Milk Maid

 We managed to get a walk in before brunch at the Bungalow.  There is a sign along the rail trail at Mannerim which declares wild flower orchids to be seen in this area. We kept one eye on the sky as we wandered along the trail and dodging bikes that were coming thru at the same time. Those bike riders! It was the correct time of the year and we know the area has been well watered. There were plentiful blooms and bulb spreaders were all about but are there orchids.  It was a detailed stroll with head down but success came after 500 metres with the Milk Maid. 

look at that sky

the flower board

Milk Maid

Moose on the Loose

 We met the Taylors for lunch yesterday and I was treated to a galleano based expresso. Very tasty. I have a photo comparison below with my own latest effort.  The luncheon was also tasty with our servings all being about the meat dishes, like slow cooked lamb falling off the bone.  The Elephant & Castle has many quirky photos and objects of decoration but it was amusing to not notice the elephant in the room. In this case the dismantler of the antler. 

Feels like 4°

I wasn't going to devote a post entirely to the weather but I can't help it. It is the middle of the day and it is 11° outside. I vaguely saw the Tassie boat go passed like a ghost ship.  I know we are supposed to be having a global warming problem but somebody forgot to tell mother nature. We are going out for lunch today and we actually settled on a place that would have a fire going.  I am trying to resist turning on the heating but the guests might have other ideas.

Hook

Seems to be an indoor day today so I got the pencils out for a drawing session. As usual I try not to spend more than an hour, although colouring in with only 10 pencils to choose from is tricky.  The grandies have more pencils than I have. Previously I have just used the single HB pencil, this time I picked a colourful stamp. I remember Hook appearing from nowhere but never emerging from a crack  in the landscape.

Shower Show

  We had feedback from recent guests about faulty showers. (that sounds like a TV show)  The shower heads here were removed by the government as being to watery and replaced by ever efficient pinhole heads where a slight fog or mist would descend to moisten the body.  I grabbed the old heads out of his cart when the guy wasn't looking and put them back in the shower a few days later, after we had passed inspection.  Ever since then the water direction seems to have had a mind of its own. So now we have shiny new heads with hose like attachments to aim water where it has never reached before and with a selection setting to choose the right hole for the whole.

old

new

Seven Seas 33rd edition

Every eight years or so the Seven Seas people publish their stamp catalog.  So for the last eight years I have been stockpiling Australian stamps. I have a paid service where the post office sends me the new issues. There are many variations but I get at least one of each, however they are now in unopened envelopes, in boxes, also stuffed in folders etc. The latest SSS edition arrived yesterday, twice the size and in shiny hardback. So maybe it will take some months to clear this backlog. It is a lot of work to publish one of these catalogs, however in future I am going to try a more timely system , as I don't think I can wait another eight years for the next one and also I may draw the line at collecting Australian stamps beyond the end of this year anyway.  I still have some gaps up to 2025 but largely the collection is in the 90 percentile for completion however the hunt to fill the gaps will continue and gets more precise as you get closer to 100%. 

Sunday Lunch

 On Monday that is.  Bianca was determined to get some cooked food into these grandies so the chef swung into action.  Everything was cooked and arranged even the place settings.  We did give those grandies a run for their energy but there were a few adults needing a nap as well.  We related to Asher the story of the secret compartment that was placed in the house. So now there is a time capsule like message and drawing in there. She says other grandies can leave one in there as well. We got out some old games like battleship and dominoes, which calmed the farm. I'd forgotten the concentration needed for battleships, we were at it for at least an hour.  

PS A winner was picked for the Cup for good measure. 

new games

budding IT workers

shall we shell

old games