Around the area.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Benji relaxing – which he is good at :o)

I mentioned before that the day I was outside was a lovely warm, sunny day. The contrast is that yesterday afternoon it started raining, was cold and Adelaide had a major thunderstorm. We got a little bit of a side swipe, some lightening, bit of thunder and some rain. Today it’s dry but cold and overcast – very much back in winter mode although not quite as cold, but still cold. The army has now left  their Cultana Playpen so we have a military free month until the next  group come over from Canberra. The next group will be the Officer Cadets from the Military College in Canberra who will come here for their final exercise before returning to the College to undertake their final exams. This group will not be out at the PlayPen, but will be under canvas at the  showground – same as last time – and they don’t have tanks. Not that we saw much of the tanks this time round. Interesting in that we were told to expect live-fire shooting from tanks and artillery. We heard nothing, but then the Training Ground ( Playpen) is over 2500 Square Kilometers in size.

Much of the last  week has been cold and miserable with rain off and on. Also it is now dark again in the mornings since the clocks went forward an hour.  My  6am walk with the dog  is dark with the light not happening until close to the end of our walk at 7am. The forecast for the week is dull and overcast with possibly some rain. The weekend, however, should be warm  and sunny.  Today and tomorrow  the RFDS Local Group are guests at the new On The Run (OTR) Service Station. Apparently the  billionaire  owner of the OTR is now a sponsor of the RFDS so we have been invited to the pre-opening tonight and the official opening tomorrow.

The problems and concerns with WordPress are not getting any better and I have to rescue more and more posts and comments from the Spam Folder. In fact most of the posts from  Tales around the Ranch,   Glasgow Galavanter, Spoon you, My Golden life (sort off because they do vanish and I have no idea where to). These are the main ones but there are others – Scotland with the Wee White Dug, is a frequent visitor to the Spam Folder. I am  really thinking of adding a new  comment when I reply to people  – RFS – Rescued from Spam   :o) Always providing that I find them in the first place. Others have either stopped writing or they are somewhere else and I have not found them yet. – but I will. This is only recent and I have no idea why it is happening.

The pre-opening of the OTR Service Station was interesting and attended by the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, The State MP for the area, the Federal MP for the Region, councillors, and business

Wetlands Kiosk
New OTR Service Station

leaders and the RFDS. It was quite an evening, lots of food, some speeches and some presentations. The  Regional Manager of OTR will attend the RFDS Meeting in November and explain to the members how the sponsorship works and how the  charity money is distributed by OTR. The RFDS is their preferred sponsor but they have a few other charities that they  contribute to.

I have decided that I am well and truly over walking in the morning dark and the sooner we get into summer the better. Apart from being dark, it is cold and windy and not really  the best time of the day.  It was fine until the clock change. If I leave it until later his biological clock gets put out of whack and there could be an “accident’. When the alarm goes off he’s up and ready to go but he has to wait for me getting dressed – “come on dad, hurry up” .  The Wetlands Kiosk has its opening today, so,  sometime during the morning I will get down with Benji and have a coffee and a walk – depending on the weather, of course and the length of time I am at the OTR Service Station.  I did drive  around that way going home from the Service Station last night and there were a few cars and light on in the Kiosk and the area around it getting everything ready for the opening today, I expect.

 

Lazy Spring Days.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Benji at the deserted Long Beach

I have not written for a while, mainly because I was reluctant to do so until such time as I knew what was happening with this account. Well that can be summed up in a single word – nothing. I have written twice to WordPress without reply so I have – for the time being – decided to treat my spam folder as an alternate inbox. A sort of halfway house really since posts and comments do appear for a few seconds in the inbox and then dissapear

White Sands

into the spam folder. Why is it so?? I have no idea!

A few weeks ago  Benji and I went out to the garden. It was a lovely, warm spring day – about 28c -. I put up the umberella, brought out my laptop and my Filofax and intended to do some work. I had papers to sort out and a couple of emails to write for the RFDS. Benji plonked himself down on the padded bench until it became too warm for him so he slid under the table where the tablecloth and the umbrella protected him from the sun. It

Lovely Day!

was such a lovely day and I was sorry that spring and summer could not remain as this was. It will, however get hotter as the weeks go on, so I just enjoyed the day as it was.  In the time since writing, we have been back to the Port, but, sadly, not the Arid Lands Botanic Garden, we have spent quite a few afternoons at the Wetlands and a couple of afternoons out at the lighthouse.  I found some interesting birds at the Wetlands and put a photograph on line. I thought them to be pretty birds and at another part of the walk one of these birds approached me, then Benji moved and the bird walked away. I have since found out that these very pretty white birds are Feral Geese, and (so I am told) very aggresive. They seemed harmless enough to me.  The Kiosk has been opened for an afternoon, selling coffee only and trying to get some feedback before official opening, which is the 10th. October. The above photograph of Benji was taken at what used to be a very popular beach on the way to the lighthouse. It was one of the areas we used to  take all the children to fish and play – my sister’s children and my boys. Then it was decided that the point would be just right for the Santos Liquids Processing plant so much of the area was closed off for a long while. Now it is very rarely visited and even then only by people on the way to and from the lighthouse who see the expanse of white sand from the road, or people, like me, who remember it from  ages past.

Hello. What’s your name?

At the Wetlands the birds are slowly returning and we now have two pair of Black Swans. I hope the third pair will return. I did mention the Wild

The Wild Geese

(Feral) Geese and then there is this fellow and I have no idea who he is, but I have seen him a couple of times at different parts of the  area.

I have also been doing some work in the garden. There is an area that has not been neglected but it seemed that whatever I planted there – died. I decided it must be the soil, so I dug it all out, removed it and replaced it with fresh soil toppoed by potting mis and  fertilizer. Watered it all in and planted some  flowers. They lasted for two days until the next door  87,000 cats dug them up. Kind of them, I thought.. I am not giving up and have bought new plants, posts and chicken wire. We’ll see how that does.

Emergency.- sort off……..

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Well, not as such – no one is in danger or trouble – although I don’t know about trouble. Most of the posts that are arriving in my inbox are being deleted, sent to trash or sent to spam – mostly spam. I do not know why this is happening but I have lost much of the posts that have been sent. I thought you had just stopped writing – at least to me – and I didn’t know the posts were being hived off elsewhere. I have sent messages to WordPress.com,  but no reply as yet. So please understand that if I don’t comment or reply, I am not ignoring you – I may not have your post.

 

Trip to Port Pirie Pt. 2

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Having had lunch at the Tin Man, we had a bit of a walk before going back to the car and heading off to Port Augusta. He did his usual – curl up on the front seat and go to sleep – whilst I concentrated on the driving. On arrival at the Port I managed to complete the remainder of the shopping and we had a small snack and a good long walk along the Esplanade, sat down and had a bit of a break. Oddly enough, although it was  quite warm in Port Pirie, Augusta was not quite so warm and instead of the A/C I put the heater on for a bit. The drive back was uneventful and as we neared the town, I noticed a cloud of dust. As I drew near to the source of the dust I discovered that it was caused by several of the Army Tanks heading towards the live-fire area. (more on this later) The boy and I had been away since about 8am and it was now approaching 4pm, so all in we had a good day out together, The Shopping Center at Pirie was really interesting and I would liked some time to explore it. I have a ‘thing’about shopping malls and centers and find them fascinating places. It probably comes from the fact that when we were growing up in Scotland there were no shopping malls or shopping centers. In fact there weren’t  supermarkets until the mid 1970s – and they were few and far between. Most shopping was done in individual shops – Fishmongers – Fruit and Veg at the Green Grocer – Grocers,( butter, milk, cheese, bread ) Butcher, Baker and yes, we did have a Candlemaker. (Shearer of Govan) We had two big grocer shops close to us, Galbraith and the Co-op. There were probably others that I don’t remember. All-in-all, we had a really good day out – well I did, he just curled up on the front seat.

Flowers along the pathway at the Wetlands

On Friday, Annabell had medical appointments so not much doing. Saturday I spent the day working in the garden sweeping up leaves and doing a general tidy up. I bought  two new plants and will attend to them on Monday. On Sunday (today), after church and lunch the boy and I got in

The Black Swans

the car and drove down to the Wetlands. Lovely day with a nice temperature of 25c, just the job for a circuit and a half together. Flowers out and to add to the  day, the Black Swans were back again.  The Kiosk is still not open. It was supposed to be open this week but there you are – perhaps next week.

This morning (Monday) was a bit on the cool side for our morning walk. Still it is supposed to be around 28c during the course of the day. A nice day in the Arid Lands. On the subject of Arid Lands, the Arid Lands Botanic Garden is under a cloud – re. funding. The ALBG was started many years ago as an initiative of the Port Augusta City Council, but with budget being “tight” the Port might not be able to  keep  the funding going for much longer. However, having read that I have to say the recent trip to Pirie showed me the amount of redevelopment going on in the port. The Feds and the State Government will start construction on the new major bridge soon. so there will be a fair amount of work at

Not too bad looking – but who minds as long as the coffee is good and it sells scones.

Port Augusta.  I have  started extra work in the back garden and have planted three new plants – two in the front garden and one (so far) in the back. The soil here is poor and thin so I  do have three raised flower beds – two front and one back. They contain 280 ltrs of potting mix rather than soil. In the front I have  a Plumbago and a Coleonema and at the back I have a second Coleonema.  I also have a  growing Sturt Desert Rose which I will plant in a different area. I have

Native Bush from the Arid Lands B.G.

a lot of hope for this because the native plants are growing well. I would like to get time this week to  drive out to the ALBG but in order to do that I would have to leave Benji at home – and he wont like that. He does not like getting left – not at all. It’s bad enough when I have to go to away for days at a time.

Trip to Port Pirie Pt. 1

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Thursday and the wind died down at 10:30 only to start up again a short few hours later. The second stage was short lived and all was quite until the rain started and that has been going ever since. Because of the high winds battering the state with the resulting dust storms again, a health advice was issued, re asthma, Hay Fever and people with other respiratory concerns to be careful and stay indoors if possible. I’m still getting over my being sick. It took a fair whack out of me. I hate coughing and spluttering. runny eyes and nose – the coughing is irritating. The rain finally stopped at 7:40 last night, so about 6 hours of rain. I do hope this will help break the drought here in South Australia and perhaps give some relief to New South Wales and Queensland. Amazing – has been no rain to speak of in NSW for three years and four years ago we were all fighting floods.

5th Sept. Spring has sprung – the last two days have been lovely – warm with bright blue skies and white clouds – cool to cold in the early morning and evening. I think most people have a similar feeling, that whilst we welcome the warm weather, we are so glad to be over the constant high winds that have been a feature of the last few weeks. I believe that more than heat, the constant high winds of the last weeks have depressed a lot of people. Yesterday, when I went to the Shopping Mall, the place was very busy with lots of young(ish) mums, prams, pushers and babies, so perhaps we are leaving it all behind.

We’re Back!!! Did you miss us??

As of yesterday 4th.  the 3000 strong 1st Brigade arrived back for Exercise Predator’s Run, 2018,  which begins today. We have

The Wetland Kiosk

been pre-warned that live fire will be from 9am to midnight each day. They will be here until mid October, then there  will be a break before the arrival of  the Officer Cadets from the Royal Military Collage at Duntroon  to complete their last exercise before the final exam and their Commission into the Australian Army. That should keep us on our toes for a while.

Went down the Wetlands this afternoon. One moment it was quiet next there were people and dogs everywhere. Decided to  head for the beach instead. Good move as the place was deserted. We had a good walk along the beach for a fair bit, then turned and came back again. By then is was just about 4pm, so time to head for home The Kiosk at the Wetlands is looking fairly good and should be ready for business shortly.

Today (Thursday) the Boy and I left home at 7:45 and header for Port Pirie. Generally I would stop for coffee on the way through but not today. Although we did stop  to have a break and stretch the legs for a bit, but otherwise -170 klms right through to PP. Once there  and parked the car, I checked the time, set my timer , locked the car and set off to get the things I had come for. I got half of my  shopping  and headed back to the car just as my alarm went off. I stick the things in the boot, closed the windows and turned on the A/C for a bit to re-cool the car. After a while I reset my alarm for 15 minutes and went back into the mall to get the rest of the things I wanted. Back to the car. I was intending to go back again and get some food but although Benji was fine, he felt a bit on the warm side for my liking, so I decided  that was it. and we drove back to the main highway. We did stop at the Tin Man Roadhouse and he was cool enough for  lunch ( what am I saying — he’s always “cool enough” for lunch)  so we stayed there for a bit to cool down and have some food.