Asher on the Stand

We did the Melbourne circuit today. First of all to Burnside for Granma Granpa morning tea. Some early birthday presents came in including a mobile garden waste bin and a framed poem. It was then a short lunch with the other Nana timed just so, to be across at Asher's house for a 90 minute session before after noon sleep time and that could have applied to everyone present. It was mostly backyard activity like soccer, jumping, pretend sleeps on the slide, soccer, jumping, counting rocks and then some more jumping.  That was most of the 90 minutes.  Inside it was snack time on the Stand.

UpStanding

get your Rocks on

Jump

Where you hang your hat's your home

Garden Upheaval

The plant slayer has been visiting today.  We got him in last year for a trim here and cut there. He started by giving the Olive tree a haircut and a shaping.  Then it was around the front yard. Have chainsaw will cut. Numerous plants have disappeared as part of the clean canvass approach. We also dug up the concrete pavers thus obliterating the pathway.  The whole idea is to discourage anyone thinking this is the way in.  The prickly plants have gone as well. So now phase III can start in earnest. 

before

after

The Black Parade

Sounds like a song for the dearly departed.  But it could also be the entry way to our house which is being reshaped with yet another two large black urns, in addition to the one that is already there, as well as the blackened poles and black wall art.  Last week I went for a water wade cum jog in good conditions and today was similar but I jogged along the beach separate from the water. It was really a test of the plantar fasciitis which I have been dogged with for years. This run felt good, just a slow jog to the Dell and back without stopping.  I have been continuing with the CD extractions. I have added an experiment below holding a single photo to accommodate any sound track I want to add. Check your volume or crank it up as so desired.

This one really has a silver lining

The Original Van

I went back to my historical box of correspondence to see what else I might share. I found a card that was sent from Sydney after we went up there for a visit to see my old mate Loretta whom we met in Tassie  last century  (circa 1978).  This visit was also last century around 1995. She mentions drought and taking short showers. There was meant to be a photo from Sydney with the card, which I will now have to search for, but instead there were photos of the Collendina van in its original condition before Ross and I started a renovation. On a side note,  I was thinking about the word pandemic. I think we should stop using that and replace it with a phrase like 'just another thing we have to deal with'.  For example  'because of the other thing we have to deal with' the Taylors cannot use the van right now as it has no toilet, as common area toilet/shower blocks are staying shut.

old kitchen

spot the difference

Crescent Moon

I am often going on about the Sunsets around here which are still glowing day after day but this time I got the Moon worked into some of these shots. I've tried this previously with much blurring however this time I have worked out how to hold the camera whilst using a pole for stability. I could always get out a tripod but my approach has always been photography on the run.

there is a circular edge here

Robinson Crusoe

I took a diversion in my book reading to this old classic by Daniel Dafoe. It first appeared in 1719 and my copy was published in 1920 making this particular book 100 yar old.  I have read it before about 50 yar ago and if ever you were stuck inside during a pandemic then this book will take you around the world. Also the last two books that I read both talked about Robinson Crusoe in the course of their texts.  Quiz Question.  How many years did he spend on his Island?  Here is a quote from the book

 "And here I am, preparing for a longer journey than all these, having lived a life of infinite variety, seventy two years, and learned sufficiently to know the value of retirement, and the blessing of ending our days in peace."

Aqua Run

Only a few years back over on the ocean side at Collendina I would do some Winter wading into the water about waste deep. And that was with one eye on the wave action.  Since we have been on this side I have had a mind to jog thru the water as a Winter activity, being the calm Corio Bay side.  I gave this a go this morning.  There needs to be no wind and complete Sunshine.  The main issue was that the tide was out, so getting waste deep means going thru some sea grass.  I wore some water shoes and over all it worked ok but it was cold.  There is almost this hot type of sensation when you get out. I have been observing some groups doing a swim but with full wetsuit gear. I do have a  20 yar old short leg short sleeve version of a suit somewhere. Not sure if I would still get into it.

Garden Bedded

Another garden bed installment has been completed. The whole idea is to get a sense of flow like plants are tumbling out of a pot. I also went back to the Produce Table to deliver my second and last batch of Olives.  The produce lady was there this time and was impressed with the olives. She was going to grab some herself.  I spent around 10 hours in our tree for approximately 25 kilos of olives.

one cactus only

sorting the produce

Dolphins and Gardens

The garden must have our own touch, well Debbie's touch at least. She went to Torquay to buy some rocks for particular placement. The first few she picked out, the guy said no they are already sold to Patrick Dangerfield.  Obviously there seems to be pandemic garden time for footballers who are supposed to be training.  I continued my video processing today and found that when I was shooting some dive bombers last week, there was also a pod of dolphins feeding as well.  A large school was being invaded from above and below.

Rock No 1 in position

Asher takes Charge

I worked my way thru a backlog of video today as well as starting on the conversion of my CDs to streaming quality. The videos show Asher in her element as the secret garden is being constructed.  I also found some action footage of a flying car that went past our place last week. As for the CDs, there seems to be two types. The first type is fully recognised by the music player and can extract all the songs to files including all the associated data, like artist, title, album etc. The second type requires me to edit in those details before extraction. In both cases I can then add those files to my phone for streaming broadcast. 

Zoom Zoom

We are really taking to the online video strategy now. Last night was another round of remote card playing via Trickster. We are getting most players on both video and audio lately. Today Debbie had one of her frequent webinars with over 50 attendees all hearing about the PB system. And this afternoon there was a one hour call via Zoom to Paul and Helen Stork in Sydney.  She has got her own business consulting on environmental issues whilst Pablo is the retiree of leisure. Sound familiar.

These are two paintings by Pablo Stork. He painted them on greeting cards at least 25 yar ago but we had them cut and framed for hanging purposes.

Power Drain

It seems there was a big storm last night but I never heard a thing.  Our alarm clock was flashing so the power went out over night and it went out again today as well.  Powercor sent me a message saying they know and will get it back on at by 7:00 pm.  It went out at 10:30 am. So extra reading time but 2 hrs straight was enough.  The grass trimmer is battery operated so I didn't have any excuse. That filled in another hour.  The laptop still works but it is so cramped when you are used to two big screens. The power came on at 2 ish so I didn't have to undock it from its station.

Grass trimming art. We have a new policy of leaving this gate open.

Black and White Sky

Later  On Fire Sky

Endymion

I have whinged previously in my Hugo chase, about award winning books being part of a greater series whereby only one gets on the Hugo list. In this case there are four books in the series the first two of which each received the Hugo Award.  And I have now tracked down the remaining two. This series tells one of the better stories in an already high class of writing, being the Hugos.  It took a while for me to pick up the story line but it continued exactly where it left off.  It has all the classic Sci Fi requirements, space travel, time travel, aliens and robots.  Only one volume to go.

For the photo

I have read of photographers sitting all day long waiting for weather and light.  We had ideas of getting some shots at sunset. There were possibilities of the You Yangs that way and I liked a yacht going the other way, all with the Sun in the background and pylons in the foreground.  But you needed to go in the water.  And with the hazards of failing light and rocks and wet you might slip. Hopefully these photos were worth it.

I used to take off the same amount of skin playing football. In those days there was no manicured park like surface to play on. Every week you would lose skin on jagged dried mud beds all the way down the centre corridor from goal to goal.

notice huge sunflare activity bursting out

Asher's Fairy Garden

How many almost two year olds can open up the door in their bedroom and step out into their own fairy garden?  Asher can.  This garden space has already had one workover now today was the upgrade to officially having fairies at the bottom of the garden.  The materials in some cases were solid concrete and at other times feather light butterflies on a stick. We even made it to the park after lunch.  I'm going to need another rest day tomorrow.

before

during

FairyLand

standing in the stream

Japanese Weeper

Today's project was transplanting a perfectly good tree into a pot. The main reason was getting it out of the Summer sun and into the shade. First we could not get the ginormous pot out of the car because the tail gate would not open. The work around is to reboot the car and the way to do that is to remove the negative lead from the battery then replace it again. After doing so the back door opened.  Back to the delicate transplanting of trees.  The equally ginormous tree fern had to be put back on the fence after cutting a few branches to get it back in place. Then digging out the root ball came next,without damaging too many roots and washing out all the dirt before positioning it in a tub of compost. Simples!

before

tree on a chair

tree in a pot

Original Crazy Dancers

I mentioned a few days back about where Asher may have got her dance moves from.  Around 30 to 35 yar back I borrowed a state of the Art video system from MMBW. I did this for various birthdays during that five year period. The camera took full sized VHS tapes as recording media, which were placed into a yawning maw that swallowed the tape whole. This unit was hoisted onto your shoulder as you moved around for the recording.  Within 10 yar VHS tapes became extinct along with the player.  I arranged for a photo studio, at great expense, to transfer the tapes to  DVDs.  Now before streaming completely does in DVDs I have spent hours this week ripping files from those old DVDs. The files are huge in their HD versions but I also redid all of them as 25fps which means I can edit them and display sections here.  There are six hours of video I have resurrected. This is just 5 minutes where the whole gang are showing some moves.

Calm Ride

There is a cold edge to the weather now. Last night during the card session, Hairy Carney mentioned it was 1° in the mornngs at Elevated Plains.  It was calm here today and good for a bike ride.  I worked my way around to the new train tunnel which looks largely complete. The boat ramps and golf courses were buzzing. As I look out now I can count  20 boats doing their thing and at the golf course there were many old guys who need buggies to get from one hole to the next. It was a buggy jam at the club house.

buggy jam

No cars yet no trains either

Big Sky

Late Mother's Day

I am not sure why the resumed visitation rights were scheduled to start the day after Mother's Day as if one day was going to make a difference.  As part of show and tell we brought Asher's biscuit face for Grandma which raised a laugh. In turn there were at least 6 very fancy letters and cards from dignitaries around Australia as well as the Queen congratulating them on their 65th wedding anniversary.  Debbie planted the 'Shirley's Rose' literally called that, in the front flower bed while I did some vacuuming. We also scored a hanging basket or two.  On the way back I tried to take some photos of the Avalon plane park and managed to fluke one as we sped passed.

Just a V shaped twig

Parking Lot

Asher rest day

The days are getting colder and I spent most of today indoors.  I went thru some of yesterdays Asher video and also spent a couple of hours adding songs, from my previous digitising of old albums, to my phone library.  The current library plays for around 2.5 hours which is about the time it takes for a return drive between Melbourne and Geelong.  As soon as I get in the car, the audio picks up the presence of my phone and starts playing everything on there. So now I have picked one song from each digitized album and around 130 songs have been added to the phone meaning roughly another eight hours of playing time.

I have video somewhere of Laura being chased 30 odd yar ago and I remember chasing Quinn around the kitchen island we have here.  Asher has her own kitchen island for chasing purposes but I like the idea of the ready set go position.

Asher Crazy Dancer

We detoured to Nana's for a morning coffee break before moving on to the Asher session. Nana is looking much more spritely for an octogonal person. (An eighty something pesron?)  There is no end to the Asher energy burst.  She may have had a one hour sleep in the afternoon but the three hours before that were non stop and the three hours after it were even more energized.  Now I am ready for the nap but at 8:00pm I am not going to get one.

SunDown

Eat My Face

I have seen some Mother's Day paraphernalia but this takes the biscuit.  Last father's day Asher arrived on the outside of a cup however today for Mother's Day she turned up as a dinner plate sized biscuit.  No doubt another internet business, just send in your photo and we will bake you. There was also an array of other edible gardening implements. How did they know we would be doing a Mother's Day gardening session today?

Face Time

Eat Asher's face

edible tomato seeds