Mango leaf delicacy....

As we approach the end of mango season the trees need to be trimmed and prepared for the next batch, therefore, my husband takes great pleasure in pretending to be a master at topiary and trimming the trees. This of course causes a large amount of excess branches and leaves, which need to be removed. The branches are supposed to be dragged to the huge pile in the barranco, which is waiting for the go ahead to burn, however, my son has other ideas.

My children have the ability to turn a straightforward job into an argumentative mammoth task, and gathering the branches was just that! All they had to do was drag the branches to the barranco, return and repeat...but oh no, there was arguments, debates, and I was pretty sure there was going to be full blown punches thrown.

When asked what the problem was I was informed "it was too faaaaaaaaaaar" in a whiny voice that only children can achieve. I asked where he would like to take the leaves and he said he had an idea, I braced myself as the 10 year olds ideas are often not that good. In his defence he has come up with some good ideas, however, they usually involve Lego, not mango leaves.

I left him to it, and wandered off to do one of the other many tasks on Casa Chaos, and returned 20 minutes later to find no branches where I had left them. I was optimistic, and thought he had managed to complete a task without a drama. However, I noticed the pile had moved, but not to where it should have been. The pile was not in the goat pen, with my son sat in the middle of it, slowly feeding one leaf at a time to Jack and Jill.

The goats thought this was heaven, not only had they been brought a delicious pile of juicy mango leaves, but they had their own personal picker and feeder. I went to point out that this was not exactly what I had meant, however, all three were quiet, contented and this in this house is a rarity, therefore, I left them to it, and thought the peace and quiet was far more valuable, then the branches being put in the barranco.