Saturday 29/03/08

Keryn & Katie at birthday yumcha for Katie

I can't believe I didn't mention the rain from Thursday..........we had 35mm, yay! Nothing much yesterday, but the temperature has plummeted the last few days........all of about 17deg max.
Neil has been very busy lately outside..........pruning the wisteria, and almost removed my wonga vine completely. I did manage to persuade him to leave one bit of green on it, so that I will get around to taking cuttings and put it somewhere else where it's not so rampant........it does have a very pretty flower. The 'paving' round the side of the house looks like it might eventuate one day, as he's been doing a lot of preparation.........clearing away the stones and other rubbish. Trouble is with his awakening from his 'thousand year sleep', he is becoming very critical of my unfinished jobs around the place..........so I will have to pull my socks up!

It has started raining outside again, and I now have a cat on my lap who doesn't want me to type, but to pay attention to him.

Katie and Patrick are still house-sitting for her friend Jess. She rang me the other day to say she got the job with Nillumbik after her interview on Tuesday........hooray! And Keryn is burning the candle at both ends, enjoying her part-time job with an architecture firm, and still working for Jetty Surf, and doing full-time uni........though I think this week is a mid-semester break.

Picked up our Entertainment Book yesterday........fundraiser for our tennis club, who want to resurface 2 more courts to grass. I was pleased Neil seemed to be interested in the E book, so we might be able to enjoy the occasional night out without it being so expensive.

Friday 28/3/08

A pea, possibly a Dillwynia, or Daviesia

I can't believe almost a whole week since writing in my blog. Have been flat out with finishing off the APS Yarra Yarra newsletter, (& getting it printed, folding and sticking, posting), as well as working Wed and Thurs. Wednesday at work was as expected, horrendous........with millions of book/internet-deprived families pouring in and queuing to use the self-loan machines or ask questions at the desk. As usual the home page wasn't working so had an endless queue of people needing to search the catalogue, and thinking the internet wasn't working because the first page to come up is an 'error' page! Yesterday, the internet decided to take a break at most of the branches, but not on all machines all the time...........which made people think it was working, so they kept coming asking for guest passes to try another machine........as well as the endless queue to search the catalogue, and to change their cards over to the new one. I did have one interesting conversation with a customer who lived in Daviesia St..........now Daviesia's are native peas in Australia, so I just had to ask him if he had any growing in the garden. And he said he had been trying to find out about them, but couldn't get them at nurseries. So I pointed him in the direction of our leaflets on display at the front door, and said he might get hold of them through our group. Wish I'd had time to chat, as I thought afterwards that Keelbundoora Nursery (at LaTrobe Uni) would probably have some. Was up late last night looking up interesting sites on Daviesia's, stumbling across other interesting blogs (eg artist Gregory Pryor), and chatting to Annie on Skype about her blog.

Sunday 24th March

Had an enjoyable bbq for Easter Sunday with the Hogans. Played boules on our back lawn (?), and Neil devised an adult treasure hunt (with nursery rhyme clues) which was good fun if you knew your nursery rhymes!

Friday 21/3/08

Good Friday.........a good day to start. Recuperation day after a busy week. Didn't have to play tennis at all this week, and since it was a short week - last Monday being Labour Day holiday here - I got a start on the newsletter for our plant group. Hooray, Keryn showed me how to convert a Word document to pdf format, so sending it to the printers, and emailing it will be much more secure. Newsletter has to be finished and ready for printing and posting next week.

Wednesday and Thursday were work days at Mill Park, last night being particularly busy with people stocking up on reading matter before the 4 day break and school holidays.........in fact MP doesn't open again till Wed next week. Wow, I bet that's a busy day.........and guess who's working that day? Met an interesting reader wanting books that a Sufi from the 13th century had written (Saadi).........did find them on Library Link and ordered them on ILL. Would have liked to know what the interest was in them.........but we don't have time to chat unfortunately.

Wish I'd known about how to create a blog before our overseas trip last year...........though with all that happened, not sure I would have had enough time to do it over there. Was flat out with changing air tickets, funeral arrangements etc for Granny, Neil's super/bank loan arrangements etc. Phew, all seems a bit of a nightmare really...........and it's not over yet.

Need to clean this place up again, ready for our bbq with friends Sunday night. Just as well we have these social events occasionally, or this place would never get cleaned.

This lovely cool weather.........never thought I'd look forward to Autumn so much........but the hot dry weather this month has been exhausting. My plants are disappearing fast from my garden now..........perhaps my 'no water' policy is not such a good idea. I used to get out there and give them a drink if there were really hot days in Summer, but decided they had to 'sink or swim' (not a good analogy) this past 12 months. So maybe I will relent and handwater some of them again at times. Hopefully all those little projects I have in mind for the top garden will begin to happen this Autumn too............like mulching and more planting, and maybe even put drippers in...........we are a bit behind the times. Neil did a good job pulling out most of the hedge for me, which was falling over and dying anyway, so that leaves a bit more room for planting too. Actually, I daren't believe the weather forecast for the next week...........it looks like there might be some rain or showers coming.

I can see blogs could be yet another timewaster and a bit self-indulgent..........just as well I'm not into Facebook, Youtube, etc too....though I can see the fun in being able to play Scrabble online.

Back to the Hot Cross Buns, and maybe some gardening before this rain comes on Monday.