Jill and Gerard's Seachange

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!!!!!

posted by Jill @ 11:06 am