Today has been more a case of 'who is actually in charge?'. This is generally Esther (the smaller of the two cats), but while he is not willing to attack, Sebastian is not willing to back down either, so there has been a steady stalking around the house for much of the day.
Shadow is aware of it, but chooses to remain distant, though I would not like Seb's chances if he decided to hurt Esther. Shadow is very protective of 'his' cats. 

Shadow has also sought a degree of reassurance today, since Sebastian, when barricaded off the lounge, tries to ooze his way onto Shadow's bed, even if Shadow is on it. This may involve sitting firmly against Shadow's rump, sitting directly in front of his nose or other tricks of assertion. Shadow just gets up, turns around a few times and lies down again.

So for me it has been a day of monitoring proceedings and staying out of it (which appears to be Smidgen's approach also) while they sort things out. When things get to the point I feel tensions are building up, we go for a walk. Both dogs, one dog, depending on what seems appropriate. 

When I have Sebastian solo we do some training. Sit, heel etc. Sit seems to be a variable skill depending on the attractions. 'Come' is also a learning curve. But he has on several occasions responded when other temptations had him at the full extent of the leash, so there is some hope we may make progress.

I think I have walked more in the last two days than in the previous 12 months, lol. But I expect it is good for me too.

Raided the freezer and found some left-over lamb biriyani so no prizes for guessing what is for dinner tonight.

Hope you all have a really Happy New Year. Mine will, as always, be a quiet one until midnight when the local hoons wake me with their drunken revelries (which last about five minutes) and I will maintain my own tradition of starting the lawn mower at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Small things, but it is important to maintain traditions like these, lol.
 

Last night I shut the cats in the laundry/bathroom before bedtime. They promptly did a bunk as soon as I opened the door to go to the loo. I concluded chasing them was probably cause too much excitement and that I can leap out of bed if required during the night. So off to bed. First thing Sebastian did was leap onto the bed, get thrown off, leap up again, get thrown off, and the retreated to the hall where he set up camp outside my door. Smidgen came to bed as per normal, and Esther presumably stayed in the loungeroom as she normally does too.

After trying to dig holes in the hall runner to make it more comfortable, Sebastian retired to the loungeroom and put himself to bed on Shadow's day bed (Shadow being comfortably snoring beside my bed by this time). And so the night passed without event - amazing!!

This morning I was up early as I had to clean the bank. This left me with the dilemma as to what to do with Sebastian. Eventually I decided to just shut the cats in safety, and leave Seb with Shadow - after all it was only for an hour. I decided to take them for a long walk before I left so as to wear Seb out = big mistake. Previously he had been happy to lounge around after his early toilet run. After the longer walk (interrupted by a passing hare) he was all hyped up and so I expected trouble. But no. No scratch marks on any doors, silence on my arrival home and two dogs fast asleep indoors.

This was all getting too good to be true, so I decided to test my luck by bunging them both in the back seat of the car and just driving the short distance to the Andover turnoff (on the principle that I could walk them back if it was not successful. Shadow camped in the middle of the back seat, very upright and self-conscious. Seb hung his head over the back of the seat  near my ear looking cute. Stopped. Opened the car door, forgetting for a moment, and Seb launched himself out the driver's door in one fluid motion, under the door and off. EEK! Fortunately I had the liver treats with me and he responded to my calls (after making me sweat a bit as he headed off down the middle of the road). Shadow sat patiently in the back seat while all this was going on, waiting for me to open the door for him. So we went for a bit of a walk along the cycle track and then back to the car and home. The return journey they were more relaxed together, and getting out of the car was not so traumatic for any of us.

We have had a few more walks today and it seems Seb is indeed housetrained which is good news.

In the mean time i have baked a loaf of bread since I seem to be running low and have no money for the rest of the week. I will probably bake some more tomorrow. This is using up some bread mix for the breadmaker which is now redundant due to the advent of the stand mixer, so hopefully it tastes OK. I suspect it may have too much salt as I forgot it would be pre-salted.   It's moments like these my stockpile of pantry goods comes in handy. Some veges from the garden, some meat from the freezer, some fresh baked bread, icecream with rhubarb or failed cherry jelly (which makes a lovely sauce for icecream) - what more can a girl want!

Lit the fire as it was quite cool and now it is fairly mild so the fire is redundant.

Sebastian clearly learned bad habits where-ever he was before he ran away. If found on furniture, instead of leaping off looking embarrassed, he simply curls into a tighter ball and tries the 'I'm too cute to throw me off' look. Sadly for him it doesn't work with me. He can not understand why the cats are allowed on the furniture and he is not - he walks over to each of their chairs, rests his chin and stares at them, and then gives me a filthy look before retiring to his bed, lol.

Sebastian (as he is now known) travelled well if unhappily in the back seat of the car. He apparently does not associate cars with happy experiences. He is already responding to his new name with the benefit of liver treats but sit seems to be a challenge for him (very muscular hind legs and a very flexible neck - not a good combination, lol.



When he arrived, Shadow and the cats were indoors as per normal so I put Seb on an extension lead so he could go off and sniff something while Shadow got out the back door unimpeded. They had a bit of a sniff at each other then Seb decided to head off to check out his new environment. So off down the lane we went with occasional pauses to share wisdom.
Sebastian is clearly a good influence as Shadow usually loses interest about a quarter of the way around the oval and we come home. Today we made it all the way around the oval, up to the fire shed and were interested in going further, but since Shadow had started limping, I declined on his behalf. I have been keeping Seb half a pace back from Shadow's nose so that he gets the idea Shadow is the boss dog. Similarly Shadow is given his food first, and allowed through the door first. He himself does not appear to have realised he is supposed to be asserting any superiority, lol.




The cats were objects of interest for a short while but he seems to be coming to grips with the idea they are locals and not to be harassed. I will, nevertheless be locking them in the bathroom tonight for their own safety.

Feeding time at the zoo is also a little fraught as Shadow does not eat his food for some time after it is put down, and apparently Seb also has reservations about guzzling it all at once. As for housetraining - well we go out at regular intervals after drinks, eats and just sitting for a bit so I have yet to work out if he is or is not. I imagine the answer is 'not' but he still squats to pee so there will be little harm done if he has an accident.

At present he is wandering around with a training harness on (he pulls a lot so I concluded a collar was not going to be useful for a while), dragging his leash in case I have to make an emergency intervention. But hopefully by tonight he will be exhausted and want to lie down for a spell.

The plan was that I would have two dogs by now. But for reasons best known to themselves the Dogs Home is apparently closed on Saturdays. Good thing I checked before setting off. I'm sure this is a great relief to Shadow and the cats, but a bit annoying for me. I had hoped to have a full day with the new dog before I had to leave him alone for a couple of hours and since I have to clean the bank on Monday, that will not be possible. Still, I can hopefully do some preliminary training on the subject of staying in the house if I collect him first thing tomorrow.

This sort of training involves going out for a few minutes, then coming back in and rewarding him if he is quiet. Then going out for a bit longer and so forth. So there will be a lot of coming and going tomorrow afternoon, lol.

Today I had all three apartments to clean and it was a monster job. The 'needy' clients of last night had left their place in a sty and had not left money or their key as they had arranged to do. While the lack of a key was no problem to me (having pass keys as I do), it would have been a pain for the incoming tenant. As it was, there turns out to be a spare set of keys up at the Information Centre so I called up there to get them once I was done.

The king-bed in the Studio has to be zipped back together when it has been hauled apart. The zips are at top and bottom of the sides of the mattresses and the bottom one is a right sod to get started. Once started all was well, but anyone wandering in while I was wrestling with it would have wondered what on earth I was doing.

Once back together again, it was this and the fold-out to make in that room, plus a queen in the cottage and three beds in the main house - far too many beds in one day is all I can say. The people who had been in the main house had very helpfully put post-it  notes on all the linen they had not used and emptied the bins thinking they were being helpful. It really wrecks your routine I have to say!! They had even re-made the beds!! So it took three and a half hours to get through that lot what with the mess in the Studio. By the end of it I was ready for a cold drink and managed to get some blood orange soda water from Penelope's shop (conveniently located adjacent) and home to give Shadow a run and check the opening hours of the Dogs Home - with the aforementioned results. I have just checked their website using the laptop (I used the phone before) and it seems they were open today after all!!! Gargh! How confusing. I just rang to make sure they don't give him to anyone else in the mean time. Will head off first thing in the morning to rescue him from the horrors of suburban living!!

Today was cleaning the bank day followed closely by cleaning the studio day but since the Studio was a carry over from Christmas Eve and no-one was in it I got it done and dusted by 10:30 and was home shortly thereafter. Puppy-proofing the house took much of the rest of my day - shoes all in a suitcase, electrical cords unplugged, tightly wrapped around appliances or raised to a suitable height, clothing off floor and pillows and cushions all tidied away also.

Then Shadow had to go back to the vet for his blood test so we drove down to Montrose and parted with more money and he came back with a clean bill of health. The bloods were those of a much younger dog (phew) and his aches and pains all come from his back (something I have been telling vets for the last 11 years only to be told it is his hips as he is a labrador crossed with a rottweiler and of course they have bad hips. Grrrrr.

So he is now tucking into his own dinner and Smidgen is letting me know that Shadow ate his dinner while i was out.

Why was I out? Because the guests in the Studio had forgotten to mention they needed single beds. So I had to go in, pull the king size in half, fit new sheets and give them directions to the nearest restaurant, explain you can't simply pop in to a farm and ask for a tour, and generally explain that country towns don't have nightclubs or other entertainment for ill-prepared tourists.

Shadow and I have had a lovely Christmas. We set off yesterday afternoon, via the vet since Shadow's arthritis became so acute he was unable to weight bear until part way through the day. Several hundred dollars, an injection and five days of medication later, we arrived at Barb's and settled in for the afternoon. Since dinner did not finish until 9 we stayed over. Shadow and Barbara's one remaining dog worked out an accommodation (not exactly friends, but not hackling up at all - just mutually ignoring each other, and Barbara's cat, after working out Shadow was not charging, just turned his back and got on with what he was doing. Overnight, not a single problem which was a relief. They were all good friends by breakfast time. Sat and drank tea and ate toast for a bit then we wandered off into the distance.

Called into the Dog's Home with little hope of finding anything (they only had staffy crosses on the website), but found a nice 14 month old Labrador x hound who looks a lot like Shadow. He has a very dark brindle coat with a broad black streak down his spine and a thin white streak on his chest.  He and Shadow got along well in the introduction pen (once they stopped long enough to pay attention to each other, what with all the interesting smells there) and so Buckley will be coming home on Sunday. I have yet to break this to the cats, lol.

He will not be going outside except on an extension leash that I got back from Barb while I was there (I had loaned it to her while her elderly dog was still active, but too deaf to respond to commands any more - Ben passed away a few months ago). That is until he learns commands and respond reliably to call. Last thing I want to do is add to the wandering dog problem in this neighbourhood. But he seems fairly dim, very placid and steady so I expect we will be getting along just fine in the near future. Shadow will have someone to play with so he gets more activity to keep his limbs lubricated and Buckley will learn how to be a proper dog according to my household's rules.

The rhubarb bottling saga continued this morning with five bottles put up before heading into Oatlands to help load rubbish from the shed-gutting exercise yesterday. This went onto the ute and two runs to the tip got rid of most of it. What remained came home with me as it will be useful for when I build the chicken run. Not least of all will be almost full roll of fine mesh wire (like bird wire but with a 10mm mesh) which will be superb for the main coop.

Then home again to finish bottling the second lot with the result I now have 11 bottles of rhubarb. You can see the difference between my normal rhubarb and this stuff from the Garden if you compare this image with the one from yesterday. These look like rubies!

Still wondering what to do about the jelly that isn't a jelly. I think I will try cutting up an apple, putting it in muslin and boiling it with the syrup I have, in the hope that the pectin from the apple will allow it to jel. Don't want to add any more Jamsetta as it leaves a nasty aftertaste if you overdo it.

So between the rhubarb bottling, clearing up the Community Garden and watering my own (doing a bit of weeding, progress-checking and other activities en route, washing the dog (since he needs to smell nice if we go visiting tomorrow) and generally clearing out cupboards so I have somewhere to put this stuff, it has been a fairly productive but not terribly demanding day all up.

Best wishes for tomorrow to you all. I won;t be blogging as I will be at a friend's place for the evening. So - journey safely, eat wisely (or if not, well) and arrive safely at the end of this season.

Well I thought I had rings, lids and clips to fit my bottles, but it turned out I had rings, lids and plastic storage lids instead. So a frenzied search for clips was in order. I had my fruit in the jar, the syrup ready to bring up to heat, the thermometer on standby but no clips - quelle crise! In the end I had to go all the way to Derwent Park to get them, so I had better not get botulism from this lot!!

They do look rather pretty though, now they are done. The next batch will be the super-red version from the community Garden so it will be interesting to see how they compare. It is sitting to soak overnight in syrup as we speak and will be bottled tomorrow since apparently I have a free day!! Woopee. Don't speak too soon though as I have already been roped into going into the garden in the morning to help with some work. Poo.

It does seem that far too many people depend on me at present. I tried to log into facebook for five minutes over lunch and had three conversations going simultaneously while I was trying to frame a post to someone who had taken something personally when it was a general conversation we were having (several of us were involved in the conversation but one took the whole issue personally - what can you do). So meanwhile I am fielding requests to organise the anti-shale gas committee to have monthly meetings with all members present and for us to all go down to Hobart to do passive resistance training, another person wanting to know if I had got his email and if so was it OK for me? (I had spotted his email and was planning on dealing with it when I had had five  minutes break), and a third person trying to pass the time of day with me because clearly she had nothing better to do. Since I had just got in from cleaning the bank and spending the rest of my time conducting unscheduled tours of the garden for visiting community garden people (apparently they sent us a message via FB before they set off from Spreyton this morning) while organising the Workskills team and assisting them also I really was not in the mood. Gargh!!

Not quite sure how I got to be the go-to person for every project south of Launceston, but it feels like that at times. It would be nice to have the time to mix up some concrete and put in the post for the clothesline while the weather is clement (not raining too much and not too hot), but I guess it will have to wait until after Christmas now. At least the Workskills people are apparently taking January off, and this morning was a token appearance, so I get to avoid having to dodge off to clean apartments without letting it be known it is not just the bank I am cleaning. Speaking of which, it is a hectic couple of weeks on the apartments so I am glad I am only working half the week there. Lots of all-three units days. Since one unit includes five beds and another has a king bed that variously becomes two singles and also a fold-down bed that may or may not be required it will take a bit of effort methinks.

The cherry jelly, by the way, is more of a cherry syrup. So the question is, do I use Jam-setta or do I cut up and apple and pop it in a muslin bag and boil it up with the syrup and see what happens. I suspect I will lose the glorious plum purple clarity of it if I do that, but the flavour is going to be less artificial..... Will ponder it overnight since it way to late to start anything now.

Today it rained. And was quite cool too. So I converted the raspberries and strawberries to jam and am currently working on turning the cherries into jelly. I opted for jelly as you don't have to pit the cherries (no-one calls me a hard worker, lol). So they are quietly dripping their juices at present and will be boiled up with some sugar soon to go into the jars.

I took advantage of the rain to run several loads of preserving jars through the dishwasher as someone gave me two wine-boxes full of the right size for a single person. Now all I need are rings, lids and clips. Their first day out will be bottling some rhubarb. This was cut up and is standing in syrup overnight before bottling them tomorrow afternoon when I get home from what ever it is we do in the garden tomorrow (that is after I have cleaned the bank first).

The red-stemmed rhubarb in the Garden is also in my sights as I can cook some of it up with apples to freeze and bottle some of it as well. That will give me a sample of what it looks like when we split up the excess crowns in the Garden and sell them over winter.

I frequently feel that I am being observed while I potter on the computer and recently, due to changes in operation with the new kitchen table, I have found out why.

It's enough to reduce stronger nerves than mine to jelly.

How time flies when you are busy - sorry if I alarmed anyone. Today was as busy as the last few have been, but today I have had a rather more useful signal so can actually spend time on the computer without wanting to smash it.

Sadly there has been little time for that as I had to work this morning cleaning two flats. Amazing what you find in them. This morning it was a fairly tousled 'working girl' who had overslept. I moved on to the next flat and left her to sort herself out. Having been paid (with a small advance to boot), I headed down the back roads in search of some berries and stonefruits. No stonefruits but cherries, straw and rasp-berries came home with me. The latter a little squished so I will be eating them tonight (and tomorrow - there are quite a few of them). The strawbs will be jammed as I am quite partial to that, and the cherries may end up being goodness knows what!

The dog was pleased to see me back and so too were the cats as it was past their dinner time.

I have always been aware that tiny little Esther is the cat in charge (even the dog acknowledges this) and I discovered it for a fact today. Their food bowl is in a corner, so when Smidgen is over it, there is no room for Esther. Problem solved. She sat back and reached one long black paw, hooked it over the edge of the bowl and dragged it out from under Smidgen's nose as he was eating. Laugh? I was rolling on the floor. Smidgen was most offended.

This morning was also overcast with a nice breeze blowing which made life much more comfortable as I clambered around the roof attaching sisalation to the evacuated tubes in anticipation of Aurora's promised power cuts. Lots of string, 2 liter milk bottles full of water to weigh things down and we were set. It looked quite impressive if I do say so myself.

The top lavender panel is a woollen blanket (Waverley woollen mills in case you are interested) that I obtained at a charity shop and still use for occasions when the doona, flanellette sheets and the other blanket are not up to scratch) and the lower section is sisalation. The strings (in case you were worried) are attached to the frame, not the tubes.

It did make me think it would be worth making a roller blind for a permanent fixture so that it can be deployed rapidly on days when the wind cuts out the power. But it would need to be firmly tracked down the sides of the panel to avoid lift-off.

Anyway, having finally got that all organised I set off to cut some grass which I did. Not all of it by any stretch of the imagination, but some. Came indoors for a cold drink and discovered that Aurora had not cut the power after all. So went to chat to the nice men in the truck who advised me that they would not be doing it after all. Grrrr.

Climbed back up and dismantled the lot then went indoors for that drink, and logged onto the computer. Only to discover I was required to clean up two of the holiday lets (good money, not terribly hard work so I said I was available and went in to do that.

On the way home I spotted this glorious sight so grabbed my camera and came back to take a pic.

 

I did wonder why Peter was cutting his hay when it was so green, but then realised we have a total fire ban tomorrow. So apparently it is a fire break (though goodness knows why we might need it - that grass is sodden green. But as it runs along the back of the populated areas, I have to assume that is its purpose. Lovely sight to see though!

Did you know this is my 1001st entry in this blog. Amazing how time flies.

It was a foggy and dewy start to the day so you can imagine how surprised I was when I looked out the window and spotted two unescorted horses wandering down the drive. No prizes for guessing where they came from. After some considerable exercise and high adrenalin (there are a lot of things in my yard a young silly horse could hurt itself on) I managed to get them out and up the road a way, which freed me to go and knock the neighbours up to go collect their horses.

One was wearing a halter but knew it was being naughty so would not let me near enough to catch it. The other had no halter and and bites so I was not planning to try to catch it. When I say 'bites' it is young and unschooled and nips experimentally rather than a nasty bite, but still quite painful I discovered.

The mist burned off around 9:00 ish which was unfortunate as I had hoped to get some grass cut this morning. But once the mist was gone the temp went up dramatically and so I retired indoors. Took the first load of rubbish to the tip when it opened and then a second load followed in quick succession after which I retired for a nap. And so the day was completed....

A quiet stroll around the garden netted one pea and a small beetroot (which I will probably grate to add to the salad that will be tonight's dinner. That and some cold Marion Bay Free Range chicken from the rotisserie at the IGA.

 I am now officially the cleaner at the Bank - three days a week, one hour a day. Not a huge income (a bit over $100 per fn but every little bit helps. The company has also recently acquired the contract for the ANZ bank in town so may also be able to give me that work too if it comes through (apparently they currently do it for themselves). Add to that the cleaning of the holiday lets and I will have a good chance at getting some extra cash while I am at Uni next year which is all good. I start Thursday at the Bank as they have a chap coming to do the carpets. It will give me a chance to settle in there and have a bit of company while I get to know my way around. He apparently comes up once a month (who knew?).

Spent some time clearing a track to the beehives today so the ute is loaded up ready to go to the tip and  I have another lot ready to pile in. I will do two runs and get rid of it all I hope. Have also concluded I won't be needing the chainsaw again if today's weather is anything to go by so have also put away the sawhorse for summer. Any chilly days I can always cut enough with the docking saw to be getting on with.

Andrew at the Service Station is so flat out with pre-christmas demands that he can't look at the bicycle for me, but never mind he tells me it is all in working order (well, not quite, it needs oil, new brake pads and the seat raised to a more acceptable height (at present my knees come up to my chin on the up-stroke of the pedals) and a few other minor things. I will take it to the men's shed and go all feminine and useless. Or even just use their tools and do the job myself. I still need a helmet and lights before I can take it on the road, so to speak, but I had a bit of a run this morning and it seems to go well (at least I did not wobble or fall off).

While it is hot I will probably not be doing too much outdoors but will try to run the mower over the area that was slashed so as to finish off the job. If I can get out there tomorrow morning before the heat of the day I can get a fair bit done before I have to go into the Bank to try out my pass-code in front of witnesses who can vouch for me if I stuff it up. It would not be fun to spend Christmas in Jail, lol.

Today was a day of many parts. It started off with a little gentle watering in the garden in preparation for today's heat, then into town to go to the home of an elderly friend whose back had let her down, making gardening a bit of a struggle. On the way I spotted a garage sale at the historical society. They inherited all of Graeme's stuff when he died so I was interested to have a poke around. Came away with his bicycle (mens, five gears and handle brakes) which I promptly dropped off at the service station to have them give it a going over. I learned on a bicycle with no gears and the brakes of which engaged when you peddled backwards, so it may take me while to come to grips with this. Thank heavens for the recreation ground at my back door!

I also acquired a long thin box with two hinged lids. My initial thought was that it would be a good addition to the kitchen bench to house herbs and spices as well as the smaller bits of the stand mixer. Only problem is it extends across two sets of power points. So the next option is to rearrange the benches and attach it to the wall that the stove is on, beneath the cupboard and the dish rack. Not sure how that will work in terms of the hinged lid though. So a work in progress.
Sorry about the pumpkin seeds - doing a spot of seed-saving from the pumpkin I  made into soup the other day.

$25.00 poorer I arrived at Annie's to do her garden and spent an hour there. She tipped me off to another cleaning job (one hourxthree days a week at the bank) which I will chase up tomorrow morning.

Then on to the current cleaning job. I was working with another Annie (my neighbour) and between us we did all three units. Then I took the teatowels home and washed them, took them back into town to go through the tumble drier at the laundromat and returned them to the cottages before heading home via the tip to get rid of some rubbish.

Was pootling around the potted seedlings/cuttings/plants which are now residing on my former kitchen table over by the tank when I noticed some fairly active buzzing going on. It seems a swarm of bees has decided to take up residence in one of my empty hives. Oops. I will give them a couple of days to settle in then remove the top box (which has no frames in it), strap the remaining two to the base and call a friend to help me shift them to his place. Unfortunately Graeme, who died recently, was my bee mentor, and Graham (who I plan to call) recently lost his wife so may not be in any state to help me. But they can't stay where they are (far too close to her next door) and so must go on vacation to a distant location while I get ready to receive them in a more permanent spot. So it's all go here at the moment!!

I took delivery of the new kitchen table today which, as you can see, is a proper farmhouse kitchen table complete with drawers on the side. Not sure what I will keep in them yet - will have to think about that. Perhaps Piping bag and nozzles and the smaller attachments to the Bosco.

It is a bit higher than the previous table to accommodated the drawer depth and also because I suspect farmhouse tables were designed to be useful work benches as well as fancy features. So at 87cm it is a good height to be working on. Not so good for typing on I have to say, but I will work around this somehow.

One of its legs is a bit wonky, having split through the table being dragged and pushed to move it about. A couple of long countersunk screws should set that right though so not a major issue. Just have to remember to do that before it falls off, lol. The retro chairs I found at the tip sit up to it nicely with room for knees to fit. The chair in the photo came with the table, and will be used for Spare when I am seating more than four around the table.

My clay critters also arrived back from the potter today (remember I made them at the Open Day?). The look rather more the thing now they are fired and glazed and are settling into their new home in the food forest. One under the plum tree, the other temporarily beside the future seat (but its final fate is not yet decided).

The rolled tongue is actually a funnel to direct drips into the mouth which suggests a slightly more moist location than the garden bed to me. But I will see what inspires me.

Kim Foale (the artist who organised all this) also gave me one of her clay spoons. They are the size of a teaspoon bowl and the bowl is glazed in a translucent blue which has depth and vibrancy to it. The rest is brushed with iron oxide and has a bleached and weathered look to it. The curve is just the right size and location for your thumb and the other side of the handle has a shallow indentation ideal for the side of your forefinger to rest in. The handle is drilled so if I was a few years younger I could bung on a leather thong and wear it around my neck. Lovely and versatile.

I had my debut as a cleaner today after a little confusion over start times (I thought it was 11:00 but apparently it was 12:30 so I did some errands (leaving a message) got home, checked the email and bolted straight back into town. At least I got to the library so have something to move onto once my current book is done. Apparently this will be a fairly full on schedule, but at 2 hours per day is not that onerous. Next effort required on Sunday.

So apart from all that stuffing around nothing else got done much today. I will have to run back into town (again) as I have not been to call on Jenny since last week and must secure my interest in the kitchen table as she is prone to absent-mindedness at times. That and the two antique chairs are fairly high on my lust list.

Nothing at all got done today mainly due to me sleeping in until .... 8:30!!! shock horror, and then being recruited to go to Hobart to spend $2000 of someone else's money that had to be spent  before the end of the grant project. They were worried we would not be able to spend it all, but not to worry - Jo was there and so it was spent :-)

We came home with a bootload of ingredients for making the Steve Solomon Complete Organic Fertiliser as well as various odds and sods for the garden and left behind an order for 60 sleepers for garden edging at the school garden. Job done!

While there my chauffeur had a medical appointment so he dumped me in town where I wandered for a while window shopping, then retired to the Cathedral for a break from the hurly burly (I also wanted to be close to Macquarie Street so it would be easy for him to collect me on his way out of town.

Found this surprise in Liverpool Street near Cafe Kara. They stock all manner of Tasmanian products. Many woven woolen objects (scarfs, blankets etc), oils, scented candles, elderflower cordials, you name it! Great to see someone finally cottoning onto the merits of stocking good quality Tasmanian products all in one store in a prime location. Hope it does well.

Picked up some smoked paprika at Spice World and drooled over the various things in Habitat.


Then after a coffee and a chocolate fudge cake (with cream) at Kafe Kara I wended my way to Macquarie street (one eye on the clock) and visited the Cathedral. I never liked the new stained glass window they installed while I was at school, but on mature reflection I think it is rather wonderful.


And so we wended our weary way homeward. Going to Hobart is quite exhausting if you are out of the habit.

The weather was forecast to be a lot more pearshaped than it actually was but I had set my mind to being indoors for the day and so got stuck into cleaning the kitchen. Oven, fridge, cupboards, drawers, you get the picture.  Just in case the health inspector gets wind of my new venture.

The other good news is the possibility of casual work cleaning some holiday rentals in town. Sort of a B&B arrangement without the breakfast - selfcatering is I believe the term. All cleaning supplies provided so it is simply a matter of turning up as required and giving the place a going through. Good news, and just the sort of work you want to have if you are a uni student.

Tonight's dinner will be an experimental spankopita since the spinach plants seem to have taken off in a major way. If it works I will make up some filling and freeze it for future use - either commercially or domestically. I have also decided to check out the bottling requirements for Rhubarb since the school garden has way more than it needs and it would be useful for fillings for cakes and other such things. Bottling and freezing seem likely to be a big part of my future if things go well so fingers crossed.

Apart from that not much was done - I collected a bolt and shake-proof nut from the service station but seem to have lost my spanner set temporarily. Will no doubt find it eventually but the kitchen takes priority right now.

Quiet day today at home. Looked up a recipe for Glace flowers and found it is a simple process of brushing them with whipped egg white and then dusting with caster sugar. I have the eggs and the flowers but no caster sugar (used the last of it cooking up the rhubarb with three apples in preparation for making some rhubarb and apple muffins. The puree will now sit in the freezer till I get feedback on the first batch.

Shifted two currant bushes to the food forest. It was necessary to hose off the roots due to the twitch infestation so I took advantage of the situation to prune out some of the more contorted bits that are no doubt stopping them from thriving (well, that and my neglect). Cut off about half their branches (the ones that were in the middle of the bush) and all the soft tips and popped them in the food forest bed along with the first currant bush. They neither had terribly much in the way of fruit this year so I have removed that as well in an act of great personal sacrifice (mind you there is a limit to what you can do with a half a cup of currants).

Then the woody cuttings were dipped in seasol and stuck into pots on the offchance they will strike. I remembered to label them this time unlike some of the other sticks I currently have in pots which could be anything!!

Retired indoors and did a load of washing or two and then was just settling down for the evening when Paul arrived with his slasher and got stuck into the bottom paddock for me. Needless to say her next door started patrolling the boundary in her pyjamas as a way of letting us know she was unhappy. Since she frequently wears pyjama pants as a fashion statement this has little effect. But when he ran out of fuel at 5:30 I suggested he call it a day and come back to finish the job some other time. Still, all down her boundary is now weed-free and so I will be able to install a fence down that side within my property so as to keep ducks. A friend has a flock of muscovies waiting for me to be ready so that must be a priority now.

Amazingly, having now gained acess to the almond tree for the first time in a while, I discovered is is positively covered in nuts - if the wind does  not blow them off it will be a really worthwhile harvest from it this year!! I was astonished. Similarly the apple trees all seem to have boundless fruit and the plums as well. So a bountiful harvest in store weather permitting!!

Another advantage of getting rid of the longer grass was that I was also able to get in and remove a lot of the smaller rubbish that has been lying there for some time. Bits of pipe, polypipe, a glass light globe which amazingly survived me beginning to tread on it (until I felt it give) and a few sheets of iron and lengths of wood left over from demolishing the shed. All this is now stacked on the lane to pile into the ute to take to the tip tomorrow. Amidst all this of course were all my star pickets and they too have been retrieved and leaned against the tank that I have down there, for ease of access when I borrow the banger-inner from the other neighbours (whose third dog has still not put in an appearance). Unfortunately their yappy dog is back in the yard once more and last night nearly drove me to shooting it. If I had had a gun they would not have a dog.

Dinner tonight is a mystery. I think I will wash off a few more of those new potatoes and bake them with rosemary and garlic and olive oil for a change.

Tomorrow is to be rather cold once more (never dull, our weather) and so getting the ute loaded is probably all the outdoor activity I will contemplate since I have plenty to catch up on inside.

A singularly poor showing for our working bee today, but that made all the more for me! I was pulling up weeds and easing the soil with my fork and progressively found this little treasure trove as I worked my way across the garden. :-)

My other treat that I awarded myself was a couple of crowns of rhubarb. In this photo the stems on the right are from the plants I presently have Those on the left are from the plants I just pinched. As you can see this variety has a deep red stem which should provide a much stronger colour in jams, wines and other such yummy treats. These have been planted in the food forest bed, closest to the house so I remember to keep the water up to them.

It was a pretty poor showing to our working bee (the usual three suspects) though I expect that the Christmas festivities cut into peoples' priorities.

That being the case there were lots of my muffins left over so I popped into the Petite Pantry and shared some with the new owner who is a friend of mine. The intention was to leave some she could cut up and give as free samples to customers. Instead she took the lot on commission and so a new business may be aborning (though I will have to do the maths on it first).

Between the new standmixer and me finally coming to grips with fan-forced ovens, they turned out pretty well even if I do say so myself. She suggested I finish off the icing with an edible flower which I will do in future. May even try my hand at candying the flowers first so they stay fresh longer.

After five hours weeding and then unloading said weeds at the tip (wet weeds are really hard to shift I found,  but fortunately another friend was there unloading and loaned me her lime rake - a heavy headed four-tined thing just right for dragging vegetation off the back of a ute).

I must off to consume the teeny taters which are presently melting the knob of butter to share the flavour of the mint!!

Today was a nice balance of activities with the grass wrestled down this morning, the garden watered, the veges weeded and the place generally back to where it should be. I even stood and stared at my currant bush for ten minutes and contemplated moving it into a more congenial spot.

Then indoors to bake. We have a working bee at the Garden tomorrow as the nettles are taking over and it really is a mess. So I made some savoury muffins and then a humming bird mixture which I baked in muffin pans also. Iced with vanilla icing with Philly cheese. Smells good and looks pretty good also even if I do say so myself.

The dishwasher has, as a result, been working overtime dealing with baking utensils and the stainless steel containers I scored from my friend yesterday. They are now drying out so they can be used for pasta storage and other uses. One is now my tea cannister.

The signal has been rather erratic today so no idea why that is as it has been a fairly nice day. Still, no knowing what goes on in the mind of Telstra these days. Going to make myself some corn fritters with the leftover ingredients from the muffins and that will be dinner.

I wish I could say today started beautifully, but it actually started with Esther proudly depositing three quarters of a dead rat on the laundry floor when she came in from her run. I suspect this may be the cause for Smidgen's long disappearance the other day. Problem is now apparently sorted (ew).

The neighbour's two dogs also put in an appearance once more - wandered in and spent a few hours hanging around their house, but since this elicited no response, have apparently decided to take themselves off once more.

Called over once more to my friend who has just moved to relieve her of some of the stuff that was left by the previous owners and came home to a nice cosy house as it was so cold this morning I lit the fire and cut some wood. Now it is a bit too warm so will require the removal of various layers of bedding if I want to sleep tonight. You can't win this season.

Getting nothing done around the place at present. Constipated as there are a couple of things I should be doing which I am avoiding, but refusing to let myself do the things I would like to do until the avoided matters have been dealt with.

This morning started beautifully, though with a very mild frost. With 2 degrees forecast for tomorrow and it being a chilly 6 degrees at present there may be another frost which might put paid to all the growth so far. Hail is forecast for later today.

I popped into town to get a selection of root veges to go with my pot roast which is tonight's dinner and discovered that the vege shop has changed hands and is now being run by a friend who is also keen to buy fruit and veg from me as well as any muffins i might like to make (on commission so neither of us is locked into anything). Sounds good to me. I will be making muffins tomorrow but they will be for the working bee at the Garden on Sunday so will be going in the freezer instead.

Then to the little second hand shop (more of a permanent garage sale really) to get some saddle brackets to fasten the mini-greenhouse to the fence with. Also acquired two pots of pansies (the ones with faces on them, not the violas that seem to be taking over) which have been popped in the front garden. On the way home I spotted that my friend had moved into her new house so called in to see how she was settling in. Did the grand tour of house and garden and since the previous owner had left everything in the granny flat out the back did a bit of picking through - I should get some stainless steel canisters, a scrap bucket for the kitchen and various other stuff, as well as a nice Kitchen table (as opposed to my present one which has peeling linoleum in one corner and has that hollow square metal rodding for a frame. The new one is a home-made solid timber table painted in white gloss with a sunshine yellow laminex top to it. It will go nicely with my retro kitchen chairs. All I have to do is con her husband into helping me lift it into my place. I will take my current table to the tip tomorrow!! V Excited as it has two drawers in it as a proper country kitchen table should.

Pot roast slow-cooking in the oven right now with lots of root veges, homegrown garlic and thyme, bought bay leaf and a good splosh of red wine. Smelling rather good but still some way to go before serving. In half an hour I will remove the cooking veges and replace them with carrots, parsnip and potatoes to be cooked on for serving along with the mash I will also be making up.

Christmas Lunch today for the quilting group and a fine meal was had by all. We even had change left over. Pity the white wine was served at room temperature, but you can't have everything.

The dog next door (actually two of their three dogs) have not returned. Both are the most hated dogs in the neighbourhood so I suspect they will not be coming back. The remaining dog is a rather nice black dog who is missing the others but is at least quiet and does not bark at me when I go down to the garden.

My bean seeds are clearly giant-killers. They had not emerged yesterday but today have two leaves and are a good two inches high! Amazing stuff. At this rate they will outstrip the sunflowers which is not at all the plan!! Hope the sunflowers get a growth spurt from today's rain and humid warmth.

Since I got into my party finery after my shower this morning, and was mildly buzzed when I got home from lunch, not a bit of work has been done here today. Must resume activities tomorrow if the 12 degrees is not accompanied by winds.

Only a few mm in the rain today, but more is forecast over the next few days. It will soften the soil for weed removal along the hedge and allow me to spread the mulch down that line which will be good. Must also get the mower out once more as growth has been astonishingly rapid. Far too late in the season to be having to mow daily!!

Boy was it hot today - full sun, extreme radiation and a still day on top. After tending to the plants I retreated indoors but Smidgen failed to return from his morning run. Finally strolled in around 2 which was a huge relief because when he disappears like that I worry something awful might have happened. Extra worry today as the neighbour's killer dog is somewhere on the loose. It got off last night and has not been seen since. With any luck a farmer has shot it. They do not seem terribly concerned and have made only a half-hearted effort to find it so far.

Being indoors I planted up some basil seeds in the mini-hothouses and did two loads of washing. Both of them sheets. Since it was a still day they went outside to dry on the airers (which fall over if there is a breeze) and so smell lovely.

Took advantage of their absence to wash the floors and have a general tidy up as I will be baking a cake this evening for a friend's birthday.

The compost seems to be behaving itself so far though I am checking it regularly for temperature increases - perhaps being less moist timbers than the lot I had in Brisbane it will remain calm and not do anything untoward.

Checked along the hedgeline and realised I can start installing it fairly quickly as my earlier horehound removal exercise has left me with access right up to the stems of the hawthorn. I will be going out for Lunch tomorrow so will probably not start then as I will be wanting to be relaxed in the morning and will possibly be tiddly in the afternoon - not a condition conducive to work.

So it was a fairly unproductive day, but a relaxing one. Now all I need to do is bake this cake, eat my dinner and go to bed. How nice!

It was rather warm today with a bit of a wind which did not help. Despite sunscreen it was necessary to retreat indoors by around 11:00 am. Then I heard a strange noise outside which proved to be Aurora's contractors trimming back the neighbour's trees to avoid impact with the power lines. I asked nicely and so they trimmed back the overhang over the lane as well. Then their shredder man came along with his machine and a truck full to the brim with mulch. So I asked nicely again and he dropped off half his load to avoid having to go to the tip and come back to finish the job. So I now have this sitting in the lane waiting for me to do something with it.

So I came out of retirement and started shovelling it into the barrow and wheeling it up to the newly formed beds to provide a path. It is a mix of pine, macrocarpa (those big old trees next door - one is visible in the recreation ground too), gum, banksia and a few other odds and sods too presumably.

I will have to keep an eye on it as last time I had a heap like this (when I lived in Queensland) it got so hot it started smoking. So far it is behaving itself but I will check it again before bedtime.

While I was barrowing the stuff about, Tina and Ratt (some locals) called in with some raspberry plants for me to put into my next garden. Which then got me to thinking about stakes and wire to train them onto and from there onto issues of the boundary with the lane.

So I got the tape measure out and realised I have planted the hedge on the lane side of the boundary and my heap of lumber and my sand heap are also encroaching (not to mention the latest load of mulch). Then I got onto LIST and came to some alarming conclusions (which were in error) and so popped into Council to have a chat with the General Manager.

We discussed the issues the lane creates for me (ie not knowing where the boundary is, people wandering at will etc) and have agreed that the 4.8 meter lane really only needs to be 4 metres wide and even that is more than sufficient for pedestrian use but does allow access for Council vehicles should they need to go down there. Since the only vehicle that would need to go down there is their spraying truck and it has not been down there for quite a few years now (long before I got there), even this is not really necessary, but an extra 0.8 metres on my side will let me have vehicle access on to my property. So if you look at the photo the new boundary will be at the edge of the grass, instead of at the post that is leaning over. This would all be done informally to avoid legal fees on either side.

He has promised to discuss it with the President of the committee and email me back (I am VP of the committee concerned and the President was the chap I was working with on the bottom fence/gate the other day). So with any luck it can all be settled amicably and I can get stuck into building that new bed (in time to plant winter crops and any succession plantings I might need), and installing the clothesline and shifting the sand into one big heap and so forth.

The new paths look great with the mulch on them - not that they are complete at all, but you can see where I am going with them. I intend to carry this one down along the line of the plumbing. And of course it will also be spread around the edges of the beds. Anything left over will either go around the hedge as I weed it progressively or around the base of the fruit trees to help them survive summer (assuming we get summer this year). So a good day's work I hope.

I should point out that progress was also thwarted by the wind which discouraged me from untying the bundle of cardboard in case it went every where.

The fair turned out to be nowhere near the sort of affair that our charming local Councillor built it up to be. Basically it was the same four stalls that turn up every month, plus three more newcomers who must have wondered why they were there. So that's good and my paranoia about nosy locals was unwarranted.

My concern about disruption, however was not so far off the mark. Having spent no time there yesterday getting ready it was all go from 7:15 this morning with whipper snippers, generators and goodness knows what all going on up there. And at the bottom of the lane there was finally some action on replacing the bit of fence that used to close it off. So it now looks like this.

My job is to email council tonight and ask them to do the job properly with Koppers logs, a properly dug out ditch and a properly strained fence section (as well as a properly hung gate). The gate has a spring on it so it should swing closed if the kids do not open it too widely. Shadow considers it a vast improvement on having to clamber over the tangle of wire and orange safety mesh that was there before.


The other good thing about the market was the they had a plant stall  (and a donut stall, but the less said about that the better), so I was able to purchase a greengage plum, a black currant and a Cape Gooseberry (as well as a comfrey) for $16.00. They are all (bar the Comfrey) tucked into the new garden bed so it now looks like this.


The tiny plant on the left hand side foreground is sage. I thought it would look nice spilling over the stone work and so you can brush against it as you walk past.

So apart from some mowing I seem to have spent most of the day entertaining various visitors, taking another ute load of stuff to the tip and otherwise entertaining myself. Good night's sleep tonight in fresh sheets should make up for the early start this morning.