I'm back!!!

I got back from Melbourne and Sydney on Wednesday and had such a lovely time with the girls. Its hard to believe that Melissa will be in her mid 30's in a few days with Alison only three years behind. I always have such a good time at their respective places and I feel more comfortable in their homes than I do anywhere else apart from my home.

When I was down in Melbourne Alison talked me into having my right wrist re X rayed as it seemed to be getting worse rather than better. I fell on it in early march this year and the local X Ray showed no fracture...so after the initial swelling went down i made myself use it - an osteo and physio told me to get it mobile as soon as I could (based on the X ray.

Turns out that I have a fracture of the radius down at the wrist end. The doctor said not to use it to carry heavy things etc which I had been doing...and to wear a support when it was painful. The opposite of what i was told 5 months ago.

Our X Ray place up here is bloody hopeless...I remember all the botch ups they had when Don would have to go it...don't know if its old equipment or that they aren't careful enough.

I was beginning to have difficulty writing and doing buttons etc up and being my right hand it was becoming a nuisance. So thanks to Alison's pushing me it will heal in time as its too late now to put it in a cast or anything that should have been done

I left Melbourne before all the really wild weather but one day there the lake was whipped up so much that it had waves - From her high rise flat over Albert Park it was amazing to watch.

When I got back to Sydney Melissa was sick and vomiting and totally exhausted from it...so mum came at the right time. We spent some really close time together - I did with both of them.

I went to see the barrister who has gone through my book but the upshot of that I'll cover another day because he's still working on it.

Then the drive home from Sydney which I nearly didn't make because I started to get sick myself and found I could hardly stay awake on the drive. So I stopped often. Today is the first day I have felt even human and I am really washed out - so just blogging and catching up today and then I'm going to watch Parts 2 and3 of Gene Rodenberry's "Earth the Final conflict" has anyone seen that series...its addictive - although Sci Fi its as addictive as the Sopranos or Deadwood - made by HBO - I think they did the Rome Series as well.

I was pretty pleased to be home as usual but still can't get used to the idea that there is no one else here when I get home. There's plenty of people in that position and I am lucky that I have two of this earth's nicest people as my kids and some good sisters as well. I have one really solid lifelong (almost) good friend, two cats and you lot so life is really good especially compared to many other people.

I think I am just rambling now -

CS just responded to my previous post
that I had a "Sweet" voice...why thank you CS...not something we Australians would expect...in fact some years back our writing group, ( half of who were recently off the boat from Pommiland) had to read out stories on local radio and the husband of one of the readers said "You can pick out all the best readers, they're the Poms" - and he was Australian! ... So CS you can see why your compliment was well received. You Yankees must be a bit kinder than the Poms.
I was gobsmacked because was being read out in Australia, on the Australian Broadcasting Commission's radio station - coming from a generation which is way past cultural cringe of being England's leftovers I wrote this which was read out at our next meeting with great approval from my Aussie compatriots...

The Verdict

The verdict is now in; we can all do our sums,

From Yorkshire and Scotland, or from London slums,

Their musical, modulated enunciation,

Their rich and well-paced pronunciation

And for their accented, articulate, articulation

We stand in awe and absolute adulation,

With wailing and gnashing of teeth for

No matter how correctly they give us their instruction,

The best readers in our group appear to be Poms.

Not like us, us low bred; bred from convict scum,

From a motley lot who don’t know where we came from.

Drawling slow and dreary - as bleak as a hot Sunday afternoon,

Under brazen open skies our narrowed lips and eyes,

Droning flat our vowels - flat as the land of our birth,

Or rattling out our words like bullets

So as not to take up someone else’s time –

we’re an unselfish lot we are, that way.

Nah! We’ll never read as good as any Pom.

But stone the crows and starve the lizards,

we’ve got colour in our language.

It sears with sarcasm, hot as tar in February

And a flick of a word from a closed mouth can wound or praise,

Even though you might have to ask for it to be repeated.

Yes, and we’ve learned from the Master - Paul, (Ex PM)

from Bankstown, that a soufflé rising twice

has nothing at all to do with cooking. Thank you Paul.

But nah! We’ll never read as good as any Pom.

Even “Blind Freddie could see that Poms all read so well

And so what if they “have more hide than Jessie”,

and don’t know “whether they’re Arthur or Martha”.

So what if they’ve got “more front than Myers”

And are well known to be shy of water,

But we’re such happy little “Vegemites’

(Or should I call us Dickie Mites, now they’ve sold our National icon,)

We’ll let them read on radio, with their peculiar pacing pronunciations

All sounding vaguely like Judy Dench, God love her -

That’s the sort of people that we are,

But nah! Still, we’ll never read as good as any Pom.

I am off to Sydney today and will catch up with things when I can access a computer...

Saturday Arvo...for those who lead as quiet a life as do I

Last Saturday I was outside with a glass of (cask) de Bertolli's Columbard Chardonay - priced at $16 bucks for yes 4 litres of vino - and its just about the only vino that doesn't give me a headache or stuff up my sinuses - so it must be good for me...as it is a deputation to the Pope...yes to the Pope in Italy from some Australian diplomat deliverered to the Pope some De Bertolli's vino but somehow i doubt it was a cask...they used to call them a "Gin's Purse" and only Australians will know why...its not nice...but as I bring home my own Gin's Purse on occasion it doesn't worry me too much.

So last Saturday I was at loose ends and sat outside on the verandah bed (which I picked up from the local Vinnies), listening to some Irish music...(something I cannot do if I am inside the house)....it makes me cry......the two cats gathered and I grabbed my camera thinking to get some stills...then decided to video my quiet life...

Its a nice peaceful video...but noice as well...if maybe a tad boring for those in the fast lane

Time for a clean up.
I finally got the courage to go down to the shed on the flat ground near the tidal creek and sweep it out. The stink of dead rats in that shed has stopped me cleaning it for a months now, as the rats were in varying states of decay and not just one or two... so yesterday i thought I'd tackle it...
It was pretty high in the shed even after opening the doors. Then in under a big roll of nylon netting I saw a big shiny black shape...which looked like tar at first because it was moist and very black. Then it seemed to be moving...SNAKE!!!

But was a very dead snake - it was a snake full of maggots and they were moving...a few dry retches later I had to figure out how to get it out an away from the place. A slight move and it began to fall apart spilling maggoty matter everywhere...more dry retches...

Finally I rolled it in the netting and used the netting to pull it out ...

The snake must have gone in there after the rats and got itself trapped in the netting head first... unable to reverse. But hey I thought being dead winter snakes should be all asleep... when I first found it all stretched out it would have been 6' and quite round in places.... but after moving it it was a bit mucked up.. am feeling quite pleased with myself at persevering when all my instincts said leave it alone..shut the door and it'll all go away in about a month...

Some more photos from my back yard...

I am really proud of this first flower...it was Don's and I never was much good getting it to flower...don't know what it is...but have a look at this stem...and all flowers open and unblemished.


I am not a great gardener and do it with minimal effort but this year with all the rain its all a go even in mid winter...




















This is all on top of the mound that the house sits on, to keep it out of flood waters... I originally fenced it in to protect our lovely old doggie Thorn from yobs who sped into my yard and hit him more than once...but now its becoming a lovely spot...I think Don would be flabbergasted at this...I don't know the names or anything, but you can tell what propagates and what doesn't by the look and feel...and mostly I just shove stuff in and away it goes...





















You can tell there is not much for me to post if I am reduced to this...

I went to yet another sad funeral yesterday...people my own age..the wife looked at me and there was nothing I could help her with. I know the bleakness she faces and I know how her nights will be...Her husband, like mine, loved plants and trees and the wide sky, people; her husband as with mine was generous, wicked and funny and stroppy...they were a unique couple and although she is lucky to have had a love with a man like her husband was...she is also unlucky in that her suffering will be awful.

But how much better than mediocre, and weak. That would have been a living death. I know women, and some men who are in a living death like this. Their suffering when one partner goes may seem less, but how much better a life richly lived, with all the risks, fear and laughter, than a half a life in which the partners are partners in name only ,and not in heart and spirit.
A bit of a thought train on a sweet. sweet Sunday afternoon, when with all that has happened I can look about me and know how lucky I am...how lucky I have always been and why worry about the future...?

A Bucket O' Mandarins
Not a lot to post right now...but I have to admit I get real pleasure form the little mandarin tree down the back...its about the 6th bucket I have had off it this year and about another 2 to go as they ripen...there is one greenish one in this bucket...but it just fell off the tree ...its time had come.

I usually keep half a dozen for myself and give them away to whoever comes . People are amazing when you give them something from your own backyard. You could give someone a DVD or a book as a pressie and they'd be grateful but when it comes to fresh food they say "thank you "over and over.
They are lucky to get any because there is nothing I like better than standing outside in the late afternoon wintry sun and eating them as I pull them off the tree...still warm from that sun.

There is a lemon and a lime tree, which don't produce much; a plum tree which the birds always beat me to and good luck to them...they are hungrier than I will ever be. Other citrus as well ...and a grapefruit tree...could never eat grapefruit....

I am in a "waiting" mode now...getting my tax done and getting everything weeded and looked after, because I know as soon as the legal eagles are finished with the book it will be back into it... I think I have needed this time...