Rain Off Rain On

 I have started a post prostate email series that gets sent out once a week or so.  One of the activities is 30 to 40 minutes of mildly sweaty exercise at least 3 times per week. I get out and about at least once per week, sometimes two. They suggest 4 times is best.  So despite the wind and the rain showers I did the 16km circuit in under an hour, so about 20kmph with some photo stops. I stopped at the jetty which always seems to have goings on. It is a small harbour these days and a pile of pontoons have been unloaded for yet another upgrade.  

Pontoons stacked on a pontoon

New bike track emerges along Griggs Creek

Decorations

 We were going to put up some decos yesterday but because we are zipping off to QLD next week, we are not getting a tree until a few days before Christmas.  Debbie has found a service that will deliver and pick up the tree afterwards.  It seems that just about all our decorations are centred on the tree and we will have no tree until the 21st Dec.  The Klyes arrived to stay over for the night however the wind has blown up so that the  garden tour was confined to the backyard and any close examination of the front section was from behind the windows.  Still plenty to see with the rain charging across. 

Egg and Bacon breakfast

Court Yard makeover

 The painting has been done in the courtyard and a brick colour used to disguise the section along the walls.  The roof lattice network is now a brighter white and many many spiders died in this whole operation.  We struggled to get the mega horn back into position.  Without knowing the site, the orchid man has placed it on a huge board which we have hooked to the fence but is also resting on bricks. However it will have to come down as the positioning is awkward.  I can see that cutting 20 cms off the top of the board and redrilling the anchor points will position it better.   Just when you think its all done, Debbie attacks the remaining latticework today and kills off the hoya. This allows room for yet another table and chair set.

All painted

Mega Horn

Hoya destroyer
just the planter box remains

Clear the Beach

 I went back down to see how they were getting on with the boardwalk. I took a rubbish bag with me since I was going almost to the Dell. I noticed someone walking down with a shovel which I have also done previously to fill in huge craters dug by teenagers during party time.  Turns out this is my recently moved in neighbour. He has been concerned with the state of the dried seagrass covering the sand. I said to him previously that the council has cleaned this up by scraping it and burying it.  Some body help him!  He was using a pitch fork and was trying to clear the beach by himself.  Not just any pitchfork! One that he heated in the furnace to bend the tynes at right angles so better to drag the grass he says. He is 80 something years old!   He'd been at it nearly 40 minutes and said he had had enough for now.  I only had my thongs but he went home before I could help him on the quest.  

Continuing on towards the boardwalk, there is now a pontoon in place and they have driven ten or so pylons into the sand.  It seems the clifton spring water is going to take a hit but I think it will continue to bubble up once they have finished construction.  In my rubbish bag I placed one plastic lid, one drink can, one straw, one plastic ziplock bag and two cigarette butts.

All I want is a path thru to the water

I assume these will be cut lower

Springs Board Walk

 I spied a large dual tracked excavator being unloaded and driven down onto the beach. It seemed a bit of overkill to replace the small amount of sand that got washed out last time.  We tracked it down last night and found it had driven along the beach and parked near the Dell, but ready for what.  This morning I went down for a swim and was all quiet except when the local kindergarten came down to make it into a large sandpit.  I saw two rays that were sitting on the bottom in full view away from the grass areas. They did not move at all even when I waved at them with my fin.  Meanwhile back on the land there were notices about construction works ahead. Access to the Dell is closed for two weeks while a boardwalk is being built to get around the rocks. That is exactly the location of the mineral springs and the old pump house.  The route of this boardwalk needs to be clear of that lot.

no walking for two weeks

Another Great Day at Sea

 This is the second Geoff Dyer book I have read. He spent two weeks aboard the carrier HW Bush describing what he saw there. It is not as funny as the "Where Eagles Dare" book mainly because of the no nonsense environment of an aircraft carrier. However he did manage to ham it up with his words. We spent a day on the USS Midway in San Diego in 2012.   What I read in the book was similar to we did on the Midway as far as touring the facility, except his boat was operational.  They are large ships but still cramped by what's packed in.  We spoke to a fighter pilot in Fiji one time. The US Navy flies him anywhere in the world for leave, twice per year.  Dyer did not like the food, did not like the noise but thought the experience was worth it and could not wait to get back on land.

this boat travelled the Pacific for years

Painting in the Rain

 Our patio area is getting a spruce up now that the yawning awning is in place for the shade.  We have had Kerrie here previously for the huge scaffold required job he did two yar ago.  Not a lot of notice this time around. He had a look last night and arrived this morning to get into it. The rain came on as well this morning but the patio is well protected from the Westerlies and there was a lot of undercover work to be going on with.  Should be all done in a day or two. The roof is going to need a clean.