Crown of Orchids

 We are on a two day hospital tour, one day for a visit and the second day for an apppointment. Tim is looking like the medicine is kicking in. We missed the head shaving ceremony and that's fine with me since I lost most of mine some time back. We have not been to Willie for a month or so which was always the plan and some work was done on the orchards here prior to that and it has paid off.  The new position has seen an explosion of growth with maybe ten sprays of flowers in all directions.  The book police will be onto me here as there are three books I have had for many weeks and the head librarian lives just across the road. The replacement electrification of heating, hot water and hotplate is all working well. We might now apply some of this to Clifton Springs.

Mary's door

St Vincents view

Gloved Putting

 There was a break in the weather which was perfectly timed for a beach session. The wind has thrown up a lot of F&J as well as swathes of wrack along tide lines. It was tricky even to find a sandy section to try a few throws. I cleared a spot of driftwood and sea balls which left a reasonable space. I also brought the rubbish bag and easily filled it with small bits like rope pieces, bottle tops and plastic shards. As for the throws I was as rusty as. I did four stand and deliver efforts then one glide style delivery which did not gain me much. I had the gloves on for this which hindered more than helped do to their grippy surface. No ill effects from a missing appendix that I could tell.

not sure what this is

seaweed city

Compression Gloves

Since we went to the fingerologist who was always looking sideways at my fingers as well as the patient's and as a result suggested arthiritis gloves for me.  I have been trying them for the last week or so and I think there is an improvement particularly with outside activities.  I am typing this now with them on and don't recommend it.  There are movement restrictions which I guess is the whole idea of squeezing the fingers. Pluses are warmth, say when walking and extra grip built into the palm surface.  Minuses are getting them wet.  Don't try cleaning your teeth, that was messy. 

the real patient has a neat criss cross

the pointer is my worst problem

Shells

 The indoor activities have continued around here. I did poke my head out the door considering a beach session maybe even bring the shot put. The wind has not quite given up its two day force so I went back inside. Last year we went to Asher's school fete.  It was huge and at the end, the $5 stall was giving it all away and I was handed a jigsaw puzzle.  I could not remember where this unopened box had come from until after I had finished it. This one took me weeks limiting myself to around 30 mins a day. We have picked up a lot of this stuff on our beach and maybe I could make my own puzzle.

Shall I ?

The Challon Heads

 I got this whodunit specifically as it has a stamp theme throughout the telling.  Alfred Chalon was an artist who did a sketch of a young Queen Victoria as she stood in regal pose at the top of the House of Lords staircase.  I am no longer amazed at the number of references I keep coming across as to where we were supposed to be this last month, like standing on the stairs at the House of Lords.  YadaYada. Anyway the Chalon sketch was turned into a painting that became the basis for many stamps from all manner of british colonies.  In the story, ransom demands were being made with stamps attached from Van Diemen's Land.  The whole murderous drama involved a stamp collector, a forger and a million dollar stamp. The stamp references were very factual and led me to investigate one of my stamps a bit closer. See below.

This is the only one I have that is featured in the book

Plate 77

 I have not wanted to get into the microscopic detail of stamps. The Penny Red which replaced the Penny Black is an example.  Millions of these stamps were printed requiring lots of printing plates.  Now plate 77 turned out to be a dud. They printed just one sheet of 240 stamps as the tester and found that most were skewed with badly aligned perforations, however 10 or so stamps were ok and survived after the plate was destroyed. The plate numbers are visible in each stamp in the scrollwork on the leftside.  

These days there is a website database that can help identify these plate numbers. OK I gave it a try. It knows the position of each stamp on the plate and has a zooming feature.  I have one penny red only and turns out, it is from Plate 71.  Close but no cigar, as the latest one from plate 77, was auctioned for a half million pounds some years back.

this is my stamp and the image sent back from the database. You can see the 71 on the left.

Whales Wont Wait

 We heard reports about whales off the bluff three days ago. There was debate about going out to see in a complete fog blanket. It lasted all day but it seems that was only us on the bayside while the oceanside was clear with frolicking whales winding whorling water wheels.  So we were late to the party yesterday but the Sun was out. I was so rugged up and sweating as soon as we got on the path up to the cliff tops. We could see to Torquay one way and the Heads the other way and not a whale anywhere in between. It was a good walk along the tops and back to Diver Dan's old spot for a sit down. It happened to be happy hour, so good timing.  A toast to the coast.