A delivery of wood

Last year  we cleared some bushes and trimmed back some rose trees from the side gate area revealing the small section of fence there to be wobbly, rotty and grotty.  It has taken this long to get something done which should be happening in the next few days.  I went across the way seeing the weather was favourable. I picked up a decent bag of junk, including insulating foam which boaties use everywhere and pump into everything. Also a length of black tubing and my least favourite, a nicely fermenting bag of dog poo.

Wattle Do

 We are trying to keep rides regular and also extending the distance in small increments. This time we got it out to 15km, hopefully the pembro does not require us to wind this back.  It was sunny enough but cool. I attached the gopro to the handle bars for a good result. I tried this on a hotter day 6 months back and it kept turning off but not so today as the whole route was recorded.  I have a short clip attached and it seems fairly smooth even on the dirt sections. Are wattle blooms a sign of Spring?  We stopped beside a bright yellow beacon.

Another Pembro another walk in the Park

Yes we are back on the medicine band wagon. In the cause of being thorough there has been a renewed dose.  How many more rounds seems to be in the balance, as this stuff can get body parts to complain. They have a manufacturing facility in another building so if the Doc says it's a go then they make the dose on site and vacuum tube it pronto for delivery. In the meantime I did a lap of the park which was 3.2 km or 4,000 steps in 34 min. Not sure if that is faster than last time.

birds eye view

Sherlock Stamp Collector

 I have been reading my stamp short story book and I found that Sherlock Holmes was a philatelist.  He was always a guy with attention to detail and used it to solve a crime. It seems someone tried to defraud the Tatts guys with a perfect football pool entry. However from the envelope and stamp he could see that a first day of issue stamp was used three days before it went on sale, so the cancellation was wound back the three days. This meant a postal worker was the culprit. Sure enough he tracked down a cleaner who had access to the post office after hours. His mistake was to grab a stamp that wasn't yet for sale. Elementary.

Tide Lines

 I have not had a beach cleanup for a while and there have been a few windy storm bringers during that time. Sure enough there are a few tide lines to be followed which always yield a good supply of crap. I have also been placing some jetsum branches at the back of the beach. Todays winner is the humble plastic straw. I would estimate 20 of these closely followed by the 15 or so plastic bags I extracted. There were also rope pieces and many small plastics like bottle caps.  Rocks are becoming more exposed as the sand shifts around and it seems to be piling at the Western end.

The Target

 I have read one of these from Baldacci previously. There is a whole shelf of them at Willie. This one has the same shoot em up, terror plot, save the president theme as goes around a lot of the time. The main characters are different from the last book and it seems these two have a series of adventures so no doubt there will be more of them on the shelf at Willie. I need to find a new direction, oh yes a book about small paper squares arrived in the mail, consisting of short stories.

Unnamed Creek

 We got out for a walk along the clifftops in an Easterly direction toward Port Arlington. We have done this before and you come to a deep canyon like creek with eroded sides. Some years back we have used this to get down onto the beach here but it is a hazardous descent. This time we turned upstream never having followed this part before. It is quite clear with a good track but we stopped after going up there for around 800m.  I checked the map and this creek comes out on the Port Arlington Rd near the Whiskery. Now I need to get the bike out and see if there is a way to approach from that main road.

cactus 

Calmer Ride

 I rode to the doc's the other day and it was windy city compared to today.  We took it at a slow pace and added 2km to last weeks distance. Hopefully the weather will let us ride more than once a week or go anyway despite the weather.  I also got into the lemon tree this morning.  Another way to tell that lemons are ready to pick is spotting when the possums start eating the rind. I can't think of anything worse than noring on the outside of a lemon.

exposed flesh

frondly view

fruit bread

Swinging the Prop

 We have retreated inside again. There were good intentions of walking today but it is snowing somewhere. Instead I tried drawing another stamp design. This one has an aviation theme which took my fancy. I also used a HB pencil which was fairly blunt so I need to sharpen it for next time.  They always seem to look better on paper compared to the scanned version. Its all Greek.

Old Post

 It's an indoor day here. I did go outside and face down the lemon tree but retreated when my previous scratches complained.  The tree is way over stocked at the moment so I do have to tackle it soon. Instead I waded thru the literature library and got out two cards that were sent in 1983. One from Maggie Carruth whom we initially met in Tassie but who went holidaying to the US of A and stayed there permanently. She was living it up at the time, in San Francisco. The other describes skiing at Mt Hutt by Carol Tamburro (nee O'Rourke).  Seems going to NZ for skiing is not a new thing.

Kayaks

 You never know what the sidewalk supermarket might offer up.  Grandpa saw a brand new office chair being thrown out last week and now it has been acquired as a permanent chair in front of the jigsaw table. Debbie was doing her walk and has spied a pair of kayaks being stored on a front porch. They were still there the next day but this time a sold sign had been put up for the house.  So after a short negotiation we now have a pair of childrens kayaks with a set of wheels to move them, for $100.  I believe Debbie will be light enough to try one herself however it would not be a good idea for me. They should be ideal for Grandies though.

converted pram

Doll Play

Yes it has been a while since I have played with  dolls most likely with the same Grandies. Fortunately Nana was directing most of the action. My job consisted of getting small shoes on small feet.  High healed boots are tricky. There was also the reading time, at least three books were read and you have to be more focused than ever about departing from the actual words, as Asher is checking that I am on track and Kaia has seen the film of the book so get it right.  Not to forget the violin practice.

Grave Decision

There has been three attempts at visiting Fawkner General but due to operations, procedures  and other excuses we have not made it there.  You would think we have one foot in the grave or one pea in a pod. We now own some extra real estate like about one metre square. This is not the first time, as last century I put in for a group purchase of 500 hectares which meant I got one square metre of Tassie wilderness.  At least there is a seat here at this spot. 

Pods

Riding Again

 Yes it has been six months since her last ride with many required appointments and procedures during that time but with a good weather day happening we got out the bikes for a leisurely 11km.  This must mean things are on the mend. We stopped at a new spot which opened at around the time we paused our pedalling.  This one has some good Winter Sun, good produce and good drinks but a drab outlook over a carpark. You can't have everything, it's also too close for us to stop here unless we change direction. Now we just have to get some consistency in the pedaling.

Blue skies from now on

DARK

 We have been working thru the three seasons of this show in the last month. If you have seen "Back to the Future" or the Terminator then you know the theme here but this is the time travel show to end all time travel shows.  I don't know how they managed to write it but there must be a database tracking every move. You need to pay attention to detail however they give good clues as to who is in frame, as when a scene fades from an old face most likely the next scene is the same person. The whole thing happens in 33 year increments anywhere from 1820's to 2050's  times 2.   The Doc in Back to the Future was always worried about coming face to face with himself, not so here. There are often teamed efforts by the same person.  I think the maximum I saw was four versions of the same person in the one scene.  What we know is just a drop, what we don't know is an ocean.

Quick Draw

 I found a short video of the Elephant House from yesterday and have added in a drawing from a South African stamp featuring.... you guessed it a pachyderm.  This is a five minute doodle from the stamp design but as usual I need to press harder with the pencil. It looks ok on the paper but if you want to reproduce it as a digital. Maybe next time. 

Mr E. Lephant

 Did I mention something about a Werribee connection, as we were back there again today checking out the pachyderm walk ie walk like an elephant.  The walk is 1 km or so however you need to time it for at least 11:00am as that is when they opened the door to the big house and I mean big. We could see the handlers hoisting and stashing bags of food all over the habitat and these elephants know it. They were off on a mission to feed.  We also took the train ride thru the savannah and walked to the lions den which seemed to be Estelle's main goal.  This is a busy place.

encounter with old tusky

very Jurassic Park

Females

Long Necks

On the prowl

I'm looking at you

Lanterman's Mill

 I have a few borrowed puzzles I am working thru from our beach friend Jill. Having a dedicated table in the corner is handy for just spending a half hour here and there. This puzzle has a good European scene and I think I have stayed in a mill just like this one.  It was eight yar ago in central France. The room was all massive timbers with wall paper covering the daub. The puzzle suffers from the same problem as the last one ie I have done 99.99% of it.  Maybe the bext one will be all there.

Villeray Mill

The Dress

I have done a lot of things at Werribee over the years. Worked there for 15 yar, played footy there, been on safari, camped out, done rock concerts, rode all the roads in the area as well as sending a message every day to the Farm however this is the first play I have been to there and especially in the mansion. We had dinner in Joseph's restaurant before gathering in the lobby where we were escorted two by two to the grand staircase of the mansion where the The Dress was acted.  It was a comedic presentation by just two cast members, one of whom is a couturier trying to convince a widow to shed her black in favour of a new style.  The actual dress did take a year to make.

the Restaurant

the Library

the Lobby

the Staircase

the Dress

the Mansion

Lemon Aid required

It's calm, it's sunny so time to get a few things done, all the while trying to have a rest day as we are gearing up for a Saturday night extravaganza.  Haven't done that in some yar.  I went across to do a garbage grovel as I had spied stuff during the week. I concentrated on bigger items and soon filled my bag with bottles, cans and plastic containers.  There is often something you have never seen before and this time it was paint rollers. There were two bright blue ones nearby that stoodout like dbs.  Back at home base we tackled the remaining lemon fronds. Now this tree is vicious. It does not give up anything easily. We also went next door to clear the ivy. This stuff literally sucks. Pulling it away from the fence requires some effort but we filled next doors bin with a lot of ivy and ours with lemon spikes. 

garbage grabbing

lemon sticking

Ivy pulling

apricot trimming

Elephant & Castle revisited

 The former Mayor Darryn Lyons owns this particular pub and his footprint is all over it with wall to wall photos and from top to bottom.  He took photos for a living once, being the paparazzi king and there are plenty of them here.  We were here for lunch and this time it was in the alcove just one removed from the big fireplace room. It is a good nook with a large window, almost a room to ourselves. Being a Friday it was fish & chips all round with a shared chocolate cake for desert.  We will not be eating much tonight. 

Flight Cover

I generally do not look for envelopes and cards however there are times when they come my way so I will include some if inclined.  With the inclusion of AI tools like Copilot into windows, it is easy to send an image to the AI and ask for an assesment or valuation.  I have received a stack of flight covers which are mail specifically placed on board, as part of a first flight.  The one below has a stamp valued at a paltry 18c however when attached to this envelope, carried by the first flight to inland Malaya in1937, it makes a difference. I sent the whole thing to Copilot and a mid range estimate came back at $50, a big jump up.  When I was in Singapore, the Orchard Rd of today is all high end shopping and this address is now a parking lot.

Never Ending Clean

 Debbie has taken up her walking activity again so I went across the way to get at least a few thousand extra steps. She is beating my step count just about every day. I left the rubbish bag behind even though I knew there would be plenty. Sure enough I could fill two bags probably, but not today. The tide was also up as high as I have seen it, with the far groyne completely submerged. The wind has died but there is still some onshore stuff driving the water. It might get a bit calmer later in the week for doing the flitter with the litter.