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.
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