Jill and Gerard's Seachange

Another day in paradise!!!

Well it is Saturday morning but the afternoon has struck. I have been up now for about an hour or so and have decided it is a morning for the swing seat on the verandah!!! What a way to spend some time.

Swallows are flitting about once again darting up and down through the strong wind currents, they come here almost every day and play about above the bushes. When taking the dogs for a walk to the waters edge they dart around us and fly very close, not sure if they have nests near by! The clouds are slowly taking over the blue sky and the sun is coming and going. I can hear the Plovers at the car park ka ka kakking at someone or something, they are so very territorial.

I also had the pleasure of viewing a Pelican hovering about outside the windows here, must have been practising its changes in wing manouvering with the wind as it was wobbling all over the place, very funny to see. Luckily it stayed above ground and was a delight to watch. They are usually such a graceful flying bird.

As I lift my head up I can see the long black necks of the swans and their red beaks bobbing up and down in the water. Their bubs are realling growing, will post some more pics on my swan blog for you to see them if you are interested. Have been down to the waters edge at night as it has been so warm here, and have been amazed at the family of swans who take up residence near the jettys and the sand bank each night. Their four bubs are growing rapidly and they are all so hungry.

It is a wonderful experience walking down on the grass to the waters edge, on a warm night darkness everywhere and to see the whole sky amass of the most bright twinkling stars is amazing no clouds anywhere just blackness and these twinkles. As we approach the water the only light is from the few street lights. As your eyes adjust to the darkness of the water suddenly you pick up on some dark round shadows appearing and coming towards you. Like a scary movie. OMG what are they?????? Huh!!! swans of course, silly!!!!! They come from nowhere out of the darkness as if they have been waiting silently for some sucker to come along eating some food at that time of night??? Well we weren't eating food, but we did happen to have some bread with us in case any were lurking about.. So yes we were the suckers I suppose lol!! There were 10 of them and they hung around for ages for more, we could hear their mates on the other side of the island opposite calling and sure enough they must have been telling each other that we were there cause more appeared from the darkness.

Huh a white car has just cruised around the car park and driven onto the grass area and it is the lady with her large dog, she takes him for a walk everyday, but she has difficulty walking so drives the car and he walks along following her and having a few sniffs on the way etc. He is getting rather old and stiff and I can hear her calling him along. Probably has had a bad day and does not want to walk so far today!! or she is in a hurry. Our two dogs are out by the small fence barking away at him and he is long gone!!!

Oh where was I??????? oh yes the darkness and the monsters of the night!!!!!

My life is so different now, I enjoy taking walks at night and during the day and sitting not quite outdoors, am dying to get out on a kayak again!! Not enough hours in the day though to experience it all.

We have had a lot of rain these past few days and they mentioned flood warnings in the Gippsland area!!!!! OH NO!!!!!!! please don't let it rain that much I don't want all of our work "going down the drain" !!!!!! Kath was evacuated here in the 80's with a flood, she had to be carried out of the house by the fire brigade, it was when she had her stroke and could not walk properly. A neighbour has a concrete fish pond which was covered by the water and when the waters had subsided she still had some of her fish in it!!!!!! Amazing!!!!! Luckily the water did not reach the floorboards of the house so if another one does come it will be an anxious time for us!!!!! Hey yep that would be our luck, get all this work done and here comes the water!!!! Cross fingers we don't experience one...

Started putting up the lights on the verandah, the four sets will fit o.k. but came across a snag as usual....... Need a hole made through some timber so that I can get the rest of the last string of lights to go into the cats area too!!!!!! I have two alternatives!!!!!! YES TWO!!!!!!!! yep Jill is back in frustration mode again!!!!! I can either cut a hole through the fly wire to thread the lights through to the other side.......... or have a hole made through the timber!!!!!!!!! I don't really want to be cutting holes in the fly wire partition that is to keep the cats in their own space now do I??????? No I don't. BUT ......... this is the frustrating part. I need to cut a hole through a piece of timber about three inches thick!!!!!! HHHMMMMmmmmmmm........ What do I do???Looks like I am going to have to go out and buy myself a good drill, all the essential accessories to go with it including the bits that cut holes through things and while I am at it I think I will buy myself an electric saw bench thingy so I can cut timber also when ""I"" want to!!!! I have bought a jig saw, but that won't do the job! So I have come to a halt once again. Boy all I seem to do is whinge.. In my next life I will be a male, be able to do all of these things, hey wait a minute!!!! no I will be a female, with the body and knowledge and the expertise to be able to do all of these things, no arthritis, weight problems, independance, money, and be able to get on with the jobs myself. Sounds good!!!! SLAP!!!!!!! o.k. I am back to reality again...... sorry bout that I was day dreaming out loud again. So I still have to get a hole in the timber somehow and also fasten the extra bits of leads to the ceiling to carry over to the powerpoints and also the absolutely BEST PART of it all is to find out which is the xxxxxxxxxxx light bulb that won't let the stupid lights work properly!!!!!!!! oooohhhhh why do I bother????????.....................................

Well I had decided to start over with Christmas and have a tree again and put up lights and get into the spirit of things! I am probably too late, yes I am to go to the hardware store and see if I can buy a piece to attach to Gerard's old drill, so looks like I will have to wait before I can get that part of the job done. Might just go to Bairnsdale tomorrow or Monday and buy a new drill, one that can be recharged and can screw in the screws etc and then I am home and hose!!! Can put up my curtain shades in the palacer too by myself then. Oh Oh had better get off this track and talk about something else.

Well the wind has changed and I have a lovely cool breeze wafting in through the windows here. Gerard will be home soon as he had the early shift at the garage and will be wanting some lunch or sorts. Hopefully he will have been down the shops and got something for himself or even bought a pie from the garage. He is off to Melbourne tomorrow morning for a few days so I am looking forward to having the place to myself for a while. Pat the painter has another job to do next week, so no early morning wake ups also which will be nice. Speaking of Pat the painter, he has started on the outside of the house, looks o.k. but a bit dark in colour compared to the Purple Palace's walls outside.. So will have to have another look at it when he comes back and compare colours etc. The colour seems to be a bit dirty looking!! Probably cause we are so used to seeing a white house the paperbark is a change.

Annette and Paul have been and gone!!! Yep that quick. They came around here for a meal the other night and we had a BBQ on the verandah, they supplied the barby!! We had a good night and it is such a shame they have gone cause they are such a lovely couple to have as friends. They are heading up north to Queensland round Noosa way to settle down. So we have an invitation to visit them for a holiday in the future!! Just got to get Gerard some leave... and someone to look after the dogs and the cats!!!!! Sassy is too old to go to a kennel these days and Milly!!! what can I say, after the last time she went to a kennel she was a basket case and still has not recovered!!!! The cats would be fine though. Anyway that will be later next year I gather who knows when. The next day I had some beautiful flowers given to me, they are just gorgeous and a white Christmas type lilly was amongst them. The perfume is amazing, it embraces me every time I walk through the house. Just beautiful. They are still looking so good after a few days and another bud is getting ready to open so the perfume and memory of you both will still be around for a long time!!!!

Hey while in Bairnsdale on Thursday I found a BBQ. It is the electric type, so no hassles with gas bottles etc. an oval shape and big enough for what we want. Has a hood too so can cook roasts etc in it too!! Yep I know I have just had a new kitchen put in but hey just gotta have a bbq too!!! Our Boxing Day Christmas Day Christmas dinner may be on the BBQ this year who knows!!!!

oops head up can see a pelican swimming in the water and can hear the swans all calling to each other. The wind has died down a bit and the swallows are back again. The water is a very dark grey and still choppy.

Things I want to do:...... over the next few days......

Finish the Christmas lights
Tidy the verandah and get rid of some boxes that have odds n ends still in them from the kitchen
Set up the BBQ I am dying to do this!!!
Paint a couple of large concrete pots and hopefully put my newly acquired Papyrus Plant in one of them!
Finish my Christmas newsletter.
Make some Christmas cards not even started or know what I am going to do yet.
Notify change of address seeing it is nearly 12 months since we moved!!!
Finish painting the eaves of the verandah and the bottom few rungs on the outside of the verandah.
Get into the Purple Palace and sort it out.
Load photos onto my Blogs
Save all my photos to discs before something bad happens to the computer
Learn how to save to a disc!!!!!! Hopefully I know how to again thanks to Paul!!!
Plant some stuff in the front garden bed
Get back into some serious walking and exercise
Get back to water aerobics

That is just for starters anyway, wonder how many will get done????? Need good body days for some of these.

Wondered what the noise was!!! It is Sassy she is under the swing snoring away!!! Poor old thing.. That is another problem...

Well I had better get off this machine while I can and get some stuff done and go visit mum and see what things I can get done with her today or what is left of it!! Don't feel like doing much, would love to have a sleep right now but had better not otherwise I will be up till all hours of the morning.

see ya!!

luv Jill

posted by Jill @ 12:02 pm