Not sure what happened last night but by 2 am I was wide awake and the general consensus seemed to be that the dogs needed to go out. So Shadow was set off on his usual jaunt and Sebastian was given a quick whip around the garden at the end of the leash. Biological needs attended to we all returned indoors and I managed to scrabble a few more hours sleep.

Our next venture outdoors was around 8:00 am when we did a lap of the oval. Came home with two rather large field mushrooms which made for a rather unusually tasty breakfast and then wandered into Oatlands to get some white oil which was taken to the polytunnel for application to the various capsicums/chillis/ eggplants. The cucumbers are starting to run in there so I gave them a hook into the framework to get them headed in the direction they should grow. The eggplants etc are all setting fruit with gay abandon so hopefully I should get a crop from that lot at least. The rest of the garden seems reluctant to produce anything worthwhile due to the inclement weather. It seems to be enough to get the grass growing madly but not warm enough to warm the soil and let the plants gain vigour.

A cheap pork roast came home with me and is presently in the oven with some of those baby potatoes Jean delivered, baby beets and some juvenile elephant garlic that keeps popping up in the front garden. There are actual sizzling noises coming from the oven so I live in hope of a tasty meal, albeit fairly late tonight.

Then there was getting the lawnmower out and attacking the latest regrowth. The Council was giving the oval a good hair cut this afternoon and this, combined with a neighbourhood whisper, suggests that there will be a dog show on this weekend. So I have mowed the lane and will be continuing mowing (not tomorrow but the next day) to get it under control.

I also dropped in a row of fence pickets down one side of the back paddock with a view to keeping ducks. A second pair of pickets has been positioned on the other side but not no further progress made as blisters started to form - must remember to wear gloves when I do the next stage.

Paul called around and slashed the rest of the orchard, very roughly for me so it is now all down to a dull roar and the scotch thistles banged on the head before they go to seed (phew). Tomorrow I have lots of cleaning to do so will probably be too tired to make further progress, but we shall see. With three degrees for tonight I am thinking some frost cloth over the tomatoes and the cucurbits may be in order. Will see what it feels like later when I go out to take the dogs for that last run.

Well it may not have snowed but it was cold enough to justify having the fire alight for much of the day and it will be a welcome companion tonight as well.

The bees went off in style  yesterday to take up residence in Mt Nelson (where they will have their own little bush clearing), and Gerhard is happy with his new swarm, as I am happy not to have them lurking that close to the neighbour's fence.

Not much to report as most of today's activities have involved darting out between showers to walk the dogs, get more wood in and keeping the fire going.

Sebastian and Smidgen continue to develop their relationship. Esther is the only holdout now.

It'll be snowing next said she in tones of gloom. Cold, windy spatters of wet stuff that they call rain at the weather bureau but not in these parts. Horrible stuff.

For the first time in the three years I have owned it I managed to get the Whipper Snipper to start by myself! So the edges of the beds are neatly trimmed. The rest of the yard is still overgrown due to me not having any fuel for the lawnmower until this afternoon at which point the weather went downhill rapidly and I gave up in disgust, retreating indoors to read a bit more of A Short History of Nearly Everything.

A bit of weeding in the vege patch garnered the information that another of the tomato plants has set some fruit. A pretty poor showing all up from the seven bushes - I mean if you have a hive of bees in the yard (no matter how accidental) you expect some of your plants to fruit!!

Speaking of fruit, one of the plums is starting to blossom once more. So it is not only me who is confused by the weather. It is on one of the new young shoots that the tree has put out, so maybe that is the problem.

Jean called in with an icecream container of potatoes for me which was nice, so it will be some of those roasted with rosemary and olive oil to accompany the lamb stew tonight.

Cut a bit of firewood in anticipation of the need, given tomorrow will be rising from four degrees to 12!! THought it was mid-summer!!

Planted out some carrot seedlings I had started in papier mache pots, as well as the last of the red cabbage seedlings started in the same manner. Will be starting off some caulies and broccoli shortly, in anticipation of my needs over winter.

 Dogs still getting along just beautifully, and playing together well. Esther and Smidgen still a bit tense about the whole thing, but we seem to be getting there. We discovered that the disused tennis courts are a fun place to go off-leash for a bit of a mad dash!

I think I am a bit of a failure as a cleaner. Today I was off in a revery redesigning the house for single occupancy (reinstate central hall, swap kitchen and bathroom, convert current cleaners cupboard into walking pantry ... you get the picture) when suddenly somone turned up to check in. Was quite indignant till I realised it was five to two and me with two floors to vacuum. Fortunately they were nice people and it was soon sorted, lol. Anyway, now I have worked out the design solution, and still have a useful shed out the back I can leave it and get on with cleaning, lol.

Sebastian had his first two goes at off-leash today. The first was over in the far corner of the oval. While it was less than successful in terms of prompt response to call, he did come to call eventually. And had a lovely time running around like a maniac in the mean time. This after noon I decided to use the tennis court for the exercise. This is not fully enclosed but is sufficiently enclosed to bluff him into believing it is. But not quite so inviting in terms of running around potential. Still he had a nice time and Shadow played with him a bit, and then we all came home once more. Hopefully this will become more of a thing in the future.

Seb is getting on well with Smidgen but Esther continues to be a bit problematic, mainly because she stalks him and picks on him. Then complains when he does the same. I expect they will sort things out. As long as I don't get caught in the cross fire and scratched, I will ignore them and let them work it out for themselves. Me intervening will simply confuse the situation and make each of them assume I am taking their side.

Tip run tomorrow. I missed garbage collection for the cottages, so have loaded some of the bags onto the back of the ute. These will be joined by whatever offerings I find here tomorrow and then into the tip. Since I have also finally borrowed the star picket driver from them nextdoor I will also hopefully be finally putting in the posts for the duck run. Then all I will need to do is attach wire, repair the shed, add a new floor to the shed, install a gate and then I will be ready to get the ducks - easy - right?

Today was blessedly free of cleaning at the cottages and doing the bank is a doddle (more a matter of finding something to do to fill in that last 15 minutes of the contract actually - and that has to be done out of sight of the security cameras so they don't spot me texting, lol).

So on my return home i mixed up the bags of concrete and finally installed the post for the clothesline. Getting it vertical proved a challenge, but it seems to have 'gone off' in the right position. Tomorrow I will start back-filling with soil and rocks and so forth. I delayed this as I will be hosing the soil in to ensure it does not have any pockets of air in there. 

During this activity I (shock horror) chained Sebastian to the ladder that is lying against the fence to discourage wandering and let him sit and watch. He didn't seem unduly worried by this heinous act, so later when I was doing some other gardening he was once again chained to the nearest fixed object. Maybe he will take the hint from Shadow who simply collapses in an inelegant sprawl while I am doing such things.

Also removed the top box from the unexpected hive and put a travelling lid on it since someone is coming to collect it soon. Since this was an informal and unexpected swarm, the remaining box on the hive has frames but no foundation and they are doing some rather elegant ad-libbing in the way of combs. This is one up on the box I removed which had no frames at all in it. I am just hoping the brood box at least had frames and foundation. Since i have discovered my own new frames in another of the boxes, I rather suspect that may not be the case, but we can but live in hope. They are very calm and lovely bees - it will be a pity to see them go.

The household remains calm. Today I went to the library and left dogs and cats all in together and nothing was broken and no-one was hurt. Probably not something I would do for more than an hour just yet, but good to see things are that calm and settled.

Rather glad I have a day off on the units tomorrow as it will be another 3-cottage deluge - what an amazing turnover for such a small town!! I got there early today so was done by 1, but still it was a long day and a huge effort. I am sure as I get fitter and a routine going things will be easier. Tomorrow all I have to worry about is the bank which will be soon over. Then hopefully I will be able to summon the energy to tackle some of the rampant growth in the yard (not to mention harvesting the beetroot before they go woody).

There is a hare lives in the recreation ground which we discovered  a few days ago. It is a very useful training aid for Sebastian and he goes hurtling off after it, then comes a cropper at the end of the extension leash. At least that is what happened the first morning. The second day he ran to the end of the leash then put his forequarters to the ground and leaned. Today he ran toward the end of the leash but paused when I called him. This was all rather spoiled by Shadow spotting the hare today and hurtling off after it himself, so Seb naturally tried his luck once more and no amount of calling would have got him back. Still, he is responding to call, coming when called responding even when there are distractions (and not solely because the end of the leash has been reached). So perhaps in a week  or so I can try him off-leash  on the oval. I doubt he can be trusted with other people's cats though, for some time, so off-leash in my yard will be tricky for a bit longer. My shoulder has not dislocated yet, so I presume it will remain intact, lol.

There is a certain level of peace and harmony in the household but there is still a fair bit of jockeying for position. For example, this blissful image is spoiled by the fact that it is Shadow's bed and Shadow is off to the right on Sebastian's bed feeling a little hard done by. Esther is still merrily stalking Seb if he is rash enough to lose focus etc.

Still, I can go into town to do the cleaning and when I come home he and Shadow are jointly pleased to see me in a harmonious sort of way. The cats are also pleased but mainly because it means they can escape the confines of the bathroom/laundry area.

Hope you saw in the New Year. I didn't. I didn't even get to see midnight as I was in bed long before that, and the neighbourhood revelries seem to have toned down somewhat and so it was not until 2:30they spilled out onto the street. Having been woken, however, I found it a struggle to get back to sleep due to the wild temperature fluctuations in these parts (19 indoors when you go to bed, then down to 6 then up to 10 and back down to around 5 come get-out-of-bed time ...........).




Not even noticed if they have graffitied the street, street signs and such like as per normal. Perhaps someone pointed out it was showing a lack of creativity and they should stop now......

Naturally I had all three cottages to do today - with the reek of alcohol to dislodge, vast amounts of rubbish to dispose of (need to get some of the contents of the wheely bin to the tip on Friday) and endless beds tonight. They did leave half a bottle of red and a bit of milk so I don't have to buy milk now for a couple more days and the red wine will go with the neck of mutton I defrosted when I slow-cook it tomorrow.

Sebastian stayed at home with Shadow (though the cats were segregated into the bathroom) and when I got home everything (dogs, furniture, cats, doors) was intact. Amazing. Still waiting for that shoe to drop.

Lit the fire tonight as it is quite cool indoors albeit wild, windy and fairly warm outside. Another confusing night to look forward to.