Head in the Clouds – Feet in the Dirt – Page 145 – Traipsing through life in NW Tasmania

Blue Skies and Housework

Today couldn’t be more different from the last week!

Hello!

Apologies for the lack of “Ruby Tuesday” I just didn’t get over there today for a story – so have to take a rain check!! (so to speak)

Today was amazing. Warm, blue skies and no wind. I was in a t-shirt mostly.

Pip enjoyed a bit of outside time too – he was sick of being cooped up inside

Eating some grass, no doubt with plans to come back inside, pick a nice spot on a bit of rug and perk it back up.

Even the little cows out the back looked happy not to be rained on today! They stayed close to the fence all day!

I decided that the main living areas in the house needed a good cleaning. When you have this continual soggy weather, a wood fire and an old house… it just gets manky, no matter how much you try to keep the outside from being tracked in. We had to put the outdoor shoes and boots inside because the rain was blowing in under the veranda to the back door. That meant storing some wood inside too – and it sheds.

So I got thoroughly domestic – Jeff was sleeping off a nightshift. Probably thought he woke up in the wrong house! 😀

I did get side tracked and sorted my garlic!

These guys are trying to sprout already!

I have enough cloves I think to fill the area I have prepared – around 150 cloves. They need to go in tomorrow, so I am hoping the weather will continue giving me a break.

I picked some leek – these had self seeded. I made them into a soup with potato, bacon, garlic & chicken stock!

Leeks are hard to wash… they hide dirt in every fold!

Also raided the herb garden to bake a loaf of garlic-herb bread to go with the soup tonight

I want to share an easy little recipe I found the other day.

I had planned on having ‘Beef Surprise”

Basically because I am getting down to the packets of meat that lost their labels when I had to chisel apart all the frozen lumps.

So I have to thaw out an anonymous lump of meat to see what it is before I can decide on how to cook it.

What I ended up thawing was some stewing steak. I knew I had a tin of coconut milk in the pantry & so had a taste for a curry of some sort. Most recipes I found had ingredient lists a foot long and just looked too fiddly. I wanted something basic or straight-forward.

This one was a gem and we loved the taste. Will definitely cook it again!

1kg stewing steak (2.2lb)

1 large onion chopped

2 cloves crushed garlic (I did a few as I like garlic)

2 tablespoons curry powder

2&1/2 cups beef stock

400ml can coconut milk

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Rice to serve

Preheat oven to 180C (350F)

Cut beef into cubes – I put into a bag with a bit of oil and seasoned with garlic salt. I then browned in pan in batches, putting each batch into the casserole dish as I went along

Reduce heat in pan, add oil, cook onion and garlic for a few minutes.

Add curry powder and mix in until onion coated.

Slowly add the beef stock, stirring as you go.

Add coconut milk and brown sugar and bring all to boil.

Add all to casserole dish and stir to combine.

Cover and cook in oven until tender.

I also thickened it a little with cornflour (corn starch) once it was cooked

It really didn’t take long to make up. And being only the two of us, it was dinner for two nights! Bonus!!

Well, I am going to take a leaf out of Pips book and get some sleep! (After getting some more beef surprise out of the freezer!

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Cheers

Cats can be comfortable any which way they twist!

Deluge Aftermath

Well… after a wild and woolly night, I was greeted with a bit of a mess this morning.

Its insane how much stony gravel there was…. I am sure we didn’t have that much! But it certainly spread its way down the back!

This is going to be really annoying to clean up

So really, my way of dealing with the situation was to grab my camera, jump in the car and go see what was happening in the local area.

Lots of stories floating (haha) about with damage, flooding, missing boats and garages collapsing on BMW’s (I didn’t even know someone in little sleepy Wynyard actually owned a BMW) 🙂

Insurance companies were incredibly busy today running about sorting out claims.

Anyway, first unscheduled stop was the bridge at the start of our river walk. I saw cars parked, including police, so I dove in, parked and went to stare at the raging torrent our little tidal river had become!

Here is what we are used to seeing:

This was today:

Source Images: DSC_5806.JPG (Av: F16.0; Tv: 1/100 sec.; ISO: 800; FL: 20.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Footbridge was under water. This was taken from the highway bridge. Tree in the middle is same as tree on right side of above photo if you are trying to work out scale.

The river walk path has been obliterated and the people on the corner property have lost their fence (you can see it on the right side)

Next stop, Wynyard Wharf

Pulling up logs that had jammed under the boats and pier

It was a very busy scene

Its not even quite high tide, but the water is higher than I have seen it before

Some of the boats did not have a good night

Source Images: DSC_5829.JPG (Av: F16.0; Tv: 1/160 sec.; ISO: 800; FL: 75.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — My cousins boat has survived even if it has a little bit of a lean! (This is at the mouth of the Inglis River looking out to the ocean)

Next stop… see what Wynyard Beach looks like

Source Images: DSC_5878.JPG (Av: F16.0; Tv: 1/60 sec.; ISO: 0; FL: 75.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Sun trying to break through

It seems incredible that mere water can move huge tree stumps like this!

Kids playing on the ‘driftwood’ before the tide came in even further

Source Images: DSC_5876.JPG (Av: F16.0; Tv: 1/50 sec.; ISO: 0; FL: 60.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — I spent a while getting ‘splash’ photos!

Source Images: wave 1.jpg (Av: F11.0; Tv: 1/500 sec.; ISO: 500; FL: 75.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Churning muddy waters

Someone lost more than just a few woodchips and stones!

I did enjoy a bit of art that was provided by Mother Nature

Source Images: DSC_5855.JPG (Av: F16.0; Tv: 1/320 sec.; ISO: 800; FL: 20.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Storm Sculpture

I hope everyone else’s day was a little bit drier!

Cheers

I Wanted a Water Feature – But Not Quite Like This

Well…I think it was a good call to abandon any thoughts of going to a market today.

It was soggy

Partway through the afternoon we sprung a leak in the lounge room – which was a worry as there is an upstairs before the roof!!

In the end we took the panel off the wall upstairs to see where the water was running in from. Its really hard to get into places in this old house. We shoved an old towel into the gap and let it hang down… once it was soaked, we could guide most of the drips into a bucket. Very high tech.

Unfortunately that’s not the only leak. The skylight in the dining room always gets drippy with prolonged heavy rainfalls and we haven’t managed to stop it yet! Its a slow drip, so a few buckets are under it.

Then, for the first time, our old fireplace seems to have sprung a substantial leak!!

BUT… that’s not the worst of it!

I have just spent the last hour outside in the dark, paddling about in the rain. Why? Well… I got to thinking about my rain-gauge spiders and how the rain gauge was filling up like no-ones business. I thought by morning the poor things would be drowned! (Weird, but I got a little fond of them)

So… I took the rain gauge into the newly cleared bbq area and relocated them into the kindling box. I am pretty sure they will be happy there.

I also measured 169mm of rain (6.6in)

I’ll be interested to see what we get overnight

The gutters and downpipes are at capacity!!

Our front yard is in a bit of trouble…

I stood there and waved goodbye to our woodchips 🙁

Then that lovely area that I started cleaning up to make a garden?? Well… its a pretty spectacular waterfall right now!

I am wondering by morning if we are going to be able to access the garage!!

The path in front of the garage door is being eroded away!

I went down to the foot of our waterfall – it actually looks quite pretty although I couldn’t quite get a decent photo – something about holding a torch, umbrella and trying not to get an expensive camera wet – did I mention it was dark and raining???

The stones and woodchip from the path have washed right down the back and its a mess. I’ll have to inspect it properly in daylight tomorrow – if it ever stops raining!

Going to trot off to Pinterest and see if anyone has Ark-Building instructions available!

Stay dry

Cheers

The water starts somewhere around the front, flows in front of the house then to here…before turning into Norwich Falls!!

Tip Day!!

I went to get gloves and Jeff had almost half emptied the trailer before I got back! Man on a mission!

My cousin Jeff (want the family breakdown?? He is the step-grandson of my mothers second cousin. lol… I just call everyone ‘cousin’ Much less of a headache) arrived this morning with his part of the barter deal we made.

I mentioned a few posts back how I helped paint his house in exchange for firewood!

Good shock absorbers… that’s all I can say!

And now I have a job to do… however this lot is a bit green so a few weeks with the wind whistling through the pile will do it good!

Right now this pile of wood is getting rained on – a lot!!

Jeff (My Jeff this time.. husband Jeff) got the ball rolling with cleaning up today by burning off all our… well… ‘burnables’

It was pretty windy, and I was watching him go through matches trying to light the fire in our barrel… then I decided to step in before he had a major tanty with a scoop of coals from the indoor fire

Whoof! She caught fire very nicely

We got the clean up bug and decided to sort out the BBQ area which was in a disgraceful state

Again – its easy to keep putting ‘things’ in a spot that is not used, and before you know it, its embarrassingly hideous!

I found these (I know -how do you ‘lose’ something this big?) I’ll use them to extend the raspberry patch, as I need to have structure to cover with netting.

Jeff got all my scrappy garden stakes and cut the rotting ends where necessary to a new point and bundled them up for next season.

We decided to go for a tip run. We don’t get garbage collected here, but we get tickets to use the tip free when we pay our rates. We find we need to go once every three or four months. We burn burnables, compost a lot, scraps to the chickens and free recycling of all bottles, glass & plastic. So it does take a little time to fill the two bins.

I love tip day – feel so free of rubbish!!

And check this out!

I brought together my extensive pot collection! Most of these were left behind by the previous owners and there are a lot more around the property!! They will come in handy when I get onto my upcoming garden ideas!

We even moved our bare-breasted goddess (another left behind item) from hiding in the corner of the BBQ area to under the small Acacia Cognata. She looks happy there.

So totally feel like we achieved something today.

Sadly, tomorrow is a market day and the weather is feral. Right now its howling out there with wind and rain. Forecast says the same all day tomorrow.

Looks like I will be finding indoor activities to keep myself amused!

Hope your weekend isn’t as soggy as mine (unless you needed the rain of course!)

Cheers

Friday’s Footprints: Japan, Nara

Even though there are a lot of places I love in Japan, Nara always feels like home to me. It was the first city I lived near and visited way back when I arrived as a teenager, working as a golf caddy in a mountain area in Kyoto.

There have been other capital cities, prior to Tokyo and Nara was the first permanent capital, established in 710! (The ancient dates I keep running into when reading information about Japan really does my head in!)

Probably the most famous place to go to is Nara Park to see Todaiji and the Great Buddha – Daibutsu.

Nandai-mon , an enormous gate prior to reaching Todaiji, contains two fierce-looking Niō guardians . These recently restored wooden images, carved in the 13th century by the sculptor Unkei, are the coolest guardians ever

This is the largest wooden building in the world. Amazingly, the current structure was rebuilt in 1709 and is only two-thirds the size of the original building, which was founded in 745 and took 15 years to construct!

It houses one of the largest bronze figures in the world, Daibutsu. It was originally cast in 746. Not much of the original remains, as bits have been recast over the years.

The present statue, recast in the Edo period, stands just over 16m high and consists of 437 tonnes of bronze and 130kg of gold!

I love the faces on these guardians

Of course, you have to take a moment to be a tourist

Octagonal Lantern at the bottom of the steps, is one of the oldest treasures in the temple dating from the founding of Todaiji.

Nara Park in general is such a great place to walk through. Beautiful wide paths lined with mossy covered stone lanterns lead the way to shrines tucked away here and there through the sprawling area.

At the right time of year, this area is a mass of purple with the wisteria in full bloom (All my photos of this are on film!!)

Of course, no trip to Nara Park is complete without meeting the deer!

As you walk the streets, you may just run into some newly weds!

When you have had enough of the temples and shrines, there are beautiful Japanese gardens to explore

garden

Of course, when nature gets too much you can enjoy the delights of the shopping area – lots of fantastic little shops & arcades without the overwhelming frantic-ness of Tokyo or Osaka

Sock Shop!! Emma was both delighted and overwhelmed!

One of the memories we have that makes us chuckle, was looking for a restaurant with a Japanese friend of ours, Yusuke, that had our favourite food – Yaki soba & Okonomiyaki. We were in an information shop asking where to go and we were kidnapped by this fabulous little old lady, who proclaimed herself “The Boss of the Area” and dragged us to this excellent little restaurant and then proceeded to instruct the owner to give us a good deal on our meals!!

Emma and I ready to eat our okonomiyaki (kind of a cross between a pizza and a pancake)(and an omelette!)

Nara is an easy place to miss, as tourists flock to Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima.

I say make the time. There are lots of really interesting places to see in the area and its well worth the effort. Its a little quieter than the big cities and less over-run with tourists.

Hope you have enjoyed a little look.

Cheers

I think I need one of these in my garden somewhere

The Day of Mundane

Really, today was another gorgeous day for winter – but I was so boring I am not going to send you to sleep reliving my domestics!

Our local Jehovah Witness lady popped by this morning with a couple of potted plants for me! Cool huh? She has finally given up on my immortal soul and we talk about chickens and gardens instead! 😀 Not even a hint of the Watchtower!!

Apparently the plant on the right is edible in a salad but is a bit bitter. Its a good one for the chickens and when it goes to seed, it goes really tall and produces daily blue flowers that are also edible in salads! Can’t wait!

Speaking of chickens… their reaction to the rosemary in their usual nesting box was – to move to another nesting box!!! I laughed when I saw where the eggs were today!

There are three nesting boxes – they always all lay in the same one!! Todays production low with only three!!

I did spend some time contemplating my major garden overhauls during this winter.

Plannnnnnnnnnnn — The winter back yard looks kinda forlorn!

I am pretty bad at getting a plan in my head. We need the access as we drive down to the back of the hothouse to drop firewood off and sometimes other bigger garden purchases like mushroom compost.

I need to be able to still let the chickens out to a decent sized run, but would have to keep any additional garden beds very separate from them! I like the idea of a bunch of raised beds in the back area somehow.

I have decided to extend the raspberry patch by one more row.

Then – there is the back of the house yard which I so very much want to landscape!

Plan

I have plans to move the clothesline to the side of the hothouse – it will get good sun there but not be in our view.

This whole area to me is wasted as lawn. I have dreams of a crazy rambling garden – but no idea where to start!! (Hence it being lawn for 4 years!!)

Oh well… I have the whole winter to work on that. Readers suggestions (Sensible and crazy) are totally welcome!

Cheers!

You know the fire is hot enough when the cat starts oozing out of his sleeping bag!!!

Winter: Day One

Pip doesn’t actually like the wheel barrow.

Well… winter started today and it was a good one. Sun was out & I was working in the garden in a t-shirt again!

Since it just turned into June, I thought I should start to prepare my garlic patch. The rogue dahlias had finished so I could pull them up plus any spare potatoes that had started growing

Since garlic likes a more alkaline soil, I gave it a reasonable dusting of lime

Time to dig it all in

Nice! In a few days I will add blood and bone – then plant my garlic cloves

What fascinates me is the fact this plot has been dug over several times since digging up our potatoes. Not to mention wallowing about in the dirt sifting it through my fingers! How the hell did I miss these?

Potatoes are good at hiding. I have also transplanted three that had grown rather well… who knows what they will do? Produce winter potatoes?

I have a good lot of dahlia tubers to relocate

My self seeded lettuce are half-heartedly growing!

I figured it was time to replant the broccoli that a certain chicken made a salad bar out of…

Look at them all milling about eyeing off the greens!!

Stakes in with high-tech pot barriers so the netting doesn’t slip through

And no – the end result is not pretty. But I think it will do as a chook-deterrent until they can get established.

Picked what broccoli/broccolini I could see that was ready

several small pieces – not nearly as impressive as Ruby’s!

Next task was the coop! I found half a bag of chopped hay, so I was able to half clean the coop. Scraping off all the poo and putting new hay in nesting boxes

Since I have plenty of herbs around the place, it doesn’t hurt to pick a bundle and chuck a bit in the nesting boxes and around the coop. Have no idea if its especially beneficial, but it makes the whole place smell a bit nicer – and I am sure the chickens appreciate the lengths I am willing to go to, to keep them happy!

I considered some of the curry-plant, then thought better of it!! 😀

Hope your day was great too!

Cheers

Ruby Tuesday: A Scattering of Stories

Still a couple of roses looking lovely left in Ruby’s garden

I dashed about Ruby’s garden before going inside to indulge in cake, coffee and stories! (and got so engrossed I forgot to get a photo of Ruby today!)

I was trying to get a sense of what life was like during the depression and war, in terms of things people had to go without, with the rationing.

It was a little hard to stay on track this afternoon…lots of sideline stories and memories!

Ruby was born in 1916 – Right in the middle of the Great War. People were just getting on track again when the depression hit, then of course right on its heels came the second world war.

Living in country Tasmania back in those days, things were never plentiful. Being remote from the rest of Australia as well as transport being scarce, people had to make do or go without! Nothing like the choices we make now to voluntarily reduce our crazy consumerism… it was just a way of life!

The broccoli (or maybe cabbage) that I planted last week are doing just fine

Ruby seemed to think that those in the country actually had things a little better than those in the city. If you were in the country, you could more easily feed yourselves via the vegetable gardens, chickens and pretty much everyone had a cow, which totally took care of the milk, cream and butter issue.

When the ships came into Burnie, Ruby’s Dad would load up the horse and take a couple of tons of potatoes into town, and do the shopping at the same time. Supplies would come in on the ships, so flour & sugar etc were bought at that time, and bought in bulk. (we are talking 70lb bags here! (30+ kilos)

Ruby was reminiscing about one particular trip where the whole family went into town (She had a sister and two brothers). Her mother did the rare thing of buying a loaf of bread, as she probably hadn’t had time that day to make one. By the time they got home she found a completely hollowed out loaf!! Once the siblings started nibbling out the inside it seemed they couldn’t stop!! Just the crusts were left, which was what they had on the table that night!

Apparently (luckily) her mum saw the funny side!

Broccoli side shoots are springing up everywhere!

Ration books were issued once a year. Coupons were cut out at the counter, and it was illegal to trade in ones that were already cut. However, people did – Ruby doesn’t remember anyone getting into trouble for it.

As the war started, Ruby began nursing. She said farewell to one of her brothers, who went to war and never came home. There is a beautiful photo of her and Syd in their respective uniforms that graces the wall in her lounge room.

Ruby’s beautiful lemon tree – I think some more lemon butter is on the cards soon!

The hospital wards were always short of supplies and it was a juggling act to provide patients with what they needed.

Hot house tomatoes are going well despite being ridiculously out of season!!

They were supplied with cots for the babies, but no mattresses or bedding! The nurses had to be creative. A spare bed was robbed of its pillows to make mattresses, blankets were folded to make soft borders around the hard edges of the cots, and napkins were used to fill in gaps to stop the draughts getting in to the babies!

Tiny tomato forming. No-one told it that winter starts tomorrow!

The mothers understood the plights of the nurses and banded together to give them any spare coupons that they could lay their hands on.

Ruby and some of the other nurses got permission to use the coupons and given money by the hospital board to purchase materials. They then set about slowly (and in their time off) sewing up the things needed to make their patients lives more comfortable.

Ruby was so mortified that these new mothers were being served dinners off these terrible old tin trays instead of nice plates!! (even though she insists the food was good!)

Ruby remembers her other brother Col, when spending time with his friends, that they would go to the shop and see what they could buy for a treat. Usually it was cheese!!! Imagine that! Buying a lump of cheese to nibble on as a treat from a shop!

How our worlds have changed!

Banana passionfruit vine still flowering

And really – the most important question in my mind was “What about chocolate??”

Gosh! Chocolate was a rare rare treat! If you were lucky (and it was available) you might get some on your birthday, or some at Christmas! Ruby’s eyes lit up – “It was a real ‘red letter’ day if you got chocolate!”

Boiled sweets were more common, but still a luxury. Sugar wasn’t so plentiful that you could go making sweets for the kids, and as Ruby pointed out – there wasn’t that much time for such frivolities!

I don’t think people know how fortunate we are to live in our worlds where so much is at our fingertips!

Soap scraps in an old fruit string bag for gardeners to wash up with

I asked Ruby if the people in the city found the rationing more difficult as they were maybe more used to having things available, but she thought not, simply because people just didn’t have money and so were used to going without.

I can only imagine the vast majority of us in first world countries would take things very hard if we suddenly got super restricted on our basic foodstuffs, never-mind all the luxuries!

Well – I have two pieces of chocolate left that I am about to indulge in. However, I won’t take it for granted. I will appreciate it that little bit more tonight!

Cheers

A New “Spot” & Back to the Garage

The super clear blue skies and t-shirt weather had me feeling pretty chirpy today! Even my PJ pants were dancing in the sun!

The day started financially well, with a lady who had bought some produce off us from the out-the-front-stall ringing me with a request for four jars of raspberry jam!! yay.

$16 richer, I decided I couldn’t possibly bury myself in the shed all day, so I picked another spot that was nice and easy and got to work

Hard to tell where the lawn stops and the little garden starts!

Even though there were a lot of tap-rooted weeds in here, the recent rains made digging them up a pretty easy job

Dunno what these are, but they are everywhere!

It didn’t really take too long to get it all ship shape again

Now the Winter Roses (Hellebores) have a chance to shine!

While Pip napped in the garden, I brought up a few barrow loads of wood and stacked at the back door…

Before getting into the hot house to pick what was ready

My hanging tomatoes ripening up pretty well

Not a bad little basketful considering its winter the day after tomorrow!

Something extra for the dinner plate?

I couldn’t put it off any longer. Back to the garage for me to attack a few more boxes.

Some things I had to put back without even sorting them – countless boxes of negatives and photos. That’s a whole years project by itself!

Same goes for the letters/cards. Resisted reading them or I would have still been out there instead of here writing this.

But my overall conclusion is – I have a mild hoarding problem

Example 1

A bottle filled with beach sand and a 3/4 empty bottle of bath salts that I have had longer than I have had Jeff.

Example 2

A lovely smelly sachet for your drawers, which I estimate I have had in my possession since I was a young teenager. (lets say closer to 30 years than 20 OK??) (Mind you it actually still smells really nice!! 😀

Example 3

This is not the only tin/bag/box full of rocks that I keep discovering and that doesn’t include what I have accidentally collected since moving to Tassie.

Is there therapy for this kind of addiction??

I let Pip into the shed to keep me company. Apparently the pinboard is an excellent nail sharpening spot.

Eventually he got bored and found a good squishy spot, as only cats can do and decided to nap it out.

He is afraid I am going to play my newly found harmonica at him again

There was the thrill of maybe finding a hidden fortune – this was my bills file, where I kept house keeping money.

I confess to being slightly disappointed…

And the famous matchbox collection? Part of it is stored in a chocolate box. I received this for my 10th birthday when I was living in Venezuela, from the Big Boss of the company my Dad was working for!

It held two layers of chocolates!! Two!!!! I had never been given anything quite so posh in my life, and looking at the tin brings back that feeling of incredulity that I could be so lucky!

It now holds part of my collection of Venezuelan matchboxes

A secret treasure or two can be found within…

I must have been about 13 or 14. I had a boyfriend who bought me that necklace. The thing is, I knew he had only spent $2 on it as the shop selling them was quite loud about it. I also knew that if I wore it, the ‘gold’ would rub off in a matter of days & I didn’t want him to feel bad about it… so I hid it in the above matchbox to preserve its goldness for all time. 😀

My second best find?

Might have to keep my eye out for a turntable!! I also found an LP of excellent bedtime stories too!

What was my best find? That’s for another day!

Hope your week has started at least as well as mine has!

Cheers!

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PS Occasional Extras on my Facebook Page!

Jeff “Picks a Spot”

Unfortunately for me, that spot wasn’t in the garden.

It was the garage.

My life for the foreseeable future is over.

I don’t even have photos!

The main aim was to hang the Kayaks out of the way for winter.

Hang on… let me go get photo…

(It’s quite cold outside right now!! – about 4C or 39F)

Aaaanyway… why am I being a complete drama queen about my life being over? Because it’s going to take forever to sort my stuff – you know the boxes you cart from house to house that you don’t even open but filled with stuff you can’t possibly part with??

yeah, that’s me.

So I started trying to be ruthless. It takes a long time. You have to read all the bad poetry you wrote as a teenager (someone get me a bucket please), read all the cards you kept from long lost rellies, and smile at all the nic-nacs that were given to you by various friends and interrupt your husband a million times so he can “Check out this photo!!!” (His smile and look of interest was getting a bit fixed by late afternoon – no sympathy – he started it!)

Oooooo – I also found my only known last will and testament!! Its Fabulous! I leave my money (described as my ‘fortune’) to my sisters if they can decipher a cryptic message, I leave my soft toys to a school-friends first born (who will be so grateful as she is quite grown up now) and another extremely lucky friend is to inherit my extensive matchbox collection (which I found carefully packed in another of the boxes). I also left my diary to ‘Shaun’ the poor kid I had a relentless crush on throughout school. Mind you – the fact that every diary I ever owned had about a weeks worth of writing before I got distracted and abandoned the project, would have made it a short read for him.

A friend dropped in for a cuppa, which was awesome – rescued me from the agony for a while which was nice.

But I will have to get back in there tomorrow and make the tough decisions (like what to do with the boxes and buckets of collected rocks for instance) so Jeff can have his shed back.

SO – I will leave you with a series of photos I took yesterday of the waves swirling over the rocks at Fossil Bluff last night. (Some of which appeared on my facebook page)

I’ll return with an exciting list of the weird and wonderful things I find and keep in boxes tomorrow.

Cheers

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Source Images: DSC_5483.JPG (Av: F13.0; Tv: 1/15 sec.; ISO: 0; FL: 31.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1)

Source Images: DSC_5484.JPG (Av: F13.0; Tv: 1/15 sec.; ISO: 0; FL: 32.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1)

Source Images: DSC_5485.JPG (Av: F13.0; Tv: 1/15 sec.; ISO: 0; FL: 28.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1)

Source Images: DSC_5486.JPG (Av: F13.0; Tv: 1/10 sec.; ISO: 0; FL: 36.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1)

Source Images: DSC_5488.JPG (Av: F13.0; Tv: 1/8 sec.; ISO: 0; FL: 28.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1)

Source Images: DSC_5490.JPG (Av: F13.0; Tv: 1/6 sec.; ISO: 0; FL: 28.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Getting my feet wet waiting for waves!

Source Images: DSC_5491.JPG (Av: F13.0; Tv: 1/8 sec.; ISO: 0; FL: 28.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1)

Source Images: DSC_5492.JPG (Av: F13.0; Tv: 1/10 sec.; ISO: 0; FL: 32.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1)

Source Images: DSC_5495.JPG (Av: F13.0; Tv: 1/6 sec.; ISO: 0; FL: 28.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1)

Source Images: DSC_5496.JPG (Av: F13.0; Tv: 1/10 sec.; ISO: 0; FL: 28.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1)

Source Images: DSC_5497.JPG (Av: F13.0; Tv: 1/6 sec.; ISO: 0; FL: 28.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1)

Source Images: DSC_5500.JPG (Av: F13.0; Tv: 1/6 sec.; ISO: 0; FL: 28.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1)

Source Images: DSC_5503.JPG (Av: F13.0; Tv: 1/30 sec.; ISO: 0; FL: 28.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1)