family – Edgar's Page

Getting out and About

23/06/2018 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

There has to be a course somewhere entitled “How to offend people without really trying” I thought if there was such a course I would probably take it, but then I decided I’m probably good enough at doing that already without any courses. I seem to have managed to do just this three times in the last four years. Ok not a lot, but then Rome wasn’t built in a day, so just give me time. Seriously though, I have no idea what I have done, or even how I did it. I think I might, indeed, must have said something, perhaps using the wrong words or the wrong tone and offense has been taken where none was intended. Perhaps I didn’t write it well enough to ensure that is was said as humorous, I don’t know – perhaps there would be a better understanding if we crossed over the river and rested beneath the shade of the trees. I know- it’s only social media, just move on. Yes I get that, but it does not stop the irritatingly persistent voice in the back of your head that keeps wondering if or what you did wrong.

I decided that it was getting just too cold to continue to get up at 0540 and take Benji out walking. Go out dark, come back dark. I decided to change things a bit – just a bit. Instead of setting the alarm at 05:40 I set the alarm for 06:30. Not a lot in terms of time but different in that I go out dark and come back light. It is cold and winter so no flies around and safe enough to be out and around during the day. The cost of fuel continues to rise and although I have not been on any travels with the Man, the fuel price does not have a lot to do with it. I have just been so busy and Annabell has also been so busy these last few weeks. Even when she was unwell, she continued to do things. However, everything has now been done and we can go through a period of relaxing: I might even be able to get out with Benji. As I have said before there are no places within a decent driving distance that are “Pet Friendly” I would love to go up to the mountains in the Flinders Ranges, but the Flinders Ranges are part of the National Park and no dogs are allowed in the National Park. Well, yes, you could take a chance and keep him in the car. but the the fine for having a dog in a National Park is $2,378 at least in Victoria – couldn’t find South Australia but I suspect it’s a lot more.

The Brunch went well and we raised a fair amount of funds which we have divided into three. This will all go to help the homeless in the district and provide meals. Although, having said that the ladies are all getting on a bit and they have been suggesting that they might not be able to keep doing what they do for all that much longer. Preparing and producing enough food to feed people for three hours is not an easy task – although fair to say, we all help. I may not be make cakes but I can make sandwiches and the men can- and do – help in other ways.

My niece visited us the other day. I had not seen her in a while so it was nice to catch up with her. She has moved back here so we should see her a bit more often.

An unexpected Adventure!

26/01/2016 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Sunday – apart from church – is family day and in the evening the family all come over to our house and share dinner together. Last night, however, was special for me. Although my birthday is not until April, the family – Annabell, John, Andrew, Patrica and the Girls – decided on an early Birthday Gift. In February my boys are taking me to Melbourne to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. A reconstruction of the front facade of the Castle is being built in Ethiad Stadium in Melbourne and the permanent staff from Scotland will be coming over. I am so looking forward to this – the Pipes and Drums of the Royal Scot Dragoon Guards. They (the family) all know that I have a great fear of flying so we are driving there and the boys want to go via the Great Ocean Road, which means I will get back to the Memorial Arch but this time I have will my photograph taken with each of the boys. This is the area where there was a deadly fire a few months ago but it has now been cleared for travel. We should also make time to stop at Bell’s Beach. Isn’t it interesting that I am already creating photographs in my head and what I want to do.It would be really neat to make a detour to Drysdale and see what’s happened to my Sister’s property, but I don’t think we will

The WWI Memorial Arch - Great Ocean Road — The WWI Memorial Arch – Great Ocean Road

have the time for that. The Edinburgh Military Tattoo is just magic and I will have to contain myself until the week after I come back from Presbytery, which, fortunately, is in Adelaide this time.

Apart from the Tattoo, this will be the first time in years that the boys and I have been away someplace together – so I am quite looking forward to that. Of course it’s four days that I will miss Benji and I will miss our splashing around at the beach. He will miss his hotdog reward, but I’ll make it up to him. It wont take us long to get back on track. However, it is going to be an interesting start to the month – Adelaide this coming weekend – Adelaide the weekend after – Melbourne the week after that. Yes, Benji will think I’ve abandoned him.

Benji and I tried out a new walking route this morning. Interesting but turns out to be over 1000 steps shorter than our current route. Since today is a public holiday ( Australia Day) I might drive round the route and see where I could make a detour to make up the additional steps. If you’re interested it is calculated to be 1320 steps per kilometer and Benji and I cover about 12500 steps per day which is about 5.7 miles or 9.5 kilometres and we do this every day. I realise this to professional walkers, this is probably just a warm up, but it’s a lot for the dog and me – 50+ klms per week.

At this point I wrote some thoughts on Australia Day and deleted them. Better to let the so called elites of society have their say because at midnight I think they turn back into pumpkins. I just have to say though, I love the way some Australians get elected as “Australian of the Year”and use the opportunity not to celebrate their achievements but to tell the rest of us what a racist, guilty of religious discrimination lot we are. For me – well I often think of Sir Walter Scott “The Lay of the Last Minstrel”

O Caledonia! stern and, wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child!
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood
Land of the mountain and the flood,
Land of my sires! what mortal hand
Can e’er untie the filial band,
That knits me to thy rugged strand!
Still, as I view each well-known scene,
Think what is now, and what hath been,
Seems as, to me of all bereft,
Sole friends thy woods and streams were left;
And thus I love them better still
Even in extremity of ill.
By Yarrow’s streams still let me stray,
Though none should guide my feeble way.,
Still feel the breeze down Ettrick break,
Although it chill my wither’d cheek;
Still lay my head by Teviot Stone,
Though there, forgotten and alone,
The Bard may draw his parting groan.

Benji, Trees and Firefox

24/10/2015 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Sunday; and for the first time since we adopted Benji, we had a family dinner. This meant that for the first time the two girls were here with Andrew, Trish and, of course, John. I was a bit concerned about how Benji would react to the girls and how the girls would take to Benji. As it happened, my concerns were ill-founded and everything went smoothly with the girls and the dog taking to each other quite well. Overall it’s been a very quiet week and not a lot has happened really. I worked at two fundraising ventures for the RFDS, with a third one this weekend. Herself has been busy writing letters to all the other churches and inviting them to the 36th Anniversary Service of the Women’s Association. I have also found ( well I knew, really) that, since my unexpected stay in hospital at Christmas, some of the temporary restrictions, plus all the medication, I have put on weight. This I am unhappy with, so back to my diet again and get rid of the extra kilos. Once we get into spring and the winds start to abate I should like to get back out on my bike – and yes, before you ask, I am very much a fair weather biker. There is a dedicated Bike Track down at the Wetlands but it’s like everywhere else here in spring and summer, the flies become a nuisance. I sometimes find that rather than deter the flies, the personal fly-spray seems to attract them.

Haven’t done much outside other than never-ending sweeping. I have an Australian White Cedar which has to be – more than gum trees – the messiest tree in

Australia. I have spent days on end sweeping up the mess from the Cedar and can well understand why the council had them removed many years ago. Pity they replaced them with gum trees. These berries, or whatever they call them, come down in the tens of thousands and clog up everything and cost the council a fortune to clean up the mess and unclog drains. The other problem is that everything about them is toxic – the berries and the leaves. This gentleman in the photograph, in Adelaide – has a problem with the White Cedar in the front of his house and the fact that the berries are all over his garden and he has two young children. Many councils are undertaking programs to have the White Cedars removed. The photograph is from the newspaper and I thought it best to block out faces. I need to get a quote for the trimming back of the one I have, which in the last year has just about doubled in size. Other than sweeping, I have had words with herself about just where she wants the washing line. I think she wants it moved back to where it was. Certainly the crazy area is closer to the door but it is now over hanged by the Ceder – tree – branches – birds – washing – thus it has to be moved. In the short time that I laid down the weed matting and placed in the stones, the place was covered in “Berries”. Fortunately I have a blower that is powerful enough to move them but not so powerful that it moves the stones. Herself could not believe the amount of “Berries ” cleared in a a few hours, so I can well understand the Adelaide Father’s concern for his children. For me, well Cedars of Lebanon I could live with, Cedars of Australia, not so much.

This last week has been a week of on-going frustrations with the computer and more than ever I realise the truth of the saying “To err is human, but to really stuff up takes a computer”. It’s been a week that saw my Mail Server crashing ( Outlook Express) the crashing of Firefox, which meant a delete and then a fresh install, and just general frustration. I gave up banging my head on the desk, put the lead on the dog and we went for a drive to the wetlands to watch the swans. That did help and I came back, fixed the computer and got back to work.

Cricket, Paintings, Poems and New Year

31/12/2013 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

The Christmas Plant. — One of my Plants – this one was given to me as a gift.

I liked cricket. Notice the word “liked”. I used to sit up to the wee small hours of the morning to watch the Test Match in the UK. I loved to watch the skills and the sportsmanship of Ian Botham, Clive Lloyd. Vivian Richards, Graham Gooch, Dennis Lillee , Rod Marsh, Alan Border, Richard Hadlee, Imran Khan, Sunil Gavaskar, David Gower, Kapil Dev, VVS Laxman – to name a few. I loved to listen to the commentary of former – before my time – greats such as Freddy Truman. These days I very rarely watch cricket because it’s just not the same game anymore. Money, technology, and changes of rules have altered the game to the extent that I think it’s called cricket, but it’s in name only. Yet having said that, over a quarter of a million people turned up this last week to watch the Melbourne Boxing Day Test. When I liked cricket, the decision of the Umpire was final – if he said OUT you were OUT or NOT OUT, as the case may be. Not any more – technology and the spy camera can have the decision of the umpire overturned, after all there’s money involved here. The Big Bash League, T20 have contributed to the death of cricket as we have known it. There is a lot of money being thrown

around and why should a person bother playing this Test Cricket stuff when he can make a lot of money playing in the T 20 – or even going over to India and playing there. Even ODI ( One Day International) games are suffering. T 20 is irreversible, it brings in punters and revenue, it brings in the players with just the ability to batter the ball to all sides of the ground with as few as strokes as possible. If people want to watch this game, fine, but – inflated egos, players who believe that they are greater than the game itself, are not for me, I leave all that to the Me/Now generation and their overwhelming desire for instant gratification – The Big Bash. These last few years – I don’t know – but it’s just not the same.

There’s a breathless hush in the Close to-night —
Ten to make and the match to win —
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it’s not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season’s fame,
But his Captain’s hand on his shoulder smote —
‘Play up! play up! and play the game!’

Yes. well, I always liked Sir Henry Newbolt. Not many people did – he is very Victorian and very dated. I liked his poems about Drake, Devon and Clifton. Surprisingly enough, I often think of

Newbolt, probably because on the wall in front of me is a copy of “The Fighting Temeraire” by J.M. Turner, and one of the great poems by Newbolt is The Fighting Temeraire. There was an exhibition in Adelaide called “Turner From the Tate” and people expressed disappointment that The Fighting Temeraire was not included. I don’t think they really understood the title of the Exhibition “Turner from the Tate” because the Temeraire is not in the Tate, it’s in the National Gallery. Oops…

So here we are, 31st. December and the last post for the year. It’s been an interesting year, sometimes difficult, sometimes frustrating, but always good. I, like others have had periods of ups and downs and it’s been a year when I discovered that I am no longer superman – I cannot lift and move fallen trees on my own – no longer invincible – I damaged my sciatic nerve in trying to do so, but it was all good :o) lessons generally can be. A quiet night tonight – we are far enough away from the main areas not to be bothered by clowns. Tomorrow, the boys, Trish and the girls will be here for lunch and then we are back to “normal” – Old Clothes and Porridge . I hope everyone has a great new year. I will watch the Edinburgh Tattoo and have a glass of something, wet, alcoholic and 22 years old.

Take care everyone – if you are driving – take special care – and I look forward to being with you again in the New Year.

Heat, Yattering Birds and Road Trips.

18/12/2013 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

According to the weather forecast, Thursday is to be around 42c, just the ideal weather for a drive to Adelaide and beyond – not quite as good as Infinity and beyond, but this is South Australia after all. Today it is supposed to be 37c yet, according to my outdoor thermometer the mercury is nudging 41c. The dogs are curled up in their indoor beds, which are sitting on top of cool tiles. The State is on Fire Alert and a Fire Ban has been imposed for all of our area.

Just had a call from Alan’s Senior Nurse and she has serious concerns about Alan traveling up here in his present condition. He is on constant oxygen and an oxygen diffuser, which is connected up to their main system. A five hour plus journey without oxygen and in a 42c heat is a serious risk to his well being. I knew he was on oxygen but I didn’t realise he was that bad. There is to be a meeting between the medical staff and the Nursing Home Administration and they will decide how to proceed, but they are not happy, and I can’t blame them. They will let me know tomorrow what the decision is. I have already booked my hotel for the overnight stay so even if the Nursing Home say no and that it presents an unacceptable risk to his health, I’ll still go down, do some shopping and stay overnight. I thought I might go out and see him but that might not be a good idea – adding insult to injury sort of thing.

The official temperature today was 39c, which is only 3 degrees lower than my thermometer under the pergola. The reset of the week the temperature will rise to 43c or about 109f. However, there will be a cool change come in at the weekend bringing the temps. down a bit.

I’ve just had a call from Alan’s Doctor and he advised me that the medical staff have discussed the situation and have advised Alan not to travel in this heat without a oxygen bottle. The trip really does present an unacceptable risk to life and they cannot sanction it. They also have a number of other concerns, mainly the defibrillator and the adequate supply of bottled oxygen. The Hospital here would not be able to supply him with refills suitable for him. The doctor told me that if I had never had experience with a defibrillator going off it can be a scary experience. I have already booked the hotel and I would rather not cancel it since this is where I stay on my frequent trips to Adelaide. So I will go down and do some shopping. If I leave at first light I should be in Adelaide before the heat starts to bite.

Nice day so I went out and had breakfast outside. I thought I would commune with nature and besides, the dogs like toast. You know, it’s very difficult to commune with nature with all these blooming birds yittering and chattering and jumping around the trees. :o)

Fires and a Grim Outlook

21/10/2013 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Herself’s brother telephoned from Scotland to ensure that we were ok and the fires were not affecting us and she explained to him that we are more than one thousand kilometres from the fire danger. But it was very kind of him to call and be concerned. My pain still continues but I have put it down to paying off Karma. I think me and the Little Man are a matched pair at the moment. Fires continue to burn across NSW with the number of homes destroyed now reaching nearly 300. The weather forecast is not helping – hot and strong winds tomorrow and Monday. Many people have responded with incredulity at the comments by the Greens that it’s all the government’s fault. They lost a lot of ground – and seats – at the election and only barely held on to two seats mainly because they were prone to doing silly things and making silly inappropriate statements. Looks like they have not learned anything.

I’m not really sure what constitutes the ” lowest of the Low” but I believe the looters that have broken into houses in the fire areas of the Blue Mountains come pretty close. Didn’t we used to shoot looters – and can we still do that?? The NSW Government has declared a State of Emergency and things are looking pretty grim with hot conditions and winds of up to 70kph. The biggest concern is to prevent two major fires joining up and creating a 200 klm mega-fire front.

Took the dogs out for a walk last night and got to use the Dog Sling for a little while. The Man likes walking so when he feels he has enough rest he wants out and back down again. Couple of times he has almost jumped out of my arms once he gets another wind. He’s sleeping a lot, which is good: he is eating a little, cooked chicken and rice; and he’s better off in food than I am :o) I asked for something that would help put on a bit of weight and was told to feed him cooked chicken and rice, so that’s what I’m doing. Apart from the medication he gets a daily dose of Fish Oil.

Adelaide and back again – part 1

29/05/2013 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

I didn’t know what to call this so I sort of borrowed something from Tolkein “There and back again” otherwise known as “The Hobbit” I don’t think I have violated any copyright..

Not quite fully packed – but close. I will set off at 7am tomorrow and should, allowing for breaks, be in Adelaide by noon. The first session will start tomorrow night around 6:30. Sounds odd, I know, but that allows everyone to get there, get settled and for the general business of roll call and agenda to be gotten out of the way, a get together for light refreshments and that concludes the Ist Session. From the 2nd Session onwards it will be full on for the next two days. The Dinner is on the Tuesday night, but I will not be attending that. I will, instead, stay in my hotel working on things that I need to get brought up to days – like my diary. I’ll probably go out and bring something in and have food here in my hotel room.

Monday am

20130527_103520 — Ah yes, they were built to last in these days. This was at the service station when I pulled in.

Our visitor dog (Yogi) is still with us and he should be going back home today. It is only 6:20 and I don’t leave until about 7am. I do not like travelling on the road out of here in the dark so I generally wait until the sun is up. In summer time this means leaving about 6am. As far as I am aware, Jim is doing fine after his operation and should be home tomorrow, however, I think his wife is coming to collect Yogi sometime this afternoon after she has been at the hospital. He’s been no bother and my two are still ignoring him, although I have to say that they let him use their bed yesterday :o) Regrettably, my two, whilst loveable , are not really very sociable when it comes to other dogs. But then, they have always been with me, Chienna six weeks after she was born and Mannie since he was adopted ten years ago. They are very much family dogs and they like people – just not other dogs.

The drive down here to Adelaide was very quiet until just about ten miles out of town. There was a smash on the inbound highway and two of the lanes were closed off and traffic was backed up for miles. Took me longer to travel these miles than it took me to travel down from Port Wakefield – 100 kilometres away. In the early stages of the drive I was thankful for my instance of not travelling at night because there was quite a few Kangaroos dead at the side of the road, plus a couple of foxes. Ok for a big truck not not in my Ford.

Tuesday

After the introduction last night the first real session starts today. Good sleep, but it’s cold down here. I think it’s colder here than it is at home. Glad I brought a really heavy pullover with me :o) Although I have to say that the conference centre was well heated, so that was not a problem. Calling home during a break I found out that Yogi went home on Monday afternoon. And on the subject of going home, we believe that the business of the conference will be concluded by noon on Wednesday and since the emergency meeting has been cancelled, I may get home on Wednesday afternoon. Depends what I have to do here.

continued.

Arid lands` and Isolation

17/03/2013 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

20130316_113019 — 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?

20130316_113152 — 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.

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