What a horrible day. Firstly the boss sent an email last night talking about late checkouts and early checkins. So I did not go in to the cottages until 11 as there seemed little point. Turned out out the late checkouts are tomorrow (something his email did not make at all clear) and early checkins today. So I frantically cleaned out one cottage, locked it up and moved on to the next one, only to realise I had locked both sets of keys, my car keys, phone, wallet and some of the cleaning gear into the first cottage (first thing I do when I get stressed is lock myself out of places).

So I ran up the street to Monika's shop to ask her to call my boss and explain the dilemma while I went back to work on the second cottage. She toddled over with her mobile and we called him together as she had got the message muddled. I explained what had happened, and endured several minutes of him asking me the same questions over and over, and eventually we resolved I would have to walk up to the visitor centre to get the set of keys they have there. So I did that, got into the first cottage then discovered that the guests in the second cottage had checked out, taking the keys with them, with the result I had to go back to the visitor centre (at the other end of town), return the first set of keys, collect a second set, get back to clean the cottage (via the shop at the other end of town to get a bandaid to protect the bleeding hang nail that I could not fix as Brad has yet to invest in a first aid kit), sort out that cottage while fielding guests arriving early to check into the first cottage and then guests arriving within nanoseconds of me finishing to move into the second cottage, and then clean the third one. All this in hot humid weather while wearing a long-sleeved shirt as I was sunburned from yesterday in the garden.

I was not in a good mood by the time I was done, and was further annoyed when I discovered the shop had run out of pizzas so I will be having leftovers for dinner. Bought a small tub of chocolate icecream to console myself.

Hopefully I will be in a better mood by tomorrow as it is at least cooler tonight.

My but it was warm today! I had the bank cleaned bright and early which was good as I had left something at home that I needed for the day in the garden. So I was able to head home and sort that before devoting myself to the day's activities. Last week's day off shopping was repaid today as the entire garden had been engulfed in stinging nettles. So, since weeding was not a good way to start the day, we planted out the herbs in the garden bed we had prepared then got stuck into the rest.

The food forest bed and the strawberry bed got particular attention, as did the picking bed which had been engulfed with some mustard-flavoured kale. I am afraid that despite Eleanor's affection for kale, to me it is a weed, so any that had run to seed was hauled out and bunged into the compost.

Then vast quantities of plants went into all three beds, with bush pumpkins, courgettes, cucumbers, some tomatoes (various types of cherry tomatoes - one of which found its way into my bed in polytunnel), and lettuces, beetroot, chard and various other things.

Then the whole lot was given a deep watering (for some time as the base of the food forest bed had dried out to the point we could not drive in the bamboo stakes for the peas to grow up), and a soaker hose was installed on the herb garden. It will require some refinement next week as, although we made wire hoops to hold it in position we ran into similar problems driving the wire through the cardboard under the straw bales, so that bed too received a thorough soak.

We have given up on the teacher who is supposed to be teaching the local kids how to garden. her approach to weeding is to clear the entire bed, plants and all! Some of the kids rebelled so at least some of their gardens are looking good and potentially productive. She does not listen to our advice, so I guess she will just have to learn the hard way.

Annie has been forgiven - apparently Nathanial had a close encounter with a particularly strong dose of dope which did not mix well with his aspergers syndrome. He was last seen hallucinating wildly, poor lad. He has gone off the straight and narrow significantly since leaving home, and this is the consequence.

I had all three cottages to clean once more today, but fortunately they all checked out early so i was done in time to have lunch with the quilters. Diana whips up luscious sandwiches for us for $3.00 as much as you can eat and it is always worth getting in if you can manage it.

Having done that I came home and started to put on the hare, then remembered I had not left out an envelope for tonight's guest so had to dash off and deal with that.

the hare cut up in to some very sizeable portions - three across the saddle alone. the dogs got the rib cage and the rest went in the pot. It has been simmering for four hours now and will be ready to serve just as I dash out the door for our public meeting tonight.

The Minister for Health is supposed to be appearing in our School Gymnasium to relieve our concerns (or at least hear them). I don't like his chances of leaving unscathed if he does not come up with some instant solutions. Media will be present.

A big thunderstorm this afternoon again failed to deliver much in the way of rain, but it is so dry that we have puddles everywhere. I have lit the fire despite it not being all that cool as it is dank and dark and fires are good! Hopefully it will still be going when I get home and can finally taste this damned hare.

Today was going to be a nice quiet day of steadily working through my various bits and bobs of paperwork, followed by a couple of hours of sewing.

First though, I had to go into town to put money in the right places, collect some dog food, and do a few other errands. Once that was sorted I got home, did some bank transfers, filled in my expenses claim form, printed out the invoices, scanned them and the claim form and ... the phone rang. Brad in a panic as it was 1;30 and Annie had called in to say she couldn't work. Full house to clean, full house of guests arriving any time after 2............... not happy Jan. So I dashed into town to sort out that mess (fortunately Brad was also helping) and came home again. started to draft the email to attach the scanned info, when a knock at the back door heralded the arrival of Gordon from over the road, bearing a large dead hare. So, dinner was planned involving a bottle of red wine, some bacon, and some slow cooking. Unfortunately by the time i got back from walking the dogs I was too tired to consider that, so it will go in the slow-cooker tomorrow I guess.

While collecting the red wine I was waylaid by a local to chat about the meeting tomorrow night and the need to set up a citizen's action group (to do Council's job for them in terms of building community resilience and agitate for change), so we will get together later this week or next to progress that idea. I have also had a suggestion to start a food-sharing FB page which idea will be developed when I go to Tina's on Sunday to sort through some more clothes.

Seems once you put your head over the parapet the vultures descend.

So tomorrow is bank and cottages and apparently no sewing as I still have not finalised the paperwork that needed to get done today. I can hopefully get on with that once I have quartered and seared the hare and bacon and got it all into a pot to cook slowly for dinner.

A cool start and cloudy but I persevered with the washing for all that as it was also relatively still winds. So my entire wardrobe is now nice and clean, though the quilts will have to wait for tomorrow as it was too late to put them out and the wind was picking up mildly this evening.

Once that lot was on the line I headed into town to retrieve petitions and to swap them for the proper format ones. The volunteers are cheerfully heading out once again to collect the same signatures which is encouraging, and those in places I dropped them off to earlier are also gathering signatures as well. I have posted the link on my FB page to the e-petition ( http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/EPetitions/House/CurrentEPetition.aspx?PetNum=54&lIndex=-1 ) 
if you can share it around also that would be helpful. Anyone in Tasmania (or with a Tasmanian address) can sign it if they are over 18.

The address of my FB page is jobainlyons if you want to take it from there. That is my campaign page, not my ordinary page.

I then took a run up to Caroline's place and discovered half the quilting group there so we had high tea and I headed home to walk the dogs.

Seb discovered his first tiger snake en route this afternoon. He is so stupid he though the hissing was an invitation to play. Fortunately the snake had more sense and headed off through the fence out of reach. If he lives till he is 12 he might work out that they are not toys. My job is keeping him alive until then, lol.

Still quite warm this evening despite a forecast one degree for tonight so I guess I won't be lighting the fire tonight then.

The snow continued during the nice so there was a light sugar dusting come morning, but it was soon gone despite regular top-ups during the day. It seems to have cleared now, so I guess we have to brace ourselves for the warm spell that we have coming up. So confusing, but at least I will get the washing done!

I made another block today and realised that there was sufficient left at the bottom of each cylinder of strips to cut two more rows off them. So plying my very basic maths I thought to my self that I can make four blocks using the same arrangement of colours if I made up two more cylinders. So that is what I have done today, since it will get chaotic at sewing once we are all bobbing up and down at the cutting and ironing boards.

The second block uses six new fabrics so bears no resemblance to the first one, which is as it should be. I will ensure that the new blocks have the rows arranged differently to avoid them sticking out too clearly in the overall result.

Apart from huddling indoors from the snow and making sure i had sufficient firewood to keep me going, I have done absolutely diddly squat today and am very happy about that!

I tend to start composing these entries while i wait for the computer to turn on and load the page. Today's was going to start with 'they promised me snow and I am still waiting....." but as it turns out the snow started to fall while I was waiting for the computer so I am happy now!

Cleaned a cottage today and delivered revised petitions to all the relevant venues and collected the signatures on the poorly drafted one. I will present these to the Minister when he comes to call on Wednesday evening (when he will be confronted with the entire district in high umbrage I suspect).

Threaded the new bungy onto the ute and it seems to be tightening up as it settles into its new home with the result the tarp is looking rather more taut than has been the case for some time. Hopefully it will also reduce fuel consumption due to lack of drag.

The day was ridiculously warm for one when we had snow forecast, and sunny as well. The occasional shower and black cloud passed us by and i had begun to lose all hope. Even now the snow is mingled with rain so it is unlikely to settle unless we get a real dump overnight. But it is nice to watch it falling for all that. I do like snow!

The fire is chugging away and I have a pizza in the oven (well, the oven is heating in anticipation of receiving the pizza).

Last Wednesday at quilting Caroline took it into her head that we were all going to make the same quilt. It comprises 36patches of 2 inch squares, which will be set on point once they are completed. You get around six (or more) blocks from six fat quarters, though some of my fabric is actually in quarter yard lengths so that will go further, I presume.

You use up all your fat quarters that you have bought over the years but never found a use for because they fail to coordinate with the fabrics of the quilts you are making or they were given to you by people who have not paid attention to your preferred colourways. The first one has pinks, purples, pale blues and beiges as well as a sulphur yellow that I had bought when in NZ (it has keas on it) and first starting out into quilting. Lovely fabric, completely wrong for my usual colour choices.

That has accidentally ended up as a diagonal across the block, which has suggested to me that I should try for a strong colour running diagonally on them all, to make for a design by accident.

I have another NZ fabric that is bright yellow Powha (I think) flowers on a navy background that will find its way into this quilt also. It is supposed to be a pretty random outcome, and I think we can agree I am well on they way to achieving that! lol.

The snow has stopped again - sigh.

I walked the dogs early in anticipation of the change of weather, but this simply means they are now ready to go out again (not a chance!) Once my pizza is cooked I will eat it, turn on the electric blanket and retreat into my cave I think!