The fences are all up now. And thank god we didn't have to worry about the fence alongside the doggy neighbours yard - they've given the dog a new home. However, they are obviously canine addicts because they now have a new puppy - which one can only hope will be more socially ept.

We now have six Langshorn chickens - four black and two white. They have all having a bout of serious moulting in preparation for the cooler weather and are on laying strike indefinitely. For the first time in ages we've actually had to buy eggs!

The amazing news is that the council has finally signed off on our subdivision - after a list of must-do changes including:

• Planting a few trees - fair enough - some were accidentally demolished during the driveway construction.
  
• Replacing the grass strip near the footpath - damaged beyond repair due to digging for a water connection*. P. dug up part of the back lawn for this purpose and was mightily disappointed when a truck ran right through the middle of the newly laid turf the following night! I couldn't help remembering out loud that I had most probably mentioned earlier the mere suggestion of an idea of erecting a temporary fence around it for this very reason...
• Putting in a gravel turning area at the bottom end of the driveway for potential visitors to our vacant lot - an attractive area with waist high weeds and muddy hillocks. The builders will soon be churning up the gravel when they start excavating - due to occur in mid-June.
  
• Changing the legal access rights for the driveway so that we can turn in front of S.'s house as well as our own - so she can't sue us for encroaching on her portion of concrete.

*The water connection debacle is another story - the short of it is that we found that Sydney Water had in their infinite wisdom changed their minds about where the connection would actually take place. In the end it turned out that we were somehow (in spite of the fact that they had sworn blind that there was no way in the universe we could ever do so) able to connect to the water main on our side of the road. So that meant that we had paid for the under-road connection without having to. We are still in discussions with our builder and plumber over this one. I'm toying with the idea of going to the media also - once the contracts for the house building have been signed, that is!

I've had another cake experience - on 6 May we had our Playgroup kids 2nd birthday bash and I decided to create a jungle cake. Alot of testing took place in our kitchen as I attempted the impossible - a yummy, preferably chocolate, tall, egg-free (on of the playgroup kids has an allergy) and gluten-free (so I could eat it) cake. I've decided there is no such thing. In the end I gratefully ordered 2 vegan (with gluten) chocolate cakes from Roberto's cakes in Rozelle - life savers! Then I proceeded to cover them with chocolate buttercream and a medley of colourful trees and other characters - giraffes, a snake, elephant and tiger. It was received well and demolished by all present (except moi - but luckily someone else made a gluten free cake) and now I have to decide whether or not to keep the little sugar figures for prosperity or consign them to the worm farm. Here is a picture for you...

And yes, I am now on a gluten free diet - I find it suits me very well. No more post-meal bloating or gaseous discharges or tossing and turning in bed. I haven't actually been tested for it - but if I eat so much as a slice of toast - my intestines churn like a convoluted cement mixer.