Sad news
Well here I am with my feet up on the swing with Tamyka squashed up at the smelly end (feet). It is a glorious day once again here, but we had found this morning that the Plovers four eggs are missing even thought the Plovers are still hanging around so we think someone may have removed them cause they were swooping at the people who got a bit too close to the nest. Tamyka's holiday with us is almost at an end, sadly as we have been having a good time together and also having time with mum as well. Last night we cooked up a big pot of scalloped potatoes for tea and then Tamyka, mum and I sat in the double bed that Tamyka is sleeping in and ate all the potatoes and watched a DVD together. We enjoyed ourselves immensely singing there was three in the bed and the little one said!!!!!!!!
What have we been doing all the week as it has been quite a while since I have written in here. Well last Tuesday we removed almost everything out of the Purple Palace and put down a four metre square piece of carpet and yes it is purple. Then we had to put everything back into it's place again. IT only took us one and a quarter hours to take the stuff out, but it took up two and a half hours to put it all back again!!! Boy were we exhausted after that. All of our backs were aching and we were rather tired!! I have so much craft stuff that needs to be sorted out and hopefully now I will be able to get through it all as the renovations to the house are coming to a completion. We have had the electrician in finishing off putting in the downlights, he also connected the oven up, also on Saturday he will be back to connect up the hotplates and the exhaust fan so then the kitchen is just about done. Just a small piece of timber is missing and then covering in at the ceiling area. We have the floating floors done now in the kitchen, front entrance and halls which I really like. I had someone in to measure up for curtains and blinds and that will take about 5 weeks before they are installed. Pat the painter has his son coming around on Saturday and he will be plastering up all the holes in the ceilings where we took out all of the old light fittings and also all of the screw holes where the ceiling has popped!! Then Pat will be here for goodness knows how long to get started with painting the inside of the house. I would have loved the challenge to do it all, but my back won't let me!!
Tamyka and I have been going for our morning walks feeding the swans and looking for some babies, unfortunately we did see one baby dead in the water. We have spotted a few large dead fish in the water and wonder why? Oh yes we actually saw an adult with a baby plover the other day, the baby was just so cute!!
My friend Kaye arrived here while Tamyka and I were out for a walk so she met us on the walking track and we sat in the sun watching a chap on his large kite with a surf board type thingy with slots for his feet skimming along the water and getting up a lot of speed. We felt he was showing off a bit cause he had an audience for a while, we wanted to rush home and get some paper and a texta and hold up the paper with some score on it for each time he did a trick!! He was very good even though we have not watched anyone before doing this. He managed to leap out off the water quite high at times.
This afternoon we are going to go to collect Mum and go to the shops then bring her home here as Tamyka is cooking us dinner. I don't know what we are having as it is a surprise so I will let you know tomorrow what it is, I am sure it will be lovely.
Well this is only a short one today as we must get a wiggle on and seeing it is such a good day take mum for a walk to the shops as it is a small stroll away.
til next time
luv Jill and Tamyka!!!
Another day in Paradise
WARNING!!!!!!!! Before you sit down to read this make sure you have plenty of time!!!!! Maybe the kettle and the coffee jar beside you and something to eat cause I have rambled on a lot today and it will take a bit of time to get through this lot. Hope I have not made too many spelling mistakes also!! and I am not the best with comprehension and all that stuff. sorry..
We did not get as early a start as hoped yesterday to get to Morwell as planned about an hour behind schedule!!! Typical for me lately as Mum is always saying I am never on time!!! I got up early enough about 6a.m., but I got sidetracked trying to decide where to put some stuff in the kitchen. Where is the best spot?? or the most practical spot! I also was energetic enough to put on a load of washing, not that I am lazy!!, but did not look at the time it went on as it takes simply ages to get through it's cycle adding a bit of water here and then a bit more later and so on! I don't like to leave it running while I am not at home so had to wait for it to finish. Anyway there was really no rush as we had plenty of time there.
We took the back road to Sale, there is more to see country wise than along the main highway, even though I am watching the road when I drive! But I seem to have an obsession with looking at the various GUM TREES, their different shapes and the different coloured bark and the patterns it leaves on the trunk when peeling off is simply amazing. Some of the colours are just lovely! One day we or should I say I am going for a drive along that road and it may take me five hours instead of one and just stop and take some photos of the various colours. WHY????? do you ask would I want to take pics of different coloured bark????? well I could do worse!!!!!!
Each time we go along this road, there is something new to see. Simple things for some but I like it.
A farmer has a large digging machine parked in one of his paddocks where he is obviously digging a dam. The excess soil is piled up into a mound beside the hole, quite a big mass of soil. About say twenty cows are lounging or standing around, I think there was about 4 cows that wanted to take a better look at the view, they were sitting and standing on top of the hill!!! and others were on the sides of the hill, some were sitting around the hole and a couple could not get any closer to the digger. Here these cows were in a paddock so big, fence lines were not visible and they were all gathered together in this little area!! No grass just dirt!!! I suppose I have a weird sense of humour, but hey small things amuse small minds I guess!
GEE PAUL THIS LAP TOP IDEA IS SO GREAT!!!!!!! Tamyka is fast asleep in the second bedroom where the computer is and I am sitting out on this superb verandah on the swing typing away on the lap top!!! Pretty dull looking morning overcast, pale grey sky, water much the same colour! A few early birds walking by with their dogs, pretty quiet at the moment and it is school holidays, not many extra people walking about up this end of Paynesville!!!!
Oh where was I????? off the rails again.
One dead wombat on the side of the road this time, three foxes, two rabbits, one or two birds no kangaroos this time or echidnas which was great to not see!!!!! Saw a live rabbit hopping away and from nowhere a green bird dive bombed the top of the windscreen on Mum's side, she ducked as one does!!!!! gave her a fright!!! First time I have hit a bird on many of our road trips, usually see lots of dead different ones on the side of the road and wonder how they are all killed, but I suppose I now know how. Usually they are pecking around on the side and when a car comes along they take flight in the path of the cars..
SHEEP!!! Oh my goodness where have they all been hiding, so many of them, not just hundreds, I really reckon there were thousands in some paddocks!!!!! It is shearing time here and I suppose because they are so white at the moment with no dirty wool on their backs they are more noticeable. Even along the road from Paynesville to Bairnsdale on the right I knew there were sheep in some of those paddocks, but did not realise how many of them!!!! AND LAMBS!!!!!!! so many lambs in various stages of growth. Do I need help or what????? I just cannot seem to get enough of seeing all these animals about the place. and COWS!!!!!!! I don't know how many varieties there are, but I reckon there are a lot of different ones around here, AND AND calves too, some places just have some paddocks with all the young unns in them. No Mum's there to look after their babies, I suppose if I think a little harder which is not a pleasant think.... baby veal????????
Hey three white heron type birds just flew over, they make a deep low gutteral growling sound, can you imagine the noise??? yep like that! A large boat has just come in back from somewhere??? It is looking a bit misty in the distance towards Lakes Entrance way....
O.K. back on the road.... at least I find the trip not boring, even though with mum in the car, I didn't have my music on and if I did I could not have the volume I like, it would blast her out of the car!!! :)
When we got to the community centre where the Japanese Day was being held, we were (oops the herons are back probably hanging out in the pool of water just behind the trees here! They get all sorts of tid bits from that pond...) uuummmm........ surprised to see so many cars, we did not really know what to expect, finally found a parking spot just big enough to squeeze my little car into and off we strolled through a wooden arch, shaded decking area onto a lovely wooden bridge across a large pond with heaps of ducks in it, I wanted to stop and look at them and take pics, but Mum dragged me away!!!!!! The green colour around a couple of ducks necks was just stunning, it shimmered in the light and such a lovely deep colour. Anyway we surprised there was no entrance fee, usually where ever you go these days there is a fee to go in. So that was nice. Not many stalls really selling stuff, I suppose there are not too many people in Victoria selling purely stuff from Japan!!!! A lot of loose teas with different flavours, I did not really care too much about the teas, BUT the TINS they were in were so nice!!!! Once again Mum could not believe or yes she could believe I was saying """what lovely tins!!!!""""" Not this time ""oooh what a nice box"""!!!!! They had a picture engraved on the lid, but so many different ones I could not decide which one I wanted and then It would probably sit with all my other stuff not being looked at again for ages and too nice to alter. Just looked out the window and an Ibis is strolling by, have not seen any for some time, they move around the place obviously at different times of the year. Here it comes!!!! the pat pat of rain, maybe it won't be too heavy or finishes by the time I call Tamyka and Gerard for the morning ritual of feeding the swans and then leaving Sassy and Gerard behind and Tamyka and I will go to the other end and head towards the hill with Milly.
Hey too many distractions here.
There was a stand selling Japanese fabrics YYUUUUUUMMMM!! Just beautiful, could not walk by without not looking, Mum bought another bag pattern kit. A much easier bag to make than the one she is attempting at the moment. So simple, It ties in a knot at the top and that is the carry handle, can just imagine in years gone by the people gathering up their goods in a bundle and tying a knot and using a stick over their shoulder with the bag hanging off the stick swinging from side to side??? Well a more modern version of this and it is actually a bag not just a piece of fabric. There is some sewing required.
DRAGONFLIES!!!!!!! Where else would you find things with dragonflies on?????????? Yep you guessed it Japanese day of course!!!!! DUH!! So I was in my element, not a lot of them but enough to satisfy me. I am not sure if I have mentioned I have a thing!!! for dragonflies, I just have to have that one more thing if unusual with a dragonfly on it, jewellery, rubber stamps of course, paper fabric, dingly dangly wind chimes etc etc!
So while mum was looking at the bag patterns, I spotted some fabric with dragonflies on. So some minutes later I had emptied my purse of some paper stuff and walked away with a "small" brown paper bag! I got enough of this navy blue material with lots of bright coloured dragonflies on to make one of those tie up traditional Japanese bags, can borrow mum's pattern. Just have to remember how the sewing machine works and where is it?????
Hey can hear a cocky screeching but cannot see it.
Oh I can see some down by the water's edge there must bee some new seeds in the grass there as I have never seen them all on the ground before!! Hang on I will have to get up and look around the corner and let you know how many there are!!! Can only see a couple today, the others have flown off, yesterday morning there were 10 of them all walking around down there, there are rather clumsy looking when they are walking around and are rather big!!!!
O.K. back to the dragonflies, the spots of rain are increasing now!! So I ended up buying four other pieces of fabric with dragonflies on, the lady asked me what was I going to do with them?????? "I don't know, just like dragonflies" was my reply!!!! "OH!!!" she replied back!!!!!
I found some glass beads of dragonflies, not the cutest, but they will do to sew on my new dragonfly bag when I make it!!! Ten years time maybe!!!! A pair of black chopsticks with tiny gold and silver dragonflies painted on them. Instead of them just lying around and they are too good to eat with, not expensive good but good in looks, so will maybe use them as a decorative spine on a book maybe!! Hey just a thought I could make myself a book covered in dragonfly fabric, beads etc and have pics of all the dragonfly stuff I have collected!! and stick in all the other stuff I have of them and then they will all be in the one place and when anyone visits, I can bore them silly with my "DRAGONFLY" book. So be warned if you are not interested in them don't ask!!!! I might have to start a new blog titled """MY DRAGONFLIES""" what a good idea!!!! Will put it on my "TO DO" list with a top priority... :)
A tiny piece of Japanese paper with brightly coloured dragonflies on anbout five inches square, so I bought two of them for $5.00 yep I know I am mad.. What else did I buy??? Let me have a look in the brown paper bag hang on a sec............................. ......................................................................................... ...........................................................................
oh sorry took more than a sec, no more dragonfly stuff, but I bought a couple of small packets of various coloured Japanese papers and three kits of little boxes!!! yep boxes, but they are so cute, one is an octagonal box and lid in a couple of layers, only small, probably they use them as jewellery boxes, a tiny set of three drawers, and small holder with slots, for pencils, glasses maybe stuff like that. all made from card and covered with paper, a good class maybe if I was in Melbourne for Little Bits!!! Or maybe when I get myself organised enough a class right here in the best place ever!!!!! """""""THE PURPLE PALACE"""""" OF COURSE...........
I took a couple of photos of some knot work done with Mizhuiki cords a bonsai tree, some sort of an insect like a cicada and something else, I have forgotten at the moment, also took a photo of Mum with this most gorgeous Japanese girl in a kimono all dressed up she was so lovely. She lives here, but has all her family in Japan and goes back each new year as new year's day is a big celebration for them like our Christmas day. She said it took about 4 hours to get her dressed in the garb and apparently they have men dressers as they have the stronger hands to push and pull all the fabric into place. So many different pieces of material she had on. Hope the pic is o.k. have not had time to check it out yet. There were about six people writing names in Japanese, but when we got there, they were having a lunch break and the queue of people wanting their names written was so long we did not wait. Which I suppose we could have been patient and waited, but it is too late now!!
They had Karate demonstrations on a stage and the good old "chopping a piece of wood with bare hands and feet" stuff, some Japanese dancing outside in a large circle and it was good to see so many of the younger set joining in. There were a lot of Japanese ladies old and young all dressed up in kimono's and the men old and young also in traditional wear and mingled inbetween them were the Aussies having a go at the dance.
The drops of rain stopped and now they are back but a little heavier and a bit more frequent!!!
Traditional Japanese food to buy and eat there and also the Rotary Clubs good old "sausage sizzle" for those who were not really ready to try Japanese food!!! Japanese groceries. Activities for the kids, colouring in, face painting etc. And that was about it, oh later on during the day various demonstrations were happening, traditional music and more.
We ended up leaving and going to the Traralgon Ice Creamery for a spot of lunch, no I did not have an ice cream although it was so tempting!!! Mum ordered a hawaian potato and a cappuchino and I ordered nachos. Well when we ordered we had over an hour to kill before Tamyka arrived at the Traralgon train station, about 20 minutes later mum's potato arrived and still no sign of the nachos, ended up having them put in a take away container and eating them in the car a couple of minutes before Tamyka arrived! They had three staff on all young kids which was not a problem, but two of them were preparing the hot food and the other one was the ice creams and taking food orders!!! At one stage there were fifteen people waiting to be served. The rain is getting heavier now!! just thought you would like to know that..
Tamyka arrived safe and sound, I don't know who was more nervous, Tamyka or Machele her mum!!!! What wonderful things are modern technology, they kept in touch with the SMS messages on the phone with each other and me to make sure the trip went smoothly and safely.
I got the most gorgeous present from them, if was two hand blown glass wait for it!!!!!!! DRAGONFLIES They are just lovely, and PURPLE!!! They will look great hanging catching the sun in the verandah or better yet I may hang them in the Purple Palace where they will be safe!! Not as much sun, but the down lights will catch the sparkles. Yep that is what I will do. Thank you both so much.
I made the bed for Tamyka before I went out yesterday morning and Rusty our ginger cat knew something was happening, for some reason the cats love exploring under the bed settee when it is down, mind you it is still the same piece of carpet that they walked on when the base of the bed was not there, but it must be different for them to "go under" the bed. They are not timid anymore with Tamyka and hung around all evening. Tamyka found the laser beam thingy that Rusty just loves chasing so she was happy, later on Ashley decided my lap was not comfy any more and transferred to Tamykas's lap!! Tamyka had the sense to close the bedroom door when she went to bed, I am sure the cats would have gone in and joined her on the double bed if they were allowed and would have left us alone. Although I found Ashley curled up on the chair I was sitting on last night and Rusty in her usual spot on top of the covers at the foot of our bed in between my feet they must radiate heat in the night!!!
The rain has petered out to just a few drops again, it really wants to pelt down, but is not doing a good job of it. Well it is only 8.30 in the morning so I suppose it could turn out to be a nice day. Gerard has just told me that one of the swan families are at the mouth of the little pond here, so hopefully when I wake Tamyka they will still be hanging around for us to quietly observe them. I hope I won''t bore Tamyka with the swan thing, she is too polite to say so not like Kate!!!
Speaking of Kate, I have tentatively booked a get this!!!! a half day kayak trip!!!!!!! Guess who won't be able to move the next day and many more after that!!!! Kate and Matt are coming up from Melbourne the weekend after my birthday to celebrate with me the big 52!!! which is so nice cause I thought we would not see them up here again for a long time..... They want to stay in a motel or something!!! Looking at the Mariners Cove or the Captains Cove apartments, that look out onto the canals with a deck that you can sit outside to eat breakfast etc!!! Talk about ahem "romantic" ah young young love!!!! They are only staying for 2 nights, but want to make a "holiday" of it and treat themselves to a bit of extravagance!!!!! More money than sense for sure... Probably won't be there much as they are planning on spending the days with us!!!! Maybe we will get invited to their place and sit on their deck and look out onto the canal!!!! Who knows. They have even got the Friday off and are leaving Melbourne about five or six in the morning for the three hour or so drive so thay are here for the whole of Friday too!!! Goodness things are looking up!!! At this stage we will go to the Chinese restaurant in Bairnsdale, we went to with Annette and Paul before they left for their Aussie treck!!! Probably have a card playing night of "Phase 10" which we used to play almost every saturday night in Rowville. So that will be great for us all to get together. Am looking forward to it..
Well I suppose I had better get up and do something, instead of lounging on this comfy swing on this great verandah!! looking out to the large expanse of water in between the bushes that need a bit of a trim or just knocking down and the view would be even more spectacular, oh I have just spotted a pelican in the distance, they look so big when they are skimming across the water to land! The water still looks grey and cold and no blue sky in sight on this side of the house. oops another pelican flying by.
o.k. this is it, I am getting up and getting dressed and wake Tamyka, go for a walk, have breakfast, put some more stuff away in the kitchen, play some computer games with Tamyka, go see mum and have a "trial" walk down to the shops with her, call around to Annette and Paul's check that things are o.k. there, drove past yesterday, but think an agent must have been there so did not call in then, water the pots and make sure everything is locked up and safe. Decide what is for tea, have a bit of a lounge and that will be it!!
Tomorrow weather permitting will be a big day as we have to take almost ALL of the stuff out of the Purple Palace as I have a big piece of carpet to put down. Yep it is PURPLE also!!!! Tamyka says she is happy to help us, so that will be great with an extra pair of hands.
o.k. I am going now.
Japanese Day!!
I am up early this morning to do a bit more sorting and putting away from boxes.
Mum and I are going to Morwell this morning to a "Japanese Day" convention!! WHY??????? We are hoping they will have some inspiring ideas and some of their beautiful papers they are known for. They have been advertising this on the telly and saying they have stalls, craft!!!!, workshops!!! Origami!!! and much more, so we are going to have a look see and who knows maybe spend a little money!!! and hopefully come back with some awesome ideas for me to do with paper!!!!! Get me on track!!! I have been so caught up in the renovations that I have not had the "spark" to get creative in the Purple Palace as yet!!! Cannot let my stuff be abandoned for too long and untouched, don't want any unwanted visitors in there!!!
We are picking Tamyka up from Traralgon at 3pm, she is coming up from Dandenong station by train to spend the week with us. Looking forward to having her here and it has also made me get a wriggle on to get this room clear to put out the double bed in the couch! So this room will also be clear for the plasterer and the painters to get into. Just need to cover the couch and the computer!!!
So I won't spend ages talking this morning cause the kitchen is so full of boxes to be emptied and put away. Only problem with a new kitchen is where do I put everything and then remember where it is!!! Not such a big problem, only Gerard and I cannot find the stuff already and we put it in different spots and keep hunting around. Willl get him out of his obsessive compulsiveness with having to look for things not in the same place all the time :)
O.K. so lets see how much damage I can do in two hours, I have aggravated my back and hands from yesterday, does not need much, just moving boxes and vacuuming and getting a certain box out of the back of the wardrobe!!! So I will take some pain killers to numb myself and get stuck into it!!
Long day ahead so probably won't talk now til tomorrow unless I have some great things to let you know about from today..
bye for now
luv Jill xxx (feeling better moodwise today)!!!
HHHHHMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!
QUESTION??????? IF IT (THE BOX/CARTON) DOES NOT FIT IN THE TOP MOST PART OF THE WARDROBE???????????????
WHAT DOES ONE DO???????????????
ANSWER!!!!!! RAM THE BLOODY THING IN UNTIL IT DOES!!!!!!!
RIGHT TO THE BACK OF THE SHELF!!!!!!!!
THERE THAT IS NEAT AND TIDY!!!!!!!!! AND OUT OF THE WAY!!!!!!!!!
THEN!!!!.......... WHEN ONE NEEDS THAT PARTICULAR BOX/CARTON
(MOI!!!) FOR INSTANCE
MUTTER UNDER ONES BREATH EVEN THOUGH NO ONE ELSE IS AT HOME!!!
""" **&&%%##@@@$$$$xxxxxxx?????!!@#$%%&&""""!!!!xxxzzzzzxxxx!!!! """"
THEN
BREATH DEEPLY AND COUNT!!!!! (from a low voice to a high voice)!!
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
a bit quicker
SIX
faster
SEVEN
faster faster
EIGHT
faster faster faster
NINE
and then
TEN
TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND ..............
SCREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After that minor explosion one can then get some thought to grab the BIGGEST, SHARPEST POINTIEST KNIFE one has in the kitchen and calmly rip the box to bloody pieces to get it out and then CALMLY!!!! find another box to put all of the shitty little things that have spilled out all over the place from the box to move to another place!!!!!!!!
THAT'S IT FOR THE DAY!!!!!!!!
luv the frustrated hot and bothered Jill.
Boy do I need to place that ad!!!!!! and soon!!!!! maybe he will have to live in!!!! for times like these!!!!! :)
I feel much better now!!!!
Been for a walk!
Ended going for a walk this morning with Gerard just over the car park with Sassy and Milly. Seeing Sassy is a much older dog, she cannot walk as far as Milly and so this is really for Sassy's benefit, not to mention Gerard takes some bread with him every time to feed the swans!
Speaking of swans! there was the couple with one bub!!! Plus two more couples with their bubs also, could not count how many they had as they keep their distance!!
After bringing Sassy back home, I coaxed Gerard to come with me to the "hill" to pick up some broken glass as I had tried to collect it all yesterday but my back would not let me bend long enough to get it all, so while up on the "hill" I did the usual """""THIS IS ME ON TOP OF THE WORLD THING!!" and observed many more swan couples in the area and DUH!!!! lo and behold there were some more couples with only one baby!!!! and more couples with 5 or 6 or 3 bubs!!!!! Well I did say recently that they may not be the same ones!!!! They all look the same!!! It is amazing how they know who is who cause really they do look the same!!!! Probably one feather is in a different place or something like that!!! No seriously does anyone know how to tell the difference????? Ask around if you want to make a dill of yourself among your friends, work mates, family etc. Yep I know I am a real DILL, I used to be called Jill the dill at school!!! So what is new...
It is such a warm morning this morning, the sun has real bite to it, not sure of expected temp today but I reckon if the sun stays out all day I will be wanting the air con on soon!!!! Lol!!
Anyway, I did suggest we do the carpet this morning, but Gerard made all sorts of excuses, you would think I was asking him to cut off his big right toe!!!!! Such an effort!!!! Reckons it will take too long to do and after all he has to go to work at about 1pm and he has to get ready for that!!! He is still very nervous working at the service station, but is getting better. But cannot do more than one thing in the day SSHHHEEEESSSHHHH!!!!!1 never get stuff done here!! Looks like I will have to advertise for that MAN that can do all of these odd jobs I need doing, especially the heavy lifting and moving stuff around like the railway sleepers, I just want them positioned to make a triangle at the front of the letter box, simple, but will he do it for me??????? ooooohhhhhh no!! Sorry I am having a whinge here, but honestly I don't want him to actually make the sleepers or move them 100 yards away!!! They are already there almost in place just need moving a bit more!! The dirt is already in the middle, I can move that about, It is just the damn moving of them!!!!!
O.K. that is settled what or how do I advertise for someone to help me???? Paul has gone up north and he "does not do gardening!!!!!! anyway", David would move them in a second, but he is also up north and so he is out of the picture also!!
How does this sound??????
"WANTED ----- A MAN TO HELP ME GET SOME WORK DONE AROUND THIS PLACE!!!!! E.G. A LITTLE BIT OF GARDEN EDGING, THE ODD MOVING OF BOXES, PUTTING DOWN A "SMALL" PIECE OF CARPET, PUTTING UP A TIMBER TYPE SCREEN FOR CLIMBING PLANTS TO CREEP ALONG AND SOME MORE!!!!"
Sound o.k.?? Any suggestions!!!! Help me out here.
I subtly pulled the large roll of carpet into the hall and Gerard has just come along and asked if I want it put back against the wall!!!!! Well the heat is getting rather warm where I am sitting!!!! I won't elaborate!
I think I had better get off here and use up my hot energy to do something rather than talk on here cause I could say something I may regret!!! Probably have already anyway!!
O.k. I will go and have some breakfast, and maybe make the chocolate mud cake mix I bought for a time like this!!!! Now that I have an oven that actually works! I bought some cake tins the other day, yes as if I need any more, but the ones I already have are in Dandenong still in storage!!! FRUSTRATION ALL AROUND!!! Maybe a whole bottle of Mosquito may help!!
luv Jill
Looks like another glorious day!!!
Good morning to you!!!
For some reason I woke up at 6am!!!!!! Boy this is not good am falling asleep in the chair in front of the telly getting woken at 2am with Gerard nagging me to go to bed. Wish he would leave me there cause it then takes ages to get to sleep again!
Anyway decided it was a good time to get up and go for a walk and see what is happening along the canals. Milly was not going to let me go without her, so this time I put her harness on and took the lead, good thing I did cause she got so wet running through the long grass, I did not want to have her in my arms! Fed some swans at the usual first seat and then headed for the muddy bank, but Milly raced on ahead and scared off the swans of the older family. They must have shoooed away the other family with the younger ones as I have not seen them for a while now. On looking at the photos I took yesterday, there is a family with only five bubs and I was also so pleased to see the swans with the one bub again! Yeah yeah how do I know they are the same ones as they all look alike!!!!! :( :) just guessing, but I can pretend. I think the one with the sore leg I saw ages ago is still around, could not get a closer look at it as it would not turn around for me when I asked it!!!! lol!! Yep this dame is getting nuttier by the day, oh well it keeps me out of any other type of mischief!!
Saw a dead fish in the canal, it was about a foot long!! HOW LONG?????????? about a foot long yes it was really, could have been longer as I was at the top of the bank, did not go any closer as I did not want to slip in the mud!! Would have been a good sight eh??
Aaaannnnnyyyyway I took a pic of the sun rising this morning which you can see here not very bright, but a gorgeous hazy colour fighting it's way through the clouds. Hope this one will do for the moment Jane, still not managed to put the others back together yet!
Not much to tell you at the moment.
Thanks Machele for the comments, o.k. o.k. I won't post a pic just yet of the kitchen even though I have got them on the computer already,, are you sure??????? cause I can put up one teensy weensy one if you like!!!!??????
Have some others to show this time, Just love the pic of the big gull. It was as if it was posing for me and in focus too!!
o.k. had better hurry now as time is creeping along and it is Orbost this morning for the Osteo.
Oh yes I found a rather large dragonfly on a stick at a nursery in Orbost, they are ordering me one, so it may be big enough for a weather vane Paul!!
luv Jill
Nup will have to post the pics later, just looked at the time and have to get a wiggle on. Will read your emails Machele, got me curious now to see what has been going on. That Bridget sounds like such a lovely person!!@@##!! Glad today should be less stressful for you.
What a day!!
Got a phone call this morning at about 7.30am ish, it was Morgan the kitchen man wanting to come over in the next hour to put in the rest of the kitchen, by about 8am they turned up!! Took them til 2.30pm to get it done! We were going to put the carpet into the Palace today, but could not do it until they left as they had all their stuff in the way of the Palace. And then the day was getting a bit dull and we would not have got it all done in the afternoon. So who knows when the carpet will be done now!!!! I wanted to get it in today so that I could get stuck into moving more stuff in there and get the house in some sort of order for when the painters come there is not too much to move for them to be able to get around easily. Anyway Morgan has to bring back one panel of timber to finish off and also get in touch with the electrician again to install the hot plates and exhaust fan! It probably won't be until next week cause he is in Melbourne this week! Yet again a bit more time to wait!!!! It does look good and at least now I can decide where to put things! I have not really had a proper kitchen since we moved in here in January!
Things were going along fine and I decided to have a go at putting pics on this blog! yet again.... I had managed to get these ones below up and was writing an update, I was just about to publish the info when the power went off!!!!!! I could not believe it, Morgan had gone outside to tell Gerard who was mowing the lawn that he was turning the power off, but none of them thought of letting me know! Boy was I furious, all I could think of was all of that time I have spent on trying to work out how to get the pics up and pppphhhhhhhttttt just like that I had lost them all. Thankfully the pics stayed, just my thoughts were gone!
I ended up putting my shoes on and going for a walk to calm down. Gee this place has such a good calming therapy... I also took my camera with me and although I have not had a look at the pics yet, hopefully I have some good ones. Will look at them later on tonight. I did calm down and got back in time to say good by to the boys and stand back and look at my new kitchen. Hey it does not look too bad at all!
The next time I post some pics I will at least know how to put them into some sort of order and hopefully I can get the text by the right pics!
I was talking to "Tara's" mum today, don't know her name just the dogs!!! which is normal here, and she has invited me to go with her to the next open day at the golf club for beginners! Probably won't be until next year now, but that is fine with me. So who knows I may join the local gold club!!! Can you imagine me playing golf?? I can't... Anyway time will tell.
O.k. not much more to say today, feeling pretty washed out today, so will probably go to bed early tonight just for a change. Am off to Orbost tomorrow for the Osteopath and get my neck and shoulders worked on, probably really need to get my back done too cause it is not good at the moment. Hey what's new.
talk soon
luv Jill
Well I have finally got it!!!!!!!! YAY!!!! WOOO HOOO!!
This is the family of older swans. Pretty purple flower!
Tamyka's tulip
Bottoms up!!
The cat's run and the tree with the bird feeder!
The back entrance to the verandah
Gerard and his pals
Plover's eggs what else?!!
The back of the house with our verandah
I
Mr or Mrs Plover guarding the nest!
The Ultimate view
The day today has gone by so quickly, but the ultimate was for me my morning walk, although I did not really feel like going as I just wanted to sleep!! But I went up and around the hill, I was disappointed at first no sign of the swans and their young ones, just some hungry seagulls and a larger gull, got a great photo of it!!! What good is that cause I don't know how to get it to you!!!! We moved on a bit further, that is Milly and I and I saw one swan family near by, took some pics and then saw more in the distance, also the larger family were close by, took more pics while Milly squirmed under my knees as she wanted to chase them all. Got talking to a regular lady walking by with her dog "Tara" who we see every day having her walk past our house and Tara's mum was the one practicing her golf the other day. Well Milly got quite aggressive with Tara and Tara bowled her Mum over!!! boy what a fright, anyway she picked herself up o.k. so hopefully she will not be too sore tomorrow! Heading back and also at the end of the walking track I looked over at the swamp area and noticed a swan family!!!!!!!! yay!!!, I hurried home with Milly and got Gerard to come with me through the long grass and came face to face with Mum, Dad and 6 little'uns. Just gorgeous, of course they wanted to leave, but had to go past me to leave the swamp area. Boy was I rapt!!!! Got a lovely pic, would love to show you!!! No time at the moment to try posting again now as it is past midnight.
Took Mum into Bairnsdale today to look for a blouse to go under her pant suit to wear to Laurens wedding in October and also found some shoes for her. Gosh she has lost so much weight no fat on her at all, so skinny! I also found a lovely bright coloured shirt, but unfortunately it was not "big" enough for me and they do not stock any larger sizes "DAMN" I could have spent a fortune in that shop there and then if only I was 2 sizes smaller!! Oh well look at it this way, I saved heaps of money.....
Have spent the evening sanding off all the little stoppers that go on the handles for my printers shelves all 40 of them and also the name plates, just need to straighten a few. Now on to the drawers to get the Marveer on all over and clean out the small partitions.
Am having someone out from Spotlight on Friday to give a measure and quote for some of the windows in the house.
Morgan the kitchen man is supposed to come by tomorrow, Wednesday to finish installing the kitchen, while Gerard and I put down the new carpet for the Purple Palace. Oh by the way it is Purple!!!!! It will be a lot of work, taking everything out and putting down the carpet and then bringing all the stuff back in, but will be worth it.
Also Pat the painter called by to see if we had decided on a colour for the inside of the house. He plans to start painting in the first week of October, only two weeks away, so he is going to have a plasterer call by to give us a quote on finishing off the plastering and where the electrician left holes from the old lights!
So things are starting to happen again. Can't wait til it is all done.
Well I am off to bed as it is past midnight and am feeling weary!
Night night for now
luv Jill
The Moon
Tonight we walked to the waters edge and watched the moon rise between the clouds, an amazing sight. Unfortunately my camera does not capture the true image, a real shame.
The reflection of the shining moon lay across the water and every now and then a black swan swam through the shiny image rippling on the water. Such an inspiring moment.
Bit of a dull day here weatherwise, but still very nice!
Went to Mum's today took her down the street to get hair cut, post letter to her sister in England, found out that you can buy International stamps and not pay GST!!!! new to me so instead of it costing $2.00 for the letter it was $1.80, yeah just the best thing eh!!! duh.. do a bit of shopping and back here to have tea, chicken in white wine and mushroom sauce, scalloped potatoes, just yummy and veggies.
Thanks Machele for the comments, boy you have been busy. Thanks for the compliments, on my news, I am glad you like reading them, I look forward to reading your comments also thanks.
Still trying to work out how to post the pictures quick and easy, but blown if I know how to! Again where is Paul when I need him!!!!
Yep off travelling around Australia having a good time and probably relieved he is not here in Paynesville being harrassed by me with computer problems all the time!!!! :)
I am trying to work it out honestly I am, but very frustrating when I work it out and then forget how I got there and have not written it down cause not sure if it will work!!!!! UGH and then take ages trying to find it and then give up after wasting hours of precious time!!!
Will go now and have another go at it.
luv Jill
What a day!!!
I am lounging on the swing on our simply fabulous verandah and I am going to close my eyes and just listen for a second.
A car has just driven around the car park, whooosh a magpie flying around the corner of the verandah, i am trying to enjoy the peace and quiet and Gerard has turned the telly on for the footy damn!!!! bzzz a fly rushing by, jenny wrens are in the distance, an ever so gentle breeze floating past my arm, the clock ticking in the lounge room, in the far distance a magpie and no other noise but the ringing in my ears. My eyes are open now and I see a blue sunny sky, a few cotton wool clouds above the water, a fast rippling effect on the water intensifies the colour of such a lovely blue just gorgeous. The bushes are rustling in the breeze and I see a boat leaving to go out into the lakes, disturbing the water with its rough white trail rushing to the shore in small waves. The rosellas are muttering to themselves "when is this woman going to get off her butt and give us some more food!!!!!" They are congregating under the tree where the bird feeder is and the cats are probably looking at them in wonder, eyes enlarged and thinking of supper!!
A lady who walks her dog regularly past here is practicing her gold swing while her dog is having a wonderful time exploring the long grass and bushes close by. The Plovers have been very protective of their so called nest, hole in the ground and hassling people walking by.
I haven't been here all day, I did get up a little later than usual, and I started a bit more painting. I have now painted around most of the windows, just have the cat's area to do, that is inside. I also painted two posts next to the sliding door outside. Slow and steady wins the race so they say, but I really did want it all done yesterday!! lol!!!
A speed boat has just cut itself through the blue water leaving a very rough surface.
I have just been for a walk with Gerard up to the hill, very disappointed as I did not see the two pairs of swans and their babies, so will have to get up early in the morning and go for a walk and see if they are still about.
The Plovers are still surviving, went over to take a photo of the three eggs and now there are FOUR!!!!!! Looks like it will be a long month for them as they are obviously new ones not likely to hatch for a while. The parents are very protective.
The sun has finally gone from my window and it is getting rather cool now on the verandah. Looking out to the water I see some seagulls diving into the water, well I think they are seagulls. The water is still a gorgeous blue, imagine the sunset will be a stunner tonight. There is still warmth in the sun and the cats have moved to the front door to take in a little more heat.
A lot of boats and yachts are coming in after a long day out on the water. I wonder what they all do when they go out??????? Fish, relax maybe???? Can't go for a walk too far!!! Where do they go? How far away do they go? What is the attraction to be on a boat with limited space all day??? I wonder????????
Till next time...............
Home again!!!
Had what it seemed to be a very quick trip back to Paynesville. Called into Maccas as I had a thing for a chocolate thickshake, so I ordered a roll and shake and the shake machine was broken down!!!! So I ended up stopping in Sale for one.
While travelling down the back streets through Sale, I was stopped by a man waving at me to stop!! Behind him was the biggest tray from a truck I had ever seen and it's cabin bit was detatched and bogged on the side of the road with a tractor trying to tow it out. The tray was spread right across the road and blocking every possible angle to get through, BUT!!!! there was a little bit of ground that my car could fit through and then I had to drive along this track to finally get back onto the road otherwise I would get bogged too!! That was about it for anything interesting happening. I did have my new CD of the Ten Tenors blasting through the windows, sipping chocolate thickshake and eating almonds, choc coated peanuts and licorice toffees and singing the worst possible karaoke ever. But it was fun.
The electrician had been twice during the week I was away. He has got the wires ready for the hotplates and the exhaust fan for the last part of the kitchen when it gets installed. Also a phone call from the kitchen man to say it is ready so looks like this week sometime I will have a kitchen almost completed, just will need the tiles at the back of the sink and hotplates. The longest wait I reckon for a kitchen about 6 months. So we now have all of the downlights installed in all rooms. Plus some extra holes in the ceiling from the old light fittings! More work to patch up!
I did not sleep too well last night as Gerard was restless worrying that the alarm clock would go off in time so that he would be at the servo in time to open it up this morning. So at 4.30am I am wide awake and so is Gerard. I ended getting up and going on the computer to play some games just for a change. Ended up seeing the sunrise and later noticed the Plovers that were swooping at people and the neighbours cars yesterday were still about. I then noticed that one of them was sitting on a patch of grass near where the neighbour backed his truck onto last night when they were going berserk. It did not move for ages, it was sitting on its nest which was just a dip in the grass. Later the bird had left the nest so I went out to have a look and there were three eggs in there. I read in my bird book that they sit for 28 days taking it in turns. Goodness 28 days, I wonder how long they had been there already??? Just wonder if they will survive the long wait what with school holidays now and if the neighbours and family are there for the two weeks driving their cars there it could be risky!
I ended up doing a bit more painting on the verandah this morning around the windows, not much more to do on that side of the house now, then I will go to the other end where the cats are to finish it off. Slow and steady wins the race they say!!!!
I then went and saw Mum as I had not seen her all week. She too had a bad night and had slept in and not expecting to see me so early!! 10am!! Ended up coming back to my place and had a cuppa. I showed her the little book I made in a class at the shop and some gorgeous papers, as If I need any more! Oh yes and one more stamp!
It has been rather cool here and the heater has worked well for us. Tomorrow I hope to put some things away and get into the Purple Palace and sort some stuff out and get ready to move stuff out to put down my gorgeous purple carpet. Have to wait really for a day that won't rain. Then I plan to get the rest of the boxes out of the garage and put their contents in the Palace also. So I won't have Gerard nagging me and he will have more room in the garage then. He still has not ordered a roll a door as yet for the garage!
The painter called in during the week to see if we had picked a colour yet to paint throughout the inside of the house!!!!! Nup still don't know what to have, Gerard wants a colour and I think I want something neutral seeing we will be having all of the old dark furniture in the lounge room, that is enough colour for me!! Hopefully I will win the battle!!!!!!! Yes I know I mentioned I was painting and now I am talking about painters. Unfortunately my body will not let me take on all the painting although the brain wants to! It is such a shame as we could have saved a bit of money and spent that on something else as the funds are getting short now. Gee it is so nice to hear the rain falling and knowing now that the spouting and down pipes are allowing the water to run away and not overflowing into the roof! and flooding all the garage. What a shock we all had when David and Gerard found the drain pipes stopped a couple of metres short of the storm drain!!!! Thank goodness we had David on hand or it may have never been fixed!!! Thankyou once again Paul and Annette for recommending David to do our renovations. So many of the passers by are still admiring the work!!
Well I had better wind this up, Gerard has to get up early again to open the service station, so I will probably be up early also. I plan to go for a morning walk and get back into the regular walks. I hope the swan families are all o.k.
Next week Tamyka is coming to stay for the last week of her school holidays, so we will most likely be doing a lot of walking to check out the wildlife, making some cards and little books, visiting my mum and who knows what else we may do. Am looking forward to her staying. I enjoyed my week staying with her and Machele and thank you both for a good time.
Look forward to your comments Machele keep it up and any other comments are welcome too.
Going back to the country!!!
Well "girls" I am really going home this morning. Just a quick note here and then I must be away. Will let you know when I am on the road and at other stops til home!
I have had a wonderful time staying with you both, thank you so much for having me! It has been fun and yes the late nights are finally catching up with me too...
Will talk about the train trip for Tamyka and make arrangements. Look forward to her staying. Yes really I am!!! Hope you won't get too lonely Machele while she is away!! You could always come up too..
Don't forget to look out the window here and look up at the gorgeous wisteria dancing in the sky!!
O.k. better go as the weather is not predicted to be too good and don't want to get caught in the "hunder and thail" on the way home!!!!!
luv Jill xxx
My Day!!!!
Well I have been just soooo busy today so far.
Got up at 8.30am and promptly sat on the computer as it was calling me!!!! Come on Jill there is no one here waiting to use me!!!! and also no one here to nag you for not doing other things!!!!!! YAY so I thought why not go for it.!!!!!!
So I have spent all morning sorting out and clearing some of my 1,000 odd emails into seperate files to get back to at a later date and then I will not be so overwhelmed by the site of my inbox..... They are mainly "Stamphappy" and another couple of groups that I belong to, they date back to as far as January this year!!!!!
I have spoken to Machele twice now on the phone and am still in my jammies, so after my update here I am really and truly going to get up and have a shower and then maybe come back and play some games before I go outside in the cold looking wind although the sun is shining and the sky is very blue as I look out of the window here to see a high wooden fence and tall trees, but the best part is the wisteria vine that has entangled itself around all of the trees and is coming into flower, most of the buds have not exploded open, but there are a couple of gorgeous mauve sprays that I can see just floating about in the wind. Makes me want to go any buy one and put it somewhere at Paynesville, they are such lovely flowers. Hey I know I could get that metal arbour for climbing roses and put it in front of the Purple Palace and let it grow there so that there would not be a cream wall facing the street!! Sounds like a plan.... Just got to find an arbour strong enough to hold a wisteria and a wisteria bush and a person willing to do the gardening for me!!!!! Any volunteers>???????
Nup???? Oh well it looks like it could be one of my dreams again, but hey my back is not too bad at the moment and I could have a go at it a bit by bit, just need someone to move the sleepers into place for the bed in front of the wall!!!! HHHHmmmmm for some reason Gerard does not want me telling him how I want this part of the garden and now that he is working he does not have any spare time!!! hhhhhhhmmmmmmmmpppppfffffhhhhh so it looks like I may have to "hi jack" some one that looks strong enough when they walk past the house taking their dog for a walk!!!! Unfortunately there are not a lot of men that go past, mostly women and the gentlemen that do walk past I would not like to ask them as the sleepers are damn heavy.
Hey maybe I could put a sign up out the front, something like!!!!!! "WANTED" A STRONG WILLING AND ABLED YOUNG MAN TO HELP ME MOVE THE SLEEPERS AROUND THE YARD!!!!!! What do you reckon????... Well it was just a thought..
Anyway at least I have plenty time here today in the warm to think about it and get ready to go to the shop tonight to attend a mini book making class with Joan. She does such lovely work and I hope my book can look as equally as nice. Who knows. So I will leave the computer soon, shower and get dressed and then maybe come back to play a few games before I leave!!!
Thank you Machele, and Maree for leaving me little comments through my Blog, I would love to see more please and anyone else too??? That Citronella collar is really working for Nellie, not a peep out of her at all so far and it is 1.30 in the arvo. MY GOODNESS IS THAT THE TIME????????? It was worth it to come back yesterday just to see Tamykas face when I walked in the door. I have been enjoying your companies too! It is so great catching up.
Oh Maree the soap stuff I saw was for normal liquid soap, not for making soap lol!!!
Anyway I have gone on long enough. I promise I will really leave tomorrow morning and look forward to Tamyka coming up here to stay with us for the second week of the school hols.
bye for now
luv Jill
Changed my mind!
I was supposed to go back to Paynesville today, but after going to bed at 4am, after sleeping all day, I did not get up too early and seeing Tamyka did not have to go to school today, we played a few computer games before I headed off to Lesley's shop. There I wanted to make a birthday card for Matt, Kate's boyfriend and then drop it off at his mum's work, but I was not making good time and decided to ring Machele and stay another two nights instead of driving home in the dark and also I wanted to do a mini book class with Joan on Thursday night at the shop! So here I am once again late at night talking to my blog and anyone out there who wants to have a read!!
I surprised Kate and Matt by turning up at the house tonight with the card I made for Matt which did not look that bad I must admit!!! Matt was rapt, it was made up of pictures I cut out of woodworking tools, tool box, tape measure, nails, wire and other bits also three metal charms of a hammer, wrench and another wrench like tool. We gave him some money which he put towards a mechano type thingo that when put together it was a .......... OMG I have had a blank moment, you know those things that carry pallettes about and go up and down, I have got it a "forklift" It seems to be the adult Leggo blocks!!!! He has quite a large collection on them that he has put together, they have moving parts, quite impressive...
I then came back to Machele and Tamyka's, the look on Tamyka's face when I walked in the door. I think she was pleased to see me again.
School holidays begin here in Victoria at the end of this week. On the second week Tamyka is going to come and stay with us for a change of scenery. It should be fun. Nellie the dog has hardly made a sound since the collar was put on her yesterday, looks like we will investigate the availability of them when I get back for Milly as she barks all day when we are not at home.
Migraine
Well today when I woke up I had a slight headache, but I ended going back to bed cause the pain was too much. I got into Machele's bed as it is a water bed and I have not been in one for so long and the warmth engulfed me and the feeling of being light was wonderful. I drifted off to sleep only to hear Tamyka shut the bedroom door, it was 4pm! I had slept solid for about 5 hours hence me being up and awake at 4am!
Machele coaxed me to climb the ladder and open the manhole to the roof as she has had a lot of noise going on in the early hours of the morning and late at night. I looked ravishing, I had a straw hat on my head in case anything rushed at me, a large safety pin holding the front of my top together, the last thing I wanted was something running down the front of me! Anyway after climbing the ladder and having to lay down in the top section of the wardrobe and then have to gather myself onto my knees and then open the "lid" I did not know what to expect. WELL there was no movement in there, no spiders thank goodness. All of the insulation had been gathered together by the fellas who installed the heating vents in the roof and they had not put it back!! Typical workmen here!!!! And then I saw it!!!!! there was a light globe in the roof!!! can you believe it??? Don't know where the switch was to turn it on, but it was all connected up!! To the side of it was a whole lot of fibres hanging around a beam and formed into a nest!!! It was about 3 feet long and about a foot wide. Did not hang around too long to see if anything came out or arrived! Just threw around the three boxes of RATSAK closed the lid and then wriggled my way back out of the wardrobe and down the ladder.
There has not been much noise at all in the roof tonight!!!!! Maybe they were just passing through who knows. Will have to wait and hear from Machele as I am heading home in the morning.
Headache was more than likely self inflicted! UM YES ERR I know it was overdosed on dark chocolate and had a very yummy rich creamy dinner!!!!
Now I must try and have a sleep cause the drive will seem even longer if I am tired.
Staying in Melbourne
After driving for three and a half hours to Melbourne through, rain, sun, wind and more, I finally made it to Machele and Tamyka's place in Moorabbin. On the way I stopped at Yarragon to have a look at an antique shop and to my surprise I say a drink bottle set similar to the one we have of Gerard's grandparents. The lady was very helpful, it is called a "tantalus", which means""" a case in which bottles may be locked with their contents tantalizingly visible""" The one is the shop was dated around the 1800's and they were asking $2,200.00 for it!!! Will have to do some searches to see if I can find any pictures of them and compare!
The 40th for Lynne was a good night, she got some lovely presents including the one Lesley and I gave her of a pot made in Africa. Very nice. I then went back to Lynnes the next morning to check out the computer box I have to see if it could be compatible for Lesley to be able to access the internet in the shop.
We ended up staying in for tea, I fell asleep on the couch while watching Aussie Idol and Machele and Tamyka played on the computer. Ended up having crumpets and vegemite for tea at about 10pm when I awoke and they stayed with me all night!!!
Today I went to the shop and helped out with heating some cards to emboss, Lesley has an order for about 4,000 of this one particular design which is a Christmas order.
Went and visited Maree in Rowville at 12.30 ish, had lunch and a good yack and then back to the shop for a hair cut and call into Lesley again and back to Moorabbin. Went out for tea, had the most delicious Veal Royale meal, then hot chocolate at the cafe next door with Harvey who works there. He has taken a shine to Machele and Tamyka and sits and has a chat to them. Then to Kmart and kicked out at 10pm. I bought the CD "the Ten Tenors" will give it a good workout on the way back to Paynesville.
Spoken to Gerard and the electrician has been there all day putting in down lights through all the rooms and the electricity for the hotplates and range hood for the kitchen. Will have to have a real fanfare when the final part of the kitchen is in!!!
I am supposed to be going home tomorrow, but think I will leave it til Wednesday morning as I have not finished these cards to give to Lesley and I am very tired and want to go to a few shops tomorrow!
Thursday off to Orbost again to the Osteopath to work on my neck and shoulders. The leg is holding out thank goodness. Cannot wait to get back to my walks and check out the swans and their bubs!
Damn!!
I have just spent ages typing my next chapter and """""""POOF"""""" it is gone. All I did was look up Gerard arriving in the door and my hand must have pressed something and it is no where to be found. Have not got time to re do it so will have to wait now till next week as I am off to Melbourne this morning. Will talk later. :( :( this stupid new age!!!!!! I suppose it is me not keeping up with it all and knowing what I am doing that is the problem, not the new age as the old age!!!!!!!
Take three deep breaths and think caaaaallllllllmmmmmm!!!
Have calmed down now!!
Well it is still Friday but a more decent time I suppose than earlier this morning.
I have been for a long walk and cleared my head and got rid of the frustration.
There was quite a lot of rain last night and is very windy this morning. The water is a muddy brown and very choppy. The smell ''EUGHHH" is awful, but can cope with that, I think it has made me get over my frustrations.
Well I will have to start again and that is that until Paul gets back whenever and however long it takes!!!!!!
The swans survived the night o.k. I was a bit concerned cause when I let Milly out at 4amish I could hear some swans bellowing in the distance and thought maybe some fox was lurking around maybe.
But I was pleased to see that all 6 chichs in each set were all fine and bobbing up and down in the water. There was also about 20 small ducks sheltering in the little "cove" where they hang out in.
Did not hang around too long but went for a longer walk than usual and hopefully tired Milly out and perservered with the pain in my foot.
I tried on some clothes yesterday, bright pink they were but was so disappointed really looked very "Henrietta Hippo" in them and put them back on the rack. Still need to lose a lot more weight. Still at least I have lost 20kilos over the last twelve months so it has to make a difference. Hopefully now that I am back into walking I will lose some more, just have to get over the "chocolate" thing again. Boy is it hard to give up. I am so annoyed with myself as after the clothes thing, yep I went out and bought another packet of cllinkers and more chocolate...
anyway enough of the whinging will talk later on.
Oh please feel free to make any comments in the comments area or place a comment anywhere here as I would love to hear from anyone reading my "blog"
bye for now
luv Jil xxx
OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't believe this stupid vmnkhfnvnv@@@@&&&&$$$$$ damn computer!!!!!
I decided I would go through my photos and give some of them descriptions so maybe it would be easier to find the right ones to put up on my "Blog" the wonderful blog!!!! and shit!!!!!!!! shit!!!!! shit!!!! sorry but I really need to swear. The computer says that the photos have been moved else where. !!!!!!!!ELSE WHERE!!!!!!!!! where on earth would they go???????? I have not moved them!!!!!! So I cannot access them!!!!!!! Can you believe the frustration I am experiencing at this very moment at 4.02am in the morning!!!!!!!! I cannot believe this is the time I have not gone to bed and now I am so wide awake with frustration cause I am stunned, angry, frustrated, feel like crying. I have taken all these great pictures of our renovations etc since January and I cannot get into them!!! WHERE THE BLOODY HELL COULD THEY GO?????????? I don't believe this!!!!! What do I do now but cry and chuck this stupid machine out the window???????
Paul where are you when I need you??????? Off up north of Australia having a great time and I don't know what to do!!!!!!! What has happened to my pictures????? Where have they gone to????? This has just made my day!!!! I haven't had the chance to print out any and stuff it probably won't be able to.
Sorry Maxijanet this includes all of my precious sunset pics, rainbows, moon glistening on the water, sun rises and so much more. Looks like they will be distant memories. The house may have just well burnt down with all the photos in it. I just cannot seem to do anything right with this machine. I am fated. I need to go to bed and get some sleep, but doubt if I will be able to now as I am in tears!!! The sun will be up soon, so maybe I will just wait for it and take off my jammies and get dressed and go for a long walk and try to forget it and start all over again!! I am so disappointed. All of the time I have literally wasted collecting and editing photos and for what!!! nothing to see now.... This is the last straw.
4.15am, I am going to wrap myself in a blanket and go and sit on the verandah and have a good cry and wait for the sun to come up seeing I cannot sleep now. This really stinks!!!!!
Update on the swans!!
Well the weather has been unreal here in Paynesville, lovely sunny days, looks like summer is really around the corner. I was just so hot today and felt like I wanted to be in an air conditioned room. Yep I do not like being hot!!!
My morning walks are just the best thing. I even dragged Gerard out for a couple of evening walks! Milly our little dog came with me this morning so I could not go to my usual spot to sit and watch the "littleuns" today.
Yesterday I sat and watched them for some time and was so annoyed with myself as I did not take the camera with me and they came so much closer than the day before!!!! There were a lot of wrens flitting around and a male wren bright blue came so close to me!
This morning the "men" were doing their sort of "ritual" thing, I suppose it is territorial. It looks so funny cause the two pairs keep their distance usually and I gather the mum is the smaller of the pair, anyway the two men suddenly leave the girls with the babies and meet face to face leaving equal distance from their ladies then they paddle along side by side in a line as if there is a centre line they must not cross.. They were going up and down for some time, when they get up the line so far they then start to turn around and seem to look each other in the eye and then go back to the other end and once again as they turn around they are so close to each other.. Suddenly one of the females started bellowing out loud as if something was wrong and her man suddenly took off in flight to her side. So the other one also paddled back to his lady. I did not stay long as I had Milly in my arms and I did not want to disturb the birds. We walked on further to the hill and the other pair of swans with their bigger children were in their usual spot in the canal. Could see them much better this time and they really do look like the ugly ducklings. I came home in a hot sweat as it was so warm this morning. Not sure what the temperature got to but it was expected to get to about 23degrees. Just heard it was 24 today. Tomorrow 23.
Took Mum to Bairnsdale today for a "field" test for her eyes at 10.30am, she has to go back in November to see the eye specialist with the results then! We then went for a coffee at the RSL and made a ahem!! "donation" at the pokies and then off to do the shopping. Mum has decided to do her food shopping once a fortnight cause she thinks that it will be easier for me!!, little does she realise that the shopping bags are heavier and puts a bigger strain on my back!!! Anyway It was supposed to be not an "all day" expedition today cause I needed to get back to complete a card order!!! Not so - mum was in a funny mood and was in her own little world and wanted to look at almost every item on the supermarket shelves. Boy it was a patience testing time for me. I did not get home til after 5pm.... I usually don't mind spending the day with her but today I needed to get home. Anyway a delicious chocolate icecream helped calm me down after I took her home. It does get difficult at times as mum is getting more forgetful as each day goes on. She is a worry at times. O.k. she is doing so well for 85, but it is hard to be patient and calm all the time, yes I know I will probably end up like this also, but boy is it hard.
Had a message on the phone when I got home this arvo it was from Morgan the kitchen man!!!!!! Hey get this, he rings and leaves a message on the phone at 1.40pm and wants to lob up tomorrow morning to finish installing the last part of the kitchen cupboards and hotplates. Nevermind the fact that I have to get in touch with the electrician again! and he was supposed to give me enough notice to organise it all!! I thought "buggar it", nup tomorrow is not suitable and told him so, seeing it has been well over 3 months now since David the builder pulled out the whole kitchen and we had ordered the kitchen a couple of months before that!!!! what is a couple of more days without the hotplates anyway!!!!??????? So looks like next Wednesday I will actually have a complete kitchen!!!!! I suppose I cannot complain seeing that it was my idea to have the old oven and hotplates taken away in December last year. Only problem now is that I have to "re-learn" how to cook!!!! as this is all electric here and I had gas cooking all of my cooking life, and the other problem is that all of my saucepans, oven trays etc are in storage in a box somewhere in Gerard's nieces garage in Eumemering!!! The last 50 odd boxes were not itemised and I am not ready to bring all that stuff here yet. Still got lots of boxes here already to unpack.
There must be an easier way to do this!!
Oh boy I am wasting so much time here on this blog!!!! Trying to get the right pics up is not so easy, my pics all have ended up with numbers and I cannot see what I am choosing!!! I have heaps of pics on the computer and I just don't know how to do this stupid thing!!!
The rabbit pic is of Bunni, she was the most gorgeous soft animal and very knowing, she lived inside with us and at times was a naughty girl, biting through the electrical wires, our clothes, the carpet and the wooden furniture!!! I still have some clothes with holes in them!
I have managed to find two swan pics after deleting about 10 photos that were not of interest!! It takes so long for them to come through and I just don't have the time tonight, I am feeling a little off colour so will probably go to bed early!
Want to get up earlier tomorrow to see what activities there are on the waters edge before heading off to Orbost!
Hmmmm that was not a swan!!!
Well I am still trying to get the hang of this silly blog thing!! I will keep trying so who knows what pics will turn up here!!
Swan pics
The best medicine
WOW!!!!!!!!! What a morning!!!!!! It is so great to be alive. The sun is shining absolutely a glorious day so far, the "Jenny Wrens" are twittering away in the bushes near the verandah window, there is a distant hum of a motor from a boat going out into the lakes and I can see the sails of a yacht just coming in from their morning sail. In the distance I can see a small trail of smoke rising up to the sky and disapearring into the soft blue expanse. Vvvvrrrrooooommm, there goes a motor boat rushing off into the distance obviously a fishing type boat, probably heard of some good catch not too far away. I can hear a lady talking as she is taking her dog for a walk, woof wooof our two dogs have heard her also and are making their usual racket!!.
Not a cloud in sight as I sit here on the verandah with my lap top with a very slight breeze wafting in through one of our many windows! I cannot say enough about our wonderful verandah, it has really opened up the house so much and I seem to spend more and more time sitting at the table where I am now in the shade or lounging on the swing in the sun patting away on the lap top.
My seedlings are all standing up now after their good watering yesterday and are enjoying the sunshine, I cannot wait til they establish themselves some more and start flowering.
Well The exciting news is that I jumped out of bed at about 7.45 am yet again, this is unusual for me to get out of bed with such enthusiasm but I could not wait to see what the morning brought... I can hear the hhrrrrgggghhhhh of a swan in the distance. Sorry I do get side tracked and ramble on a bit, but I want to share this glorious place with you. Anyway!! I quickly threw on some clothes and rushed out the back door and through the "temporary" gateway to catch up with Gerard to see what activities were happening near the boat jetty's close by, not a lot of swans were there at first, but after a couple of seconds in they came. It is almost as if there is a silent radar happening. Gerard had only taken one piece of bread down with him, cause the extra bread was in the freezer and he reckons it is too cold for the swans to eat!!!! honestly!!!!!! anyway we left them dissapointed this morning, but Milly our little dog, which is really Kate's suddenly started to dig in the "little beach" of sand we have here. Well she was so funny, I have not seen her do this before, but she had got the scent of something and she just kept digging, then move on and start digging again, she was getting closer to the water and found if she dug there the hole started to fill up with water and so she kept on. About 15 minutes she was so pre-0ccupied with this activity even when I walked away she did not notice for a while. She is about 9 years old and I am sure suffers from seperation anxiety!
O.k. so then I took her home, grabbed some bread from the freezer and set off around the other side of the house to the open part of the lake through the bushes and into the open view of water. The sun had moved a little higher and the shimmer on the water was blinding. As I walked on I broke up the bread in the bag so that It was small enough to feed the swans with, that is if there were any along here and sure enough I was not disappointed. I stopped at the first two seats and was greeted by about half a dozen, three couples. I will have to find out what the terminology of the wild life is!! Anyway I fed them some bread and found yet another swan with a sore leg, quite swollen, so I will ring the wildlife local rescue people and see if they do anything to help the swans who are injured, I imagine it would be a difficult rescue!!! Then I moved on and a little further on there they were!!!!!!!! Mum and Dad swan and their six little babies, absolutely gorgeous little fluffy grey things with almost black beaks. I think it was mum they hung around and dad kept a close watch out for any interlopers! I ended up sitting on the "muddy" bank at a fair distance to watch them. So cute they were with their little cheep cheep's copying mum dipping her beak into the water and looking for food. They kept a keen eye on me and I kept a keen eye on them! I did not want to get attacked by a couple of angry, protective swans if I got too close. Further on there was another couple with their bubs also I think there were six of them. It was amazing to see each pair kept to their own little area with a safe distance from each other. To my right I spotted yet another couple with some bubs, not sure how many as they were further around the point and could not get a good look at them. I spent a long time sitting mesmerised by the scene, so peacefully they bobbed on the water and seemed to not have a care in the world. I took heaps of photos with my digital camera and hopefully I will have some good shots. With the bright light of day, I could not see properly how the photos were looking so just kept on snapping and videoing them for some time. So much so that I ran the battery out so will have to wait til it is re charged. Looks like I will have to buy an extra battery for times like this. I have a spare memory card so why not have a spare battery?? lol!
I then took off to the "hill" and took in the view which is always lovely. Not another person in sight, so here I was standing on top of the hill as if I owned the world. The works of opening the last canal here is finished and boats have access through to lakes from this side now. I think the 14 or so canal lots have been sold, but no activity is present or any sign of any building happening there soon. There are some bushes planted opposite where I am standing on the other side of the canal bank and they have put in a walking track. Not sure when they will be opening up any more land to build on, it seems odd with all of that work making this part of land a canal and having it left natural!!! It would be great if it was left that way, but will have to wait and see.
There was a swan couple with their 5 "children" hanging around the entrance of the canal, they have had their"kids" quite a few months ago and they are certainly gone from the grey small fluffy stage, more to a miniature version of their parents with a darker grey look. I could not get too close to them as they stuck to the opposite side of the bank and were camouflaged by the rocky bank edge. I took some pics so hopefully I can see how they look after the battery has recharged.
Coming back from my "stroll" I went back to the first seat and was greeted by four swans expecting more food, one of them was so eager, it jumped out of the water onto the bank and started to follow me. It was so close I could have patted it on the head, but I didn't!!! Not sure what it would have done and hey they are wild birds.
I can hear the coooo koooo of some pigeons in the bushes now, the silence is deafening, but I have Tinnitus and the ringing in my ears is very loud at this point. Sounds like the soft hum of Cicadas.
On coming back from my stroll, I also collected some bits of rubbish that careless people leave behind. They take the trouble to stand on their beer can to squash it but cannot take it with them. I also explored in the bush part opposite where I am sitting. There is like a swamp or shallow pond come wetlands area there and there was a large "herron" type white bird fossiking in the water finding some food to eat.
It was just an unbelievable experienc, I am just so rapt with our decision to move here and I just cannot express properly how I feel living here. It is just awesome!!!
Well I had better get a wiggle on and do something around the house, goodness it is now 11am, I have not had breakfast yet, hey what a good diet, go for a walk and take in nature and not feel hungry!!!
Anyway I had better go and will most likely share some more news if not by the end of the day but tomorrow!!
Oh by the way the water looks like a sheet of glass with the slightest of ripples. The willy wagtails and the wrens have visited and had their usual bath here in the bird bath. Have not spotted any pelicans.
Oops someone is at the front door hang on a minute!!!!
Well it is more than a minute, it is not 12.45pm. Suze from next door has called in with exciting news, she has a job, she just came back from her interview. There was a fish and chip take away shop next door to "Almas" which is a restaurant here in Paynesville. they closed down and has been taken on by Curleys the gardening place's wife and she is opening it as a gourmet take away cafe and she wants Suze to be trained up to be the next in charge!! She is rapt, so that the owners can leave the business in good hands when they need to go away etc. ANYWAY!!!!!! while talking to Suze, we have found out that we both have a lot in common. O.K. she is a lot older whoops younger than me, but is also wrapt in nature, so it looks like we will be taking strolls together to view the swans and their young. She loves the bird feeder I have hanging on the tree near the cats outdoor enclosure and she sits up on her balcony waiting for the birds to arrive. I mentioned about Gerard and I having a go at Kayaking with a tour group here in Paynesville and she is rapt that I mentioned it cause she has been out in her parent's canoes with her mum a couple of times but does not want to go out by herself. SOOOooooooooo this Thursday afternoon guess what?????? yep she and I are going out on the water. It will be my first time, but she is rapt to have the company and I am rapt cause I can have a go at it and really hope that I can do it and then eventually get my own canoe or kayak and hey I will never be home on nice days!!! So look out for that post cause I will certainly tell you how it went.
Well it is now 1.40pm and I have not done a bit aound the house, have just been on the phone to Lesley my friend who has the papercraft and stamping shop in Melbourne where I used to work and we are going to another stamping friend's 40th birthday on Saturday night. So it will be nice to catch up with her. Will also see Kate and Matt again and stay with Machele and Tamyka for a couple of days.
Gerard has gone off for his first shift at the local petrol station, he is very nervous as he will be working for the four or so hours by himself for he first time. It will be interesting to see how he goes as he does tend to panic a bit if people are queuing up to be served!
Hey I have just found out something very interesting here. When Suze called around I saved this post as a draft cause I was not ready to publish it and when I finally worked out how to get back into the draft, I found the icon for putting in pictures!!! Hey at long last, so now I will flood this blog with heaps of pics from our move here and the condition the house was before the renovations to step by step pics of how it has changed etc. plus lots I hope of the swans etc. oops sounds like some activity happening on the water lots of wings swooshing on the water and the breeze has stepped up a notch.
O.K. I am going to give mum a call now and arrange a time to pick her up tomorrow as we are off to Orbost for my regular Osteopath work out. Neck and shoulders this time.
Oh and I have just had a look at the page and cannot find the "publish" spot so who knows how, hu have found it under where I am typing!!!!! duh control and S!!!!!
here goes.. the rosellas are calling me cause they want some more food in the bird feeder so had better dash!!!!!
Spring is here!!!
Hi everyone,
Another glorious day here in Paynesville, sunny and 18C.
Have potted some seedlings into flower boxes to sit on my shelf Paul put up in the verandah for me. It will add some extra colour to the place.
The best news tonight! We went for a walk to the "hill" along the track beside the waters edge and what a wonderful site. A pair of swans with half a dozen signets, grey looking and fluffy. Can't wait til the morning to go and see if they are still around and take some photos of them. Yesterday morning we saw another couple with only one signet, this morning they were not around for their daily bread feed. Gerard has started a regular feed at the waters edge with the swans. Originally there were only a couple of swans that grew to five and now there are about thirty of them each morning waiting for him to arrive.
Over the next few days we are expecting some great weather in the 20's.
Surprise!!!
I went to Melbourne yesterday to the Stitches and Craft show and when I got home late, my new floating floor greeted me.
It does look great even if I say so. I am very happy with the colour I have chosen. The place is slowly transforming from a dark 70's home to a light modern home! It is taking a while, but am happy with the results so far.
Still have not as yet had time to learn how to post photos on here! but that will come!!
Great night out!
Went out for dinner last night with Annette and Paul to a great Chinese restaurant. The best food I have had for a long time!!
It was a thank you and a farewell dinner as they are leaving us to travel up north. In a motor home named Dougal and Hervey the dog.
Will miss them as we have become good friends. Don't know how long they will be away either, but they have to come back eventually as they are leaving the key to their house with me!! and they cannot leave til Paul has finished some work here!!!!
Have spent some time with a very tame magpie and will try to post the video I took of him on here as soon as I know how to do it!
Paul help!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We had our first "official" roast dinner in our new oven!!!! was o.k. but needs improvement!!
bye for now
luv Jill
