January 20th

Tuesday 20th January. Today is the big day. But if I thought it was going to be all good and happy, I have another think coming.
Halfway through the morning the tilt tray truck with the full container finally arrives.

But there is no sign of the men who are supposed to be doing the actual unloading. We wait another almost 3 hours before they deign to arrive. By now it is just about lunch time. 

The clear sky is starting to get darker as heavy clouds move in. There is rain forecast for later in the day!

The container finally gets put down and the blokes start to unload everything, stacking it all out in the open. One of the first things that comes out is my very expensive, very large printer, unprotected and covered in dust. I am absolutely horrified and tell the men to put it straight in the house - given the possible showers of rain.

I am not having a very good time in all this as I see things flimsily packed and stacked and all coming out higgledy piggledy. 

There are quite a few teary moments for me when I see precious things handled with so little respect. There are also things missing. I have been told that there was still stuff in storage in Coonabarabran that they couldn't fit into this container, but nobody actually ever told me exactly what. It is still a complete mystery.

I have to be on my toes all afternoon, checking boxes to decide what should come inside directly.

When the container is empty, the truck picks it up and takes it away, then moves my container from the other side of the house to the spot which has just been vacated.

The truck driver has been waiting all this time to take the empty container back. His boss has been on the phone several times, telling him about another job he should do at four o'clock. Well it is just about that time when he can finally make tracks.

The job is nowhere near finished for me, of course, as I now have to decide what goes to the back of the container. Thinking that taking some pieces of furniture directly into the house would leave lots of space in the container for me to move around in was definitely wishful thinking. It looks nearly as full as when it arrived.

It is almost seven o'clock when all is done and the men leave.

It is just starting to rain now! That was very considerate of the weather gods.

The house is now crammed full and I actually have to move several boxes to make a path to the bedroom door where my poor pussies have been hiding and keeping safe all day.

I am absolutely dead on my feet and totally overwhelmed, but I still can't help peeping into some of the boxes late at night and unpacking the odd little treasure.

But more of that later.

This little find - it fluttered out almost as soon as the container was opened - really made me smile. A little reminder of happy times.

January 19th

A beautiful day today but no sign of a container yet. It is promised for tomorrow.

Meanwhile, in my garden:

The worms are looking healthy and fat and producing a little amount of worm tea every week which then goes straight onto my vegetables. 
That makes them grow nicely, which in turn is much appreciated by the wallabies who can unfortunately jump into the raised beds.
It is a constant battle.


When they're finished with the few vegetables and herbs, they have no hesitation to start on the flowers. Thankfully, they don't tend to make a complete mess of them - maybe some flowers give them a belly ache.

And of course, some flowers they really can't get to, like the Fuchsias which are suspended in hanging pots. They are putting on a good show at the moment.

January 15th to 18th

The long awaited container is getting apparently very much closer. In anticipation of many things to come, I have to make some space in the house.
The animals are looking on with suspicion, the cats especially. Mitzi makes regular tours of inspection just to check that the food bowls and the litter box are still in their respective places
In the evening, all four of them make sure that I am still around and not going anywhere by piling on top of me - first on the sofa and later on the bed.

Of course, there are more delays and I end up having to drag the little outdoor table inside to be able to eat my meals somewhere in reasonable style -  and to serve coffee to my friend and neighbour when she pops in.

In a way, it was just as well that the container didn't arrive on the promised day as that turned out to be a pretty miserable day weather wise.

The weekend brings some pretty wild weather, but at least the rain is now clearing.

January 12th to 14th

Monday was a big cooking day. I made a batch of mango and passion fruit ice cream just because I could and because I had some ripe fruit.
As I was invited to some friends' place for Tuesday, I proceeded to cook up a chicken liver paté, mix up a batch of blissies - my lumps of bliss - and concoct yet another variation of seed loaf.
Having substituted the usual rice flakes with quinoa flakes, I couldn't be too certain that the loaf was fit to take along to the party. The only way to tell was to try a little bit. Luckily, it was just right and I didn't have to make another loaf overnight.
Unluckily, however, I broke a tooth in the process. It'll have to be dealt with next week.

Tuesday morning, we went for an early walk at the nearby beach before getting ready and heading off to catch the Bruny Island ferry.

It felt like going on a holiday - overseas :-)

The dogs were allowed to come too, so there were three of us very excited about the outing.

It was a fabulous get together with eight very dear and lovely people. Cameo and Teepee were even allowed inside the house and managed to win everybody's heart.

One of our friends brought along a whole bucketful of gooseberries from their garden to share around. 

What am I going to do with them, I hear you ask. Well, eat them, of course! I made a start on the way home on the ferry already.

Our gracious hostess dug up some lobelias for me as well. It was like Christmas.

Going back to the ferry, I took the scenic route. Despite the overcast weather, the scenery was still worth taking a couple of photos of.

What a wonderful day it had been!

I arrived home so elated that even the sight of my mangled letterbox setup couldn't dampen my spirits.

Funnily enough, I had seen a car with a big V-groove in the front limping into Cygnet. 
My neighbour confirmed that had indeed been the car - some back packers who were in the area for the Folk Festival.

There was another reason why I was so elated and happy: The prospect of the arrival of my container full of belongings on Wednesday.
However, things don't always turn out the way we expect them to. It started to rain heavily in the evening and kept going all night. There must have also been a fair bit of wind, for this morning there was a lot of debris about.
A phone call from the removalist revealed that the Bass Strait had not been all smooth sailing last night and whilst my container had made it to Tasmania, it had missed the train to Hobart. Now we're hoping it will happen on Friday. Fingers crossed. 
I was not terribly upset about the change of plans as the rain and wind continued all day. It would have been a nightmare trying to handle furniture and boxes. The weather forecast for Friday looks a lot better than today.

We went to the beach early this morning, wearing rubber boots and raincoat, because my car was booked to go to the garage for service. 
When my mechanic gave me a lift home, he told me the car that had hit my letterbox was now a the panel beaters' in town. It's a small world.

I have just had the first sample of my ice cream. It is quite delicious.

January 10th and 11th

Saturday was a busy day, so busy in fact, that I never took any photos of anything.
A visit to the Natural Therapist showed that my health is making some progress in the right direction.
The main aim is to be able to ditch all prescription medicine eventually. 

Since the Therapist's place is close to Kingston, we got to have our beach walk at Kingston Beach which is always a treat for my children.

In the afternoon, I had a friend's partner - a handyman - call in to check out some jobs that need doing around the place. The most important of all will be to weather proof the outside of the house while it is warm and dry. 
From there, we'll move onto painting the inside. Hopefully, that should stop the mould from growing on the walls during winter.

Today was a very glorious day. Being Sunday, I expected crowds to come to the beach, so we went there early and had the place practically to ourselves. 

The rest of the day was spent around here. As I was going round watering and fertilizing, I found that the chincherinchee are still quietly flowering away, despite the couple of hail storms we had.
What wonderful and precious flowers. I hope they will multiply profusely.

1. Ornithogalum thyrsoides
2. Ornithogalum thyrsoides is a plant species that is endemic to the Cape Province in South Africa. It is also known by the common names of chinkerinchee or chincherinchee, star-of-Bethlehem or wonder-flower.Wikipedia

A new dahlia has opened up now and there are plenty more buds. I can only hope that the dear wildlife will leave them alone.

Something the natives don't seem to like are my neighbour's pelargoniums. This one here is a particularly glorious specimen. 

Thank you Joanne, I now have a piece in a pot and dream of that large bush it will become.

The other day I created a special page for my art in this blog. Unfortunately, it does not seem to be accessible to visitors.
I hope this link will work. 
My art

January 9th

Discovering more colour in the garden. A white Aerum Lily is out and another yellow one coming up.

The first Dahlia flowers are open too. Yellow seems to be the flavour of the week.

The small crop of cos lettuce had to be picked in a hurry as they were going to seed. They are quite bitter and no longer suitable for a salad, but just fine for a stir fry.

Thanks to the cooler weather, the beach was quite deserted today and the water a bit choppy. The peace and quiet was very enjoyable.

January 8th

 

The Fuchsias are doing well. A new colour
has now come out. There's still one more
colour to come.

The Mona Lavender is starting to flower again too.

This here is the mother plant which has lived on the veranda for quite some time now. It seems to like it there and is looking very lush.

I'll be able to grow some more little seedlings from it before it takes over the whole place.

Today was the first Rotary meeting of the new year. 
Back into the swing of things again.