Despite the flannel sheets I had to haul up the dressing gown last night in a desperate attempt to keep warm - thoughts of goosedown doonas were uppermost, but since we  have warmer nights to come later this week are a bit premature. It was minus five this morning however and I only just managed to catch the taps before they froze - the first few moments were distinctly crunchy.

The weeds looked rather lovely with their frosting of ice, and the dogs enjoyed slipping and sliding out on the oval. I stuck to the gate when I tried to release the catch it was that cold.

 The sun shone pale through the mist as it came up, and the paddocks where white with frost.

 All the spider webs were encrusted with ice looking like beautiful glittering ice.
















and the grass was covered in hoar frost.

A beautiful start to a lovely day. Washing done and a steak and kidney casserole in the oven for tonight, though it will actually be quite balmy tonight - in the positive range of temperatures.

The weather gods seem to have finally woken from their drowsy balmy days and worked out it will be Winter on Sunday. This morning was minus 3 which fact was first drawn to my attention when, even with the quilt on, I was woken by the chill. Sorted that out, and have now broken out the flannel sheets and winter nightie to get me through tonight. Last night was supposed to be one degree, as is tonight, so I assume I will need to ensure the kettles are full before bedtime so I have some water before the sun comes up.

Crispy crunchy walk with the dogs this morning before heading into town to clean the bank then a few errands to run before heading to the cottages (I know! On a Friday as well!) as Annie had to go into town early so was only able to deal with one of them before leaving me to it.

The errands included picking rhubarb from the Garden and delivering it to the pub to make us another one of their yummy cheesecakes, digging up some of the lettuce seedlings that have sprung up everywhere, popping them into punnets preparatory to Sunday's market (and also to take home and put into my own garden), collecting newspaper from the newsagent for firelighting and to put in the last couple of punnets of seedlings I have lurking around, getting a cup of coffee for myself and ordering two of the pizzas they make at the Roxy that you can take home and cook for yourself - for collection after cleaning.

Since there was no great timeframe for the cleaning I did a few extra things like replacing the mattress protector on one bed and giving it a new (drycleaned) doona as well as replacing a few more pillow protectors. Only two more rooms to go in that department and I will have replaced the lot.

On our walk this evening Seb spotted the neighbour's cat in the back yard, leapt over the fence into the former chicken runs and chased it (fortunately he was on the rope), actually catching it and pressing it to the ground with his chest. Luckily he was at the very end of the rope so it was a simple job to drag him off and the cat escaped unscathed. I presume it is the neighbour's cat - they have gone through so many since i got here that it is hard to tell.

Pizza for dinner tonight, but tomorrow I plan to cook up an ox cheek into a rich gravy-filled casserole to warm me up.

Balanced the books for the community garden today (thought I should work out how much was in the cheque acct before writing another cheque on Sunday).  Fortunately it currently owes me money due to plant purchase and fuel costs into town getting stuff for the workshop last week, so once we get our reimbursements from the various organisations that are funding these activities with their end-of-financial-year slushfunds, I should be financial once again. Wondered why I was getting through so much money lately, lol.

The dogs have had a hard time going for walks as the neighour's bitey dog has been off leash all day and I always worry it will charge up to us on the oval and then there would be hell to pay. Fortunately it seemed a little subdued and stayed in its own yard which made a nice change.

Some of the local kids have finally worked out about the lane and so there has been some coming and going along it each evening after school. It is nice to see them using it and since they seem responsible about closing the gate at the bottom it seems to be working out well. I do a last-minute check at dusk to ensure it is closed properly so that when Shadow goes for his late evening stroll he can not get out of the yard.

A couple of days of messing around, sometimes in the garden, sometimes with friends. Called over to the new neighbours yesterday and she offered me a cuppa, then realised they had no power, so she came to mine and we chatted for a bit - they seem really nice people - what a relief!

Sunshine and showers alternating mostly and last night a few fairly solid dumps, though they only amounted to 8.5mm altogether. The various seedlings and seeds in the garden seem to be coming along nicely, and i noticed that a few lettuces in at the school garden have self-sown with gay abandon so I will lift a few and bring them  home.

Delivered worms and flyers today and then came home for more dog walking and messing around, then tonight I am having lambs fry with bacon - it is all prepped - just waiting for the dishwasher to finish so I have access to the largest frypan.

The pan of similar size is outside, having had something burnt to its bottom (a cheaper pan, so a thinner bottom and i forgot). I am hoping that we will have a frost tonight. The last frost shifted a fair bit of the burned on material and this one should finish the job. When it is nice and icy I add boiling water from the kettle and the rapid expansion cracks off what has not already been removed by the differential contraction of the burnt material and the metal.

The weather was rather vile today - tepid, dark black clouds overhead (rain has finally started falling now), and so forth. Naturally it was the day the boys from Workskills came up to work in the garden. But they worked with a will today - I was quite proud of them. The end result was that we now have water in the garden. Previously we had one tap right out the front of the garden, through the gate and beyond a big shed. Now we have taps throughout that will let kids pull hoses without dragging them across garden beds and destroying other people's hard work.

It was great until lunchtime when I ran into a friend in the local supermarket. She is living on benefits and has a small job, like me. But she can not afford rent so is living on the charity of a local business woman - not a situation she can tolerate but she would otherwise be homeless. I offered for her to come stay here (though goodness knows where she would fit as all the rooms are full of stuff that should be in a shed if I had a shed) but she declined because, like me, she hates being beholden (besides we would be scratching out each others eyes if she stayed too long).

I have to wonder how many other people are going to be severely affected by this new regime as she no doubt will be. As I am being. Last pay for no apparent reason my payment was reduced by $15.00. This pay it was reduce by over $60.00. Naturally the phone line is engaged constantly so I am still wondering what the heck is going on. Recently we all enjoyed a very small ($7.00 per fortnight) payrise, and an adjustment of the permissable income. Since the budget has not been passed yet, I have to wonder why they are suddenly trimming us back so savagely (10% of fortnightly income is savage when the income is already below the poverty line).

She told me that the reason they are planning to increase HECs interest rates is because Tony has sold off HECs debts to a debt-collection company in the United States. How can this benefit Australia, or indeed pay for the actual cost of course-provision here? The world is going rapidly mad, and it will not get better unless we can get rid of these vicious people who care for no-one but themselves and their mates.

On the upside, I found that the leaves have disappeared from my medlar revealing three rather beautiful fruits. I wonder  if they have bletted yet?

a day in my own garden today - got the rest of the cabbage seedlings in the ground and some onions as well - quite a few more of those to go - amazing how many fit into one punnet when you start splitting them up and planting them individually.

Made over another bed, discovered that something I planted in the shady bed is emerging (no idea what as I forgot to label them - hope it's the swedes). Mowed enough to gain access to the piles of stuff that impede  mowing and dug the piles out - shifting the resultant soil/rock mixture to the paths between the raised beds (with a view to covering with cardboard and bark mulch).

A load of washing was also on the list and apart from one teeshirt is all in and dry and mainly put away.

Amused myself baiting a Libtard on FB who was defending That Wink, and now I am ready for dinner.

A few more errands in town today - I met my friends at the Garden and showed them the polytunnel and the changes we have been making and sold them a manual so they can build their own (they were most impressed I can grow chillies etc). Then home via the Roxy for bread and milk. The rest of the day has been fairly peaceful, though the dogs seem restless for reasons best known to themselves.

It is cracker night tonight, though we have had no fireworks yet (a couple of sky rockets the other night simply created a barking session which soon died down), so I assume all will be well with mine. The cats slept through the skyrockets (though the barking did little for their peace of mind).

I can but hope that any racket is over and done with early, so I can sleep the sleep of the just!

No sleep-in this morning - up at five and on the road to clean the bank by 8 with breakfast done, dogs walked and a load of washing in the machine (sheets this time as it really was going to be sunny today).

The errands in town and visiting a friend and hearing all about her trip to France (her husband is related to someone who died in WWI and so they got a free trip for Anzac Day, then stayed on for a few weeks). Heated discussion with her (TPI) husband about youth unemployment (apparently all the local kids are on marijuana and will never get a job - though by my observation once they leave school they leave town, so which of us is right?) and the Forestry industry (he has a mate who lectures in forestry and UQ so clearly knows far more about it than us Tasmanians).

Then home to walk dogs, put on another set of sheets (flannel ones this time - which will be my entire complement of winter sheets clean this Autumn and smelling better than having been stowed away after drying on the airer), make up the bed (removing the dust and grit left by Seb and Shadow who occupy it in my absence) and then revise the flyer for the workshop on 1 June, send it out for approval, make amendments, print it off to take into town tomorrow, then sit and read for a bit.

Had a craving for fish and chips which was lucky as it is Friday and so the shop that sells them on Fridays was open. Must say they were disappointing - I suspect the use some sort of healthy vegetable oil, flavourless and the batter was very poor. Oh well.

Its difficult to type one-handed, but with Sebastian in the room and feeling cute  and appealing, I just have to try. The upside down head look seems to be his preferred approach.

Today was been one of those irritating days when you just go outside and it starts to rain. Then you go inside and it stops raining. The garden has, however made some progress thanks to the composted sheep manure i picked up in town yesterday and the cardboard that I found down on the oval. I have not, however planted this part of the garden due to me having realised that I was very low on newspaper - I will remedy that situation tomorrow while in town.

I have also discovered one of the down sides to growing your own veges. The carrots I planted in summer are so sweet that they don't make it inside. They are the rainbow sort - where you never know if they will be pale lemon, deeper yellow, red, purple or whatever. The purple ones are only purple for the first few mm and the core is orange just like a bought one. Whatever colour, they all taste delicious. And no. There are none left for dinner tonight and it is now raining once more.

Sebastian has found a mousehole on the way to the recreation ground so we stop and dig a bit deeper every day - at this rate he will have the bank down and I will have to rebuild it.

I must get to bed at a civilised hour tonight though as I slept in rather long this morning (and very nice it was too) and tomorrow I have to be up with the sparrows (actually before the sparrows) as there seems to be an ever-growing list of things to do when I get into Oatlands. Help someone with some documents, provide receipts so we can be reimbursed for the lunch we catered, go to the tip, visit a friend. I may never get home again!

We had a rather glorious sunrise this morning - just like kiddies draw it before they learn to draw things from life:

It only lasted a few minutes, but while it did it was breathtaking!

Despite the glorious show, it was quite chilly this morning, though in Oatlands it was not so bad. I cleaned the bank and ran some errands before returning home to walk the dogs. It was several degrees cooler here so I was regretting my decision not to add a coat before I was half way around the oval. Fortunately Seb took pity on me and did what we had come for and so I short-cutted home to thaw out and light the fire (which has been going all day).

Since it was so nice in front of the fire I stayed here, pausing only for dog walks and cooking a corned beef someone had given me. It had some home-grown, freshly dug carrots to go with it, and a potato that ended up being added to the compost bin as it was not cooked through.

Then I amused myself playing with the video edit function on the computer which I would love to share with you but I can't work out how to get the stupid blog program to accept it.

Most of today was quite pleasant if a little gloomy, so I did some washing and gardening. The last of the tomatoes have been pulled up and are waiting to be picked (which I really should have done since we have  a frost tonight), and two punnets of cabbage seedlings are in the ground - red and savoy. One lot into compost with hay for mulch, the other lot into hay with paper pockets of soil to get them going. The hay is on top of a layer of horse poo which is, in turn on top of a layer of cardboard since i really couldn't be fagged pulling up all those tiny mallow seedlings that seem to infest my garden.

I will be buying a bag of sheep poo later this week (possibly even tomorrow while I am in town cleaning the bank and paying the historical society for the sheep poo they provided for the workshop), and will use that on top of more cardboard to plant up the other punnets of seedlings (another variety of cabbage, red onions and yellow onions).

Then the cold weather descended - it is not technically cold, just feels like it at present, but it will be zero overnight and so cold enough.

The cottages are having a slow week and so there is no cleaning to be done there for the time being, which means i have more time for the garden, but no money to buy ingredients - c'est la vie!

The damp washing is festooned around the house at present and should be dry by morning. I may do more tomorrow if it stays fine.

Up bright and early to clean the bank which just about wore me out. What little energy I had left was spent in the Community Garden. Fortunately the lads did not come up this week but we had to do a bit of sorting out after yesterday's workshop.

So the sheep poo is now stored in the chook shed, and the remaining plants have either been tucked into their beds or taken to our homes for safekeeping till we have somewhere to plant them. The lemon tree has been planted in it's new home (apparently it is wind that kills them, not frost, so I may yet have a go myself if this one survives).

Council's lads were there (finally) to pick up the spare sleepers and such like rubbish (these were ones that were past redemption, so don't fret about waste), so we left them to it.

I staggered home, walked the dogs (several times) and have been loafing ever since. Hopefully I will have more energy tomorrow!

What a great day for the workshop - it was sunny all day until after the plants were in and afterward it rained lightly to settle them in. We went from this, which is the bed half way through removing the worst of the woodier weeds:

To this - which is the bed almost fully planted.

As you can see the weather was particularly good with blue skies and light winds for the presentation and planting, descending to light rain after all the plants were in. It should be a positive feast of foods when the bed settles down. Meanwhile I will be watering it on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays when I come in to clean the bank, and others will be watering it on the other days.

Participants seem to have enjoyed themselves thoroughly and the food was good (the rhubarb cheesecake was to die for, but the sandwiches were white bread and some had - gasp - processed chicken slices).

Totally exhausted so the dogs had two canters around the oval, and I will be hitting the hay very early indeed tonight!

I had expected to spend most of today frantically searching for the cheque book for the School Garden (I am treasurer and usually keep it in the box with the rest of the records but it wasn't there or any of the other places it should have been). Fortunately I found it by lunch time so was able to relax (relatively - I had to pack up a box of stuff to take tomorrow and otherwise get organised).

I noticed yesterday how good my woodheap was looking - definitely more than enough to get through the winter - and wondering why that was. I realised that while i was in town yesterday the nice farmer had dropped off another load and piled it onto the existing heap. I asked him for a couple of hundred dollars worth but I seem to have acquired at least three hundred dollars worth (and good, seasoned, hot burning wood at that). Must get over to pay him soon or he might take it back, lol.

I called in to see a friend in Oatlands this morning and we chatted endlessly. My main motive was to remind her to come to the workshop tomorrow, but we covered all manner of topics before I finally escaped. She has a lovely stone cottage in her back garden that up until recently has had a tenant in it. I jokingly said I would come and stay for a couple of nights as a break - and she agreed it was a great idea. So I may yet check the dogs into kennels and have a wee holiday in Oatlands - it will be a good chance to find out what it would be like to live in there (lots of gossip does the rounds there and not always of the kind variety (who is sleeping with whose husband/wife - you know the sort of thing).

Seb has the fidgets tonight and is alternating between hassling me and the cats. We are all ignoring him in the hope he will settle down. Fingers crossed.

We had a lovely spendathon today at three different nurseries (I suspect we overspent as I am not sure Eleanor heard me point out what we had notionally spent (but not paid for). Still, it is all money well-spent anyway.

So we have rosemary, coriander, french tarragon, a lemon tree (I remain unconvinced that will survive our climate, but we can keep it in the hydroponics shed in the mean time), cabbages, onion sets - well, actually they are for my garden, as are some of the brassicas), berries galore (but no strawberries, as they did not have them in stock any more) as well as tickets in a raffle that may win me a glasshouse (well a plastic house - near enough) with louvre windows for ventilation and such like - fingers crossed.

Then back to the Garden to unload these and to pick up the one hardwood pallet the guys at the stock feed shop had managed to accumulate for us - home, walked the dogs, finished off the ham salad roll I bought for lunch and am now planning yet another fire-less night due to on-going warm weather.

It really was 17 degrees - somewhat marred by strong winds for much of the day, but still so warm I am in two minds about lighting a fire tonight. I may just sit here with a jumper and quilt so I can get a decent sleep (I hate sleeping in a warm room!).

The 16-patches are now in rows of three. One has to be unpicked as I got the middle one on the end accidentally, but hey - it's progress. And I picked some apples off a tree down the back - will have to taste them later. Disappointingly small, but my first successful crop (albeit smaller than anticipated). The only other time apples survived so long on the tree, the rosellas ate them for me. This year they seem satisfied with the seeds growing closer to the ground.

I finally got round to taking my pillow to the laundromat but of course in the mean time it had dried completely. Since the fluffing up process presumably required some humidity, I washed five pillow protectors I had brought home from the cottages. One of these has no zip, so I had scored it for my own use, in case you were wondering about my generosity.

These were hung on the line till damp, and then take with the pillow to the laundromat. The spare pillow protector is now on the other pillow of the bed (which was also showing signs of subsidence) and pinned on with safety pins. And the newly fluffed pillow is sharing space with it. Hopefully I will wake tomorrow without the crick in my neck that initially drew my attention to the pillow crisis.

Fingers crossed for a double dissolution then - if Senate doesn't block supply I am guessing it will be Labor who are the holdouts - time we had a minority party government in Australia to teach them how to balance the needs of the people against those of their mates in the top 1% (who they fail to recognise are not friends in any real sense).

Tomorrow is allegedly going to be 17 degrees - how confusing. And  a very warm 9 degrees tonight - you can see now why the flannelette sheets are still in the drawer. Despite this it was foggy and soggy all day today and the fire is lit since, if we achieved 15 as forecast, then I must have missed that ten seconds.

I did make some progress on my patchwork curtains - the four patches are now 16 patches (i.e. four four-patches sewn into a square) with the strongest colour in the centre of each block. This required unpicking and resewing several four patches that had somehow been sewn together the wrong way around.

Apart from that and walking the dogs several times, cleaning the bank and getting some shopping done, not much happened in this part of the world today - I was too grumpy.

I do like Tuesdays. They are the day of the week when I am not doing anything else for anyone but me. Though now the word is out that may yet change.

Today I had a foggy start to the day and it did look as if the weather forecast might be unreliable, but I did the washing anyway on the principle that I have lots of airers if things had gone pearshaped. As it was, it didn't so the washing is dry (ish) and put away. Before I did it I started up the mower and mowed under the line as well so that I was not dodging washing while I did it. I am still just doing bits and pieces of mowing to get at the things I want to get at. This time it was the pile of stony dirt that I had dug out from the base of the hugelkulture. This has now been distributed partly into the new container and partly on the ground between the containers to build up the path to a level profile.

There is a pile of gravel that also must be distributed, which was excavated to install the pump on the tank. This will be coming out so that I can finally get around to moving the dog kennel over the pump to replace the 'temporary' cover I made from the freezer section of the old fridge. It will also house the fuel for the mower, the chainsaw and the whipper snipper which is currently in a shed way down the back and thus not terribly accessible (and so a good excuse not to get them out unless essential).

While I was taking a break from that (my visitors always arrive when I am loafing - I presume they all think I sit around doing nothing all day), Gordon from the Committee arrived with a trailer load of fire wood for me - lovely dry wood cut to the right length and in nice easily splittable pieces. So we unloaded it while catching up with each other (we have really only spoken at meetings, or on one occasion when it was hosing down with rain and he was desperately trying to dig out a drain to stop the recreation club from flooding), and talked about life the universe and everything. Now all I have to do is find the money to pay him, lol. Fortunately most of it is in the Garden treasury as I spent it on behalf of the garden and just have to balance the books to get my money back. Something I have to do before the shopping spree we have organised for Friday.

It burns rather hot I have to say as it is on the fire at present, and I may have to move into another room.

I also popped over the way to visit the new neighbours once again and have told Judy about the workshop - so hopefully she will be able to come - it depends on demands at home as they are in the middle of some seriously major work there.

Sleeping in this morning was not such a good idea, but I did it anyway - so it was a bit of a rush start to the day - running around the oval with the dogs and getting breakfast on the run as well.

As a consequence I forgot to take the pillow with me to put it into the tumble drier so that will have to wait for tomorrow.

The fairies had lots of clotheslines out on the grass down on the oval this afternoon - glittering and glimmering in the low sun. Not that I had much chance to admire them as the dogs were raring to go. Shadow, who has not voluntarily run at more than a slow lope for some time now, surprised us all. He often pauses on his way down the lane and joins Seb and I once we have already started on the oval. Tonight he positively ran down the lane, and across the short stretch of oval we had progressed onto. I thought it was a horse galloping up behind me and was quite surprised to see a happy dog at full gallop. Clearly all this exercise is not only doing me good.

After cleaning the bank it was on to the Garden for a bit more progress. We built up the sides of one of the beds which is closest to the paved area, and placed the last lot of sleepers flat on the top to make a seat for anyone gathered there for food. It is a bit of a rough job as the last lot of sleepers has warped considerably, but by counter-sinking the screws at least they are firmly attached to each other.

I have run out of potatoes, so tonight's casserole will be served with some basmati rice which is presently bubbling on the wood heater - must check it as I am using the absorption method, sigh.

We managed to have another sleep in this morning - very welcome it was too. The morning was all fog again (so dense I could barely see the campervans down at the oval), which cleared rapidly so I put the first load of washing on as soon as I was back from our early morning walk. That was one of my pillows and a jumper or two to balance the load. I will take the pillow in to tumble dry it tomorrow in the hope that re-distributes its stuffing (it is low in the middle and high on both sides at present). Then a set of flannel sheets which are now in the drawer (as opposed to the laundry cupboard where they spend summer), and finally the sheets off the bed. I will remain in cotton sheets until the nights are more reliably cold as they give me more flexibility (and dry faster).

Then I got the neighbours all excited by starting up the lawnmower. But i was only doing a little bit as I wanted to clear the grass to put in the new raised bed. It is a tank round that has been lurking at the bottom of the garden for some time now, and which is located at the junction of the long bed and the two tank rounds already up by the rainwater tank. This has allowed me to get rid of the pile of rotted and unburnable firewood which is now at the bottom of the tank round as the basis for a hybrid hugelculture. Tuesday I will (hopefully - barring distractions) put some dirt in on top of the wood from various piles of soil infested with small rocks. Then on top of that will go some layers of cardboard and finally some compost when I next get a load. Since I need some to top up the long bed as well, it will give me the necessary incentive to do so. The spaces between this and the existing beds will have a layer of cardboard and some of the woodchips from down the back to formalise the paths thus created.

The rest of last year's firewood is now on the new stack to dry out, and I have yet to work out what to do with the pile of branch wood Caroline gave me some time ago. A prolonged session with the drop saw seems the logical solution.

So I am feeling a little weary this evening and muscle sore.

So much for my plans to get some washing done today - the happy campers have brought the rain with them. And a dog. So walking for Shadow and Seb has to be done on leash. They both consider this an offence against their good behaviour and getting them to do a poo when on leash is just not going to happen. I hope they will be so needful by later in the evening that they will do one when they go out for their pre-bedtime wander (which is restricted to my back yard).

The morning showers developed into steady rain for much of the afternoon - brief interludes of non-rain allowed dog walks but not much else as it was usually spotting again before we got home. The exciting news is,however, that my carrots and parsnips have emerged above ground. So all the things I have planted so far (barring the most recent seeds) have now emerged and seem to be surviving the frosts so far. Hopefully they will become healthy vigorous plants - though I will not hold my breath. The regular rainfall is no doubt of some assistance as I usually lose seeds to my failure to remember to water them.

A quick run into Oatlands this morning for no other reason than that I decided I wanted some meat. So two large rounds steaks are presently sharing a pot with some Stout and will hopefully be reduced to tender morsels by dinner time (some time very soon).

You know you have left it too long to replace the cat litter when a queue forms as you pour it into the newly washed trays......

I had to head to Hobart today to get the cat's prescription diet, so I also picked up new litter (I use the crystals which are probably environmentally disastrous but don't need replacing more than once a month), and dog food.

Since we have a  workshop at the garden next week (we are building a food forest), I also scoped out Bunnings, K&D and finally in desperation, Stonemans for a fruit tree on dwarf rooting stock (two months too early for bare roots and very late in the season for potted ones). I found a dark cherry marked down by 40% at Stonemans which will be coming home next Friday (we are doing a shopping trip for the garden next week). K&D also have lots of berry varieties so I have had them put away blueberries, boysenberries, currants and other stuff for me, and I bought a loganberry while I was at Bunnings (they also have bundles of strawberry plants at present - 10 for around $12:00).

So a good day out. When I got home the Recreation Ground was filled with campervans - I have discovered that they are not far right white nationalists undertaking training for fascist militant activities (a lurking suspicion given the predominance of Australian flags) but just a bunch of Grey Nomads who like camping down there for some strange reason. They come every year, so I was beginning to wonder. Seb made himself at home and had to be dragged away, and poor Shadow has been reduced to a leash as we have to ensure they are both under control while there are strangers about.

It was one out of the box weatherwise today - a frosty start to a sunny day with a very light breeze to keep things moving. The winter goosedown doona has now been washed as has the winter quilt - the doona was finished off at the laundromat as per the last one. They come up  beautifully fluffy doing it that way.

The dogs had their multitudinous walks and are now lying back in front of the fire (which was lit around oneish as despite the warmish day outside, it was clear even then that tonight will be a bit icy. It has been chugging along one only one piece of wood so far as I have it set to a slow burn.

If it is as nice tomorrow I will get the sheets washed also - I may even wash a set of flannel ones in anticipation of winter nights, but it is still too 'warm' to have them on the bed I have to say. It is the bitterly cold nights plus wind that make them necessary and so far we have been in luck on that front.

Met with Eleanor and Janet to discuss the Garden workshop budget and work out who was doing what (I have been asking who is catering lunch for some time with no response), and how we will be paying for that. Hopefully Rural Primary Health will get the Hospital kitchen staff to do it for us - they do a good line in sandwiches.

If not I guess I can always whip up some soup and we can throw in some bread rolls or some such thing. The slow cooker will cope with that.

We also discussed another workshop later in the month which will be focussed on building mini-polytunnels over each garden bed (designed so you can still get in to water, weed and pick). That should be fun as well as useful information.

Ooops, sorry about yesterday - I got carried away playing Game of Thrones on Facebook and completely forgot!

A quiet couple of days so this is my excuse. Apart from cleaning (once again thwarted as they have borrowed the vacuum cleaner at the bank once more) and walking the dogs and doing the washing, nothing much has happened. I did get some more seeds in - the last lot are sprouting vigorously (and they have to be vigorous as I have not bothered with frost protection), so I have some hopes for these (red cabbage, more carrots and some swedes). The root veges are the slow emergers, so it is hard to say how they are going - but the brassicas are all looking very healthy.

The fire is lit (and slowly building up some heat) and the other half of the pizza is going in the oven as soon as it builds up to something like cooking temperature.

There's never a dull moment on the volunteer scene, so today i was in the Garden with the lads from Workskills developing yet another bed. This is to be the scene of our Food Forest workshop that we are hosting on 18 May. If anyone wants to come they are more than welcome - it is a free event with a guest teacher from up north. We will be converting the new bed into a food forest and eating ourselves senseless on the usual overcatering that goes on in these parts. The bed is around 2.3 by 5 metres, and incorporates the weather vane that is in the Garden, so should be quite picturesque.

It will be planted up with a couple of fruit trees (on dwarfing rootstock) and berry bushes as well as veges and herbs. The theory being they will be mutually supportive. I hope it works better than my three-sisters planting that failed so miserably.

Also cleaned the bank, and did a quick trip to the shop for some milk. Didn't cut any more wood (though will need some before tomorrow night) as it was downright chilly out there this evening. While it was actually 5.5 degrees, the 'feels like' was 0.7 degrees. With nine degrees forecast for tomorrow, with winds, it will be even chillier, but hopefully I will find a sunny spell during the day and get that wood cut!

So much for Sunday being a day of rest. First I realised it was also Market Day in Oatlands so popped into the market as a show of support, toured the stalls, bought a teacake and a pot of oregano (different variety to the one I have - this one is a ground-hugger). Then of course I had the working bee for the Rec Ground committee  - we started off at Shane's place to cut up the four big wharf piers he had there. After blunting chains half way through each round, and finding it didn't split that willingly either, we gave up and went to Gordon's place to cut something a bit more like firewood. He has a big spread that runs all the way up to Stonor from Parattah - presumably one of the farms split of Hilly Park back in the 1870s. The farmhouse is in the village and the rest of the property is pretty lonely country, but beautiful nevertheless. Some nice fat Angus cattle grazing happily there too. This explains the source of the mooing that occurs from time to time from that direction.

There he had a grove of trees that have suffered dieback and some have been cut, and others fallen of their own accord. We cut up one of the latter and piled the bits into the back of a flat tray and then over to the Rec Ground to load it all into the woodstore (formerly a shower when the building was the changing rooms for the defunct footy team).

Then back into Oatlands as the Radio Station has moved to new facilities and was having a sausage sizzle that warranted support (they interview me from time to time about the Garden), catch up with the gossip and home once more to walk the dogs (for the fourth time, the get a walk shortly after I get back to the house each time), cut some wood for my own fire and light the darn thing. None too soon either as the chill had really settled in the house and it was distinctly cold for a while there.

Pureed the pea and ham soup I cooked up from the ham hock I bought earlier, and put some of that into containers for the freezer. The rest can wait till tomorrow afternoon as I have banks to clean and Gardens to get in order tomorrow, and should probably have an earlyish night I think.

It's an irritating fact that despite the new Smart Antenna providing service throughout the house, the service is just as unreliable as that of the dongle in that bad weather makes my internet erratic and unreliable. I may yet have to invest in the external antenna as well - over $800 on top of the $720 already spent and that requiring a pre-payment and no guarantee of improvement. Apart from the obvious economic disadvantage to rural dwellers, the lack of guarantee is something of a deterrent.

And bad weather is what we have at present. Blooming freezing weather to be accurate. Six point six degrees when I last checked and with a wind chill factor on top. I am sure it must be snowing somewhere close by at present.

I had anticipated a nice quiet day at home today, but no. A Facebook message asking me to clean two of the units. The first one was fine, but the second one, someone had obviously had a nasty tummy upset, and as well as the blocked toilet they had confessed to, most of the bedding had to be sent for professional cleaning (thank heaven I don't have to deal with it). A new King Size doona is required - I will leave it to your imagination.... but to add insult to injury, having damaged that one, they then helped themselves to the spare doona in the cupboard and soiled that badly too. I have to wonder why it is that people do that sort of thing - I mean, surely a towel on the bed would be a good idea? Anyway it must be very nasty having a tummy upset when in hired accommodation, so I feel sorry for them to some extent.

Having realised what I faced I took myself up to the pancake parlour and treated myself to a toasted sandwich and coffee to give me strength, and they treated me to an cinnamon and apple scroll as a bonus. Fergus (a local shepherd) came in and joined me at my table so we gossiped for a bit before I headed back into the fray.

Glad I cut the extra firewood - I will be using a fair bit of it tonight I suspect. Will keep enough dry to be able to light the fire tomorrow in advance of cutting more in the morning. As tomorrow is a working bee for the Recreation Ground committee (cutting firewood for the wood heater in the Rooms), I will have to be out fairly sharpish, so I hope it is not raining as well.

After cleaning the bank this morning I scuttled home rapidly, walked the dogs then lit the fire as it was clearly not going to get any warmer. The first hour, until the woodheater warmed up was rather chilly, but it is nice and snug now, and there should be enough wood for tomorrow as well. Since tomorrow is to be the last dry day for a week, I expect I will be cutting wood once more despite the howling gales they are forecasting.

I have yet to call the wood man who I hope will be able to deliver more wood for me once I get my act together. Since I have now stacked all of the last lot it will be easy for him to back in closer to where the wood is stacked and save me the long walks involved in this heap. That is of course if it ever dries up enough for him to be able to drive over there without getting bogged.

The garden, oddly enough, is not all that wet. I pulled up the run-to-seed-lettuces and associated weeds preparatory to putting in some red cabbage seeds, but the ground was quite dry. Hopefully the rain that is falling at present will set that straight by morning. I will then haul out the remaining plants i that bed and put in some green cabbages as well - savoys I think as they seem to be pretty hardy. Then some turnips into the bed that just had its red onions harvested, and I should be pretty well set for winter crops if they all grow.

A friend suggested I try layering the hawthorns to start filling in the gaps in the hedge, so I will get started on that once i have got rid of the twitch that is there and stirred up the ground a bit. A few strategically placed bricks should do the trick and remind me that there is a plant lurking there in case I get carried away with the lawnmower at some point.

Flannel quilt over my feet, cat on my calves and laptop on my thighs and I am quite snug at present. Now all I have to do is finish off the pea and ham soup that I have been cooking today (It needs to go through the blender), and I can read a book for the rest of the evening (or play Game of Thrones).

Today's post is extremely dull Deb, lol. Cleaned two cottages (I am constantly fascinated  at the way people use their rooms - one of them last night apparently found it a bit chilly so had stuffed a facewasher into the hole in the floor - put there to provide finger holes to open the cellar - used all the towels to provide a warm surface on the bathroom floor - raided the pillow supply for two more pillows, a spare doona and sundry other things but had not thought to turn on the heater and electric blanket ....), got home, cut some more firewood and then did nothing in particular other than walking the dogs from time to time. Tomorrow will apparently not only be cold but will also be rainy - hence the wood cutting. I have made no progress on identifying the bones since I don't know anyone with those skills, apparently. I have, however, made some running repairs to the kitchen table which has two legs considering the concept of falling off.  One close examination, the table has been poorly built or designed, and so will require some fairly major surgery. I will need to set aside a day to do that - but not in the near future - the screws will stop it from falling apart in the mean time.