And since Thomas has a broken leg, there were also many other chores that never got finished during the week. Pens needed new shavings, no hay left in the two of the barns... I worked straight from 8 till noon. Then again from 3:30 'til 6pm. Nice 'day off' eh?

And in that 3 hour break I fixed my toilet, mopped the floors, beat out the rugs, and had lunch. I'm quite proud of fixing the toilet. It's been running since I moved here in May, and it has been getting gradually louder and louder. $2.49 for a new rubber disc seal. What a deal.

I just finished night checks, and the sheep were partying it up in the aisles. I don't know how they get the gates open, but they always manage.

~*~*~

Darkness and light, flickering pale moon lanterns, torches. Jingle bells on ankles, dresses down to the ground, and they wear wings. There's the whoosh of the men on stilts breathing fire balls, and the thumping of the drums. There is the silence of tea lights scattered through the grass.

Festival of Lanterns and Light. 15,000 people.

I can't describe any of it well. Everything was so intensely coloured. Smells of incence, kerosene, and pot. The gound reverberating with the drums. Children running around with lanterns on the ends of poles, some with masks, some with fairy costumes. All whimsical - a lego lantern, girl with forks in her hair, Jaws lantern, dragons, mushrooms.

Oh, and there was music too. Guitars, mandolins, tin whistles, recorders... the likes of a Midsummer Night's Dream for sure.

We watched this group of people light candles that were affixed onto an 'x' of balsa wood. They had a large plastic bag - drycleaning bag? - tied on top of the 'x' that began to fill with the heat of the candles. Soon it was hovering above our heads, bobbing around like a jellyfish. Fluid silent billowy movement. Then it took off. Up it went, over rooftops and trees, so far away that it vanished into the night. Yeah, it looked like the sparkle of Tinkerbell.