My Birthday and other things

                                              

The 23rd was my birthday.  I spent it on George Island. Just Christopher and I.  I had a lovely day. Christopher cooked me my favourite lunch.    He  also made and iced a birthday cake for me.  I also got some lovely birthday presents. In case you are interested in the presents that someone who lives on an island receives I will tell you a few of them.  From Christopher I got a beautiful set of western gear for my miniature ponies.  The ponies will be tamed properly in the next year or two.  Obviously we will not be able to ride them but we now have little Hollie who in the not to distant future will be able to.  As Christopher said when I opened it "I probably chose it with Hollie a little bit in mind".  I think when you look at the photo that you will probably agree.  I also got the complete collection of Catherine Cookson DVDs.  We are not big DVD watchers but because we still have no tele on George it is either watch them or nothing.  I also got a lovely funky colourful photo frame from Christopher with grandma and me wrote on it.  From gorgeous little Hollie I got my first ever nanny mug and a box of chocolates.  From Shaun and Tanya I received a lovely silver photo frame with a picture of Christopher, Hollie and I and a carved wooden box.  The box was a special request.   I wanted something proper to keep all the treasure that I have collected from the wreck of the Isobella in.  Tiphanie was in Punta Arenas, Chile at the time of my birthday and as yet I haven't received a gift from her but I will because she never forgets. I also got  presents from my mum and my mother and father in law.
On the islands or the Falklands in general it is goose egging time.  The geese are laying and we have been out several times collecting them.  We will collect eggs for eating now and extra ones to put in pickle.  We are also asked to collect them for several people in town. Geese will keep laying if you keep robbing them and there are that many of them that they are a pest. They eat grass like it is going out of fashion and we could do with a lot less of them.  Christopher's mum and dad have been out with us for a long weekend collecting eggs to.
It is also the start of lambing and we saw our first lamb 2 days ago.  The official lambing date for here is the 4th but we are now seeing a few early borns, often these are twins.  Unfortunately we have had heavy rain today so that is not a good start.
Today we had a helicopter day visit.  These are folks that come out from the military base at MPA.  Generally they are families or military that are wanting to see the seals and penguins.  Today we had 2 families.  They are delivered by helicopter which leaves them on the islands for several hours and then comes back later in the day to pick them up.  Christopher always does guided tours of the wildlife to keep the disturbance to a minimum.  The visitors pay £10.00 per adult and £5.00 per child.
Well that's enough for today.  Next time I will update on the work that was carried out over the winter on the islands.