Bug off?

Yesterday, as I was driving home from a shopping trip, I was stopped at traffic lights and noticed a five legged spider on the car next to me. Obviously it looked a little worse for wear, having only five legs, but it was clinging onto the side of the car just by the back window. While the car was stopped it seemed to spinning some web to anchor itself more firmly before it hunkered down and stopped moving. The lights turned green and the car sped ahead of me. I was watching the spider to see if it blew off but it didn't. The car was halted by more traffic in its lane ahead but my lane was free and I was able to catch it up and pass it.....the spider was still clinging on.'Its having a worse day than me,' I thought.Today I nipped to the bank and pulled out of the drive and was just moving off slowly when I noticed a big praying mantis sat on the windscreen wiper. I pulled over but wasn't game to pick it up and it certainly was not worried about me looming over it as it kept on walking towards me across the windscreen.I got Dulcie's disabled parking permit and collected it on that and carried it to some shrubbery in a neighbours garden and do you know.....it never said 'thank you!'

Not the sharpest pictures from my phone camera.

Today I apologised to a washing machine!

We arrived back from Frogknot about 3.00 ish today and I wasted no time in putting a load of washing in the machine.Wendi and Geoff were coming over for a barbecue later so we set about tidying out the pergola which has been doubling up as Will's potting shed.He tidied away all his compost and mulch and I swept it out and then got a damp cloth to wipe the table and benches down.The table and benches were quite dirty so I nipped back in to rinse the cloth and absent-mindedly lifted the lid on the washer.It beeped loudly at me in alarm!"Oh, sorry!" I said.Doh!

Net buster!

I awoke at 6.00 am and was checking my emails under the safety of the mosquito net when I noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye and this was marching across my pillow.....

A three inch long millipede!

Stinking Roger and the Bush Basher.

It was sooooooo quiet last night. I almost missed Rambo and his nocturnal rattlings!I thought it was very early when Will got up but it was 8.50.It was very cloudy and I was worried about conserving power so that the lights did not go out in the evening but it brightened up later and the solar panels charged the battery.Will got the old 'Bush Basher' lawnmower going......he cleaned out the carburettor.....and brought it back to life after three years dead. He set about dealing with the waist high grass and I went into the garden to deal with 'Stinking Roger', a prolific weed.Dulcie watched 'Hidalgo' about a desert horse race........she didn't seem to enjoy it much......every time I went to check on her she would say "They are not racing yet!"Eventually the 'Bush Basher' bit the dust and I had laid Stinking Roger low.We found Piotr the Pole and fitted him to hold up the bulging ceiling then we had to have cold showers because we have not lit the stove this weekend. I am not a fan and the whole process for me was very noisy.Friends, Penny and Roger (not Stinking) came over late afternoon and arrived about the same time as a thunderstorm which was all bluster and very little rain. As I was out checking the guttering in the dark with a torch I spotted a very healthy looking white bellied rat like creature crawling out of a hole in the straw bale wall. Could it be?After Penny and Roger left Will cooked fried chicken and chips and we had a game of Euchre.The storm has gone, the rain has stopped but there is a very annoying fly buzzing about. It will have to go!

Our home in the bush.

So.......we have come up to Frogknot for the first time since the beginning of December.We had to clear two fallen trees off the road up before we could  get up to the house.The grass is waist high but the dam is as full as I have ever seen it.Sadly some of the ceiling struts have snapped and there is large bulge in the ceiling now.Will is sad and very quiet. It is hard for him to see the place slowly disintegrating.