Wetlands – Page 5 – Edgar's Page

A week after the storm —-Warning Photograph Heavy..

08/10/201608/10/2016 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Friday:

Was a near perfect spring day here. Bit of wind but 33c – warm and sunny. That being so I decided that it was time. Got into the car with the Benji and we drove out to the wetlands. I did a circuit of the main pond then did a half circuit and used the new bridge to cut back to the car. I pushed but I didn’t want to push too much. It was slow in places and I rested a little AND thank goodness for drinking fountains for humans and animals. I did not take the cane with me even although it was suggested by certain people that I should. As far as I am concerned, it has served its purpose and will now go quietly into a corner and stay there.

On Monday afternoon I have to go to the hospital for an Echocardiograph Last time I had one of these done I had to travel down to Adelaide to the Flinders Medical Center. Yes we have all the equipment here – we just don’t have the professional people to operate it. Why am I having this done – well the simple answer is that it has been a year since it was last done and my Cardiologist likes his tests. I go see him in three weeks and one hour before the appointment, I go for an ECG – ho yes, he likes his tests :o)

Saturday:

There were more things going on up in the grass so that’s where most people were at the time. The Whyalla Players are rehearsing “Mary Poppins” and they asked people to turn up today with an umbrella and they would take a series of photographs as a promoting thing. That’s why I was down there – no I am not from the players, just an interested citizen with an umbrella.

I didn’t have Benji with me. Only 29c but too warm to leave him in the car – even with the windows cracked open. Was different yesterday – we were out walking and driving with the A/c on.

Stormy Weather. Welcome to Spring

16/09/2016 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

On the way back from hospital this afternoon I pulled in to the Wetlands to see how the bridge was going. Glad to say that the bridge is now in place but there is a lot of work to be done on the “Approach Roads” on either side. I still think the Forth Bridge was built faster. This could take a while because of the other news. Things are going from badder to worser !! In the wee small hours of the morning, when the whole wide world was fast asleep, some people broke into and raided the Council Depot making off with a large quantity of steel. ** stop laughing, this is serious** According to the newspaper report they – whoever ‘they’are – helped themselves to a quantity of steel valued at over $3500. I didn’t know we were so short of steel around here that we have to resort to lifting it from the Council Depot. I can think of many things that one could steal if one was that way inclined, but steel would not figure in that list, but then who knows why people steal things.

I am progressing fairly well and although there seems to be some bruising that has developed in the upper thigh area, I expect that’s fairly

Setting up the "Approach Roads"at the new bridge — Setting up the “Approach Roads”at the new bridge

normal given the nature of the operation. I am able to move a lot easier now and I have actually been out driving with the Benji. Cannot take him out walking quite yet but I can have him in the car with me and he’s happy with that. He likes being in the car – which is just as well at the moment. The difficulty is not driving, the difficulty is getting in and out of the car :o) I went down to the church today and helped a little with the Annual Fete. Couldn’t do very much but did what I could and sat down a lot.

I went for my follow up visit to the surgeon this afternoon and he is pleased that everything seems to be progressing well. There will be some residual pain for a while but in about 4-5 weeks it should have

cleared completely. I am walking a lot better than I was a week ago and the bruising I was told came from the tourniquet that was used on my upper leg. Other than that, it’s all good. I am just so very disappointed that the garden has been neglected for a while, but once I am active again I will soon bring it back under control and get on with the work I was doing. Apart from which it has been raining a lot this past week or so. Adelaide coped a bashing and took a month worth of rain practically overnight. There is damage and widespread flooding in and around the city. I understand Victoria, or parts of that State anyway, is also taking a bit of a beating, and once this front is clear there is another not far behind it. Welcome to Spring!! What you see here is the damage to one of the major roads through the Adelaide Hills and this is going to be out for several months. We are untouched. I think this system went below us hitting us with heavy rain that our storm drains were able to cope with. I understand there are flood warnings for areas of

Victoria, Bendigo, Ballarat and several other places. I hope Bev and the Doc are ok.

The Bridge, the Hill and a Starship

30/08/2016 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Other than church, I am having a day of rest. Tomorrow at noon I go into the hospital. All being well I should be home tomorrow evening. Yesterday I took Benji down to the wetlands, mainly because I wanted to do a nosy at the progress of the footbridge. I swear the Forth Bridge was built in less time. The footbridge saga seems to be going on forever. It’s close to seven months and I still think it will be elaborate and expensive rather than just a simple footbridge. The two sides have been extended into the pond, then the large concrete supports have been partly sunk which have further reduced the gap, so by the time the bridge eventually goes into place it will only reach across about nine/ten feet. I understand that it will have people

The other bridge at the back of the wetlands

walking on it and people pushing prams or strollers and people walking dogs, but are such large concrete supports really necessary? I mean these things are about fourteen feet tall, filled with concrete and sunk down into the pond. It will be interesting to see how this develops and how elaborate this structure will be in comparison to the back area footbridge. Yes I understand the safety aspects but I still wonder if such preparations are just a tad over the top.

I know I said a day of rest but, Benji and I drove out to the Wild Dog Hill Conservation Park. Managed to save that from being taken over by the Army like everything else in the entire surrounding area. It’s nice that they have a Playpen bigger than some countries. Anyway, we drove out there and I was not all that happy with the drive out there. It is popular and I can understand that – wilderness within easy reach.

However, the road is in a poor state of repair and if they want to retain Wild Dog Hill as a family picnic area they really have to do something about that road. We rattled and skidded and bumped all the way in. Don’t know who suffered the most me or Benji. The place was deserted but the Benji and I climbed to the top of the hill. It was blowing quite a bit so we had to stay away from the edge, thus I was unable to take photographs looking down which would give an idea of the height. I did manage to take some photographs from the top but only when I could get a break in the wind – and some of them I deleted. It was a ‘spur of the moment’ sort of decision to go out there and I could have chosen a better day rather than a high wind day. It has been many years since I was last there and it has not changed any. I remember we used to have evening movie nights and we brought chairs, sandwiches, flasks and blankets – but that was a long time ago.

I did not have the operation today as planned. I got as far as the Theater and it was terminated for safety – my safety. The fluctuations of my heart were just too erratic to allow the operation to proceed. Apparently I had misunderstood the instructions regarding medication before the operation, so now I am home and will take medications and the surgeon can work around that since the procedure will only take about twenty minutes. However, I have to go

Part of the road leading out of the park.

for an ECG on Wednesday and depending on the results of that the operation will take place on Thursday afternoon. I had things planned for this weekend but not now by the sound of things. Oh well, worse things happen on a Starship.

Hospital, Benji and assorted hackers

11/08/2016 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

The weather over the last few days has been fairly mild – 19c – 21c which means that I have been able to get down to the wetlands. We normally do two circuits of the wetlands before we head for home. The foundations of the new bridge across the main pond have been constructed and if the foundations are anything to go by the bridge may well be unnecessarily elaborate and enormously expensive. But then again perhaps the two concrete structures are for something different and not for the bridge at all. Photographs when it’s finally built. Anyway, the wetlands was fairly quiet today.

I have been waiting for it to happen and today it did – Benji turned on the WaWa and she went screaming off in fright. Since then she has stayed away from him. I don’t want harm to come to either of them but I hope this stand off continues for a while. The WaWa has adopted Annabell and she just sees everyone as a potential threat to her and it is unlikely that she will abandon that. This means that the respite is probably only a temporary thing.

I will be going into hospital on Monday 29th August and back home by Wednesday 31st August. Probably spend a few days with my feet up and relaxing, do a few exercises and then start to get back out again. I should be driving within three days. I just don’t know how I’ll manage! Me and Benji, dinosaurs and lions, lying on the bed watching the television. It will be a hard couple of days, but we will certainly try our best. I will be taking a break from all fundraising and other work for the RFDS for a few weeks until the repairs to my knee have settled down and I’m walking easily again.

It’s amazing ; a mere 19 million people trying to get on to the web site and it crashed – how unexpected! Who would have thought that would happen? Now the Government are blaming the crash of the Census Web Site on over-seas hackers. But it’s like everything else this government does to save a few dollars. Go murder someone, plead guilty and you can get up to a 40% reduction in sentence for pleading guilty and saving the government the cost of a trial. And this, by the way, overrides the mandatory life sentence for murder and if you look contrite and even cry and say how sorry you are, there is every chance that a good part of your sentence will be suspended – you might even be home in time for dinner. It used to be that you could be fined for making comments that would bring the law into disrepute, but the judges and lawyers are doing a very good job of that on their own without any assistance from members of the public. Man found guilty of abusing an elderly patient in a nursing home. Judge did not apply a heavy custodial sentence because he felt the young man had been punished enough by having his details in public and having lost his job and reputation, so he sentenced him to six months – five months suspended and the remainder

subject to time served in custody, so he was about ten days to two weeks in jail. This is justice, South Australia. The Attorney General has the legal right to challenge a sentence, but rarely does, and even when he does, nothing much comes of it.

Anyway, back to the census – it is believed that hackers disrupted the web site and denied access. Was unable to get on line last night nor again this morning (Wednesday) The whole thing was a shamble. Whoever came up with the idea of trying to get the entire population of Australia on line in the one night and on a single web site, really needs talking to. Oh and BTW, we have a government with a single seat majority – could be an interesting period. The leader of the party and Primer Minister, is detested by a number of his party so it remains to be seen if they can get over that or if their dislike is so great they will bring down the government. I’m betting on the latter.

Disappointment, hospital and garden disasters

05/06/2016 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

email Emails are the strangest things. If you send a nasty message to an address you will have a reply with in the hour. If, however, you send an email that requires a 10 second “yes ” or “no ” response to the same address, the chances of a reply are fairly remote. Strange that!! I was waiting for an email that never came and I fear is unlikely to come now. Oh well, things happen – or in this case, don’t! Disappointment aside, it has been a busy week visiting people in hospital and one in Palliative Care. Accident in town and elderly lady killed in a car collision. Actually as a passenger she survived the collision but died in hospital. Car accidents and rushed to hospital are not great for an 85 year old. Don’t know if anything happened yesterday but the Royal Flying Doctor Service flew in late at night. There is still an air of – depression is too strong a word – but more a feeling of unease about the future. Many people, despite the assurances in the press, don’t really trust what they are being told and although there seems to be more orders, four and a half billion dollars, is a lot to try and pay back. Also the company is up for sale and the fact that the good Arrium is be sold off first leaving the steelworks and the South Australian Mining Operations – which are the loss makers in the business – to bring up the rear and whoever thinks about buying the steelworks and the mining operations will have to consider the massive debt that goes with it. The administrator believes that the company will be on the market in July and that the steelmaker could have a new owner by Christmas. There are interested parties – so we are told – but six months before we know anything.

For a number of reasons the back garden is not a place to wander in the dark. It is so overgrown now that I fear for my safety. I think there might be lions in there hiding in the undergrowth. Between a whole host of things I have let it become very neglected. I would show you photographs but I wont because it is so bad I am ashamed to let anyone see it. Even when I brought in the

How blue the water looks. This is the Spencer Gulf. Not my photograph — How blue the water looks. This is the Spencer Gulf. Taken from the Hill. Not my photograph

workman to give me a quote to clear it and I explained to him what I wanted done. Anyway he did give me a quote which I found quite reasonable, so, he is coming with his equipment to clear the place and take everything back down to the bare earth. Once that’s done I will then decide what I want done with the area. I have plans – well ideas more than plans – but it will mean a trip to Adelaide (Bunnings) to get the things I want. Why not shop locally, after all we have three big hardware stores here? Very simply they don’t have what I want, whereas I know Bunnings do. Ho yes they can order it but it takes ages and costs more and then they slap on a delivery charge. Much better to empty the trailer and go to Bunnings – yes, it’s a 370 mile round trip, but worth it.

I have another funeral to prepare for but at least I have enough time to get things set up, printed and collated. It will all have to be done on my printer again and I will have to charge for the ink – it’s too much otherwise. With any reasonable luck we should have the church photocopier repaired and returned by the end of this week. But once again almost an entire ream – 400 – printed sheets and there was some wastage this time – I printed some sheets in the wrong sequence – oops. Busy few days with the workmen coming on the Tuesday and the funeral on the Wednesday. The photograph is the Whyalla shore taken from the Lookout on the Hill. I think it was taken only a few days ago when we had some sun between the rain. I took some photographs down at the wetlands of the birds and the ducks. Haven’t sorted them out yet. Benji is having a hard time at the moment. We have not been out for a walk this morning. I will detail this in another post.

Mount Gambier Part 2

30/04/2016 by edgar62, posted in Garden and Dogs, House, Garden and Dogs

To pick up from the other day – Mount Gambier informed me on Monday that there was no accommodation to be had within a 50 k radius of Mt. Gambier on account of the annual Jazz Festival. I spent the next two days telephoning all around the area outside the 50 k to try and find accommodation. I felt it was important to attend. I finally found accommodation in Dartmoor, Victoria about 55 k from Mt. Gambier. I was quite pleased about that. Last night, Wednesday , a new email to inform me that because of the lack of accommodation in Mt. Gambier and surrounds, it was decided to change the date of the conference from Saturday 7th May to Saturday 14th May. Can’t say I was terrible impressed since I now had to contact the Dartmoor Hotel, cancel the booking and explain why. Actually they were very good about it and I thanked them for their consideration. How that effects us here – we had organized a congregational dinner for Saturday 7th May. It was decided, that because of the clash with Presbytery, the dinner was changed from Saturday 7th May to Saturday 14th May to allow me to attend. We cannot alter it again – that would be just too much and it would start to impact on other things. So, I wont be attending the dinner – I’ll be driving back to Adelaide. I’m not impressed. Anyway, the only real consolation is that I can spend a bit more time at the Lady Nelson Sailing Ship and the Umpherston Sink-hold Gardens. It also means that after a spot of dinner I can go back down to Umpherston for a night tour because I understand at nighttime the place has a lot of possums and they are very friendly- so that should be interesting. However, I have read that the possums are not around every night, so I hope they are when I am there – I would love to see them.

Benji and the WaWa.

Benji is fairly calm and placid, but for all that, he is not a pushover and will stand up for certain things. He is used to playing with his toys on his own or with me. The other day he brought his toy into the lounge and was playing with it for a while, then he left it. A short time later the wawa started playing with it and a bit of a disagreement ensued. Benji went back to his toy, lifted it and walked out of the room with it and put it on his bed, which is in my room. I just stood quietly and watched this. It was very interesting and I really wish I had had a camera on me at the time. Actually, there are toys all over the lounge and it looks more like a large play-pen than a lounge room. Also, although the wawa seems to have “adopted” Annabell, she does come to greet me when I get home after being out – however, Benji gets a tad jealous about this and pushes her out of the way.

The last few mornings have not been all that great so instead of going out early, I have coffee and a play on the computer then we drive down to the wetlands and spend a good hour and a half down there. We still go walking around the district at night but the mornings in the wetlands have been very interesting – never knew that the place could get so busy with walkers, joggers and cyclists. Fortunately for us ( Benji and me)we go off the the general track and since the walkers, joggers, etc. don’t go there ( it’s gravel and dirt tracks rather than bitumen) we can walk in peace

and quiet. It’s amazing how many people think the wetlands is the area enclosed by the bitumen – which covers about two ponds, when there are seven ponds in total. Admittedly, the area of the bitumen is the area that has been most developed with swings, barbecue area, flying fox, grasslands for sport and recreation, whereas the remaining area is still gravel and dirt track – it’s also the area where much of the wildlife is – Black Swans, Ducks and Australian Moorhens – or Marsh-hens, which I first came across in Naracoorte two years ago. The ones here are very skittish and take off as soon as you approach them – perhaps having the dog might have something to do with it – I don’t know.

The Sands of Time

31/12/2015 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Today is Sunday 27th December – four more days and we reach the year’s end. I suspect the year may not be the only thing that will end in four days.

I love my dog to bits and I would not change him for anything but I do miss Chienne and I expect that in the “fullness of time” I will stop – in off moments – calling him

Chienne and perhaps giving the poor lad a complex. Unlike Chi. Benji loves the car so we have been going places, mainly to the Wetlands and a walk around the site. (2.4 klm) He loves those walks – or is it the hot dogs and coffee we get at the end. Provided it’s not hot I’m quite happy to take him with me when I go out.

Early in the New Year I will start to recover much of what has been lost this year, i.e. the garden. However I find that I am no orphan in this regard and as many of the new houses are experiencing the fact that it only takes a drop of water and the weeds take over. I go out and pull weeds, use environmental friendly weed killer, but you pull out one weed and five take its place. I spent a lot getting the front garden the way I wanted it – coloured wood chip is not cheap, but all that will have to be redone. Between me ending last year in hospital, restricted for several months until things were sorted out, then driving all over the State like a demented will-o’-the-wisp, the area has just become weed central. Time to get the grader back, clean the whole area and start over again.

Took Benji back over to the Wetlands again and had a walk around the ponds and gardens. By the looks of things foundations are being made for a small footbridge over to the largest of the islands. Sadly I did not have my camera with me but if it’s not too hot we may go down again in a day or so. I have yet to take him down to the beach and introduce him to the water. It’s an interesting area – a good defined path round the gardens and lakes, human drinking fountains and two dog drinking fountains, a play area for children, a good grassed area for ball sports and a good barbecue area, with a standing covered pergola. There is no permanent cafe but the temporary one can make hot-dogs and coffee. There are also male and female rest areas.

Yesterday – Tuesday – I drove from the wetlands to the beach and introduced Benji to the sea. After parking the car I took off

my sneakers and walked down the sand and into the water and he followed after me and the two of us happily splashed our way along the shore. He was quite content and seemed to enjoy the experience. Certainly today (Wednesday) is a bit warmer but I think we will go back down tonight and have another paddle – probably followed by a hot-dog and a coffee. A pleasant way to end the year – and anything else.

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.

Weeds, Stone and Windows 10

31/08/2015 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

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

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.

The sands of time are sinking.

29/08/2015 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

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.

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