It’s been an eventful week at the playground. No less than two celebrations. Celebrate good times.

On Tuesday I was the one being honoured. I saw Bodil and her friend Aase come walking around the corner. Waving flags and singing. I thought they were singing happy birthday, so that confused me. But that wasn’t it. Recently I was talking to Bodil about how long I’d been going to the playground. Since 2004. Ten years. She joked that we should have a big party or reception or something like that. But she knows that’s not my kind of thing. But they still wanted to celebrate me a little. That was really sweet of them. I think Bodil wrote the lyrics to the song herself. I was so flustered that now I don’t remember any of the lines. But I think there was something about Lasse and goats.

The other day I had been talking to Bodil about what kinds of music we liked. She has a very diverse taste, including heavy metal. Haha. I told her some bands I liked. Now I realise that it was all with the sneaky intention of her getting me a CD as a present. She told me that they hadn’t had any of the stuff I’d mentioned but the clerk had recommended something else. It was the new solo album from Damon Albarn. Everyday Robots. He’s one of my favourite singers so that was perfect. I was just surprised that she got me something at all! And also a sweet card where she thanked me for the little talks we have and everything. She also gave me 10 packs of organic raisins! Haha. And a card from the goats (I think she may have helped them write it…) thanking me for all I do for them, and promising to help me eat the raisins if I can’t eat them all myself.

So sweet and lovely. She gave me a hug too. She does mean a lot to me. And her friend Aase is really nice too. She has eyesight problems like me, so we got some common ground there.

The playground people that I saw wished me a happy anniversary too. Per told me that his first memory of me is from when Magnethe was born. That makes sense. That was in 2005, I actually started going there the year before. But back then I’d just walk through and quickly feed the goats and take pictures and leave. It was on my way from the bus stop to my house when I came home from the Reva center. And it was a good chance to find some new subjects to practice my digital camera on. But when Magnethe was born that was when I really started becoming a part of the playground, staying longer and talking to people and all that. And the rest, as they say, is history. But I was really happy to be appreciated like that. It was quite touching. And I loved how happy it made Bodil to do it all for me. I could tell she was excited.

On Thursday it was Palle’s turn to be celebrated. It was his birthday. One year old! He’s such a sweet and funny little guy. Thank goats we got to keep him. And that he’s grown up so well. I remember all the worrying whether Mia would be able to take care of him because she was so young. But she’s done a great job. Although, we’ve been noticing that he’s a bit too skinny lately. They think maybe Herman has been taking the majority of the food and there hasn’t been enough for Palle. But we’re trying to get him a little extra. Hopefully it won’t be a problem. He seems fine other than being a bit thin.

I got him some extra raisins on his birthday. And then we took the goats out in the greens. Had a lovely, sunny day with them. Some kids came by. The woman who was with them recognised me. She’s been there before. Although she couldn’t remember my name. But I heard her say to the kids that she didn’t know anyone who was as good at taking care of goats as I was. Aww. Sweet. And she told the kids that wanted to get closer to the goats that they should look at me and do what I did. Being calm, mainly. One of the girls said I was really cool because I took care of the goats. Haha. Yup, Cool as ice. Good times.

It hasn’t all been good news, though. I talked to Kurt on Monday and he told me that Vanilje’s old kid Soft-Ice had had triplets the week before. But that she had died the day after. So that’s really sad. I liked getting news about her every now and then, and she seemed to be doing well. I wonder if it was a genetic thing. Vanilje died after having Soft-Ice. And Magnethe, who was Vanilje’s sister of course, died while pregnant too. I don’t know. But Kurt is bottle feeding the 3 little goat girls that she left behind now. As he bottlefed Soft-Ice. Hopefully they’ll be doing okay. And the family will live on.

I did a little experiment last night. Instead of going to bed I stayed up at the computer all night. I normally don’t cope well without sleep. I hear people talking about pulling allnighters, but I just can’t function without sleep. Instead of going to bed I took a couple of naps in my comfy chair instead. It was interesting sitting up all night. I felt tired but in a quite pleasant way. And suddenly it was light outside and birds chirping. I’m really looking forward to going to bed soon now, though.

But first, lots of goat pictures.

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We got some rain on Monday. Kamel wanted to take shelter in the playhouse. But it was already occupied by Herman and Mio. All she could do was stand there with her “why does it always rain on me?” look.

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Here’s Mia on the raft. A new little thing I made for the goats to stand on.

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Sweet Mia.

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Mia getting some hay.

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Totes ma human.

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Mia making sure I don’t give all my attention to Mio.

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And supervising Per.

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Mio likes to stand on the raft. It’s not too far off the ground. She always has her favourite places to stand. Then I’ll see her waddle over to it and take her position.

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Resting my head.

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Someone tipped the bench. It wasn’t me!

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Celebrating my anniversary with Mia.

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The Palleface.

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Flag day for Palle. He was very interested in tasting them. I had to pry them out of his mouth a couple of times.

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Palle with Mio in the background.

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It’s starting to look like summer again.

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Kamel in the green.

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With her typical headroll.

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The round one.

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She’s the only one who will never jump the fence. But she can still reach for the branches.

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Hey Mia.

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Mia in the greens. She was on a leash, but she still jumped over every fence she got near.

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Mio in the greens.

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The birthday boy with green presents.

And a goatlog. With the rain and the anniversary and the birthday and greens and all the fun stuff.

And that’s all for this week, folks. See you in the next wand.

It’s been a fun week at the playground. It started with a Monday morning goat circus. I guess the goats have some pent up energy to spend after being inside for most of the weekend. Herman was putting the moves on Mio and Kamel and they responded by running away. And soon everyone was running in circles and butting heads. Fun fun fun. I also helped them to get a little taste of the leaves hanging from the tree in the pen. With all the green growing everywhere, I noticed them looking up at the leaves longingly. So I pulled down some branches for them. Now, smashcut to Tuesday when I was leaning over the wooden staircase, doing some repair work. The goats obviously remembered how delicious the leaves were the day before because it didn’t take 30 seconds before I had Palle and Mia competing to jump up on my back to reach the leaves. I spent a lot of time with that. Managed to stand up straight with Palle on my shoulders too. Got pushed over a couple of times when Mia and Mio tried to jump up against me. Just a ton of fun on a bun.

Later on the goats were let out of the pen. For the first time this year I got to see them run off to the greens and enjoy themselves there. I love when they’re just allowed to roam around and do what they want. And all that fresh vegetation to dive into. We let them out on Thursday too. Even the rain couldn’t spoil the good times. A really good goat week.

I also had my foot therapy. I had to cancel it originally back when I cracked my rib. But it was time for the big yearly status check. And there were good news. I have regained some feeling in my feet. Especially the left one. So that’s an improvement. I guess it must be because of the diabetes reversal? Otherwise I don’t know why it would happen. But that’s nice. Something getting better instead of worse.

In crime news, there’s been a shooting where I live. No one was hurt. But it was weird seeing the name of the road I live on in the news. It must have been in one of the blocks up the road, because I didn’t hear anything or see cops or anything like that. But I read it in the local news. Apparently it’s rival youths? It sounded like it was a somewhat random shoothing. At the windows of a ground floor apartment. I live on the ground floor. So that’s a little scary. If it was random then they could as easily have shot at my building. It was late at night, though. So I would have been in bed if they’d shot at my windows. But yeah, that’s kinda crazy. There was a similar incident recently up by the playground. Bodil told me about that because she lives up there. And now it was my turn to tell her about the shooting where I live. She was shocked and appalled. What a world.

I don’t want to think about that, though. Let’s have goat photos instead.

This is the kind of photo I’d normally discard because it just looks like a mistake. But on a closer look I find it quite funny.

Kamel enjoying the hay.

Palle showing off for Mia.

Another funny Herman.

Into the greens!

Almost looks like I’m dancing with Mia.

So nice to see them out of the pen.

Kamel seems to enjoy Palle’s posing.

Palle on my back. Reaching for the sky. Or the leaves at least.

Haha. I’m a step ladder.

Kamel wondering if it’s worth going out in the rain.

Longing for the leaves.

The flora is no longer safe.

Mio keeping a lookout as the others try to steal hay from the rabbits.

The Palleman.

And videos. First a video of all the fun I had with Mia and Palle jumping on my back to reach the leaves. Good times.

And goatlogs. First from Monday. With the circus act.

And Tuesday and Thursday with two goat adventure trips out of the pen.

And that’s all for this week, folks. See you in the next one.