Remember the first time you tried to put a doona into its cover? Well, I relived that experience today trying to get the stuffing back inside the fitted covers of the seats for the caravan. I gave up after doing just one as it was a right pain. The other one can wait till tomorrow. However, those curtains that are clean are now rehung and the place is beginning to resume its usual character once more.

The cleaning frenzy continued indoors with the oven top cleaned and the toaster now shiny and sparkling and the labels off multiple jars and so forth. And the remaining tomatoes have been reduced to pasta sauce with the aid of a capsicum bought at the local shop, some garlic I grew myself and some oregano, as well as the odd onion and so forth to add to the flavour.

Also managed to find the tip open which was good as it provided an opportunity to dispose of May-Sue's body, as well as the various rubbish that has accumulated in response to the purge.

No sitting up till midnight for me tonight - early to bed, though I have no doubt I will be awake at midnight, if only due to neighbourhood carousals.

More glorious weather today - I managed to get most of the caravan cleaned out - with benches and bed bases all swept off and scrubbed, light fittings washed, windows washed (though they probably need another go to be frank) and the animal fur removed from remote (and not so remote) crevices. It already smells a lot better. I have decided to toss out the microwave as it does not work, but the space it leaves will invite the provision of another should the prospective purchaser so wish. If all goes well, tomorrow I will get in with the vacuum cleaner and suck out all the cupboards and then start re-fitting the curtains. Two of these have been returned to the washing machine for a second go as they don't appear to have cleaned as well as the others (presumably I shoved too many in at once).

Before all this activity I cleaned out the bathroom and the laundry and was busy scrubbing the loo when a knock at the back door announced the postie delivering the mail, along with a big bag of overripe tomatoes and some left-over christmas cake from his wife. Half the tomatoes have been made into a soup which will be served out into containers and frozen once it is cold. The remaining toms (those not used on toast for dinner tonight) will be turned into a pasta sauce tomorrow.

And then, while I was scrubbing away at the caravan the new electrician arrived and had a look around. He has identified at least three problems with Andrew's work and seems to feel there may be issues with the connection to the house as well, so I guess there will be very little of the $3,000 I still owe him left to pay Andrew when the time comes. He has been told about the 14 January deadline for working on the weatherboards and so presumably will deal with it.

As I walked out to wave him goodbye, Jim's Fencing pulled up next door and presumably has provided a quote which I look forward to receiving. If it is oranges, as opposed to the apples I offered her, then I will just give them a call to obtain an apples-with-apples quote so I know how they compare with my contractor. It will be interesting to see what sort of fence she has in mind.

So at this stage I am a bit knackered with all the goings one, and will plan to have a fairly relaxed evening if at all possible.

May-Sue died today. No idea why. If we still had a vet I would take her in for a PM as it was quite unexpected. She has been fit and well, and her body cover is fine. No symptoms other than a slightly pooey bum. But there she was, stretched out dead in the shed when I went to collect the eggs this evening. All very odd. Maybe a snake bite? Who knows. All others looking fine so maybe it was natural causes, though I had not thought her to be that old...

Apart from that, today has been quite good. Two packages in the mail today - one from England, the other from Ireland. The english package was my tin of bandaids that I won on the auction I was monitoring, the irish one was from a friend I have made via River Cottage forum. A lovely thought I felt.

Then quilting, which means more progress on the longstitch. Ayers Rock is now filled in and has a sky behind it, but not terribly much to stand on at present. There is another mystery section of the pattern with no colour designated to it, so will have to work it out by default I guess.

Trout salad for lunch, but the rest will be converted into some small fish pies and frozen for future use I think.

Will have to see what happens with the rest of the chooks as I am now a bit concerned there may be a disease or similar to watch out for. Will post on BYP to see if anyone has ideas as I am sure you don't want all the gory details of symptoms.

Today was just glorious - just the right amount of sunshine, heat and breeze. I confined myself to indoor tasks though and got on with starting to clean out the caravan. All the curtains have been taken down and washed and the shower enclosure cleaned up, floor swept (but not vacuumed) and the vanity basin has also been cleared out, along with every last thing that does not actually belong in there. I will reconstruct the portapotty for placement in the shower enclosure soon. It smells peculiar in there, but i am hoping that with airing, and removal of various bits and bobs, as well as a thorough vacuuming, it will start to smell a bit better. Much of it is simply doggy smell, left in an empty space for too long, so getting all the dog dust out of the mattress on the lower bunk and washing down surfaces with pineocleen should see that sorted.

Also transferred some of the more useless bits of clutter back into the camper van, including two bales of ceiling insulation and the honey-spinner. And cleared up more chaos out the back, though no tip trips as i am unsure of their opening hours over the break, so will leave that till I am sure they are back on the job.

Needless to say, with this lovely weather, it has not be necessary to light the fire, in fact the house is presently quite warm.

Trout salad for dinner tonight. I suspect I will be heartily sick of the sight of trout by the time I am done - I am not a huge fish eater. Still I will remind myself of the omega threes and the benefits associated there-with.

No recipe after all, but i stuffed it with rice that had a mix of oregano, parsley, tarragon, garlic and carrots and celery in it, all finely chopped to cook through, and laid it on a bed of oregano and parsley, wrapped in foil and baked in the oven for rather longer than I expected it to take. But then, I think I can be pretty confident it was not a 500g trout such as those referred to in the recipes I looked at. It was scrummy. And will continue to be scrummy for a few more days by the looks of it. I may be eating trout at Easter, despite gorging on it tonight.

Another blooming cold day - 1.6 when I got up this morning, so I can kiss my corn crop goodbye for this year. Surprisingly the tomatoes are still looking healthy though, so all is not yet lost.

There was a cabbage seedling I planted about 6 months ago which sat and looked at me for most of that time, then one day I went down the back and it was about four feet high, with a good solid head, and several baby heads along the long stem it had developed. I cut out the head today (and several baby heads) and grated it to make sauerkraut. There are now four moccona jars of sauerkraut developing in a cupboard i rarely access so it will be interesting to see what happens. Apparently it forms a liquid which bubbles enthusiastically (hence the need for the large jars with sealing, but not tight-fitting lids) and pushes the lids off from time to time and then after four weeks it becomes fairly edible, once cooked with white wine. It will be interesting to see what happens, as long as it does not explode. You apparently need to leave a large gap above the solids to accommodate this. So - one savoy cabbage put down for storage.

Also cleaned out the fridge interior thoroughly, disposed of the water dispenser which was a relic of not having taps, and installed, instead, two water bottles, of a more elegant style.

Then I cut up several more palings to add to the bits of fence post remainining, and finally cracked and lit the fire at 11am. It was blooming bitter inside, despite it having been a sunny morning, so there was nothing else for it. Eleven degrees in the bedroom, no less!

Sublime to the ridiculous today - after yesterday which, while not exactly sparkling, was at least warmish, the temperature hovered in single figures for much of today - accompanied by a chilly wind at most times.

I had a bit of a lie-in and then boiled some rhubarb leaves in the hopes of removing the charred sugar on one of the pots. Not much luck there, but some has been shifted and no doubt the rest will go with time. Did a load of washing, cut up the last of the fence posts for firewood and some more palings and settled down to do some darning in front of the fire. Seemed the only sensible thing to do really.

So I now have a few more socks back in circulation at least.

It was nice to have a quiet day I must say.

UPDATE: Jean just turned up with this, fresh from the dam ...



Now all I need is a recipe ..........

Well I don't know about you lot, but i am full to the gills with good food.

Drove down to Barb's this morning after making sure the cats and the dog had their Christmas chicken wings and were not squabbling too badly about whose was which, and the chooks had food and water and ditto the geese. And off down the back road to avoid most of the mad drivers on the highway.

Arrived aroundabout on schedule for 11am and presented the cake (which tasted a lot better than I had expected) and a string of garlic bulbs from the garden before settling in to watch Barb cook. She does not require assistance while cooking so is best left to herself I have discovered and the table was already beautifully set and so all I had to do was sip on a Pimms and lemonade while awaiting my meal. And what a meal! Turkey, ham, potatoes, pumpkin, several different sorts of salad all followed by plum pudding and baked cheesecake (all on the same plate and with added whipped cream mmmmmmmmmmm).

Pastor Ben was on best behaviour and even turned the odd joke. Grandpa Tush was rather more mellow than was once the case, and Lucas whipped out some old family photos taken around Horsham where he apparently came from. Now had I known that years ago, perhaps we could have had a better relationship - but he used to be a real old bugger in his day. Now, a much nicer, more mellow sort of man so we had a long chat about places we both knew.

Just as I was leaving received a text from those two ALSers who had just sat down for Christmas lunch dining on their two boys that we dispatched the other day. Hope they enjoyed their meal.

Then home to the animals waiting less than patiently for my arrival, a run for Shadow and the cats (they join in with this sort of scramble), food for the chooks and geese, and more water (they really go through a lot of water when on layer pellets I have noticed), strawberries picked to go with my box of Cadbury Roses for supper and cats and dogs given their Christmas treats (liver treats for Shadow, a packet of luxury cat food each for the cats), and my Dog's Home calendar hung on a spare nail on the wall in anticipation of opening on New Year's Day.

Hope you all had as good, as blessed and as rewarding a Christmas Day as I did.

Christmas eve, and finally the weather has decided it is summer after all. OK, not hugely high temps, but a nice sunny day with a light breeze. I got stuck into weeding the hedgerow (which is rapidly disappearing under twitch at present) and placing cardboard on the other side of it (I had cardboard under the mulch on one side, but not the other - the difference is amazing). This involved cutting up packing boxes and soaking them in the wheel barrow. The flaps have been placed across between each plant so, no bare earth now. Then mounds of straw over the top and a good half hour of the soaker hose to settle it all down. Still metres and metres to go, but it is getting there. I may actually run out of straw before i am done, so I am hoping Mick will drop down another bale in the near future.

I also finally baked a Christmas cake. Problem is I stuffed up the recipe and added too much mixed spice. Hope they like heavy spices tomorrow. It is a caramel Christmas Cake - more fruit than cake (which may compensate for the spices I hope) and with a caramelised sugar in the mix. It looks very glossy and slick, so I hope it tastes OK - I really can't summon the energy to cook another.

The tomato seedlings finally went in the ground too. So they had a good watering in and are also heavily mulched. Now all I need are some tomato stakes to hold them up if they grow.

Did the grand tour of the orchard. One of the two trees that took a long time to come into leaf was looking a bit sad, so i have given it a drink and hope that will sort it out. Both of last year's apple trees are laden with fruit, though one seems to have become confused and is also putting out blossom again - not too sure what that is all about.

Then a trip to the tip, into town for more library books (the library is closed till 5 January - will I survive??!!! and a few basic supplies. Plus chicken wings for the animals for their Christmas Treat (and to compensate for my absence) Dinner was mushrooms on toast, with rum and raisin icecream to follow (courtesy of Jean)

It may be an early night tonight I think - I am actually surprisingly tired and tomorrow will be intensely social, as well as the drive down to Hobart and back.

I seem to have done something to my computer which prevents me from logging into Google and accessing my bookmarks - no idea what. Have even changed my password and that doesn't work either. Oh well... And since i can't access the bookmarks I can not re-bookmark things either, as there is nowhere to do that.

I had a bad night's sleep last night - was unable to get to sleep and was disturbed by various goings on, including some sort of explosion that rattled the windows and kids walking up and down the street chatting to each other - loudly. Nevertheless I woke early, showered, dressed, peeped down the side of the house to make sure that none of the trees had actually been dropped on my house and so to breakfast. The amount of additional light streaming into that side of the house now those canopies have been removed is quite astonishing.

God that woman can work fast - the trees were down and all the debris removed in the six hours I was at quilting. Astonishing stuff, especially when you consider she is on sickness benefits. Times like these I begin to understand why she may feel I am not working hard enough ...

Anyway, I was starting to move around in the kitchen when next door the car was backed out of the garage and sat in the driveway with the motor being revved loudly and overrevving to boot. This, at 6:30 am ... About half an hour later she drove off so I had an uninterrupted morning to mow as much grass as the lawnmower could cope with. The throttle is peculiar and from time to time decides it has had enough so only operates at idle speed. On other occasions it stays on high revs, whatever the setting. In the latter case I have to run it into a grass tussock to stop it. In the former case it stops when it meets grass of any variety. It went for this option today so I shoved it back into the shed to get over it. It usually does seem to sort itself out as a result of this approach, so will hope for the best.

Then back into the house to strip the bed and do loads of washing, and have a bit of a sweepup as Eleanor and her daughter were due to arrive, which they duly did, then left again shortly thereafter as they had other visits to make. Jean also called in. With a plate of thinly sliced ham from one of their pigs (truly scrumptious ham - I had it on a sandwich for lunch) and a tub of rum and raisin icecream she has made herself. Verdict on this is on hold as it is dessert for tonight, after more ham in a salad picked from the garden.

High winds developing this evening but otherwise quite a nice day all up.

Today really was sunny! And a nice light breeze, so the quilt is all washed and dried and smelling really good and stowed away for the summer. Good thing it was not done last night as I had to use it and the electric blanket to stave off the chill. But here it is past six and the fire is still no lit tonight - amazingly rapid turnaround weatherwise.

This morning I waded down the back paddock through the waist deep grass to check how many apples had set fruit (quite a few) and heard an odd noise that, on closer investigation, showed that the plumbing behind the recreation shed was broken again. So I turned off the water at the tank and have called around to see Gordon this evening to let him know so all will be sorted before Australia Day (the dog trials).

Then into quilting for a day with the ladies and only four of us turned up. My favourite four so I was not disappointed. We had a lovely day gossiping about various 'families' around the district and who was married to whom and descended from which and so forth. The sort of conversation you only get in country Tassie I suspect. Lovely stuff.

Then home to discover that Rita has removed the blackwood trees that she promised to remove shortly after her arrival, and which I reminded her about in my letter re the fence. So I guess this means she is cooperating with the fencing exercise in her own peculiar way. I am glad I was not here when she did it as I am informed that she basically pulled them down with ropes and i would have been terrified of the potential for damage to our houses. These were 20 foot high trees with eight inch diameter trunks and she has broken them off like twigs - she has a terrifying amount of strength that girl. I would hate to have her hit me ...

The dog was apparently fascinated by the exercise as he had pushed open the door into the future dining room to watch what was going on, presumably.

Came home from quilting laden with new potatoes, armloads of empty plant pots and the leftover cake, as well as the money. Rosemary, who usually collects the money was tied up with a double mail round as her door broke and her husband (who usually does the run up Tunnack Road) had to go to Hobart for a replacement door. All terribly mundane and intimate, the sort of news that we share ...

So that's it for quilting till after Christmas, and if tomorrow is fine, then the grass will be hit with a vengeance and hopefully the yard restored to order.

Managed to get the letter into the letter box next door without incident and shortly thereafter headed into town for quilting. It was a slow day today - with only two others turning up, and them at least half an hour late. By that time I had managed to raise the temperature indoors above freezing level and get the kettle boiled, and had also ducked over to the shop for a hot chocolate to keep my spirits up. Talk about cold! I am told there is snow on the mountain and I would have no trouble believing that at all. There was certainly hail falling in Oatlands this morning. I was quite relieved when this afternoon it warmed up a little, though still only 10 degrees or so. Not really December weather, though I do recall the odd chilly Christmas before now so not out of character around here.

So I cut up another fence post to supplement the bits of paling and fourbetwos I have been burning lately, and the fire is chugging away merrily - hopefully it will be nice and cosy indoors at least tonight, as we are set for four degrees overnight (i.e. at breakfast time tomorrow morning which seems to be when the real cold arrives).

Tomorrow will allegedly be sunny so I will wash the quilt in the morning and take it into quilting to get it dry on the line while i am there. then it can go away for what we fondly refer to as summer around here. I will take out a light blanket to supplement the summer doona if the need arises.

Hot soup tonight, I feel ...

Housekeeping day today - the electrician has still not responded so I contacted Aurora. They advised I engage another electrician to prepare the paperwork which I will do, deducting the cost from the balance owed to the existing electrician. Then onto the hedging guy who has not responded to my email - requesting that he followup on it. No response so far, but I will give him a couple more days before I contact his partner (who seems more reliable generally).

Christmas cards were finally written and posted and my sister's present is en route. And I also got round to paying the rates (ooops). While in Council offices I obtained a witness to my signature on the notification for fencing to my neighbour and had them photocopy the documents for me. I am giving her a letter, a copy of the legal aid plain language guide to the Act, the formal notice and the quote. That should just about cover it. The letter proposes that I erect the paling fence now and she deals with the rest when funds permit, but accepts responsibility for maintaining the fence in the interim. It also refers to the trees she promised to cut down over a year ago and advises what action will be necessary to maintain the boundary line, and offers her the timber from the fence for her use should she wish it. So I think that about covers the options there.

The letter will be delivered to her letter box early tomorrow morning, before the mail arrives to avoid the chance of it being removed overnight. I imagine I will hear about it when she receives it.

What else? Got a new container for fuel for the lawnmower and filled it up in anticipation of getting some jungle hacked some time soon, and chatted to the chap who did my rotary hoeing, who will call in some time soonish to give me a quote to get the rest of the boundary cleared in preparation for the fencing contractor.

And cut some more wood for the fire (it being grey and miserable here at present). While at Eleanors I collected my basin (left over from lettuces at the market) and collected some mushrooms, snow peas and spinach for a stirfry tonight, and am slowly working my way up to doing just that. The garlic is drying off nicely so I hope to be able to reduce some of it to garlic jelly and the rest to dry for storage.

Oh, and tracked down the source of the new lids for jars so I can now order some in. they also sell circular labels to go on the lids (handy for market displays) so I may order some of those as well.

It was market day today, and despite the debacle of the failed pickles I was able to rustle up enough lettuces to fill a wash basin and so took them in to sell at Eleanor's stall. Very cold though. Wind whistling through the stalls and making everyone chilly. Despite that some nice chats with various tourists who were camping down by the lake and good sales, and the good news is that Rotary is picking up responsibility for the market now, so no more stress for the poor girl whose idea it was who has been struggling to keep it going for us. They have the capacity to cover the cost of the public liability insurance that has kept things barely breaking even so far.

Barbara and Lucas came up for lunch and we had a lovely time rummaging through the shops before retiring to the estate for lunch and a long chat. Hummingbird cake for dessert and served with cream and strawberries from the garden.

Today was harvest day. I pulled all the garlic and the beetroot with a view to putting up vast quantities of pickles for selling tomorrow. After all that effort, I produced four jars ... not terribly impressive, and less so when you consider one has not sealed properly. I did make two jars of orange pickle as well, but they have not sealed either - clearly I spent too long filling the jars and the mix went off the heat level required to achieve a seal - sigh.

Anyway, that aside, I now have one garden bed freed up for planting out the remaining gooseberry bushes, which I have now done. They are all putting on new growth, and look to be a fairly weepy, prickly variety. I will try to train them up onto a single stem to get them above ground level, but this year they seem doomed to spend their lives on the straw. Will have to get that nice little man to make me some more tomato stakes I think.

I will also have to find the source of lids that my freecycler gave me so that I can use good new lids - it took quite some doing to sort through what I had to find ones that were not stained, or rusted, or otherwise unsuitable. As it is mine say they are dolmio or similar - so will need to cut out circles of fabric to make decorative finishes tonight. So not much to contribute to the market once again. I will pull some lettuce heads up I think, so that I can fill a basket with those as well. Pack the bottom of the basket with moist newspaper to keep them fresh - that will hopefully do the trick. Would have taken photos of the preserves, but the light is not good at present, so will give it a go in the morning.

Twas Friday - D-day for the electrician (but he seems to have overlooked that) and Wayne-day for me. Wayne arrived at 10ish and we set to work organising a few sheets of iron to go onto the ground below where the wood was to be stacked, then transferred the wood from alongside the caravan, sorting it into tip/burn/store as we went. There is now a huge pile of wood to be loaded into the back of the ute for tomorrow morning tip opening, and a not so huge pile to be cut for firewood and a smaller-still pile of potentially useful wood stowed down below the garden tanks.

To keep up our strength we had humming bird cake and egg and bacon pie so we remained fighting fit for the duration - it also kept us amused during the odd rainfall period. Wayne has also taken the measurements for the two walls that remain to be clad and we have concluded that maybe the shed is not worth saving. In some ways this is a good thing. Apart from the firewood that can be had from it, and the access to the roots of those darn raspberries that persist in growing despite several doses of Roundup, it will also allow me to see what the neighbour is up to down near the chicken run when she gets her moods upon her. I will get a metal shed and pop it up closer to the house so that it is more usefully accessible.

After he headed off I popped into Oatlands for a few things and am now settled back in my chair, watching the cat trying to make himself comfortable on a metal outdoor chair that he has tipped on its side while getting settled. Oooops, now fixed but I got an indignant stare as he now does not have a 45 degree nest to perch himself on.

Soooooooooo what to do about the electrician? Since it is Christmas, he will have a slight extension until after the mail is delivered on Monday. After that, he reaps what he has sown.

Hi RTB - welcome back! Where have you been? Hope you are not flooded out at present - weird weather we are having altogether really ... Today has been lovely around here - with sunshine and little wind.

Unfortunately the same can not be said for the neighbour front. It started at around 7:30 this morning with increasingly foul language directed at the neighbours' dogs who were barking incessantly. This built up over a couple of hours until eventually she got into her car and roared off, returning several hours later in a foul mood.

In the mean time, I went to the container to look for my shifter so I could change gas bottles, only to discover one of Kips hens emerging from the long grass between Rita's garage and my fence. Clearly she had been laying in there ...

Today I had also arranged for two ALSers to come deliver their four cockerals and take lessons in slaughter and dressing out. So in the middle of all this they arrived with four cockerals. I asked them to bring them indoors to avoid any possibility of escape and we removed each of them for slaughter, taking them outside for the deed to be done. The last one escaped and flew all around the kitchen several times, but fortunately all windows were shut so it did not escape, but it made a heck of a racket which doubtless did little to improve the mood next door.

Once all the birds were dressed out, we split up the proceeds and the ALSers set of home with two carcasses, some giblets and two sets of legs, with instructions for giblet soup.

The next door received a visitor who had clearly been summoned to support her indignation, and their first effort was to go down the side of the garage where, clearly, they found the nest. Equally clearly I am being held responsible for the nest as they then proceeded down the boundary with R carrying on and gesticulating, before coming to rest at the junction between the paling fence and the wire fence. Here they stood, leaning into my yard with various strong body language and gestures and facial expressions that showed that all my sins and failings were being listed and expanded upon. Not even my presence at the kitchen window slowed this down. If anything it encouraged it.

I am so glad Wayne is coming up tomorrow as at least some of the matters she was expounding upon can be dealt with in all innocence. And hopefully his presence will also deter any aggression when we are working close to the boundary.

While this was going on I stayed well indoors and waited till she had disappeared once more before going down to feed the chooks with the cooked remains of their cousins and to collect the eggs. So the poor dears had to wait for their dinner - I hope it was worth it.

I have to admit to feeling sick to the stomach with this latest outburst. And since no other fencing contractors have arrived despite many promises, I am planning to photocopy the one quote I have and submit it to her (via the letter box) as I would very much like to get six feet of palings between here and me at the soonest opportunity.

What a wild and woolley day! Wind, rain, black clouds. Lovely stuff for being indoors at sewing. We were going out for lunch today so I decided to leave the embroidery frame at home and work on some handwork which kept me fairly busy, but would have been even busier if I had remembered to take a variety of yarns, instead of the few I had. I am afraid I get bored stitching all the same colour all the time - even graduated colours in the cotton make the world of difference to the work I find.

Anyway, so we had lunch, ran into people to chat to, collected four bags of wood shavings, got a few groceries (but forgot two items as I ran into several more people in the shop) and home once more. The wind is not in the right quarter to blow into the house, so I have a fairly snug environment. But despite this, I lit the fire as it is that sort of weather (bear in mind I would have had a fire going when I lived in Queensland in wild rainy weather - it is not so much the warmth as the comfort that it gives).

We had such a good time at lunch I left my jacket and scarf at the restaurant (and no, no alcohol involved), so had to pop back to collect that as well. But all home safe now and ready for the evening.

My phone rang at 7:15 this morning but i missed the call. It was a local one so I called back but got an answering machine so left a message. Then the caller called once again but the phone was sitting on the table and the signal did not receive it till later. So I received a text message (from one of those voice translation machine thingies) that read Hi Joe its Roselyn. Just now quoting today now because there's nobody back'. It took me quite a while to work out that it was Rosemary calling to say no quilting today .... Clearly the technology has a way to go.

Anyway, quilting having been cancelled I cut up some of the wood I had gathered, but had to stop as the chain on the saw was so blunt it was just spinning. I have been sharpening it as I go, but concluded there was something wrong with my technique so I googled for a video clip on the subject. Lots of videos, most useless as the rasp is placed over the vital bit without any instruction as to which direction or side it was supposed to be on. But I eventually found one that showed a giant model of the critical parts, took you through them carefully then showed how to rasp them. Much better.

And spent the rest of the day sewing as it started off cold.

Then I popped into town for some vital supplies and returned home to find her next door merrily standing in the laneway with her visitor, apparently removing flowers from a shrub growing over the fence from the other neighbour's. The visitor new me, so greeted me and we exchanged a few pleasantries as my neighbour walked away. Then the visitor returned to her house, but left very soon after, at speed. And then the neighbour turned on the music once again.

Am enjoying a handful of strawberries a day from the bushes now, and very nice they are too.

Yet another day has passed with no doors hung - sigh. I really need to do that soonish. I did, however, get some grass hacked down to a manageable length so the front garden looks as if someone lives here (though not someone committed to weeding the garden beds ...) and the back yard has some areas where you can walk without needing a machete.

Speaking of which, I am rather hoping Wayne can show me how to start the linetrimmer while he is up here on Friday as I can not for the life of me convince the thing to start. I suspect it is all in the way you hold your mouth rather than a particular problem with the trimmer, but it is getting annoying having all that long grass accumulating in places the mower can not reach, or be used, because of subterranean obstacles.

Then her next door went out so I took advantage of her absence to move around to the side of the house and remove some bricks to a more accessible position, and to start carting around rocks for use in the retaining wall for the terrace. This also has the advantage of getting access to the small concrete slab around there which I may yet move down the back to use as a base for the beehives. It would save having to trim too closely to their base once there are bees in residence. And yes, I have to chase up the chap who as supposed to be getting them for me too.

Also gave the woodheater a good scrub with a wire brush as i noticed that bubbles were forming on the surface. Scrubbed and blackleaded, and with the glass clean once more it is now chugging away on some wood I cut up today. I shifted the rest of the pile of heavy timber up to the house and have propped it to dry out as it has been lying out in the rain in long grass and parts of it are sodden. Not good for burning in that condition.

And propped up the log I plan to use to chop off the heads of the cockerals that will be arriving on Thursday - now all I have to do is dig out the roofing nails so I can position a pair for doing the deed. This log is about the dimensions of a telegraph pole in diameter, but only about two and a half feet long, so just the right height for this sort of thing.

While I was working on the stone walling a white, twin-cab ute pulled up out the front, on the other side of the road and the driver just sat there for some time eyeing off the house. This seems to happen fairly frequently around here and I have to say I find it quite disconcerting. I mean, I understand that people are interested in what is going on here, but I do think they could either be more subtle, or more direct - come and chat to me, introduce themselves, that sort of thing. Just sitting in the car watching, knowing I am aware of their presence is just plain rude - if not a little creepy.

No word from the electrician yet ... Still, he has four more days to go I guess.

The neighbours on both sides have been providing some entertainment in varying forms over the last 24 hours. Firstly her-next-door has resumed patrolling the boundary fence. I was working in the kitchen last evening when she spotted me and treated me to a prolonged glare and altered body language as she walked along. And on the other side, their horses have once again started escaping. Yesterday their absence was noted fairly promptly and they were recovered by the children first thing in the morning. Today, they were out and about until lunchtime, at which time two of the littler ones brought home the standardbred mare, leaving her in the yard running around and madly neighing to her companiong (the naughty pony) which was at the other end of the village neighing back. Then they tried to catch the pony, gave up, brought the mare back up the street in the hope of enticing the pony, gave up, took the mare back, then the dogs got out so they had to chase them all around the street for some time (not having trained them to come to call) and finally recaught both horses and dogs and returned them home to the paddock they had escaped from. No sign of any effort to improve security so I expect to be woken early tomorrow morning by the sounds of a horse trotting up the street as I was this morning...

All that excitement, combined with a chilly morning, scattered showers, a trip to the tip and such like meant that nothing else was done. Nor will it be tonight i am afraid.

I had hoped to be able to report that at least one door was installed by the end of today, but no such luck. It seems the floor is not quite as even as it could be so despite having four mm clearance at the hinge, the door got stuck half way through the swing to close. So will have another go tomorrow. I did try fitting it in the other opening as well, but that idea became unstuck also, due to irregularities in my fitting of the door surround. Will have another go tomorrow...

The rest of the day was filled with laundry, kitchen and yard duties of the mundane type that I will not bother detailing - and cutting up three hardwood split fence posts into fire wood as there are three cool days forecast (of which today was one).

Today was another one of those 'pick your preferred weather' days with a range of options on display. I dug over the corn bed to remove the fine crop of stinging nettles and planted seeds in the places where the corn had succumbed to a combination of frost, my weeding, cats using the bed as a toilet, dog rolling on the nice warm soft turned earth and various other challenges faced by anything in my garden. And popped bean seeds in beside the corn that is actually growing. Then mulched the lot with straw on the principle that corn and beans are big seeds so a little mulch should not slow them down, but will keep the soil nice and moist for them.

Then I pulled the weeds from around a tree I had overlooked on my first purge of the orchard (the grass was so tall I did not spot the mesh, let along the tree) and had a little sit down. There were two hours to fill before the library opened, so I read for a bit (failing to finish the last book so I have renewed its borrowing) and then felt inspired to dig around in the front room to unearth the two doors (those doors I need to install in the bathroom and laundry - remember them?) and primed their edges, cut rebates for hinges, primed one end and one edge of those and the door frames and the little narrow bit of wood that becomes the door stop, trimmed that to length with a mitred corner and tacked these into position. Then realised that the end I had primed had become the top of the door as a result of the positions I had placed the hinges in and so now need to prime the other end as well. Oh well.

There was a little email traffic at mine last night also - firstly I decided I really should let Wayne know what the programme was for this year's work (sorry Wayne) and what needed to be done before Christmas (placing the order for the wood to be delivered after Christmas) and what was on the list for next year (that sounds so far away but is only three weeks or so .....). Happily that seems to be on track and Wayne is coming up next Friday to give me a hand moving the stacks of timber that are presently blocking manouevring room for the caravan - so it will be possible to get rid of that some time soonish as well. Anyone at a loose end is more than welcome to join us, lol. I will be baking so food will be available.

And I also had an email from one of you - you know who you are - tipping me off to three free cockerals on ALS - so they are coming home to my freezer in the near future I hope.

Speaking of cockerals, I am still of two minds regarding the gender of my chicken - stance, size and comb development shout rooster. Feather shape says hen. And if, as seems to be the case, he is of Welsummer extraction, the upright tail could indicate either way - as could the well-developed chest (the hens both look as if they need a good bra). So the jury is still out in that department. See if you can tell me what I have ...

Having run completely out of chook food, a trip to Hobart became necessary - lovely drive, the sides of the road to Rhyndaston are covered in briar rose blooms - beautiful things that they are, for all they are a weed. As usual I had failed to provide myself with some secateurs, so did not have a chance to stop to get some cuttings (I am thinking a couple to fill the gaps that have arisen in the hedge). Animal food acquired I headed home via Oatlands and called into the Bargain Centre where I had been told there was an old wicker workbasket filled with various notions that might be interesting.

Amazingly enough (the entire quilting group had been told this) it was still there, so I poked around inside and bought it on the spot. And here it is! Inside were wooden cotton reels, old lace, ribbons - scarlet velvet, lace and so forth, some broderie anglais strips, as well as various notions. Have a browse of the contents as you read on.







The lace with the zigzag border is about 8 inches deep and will be a lovely trim to shelving, or a mantelpiece, or possiby a pelmet over the windows in the older part of the house, and the ribbon width lace is just the daintiest thing.

I have wound them all onto strips of heavy watercolour paper - acid-free, and removed pins and sticky tape and such like fastenings. Having picked around I emptied the box completely, and have transferred some of the bits (notions, crochet hooks, knitting needles etc) into suitable homes, and have added the collection of laces and ribbons i have acquired from various female relatives, now deceased. So the box is now crammed full with lovely things and can live a life as home to these bits and pieces until I find a use for them. In combination with beads, velvet, boxes and buttons they could become rather gorgeous items I feel.

Once that was done I went down and fed the livestock just as it started to rain - we had a forecast for flashflooding, but that does not seem to have happened, and the rain to date has been a bit disappointing.

Then Jean called in with a large frozen Nicholls organic chicken - with the tale her husband had won two and they did not have a use for the second one. Either her freezer is full or she is just being her usual lovely self. Now I have to find a suitable use for it so will put my chefs thinking cap on - Roasting seems a bit mundane.

So more of a fun day than a working day, but some work got done - just not house-related or garden-related, lol.

I have had a lovely day at quilting today - grey, overcast, warm and humid and just perfect weather to have an excuse to sit around and beaver away on an embroidery instead of doing anything more productive.

As you can see I have now completed the Top End, and added a sun and some fishes and coral reef today, as well as providing them with some water.

Apart from that have established the electrician finally collected his mail yesterday afternoon so he now has until Friday week to sort out his act. Hopefully he will have the sense to sort things out promptly and not try to play any more of his silly passive power games.

Not much point lighting a fire tonight - far too warm and humid - so will be whipping up a potato salad on the stove top tonight.

It was the end of the auction this morning so I was up and dressed and chooks fed and me sort-of fed in time to sit down for a seven am start on the roundup. We raised £1700 which was not quite what we hoped for, but a lot better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick. So a lot of homeless kitties in Brighton will be living rather more comfortably as a result.

Since it was quite chilly this morning, by the time that was done I was frozen to the bone and so turned on the heater when I went in to quilting this morning. Forgot to turn it off, so by the end of the day we were all peeling off layers and complaining of the heat, till we worked out what had happened (oops).

I finally made it to the far right hand side of the embroidery across the top so tomorrow will be able to scroll down a bit and work my way across Ayers Rock to the Central Coast. I will take a photo before I do that so you can finally see what I have been working on.

Chicken still alive and well, but a little distressed by the strong winds we are currently experiencing but nothing i can do about that. At least he has a roof and four walls and a snug spot to shelter from any drafts that might be rocketting through his enclosure. I will, however, see what I can do to organise him into one of the hutches on Thursday, so he has a landscape a little more to his own scale and can see the other chooks.

I seriously wonder what my electrician does for brains at times. A registered post letter has been sitting in his post office box for the last week and has not been collected. How can anyone run a business that way?

Anyway, I guess I will just have to wait and see if it is collected. If not, not sure what the next step is? Whatever it is, it will not be pleasant for him, because if I have to pay someone else to finish off the paperwork, then that will be coming off his bill. And that is the least unpleasant future that awaits. grrrr

Today started downright chilly and with a three hour stint on the forum I was glad to be able to start moving around a bit after. Even if it was not doing much. I planted three more rows of seeds - two different varieties of carrots and some red onions for salads. Two of the other rows have come up, but i have no idea what they are as the labels have been washed clean with the rain we have had.

Today was the penultimate roundup for the auction which closes at 8pm GMT tomorrow. It took two of us three hours as I said, but we spent a fair bit of time doing other things like rescuing burning food in slowcookers (Gill) and investigating odd noises (me). Tomorrow there will be four of us on the go which sounds better, but will just be a bit more chaotic as one spends a lot of time undoing posts that have gone up at the same time as someone else's. Sigh. And a seven am start will see me spending my morning in my PJs I suspect.


All of this assumes that my service is functioning, which it doesn't seem to be doing terribly well at present. And just when it does, Firefox collapses on me. Not my day.

It was a bit of a shock to the system, after the warmth of the last few days, to wake to 7 degrees this morning. And worse to discover that 12.9 was the best temperature the day could turn on. So I am afraid I lit the fire, cut some more wood and sat and read once more, stirring only long enough to feed the chooks and see they had water.

Last night I went down to remove the hen from the shed and put her in with the others. She got out of the shed a few times, but then I had a brainwave and stirred Rastus into action, and he soon convinced her she belonged with the rest of the flock. Today, they have been remarkably accepting of her presence and her sister has welcomed her with open arms. They are now pottering around the yard together as if they have never been parted.

The chick, who is a bit bolshy at the best of times, decided he was not happy with the arrangements so flew up to the sill of the wired-off section of the shed and stood staring out that the brave new world. So I clipped his wing and he is now, once again, earthbound, but not happy with the new arrangements. He holds me personally responsible (which I guess I am) and tells me so whenever he spots me. Apart from that he seems to be coping on his own very well and so we will just have to wait and see whether he starts to crow (which I suspect is a safe bet) or cluck, (which would be a pleasant surprise).

The beauty of the last of the wood is that it is so dense I am still enjoying the warmth of the second piece I put on at 10:30 this morning. Probably time for another, but it is amazing how long it burns for.

Not sure what happened to the storms that were forecast for today, but instead we got bright sunshine, heat and little wind. So in between forum duties I took to the orchard to weed the trees. each of the trees is in a little cage to avoid the geese eating them, with the result that the cages fill up with long grass. So today I took advantage of the several inches of water in the wheelbarrow to soak some sheets of cardboard, derived from packing cases and went down to get stuck in. First weed, then add soggy cardboard, then add straw (also soggy) on top - and the trees on one side of the orchard are all done.

I think it is time for the chicken to be separated from its mother, so will be doing that tonight. Will leave the chicken in the shed and the mother will have her wings clipped and she will be added to the perch tonight once it is well on the way to being dark (difficult at this time of year in these latitudes as full dark does not normally arrive till around 10ish by which time i am usually in bed). She is doing all in her limited power to escape from the attentions of the chicken and he is almost fully feathered (just a little bit of down either side of his head) so, in this weather, should be just fine by himself. Will move him into the rabbit hutch if the weather gets bleak again, so he has less space to warm up with his body heat.

Also took advantage of the moist soil to have another go at weeding the hedge, after which I also added soggy cardboard and more straw. At this rate there will be a foot of straw on either side of the hedge - I do like having vast quantities of mulch available to me!

Now the wind has got up and there are dark clouds looming. So I guess those storms may yet arrive.

It's been a bit hard to keep up with the weather today - grey and misty, clear and hot, overcast and mizzly, downpours, thunderstorms, you name it. After I got home from the library this afternoon it was so dark I had to turn the lights on in the house. Popped down to feed the chooks and pick some broad beans and was just indoors when the sky fell in a major way. This photo shows the tank overflowing at the inlet point. A few seconds before I took it, the water was bubbling up so high it was taller than the top of the inlet pipe. Moments like these I wish I had a second tank. Oh well - hot bath tonight - a deep one, with lots of bubbles ...

Because the weather could not make up its mind, I stayed inside and did some sewing and cooking and have made some more progress on the tapestry thingy. Mainly blocking in ocean, so nothing too exciting, though I did make some progress on the backstitch on the crocodile, so will take a pic later if I finish that off.

Lots of brief power failures too. So am constantly re-setting the clocks and oven. This latter is essential as without the clock being set, it refuses to work. So baking the Christmas cake I had in mind may have to wait till tomorrow when the thunderstorms have gone elsewhere.

After podding all the broadbeans I had rather more sympathy for my mother's tendency to cook them with the pods on. But not much. The smallest of the beans were lightly cooked and lavished with butter to go with the lamb shanks that were tonight's dinner - served on a bed of mash
Not many food miles in this plate as all is locally grown, if not home-grown. And very tasty too, even if I do say so myself.

From time to time, I google some of my more obscure ancestors' names and their place of birth on the off-chance someone of a similar name will turn up. Last night I found a Peter Rieck mentioned in a newsletter for a yacht club in Denmark, near the village my Peter Rieck came from. I emailed the contact person who has emailed back with the contact details for Peter's widow. Sadly he died four years ago, but she may know the family well enough to put me in touch with someone. Peter is a family name. My sister bears the feminine version, and my uncle the male one, so hopefully this chap is related in some way and I can make progress past the great-grandparent level.

Hope you are all warm and dry tonight.

Today was supposed to be 19 with later showers developing. They arrived at 11:00 while i was working on the auction thingy. That work had to be carried out in the bedroom as that was the only part of the house with a signal ...

Anyway, as a result I spent the day tidying up the kitchen and putting on the lamb shanks in the slow-cooker. Home grown celery and carrots, home grown thyme and oregano, some chicken stock, garlic and homegrown leeks to keep it company. Will see what emerges in a few more hours I guess.

The plate rack ... I had another look at it today and discovered she had taken her measurements at the lower end. Not up the top where there is a projecting ledge ... So I will have to figure out another place for it, other than where it was intended to go. Oh well.

I also split some of the 'unsplittable' lumps of wood to enable me to keep the fire chugging over to keep the damp outside where it belongs. They are all incredibly dense lumps of wood that acquire a glazed effect when cut with the chainsaw and burn very very slowly, so I have only used two of them today and the last one is now on the fire and will burn through to bedtime I suspect. There are quite a few more to keep me going later in the week when the weather once again gets cooler.

Other than that it has been a pretty lazy day reading quilting magazines and a book, and sitting doing nothing at all, which can be surprisingly pleasant at times.

You might remember that when I was installing the upper level kitchen cupboards I was unable to install the full set of three cabinets to the right of the stove as the slope of the ceiling interfered with the corner of the last cabinet. That left a gap that I was planning to fill with some open shelving on which to stack everyday crockery etc.

Last week at quilting one of the local women mentioned her daughter had been ripping out fittings in her new kitchen (well, old kitchen, new-to-her house) and that a plate rack had been up for grabs. I measured up the gap between the wall and the side of the cabinet and it really depended solely on that measurement (67cm, which is an odd one) as to whether the plate rack would suit. It measures 64cm (yay) so came home with me today. It could do with a good scrub, probably a light sand and a new coat of something (varnish or enamel paint, do you think? My plates are white), but should look good once it is installed. It even has hooks along the bottom for the common-usage coffee mugs ... This is it, upside down and the photo rotated so it is right side up, sitting on the floor in the laundry awaiting a little attention prior to installation.

Apart from that I finished the crocodile on the longstitch and now have to backstitch to highlight its details, after which I will take a progress photo for you to see how things are going. Also got the set of sheets off the bed washed and dried as well as the doona cover. It will be nice to sleep in air-dried sheets for the first time in a couple of years ...

Quilting day today. I realised a few weeks ago that there is a clothesline at the house where we meet, but the last few weeks have always coincided with rain, so that was not terribly helpful. But today, despite being overcast, was dry and warm so I did two sets of sheets (i usually save up all three sets and then take them to the laundromat to dry them) and took them in with me to dry, which they did. I will do the other doona cover and set of sheets in the morning and take them in tomorrow if the weather looks as if it will hold good.

Also took the laptop and sorted out the auction tallies - Gill is back on deck now) and split a few more of those unsplittable logs so I can light the fire tonight for cooking dinner. Met the postie as I was coming out of the drive so took the mail into town with me as well.

Then more sewing, more eating and gossiping and home to feed the chooks. A very pleasant day all up.

Jean called around this morning with a bunch of lovely miniature gladdies which are in a vase now on display in the one spot in the kitchen that is not cluttered with 'stuff'. They are a lovely delicate flower, as you can see from the closeup. She has told me when my flower garden is established i can have some corms. I think they will interplant beautifully with the dutch iris - what do you reckon?

She also gave me a bag of lambshanks for the freezer - guess who will be dining on braised lamb shanks once the irish stew is finished! Yummmmmmm.

Then was the auction which, as my offsider is still nursing her cat through a series of fits, I dealt with by myself. It took longer today, but was all done by 12:30 so I had lunch and went out to the garden for a bit. I have now filled up the second raised bed and planted out the lettuce and marigolds into the first one. The second one is only partly planted with a row of butter beans, one of lettuce seeds, one of cabbage and one of cauliflower. These have all been mulched either side and a spare row left for planting more beans once these are above ground.

As you can see from one of these pictures, they are sort of terraced one above the other, with a narrow path (with cardboard and more mulch to discourage weeds) between them.
Just beyond them is the little brick path I have started and then the rasberries. These two beds are aligned to face pretty well due north so their length runs sort of east/west Hopefully a happy arrangement for the veges.

Well my neighbour was out and about in the rain last evening busily installing a bird feeder in her back yard. Waaaaay down the back, in an open area that is just coincidentally close to my boundary to attract my cats to any birds that might be silly enough to use it. Fortunately, given the total lack of cover that will be available any visiting birds, and it being a covered feeder, hopefully the only visitors will be sparrows. I am afraid the body language is still quite belligerent - I do hope she goes back onto her medication soon - this is rather wearing all round.

Today started with lots of rain - mizzling rain rather than the downpour we had yesterday, though all up we got another 15 mm which was great. The tomatoes are looking healthy so hopefully they will be able to survive the two days of sunshine coming up. I am planning to plant some stinking rogers in the bed soon with a view to providing companion planting - would like it to be basil, but none available in the local shop and the stuff I am raising from seed is barely out of the ground yet.

The nightly auction roundup was severely curtailed by the total absence of signal so Shadow and I went into town and I let myself into the former teacher's residence we use for quilting and did it there - was not arrested for trespass, so presumably that was OK. My sidekick in the UK has a very sick cat so she was not available today and so all up it took up quite a bit more time than usual. But it was rather easier with one doing it as was not constantly changing as it does when both of us are at work.

The rain has finally cleared, so tomorrow should be good - will get the rest of the second raised bed filled and plant out the lettuce seedlings and perhaps some other seeds as well. Will see what I have in my little bag of tricks.

On the orchard front - all the trees now have leaves, so I have to assume none will blossom at this late stage and they will focus on building up their root systems this year. Apples, on the other hand, I should have fruit on the two older trees (the ones I planted the previous winter) and the crabs as well. Fingers crossed ...

Woke at 5:30 this morning so decided to get something done in the yard before I started on the midnight auction roundup. So I dug out the area where the second raised bed was to go and fitted it into the hole before that started. Put down layers of shipping cartons to keep the weeds at bay and laid on a layer of compost to keep them in place and moist, then returned to the first bed and finished off filling it up once the roundup was completed. Then planted out some of the tomato seedlings - well, two of them are plants at this stage - a San Marzeno? and something or other else which are grafted toms. These have been staked as have the taller of the rouge de marmande plants. Clearly I need more stakes ...

This was excellent timing as this morning was an overcast, humid day, quite warmish and ideal for planting stuff. To make matters even better, having put in the last plant and done some weeding elsewhere it then started to rain. Just plopping rain so I kept going for a bit longer before going in doors. Then the skies opened and I received 8 mm in about half an hour. Good thing I had the mulch on the plants ... So they should be well and truly happy in their new bed - especially as they were also watered in with some seasol.

There is an 18th birthday party going on over the back fence tonight. The grownups have been there setting things up for much of the afternoon and the music has just started. But it looks like the grownups will be there for the night so it should not be too riotous.

We are apparently in for a wet weekend so today was a chance to get out into the garden. Unfortunately, I was sidetracked from this with the arrival of my new threads - these are the ones I ordered at the beginning of the month but which were delayed as they were out of stock. Am very excited by these threads as they blend so many truly lovely colours together. They are for the William Morris Poem cushion I bought while in Victoria. They will, of course, have other potential applications as well, since they are more than will be required for the embroideries on the cushion.

However, distractions aside, I did manage to fit in a run to the tip and to build a second raised bed (but not position it) and stack up some stone for finishing off the perimeter of the base for the gas bottles. I will need to find my spanner so I can detach the gas bottle as I need to get in with the mattock and remove some weeds that have taken root in the relevant area. I have, however, found a number of flat-faced largish rocks for the perimeter which is a bonus.

Not much else to report as the auction roundup takes up a chunk in an inconvenient period of the day - too soon to start anything before it, and lunchtime by the time I am finished ... That's my exuse at any rate. Oh! I did pick my first strawberry today - no photo, it disappeared too fast!!

I did, however, find the time to send a registered wakeup and reminder call to the electrician in the hope that matter can be sorted in the very near future. I have requested a written response within 10 days of him receiving it.

A total of 33 mm from that last bit of rain - not too dusty around here at present! And today was overcast, warm and humid with some more light rain starting this afternoon. A few more days like this and the tank will overflow for the first time - what fun! If that happens I will celebrate by running a bath.

After the hour and a half sorting out the midnight tallies on the auction I settled down to finish the book I have been reading (the Painter - a story that interweaves the lives of Rembrandt and a modern woman painter with a bit of dark romance to make life interesting - a very good read and I can recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical reconstructions).

And that was about it for the day, apart from bringing up a bit of scrap wood to run through the saw and piling some rubbish into the back of the ute to take to the tip tomorrow afternoon.

It rained last night but i was oblivious to the fact - sleeping in until 8 this morning - it was so hot last night when I went to bed it was sheets only as covering - 24.9 in the bedroom! So the cooler air from the rain was a blessed relief. 15mm overnight and another 16 so far today! Hopefully the tank will be full soon.

Spent much of the morning doing the midnight roundup for the Auction and the rest of the afternoon sewing, but for some strange reason we broke up early and I was home by 3.30 to feed the poultry and head for shelter. It is still quite warm - no idea of the temp but warm ... but I lit the fire as I do rather like a fire on a rainy evening whatever the temperature.

Bit of a touch of summer today with the temp rocketing up to 27 degrees and a thunderstorm (unfortunately a dry one) to finish off the day - even had a bit of smoke about which was disconcerting as we had some pretty strong winds today also. still it is all pretty green still, so no real danger.

We had our annual Christmas lunch today but as we were meeting at Mt Seymour, and dining in Oatlands I decided to go in late and to be there for lunch only. This was partly because the forum I moderate is having its annual fund-raising auction and, it being based in the UK, I get to do their midnight roundups of bids so they can all have a good night's sleep. Only day two of the auction and it goes for two weeks so I will be late for quilting next Tuesday also. On Wednesdays I can take the laptop with me as there is a signal in Oatlands (but not Mt Seymour).

My fat quarter present was not something I can use in a quilt - in fact I am not too sure where I can use it. It has a black background and sort of 1940s style locker-room girlies posing by motorbikes, with tiny skirts and frilly knickers showing. Very cute images, but not too sure what I will do with it.

Then back up to Mt Seymour where Jenny's friend from WA showed us some of the really creative things she does to recycle and remodel items of clothing for different uses. I took a white cotton blouse with me for some ideas on how to modify it as it has always been quite useless (I bought it as it was cheap, but really good quality fabric). So that is going in the sewing basket to have the collar removed and reused as a belt across the back, the sleeves cut down, the buttons replaced and a touch of colour added to it. Hopefully it will be quite stylish once done.

Got home at 6:30 and was pleased to find both cats indoors just waking up to demand their dinner, so the dog and I did a quick run around the grounds to check everyone still had water and had not expired from the heat (plants as well) and back to the house for a belated cuppa (I will be up all night, but I was soooooooooo thirsty) and that last slice of Pavlova they insisted I bring home with me.

I started off with good intentions this morning - planning to whip back all the long stuff in unmowable areas. Sadly the whippersnipper thingy will not start for me (me and twostrokes have never been a happy combination) so I warmed up the mower and took it off-road for a bit, before concluding that was a bad idea.

So instead I started work on those two raised beds I have been talking about for weeks and which have been deferred in favour of various other demands on my time. This entailed getting out the angle-grinder. I have a five inch one that I lend to various tradies, but have never actually dared to use myself. But today was the day and it was an interesting one, shall we say. Firstly, I learned that operating an angle grinder with bare arms leads to millions of minute burns resulting from the sparks that fly out the back - so at present my arms appear to belong to a demented junky who has been shooting up for years. Secondly, I discovered it is not a good idea to blindly cut the metal when it is clamped to your sawhorses that have metal legs. One of the saw horses is now no longer safe to stand or sit on (ooops) and will have to be replaced fairly promptly.

Nevertheless, the four sheets of iron were eventually cut down the middle and so I have the materials for two raised beds. Two of the sheets were off-cuts from building the chook shed, so were ideal for end panels. The other two were full length. Then a bit of a hunt around for some off-cuts of hardwood for the corners and a whirl with the roofing screws and voila - one raised bed framework.

Then I dug out the perimeter of the rectangle so it could sit level, fitted it into the ditches, banged down the corners that seemed to be sitting a bit high and started back-filling it. Not gotten terribly far with that - still a few more barrowloads of compost and soil to go into it, but it is looking like it might, one day, be a suitable recipient for the tomato seedlings. What do you reckon?



This is running parallel with the lane but set back about 1800mm from the boundary to allow me to get down with wheelbarrows, and, at a pinch, a vehicle or trailer in the event that part of the boundary is ever fenced. It also allows space in case I plant a hedge there. Beyond the new bed is a small rockery/retaining wall with the three tyre steps I made not so long ago. Then it moves into the various tank rounds that make up the retaining wall for the septic tank. You can see a rusty tank just peeking around the side of the soil heap which will be cut down to make the bed for the bay tree and strawberries. I may still have enough for a second small circular bed whose use I have yet to work out.

You should also be able to see that there is a suite of three sheds now, roughly forming a courtyard-arrangement. The middle one is the one we shifted forwards the other week, and the one on the right is the future toolshed and gardening/potting shed once it has a new frame and possibly a new roof. I plan to shift the door round to the next side and install some panels of glass I have in the wall facing the middle shed. That will give natural light from the East (ish).

The long part of the new bed faces north, so another one above and behind it should also get good sun and will bring things up to the level where the main part of the vege patch will eventually be.

It was a bit drizzly this morning when I went down to collect the veges for the farmer's market. Not terribly much on offer, but I concluded that anything was better than nothing so pulled some parsnips, leeks and beetroot and picked some broad beans which weighed up to a whole 1.5 kg. These I bagged at 500g quantities and so off to market.

When I arrived there was no sign of Eleanor so I started to drive off to her place but as I came to the intersection I saw her driving up the street, so re-parked and unloaded my goods and chattels once more. Here is the sum total of my offerings for the stall, but they all sold before i knocked off at 11.00 so I was happy. A grand sum of $15.00 added to the kitty, so no complaints from me.

That iris I mentioned some time ago has finally started to open and this is the result.
I'm not sure i have ever seen an iris this particular colour before - may be it is rare? It does rather make me nervous not having a front fence with something like this in the garden .. . Oh well.

My friends came up once more and we had a barbecue lunch that went on and on - too much food altogether - a light snack will do me for dinner methinks.

Another gorgeous day, but running to seed tomorrow of course as the Farmer's Market will be on. I have successfully mown the entire block today though I have still to whipper snipper in the rougher areas. That may have to wait till Monday by the looks of tomorrow's weather - plus my social commitments tomorrow.

And I weeded all around the crabapples out the front and have added blood and bone, some seasol and about 10 litres of water to each as they seem surprisingly dry given the rain we have had of late. After all that I mulched them thickly with straw so that should hold the moisture in for them.

I also hauled out the tamarix that the geese ate but discovered that down the base of the tree some small green shoots were starting to emerge so I have potted it up and given it a good water and will see what happens. Where it was planted is where I now plan to install the walnut tree - it will provide shade for the chooksheds without actually being in the yard so I can get the windfall nuts, instead of them falling victim to the chooks.

Everything else got a good water today also, at least the veges did (this evening, not during the day). So a successful day in the garden all up - and a tiprun to boot.

I woke this morning to the sound of one of Kip's roosters crowing under the bedroom window at 4:30. One of his hens is also out and about. Unfortunately she looks remarkably similar to two of my hens, so I can only expect more flack in the near future if she remains on the loose.

Rita headed out mid-morning and, as it was a still sunny day, I whipped out the Roundup and gave the rasberry canes another dose. The last one made no impact at all, so hopefully this one will flatten them. Also nipped around and dosed all the mallow plants once more.

More progress decluttering the kitchen area, as well as a couple of loads of washing which are almost dry due to the good weather. But I ran amuck this afternoon and went into Oatlands with Caroline. There I bought 2 trays (for putting plant pots on), 2 enamel pie dishes, 3 melamine platters, and something or other else, for less than $10.00 at the op shop and the second-hand place. All useful stuff.

The trays now have my tomato seedlings on them to help me empty out the laundry trough. And the bathroom is squeaky clean after a bit of a purge. But the rest can wait till tomorrow.

Ran into Rita in town as she emerged from a friend's house so I smiled, and she smiled back, on autopilot as she was obviously leaving in something of a rush. Then she piled into her car, laid rubber as she did a u-turn and charged down the street at a rate of knots before having to pull up abruptly due to other traffic. Sat there for rather longer than was necessary apparently thinking things over, then pulled into the IGA. So I decided I needed to check out the Mancey's sale and loitered until she had gone. Didn't really fancy running into her in the supermarket aisles.

I have fastened a sheet of corrugated iron onto the top of the set of legs I plan to use for the beebox supports to protect the chipboard from the weather and placed the beebox on top so it is well and truly visible now.

A day of sunshine and showers today with a rather black sky to start with. But not really a measurable quantity of rain for all that.

I decided it was time that I got the kitchen sorted out so my first job was to clear enough clutter to enable me to move the table saw, with a view to putting it in the loungeroom. The receiving area also required a clearout and vacuum so that was done as well. While wheeling the table saw about it struck me that I needed to cut down the panels of the last upper level cupboard so that it fitted into the space available. I did that and then swept all the sawdust off the saw and moved it according to plan. Getting it up the step involved backing into the loungeroom while lifting the saw, then going out the front door, in the back door and heaving it up from the other side. Fortunately all went well and it is now neatly stowed along the back wall of the loungeroom.

Since i had had to unpack the cupboard pieces I decided to go ahead and make it up and install it, which I have done. This has, however, revealed a slight problem which is twofold. Firstly, the doors may not fit ... after all the thing is now 5mm shorter than it was. Secondly, and until I sort this one out I will not know if the doors fit at all, is that the pack does not seem to have the four little metal thingies that the door hinges clip onto so I can fit them. I have spare ones due to the purchase of the three additional cabinets, but am debating whether to use those or not - I probably will, but not tonight.

I also sharpened the chainsaw and cut up the last of the wood today - it is now stacked by the fire and the fire itself is chugging away merrily. Good thing too as tonight we have two degrees forecast! Glad I did not get round to shifting the tomato seedlings outdoors as I had planned to do today.

I have rummaged through the long grass around the chopping block and moved all those non-splittable bits of wood into the shed so they can dry out a bit and I will have another go at splitting them. If I can't then I will just cut them into slices and burn them that way. I have added to my stash by cutting up a railway sleeper that was part of the tank stand. It was only half its original depth due to rotting in the ground, but the half that was left is still solid hardwood so it is burning hotly in the fire.

So tonight the irish stew is heating on the fire, instead of the microwave, and will be served with more mashed potato as the spuds in the stew do not mash up well enough to absorb the juices effectively.

Another fabby day here in beautiful downtown Central Tassie. I do love weather like this - sunshine, no wind, just enough heat to wear a teeshirt, but not so hot you sweat. Gorgeous!

I spent it at sewing and made yet more progress on the longstitch, and catching up with the gossip around the place. We have reorganised our space so the lunch table has been moved into one of the bedrooms and the table replaced with more sewing room, so now the L-shaped room has an L-shaped table for us to sit around and work. Given we re-arrange the furniture with gay abandon, I imagine it will not be too long before they realise that this makes getting out rather tricky and there will be a need to move things again to facilitate movement.

After we packed up for the day I popped round to the hospital to make an appointment to see the doctor, and they had a slot in 10 minutes so I waited. We are rather blessed in Oatlands with a marvellous doctor who in between patients goes for major bushwalks into the interior, fishing, etc, and on his holidays disappears into the depths of third world countries with Medecin sans Frontiers. He does, however take a bit of getting used to as he is usually doing at least three other things while he his seeing you (he is also responsible for the inpatients at the hospital). So today's appointment consisted of him spotting me in the reception area and asking if I was for him and on being told so, pointing me at his consulting room as he wandered off in conversation with someone else. Then he popped in, stood at the door and asked me what I was there for. Being prepared I rattled off the symptoms and he wandered off once more, then returned, took my blood pressure, sounded my chest, discussed the joys of being admitted to the cardiac ward with mylanta dribbling out the side of your mouth then ordered me to follow him down the corridor to another room where i was told to lie down with my blouse off. He plugged in various leads and cords, wandered off for another few seconds, came back, tore off the readout, told me to put my blouse on again and wandered out once more. I peered down the corridor where he was standing talking to yet another person, was pointed back to his consultation room, where he returned.

He typed something into the computer, asked me when my last bloods were done, took some blood as it was rather a long time ago, and then wandered into the adjoining room from whence he threw a couple of packs of meds at me (which I fortunately caught) then sat down and told me he would call me if there was anything wrong with the bloods. And that was it. Lol. I have no idea where he gets all that energy as he is well into his sixties if not over 70!!

So home again for eggs, moving strawberry plants (potted up this morning and dosed with seasol) outside onto the septic tank and feeding chooks and cats and dog and so to rest once more. All very bracing.

BTW as I suspected, it is only indigestion - too many cups of tea methinks.

Last night's Irish Stew was ready for eating by 9pm, so I have having that tonight instead.

Had another windfall today - quite a few strawberry plants. They will be goig in to some of the larger pots in the short term. There was a small tank round that came out of the chicken run during the big cleanup which I plan to cut down a bit and use for my bay tree. While I wait for the bay tree to exceed its present 30cm height, I will plant the strawberries around it. Then when the fruit is coming on the netting can be draped over the top of the bay tree to cover the strawberries (OK, I will also use some stakes so as not to drag down the top of the bay tree).

All inspired after yet another day of stitching away at this long-stitch embroidery (sigh) I did the rounds of the garden and took some pix. Some of the hedge - the tall plant is the medlar and it is flanked by some of the slower hawthorns, and these are the faster growing ones. The one to the right of centre has put on growth to the point it is four times its original size!

Also the chicken - how cute is this chicken? I begin to think there may be hope it is a girl, but a bit soon to tell, especially as its parentage is so dubious.
As you can see there are quite a few hens to choose between as the potential mother. Sadly, I suspect the welsummers snuck an egg in while I was not looking and the chicken is the result. They were the one breed I did not plan to perpetuate ... Oh well.

Irish Stew going on the stove tonight I think - might rummage for some carrots in the garden when I go down to pick the relevant herbs ...