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.