Produce Tree Face Booked

 At last we have gotten across to the Produce Tree to deliver the rest of the olives, all 14kg of them. Last year we went on a Saturday when the co-ordinators were there. We were instructed on the proper approach to making a delivery.  We wandered down to the former Butcher shop on the corner which is now the Staple Coffee & Deli. I vaguely remember this shop when it was a butchery last century. It has been empty for years and only in the last two years has it become the Staple.  We worked out the Tree's FaceBook Group where you can advertise a delivery of produce for anyone to come and pickup. Come and get it.

crates and baskets of them

inside the Staple

Last century

Olive Trimmer

We have a short hedge trimmer which did not stop us taking it to the olive tree. Last year we paid $400 for a guy to severely hack at it when he cut the top completely off and as a result we got no olives at the top of the tree this year. I have seen those trimmers advertised for $300 or we could borrow Daniel's. Except we could use it a lot, like on the lemon tree where five very tall shoots are annoying me as we could not reach that far with the hand held cutters. Also on the side hedge where we paid the same guy another $300 two yar ago to even it out.  Cut Cut.

a bit lopsided

five strands out of reach

Night Moves

 The post prandial walks are continuing with one big difference, it's dark.  There are other things I have noticed, like cats. We have seen glowing eyes from the bushes and since my hearing has doubled, I picked up a high pitched whine from a long way off. We got back closer to the house and there was eerie screaming then two cats went at it in a flying fur ball. Only lasted five seconds. Another time I could hear laughing from a distance and sure enough there is a couple sitting on a blanket in the pitch black having a drink.  Most of the time its just been a calm charm but we have not had the wind, yet.

Melbourne looks different every time

OutLive

 I mentioned this lifestyle book previously and have waded thru the various scenarios he describes about how to live a healthy life. There are 400 pages of advice and 80 pages of references all quoting studies about every body part. He tries to translate the medical jargon. We got a report from an opthalmologist about Debbie's eyes and the oncologist who was reading it said we are all guilty of jargon but I cannot decipher anything from this report. There are no actual words just acronyms. Basically what came out was her eyes are fine. So I have condensed this book down to four words, "Eat Less Exercise More" and throw in a balanced diet.  I think I mentioned this previously some yar ago as being my answer to global warming, if that is still a thing.  One thing I got from the exercise chapter was trying step ups. Now this seems to be a good knee strengthening activity so I will add that to my daily routine. Now I just need to find a step.

Fawkner Revisited

 I am getting to know this park pretty well as I seem to be walking it every three weeks or so.  This time around it was school lunch time and they commandeer the playground as if it was their own. I remember doing the same thing at our concrete school back at Pascoe Vale.  It took 36 min to walk the 3.2 km and by the time I got back Debbie was almost ready to get out of the chair.  Lunch seems to go all afternoon for workers around here as they are laying asleep or sitting cross legged all over the place.

Rosey Buffet

workers lunch 

Willie Buffet

 We have been here three years and there has been an open wall at the back of the dining table. Now empty open walls are not allowed and there was always a possibility that this style of furniture may be discontinued if left much longer. Maybe we might get another war with Vietnam which is where this stuff is made and that would be the end of it. Why can't furniture be made in Australia?  Now we have a big cardboard packaging problem but the recycle place will take it.

Fartlek

 I am currently reading the Outlive book.  I have only ever read a couple of lifestyle books and if you can get one or two things out of them then that is something. This one is more a reinforcement of a lot of stuff I am already doing. One I had forgotten about is fartlekking.  I used to do some of this way back where you increase your speed and intensity for a while but then slow down to recover without actually stopping. I tried it today on the bike machine at Willie. Peviously I would go along at a reasonably sedate pace relying on the gradient to make me work a bit harder. This time I set the usual 20 minutes but on two occasions I went to 100rpm up from about 75rpms which was the comfy level.  You are supposed to get out of the comfort zone. I kept it going for 2 minutes each time and the legs felt it.  My watch picked up the two spikes in heart rate.