I can’t believe it has been so long since I last made a post on this blog. It’s only because I’ve been incredibly busy!
For most of November however I didn’t even have my computer. I only had a small notebook to work on. No fun making posts when you can’t quite see what you’re doing. My computer was at the doctors because it had a strange habit of rebooting itself when I didn’t ask it to. It was at the doctors for so long because they wanted to see this strange behaviour, and guess what! It didn’t do it! Not once! My guess is the 3 hour trip on a rough dirt road shook the loose parts back into their correct places. If I had known that, I would have just dropped it out the window at home .. to fix it 
My next excuse for not blogging is that I started spending every night of the week talking with new friends in China! Yes, really! I found these people on a web site called Lang-8.com They can all speak Mandarin, and they are learning English. So we agreed to help each other. Amazing how much time you don’t have when you decide to do something like that every night. But that was only quite late at night after we had finished doing things around the house.
Because it’s summer here, the days are very long. Naturally J and I have things to do outside, things like putting an electric fence around our house! We did that in the week before Christmas, and then we went away for almost a week and stayed with J’s cousins, the ones that grow hay at Dungowan. Of course we had a great time, lots of socialising with neighbours and family. Sad when that was over, but then we had my family to look forward to.
The next week we had guests at home. My twin sister and her husband drove up from Sydney. It was a great week, especially when our sister joined us for a few days. She brought a tent with her and camped in the back yard! So still no time for blogging. No time for my favourite hobby either, that is, studying Chinese.
Since they all left and we’ve been alone, I’ve found a little time to study, but we have had another important job to do. We have to paint the roof of our house!!! After decades of wanting to, we finally bought a solar hot water system .. and a solar power system. Both have large panels that go on the roof. They can’t go on there though, until the roof is painted because it badly needs to be painted! It’s a tin roof and the paint is peeling off. We collect drinking water off the roof so it’s about time we repaired it. Because it’s summer, it’s hot during the day, too hot to paint a roof, so we’re doing it in the early morning and late evening. Just a little bit every day, well most days. Today it’s been raining … so I have time to write this blog!
And that is why I haven’t written anything in a long time.
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Flower pot brackets
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Yesterday, the weather was just perfect, and after an inch of rain last week, there was only one job that really needed doing. It was the mowing. And most urgent were a few areas just outside the house yard where thistles were shooting up out of the ground.
As I walked up and down with the mower I was struck by the resemblence of the thistles to tall pagodas. There were a lot of them and it was a wonderful sight. Luckily I could record it in a photo, because now it’s just yet another patch of lawn.
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- The mystery snails being rested in a separate container
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- Big blue and Little red, our 2 new comets
One plan to get rid of the worms was to buy a fish or 2. Hence Little red and Big blue. They are common gold fish (comets), but a little bit more decorative. We’re not sure if they’re eating the worms, but they spit out the baby snails who don’t seem to mind nearly being eaten. There really are too many baby snails though, so it would be handy if they were on the fish’s menu.
For the moment, the big snails are in a separate container that I am monitoring carefully. It’s a bit milky because there is no filtering going on. We have a pump in there though and because the water is being stirred up, and there is a sea shell in there, the water acidity is staying neutral. I’m changing half the water every day, and keeping it warm with hot water bottles leaning against the outside. The heating should not have been necessary except we have a sudden cold change in the weather.
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New plants around the pond
First off, a whole trailer load of sandy loam went into the space between the fence and the pond. There is a row of stones along the wire fence that will help hold the dirt in place.
The best part of the job was rearranging the rocks along one side so that the black plastic won’t show. We had to also rebuild the wall behind the plastic to make this happen. It took all day to do this short section, and to plant the grasses into the stone wall. The overflow of the pond is just there too, so we also planted some swamp plants that should really thrive.
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Coal Seam Gas – is killing our land, hurting our people, but money counts, and politicians listen to money.
Whatever happened to Occupational Health and Safety Legislation. This used to mean if there was a risk to someone’s health or safety, that risk was eliminated.
Thanks to the people at The Creek Blog for this bit of light relief.
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Coal Seam Gas
I’m the man from the frackers, hold on to your tractors
Have I got a deal for you
Just sign on the line and I’ll give you a mine
And some pocket money too
But wait there’s more once I’ve a foot in the door
I can renovate much of your land
Build roads just for me and clear all those trees
Did you plant them? Oh that’s too bad
Coal seam gas increase my assets
If you trust my lies and just comply
Coal seam gas increase my assets
Oh let me frack for coal seam gas
You better sign quick coz I’ll give you a tip
There’s some whackos and luddites could stop us
They make this big drama about Gasland and Tara
But they’re clearly quite honestly bonkers
Coz there’s nothing to fear we’re all good people here
There’s no need for any resisting
Coal seam gas, it’s greener than grass
Haven’t you heard us insisting?
Coal seam gas increase my assets
If you trust my lies and just comply
Coal seam gas increase my assets
Oh let me frack for coal seam gas
Groundwater shmoundwater who cares about that?
I really can’t see what’s the fuss
If your water goes rank just buy it in tanks
Perhaps you can buy it from us
Polluting clean air, again, who cares?
No one owns it so no one can lose it
And if you fall ill it’s not coz we drill
At least not until you can prove it
Coal seam gas increase my assets
If you trust my lies and just comply
Coal seam gas increase my assets
Oh let me frack for coal seam gas
So if you get a letter from a mining company
That asks if they can do some exploratory drilling
And promises to pay you a large amount of cash
Please watch the movie Gasland before you let them in!
Coal seam gas shove it up their assets
Take your power back, don’t let them frack
Coal seam gas shove it up their assets
Don’t let them frack for coal seam gas
Burning off the side of the road
Last Saturday morning a few locals got together and tidied up the side of the road outside our place with fire. The grass was very long and thick. It hadn’t been cleared in anyway since it was last burnt 10 years ago. The smoke was quite spectacular, and they did a good job, keeping it under control, and not doing too much damage to the living trees.
On Saturday evening we saw a whole lot of quail walking across a cleared area towards our house yard. It was a shame that they also saw us, and they flew back into the long grass in the paddock. We have never seen quail near the house before. We thought that maybe they had lost their home in the fire.
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It’s that time of year again. The birds are all getting quite excited, and some of them already have young. These crested or top knot pigeons are among my favourite. Sadly, they are also the favourite of some local birds of prey. However, they are a successful bird, they are very common. These 2 photos are of 2 birds that are brothers, or sisters. I thought there could have been more than one young in the nest because there were a lot of tails poking out of it. Today we found these two birds on the ground, no where near the nest. The one that J is holding is not very well. It was laying on its side on the path. The other one was sitting nearby under some shrubbery. The sick bird is not calling for food so it’s parents are not feeding it. We will make sure it’s safe for the night, but sadly, there is not much hope for it.
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- Early morning frost in the backyard
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- Looking across the pond to the icy paddock
J was up early this morning and ventured outside. It was good of him to take the camera. Frosts are beautiful, and around here, and usually means a clear sunny day, which it was.
Confused old apple tree
Our snail aquarium
'Geese in the Lane' by Shirley Peters
Shirley Peters, Putney artist, flower shop show
Post with no name, or maybe dumb spider!
Pond progress
Lunch on the boat
Shirley Peters
black bamboo grove
Parrots eating thistles
cleaning up with a portable fire
Living on board
Pond's first resident - Spotted Marsh Frog
Quipolly Dam & Bird Hide
Toulouse markets
just for fun
Valence sur Baise, France
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