Ghost Gums, Old Glory

Margaret River Getaway

I've been feeling quite stressed, just worn thin and worn out. I haven't had a trip overseas in nearly a year, so I started to look around and see where I could go close to home. One of my girlfriends agreed to come with me, and she even offered to drive. We went down south, to the Margaret River region. Truly an area of outstanding natural beauty, with some of the most gorgeous coastline anywhere.

We stayed 2 nights in a B&B. I got a coupon for half off the room rate, which I thought was good value - and just about what it was worth. Well, it was nice enough, and made a good base for our explorations.

It was such a wonderful, relaxing experience to have no particular place to go, to be free to wander and stop wherever we liked. I tasted lots of excellent wines. I found some gorgeous pottery. Mostly, though, I relaxed.

Busselton Jetty, which at 3 kms long is the longest timber-piered jetty in the Southern Hemisphere.

The other end of the jetty, with the train that runs from one end to the other.

In other news, here is my most recent picture of Buffy:

I gave her a bath this morning, and as usual I ended up taking one as well. 

 

 

Buffy To The Rescue

Well, what a very busy few weeks I've had! My niece was here visiting, that was so much fun. She only had a short trip, and I packed in as much as I could...I'm still recovering! hahaha

I'll be posting our activities a little later, but for now I have a short video to entertain you.

One day last week we were sitting in the kitchen chatting, and I heard the dog barking outside. It was her deep, serious bark. The one that says 'Come here now!! I've found something you need to deal with!' So, I run out back, and she was circling something in the grass. I knew what it had to be before I saw it - a blue-tongued lizard. We have so many here in the warm weather, but it's the first time Buffy had ever seen one.

I have been calling this a goanna  but it is properly called a shingleback, the western blue-tongued lizard. The goanna is a monitor lizard, and this one is a bob-tailed lizard. There's your Aussie wildlife fact for the day.

On to the video!

  

It was really interesting to watch her. She circled, closer and closer. She was smart enough not to charge in when she didn't know what it was. I pulled her away before she could eat it, though. While it's not poisonous, they do bite. But they move so slowly it's not hard to avoid being bitten.

Oh! And! Tonight is our first concert of the season: The Bangles opening for Pat Benatar. w00t!!

I miss the 80's.

 

30 Dumb Inventions - LIFE Photo Gallery

 I came across this slide show on the web. I must say, some of the inventions aren't at all dumb - some were very forward-thinking. This one here, however...I don't even know...

via www.life.com

The caption reads:

Baby Cage, 1937

A nanny supervising a baby suspended in a wire cage attached to the outside of a high tenement block window. The cages were distributed to members of the Chelsea Baby Club in London who have no gardens, or qualms about putting a child in a box dangling over a busy street.

O.K.

First of all, I couldn't stop laughing, out of horror.  So many questions spring to mind. Who would think this is a good idea? Who is it that lent their baby to be the model for this contraption? Just the words "Baby cage" make me start laughing again.

Creature Feature

Spring is definitely here, even though I still need to have the fires lit in the wood stoves most mornings. Yesterday I saw my first lizard of the year:
Sunning himself right by the front door.

Allow me to remind you of my first meeting with one .  Go ahead, I'll wait while you finish laughing at me.

Done?

Right, then, moving on.

Out here where we live - I call it country-adjacent- there are all sorts of wild things crawling and flying. There's been this massive crow that comes around when it's time for Buffy's bone. Every evening, it sits and waits for an opening to swoop in and carry it off. Judging from the size of this thing, it could probably carry off the dog, bone and all.

Every morning and evening, a flock of galahs comes around, and fills all the gum trees.

Even with their shocking pink breast, it can be difficult to make them out among the leaves, which never fails to amaze me.

Now that I have a dog, I'm up and out much earlier than I'm completely comfortable with. On the other hand, I've discovered some interesting things about our neighbors. One has a rooster - which is not strictly legal where we are. Another has a horse stabled, and another has a peacock(?!).  I know because I can hear them, while I'm standing outside in the predawn stillness waiting for Buffy to empty her bowels. (Is that too much information? Well, misery loves company.)

 

My Veg Garden

Today I thought I'd show you what's been keeping me so busy. We've added 4 new vegetable beds - in addition to the 10 we already have. In making my plot, I've had to work with what's there, in terms of the landscape. We live in the hills, and getting any sort of earthmoving done is a chore. I decided to work with the slopes and retaining walls, instead of moving them. Then, too, if I had waited for a perfect plot, well - I'd still be waiting.

We decided a few years back we wanted to work towards self-sufficiency - which is a whole other discussion. I haven't done a proper post on that, but I am working on one, so look out for it. For me this has meant a HUGE learning curve. I couldn't keep a fern alive before, I certainly didn't know the first thing about growing vegetables. I bought the books, and did the internet research...but there comes a point when you actually have to just do it. Try, and fail a few times - but it's all valuable experience.

These are the new beds - 4 raised and 4 barrels where the berries are going. The irrigation tube on the ground will be buried, and the whole area will be fenced. I hadn't planned to put a fence there, as we're having the yard fenced - but Buffy thinks digging in the beds is just the greatest game ever. Also, it'll keep out the roos and assorted other wildlife.

These beds are about waist level, so I don't have to bend at all. Good thing I'm short! The frames you see are for their sunbonnets. I have to shade them in the summer, or everything would just fry. Literally. I haven't sorted out shade for the new beds yet, but I'm working on it.

First was filling all the beds. The original ones I did myself, but for these new ones I hired someone to do it.  I told you, I'm learning! Then designing and installing the drip irrigation. And while I was at it, I re-worked the drip lines for the older beds, and topped them up with compost. They'll all get a layer of straw as mulch, and I'm almost ready to start planting out. Just a few last parts of the irrigation to hook up.

My seeds are started, and I've had lots of fun ordering seeds. I stick to heirloom seeds as much as possible, no hybrids. I even got some seeds from overseas, which can be tricky. Quarantine in Western Australia is very restrictive, more so than any other state besides Tasmania.  This year I'll try saving seeds for the first time.

I'll go into much more detail in a later post, but for now that should give you some idea of what I've been working on.

Dictionaries Are Your Friends

We don't watch television.

Let me rephrase that: We don't watch Aussie television. I did try, when I first got here, but how am I supposed to know what's on when the times printed in the TV Guide are merely a suggestion? It says 8:30, but the show may actually start at 8:40 or 8:45. I keep saying I need to at least turn on the news at night, and I do for a night or 2. We use the tv to watch movies, and the American and British shows I get by other means.

I mean iTunes, OF COURSE.

Ahem. Anyway. One of the reasons I feel I should make an effort to watch tv is to keep up with Aussie culture. I check the headlines online, but for what's actually happening on a day to day basis  I depend on my friends' Facebook feeds. (Thanks, guys!) I stick pretty close to home these days, and since I don't go out to a job I'm not immersed in the culture that way.

I took this picture a few months ago while I was at the grocery store waiting to check out. I pointed out the obvious error to the checkout chick, and she just rolled her eyes. "I know, everyone's pointed it out".

So.

Help me to understand this. Someone printed this out and didn't notice it. They cut these signs, and didn't notice it. They posted it on every register and every counter, and still didn't notice? Or maybe they did know, and just didn't care? Maybe, if I'd been born here, I would understand why they let this go. Is it the Aussie way, or is it just human beings being lazy? I honestly don't know.

Always Runnin' Behind

Between the garden, and trying to keep the dog from getting her face scratched off ( Buffy just can't understand why the cats don't want to play with her) and organizing the Thanksgiving meetup, posting has been rather light. For that, I apologize, faithful readers.

I don't have any fresh pictures to share, sorry. I KNOW. But I did want to share the fact that I will be taking my Aussie oath of citizenship in January - on Australia Day. I called the town council office as soon as I passed my test and asked when they had the next ceremony planned. "Australia Day, isn't that exciting?" Um, no yes? Well, when you put it like that, I guess I can't complain about having to wait for 5 MONTHS! Oh wait, I just did, didn't I?

Here's something I discovered on the web. Don't ever say this blog doesn't help you to live your life better.

 

One last thing. I've been migrating some old (OLD) posts over to this blog, and things might look a leetle wonky. Bear with me while I sort it out, ok? OK!

Catching Up

Oy vey, it's springtime...I'm busting hump trying to get the vegetable beds ready for planting. And then they need to be planted out, and then -  Someone tell me, when did I become Ma Ingalls?

Buffy had a playdate a few weeks ago, with the Labrador of a friend of mine. She was quite nervous at first, but she eventually got into the sprit of things...

She is such a smart dog, and she makes me laugh. She gets a bone every night after dinner, and she gets so excited she jumps in the air, cutting flips. She is a bottomless pit, I'm going to have to be very careful not to overfeed her.

When I was in the States last, I saw this at the mall:

Mall cop on a Segway.

It's not a very big mall, either. He would only let me take the picture if I didn't get his face...I can only assume he was ashamed of himself, as he should be.

 

Back in the U.S.

I've been back in the US for a little over a week. It was a quickly thrown together trip, at the last minute, but I needed to be here to take care of some family issues. I was able to spend quite a few days doing as little as possible, and that really helped me to get over the jetlag. No danger of me driving in the wrong lane anymore! (Sorry, Mom).

It's 4th of July weekend, and it's the first one I've spent Stateside in many years. I'm slightly surprised and disappointed not to see more decorations around. As if there's not a lot of pride in being American anymore - that really saddens me. Tomorrow is a cookout with the family, which means chili dogs! YAY!!

I grew up here, and coming back is not very fun. There's nothing to do that I haven't done a thousand times before, and I don't gamble, so have no interest in the casinos. The best part, for me, is that it's less than 3 hours away from NYC on Amtrak. Always has been the best part, now that I think about it.

One day last week we went to Captain Scott's Lobster Dock for some seafood. The New England roadside staples - clam strip roll and lobster roll. It's well known, if you're local, but I never see it mentioned in any writeups on the area. The salt in the air, the gulls wheeling overhead and the ducks begging for scraps - just a perfect backdrop to the freshest, tastiest seafood around.

This is the view from the dock, can't you just smell the salt air? 

Meanwhile at home, Buffy has doubled in size and weight. She's 15 kilos (33 lbs.) so I guess I won't be cradling her in my arms when I get back home. And I don't think I need to mention how sad that makes me. Funny story: I went to the pet store to get a few toys for my fur babies back home. The cashier looked at the pile on the counter and asked me how many dogs I have. I may have gone a little overboard.

And Miles to go Before I Sleep

Boy am I tired. What a week it's been. On Thursday morning I got an email notification of a concert for next season, with the opportunity to buy advance tickets. It's the opening of A Day on the Green's 10th year, so I'm looking forward to some REALLY great acts, judging by the first one.

The concert is Blondie and The Pretenders. Debbie Harry and Chrissie Hynde. Can you believe it?! I sat there in shock, ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod. So I opened the Ticketmaster webpage, and waited for tickets go on sale...

FRONT ROW, BABY! SCORE!!

Now I get to wait for 6 months, but it will give me something to look forward to, right?

In Buffy news, she's growing like a weed!

Here she is at 9 weeks old.

And here she is at 10 weeks, just a few days ago. She's a handful, that's for sure. But so bright, and funny and playful. She keeps me busy trying to distract her from chewing on the furniture - or my ankles!

Have I mentioned how much she likes redecorating?