7th October 2015
We have now started going to the Community Centre
again on a Wednesday morning to attend the gentle gym sessions now that we are
back from Singapore and Merry’s foot seems to have recovered. We took a long walk yesterday that didn’t cause
her foot a problem so we assume it is fully recovered from whatever its problem
was.
9th October 2015
We attended the Friday morning gym session and then
moved on to Bunning’s to price some wood to make a cabinet to fit on the back
of the kitchen cabinet under the so-called breakfast bar that we never use as
such. We came away empty handed to
rethink the design with what they have available.
10th October 2015
Today we have planted capsicum, sweet corn and
beetroot now that the weather has warmed up plus we don’t exactly know why but
we have some more potatoes coming through.
We must have cut some and left pieces behind when we dug out the last
lot. The tomatoes that self planted are
still producing well whereas the Roma plants that we planted are nearly
finished, but we had a good crop, although on the small side. Radishes have gone mad and we just can’t eat,
or give them away, quick enough as we should have started using them about the
time we went to Singapore rather than three weeks later but some are still
usable. We still have some Brussel sprouts although they are small but the cabbages were almost
destroyed by avids and snails and we only managed a couple of usable cauliflower,
so in future will stick to broccoli which seems to do okay in this area. The cover that we had over all of the
broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage allowed them all to grow to a good size but
tended to keep the Cabbage white butterfly in, rather than out, and made no
difference to the avids.
12th October 2015
Spent some time modifying the reticulation system to
the vegie garden so that it all gets a much better soaking plus we have put a
300mm fence around the centre vegie bed so that we can use snail pellets
without the risk of Foxy getting to them.
We will be doing same with the other beds after we have finished
modifying the reticulation system.
Barry has also started a continuation of the veranda paving around the
side of the house where the water tanks are situated. This will give nicer access to the tank tap
when we need to top up the fish pond.
13th October 2015
The reticulation is now completed with the exception
of one possible alteration and the paving at the side of the house has
progressed. All of the Brussel sprouts
and cabbages have been removed and passed through the mulcher was going to be dug
back in but Merry put it all into the composter to end that scenario.
31st October 2015
Nothing of note to report in the last few weeks
except there has still not been any rain despite the overcast weather, however,
the vegies are still doing well without the rain as the modified reticulation
is doing a good job. We have arranged to
go to Perth for Christmas this year rather than staying here, so we will be
staying with Ann and Ashley as usual but will have Christmas Day with Colleen,
Craig and the girls and Boxing Day with Ann and Ashley as they will be at
Ashley’s daughters place on Christmas Day.
Richard will be joining us at Colleen’s for Christmas Day. Colleen and Craig usually go camping way down
south for the rest of the holidays with a group of friends although the style
of camping changed to camper trailers and some have now graduated to
caravans. Colleen has been working on
that update for a while but it hasn’t happened yet.
November 22nd 2015
Another period with nothing special to report other
than the garden is producing well.
January 4th 2016
As we drove down to Perth to Ann/Ashley’s place and
then spent Christmas Day including dinner with Craig, Colleen, Emma, Abby and
Richard which worked out good. This gave
Barry several hours with Emma teaching her to play ‘Unchained Melody’ on her
guitar as she takes her guitar to their camp performs around the campfire. She has a few songs that she sings but they
are all so-called modern songs that we know nothing about, whereas Barry is
teaching her tunes he knows and plays that she likes, such as ‘Stranger on the Shore’, ‘Memory’
from the Cats show, ‘Theme from Exodus’, ‘Apache’ ‘Eye of the tiger’ ‘Chariots
of Fire’ and many more from that era.
Emma is learning very quickly and because Barry introduced her to ‘House of
the rising sun’ and how to play it classical finger style she now uses that
style for most of her playing. Barry
claims she plays better than he could after a twenty year head start, but she
has the advantage of tutorial information, etc, on the internet.
We then had another
Christmas dinner with Ann/Ashley on Boxing Day.
We also spent New Year’s Eve and day with Ann/Ashley before returning to
Geraldton on the 3rd January.
14th January 2016
We travelled back down to Ann and Ashley’s for
Merry’s six monthly throat check-up.
15th January 2016
We had dinner at Outback Jack’s in Cannington along
with Richard and Rory, Colleen, Craig, Abby and Emma. This was a chance to catch up with Rory who
was on holiday with Richard as she goes home in a couple of days’ time. Jack didn’t come to Perth with Rory this time
as he now has a girlfriend so life has to pear shaped (change) for him, but
saved his dad an airfare. Unfortunately nobodies
meal matched the quality of the company which seemed strange as the meal in
Outback Jack’s in Northbridge that we had a few months ago was really
good. Richard has had several meals in
the Cannington outlet recently that he claimed were good, so maybe we just
picked a bad day. We followed this up
with a walk along the Swan River bank in South Perth to walk the meal off and
enjoy both the walk and the view across the river at the lights before heading back
to Ann and Ashley’s.
16th January 2016
We met Richard, Rory, Colleen, Abby and Emma at Lake
Leschenaultia for lunch and a swim for those that were interested, which turned
out to be Richard, Rory and Merry only.
The day was cut short when a storm blew in with some close lightning
that cleared the lake quite quickly.
17th January 2016
Richard gave us a call when he got home from seeing
Rory off at the airport and Barry drove up to his place to collect the sleeping
bags, airbeds, pump and gas cooker that we had lent him so that he and Rory could
go camping if they chose, but the 36+ degree temperatures didn’t encourage
that. One of the airbeds was necessary
anyway for Rory to use whilst at Richard’s place. Merry went with Ann to the Joondalup Shopping
Centre for an inspection as it is now supposedly the largest shopping centre in
the Perth and suburbs area.
18th January 2016
We drove up to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital for the
throat check which proved to be okay with Merry being told the swelling was
still going down, which is excellent seeing as she was not aware of any
swelling. In the afternoon we successfully
took the 6km walk around Bibra Lake. Last
time we tried that it rained about a quarter of the way round.
19th January 2016
Once again we have returned to Geraldton from Ann
and Ashley’s via the Indian Ocean Drive, but this time without a 20km detour
around road works.
30th January 2016
Not much to report of note other than all is well and
that the Indian Ocean Drive that we use for our trips to Perth is currently
closed due to a bushfire in the area.
Apart from that the only other thing is the strange weather that we have
had for the last fortnight that has been more like Singapore, overcast, steamy and
hot, and probably will not improve for a while with the Pilbara area due to
have a cyclone arrive tomorrow which will spread more cloud our way. Not real good for the solar panels.
The photo of Harbourside in Singapore is to show the Sumatra smoke and one of the taller towers, not sure which one, is were our son Garon and wife Sue live on the fourth floor. This was an experiment as the Picaso program hasn't been letting me put pictures in for several years now, unless I would like to pay for storage room. That will not happen.
