It's going to be a long night. My neighbours (the one with too many animals and not enough brains) has decided tonight is the ideal time to burn out a stump. The 'stump' is five foot high, about four feet around, has its head embedded in a live banksia, sits a foot from the fence (paling fence) and seven metres from the side of my house. It is old, dry pine. There is another, taller stump (around 15 feet high) a couple of feet away from the one they are burning. In the other direction they have a stand of mature pines that will burn nicely if they get going.

The wind, which is gusting strongly, is toward my house and the fence. So far so good. I have moved the ute, but the gas bottle may be at risk. The dogs are currently wearing their leashes and the cats will get thrown outside if there is insufficient time to box them, should things go awry.

I have also texted someone to see if they have the number for the local brigade (it's not listed on the Tas Fire website). It will become a 000 matter if I get to see flames above the fence.

When we discussed his plans for the stumps he assured me he would a) let me know in advance of his intention to light, b) remove panels of the fence to reduce risk and c) cut the stump down to ground level so all he was doing would be to burn out the roots. Guess he knows what he should be doing, just chooses not to.

I am assured it will probably go out if it starts snowing - not really all the comforting.

Meanwhile, I have been cooking madly today and now have some pork hung shao, and a beef and barley stew with lots of root veges in it. The pork is melt-in-your-mouth tender and served with Hokkien noodles is delicious (I had it for lunch). The beef is still stewing away, but I will need to turn it off soon as it will run out juices soon, the barley having consumed most of it.

We had a flurry of snow about half an hour ago, but it has stopped once more, and though they forecast falls tonight I will not be holding my breath (though, clearly will witness them if they happen since going to bed while that fire is alight is not an option).

ETA: The fire is out now. The captain of the local fire brigade came and explained the error of his ways.

Last temperate day for a few days now. Tomorrow we will be aiming for six degrees, which should not be hard to achieve as it will be four overnight. Unlike tomorrow night which will be minus three.

I laid in a supply of firewood (and foodstuffs) in anticipation of the snow to 300 metres which may or may not eventuate during the next two days, and there is a large saucepan of cabbage and bean soup simmering on the top of the woodstove, and shoulder of pork thawing in the kitchen and a recipe book beside me for the Hung Shao pork that it will be converted into. It will be a variation on the recipe as it is supposed to be pork belly, but I have better things to do with pork belly I am afraid.

The dogs are sprawled in front of the fire (funny how they soon realise there is nothing worth getting excited about once the fire is lit), and the cats are hunkered down also.

Yesterday in the Garden we did heaps of work - cleared the dead leaves and stems from the rhubarb patch and mulched it with more chicken litter; dug some mushroom compost and sheep manure into the beds in the polytunnel (which reminds me, I should tell the gardeners they can start planting). I planted two rows each of carrots and a sort of pointy-topped cabbage in the polytunnel - seeds, as I suppose the warmer environment will allow them to emerge despite the chillier weather.

Fortunately my book rummaging of some weeks ago has found me some good books to keep myself amused with during the enforced indoor existence (not to mention the counted cross stitch), and I am well set to endure it all.

For a day that was supposed to be rainy there has not been much wet stuff about. Though as I type a further shower has started to land on the roof.

I decided to have another go at Boston Baked Beans - this time using my newly acquired molasses, as this is one of the recipes that actually calls for it. It is simmering away in the slow-cooker at present, and will hopefully be done in time for dinner. Also on the bean theme I am soaking some more beans in anticipation of making some bean and cabbage soup, to use up the last of the brassicas from the Community Garden. I will not be fit for polite company for some time, methinks, lol.

I finally picked up some chain bar lube and cut a small barrow of wood, since it really hasn't been necessary to light the fire during the day (well, not till around two-ish) lately. Since tomorrow will be busy, and Saturday will be showers and the four days after that in single figures, I may have been a little optimistic, but will cope.

Had planned to get some more sewing done today but Sebastian was being a little needy so eventually I gave up and took him for a longer than usual walk. Luckily the rain held off while we were doing that as it was too warm to wear the rain jacket.

A nice relaxing day at sewing today. The machine would not work for me, so I took it home and collected the counted cross stitch, on which I made some progress. The problem with a 16 gauge aida cloth, of course, is that you can put a lot of stitches in without getting much coverage, so I am still well short of the 2 square centimetres I have gridded so far.

The weather is somewhat warmer but a little overcast - so much so I had to put the lights on in the ute when I popped home for the sewing. But apart from a little mizzle there was no real rain.

The new bottle shop has opened in the Main Street, so I went to inspect their wares (leaving them all on the shelf) and was pleased to see they carry a rather broader variety of wines than did either of the local bottle shops associated with the pubs. The situation has, until recently been that one could (if one could hunt out a staff member) get a bit of grog from one of the pubs, if they were open, and if it suited their convenience, and from the other pub you could walk into the bar, through the passage past the men's toilet and wander around in a concrete bunker trying to find something potable, so the new shop is a welcome addition for those of us who still have a palate. It is a little vast and echoing, but will presumably fill up as the business grows, which in the this town, should not take too long. I am in two minds about the social impacts from such a development, but from a personal perspective am quite thrilled (though they don't stock Glenfiddich!!)

Some of my vision problems were sorted out today when I dropped into spec savers and had them check whether my frame had been knocked out of shape during my recent altercation - seems it had, and i now can see rather more clearly. Damn graduated lenses!!

Shadow obviously found a lease of life today and was found sound asleep on my bed when I got home from town - he hasn't managed to get up there for a couple of years now, so something must have been exciting enough to warrant getting high enough to see out the front window. No idea what.

I found that haricot beans are not standard stock in any of the major supermarkets i visited, so went to a health food store instead. There I also found some molasses - something I have sought on numerous occasions for recipes, but not found. So I now have a jar in the pantry since it doesn't go off at all.

The cord on the vacuum cleaner at the Bank has become very very twisted, despite my best efforts to keep it straight (it was twisted when I first started), so I took it down with me and dropped it in to them to sort out for me while i was shopping.

My last stop was for the pet food, and i found that Animal Tuckerbox stocks chook food with an 18% protein content, which is ideal for fattening chooks. So a bag of that came home with me to finish off the roosters. They also scored another bag of kitchen scraps from my friend who dropped them in this morning before I left home.

Tonight's dinner is a sachet of Mure's prawn bisque which was on sale at the Roxy - not sure if I can follow the instructions accurately (finely chopped onion, sauteed with white wine till the wine burns off) as the only white wine i have in the fridge was opened some considerable time ago. I will give it a sniff before I pour it in.

Another frost, but rather lighter than yesterday's.  Having cut some wood and lit the fire I settled down to do some counted cross stitch. I was just drawing another length of thread when I realised I was using the wrong colour (doh), so instead spent my time carefully cutting away the offending threads, hoping in the mean time that my stash of several hundred threads contains on in the right shade of tan. Since it only requires one short (50cm) allocation in that colour I suspect it is for detailing backstitches and so a close match should do the trick nicely. Meanwhile all that concentrated work made my left shoulder sore and my eyes a bit dry, so no more of that today, thank you very much.

In half an hour I sally forth to clean the bank and will then return to sit and read, since sewing is clearly not going to be a option, sigh.

Bit of  a chilly one last night - minus degrees from three am, and minus 2.7 at 8:30 this morning - brrr. A good layer of frost to make our morning walk crunchy and the ice on the chooks' water supply was so thick I had to knock it out with the top of a star picket!

Three loads of washing went on the line, but it is all now festooning the loungeroom as it never quite got warm enough to dry it. I have given up and there are now flannelette sheets on the bed. The flannel shirts are hung in a row and I am rotating the back ones to the front so they pocket flaps can dry out before putting them in the bedroom, and the bath mat will presumably be soggy underfoot tomorrow as it is still very damp indeed.

Spurred on by the temperatures I cut a load of wood to supplement what remains and am presently very snug indeed as the various barriers of damp clothing are blocking any drafts that might remind me how cold it is outdoors! I will need to cut a bigger load tomorrow but since i have run out of chain bar lube (except what is currently in the machine) it will presumably be smaller stuff, using the drop saw.

Well. Another day wasted - sort of. I got to sleep until eight this morning which was amazing for me. Quite the sleep-in! It made for a leisurely start to the day and if I hadn't had to clean a cottage I would have still be in my PJs by lunchtime, but as it was, I was up and dressed, dogs walked and out the door by eleven.

Cottage clean once more i returned home, walked the dogs again, and ate some lunch then, because I have been wanting something to do with my hands for a while, dug out a counted cross stitch.

By the time I laid down three rows of gridding (ten stitch intervals), ruled up the guide graph accordingly, and started work, it was time for another walk with the dogs.

The mares have gone from next door at last - it took a 13 year old visitor to get them loaded calmly as He is a bit too heavy handed and clueless, and their own daughter is overconfident and pushes the horses along when she leads them. It was, in fact, amazingly calm, usually any activity with the horses involves vast amounts of distressed neighing, but it seems the stallion has only now noticed his mares are gone, and has set up a bit of fuss. At least we know it is not the horses that are the problem now. I can but hope this presages some sort of concerted effort to sort out the yard (and boundary fencing), but if it doesn't I will be having some words to say myself on the subject, since I really don't want to be living next door to a dust bowl come summer.

This morning was so bright and sunny I almost did some washing, or some gardening, or something like that. But when I took the dogs for a walk, a glance to the south made it clear that was not going to happen, so I went back indoors and lit the fire, found a book and settled down.

I popped out to visit a friend in the afternoon and we sat and chattered away about all manner of things, which was fun, then home I went to stir up the ashes and add more wood.

Them next door seem to be back from their jaunt to Bali, but of course there has been no effort to thank me to organising to fix their fence. I expect they will simply take it as one of those blessings from god that require no acknowledgement. Oh well.

I have found the perfect house in Kingston, but will need to win lotto to get it, sigh. Still I will be heading down to Hobart next week so can check my ticket while i am there.

I've had a couple of uneventful days to be frank. Far too foggy yesterday to do anything useful and today we achieved our maximum at ten in the morning and have been hovering several degrees below that ever since (also grey, overcast, very damp air).

The Parattah Progress Assn met last night for its AGM (notice how many of the local committees meet only once a year then wonder why nothing happens). I seem to have lost my campaign to save the Grandstand which is a great pity, but at least they have agreed we need to do something about the water tank (a concrete tank with a galvanised conical roof that is disintegrating slowly and leaving bits of itself around the neighbourhood whenever we have a big blow).

I am once again VP, and have offered to assist filling in our small grants application so we can do something about the tank, and Heather, my friend who is moving into the village, has been elected secretary, even though none of them had the slightest clue who I was talking about, lol. Anything to avoid a committee position, it seems. And yes, Heather did agree to this when we discussed it on Monday).

I am slowly working my way through the fire wood as it has been necessary to have the fire going all day for the last couple of days, if only to keep off the dankness. Since I cut enough to make two rows of wood in the wood-corner, I am still pretty well placed if the forecast rain puts in an appearance tomorrow.

The newspaper seems to be having a desirable impact on Seb's attention span, though occasionally I have to be quite firm with my thigh if he is thoroughly interested in something (the neighbour's cat for example). At least we seem to be making some progress and slapping my thigh seems to bring him back to me when I say 'come' as well. We live in hope, though I will have a sore thigh for a while.

I finally dropped in my note for Judy today as i discovered she did not have a letter box (how odd), so I slipped it under the front door. No reaction yet, but I expect they will need to talk among themselves first.

I cut two barrow loads of wood today in anticipation of the change coming on Wednesday. Seven degrees with rain probably means more snow, so a cosy fire will be desirable. There will be four consecutive days in single figures, so I will need to keep warm for some time. It is really very unusual at this time of year to have such a long spell of cold weather as we have had.

My friend who is moving into the village showed me around her cottage this afternoon. It is rather sweet, if rather small, and as she says - for an English person, the yard is quite enormous, though small by the standards of the village. It is the house that sits at the corner of the road as it curves, so all the neighbouring lots have full length yards, and hers is triangular and truncated by the meeting of those longer yards.

Bank to clean tonight so I am just reheating the left over pizza for dinner tonight. I will get some stew veges while in town and make a slow-cooked dinner tomorrow.

Well, I am over the trauma of yesterday. Nothing i can do about how people interpret the facts, and the chook was not on their property. Also no-one seems to have noticed, as the chook was still there this morning and was only collected (and tossed out of the horse's paddock) in mid-afternoon. (I had thrown it over the fence for them to find).

Seb showed a similar interest in the four chickens in the lane this morning, but I had come prepared and he had a whack on the backside with a rolled up newspaper. On our way back to the house he spotted two more and went into stalk mode, so got another whack on the nose. Now all I have to do is whack my own leg and it gets his attention back where it should be.

I typed out a letter (budget submission) for the Railway Assn, of which I am secretary. Three pages of it, and not terribly coherent or well organised, but I does what I am told and only made a couple of grammatical alterations to the hand-written draft the Treasurer presented to me. He wanted seven copies, would you believe it. One for me, another for the President, and third for the Councillor on our committee, and fourth and fifth for him, and two for ordinary committee members who might be vaguely interested. Oh well - at least it means the information is not lost when someone dies which is what happened to most of our information.

I have also hand-written my note to Judy but will drop it in the letter box after dark because i am a coward.

A barrow load of wood cut and brought indoors (mornings and evenings require a fire these days), and we are now all settling down for a relaxing evening.

What a horrible day. It started well with me getting all three loads of washing on the line before heading off to clean the cottages. While there I found a lovely beagle dog with only three legs, that had clearly recently had the relevant surgery, wandering at liberty around the streets. Several people were standing there letting it roam around, but I felt it was showing no traffic sense and was vulnerable. So I caught it and asked someone for a bit of rope and while he was finding that, along came the neighbour of the dog's owner. So we handed the dog over to him and off it went.

I got home and found Judy's horse down on the oval. So I caught it and led it back to her place where the side gates were both padlocked, and the front door was open. So I led it up to the front of the house and called out but received no reply. So eventually I took it through the gate into the back garden which has a dodgy latch. I secured that as best I could then came home and took some scraps down to the chooks. By the time I got there, the horse was back on the oval once more. On reflection I decided it was safer there than running around the streets. I was planning to text Judy to let her know when they arrived back home.

They sent one of the neighbour's kids to get her, and I waylaid the child and explained what I had done. The child simply stood there until I had finished talking then kept on moving up the lane. I have to assume they have been instructed not to speak to me.

Then to compound that, while out walking Seb he spotted one of their chooks on the side of the lane, snatched the leash out of my hands and killed it. I expect i am the demon from hell at this stage of the piece.

I will drop my revised note off tomorrow along with five dollars change (my money, but why compound the situation), and hope for the best. But I suspect they have spent the last week or so convincing themselves I am a violent and unstable person not fit for human consumption.....

Lovely day in the garden today and we got quite a  bit done. I whippersnipped all the paths clear of weeds to allow student access and then the mob descended on us. Meanwhile Syche and I cleared out the polytunnel, preparatory to leaving it to solarise for a couple of weeks to get rid of bugs, shut it up and then moved two potting tables into the hydroponics shed in anticipation of student needs.

The new teacher is much more receptive and open to ideas and help than the last one was. She is keen to set up a gardening program in the school so we directed her to a couple of programs that are available which offer funding, not only for the gardening activity but for a staff member (I suggested I would be the ideal candidate, lol) who could work part time with some students and help those who are not good at sitting in a class room all day. If they are anything like Brady, the kid who has taken control of the chicken project (because he was not good at sitting in class all day) they may even be fun to work with.

Then I ran into the General Manager of the Council so asked him if he knew about our AGM which is rumoured to be some time in the coming week. He too had been surprised to read about it in the paper, but had no recollection of the date. He promised he would get one of the women in the office to run up some notices for distribution around the village, and give them to our president (who works for council) before he went home tonight. Won't hold my breath, but since the meeting will be happening over the back fence I guess I can just pop down if I see some cars there, and see if it is the meeting or the eightball competition roster.

The problem with the new mattress is that it makes getting out of bed difficult, lol. I woke at 6:30 this morning (a good time as I had to be in the Garden by nine), but then went straight back to sleep again. Far too comfy!

It was overcast and windy today albeit quite a few degrees warmer. The wind was not as violent as it has been of late, so I risked a couple of loads of washing, with the result I now have a clean shirt to wear tomorrow (good thing too, as I am wearing the last clean one I have, and that, only because I found it in the Bargain Centre yesterday going cheap).

I have also been crafting a note to accompany Judy's change when I deliver it - getting the balance right between establishing I still want to be friends without sounding needy is a tricky process, but I think I am pretty close to a final cut. Once done I will hand write it before delivery (and keep a photocopy in case it backfires).

This afternoon we had a judging panel visit the community garden so I trekked in there for that, and stood around extolling the virtues of our progress. This is for the Tidy Towns group of assessments that we did well in last time.

Then home to walk the dogs and snuggle down inside - for the first uninterrupted evening for a while. Fire has been on since this morning, so it is all nice and snug now the wind has dropped. Despite the insulation and all the work stopping up gaps the inside of the house still gets quite chilly when a wind is blowing - I guess I still have a few gaps to stop up.

I was rather disappointed that the promised snow to 300 metres failed to put in an appearance today - I was rather looking forward to being snowed in. Still - it was a nice sunny day and as long as you were out of the wind it was quite pleasant. The wind was not terribly cold either, just rather ...... forceful.

I decided to go to quilting since i had nothing better to do, but was perhaps not in the right frame of mind for it. They seemed to be in gossip central mode and some of it was rather malicious gossip. Since it was about a friend of mine (the chap who was hit by a reversing car outside our local supermarket) and suggested he had not in fact been hit at all and it was all a beatup because he was a bit shonky, I was rather irate. I asked them if he was suing the person who had hit him, and when they said no, I pointed out that he could hardly be telling porkies for his own benefit then. I then went on to tell them that he had done a hell of a lot more for our community than some of the malicious gossips maligning him. They changed the subject.

I begin to think I have outgrown the sort of childishness that seems to govern so much of social intercourse these days, and wonder if it is possible to check into a society where people act like adults instead. Hard to know where one might find such a thing these days.

I came home to find James had taken advantage of my absence to return the book I had loaned him. Since there was no note, I have to conclude that either he was unable to get into it (it is a dense and difficult book) or that they have decided to cut off all future relations. Again an astonishingly childish act from someone to whom I have offered nothing but friendship. Humans suck.

The snow seems to have kept itself to higher points so far which is a good thing as I had a few bits and bobs to deal with today. Firstly a trip up to see the treasurer of the railway committee and drop off some notes I had made for a brochure that is presently being revised (they have about as many things wrong about the history of this town as it is possible to have), then into town to collect the straw.

I received a phone call last night to tell me it had been delivered to the School Garden, which, while unexpected was actually a good outcome since it did not mean we needed to worry about whose place it was delivered to (and who had to collect their straw from the other location). It is quite loosely packed and the bales are not as long as usual which may be why it was so cheap. I suspect, since it arrived from the farm of the grandfather of the student who sold it to me, that is a result of his own learning efforts.

Fortunately it was stacked inside one of the sheds, so I simply removed my five bales and piled them into the back of the ute, to be taken home and stacked in the small chicken shed, currently not in use. I noticed Judy was cleaning the cottages so popped in to let her know where it was. Her grandson James was helping and was pleasant, relaxed and smirking mildly as if he recognised the situation is ridiculous. Judy was a little stiff and formal, but I simply dashed in and told her where it was as if there had been no interruption. As it was raining I had the perfect excuse to dash straight off again. I expect she thinks I had it sent there deliberately to annoy her.

Then home to pile the straw (well, three bales of it) into the chicken shed and to try fitting over it a large black woven plastic cover that had blown into my yard in the recent gales. The door of the relevant shed has dropped so the bolt does not do up, but this will provide some protection for the straw until I can address that. The weather is presently from behind the shed so it should all be good.

I stuffed some of the looser bits into the roosters' bedroom so they have something to snuggle into tonight (they keep scratching their bedding out and leaving it lying around in the run), and ran for cover as another shower came over.

Also cut another barrow load of wood so I should be good for a couple of days, and tomorrow when they are forecasting snow to 400 meters I will be snug as a bug if they are right and I can not get out. So far no cottages to deal with tomorrow but tonight I have to clean the bank as I forgot it was Monday yesterday (until I was in bed with the light out), and didn't get it done. Silly me.

Two cottages to clean today. I finished the first one just before checkout time, but when I went to do the second one they were still in bed - you have to wonder about some people. They said they would be 'right on it' but since this would inevitably involve showering and organising and loading the car and various other bits of mucking about I went to visit a friend while I waited.

This is the friend who was so helpful the other day, so it was good to be able to catch up with her and thank her, if nothing else.

Then back to clean the second cottage and, just as I was dumping the soiled linen, a car pulled up and they wanted to check in. So I sent them up to the Mill to get some keys (I was pretty sure there were vacancies as I had no envelopes to put out), and they got back just as I was leaving. So we had a good old chat about their travels and ambitions etc, and I finally got home at almost two. I was glad the fire stayed in as the day might have been sunny in the afternoon, but was still rather chilly.

Will be loading another log on in the very near future!!

My friend had another episode this morning and was carted off by ambulance. Unfortunately I did not check my phone till this afternoon so was oblivious to it all. I have tried phoning several times but no answer so I assume they are still down at the Royal.

I cut a barrow load of wood in preparation for the next few days of wild weather. It seems to be settling in nicely at present with grey mizzle falling which may well develop into snow overnight.

I will head in and clean the bank tonight so it is all nice and fresh for them tomorrow when they arrive, though I have to admit i am not looking forward to it. I will pick up some dinner while I am in there so I don't starve, lol.

Meantime the fire is chugging away merrily and driving off the chills brought about the inclement weather.

The bank didn't get cleaned last night as I had carefully put my car keys in a safe place and could not remember where that was. This is quite normal for me if I am under stress, and since it was Friday and I can clean tonight or tomorrow night without causing much fuss, I decided to leave it till Sunday and spend an evening in front of the fire.

This morning was more drama (not mine this time) as a friend who suffers from trigeminal neuralgia was sent home from the Royal as not having a problem despite having been sent there by his doctor due to pain-induced fitting. His partner was having fits (of the emotional kind) so after I cleaned the bank I took up the remains of the salted caramel biscuits to see if I could help. Turned out I couldn't as he had things under control by then, but am on watch in case of further dramas as the evening progresses. The Ambos from Bridgewater complained that Tina had not driven him down herself instead of hauling them out on a snowy night (right, driving back country roads, with a passenger having fits and no-one to accompany him and manage his problems). They were duly told off by the local doctor, and they are presently contacting him for a further referral to the Royal.

Severe pain with no physically apparent symptoms does seem to be a major mental block for many hospital administrators. In this case, the duty Hospital Administrator even refused to supply his name when asked for it (fortunately he did after having it pointed out to him that it would be easy enough to track down who had been on duty at the relevant time). It should not be necessary for people with a chronic illness of this sort to have to resort to the sorts of abuse and neglect that Peter regularly endures, simply because he looks like an aging hippy.

Well that went well - not. About half an hour after Judy left in a huff, her sister came over. She was extremely belligerent and kept on telling me 'don't you dare speak to my sister like that'. When I remonstrated she took me by the front of my windcheater and started shoving at me, then came chest to chest with me forcing me to step backwards. I knew that I could not go too far backward as I had some gardening tools (including a rake with the tines turned upward and a pitchfork) behind me, so eventually, when there was  no sign of let-up I punched her. She then punched me back, hit me over the head with the tray of baked beans she was carrying, and kept on coming. So I took a handful of hair and pulled. All that did was bring us both down with her on top, but since I then pointed out that she had assaulted me we at least got a conversation going, albeit an unconstructive one, and I was able to push her off and get inside with the door locked.

The police came out and after speaking to me, went over the road with my message - apologise or face charges, and this sort of behaviour is unacceptable. No idea what the result of his visit was as I have not been home much today.

I had the Community Garden on the schedule so got there half an hour late. Syche had called in sick as I discovered when I checked my phone, having noted her car was not there. I too was not feeling the best so I went to see the doctor, who, knowing both Judy and myself has assured me that when tempers cool things will be OK once more. I gather he intends to have a chat with her.

Since the trip to the doctor reduced me to tears, I called in on a friend who was just going out to do her two hours of volunteering work at the hospital. So she stowed me on her couch with a cup of tea, a book and a doona and made me promise not to leave till she got back. On her return she brought some lunch and we sat and talked for some time (about life the universe and everything) by which time I was ready to return home and face the spray pattern of Boston Baked Beans on the back wall of the house.

I was just coming back from walking the dogs when the friend who is intending to move into the village in June dropped by. The local grapevine had advised her of the incident and she came bearing salted caramel biscuits. So I made a cup of tea and we sat and ate biscuits and talked about her plans for moving and how she wants to deal with the new residence, then she left and I hosed off the back wall - scrubbing with the hair broom - and am now settled in for the evening. Prematurely it turns out as I have just remembered I have  a bank to clean once more.

This is my third attempt to post this, so sorry there are no photos - they seem to screw up the system:

Last night was a bit of a debacle. Apparently "we are just popping down to the airport to pick up..." was supposed to be interpreted as "and we are staying in town for dinner", not, as I had assumed "there will be one more for dinner". So come six o'clock, with no sign of the return, I delivered the casserole to the house, and left it, wrapped in a towel, on the dining table. Since I had to clean the bank, and did not want them to come home cold and tired to my absence and that of their expected dinner, this seemed the best solution. On my return from the bank there was still no sign of them, so I thought 'flight delays and safe driving in snow weather...' Come eight thirty I thought 'bugger this for a joke, I'm hungry' so went over to retrieve the dinner. But of course the door had locked itself when i closed it last time, and the back door was also locked.

All of this is surmise, however, since no-one has bothered to come over from the house to either apologise or thank me for their meal, or to return it to me, or to invite me to share it with them tonight, or any of the thousand and one options available to them. So I am rather peeved right now. I am also less than impressed that they apparently left four children unattended for quite a few hours on a night such as last night was.

Fortunately my bad mood was somewhat alleviated by the snow on the ground this morning (though it did nothing for the cats' moods), and so I took lots of pix and spent the day indoors with only occasional wanders with the dogs. The chooks' water was checked regularly in case of freezing as the temperature did not reach more than one degree until after ten o'clock and failed to achieve the 7 degrees forecast.

Update, the casserole dish has just been returned with thanks and expressions of pleasure and an intention to eat more of it tonight (none was brought back to me), but no invitation to join them. I pointed out a phone call might have been courteous and was told they didn't have my number. I then pointed out that i had had toast and jam for dinner as I could not get back into their house. I was then subjected to recrimination because they could not get back into their house. Then finally a very surly 'sorry' as she left. Last time i offer to do anything for them again unless the response is improved tomorrow.

It is presently three degrees and the last downpour tried very hard to snow. I expect it will indeed snow overnight, but hopefully it will wait till I have finished at the bank.

I put on a pot of Boston Baked Beans this morning before heading into town to do the cottage, but on my return discovered I had neglected to turn it on at the power point, so it is presently cooking away and will hopefully be done in time for dinner. I discovered to my surprise that I am actually catering for four adults as Judy's sister is arriving on a plane this afternoon. Hope there is sufficient to go around as there are two small children to feed also.

Despite some sunny spells I comprehensively failed to cut any wood today which was a mistake, but at least I have sufficient to get through tonight and start it up in the morning.

I also offered to lend a copy of a book to Judy's grandson who is still staying with her, but then discovered it was not unpacked yet. So I had a sort through the books that are unpacked for some that could go back into a box, and unpacked two more boxes of books which will make a pleasant change to the reading material. This time i am making a bit more of an effort to sort them by author so they are easier to find.

About four weeks ago the neighbours' horses ate two of the posts holding up the paling fence down the lane. I drew this to their attention and was assured they would deal with it as a matter of priority - they even went to some lengths to explain just how they would deal with it. They left for their holiday in Bali yesterday.

Unsurprisingly, with the Autumn gales arriving overnight I awoke to find the fence lying in the lane.

Poor Judy is presently caring for the children so I felt it was a bit unreasonable to expect her to deal with the issue. So I got on the phone to Council who were out there within the hour to fix it. Such excellent service - have to wonder why, but I am not complaining.

I am rather hoping that, having had to fix the fence they will write to my neighbours about the entire fence and suggest (as I suggested to them) that it should be fully replaced with something more suitable for containing their livestock. I have been maintaining the thing for the last six years with no acknowledgement whatsoever, but I stopped doing so once Robin moved in as he seemed to be a little more pro-active than the deceased former husband and has $20,000 of quarterhorses to protect. Apparently, however, he is just as focussed on his own priorities because the only work that was done between our conversation and their departure was removing cladding from the side of the barn and replacing it will colorbond.

The fence being sorted I decided to start off some Boston Baked Beans since they are forecasting snow for the next two days and something warm and filling seems appropriate. I was just clearing out the kitchen when a fellow-committee member called in to see me and wanted to discuss a range of issues relating to the Railway Station. After two hours, he finally left and I ate the sausages i had been about to sit down to for lunch.

Wind and rain for most of the day, but that is the same for the rest of the State. At least this particular attack is coming from a quarter that does not impact me, as the neighbour's large trees block the worst of it. Hope the wind does not shift between now and Thursday when we return to our usual weather for this time of year.

Today was devoted to cleaning my bedroom in anticipation of the new mattress arriving. I took all the bedding and washed it as well as washing the floor and generally tidying up - my reward was to find my watch which the cat knocked off the bedside table some months ago and which I have been unable to find since. Mainly because whenever I get on my hands and knees to look for it, several wet black noses join in the hunt.

The current mattress is leaning against the wall in the hall. I had thought to take it to the tip today but then thought I would offer it on Freecycle in case someone wants one for a spare bed or shack. It is still sparkly clean and unstained so hopefully someone will be interested.

Then I hied me to Tunnack where my friend is selling up her house and collected the new one. It is a Kingcoil made for hotel use and therefore fireproofed. I will probably die of some nasty chemical infestation but hopefully I will die comfortably. It is all made up with clean everything and ready for me to crawl into (quite soon I suspect as I am very weary).

Two of the teachers at the school decided that they would like to have classes over in the Garden. Apparently they have been teaching the theory for some time but didn't get around to letting us know they had this in mind. So today we had 30 students descend on us with only 24 hours notice. Fortunately we had mostly cropped the beds that we decided to allocate to them, and were able to lift the rest of the crop before they arrived.

It looks a better bunch than last year with two more experienced teachers who have a firm grip on their classes and also have a willingness to talk and negotiate (again, an improvement). We sent them home with some cabbages and beetroot as Syche and I are pretty well over the brassica crop at this stage. The remaining cabbages I have given to Judy as she seems to eat more veges than meat apparently.

Also at the Roxy I found some lemon balm and shallot plants so I have taken those home with me to pop into my own garden. I may yet score a 10,000 litre tank as Judy apparently wants to get ride of one - that would be great as it will double my storage capacity. I have ample fat sand to spread for a base so it will just be a matter of her getting around to it and James and I establishing a location for it. Once done I can re-assign the roof drainage appropriately as that will simply be a matter of gluing new fixtures to the existing standing pipe that feeds the tank I have. I will have to work out relative heights etc once i know which tank she is referring to.

Judy has about had it with them next door. Annie went into town early this morning to pick up 'him' from hospital and has not yet returned - leaving Judy to feed out the horses several times during the day (without bothering to phone to say when she would be back) and to deal with the kids when they get home from school. Since one of the horses attacked Judy that is not going to happen. The filly lowered her head and charged, hitting Judy down the side of her chest hard with its head - at least it was not teeth and hooves. She was thrown to the ground, which at 65 is not really something you want to have happen.

Bank to clean tonight and a cottage to do tomorrow - good thing i am starting to feel a bit better - the day in the garden seems to have cleared up my lungs a bit - but they are filling up once more in anticipation of nightfall. I just lit the fire, James too Seb for a flat out run around the oval and so at least that is one worry off my mind.

I bought pizza as this week they forgot to add the pineapple to the vegetarian option, and it will be a nice filling meal.