Garden Delights

I used my camera today for the first time in years.

I took photos of the garden but have not processed them yet so I can’t share them tonight, but I hope to process tomorrow.

It felt good and it seems that photography is like riding a bike. The skills come back pretty quickly.

It was difficult to get out of bed this morning and my vertigo was still pretty bad, so I sat on the edge of the bed and threw my head backwards to hit the mattress as hard as I could. I did it twice. It worked! My vertigo disappeared almost instantly!

So I dressed and got up to make breakfast.

Fresh tomatoes from the garden on toast with lots of salt and pepper and a cup of tea out under the Bali hut… but not before picking the first three strawberries from the garden and sharing them between us. Sweet and juicy … nothing like the bland un-juicy berries from the shops. I can’t wait for the rest to ripen.

I made a smoothy with mango, banana, kiwi fruit and passionfruit with coconut water for lunch while the others shared a grazing platter.

We played trivia for over an hour and then it was time for super Saturday football.

I discovered that the NSW darts championships were being televised live from Wollongong so I watch a good portion of that. $35,000 for first prize!! There were about 4000 people in attendance watching!! Who knew it was so big in Australia!?

I quite enjoyed watching that.

Now it’s almost midnight. Definitely time to sleep!

Nite all.

Escapees

Photos taken 50-100 years ago 

The air conditioning guys arrived just after 7.30am to put air in my new art space.

Within 30 minutes BGWLBH and I decided to escape the noise.

To be honest, BGWLBH was going to escape and I tagged along because I wanted to buy some art stuff to finish my octopus painting. Unfortunately, the ‘stuff’ I require can’t be purchased in The Bay so I’ll be doing my shopping online.

I bought a new hand made journal, some handmade soap and a beautiful handmade doggy jumper for not so psychotic dog Colli …

We stopped at a hair salon for my special hair conditioner, bought some Travacalm for our whale trip on Monday, purchased some junk food and attempted to restock the toilet paper for the shop toilets, but the place we go to closes at 2pm on Fridays and we got there at 2.20pm.

BGWLBH bought some clothes and a bag.

We had a lovely day.

I’ve had quite a bit of trouble with my vertigo today and twice while searching through my bag and looking down, I felt myself falling to the right and had to steady myself with a step sideways. 

I’m sure I must have looked drunk to some people!

By this afternoon, I couldn’t even sit at the table but had to be tilted back on the recliner to eat my dinner.

It’s not a pleasant condition and I’m hoping to wake up much improved in the morning.

Right now, I’m very tired so I’m ready to sleep it off.

Nite all.

Almost Traumatic

The absolute worst chore in my life is grooming ‘not so psychotic’ dog Colli - although when it comes to grooming, she is VERY psychotic!

I only have to do her face because she will not allow anybody to touch her mouth.

Because she is missing so many teeth, she is a very messy eater and she shakes and tosses her head around as she attempts to gum her food to death.

This causes food to stick and congeal to any long hair on her face and after a few weeks, it’s ugly and smelly.

At 10.45am I began the process:

1. Fill the laundry tub with warm water.
2. Put Colli in and wet her face down … often … hoping to wet and loosen the congealed food, spit, dried tears and anything else that she’s managed to attract to her face.
3. Keep her there for as long as possible and clean the rest of her while she’s there.
4. Wrap her tightly in a towel so that she can’t move her body, lay her on a thickly folded towel in the washing basket and attempt to snip the clumpy bits off with fine sharp scissors.
5. Continue trying (unsuccessfully) for about 15 minutes.
6. Replace the dirty water in the tub with clean warm water.
7. Put Colli back into the tub and repeat the wetting and loosening for another 15 minutes.
8. Have a visitor (Mrs Bucket) come stand in the laundry for 30 minutes talking a mile a minute while I continue to work (unsuccessfully) on Colli.
9. Visitor leaves and I again wrap Colli tightly in the towel and take her out to the pool area under Bali hut.
10. I place her body securely under my arm and begin snipping.
11. BGWLBH offers to hold Colli’s head (unsuccessfully) while I snip.
12. I pull the towel over Colli’s eyes and attempt (somewhat successfully) to snip around her mouth, chin and nose.
13. Colli is tiring (as am I) and stops fighting my attempts. I can snip the muck from around her eyes and finally, after more than 90 minutes, the job is done.

She is a tiny Shih Tzu cross Maltese. Her face is smaller than a tennis ball for crying out loud. This chore should take two minutes! Even the dog groomers won’t attempt touching her face anymore.

This chore is freaking traumatic! For both of us!

I was mentally and emotionally exhausted by the end of it and was incapable of considering any other chores for the day.

Instead, we all sat under the Bali hut playing trivia for the afternoon.

I made a terrible dinner of mushroom chicken and pasta with salad and Turkish bread. Adoring Husband seemed to enjoy it but it was a big fat fail for me. 

We played some more trivia before BGWLBH went to bed exhausted and AH and I watched the footy.

Now it’s time for bed.

Nite all.

Sharing Produce

It was quite lovely at the Lions Park this morning …

The wind picked up around 11am and soon after that we said our farewells.

We’ve all been sharing produce from our gardens. Last week we gave everyone lettuce and we brought home duck eggs, bananas and fire place ash for our garden.

This week the Silver Fox was offering an abundance of passionfruit so I filled a bag and will freeze the flesh for our smoothies and fruit whips.

I checked the mail on the way home and arrived just in time for lunch. BGWLBH had made a grazing platter and I made myself a prawn sandwich.

After lunch I bagged two slices of bread into 12 ziplock bags for freezing, bagged the excess bananas for freezing, did a load of washing and sat under the Bali hut with BGWLBH before my quiz shows started.

I cooked barramundi, sweet potato chips, chargrilled our first zucchini from the garden and served a big bowl of salad in the centre of the table.

Delicious.

We played TV trivia for an hour before our shows started at 7.30pm.

We are definitely creatures of habit!

Tomorrow will be my first day at home this week and I plan on finally grooming not so psychotic dog’s face and ticking a couple of things off my ‘to do’ list which is extensive.

Now it’s time to sleep.

Nite all.

Productive

We accomplished a lot in The Bay today.

The highlight was a late breakfast at Cafe Balaena where we enjoyed poached eggs and bacon on GF bread and I ordered a fresh celery, pineapple and apple juice while BGWLBH ordered her usual coffee.

The atmosphere is so lovely and relaxing with gentle background music, friendly service and water views. We’ll definitely do breakfast there again.

Aquavue charge an extra $5 each for GF bread. Cafe Balaena charge $2. Cafe Balaena’s bread is also much nicer.

Next week we’re going to try breakfast with Dan and Steph on the Esplanade.

We made appointments and grocery shopped and searched for businesses that either moved, no longer exist or are just hiding inside another business. I also ran a small errand for Adoring Husband.

I am surprised that both Coles and Woollies are still having problems stocking their tissues and toilet paper! What’s going on there?

I buy tissues and toilet paper every week (the maximum allowable 2 boxes of tissues and 2 pkts of toilet rolls) whether we need them or not so we are steadily building a stash to get us through any future lockdowns.

At one of our grocery stops today, we found this ad for Jack Russell pups …

They are so cute 🥰 

If I was going to get a new dog, it would be a border collie from my cousin who is a registered breeder. She has been breeding dogs for decades and I can guarantee that her dogs are top quality and she introduces them to different sounds and animals and machinery and foods and many other things so that they are calm and confident in any situation from a young age.

I was very tempted to take one from her current litter but I want to be able to give it my full attention to take advantage of the dog’s intelligence and train it properly - as a ‘dog’ should be trained and not treat it like a ‘human’ and ruin it.

Maybe the next litter.

Tonight’s dinner for BGWLBH and AH was duck with spicy orange sauce, mash and salad.

I had a mandarin.

It’s been a big couple of days and I’m feeling a bit worn out.

Nite all.

Finding Gladness

We had to find some gladness in our day.

Unusually so, and for reasons not to be shared here, BGWLBH was feeling a little fragile today so we decided to take some time out and we drove into The Bay.

I picked up my Tinkerbell’s layby …

and we bought our lotto tickets and then enjoyed our day browsing, shopping, eating, drinking, exploring and making our list for tomorrows more productive day in The Bay.

We ate leftover roast chicken and roast lamb with salad and sweet potato chips for dinner.

I’ve watched my shows and now I’m off to bed.

Nite all.

Birthdays

There are a few birthdays today.

An old work colleague in Griffith turned 49.

The Brains Trust celebrated her big 70th birthday.

My Dad would have been 82 yrs old today.

Some pretty special people were born on this day!

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL OF YOU!!!

Adoring Husband brought breakfast to me in bed this morning and I was up at 9.30am because The Motivator was holding some fresh sand crab for me and I told her I’d be there at 10am.

BGWLBH drove me there and to the supermarket for garlic and a few bits and pieces.

When we returned, I shelled the crab and while BGWLBH vacuumed, I dusted in the family room and dining room.

AH was at work mowing so I spent some time in the art space adding more to my octopus.

AH had plans to get some bamboo protectant from Bambooland so I decided to go with him. I’m sure AH regretted asking me because I found 3x planter pots, 2x orchids, a begonia (just like the one my first mother-in-love used to grow) and a large and unusual looking plant.

Bambooland was quite lovely today …

It was an expensive little trip!

I’ll take photos tomorrow.

We watched the footy this afternoon and I did a roast lamb for dinner with mash, broccolini, carrots, spinach and snow peas with home made gravy.

Fruit whip for dessert.

We played TV trivia for an hour and then went our separate ways to watch our favourite shows.

No plans for tomorrow except grooming Colli’s face and doing some washing. Art may be on the agenda again.

Nite all.