Possum Galore
A life ‘Down Under’!
Hindering Dulcie!
It was a cool night.Do you know it was the first night in ages that I have slept under a duvet all night?!Will was off at 7.15 am and the next thing I knew it was 8.45am. Dulcie was banging about above and I reckon trying to raise me from the dead...if I was dead. A few minutes more and she would have been down to poke me with a stick.Monday in Brisbane and its washing day! Dulcie got in first by taking her bedding down. I had about 4 loads to do as well, all the dirty stuff we wore at Frogknot and stuff from here from last week, plus our bedding.When Dulcie’s load had finished I hung it out and put my first load in the machine.Back in the kitchen Dulcie was making a ‘batch a biscuits’...chocolate drops. She got the bowl out and I put the cup of sugar into it. She was melting the butter in the microwave.“2 level cups of self raising flour,’ she said.I got it and tipped it in. She brought the butter over.“No!” She looked in the bowl. I could sense she held back a weary ‘Good God!’ “The flour doesn’t go in yet, we need to cream the butter and sugar.”Of course we do! I was dumbstruck. Disaster! I wanted a hole to open up and swallow me into the man cave below. There was a long moment of heavy silence which I wanted to pick up and use to beat myself about the head with...then,“Could you spoon the flour out and get out as much as you can?”Of course I could! I would have done anything to make it right. I got the worn silver spoon her mother gave her and scooped out the flour as best I could.“We all make mistakes,” she said.“Yes, but I seem to make more than my fair share” I said.When I had done my best she tipped in the butter and creamed it up.“It’s coming together fine” she said, “you must have got most of the flour out.”“Perhaps I have invented a new recipe,” I joked.Thankfully they turned out ok. ‘Lovely and crispy’ is how she described them. I hope that wasn’t a kind euphemism for ‘very dry!’To get back in her good books I got the ladder out and set about sweeping the roof of the pergola that was covered with needles and twigs and I discovered an awful lot of possum pooh! It looked so much better when I had finished. Phew!She was happy with it and I was feeling much better.I was on my way down to put in another load of washing.“Could you just put a few things of mine in with yours?” she asked.“Of course!” I was feeling soooooo helpful.“How about we put this in too?” I said, indicating the table cloth on the table.“Yes, ok,” she said.We had pickled pork for lunch.She rang the doctors after lunch and made an appointment for WednesdayThe washing was drying well. I brought in her bedding and helped her make her bed.Danny arrived with his friend Bob. He recently lost his job working for a company that sold blinds and shutters. He is now going it alone, using the contacts he has and had got an order this morning and was on his way to another interested customer in Ipswich.As usual talk turned to snakes. Had I heard of Death Adders, he asked. I hadn’t and was not sure I wanted to. They are short snakes with big heads and big hollow fangs. Hmmm, they sounded absolutely delightful. He told me of the time he used to go touring on his motorbike with friends and his friend accidentally ran over one on his bike. When they got to their camp the chap looked down and it was still stuck into his boot by its fangs. Dulcie chipped in with the tale of when Danny was about 6 and he had stuck his leg through the gate they had on the verandah and had been bitten by a snake. He was rushed to the doctor. Danny said he remembered it well.When they had gone Dulcie asked me to bring in the table cloth but I had already brought it in and put it back on the table.“It looks ok,” I said, “just a bit creased.”“Creased? It shouldn’t be,” she said, trying to smooth it with her hand, “unless you washed it in hot water.”I had. I couldn’t speak! I needed that hole in the floor again.Luckily, the creases came out with the iron and order in the World was restored once more.What a dramatic and traumatic day in Upside Down Land!
December the First...First day of Summer?!
We are back in Brisbane after two cloudy and surprisingly cool days up at Frogknot. Thanks to the person or people who stole the good solar panel and the power regulator we struggled this week to maintain enough power in the evenings and spent two candlelit evenings. Firstly there was not enough sun to charge the battery fully and without the regulator when the solar panels were not putting power into the battery they were sucking it out. We have a new regulator but forgot to pack it!We spent most of the time this week sorting out everything under the back verandah, deafened by the cicadas and peed on throughout. We ended up taking 5 car loads of rubbish to the dump. It is very satisfying to see the difference all this work is making to the house.We had a night of rain on Friday night. The cicadas did not like it. They were silent the next morning and many were sheltering on the verandah poles. It was quite unnerving wandering around and have them flying off in all directions around you making their loud rasping sound.It became apparent that they make their noise when the sun shines and not when it is hidden behind the clouds. If they land on the ground they seem to find it very difficult to get air born again and face being eaten by ants. I have found a few dead cicadas, their thoraxes hollowed out by ants. Their large wings are quite beautiful and so I have taken to collecting them. Perhaps I can use them to make something interesting.I rescued one cicada rattling and flapping around in the dam by lifting it out on a stick. I found another lying motionless on the ground and picked it up to borrow its wings when it rattled to life and I flung it into the air and it flew off up into the branches of a nearby gum tree.Yesterday we also planted more vegetables in the garden. The soil was lovely and moist and surprisingly warm beneath the mulch. We will see if they survive being nibbled by kangaroos the next time we go up.We came home via Toowoomba. There are still delays at Cunningham Gap until the twelfth of December. They are still working on repairs following the terrible floods which raced down the range two years ago. Ros was up visiting Andrew who lives in Toowoomba and we called in to see them and pick up Will’s bike.By all accounts today is the first day of summer and Christmas is approaching fast!...I can’t get used to it.
Frogknot by candlelight.
Just a quick post tonight as we are without power and my laptop needs charging.
The lights went out last night before bed and today has been quite dull and so very little charge has gone into the battery.
Just before 6.00pm tonight we ran out of power again. We have lit every candle we could find for the evening.
Today has been a busy day. We have done two successful dump trips and when we went with the third load we found the dump locked up. We will have to go tomorrow...and we have a fourth load ready.
We have gone through everything under the back verandah. It is not quite cleared and tidy yet but hopefully we will get if finished tomorrow.
We found a leaf –tailed gecko while we were clearing and relocated it into one of the holes in the wall of the house so that it can find insects...hopefully blumin’ mosquitoes.
The leaf -tailed gecko.
I have fresh new lumps...and I have sprayed myself with tropical strength Aeroguard!
After being cloudy all day it started to rain about 5.30pm...good steady rain. I filled a litre jug from the roof run off in about 10 seconds...it all drains into the dam. It just shows how one good rain shower here would fill a good sized tank. We will have to get one...when we can afford it.
I went for a wander around the house which you can pretty much do now under the verandas. The rain certainly shut the cicadas up. I noticed they had all moved and are now sheltering underneath the branches from the rain.
PS. Still no Rambo, although there were some very loud noises outside at the back which Will said was a possum... it must have been a giant one!
