Birthday Prep

 Have made it back to Willie for some more birthday fun tomorrow but are here early for haircuts.  In the meantime I went for a short ride around Willie, called into the chemist and generally rode around town.  We have printed a birthday certificate with a printer that hardly gets used and the black cartridge seems to be clagged.  We will be on the bike again tomorrow morning so maybe can find the right ink cartridge.  Have I mentioned the hair cutting, whereby the lady who cuts hair here in the Village, lives back home near Drysdale but does not cut hair there, only here.

Memory

 This is the eighth book I have read in the Bujold Vorkosigan space show.  I am trying to get the rest of them as secondhand books and the last one I paid for was damaged in storage, so they are poking around for another one.  The 'Memory' book has a whodunit story line.  The long serving security chief has been given early retirement because the memory chip in his head was effected by a virus.  It wasn't COVID.  I just checked my email and the 'World of Books' are giving me the money back.  I also bought some specific map stamps over a month ago and they have not arrived.  My internet buying has not worked of late.  They were not expensive stamps but I may have to try again with these, as well.

See the cover shows 40 years of detailed history in his head

Big Boats v Small Boats

 The Tassie ferry is back in action after its Winter lay off.  Boat action of all kinds has increased this month so there is plenty to observe out there on the water.  I have two videos from last week.  My on again off again monitor problem is improved. I have now bypassed the docking station and am using one monitor only, direct from the laptop.  Working with half the real estate when you are used to two screens is a problem.  The blanking out has now stopped, so the problem is in the docking station.  Now have to figure out the next step. Its cold today but these videos are all sunshine.

starfish from above the water

Make Way

Pirate Ship

Staggered

 Yes another stag has fallen.  We have had a few of these drop off our fence. It is a wonder the fence can hold all four of them.  A year ago it happened but this one is not quite as big.  The rain in the past two days would have added to the weight.  The fence attachment point is solid but the board it was attached to collapsed.  I took a quick video and have found some more that I had not unloaded.  I will get onto those soon.  As usual we have a floor of detritus after the wind and rain and it looks like very black clouds coming again just now.

I took this last week with the stagfern still on the fence

North Wind

Debbie had various meetings and updates going on, however called a holt at 4:00pm.  We walked to a cove at the Jawbone Sanctuary.  The locals have been doing this for years as you can see small sandy beaches and alcoves dotted all over the place. It is also a rocky section but I notice there are no waves despite a warm northerly wind.  I got out the new snorkel gear which is the Tahwahli brand. These seem to have a better way to get the flippers on your feet.  We timed the swim for almost high tide.  I have noticed previously that the whole area is a sand basin at low tide. The new gear works well. I only swam around for 10 minutes or so. There were other snorkellers so we can get in each others way. They saw a ray further over but I will save that for another time.  The water was clear but the lower Sun seemed to be glaring.  The main thing I saw was scuttling crabs, so watch where you put your toes.

Looking East

SaltBush Sitter

Grand Kiddies here there and everywhere

 I seem to be running a day late which happens from time to time.  We had lots of grand kids running around yesterday and some more on the end of the phone.  We did not head back to Clifton Springs in favour of a rest day here.  After three days of running around we need a slow day. There was fruit cake, apple pie and roast dinners so we will have enough for a few more days as well.  In between, we tried a different playground which is smaller but set further back from the seashore and further from the onshore breeze.  Asher did well, as it was her second party that day.  I may get to try my new snorkel birthday present out later today.

That's a big slice

Asher is geting too big for shoulder rides

GF getting smaller

 There were five of us watching the footy and may have preferred being on the beach but we did go for a short walk to the nearest cove as soon as the footy finished. There were about 20 people there with lots in the water.  The lasagna was a winner and Mick arrived from the MCG just in time. This also meant that Bill and Bronwyn did not have to take Anna home.  We acknowledged the pies win although Bill was not too happy about it. 

Jawbone Sanctuary

Lasagne mmm...