Sunday 27 May 2007

Sunday

G'Day,
Today I cleaned the windows and inside of my car. Rufus thinks it his right to be in the car every time it moves nowadays and left all his little dribbly bits all over the insides of the windows. It's not very responsible of me to take him in the car unrestrained but he enjoys car surfing when I go around the corners, besides he doesn't like being tied in the back seat and is very unhappy with it. I only take him with me around town. I bought him a black shirt the other day with" security" written in white letters across the back. It always gets a laugh and comment from anyone who sees it as he is a very small friendly pup.
I didn't do much else today other than vacuum the house. I went to Wagga in the afternoon to the potters club. It was supposed to be the first of our new shared work days. Three people turned up. Since I came in from Junee, 38km away I thought I had better make something so I made 8 small square dishes with the rose pattern idea on them with the slab roller. What a good toy is our slab roller. Lyn and Kasee who were the others there didn't bother as they decided they would rather not get clay on them, but they stayed to keep me company anyway and were happy to watch what I was doing. I believe in the Kiss principle, Keep It Simple Stupid. In my pottery and other bits in my life. I couldn't be bothered with fussing over fine details and their processes, I reckon if there is a shortcut and it works why not use it. There are a couple of people in the club who think the opposite of this and don't believe there is any way to do something other than their own way, therefore nobody could know anything other than them. It is too easy to get bogged down with bullshit thinking like that. I honestly couldn't be bothered. For goodness sake it is only clay not gold they are working with.
I have been following a show on t.v. for the last couple of Sunday nights about three Australian families that are taken to another country and placed with tribes of people from unspoiled native type cultures. A bit like the wife swap show except with different cultures not just wives. It is very interesting to me because in our modern society we have everything available to us without much effort at all. These cultures don't have supermarkets or doctors or even a proper water supply in some cases. Talk about culture shock. One of the families was taken to Africa and is with a tribe who have no water nearby so it is their culture to never wash but they smear themselves with red ochre mixed with butter fat. I wonder how many people would put up with that in our culture? Australia is supposed to be the driest continent on the planet but one of the worlds worst water users. I don't know if that measurement includes water used for industrial purposes but with our drought we have all tried to be more water wise in our homes and gardens. I couldn't cope with water for cooking and drinking use only though. One of my favorite things to do that relaxes me is to sit in the bath tub and let the shower run on my head. If I have it running slow with the water saving shower head that we have fitted I can stay there for quite a while before the tub gets half full and I turn off the water. Lovely. I would hate to loose that. I guess that it is extravagant But I love it and certainly don't do it all the time. If I was to loose any of my comforts, having running water is what I would hate to loose the most. In other parts of the world there are lots of areas that don't have it at all. One of the other families is with a Zulu tribe in Africa, the women do all the work and serve the men whose job is to hunt and play from what I have seen. It is not popular with the aussie women in the family. Hmmm! Wonder why? Ha. The teenage son in this family is also not doing very well with fitting in to the male ideal of hunting and learning to act like a warrior.
Well that's my thoughts on today.
Bye Love Linda.

Friday 25 May 2007

My Town

G'Day,
I took some pictures around town today. It was a nice day and I wanted to put them on here. Little did I know that I am so dumb that it would take me an hour and a half of trying to get it right but here they are after a bit of frustration and stops and starts.
The one above is railway square. Showing the railway station and flag pole. We raise the flag to half mast here to commemorate anzac day.
This if of the silos coming into town from the old Junee side.


This one is of water, frozen in time by the camera. It was taken in the middle of the rose arbor at the park.
Here is the Junee hospital from across the padock. I have worked there for 13 years.
This is our famous organic licorice factory. The best licorice you ever tasted. Coated in organic chocolate from Belgium. Yum. It is in the old flour mill. They also do organic flour and other stuff there too.
This one is of the war memorial and clock tower in broadway. It is designed and made by the same bloke who did the one in the middle of the street in Mittagong.
This is the new medical centre, also in broadway.The council as you can see pays good attention to our parks and garden street scape.
This is the post office, another nice old building.
I took other photos today also but as I'm so stupid and it takes so bloody long for me to do anything on the puter, You can't see them today. Nyah!

Wednesday 23 May 2007

Vale Freddy

G'Day,
Pete just took my dear old Freddy dog to the vet for the last time. I couldn't do it.
Freddy is 17 years old and we got him from a box outside the local farm supplies shop which said "free to good home". He was just 5 weeks old and an orphan as his mum had been hit by a car a week earlier and died. His mum was a pure bred poodle and his dad was unknown. He was so tiny he could fit in the palm of one hand and a tiny black and white ball of fluff. He grew up to be a fluffy black and white ball of mischief who was our peter pan because we used to say of him that he was the original puppy who never grew up. He was always full of love, bounce and childlike enthusiasm for life. He really loved water and would whinge to have the sprinkler on the top of the fishpond fountain switched on so he could run around madly and try to catch the water. My kids found this endlessly amusing and loved to show off his antics to anyone new they bought home to play. He also loved to chase a ball or a stick and bring it back to you, which he would repeat until you or he was exhausted. It was usually you who tired of the fetch game first and he was really good at catching the ball in mid air. He loved to go to the river but he was a bit naughty to any other dogs around as he would try to protect me from them and get himself in trouble in the process. He had big brown eyes that would look at you lovingly and you couldn't be annoyed at him for long when he looked at you like that.
I know it is time for him to go as he is now blind and incontinent. He also has dementia and is wobbly on his feet. He wanders around at night and gets lost in the backyard that he has lived in for most of his life.
It still feels like the ultimate betrayal. Those big brown trusting loving eyes.

Friday 18 May 2007

G'Day,
It started raining here yesterday evening and rained for most of last night with a few nice follow up showers today and there is more on the way. Out in the west of the state in Bourke and Tibooburra they have had the best rain since 2000 over the last few days. 63 points reported in Bourke on the news. SEND IT DOWN!!!!! Whoo Hoo!!! Its greening up here now, I hope it lasts. I have my little heater going tonight as it is a bit cool.
On the local news over the last week there has been talk of level 4 water restrictions starting along the Murray and Murrumbidgee River corridors from 1st July. That means no outside watering, no car washing, further water cutbacks to industry and farming. Probably other cutbacks I haven't heard about as well. This has been controversial here as a large % of our supply comes from artesian sources and not from the river. ( Junee is about 25 km from the river.) The Murrumbidgee River and Murray Rivers are very low and need a good flush to fill and clean them out. I can't remember the last time the river was up. Except for when my daughter was a toddler and I worked in Wagga and the trains ran into town to get people to work across the flood waters. My daughter is 18 now. The river did of course get like this before being controlled by dams as they are now, and were known to dry into a series of pools where the old paddle steamer transport boats would be stuck until it rained enough again. The rivers were the main supply route in those days. They aren't permitted to dry out like that now, but I reckon I could walk across the Bidgee at Wagga at the moment without getting my belly button wet. I had a walk along the levee bank behind the potter's club a few weeks ago and had a look. I also found some mushrooms and took them home for tea with me. Nice. I might find some more after this rain, the ground should still be warm enough.
There is a new girl starting at work next week I'm not looking forward to it. I pity her as it is always difficult starting a new job. It will mean getting used to everyone while she learns all the jobs we have to do. In my years there, (13) this has almost always been a difficult time for us as well as the new person. I like to sit back and watch and keep my mouth shut as it always works out in the end. One bonus though, I shouldn't loose all of my days off like I have been lately. I'm tired at the moment but I think you get like that this time of year when the seasons are changing.
Well I think I have said a lot about nothing much here tonight so I had better go to bed. Good Night.
Love Linda.

Sunday 13 May 2007

mother's day

G'Day,
Today is mother's day, I have a day off work today and I need to rest so I'm going to do exactly as I like for a change.
I was awoken this morning to a dawn chorus of currawongs. They are big shiny black birds with a wingspan of 2 1/2 ft or more and white patches under their wings. A bit like a crow but larger. They sing in the mornings and in the autumn retreat to the lower areas to avoid the cold, from up in the mountains so they are back here now. They are also known as mountain magpies and pied currawongs. They herald the start of the cold weather. They are nasty birds and omnivores and will kill little birds and eat them and poop on your washing and drop seeds in your garden that turn into unwanted plants. But they do sound nice in the morning. On my trip to the Northern Territory I stayed in the crocodile shaped motel in Kakadu National park and when I got up in the morning and stepped outside the dawn chorus was absolutely amazing. It was so loud you couldn't have heard anything above it. I've never heard anything like it before.
For mother's day I got Mum a couple of thermal singlets and an electric blanket for her bed. She suffers from arthritis in the cold weather. Michael is going to cook a roast leg of lamb tonight for our mothers day tea. He has no income so that is his present to me. Pete has bought something that he has been itching to show me for the last week but I wanted to wait for today. He has to work today, poor darling.
My back yard is half full of roses at the moment. The cooler weather, a bit of rain and a top dressing of horse manure has bought them out nicely. My living area has flowers too, brought inside to enjoy. A month ago the rose flowers that struggled out on the bushes were shriveling in the heat. We have had a bit of rain though and the farmers are planting and watching to see what develops. On the news last night they said that 84% 0f the state is still drought declared. I think we are border line at the moment, though still in the grip of the drought.
A couple of months ago I mentioned a car crash near here where a man was killed. Well the lady and her son in the other car are from Junee and we have had the lady, Rosie, in our hospital for the last 2 months. Her son was o.k. but has She also spent a month in Wagga base hospital. She is now mobile and went home on Friday. She is a lovely serene lady and never complained about her situation and all the pain she must have been going through. One of our nurse's husbands made her a cake and we gave her a guard of honor on her way out the door. Nice. She really is the type of person that more of us should aspire to be like.
It is 17 degrees inside at the moment, quite cool at the moment. It is supposed to get to 22. I bought the little foot heater this pay.
On the love front. Annie and Brett's break up is a no go. I couldn't understand why when it happened as they are so lovely together. They are still spending just as much time together and have still been having sleep overs. She said she wanted him for a friend and not a boyfriend. Maybe things were getting too much for her at the time and she wanted to back off. It didn't happen as far as I can see. Hmmmmm!
My sister's birthday was on the 2ND of May and I didn't get her anything. I spoke to her on the phone and she reminded me of the plate she wanted to serve things down the middle of her table when everyone is home. I thought about it and reckon that a set of three plates that fit together might look good. A round one in the middle and two crescent shaped ones that fit beside it. If I throw the center one then make a thrown ring and attach it to a slab base for the side plates that might work. I might play with that idea today in my shed. Since I am on a rose theme lately with my pots and the last lot turned out the way I like, I might follow that idea for a while.
The federal budget was announced this week. The Liberal Party has been in power for 14 years now and while I concede that the country's economy is in a good position the govt has been making a lot of unpopular decisions over the last few years with the war in Iraq and the industrial relations changes they have ratified this year. There is an election coming up and I don't think that giving people a tax cut and a few one off, extra payments is going to win the election for them this time around. I haven't voted for the opposition for a few elections as I didn't feel that they had strong leadership people at its helm, but I think that that might be improving. I can also remember the mistakes that were made when they were in power before and the mess and debt that they left behind which the Liberal party has slowly succeeded in fixing up. Housing interest rates were at one time 17% under them, they are now at around 6%. The opposition would however take the environmental situation a lot more seriously than the liberals do. I will sit back and watch.
Bye Love Linda.

Monday 7 May 2007

garden renovations.

G'Day,
I haven't been in here for 2 weeks so I guess its about time....... I had a few days extra work and we got Austar connected to our t.v. so I've been entertained else where. Today I finally got around to the second stage of garden renovations I had planned for my front yard.I started about 9 in the morning and stayed out the front working on it until dark. The agapanthus along the front fence were in need of lifting and dividing after being in the same place for about 8 to 10 years. Too long anyway.Their root systems were monstrous and the whole garden bed was full and root bound with the fibrous roots they have. I got the first clump dug out then gave up as it was too heavy for me so I got Pete and Michael to do the heavy digging for me, while I dug out the roots left behind and rescued the Japanese Iris and double white freesias that were amongst them.There were also a million tiny oxalis bulbs mixed in, which would have to be the most annoying weed ever created.Proving the gardeners saying "If you make it good for the plants, you make it good for the weeds too!" The circular beds that we did a month or so ago have re shot with lots of bulbs and yarrow but a lot more oxalis and rubbish weeds too. I haven't finished breaking up the clumps of agapanthus but will get back to them tomorrow.Then replant. One of the girls from work has been waiting for me to tackle this job so she can get the left overs, so she came for a while after work today and helped me break up some of the blue agapanthus clumps. The white clumps were less vigorous and much easier to divide though I think I remember that the flowers on the white plants were bigger than the blue ones. We broke two spades and an El cheapo garden fork digging today. One of the spades we only bought today, and it broke too. Pete returned it to the shop and they replaced it.
Last Saturday was Tumut's Festival of the Falling Leaf so we went up there for a day out and look around.It rained. The best rain we have had for months so nobody was complaining. The area where the stalls were set up was very muddy and slippery. Tumut ( read it backwards) is a town about an hours drive from here at the foot of the snowy mountains. Mostly forestry type industries, hydro electricity and tourism but also a small to medium regional center, a pretty place to visit. Famous for its autumn leaves. It is also close to Blowering dam which is a huge water storage, hydro electricity and recreational area which is partly in Kosciusko National park. The dam is at the moment at eleven percent capacity because of the drought. On the way there we stopped at Adelong Falls and went for a walk. Mum stayed at the car as the walk is quite hard for her, even though she has tackled it before. Because of the rain the track was washed away and damaged in places. Anyway while we were away Mum started talking to two blokes in the car park. When I got back they were still there and there was a box sitting on the back of my car. I though "Oh my god what is she up to, Picking up everyone's rubbish or something?" Anyway, the 2 blokes were visiting from Queensland and said they had been to a farm picking fruit and because Mum was talking to them told her she was a nice lady and gave her a box of granny smith apples. Granny smith apples are aussie bred ones which are bright green, tangy and crunchy, good for eating or cooking. They are beautiful, I have cooked a couple of lots and we've been having them with yogurt or ice cream and taking them to work fresh for lunch. Only my Mum could talk to strangers and get given a box of apples for it. She's so funny.
This Saturday I fired the Potter's club kiln. I had my rose themed pots in it with copper red glaze on them. The rose pots came out good and the glaze is nice too. It is a nice clear pinky red color, I'm happy with it.One large bowl with copper red on it dunted and so did the trays with blue and green melted glass in them. That was a shame as the colors and effect was just what I wanted them to be. All shelves were safe and clean. They are usable for home but not to sell. Next time I will use Raku clay with the glass instead and see how that goes. Also had two small wall plaques with molded ladies faces on them that were very nice in an dark oatmeal glaze.
It is council grant application time again and the club is putting in for one for a workshop with Neil Boughton who is a potter from Fitzroy Falls who does great post fire raku reduction lustres. We are also trying for a grant to have the gallery floors sanded and re polished. I rang 3 tradesmen for quotes and only one bothered to turn up but he didn't leave his name so I don't know which one it was. I hope he gets the paper work to me in time as I only have a month to get everything sorted and the application in. If I can find out which one, he wins, just for turning up when he said he would.
It's late. 12.47 here so good night, I'm going to bed!
Love Linda.