 Best friends!
Natalie, on the left, and Lucy!  …..especially for a young chap like Nate who came for another visit recently with his mom
K. Simona and little sister Meena! This is such a wonderful photo, with the rays of the sun through the trees, the shadows on the ground and young Nate with his bucket off to feed the animals, that I had to share it with you! The road won’t seem long when you get older Nate!
 Winter has arrived on the farm! Clear skies and soothing warm days turn to a chill as soon the sun sinks below the hills to the west. Time to adorn a warm coat, maybe a woolly hat and scarf and settle down in front of a fire! Oscar the cat and the dogs wear their jackets at night and the cows and buffaloes (and Natalie the deer!) snuggle-up together for warmth. Many years ago I recorded a low of 4 degrees at 5.00 am one morning but it has never got that cold since then! We now see lows of about 10 – 12 degrees early in the morning before the sun has crept over the mountains to the east and during daytime a comfortable average of around 24 degrees! It is a wonderful time of the year on the farm, chilly but wonderful!
 Louis had a really busy day and then he walked around the farm with me in the evening and must have been quite tired. Then while I was reading some post he fell fast asleep in the crook of my arm! I am always here for our animals to have a shoulder to sleep on!
 Here’s a very recent snap of Molly’s pups! That’s Bonnie and Lucy. Haven’t they grown!...and they are the cutest and most affectionate little Beagles you could meet! They can already ‘sit’ in Thai and English and Sawasdee / shake hands! In some ways I just don’t want them to grow up although it will be nice when they stop chewing the furniture and creating mischief! Congratulations to Molly and not forgetting Louis! Molly gave birth to 2 very fine Beagle pups a few days ago and they are all doing very well. The vet told me that the black and white pup will begin to grow a brown coat as well and so will be exactly like her mother! The second girl, who has a brown and white coat, has the exact same markings as Louis her father and will probably remain as a two colour Beagle. They are so cute and all the family including Louis, stay together and I will keep both pups. Such a wonderful blessing and a wonderful life for all of them on the farm!
 The Songkran Festival / Thai New Year were cancelled this year due to the virus although very few cases have been reported here in the north of the country. Maybe they will reinstate the celebration for later in the year? I just wonder if there is no New Year will I not get any older?! – I wish!
But we still made our Pa Sa Sai (sand castle) at the old ruined temple on the hill next to the farm. Good folks will make these sand castles to replace the sand that has inadvertently been taken out of the temple grounds on the feet of visitors over the past year and they are decorated with good luck charms and money for the temple. So although a rather quiet Songkran this year it was still full of symbolism and reverence with the absence of any commercialism which my mother said reminded her of Songkran in decades gone by.; …but I can still wish all of our friends of the farm a very happy New Year filled with good health, much happiness and many blessings! Happy New Year!  The farm is asleep! Quiet but wonderful days here in the hills; you could not imagine the plight which the virus has inflicted on the world when staying on the farm.
Molly, our Beagle girl, is pregnant with at least two pups which are due on or about the 7th May and there is nothing in the world at this time of uncertainty more smoothing than sharing an afternoon nap; dog days indeed!  Here’s a nice buffalo family snap!
There’s young Brian having some milk from mother Nohn. Then there’s Natalie, the deer, who thinks she’s a buffalo! In the background is Naak and to the right is Noah who celebrated his 6th birthday last month. In between are a few Guinea Fowl! Life is a buffalo if you live on Thung Dong Farm!  These baby Fantail Pigeons are not the prettiest chicks, they are a bit like the Ugly Duckling!
…but in few weeks time they will have blossomed into the most beautiful white birds with their vertical fan-style tails from where they get their name! They nest over by the Buffalo shed or in the front yard and they are magical to watch! Their only predators are the eagles which thermal high above the farm and which we deter with Pop-Rockets! So these two should be fine on the farm sticking together like birds of a feather - when they get them!  The perfect place to relax, unwind and take-in the vista of the farm!
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