Possum Galore
A life ‘Down Under’!
Titivation!
She’s back!
So, it would seem there are ‘homing huntsmen’ after all. I wanted to relocate her again but Will said that she would get all the annoying flies that were buzzing around the room before bed so I left her alone.What has become of Rambo? Yet again there was no peep out of him. I awoke in the dark at one point and noticed the fairy lights had gone out and still there were no skitterings.It was a cloudy day but warm out. Will did some more clearing out at the back of the house and I cleaned all the windows inside and out. What a difference it made! Some of the putty had fallen out of some of the windows so I repaired those with new putty we had bought. Unfortunately, there were too many repairs to make and I ran out of putty so we’ll have to get some more for next time. I cleaned the doors inside and out and then started on the kitchen.
Before After
Will had moved onto the garden. He cleared more of the beds and mulched them. He planted some butternut pumpkin plants. A storm passed over and there was a smattering of rain but it was all bluster and no substance.He brought a ‘Christmas Beetle’ to show me and later showed me a praying mantis that he found in the garden.[gallery ids="745,746,747,748,749,750"]We were both busy for much of the day.
Through the clean window The first bed is finished.
We are very pleased with what we have achieved in these few weeks that we have been coming up here. There is still a great deal to do but it is looking so much better in such a short time.
Dirty Monkey!
Killing Cassinia!
There was not a peep out of Rambo last night. Perhaps the solar fairy lights, that glowed outside all night, were too much for him.We had ‘little boys’ for breakfast.Don’t be alarmed! I know it sounds a bit cannibalistic but they are little frankfurter sausages. We skyped Lewis and Nathan which was lovely then headed off down the road to finish clearing the section we had left last week. It was very hot and tough work. It must have been very much like this for the early pioneers who had to clear roads through the bush. I felt for them. I think I would have just said ‘Stuff this!, Let’s go back to Bognor.’ We got scratched and scraped on our hands and arms. Will did his hip in...(I know...he’s nearly 50 you know...no longer a spring chicken.) When we finally reached the bottom of the road and every last cassinia bush that encroached upon the track had been removed we headed back.[gallery ids="715,716,717,718,719,720,721,722,723,724"]Will wanted to wander through the apple orchard but the call of a Pepsi Max was too much and I just headed on up the road. When I got back there was Will at the house and he’d even had time for a swim in the dam! He knew a short cut!We had lunch and then it was back to killing cassinia. We cleared the road around the top of the dam wall and then cleared the cassinia from behind the house too.[gallery ids="725,732,726,731,727,728,729,730,733,739,734,738,735,736,737"]We just got most of it done when a storm arrived and the heavens opened and it poured down.We had been invited out to Penny and Rogers for tea. We had showers in the rain and then headed off to their house near Storm King Dam... (that’s King without an ‘).
Storm King Dam.
We had hoped to view the sunset from there but the storm put paid to that. It was nice to see the rain though...See! I’m turning Australian, and I haven’t been here that long.Penny and Roger’s house was so lovely. It’s amazing that they bought it in Brisbane and had it driven up to Stanthorpe on the back of a lorry! We had a wonderful meal of fish and pumpkin curry and then played euchre. The rain drumming on the tin roof sometimes drowned out the music we were listening too.It was a fabulous evening. I drove home along the steaming roads and I had to remind myself to stay alert, on the lookout for kangaroos hopping out in front of the car. Thankfully none did.We arrived back to find the fairy lights twinkling in the dark along the verandah. That’s the only downside about them, they have 8 different flash settings but I only like the one where they just stay on and don’t flash, setting 8. It keeps resetting every time they come on to setting 1, multi-flash!Oh well, it might be even more annoying for Rambo!
About Frogknot
As I have mentioned before Frogknot is the house Will built with Andrew. They started in 1996. It was never properly finished and was just the shack they were going to live in until they built their real house. It stands in 40 acres of bush just off the New England Highway near Glen Aplin. The corrugated iron roof is supported by 33 posts cut from the surrounding land, they all have a name and the central one is called Frogknot.
It has lots of branch stumps sticking out from it on which sit small plastic frogs.The walls of the house are built from straw bale covered with cow muck. Will used to have a cow called Pansy who helped him with the production of this. It has solar panels for electricity and water is pumped from the dam (pond) just beside the house. The dam is spring fed and the water level stays pretty much the same.[gallery ids="668,670,675,671,678,676,672,680,669,681,673,674,677,679"]Outside there is a composting toilet a short walk from the house at the back. A shower curtain provides some modesty but there are open views out to the bush.[gallery ids="682,683,684,685"]The gardens used to be beautiful and well tended but after 6 years of neglect they are now overgrown. Some of the plants have survived and will be able to be saved but much has to be cleared out. It will be beautiful again but give us time.Today we cleared part of the garden and part of the 'chook' pen of ripping out the Cassinia.[gallery ids="686,693,706,689,707,692,694,695,696,700,697,699,701,702,705"]I couldn't get a humane rat trap from Bunnings but I did get solar powered fairy lights. We put them up on the front verandah.
Putting the lights up. The finished effect.
Not The Tale of the little Pig and the Molasses...again?
Up with the sun, birds and refuse truck this morning and of those only the sun shows any thought to those people who might still be sleeping in bed. I went with Will to work and brought the car back. I was honked at, at one set of traffic lights for getting in the wrong lane. I found myself in the left lane which could filter left but I wanted to go straight on so I just sat there and blocked it. ‘Honk!’ I just raised my arms in an ‘Oh well, you’ll just have to lump it’ gesture.Back at Celtis St I made my breakfast, scrambled egg.‘Did you use the eggs nearest this end?’ asked Dulcie.Crikey! I checked the fridge and I had. ‘Yes,’ I admitted.‘That’s good,’ she said and blew out a cloud of smoke.I wondered what the consequences of using the eggs at the far end would have been. I don’t think I will try to find out.The radio was on and someone was saying “I don’t like the taste of Brisbane water”, it was an ad for a water purifier, it went on “all those chemicals and decaying bits of organic matter.”Heck! What organic matter was exactly decaying in the Brisbane tap water and what were the water company doing about it? Perhaps a water purifier is a good idea.‘Good God!’ said Dulcie when she saw my scrambled egg. I had to explain how I made it in the microwave, she always made it in a pan.‘I’ll have to try that,’ she said.After breakfast it was time to make the shopping list. I had a list for Aldi and a list for Woolies.Aldi is big here and like in the UK has been voted Supermarket of the Year. Dulcie is a big Aldi fan. She didn’t want to come so I was charged with going on my own.I set off just after 9 but had to go back to Will’s work first to pick up my wallet which I had forgotten I had left in the top of his rucksack. I headed back towards Aldi, not exactly sure which way to go but made sure I was in the right lane at all the traffic lights! By luck rather than knowledge I found my way straight to Aldi. I didn’t have a $1 for the trolley so had to use a basket...and it was quite a long list.I filled the basket to brimming with half the shopping list and joined the queue for the till. I had forgotten to bring the reusable bags too and Aldi don’t give out plastic bags! I had to buy a reusable bag. I paid for the shopping with the money Dulcie had given me and then took it back to the car. I then went back into Aldi to get the other half of the shopping list. Back at the till I realised I still didn’t have a flippin’ bag! I wasn’t buying another one! This time I paid using our card and then with four loaves of bread hanging from one hand, two large milk cartons in the other, a pack of six porterhouse steaks held between the two and a tub of vanilla ice cream balanced on top I staggered back to the car.It was scorching and the car was like an oven. I decided to head back and drop all this stuff off before going to woollies.As I unpacked she checked everything. I’d got the wrong fish...but it was ok. She was pleased with the steaks and the Roma tomatoes were ‘lovely’.She was glad I’d come back because she had a prescription she needed me to take too.‘Here let me give you some more money.’‘No,’ I said, ‘I still have loads left.’‘Are you sure?’ she said, ‘You wouldn’t lie to me?’We are having a bit of a battle to pay our fair share. I wasn’t going to tell her that she had only paid for half the Aldi shop.‘The money’s fine,’ I said.I went to Woolies and got the prescription.‘How is Mrs Rodgers?’ asked the Pharmacist.‘She’s fine,’ I said. Dulcie wouldn’t have been so positive, but she is fine, actually remarkable for 90!I got the Woolies shopping and ‘ummed and ahhed’ for ages over her vanilla yoghurt!I got pies for lunch on the way back.Back home, the yoghurt was fine, the sugar loaf cabbage was ‘beautiful’. I’d done a good job.I gave her the change.‘That’s not right!’ she said.‘It is,’ I said.‘I bought the pies and some of the Aldi stuff were things I wanted so it’s only right that we pay our share.’‘Bovine excrement!’ or words to that effect was her reply to that!‘Look,’ I said, ‘that’s your change, we’ve paid for some of the stuff but if it makes you feel better you’ve paid the most.’She sat and ate her pie.‘Shall we have a game of cards?” She asked after lunch.We decided to play canasta. I had just dealt and the phone rang. She jumped.‘Good God!’It was Iris, or ‘Oiris’ as Dulcie pronounces it.I only heard one side of the conversation...‘Hail? No hail Oiris.’‘About 50 mls, Oiris, it’s been the best rain we’ve had for months.’‘Bill and Nick have been planting in the garden.’‘He’s here, Oiris. We were just going to play a game of cards.’‘Well, he stops with me and I order him about.’ She laughed but it was true!‘Oh, he’s done a terrible lot for me , Oiris.’‘He’s been and done the shopping and brought back pies for dinner.’‘I have tomato sauce on mine and Nick has...(hesitation) his sauce.’ (It’s HP.)‘Beautiful pies , Oiris, melt in your mouth pastry,’It then went quiet for about 10 minutes. I had my back to her and turned round just to check she hadn’t dropped off or worse! She saw me looking and pulled a face and waved the phone about in the air angrily.I got the message...Oiris was off on some tale.‘I’m not a sugar person either ,Oiris’ then silence for another 10 minutes.Finally.....‘Alright Oiris, yes... yes,... bye for now.’She put the phone down and erupted ‘Jesus Christ! I was just about to say I’ve got to go Oiris someone’s knocking at the door. I don’t know how many times she’s told me that tale of the little pig and the molasses.’I wanted to hear the tale of the little pig and the molasses but she wanted to play cards.I absolutely smashed it! The cards were definitely on my side today!I called at Bunnings on the way to pick up Will. I wanted a humane rat trap. Would you believe it they were sold out?‘They’re very popular those,’ said the chap who I caught who worked there, ‘We’ll have more in next week!’ I wanted one now...I had a date with a rat tomorrow!I went out into the open air gardening bit to get more mulch. Someone had been messing about and had left a garden statue of a two foot lizard lying in the middle of an aisle. I tried to get my trolley past it and it suddenly ran off! That would not happen in B&Q!Tonight we went in to the west end of Brisbane and met Maree and Jef. We went to Huong’s for a lovely Vietnamese meal. We had a wonderful evening of catching up and then Jef showed me all the pictures of the carpet python that lives in his garden!They’re out there!
