With 34 forecast for the day I concluded that I needed to take Seb for a walk first thing (this despite only three hours sleep it was so warm overnight). So off we trotted around the block - middle of the road to avoid snake habitat but in shade so he did not burn his little paddy paws. Turned the first corner and found a snake. OK - it was going the other way. Along the road and down the main road and off onto the road to the recreation ground - that bit of polypipe just moved ..... OK, it's a bit sluggish so no drama. Get to the gate at the recreation ground there is a nest of glistening  black baby tiger snakes seething at the hinge end. Decide going for walks is no longer a good idea. We have had very brief and cautious ventures out the back door for necessary relief for the rest of the day, and remained indoors with the fan on.

I took advantage of this to dig out some books on decorating furniture and special painted effects (marbling and the like). All very inspirational, but requiring a lot of time, effort and skill it seems. So I took them up the road to Heather who seems to like doing this sort of thing so she could borrow them and seek inspiration and she reciprocated by lending me two books (coffee table books) by Sibella Court (of whom I had never heard, but who apparently has a series of books about styling your home).

Combining the content of the first books with the content of the second two books I took photos of various pages of the second two books for future inspiration (I have an inspiration book if I can only find it, so will stick these in when I have enough coloured ink in the printer to print them out).

 Ok, this is just a nice bright cushion, but it seems to have either been block printed or hand painted. If the latter then it would be easy enough to make something similar if you had a frame to stretch some calico on.

 I'm not at all sure what this is - it was the side border of a page, but it seemed an inspiration for a panel of decorative painting (stencilling?) for the side or panel of a piece of furniture. Nice balance and distribution!

 This clearly has applied stick-on fabric, but is a nice simple border you could create a stencil from. Would look good at picture rail height or above a dado.

 Clearly this is a pressed convolvulus flower and leaves, but again, nice simple form, lovely subtle colours etc - what could you do with this?

 At first glance it is a canopied bed, but actually it is simply a panel of embroidered fabric that normally goes over a door if you happen to live in that part of the world. Used like this, with some pictures behind it to suggest depth it creates the appearance of a canopy without all the hassle of finding something to hold it off the floor (and collect dust).

 Again a simple screen print on fabric - but wouldn't it be nice as a panel on a piece of furniture (with a little more colour variation perhaps).

Finally, this is  just a photo of a bowl of tomatoes, but wouldn't it be nice rendered as a painted panel in the middle of a door in the kitchen!!

Just thinking about it exhausts me, so don't expect anything any time soon. I expect that sort of thing will have to wait till I have a shed where I can start it, walk away without cat paws intruding and go back to it when it is dry enough for the next coat of paint.

A bit of a warm one today so I scuttled in to clean the cottages early (very early). Fortunately one guest had already left and the others left while I was working so I was able to get their cottage sorted out without any delays. Two more coming in tonight and apparently staying over as I have nothing to do tomorrow but two to clean on Friday! That was unexpected but apparently the neighbour is planning a hangover (so presumably a party next door to keep me awake as well).

I have to get in an clean the bank this evening then nothing till Friday - it will be nice to relax.

I have had a radical thought about placement of rainwater tanks and sheds (good thing I thought about it now and not after lodging applications etc). The challenge has been twofold - one being getting electricity to the shed without paying an arm and a leg, and two being the difficulty of getting a fence to connect to the existing boundary fence without having major dog-legs or acute angles that would be hard to keep mown. So here is the plan. The two new rainwater tanks will be positioned as I have been considering all along and the contents of the existing tank transferred to them. Then the existing tank moved several metres down the block to sit on the raised area, and the shed to go between the two sets of tanks. This will a) allow a straight line 1.5 metre fence from the back corner of the shed, b) place the shed alongside the electricity to the rainwater tanks, and c) give me a gravity feed tank to service the orchard, poultry and bottom tank-gardens. Bonus! It will also make it easier to dispose of overflow from all three tanks as it will go down the back where it will not be a problem. Not that overflowing tanks are likely to be a problem for some months to come.

So the two new tanks will be 24000 each to add to the 10,000 I have and that should surely keep me supplied securely all year round while allowing me to have a garden that does not die in summer.

It also means the entire frontage of the shed will be secure within the fence which was not going to be the case before so that is another bonus. Feeling rather good about this now.

There will be some minor excavation required to achieve all this but the fill from that can go to level off the shed site and I will progressively buy some of those horrible angular retaining wall sections from Bunnings to set the level for him when he comes to do the work, and also to bind the end of the raised section (which is well out from where the tank will stand, so no worries about it collapsing on me - it is less than a meter high and has been consolidating for several years now.

Nice quiet night planned for tonight once i am home from the Bank - I will buy in an additional couple of litres of milk though and some fruit as I think Smoothies might be the order of the day for the next couple of days.

Frozen veges freezing in water for the chooks for tomorrow (34!) and the cat water bottle is also in the freezer.

The quarterhorse stud lost its stud stallion this morning. despite the fact their boundary fencing is practically prone the only barrier to its escape is a single strand of electric fencing. This they had turned off to save electricity.... but according to them the stallion had been stolen. I pointed out there were many places he could simply have put his head under the electric strand and strolled through without a problem but they were convinced it was stolen (and I probably had a good idea where their horse was). I gave up on that idea and took Seb home and was just standing at the back window when I spotted said stallion having a lovely gallop along the road (fortunately the side road, not the main one). So I went next door and hunted them down (apparently going to look for the horse had not occurred to them) and let them know where he was. The teenaged girl ran down to catch him with no rope (he as not wearing a halter) or any other aids to achieving her goal (bare feet too). I suggested the run up and shut the gate into the recreation ground (where he had kindly decided to come) but this was too sensible and so she rounded him up and trapped him behind the recreation shed on a narrow bit of land with a ditch on one side, a concrete block wall on the other side and our plumbing underfoot (I have not checked for damage yet). And so it went on till they finally caught him, haltered him, and led him up the lane. He is now in a stall because ............ well who knows. After all, no-one has bothered to check the fencing (the focus of this morning's activities) and apparently the idea of switching on the electricity will take a few days to sink in. Meanwhile the stallion will no doubt be confined to the box during the three days of heat wave we are expecting.

Since it was still relatively cool (ie not over 30) I packed the back of the ute with another load of stuff destined for the tip, then tidied up in the kitchen a bit before heading off to join the queue before it opened. From there I visited a friend and had a beer in the shade with her and her partner and then headed home for Seb's final long walk of the day. We have now had our dinner and I am contemplating another beer to wash it down. I may save it for New Years Eve but then again maybe I won't.

Apparently I live next door to a quarterhorse stud, or so says the sign they erected on a tree out the front of their place (their fence being less than adequate to the task). So they will be standing a barely schooled stallion at stud - I envisage broken bones before long if not worse.

Of course they first have to find someone who will not take one look at the place and decide they value their mare too highly to risk her on a property with collapsing fences, hazards galore and run by someone who looks distinctly shifty.

Once I had worked out what the banging and crashing was (the erection of the sign), Seb and I continued to the railway station and had a chat with the line inspector about his work and the state of the nation.

Home to do some radical tidying and vacuuming before lunch which, once eaten, left me replete. Then I remembered I had promised to go to the providore for lunch as they were serving paella. So I headed into town and had a second lunch (with the result I am fairly full right now) and a chat to the proprietor and her one other customer (someone I knew).

Home again and walked Seb, brought in and folded away all the washing and now i am thinking that putting up my feet sounds like a good idea. It has been rather warm today and will be a scorcher tomorrow so I do not envisage much effort happening then.

Cleaning the two cottages this morning was a doddle as the lovely people had been tidy little beasts and so apart from excessive crumbs in one of them, it was easy. From there I ventured up the road and discovered that the providore is finally open. So I bought a wedge of blue cheese in earnests of future custom and headed home. The local market (which was supposed to include a car boot sale this month but didn't) was four stalls, all looking rather tired and unpopular so I helped Heather carry her un-sold stuff back to her place and had a cup of tea with here while being introduced to her kitten. It is tiny and looks far too young to be away from its mother but seems to be coping, if a little confused by the litter tray (there are so many other more interesting places to 'go'!). So glad it is her coping with a kitten and not me. I prefer my cats to be grownups thanks.

Mine seem to be coping nicely with being totally indoor cats (an innovation brought about by the frequency of snake sightings in the back garden) and have shown no signs of stress about the business at all. Sebastian is fast asleep on my bed and also seems pretty relaxed about life at present.

I have been thinking long and hard about Vera's place and really the only way I could do it would be to seek an investor's loan from the bank, pretending I intended to rent one of the properties, then hope I sold my place for a good price in a few months. Even that is dependent on the exchange rate remaining as favourable as it is at present, so on reflection I have concluded I must stay where I am. Still, the real estate agent is coming on Tuesday and she may bear more positive tidings, though I doubt it. So - unless I win lotto with my present ticket - here I stay. Still, I was very excited about all the changes I can make with the money in terms of increasing the habitability here, and so I shall remain positive about that instead.

Lit the fire this evening. I suspect once it has become warm I will let it go out once more, but it is nice to have it going just at the present. I had a total of 27 mm out of yesterday's rain which is the best I have had in a long while, so I am pretty happy about that. The tank would have overflowed had I been collecting off all of my roof and not just 2/3rds and of course, if I had had more than one tank I would have been laughing!

Tonight's dinner will be chicken sandwiches with mayo and salad ingredients - and from there I will have to start thinking about what to cook for dinner once again. Though with more hot weather looming for New Years Eve I am not sure cooking will be high on the list.

Twenty five millimetres today! And a bit more to come by the looks of the clouds. The tank is almost full and the ground is nice and damp (though most of it will have run off, some will come back to me as ground water down the back).

I drove down to Hobart through the fog and rain (yes it was foggy as well!) to join my friends for our belated Christmas Lunch. I stopped off at the Dog's Home to donate some dog bedding as I have vast quantities now surplus to requirements. They were well received, especially the Air Bed I bought for Seb which he refused to use (it was second hand and only five dollars in case you are wondering at my extravagance).

Then on to Barb's. She has sold her house, and was living in her mother's unit but that then had to be sold as her mother ended up in a nursing home. So, rather than rush into purchasing a new place she decided to rent for 12 months and has found a really lovely house in Lindisfarne which really is quite perfect (though the sag in the roof suggests reframing may be in order). It is a solid brick home with three bedrooms, a lovely living area flanked on two sides by glassed in verandahs, a nice kitchen, carport, the works! The elderly owner has now died and so presumably it will come onto the market in the not too distant future, but Barb has a 12 month lease and so should be secure if she wants to stay. The family consists of two sons, so presumably it will be a fairly simply subdivision of assets.

She gave me the usual bag of treats for the cats and dogs as well as a Dog's Home calendar - but the big surprise in the bag was a lovely bottle of sloe gin!!! Only a little one, but it will last me for a bit I imagine - I have always wanted to taste it, and have at times considered making it (since I have a friend with a still) but have never gotten round to it. One more bucket list item ticked off once i open the bottle!

It's  been a bit warm here today - I am still working up an appetite for the food I have set aside (hindered no doubt by the various snack I have indulged in). I managed to get to church and partook of communion even though I am not Uniting Church (apparently they are not as fussy as some faith groups are). They have an odd way of going about it - a large loaf of bread - fairly flat and billowy (imagine a thinner scone with that light brown billowy top, about a foot across) which is torn up  and then dipped into the wine as it goes around. I embarrassed myself by taking a bite once it was dipped in the wine - apparently they wait till everyone is served .... sigh.

Apart from Seb's occasional very short walks (too hot to go on the road, too snakey to get down the back) I have spent much of the day wrestling things into position that have been dislodged by the wind - first the long sheet of black plastic over the lumber down the side of the house, then the plastic cover for my little greenhouse thingy and finally some sheets of alsinite I have stacked on the other side of the house - these are usually weighed down by a container of water but apparently that was not sufficient this time! The weighing down of the black plastic was a bit of a saga, firstly because I would get one end under control and then the other end would fly up and the weights would slide off my end, then carrying heavy things like a tyre still on its rim, some largish rocks etc (all of which had to be carefully lifted to ensure no snakes were under them) and piling them on top then pulling down the sides and finally rolling the weights down to sit on the skirt of the thing. It all looks a little hodgepodge but there you go. It is sorted. And after two stubbies to celebrate that, this is all I care about. Seb is comatose with the heat, as am I and we will both be very pleased when tomorrow arrives with 15 degrees and (allegedly) rain.

Well, much excitement here - Vera's neighbour pulled up to let me know her house is now officially on the market - $104,000!!! A bit high I would have thought and certainly more than I can manage, but there may be ways and means if the sale of the house in the UK proceeds rapidly - fat chance!

I at least now have a solicitor handling it and they do everything on line so I can scan images etc and send them information as required. The primary ID they asked for is a passport (mine is expired) or a UK photo ID drivers licence. Fortunately I still have mine which is a relief as I had thought I had relinquished it when I reverted to the Australian licence. And what is more it is still current!

At least with the house on the market I can now openly go to have a closer look and get inside it once I work out who the agent is (it is not online just yet). That would be the clincher - seeing inside and seeing what is required in terms of major works. And the odour inside might be a show-stopper since she had many entire cats inside with her at times.

Dinner tonight will be cold meat sandwiches with salads and I am all set for Christmas Day with a six-pack of beer, various munchies, chicken and salad as well as some sweets. Rather looking forward to it I have to say.

Hope you all have a lovely day and enjoy it in whatever way you choose.

OK so it is all tee'd up to catch up with EMW while she is basking in the tropical delights of Tasmania - what fun that will be!

I had only two cottage to clean today but it all turned into a bit of a marathon. Firstly as the boys had once again left the place like a tip and so there was quite a bit to do. It was that messy I was wondering if they had indeed checked out (they forgot to leave the key behind), but sadly they had.

So I did the other cottage first, saving up the one with airconditioning for later in the day, and set to with a vengeance. That cottage has a tap that falls off with monotonous regularity. All it needs is a bit of a tightening up with an alan key but the teeny tiny key that is used had gone AWOL. So off to the shop to get another set and I run into some Japanese tourists who had planned to catch the Red Line Coach to Launceston but found it was fully booked already - did I know anyone who could drive them to Launceston? So en route to the shop I called in at various places to see if anyone knew anyone who was driving to Launceston (several did, but the drivers had very sensibly set of much earlier), picked up a set of Alan keys and back to find them still looking bereft. I suggested they try the Antique Shop to see if Monika could put a shout out on her face book page and get the local radio station to send out an APB, and also directed them to the Visitor Information Centre. The last I saw of they they were climbing into a van with a courier who had been convinced it was OK to drive four tourists up the highway in the boss's van!

That sorted, I set to in the messy cottage only to find the boss had decided to make it even messier by installing new blinds and do a bit of work on the back door (my main route to and from the linen store and cleaning kit). We both thought there had only been two lads in so I cleaned their rooms and made up the beds then opened the door into the third bedroom. Apparently his room mates had made him leave it shut due to his problem with body odour ............ so I madly sprayed it out with air freshener, stripped the bed then got stuck into the oven and the pile of dirty dishes. Then on to the bathroom to sort that out before venturing back to the third bedroom to see how effective the spray had been - well better than it was.

Meanwhile the boss had invited his Brazilian mate in to wait for him and the Brazilian mate wanted to chat so I chatted as I cleaned. He was one of those tall, buffed, dreadlocked Brazilian males that they have on posters. MMMMMMMmm Highly decorative but not terribly motivated about life apparently. I imagine he does not have to make much effort to get what he wants, so why should he bother?

Finally sorted out the cottage and left the vacuum cleaner conspicuously for the Boss to clean up the mess he had made and fled the scene.

Walked Seb a couple of times and it was time to go back in and clean the bank. I picked up some booze and food for Christmas and am now back home, in front of the fan and hoping my feet stop hurting soon. My comfy 'doing work' shoes seem to be getting a bit past it (or I am).

Cheese sandwiches for dinner tonight - I am saving the good stuff for Christmas Day!

I am working on increasing my ice supplies as apparently Christmas Day will be over 30 once more. Fortunately I am going nowhere other than the morning service at the local church so it should be fine - I will hunker down with my cold chicken, oriental salad and some wine and chocolate and remain a hermit for the day. Boxing Day I am headed south to Barbara's place for lunch which will also be fun.

A trip down to Bridgewater to collect some last minute supplies (cat litter, toilet paper, coffee) and to visit Centrelink to see how all this wheeling and dealing will impact my entitlements. Fortunately it was all good news  - apparently they have significantly raised the allowance on assets so owning two houses will not affect me since they are both worth next to nothing! Very good news as I was a bit worried they might cut me off at the knees.

It was a mild frost this morning, just for a change - a good thing as I still have the windows open and so the interior of the house has returned to a manageable temperature before the heat returns on Thursday. Boxing Day will be cooler also which is a relief as driving in seriously hot weather is not my idea of fun even with AC in the car.

Well I won't be working at the Dogs Home any time soon. I rather suspected that would be the case after the gruelling workout, but still .... Oh well.

It has been significantly cooler today (18) so I not only got some washing done and dried, but also, with Heather's help have removed the pile of mulch that has been cluttering up the back yard for some time now. It has all been distributed around various plants as was originally intended. I have a big pile of twitch roots to take to the tip now, but that is no surprise.

I had planned to get some cooking done, but sadly that has not occurred - I have concluded I am too easily distracted and have difficulty working out what I was planning to do when this happens. Perhaps I should start making lists (and plans to be committed to an alzheimers facility).

Finally the cool change arrived about an hour or so ago. I was en route to town for some icecream when it arrived. Crossing the street to the shop I got wet. By the time I was back in the car I was dry once more, but the rain seems to have settled in for a while (bliss).

It looks very impressive doesn't it. And then you realise it is still 20 degrees and quite warm enough! Indoors is still quite warm so I have to pull on another layer when I go out with Seb, but I hope to get the temps down indoors fairly soon (tricky when you are trying to keep the cats indoors).

All activity was cancelled today apart from occasional strolls with Seb as it was just too ridiculous for words!

Most of my body seems functional still, though the shoulders are a tad tender. But I can still move my arms around freely which is a  pleasant surprise! This is a good thing as it was so hot today that I had to clamber around on a ladder and install a double layer of sarongs over the exposed windows! The double layer, plus the thin blind seems to be doing the trick and it is still only mid 20s indoors. The wind has picked up a treat however and it is rather nasty out there. Fortunately (touch wood), the nearest fire is downwind and going elsewhere and remarkably few are reported on the TFS website. I had expected horrors today with kids being on holidays and all.

Tomorrow will be even hotter, but I gather that we will probably have a change during the afternoon, possibly with some rain, so that will ease things a bit for us all.

I nipped in and cleaned the bank this morning - I had thought of doing it later in the day so I could enjoy an hour of airconditioning, but the thought of getting into the ute after that was too horrible to contemplate and so I got it out of the way and fled home. Seb was walked even earlier though he seems to be rather tougher than some dogs - he insists on walking on the paved road surface rather than on the grass verge - no idea why.

Some good news! I have an offer on the house in the UK. It seems a good offer - large deposit, buy-to-rent client and we are currently waiting for confirmation of his finances, but that all being good (and there seems no reason to expect otherwise) he is looking for a rapid completion - the dream buyer in fact. The offer is below the asking price, but still a very good offer, so of course I have said a conditional 'yes' (the condition being his finances). Fingers crossed - it might all be over by the end of February all going well (the UK vending process is a nightmare of delays so I can't reasonably expect it to be any earlier despite his apparent haste). Yay!

Fortunately the weather gods decided to be a little kinder this morning which was grey, misty and overcast - ideal weather for the torture they inflicted on us at the group interview for the Dogs Home. They had 38 attend who had been chosen from the 180 applicants. From today they will chose a reduced number who will be contacted in the next couple of days to attend another interview next week. If we don't hear this week then the odds are we were not selected and will hear 'in due course' after Christmas. Personally I will be very surprised if I get a face to face interview and this is why:

They made us EXERCISE!!!! :-0

While I expect I am considered fairly fit for my age, since I was the oldest person in the room by about 20 years, this is not necessarily helpful. I managed the 20 pushups to my great surprise, and completed all the other exercises without fainting, having a heart attack of becoming anoxic, but I was not as good as I could have been. Flexibility was not a problem (can reach my toes no worries, hold them and bend forward a fair way even in jeans), but aerobic strength is not all it could be - I mentioned before we began that I had a bit of a cold, so hopefully they took that into consideration. But why should they with such a large field to choose from?

So, once I have applied liniment to my shoulders, lol, I will be fine to work tomorrow one hopes. I have given the bank a miss tonight as it is our Christmas Pageant and the main road of Oatlands will be closed off and the side roads jam packed with vehicles. I will be grateful to have an hour in air conditioning tomorrow as we are expecting 33! Though getting back into the car will be a challenge for me as there is nowhere to park it in the shade that does not involve long walks back to it.

Hot hot hot. Walking Sebastian was an exercise of balancing the desire to remain off melting bitumen and keep away from snake habitat. An interesting exercise for both of us.

I had only one cottage to deal with today and that has air conditioning, thank heaven. The workmen had been rather tidier this week, though I did find a pair of thongs, a baseball cap and a micro-SIM lying around (not to mention the bottle of water under the bed). They had also managed to catch our possum for us. The beast has been terrifying foreign visitors for some months now, thundering around the ceiling and rooftops. All previous efforts to trap it had failed but the boys had left it in the humane trap, in the shade, for us to find this morning.

As you can see it is only a youngster - good thing or it would have been through the roof I reckon. I left it with pizza and water to keep it happy until the man came who is going to release it in a bush block.

Home once more I collapsed in the shade and dreamed of owning a screened veranda where I can sleep on hot nights. Not much chance of that eventuating in time for the end of this hot spell, but a nice thought - one I should explore. Since we so rarely get this sort of prolonged heat wave it hardly seems worth the effort, till you find you are unable to sleep due to the heat.

Even with the windows open it is hard to get the house cool enough before bedtime, and this will only get worse as the hot spell continues I imagine.

I called up to visit a friend who mows Vera's lawn for her to see if he had any information about her plans for the place. He did say it is a very sound and solid house (he is a painter, amongst other things and has been maintaining the windows), but he also said that the chap who was less than forthcoming when we asked him about its future is also interested in it and this may well explain his lack of communication. He lives next door and apparently has plans to expand his empire to include Vera's house and the paddock behind it. So a six foot fence along the back boundary is looking pretty appealing right now. Sigh.

I have cleaned a cottage and otherwise just hidden from the heat. I will need to dig out my pedestal fans tomorrow as apparently one night at least will be 19 degrees! Not looking forward to that.

Heather and I were sitting on her front step having a cup of tea last night when we managed to waylay a passing neighbour who has solved the mystery of Vera's place. Apparently it is she who is coming out from time to time to have a clear out. Not sure what the purpose of the clear out is as she will not be allowed to come and live there again (no hot water etc), and apparently has no plans to sell either. It's a mystery.

Fairly warm today, though not as hot as it apparently will be later in the week. Still we have a thunder storm rattling around the hills at present, though no sign of rain. I have cracked open all the windows to get some cool air inside as I forgot to close the blinds at the critical moment this afternoon and it is rather warm indoors right now. The odd blow-fly has come to visit also which is not so good.

The bean soup accidentally was left on over night which was not smart - on high as well. But fortunately there was sufficient liquid there to stop it overcooking and when I transferred it back to the stock pot to add the cabbage, I simply added a bit more liquid so I could bring it back to the boil for 20 minutes. The resulting soup is of the 'eat with a fork' variety.

Seb seems to be calming down noticeably. It seems a lot of his nervous energy may have been jealousy and now he is an only dog he no longer has the problem of competition and so can relax. He sits on command when we reach the road now, and walks (almost) to heel on our rambles. When distracted he can be brought back to attention with some degree of reliability, but is till very excited to meet other humans. Getting him past this is not going to be easy as most humans are pretty excited to meet him too as he has such a happy face.

He is even learning 'go to bed' - get on the mat in other words - and doing so quite well. There is hope yet he will settle down to be a sensible dog some time in the next decade or two. Lol.

Basically because I am a sticky beak and am intrigued by the goings on at Vera's house, I have been walking Seb past the house every couple of hours or so every day this weekend. How someone managed to bag and stack 20 bags of rubbish therefore has me baffled. But clearly someone is hard at work clearing the place out.

My reasons for interest are twofold. Partly because I am dying to see what it is like inside, and secondly because she is rumoured to have the place stacked to the gunwhales with items of interest to the local historical society - diaries, newspapers, letters etc. I would hate to think of some of the people I know that might be doing the work for her being responsible for choosing what to keep as I have no doubt things would be discarded, irrespective of importance, if they had a bit of cat poo stuck to them or any of the other potential mishaps that are associated with being stored in the home of the local crazy cat lady.

I begin to think I should stick a note to the back door asking them to give me a call next time they are there, but how to frame it to avoid sounding a) nosy and b) haughty has me baffled.

Seb seems to be getting the hang of sitting before crossing the road, albeit with reminders, but a pocket full of treats seems to be having the desired effect.

A trip to the Mens Shed to collect my door (they were shut on the occasions I called last week) resulted in being seconded to haul nails out of a stack of timber that had been delivered to their door. All nails now out and accounted for, though one snapped off level with the timber and required surgery to get it out.

Off to clean the bank soon, and hoping that the soup I have in the slow-cooker will remain in the cooker (it is rather full) while I am gone.

Washing done and stacked away - too organised!

OK, so we are making progress. Sit now happens after the third command if I click my fingers behind his rump. We are making progress. Of a sort. He is at least walking to heel unless distracted by interesting things like other dogs, but that is also progress as before he would charge ahead and come to a thundering halt when he reached the end of the leash.

This morning's walk was interrupted rather drastically as we discovered that Esther had let herself out was we exited and had decided to follow us up the road. Not a good idea as the neighbour's dog was running loose in their yard. So we turned around and she followed us back home. Of course, once home she refused to go indoors so we continued down the lane (away from traffic at least) and she followed us once more, out onto the oval. Seb did what we had gone there to do and after I put the results in the bin we came back up the lane with Esther scampering ahead, into and out of the hedge and generally being silly. Eventually Seb gave up being a good dog and dashed after her. She dodged off to the side, scampered over to a pile of building materials and as she landed a long whiplash hurled itself out of the grass across her path, but fortunately behind her. She stopped dead, turned and perched looking down at what I presume was a snake as it wriggled off into the grass. Seb and I stayed on the lane and kept going, and Esther came when called (which is more than the dog does).

Once everyone was  safe indoors I headed down to Hobart to join some of my former class mates for breakfast in Salamanca Square (and to disparage the so-called Christmas Tree that council spent $35,000 on, then headed home, arriving just after lunch .

On our walk this afternoon we passed the Councillor, now president of the Parattah Hall, who was building a singularly unattractive letter box in front of the hall as he changes commitee members so often he has concluded getting the mail there is the only solution. Seb wandered over to say hello and Bob's opening words were 'where's his medal?' I looked blank so he elaborated and said 'his Reg'. I continued to look blank so he explained he meant registration tag. I said 'that would be the loop of black plastic beside your thumb' (he was petting Seb at the time). That shut him up, nasty little man.

The Dogs Home interview is being held in Howrah (it will be a challenge for me to find the venue as the roads in Howrah have altered considerably since the days I used to go there to visit friends), so I will have to set off fairly early to give myself time to drive around in circles till I find it. I am to take a name tag (doggy themed), writing paper and pen, water bottle and responses to the selection criteria which I have already supplied, but apparently many didn't. Since they are culling applicants for late attendance to cut the numbers down significantly, I would have thought that lack of response to the criteria would have been an obvious first cut, but what would I know?

Seb's obedience training is a bit of a laugh. I ask him to sit when we get to the road. Hmmmmm. Finally sits and stays sat when I straighten up, then off he head (with him crossing over in front of me as I walk). We will get there. Eventually. I hope.


I had three cottages to clean today and the biggest one had had three workmen in it for a week. It showed. Took me an hour longer than usual to sort out the mess - the half-eaten jelly snakes on bedside tables, the grated cheese all over the kitchen floor - clearly they have very caring mothers.....

They have been staying in the cottages during the week for some time now. We ask that they box up their pantry goods so we can put them in the store room for them, and that they take their fridge and freezer food with them when they leave. Three shelves of pantry food, a freezer full of stuff, and the fridge pretty full too. Among the pantry food was a can of corn, half-eaten and covered with foil..... The chooks will be enjoying most of their fridge food as it is not anything I would eat, and they will get some of the freezer food too. The rest will be converted into soup or eaten (the icecreams were nice).

Speaking of food - I have a huge batch of cabbage and bean soup on the top of the woodburner tonight - beans at any rate, the cabbage will be added later when the rest of the veges are cooked. Dinner was another potato and kale soup with poached eggs and the second cabbage (the cabbages came from my plot in the Garden) will be added to the bacon the workmen left in the freezer to make another soup tomorrow night. If I have the energy. I have to be up at 6 tomorrow to head down to Hobart for morning tea with my old class mates.

It has been a rather quiet household here today - the cats did not want to go out this morning so I did not insist on it, and Seb is subdued because he started his obedience training in earnest this morning. We have gone for some longer walks and he is being taught to walk to heel, and 'wait'. Wait means sit, then stay sitting while mum backs away, remaining sitting till called. So far I have managed two steps back before getting wriggling, but it is progress of a sort. He does have the basics, but I had deferred training him as it used to upset Shadow to have an order repeated when he had already obeyed. Now I can repeat to my heart's content.

It was a day in the garden also, but due to lack of interest and a cold blustery wind I gave up after weeding a few beds and throwing some water around. The hose seems to need a sharp knife taken to it as it has buckled just below the inlet and seems to be backing up (or at least the drenching I received suggests this).

I have an interview for the job at the Dog's Home but don't get too excited - they had so many applications that they are doing a group interview of everyone who applied, then a second interview of short listed applicants then cutting it down to four candidates who will be asked to spend a few hours doing the actual duties. I figure unless they are age-ist I should at least make it to the final cut as the wages are not good so the quality of candidates may not be that good either. Who knows. Anyway, since I have had rather a lot of expenses this week, and have more to come with a trip to town on Sunday for a class get-together, I called into the Job Service Providers to see if they could contribute to costs of travel to the interview - they did! Quite a lot too. I asked for $30.00 and they gave me $50.00! Now all I have to do is talk the service station into letting me have it on Sunday rather than today so there is room in the tank for it all to go in. Apparently if I get the job they will also contribute to the cost of the uniform and some footwear! So that's all good.

Freezing rain at present (not much rain, plenty of freezing), so the fire will be lit tonight.

Shadow and I first met at the RSPCA in Brisbane, Australia. He was the sickly puppy sitting on the concrete in the middle of the pen while all the others rushed up to be picked. He came home because I thought if he had to die, he would be better off dying in his own home. Bobcat and Claudius greeting him with fists so he soon learned that cats rule and dogs obey.

We would go for walks down to Stones Corner for a coffee where he was cafe-trained and loved meeting new people who stopped to make a fuss of the nice obedient big black dog.

When we moved to New Zealand he had to relinquish his wading pool full of balls and learn to live with the colder weather. We would go to the big dog park on the Port Hills where he could run with other dogs and meet new friends. We went to the West Coast and explored beaches, mossy paths and new streets.

When I moved to the UK he had to stay in New Zealand for six months, so opted to bludge off a friend whose sheep station was his idea of paradise.

The paved streets of Chatham must have come as a bit of a shock, but we found new mossy paths, walked to the Great Line Park, to Rainham, along the cliffs and up to Chester where we collected Smidgen (and he got his nose boxed by Smidgen's mum).

Home to Tasmania two years later and he lived in the caravan with Esther, Smidgen and me - loafing on the front lawn to the great admiration of passers by - surely he will run out since you have no fence! Said they. But not my puppy.

Two years ago he woke on Christmas morning unable to move, and spent the day with the emergency vet who was full of gloom and foreboding. So we went to the Dogs Home and chose a new friend. Sebastian worked his own special magic and soon Shadow was joining us on our four kilometre walks, enjoying life and chasing hares once more.

But all things wear off in time, and this last week he has been slow, having trouble standing and getting breathless with no exertion. The vet came this morning and he went to sleep in my arms as I sat on the floor beside him. She was good enough to come back an hour later which gave us all time to spend with our friend as he started his last big adventure.

Beloved boy, Some day I will catch up with you at the Rainbow Bridge and we can go on our last big adventure together.

I managed to get myself locked into the bathroom of the cottage I cleaned today. It faces out the back so there was no chance of attracting attention to get out (the door to the cottage was open so any saviour would have had no difficulties getting in). I tried opening the window very wide (it is a hopper window - top-hinged) but concluded there was a risk of getting the loops of my jeans caught on the handle if I tried to squeeze out and then I would be suspended in midair till the catch failed - an unpleasant thought. So I wondered if I should just wait till the lads who are staying in the main house got home from work today, which would allow me to knock on their bedroom window with the toilet brush. But fortunately I finally managed to wiggle and jiggle the latch to get the door open (phew, it is a small bathroom and claustrophobia was starting to set in!).

I sorted that problem out with some light cardboard, tape and a note to the incoming guest apologising for the problem and drawing their attention to the problem via a note (and the use of conspicuously placed red tape). Hope they do not have an issue with it - at least there is a draw bolt if they require privacy from the person they are sharing with.

Got home and took the dogs for a walk or three and now I have the bank to deal with. Since it has been a windy (and mildly traumatic) day I will be glad to get to bed tonight!

So here's the house I am intrigued by. The one with the green roof. It is only four doors up from me, lol.

There is a lane between the house and the rusty roofed shed and as you can see the nearest neighbour is some way up the street and a screen of hedging provides privacy. Over the back fence is two large paddocks which have no sign of development any time soon.

If you are alarmed at the steps up to the side entrance, don't be. The house used to be the post office and that is the entrance for post-office users. The main house entrance is under the hipped roof that runs off the gable and set back behind the picket fence.

You can just see the top of the smaller chimney above the rusty roof to the left of the main one. It is this that I suspect serves a wood stove for the kitchen. Vera never cooked for herself and ate roast dinners at the Road House every day, so the kitchen has never had any money spent on it since she came home in the 1940s. As you can also glimpse, all parts of the house apart from the gable front are set back from the street with planted screenings for privacy. It faces slightly more westerly than I do as it is on the curve of the road. The footings are squared sandstone with sound mortar and no sign of cracking or displacement.

The rubber 'burn' marks on the road were laid on New Years Eve which the neighbours tend to celebrate with great enthusiasm, but Jason does most of his motoring down the back paddock of his yard and so it is more of a pest to me here than it might be were I to move. Still, many a bridge to cross before any of that could be possible or even practical, so enough daydreaming.

The vet is coming to see Shadow on Thursday at eleven. She has indicated she can come back an hour and a half later if the decision is to go for euthanasia. That will give us all time to have a group grieving and let the other animals know what has happened to their pal. Smidgen has transferred much of his affection to Seb already so perhaps it will not be so hard for them after all. Seb and Smidgen now regularly share my bed, sleeping on top of each other .....

I am trying to spend as much time as possible at home at present, but do have two cottages to clean tomorrow, but since we are expecting galeforce winds I imagine I will be very glad indeed to get home and snuggle in.

A day that was supposed to be sunny but which was actually overcast for the morning. But I did the washing anyway and have taken it in and put it away. I also managed to sort through the last two drawers and now have summer and winter night attire organised appropriately. Another bag of stuff for the Bargain Centre as I have decided I don't like flannel pyjamas any more as I get tangled in them when trying to sleep.

I then called up to see Heather as I have not seen her for some time, and she led me astray.

Over the road from her is a white weatherboard house that has been empty for some time. The owner, who I presume to be Vera, is in the nursing home and will not be coming home again. How she has managed to keep hold of it and nevertheless find a place is beyond me. I assume it is her place as there are many empty cat food tins outside the back door and a grave for a cat, complete with metal engraved plaque and white picket fence. The yard is enclosed with a thicket of evergreen shrubs so there would be no issues of privacy at all, despite the house being crammed up to the road frontage on both sides (it is a corner location). It is sound, solidly constructed, has a good roof - you can see where I am going with this.

If it is Vera's (and I have to say I had always assumed she lived in the former police house which is green), then it also has no plumbing and may reek of cat wee as she had many many cats. That being the case it would also be lucky to get more than $80,000 which means, if I get the right price for the house in the UK, I could buy it, get the plumbing and wiring sorted, move in and then sell my own house for any additional funds required for painting it and getting a kitchen that functions.

Our strategy is that Heather will write to the address (assuming mail is being redirected) and offer assistance in clearing out the stuff, sorting it for decisions and generally scrubbing it up. That would give us a chance to get indoors and find out how badly it smells.....

If it looks possible to get rid of any residual odours (and the place has been empty for some years now) then it would be a rather nice house - level block, neighbours a long way away and a chance to subdivide the rear portion (as it opens onto the side street) without compromising privacy. Very tempting on the face of it.

Of course first I have to sell the house in the UK - today is the first day that inspections can be arranged (or will be, once they all wake up over there), so I am not holding my breath for a sale this side of Christmas.

A very quiet day today - only progress was another coat of paint on the door surround. I loafed.

I had a busier day than anticipated as the boss had forgotten to let me know of two late checkins at the cottages, so I had to hurtle into town and deal with those this morning.

It being grey and mizzly this morning, clearing to grey and dry, followed by some more grey and mizzly not much happened outdoors - in fact there was quite a chill outdoors, despite it being relatively warm. The chill oozed indoors so I have lit the fire, but will burn only one log as it is not actually cold, just damp.

One of the guests had left a book behind - a Steven King which is quite gripping. Not one of his horror novels, it is called "the Memory Collector" and involves nano-technology, high adventure and a trained hit man, affected by short term memory loss which I imagine will lead to some interesting scenarios.

Apart from sorting through my drawers and discarding some of my less frequently worn stuff, trying on the various recent acquisitions and discarding those that do not fit, I have not done much at all today.

The day in town was quite tiring all up. I left at ninethirty but, since I didn't want to queue for a car park I didn't want to get into Hobart proper till 11:30 at the earliest (I know where there are 2-hour metres close to the CBD). So I headed to Cambridge Park and looked at furniture I can not afford for an hour or so, then on to the big smoke where I did some banking, then called into Fragments to check out the Porters Paints colour charts. I do like going to Fragments  - they have tiles too so I checked those out, but at $3.50 each and minimum order of a box of 75 I think I will be going elsewhere for those, if I use tiles at all.

Back to the City Centre to check out the new Myer Store. Despite the huge fuss about the opening the thing that struck me most was the artful way they tried to disguise their lack of stock in any given department. Their socks range was laughably small (and outrageously expensive - $35 for three pairs!!). So it did not take me long to run out of things to look at, and I was still half an hour early for the podiatrist - so I found my fave asian takeaway, grabbed a sushi box and sat in Cat and Fiddle to eat it. Then on to the podiatrist who carried out some fairly extensive surgery on the feet before I rushed back to the meter ten minutes late. Hope they did not spot me on their cameras, but there was no ticket under the windscreen wiper so perhaps I am safe.

On the way back through the northern suburbs I picked up dog and cat food and then on to Brighton to visit the vet there and discuss options for seeing Shadow - she will call in next Thursday while doing the rounds up here. Once here she will assess Shadow and we can decide on our options. Shadow was of course full of vim and vigour when I got home and raced Seb and me down to the gate into the recreation ground so was clearly feeling rather full of himself today!

Carried on with a bit more painting of the architraves today - they are now a nice creamy white, though they need an additional coat to make it look convincing. I was using the Haymes paint today. It seems to be a little less watery than the Dulux and gives a better cover so only two coats will be necessary. I was surprised to discover I had two pots of gloss to be frank - I had forgotten about the Haymes. It is a warmer white than the 'Tealight' I was using on the windows out the back, so I will use it on the woodwork in the main house and the lighter colour in the modern extension. I have concluded, after many experiments with painting panels all different colours that an all-over gloss warm white will be the best approach in the older part of the house as it will be lighter and brighter. Meanwhile, since it is the architraves I am painting, Seb has a blob of white on his ear that was not there before!

I sat down to have a cuppa and read FB for a while and discovered a message from the boss letting me know there was a cottage to clean unexpectedly. So I downed tools and headed into town to deal with that before heading home once more. Once home, what with work being concentrated in the hall area, I had a go at sanding the ochre-tinted plaster on the hall walls. This has always annoyed me as watery limey streaks had covered much of the richer red and produced vertical dribbles down the face of it. I decided to try sanding it with a stocking over a sanding block, but it seems my stockings are too sheer for that sort of work, so I moved on to 0000 steel wool (also on the sanding block). This lifted some of the surface marks, but was not up to dealing with the filler the nice painter applied when he repaired the surface of the ceiling following the deluge that flooded the place a couple of years ago. I moved up to 00 steel wool and not only did it lift the filler, but it burnished the surface to a high gloss. I love the result so will now work over the whole lot before I coat it in some egg-based emulsion paint that I have the recipe for. That will give a clear semigloss finish to the surface and protect it against any marks from fingers, dogs and cats.

I was quite peckish after that lot so headed into town to get something to munch on (I settled for an icecream as it was quite warm today). As I backed out of the drive a passing car hailed me to let me know I had only one brake light. He suggested I call up later (in an hour) so he could pop a new bulb in for me, so I did. Unfortunately he did not get home for rather longer than that, but he has a wide verandah that had multiple DIY books sitting around so I amused myself reading those.

Once the bulb was replaced he and his wife invited me in for a cuppa and I have only been home for half an hour and still have not had dinner - or even started it!

Day in Hobart tomorrow which will be fairly full on, but hopefully not too expensive.

The Men's Shed was open this morning when I turned up hopefully with my door. Unfortunately they decided to 'help' me with the result the door ended up 10mm too narrow. I realised this after I had left so called back again and ran one of the offcuts through the table saw (without all that help this time) and was able to glue and nail it on to the side of the door where the latch will be attached. I concluded if I put it on the other side, then screwing the hinges in could become a problem given the weight of the door.

I left it there for the glue to dry as no-one needed that particular table and will pick it up on Monday, though not before stripping off a couple of layers of paint as, when I sanded the surface to level off the dowel I had poked into the hole where the latch was, some of the paint started coming up in big flakes, suggesting it is not terribly well bonded to the lower coats.

It was a bit of a team effort all round, as the handle obviously was not going to fit any more, so the hole was stopped up using a  bit of dowel that was lying around in the shed. I borrowed their filler for that and the various other holes where screws had been used in the past, and it is looking pretty ok now, pending the paint stripping. I will not bother to go all the way back to wood, but will take off the layers of modern paint that had not had a 'converting' base coat before they were applied.

Then on to sewing where I managed another two square centimetres of stitching before heading home.

A job scrolled over my FB page last night that was just the thing if I can get it. It is down at the Dogs Home where Seb came from - basically fairly menial - cleaning runs, assisting the vets, walking dogs etc. so I didn't bother giving them the full monty CV - just my history of animal ownership, my approach to handling dogs etc, and of course Shadow's saga of international travel. Included a photo of Seb with Smidgen to show them how he has settled in, and will await there results. They have had the courtesy to acknowledge receipt of the application which is always a nice surprise these days.

It is a casual post - filling in for staff on leave, busy periods, staff off sick, that sort of thing so should not interrupt the pattern of my life too badly. I will, however, need to get someone recruited to relieve in my other two jobs should I be successful. I am wondering if I should drop in while i am in town on Friday so they can put a face to the application or whether it might be better to stay 'doggo' unless they call me up. I think the latter.

I managed to get an appointment with the podiatrist on very short notice which was great news as it was the last one they had available this side of Christmas, so that is where I will go on Friday - check out the new Myers store (and get some socks) etc before heading back to the northern suburbs for dog and cat food en route home.

You might recall that when I moved in here the door to what is now the bedroom was in a rather poor state of repair - the bottom panels had been kicked in and the upper ones were split. I pulled it apart and used bits of it to repair the other doors and have since had nothing but a curtain over the opening. Actually the door into the study has yet to be re-hung as well but that is more a case of needing a good paint stripping. Anyway, looking at second hand doors they are all ridiculously expensive, the wrong size, wrong proportions, wrong configuration and so on. So I was rather thrilled when Heather decided her own bedroom did not need a door and would I like to have it?

I picked it up last night on my way back from the bank and left it there overnight with a view to taking it to the Men's Shed today. Carefully removed the hinges, measured the opening it is to go into, tried to work out how to remove the door handle (still no idea on that front) and merrily set off this morning only to discover the Shed was closed. Bother. So it is still in the back of the ute and I am still hoping they will be open tomorrow (and it will not rain too much tonight).

Meanwhile I decided to sugar soap the door surround and undercoat it. The first attempt failed due to years of accumulated hand-grime, but the second (involving steel wool) worked a treat and it has now had its first coat of undercoat. I will apply another since this plastic gloss seems to require many many coats to cover any streaks that might lurk under the surface. So tomorrow's sewing venture will not be likely to happen since I will have linen to stack as well as a door to saw (assuming the Shed is open). Failing that I will have to ask Heather to help me get it out of the back of the ute tomorrow as it will get warped if it stays out in the weather for too long.

I did get quite a bit done with the whipper snipper which made me feel a little less frustrated but as today was one of those days where half the sky is blue and the other half is black with pregnant clouds - the wind is gusting strongly and it is all a bit too hard - I stopped once I had cleared around the house and done the front yard. At least clearing round the house now gives me a clear view of the area where I plan to start building a path and the retaining wall for the back terrace, so that's a good start. Not much chance of regrowth unless we see any rain in the near future.