Tag: Council

Flame Trees and Andrew’s Girl.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
A Foxy Lady
My Foxy Lady

When people come to the house, my two associates bark. But with mine there is little or no aggression there it’s more of a “hello, why are you not over here talking to us. We are important and you should be paying attention to us”.  Once the visitor acknowledges the canine masters in the appropriate manner, stroking or scratching, then peace is restored. We have had Chienne since she was seven weeks old and it is believed that she is my dog. Not a bit of it – she is “Andrew’s Girl” and always has been.  When we came back from Adelaide on Monday and came into the house, she made directly for Andrew. It was  “Andrew’s here! – Andrew’s  here!, Andrew!! Andrew!! – Oh Hello Daddy” at least herself was glad to see me and made us coffee.  From the minute  we arrived until he went home, Chienne never left his side. Neither John (the oldest son) or I are ever the subject of such adulation. When he did go home, she remembered I was here and came over to me. Of course, I made a fuss of her but at the same time realising that I only come second in my own dog’s affections. In all of this, the little man slept – he’s very good at that. Although, in all fairness, he did lift his head up once or twice.  I remember reading somewhere that   ” Some of our greatest treasurers we place in museums and art galleries, others we take for walks”

Bit of a shock to the system really. I mean winter wandered off and spring came rushing in with warm sunny weather- great!! Then old man winter decided he was not quite finished with us yet,  pushed spring aside and belted us with rain, thunder and blasts of cold wind this last week. Not very friendly.

Illawarra Flame Trees
Illawarra Flame Trees

The Council are going ahead with their beautifying of the approaches and the town centre. They have decided not to plant Eucalyptus  Trees but Flame Trees and other “exotic” trees. Exotic means not native to this particular area – but you knew that :0)  The Flame Trees are still native Australian trees, just not South Australian. Because of the idiotic insistence  of planting eucalyptus trees everywhere, the place  was really looking dull and drab – not inviting at all. I’ve nothing against gum trees in context – out in the bush – but I object to them in an urban setting. The Flame trees will add colour and brightness to the place and at least things will be able to grow around them. I look forward to seeing the end results of this new development.

Council, dogs and trees

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

20130207_120419When I head off to Adelaide on Friday I will not be alone. I contacted the SADR ( South Australian Dog Rescue) and I will be taking two little dogs down to their new homes in Adelaide – or surounds.  We stop about 30 minutes before we hit the city proper where we have a hand over point, in a well known location that everyone can get to.  The new family meet me out there and I  hand the dogs over. Generally I contact them about an hour or so out to give them time to get to the drop off point. I went in to see the SADR and told them I would be leaving on Friday. I didn’t take any dogs down with me last trip because I was going directly to the Flinders Medical Center – a very large teaching and research hospital on the far side of the city –  which takes me well away from the drop off point at Gepps Cross.

The argument continues and the planting of any tree has been halted whilst various council members  battle it out -native trees vs exotic trees. Personally I prefer the exotic trees particularly the Jacaranda . One particular councillor suggests that an avenue of native trees can be quite striking and I suppose that’s so, if you hire people to clean up the mess of limbs and bark and and are not too bothered that nothing will grow near them. So, all you get is a tree that will  break in a reasonable wind, shed bark and clutter up the drains and enhance the dry, dusty outlook of the town – great, go for it.. But they  (council) have admitted that the greening project has not lived up to expectations. Repairs to the system are in the process of being carried out whilst we continue to argue about what trees to plant.20130207_120734

After a week of fairly cool weather we went back into heatwave conditions again, but I don’t think we will make the  necessary conditions for a “heatwave”. Already the temperature is starting to drop back to manageable levels.  The dogs have been inside for most of that time. If the temperature starts to climb again then it will be unlikely that I will have companions on the way down to Adelaide because I, for one,  cannot drive for five an a half hours without some sort of break and I will need fuel and having them remain in the car whilst I fuel up is not a good idea. Without the A/C the inside of the car can become very hot very quickly- even with windows partly open , and little dogs don’t handle the heat too well. Generally when the temperature is above 35, we don’t transport dogs to Adelaide. I generally stop a number of times along the way when I have a dog with me – more than I do when I am on my own. However, tomorrow should be ok.

These are two photographs of parts of the town. The top one is taken from the  Lookout – actually they are both taken from the Lookout – the bottom photograph being the Foreshore.

It’s an ugly tree, but it’s my ugly tree.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

SAMSUNGNow that the temperature has continued to drop (at least over here) I will try and get down to Adelaide during the course of this coming week. I have things I need to get done and my brother-in-law is back in hospital again so I would like to get out and see him. There is  quite a difference between between driving in 28c and driving in 43c temperatures even although the car has very good air-conditioning. However, there is major construction work on the roads leading to the Medical Centre and traffic crawls along there.  I don’t make a habit of using the phone in the car but I had to phone Herself and tell her  that I was barrelling along the South Road at a whole 2 klms per hour.  I don’t think I would minded half so much if it were not for the fact that snails were overtaking us.

Helen is back home and when my wife spoke to her this afternoon she says she is planning to be at church tomorrow – in a wheelchair. She still cannot walk but she will be there none-the-less. I have sent the paperwork off to Adelaide re. the Commissions, and should hear by the time I get back from the city.

To the left is an Australian Native Tree. Personally I think they are a) ugly b) messy c) not suitable for this environment (urban)  d) they are a recognisable fire hazzard and e) they  can drop branches and injure people. In some parks people are warned not to  camp near or under gum trees. They are ugly in my eyes because, well they just are and for the life of me I cannot see any redeeming qualities about them. They are messy because they constantly shed bark which is very messy and a pest in an urban setting and downright dangerous in a country setting they create massive amount of litter – that is helping to fuel the bush fires. I may not like it, but I don’t really want to see anything to happen to it. After all, it didn’t ask to be planted where it is, so it should not suffer from Council mistakes.

Our weather is grey and it rained for a little while this afternoon. Nothing much but the temperature is well down. Still having problems in NSW and I heard from family that the bushfires are being reported on the news in the UK.  The cyclone is now heading back out to sea and it seems unlikely that  there will be any  problems from that. However, there is another low pressure building up which might lead to a new cyclone.

The dogs are certainly enjoying the cooler conditions and I have  not had to carry the little man during our morning walks. Behind the town there is a Levy Bank, about nine feet high.  Many, many years ago it was built to protect the settlement from floods. The weather patterns were also different then. I used to take the dogs for a walk alond the length of the levy bank and it was a good quiet walk. No so  these days, – it has become the haunt of trail bikes.  I took the dogs out for their walk at 6:30 this morning and (true!!) I had a pullover on. It was positively chilly.  I might take advantage of the cooler weather to get some things planted in the garden and hope that they get established before we have any more really hot weather. I might even get the garden shop to identify the above tree. —– PS I think I write too much…..