Last night stayed in the positives, but we still got a frost this morning - no idea how that works. Took ages to clear the windscreen of ice and was running late for the Bank. Still, got it cleaned and out of the way in time to spend a tiresome wait for the boys to turn up at the Garden for another day's work. Bitterly cold, but fortunately sunny so it wasn't too bad.

Since only two lads turned up today we focussed on laying the pavers that will run down the middle of the greenhouse when it is finally erected (apparently this will be happening on 10 July I am instructed.... grrr.

Still trying to get the plumber to send me an email confirming the information I need for the insurance claim. It does not bode well if an email requires this much nagging - god knows when he will actually spare the time to come and do the work. I am getting concerned (as I have emphasised in my latest communique) that there will be consequential damage, as the pump usually circulates warm water through the manifold when the temp drops below 4 degrees. Without that warming function, I am concerned the manifold will freeze up and burst a few seams - getting a bit annoyed with it all at present. I will phone him tomorrow if there is still no response.

The rhubarb crumble with custard went down well last night, and I am looking forward to having some for supper tonight as well.

It might be rather chilly but at least it has been mainly sunny for the last couple of days. I have done a wee bit of cooking so tonight's dinner was spaghetti bolognaise followed by rhubarb crumble and custard. Supper will no doubt be a couple of slices of home-baked bread with a cup of hot chocolate to wash it down. It will be minus 2 tonight so a warm drink before bedtime sounds appealing.

The dogs have been revelling in having the fire chugging away all the time and so too have the cats. We have reduced our walks to four a day without causing Seb too much pent up energy (or perhaps even he is feeling the cold!). Running out of clothes due to the difficulties of getting anything dry at present, but I put through a load today so at least I have some clean shirts to wear. Since I must appear in public tomorrow it's best to be prepared I guess!

Not particularly looking forward to our day in the garden tomorrow as they are forecasting another coolish day (though not quite so cool as tomorrow), but it should be OK if the wind stays away I guess.

Today started very well indeed with a clear sunny sky and ... warmth. Not that it lasted long. And Sunday it is clearly planning to snow with six degrees strong winds and rain. Good thing I don't have to go anywhere then.

The oxtail stew was delicious even if I do say so, but it marked the death of the pressure cooker. The base has bowed distinctly (must have happened last time i used it and I didn't notice), so it will be heading to the tip tomorrow :-( . I shall miss it sorely as it had the wonderful capacity to turn frozen chicken pieces into a melt-from the bone casserole in very short order. Wonder if there are any sales on at present that I can scurry off to? They seem to look rather more streamlined than they once did... Of course the logical thing to do would be to get a pressure canner which could presumably double as a cooker and have the added advantage of allowing me to bottle meat and other such things that the vacola system is not suited to. Hmmmm, thoughts to consider.

Cleaning the bank was  a whizz this morning and I was off back home before I knew it. Spent some time over with the new neighbours and sent over a plate of cooked beef bones as he has not eaten for two days (he has stomach cancer) and Judy and I both thought beef tea would be the ticket. But since she hasn't got an oven, they were cooked here. I had already cooked up one batch for me which has been chugging on the woodheater for several hours now - and is presently cooling in the kitchen. It will be skimmed and then reheated tomorrow to reduce it once the bones are out.

Also called in to visit a friend whose husband is building his version of the polytunnel and appears to be getting a bit carried away with the engineering process - with sleepers used as the door frame. I dropped off some leftover tie-downs that he needed for linking the uprights to the wire frame, enjoyed a glass of the limoncello he was making (distinctly alcoholic and this before the sun was over the yardarm) and staggered home once more.

This using an external mouse has had one distinct advantage - it is such a pain that i am not wasting as  much time on the computer as i have been, so I get to be able to reduce my download limit back to 5Gig and thus reduce the cost a bit! Yay!

Howling wind out there at present, so presumably the temperature will be falling fairly rapidly, judging from its direction. Two dog night tonight and the cats will have to work their way under the doona in the gaps, lol. I may yet find myself sleeping on Shadow's electric blanket on the floor!

It tried really hard to snow here this morning. Big blobby sludge of rain several times, but nothing really close to the real thing. No doubt at all it would be snowing right now if it were precipitating, but the skies are now clearing for the deadly frost we may yet have overnight.

Today was judging day for the Community Garden (apparently some clown entered us in Tidy Towns but forgot to let us know until last week). I was asked to be present due to my oral communication skills, but apparently Eleanor was feeling left out as she frequently tried to steer the conversation back to her. Not a good look when presumably they are judging us on cooperation as much as anything else. Still, the judge mentioned several nearby schools that have aquaponics systems so that is useful information we can take forward.

I am finding working with E increasingly difficult as she is the most negative person I have met since Mum died. Instead of supporting and encouraging the many things we are achieving, she is, instead, constantly harping on about the things that have not been done. Since I am the one doing the work it is beginning to get up my nose. I am afraid I sent a rather barbed email this afternoon pointing out that the things that she is harping on about have been discussed many times and are indeed progressing but that there are many obstacles that have been identified and agreed and which have not yet been overcome. Naturally she ignored all of this and sent back an email the focussed on the bit that was not relevant to anything.

Then I cleaned two of the cottages and retreated back home to sulk. This effort was impeded by the need to take the dogs for three more walks before dark. Just got in from the last one, and am now planning to cook some oxtail in the pressure cooker for dinner.

Reheating pancakes in the oven apparently takes a little longer than it does to walk the dogs. I woke, to my horror, at 7:15 this morning and had to make a mad bolt to get to work on time. So it was cup of tea, shower, peel pancakes apart and pop in warm oven, walk dogs, stack pancakes with butter and golden syrup, choke down with another cup of tea, and out the door by 8:10 to have some hope of cleaning the bank before the staff started arriving.

Fortunately the vacuum cleaner had been returned as someone had been in with muddy boots. Most of it came up with the vac but the rest had to be given the mop treatment which seems to have made it disappear.

Then, blessedly I had no further obligations in town so bolted for home before someone spotted me and made me do something. A loaf of home-baked bread is currently cooling on the rack to accompany my tomato and fennel soup for dinner tonight. The rest of the baked beans are in the freezer. They went very well with last night's baked potato I have to say - so I guess that will be the fate of the rest of the batch. On days when I don't have to spend time in company, since this batch seems to have had predictable consequences ... blush.

Great news about our Tassie Forests - hope the Libs will be passing the hat around amongst themselves so we don't have to pay for the pathetic attempts to wind back the clock!

Using an external mouse takes a bit of getting used to I have to say - still at least it is working for me. I must take this reminder to ensure that all emails with attachments have had their attachments copied since i can't for the life of me work out how to back them up. Pay slips are the main issue I assume.

Had a nice sleepin this morning but did not manage to completely avoid the frost. Still it was a nice day after that - sunny, albeit windy and cool. The washing that did not quite get dry on Sunday is now dry and will doubtless get put away some time (like next time i need the linen basket).

This morning's breakfast was pancakes - according to the menuplanner. Bear in mind i eat one day's meal for four days, so this was actually the thursday menu I had for breakfast. Large American pancakes are probably not going to be a feature of my diet - too doughy and involve too much mucking around, but for the next three days they will be feeding me. A stack of three, with melted butter and golden syrup (since I am not terribly fond of maple syrup) makes a nice change but I like my porridge - especially since i have been pre-soaking it and adding raisins, craisins and almond slivers - sort of hot muesli really.

Dinner will be a jacket-baked potato with lashings of butter, cheese and a side serving of Boston Baked Beans - very tasty I hope!

Blooming laptops are getting junkier and junkier. The tap and click function died some time ago. The mouse died last week. Fortunately it finally occurred to me i could plug in the mouse from the desktop so here i am once more!

Presumably it is so clogged up with dog and cat hair it no longer makes contact when I touch it. Oh well. One more cord to get tangled up in while using the lappy on my lap (and a telephone directory beside me for a mouse pad!!)

The salmon patties were delicious I have to say. And went down well with the various veges to accompany them. The last of my last crop of carrots were so sweet it was almost a shame to cook them.

Then the last two nights it was roast chicken drumsticks with (one night) brussels sprouts and (the second night) cauliflower cheese and mash - real mash for a change as I was out of Deb and had potatoes that were not green, lol.

Friday I headed to Hobart and stocked up on cat food, dog food and people food but unfortunately my meeting with the Councillor failed to proceed as he never got back to me to suggest a suitable time. Oh well. It was worth a try. Saturday was so warm it was amazing, and on Sunday, I was seduced by the previous day's weather into doing two loads of washing, despite the fog and overcast. They are sadly still very damp.

Today was bank cleaning day and it was again 'the case of the disappearing vaccuum cleaner so a quick day's work, followed by meeting up with the lads in the garden where we watched the rain fall for an hour before they headed home. Much to my relief I have to say - much nicer at home in front of the fire than out in a howling gale soaked to the skin and making mud pies.

I'm having salmon patties with peas and carrots for tea tonight - another of the recipes I am supposed to be wading through - the patties are made with almond meal so will not be my bog-standard patties with mashed potatoes, but a little different. I am intrigued.

Tomorrow I am heading into Hobart (the big trek) so have been making up a shopping list to take with me, and trying to work out some sort of timetable. Hard when the people you intend to meet up with have not yet confirmed their times of availability. Still I have a few anchor points in place and hope to hear from the others in due course.

Had a visit today from Ratt who recently starred on Hunting Bogans or whatever that awful program is called. He and Tina apparently failed to make the cut as bogans as their house is too neat and tidy and beautifully furnished. Some nice shots of the area though if you can force yourself to watch it.

The dogs are showing signs of settling down somewhat when a visitor comes inside which is a relief. I think Seb may be slowly growing up.

Have to work out an outfit to wear also, so will be doing a bit of ironing tonight I suspect.

Another nice day, but settling in to be cold and dank tonight.

Red sky this morning that rapidly disappeared behind grey clouds, some time while i was cleaning the bank. Was even more lazy than usual today and didn't get round to cooking anything for dinner either. So it is tomatoes on toast for dinner tonight.

Bright sunshine today - pretty well all day! Had forgotten the sky could be blue. Not terribly cold either - amazing!

Got in a couple of loads of washing (make hay, and do the laundry while the sun shines!) and split some firewood which was nice and dry on the sunny side of the stack - that is now indoors and keeping us warm for the evening.

I have spend the day trying to keep track of Seb's movements. He is a terrible food thief I have to say - six eggs out of a carton (and not a skerrick to show where they went to) and the plastic bin with the cornbread muffins stored in it was opened without harm to the container, and each muffin neatly eaten out of its paper base without tearing the paper - I should be grateful he does it neatly I suppose. Not sure how you can train a dog out of that. It's not as if he is starving.

Clearly when and if I get hens again, their run and nesting area will have to be Seb-proof for sure.

Got a letter from my insurance company today which always makes me nervous. But it was a lovely letter from the person who I usually talk to when I call. She has resigned and is going back to the mainland as her husband is dying of cancer and they have family there. I will be sad to see her go - she knows me and my house and my pets and has given remarkably good personal service over the years. I will be sending her an email as soon as I get off here.

Another dreary foggy morning this morning. This was as far as my view went at 7:30am. It closed down after that.

So it was through thick fog and a frozen windscreen that I made my way into the bank to clean it this morning.

It was Workskills day at the Garden so I stayed in town for that but fortunately between the four degrees and the rain that set in at lunchtime, we decided to call it a day somewhat earlier than usual and I was able to get home in time to run up an article for the local newspaper and send it in before publication deadline (a remarkable effort as the last two months I have been running late for them.
At home, we have been for several walks,and are now snuggled down in front of the fire waiting for the soup to warm up and keep us cosy.

It was a great pleasure to wake up knowing I didn't have to be anywhere today and I was delusional enough to believe the weather bureau which forecast sunshine. So a load of sheets went in the washer and were hung out, by which time it was clear they were lying. The sheets hung damply in the 98% humidity and temperatures between 4 and 6 degrees before being brought back in at 2:30 when it was clear the breeze was just not quite going to get them dry. they are now festooned over the airer in the kitchen.

It was also tip day today and I did a long-delayed run there to get rid of two bags of rubbish from the Bank, and one from here. After that I took my machine up to Caroline's. I nearly missed her as it turned out but we parked in the middle of the road and transferred the machine. One of the perks of country living is that you can do that without causing too many problems. The machine is the one I bought from Caro some time back while I was working. It works well but had clearly never been serviced for ages. So it is now getting a thorough service and hopefully being returned to me in peak condition. The bobbin tension has also been a problem lately, but I suspect that is mainly down to the accumulation of fluff and gunk inside it (so thick it is  now poking out of various appertures).

The children next door have announced their dog is pregnant (this is the dog that resulted from another unsheduled pregnancy in one of their other dogs). I do wish people would get their pets neutered for goodness sake! I am afraid I said just that to them - since they introduced the subject as an accident - one that could be avoided said I, if you get your pets neutered. Grumpy old cow that I am.

Stir fried rice for dinner tonight - last night's was surprisingly tasty considering the limited ingredients!

Much to my surprise i found myself cleaning one of the cottages this morning. It was a bit unforunate as I had started a pre-soak overnight loaf of bread. The results were, shall we say, leaden, but they taste OK and will sog into tonight's soup quite happily. Tonight is egg-drop soup with fried rice on the side. Egg drop soup is basically chicken and corn soup without the chicken and corn - chicken stock, sesame oil and soy sauce for flavouring, with beaten eggs stirred in at the boil. The fried rice was barely more complicated, being pre-cooked rice with peas and carrots and a scrambled egg mixed through. Add soy sauce and you have a strangely appetising meal.

Cottage cleaned I drove home through the fog and lit the fire, got some more cooking done and some reading and am now settled in for the evening.

Since when is it dark at 7 in the morning, BTW? I am always awake at that time but had not noticed until today that it is actually quite dark then. Only a week more till the turn of the year, but the mornings will continue to get darker for a while longer than that.

Friday 13th, a full moon and Mercury in retrograde - a good day to stay at home they said. So I did.

Well, I went into town to clean the bank, having slept in late and rushed in to get that done. It was a lovely day when I left home but I hit a wall of fog at the outskirts of Oatlands. By the time the bank was  squeaky clean it had spread to here too, and rain this evening rather finished things off I have to say.

So a day spent on Facebook and walking the dogs in the fog is all I have to report today.

Well, it did reach ten degrees yesterday. Just not until 9 pm. No wonder everyone is collapsing with colds and flu.

I am constantly amazed at the generosity of strangers!! A few days ago I advertised on Freecycle for a hamburger press. Those tupperware things that stack on top of each other so you can make and freeze hamburgers all in the same container. I wanted it because I thought it would be a handy thing for making the potato patties that are part of this meal plan I am following - you know, get even potato patties all the same size and depth so they cook evenly etc. No-one offered one so I was thinking I would need to ad lib - cut off  a section of plumbing pipe, cut discs of baking paper, find something to ram things down with - that sort of thing. But someone then responded offering to lend theirs. After some to-ing and fro-ing it turned out her husband was coming to Oatlands this week to help paint out a house and he would bring it up. So I went to collect it today and the bag seemed remarkably heavy. She had stocked it with a bag of onions, three mandarins, two kiwifruit, garlic, a large bag of tomatoes and goodness knows what else - what an amazingly generous soul she is.

I emailed back saying i would return it next week when I am down to get the cat food. She said, don't bother as she has found one on Ebay which she will be collecting soon. Stunned I am!

So fruit salad for dinner tonight to go with the leftover cabbage and mince chow mein!!

I am struggling to believe that it reached 10 degrees today - feels more like five - and that was in the warmer moments. The mist loitering around the hills probably had a lot to do with the chill factor.

The Bank had failed to leave its heating system on overnight (something I am usually glad of since they seem to set it on 30 degrees most of the time) and it was uncomfortable cold working there this morning despite a thick jumper. I turned on the heating while I was there then turned it off as I left.

Then I had a couple of hours to fill in as I had an appointment with Workskills at 11:00. So I popped round to Roberts's where it was rumoured they had some pallets to give away, collected four of them for the Garden (I would have collected more but still had stuff in the back of the ute from the Garden workshop that I had forgotten was there) and delivered them to the Garden to be put to use next week, then parked outside Workskills to play on FB for a while. Was interrupted in my meditations by Eleanor wanting to repeat her usual grievances about Council and other such matters before heading in to see them. No good news on that front, but that is hardly surprising I guess.

Home to walk the dogs and settled in in front of the newly lit fire waiting for things to warm up. They have by now, but it took a remarkably long time.

I heard back from the suppliers and it seems my pump has been discontinued (and a bloody good thing too as it was a piece of rubbish), but fitting a new pump will require considerable fiddling that lies outside my expertise, so I am stuck with getting a plumber in, if he ever gets back to me.

Still, at least  I have hot water.

Well the good news is that the motor of the pump is covered by insurance. There is the little matter of excess to consider, so I will cost the pump separately, and if it is cheaper to install it myself then I will do that instead. Not hard, I have had it out before to fix the leak, so it all depends on the costs involved.

Seb has been restless for much of the day and it was beginning to get on my wick. He and the cats were spending a lot of time in the bathroom, but when I investigated I could find nothing to explain it at all.

Was sitting on the sofa when I heard a loudish squeak alongside. There was the problem. A large baby rat has somehow found its way indoors (via Smidgen's mouth, I suspect), and all four animals had had a go at it. Despite all the 'attention' the poor little blighter was still alive (though not for long, I dispatched it).

There seems to be a bit of a rodent plague happening at present, but the animals seem to be keeping on top of it for me which is good. This one is sitting on the roof of the dog kennel for some passing raptor to take home with it.

There are certain, rarely appreciated merits to public holidays. One of these is that the neighbours sleep in. This was a good thing as Seb made a break for it this morning, so had anyone been awake they would have seen me walking up the main street of Parattah with a red leash in hand, wearing my pyjamas, green check men's dressing gown, bed head and red velvet slippers. Finally caught up with him in the side yard of the last house in town (phew) and managed to make it back home without witnesses (that I know of).

Things went downhill from there however, as the thermostat and pump on the hotwater system have failed. This became apparent when there were sounds of strong knocking from the roof top. On checking the roof temperature on the thermostat I discovered that it was 140 degrees. This normally only happens with a power failure but I had power. So I tried plugging it into a different power point and checking the fuse box. Neither had a result. Then I tried bypassing the thermostat and plugging the pump into another power point. That didn't work either. So I found the manual online and it suggested turning off the power for 10 minutes and they trying again. I left it for 25 minutes to be on the safe side, turned it back on, and with a bang and a flash the thermostat announced its intention to never work again. I can only hope it is covered by the insurance.

I suspect that things may have frozen overnight (minus 3) because although it has a failsafe frost system, I am not confident it has been working of late.

Apart from that, there is little to report as it has been sunny but downright chilly all day and I have stayed indoors with the fire.

Phone call to the insurance company on the books for tomorrow morning... :-(

Clearly food is  lot cheaper in the US. Since i had most of the stuff in stock, I popped into town to get the balance (10 items from a 24 item shopping list for the week/month. $50.00!! And that did not include the chicken legs, maple syrup or other expensive items - quelle horreur. What is it we are paying for? Or more to the point, how do they keep prices so low in the US when most veges are grown in California and shipped to all other parts of the States?

Anyway, I will still stick with this for a bit to see how it goes. Baked corn bread today and have beans in the slow cooker. This morning's pre-soaked porridge was delicious as well. Despite Americans having a reputation for supersizing everything, the porridge will only do me three meals, which I guess is why I am carrying a bit more weight than I should, lol.

Tonight's dinner is the least appetising of the week, being collard greens (whatever they are - I am using cabbage), beans (pinto beans cooked in the slowcooker with bacon) and corn bread. I made the cornbread in muffins which means I also ate two of them for lunch (and very tasty they are when hot and dripping with butter).

It will be another three hours before the beans are cooked as I did not check the recipe early enough in the day and they only went on at noon, so I will probably eat the cabbage and cornbread first and have the beans later.

Bit chilly here today with temps hovering around 6 degrees, but nice sunshine for all that.

One of the less desirable aspects of living alone is working out what to cook for dinner. This becomes that much more irritating when you have been doing it for 50 years and just run out of inspiration. If you have a decent income, when all else fails you can pop into town for a take away or some other treat, but that is not an option at present.

So I was thrilled, today, to have a website drift across my Facebook page that provided monthly meal plans for a family of four, three meals a day, seven days a week for $80.00. Normally these contain all manner of bland and unimaginative recipes, but this one was great. So I have spent much of the afternoon downloading and printing to PDF the meal plans and accompanying recipes and shopping lists (which unfortunately do not include quantities so that it can be flexible enough for a smaller or larger family unit.

Most of the recipes are freezable as well, so I can make up the whole meal, then freeze it in portions as is my wont. And they include vegetables which are a bit of a failing on my part, despite the fact I grow them, simply because I forget to cook them in time for whatever casserole or soup I am making. No curries so far (she has only published January to March - northern Hemisphere timetable), but the rest of the recipes sound fabulous and would be cheaper still here as I either grow or have in stock most of the ingredients. I plan to start cooking June recipes tomorrow (once I rediscover the kitchen benches). Unfortunately tonight's dinner is more likely to be toasted cheese sandwiches due to lack of forethought and a raging hunger, lol.

This morning I popped into Oatlands to get some money out to pay the man who delivered the wood for me, and ran into another down-the-road neighbour who keeps pigs. So I took him to the School Garden and together we pulled up all the overgrown, past-use-by kale, cabbages and such like left over from a gardener who no longer lives in town. His pigs will be very happy tonight I imagine.

Due to lack of activity at the cottages, it was another quiet day at home today, interspersed with washing, walking the dogs (which got a bit exciting when I once again accidentally leashed Shadow instead of Seb) and generally sitting around. Given we have minus degrees forecast for tonight I also brought in some more wood. Sunrise this morning was a little more clear than yesterday, though not wildly pretty. It was good to be able to see though!

Struggling to remember what we used to eat in the 1960's? I know for me it was overcooked veges, meat and bread with every salad. But apparently it was not like that in the country...... I was at the Mill Cafe yesterday trying to cheer myself up with a slice of apple and walnut bread when I spotted a copy of the Weekly Times on the reading material shelves. An old copy. 1960 to be precise. Imagine my surprise when I found a bunch of garlic recipes there, and what is more, a recipe for Aeoli. And we all thought it was some super trendy food for bright young things!

I was particularly impressed with the tractor prices - a really big one with a cultivator bar for under two thousand pounds!! Wish they were that cheap these days.

 This was filling in time waiting for the sheets to arrive so I could finish off the cottages. In the end I gave up and went home, returning to town after lunch to finish off the rooms.

This morning the fog was so thick I lost sight of Seb while he was still attached to the lead (as was I).

I took this photo after our walk when it was starting to clear a bit (I could actually - just - see the edges of the oval from the middle by that stage).  The drive in to clean the bank was rather fraught (there have been large deer on the road of late), but made it intact and by the time i got out it was clearing to a nice day.

Dropped off some receipts to the Council chambers to get refunded for the catering for our workshop, and so home. Did a load of washing but as I was pegging it out it started spotting with rain and getting overcast once more, so it is now drying indoors a la the old fashioned way.

I am thinking of running for Council - what do you think? A fairly thankless task, but at least we might stop losing money to appeals we have no chance of winning. Council's latest decision (refusing a low-intensity organic poultry farm) was indefensible and will result in referral to the Tribunal for sure. It really only needed a few conditions to deal with the objections and would have been a great addition to our local economy. That and our mayor, when approached about setting up a Bendigo-bank in our soon-to-be-vacated ANZ bank building, couldn't see the point. Um. Keeping viable banking in our town is not something Council might be interested in????

So I am meeting a Hobart City Councillor when I next go to town to see what I might be letting myself in for.

Soggy foggy drizzle all day - blargh ....

Lack of sleep is becoming a habit. Woke at four this morning due to being overheated (I know, ironic after the other morning). Will be happier when these weather swings stabilise and leave us to it. It's too cool not to have a fire, but having lit one it rapidly becomes too warm. Sigh.

So I had breakfast and walked the dogs and then walked them again in the (very thick) fog before heading in to clean the bank. Whereupon I discovered I was also required to clean all three cottages (sudden rush to the head on the part of visitors apparently). Got there and started stripping beds only to discover Brad had not ordered the sheets I messaged him about last time i was in there. Since this left me with one sheet to do four beds, I gave up. But I managed to eke out the situation with some generously sized double sheets for one bed, and stripped another un-used bed so that there was one cottage available should he get a last minute booking. Agreed to go back tomorrow (when the sheets are delivered) to finish off the other two cottages

By that stage I was feeling peckish so went to the Pancake Parlour for toasted sammies and a large hot chocolate, then on to the Garden where all the mess from the Workshop was still to be cleaned up (Eleanor had been in there earlier but had apparently not been moved to do anything toward this end. So I packed up the chairs, folded up the table and popped it away, found homes for the tea,coffee and sugar and decided the two bananas must be mine. My intention in going there today (since the workskills lads were not going to be there) was to whipper snip the garden beds that we have made so far which have been sprouting nettles and other succulent weeds for some time. For reasons best known to itself the whippersnipper decided to clag out and the motor to start smoking. So I took it to Andrew and they only thing he could suggest was new string. So it now has new string and is sitting in the back of the ute awaiting my trip to town tomorrow.

Needless to say I was quite weary by the time i got home, but the dogs were relentless so we have now had four more walks and they, at least, are asleep. I may not be much behind them, but will have to be awake at 9pm so the can have their last pitstop which should allow me to get some sleep tonight (temperatures, external factors, whatever, permitting).

Steak and kidney on mash again tonight.

Not much sleep was  had last night. Apparently Cracker Night comes late to the country, starting at midnight last night and continuing until at least one am. Since I was already awake, it having been somewhat warmer last night it did not wake me up. But it did keep me awake and the dogs were not too impressed either. I got up after half and hour and read for a while in the hope the would see the lights and take the hint, then returned to bed in the dark, only realising when the snoring started, that Seb had joined me there. Rather than cause further ructions I left him to it, which may yet prove to be a mistake - I will find out tonight I guess.

So you can imagine how happy I was when, having checked my emails at seven this morning, I discovered I was left to set up the workshop by myself as well as having a list of digging and such like to do to ensure there were rhubarb crowns and seedlings available for the market stall (the reason I was left to myself - we had agreed to cancel it if we could not get someone to run it for us but this was apparently lost in translation).

Then i got to the Garden to set up and discovered that one of the three hay bales we had stacked to provide wind protection for the new lemon tree was missing. Since we had a lot of people coming to the workshop, we needed those hay bales to provide emergency seating. I finally found it in the polytunnel where someone had broken it open to mulch their bed (ignoring the pile of broken pea straw bales in the chicken shed which would have done the job rather better).

Nevertheless, despite my foul mood, the workshop went well and was well attended. I was just recovering my equilibrium when four people arrived just as we were resuming after lunch, announcing themselves loudly, trying to make jokes about having not realised it started so early and generally being disruptive. I had been seated near the door to allow me to come and go discreetly, but this lot stationed themselves there, shoving my chair around behind the screen on which the power points were being presented, then when I finally gave up peering round the edge and took one of the toddler chairs that were emergency seating, the bloke in question calmly took my chair and sat himself down in a more appropriate location (and the wonder why we point out too many men feel 'entitled' grrrrr.

Then at the end of the presentation when I was looking forward to taking half a rhubarb cheesecakehome to console myself, Eleanor insisted everyone take a slice before they left. So I only have three tiny slices to keep me going - very annoyed at that!

Grumble mumble. There were some good gadgets presented at the workshop, and I plan to save up and buy some to help me lengthen my growing season a bit more cheaply than by building a full scale polytunnel.