Model Renewable Energy Sources

"Joseph assembled a woodcraft renewable energy project -- watermill and windmill kits, photos of which he says he'll post up here," said Judith yesterday. Not here, because they wouldn't display as I'd want them to; so they're now on my personal website -- follow this link to see the results.

Joyeux Annee Nouvelle

So, have you all survived Xmas okay? We have been reading our Xmas books -- I'm posting reviews on my LiveJournal. We've been for healthy scenic yomps: around the local parks and cemetery on Xmas Day, down along the Lea to Walthamstow Marsh on Boxing Day (because the reservoirs were closed); around Walthamstow Reservoirs the day after Boxing Day -- lots of assorted ducks, geese, swans, herons, cormorants, great and little grebes and a flash of kingfisher. Around the Tottenham Hale retail park after the Lea/Reservoirs walks. Walked to Wood Green Shopping City yesterday, and back home again after satisfactory looting expedition. I've managed swims about every other day. Joseph assembled a woodcraft renewable energy project -- watermill and windmill kits, photos of which he says he'll post up here. I'm putting a new (moss green) lining in a crimson wool overcoats that came from Mum's magic store: simpler than you'd think -- the old lining provides the template for cutting the new pieces. And of course, we are eating lavishly and watching telly. Prevailing weather is clear and v. cold: about 2C daytime maximum, with patches of frost and ice lasting all through the day in the shadows.

Christmas Greetings!

Fraternal Christmas greetings to all on the Hanna family blogsite from the Jansons Road History and Horticulture Collective. Our photograph shows the General Secretary for Vegetable Production and Allied Matters, Cde J Hanna, with the All-Union Representative for Ideology and CD-Buying, Cde J Nicholas. At this moment in the crisis of late-stage monopoly capitalism, we offer this word of comfort and cheer: Venceremos!

Not Quite a Christmas Tree

We don't buy Christmas trees, even artificial ones, but we do have a (now rather leggy) weeping fig which sits by my chair. Most years, we hang something from it; this year, it's origami humming birds and cranes, made from (respectively) silver foil and paper. Here are some photographs of the results -- including one showing just how closely the tree hangs over my head when I sit in the chair. Hours of fun -- but at least they're paper birds, so won't drop poop everywhere.

Cricket and Christmas

Hamish, Mark and I has a great day at the cricket yesterday courtesy of Kelly - who is membership services manager at the WACA. Hamish was lucky enough to be invited to be a Flag Bearer along with his friend Tom. This basically meant that Hamish and Tom got to lead the Australian and South African cricket teams onto the WACA and to hold the respective flags when they went back onto the field after lunch and tea. They both had a great time and got to see all their favourite cricketers and even got a few autographs from team members.

I'll post up some photos when I get hold of these.

Today is the last day of school for the year before the long Christmas break. All the kids are excited and tired and truly in need of a holiday. Only problem is that there seems to be an endless stream of Christmas parties planned for the next couple of days so they will probably get more tired still before getting the rest they need...

I think we are all off to Albany on Monday (or maybe Tuesday) next week and I am not sure when we will return. I spoke to Julian yesterday and I think we will probably pick Jack up on the way through to Albany from Mt Barker or Kojonup - very convenient that both places are right on the Highway reallly.

Judith and Joseph, I will try and ring you before we leave here - there is no landline in the old house so it is a bit difficult from there.

Chrsitmas Cheers to everyone

Facebook - just for the Y generation?

Plans for the Kojonup DHS reunion for our year are evidently continuing.

I have been contacted by about three ex-classmates now via facebook. This is pretty amazing really as I was (until recently) listed under Roslyn Blanchard(now Roslyn Hanna Blanchard) and I don't even remember setting up an account. I think I must have done so last year when I decided I should have a look just to see what people were talking about.

So far I have been contacted by the following:
Tania (Beattie) Harris - Tania started going out with Gary Harris when she was in year 10! She has three grown-up children and works at the school as an assistance.
Karen Marinoni. (Not sure what she is doing)
Leanne Fleay - who is selling Tupperware somewhere in Perth.
Kaylene Shepherd - who is divorced now. I remember she was a 7-Day Adventist or prehaps 4-square and wasn't allowed any music or make-up. She has two children and appeared to be divorced or separated.
Peter Hawkins -who was always very bright at school - but "never really applied himself". He is working on a gold mine in NZ.
And Tony Guest is living in Nth Freo with his mum and dad. He says that Joanne Guest lives in Melville and I saw her contact details were on Facebook too.

I also managed to dig up a couple of Uni friends and have a peek into what they were doing with themselves.

I find the whole concept of Facebook pretty amazing really - talk about instant and continual communication - some people seem to write in when they are going to the bathroom and what they had for breakfast - all the same it is a good way to get in touch or keep in touch with people all over the world with a minimum of effort.

I saw Scott and Kellie are both big Facebook fans. I have about 10 "friends" but they have more than 200 each!! But maybe they are just more popular than me.

Lean Down on The Pedal and We're Ready to Roll

My first visit to this blog for a couple of weeks -- much too busy at work, and too much to do in the evenings as well. (But then I would no doubt be expected to do work at work, not play on blogsites.) Last weekend was party-party-party (as Judith wrote); this coming weekend we make the traditional pre-Christmas visit to my parents in Lyme Regis (apart from anything else, it will be my 55th birthday); next week it's all go-go-go -- Agency-wide Christmas party on 16 December; divisional Christmas event on the afternoon of 17 December followed in the evening by a Tottenham & Wood Green Friends of the Earth seasonal meal at a local restaurant; Unit Christmas lunch at a swish hotel (better not wear a denim skirt!) on 18 December; then a day off before we collect our goose from Stoke Newington Farmers Market on Saturday 20 December. Then, perhaps, I'll have to make some time to dust and vacuum the house in preparation for our typical Christmas past-times of making a big jigsaw on the floor, playing Scrabble (actually, this will be new for this Christmas, since we haven't previously had a set), and making up some wooden kits of sailing ships as a Christmas project (i.e., like the medieval siege engines I made last Christmas, but different). And (doubtless) watching lotsanlots of television (there'll be a Dr Who Christmas Special, a new Wallace and Gromit, perhaps some decent films...).

Hmm. I seem to have failed to make any room in that for any Christmas shopping. Well, we've already got a couple of items for my parents (although Mutti will have to be given hers, an orchid from Ally Pally Garden Centre, at the weekend, because it's not something which can be wrapped up and left under a tree for a week -- I can say this, there's no danger of her reading this because my parents neither have nor use computers) but I have still to find something for Judith. Better start thinking hard v. soon, eh wot?

Count down until Christmas

It is getting easier to count the number of sleeps until Christmas.. but so much to do before the term finishes (Thursday next week for us)

Today is the kids'dance concert at school. Swimming lessons and cricket after school. Thursday- swimming squad again. Friday - Swimming party, soccer finals and Hamish's class party. Saturday - 40th at the bowling club. Sunday - Neighbourhood xmas drinks. Monday - Piano lessons, Connor's teachers leaving party, Kumon. Tuesday - Connor's class party. Wednesday - Hamish is a flag bearer at the cricket test match all day and Bella's class party. Thursday - last day of school. Friday - relax time.

I still have a mountain of Christmas shopping to do, some work to finish, an obscene amount of mess to control before holidays...

So why am I sitting writing all this instead of doing something useful? Not really sure ... so I'd better go now!!

calling Julian, Pete, Scott, Kellie, Hamish....

Now - you guys all know you can add whatever you like to the blog don't you.
All you have to do is log in and create a "new post".
I realise everyone is really busy - but it would be great to hear all your big and little news.

Winter warmer

Weather here v. chilly: snow oop north, but not here. Bookies shortening their odds on a white Xmas. I've been Werking At Home yesterday and today: laptop on knee in front of window looking out over garden and birds at the various feeding stations JN keeps topped up. Today I finished what I needed to get done about 1500, just as the grey light was turning into grey dark, so headed off for a Swim -- about 50 lengths in 40 mins, and I was definitely fastest in the pool.

Another packed weekend coming up: tonight we have local 'Winter Warmer' social with wild dancing etc -- fundraising for the Save Wards Corner campaign, with its strong Latino involvement. JN normally doesn't do dancing in public... but perhaps he'll tai chi to the music? I have a shimmery gold pleaty-satin swirly skirt to wear. Then tomorrow morning, it's manure delivery at the allotments... followed by tomorrow evening, Tottenham Civic Society Xmas dinner at a local Italian restaurant.

Next week, I have a Social Research Association conference, where I should get elected onto exec board, then off to Birmingham for our Team Meeting -- arriving in time for dinner, followed by some sort of social. We are under orders to put on fancy dress (Good or Evil): so far, I think we're all planning to be Evil -- haul out vaguely Gothic bits of Morticia Addams style black... Then on to JN's folks at Lyme Regis for the weekend. Getting from Birmingham to Lyme is not quick or easy: either a 4 or 5 hour train trip, depending on how long you wait for connecting train or bus at Exeter.

Meanwhile, our local Council is headline news again: failing to spot that Baby P was being tortured (physically abused) by his mother or her boyfriend and to stop the poor kid being killed. Really awful: and comes on the heels of a similar horrifying failure a few years back to stop 8-yo Victoria Climbie being tormented and killed by her foster-aunt and boyfriend. There have now been resignations at the top of the Council. What seems to be coming out of the news reports is that Government tightening up of paperwork procedures last time actually made things worse -- social workers having to spend time at computers, and therefore less time actually in contact with the people on their case-loads. It seems there are simply more cases needing help or protection than the existing numbers of social workers can adequately cope with (in almost every part of the country). Not enough public funding for the number of social worker posts needed -- but managers keep their paperwork in order by assigning cases to the front-line social workers, rather than reporting back up the line that front-line workers are already overloaded and therefore unable to look after existing cases. Human tragedies waiting to happen...

Oh yes, and it seems like this country no longer has a working economy to speak of...

Surfing safari, whales and rain.

Last weekend the kids and I went down to Margaret River (Gracetown to be exact) for a surfing "safari" with a group of mums from school.
The weather wasn't exactly great but we still managed to go for a swim on Satuday and a quick surf on Sunday (in very washed out and windy conditions).
We also saw two big groups (pods) of whales (mothers with babies I think) in the Gracetown bay - they seemed to be having a lovely time leaping out the water and flicking their tales as they moved southwards towards Antartica.

The kids all slept in a tent in our friends' yard. It poured with rain overnight - but luckily our new tent held out and everyone stayed dry and happy.

I spoke to Mum yesterday and she said they had been having alot of rain in Albany - I think she said six inches in one night - which sounds like an awful lot - not sure of the metric equivalent. Apparently her carport filled with water - but the house stayed dry. She also said quite a few shops' ceilings had collapsed due to the rain - and presumably leaky roofs.

Mum also said Julian was in Sydney this week at a conference or course(not sure what it is on) - so prehaps he will call in and see Zena. You never know...

Life far too exciting to keep up with. And its just gone far too chilly and wintry.
Tonight: heading into British Museum friends evening, to see their new blockbuster 'Babylon' exhibition. This morning: swam 76 lengths in 60 mins, so jolly pleased and feeling fit (how many does Bella do?).

This weekend: Friends of Bruce Castle 'Sunday Lunch' (cold baked salmon, trifle, lots of other food) with a talk about a chap called Edward Marshall, who carved an elaborate 17th Century family memorial in All Hallows Church just across the road from Bruce Castle: smooth polished marble head and shoulders of the two parents in neck ruffs, their ten children kneeling in a neat row underneath, surrounded by pillars, urns and other embellishments. Apparently Ed Marshall was one of about seven stone masons working in London during that period, and the only one whose memorial sculptures survived the Civil War -- and what a lot of them our lecturer showed us.

Must close down and toddle off to BM... Toodle-oo

Evil eye, and other malfunctions

Came back from allotment on Saturday, sat on bed for a leisurely cuppa, read and recover before getting dinner, while JN blasted out The Darkness' 'One Way Ticket to Hell and Back' downstairs. One of my eyes felt a bit funny -- and when I looked at a mirror, it was a bit puffy. By the time we finished dinner, the skin above my left eye was definitely swollen up. Maybe something had blown into it down the allotment -- though I hadn't noticed anything? Or perhaps it was reacting to the olive foot cream we brought back from Crete, which would have been on my hands just before I noticed the puffiness? Anyway, fingers crossed it would sort itself out overnight.

No. Sunday, I woke up in the dark and could feel that all around my eye was now swollen, so much I could barely see out. In the bathroom mirror, it looked like a shiny ball had taken over where my eye used to be, and if it inflated much more it might burst. Better try calling a doctor, I thought; time felt like middle of the night but my watch called it 5am. There's now an NHS Direct phone line here, so I called that: terribly nice lady took details, and said that a doctor could call me back but in about 7 hours. So I tried my own doctor's surgery number, which gave a night cover phone number: one of their duty doctors called back within about 10 minutes, and gave me an appointment at the new Laurels Health Centre just the other side of our allotments, opposite St Anns Hospital at 9am. I hauled a v. grumpy and reluctant Joseph along with me, just in case. Just one other person in the waiting room when we arrived so hauled out our stock of reading matter -- we had a good half hour wait anyway -- I suspect the doctors have a list of phone patients to talk to in between those who turn up in person. I couldn't find my glasses, so reading New Scientist was an arms' length squint. Nice young Indian doc listened, said that it was indeed a strong allergic reaction, checked there were no signs of inflammation or infection, dished me out a pack of steroid tablets and a prescription for antihistamines (when the local Tesco opened at 11am) and waved us off. Back home, I couldn't find my glasses...

So after breakfast with steroids (6 dissolved in water, once a day), off I set with my one working eye and swollen puffball I couldn't see out of, re-tracing our steps down to West Green Rd, then along to Tesco to collect the anti-histamines, then back to re-tracing the early morning track. Thank goodness they'd been handed into the receptionist -- must have fallen out of my bag when I first reached in for the magazines. So back home, to take my 1 antihistamine tab once a day, and wait for signs of the swelling going down. By dinner-time, it still seemed no less swollen, and I reckoned I could feel more swelling underway. So I phoned the night-docs again, about 21.30hrs: Older Indian doc told me I should go to nearest hospital Casualty, which he said was St Anns; this time JN made no demural about escorting me. Chap at St Anns gate said 'No casualty here', it's just a mental hospital these days, with a local campaign fighting against plans to close it down. So I headed for The Laurels again; again, one other pair in the waiting room. Very tired-looking receptionist called the night-doc HQ, to get them to put me on her appointments system for the duty doc there to see. Nice lady doc duly checked eye for inflammation etc, and said that the steroids take 24 hrs to kick in and start reducing the allergic reaction. We had missed asking the original doc this vital question about how long it would take for the treatment to work -- and he should have thought to explain. The nice lady also recommended using cool-pack or ice-bag on the swelling, and sleeping with head elevated, so fluid drains from the swelling rather than pooling there. 'So do you feel healthy in yourself?' she asked, as a sort of final general check. 'Good thing I am,' I answered, 'with all this tramping through the cold to get to a health service -- really wouldn't be doing a sick person any good at all.'

This morning, Monday: eye now opens, and has a definite eyelid instead of a puffy ball. Still looks pretty horribly disgusting -- but only about a third the size it was yesterday. So the drugs are working; I'll werk at home tomorrow, rather than go in to the office and frighten the horses, but fingers crossed feel able to show up for meetings in Peterborough on Weds and rest of the week.

After several years getting by without troubling the health service at all, I seem to be having a spate of breaking down: have had reading glasses for small print for a few years now -- but this visit, the optician recommended varifocals and I've found that trees have regained miraculous depths of dynamic detail instead of being just green (or at this season, gold) bulk. Optician also recommended I see my GP and get a blood test: cholesterol far higher than it should be, so no more starting the day on an egg, I reckon. JN has just made himself his first GP appointment for years to get himself blood-tested. Then we need to see dietician, to clarify just how much or little of what we can eat.

Then there's the weird toe-nails, which were definitely doing their best to become ingrowing. Eventually, one of them showed signs of infection starting up -- so I hobbled off to ask a couple of likely neighbours about local chiropodists, and fixed up the see the one who shows up two days a week at a pharmacy just around the corner on Philip Lane. He delicately cut out a strip down the side of the offending toe, removed a deep corn (which I'd been trying to treat as a verruca, so relief that it was not), and produced a whirring electric file to file down the rest of my weird pedal claws back into proper toenails.

But I mustn't go swimming for a couple of weeks until the no-longer-ingrown toenail healed over. And now I can't go swimming until my eye has gone down. Waah. Next thing you know I'll be breaking down again for lack of exercise. Apart from that, though, I'm just fine.

Time travels by

Now on the phone to geek sister with oomph to get me blogging. Went to the Blue Mountains with Pete and his work colleagues (they had completed a planning session) we peered and ate on the weekend. The kids stayed with Auntie Lisa and Ellie and then had a night with Grandpa and Gran. On Sunday after dance rehersals and catch up late lunch our whole family was tired out and ready for holiday. Oh well 2 weeks to go for Holly!

Builders are sanding, hammering and cutting wood, you can't be lonely here, they arrive on the dot of 7am and leave as the kids get back from school. Slowly a kitchen is evolving and the walls looking elegant dressed in their timber lining.

Dangerous camping at Dwellingup

We are just back from a weekend camping in Dwellingup so I have a pile of muddy washing to do and have just about managed to transfer all the camping paraphernalia from the car to its proper place.

I say "we" went camping - but it was really just Bella, Connor and I. Hamish and Mark stayed in Perth so Mark could recover from his trip to Dubai last week and Hamish could play cricket.

We went with about 10 other families with children in the same year as Connor. So there was a big noisy group of us.

Lots of swimming in the river pools, getting muddy, looking for insects, climbing trees, catching tadpoles and sitting around the fire trying to avoid the smoke.

Unfortunately the weekend was marred at the end as one of the little girls (about 5 years old) fell over backwards into one of the other campers' fires and burnt her hand badly (she is in hospital now and will have to probably have skin grafts). The fire was left unattended with just the coals glowing - I don't think the children realised there was a fire there and we didn't realise there was a fireplace in the area they were playing in. It was just one of those awful things that can happen even when everyone is being careful. Luckily there were two doctors and a nurse amongst our group so she was in good hands early on. PMH (Princess Margaret (children's) Hospital) also has one of the best burns units in the world. So if it was going to have to happen ... you could almost say it was lucky it happened then and in WA.

Onto a cheerier subject...

I mentioned Mark was in Dubai last week (he came back at 4am Saturday) - he is in NZ now (left Sunday at midnight). He is doing some work with a waste recycling technology company - so will be touring the rubbish dumps in Christchurch - should be fun.

Today Connor and Bella are starting swimming lessons at school everyday for two weeks and this weekend Bella, Connor and I (possibly Mark and Hamish but not sure yet) are going to Gracetown (Margaret River) for a weekend with Bella's surfing buddies. We have our fingers crossed for good weather.

Goldcrest in Garden

1) Most exciting thing this week: we had a goldcrest in the back garden! I was doing a work phone call at home, in my comfy swivel chair by my study window, watching the usual bunch of sparrows, chaffinches, blue and great tits popping into the bird feedery on the apple trees, enjoying a spot of sun while it lasted. Furtive flitting through the creepers along the back fence -- a little round warm-brown wren with cocked-up tail (much shorter than Aussie fairy wrens). That's exciting enough -- we only get very occasional wren visits, and only during the winter. I was vaguely wondering if we might possibly get a pair of wrens together some time, when there was another tiny brown flitter along the fence. But it didn't seem quite the warm wren-brown, and there seemed pale markings. So I reached for the binocs -- and there was a distinct yellow stripe on its head. The bird book showed it was more likely to be a goldcrest than a firecrest -- either is officially Britain's smallest bird, by a whisker from the wren.

We haven't had the goldfinches visiting their special nyger seed feeder for some time now, but we do have robin, blackbird and starling back as our regular winter visitors.

2) We are celebrating our wedding anniversary by having a long weekend, and playing extra Scrabble after dinner at nights. We were thinking of going to Oxford, but the museums we wanted to visit there are both closed for re-building/renovations. We think we probably ought to throw some sort of party, what with this being our 25th/silver etc. May get around to it, but just at the moment it all seems a bit too much exertion...

3) Permaculture design day down at Picketts Lock on the Lea last weekend, a Council planning forum for re-development at the Old Town Hall just across the railway line the other night, demonstration at the new Civic Centre about the Wards Corner campaign on Monday, planning meeting for a Seed Swap I'm running in Feb on Tuesday, residents association AGM on Thursday...

Message to Zena

If you're having trouble working this thing, try composing messages and comments offline using a simple text editor such as Notepad, then pasting them into the box before posting them, rather than typing directly into the box.

If, after that, you still can't see your messages or comments, then the problem clearly lies with your browser settings, which may be blocking sites such as this. In which case, you will need to either go through the settings yourself (under "Tools" or "Options" or similar, depending on which browser you're using) or call in next door's ten-year-old geek, who will no doubt regard you as having just fallen out of the Ark but will find and fix the issues in no time.

Blast from the Past

Just had a phone call from Leanne Fleay (her mum used to teach swimming each year) who is organising a school reunion for our year from Kojonup.

I haven't spoken to her since year 9 - quite a few years ago now. The reunion is in February - but I am not sure if I will go yet. I'll have to speak to Jude Owen and see if she is going!

Zena!!

Come on Zena I want to see some photos of your romantic tour of France by bike!

Now what have we been up to lately? ...

Now where was I up to last time? That's right the school holidays...

We spent the last week of the October holidays in Albany chatting to Mum, seeing the familiar local sights and catching up with friends.

- We spent a day at Two-People's Bay - Bella went horse riding but the boys and I just walked on the Beach.
- We climbed Bluff Knoll and looked at the Stirling Ranges. The kids asked: "So why exactly are we doing this?" Connor made it 99% of the way to the top (about 3km of steep, rocky path and steps) - but, with the top just in sight and 100m away, he sat down and utterly refused to go another step further. I had used up all my treats, promting and promises a long way down the Moutain so I just sat next to him and decided to call that spot the "new top of the mountain"!

(Photos above.)

Mum was well, chatty and very busy (as usual) with group commitments, projects and walking Bindi every day.
The only negative for the trip was when poor little Tara was attacked by a Pitt Bull-looking dog in our back yard while Hamish was jumping on the trampoline. The kids were understandably freaked out. Poor Tara is still walking with a limp now (nearly four weeks later). It'll be interesting to see how she reacts next time we pull up in front of the Albany house - she may not want to get out of the car!

We didn't get a chance to catch up with Julian. We called in on the way back - but he wasn't in.

Then back to Perth and school once more.

Hamish is now busy with cricket training, cricket on Sundays and cricket practise in between whenever he can fit it in. So far Hamish's score for the season is 99 not out (they have to retired after 20 runs each game) - so he is very pleased with himself. He is currently reading Bryce Courtney's "The Power of One" and is enjoying the dubious language and the underlying theme of setting your goal and striving to reach it.

Bella is into swimming squad. Her best friend Stella is a gun swimmer and Bella is aiming to catch up with her so they can swim in the same squad level. As Stella is swimming about 2km for training already (and is the youngest swimmer in the club's history to get promoted to her current "bronze cap" level), Bella will have to do a lot of swimming to catch up with her. (Hamish is doing squad too - but very reluctantly).

Bella's birthday was last Friday and we gave her a hand-reared Weero (or Cockatiel - which is a little parrot - smaller than a Galah but bigger than a Budgie) called Nelson. He is very sweet and sits on her shoulder while she reads and plays the piano each morning. Bella is reading "Little House on the Prairie" - she is up to the first book (they are just building their log cabin) and is loving the story so far.

Connor's current passions are riding his bike, hunting for butterflies and eating as many lollies as we will let him have. He is very jealous of Bella's bird and thinks he should have been given something alive for his birthday too. I keep mentioning the worm farm we gave him (one of those narrow ones between two pieces of perspex so you can see what the worms are doing - or rather what they have done as you put the soil in with little marker layers of coloured sand in between so you can see the worms mix it up) - but he doesn't think this really counts as he had to catch the worms himself!

Mark has been home most of the last month, with perhaps just the one trip to Melbourne, but is off to Dubai next week (I think). He is coaching Hamish's cricket team this year - which Hamish is enjoying immensely.

Me? I have just been doing the same old round of domestic chores, exercise and social outings. No work at the moment as the rolling market research contract we had for a number of years has just finished and I am not keen on seeking out any more agricultural economics work. My latest plan is to do a Grad. Dip. Ed. over the next two years through Murdoch University in Primary Teaching and see what happens with this.

Now we are up to date once more...

By way of a Coda to the Collpase of the Bathroom Ceiling....

....here's a photograph of the new mosaic splashback to the bathroom basin, as manufactured by Judith.

And to accompany it, here's a photograph of Judith, computerating away in bed on this Sunday morning.

I must now go and make a (very) late breakfast - scrambled eggs with the medley of wild mushrooms we bought from the Stoke Newington Farmers' Market yesterday. Yum yum!

Chilly....

Bitter cold spell - polar north east winds and rain, with snow in London a few days ago. Inside our nicely-insulated house stays equable, with central heating purring into action every now and then -- but no cold striking in through the walls. Last night we hauled down the big brown winter blanket for our bed, and this morning I woke up nicely warm instead of slightly chilled (but just as reluctant to leap out of my cocoon). We have the central heating on both thermostat and timer, so at night it will only fire if the temperature goes down to about 12C, then it wakes up just before the alarm goes at 6am.

Yesterday, we stayed inside the house. JN painted upstairs hall wall, so our picture gallery can be re-displayed without intrusive blobs where blu-tak was. I planted up three window boxes with spring bulbs (layers of tulips, daffs, winter iris) topped with pansies (Karma Blue, Amber Kiss, Ocean Mix) I grew from seed, operating from one of those handy plastic 'potting station' trays on kitchen table, with forays outside. Despite the cold, snails were still crawling about, as was a small frog I found sitting on the front doorstep when I took out one of the finished window boxes. They have to go out the front, as the squirrels that frequent the back garden treat bulbs as tucker.

Last week, I lunched twice at the St James Park cafe by the lake: glorious sunshine on the autumn trees. I'd made the dates expecting the cafe to be pretty deserted, not reckoning on the clear (though cold) spell coinciding with half-term, which brought the crowds back to the park.

Roman, aquatic, seedy, feral feet, verbal scoring, statuephilia

This week's highlights - apart from the general joy of having the week off werk:

1 Roman: Last Saturday, to Colchester (as JN has already blogged): the first Roman capital of their province of Britannia, before Boudicca (Boadicea) set it aflame. Time Team programmes showing excavations along the city wall, and of the hippodrome race-track alerted us to History Stuff there, as had glimpses of castle from taxi rides when I visited our local office there. So we boarded train at Liverpool St to tick the city off our 'must go see' list. At Colchester main station, we changed to a waiting (new?) Colchester Town shuttle train, just by the impressive ruins of St Botolph's Priory (C12); info boards there told us that St Botolph was a patron saint of travellers, whose churches generally stood outside city gates (as with London's St Botolph's), and that the name was usually a sign of Saxon foundation. The walking tour copied from Ramblers Association magazine took us around a stretch of Roman city wall, used as the boundary to a vast car park, to the river (low tide, lots of lovely mud) and a half-timbered Siege House with Civil War musket holes marked out by red metal rings, beside a grand Mill being sold off in apartments as one of many new residential developments -- Colchester, like Stevenage, is first stop out of London on the fast trains so an inviting commute. Shame about the City crash, and all those potential high-paying buyers brought low. Up East Hill, lined with dinky half-timbered, Georgian and Regency frontages -- but the amount of noisy speeding traffic still allowed through all this picturesque heritage came as a nasty shock, which shows how much we now expect old towns to be either traffic-free or traffic-calmed. Up to Colchester Castle, which signs claimed to be the largest Norman keep built in England, built on the foundations of the Roman Temple of Claudius. The museum inside has, not surprisingly, an impressive Roman collection, particularly mosaics. We also caught a 'Guardians of theEmperor' exhibition, of Chinese miniature terracotta army figures from one of the later imperial tombs. On, past the ancient
St Helen's Church, now an Armenian Orthodox icon-adorned parish, and past the 'Jumbo' iron water tower, to the Balkerne Gate -- which says it's the only surviving Roman gateway in Britain (since Lincoln's was demolished by a passing lorry). Hole in the Wall pub beside it, and another long stretch of Roman city wall running along downhill from it. And after that, we trickled along the shopping streets, gathering loot. I make a point of checking out charity shops, on the grounds that what's bought from them is virtuous recycling in aid of a good cause, not self-indulgent consumerism. Joseph dived into a games shop and acquired a Scrabble set.

2 Verbal scoring: So evenings, we've been playing Scrabble during breaks in the telly-viewing schedule. JN plays it one lunchtime a week at werk, and now he gets to practice on me at home too, with the aid of the Scrabble Dictionary he has also acquired. We also have the Compact OED, with magnifying glass -- 12 vol dictionary reduced to two vols, plus another volume Addendum, to which we can appeal when the Scrabble dicker fails to acknowledge a word that one of us is sure has legitimate existence. I'm not much into games, but do enjoy the competitive pedantry of Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit. So far, we're neck and neck -- or I may be just ahead on points and the luck of the draw. We're pretty equal on the low cunning of hitting the high-scoring squares. JN keeps score

3 Statuephilia: To the British Museum Thursday evening, to see the golden and contorted Kate Moss, as illustrated in all the press coverage, meeting JN there when he finished werk. Greeted by a miniature Angel of the North, dominating the main entrance lobby a mere 20 or so feet tall with 40 foot wings (or 7m and 14m): JN managed to walk in past it without actually noticing it, intent on tracking me down where I was sketching in the Egyptian gallery (a sphinx and giant scarab). We toured the five Statuephilia displays. Moss among classical Greek marbles, nicely juxtaposed with the crouching Lely Venus, the surface sheen of her golden skin and undies finely textured. Ron Mueck's giant self-portrait head contrasting in colour and form with the similarly gigantic Easter island figure at whose standing feet it lies on its side. In the press photos, it looked pretty pointless, but when you stand by it, the detail of chin stubble, eyelashes, lined and wrinkled skin textures, and the pull of gravity on the soft tissues of mouth, chin and cheeks all seem touching -- human weaknesses, contrasting with the sternly stylised stone god above. Facing the entrance of the Enlightenment Gallery, the tall glass-fronted C18 display shelves are given over to Damien Hirst: an array of identical plastic human skulls, all splashed with vivid enamel paints. A reflection on museums as collectors of death, of course. But the Egyptian Gallery 'Dark Stuff' installation struck me as a cleverer way of making that point: two pikes with what seemed a random mass of stuff spiked on their points, casting the shadows of two human heads on the wall behind them; when you look at the stuff, you see it is made up of the mummified bodies of cats, rats, mice, birds, squirrel, insects, snailshells... If I were the museum, I'd want to keep all of them except the Hirst -- or perhaps move the Hirst to the Wellcome Gallery of health and death, alongside the equally gaudy Mexican 'Night of the Dead' display.

4 Aquatic: the birds have come back to the swimming pool roof -- showing that it's now chilly enough for the warmth rising from the pool to attract them to stand on the glass panels above. So backstroke now enlivened by watching the permutations of their (mostly) one-legged silhouettes. So far, mainly the white shapes of seagulls -- pigeons presumably less sissy about temperature. Four swims this week, mostly 50 lengths/40 mins but Friday I made it to 70 lengths/60 mins.

5 Feral feet: But I'm ordered off swimming for the next week at least, and have to shower with my right foot in a plastic bag. My feet have been going weird for some years now: toenails more like claws, and lately, big toenails curving into a shape that illustrates what 'ingrowing' means. Last week, the right big toenail reacted to me being put into snug-fitting stylish boots for a whole day by cutting into its groove, which this week developed into infection. So I found a local chiropodist (Thu and Sat at the pharmacy around the corner), and yesterday found out what chiropodists do. As a consequence, I now have a right foot impressively swathed in surgical dressings: all toenails cut back and filed down by a whirring electric burr; the ingrowing strip cut right out from along the side of the right toenail, and a deep corn identified and cut out. All without pain, and leaving me able to walk away quite normally. Most impressed by the feral-foot taming: good value for £30/session.

6 Seediness: a while back, I decided I could cope with organising a local Seed Swap Day next spring: 22 Feb 09, at Bruce Castle. I got the borough-wide Allotments Forum, and Sustainable Haringey Food group to back it, and the Council to book the venue. This week, I've done something about it: checked with Hazel at Bruce Castle about space, basic layout, and options for running refreshments; and yesterday dashed off e-mails setting up a planning meeting with the Food Group and allotments people. And even managed to put info up on the web at www.sevensisterspermaculture.wikispaces.com

7. Party last night, flung by local artist and organisers of Friends of Tottenham Marshes, who live, we discovered, in the shadow of Spurs stadium. This afternoon, Friends of Bruce Castle AGM: JN is resigning as newsletter editor (after umpty years) but will stay on the committee; I am being hauled along as quorum fodder, and will take hyperbolic coral crocheting to get on with.

Colchester

Thwarted by bad weather two weekends ago, we had to abandon our planned visit to Colchester, first capital of Roman Britain (where, that weekend, some Roman re-enactments had been planned -- but which would probably have had to be drastically scaled down, so perhaps we didn't miss much). This Saturday just past, the weather was much better -- the forecast promised a pale overcast typical of the English autumn, but instead we had near cloudless skies for much of the day, following a walking tour (published by the Ramblers Association in their quarterly magazine "Walk") around the most historic bits of the town, with a long detour into Colchester Castle Museum for an inspection of their extensive Roman collections. (The Castle Museum is in fact a roofed-over Norman keep, the largest ever constructed in Britain by William's conquerors and the model for the Tower of London's White Tower.) And a temporary exhibition, of which we knew naught until we read a brochure on the train to Colchester, of terracotta figurines from the royal tombs at Xuzhou, capital of China's Western Han dynasty from 206 BCE to 8 CE. (Apparently, Essex is twinned with the PRC's Jiangsu Province -- who knew?) This unfortunately meant that we had to skip Hollytrees Museum of Local History, and -- running short of time before our train back to London -- failed to locate the extravagant early Tudor gatehouse to St John's Abbey (all that's left of the Abbey) just south of the town's Roman/medieval/Civil War walls, but never mind: Colchester has a Roman re-enactment on the first weekend of every October, so in twelve months' time we might be back there to examine what we missed on this visit. (Including the guided tour of the Castle which visits parts of it not otherwise open to the public, such as the Roman foundations of the Temple to the Emperor Claudius, destroyed in the Boudiccan Revolt in 60 CE.) In the meantime, enjoy this selection of photographs -- of the Castle Museum, of Judith at the Balkerne Gate (the main entrance to the town in the Roman period, which is thought to have begun life as a triumphal arch to the Claudian invasion before its destruction in the Boudiccan Revolt), St Botolph's Priory -- the first Augustinian monastery in England -- and the Saxon tower of Holy Trinity Church, both constructed of reused Roman bricks and tiles, and the historic holes in Siege House caused by the musket balls of the Royalist troops on 5 July 1648 as they attempted to break through the ring of Parliamentarians who were besieging the town. A strange siege, considering that the town actually supported the Parliamentarians during the Civil War, and the Royalists had been allowed to billet themselves there on the understanding that they would move on after just one night....

You Can't Trust These Judiths

I was standing on the roof of the narrowboat as it forged upstream towards the M25 beyond Picketts Lock, spreading my arms wide, doing my king-of-the-world impersonation, urging Judith to take a photograph of me; and she did. Or she thought she did. Or her camera told her she did. But when we got home this afternoon from our boat trip up the River Lee (or Lea) we found that in fact no such photograph had been taken. Had the camera baulked at the shortness of my skirt? The daredevilness of my balancing on the roof having ingested so much wine? Or had The Wugster basically effed up with the picture taking?

Detailed explanation must surely await another time. Until that time, here are a couple of rather duller pictures of our time on the water this afternoon. (It's the second weekend of October! It's warmer than it was in August! Kick it for me one time, dude!)

The Last of Summer

Very erratic weather we've been having for the past couple of years, as Judith has doubtless mentioned before. This year, June and July were dry, sunny and very warm; August was rather cool, damp and overcast; September gave us wild swings from one extreme to the other. A fortnight ago, on a Friends of Bruce Castle outing to Kentwell Manor in Suffolk, we had glorious sunshine and temperatures of 18 Celsius; last weekend was rain, rain and more rain, putting the kibosh on our planned trip to Colchester for some Roman re-enactments.

This weekend -- when we should have been experiencing autumnal chills, with even the daytime temperatures heading towards 10 to 13 -- we're back at 19: blue skies and sunshine, warm enough to walk around in next to nothing. (Well, next to nothing as far as I'm concerned; Judith, whose temperature response system was set by growing up in the Bismarck Archipelago, finds anything less than 25 Celsius to require a fleece jacket and double-layer trousers.) Here's a couple of photographs of us on our allotment this afternoon -- Judith weeding amongst the beans (newly-planted beans, you will notice, growing vigorously away as though it weren't October at all), and me strimming down the grass to make compost with the allotment association's strimmer.

Tomorrow, according to the forecast, should be a degree or two warmer, with the clouds still holding off. Should be just fine for our boat trip up the River Lea with other members of the Friends of Tottenham Marshes. Photographs of that in due course!

Scott Hanna's E-Mail Address

....is sp_hanna@yahoo.com.au.

I've had a quick look through Blogger's help files, but can't immediately locate (if indeed it exists) a page explaining how those other than the blog administrator can add people. So the quickest and easiest way to add Scott as a contributor may be to send him an invitation, in the same way Judith and I were added.

After the builders

So here we are: the Builders finished On Friday, leaving us with the strong smell of paint and shoulder deep in boxes to unpack back into their contents' ordained places. I had the first two weeks of the building work off, and Joseph had their final week off: my, what a lot of incidental little jobs you find that you'd better deal with in the wake of builders doing the big work. What difference has the work made? First effect of the insulation that we've noticed is how much quieter it makes the front of the house -- we see cars drive by, but no longer hear them through the walls. We haven't yet been able to see what difference the insulation makes to temperatures inside: true, we had a run of chilly days, but we kept windows open to let out the paint smell, and now that we can breathe inside with windows shut, the weather's gone mild again. But even so, I think those rooms that didn't have a brisk gale blowing through them felt kinda cosier, with no clues as to outside temperature striking through the brick of the walls. We'll find out as winter sets in.

During yesterday's rain, which flooded various parts of the country and stopped us heading off to Colchester to see Roman re-enactments among the genuine Roman ruins, we were able to admire the raindrops plonking onto the new glass roof outside the kitchen door and running off to end up in our new slim-line mini water-butt (100 litre). Our big job yesterday was taking up the old bathroom carpet, which used to be cream but caught the black dust that came down when the old ceiling collapsed, JN used it as a template to cut the new carpet (of a shade called porcelain, but pretty much the same cream) to size. One of our two DIY encylopedias gave detailed instructions for the laying of foam carpets: put down underlay of strong brown paper or similar (most of the old paper layer was still intact enough to re-use); put double-sided tape around the edge of the room and fixtures. We got that far on Sunday: this evening we tackle laying the carpet and securing its edges on the double-sided tape. Meanwhile, most of the kitchen is now back in place -- except that we need to re-paint gloss white a set of shelves which now looks yellowed against the spanking clean new white walls. So the two (or is it three?) boxes of stuff to go back on it remain piled up in the living room behind the TV. So do half a dazen boxes of my clothes, which can't be sorted back onto built-in wardrobe shelves until JN has sawed off the end of each shelf the 20mm now occupied by insulating sempatap.

The new roofed over back passageway (porch? loggia?) is jam-packed with stuff to be sorted into some sort of order. Some of it is rubbish, to be thrown into the back of the municipal dust-cart tomorrow morning (but will we be able to hear it so we can make sure it does get taken away?) Some of it should get decoratively arranged onto the folding white-covered wire grill greenhouse shelves currently leaning against the dining room sideboard, once JN has performed the miracle of the electric drill and rawl plugs to mar the pristine whiteness of our new boundary wall. And I need to re-glue tesserae into the mosaic splashback I made to go above the washbasin in the bathroom, which has been painted a bit more insistently aqua than it used to be. Apart from that, almost back to normal.

One week down ... one to go

The first week of the school holidays has passed relatively uneventfully.

We've spent days in the park playing basketball or cricket, riding bikes (avoiding swooping magpies!) along the river, or at the pool splashing around.

We did manage to see Wall E - which we all liked - although Hamish was not as keen on it as the rest of us. The none-to-suble message about the oncoming collaspe of the environment due to human abuse and overuse didn't phase the kids much. The kids are used to continual messages about "reduce, recycle, reuse" so didn't really comment of the wider issues wrapping round the main love story in the film

Hamish, Connor and I (Bella opted not to go) also visited the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition with wooden models of his inventions. The kids were impressed with all the moving cogs and wheels but the replica model flying machines were voted "most impressive".

The photos at the top of this post are of Hamish and Connor working out how to put together the pole bridge Leonardo designed. It took us a while of fiddling around but we eventually got there.

Uriah Jack came to stay with us on Wednesday and Thursday night. It was good to catch up with him as we hadn't seen him since Christmas last year. He seems to be enjoying boarding school - more than he thought he would apparently. He played soccer and table tennis last term and says he has two best friends who he hangs out with most of the time. Jack is in Geraldton now with his mother for the rest of the holidays I think.

Tomorrow the kids and I are heading down south to Albany. Mark is off overseas again (Malaysia) to talk to some people about building a waste management recycling plant (he should have come to see Wall E with us). Weather permitting I hope to take the kids to the Stirling ranges for a walk up one of the mountains one day - but I am not sure what we will do the rest of the time. I am taking down some bikes to leave there and will bring the wet suits to go swimming - so this should keep us busy . We will also try to catch up with Julian briefly on the way back home on Friday.

Anyway toodaloo - and I will drop another line when we get back home.

What's happened to Farmer Julian

Got Scott visiting this weekend, so have just showed him the family blog. And looking at the Channel 9 web-site, Farmer Julian seems to have vanished. What's happened?

Greatest Show in Tottenham

A weekend or so ago was Lordshop Rec Festival, with the Second Annual Tottenham Food and Produce Show. Of course I entered some stuff: my colourful hyperbolic crochet coral reef won a first, so did my arrangement of assorted seedheads. My jar of apple and pear jelly didn't win any award. And my blue plastic bag, a string bag crocheted out of the bags that the local small groceries round here give away, cut round and round into long strips, won second in the handknits and crochet class. Both the crochet projects were conversation pieces. Particularly with the plastic bag, people going around would glance over the display, then do a double take as they fingered it and recognised that it was indeed a plastic bag made out of the common or garden throwaway bags.

Last year, when I turned up to register, I thought the people running the produce show needed to be better organised. So this year I volunteered to give a hand. It was v. educational -- the paperwork needed to register entries for judging, then to match up the judges' decisions with names to go on the prize certificates is just mind-bogglingly complicated, and the pace of the process needs to be taken steadily and methodically, step by step. First stage is registering the entries: entry form with exhibitors name and entries with division and class numbers entered. Each entry then gets tagged with a raffle ticket, with different colour tickets according to division entered. Entrants name written on ticket stub, class number written on ticket attached to the item. Tick off each entry on the entry form as it is processed, put processed entry forms into a plastic folder. A team of kids acting as runners carry the items to the bench where that class number is to be displayed -- with popular classes (eg jams, home baked cakes) expanding beyond their alloted space, while others fail to enrol a single entry. When I arrived around 8.30am, the queue of entrants was a good dozen long, and registration went on until noon, with two registration tables running full-time, expanding to another two when school or club groups turned up bearing a car-load of entries from their members. Three hours of methodical concentration. Reel off exhausted with my co-registerer for cup of tea at the food co-op/cafe.

But that was just the end of phase 1; we headed back to phase 2. While the judges went about their business, it was time to sort the entry forms into alphabetical order -- simple enough. Then the judges forms started coming back, with the winning entry numbers for each class. Each winning number had to be checked against its ticket stub (in the approporate coloured raffle book), and the appropriate prize certificate written out with the entrants actual name on it, in nice flowing calligraphy. Since I can do flourishly flowing writing (albeit all but unreadable), I was put to that job. Second and third prize cards (with class number noted on each) got put out against their entries on the tables. But first prize certificates were held back, since there was more to do with them.

By this time, the marquee was overdue to be opened up for the public to view the show. But we were still sitting around our little table, sorting the 1st prize cards into alphabetical order, to identify the 'Best in Show' cup winner with most red cards, and the cup for family with most prizes, and children's cup for best young entrant... Finished just in time for the local MP to stand at the mike and start handing them all out, at 3.30pm.

I'll try again

I am hesitantly trying again on this blog concept. Once before it seems I posted a couple of words in 2007 and have had 22 visitors weird. It is Ok now I will keep this going and see if it suits till the end of this year.... Oh no I tried to edit and the font has changed.

The kids are on the road to Gran and Grandpa's at Port Douglas. Pete is working watching the footy grandfinal and tomorrow we go to Paris. My mind is concerned with how to make all I need and more fit into my bag, I wish I bought the size up of longed for blue pullalong bag. Judy we are now routed Paris direct to Japan on Japan Airlines so that quick exit though the cattle draft at Heathrow won't work.

Poor Pete doesn't know how little cycling practice has fitted into the last few weeks, he may need extra clothes as I doubt he'll raise a sweat. Our house meanwhile is opening up into new vistas and architectural lines. It will be super not to watch it on a daily basis and just enjoy the sudden momment when we get back in 2 weeks with the form even more there.

Love Zena (do you do that on blogs?)

A star in the family

Just a very quick note to tell you that Bella won the junior school talent quest today with her friend Zoe.
They sang "Black and Gold" together.
How clever is that!!

Just when you thought life was getting boring...

http://channelnine.ninemsn.com.au/section.aspx?sectionid=8870&sectionname=farmer2&subsectionid=146579&subsectionname=series3

Have a look at this link to see what Julian has been getting up to in the past couple of months! (But be prepared for a surprise Judith and Joseph - luckily you will already be sitting down or I would have to caution you about this for your own safety.)

Yes, Julian - you knew we would all find out sooner or later!

I suppose all we can say at this time is - "Good luck."

The Great Bathroom Ceiling Disaster of 15 Jansons Road

Full text on my LJ blog at http://the-gardener.livejournal.com/120790.html Here's some pictures to back it up -- one taken shortly after the damp section of plaster had fallen away and the second once all the old ceiling had been removed.

sunrise from Wylie Crescent

Sunrise over Albany - taken from the verandah on Mum's old house last time we were there, July this year.

Judith has blogged our London Open House 2008 activities yesterday on her LJ -- see http://headgardener.livejournal.com/79819.html -- so I won't repeat any of that here. (You are of course encouraged to go and read it there.) In the meantime, here's a (hopefully mildly amusing) photograph of her imitating a road sign.

School sports - part 2

Friday was the school sports day.

We were a bit worried at first that it would rain and everyone would get washed away - but the Gods were kind and after a few light showers the clouds cleared and everyone enjoyed the sunshine.

Hamish came third in the 200m and then surprised himself and won the first division 80m sprint (much to his delight) by a nose.

This was just the result he'd been wanting and - when combine with his third places in the throws and long jump, and fourth in the cross country -he ended up with the year 5 runner-up champion medal. Very exciting.

I think he is already working out what he needs to do for next year to win the gold medal!!

Bella came a credible fifth in the first division 80m for her age group and Connor was thrilled to get second in the third division 50m year one race.

Connor had been stressing about having to run against all the "really fast runners" and was super-pleased to see them all in other races.

Day at athe zoo

Yesterday I took Bella and her friend Stella and Connor and his friend Elliot to the zoo.

(Hamish was playing cricket with some friends instead.)

We zoomed around quickly and saw all the animals (except the lions and cheetahs who were all hiding) then spend the rest of the time playing on the playground and merry-go-rounds.

It is always a great day at the zoo!

Got the Builders

Is having builders officially recognised as one of the 10 Most Stressful Life-Events? If not, it should be. Certainly as far as JN is concerned. Back in January (you may recall) we signed with Mayor Ken's 'Green Home Concierge' scheme, had a home energy assessment, identified work to improve the climate-proofing of our little house, and started lining up quotes. Around June time, we got a couple of the small specialist fixes done: a light-tube installed over the stairwell, an extractor fan in the bathroom. Then we waited for the two main building outfits to firm up dates to do their stuff -- and, wouldn't you know it, both said they'd be ready to start last week. Since one lot are doing exterior work, the others interior insulation work, we decided to give both the go-ahead.

In the event, only Mayfair started on time, making good and repainting our front garden wall and building a new breeze-block wall along the side passage outside the kitchen (to support a glass roof, creating a covered area that JN insists is not a porch). So far, so good. Tuesday, Two blokes from Devereux turned up and got stuck into the loft insulation -- starting by tossing all the stuff stored there randomly out of their way, instead of moving it gently. Explosion of JN when he arrived home after work and poked his head up through the hatch. However, here we are Friday, loft complete with all the insulation it needs, a good half of it solid enough to walk and store stuff on (Knauf insulation boards, covered over with hard chipboard loft panelling) -- and the front lounge wall stripped of wallpaper and newly lined with Sempatap insulation, a 20mm rubberized foam lining that should reduce heat loss/gain by 25% which is (we've been assured) the best performing stuff currently available. Outside, we have lots of nice bright white new paintwork: garden walls, window sills, front door and the new back wall and stout wooden framework to carry the glass roof panels when they arrive from the glazier.

Next week: chaos as Devereux strip down the bathroom and back hall then re-line them; ditto our bedroom exterior-facing wall, then paint them all up plus the kitchen for good measure. And, fingers crossed, Mayfair come back to fit the glass roof and a bench along the fence. We fit small water-butt to catch run-off from the new roof. We arrange (and no doubt re-arrange) all the plants, pots etc currently covering our mini back lawn back into New! places. I order folding shelves to maximise plant-spaces along the new under-cover wall spaces. We see how it all survives the winter.

On the Road?

I see that this blog has gained a new contributor, On The Road, with a blog of their own -- http://ontheroadandback.blogspot.com/ (which gives no information about who they actually are). Does anyone know more?

School sports - part 1

I see Julian's name has been added to the contributor's list - does this mean there really is life out there? I will have to ring him and get him to log onto the site.

We have just invested in a new Wii Fit - this is doing a good job of keeping the kids out of the way in a relatively active way - although I am not really sure why it is more fun running on the spot in front of a computer screen than running around outside. Still it is good for those rainy days and those nights when we have people over for dinner and numerous kids to entertain ...

The first part of the school sports is on today. Hamish is competing in the throwing competition (how far you can throw a soft ball) and the long jump. He really wants to get one of the overall medals this year so has worked out that he needs to get a place in each of these to get enough points - provided he gets a place in the 100m but not the 200m sprints.

The second half of the school sports (all the running races) is on this Friday. I think Bella and Connor are dreading this (not being athletically interested or blessed) but Hamish is of course looking forward to completing the second half of his medal plan.

I'll let you know what happens...

I've just been cleaning out my pantry and it appears that 2005 was a very good year for shopping - apparently. Amazing what you find when you look into the far recesses of your cupboards - although I suspect my cupboards are positively boring compared to Mum's - I am sure she still has a few pre-decimal tins tucked away in her cupboards - just waiting until they come in useful (sorry Mum if you ever read this - but you know it's true).

I spoke to Zena today and she said she had just spent an hour listening on Radio National about Kojonup and its Kodja museum.
Apparently, the Museum has just won the "Best Small Museum in Australia" national prize.
It is a great little museum - Zena and I both stopped in there last time we were going down to Albany.
It is full of local history on the town's aboriginal past and the wave of post-war migrants from Italy and has lots of oral history and anecdotes from people we know and know of.
There is even the old Jingalup-run bus in there for kids to sit in and pretend to be naughty in the back seat.
The old school librarian (can't remember her name) was in there (behind the reception desk not as a display) when Zena and I called in. Amazingly, she recognised both of us and even remembered our names.
Judith, another "must see" next time come here - make a space on your itinery.

While on the subject of Zena, I should add that she promised to look at this site before she rings me again. However, I suspect this really means that she is not planning on ringing me for a long (long) time. I will of course forgive her for this - she is after all pulling her house apart and putting it back together at the moment.

Imaginery alien invaders indeed! We too were invaded last night ...

Hamish did the normal Hannaish untidy thing and left his trainers in the bathroom before he went to bed. I saw his shoes there before I went to bed (and did the normal Hannaish thing and left them there). Strangely, in the morning only one trainer was remaining in its right (wrong) place.
We looked everywhere - the dirty washing basket, behind all the doors, under the beds - even in desperation in the shoerack in his wardrobe - but no trainer to be found.
Finally I suggested looking in our neighbour's backyard.
Sure enough Hamish returned from Bevan and Suzannah's dangling the (only slightly chewed) missing trainer.
Bevan's dog "Camper Pants" had opened the little gate between our yards, squeezed (he isn't a little dog) through the little dog door in our laundry (bypassing the security alarm), snuck into the bathroom and stolen Hamish's shoe.
Luckily he only decided to eat the laces, as a new pair of trainers (with arch support and other fancy stuff) plus new custom-made orthortics would have set us back a couple of hundred dollars.

This isn't Camper's first noctural visit to our place. Camper is the reason we only have four and half new blue cushions for our six "uncomfortable without cushions" metal chairs. He has also destroyed a number of hats, soccer shin pads, soft toys, balls, garden gloves, shorts, thongs and other assorted things* left lying around in nontidy places. To be fair Camper doesn't just pick on us. He is just as happy to munch on next door's (or anyone else's) "untidy" belongings. Unfortunately this also refers to their two sadly departed chooks (which Camper thought were particularly untidy and therefore particularly yummy).
I am beginning to suspect Camper is indeed an alien life form having been sent to this place to eliminate untidiness where ever he finds it (spookily similar to someone we all know?)


(*note: sometimes we only know what Camper has eaten by examining the poos he leaves on our back lawn - Bevan claims to have found a whole shredded t-shirt (his not ours) in one poo and it is normal to find pegs, hair lackies, plastic bags and socks.)

Alien invasion overnight

"Aliens were trying to break in to our house last night, and when I called you to come and help fight them off, you just stood around nagging me to tidy up," I told Joseph yesterday morning.

"Really?" he said. "What kind of aliens were they?"

"The normal grey squishy ones, with big eyes, like on your allotment key ring."

"So what happened? Did they break in?"

"No. I put them in a jar of water and they just kind of dissolved. You should tell the X-files that is how to deal with them."

"Oh. You really must tidy up you know dear."

Also, he later explained, he had been distracted at the time trying to save everybody from eating an alien cereal that turned people into sort of zomboid clones, but it had all been very confusing and didn't make sense. And he disclaimed responsibility for what he got up to in any dream I had anyway.

So either something we both ate -- a trace of alien cereal, perhaps? Or premonitions of disturbance in advance of The Builders Coming In?

We had a busy Fathers' Day weekend with people for dinner on Saturday night and then the soccer windup and trophy day for kids on Sunday. Hamish, Bella and Connor are now very proud of their new trophies - although I think the free hotdogs, freddo frogs and lemonade was just as exciting for them.

We bought Mark some new fishing lures for Fathers Day (plus board shorts) - so we went to the river to try them out - spectacularly unsuccessful - not even the blowies were biting.

This week Mark is off to Melbourne for a few days and then back on Friday when we have the kids' school art exhibition opening to go. All the kids are "exibiting" an artwork and we of course get the opportunity to "invest" in a piece from each of them. There are also a number of professional artists exhibiting - including our neighbours (Bevan and Suzannah are both artists) - last time I saw them they were both frantically trying to "produce" something for the night.

Busy week ahead: Monday and Tuesday, I have to present 'Social Evidence Review' paper to meetings of our Exec directors and non-Exec directors, on successive days. Wednesday, we should at last have Builders In for the two big sets of work -- one lot doing internal insulation and repainting; the other lot doing outside works including what JN insists must be called a 'roofed passageway' not a back porch. Luckily I can take Wed and Fri off, and have the next 2 weeks booked as leave to supervise and sort out the builders and post-builder clean-up etc.

Raining outside; Hurricane Hanna (formally degraded to a mere 'tropical storm') forecast to head over and visit us about the end of next week. Off for a swim, with JN. This arvo: go to allotment, pick sweet corn.

The Last Known Address for Julian

The last known address I have for Julian is julianmhanna@wn.com.au -- used last Christmas, and from the fact that it didn't bounce I would assume that it's still operative.

(Also posted in response to your reply to Judith's non-posting of it in her "Hurricane Hanna" item, just in case you don't pick it up from there.)

Little Creatures Pale Ale

One day early last month (August) -- one of the very few hot days this summer has seen -- Judith and I spent an enjoyable time pursuing a "graffiti trail" around Tate Modern in Southwark. Much interesting old architecture was viewed, and when we'd finished with the trail we went to the Tate Modern's restaurant, on the top floor, for some refreshment. Seduced by the menu, I couldn't help but order a bottle of Little Creatures Pale Ale, which is apparently brewed in Fremantle -- see http://www.littlecreatures.com.au/ for more information. I attach a photograph. (In the background is a blurry image of Blackfriars rail bridge and the River Thames.)

Have you Fremantle residents ever heard of this beer before? Have you ever tried it? It's just the thing for a very hot day....

(We finished the excursion with an early dinner at an Italian restaurant in Villiers Street beside Charing Cross Station, sitting outside at a pavement table watching tourists and yoof parading past. You would not believe the number of walking fashion disasters we counted -- more of them committed by the yoof than by the tourists, whom one sort-of expects to be gauche and badly dressed. What is London coming to, grump grump!)

Hurricane Hanna

So we get a family hurricane heading to cause devastation at this politically sensitive time -- will it affect the US Presidential race, or just blow itself out?

The address I have for Julian is: , and he even sent me some 'weird stuff' links from it after the last time I caught him on the phone. Have you invited Joseph?

I'm working at home today, on deadlines that are running late -- so I'd better get back to it. I have to perform at two Big Meetings next week, then the day after that, we finally Have Builders In for the work we've been lining up all year...

Cheers, JEH

Anyone have Julian's email address

Hi there. Thought I should add Julian's email address to the list but I don't have this. Do you have his email address Judith (or anyone else)?
Mark is in Dubai at present doing some work for a Work Placement company (finds work for skilled Phillipino workers) but is back again on Thursday night.
Soccer season is finished now so we have a brief respite before soccer and swimming start again. We are looking forward to couple of weeks without having to drive kids around to different destinations after school.
The kids get their soccer 'trophies' this weekend - so I will have to try and send some photos of this special occasion. To tell you the truth I think they are often more excited about the free can of soft drink they get at these wind-ups than anything else.
I have been doing the usual bits of work in between trying to keep the house mess to a minimum and the endless piles of washing under control.
I spent all yesterday moving around furniture to different locations - it is amazing what you find behind bookcases that haven't been moved for a couple of years!
Cheers for now - Ros

Hello Rosie (and anyone else out there now?) -- thanks for setting this up. Here its 8am, JN is shaving, I'm catching up on email and munching bananas before heading off for Swim to start day. One of my Mondays-off: main task -- pursue Getting Dates for Builders to come in and get on with the work we've been sorting out since January. Ummm. More later. Cheers

Welcome all

Hi everyone. I have decided that it is time we came into the computer age and started our own blogsite. I'm not exactly sure I am the right person to set this up - as I don't have a clue what I am doing - but it seems like a good idea for sharing news quickly and photos without clogging up everyone's emails and computer disk space.

So let's start blogging!