Category Archives: ponderings

goodbye to some dear friends

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I have some dear friends who’ve been there for me through thick and thin, through the good times and the bad… I’m really quite attached to them.
I’m talking about my Blundstone boots.
Tasmanian made, all Australian, tough and comfortable. 
I love them. They’re the first boots I bought after moving to Tasmania in 2003. They’re 10 years old now.
All in all that’s a pretty good run for boots… They’ve been failing for a while now and I’ve been planning to throw them out every time we go to the tip, but somehow I can never bring myself to take that final step.
Sometimes you just have to face facts and admit that its time to let go.

When I had my first litter of standard poodle puppies they chewed off a pull tab so its been hard to get one of the boots on for years.

Then last year something in the vamp seemed to collapse and make them uncomfortable to wear, but I persevered and we got past that hickup.

They have scuff marks from kicking weeds, scratches from having things dropped on them, dints where I used them to prop up doors when screwing in hinges. They have at least 3 different colour paint splotches on them from when I wore them while painting my house in Fentonbury first, then here later…

When the soles gave way I knew it was time to say goodbye.

*sniff*

To make matters worse, the boots I bought for riding are starting to smile. And they’re only about 3 years old and nowhere near as comfortable for all day wear as the blunnies…

On the upside, I can now buy myself a new pair of Blundstones…

🙂

z

what i have and haven’t done

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Despite all rumours to the contrary, I haven’t been abducted by aliens, I’m not in some out of the way hospital with amnesia and I’m not lying dead in a ditch.

Although, when I look around the house right now I’m seriously tempted to run off and join the circus…

I’ve just been… busy.

The kitchen is… not quite happening… I’ll have an update on that soon.

The living room looks like the dogs are running the household. They’ve trained me to do the washing but they’re really useless at folding and putting clothes away. Eh. That’s ok. The baskets of clean clothes fill in the spaces in the living room which would otherwise look bare and boring.

The guest room… well, let me put it this way: I went in there to find something the other day and got pinned under a stack of boxes. If the dogs hadn’t found me I think Wayne would have wondered why I’d left him till the smell gave it away.

The office looks like my brain exploded.

Yeah. Really. Every project, every little thing I’ve kept cause ‘it’ll come in handy one day’ or ‘I have plans for’ is on the floor. Every available surface is covered in ‘things to finish’, ‘things to sort’ and ‘things to put away when I find a place for them’. When you walk in there you have to shuffle so you don’t step on anything sharp.

I went in there the other day to clean up so I can find the paperwork I know I need to do, but I was so overwhelmed by the site, I gave up. I just didn’t know where to start.

I think I need to move.

How do people manage?

I mean it, how do people manage to do everything that needs to be done? I know I’ve asked this before, but no one is giving away their secrets.

I’m only working 3.5 days. And I groom dogs which is really another job, but its at home so it almost isn’t like having a ‘real job’. You’d think I’d have tons of time to DO things, right? Well, I thought I’d have tons of time to do things.

But I don’t.

Sometimes I know its cause I’m just too tired or worn out by the heat (have I mentioned I hate the heat?) to lift a finger. Not to even fold washing.

I had such big plans for this summer. I was going to finish painting the house – then found I had a great excuse to put it off… after all, I can’t paint till the new kitchen window goes in, right? I was going to paint the rails on the porch… At least I managed to wash an section of them today so I can (hopefully) start painting there this weekend so the potato vine can start climbing instead of grovelling. I planned to ride more. Or ride SOME. I planned to make stuff for the next market. ha. I planned to do up a couple of old pieces of furniture…

I guess I should consider the few things that I have done and not beat myself up about it. I’ve started a kitchen renovation. I’ve patched up the bathroom to make it more user friendly without actually remodelling it. I put in garden beds (by organising someone else to do the work) and grew a lot of my own plants from seeds. I (we) got the driveway and dam fixed. I (we) raised ducklings. And got geese. And a miniature horse. I got Dancer broken to saddle and have started riding her.

So I’ve done tons.

Why do I feel like I haven’t done anything?

z

saving the hydrangeas

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Today was HOT.

Ok, maybe not as hot as it gets in, say, Uganda, but HOT.

I was working in Hobart today, in air conditioning, so that was ok. It was the thought of coming home afterwards, to a house that’s been baking in the sun for a few hours, no air conditioning and no breeze that kind of worried me.

Thing is, our house must be in the hottest pocket of the Derwent Valley. I thought it was hot in Fentonbury but I was always buoyed by the knowledge that Bushy Park was always hotter (or colder) by a few degrees. And they had fog. Almost every single day in winter.

Then we moved to Magra. Where it gets cold. And foggy. And wet.

And hot.

On Wednesday they predicted something in the 30s (celsius of course). I doubt it got to that. In Hobart at least. It was warm, but not stifling. There was a cool breeze coming off the Derwent. I drove to New Norfolk and it was quite pleasant there too. Hot sun but a cool breeze. Windy almost.

Then I went home.

Not a skerrick of a breeze. Just stinking, stifling, sticky, sickening heat.

I parked the car in the carport and the first thing I saw was my gorgeous wilting hydrangeas. They were melting into the ground!

Now you know I don’t do well in the heat. If I didn’t love those plants I’d have said “Oh well, they’ll get watered tonight when I do the rest of the garden” and gone inside to sit in front of a fan and groan. But I do love them. They’re the first hydrangeas I’ve ever managed to keep alive a week beyond purchase!

And they were doing so well in that spot… Its south facing so doesn’t get as much sun as the rest of the garden, I water them daily in summer, they seemed happy.

I gave them an emergency drink and ran around the casita gathering all three of my umbrellas which I put up around them. (Thanks goodness for showing dogs and accumulating umbrellas!)

I bet the neighbours drive past and think “That crazy woman. Now she’s put umbrellas over her garden.”

Today was predicted to be the hottest day in Tasmania for the last 50 years or something. Tomorrow will be 20 degrees cooler, they say. Thank goodness for our changeable weather conditions!

Meanwhile, I decided to go to the movies today. I wanted to see Saving Mr Banks cause 1. I love Tom Hanks ( if Tom ever called I’d dump Wayne in a flash), 2. who doesn’t love Mary Poppins, and 3. movie theatres are air conditioned!

I almost missed the movie. Well, ok, not quite, but I’m glad I decided to get there an hour early to have a coffee and relax. Took me 30 minutes to get into the car park. There were two older women in small cars stuck in some kind of standoff, jammed so that neither could get in or out.

Honestly. You know what they say about women drivers? Well, I had to agree today. I almost got out of my car and offered to drive the car out of the parking lot for the totally useless one.

I managed to get my car in, and out, without any trouble. Trust me, four door 4×4 utes aren’t made for tight parking spots… Most people just don’t know how to drive.

Anyway, loved the movie. Laughed lots and cried some. And guess what? It had cooled down and even rained a bit when I got out.

Thank goodness for Tasmania’s changeable weather. It bears repeating.

z

i’m not perfect

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I know, I know. Its a shock. But its true. I’m not perfect.

In fact, I have no idea how those bloggers I follow manage to do so much in their day! They blog every day and have something productive to share every single time.

Its not that I don’t DO things. I do. I make stuff, I re-arrange furniture, I change rooms around… I work at a ‘real job’, groom dogs, try to keep up with the yard work, fight the never-ending battle with cape weed and dirty dishes. And I don’t even have kids. Some of these bloggers have children.

How do they do it? I mean, I can ignore the dogs if they pester me while I’m trying to work. You can’t ignore children. Well, not unless you want child services to visit…

Do they never sleep? Is that it?

See, I have these photos. I took them the other day when the guys were here working.

I just never got around to resizing them and posting them when I blogged. Even though they were relevant to that post.

So in the spirit of sharing, here are the missing pics.

This is the ‘before’ pic of the side of the house. Actually, its a little after ‘before’ as one plant has already been pulled out and a concrete slab has been put down for the hot water cylinder to sit on.

Here is the hot water cylinder, sitting on our front porch. With Barney watching over things.

Here is the hot water cylinder on the slab at the side of the house. A much better spot for it. Out of the way.

Here is the porch minus the hot water cylinder. Much bigger now. With Romeo overseeing things.

Here is the retaining wall on the side of the driveway. 
Here is the retaining wall with the next section started. Wayne worked on this in the hot sun all weekend.
How do you know when Wayne has had enough for the day?
There are always a few things left lying around in the yard… I guess he’s not perfect either.
z

a nice start to the new year

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I hope you all had a Happy New Year.

We did nothing at all to celebrate on New Year’s Eve, but we started the year in a great way. An old friend of mine came to visit with her family.

We had been good friends long LONG ago in Melbourne but lost touch when she moved overseas to live. It was years since we’d seen eachother. A few months ago I got an email from her, she found me on the internet!

I guess the upside of having such an online presence is that you are easy to find for old friends.

The downside is being easy to find by ex-boyfriends.

I mean, I’m not on bad terms with every guy I ever went out with, but really …? I’m middle aged now. (If I plan to live to be over 100.) Asking me what I’m wearing is a bit inappropriate!

Anyway, I digress. We had the best day. Me and my old friend caught up on old times and the intervening years, the men bonded over the BBQ and a walk on the hill, the girls spoilt the dogs and Herman Too was permanently stunted by all the cuddling.

It was great. We ‘girls’ even had a dance for old times sake, to one of our favourite tunes: Red Cadillac and a Black Moustache. We listened to my Straight 8’s cd and remembered our rockabily days.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned my passion for rockabilly and rock’n’roll on the blog. Maybe one day I’ll post about my musical adventures and dig up photos to share, but for now suffice it to say that rockabilly really speaks to me… almost like I was a hillbilly in a past life. Its the double bass and the rhythm that gets my heart thumping and my feet tapping.

The Straight 8’s are still playing. Back then I used to go dancing 3 or 4 times a week. And when I say dancing, I mean dancing. I would go see my favourite bands (the Straight 8’s were my very favourite) and I’d dance all night. I may have stopped to have a drink of water now and then, or when the band stopped for a break.

I sure miss those days.

And my slim fit self who could dance all night, wring my shirt out and keep dancing.

z

while i’m reminiscing – scooter and the big bad cows

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http://poodlelane.com/ScooterBook/index.htm

While I was looking over my websites this morning, checking what needs to be updated, changed, making sure links still worked, I came across my links to the book I wrote about Scooter.

Its not that I’d forgotten I’d done this book, its just that I hadn’t looked at it for a long time.

I opened the links and looked at the preview page I’d set up for it, which lead to the Lulu page to buy the book. It was looking at the drawings that got me feeling nostalgic.

I sold all the original watercolours I’d done for this book on ebay after I’d finished the book. They were simple pen and ink and watercolour drawings, but they were so expressive. Now I wish I’d kept a few and framed them for myself.

Oh well. At least I still have a copy of the book.

I miss Scooter. He was such a character. A huge personality in a tiny package.

z

the lost blog is found again

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Billy, the great naked hunter, seconds before he dove into the river after some ducks.

Long ago, when I first started blogging, I was using Shine on Yahoo.

Then, one day, Yahoo changed its settings and you had to register and do some jumping through hoops to keep using Shine, which they’d changed as well… Don’t ask me. My brain stopped working when I went to post and found I had to log in and register differently. So I went looking for another, easy place to blog.

I tried to transfer all my old posts over to blogger.com but couldn’t find a way to do that, so I wrote it off as gone. I may be a whizz at doing design work on a computer, but when it comes to technical stuff… forget it!

After that, I couldn’t find my old blog anywhere. Shine no longer existed and it seemed the whole thing was lost forever.

When I did a search on google I found one post and from there I was able to find the whole thing. Only now its in archives.

I started blogging in May 2010. I set it up before my first trip to Greece since moving to Tasmania in 2003, so that I could keep in touch with friends while I was away, and to have a record of my trip. When I thought the blog was lost my only comfort was that I’d made a photobook of the trip and used posts from the blog in it.

Anyway, you can see the old blog and read posts by going to this link. It was a great trip and the posts I shared at that time were funny and I’m glad they’re not totally lost. All those family stories I shared… I didn’t want to have to post about them all again, like an old person telling the same stories over and over to a bored audience who can recite them word for word after all the times they’ve heard them.

It seems like such a long time ago.

I was living in Fentonbury, I still had Billy and Scooter and Pagan were still alive… sigh.

z

weeds and other realisations

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Let me introduce you to cape weed.

Ground zero (otherwise known as our lawn) is covered with the stuff.

Over the last week I’ve become obsessed with the stuff.

Now you know I’m not much of a gardener…. but I have this ‘grandpa weeder’ thing I bought a couple of years ago and never used, which allows you to pull out weeds without having to bend over or dig them out. I rediscovered this handy little tool last week and I’ve been waging war against the cape weed ever since.

So far, the cape weed is winning.

I’ve been out there every chance I get, when the weather is nice, when I have some free time, when I walk through the yard and spot another cape weed glaring at me with its beady little eyes…

Last week I filled four big garbage bags with weeds. This week I filled another three.

All I have to show for it are a whole lot of ‘holes’ in the so-called lawn.

And the cape weed continues to thrive.

I’m not ready to give up yet. Sometimes it takes a long time for defeat to sink in.

Like how long it took me to give up on the all natural, home-made, eco-friendly cleaning products.

I read all this stuff on Pinterest about how you can clean the shower using vinegar and dish washing liquid and I was like “Yeah! Healthy and natural, not to mention cheap!”. So I scrubbed and washed and scrubbed and washed. But the mold kept coming back stronger than before. The vinegar was only making it angry.

It was a few months (and a disgustingly black shower) before I gave up and pulled out the big guns. Give me strong chemicals any time! At least now I don’t need a tetanus shot to have a shower!

Similarly, the gardening attempts… We’ve been here for over 2 years… All this time I’ve been kidding myself that I’ll create a garden… that I can create a garden. Despite all evidence to the contrary – as attested to by all the dead plants who came home with me in great hopes of a good life in the country.

When I was flat on my back groaning in pain a couple of weeks ago, I finally decided to admit defeat. I will never be a gardener. So I did what any self respecting failure would do: I paid someone else to do it!

I hired a friend to come over and weed and put in a couple of garden beds for me. I had planted a line of lavenders along the front of the house. (Most of them actually made it surprisingly.) But the weeds were drowning them.

This is the planning stage: weeds gone, weed matting down, pots placed where plants would go in.

I found this great mini corregated edging which is so ‘me’. I love the yard now! (Well except for the cape weed.)
Just imagine how great the place will look when the painting is finished and the plants are grown….

The area around the trellis has a new garden bed too.

I’m really loving my new garden. When its mowed. And I can’t see the cape weed…

 

I swear, I was never into gardens or flowers, but come spring, I kinda go crazy and want a garden and buy plants like crazy, then have to smuggle them into the garden so Wayne won’t see them. He has no faith in my gardening abilities.
I love watching my flowers grow (some of them…) despite my ignorance! It actually makes them more special if they survive me!

 

I still have a few unusual containers with plants in them but I’ve decided to stick with succulents in most of them cause most flowers can’t handle the heat in pots, and cause I love the way this old metal ammo box has filled out.

Eventually all these should fill up like the ammo box. Pretty cool, huh?
Anyway, this isn’t meant to be a gardening blog is it? I apologize… I just haven’t been doing a lot of creating lately. I have started a few new projects so hang in there, it will come!
z

PS. Thanks to Ginny who sent me a link to a handy page about “identifying that weed”, I now know the names of all the weeds in my yard. Now I can greet them by name.

The sad thing is that if I were to actually succeed in getting rid of the weeds, I’d have no lawn, just a mudpit in my yard. Maybe the wogs had it right…. just cement it all! No weeds, no mowing, no mud! LOL

really? is that how it ends?

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You know that I’ve been home, more or less with my hands tied, for over a week, right? Its been frustrating, boring, annoying, boring. Did I mention boring?

I don’t do well when I’m not able to DO things.

So I’ve been reading. Lots.

I have now finished The Hunger Games trilogy and … I am NOT happy.

Allow me to indulge myself in a little literary criticism. And a serious whine.

The books were great. Suspenseful, exciting. They reminded me of my favourite book of all time The Chrysalids, though they have nothing in common other than the fact that they’re based on civilisations after a major world catastrophe.

Book one was the best. Book two was great, though by then Katniss’ wishy-washy flip-flopping between Gale and Peeta were starting to grate on my nerves.

Book three was fine. It was ok.

If you didn’t mind that the main character spent so much time unconscious or drugged out on pain meds and had to have events recounted to her rather than experiencing them.

Then things just come to an abrupt but conveniently tidy end.

Seriously. Its like the author got bored or ran into a deadline and hurried to finish the book, tying up as many loose ends as she could in the last few pages. Ends she’d spent books unravelling in the first two books. S

Gale becomes some kind of war specialist in the army. Haymitch goes back to drinking. Peeta, who had been brainwashed by the enemy into hating Katniss doesn’t go through some heart wrenching re-discovery of his love for her. Katniss doesn’t have any emotional scenes where she breaks down and admits her love for Peeta. In fact there are no scenes at all at the end of the book. Its just an epilogue.

It goes from Katniss shooting the new president in the chest with an arrow, her blanking out, waking up as a prisoner in her room for a long time, gong back to her home in district 12 and then she and Peeta eventually marry and after 15 years or so he convinces her to have children so they have two all in the space of the final few pages…

HUH?

It was such a let down.

Ok. I’m over it now. I just had to complain about it to someone who cares (you care don’t you?)

But I’m over it.

Its just such a dismissive ending!

Ok. I’m over it.

z

there must be a name for this…

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Surely. 
I mean there’s a name for everything these days: OCD, ADHD, Packratting… why not a name for an attraction to old, broken, rusty things.
Why is it that when I see places like this one that my pulse quickens and all I can think of is how I wish I was there, climbing over things, into things, digging around, getting dirty, finding the hidden treasures anyone in their right mind would see as junk?
The best presents I’ve ever gotten were from junk stores. 
An old tool caddy. Some rusty pliers. 
Really, I am a cheap date!
I have to practice serious self restraint to stop myself from visiting every garage sale, every op shop or tip shop. Street markets and country fairs are impossible to resist! Sometimes its only Wayne that stands between me and the uncontrollable desire to hunt through piles of rubbish to find some treasure. Physically. I mean he has to hold me tight and steer me away, while I crane my neck to look behind me at the missed opportunities…
I’m not quite as bad as that TV show, but if I don’t get some intervention soon I might be.
Its been a couple of weeks since I saw the floor in my office. Today I sorted out piles of fabric and stashed it neatly in the cupboard. I have an excuse.
Of course.
I’ve been working on some sewing projects. And I’m planning for a workshop. So I had to have fabric everywhere and boxes full of stuff to take to the workshop.
Today my left brain kicked in and said “Ok right brain, enough with the creativity already. This place is a pit. Time to clear the clutter.”
I didn’t actually get rid of much (heaven forbid!), I’m just re-homing stuff. You know, moving it around so Wayne can’t keep track of it….
Some will go to work for a project or three. Some will go to the workshop for other projects, some will just go sit in the casita till another day comes when I get around to doing something with it.
One of the good things about running workshops is that I’ll be able to give some of the stuff I’ll never ‘get around to’ to others to work on! Two birds with one stone. I still get to work on projects, but they get to go home with someone else.
Kinda like grandkids… You get the joy of spending time with them, but they go home to mom and dad at the end of the day.
Anyway, our week hasn’t been without its dramas.
1. My computer is preparing to die. Not right now, but its coming. Its been coming for a couple of years now. I’ve called in the PC doctor and his prognosis was to make the most of our last moments together cause time is limited.
2. On Friday my netbook failed me. Its not the first time I had trouble booting it up. The PC doc said it was fine, he couldn’t find anything wrong with it. But on Friday it took 30min to boot up.
Not good.
3. You already know the wood heater is on its last legs. The baffle plate has been replaced 3 times since we moved here and that doesn’t stop it from crashing down occasionally. Then a few months ago the air vent jammed and wont unjam. Sure, we could probably have it serviced… but the actual box is cracked at the door. Seems silly to spend money on it. I’ve managed to keep it working properly by fixing it in a very high tech way…  I plugged the hole with aluminium foil.
So we’ll be needing a new wood heater soon. Before next winter in fact.
Now, you’d be right to think that that was three. Bad things come in three’s right? 
Well… maybe cause neither computer has actually turned its toes up yet, they don’t count as 2 bad things. Maybe they count as one combined thing. Maybe. Especially since I’m planning to replace both with a laptop, portable AND faster than the dinosaur I have right now. 
The one that runs on coal.
Yeah. Turns out Murphy had another thing in store for us…. thus we come to #4 on the list of bad things that normally come in threes…
4. On Friday the oven stopped working. 
No warning. I just turned it on, put on the timer, came back to check my apple crumble and found it stone cold.
Yeah, we hate that free standing cooker. Its one of those builder type ones you find in rentals. Plain, small… ok but not great. And the hotplates (electric of course) don’t work all that well. They’re hard to control temperature-wise so you’re either boiling things too hard or too slow. The oven didn’t cook evenly either. I had to turn it on max to preheat, then turn it down or a 40min bake would take 1.5 hours.
Time for a new stove.
And a new wood heater.
And a new computer.
And a winning lottery ticket!
I’m going to go drown my sorrows in a nice hot shower.
z