The Best Laid Plans………….

12th January 2016

It had been my intention to depart quietly and without fuss, but in the words of Robert Burns “The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley ( go often astray) and leave us naught but grief and pain for promised joy” Close enough I guess. I  believed that after four years this wasn’t really going anywhere so the sands of time had brought it to the end of its road. Well, that was what I intended but it didn’t quite work out that way. Unlike ID4 I was going to go quietly into the night, but someone whom I greatly respect convinced me otherwise. Even if no one responds, it’s still

worth doing

Since December the weather has been very mixed with hot days – very hot days, fry an egg on the roof of the car days and days when it has been cold and windy. At the moment it’s  up around the low 40c with a  high fire danger tomorrow and strong Southerly winds and total fire bans in 11 of the 15 fire districts.  So far we have been  fire free for the time being – not so Western Australia and a deadly fire  which is still burning. With the strange – hot-cold-hot-dry – weather we have been having  lately I think most fire controls areas are on edge. We are not really in a fire prone area but part of our district is so we come under the extreme fire danger / fire bans.   Temperature today 44.3. A fire on Kangaroo Island and another smaller fire in the south

Since I have been home Benji and I spend some of our evenings either at the Wetlands or at the beach. The last few nights have been windy and the water choppy so no splashing about. Today the weather was hot and calm so we could have gone to the beach and into the water but the boys and I have been clearing out the lounge  in preparation for the  new carpet to be delivered and laid. Herself picked out the carpeting four years ago and it was an off white colour. Was fine for a while until The Man took ill and then Chienne became ill- so,  we need new carpeting. And yes, we did clear out all the furniture and brought in a professional cleaner, but whilst it did clean it some, it did illustrate that off white was a bad choice  :o)

At the start of last week I ordered a new  Planner/Organiser from a company in the Netherlands. A day or so after ordering and paying I was notified that it had been sent on Wednesday 6th Jan. The package – all the way from Rotterdam – arrived this afternoon. I have had packages that have taken longer to come from Melbourne, so I have to say that I am very impressed. I have been fairly busy today and I’m a bit squashed up until the furniture gets put back, so I have to contain myself and open it in the morning. I bought two new Coffee Mugs. Didn’t come up too well on the photograph, but you should get the idea; the Text is “Benji the Wonder Dog”

This week I will call the yard clean-up people back again and have the whole of the front cleared. I have decided that the woodchips cannot be saved, so we will clear the lot. Once that’s done I’ll give thought to what I am going to replace it with once I have put in new edging. Will take a while but I hope it will be worth it. Last year I made mention of weeds – everywhere and there are reports that the Flinders Ranges National Park and surrounding areas are infested with weeds. The wet then dry and hot have created conditions for an upsurge in weeds – even around here. This week has been a good example of this in that the temperature rose to 44c then collapsed and it has been cold and windy ever since. This morning I had track pants and a jacket ( should have had a heavier one) when I took Benji out for his morning walk. The wind was very cold. Almost like mid-winter.  A few spot fires – mostly deliberately lit – which is concerning when we do get hot weather again.