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.