Last night passed surprisingly quietly with only a slight stirring (growling and a bark) from Shadow around 2am. I suspect this was the time when the various spray painting decorations were applied to the road surface.

I was sorely tempted to start up the lawnmower at 7 this morning, but decided I was being a bit of a humbug, so set to hand weeding along the side of the container. This area is where i stack things that might come in handy. Bricks, rocks, pieces of gal offcuts, star pickets, stakes, that sort of thing. The stacks start off neat, but get raided periodically so end up messy, and the plumber dumping piles of rock-filled dirt on top of this while trenching did not really help the situation. Then there were the milk bottles set aside for conversion into cloches and pots from various donors, and ... well, you get the picture. And all through this luxuriant growths of grass and weeds which were knocked down with roundup some weeks ago. So now it is once again a neat stack of various objects, sorted into type and with an area cordoned off for dumping smaller bits of brick, smaller bits of rock and concrete so that I have a readily accessible pile of fill when I need to use some. And also somewhere to put the innumerable similar bits and pieces that turn up whenever I dig a hole in the area near the house.

I even worked my way along the side of the tank to rediscover the outlet and the plumbing to the pump and such like. I think I will have to make a vow to spray this area with roundup regularly in future to avoid such overgrowth and infestation. Similarly around the rainwater tank. I will plant some pigface around that to reduce the opportunity for malign regrowth.

All along the back of the house has also received the treatment, so it is starting to get towards a state of fire-safeness, though a long way to go. Today's weather was a reminder that the fire season is close by so none too soon to get that sorted. And I am glad that Andrew is due to visit, though I will give him a call on Monday to firm up a more definite date for that to happen (this is Andrew Rotary Hoe, not Andrew Electrician).

I was rash and extravagant last night and ordered a jam pan from the UK. Here they are $237 from the Aga shop (worse in other locations that I have googled), or $289NZD from Milly's Kitchen. There I have obtained one (8.5 litre, stainless steel), plus muslin squares, a jelly draining bag and a box of labels all for £85 including postage to here. No argument from where I am standing. Naughty, but nice I reckon.