Garden, work, and a dog.

For the moment work outside has come to a halt. It was raining for much of yesterday and it’s raining again today. I realise that probably makes me a bit of a woos – not getting out there and shifting the rock in the cold and the pouring rain, but there you are – guilty as charged. I might be annoyed at the weather but I bet you Weed Central is loving it. If it dries up during the day I might get something done.  I was also thinking of taking a run out to somewhere along the highway and have a look at what’s around. It would be great if we still had

The lower Flinders Ranges.
The lower Flinders Ranges.

Kangaroos wandering at the far end of the road – where everything used to end. I have not seen any wildlife since the area was fenced off and they started building houses there. It’s also meant that I have had to change where I take Chienne walking since the route we used to take is fenced off now.

One week from today and I go down to pick Catherine up from Adelaide Airport. We will be staying overnight in South Terrace before heading north in the morning – probably have breakfast along the way. Herself is very excited – you can tell be the way she has panic attacks every five minutes  :o)

The rain stopped and after lunch I went out and finished off the work I had to do. That is it – well not really,  because I have decided on a change that will extend the stone area by about four or five feet into the washing ( crazy paving) area. It will not impact on where she works and will help to create a better looking area all round.

At the risk of offending people, I have to confess that there are times when I despair of South Australia in particular and Australia in general. Inattention, drove  through a give way sign, killed four people – suspended sentence.  In New South Wales –  Man arrested – kidnapped and raped five children – three of these little children, one 9 years old, one 17 year old, held a knife to their throat and told the young children that if they made a sound he would kill them. He got 12 years –  just over 2 years per child-  and it’s not even 12 years – he’ll be out in seven.  It occurs to me that we as a society don’t have to really do or say anything that could bring the law into disrepute – they are doing a very good job on their own without any outside help. Did you know that  you can score a 25% discount on a sentence if you plead guilty and save the state the cost of a trial? That’s not justice – that’s money.  No wonder people want to come to Australia – you can do just about anything, get a slap on the wrist, told you are naughty and sent home. I  mean by his actions –  He Killed Four People – he can go home – they can’t – ever. I think there is something to be said for the American system where you get to elect judges or vote them out of office, but I suppose even that has flaws. Having said that I do so like the American sentencing system – life means life – 99 years sounds good.

Got all excited for a little while. I found a little Maltese wandering around looking kind of lost. I didn’t want to leave her so I brought her inside, as I was going out at the time.

No - it's not The Man , it's a Girl - close though..
No – it’s not The Man – close though..

Took Annabell to the hairdresser and then came back to attend to the little one.  Chienne was no problem – well two girls together, what more needs to be said  :0) We fed her and watered her then I put a collar and a lead on her and took her out to walk round the area. After about ten minutes this guy comes running out and calls the dog by name and she runs to him – so we found her daddy, who was very pleased and happy to have her back. Didn’t get a photograph to the two girls together but at least the little one is now home safe and sound.

Weeds, Stone and Windows 10

I've made a start
I’ve made a start

I have to admit that it is not the prettiest  of things but it’s clean, neat and tidy and since I  don’t seem to be able to grow anything here, clean, neat and tidy seems like a reasonable compromise. That’s only part of the area I am doing, I haven’t even thought of starting in weed central yet. The stone is called Tregalana and is, I think,  20cm. I have two days in Adelaide and I hope to have the backhoe work completed, the area laid out and partly covered in stone by the second day and look at the Hexagonal Pergola that I would like and organise  getting it home. Probably mean a third day with the trailer. That’s not so bad in mid-spring when the days are longer. It means I can go down with John, get what we want and drive back, with John taking a turn at driving. Yes, that would work. The stone for this area will be about two trailers ( about 1.75 tons)  but for weed central, could be a lot, lot more.

I know I said a fair bit about the new Wetlands and the work being done there but I really am impressed with  the way

Another area of the wetlands
Another view of the wetlands

the area is being developed. When it is finished and the  plants have grown it will look nice.

Well that was exciting!! I received a notification that Windows 10 was ready to download on this computer so I went ahead and began the upgrade. By late afternoon it had froze on “32%” and stayed there for most of the day and well into the evening. Using my tablet I found out that 32% was a common problem  and there was really not a lot I could do about it. What I did do was unplug the computer and restart the computer, Windows restored Windows 8.1 and aft5er a few scares it restarted with no problem.  ( HA!!)   I left the  computer alone for a while and went off to help herself. When I came back the machine had gone into “Sleep Mode”, which is normal. What was not normal was the fact that I could not get it out of sleep mode. Again I closed down and went for a restart – not this time, The machine refused to reboot. I tried several things but nothing worked. I got out the copy of Windows 8 and put that in ( yes it had power) and tried to reboot it on that – again nothing. Left it off overnight. This morning I tried again – same result – nothing.  Then I had a thought.  ( don’t be concerned, I recovered quickly)  Some time ago I had a problem with the printer and after trying many things to get it working I hit on the idea of  disconnecting it from the mains – and on re connection, it worked.  I had my doubts that something as simple as this would  work on the computer, but I went ahead and carried out the process of disconnection

Almost....
Almost….

and re connection. Hit the on button and, yes it worked and to prove it I am here. Now here’s the problem, I didn’t  rescue everything and I lost some things – mail being one of these things ( Outlook – go figure) I also have a few programs that are not working as they should and I may have to reinstall them. I think I will give Windows 10 a miss for the time being.   The icon is still sitting there in the right corner but it can stay there for the moment. Once I fix things I’ll stay with 8.1 for the time being.

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.

Well, so much for the “Best Laid Plans”and everything is shot to bits. However, I have completed all of the main edging and this afternoon I will start on the center area. I wont be able to get the chips until next week mainly because I have filled up the trailer with all sorts of rubbish. There was also a setback when I discovered that the old letter box pipe was never removed – only cut down to ground level and covered up. I hit it when I tried to move the edging there. I was forced to stop, dig down to the concrete and  cut the pipe off at the base before I could move forward. That and the weather set me back a bit – and I didn’t get to Adelaide after all. Because of the hot weather then the rain then the heat again the flies have been breeding like crazy and they really a nuisance I gave up a couple of times because the personal fly spray seems to attract rather than repel them. As I said before, this is an aspect of Australia that the travel books don’t tell you about.

Once I had cleared the obstruction I was able to continue on with the edging. I have now started on the center part but I can’t do any more until I clear away the stones from that area, which I had hoped to do this week. Actually I  did hope that I would finish it this week and head off to Adelaide full of satisfaction for a job completed. But not to worry – as my dad used to tell us when we were children “when the Lord made time, he made a lot of it”. I will continue with the work today, rest Sunday and start again on Monday. Everything seems to be taking longer than I had expected it to – or perhaps I am taking longer to do things than I expected to. I finished early because I  had a call to go down and open up the church vestry to let the Technician in to service the photocopier. Little things, but hey set me back a lot of time. I look back and wonder where this week went and why I am not further forward than I am. Perhaps I have an unrealistic expectation of the time it takes to do things. Oh well, not to worry – it will get finished.