62kg to Community Produce

 There was a bit more urgency in getting the olives down this time around due to a looming trip right in the middle of olive plucking.  I gave it a final go this morning which brings the grand total to 62kg. I was flagging a bit quicker after each session, ie one session per day for eight days. This is a record total and I would say there is at least another 8kg still on the tree but high out of reach. I could try the old rake them down system but walls and fences and spouting are all crowding the landing zone.  We got this lot to the community produce garden so they should be able to share them out.  The next thing is getting the tree trimmed sometime over Winter.  We have previously paid for this but will try it ourselves this time.

Fog Picker

Help yourselves

Roo Beach

 We have seen Kangaroos on the Bellarine many times and I knew it would only be a matter of time before I spied them around here. It was 6:50 am and getting lighter and I spied the kangaroo coming up from the beach. There was only one but where there is one there are others.  I went out yesterday for a closer look but the fog is helping them hide even better. The mornings lately are fogbound and the afternoons are calm and perfectly in sunshine.  Golf courses are kangaroo magnets. They cannot resist all that grass with manicured new roots popping up everyday. The nearby golf course is why they are settling in and there are a few green corridors all through here for a quiet transistion. So now to find a few in daylight. I have had a run in or two with kangas on bike tracks so I don't need anymore of those. 

Beach Hoppers and Grass Croppers.

Fog Beach

 I decided I was going to get out and about early this morning. I wanted to check out the wildlife before the dog walkers got on the scene. Even at 6:30am there was a mother pramming it with a dog in tow. Of course the morning I pick is completely fog bound. It is a few hours later now and if anything, it is much thicker and just dripping with moisture.  I went half way along the beach which was eerie and very calm. Not sure what a foggy snorkel swim would show, a muffled view at best and I am not ready to find out. The only thing I saw was a rabbit and no little black ducks.  I have two views below, 12 hours apart.

evening view

morning view

Eat Street

 It was a last minute thing deciding to go out for lunch on Sunday competing with all the other mothers. Eat Street had some spare tables, Eureka! so we managed to get into the, you guessed it, Eureka Hotel.  Even then we had a time limit before the next session.  This was also one of the venues for the after dark light show we went to some yar ago and has a large stage for bands.  We ticked some more off the travel list, like up to date power adapters for the US and Europe, as well as getting another pandora bracelet ready for the charms of countries like Estonia. 

Garden Update No 722

 We got a sunny afternoon so it was time for a tidyup outside. You can see the green growths in the pathways are dying off after the poison two weeks back. Also the orchids are coming up again. I can spy eight spears coming thru. We do not want a repeat of last years issue where whole spikes were losing their flowers. I spent another hour up the olive tree for a tidy 7.7 kgs of olives. These were all obtained while perched on a ladder. Not as awkward as actually in the tree. I have a deadline here to get the remainder down by next week and there seems to be a lot more still.

arty olives

spikes and spears

Beach Clean No 577

I have been across numerous times in the last few weeks and if I spot something I have made a mental note to bring the rubbish bag. However it was all about the swims and whatever I spotted  has been picked up, blown away or buried since.  Nevertheless there is always something and the wind that drove the last two storms in two days has brought plenty. The beach wrack has built up to a metre deep at the Eastern end. It is the most I have seen for a while. I picked up two bottles, small caps, straws, rope pieces, plastics, papers and a comb.  Quite a haul and half filled my rubbish bag.  There is also a basketball floating out of reach in the creek. Where is Shaquille O'Neal when you need him.

wrack not ruin

ruin not wrack

Dr Lowry

 Has Winter come early?  We do need the rain so I should not complain. Our tank is back up to 50% so that must be good.  I have not had as much stamp time but given the non stop 24 hours of rain then that will drive you indoors. I put in a bid and won, some charity sourced boxes of stamps. You never know what you might get particularly from a charity but I have given them a go.  The contents are disjointed which is to be expected. They get donations from everywhere and pack them into boxes and hope they will sell.  I am half way thru this lot and the first surprise is a full on 200 page coffee table book from Stanley Gibbons. It is a glossy history of stamps. Also I found a small note from Alex to Dr Lowry, asking if he can have the stamps from his envelope. Now Doc Lowry must have worked in Europe last century, as the stamps are postmarked Monaco 1994.  It seems Alex never got the stamps, so maybe Dr Lowry is a tight, miserable bugger who is the world's most under taxed Monaco Medico or maybe he just forgot to pass them on.

Dr Lowry