Tag: Adelaide

Water, plants and Organics

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
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Kind daddy started clearing a new sun area for us

What actually happened with the GPS ws that it was doing the right thing and directing me towards the Southern Expressway , the fastest way out of the Southern Suburbs. However, what it didn’t know was that that particular section of the Expressway was being upgraded and where the GPS was taking me was a construction site. Adding to the confusion was the fact that I had never been there before, had no knowledge of the area and was totally dependant on the GPS for directions. It was all very confusing but I survived, although I have to say that sometimes the GPS can be a real trial.

I hope to be able to get out to the Arid Lands Gardens sometime this week. At the weekend, I will be heading off to Adelaide again –  for a Conference.  I’ll be away for three days this time. That should be me until the last week in May when I will be away for a week – well almost. The conference will finish late Wednesday and I’ll stay over until Thursday.   I have not been out in the garden since I came back from Adelaide, I have just had so much that was set aside for three weeks that I now have to catch up on and things that I borrowed  and hired to be returned. However, I hope to get out later this morning. The area I am working on is not a big area but if it is  fixed out and some nice plants will take and grow, it could look nice. Even the local garden centre admits that the soil in this area is very thin and not all that good and I rather suspect that  there has been strong weed killer and possibly poison used by the previous owners. When we first bought this place and moved in I started to clear that particular area and planted roses – not one of them survived.  Sixteen rose bushes, bought from different places and all died – despite feeding, watering, mulch and rose food – not a one survived, and of the six additional roses I planted out front, only three are hanging on for dear life. So given that track record, I will do this area and plant the things I get from the Arid Lands Garden and see if they survive. If not, well I hear the  new season concrete is very nice this year  :o)

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Nasty little things

When I finally  moved the dogs I  covered the whole area with two bags of organic soil improver, dug that in and then used a wetting agent and watered the whole area. I think I have given it a fair chance, so, now all I need is some plants and a bit of cooperation from the dogs. Mind you, I tried to avoid anything that even had a whiff of Blood and Bone to keep the dogs from digging. We will see how things go.These nasty spiky things are growing outside. I have no idea what they are but I don’t like them and I think they could injure the dogs.

Motorways and a GPS

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Was at the doctor yesterday and the Warfarin is playing up and  the  doctor required that I take him for blood tests. I think it’s all that iced tea that he’s drinking. We get the results in the morning.  On  Thursday I head off back to Adelaide and should be on my way home Thursday afternoon. If I get the opportunity I would like to stop off at Bunnings and look for some additional fencing as well as a few other odds and ends. I may stay overnight ( actually I probably will) and spend some time in town before starting off for home. I have done it in the past and  I am not so keen these days to drive almost 900 klms  in a day. I have seen the day when we drove to Adelaide, went shopping and drove back in the evening, but  these days, a trip to Adelaide is an overnight stay.

I have been doing some work outside and an almost finished with the area clearing. It has been neglected for a long time, including by me. It’s not a big area but if I can regenerate it and use native plants to do it, it should be a nice  area. With Alan being here and being at a doctor or hospital every other day  – Monday, Tuesday and today –  I really don’t feel like doing anything after sitting in a doctor’s surgery or a hospital waiting room. His INR has shot up to 5.2 (should be between 1.8 – 3.0)  He will have to see his own doctor as soon as he is back in Adelaide. His carers are aware of this – I telephoned them this afternoon.

Friday:

On the way back home I stopped off at the Arid Lands Botanic Gardens. Not a great success. The place was busy and there was only one lady to look after the shop and the plants and the shop seemed to have taken precedence. I know next to nothing about native plants – actually I know next to nothing about plants period and my sole reason for buying things is that they look nice.  Sorry but there you are. Anyway, I really needed help between the book on local native plants I had bought (“Plant me instead”) and what was available and/or close to what I wanted. So, I thought it best to try another day and  came on home. Excellent weather on both days, although my GPS wanted to take me places I didn’t want to go – like onto a Motorway that is not completed yet – or onto a freeway that changes traffic direction depending on the time of day. I finally found a road that looked like it knew where it was going and took that. Fortunate in that it brought me to the Main South Road, which is where I did want to be. It’s a worry  :o)

They even had a Bear in the Air :o)

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

The Feds and the military just want a little  piece of land – this little piece   and that little piece,  and that little piece and that little piece – you get the picture.  I am not in any way anti-military – we should always support our troops – I just don’t see why  a  medium size  (31,000 regular) military force such as ours, requires  an area of land that is bigger than Scotland, Ireland , Wales  or Virginia, to play their soldier games in. Actually, it’s bigger than two or more of these countries put together.

Spy CamA few posts ago I said that the drive to Adelaide to pick up Alan was without  any drama, well, as it turns out that was not strictly true. In the preparations of the house and the car and myself to get down there I had forgotten one tiny little thing – just a tiny thing – the car Registration!! A letter arrived yesterday from the South Australia Police to inform me that I am to be fined for driving an unregistered car. I was picked up by the spy in the sky. Years of driving with a perfect record. It was due on the 21st March;  we left am on the 22nd and I was picked up by the spy in the sky on 2.43pm 0n the 23rd.  Well at least I don’t get demerit points.  Still,  it just proves the saying ” No good deed goes unpunished!”   :o

A week to ten days has turned into three weeks and I should be taking him back to Adelaide this weekend. He has no medication and no scripts to cover anything beyond this coming Friday and that really does not impress me much because it being the end of the school term, the roads out of Adelaide when I am returning on the Saturday, will 20130405_192159be packed.  However, all that aside I think it has been good for him to have been here these last few weeks. It has been a change for him and we have got him out and about, athough he does spend much of his time sitting watching daytime TV  ( which drives herself potty  :o) ) I haven’t been able to get much done outside – and the weather has been good for working outside.  If I do go to Adelaide this weekend then I will try and get away early Saturday morning and miss the traffic and perhaps go into the Arid Lands Gardens on the way home

Wheelchairs, native plants and a virus

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Samsung the noo 036
Me and my Teddy Bear!

The drive to Adelaide was fine until Port Wakefield then it rained all the way in for the last 150 klms. I had written about our trip and the problems we encountered but somehow or other it just didn’t save, and I don’t know why.  However, that aside, after some delays we brought Alan home and he has now been with us since late Saturday. He is quite frail and since he is on heavy doses of Warfarin ,this means that he has to go for blood tests every few days – something we were not told.  We were also not told that he can barely walk so I have managed to get a wheelchair for a while and that, at least, will allow me to take him out and about without worrying about his stability. However, he is family and he is here and we  will look after him and  try to keep him  as active as we can. I have to take him to the hospital tomorrow and then I am going to take him on a road trip over to the Arid Lands Botanic Gardens. I want some new plants for the new area I have prepared and  we can have lunch – if we get away from the hospital in time.

The eremophila are doing well (I think – well they are still alive) and I want to look at some native bushes. I do not know much about plant names but my Native Plant book calls them – ” Correa Reflexa” – Native Fuchsia / “Pomaderris  Obcordata” /  Wedge – leaved Pomaderris and I will take the book with me. They are Arid – low rainfall plants so they should be available in the Gardens. If they are not, I am certain they will have something similar. I did not get the opportunity to find out since  it has been raining for most of the day. If I had been on my own I would have gone through to the Arid Lands Botanic Garden, but the thought of pushing a wheelchair all the way from the car park to the shop and nursery in the rain did not really appeal to me. And the oddest thing is that the temperature climbed to 40c  in other areas and sparked off several bush fires, one in South Australia and one in Victoria.  After Easter, I will try and organise the trip to the Arid Lands Botanic Garden.

Quick update : I have influenza and  quite painful – but provided I don’t sneeze or cough, or talk too much I am fairly good. It’s sort of like the old comedian joke ” It only hurts when I laugh”. I feel like (and probably look like) an idiot wandering around with one of these medical face masks on and if you should go to my doctor’s surgery, he insists that you wear one – and no, he’s not Japanese. Modern trend I guess.

PS. It’s still raining.

Arid lands` and Isolation

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
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The upper area of the Spencer Gulf with the Flinders Ranges off to the left.

I enjoyed my visit to the Arid Lands Botanic Gardens. It has a well stocked shop and a small, but interesting nursery with a good range of native plants – and the prices were very reasonable. And I became a member.  It’s a 150 klm round trip but it does have a nice dining area – it is a good morning out and a nice, peaceful drive.  I bought 4 small (1.5 metres) silver leafed Eremophila  and have planted two out front and the remaining two in large planter pots. We will see how they go. I think I have mentioned before that the term “Full Sun” really does not consider the  heat of this area. Two days of 40c and they are dead, irrespective of water and mulch.  So I thought it is time to go to the Eremophila and see what we can do.

Our inter-state visitors arrived yesterday afternoon and will be here for a few days before setting off further north, then into the Northern Territory and Alice Springs. At least it will be a lot cooler than a few weeks ago.

Mid spring is the best time of the year to  travel up into the Flinders Ranges – everything is still green and there is a massive abundance of wild flowers. Then summer comes and everything is burned off.  My problem over the last week has not been the heat but the wind, which has hardly let up for weeks. I have never known for it to be so breezy.  Provided it’s not a North Wind, it does have a cooling effect but the  disadvantage is that  around this place all you have to do is sneeze too hard and leaves come down by the bucket load. I left a fairly clean place and came back from Adelaide to find everything covered in leaves again. I mean I understood ; spring – leaves grow;  summer – leaves develop and flourish; Autumn – leaves start to die and fall; winter- leaves come down. Is there something wrong with this logic?

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Still in the middle of nowhere

Depending on how the Eremophila do I will go back to the Arid Lands Garden again – only next time I will take a camera with me. This could be as early as next week, but I doubt it – although I will be going down to Adelaide next week to  pick up my brother-in-law (my sister died two years ago) and bring him here. His carers are going away on holiday and since there is no one to look after him, he will be coming here. He has serious heart problems so John is coming down with me to help if we run into trouble. It will be a long, slow drive back. I will also be good to have John spell me on driving – it will be a 930 klm round trip. It  will depend on time if I get to the Gardens. If not I will try and get through in a few weeks. I hope the dogs behave for the ten days he is here!!! But then, the dogs live here – he does not  :o)

Oh and it’s not really in the “Middle of Nowhere” the photograph was taken from the pathway of the Botanic Gardens as was the one above but they do serve to illustrate the isolation of this area.

It’s all about the dogs

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Anything goes wrong and I am up for big bucks. In order to accommodate a dog, I have moved my chair further away from the desk and moved the computer closer to the edge. Yes, I know, people type with dogs on their lap  all the time but for me it’s a new experience – and it’s not my dog. I have been looking after this little fellow  for  friends who have gone to Adelaide for medical treatment.  This is a dog that they adopted but it was a rescue dog who had been abused, chained up and left to fend for itself. It took a lot of work by the South Australian Dog Rescue to  look after him to the stage where he could be adopted. However, he is a very “clingy” dog and hates to be left on his own (Understandable) This was the reason they felt that he would not be put into boarding kennels and decided to ask me to look after him. For the last couple of weeks they have brought him over to get used to my dogs  Not the greatest success and at the moment it’s sort of “Armed Neutrality” – growling but not fighting.  This dog needs to be touched and to be very close to his human – hence him being on my lap. He will not look at my wife at all and was upset because I went out this morning. He is very affectionate but my two are ganging up on him.  I was out working in the garage for a while and decided to come back inside for coffee. I came to the back door and my two were standing guard at the back door and growling when he came near.  The little buggers were refusing to let the  visitor pass. Rather than have a confrontation, I took him  out the gate and had Annabell open the front door and brought him in that way.  Actually, I am , in an odd sort of way, quite proud of my two the way they worked together against what they saw as an intruder.  :o)

Anyway, that was his morning and afternoon and now the little fellow has gone home. Friends came back from Adelaide this afternoon and off he went back home – and I kind of miss him – even after only three days. At least the computer is back in a less precarious position – that’s always something. I took several photographs of the dog and for some unexplainable reason,  this program insists on setting them in  in a Landscape setting rather than a Portrait setting, which is annoying. And yes, I have resized them, cropped them and I open them and they are nice portrait, but when I try to insert one on here it reverts to landscape.  I  guess you can take it  that I am not the world’s greatest photographer – more a point and shoot kind of person.

Goodbye summer – hello autumn

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
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Sunset -“My Back Yard”

I was not working in the garden because it was too hot – now it’s too wet. It has been raining for two days. Not the heavy rain that causes any kind of flooding but a light rain that still gets you very wet. However, if I can I will try and do some work in the sheds or the garage. I say try because I now have an additional dog. Some friends have to go for medical treatment (wife) in Adelaide so I said I would look after their dog for a few days. That’s fine but when you are outside it is very difficult to walk  with three small dogs  seeking attention and running around your feet. You get scared of standing on paws and hurting  one.  The “foster dog” wants attention and my dogs want reassurance, so it makes for a difficult time outside  :o)

What I am in the process of doing is going through a ton of boxes and shredding and dumping things I no longer want nor need. At the moment the garage floor  space look like a tip.  I brought the boxes in from the sheds and they are currently scattered over the place in various stages of being emptied.  Hmmm, I got the recycle bin in ok, not too sure if I can get it out as easily  :o)  – at least, not until I have moved some of these boxes.
Still, I have been threatening to do this for nearly a year now.

The cyclone ended up a sort of a fizzier in that it headed towards the coast packing winds of up to 250kph, then sort of died and in the event caused relatively little damage as a category 2 cyclone. This is good and I am glad that the Pilbara was spared serious damage. But then again, although it died out and caused little damage, it did halt the export of some $500 million worth of Iron Ore . I sometimes wonder about all the media hype. Rusty was built up as being  a monster storm, and at a category 4 and rising, this is fair comment. This went on for days and people were evacuated or went into shelters, but when it finally did hit the coast it dropped from a 4 to a 3 to a 2 to a tropical depression – all of which is good, – but it sort of creates a kind of anti-climax – if that’t not too bizarre of a comment. However, we are thankful that no one was killed, hurt or injured.

Dogs, fires and funerals

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
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The Fighting Temeraire

Since I came back from Adelaide the weather has been pretty hot – in the mid 40s, so the dogs have been inside much of the time.  It has been an interesting few days – Thursday I drove back – Friday  I was at a function at the Golf Club where we were presented with a cheque for $10,000 as a donation from Arrium Mining to the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Saturday we did a fundraising event and I was told that one of our parishioners had died.  This was not unexpected but came much quicker than anticipated. On Sunday I was asked if I would prepare the Order of Service. I said yes, then I was told that the funeral would be on Tuesday (Today) – which gave me one day to get into town, select the paper  for the cover from the stationers, design the Order of Service, Print the cover, print the inserts. fold collate and have it ready for the Service today = all 130  Orders of Service. So it’s been a  kind of hectic few days and the joy of the concert has already receded into the distance. I have a Filofax and without it I would be lost. I need it to keep track of what I am doing, and if I called into work – where I am. For me, it’s not some kind of statement it is a necessary means of keeping track of what I am doing. I have, over years, tried other methods, like a PDA, but I gave that up and went back to pen and paper, I sort of toyed with the idea of a tablet, but decided I could not really justify it and I honestly do prefer my  Filofax.

The hot weather over the last few days meant that the Bushfires in three states flared up again. The fires in Victoria came very close to the City of Melbourne. Here in South Australia we remembered mountain firethe Ash Wednesday Fire of 1983 which tore through South Australia and Victoria and killed 75 people, including 17 firefighters. Two firefighters have been killed in Victoria in the last week by falling trees. Apparently, the fire just north of Melbourne is now under control and people are being allowed back into their homes. The Grampians Fire is still burning out of control and has joined up with another fire. There are about 400 firefighters and water bombers fighting that one. The interesting thing is that many of these men and women fighting the fires and  standing into danger are unpaid volunteers. We have a dual system, one paid and one manned by volunteers. The Metropolitan Fire Service  (MFS) is based in the city and is staffed by paid personnel while the  Country Fire Service (CFS) is staffed by volunteers. It’s compromise between the State Government and  some 430 rural communities – the government supplies the engines and the  equipment – the volunteers use it.

Adelaide, concerts and home to dogs

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Scruffy - because she really was. :o)The drive down to Adelaide was quiet and uneventful. It was a five hour drive – four and a half or less if you want to go  a fair bit over the speed limit – but I find that 110kph is fine and takes me where I want to go in the time I want to get there. Really excellent day – warm and sunny and being mid-week, little traffic on the road until the outskirts of the City. I drove into the city and met up with my son. We had lunch together. He is down at the corporate office for a while learning a different aspect to the organisation than what he is used to. I think they are going to change him from the mining section for a while.

I spent some time in the city before heading off  for a shower, change of clothes and off to the Adelaide Entertainment Centre for the Celtic Thunder Concert.  I have to say it was a great concert and it was all over far too soon.  I cannot remember when three hours passed so quickly. I really enjoyed the concert and it was a very good Christmas Present from my sons.  The only drawback is that they have to put up with the music – Hey!! It’s MY car  :o)  The drive back home was also uneventful and I did not get to the Garden Centre because I left early. On a warm to hot day it’s best to  do the driving in the morning before the sun starts to bite.  I didn’t have any dogs with me this time down and – barring incidents – I will not be back inAdelaide until late May.

My dogs are odd when it comes to cars. The little man curls up and goes to sleep – sometimes he comes over and sleeps on my lap. The other one, Chienna – she whines non stop. This is something we just don’t understand. We have had her since she was seven weeks old and she has grown up with us. She has never had a bad experience in the car but she does have ultra sensitive hearing and noises really stress her out, so perhaps that has something to do with it. We had her at the Vet. last week and changed the medication that she gets in the event of a thunder storm. We can also use these to calm her down if we ever have to take her for long dont Askdistances in the car. One of my very first dogs had cancer and the vet (at that time) wanted to put her down. I refused on the grounds that this was a pretty rough way to repay all her devotion over the years. I said I would be willing to nurse her, knowing that it would not end well. He gave her medication to  take away the pain and we nursed her, carrying her outside when necessary and just making sure she was comfortable. We only had her for a few months more but we all made certain that she was in no doubt that she was loved and cared for and one day I sat on the floor beside her, she put her head on my lap and she died. I was heartbroken – we all were because she went everywhere with us – making sure that anyplace we went to was “dog friendly’. Not as easy to find as you might think – although starting to become a lot easier today.

Jazz, conferences, Warships and dogs.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

My FordI suppose the last post, quoting an American President, was a bit cheeky, but there you are. I don’t really bother with political commentators, but I sort of liked Reagan – not taking sides here, but liked the man.  My idea of planting the plants in pots rather than in the soil seems to be working – well they are still alive so that’s a plus. I didn’t go to the garden centre on the way back out of the city.  It was a long and not very productive day and I just wanted to get back home. These days, we talk a lot but we really don’t do much. The next conference is in April and I think I might have a cold, or something…   It had been my intention to pay a visit to the State Art Gallery where there is an exhibition of the works of JM Turner.  Hanging above my desk is a reproduction of  ” The Fighting Temeraire” and it would have been really excellent to see the actual painting.  Now, that’s interesting – the SA Exhibition is ‘Turner from the Taite” but the Fighting Temeraire  is part of the National Gallery (London) collection, so I should think it unlikely that the Temeraire will be in Adelaide and that’s a great pity.

There was a little girl  (Fox Terrier) requiring a lift down to Adelaide so I said I would take her with me. However, she was picked up from SADR and taken down yesterday, so she will now be settling in to her new home.  I head off to a concert tomorrow and that will be me finished with Adelaide until May and I will be there for a week for the General Assembly. Days are taken up, evening I have to myself. There is a dinner on the Tuesday  night, but I will not be attending that;  however not far from the hotel is a Pasta  Restaurant and I am a sucker for Italian and Chianti.  “She who must be obeyed”  cannot travel, so I will be there on my own – me a computer , a smartphone and a Kindle. What more does a fellow need – except his babies, and I will miss them. It’s been a couple of years since I was away from them for more than two days at a time.

We did a fundraiser out in the bush in the middle of nowhere – Jazz Under the Stars – and this is a photograph I took of the car in the middle of nowhere on its way to that ridge you can see up ahead.  Good going in, fun driving out in the dark.

I was always told that if there are two dogs the female generally sleeps with the male human and the male sleeps with the  female human. No one could have told my two because he sleeps Samsung the noo 036with me and she sleep with herself.  If I was really desperate and because I have small dogs, my hammock is way out of their reach and besides,  they don’t like the swinging motion of the hammock – it seems to upset them. I know this because I took one of them onto the hammock with me and he was not very impressed.  He fought to get down and I could not let him just jump down onto the paving  because he could really have hurt himself. I had to  put him back down to earth.   The hammock is outside under the pergola, not in my bedroom  :o)