I have seen numerous extend-a-pole fruit grabbers for sale but is there one that can do both lemons and olives? Do they even work with prices from $10 to $500? I spent another 45minutes in the tree but the payload is reducing. Our weather has settled some what over the last few weeks. I went back to see what was on the video and most of it was passing ships and one guy who flew passed.
It's hard to get fruit picking help I am told so I have got the four year olds involved. Asher picked some low level olives then got on the small ladder to finish filling her bucket. After lunch we went on the walk to the Dell with Kaia in tow. We took the rubbish bag and filled it with all the usual items, the biggest of which was a mangled fishing rod with plenty of grass attached. The Dell bridge was clear enough to see the spring water bubbling up but also quite a few stranded jellies as well. The afternoon was chilling out with colouring, cutting and glueing activities. Kaia slept, fed, slept, fed, slept, fed then slept.
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| She's getting bigger |
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| the pro tong grabber |
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Got another 3 kgs of olives this morning. The neighbours are always interested in what is happening up that tree and how olives work. The tally is up to 19kgs but storing them in a cool fridge is getting harder. Anna is a major customer and I have at least 10kgs for her so I packaged up a box full for the Port Arlington help yourself food stall. I have delivered here for the last few years and it would be good to know if someone is cooking these up. I noticed a box of almost rotten apples which will have to be thrown out soon. I placed the olives front and centre in the best basket there was. So they have a good presentation and an even better price tag. There is also a book cabinet so I grabbed a John Grisham novel as a trade.
We went back to look for the elusive 12 armed star fish but could not find any. They seemed to like sunning themselves but if you disturb them they retreat quick smart into their burrows. The conditions were different but all we could see were holes. These are most likely wormy types. I did find the video that we took, so this behaviour can be replayed. The taxonomy toolkit has many starfish listed, mostly as seastars, feather stars or brittle stars. I could find none with 12 arms. Maybe I am swimming in the wrong hole with this, as this one seemed to be rooted on the spot rather than using those arms to crawl around the place like a starfish.
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| pylons with grass |
Three days of consistent calm and warm weather, who would have thought and I don't think it has happened all Summer. It gives me a chance to practice with these new camera buttons, although we had these small hard to describe starfish but with a circle for a body then the arms protruded from there. They disappear into a small hole but the new camera was not filming. I will see if there are any today. Did some tree climbing this morning which means the olive count continues to grow and we are upto 16kgs. I also tried the swim again this morning there was just enough water to clear the grass and latched onto a passing ray whom I followed all the way back again.
An ideal day to try out the Kogan camera. The water temperature is OK still, but there are not many people in the water these days. I have to get used to these camera controls. It is awkward underwater, especially if it is not deep enough as you can get tangled in the growth. Also the hinksia had floated free fowling my facemask and glooping in my hair and ears. But it is not all bad. I did get some fish and ray recordings. I have not been over to the old pier pole line for two months. The grass there is rife. Four years ago this was all sand. You could walk between the poles for 40 metres but now you would get caught up in grass.
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| Lone Paddler |
There has been a big refresh of the garden area out front. The old benach near the letterbox has now been relocated to the back courtyard. We needed a seat here and it fits in well and is also more sturdy being supported by the retaining wall. The original idea was to discourage people coming to the front glass doors by having an obstacle like a chair in the way. This did not work so they walked thru the garden areas to get around it. Yesterday, an elderly couple groped there way up the steps, across the rocky stream channel, around the bushes and thru to the patio area and banged on the doors. They were looking for the original owner and had last been here 10 yar back. I sent them next door for contact info however they had to retrace the path back and down the stairs was worse. He had one arm trailing a bit from a stroke I assume. A very tricky business. In the afternoon I got some more olive produce off the tree so we are now totalling 5kgs.
We got the bikes out early at around 9:15am, it was cloudy but no wind which makes for better riding. We are meant to be working our way up to 50km by the end of the year. The first goal is to get to 20km and today was only 16km. We thought we were taking a longer route out to the main road but the distance was similar to last week. We also have the GPS recorded route to make sure and there are no gaps, as below. The new coffee shop was crowded and spilled out onto the pavement. One lady commented it was a long wait so we kept on going. If it is the coffee peak crush hour around 10:00am on either Saturday or Sunday then be prepared for a wait. Maybe bring a coffee from home while your waiting for the other coffee.
I have been poking around looking for something to read and I noticed this book squeezed in at the back of the shelf. Maybe I should have left it there. It is about a woman who becomes a vampire thru no fault of her own. She works her way among the corpuscular types and over throws the main vein. No blood tests required. I did another beach clean this morning. The big item was a bucket with punch holes for some reason. The rest consisted of one poo bag, lots of small polystyrene bits, the usual butts and numerous small plastics.
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| floating rocks |
The new el cheapo camera ($150) has arrived and it is cheaper for a reason. EG there is no way to transfer files across to the PC as there are no external usb ports to plug in. This helps with waterproofing but there is still a door in the side to insert a battery and a MicroSD card, so why not have a port to plug in a cable. So the only way is to get the card out and attach it to your computer. Otherwise it seems to record ok but I have not had it under water as yet. It does not come with a media card so I moved the one from the old camera to this one. It turns out this is a card from an old phone in use some five yar ago. I found photos and videos from 2018 one of which is below from a visit to see Alice. There were no grandies around then.
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I have received the latest and very up to date USB stick that has hundreds of years of Ancestry and 40 years of research put into it. You have to have something to keep your mind ticking over in retirement and Grandma and Grandpa have done it with family history going way back into English history. There are a few family readers of this blog so the more advertising the better. Whilst there is a lot of info you can navigate it quickly. I found the two pages below in less than a minute but it is better to go straight to the read me first file.
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| Tree No 6 |
We went across just now and the tide is at the max of 1.0 metre so any previous flotsam might be mixed in with grass etc. We still got a decent bag of stuff like plastics, butts and rope. The big item was a hard hat helmet. There is a sailor on one of those passing mega ships without his helmet. I also jumped the rail to get a couple of cans that were just out of reach. We got back to a mail delivery with word from the Energy Compare Dept. They have given us a cheque in one case and have asked for more information in the other case. Now we have to find a bank to cash it. All the banks here have closed in the five years we have been around.
The tide was up and the water calm so I went in for the swim. It is cooler in the water but to quote the "Octopus Teacher", just embrace the cold. I saw three rays along the way and the last one was big. It was cruising the grass tops but took off fast when I approached. If I had a working video I would have slowed in the vicinity. I have solved this problem by ordering an el cheapo 'gopro' lookalike from Kogan. I have had two expensive GoPros in the last 10 years but maybe a five year life span is good, if you are constantly having them in salt water. Walking back along the beach I dragged a large knot of rope that washed up. It took some effort but I got it into the bin.
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| Had to dive for this one |
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| a knotty problem |
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| stand up calm |
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| golden pathway |
I have been meaning to look back at this blog for the start of olive harvest but it seems that stepping on some ripe ones on the ground is signal enough. There wasn't much else happening today as they promised some Sunshine but we mostly got dark clouds. I concentrated on the ripe olives for now, which meant I could mostly move around the outside of the North and West facing branches. I did venture inward at one stage but retreated after 10 minutes. For the hours effort I gathered nearly 2 kgs of black olives. There are a few signs of last year's shotberry problem ie aged but severely undersized berries. Mostly it seems a bumper crop with good sized olives throughout.
We put off riding all day while the rain was on and off in waves. There was plenty of other gardening work going on like the pesky potted perisher. It hasn't perished yet. Debbie dug it out repotted it and ran some plumbimg to it. This is the last chance. The soil in the tub did seem very dry. Also the orchid count keeps going up. We have at least a half dozen spikes. We went for the ride at 3:30 pm which was late for us but there was one only acme cloud. It got darker as we got closer and rained on us but in Sunshine. It was rainbows and blue skies.
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| the twig with leaves |
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| cycle gold |
We went for lunch at the Drysdale Pub which we haven't done for a year or so. They have smaller meals for seniors which were just the right size. Then we wandered across the road to the new library building. It is on two levels with adults above and kids below. I did a search on their computer for Lois McMaster Bujold. She is the last of the entire list of Hugo winners I have not read. I have held back on the three Hugos she won as there is a book called Shards of Honor which starts the saga. They have some of her books but not that one.
I have added a spotlight photo of the headless plant lady. She looks a bit different at night. The garden has had a huge tidy up and it is almost time to start in on the olive tree.
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| If the Headless Plant Lady married a Triffid would she be able to walk and talk? |
We are visting Evie and Charlie (and the parents) next month and after that we will drive a bit further North for a few days. So I thought I would give the Bonza flights a try. It did not go well. First off there is no phone number and no website, you must install a phone app. The Bonza flight schedules fitted well as they fly direct from Avalon to the Sunshine Coast. But I could not get their phone thingy to accept my booking. It said all the details were good but also gave me an error. The only way to get onto them is via a text chat line and that would not start becuase it thought my email was faulty. I moved all the bookings across to Jetstar but now I have to drive and park at Tullamarine.
It must be weeks since I did the swim and this morning ticked all the boxes, highish tide, Sun out, no wind and clear water. Even the dreaded Hinksia was out of the way, on the bottom cloaking the sea grass. As long as it is not stirred up it seems to sink among the grass fronds. The water temperature is cooler and I am trying to observe if the Hinksia dies off in cooler water temperatures. It does seem to be reduced a bit. I saw one big ray only and also picked up a golf ball. As for the beach clean up there was not a lot around. A few chocolate wrappers, one with the chocolate still in it and some cellophane papers but that was it and no butts that I could see.
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| night before |
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| morning after |
Finished off another pile of negatives and photos given that it looks uninviting outside. I am keen to check out our beach after the Easter hordes. I don't think there were that many who ventured down there due to the bad weather. There may be a lot of washed up stuff. As with most of these below there is no indication of where or when and is a complete mixed bag of stuff. You can see how negatives are prone to scratching.
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| Looks like someone is being dragged along |
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| Three kids in a bath |
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| Rest time |
This is the 2nd Agatha Christie I have read straight on from the last one. This time it is Hercule Poirot and even when he is in retirement, still gets involved in solving a set of murder crimes. The killer sends him letters announcing the crimes, just to get him involved. It's one of those 'everyone gather around while I point out the culprit' type of ending. There are a number of films and TV series made from the novel, the latest being the BBC version in 2018. Not sure why they waited 82 years. I am scratching around to find something to read now. Our new library opens this week, they might have something.
We should be having a recovery day but the only way to warm up a bit is to get out and about. So we got the bicycle gear on early and went out for a ride at 9:30am. It was a bit drizzily but no wind to speak of. The Jones' coffee shop was queued up as we went passed. We just need some space there on the way back as it it a 1 minute ride to our door. The clouds stayed all day but Debbie got back outside to give the headless plant lady a trim. The hanging baskets also got a tidy up as well as some new lighting. The pesky possum that was plaguing that area has not been seen for over a year so it seems safe to remove the possum poo.
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| Plant bust |
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Estelle wasn't sure what it was she was actually finding but they looked shiny and fun and they were sort of hidden but in plain view. These two year olds are like a hurricane and if you can get Estelle to sleep past 5:00am then that is a bonus. So hearing noises at 6:ooam on the stairs was probably as late as it was going to get. Maybe the Bunny should not have left a basket at the top with some eggs in it and then a steady trail down the stairs into the kitchen area. We are out of practice with this egg business. The cold has hit today and I am wearing two jumpers and we had pumpkin soup for lunch.
We gave Estelle a Wiggles Easter book and when she opened it up the cover showed a different yellow wiggle person with another name compared to the wiggle doll we gave her yesterday. Our Wiggleness is out of date.
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| A yellow latino dancing wiggle |
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| Egg surprise |
They might have been a bit late but we made it eventually in getting Estelle her birthday present. It has been a big few days with lots of cousins and visits so opening presents at the end of the day was just another thing we have been doing in her mind. However a Wiggles doll and another book to add to her collection (signed by the author) are all good additions.
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| Story Time |
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| Kaia grabber |
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| Wiggles the Doll; |
