Wintertime

Wednesday, July 8th

It had gone down to 0°C in the night. The little heater is going flat chat all night and still can't produce more than 17°C this morning. Still, it's better than getting the feeling of living in a tent. That's how it used to be like when I still had the wood stove that wouldn't burn through the night. All the windows and walls used to be dripping with condensation, causing mould to grow.

I had been told the little heater would be just perfect for my house - and it was, last year when we had a mild winter. This winter is a different story. Unfortunately, the bigger model I was trying to get is sold out.....surprise, surprise.
There is still a fair bit of condensation in places, but a lot less since I have been keeping the heater going non stop. 

It is a beautiful, sunny morning with thick frost everywhere. I'm glad I have some indoor chores to start with. 
But by 10.30 h, I have to get ready to go to Huonville to visit a lady. Looking across the nearby paddocks, I see still plenty of frost in the shady areas. First thing I notice right here is the ice still lying on the timber step.

Impressively, the car starts immediately. But then I notice that I can't see anything. The wipers can't really wipe the stuff away and there's no water coming out of the washer.

Not to worry, says I, I'll just hose it down.........and then again, maybe not!

I have to go back inside and fetch a bucket of warm water to throw at the windscreen.

A look round the front of the house makes me very glad I'm not using the front steps.

My first stop is Minnie's Point just down the road where the dogs can have a quick run.

After my visit in Huonville, we drive directly to Randalls Bay for our beach walk. It is now around one o'clock and the beach still looks quite icy. 

The world looks so very beautiful in winter.

Healing fast

Tuesday, June 30

Going  for a checkup, they discover that I'm all healed and the stitches are coming out. Next

week's appointment can be cancelled.

Plastic Surgery, a hellish drive home and a cute welcome

Monday, July 22

This afternoon, I have a serious date with a plastic surgeon. That annoying bit of sun cancer beside my left eye is to be removed at last. I've been nursing it right through my travels.

I opt to have it done with local anesthetic only. That way I can drive myself. For a moment, I even wonder whether I should invite the dogs along in case we get a chance for another walk afterwards but luckily decide against that option.

I am the last op for the day and it is well and truly five o'clock when I'm ready to leave the hospital. It is dark, the rush hour traffic is in full swing and it has started to rain. The lights of hundreds of cars reflect off the wet road.
My left eye is a bit paralyzed from the injections and I can't blink away any tears. Every so often, I slide a finger behind the glasses to physically help my eye to blink. 

Although it is quite a drive from hell, I still manage to get home an hour later which is about the normal time.

Not a very pretty sight

Having been dark for over an hour now, everybody is looking for their dinner, including the possums.

I park the car beside the house, leaving the car lights on and walk round the corner to the backdoor. I'm greeted by my golden possum who comes walking towards me, looking up at me expectantly. 

Fearing she might have ideas of climbing up my legs, I quickly put my hand down. Goldie sits up on her haunches, grabs my hand with her little paws and tentatively nibbles one of my knuckles. I pull my hand away, pat her on the head and tell her I'll be right back as I walk to the door.

Quickly cut up some apple and put the pieces into the possum dish. She doesn't come though. When I walk back towards the car, she's still sitting there in the light, exactly where I'd left her. I fetch a piece of apple and bring it to her. She takes it very daintily with both paws, puts it into her mouth and then runs up a fence post where she sits to eat it.

I suspect possums can't really see in the light.

Unfortunately, I only have the mobile phone at hand which takes a very lousy picture. But in case you wonder, here is an earlier picture of Goldie.

Coming home and getting thrown in the deep end

Coming home on Friday afternoon, June 12th.

That's the easy part. I'm picked up from the airport by my kind house and pet sitters Bob and Kay and my two canine children who are very excited.

First thing I notice is how clean and shiny the car is! Thanks guys. That's much better than what I usually have it.
The house is equally spic and span. WOW. What a difference to the home coming I had a couple of years ago. Bygones.

That evening, all four animals pile up on top of me. It's as if I'd never left.

My friends leave on Sunday to travel back to the North Island. Now, I have to start doing a lot of washing and there is the catching up on the travel blog. While waiting around at the various airports on the way home, I managed to upload quite a lot of photos. Now, I have to make a serious effort to finish the blog.

At Rotary, I'm getting thrown in at the deep end. The first meeting back and I'm on bulletin duty. 
The Windeward Bound Youth Leadership Challenge Committee is meeting during that first week too.
The Rotary Artshow Committee has put me back on the email list and queries are coming in, needing answers.

On the 21st I finish the travel blog at last. 
http://claudiatravelbug.blogspot.com

May 9, 2015 to June 12, 2015

The missing link

Canada / Alaska 2015

The benefits of compost worms

The regular drinks of worm tea are definitely very beneficial to some of my plants.

The azaleas and pieris japonica had both flowered profusely all through spring. It is now barely autumn and they are just starting to flower again.

The lilies not only have incredibly large blooms, but their scent is absolutely heavenly.

This is the largest flower I have ever seen on my peace lily.

The anthurium is just bringing forth one flower after another.

The agony of acquiring a new bed

The day the handyman was here with his trailer to take my old (marital) bed - and other things - to a garage sale, was the day the new bed I had purchased from Harvey Norman was supposed to be delivered.
When I hadn't heard anything by lunchtime, I rang up and to my horror, heard that my bed had not made it onto the truck!
Since deliveries to my area only happen on Wednesdays, it meant I was going to have to wait another week. I had no hope of getting the old bed to  be disposed of any other time, so went ahead with the plans for the day.
I had the handyman put my very old, expandable slat bed into the bedroom to sleep on for the week.

That was quite OK for the week.
Wednesday, February 25th arrived and before I got too excited about folding things up and carrying them out to the spare room in the backyard, I rang again and made sure that this time, my bed would be on the truck, which I was assured it was.

I got very busy moving everything but the slat base and scrubbing the bedroom thoroughly in anticipation of a new bed.

The truck got here around four thirty and the two men started carrying  three large and unwieldy flat packs and a well wrapped up big slat base in and immediately informed me that unpacking and setting up was not part of their job description. There was also no sign of a mattress!!!

I was absolutely floored by the lousy service - or rather lack thereof.
Where I come from, beds come naturally with mattresses, as did the last one I purchased in this country. Whatever happened to the customer being King?

I left the handyman a message with my rather desperate request and also rang Harvey Norman to let them know that I was definitely not amused. The girl on the phone said she could pass the message on to the manager and have him get in touch with me. I told her that unless he had plenty of spare muscles and a suitable mattress, he need not bother himself.
The man still rang up a while later and as good as told me that it was all my fault, that I should have known......blablabla! My suggestions that the staff could be trained to give the customer all relevant information and perhaps ask if a mattress might be needed  (or indeed even bedding, as all of that is available in the shop) fell on deaf ears as the self-righteous little man was too hell bent on playing the blame game.

While waiting for the handyman who couldn't come until evening, I busied myself unpacking the two smaller packs and stacking the pieces ready for assembly. I had to stop at the largest box as that contained the bed head which wouldn't even look at me when I tried to lift it out of the packaging.


Well, it took three hours to assemble the bed.
By the time it was all done, it was half past ten and I was absolutely dead on my feet, having no wish to go out the back and retrieve the other mattress and make up a bed for the night.

I spent the night on my perfectly good reclining sofa, which, when I purchased it from Freedom Furniture a couple of years ago was delivered on a Saturday afternoon and assembled and all I had to do was sit on it and relax.

Whilst it is a perfectly good reclining sofa, spending the entire night on it still left me somewhat worse for wear and a bit sore.

However, it was now Thursday, the day to go to Rotary. I stopped at the Mattress Junction in Margate where I spent a mere 15 minutes choosing and purchasing a mattress and arrange for it to be delivered that very afternoon.

Three hours later, I arrived home after Rotary at the same time as the delivery man with his ute. He not only unpacked the mattress and placed it on the bed for me, but he gathered up all the packaging and took it away with him!

I quickly made up the bed so I would have somewhere a bit more comfortable to sleep when I came home from watching The Second Best Marigold Hotel together with the other 400 Rotarians.

What bliss to come home to this at last!

February 23rd and 24th

Knitting little things for a friend. I must admit, I'd rather knit things of a decent size as I find the little cuties a bit too fiddly for my taste.

The 23rd is of course the birthday of Rotary. 110 years today since Paul Harris founded Rotary by inviting 3 like minded individuals. As they say: From little things, big things grow.

It is a rainy day and I have to find a slot between showers to take the dogs for their walk. The washing is not drying on the line outside before nightfall so it gets left hanging there.

Today, I'm learning a valuable lesson: Do not leave the washing on the line overnight as the possums can use that to walk across to one of the hanging baskets of fuchsias.

Shame on them! It's not as if I never feed them.

A join in the irrigation - from the Fuji Clean septic tank - has burst and the water is pouring out there instead of going to all the sprinklers, flooding one of the garden beds and leaving the others high and dry.
Luckily, this former farmer is not helpless when it comes to such repair jobs. A few minutes of my precious time - and some boiling water to soften the poly pipe - fixes the problem.

While I'm outside, I make the most of the mild, dry weather to do some weeding and planting some seeds, before taking the dogs for some beach walks.

February 13th to 21st

It's good to be home again, to go to the beaches with the dogs and to wander around the garden to see how things are progressing.

The gladioli are coming up with some new colour just about every day and the first lilies are out. Then there is a little quiet native achiever too. It is just so enjoyable.
I have even enough gladioli to take some inside for a vase.

Some space was made by taking various things to a garage sale this week, including the old queen size bed.

The biggest relief came the day I took my divorce papers to be shredded! That chapter is now irrevocably finished with.

It is all systems go to move forward now.

I have been talking to a draftsman and a builder about a couple of small extensions to this house.

Already some time ago, I booked a trip to Western Canada and Alaska. This will be happening in May and June. My friends Bobby and Kaye Hunter will come to house and pet sit during that time.

February 11th and 12th

Having had continually blocked sinus cavities for the best part of my life, I have at last found a specialist who really wants to do something about it.

Hence my quick two day stint in hospital.

When I first arrived in my private room, I felt I wanted to stay longer than just the one night. But then they fed me, and I found the choice so narrow and unhealthy - compared with my usual fare - that I decided going home the next day was still the best option.

February 1st to 10th

As exciting as all this unpacking, discovering and reminiscing is, normal life still continues. Rain, hail or shine, the dogs still like to go for their daily walks. Housework and shopping 
(amazing how much shopping there is to do when you have a few animals) are always on and, of course, Rotary every week.

For those who don't know, I became a Rotarian in December 2006 in Coonabarabran and then joined the Rotary Club of Hobart in 2012, after moving here.
I was bulletin editor for about four years in Coonabarabran and was also a little bit active at District level.

I found this clever pocket of brochures I created for District 9830.
Coming across this made me feel quite proud of myself.
Especially remembering the fact that I did it during a rather harrowing time in my life.

Around the same time I also printed 56 posters on canvas - one for each club - featuring literacy, water and polio, on my very large printer. 

I'll never forget the help and moral support I received from Ken Hall with this task.



I am now doing the bulletin again, but sharing the task with two or three other people, so it only comes around once a month.


After a few rather dismal days, the sun has finally come out again to lift one's spirit.
Mother Nature has not stood still, of course, and I now have the thrill of discovering all sorts of beautiful things.

It seems that the regular application of worm tea is doing wonders.

The daily dog walks are so much more pleasant when the weather is this perfect - and the blackberries are ripe.