wonder why Mathilde’s twin sister wasn’t there. I had been told she would come together with the new buck. But before I got around to asking anyone, I noticed more new animals. Over the fence, past the path, over the next fence. Polka and the Prince were grassing. But they had company.

Aw! Baby lambies! Twin baby lambies. It’s almost too cute.

I love lambs when they are so young. They’re like puppets of ultimate cuteness. Their looks and sounds are almost unreal. It’s like they are born from a universe of cuteness and they are still adjusting to our, less wonderful, universe. Like they have to tone down their cuteness to fit into our world.

They were named while I was there. By suggestion of a girl called Shermin, I think. I’m not sure of the spelling. But she’s one of my favourite kids, she’s been featured in several pictures previously. Being butted by Magnethe for example. I like her. Anyway, she was tormenting Kurt. “Can’t they be called Camilla and Mille, can’t they can’t they can’t they?”. And he finally gave in. So that’s Camilla and Mille. The mother is called Fregne. Which means “freckles”. She’s a playground veteran. She had lambs at the playground last year too. She looks thinner than Polka. And older. I guess she is.

And the lambs were bouncing around. Like pop corn popping. It never fails to make me laugh, the way they seem to be incapable of not spontaneously jumping around.

So that was a good day.

Then fast-forward to the next day. I go to say hello to Buck and the gang. And this time there are three blurs of white. Mathilde’s twin sister has arrived!

Let me introduce you to Tulle.

There she is. I remember when I was first told that Mathilde had a twin sister, I wrote that I wondered if I would be able to tell them apart. Well, they don’t seem to be identical twins so it’s rather easy.

In fact, I wouldn’t have guessed that they were sisters if I didn’t know. The beard is especially different. Maybe Mathilde gets hers trimmed. I didn’t even think female goats had that same kind of beard. Like Buck. But Tulle does have one.

I wonder if Mathilde knows that Tulle is her sister? If they can recognise each other. I’m not sure. They have been apart for years so I would guess not. Tulle seemed to keep to herself mostly. Her first day in a new place, it’s understandable.

Sitting down, away from the others. She seemed a bit shy. But not like Mathilde used to be. Mathilde used to be almost scared, not letting anyone close. Tulle just seemed.. apprehensive. Not really scared. Probably just the adjustment to a new place, with lots of strange kids around. That must be different from a farm, I imagine. Very.

I wanted to feed her, but I’m not sure she understood the concept. She was standing on the other side of the fold, looking at me like she didn’t understand. Even though I was holding out some treats. Then I threw a couple of nuts to her. And she sort of moved over to investigate them. And I threw some more, closer to me. So she moved closer. And then she came all the way over to me and started sniffing my hand. But she didn’t take any of the apple slices I was now holding to her. I think she would have, though. But then Mathilde and Magnethe came out of the hatch. And they know the score when a person is holding out food. They race over and eat it. And Tulle walked away. Not used to competing with other goats for treats, probably.

I like her. She seems quiet and gentle. And just the fact that she’s Mathilde’s twin sister makes me all kinds of happy. It’s sweet.

I still didn’t go into the fold. I miss playing with Magnethe. I think she missed it too.

That fence is really high, I’m amazed she can get her legs all the way up there.

That’s Buck and Magnethe inside, in the flash. I don’t think you can tell by the pictures but Buck actually looks a little like someone from Planet of the Apes. Dr Zaius, maybe.

He’s a lucky guy, Buck. He gets three fine ladies to impregnate. I did hear them say that. I thought Magnethe was too young. But I guess not. I bet a lot of goats would kill to be in Buck’s place, though. One barely legal and two twins. What goat would turn down that?

I’m just looking forward to Magnethe getting a brother or sister. Aw.

Sister talk. Mathilde on the left, but I’m sure you can tell them apart too. Otherwise you must study my goats closer!

They really don’t look like twins to me. Hmm. But then, what do I know about goat genetics?

The lambs cuddling up together. There really is nothing like twins.

Prince seems gigantic compared to them. But he is still a little lamb at heart. He will eat away at anything, according to Kurt. He’s very curious.

But oh Camilla and Milla. So cute, playing together. They played with Prince too, but not for too long then they’d be pushed away.

Gah. Aren’t they lovely?

I love how they stay close. Just like Black and White did. Whenever one sits down, the other one comes and sits next to her immediately.

The Prince sitting by himself.

I have been having mood swings these past few days. But the playground has been a light of pure joy. Wonderful animals. It’s always great when there’s “new blood”. Especially when it’s as cute as the lambs. And as sweet as the twin. And as smelly as the buck.

And they’re all great subjects of conversation. I have been registered too, at the playground. I guess every year they have a two-week period where they have to register all their visitors. For the statistics. So the government can see how many people use the playground, and therefore how many funds they are granted.

If I won a million bucks I’d grant the playground a big pile of cash. It’s a great place with great people and it does a lot of good for a lot of kids. And me.

So anyway, now I’m tired and you are probably tired of all the pictures and so on. So I’ll end it here. Tomorrow (probably) I’ll tell you how the playground anniversary went today. And I also have an amazing anecdote about a young Mads. Along with one of the greatest pictures you’ll ever see of him. You should look forward to that.

Oh yes, before I go a quick little something from work today. I’m working on the flyer/poster for December. One of the acts is a choir group called “Happy People”. Or so I thought. I gave the stuff to Mianne, our booker, today so she could check all the acts and see if there were any mistakes. She came back with a couple of corrections. One of them… “they aren’t actually called Happy People, they’re called Horny People. Which is something quite different”. She said. Anders laughed out loud. I felt like saying “Well it’s not that different”. But I just laughed along with the others.

Also, close to work there’s a daycare center. Vuggestue=daycare center, right? Yes I think so.

It’s called Vuggestuen Graven. Graven is the name of the street its on. But it also means “the grave”. So it’s “The Daycarecenter The Grave”. A sort of baby version of Cradle 2 The Grave. It’s kind of a spooky place to send your kids to daycare, isn’t it? The Grave. Creepy.

Anyway, that’s it. Happy weekend to you all. Let love shine your way, from the cradle to the grave. And that bit in between.

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