Today was supposed to be a wetter version of yesterday, but the weather gods apparently got bored pelting us with winter, so it turned out to be not too bad a day. I had a little cookathon, baking several batches of biscuits (of which only the latter batches will be viewed in public), picking many of the veges and either freezing them, or in the case of the cauliflower, converting it into a cauliflower and cheese soup. Set up a run for the broody hen and moved her, but she decided she was not broody after all but had just gone out in sympathy with her sister who really is broody, and so is now expressing high indignation. Her sister is sitting in a box no-one uses to lay in so I will just leave here there I think.

The dress finally arrived back - no idea if it fits as I had already got rid of the main upholstery that holds me together during the day and so will try it on in the morning.

And i collected several bags of woodshavings so I can clear out the chook sheds and replace bedding once more - the compost heaps will thank me for it.

Tomorrow is more cooking, packing, cleaning up the place so the plumber does not break his neck while house-sitting, and generally having a bit of a buzz around the neighbourhood delivering foodstuffs and helping set up the hall for Saturday.

Last night's snow fell ahead of galeforce winds that rattled the house on its foundations. The temperature in the bedroom fell to 5 degrees, so I was rather glad I had found the leads for the electric blanket - definitely time for that 'shot of heat' option to be applied. Because of the strength of the wind, the snow this morning looked as if it had been spackled on, with piles in the corners of the windows and up against the front door and bare ground in between. Not much in it, fortunately - around 1mm of rain equivalent in the gauge. Tonight, apparently, the snow is retreating to higher reaches, but around here it did not appear to have received the memo so we had snow this afternoon once more.

As a result of this sort of thing, the power went off this morning for about an hour, and I discovered a major flaw in my hot water system. The pump that flushes cooler water through the tubes was, of course, not working, so it occurred to me I could simply run a tap to drain off some of the tank contents, and draw cold water into the tubes from the main rainwater tank. Problem is, my water supply is delivered to the house by, you guessed, it, an electric pump. So that didn't work. Was starting to contemplate climbing on the roof to cover the tubes with a thick blanket when the power sswitched on again. I am wondering if maybe i should get a small solar panel to run just the circulating pump if this happens again. It would not really have been a problem except it happened during a spell of bright sunshine - when a solar panel would have generated sufficient power to run the pump no worries. Will have to think about that and consider it as a backup solution for such occasions.

Quilting today was of course a great excuse to sit in a cosy room and chat to lots of people and get some work done at the same time. I have all but finished six of the potholders, just hand-sewing to do, which i will do in the next couple of nights as I want to donate them for the Spring Fete this weekend. I am also planning to bake several trays of slices for the fete as it raises funds for maintaining our village hall. I was actually planning to be working one of the stalls as well, but since it has coincided with the reunion weekend, I guess that has to take precedence. I will give them a hand setting up the Hall on Friday afternoon as well, so they know I was not just talking nonsense when I said last year I would like to help.

We decided to treat ourselves to lunch today so we all trooped to the other end of Oatlands for lunch at the Stables. We were a little disconcerted by the number of police present around the fireplace - especially since some were wearing jackets labelled Forensics. Though we had a major crime wave on our hands, but it turned out one of our local coppers was retiring. He will be missed as he uses the old style of country town policing, the sort that involves the parents and the kids in working out suitable reparation for a crime, rather than going down the official process of criminal action.

I have been complaining for some time that none of my hens seems to want to go broody. Well I should have shut up. Two of them have gone broody today. Both the Australorp girls. And of course this morning I sold my last dozen eggs. As I particularly wanted to breed these two girls with Rastus that presents a bit of a problem. I noticed their breeder is advertising fertile eggs though, so will probably get a dozen off her. And will also email the buff sussex guy and get a dozen off him as well. That way both hens can have chickens and I can get some more purebreeds for considerably less than buying them as adult birds.

As they grow on, I can cull the older hens for soup and the younger culls can go in the freezer for baked dinners - yum.

Well I said yesterday was a day of contrasts, but i really would not have expected to wake to this this morning had I not checked the weather alerts last night when a distinct nip penetrated the loungeroom from the window. It had melted by lunchtime but we got another flurry this afternoon and more is forecast tonight.

Naturally this was the day I was taking the car to get it fixed and had arranged to be picked up on the side of the road by a friend. Who was running late. I had stood there for 15 minutes, in a freezing wind when I received her text telling me she was still at Melton Mowbray so texted back and said I would hitch hike. Of course, the first car along was another quilting lady who kindly drove me all the way there and joined me in the day of sewing. Phew. So that was all right.

The car is fixed, but still needs a new timing belt and has a leak at the oil pump. I knew it was losing oil, and that is not such a bad place for it to be coming from and will be accessible at the same time as they take out the radiator to replace the timing belt and various valves associated therewith. So that is all booked in for next week. In the mean time, the car starts, and goes and that is all that matters really.

Then I came home and decided to cut just a few more logs for the fire. But the chainsaw died after the first two and a half logs, so I finished the third one off by hand and called it a day. I have enough to keep me going tonight and can drop it off at the service station for them to work out what the problem is. I suspect gears as the motor runs, it is just that the chain does not go around (which is fairly vital when you think about it).

Herby, yes. Last Spring I was so jealous of everyone's flowers and their gardens, and while mine is not exactly a garden in so many words yet, it is still lovely to have my own spring blooms. I think when I finish off the paving around the side it will look lovely next spring and hopefully through summer with the thyme and alyssum taking over when the johnny jumpups decide it has gotten too hot for them.

ETA - have worked out the problem with the chainsaw - I had accidentally activated the chain lock - glad I found out before taking it to the servo, I would have been the laughing stock of the entire district!

A bit of contrast here today. Started with a downpour (all 2 mm of it) that finished at 8:30 but was nasty and overcast for several more hours. Then this afternoon the sun came out, but so too did the snow-winds. They were originally forecasting real snow for today so I guess I shouldn't really complain.

I took the camera for a bit of a walk today to capture the first signs of spring as they emerge, this being the first year I have had anything approximating a garden, so this whole post will basically be pictures. Mainly because I stuck to doing housework today and that is sooooooooo boring i won't give you any unnecessary details. I did do a mad dash into town in a panic because i still don't have my little black dress back from over the road, so I picked up a pretty navy skirt from the op shop for $2.50 that will do as a substitute at a pinch!

We seem to have a new member here who I don't recognise - Ruth, reveal yourself, lol.

They promised us 16 today and they were right! A lovely sunny day with little wind (though it is making up for that at present). Just enough to keep you from getting too hot. Unless, of course you are a large black dog who insists on lying in full sunlight. In which case you cool off by climbing into the cast iron bath your mother conveniently left lying around in the back yard. Getting out can prove a bit of a challenge though ... but he eventually worked it out.

I played with the line trimmer to some extent, and removed all the clutter of lumber that has been leaning against the front wall of the house for the last umpteen months due to it being out of sight (well,my sight at least) and therefore out of mind. But with the Parattah Spring Fete scheduled for this coming Saturday (I know!!! I am going ot be in Melbourne - pooey), it struck me I should tidy up the front yard so all the visitors can see that someone around here cares a bit. So that is what I did. I have yet to redig the edges of the beds either side of the front path, but the lumber is gone, the long grass has been trimmed back and the grass mown, and it all looks a bit tidier.

I also felt it would be a good idea to formalise the base on which the gas bottle is currently precariously balanced, so started building up a drystone wall and back-filling with gravel and fat sand. I realised that for some strange reason I had focussed on the position of the gas bottles, but had left a section of the side of the concrete slab exposed between that and the old stone footings of the house. So, that being where one of the outside taps is, I also built that up about 150mm and have started to pave it with sandstone. I need to find my cold chisel and mallet so I can split some more stones to finish it off, but will, weather permitting, do that tomorrow.

The gaps between have seeds of thyme and alyssum scattered in them, and I have also bought a discount pot of johnny jumpups for some instant colour. That platform, apart from saving me a mudhole where the tap is, will also have a pot of mint on it I think.

So the muscles got a good workout today and are telling me all about it at present, but I should also have managed to avoid getting a farmers tan, as I once again, whipped out a camisole top to work in.

Should sleep well tonight I think.

AFL Update

Well what a shemozzle. Now the reunion will be madly competing with crazed football fans. The formal dinner at the Town Hall may well degenerated into a repetition of that last, memorable dinner I attended after the local final, when I skidded bum-first across the floor after walking into a punch aimed at my then partner ... Pooh!

Have rushed to book a car in anticipation of all manner of shortages at the airport now that the crazed mob will doubtless be travelling up there once again ...

Dare I say it? Carn the Pies ...

I spent pretty well all day sorting out the bedroom. Not a lot done, I hear you say. Well, actually yes. The bedroom has become a bit of a dumping ground for everything that is not renovation-related and so had accumulated quite a bit of non-bedroom related stuff as well. And several cartons that had been unpacked then used for other things and... well, you get the picture.

So today I emptied out each individual drawer, and put back into it only what belonged there. And what fits. What doesn't fit has been sorted out into a charity pile and a pile for alterations once the sewing room is commissioned some time in late summer. That pile has gone into a suitcase with some naphthalene flakes and, once i am confident I have captured everything, it will be going back in the container. The cartons have been emptied and flattened and put in the dining room for future use as garden bed bottoms. The paperwork has been moved to the loungeroom to be sorted into the filing cabinet when I am in a paperwork frame of mind. The tools are now where they belong. The bedding and blankets have been washed and put into their respective new homes in the laundry (that i have not officially moved into of course!). The house is festooned with wet washing, and there is a pile of cotton shirts for ironing, and one of white cotton shirts for treating to get rid of the yellow stains that seem to magically appear when you leave white cotton clothes lying around for any length of time. The quilt has been removed from the bed to be washed and hung out to dry when the weather is more conducive to that sort of thing (and I have access to a clothesline at a friend's place).

Then I popped into town for some napisan, naphthalene flakes and two stroke fuel, came home, fed the chooks and sat down for a bit of a rest before tackling the washing up, and cooking dinner which will be sweet corn fritters tonight for want of having done owt about defrosting anything else worth eating.