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Seems like all of the Norwich House Staff are getting a bit lax these days.
The chooks actually managed three eggs today, although why I was excited about this is a mystery as we have 10 girls – 30% laying is nothing to do a song and dance over.
AND while I was away we have had MICE move in!! What were those boys doing? The furry one in particular really needs to pull his socks up.

I want to get my food into better storage containers – and my younger chef sister, Michelle, gave me a really great suggestion.
Lots of restaurants get their supplies in large lidded buckets/containers that often get thrown away.
So I walked the main street of Wynyard this afternoon and came away with two large sized containers (free) from one of the local take-away shops. Another cafe told me they had just given theirs away but to return at the end of the week as there hopefully would be some more!

Ok – so… they are not the last word in decor, but they were free. And right now I am more than happy with free!
The less food in easy access to mice the better.
Oh the joys of an old country home!

Hope your day was mouse-free!

Cheers!

Hello – I am skipping any stories of me today (mostly because it involved being on the computer or in the kitchen or other mundane things)
One of my sisters, Rosemary, had a much more interesting day.

The Australian War Memorial in Canberra holds a daily Last Post Ceremony to commemorate the fallen, lay wreaths and pay tribute to a particular soldier.

Rosemary, a Wing Commander in the Royal Australian Air Force, was the officer who presented the story of Private John Townshend Glennie, a young man who lost his life in 1935, aged only 34.

The War Memorial streams these live so I was able to take a peek and be the proud sister that I am! You can have a look too if you like here Although I suggest you fast forward at least the first 4 minutes which is the burning flame.
(Apart from the ceremony, there is a persistent noisy cockatoo that happily screeched his way through the ceremony. Rosemary said she was trying not to take any notice of him – they are funny birds!)

Rosemary has often done the ANZAC ceremony at our parents retirement village.
For those not familiar, ANZAC stands for the Australian & New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli in World War 1. The day of remembrance is the 25th of April, and in my mind, the most important day of the year for us. The story is worth knowing and we are incredibly proud of this sad history.

The day now broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations.

I hope everybody elses day was less domestic than mine!

Cheers!

I mentioned a few posts back about super-budgeting.
It bugs me how the hot water part of the electricity bill is separate from the ‘normal’ power. We have solar panels which helps, but not with the water side of things. Getting a solar hot water system really isn’t cost effective for us – just doing the basic math… we probably use about $400 per year’s worth of hot water… so a few thousand dollars to install a system would take too long to pay off. So we didn’t even really look at it.
So… recently taken to heating up my washing up water on the fire to do the dishes!!
I do my dishes by hand anyway – and its really not that difficult to leave a pot of water on the fire, so its ready when I am to do the washing up.

The frosts are starting to set in lately and the tomato plants at the back door are starting to feel the effect. I thought I should take a bunch of laterals (suckers) and see if I can get them producing roots for a nice early spring start to get a bunch of cherry tomato plants going!
If you have not grown new tomato plants from laterals… click here to see my post about how to do it. So easy to get free plants!

The latest Photo Challenge is just wrapping up… well, that is all the albums are ready for photos but we are waiting on stragglers to submit images so we can move along with the voting! So nothing different to normal!
Anyway, I spent most of the day with the wedding photos, so below are the last few days subjects with my submissions!
The voting is tough as usual… so many great photos and cool subject interpretations!

Cheers!

Hello! Friday is done and dusted!
Apart from some mundane shopping and a few other things, I had to get a ‘Fence’ photo for tomorrows challenge subject.
That was meant to be an easy one! I passed SO MANY amazing ones on my USA road trip but wasn’t smart enough to ask my friend to pull over!
I did a bit of a drive up the Calder Rd but found nothing to my liking.
So I jumped the fence (a non-aesthetically pleasing one) and went into the paddock behind our house to see what I could find.
Sigh… nothing like I wanted. Oh well… make the best of it.
Oh – and don’t touch the electric fences!! haha

I couldn’t pass up trying a few shots of the hay shed while I was out there with my tripod

Just for fun… these are each actually five shots at different exposures merged into a single shot.

I need to do more of these types of shots – but its called ‘not being lazy’ and actually carry a tripod and spend some more time setting up rather than randomly snapping away!

I’ll wait until I have my USA shots under control!

Anyway, almost time for bed. I was a bit naughty tonight. Jeff went to bed crazy early so in a fit of loneliness I made a batch of hot buttery pikelets and scoffed 3/4 of them!! (and washed them down with a hot chocolate!)
I now have Pikelet Regret.
They were good but now trying to work out how far I have to hike in what kind of weather tomorrow to make up for that!

Cheers!

I am looking a bit anxiously at our dwindling wood pile… indoor days use up more wood than normal. Often if we go out for the day we will let the fire go out then restart it in the early evening.
Cousin Jeff, who supplies the firewood, met with an accident the other day – a leg broken in a couple of places!! The poor bloke! We went over to see him at the hospital before his surgery and he was pretty miserable with the pain. (He put a good face on it, but nurses know – Husband Jeff certainly knew!)

Pip spent a lazy day while I worked on the wedding photos and the challenge photos.
Today’s challenge subject was ‘Repeating Patterns’
I convinced Jeff to help down at the beach the other day with some rope, sticks and some patience –

Tomorrow is day 5 – Subject ‘Board Games’ I scrounged about and located my Harry Potter chess set and had a mini photo shoot inside trying to get the arrangement right

It took about 20 shots… mucking about with the arrangement and camera settings! In the end I was pretty pleased with it.

The day ended with a rather nice sunset, but since I was still in my indoor clothes (ok – I was still in my pj’s) I didn’t venture out far to get any spectacular shots. (I am sure the neighbour and the passing traffic might have been amused if I had)

 

I hope everyone had a great day too!

Cheers

Hello!
Well… I have finally made a contribution towards the savings towards our next trip! I sold 6 pairs of cosy-cuffs to the local tourist information shop!!
They were actually after scarves and beanies, so I took my friend Maureen down with her stash of beanies and she sold them a good bunch as well. I’ll get Margie on board to make a few things for if they sell… they will want more and I am not super speedy at knitting. (Well – not fast enough if I want to finish making the 4 shawls I am in the middle of and a few other things on the go!)

And in a superb moment of bartering, I got a bag of delicious looking lamb chops!

I have handed over 4 bottles of my BBQ sauce in return and owe another 6 (Yes, apart from knitting & crocheting and photo processing I need to make some more sauce!!)
Anyway – very much looking forward to tomorrow nights dinner!!!

The photo challenge is up to day three.
Day two was ‘Candid’ and my shot came from the wedding where the brides sister accidentally caught the bouquet! Moments before she was under strict instructions from her father NOT to catch it!!

Day three’s subject is ‘Paper’ and I spent a short time on google re- remembering how to fold origami cranes

On a slightly different note:

If you are a fan of Anne of Green Gables & photography, check out this link to my friends blog.
Grant and Kate live on Prince Edward Island – recently moved to live a similar lifestyle to us (just more snow) (a LOT more snow) but gardening and being part of a country community.
Grant is a photographer and Kate a florist.
Grant recently did a stunning Anne of Green Gables styled wedding shoot for a couple celebrating their anniversary.
Its very much worth a peek!

Pip is totally enjoying the lounge-room-in-front-of-fire-camping recently. He is clearly ready for bed!
Best I go too!

Cheers!

 

Because I don’t have quite enough to do at the moment I somehow thought running another photo challenge was a good idea.
I actually had thrown the group together just before I left for Texas with the ambitious thought that
A. I would get the photos in the USA
B. I would have plenty of time to get whatever photos I didn’t get in the USA in the two weeks between arriving home and challenge start date.

I got one photo (and a possible second one) in Texas.
Now I am running about like a mad thing dragging my long suffering husband into my photographic ideas!

The first subject was ‘Coloursplosion’. Pretty much meaning a colourful photo. Jeff was NOT keen about going outside at night in the Tasmanian winter to wave glow sticks about so we tried a few things upstairs in a makeshift photo ‘studio’ and then I ended up splattering a jar with the contents of the glow sticks.

Job done.

Lets not talk about the slightly glowing carpet…

Cheers!

Jeff took off today up Oldina Rd to get some real life riding in while it wasn’t hailing. Plenty of mud and tracks to keep him amused and he came home with quite the grin on his face!

Me?? Worked through more photos, then I stocked up on firewood and finally got around to getting through some more of that kindling

Pretty slow paced around here – still nice and chilly – although not getting the minus 9C (15F) or other ridiculously cold mornings I have been reading where various friends live! Right now we are at 3C (37.4F) and its not forecast for below 2C – so thats ok!
Still going to sleep on our camp beds in front of the fire tonight again!

Keep warm for those in winter… and stay cool for those who are not!

Cheers!

Hello! Good news!! Clearly the yogurt is starting to work!!! Egg production DOUBLED since yesterday.
I still feel we have a long way to go…

Anyway, I did pretty much nothing with the rather nice sunny day and now I am feeling somewhat guilty about it.

I did manage to drag Jeff out later this afternoon for a walk by the river to its entrance by the sea… was lovely out in the fresh air

The late afternoon sun was nice, but it was still pretty chilly!

I am enjoying reflections lately

We started out by the car park where we put the kayaks in to paddle then walked towards the pier at Wynyard

So calm out there! The water was like a mill pond!

Even the waves hardly broke the surface!

We like checking out the old homes and landmarks about Wynyard when we walk about. This fabulous front ‘fence’ was actually made of the ships ballast from many years ago.

At the end of our stroll, the sky had darkened and a hint of a sunset coloured the sky

Reflections again – the smudges on the water surface is actually oil from the trees!

Back home to the fire and dinner… we actually have done some hasty rearranging tonight so we can camp in our lounge room in front of the fire. It really is icy out there and the best place in the house is right here –

Pip is thrilled. He is already fast asleep in my sleeping bag!!

Oh – and the BEST thing about today??
My friend Marsha turned up and gave me chicken socks!

Life is fabulous!
Cheers!

Hiya!
I am dying to do a few proper posts on my travels in the USA – but its taking me an eon to get the processing done in between other essential jobs and sleeping.

I was trying to get the Painted Desert NP photos all done and dusted – but I am not even halfway!!
Of course I make sure I am working on the wedding photos as a priority, but its nice to have a break and work on a different subject!

Today was a little dreary outside. I did get outside and stock up on the fire wood – then did a bit of tidying in the herb garden because I keep walking past it and it looks so woebegone!

Enjoy what is left of Tuesday!

Cheers!