Sponges

 Not the eating kind also heard of someone sponging off others but never quite knew where that came from. These are the underwater always saturated kind.  I finally got in for a snorkel as all the conditions were ripe for the fussy swimmer. This was the first one for a month. The clarity was so good shadows were cast on the sea floor.  There was a lot of fish but miniscule versions of them.  The thing that got my attention were the sponges and their water holes eg breathing holes.  These will have a name that escapes me but in the absence of fish they are where the colour is. I am hoping for another swim if the conditions hold.

Poisoning the Pavement

 We are due for a few dry days here so I spent at least an hour pumping and splurging 5 or 6 litres of poison into the paver cracks and crevices. This has not been done for some months and a forest was sprouting in the cracks. I was able to pull quite a few trees out by the roots before hand. I find a bit of a back ache is induced as it seems you have to stoop to get more accurate with the spray nozzle. Also the watering system sprays onto the pavers but I should get almost 24 hours of drying time before that. 

before

Dollar Bucks

 Kaia needed some distraction while her older sister went to TimeZone for party time. It is not long before she is immersed in whatever is nearby. Jigsaw puzzles seem to be all the go at the moment and she knows how to match colours and turn the pieces to fit. When the indoors gets stuffy then there is always the trampoline and if Nanna gets on there then even better. We used bikes, scooters and roller skates and it doesn't seem to matter if it is round and round the same ground, as long as we are watching, it all works.

Gym Session

 The gym here is quite well equipped and I am still mostly using the machines in particular the bike machine. Since my elbow has started coming good again after a year of issues I am starting to add weight lifting to the routine.  There are no bars here but there are dumbells the largest of which are 10kg each. Now I am not sure who they are expecting in this retirement village to lift 20kgs even from waist to shoulder.  At home I can now do 25 repetitions of a 7kg weight from waist to overhead. Here I struggled to do 10 with a 10kg weight.  All in good time I guess. We also have a proper bar where I have been working it without weights but if I can do a 10kg handweight overhead then I can add a few kilos. I guess that is called raising the bar.

Williamstown Sleepover

 Yes Estelle has had her first adventure without the parents looking over her shoulder. It didn't help that the breaker on the hot water had tripped while we were away and also that the cooktop refused to turn on but we did get to walk the parkland and get pizzas instead. I got to sleep on the couch so that Estelle could use the main bed. It was my first go on the fold out bed. Such adventures and the sleeping is not too bad for thin springs. If anyone wants to comment on what this steel framework might be that we found in the backyard. It just appeared since last week.

No Swim

 Will there be another swim that is the question? It was calm enough and warm enough this morning. I saw our neighbour Kerry with his SUP board and that only happens if it's calm. Although he has lost his edge a bit. Anyway I went across with snorkel and camera but a gust comes in and a warm Northerly with it and everything is chop chop choppy.  I walked it instead without a rubbish bag but it looks clear enough. Some of the saltbush can spread and takehold quickly and when the tide is up the saltbush is in the water.

What do you call a chicken with a broken leg who could not get to the other side?

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A lame joke

This Bogong hitched a ride from Williamstown

SaltBush City Limits

The Birds

 This is the only Daphne Du Maurier story I have read. She has a few famous books so maybe I should keep a lookout for them.  It was written in 1952 and is right up there with any episode of the Twilight Zone.  Alfred Hitchcock was impressed, as he a made it a film in 1963. It is a good old fashioned horror story about birds on the attack.  I had a few of those problems myself when a few years back, I crashed off the bike and hit the guttering due to diving swoopers. The problem with this story, is that it seems unfinished. It's the same with the film, birds are dive bombing in the thousands but there is no real explanation and then that is the end of the yarn.