2014 Almost

G'day.
            It has been almost a year since I have written anything in here due to my disgust in the advertising bull shit and spam that now fills my comments. I hate these.
Anyway, since I have been in here so little this post is an update for my own benefit, as I doubt anyone else would read it now days anyway......
In the past year I have settled into our own home again. It is so good to have a patch of dirt that belongs to us again and feel the security of knowing (a!l being well) that the place where I live is safe from some other person selling the property out from underneath us as happened previously in rented premises
My garden is growing and filling in with flowers. I get a lot of pleasure from being able to grow and harvest some of my own fruit, vegetables and herbs. I have chooks again, three lovely Australorp hens who give me enough eggs and some to share. There have been successes as well as failures with the selection and sometimes placement of plants, likewise with my dogs and chooks decimating certain plants and I have had to build fences and cages for some plants to try to protect them.
I have met up and spent time with old friends and family whom I love. It has shown me just how much we need others in our lives.
I am stepping out and making myself useful in the community which has led me to new contacts and friendships. One of these involvements has been with "The Wagga Sensory gardens " I started going there to try to help maintain and develop the garden. When I started in about March of this year it was a dry,dead, weedy place. I weeded, watered, carted mulch, scavenger for plants and made garden beds for them to go into. When the hot weather started I was skeptical that I would be able to continue. They got funding there for a 10 session horticultural course, which finished just a few weeks ago. Since then the gardens have come a long way in their development. We now have more garden beds, manpower came from  the course participants and a watering system has been installed which covers much of the developed area of the gardens. I organized a group of people from the course to come along to the gardens with me on a Friday morning to work there. We sit and chat and have morning tea there as well.
As part of my involvement with the sensory garden I went along to another garden here in town, the demonstration gardens in Shaw street. This garden is a community style garden, run on a permaculture basis . I have learned quite a lot since going along there from the  man and his wife who run it. I feel that more new friends have been made through my going there as well. They asked me to go on their commitee and I have agreed but as yet feel I haven't really co tributes much there. They have a wood fired bread oven built in there that I am interested playing in, I have made some nice DTE scones one morning there at one of their baki g days, but as far as yeast cookery goes, I have a lot to learn.
An old friend who I have been blessed with her return to my life has also gotten me involved with her work in Landcare. I have been going out to spend time with her and we plan seeds of local native plants and grasses that go back into the environment and to regional farms to restock their land with local species, sometimes even grown from seed collected on their own properties. I have learned to prick out miniscule seedlings that with love and care will turn into huge big eucalyptus trees, and tiny sedges that can be used to hold river and creek and dam banks together and which provide vital shelter for native birds and fish. I ha e planted wildflowers that blew away when it got windy but I still had their tiny seeds pop up and grow to a size, able to be handled and pricked out into larger pots to grow on. Worthy practices me thinks.
I have been back to the potter's club here, my old stomping ground. We just finished an exhibition in the local council art gallery here. I didn't really have a hand in the organization of it but the few items I put in for exhibition went well with a few nice sales of some of my work.
I guess there is quite a bit I have achieved  during the past year.  Personally and work wise.
I get bored, I get busy, I get cranky, I am happy with me, I have been broke, such is life eh!
I am still kicking and I am growing.
The coming year has some exciting events for me to move towards.
O.K. that's all this post.
Love Linda.