The weekend has been full of lots of assertive gardening on the other side of the fence, accompanied by lots of glares and evasive manoeuvres whenever I have gone out into my own garden (but nowhere near the fence). I did take advantage yesterday morning to spray a metre wide strip the entire length of the new fence so that the new hedge can go in (assuming the hedging guys ever get back to me, despite regular attempts on my part).

Two loads of washing, a trip to Hobart to view a bedsit and a visit to Jean's has been the lot for the weekend (well, apart from popping into Barbara's en route home from Hobart. The bedsit is in Battery Point (well, on the wrong side of Sandy Bay Road, at the bottom of Albuera Street and is fairly compact. The bathroom is to your right as you enter the living/sleeping area. That is on two levels so am planning to have table and chair at the entrance point and the bed on the lower level, closer to the kitchen. It also has a fridge which is a nice bonus. And a lemon tree outside the front door, plus a tiny spot to sit outdoors in of a summers evening. Heating is electric.

I advertised on Freecycle for a bed and had an offer within hours. Sadly it does not allow me to respond as it was sent from her phone and this seems to have implications ...? who knows how technology works. I sent another 'group' email but she has not responded, so no idea if I have a bed or not. Will soon sort out an inflateable or other alternative if necessary.

Nice sunny days with hard frosty nights at the moment. Has killed off some seedlings I forgot to protect last night, but the rest are coping nicely in their various substitute coldframes.

The 'rabbit proof fence (and thus, poultry proof)' to quote the commitment, is now finished. It sits about six to eight inches off the ground, so I presume the poultry she had in mind were the ostriches I had planned to get (not), and the rabbits were all suffering from Myxo so could not spot the gaps ... The fence is strained off the steel post holding the paling fence up, which is not part of the plan and I suspect is not good for the fence as it will not have been designed to withstand that sort of stress. I will be asking a few pointy questions on the renovation forum about it, and also a local fencing contractor I know and if there are grounds for concern will have no option but to serve a notice on her, if only to protect myself further down the track when the system fails. Still, at least there is a four foot high barrier between me and her which is a good thing.

Work continues to be fun, if tiring and the flat search continues. I am viewing one on Monday but suspect it will be student city despite the flash cars in the car park. So wish me luck it is a good un.

Yesterday was a busy day. I had the dog to the vet, so drove to Mangalore to collect him, drove back to Montrose to the vets, and finally home, arriving just on the cusp of darkness. Was able to see enough to realise still no fence so wandered down the boundary and was reassured to find the steel droppers lying at intervals down the fenceline. Came home tonight and they are in and the wire strung, if not strained (either the slowest fencing contractor on the planet or she is doing it all herself). Hopefully tomorrow night will see a completed fence.

The dog is good. The lump under his eye that I was concerned about was a cyst which is now draining without intervention. He was, however also diagnosed with dry eye so is now on the most expensive ointment known to humankind and drops as well. the drops are four times a day so a good thing he is in day care as I would never be able to keep that schedule up at present. He will be back to the vet in two weeks time (probably accompanied by Smidgen who I suspect still has problems with his bladder crystals). This is why I never made it to the big time, moneywise, lol.

So in the middle of all the fun and games yesterday I lost the car keys. They were still missing this morning so I ended up calling the RAC to let me into the car in the hope they were in there. Not a chance. So I waited till 7:30 and called motors to find out how to go about getting a new key. Apparently this involves having the RAC tow you to them, then they let you spend $400.00 to get one key. I decided this was not really an option so had yet a fifth search of the house and finally found the keys. None of this was helped by about three hours sleep last night.

I also forgot to mention that on Friday I went to Shene which is a rather nice historic homestead someone from the Queensland Heritage Council is doing up. All I can say is I wish I had their money ... It will look fabulous when it is done.

My plans are taking a step forward as I now have a 12 month contract beginning at the start of October, so can commit to a flat in town and sort out the animals. This will also be a bit of a relief for the car as you can well imagine. Apparently they like me and are happy with my work (one assumes, lol).

Smidgen on the other hand is in a foul mood as I locked them both in this morning after they had an outing before light. I was not keen on them being out and about with the White Queen in her present mood and working on the boundary. I needn't have worried as there has been no progress whatsoever on the fence. I will go down later and check if the note I left for the fencing contractor has been removed. Since it was well within the property it will not look good for her if it has been as it will be further evidence of wilful trespass, given that the contractor to whom it was clearly addressed has not been here today.

I popped over the road to Alison's last night for a social call and asked her to take note of who the contractor is as I seriously doubt he exists. I may yet have to serve another notice to get something put back on the boundary...

Well, I suppose it was inevitable. The neighbour is finally getting round to building her part of the fence. Our agreement was that i would remove my mesh from my side of the fence and ensure the hens were adequately housed to prevent access to her yard. As you know, the hens have been off-property for a few weeks now. The mesh was removed on Thursday when i had the gardener in and took the day off to work with him. There remains the mesh that Desi installed which is thoroughly embedded in the grass roots and the ground and rusted in place. Apparently, despite having claimed all fencing materials for herself, Rita has convinced herself it is my responsibility to remove it. Similarly she wants me to clear materials for some distance from the boundary for access by the fencing contractor.

I attempted to explain the issues of 'rights of access' which apparently she does not understand (being of the view that she had right of entry while carrying out fencing works) and she took this to mean I was banning her from entering the property. This resulted in a further shouting match and her resorting to calling in the cavalry (in the shape of a fairly drunk Rob, the erstwhile concreter) and his son. I went and had a little lie down, being fairly weary from various other activities and when I arose once more, discovered that the offending bit of fence is now well on my property and just thrown down. Bear in mind that when leaving bits of fence on her property I went to considerable lengths to do so neatly and without causing damage.

While Rob was there they had a 'deliberately loud' conversation about the legality of the shipping container (again). Fortunately I know full well it is fully legal so not too concerned about that at all.

Anyway, what with one thing and another, and the fact conversation is impossible with someone who shouts orders but does not listen, I drafted a note to cover off on any misunderstandings. She, being accustomed to being served with notices, refused to accept the note so I guess I will leave another one for her fencing contractor who will be arriving long after I leave for work. I will stick it in a plastic bag and tie it to the end of the paling fence so it is readily visible and clearly addressed.

No. Wait. She seems to have read it after all as she has removed the length of wire now and, apart from going around manically taking photos of everything that stands still for more than ten seconds (in response to me taking photos of my trees in their present condition in case of damage) she seems to be getting on and sorting things out. It must be terribly exhausting living life the way she does. It wears me out just having to deal with it every couple of months...

The gardener did another great job, so am very happy with progress in the yard. There is still no word on the extended contract but I live in hope. It does, however, make planning a flat a challenge as without that confirmation I can not enter a lease and frankly I am a bit knackered at present (since I am coming down with something nasty at present).

The car has been serviced and the list of outstanding jobs on it is long. It may, indeed become necessary to contemplate its replacement in the not too distant future, but a new air filter should keep it happy for a bit longer, and that is something i can do myself. The dog continues to enjoy doggy day care and the cats to be miffed at my absence. Given the latest development with the neighbour it would be good to be able to move them out too, but that can be achieved once a flat is in the offing. I console myself with the thought she is all about threats, and not about action (though some of her friends are not quite so restrained).

Hope the bees are still in place when I get home tomorrow and no-one has been carted off to hospital with an enraged swarming. I wonder if I should explain to Rita the disadvantages of being angry when around bees? Still, if she stays off the property she will not have any problems with them as I have positioned the hive with considerable care to ensure their comings and goings do not involve her place until they are out and about.

Many more dishes cooked this weekend (one of the reasons I am knackered) so won't be starving for a while yet.

PS, It does not help I can not find my phone and so am unable to call my bee mentor and have him pop over to help me strap the hive to keep it safe from not-so-accidental bumps. Oh well.

I can be a bit slow on the uptake at times, so it has taken me this long to recognise the down side of working full time in Hobart. That is, the car will need to be replaced before the 12 months is up if I keep clocking up 1000km per week on it. The price of petrol is not going to go down and that, plus parking is setting me back rather large sums of money as well. In essence, I am paying out half my earnings on travel and parking and so forth, and anything I save will have to be spent on replacing the car... doesn't really make sense does it?

Never one to be deterred (lol) I realised I can rent a furnished bedsit in Hobart for considerably less than this, and simply maintain two households. Even putting the dog into kennels for four nights a week plus rent will still be cheaper. The cats can come to Hobart to live with me, and be left locked safely in the apartment for the weekends and the dog and I can spend the weekend at home.

So that seems a fairly viable option in the event the contract continues past the middle of October. Twelve months of that and I will have had it up to the neck, so will be unlikely to accept any continuation past that, but by that time I should be well-placed to collect the odd consultancy work anyway, so don't really see that as a problem.

Gardenwise - the replacement gardener was here this week (Andy is in the UK) and has cut the grass back so short it almost looks like a lawn! You can even see all the bumps and hollows in the ground surface. Wonderful stuff. I have moved some of the drowning trees to higher ground this weekend and planted the last of the bare root trees down on the mounds i built last summer. I also went up to Angie's place today and collected umpty bags of horse poo and composted horsepoo (I did have to bag it myself) and brought that home. One bag of the raw material is in the compost heap and one of the composted stuff is on top of the asparagus. So that should give it a bit of a shot in the arm.

This Friday was also the dinner with the installation artist who is working on the Roses from the heart project. To my great surprise I discovered it was just Rowena, the artist and I. Clearly Oatlands Hospitality still needs a bit of work ...

For anyone unfamiliar with the project here is a link

http://www.christinahenri.com.au/index.php?/ongoing/roses-from-the-heart/

I am making a bonnet for my ancestress (on my father's mother's side) who was shipped out in 1833. That branch of the family is the one with all the interesting characters in it. Including the failed missionary who was arrested for illegal distillations, lol.

Knackered tonight, so not much else to say. Will be an early one, and since the forecast is not good, the car is already wrapped in insulation in preparation for the frost.

Right. So I see the brilliance of the new back door design is such that you are all stunned into silence, lol. Rightly so I reckon. Anyway, it will be a while before it is dealt with - finish paying for the roof to date and get the painting done first I think. The good news is the plumber is no longer disappearing to the Mainland for 12 months, so the pressure is off to get the roof fixed (well, it is still on, but no quite so stressfully so).

The garden is looking great with the first daffodils in bloom. Will take a photo next weekend when there are some more out and you can see the general picture better. I bought four bare-root fruit trees on my day off on Thursday. Two of them are in the ground, the other two are still heeled into the sand, but since their buds are not so swollen I am less stressed about that. Basically they are on full-size rootstock, so putting them where the espaliers are to go is probably not a good idea. I need to find two apple trees down in the orchard that need rescuing and which are on dwarf rootstock and put them into the espalier holes, then dig up a couple of not-in-need of rescue plants for the other holes and stick the new apples into the holes on dry ground. All became a little too complicated for me to get my head around between cooking vast quantities of food.

This weekend's culinary adventures include a curry, oxtail and beef and dumplings. The oxtail will also be dinner tonight so will be able to taste trial it before freezing. Also a chocolate slice which will be supplemented by a cardamom slice when i cook it later.

The gardener is off to the UK for a month as his brother is dying (which is a pretty good excuse i feel) so he has organised a mate to come and keep the lawns under control, even if no further progress is made on the garden proper. i hope to sort out the trees in the evenings this week as the days are getting a bit longer now.

Work remains great fun and the second vacancy has been re-activated so I have put my hand up (again) and hope to have a further 12 months work if that goes ahead. I am really enjoying this job, it reminds me of the one I had in northern NSW all those years ago. More hands-on and away from the desk than those posts I have occupied in more recent years. So fingers crossed it gets to continue.

The gardener has offered me a job with him if it doesn't so all is not lost. He was apparently impressed with my approach to planting the cherry. Who knows?!

The Cherry is a Lapins Cherry and it is on a really long and chunky rootstock. Clear to see why it was being sold off as seconds. But I am going to see if I can train it into a standard, taking advantage of the chunky straight stem. So it is now in the middle of the vege garden as a feature planting with that intention. Wish me luck. Since the neighbours seem to have decided that all those bicycles they got about 18 months ago, rode for a month then left in long grass are no longer necessary (they are all out in a skip in the front yard), I will see if I can get a wheel to train the cherry on once it gets to the desired height.

Also in the ground is a nectarine which will hopefully do better than the poor thing presently standing in several inches of water with dead new growth resulting from hard frosts and which has been suffering from peach leaf curl since the day it first sent out a leaf. Since they are diagonally as far from each other as is possible and still in the same yard, hopefully this one will stay healthy