Last day of the old year and a night of drunken revelry in the streets of Parattah to look forward to. I imagine Seb will find it a little disconcerting and will keep us all awake as he lunges to protect us from assumed threats. Shadow should sleep well nevertheless as he was quite worn out by our walk.

Despite having a bank and three cottages to clean today I managed to get two loads of washing done. I am starting the New Year with a clean house and clean clothes at least. The clean house is down to my friends coming to visit me yesterday and me realising I really should do something about the mess. And so I did.

Ran out of my favourite dish washing sponges which was a pain, but discovered they are now made from recycled materials and come in white, with a dull green scouring backing. Why anyone would think white was a good choice is beyond me. The first time i use it it will look grubby! At least it came in a multiple pack so I have a good supply laid by now.

In case you were wondering where i got to, apart from the housework, I have given up on the computer for a bit as the download has once again been slowed, and that, in combination with the wildly variable weather we are having has meant it is nigh on impossible to load anything as the signal keeps disappearing as well. So I have been reading, working and getting the house in some semblance of order.

But since the dogs are now walked, and I am tired, I plan to head off to bed and find the new year when I wake up. First, though, I have to bring in the last load of washing once it is dry (which would have been any minute now except the breeze has dropped and so it may be marginally damp when it comes in.

Hope you all had a good day yesterday - I did! The  morning consisted mainly of lazing around eating chocolate and walking the dogs alternately. Since I had to go out in the afternoon I took them for their long walk at lunchtime while the roast was cooking and we got back just as it was done to a turn. Beautiful succulent organic pork loin, with a waldorf salad to balance it out (a bit).

During the morning a friend mentioned her mum was in Hobart Private at present, so I left early, intending to go visit her (her husband was my dad's boss and the families have always been close, at least while we were growing up). Got to the hospital but she was out on day release apparently, so I headed over to Barb's where we ate ourselves senseless, had the traditional present-opening and played Christmas games (like a list of letters, each of which represented the first letter of a word in the title of a Christmas Carol). I got 18 out of 25, had never heard of two of the remaining ones and the rest were blindingly obvious once you knew the answer....

It was raining at theirs so I was quite hopeful it might have rained here too. But I got to Bridgewater and it was dry there. Then wet again at Bagdad, and so on all the way home. Sadly a possum failed to make it to Boxing Day as it double back after I had swung around to avoid it. Clearly darwin's law at work. The next one tried to do the same thing but I had allocated a bit more space this time so it survived.

Got up this morning and the little darlings had taken advantage of my absence to leave the gate open once more (good thing I had kept Shadow within the range of the light when I let them out for their run last night). Did some housework today as Barb and Co are coming up to visit on Tuesday. Will keep plugging away at it for the next couple of days and it should be under control. Tomorrow I will do some lawns though as the next day is forecasting for 25 which will be a bit warm for that sort of exertion.

Tomorrow I have two cottages to clean, so it will be necessary to fit it all in around that.

I'm not entirely sure what happened to yesterday - put it down to a blond moment....

Today was a day for going into Oatlands. First to clean the bank. Second to get the last minute grocery requirements to tide me over tomorrow. Then on my return from that trip I had a text from an old school friend who I have not seen for 40 years saying she was in Oatlands - so I dropped everything and went in to have a coffee with her and chat about old times. Got home and was just considering cracking a stubby (to make sure it tasted good enough to serve tomorrow, you understand) when the phone rang and it was my boss saying he had guests in two cottages and why hadn't they been cleaned? EEEk. I am sure he told me they were booked out over the break, but there you go.

So once again I dropped everything and drove into town, made up beds frantically and cleaned us minor messes (at least last night's guests were tidy) and had the done in time for the guests to return. Phew.

In between all this I did two loads of washing and changed the sheets so I get to wake up Christmas morning in clean sheets (a special treat - I do love lavender scented bedding), but have a pile of stuff to put away.

The stubbies have now been opened and i am eating pretzels and relaxing after Seb's long walk (Shadow was given the day off), and wondering what is for dinner.

So - Merry Christmas to Australia's poorest citizens. Cutting funding to homeless shelters and a Bill to reduce pensions - all in the last day of sitting before they break up to go home to their opulent homes to stuff their faces with all that is good in this life. Sickening isn't it.

Me I cleaned the bank then went home before heading in once more to clean the cottage as the guests were showing no sign of leaving at the time i was done at the bank. Since there were no time pressures I climbed on a chair and removed  the vent of the kitchen exhaust and gave it a good scrub as it was looking pretty manky. Then home again to walk the dogs a couple of times before their dinner time.

It was pretty hot today and Shadow was looking a bit droopy so I left him behind when Seb and I took the long walk, with the result we went further than usual (poor Shadow tends to get slower and slower and eventually stops when he has had enough), and as a result it is quite relaxing here tonight - Seb has collapsed and gone to sleep. Smidgen has another furball so has been given a dose of paraffin, and Esther is staying well out of sight in the box by the window, in case I feel inspired to dose her as well.

The promised showers have been occasional isolated spots of water, not enough to settle the dust even, so I may take the washing to the laundromat tomorrow as I do not want to risk running out of water over the Christmas break.

If I had a child under the age of 30 who lost their job in the next couple of years I would be very deeply concerned. Morrison for Social Services? With a priority for Child Welfare? I am speechless with horror. We will be seeing forced labour camps before long.

That said, I had a very lazy day today - took the lawn mower up to a friend who managed to free up the blade that had wedged itself under the middle spinning bit, but by the time i got home it was too darn hot to even contemplate exercise, so I retired indoors and drank lemon barley water.

Our long walk this evening was conducted after a cooler breeze had started up and was blessedly snake-free. Now we are all waiting for it to cool down enough to go to bed.

What a week of horrors - the latest being a WA woman murdered by her son because she was unable to get him into a psychiatric facility when she asked. Seems to me our mental health services are failing badly - whether due to incompetence or being under-resourced - and a good hard look at the way we are dealing with mental health (its cause and effects) needs to be undertaken.

I went into town to clean a cottage today but it was already clean. Popped into another cottage to turn out a light my colleague had left burning and discovered she had walked off the job before it was finished (lucky I checked as a guest is due in this evening). So I emptied the bin, cleaned the bathroom, distributed toiletries and cleaned up in the kitchen before heading home once more.

A cool morning seems to have segued into a hot afternoon and Smidgen is out there somewhere, having made a break for it when I was trying to convince Seb to go back indoors. I expect he will turn up in due course, but I would rather he not be out for this long.

Today was the last day in the Community Garden for the year (I will be in and out over the break but not spending a full day there as I have been doing). So we set to and weeded all the beds (remarkably weed free), pulled out anything that was going to get over-excited and engulf its neighbours, and sprayed the paths - salt and vinegar so it smells like a fish and chip shop once more.

Things are coming along very nicely there, though the bags Eleanor thought would be ideal for growing potatoes in have proven less than successful (mainly, I suspect, because they were filled with garden soil with no additives) and had dried out badly. The two that were past redemption have been pulled apart and the miniscule potatoes came home with me. The other two were given another good soaking in the hope they will keep on going till the New Year. I am not holding my breath.

Dog walking was amusing tonight as everyone has been heading into town for the Christmas Parade (no, I am not going - bah humbug and all that - as standing for at least an hour to watch badly made floats go by does not sound terribly fun to me). So a passing parade of motorcycles with antlers and tinsel kept me amused on the way home. No rabbits tonight, fortunately as I was off in a revery again, but at least the knee seems to be falling back into place and is now only sore on pressure, so clearly nothing seriously wrong with it.

Pizza for dinner as it is Friday.

No problems with our walk today as it was so darn chilly I had the fire on. Or so I thought. There I was strolling along, deeply engrossed in watching a magpie doing a 'broken wing' routine when Seb spotted a rabbit on the path. Rabbit took off across the road, Seb after it, and me clutching my shoulder that had been wrenched as the leash was ripped out of my hand. Fortunately no traffic....

So I grabbed Shadow's leash, headed across the road and spent a fun five minutes trying to grab the end of the leash to drag Seb out of the pile of timber he had buried himself in. Finally got things back under control but all that dancing around did not do my sore knee any good at all. So I hobbled on until it seemed a bit silly and then turned back once more.

Things still seem pretty quiet on the teenager side of things. I suspect their parents have been keeping them occupied - the one next door at least has been helping his 'stepfather' putting up some electric fencing so they could move the horses once more. So I now have all three mares adjacent to the fence in a field that would accommodate one. And immediately alongside the paddock the stallion is in. Not sure I would put a pregnant mare in a paddock with two fillies due to come on heat when the stallion is next door, but what would I know?

Made up a waldorf salad to go with the piece of steak I have for dinner tonight - it tasted a little bland so I googled a recipe and discovered I should have put in some chopped red onion. So I went foraging in the garden and found something that was once a red onion, but which had split into four bulbules after last year's crop had failed to be lifted. So they were chopped through and it is now quite delicious. Had to laugh at the 'warning' label on the mayo. It is called Whole Egg Mayonnaise, and the warning label warns it contains ... egg! Goes to show how over the top this labelling business is these days.

It being marginally cooler today we went for our long walk and I discovered council has mowed all the long growth, so while there will undoubtedly still be snakes I will at least be able to see them. They seem to have also cut down one of my favourite trees which is a bit sad. It was a huge old macrocarpa and was prone to dropping the odd branch onto the track so I suppose that was their motivation, but I still hate to see a really ancient tree cut down. The diameter was huge - a couple of metres across....

The head man from Council called at three local houses today. So I suspect this may be why the lane is not presently in use and three lads are nowhere in sight. I hope it has the desired effect....

Went to quilting today and managed to manufacture 3 blocks but left early as my knee was sore. I forgot to mention yesterday (in all the excitement) that I took a rather bad fall yesterday. Coming out of the study my foot caught on something and down I went! Laptop in hand and a hard plaster wall in front of me. So one hand saved the lappy (on which I am typing right now), the other went out to fend off the wall and my knees took the brunt of it.

The pain was enormous. It was one of those falls where you lie on the ground wondering if moving anything is a good idea. Seb of course, thought it was a game and leapt onto my chest to lick my face. He was soon discouraged when one foot landed on my right knee.... aargh!

Seems I should have put an ice pack on it, but I didn't know that, so by the time I went to bed it was still really really sore. So much so it woke me up every time I moved, or Smidgen re-arranged himself on the bed. As  a result i have been awake since four. It flexes (sort of - not fully) and is really only sore when touched, but bending it when wearing jeans is not an option. Fairly sure nothing is broken, and if it is a hairline fracture there is not much to be done about it anyway so I will not waste the doctor's time about it unless it persists in hurting for too long. Not enough to stop the dogs and me going for our walks at any rate.

Bought some celery to go with the apples that were left in the cottages the other day, and some walnuts i have in the cupboard, so it will be waldorf salad tomorrow night. Tonight i am eating left-over sandwiches from quilting

Lord above - who would want to be the mother of a teenage boy?

For some time now (since N came back from Hobart in disgrace having taken some nasty marijhuana and ended up in hospital), three of the local teenage lads have been using the lane at frequent intervals. Not a problem there, but they leave the gate at the bottom open.

I have spoken to them several times in pleasant tones and explained why it was important to keep it latched. Then I started coming home and found the gate wide open on several occasions - a deliberately provocative act but no-one in sight to blame it on. Last night I came home to find it open once more and found the lads sitting in the grandstand and told them I would be chaining and padlocking the gate if I found it open any more. They tried to give me some lip and pointed out it was Council property and that it was not my role to dictate how they behaved. This morning I found a note in my letterbox - a rather childish note telling me off and claiming all manner of things that were untrue about the lane etc. So I drafted a respectful letter back explaining the history of the lane and the reason for the gate and asking once again that they please leave it as they find it.

He came up to me as I was loading the sewing machine into the ute and thanked me for the letter and the history lesson. We had a chat and agreed that mutual respect was important. For their next few trips the gate was shut and latched as agreed. Two hours later they were down the oval once more with the gate wide open. I once again spoke to him, expressed my disappointment and asked if we did not have an agreement of mutual respect. His mate got involved to some extent and made some nasty implied threats and we parted without raised voices but with nothing resolved. They followed me out of the oval so I shut and latched the gate myself.

Meanwhile I have alerted council to the matter, but foolishly sent an email telling them the matter was resolved as a result of our initial conversation. Clearly it is not. So I popped up the road to the President of the committee and discussed it with him. We resolved that there will be an urgent full meeting of the committee to assign the lane to me under a peppercorn rent arrangement. That will mean I can have better control over its use and who has access to it which will be great. I may have to erect a gate at my end of the lane also (which would be great as it will allow me to be less worried about the dogs getting out).

So a long and traumatic day here.... which I have no doubt is not yet over. Fortunately the one doing the most of the threatening is someone who, if he took a swing at me would be unconscious before it made contact, but his mate is a bit of a worry and his mother is even scarier! lol

I can see quite a few young women in hijabs being subjected to mindless violence over the next few weeks. Whatever the facts turn out to be the media has succeeded in firing up all the bigotry this country can muster and frankly I am ashamed.

Another hot day so I spent it opening the tops of windows, closing curtains and so forth as the sun rotated around the house. It is marginally cooler inside than it was this time last night, so I will at least hopefully get some sleep.

Since I managed to get all the washing done it will be sleep in a clean bed with fresh sheets which always feel cooler I think.

Not much else done I am afraid - I hate hot weather!

A bit excessively hot today - OK, only 24 degrees, but a shock to the system after all this cool grey weather. I popped into town for  few things and called into the community garden as I had run into a friend who wanted some rhubarb. Discovered that the end of the polytunnel was flapping in the breeze as the not-UV-stable tape had given up the ghost. Fortunately I had bought some while in town last, but did not have it in the car, so I went home, collected it and came back to do some running repairs - could not have left it till tomorrow as it would have taken off to goodness knows where and I do not feel like driving to Hobart in Christmas traffic to get replacement stuff.

Repairs effected, I watered my tomatoes and lettuce and basil etc, checked progress on the tomatoes (some quite biggish ones formed on one of the bushes and the other ones setting fruit nicely) and came home again.

The hot weather precluded walking along the track so I took the dogs down to the oval with seb on the long rope. Let it go to let him have a bit of a run and he took off the naughty blighter. A mob of children up the road hauled him in for me (tangled his rope around one of their bikes which, fortunately was not damaged), and we stood and chatted for some time - along with the mother of some of the crew. Quite a little horde of them - felt like about 30 but at a guess it was closer to 8 - and all very similar in appearance. Apparently news about population growth has not yet made it to Parattah.

At least all the excitement seems to have worn him out (I know it has worn me out), so he is collapsed on the floor now.

Waiting for the wind to drop so I can open the top of the window to let some of this heat out of the place as we have another one tomorrow - blergh!

Much to my annoyance I forgot to turn the alarm off last night. I set it on work mornings as a back up in case I don't wake normally in time for work. So at 6 this morning I was woken by radio national news - and jolly depressing it was too.

So I turned it off but by then everyone else had decided it was time to get up and that is what we did. After the obligatory walk, I concluded that I should probably drop jars of Rhubarb and Vanilla jam in to some friends, so that was a good excuse to spend time sitting around and chatting in the sunshine.

When I finally got home it occurred to me I really should taste the jam myself in case it was horrible. It wasn't. It was delicious!! So if you are confronted with prolific rhubarb crowns right now - the recipe is as follows:

Cut Rhubarb into one inch chunks, pour on sugar and cover. Leave to steep over night, giving it a bit of a turn over before bed time to mix in the sugar. By morning it should be a soggy mess. Pop it on the heat with the juice of one lemon and a vanilla pod that has been sliced lengthways. Cook, stirring as per normal jam. Spoon into hot glass jars and lid before cold.

PS - take the vanilla pod out before bottling!

I just had four slices of toast with it on it was that good!

Seb got a bit of a fright this morning. We headed down to the oval and someone had placed a 3 foot section of a log on its end at one end of the cricket pitch. Apparently Seb felt it was demon spawn and went into full on bark and hackle up mode, lol. I took him up to it (he approached very reluctantly) he took a sniff then ignored it, but when we walked again he gave it lots more warning barks. This has been going on every time we go down to the oval so I am hoping the kids who put it there will have found a new use for it by tomorrow.

It was Christmas lunch for the quilting group and we went to a local restaurant. They had a tasty looking dish called Seafood and avocado salad on the menu:

Me: That seafood salad sounds nice, can you tell me what the seafood is?
Waitress: reels off the type of fish being served as main courses....
Me: No, can you tell me what the ingredients of the salad are?
Waitress: Lettuce, avocado and seafood
Me: No, can you tell me what seafood is being served as part of the salad please (sounding mildly impatient)
Waitress: Oh, I will go and ask the kitchen...............

So off she trots and comes back and assures me it is prawns, so I place my order.

Plate arrives with six prawns, one scallop, a one centimetre cube of something that might be salmon, one thin slice of avocado cut into three to make it go farther, and several gallons of lettuce. Dressing was a teaspoon glob on top. And the prawns were not even properly cooked.

By the time I worked my way through all that lettuce I was still hungry so I ordered dessert. The first choice was not available (chalk board menu .....) so I opted for icecream and topping. Three scoops of icecream (using a melon baller as far as I can tell) drowing in chocolate sauce.

Guess I won't be going there again in a hurry.

To top the excitement off for the day I had another huntsman in the car. This time it was good enough to declare its presence just as I pulled out from the kerb, so I stopped and evicted it before driving off once more. It was quite determined to get back into the car, so I had to scoot it a fair way up the gutter before getting into the car to drive off. Lucky I have a messy car so had a few sheets of newspaper to deal with the crisis!

Only one cottage to deal with today so I strolled in relatively late and got stuck in. There were also five bags of sheets to unpack and stack which was a surprise - I had asked the boss to get some king, some queen, facewashers and handtowels, so five bags of Kings were unexpected.

Also a bag of linen bags which, given the quantity we have on hand was neither expected nor welcome (the linen room is not that spacious so what does not fit on the shelves takes up floor space and requires one to climb over it).

The weather could not decide if it was hot, cold, humid, windy or still today so I stayed indoors except for routine dog walking. Refreshing my memory on goat keeping - reading my David Mackenzie "Goat Husbandry" - a book that all current goat owners lust after but which is increasingly difficult to find via the normal channels. A fascinating book that covers off on pretty well all you need to know about housing, feeding, fencing, breeding and lactating goats. Now all I need to do is win lotto so I can get a goat! :-)

Banks and cottages today - the first lot moved out while i was cleaning the bank and I had rather hoped the second lot would be gone by the time I was done there, but sadly not, so I went to the garden and pulled a few weeds before heading back to sort it out.

Finished at 12:30 so decided to chance my hand on there being some sandwiches available at Quilting which there were, so had a filling lunch for $3.00. Checked the instructions for our Christmas Party on Friday which will be fun and then headed home to walk the dogs.

There was a major storm forecast - promising lots of lovely rain, but of course we only caught the outskirts of it, so still a long way to go to fill the tanks.

The clouds looked very impressive however and had me worried as we returned from our walk.

Cooling down right now but too late to light the fire, so I will just go to bed if it gets much cooler.

A startlingly blue sky this morning and rather warm to boot! I had a little lie in as the electricity went off last night and I had no idea what the time was, then up and did a couple of loads of washing to take advantage of the balmy weather. The clouds had started to gather by the time the second load was being pegged out, but at least it is all dry now.

Lots of heavy rain clouds about, but so far they have failed to produce anything other than a chill in the air. So I collected a pine cone to go with today's bark and twig supply and will be lighting the fire soon I think.

A quick run into town to pick up some milk (which I forgot to buy ... still, I have some chocolates and some oven-ready chips instead), and home once more.

So angry with our unspeakable apology for a government at present I am hyperventilating I am sure. Ditch the medicare co-payment? Not likely. All they have done is pass it onto the doctors - cutting their fees accordingly. They really are scum - claiming to be the good guys when they are just being sneaky. I am still baffled by the number of Australians who seem to fail to realise that the Medicare Levy in their tax return means that we are NOT getting 'free' medical services at all - it is all being paid for by our taxes. Now it is going to be paid for twice. Grrrr.

I sometimes wonder why I got to so much trouble labelling my freezer food when I pop it in the chest freezer. Today I grabbed what I assumed was a steak (but didn't read the label) and ended up having grilled goat chop for dinner instead. Fortunately it turned out to be a very young goat and the result was delicious - but it could have been nasty!

I awoke at four this morning. My deliciously comfortable mattress topper, being polyester fibre-fill, also turns out to be a tad warm. While this will be wonderful come winter, at this time of year it was an unwelcome discovery. Since i had to get up to clean the bank at six, going back to sleep seemed a high risk activity so I got up and fiddled around until it was time to head off.

I then spent much of the morning trying to light the fire. I have run out of my kindling supply that has lasted me all winter, and the bark I collected just didn't do the job the first time. Or the second or third for that matter. I just got it blazing nicely and voila - the clouds cleared and it turned out hot and sunny. So now I have the window open to cool the house down from the efforts of the cast iron heater... You can't win when the weather is doing what it is at present.

Cool and drizzly all day today, so I popped some carrot seeds in the ground. I had hoped that after the last several days the compost-rich soil, at least would be damp, but no - had to apply the watering can with vigour as it was dust dry a couple of mm below the surface. I will have to rush down and do the same for the pumpkins I popped in down the back since that is the case - I had hoped it would be damper :-(

Dropped off some empty cartons at the Hospital. These are to be gift wrapped and placed under a Christmas Tree in the window of a friend's shop. It will be some Occupational Therapy for the residents at the hospital and do a good deed for a friend at the same time.

Then to the local market where I found a lovely Crabtree and Evelyn gift pack that will solve my Christmas present concerns and so home via a friend's place for a cuppa and a chat.

Made up the bed with my new mattress topper today so I am rather looking forward to snuggling down tonight and finding out if it does what I hope it will do.

Busy day in the Garden today! A local nursery donated trays and trays of seedlings to us (they were past their sell-by date and a bit leggy but all healthy plants). So we planted them into the bed we had set aside to grow food for "dining with friends" (a St Vincent de Paul initiative that provides a hot meal once a month to those who are unable to afford decent food) and Second Bite (a charity that provides food parcels for people on low income using donated past-use-by food from supermarkets). Once that bed was full we decided that the school garden bed they will not be using over summer could do with some plants and filled that up too. Still more seedlings went into a third bed that had been rented to someone who has fallen ill and is unable to garden at present - she will be invited to harvest what she needs from the produce. This poor woman arrived in Tassie with hubby in tow only to have him fall ill with a disorder that has affected his vision so he is unable to drive any more. Then they just got over that when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and is presently undergoing chemo. Talk about unlucky. So we are hoping she will be cheered up to know there are some fresh veges in her future after all.

We still had heaps more, so took over another small bed that had been released by its leaser as she decided it was too shady and therefore of no use to her. And still there were more. So some came home with me, some went home with Syche and I sent another couple of punnets home with someone I know is doing it a bit tough at present.

My personal score was a punnet of Rouge de Marmande tomatoes, a punnet each of caulis and savoy cabbages, half a punnet of Jap pumpkins, some zucchini and ... I think that was it.

The toms, pumpkins and zucchinis are all in the garden already and the brassicas will be planted tomorrow. We have a week of cool weather forecast so they should get a good start.

All of this was tucked in under the straw I bought while coming back from Hobart, and another pile of straw that had been mucked out of the chicken run. Fortunately some of the more helpful students came over during a free period so we had some extra hands to shovel soil (the beds needed topping up) and sheep poo and straw around the place. All the beds are now deep in mulch after a good watering to finish off the job the rain had started.

A bit achey after all that work, but it was well worth it to get so much food for free!

Raining all day, roads awash, gutters gushing, and 5 mm in the gauge. I hate weather like this - too wet to do anything useful, but not wet enough to fill the tank. It seems probable there will be more of the same tomorrow, when we are due to be in the garden. We do have some 'must do' stuff like unloading the straw from the back of the ute (the farmer gave me all his loose straw as well as the three bales i bought, so there is at least another bale's worth of loose straw in there). But if it looks like staying around I might call it a rain-day and go home.

Today was more a case of 'oh hell, I forgot  had cottages to clean'! so I had to dash in at noon to sort that lot out. A load of linen had arrived also so a fair bit of putting-away to deal with, and then home to walk the dogs. I decided it was too damp for Shadow so he got to loaf at home while Seb and i went on our trek. Seb was soaked and so was I by the time we were back. Apparently my waterproof is no longer waterproof.

So I am thinking of lighting the fire, or should I simply go to bed early? Time will tell. Mean time I have to cook dinner.

It is almost 12 hours since I left home this morning and I am knackered.

First to clean the bank and just as I was leaving my boss turned up wallet in hand and paid me for my work (phew). Then to the service station for some fuel to head south and a huge range of activities ahead. I heard there was a blockage inbound on the highway so diverted to the Eastern Shore on the off-chance there was a Harris Scarfe at Eastlands (there isn't) where I could get the mattress underlay I had my eye on. Fortunately KMart had something very similar for $30.00 less so I snapped that up and left before the display of stunning Moroccan pottery on the lower level tempted me into doing something rash (some stupendously beautiful bowls there if you happen to be passing - not to mention some lovely hangings and lamps).

Then off to the Uni to discover that the Coop has a set price to buy back text books and despite mine having barely been opened I only got back $73.00 on about $800 of texts. Mind you, two of them have been superseded by more recent editions apparently, so they came home with me. I can now teach myself primary school mathematics which may not be a bad thing!

To Moonah to get the knives sharpened and go to the No-Frills supermarket there where i bought 10 litres of white vinegar for the community garden (to make spray for the weeds), and a couple of bags of nuts (cashews and walnuts - more about these later), and K&D for some UV-resistant tape for the Garden (to repair the polytunnel which has some tears in it thanks to people poking their fingers through the plastic) and on to Glenorchy to the meat man. Also called into ABC to collect some bowl cleaner and spot remover as I had run out of these at the Bank.

Finally to Bridgewater and some more nuts and seeds, a diversion to the Fruit and Veg stall there and home via the IGA for a few other items. The nuts and seeds are to be converted into a granola which is something I enjoyed when I lived in the UK but assumed was something you bought. Basically you mix them together with some oatmeal and honey in the blender, bake them till they are crunchy and then use it for things like on top of yoghurt and fruit (sort of a parfait - yogurt, fruit, granola). I used to buy little tubs of it for breakfast when I was working in London and very nice it was too!

Then two walks with the dogs and large quantities of meat to put into the freezer.

The meat man (Robinsons Wholesale meats) had some goat chops so I have divvied those up into 500g bags for some curries, and lamb shanks at $3.00 each (half the price they were last time i looked at them). A 3kg piece of rump steak was only $29.00!! So that has been sliced into steaks leaving a small roast from the short end and it  has all been bagged, labelled and popped into the freezer.

They are forecasting heavy rain tonight so I am hoping they are right as the tank is right down to the bottom once more.

Getting a bit annoyed with my boss at the cottages. 'Will be up Tuesday with your pay' says he. Message at 2:00 pm to tell me his plans had changed. So the very packed trip to town is deferred to tomorrow on the off chance he bothers to arrive punctually at 8:30 to pay me. Last chance to get a very hectic day in before the Christmas rush descends so I am not happy that i have to leave that late in the day. Had hoped to be in Sandy Bay by 9, but that's not going to happen.

So I cleared out some of the stuff in the spare room/study/sewing room, returned Stuart's text books and notes to him, carefully placed my old text books into the car along with the knives to be sharpened, made a list and generally pottered about before heading into the tip and town (this was before I got my text message) to check on the pay situation.

Dropped off some clean pillow protectors at the cottages and came home once more.

Found a lamb chop in the freezer so will have that with mash, peas and carrots for dinner.

The thunderstorms today delivered a fairly meagre water ration, but better than nothing. It brought the snails out in droves so I liberally sprinkled the ground with snail bait (the non-toxic, animal friendly sort) and have reaped a harvest of corpses as a consequence. I doubt it has even dented the population, but it is satisfying at least.

The bank was clean in a trice and I was off home to whip up some rhubarb and vanilla jam (just pop a vanilla bean in with the rhubarb, sugar and lemon juice and away you go). The deep red rhubarb from the garden makes a rather more appealing rhubarb jam than does the usual stuff - it is a nice ruby hint that gleams at you instead of sludge grey.

Between showers I emptied out the car of my excess rubbish preparatory to a trip to town that was supposed to take place tomorrow, but apparently Brad can't make it up to pay me till tomorrow so that plan has gone down the gurgler. Still it gives me time to make my list (which is growing alarmingly - so many places to go and things to do, and in the middle of the Christmas crowds, woe is me), and prepare a little better for the journey. I will take my uni text books back and trade them in at the Co-Op. It will be great if they give you cash for them, if not I will have some money coming in over the months until they are sold on commission.

Shadow seems quite tired after our walk today which is surprising as he only did half the distance Seb and I did (I let him set his own pace), but i expect he is getting a bit old for all this gallivanting poor lad.