Mouse parties.

While I have been away I suspect Will has been throwing 'mouse parties.'I noticed huge lumps nibbled out of the washing up sponge at teatime yesterday.I woke once in the night and heard something scuttle loudly across the floor but today watched as a tiny little mouse crept out of a hole in the wall by the window and started to explore the windowsill in full view and broad daylight.Later there was a scuffling in the ceiling above my head and I looked up to spy a much larger mouse bum hanging out of a gap between the roofing tin and wooden beam. It disappeared but moments later reappeared and as brazen as you like crawled along the vertical side of the beam for a bit before disappearing into another hole.I can actually see one right now scuttling about under the futon sofa under the verandah!Winter is coming and they will be searching for a warmer abode. The Englishman in me is tempted to put out traps and be rid of them since sharing your house with vermin is simply not the done thing...but....I am not sure if it is me turning 'Aussie' but part of me feels, 'Well, I am the intruder here' and I am tempted to let them get on with it as long as it doesn't affect us too greatly.We will see.

Back in the Bush.

So...we are returned to Frogknot once more.I wasn't allowed to leave the girls until they had seen me holding my wallet and my camera.Jen is going to make me a small satchel out of goat leather, that Will tanned years ago on his goat farm at Cooma, so that I no longer have to carry things in my shallow short pockets. Their kindness is never ending!It was a bumpy and twisty route back up the Range from Ashby. We stopped for lunch at Tabulam, a sleepy backwater of a village higher up the Clarence River, where we were served fantastic chips!The journey really wore me out and I tumbled straight into bed and slept for a few hours waking just before sunset to see a swamp wallaby drinking from the dam.It is good to be home but I am going to miss Tracy and Jen, and river life very much until we see them again.

Happy Birthday Dulcie!

She would have been 93 today....and from tomorrow would she have told everyone she was in her 94th year!

More lost wallets!

When Jen mislaid her wallet last night I was able to sympathise with her fully."What a pair we are!" I said, unhelpfully.She eventually found it, in her bag, which she had already looked through but must have missed it and the balance of life was restored once more.What I did not know was that while Jen was worriedly searching for her wallet mine was also lost, again, too!I discovered it was missing again this morning.Jen had gone off to the Blue Knob Fermentation Festival, Tracy was busy in her workshop on her Art piece so Will and I decided on a trip to the seaside at Yamba.Just as we were heading out I was collecting my things and that was when I discovered I could not find my wallet. It was a terrible moment and I actually cried out in pain to think that I was going to have go through it all again.Yesterday Jen took me to Maclean, in the boat again, to get my last stitch out and afterwards I bought her a coffee and had my wallet then. After that we went to the Spar for some bottles of water but Jen insisted in paying ....but I had my wallet out in the Spar and that was the last time I remembered seeing it.After the Spar we walked back down the main street in Maclean and got in the boat which was tied to the jetty by the Court House and then we headed down river for a boat trip. We went under the Harwood Bridge and almost halfway to Yamba before we turned round and came back again.I checked the boat this morning and the wallet wasn't there, nor was it in the clothes I was wearing."It will be here" said Tracy, " go and don't worry about it and it will turn up."Will and I headed off and half way to Yamba I remembered that I had borrowed a blue rain coat yesterday because it had been raining before we set off. I texted Tracy to say that I thought it might be in the pocket of the rain coat but she texted back shortly afterwards to say that it was not.....another blow.Will and I had a lovely time in Yamba. We walked out along the sea wall, saw dolphins and water dragons, then we went to the Pacific Hotel for a lovely fish and chip lunch. We walked along the beach later before heading back to Maclean. We stopped at the Police Station to see if anyone had handed in a wallet but it was closed. We popped into see Shirley and Dennis for awhile before heading back home but noticed, in passing, a police van outside the Police Station.We called in and asked the friendly policeman if anyone had handed in a wallet. He said that one had been found today in Yamba in someone's front garden but that he didn't know any details of it. I told him I had lost mine in Maclean but I gave him my name and number and he said that he would get in touch with me if it was mine.We called in at the Spar too and I asked the manager there too if a wallet had been found. She went to check in the office but came back shaking her head.Back at Old Ferry Road I went through everything again, rechecked the boat and the storage box, went through everything in the guest room, looked under all the furniture in the living room, retraced all my steps and nothing....I was certain it was gone for good this time."It has to be here,"said Tracy, "Have you checked your account to see if any money has been taken?"I checked on my phone and my heart leapt when I saw that $102 had been withdrawn at the Pacific Hotel in Yamba."Oh No!" I cried "Someone has taken out a hundred dollars at the Pacific Hotel in Yamba!""That was me," said Will.Of course, I never had my wallet with me today when we went to Yamba, but it was the fact that that wallet was found in Yamba that had made me panic."Take these sunglasses with polarizing lenses which are good for looking in water and go and check down by the jetty again," said Tracy.I did....and there was my wallet, on the jetty resting against the bottom step where I had climbed out of the boat the day before. It had been there all night.I shall no longer keep my wallet in the pockets of my shorts and will carry a bag....but knowing me will probably lose the bag!

By boat to the clinic.

So...Jen took me to see the nurse in Maclean today to get my stitches out.We went by boat which took us less than 5 minutes and is normally about about 15 minutes by car.Tying up the boat at Maclean, Jen asked me to get hold of a black strap and what she actually said was"Whatever you do do not drop it in the water."What I heard her say was,"Drop it in the water," .....so I did."Noooooo! That is exactly what I did not want to happen," she cried.I was confused but was sure I had heard her right. How could I be so wrong? I felt an idiot!At the clinic, the nurse called a doctor to see my wound. She wanted to leave one of my stitches until Friday but I had one, painfully, removed today.