Make Grass while the Sun shines

 I almost worked up a sweat pushing the mower this morning.  The grass was not that long but it was damp and had not been mowed for a month. The edging was the problem. That had been ignored for two months and I was on the snipping machine for over an hour.  The holiday house neighbour John from next door, arrives out of nowhere, just before dark, spends 45 minutes mowing and edging and then disappears agian.  When he does the edging on his driveway he always leaves our side untouched.  So one side is pristine and the other side is an overgrown mop.  The other driveway around the corner is the exact opposite. Bob has a gardener who mows and trims edges and he always does both sides of that driveway. So basically I am left with a hodge podge if I don't keep up with these guys. 

Far driveway one

Far driveway two

Sunsets are moving back to the West again.

Mirror Dance

 This is the last Hugo winner that I had not read.  Now having finished this last one, I have ordered a couple more in the series to fill the gaps.  In high Vor society the Mirror Dance is an actual dance where one partner's steps are mimicked exactly by the other.  Also in this story, the main character Miles, has an adventure with an identical clone that was previously conjured by an enemy faction, to be an assasin eg another mirror reference. I don't have the book where the hero was cloned.  Reading these out of order is simply just out of order.

You dirty rat

 Winter also seems to be rat season. Not every Winter but this is the second time in three years here that a rat has been frequenting our roof.  I fossicked around and found two throw packs but also an unopened box of bait stations.  It may have been a coincidence last night but I could hear the shuffling about and then the power went out.  So this morning I had plenty of ammo for throwing and spreading. My first view of the roof cavity showed, that since I was last up there, a skylight tunnel has fallen from its perch and was just lying there on the ceiling.  This was an identical situation we found for the skylight at Williamstown.  These attachments are always tricky in fixing a round tunnel to a square window.  I moved passed this obstacle almost as far as the rat nest from the previous boarder.  I lobbed a throw pack that landed nicely on the pile.  Retreating a bit back to the furnace area I opened a bait box on the platform there.  Now it's a waiting game.  This strategy worked well last time.

furnace at the far end, note exposed skylight

Cool Waters

 I have been waiting for weather conditions to improve for another beach comb. It was calm but no Sun and when I got down to the sand, the tide was well out.  I have been working up to trying the water in Winter. Not so much for a swim but a wade.  I did a sweep of the beach up and back for another bag of garbage. The most prolific this time around goes to the humble annoying plastic straw. There were four of those along the way.  I was thinking of aborting the water part as the tide was way out which meant going a fair way just to get waste deep.  Then I could hear voices from the next beach. Two women were in the water and being animated, probably becuase it was cool.  When I got backup topside later, I could see they went into the newly renovated house where we had the house warming.  If they can do it so can I. I took the phone with me but you really need one of those selfie sticks.

trusty rubbish bag

My new computer has a built in video editor called ClipChamp. So this is the first clip using it. I also bought another editor from Dell called PowerDirector. Haven't tried that one as yet.

Drizzle

 I had to visit the cash machine so I thought I would combine it into a bike ride as you do. The drizzle was incessant.  I waited and finished off scanning the photo box I started yesterday.  Still more drizzle.  I have been sitting on a pile of First Day Covers which I am not really collecting but if they come my way I wont throw them out. They are generally more valuable. There must be around 200 in this lot that I am including.  I did this for an hour or so but still more drizzle.  OK I geared up and went anyway. On the way back I deliberately sidetracked  into streets I had not traversed before.  There was quite a good playground that I found that may come in handy for the grandies.

Debbie and Tim camping at Port Arlington seems like a luxury bed for camping

This envelope valued at $16

hidden playground

Cherub Box

I spent hours tidying up some space here for the old machine and the new machine.  I have moved the old machine backwards to the map drawers. Separating the old and new docking stations was a tangled web.  There are ten cables protruding from the new dock as it is, and I have not plugged in everything.  My daily goal of spending at least an hour on the photo scanning project has been laking lately so I spent two hours on it this afternoon. I found a small box at the bottom of a big box which is jammed with photos and a mixed box it is.  Black & whites from 80 years back, some negatives and looks like some modern digital prints as well. 

ThunderBolt Dock - This box generates so much heat it has its own fan

Someone is learning her gardening talents early

Slide show gatherings

Who's in the bath  Lizzie, Melanie and James  ??

Wand Scanner

 After my quick drop off dash to the airport which seems to be a regular occurance these days, I made my way back to the beach, the Geelong beach that is.  I have been keen to try the new wand scanner but have been hanging back to get the new computer running first.  That is working ok but there are still some glitches. As for the wand scanner, it is a sorry mess.  My first scans only show glimpses of the area I scanned. I installed the software and it tells me I have to calibrate the device.  The instructions are scant and hidden deep. There is also a missing TWAIN driver which is why the software doesn't see the device but they are not saying which driver to download.  It's not like when that Wascally Wabbit is being chased by a Twain Dwiver. I need a particular Twain Driver.  May these twains never meet.  YadaYada starting to ramble.