Tag: flame thrower

The sands of time are sinking.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
The town from The Hill
The town from The Hill

One of the things I am happy about it that I don’t have to be responsible for the minutes of anything now. I have the luxury  of being able to  do things because I want to, not because I have to. I’m not running about the place as I was last year – well last month was exceptional.   I have started reading again now that I can sit down for a bit. I also have a new camera, which I  have difficulty using, so I have decided to join the local photography club. I like taking photographs and I am reasonable when it comes to editing, but  would like to get better. I went there for the first time and had to do a “show and tell”and put a couple of my photographs on the big screen. On a scale on 1 – 10 with 10 being the highest,  I scored 5.6, which I suppose for a rank armature, is not three bad

I have no idea what to do in the garden, short of hiring a flame thrower to get rid of the weeds. With all this rain

No - not part of a river - our new wetlands
No – not part of a river – our new wetlands

they have taken off something fierce and weed killer is about as effective as using a water pistol to put out a house fire. When things settle down and the weather is a bit less inclement , I might get a backhoe to take off the surface. Once I get that done I will lay down weed matting and decide what to do after that.  Probably turn it into an gravel garden with a round house in the center (Hexagonal Gazebo)

Over 70 firefighters from Australia and New Zealand flew out to the USA to help  with fighting the fires in the  Western States,  particularly California I believe. I think it is brilliant that  countries with  forest fire problems  work together to assist each other when the need arises – such as now in the USA. A few years ago there were firefighters from the USA, Canada and New Zealand came to help in Australia.

I spent a good hour at the wetlands taking photographs. The wetlands looks a bit rough at the moment but new paths  have been put in, a new parking area with the possibility of a tea-room shortly,  restrooms, including a disabled restroom, ramps for wheelchair access and a barbecue area.  New fencing installed, a bike track round the entire area, new trees and shrubs planted, so, when everything grows and starts to get a bit of greenery around the place it should be really nice. An excellent area for a picnic. When I was down there, there were walkers  and mums with babies in prams getting ready to go for a stroll. Never really looked at the rules so I’m not sure if dogs are allowed – even on a leash.  The total area is 24.6 hectares with over 8 hectares of artificial lakes. One of the  better projects of a Council that is out of favour with a lot of residents.

Five months – that’s what I have left on my current site, then I have to renew with WordPress. If it were now – this week – I  think  I would be doing a MASH = Goodbye, Farewell and Amen. However, as it is I have from now until January to decide – renewal is in February.

A lot has happened since Christmas. I look out of the window and get depressed looking at the sea of weeds and I definitely think hiring a backhoe and driver is the answer. With regards to weeds, I am no orphan around the town in that regard – many people have been complaining about the massive growth of weeds. Then the weather people tell us that we have had our average rainfall for the year. What they don’t say is that we had a long dry

Weeds - I hates them precious!!
Weeds – I hates ’em precious!!

spell then the average for the year over a few months, hence the  huge amount of water in the wetlands (storm water runoff)  and the  massive spurt of weeds. Even in the church grounds it’s a fight to keep them under control at the moment.

Nearly back to “Normal” (??)

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
PeekaBoo - I see you.
PeekaBoo – I see you.

I have removed myself from several on-line groups that I belonged to. I really had not a lot in common with them to begin with – indeed the only thing we really had in common was our collective use of ringed planners i.e. Filofax. I was also finding that the vast majority of the members were female and at times the posts tended to stray very much away from planners to babies, illness, relationships, anti-men rants and I sort of lost interest. It was like being an Android user in an iPhone community.   I found myself thinking more and more of Charles de Gaulle – “The more people I meet , the more I love my dogs,”

So that’s the end of that. I am sorry because I have been a member for some time and it was interesting and enjoyable for a while – before it became more of a social gathering. I am still with one and  I hope that will remain on task. We’ll see. This afternoon I am taking Chienne to see the Vet. She has been drinking  a lot of water and peeing everywhere. She has even wet her bed in her sleep. We think she is diabetic but that’s really for the Vet. to determine. Chi. will be 14 this year but apart from the waterworks, she is seems healthy enough, still runs around

Chienne and her Thundershirt
Chienne and her Thundershirt

like a mad thing, is out walking with me most nights, so no problems about activity, eats well – so I really don’t foresee much in the way of problems with her in the immediate future. I miss the Man and I think Chi. does too.

I have been back working out in the garden – mainly cleaning up the neglect  that has taken place over the last few months. We also  had a little bit of rain – not a lot – which was enough to send the weeds into overdrive. I pour on weed killer – they laugh at me and  grow even faster and more prolific. But then again, I hit them with weed killer – Chienne pees on them  :o)  Helpful…

Although we have only had a miniscule amount of rain – we have had wind – lots of wind. Indeed many people have commented on the number of really windy days this year. What this has done is lay down dust everywhere – everything outside is covered in fine dust. Having  constructions going on, ( new houses) the land is cleared and the bare earth throws up considerable dust in the wind. A couple of times I have turned back from walking Chienne that direction.  Now that I am (almost) back to full activity again I can start to do a cleaning up, although, short of a flame thrower, I don’t know what to do about these persistent weeds.

The visit to the Vet yesterday was not as good as I hoped it would be. The blood sugar level was around 4.3, which sort of rules out diabetes, but it also brings other things into play that I don’t want to think about – liver and kidney problems I really should stop making any kind of prediction. I said the same about me on my first visit to the cardiologist and look how that turned out. Now about Chienne. However, Mustapha has taken blood samples and sent them off to the lab so we should know sometime next week. Her and me both – she waits on Lab results, I wait on Cardiologist final results, post cardioversion.   I am feeling good and spending the day out in the garden. In about an hour or so I have to go and collect John and we take a trailer load of rubbish to the dump. This evening, now that Andrew is back from Roxby, we are all getting together for a family dinner at Andrew’s place.