Leave the Rubbish on the Side of the Road

A lesson to be learnt today. My dear lovely slightly older than us neighbours are extremely generous in not only sharing their time, thoughts, and their home grown produce but apparently their hard rubbish pick ups.  I do think however, that after this little incident they may not be quite so helpful or caring.

I was visiting our daughter who only lives in the town nearby when my neighbour came knocking at the door.  In her hand she had an ice cream container with what looked like compost in it.  She was quite excited because they had found some bags of it on the side of the road when they went for their morning walk, and thought maybe a truck had dropped its load  going around the corner.  So she and her husband had collected it all ready to throw around their garden with gay abandon

She was a little curious however, about the brown beads mixed in with the soil and asked me what I thought they were.  She thought maybe they were seeds of some type and they didn't want to use it on their garden in case something grew.!!! I asked her what she had done with them to which she answer, "oh we left one in your driveway in case you wanted it."  Beeuoooouuuutiful!!

I explained that they would have been dumped because people had been growing 'plants' and obviously needed to get rid of the bags quickly. To her puzzled look I told her that they were the remnants of hydroponic marijuana plants and that she now had 3 bags in her possession and apparently we had one!..

When I came home there it was in the middle of the driveway for all to see, including the coppers raiding the house on the next road!  So whilst imagining myself trying to explain to the Police that the bag was a gift from the well meaning pensioners down the road, I dragged it out of site.  when I opened it, sure enough there was the main stalk of what must have been a reasonably healthy plant for all to see.  So I'm not sure how we are going to dispose of it but at least we only have 1 to get rid of whereas Bonnie and Clyde down the road have 3!!! Let this be a lesson to all of you, if it smells like compost and its in a black bag dumped on the side of the road, DON'T PICK IT UP AND GIVE IT TO YOUR NEIGHBOURS!!!!!!

Winter in Full Flight

It's 4.21 on Thursday and the temperature is 4.0C with the wind chill factor taking it down to -1.4c. Literally freezing!!  I've had the wood fire going all day so the house is toasty warm and I know a lot of people are fed up with winter but I have to say on days like this when I'm inside and cosy I love it!  We're in for a bit of a battering apparently with thunderstorms etc and we've had lots of rain and some  hail but it is winter and this is what you get up in the hills.

I've had my lovely friend Sharon over today and we sat by the fire at the kitchen table drinking champers and having lovely freshly made cream of spinach soup, from the garden of yours truly and having a good old chat and a laugh. She's always good company (and I'm not saying that just because she might read this!).  I'm very lucky to have good friends, not many mind you.  As we said today I wouldn't have to hire a hall for a party, but the friends I've got I know I can rely on and vice-versa.

 I've had a bit of a lazy day today so I'll probably force myself to do some ironing, yes I iron.... I know boring... just so I don't get a fit of the guilts, then the only thing left to do is lock up the chooks who are probably all frozen anyway, and get back up by the fire.  Himself is stuck away at work at the moment but will be home tomorrow, so looking forward to seeing him.  I must admit though I don't mind having the telly to myself or being able to potter around in the house til all hours without disturbing anyone.

Just reading what I've put down and realised that "I've got to get a life!!!".  But I'm actually not sure what to do to be honest. I've always been reasonably contented being a domestic goddess and have pretty much gone to work in the past because I had to.  I'm not overly creative, or a gourmet cook, hopeless at sewing at knitting, I'm still working on a jumper for himself from 2001!  The beannie I'm knitting for the baby won't be ready til she's about 12 so I'm really at a loss as to what to do when I grow up.  I do sometimes wonder whether I would be doing something for me or because these days it's all the done thing.  It almost seems a bit of a crime to be at home and be reasonably contented.  I've never been a career type of person and I envy these women who climb the ladder and seem able to raise a family, sit on numerous boards, are qualified lawyers and manage to do 10 hours of exercise a week and look sensational.  Sometimes my biggest challenge is putting my knickers on the right way round!! In my defence I would like to think that I'm a good wife and mother and grandmother AND friend and I guess if that's the best I can do then that's not so bad.

Well on that note I shall finish this little bit of self-indulgence and go do something constructive! Not sure what but will figure it out as I go.

I'm Back!!

It doesn't feel like a couple of weeks since my last blog but it is and so much has happened!  Where do I start?

Our Display before the dust storm!

Firstly,  I went over to Cleve on the Eyre Peninsula for the Cleve Field Days with Bronwyn from Spice Girlz, to help set up and introduce her products over there.  Well that was an experience in itself.  Met some lovely people and really felt like I was in good old Aussie farming country I can tell you.  The accommodation left a little to be desired so let's just say it was less than adequate and quite a disappointment but the lovely people of Cleve and surrounding areas made up for it.  

Just to give you some idea of the situation,  standing in the toilet block of the caravan park, I watched my life flash before me.You know things aren't well maintained when you put your bathroom bag on the sink and watch as the sink slowly starts to break away from the wall and believe me my bathroom bag is not that heavy!.  The tiled mirrors on the wall were rather unique though.  They were spaced diagonally so that you either had to be 3'2" or 6'5" of which I'm neither so it was a real trick to stand in  an inch of water, we had no idea where that was coming from, drying my hair  and praying that Firstly I wouldn't get electrocuted and that Secndly my chiro would be able to remove the hump from my back from hunching down to see in the lowest mirror.  I think the first day I look like a drag queen when I first walked out fully made up! Lighting wasn't great either!  Poor Bronwyn had it worse though because one morning she was a little late in getting into the showers  and had to take the 2nd one.  Big Mistake ... Huge!  All the water and any other debris from the first shower ran straight into hers and over her feet so what disgusting habit the person had in the first shower she copped!! Ewwwwww!!! 

 I knew from the start that they really weren't up to scratch when I tried to get out of the toilet the first time and found the door wedged in my belly. I sucked in that hard it made my spine hurt but managed to squeeze out. It did make me feel a little less whale like when Bron, who is all of 45kg dripping wet, got stuck as well.  I thought I did rather well to escape after that. 

Then of course was the night time entertainment provided by  the dulcet tones of a few blokes who had been imbibing  in the amber liquid, one of whom thought he was "Kevin Bloody Wilson"   I don't think you could put a cigarette paper between the f..ing and c..ing in his sentences, but there he was every night fixing the Government's problems from the inside of his truck which of course amplified things.  I was sorely tempted to go over on the 2nd night and say ..

"why don't you f..ing shut your f..ing mouth you ugly little c..t of a thing and stop pulling your tiny d..k so that the rest of us can get some f...ing sleep!!'        However, thought better of it and left him to it!!

We didn't do too badly at the field days , could have been better but that's OK we tried,  packed up on the Thursday night and hightailed it back to 'The hill" early Friday morning.  8 hours later and  pretty knackered we got home. Yay!!

Himself had the fire going the house all vacuumed and the place looking beautiful so it was even better to get back too.  Caught up with some friends on the Saturday , had a couple of drinks and was very proud not to have a hangover on Sunday morning when I went to the Meadows Market with daughter and grand-daughters.  Bloody freezing too, but managed to do some gardening in the afternoon so whilst the place is a bit of a quagmire if all the flowers come up, it will be a pretty quagmire!!!!

The rest of the week was spent just doing the usual housework, washing, ironing, telling my home I love it and I'm never going away again (and himself of course) and just plain revelling in being here. 

OMG it's Tuesday already!

How slack am I.  Here is it Tuesday and I have hardly written anything.  Of course that's not to say that nothing's happened. Sunday, whilst Himself was still in a fairly malleable condition (after the previous Friday nights effort) I managed to get him to take me shopping - just because I could.  So we started off getting some pieces from Big W and I had a fit of the guilts because I bought myself a couple of shirts.  So now he is the proud owner of approximately 25 pairs of socks and yet another 'dollar' shirt, which now makes 10.. so called because that's all they used to cost, now they're up to about $7.  Then whilst he had his customary coffee thick shake and hot dog off I went to Price Line just to top up my overflowing makeup bag, ( I do love the stuff) but I was fairly controlled this time. Just a lipstick (to go with the 30 I have) and an eyebrow pencil which I realised was way too light after I almost dug a trench trying to create eyebrows where there are minimal. By the way a question to the masses - as you grow older why do hairs disappear from some parts of your body only to resurface elsewhere?? And why do eyebrows become thinner but the hairs that are left actually start growing up towards your hairline like some obscene face comb over?? Anyway again I digress........

After that it was the dash into Foodland to do the shopping which I have to say was OK because there really  wasn't that many people being Sunday.  So there I am trying to makeup my mind about the chicken - kiev, cordon bleu, shaslicks, breast, thigh, maryland, drumsticks, wings etc (who knew chickens had so many pieces!)  when this shadow looms up next to and I swing around thinking some idiot's trying to steal my bag and there's Himself already to help.  I do get amazed however when he wheels the trolley down the aisle and I suddenly look around to find him gone and me loaded up like a forklift with nowhere to drop the stuff.  So then I have to walk back the way I've come to find him looking at something on the shelves that he thinks he may like, but after all these years I know he won't just so I can dump all the goodies in the  basket and trot off for the next load. Even better is when I look around to see the grandfather of our childrens' children scooting down the aisle on the back of the trolley!   Now, nearly 3 decades ago it looked cute, unfortunately now it looks like he should have a little orange flag up on the back of the cart.

Anyway after another stressful 20 minutes of trying to decide which cheese to get,  out of the 300 available, all is complete and we can go home.  Ah bliss!!  On the way we pop into some friends house and have a cuppa followed by a couple of heart starters (scotch for me beer for him) just to ward off the winter chills whilst looking out over one of the most magnificent views I've seen. Truly stunning and makes me very grateful that we all live where we do. Then off to quickly catch up with the daughter and son-in-law and babies to see the weekend gardening effort, excellent!!!! .. followed by a frantic 3/4 of hour in which we unpack the shopping, get the fire going, organise tea, lock the chooks up feed the dog and cat, make his lunch for next day, get clothes organised and collapse into the chairs and relax. Thank God for Scotch and Bourbon I say!!!!

Now this might be a long ramble because I'm going to fit it all in!  Monday morning comes around after our usual Sunday night restless sleep.  Both of us turning over and over like chooks on a rotisserie.  Happens every week not sure why.  He's off to work at some ungodly hour of the morning, freezing cold but I spring out of bed with my 'To do' list firmly entrenched in my brain:

1. Drop dog off at daughters place (she's been away )
2. Go to Accountants - who shatters me by saying we probably won't get much back ..povo again!
3. Go to my brothers for coffee
4. Take the beautiful coffee machine we got for Christmas to get repaired only to find that the kids got gipped and bought a lemon which no-one can repair.  Made in China ! Who knew!!!
5. Pick daughter up from airport - she arrives early luckily so do I
6. Pick other dog up from her in-laws
7. Go to her local shop to stock up on some food staples
8. Drop her at her place, have some lunch and then go home
9. Organise all the washing, clean the bathrooms, cook tea
10. 8.30 bed!  Why because we can!!

Tuesday up at sparrows fart only 3 deg!!!!  Banana muffins and a cake in the oven by 8'oclock, then stand and defrost under a boiling shower, down to the local hairdressers where I get coffee and a biscuit and a natter with the lovely Alyce and come out looking fairly spectacular compared to how I walked in.  I don't do skanky hair, sounds pompous I know but it's just not me.  Call in at the daughters place for a cuddle with the littlest granddaughter whilst the bigger one is at school then hightail it home which takes me all of 6 minutes to get the fire going and warm the place up as I have a dear friend coming for a cuppa.  

Later in the afternoon I have a conversation with another friend and we ponder the question - why are some people just downright mean, nasty, spiteful bitches and do they ever get their 'come uppance'.  I can understand people not getting on that's a given because we're all different but to go out of your way just to deliberately hurt someone...I guess that's life which is a bit sad really.


Tea organised and house reasonably cosy when Himself comes home. In for a fairly ordinary night, until the Brains Trust , that would be me, decides that we might  play the Wii game I got for my birthday.  Now let me explain something.  I'm a pretty ordinary person, I don't particularly like having to hurt anything UNLESS I think my family's under threat. Which is how there came to be a couple of snakes forcibly removed from around the house over the last couple of summers because They were a threat to our granddaughter.  But I didn't think I came across as some tobacco chewing, one single tooth redneck that likes to shoot things.

 However my birthday present, I secretly think chosen by my son-in-law, with ulterior motives in mind, was Deer Hunt.  Well, as loathe as I was to try it and it is just a cartoon thing, we set it up last night amidst much swearing because the instructions were in foreign languages with very few picture instructions which makes it a little difficult to put together.  However we did and eventually had a go.  I had to keep telling myself it was just a cartoon but at times a little too realistic and when I accidently shot Bambis' mother I allowed myself to be disembowelled by the bear as compensation.  But you know it was quite good fun and certainly good for the old hand /eye co-ordination.

So there you go, this week I've managed to shop, drop, pick-up, have a cup, do the tax, clean to the max, dye my hair, have a care, do some baking and lots of bed making, love those near and shoot some deer!!!!

And now it's Wednesday!!!!