Yesterday started off rainy but cleared to a fine, but overcast day. Today was superb! Just what you want on an autumn day. Pity I was working. Still I managed to distribute another barrowload of manure over the orchard and those checking out of the main cottage left a load of food behind them.

Tonight's dinner, as a consequence, was Ingham garlic-cream stuffed chicken breasts. While I dread to think what conditions the chickens were raised in, and am not too sure I recognise some of the ingredients, they were very yummy, especially when accompanied by the parmesan, garlic and something or other fried chips.

Tomorrow I will be dining on toasted ham and cheese sandwiches - also courtesy of this lot of guests, and when the weather turns chilly once more, I will be having the moroccan chicken frozen dinner they left behind. The disturbing thing is that none of these items is available locally, so they must have gone out and bought them especially to eat while staying there. The packet of frozen corn was particularly worrying. Do people not eat proper food these days?

I managed to get some more whipper snippering done yesterday, and hope to do some more tomorrow. But today I did not terribly much at all in the garden, despite the lovely weather.

I think the regular weather man is on holidays as they got the forecast wrong again today. Supposed to sunny after the mist cleared, but was overcast for most of the day.

It was also jolly chilly!

Took the whipper snipper down to the orchard to trim around a couple more trees so I could empty Judy's barrow of the stable waste, and stacked some more wood. Then took the whipper snipper over the rest of the area I have already cleared. I am systematically cutting out the bases of the tussock grass and it seems to be working as I can now walk down there without turning my ankle all the time, and a wheel barrow moves forward smoothly instead of balking at obstacles or bouncing with a light load.

Retreated indoors after three as it was downright chilly, then took Seb for a walk once I got the fire going so we came home to a warm house!

Despite the dire forecast, today turned out quite nice and sunny, albeit cool. Good weather for wood stacking so I did some more of that then turned my attention to the remaining washing, since it seemed good drying weather after all.

Judy rode her horse (on a lead rope) down the lane which was a bit of a surprise as I had encouraged her to lunge it thoroughly before riding it. But him next door knew better so there they were, riding down the lane, with horses in the adjacent paddocks going crazy with excitement and the stallion waiting at the foot of the lane to make getting through the gate even more hair-raising than it might otherwise have been. Then out onto the oval to be lunged, complete with rider.

The girth was far too short, so they had ad libbed with some strapping that was knotted at one end and buckled through at the other side. Needless to say this stretched with the result Judy came a cropper. Fortunately no-one was hurt but the horse was definitely a bit steamy by the time they came back.

I received a message from some friend who were passing through Oatlands so went into town to meet up with them. We had soup and tea at the Pancake Parlour and caught up with the gossip from this year's get together in Gladysdale (that I didn't get to go to).

Then home to walk the dogs at which point the threatened rain decided to fall. So we came home, lit the fire and I am now waiting for tonight's dinner to cook. Last night's made a nice bonus dinner for the dogs tonight. It was not that badly tainted, but the thought of it made me feel queasy so I decided to err on the side of caution after all. Pity.

A nice quiet Easter Sunday here. Was a little confused by the swap to daylight savings as I had failed to set the clock forward and so bounced out of bed at five in the morning, with the result I had to stall a lot of planned activities out of consideration for noise regulations. I did manage a load of washing, but since the sunshine they promised failed to eventuate I decided against doing any more, and so settled for changing sheets and towels around instead.

Stacked another two rows of firewood - these loads seem to be getting bigger! There will be quite a bit more stacking to do before i am finished. Fortunately I found a few smaller bits as my access to my sawhorse that I used for cutting wood is severely impeded by the yet-to-be-stacked wood.

Tonight's roast lamb is not going to be terribly nice I suspect. Despite it having today as its use-by date it was smelling distinctly iffy when I removed the plastic. I am cooking it anyway and if it still smells off once done then the dogs will have a good feed tomorrow and I will settle for yoghurt and some more chocolate.

It will be cold and rainy tomorrow so I am setting myself the task of sorting through the freezer as there will be half a pig arriving in a couple of weeks and I will need a home for it.

My second (and final) load of firewood arrived just as I got home from cleaning the cottages. I was too tired to do anything about it, but it looks like I should be right for firewood for winter, despite it starting so early (fire is lit this evening once more).

 The neat stack at the back is the first load - the pile of logs in the foreground is today's delivery. I did manage to install one row, but gave up after I discovered a couple of smallish logs that I took indoors with me.

I took the camera on the walk with the dogs as I had found an interesting toadstool yesterday and wanted to take its photo. It was growing under a rather large pine tree that is along the track.

This is the tree - it has suffered generations of mutilation by farmers and electricity companies, but still stands tall.

And here is the toadstool - rather like a fairy toadstool, don't you think? Not terribly good to eat I wouldn't think!

we had to pause for a bit so Shadow could catch up with us. He likes to take his time and smell all the interesting smells along the way, so I don't hurry him. He is getting very old and a bit wobbly on his hind legs, so a leisurely pace suits him. While I was stopped I took advantage of some rather spectacular lighting to take this image.

Looking toward home, the light was not so kind, but I thought this image rather sums up the character of the town nicely.

The recreation ground and grandstand are on the left. The big roof in the centre is the Jubilee Hall, and the little white building to the right above the Hall is the tiny Methodist (now Uniting Church). It remains consecrated so that marriages can still be conducted there, but is otherwise unused.

Seb decided this was all very well, but he would like to start moving again, so as soon as Shadow caught up with us, we headed home. Bangers and mash for dinner and now a nice relax in front of the fire before bedtime.

Today was a bit more seasonal than yesterday, so I got out the chainsaw and cut up some wood, then set to with the whipper snipper.

Since we have been getting a fair bit of rain lately the regrowth is very enthusiastic, so I went over a bit that looked as if it was getting over-excited and then moved down into the orchard to cut out another tree for mulching. Managed to remove a bit of the bark in the process, but it is only the thin outer bark, and on half the trunk, so I think I have managed to get away with it. No damage to the next layer down which is where the sap runs. This tree was also on a bit of a lean (I suspect they all are), so was straightened up a bit, and a below-the-graft sucker removed before mulching it with the cuttings. This was later topped up with the latest stable waste from Judy's when I went to recover my wheelbarrow.

The full face mask was unpacked, but when I put it on I discovered I could not see through it. I later discovered that there were layers of thin protective film on both sides of it. Now that has been removed I can see quite well, so I will use it tomorrow or Sunday when next I get out there and cut.

The wood having been transferred to the now-empty barrow it was carted up to the house and loaded beside the chimney and is now burning merrily in the fireplace. I had decided I could get away without a fire, but then it suddenly turned chilly once the sun went down, and lighting one became a necessity. I will pop some porridge on before I head to bed and let it cook overnight.

I should get danger money with this cleaning lark, lol. What a horror story it was yesterday - I was exhausted, cleaning up after a large party had booked the entire place out and been roomswapping and generally carrying on for a couple of days. Sigh. At least today I had only one Swiss couple to clean up after, who sustained the reputation of the country for excessive neatness. I swear they must have picked up the individual toast crumbs off the floor!

After cleaning the bank last night I called into Judy's with some mushrooms (we are having a bumper season this autumn) and had a couple of glasses of wine and a long chat with her and her grandson who has come to stay with her a bit longer. She was terribly upset about her animals, but bizarrely forgiving (I wouldn't have been!). She wants us to make a project of the next door to see if we can support Annie to become a functioning human being. I am reluctant to get involved, frankly as i can see them just saying 'oh good, please do start running our lives and we will sit back and let you do all the work'. But she feels we can make a difference. And lord knows a difference needs to be made.

I have said i am willing to show them how to do stuff, but not to do it for them. Unfortunately a lot of the things they need to know how to do they think they are doing just fine anyway so it seems like a losing battle to me.

Bitterly cold today. It was sleeting while I took the dogs for a walk this afternoon, trying very hard to snow. While I didn't get any wood cut with the chainsaw (which despite its recent service refused to run for me - now fixed) I did get the drop saw out and cut enough logs to get me through today, with some rationing during the afternoon. There is one more big one to go on as I go to bed to keep things above freezing, but it is going to be a cold night tonight!