Month: April 2017

Travelling, Easter and a great escape

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

I made an interesting discovery today – the WaWa is not a good  distance traveller. The Beach or the Wetlands are ok but travelling the 20 miles to the lighthouse are not so good and after a while

Out at the lighthouse area. Wawa wont look at the camera..

she starts to get a bit unsettled and fractious.  Perhaps if we  persevere and extend the distance a little at  a time, she might settle down over the longer  drive. At the moment the Beach and the Wetlands are her limit.  We drove out to the Lighthouse and spent some time around there.  It was fairly busy with  quite a lot of tourists and shack people there for the Easter break. That being so we did not spend a lot of time there – although there were no dogs, which was good.     We did go down onto the rocks and I carried the WaWa over some of the area – I mean, she does have wee legs :o) She is getting as bad as Benji and will not look at the camera. However, Benji seems to blend in with the surrounding rocks, so it’s not a good place to photograph him. On Tuesday we went down to the

A stark reminder who owns this land.

beach, which was surprisingly quiet. There were some people there but I expected a lot more since it was a warm, sunny day and it is the school holidays. Today, on the other hand, (Wednesday/Thursday night/morning) it has been chucking it down all night. No dogs out  today and I think they are so upset about that  they have just stayed in bed. I seem to be the only one of the three that is in any way concerned about not getting out.

This Saturday STRATCO, our local hardware store, are holding a Barbecue and Cake Stall. We (RFDS) have been asked to do the Cake Stall. It’s not our usual thing, but we did this some months ago and it was very successful and STRATCO  negotiated with the car club who brought some vintage cars along inspection. There were  games and face-painting for the children – so all up, a fun day. I missed the last one since I was out of town.  Annabell  is doing a load of baking for this and   I’ll take her stuff down on Saturday morning. Some of it has already been pre-sold. Annabell is a good cake maker.

I think an engineer has bought the house over the road. I saw him out most of this week rebuilding the front garden and planting flowers. The reason I noticed this is that wherever he went and whatever he did he used a tape measure – I mean  the distance between the plants  was precisely  measured. I thought it was bit overmuch but who knows.

I have the WaWa on a diet and I really didn’t realise how much weight she had lost. 6am this morning, at the corner of Busch and Fairclough Streets, chasing a WaWa who escaped from her harness and thought my trying to catch her was a game, was interesting! I had to tie Benji up to the fence and go after her on my own. Took a while, but she came to me and I was able to get her home – making sure I didn’t tug her in any way until we did get home- and I did adjust the harness.

Benji & The WaWa

In a discussion with Annabell I used the term “my dogs”. She responded with “you don’t have dogs – you have a dog”.  She is, of course correct, the WaWa is really not mine. It certainly feels like it and the WaWa is acting like it is, but  it is still Sooah’s dog. I was asked to look after it for three months – over a year ago now. It’s a very frustrating situation and the best we can do is simply to act and treat the WaWa as if she is part of the family but keeping at the back of my mind that if Sooah returns we will  have to give  the WaWa back to her. Neither of us are too happy about that after this time, but that was the arrangement, however, the general consensus within the church is that she may not be coming back. Struth, it’s like a Norwegian Saga – it’s never ending.

Dogs, Emus and Daleks

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Friendly ?!!?

On Saturday 8th April, there was a tribute music festival to a local singer who died recently and, whom I am ashamed to say, I never heard of. Anyway, the RFDS was asked to provide the Barbecue for the event and we were happy to do this. I was not rostered on but I went  up in the early afternoon to see how things were and if they needed anything. Everything was ok, but I was still very concerned because over in the far corner was this creature. They said it was “Friendly”but I  was unaware that there was such a creature in the universe as a “Friendly Dalek”.

The warm weather looks to be over and we have started to hit the skids as the temperature for the coming week does not rise above 26c. The mornings have been a bit on the cool side so I should think about changing into a heavier jacket when I take the dogs out. Probable a good thing that the trip to Quorn took place when it did and when the weather was warm and sunny.

After church today we had a management meeting, so it was a while before we came back home. One would have thought that we had been away for years,  WaWa went ballistic, the tail going like crazy. I bent down to pet her and she practically  jumped into my hands, so I picked her up.  The tail was still going and she licked my face and my head and my ear and my face, then my neck and all Annabell could do was stand and watch in amazement – this was the WaWa that just two months ago would have torn my fingers  (and she did)  to shreds if I tried to touch her.  After a little while I decided enough was enough and I wanted to go and look after Benji – he is not being neglected. The WaWa is an “inside”dog and I

Driving to Quorn

spend a good amount of time outside and Benji is always with me. The beach is with both but Road Trips are me and Benji. In fact it has been warm and sunny outside and the Benji and me were working in the garden for the morning and early afternoon – until Annabell came back from the Coffee Ladies. Next week is to be in the mid 20c, so we might be able to get out and about for a few hours. I think sometime next week a second trip to Quorn might be on the cards. This might be the last one because I think  the lady was only booked in there for four weeks and that’s almost up. We don’t know what will happen after that. Quorn only accepted her on the understanding that it would only be for four weeks. At the moment Quorm will be very busy with the Easter Traffic and the Pichi Richi Heritage Steam Train  running over the entire long Easter weekend.

Whyalla News Photographs

Victoria may have Kangaroos, but we have visiting Emus. Thus far this week we have had three  different pairs of emu wandering the streets. The police, along with Wildlife Protection have had the task of getting them back into the wild. Motorists were not “emused” at the traffic chaos they caused. These photographs are from the” Whyalla News” Whilst they were here they decided that since it was a nice day they would have a wander around the beach – more problems for the local police. There was one just around the corner from the house that the RSPCA and the Wildlife people were trying to get into a pen and then back into the bush. And no I did not take the camera  since I figured Cortza and her people had enough to do without me getting in the way with a camera. As it turned out the Emu had a slight injury which  Cortza wanted checked out by the Vet before they released in back into the bush.

Swans, Beach and a Day Trip

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
There are now four pairs of Black Swans at the Wetlands

Up until fairly recently there were areas that were a sort of sanctuary – Benji went there and the WaWa stayed clear. One of these areas was my bed. Benji  curled himself up at the back of my legs and slept there. However, over the last week or so the WaWa has become my BFF and she now— gasp— sleeps with me. Thus my bed is no longer a Benji Sanctuary  and if he goes up on the bed she stands and barks at him.  Oddly enough, she is quite calm sleeping close to him at night –  although she is closer to me. She still walks quietly beside him when we go out walking in the morning and at night. I know it’s old hat but still no word about if or when Sooah is coming back and this Friday it will be a year since she left Kongsoon  (WaWa) with us.  It  could be months or it could be another year, or never, we just don’t know. However the WaWa is settling down and we can do a lot with her and the coffee ladies have sort of adopted her and when I

Just a little paddle in the water.

kept her in my room, they asked for her, so I let her out and they were happy with her running around them and letting them pet her . Everyone has noticed the difference in her this last while back.

For a while there was only one pair of black swans at the wetlands. Now there are four pair and we really do hope that we will get to see some little black swans in the not to distant future. Today at the beach much of the seagrass is back but there was more than enough clear sand to be able to  play in and we even got to go into the water for a bit, although Benji is not keen and I had to coax him. Next time we go down with the intention of going into the water, I’ll take some treats with me and see what we can do. Other than that it was a great afternoon and the dogs enjoyed playing and chasing in the sand.

The view toward Port Augusta
At Woolshed Flats off the Road.

Due to lack of  aged accommodation here one of the ladies from our church has been moved to Quorn – about 80 miles ( 130 klms)  away. One of her friends  wanted to go and see her before she went home to Adelaide tomorrow, so I decided to take her. Lovely day, good drive and a fun-filled conversation.It’s not something I can do every  few days or even every week, but I will encourage people to visit her as often as we can so that she does not get depressed by feeling isolated, particularly as she has no family here in Australia.  The drive from Stirling North to Quorn is not the easiest of drives for us “Townies” with the long winding country road through the Pichi Richi Pass, and the lower Flinders Ranges,  but it’s not too bad – bit tight in places, but not too bad. The lady we went to see was bright and cheerful and seems to have settled in fairly well. She has a room at the Quorn Country Hospital and she says she is well looked after and the staff are friendly and very nice. It is a typical, single level, country hospital. It was a good visit and the only  tears were when it was time for us to leave and make our way back home. When a bed is available here she will be moved back – but she understands that this could take a while. We did a bit of shopping in Port Augusta before heading back home.