Images of a Sunday in February

Ms 11 likes her cereal. One packet doesn’t last that long when, every day, she fills
her bowl like this.  No idea where she puts it either…

“Legs Eleven” would be an appropriate moniker for her…

Anyway.. back to today…

The heavens opened during the night (loud enough to wake us up) – and once again I have this fabulous water feature in my garden. Under the clothesline. (Jamie Durie, eat your heart out.)

Hanging out the clothes in gumboots – ankle deep in water…   reckon it could catch on?

Very remiss of me, but I neglected to take a photo of any more of our reverse gardening exploits. We took yesterday’s load to the tip, then hacked into it for most of the rest of the day, and just made it with another load before tip closing time at 4pm.  The rain stayed away till one downpour mid-afternoon.  Little wonder it keeps building up – it has been INSANELY humid. All day I was unsure whether the tickling sensation on my neck or back was rivulets of sweat, or ants and bugs jumping ship from the vegetation I was man-handling around. (Either/or, it was.)

My t-rusty dryer is also now fixed – so it’s getting a bit of a workout tonight.

And after my workout today, I’m looking forward to bed.

Weekend warriors…

It’s been crazy humid – and the forecast showers persist.  Some of the washing I put out on Wednesday dried. I left the rest out. Some more dried, in between showers, on Thursday. I left the rest out till it all dried yesterday.

Which is lucky, because nothing’s happened in the dryer-fixing department yet.

I know, I know… it’s a bit old, and rusty, and so last century. But.. Linda… I like it!  And I don’t like tumble dryers!  So I continue to hope that Himself can keep tinkering with this ad infinitum (like Missy Boo’s friend!)  Despite hearing about a few more in existence, I think second hand ones are probably a bit hard to come by!

Instead of fixing appliances, today we’ve been doing a bit of gardening. More accurately, ‘reverse gardening’:

Apart from the fact that this… scrub .. will have to make way for the proposed double garage, it’s bloody awful anyway. The previous owners who planted all this stuff were crazy people, seriously… the ghastly stuff they planted.. and the amount of it on this small block. Insanity.  What’s more insane is that it’s taken us more than 10 years to get around to hacking into it.

Well, that’s the first trailer load – of a few planned for this weekend.  We were interrupted by a couple of hours of rain (so missed closing time at the tip) – and we’ve got enough cut down and waiting to make up another load at least as high.  When I say ‘we’, I mainly mean ‘he’. I was only wielding the secateurs (as opposed to the bush saw)  – and stacking the trailer till it got too high for me to reach. But I still sweated bucket loads – and I’ve got blisters.

The weather may save my poor widdle hand tomorrow, as it’s been raining pretty steadily since about 5.00 this afternoon – and the forecast ain’t looking good for tomorrow. ‘Good’ being a somewhat subjective term, I know – if I could send the damn stuff west, I would!

Maybe I’ll get the dryer fixed after all.

Days of our lives

Who wants some rain? Will you come and take it then? We really, really don’t need it, we’ve had more than our fair share, and other parts of the country are desperate for it.  We’ve had showers the past two days – and that ^up there is what is forecast for the forseeable future as well.  I suppose Saturday and Sunday might be ok, but in the meantime my immediate reaction is a groan, because I’ve got a backload of washing that I’d like to get dry!

I suppose that sounds weird to many people around the globe – those who aren’t blessed with a drying climate like ours, where hanging the washing out in the backyard (on the Hills Hoist – as Linda rightly pointed out when commenting on my last post) isn’t the norm like it is here. (Although I know that the benefits of drying outdoors is being increasingly lost to the expedience of tumble drying.)

This photo (obviously, as I’m whingeing about not being able to use my clothesline), is not from today. I don’t actually make a habit of taking photos of my clothes on the line – this one is from 3 years ago.  Right now, it’s just what I’m daydreaming of..   How sad is that?

See, me – I don’t have a tumble dryer. (What was that sound? – a collective *gasp*?)  It’s ok, fellow housewives. All is not lost. I do have a dryer – however one that is something of a novelty – a rarity, in fact, because I’ve never met anyone, other than Himself’s parents, who have one.

It’s a cabinet dryer – basically a fridge size cabinet with racks that blows hot air out the bottom. I like it because it doesn’t shrink clothes like tumble dryers can do.  You can put wet shoes in it. I like my cabinet dryer. Fickle as the damn thing is…

It’s .. old. And Himself has to keep ‘encouraging’ it to work. When it doesn’t get used for a while, the fan at the bottom seizes up. And there’s also some sort of dodgy connection with the electrics.   Both of these issues can often be overcome with the application of a Technician’s Tap – and being the wife of a technician, I’ve acquired a certain skill in that department. (Quite proud of that, I am…)

Alas, today, after a run of fine weather, El Dryer has seized up and is not cooperating, and no amount of technicians tapping on my part will do the trick. Which will mean getting Himself to attend to it tonight. Which will mean ‘clearing the runway’ in the laundry, and manoevering (sp?)  the thing out so he can work on it. Which of course is tiresome.  And it would all just be so much easier if these stupid “showers” would go away! (And stop tormenting me with interludes of sunshine in between heavy downpours!)

ANYWAY…

… a couple of hours later, with sunshine and blue sky teasing me, I’ve got a line full of washing, fingers crossed, one eye on the weather bureau radar, and a blog post full of drivel.

… I even took a photo of my very ‘novel’ dryer, but the camera battery has gone flat and is presently sitting on charge.

… I was working up to a very neat segue about the laundry and kitchen plans for our renovations – and the issues I’ve had with the first kitchen company that we were sent to (highlighted by the barely concealed disdain for my individual preferences – particularly when it came to my dryer) but I will put everyone out of their misery for now and leave that for another day. I’m sure there is other housewifely stuff I could be doing other than debating laundry drying dilemmas.

Reflections…

You know, I’ve sat here so many times over the last couple of days, reflecting on what trivia from the past week or so is worth blogging about. It’s hard to play blogging catch up sometimes.

Needless to say, I’ve not come up with anything remotely meaningful. Too much in my head. And too little.

And (sorry Linda) but today’s no exception (and I have a school swimming carnival to go to tomorrow…)

So in the meantime, I’m going to play along with Bush Babe.

Bush Babe takes the most extraordinary photos – and in her last post – wittily entitled Eye-Max Theatre, she has the most amazing images. Just. Amazing.

And because, apart from being an awesome photographer, she’s also very cool – and she’s put out the challenge to check out our own photo archives, and to find some reflections to share.

Have YOU seen any freaky, fabulous reflections in your world lately?

I bet you have – if you disagree, look again!

(Think: rear-view mirrors, the still water of a lake or puddle, the tinted window of your car…)

If you are inspired to post a reflected image at your blog, I will put a link up here at the bottom of this post to share… come on… play with me!

OK, Bush Babe. I’ll play!

I know I haven’t got anything remotely of the quality she has posted. And I haven’t got a horse, for those big, beautiful eyes.  And I haven’t got an SLR camera.  (Or the talent to go behind one.) But I’ve got a daughter who started taking arty-ish photos after doing a photography unit at school (and as I trawled through our photo archives I can tell what year it was because of the sudden proliferation of photos taken at all sorts of interesting angles.) And needless to say, there were a few reflections among them. So, I’d like to share:

So, with the lack of equine lenses in our general environs, we have to make do with sunnies. Ms 16  takes a lot of reflective photos when we’re out bike riding and all wearing sunglasses.

This one is quite possibly a self portrait – these teenagers these days tend to do a bit of that sort of photography. Especially when you’re bored in the car. (Checkout any myspace or facebook account…)  Ahem, and they’re either my bike glasses, or her father’s old ones.

Backyards and rain provide some opportunities too:

On my travels through all my photo folders, I’ve also got some shots (that I took) that I’m quite chuffed about – from a houseboat holiday on Myall Lakes a few years ago.  And a few lucky shots at the beach. But I might leave them for next time we play Reflections.

There was movement at the station…

Well, I’ve managed a new photo up top there. That’s something, isn’t it?

Slothing kids on summer school holidays, and Australian Open tennis on one’s still-a-novelty widescreen telly aren’t conducive to much in the way of writing action.

The good news is that school holidays are over! They’re back at school (two yesterday, one today). Which means that pretty soon I’ll regain my headspace! Mind you after a 5km walk this morning, there wasn’t much action of any sort around here. Except that I got my bike out and rode 5km (to pick up the car I’d dropped off earlier at the mechanic’s).. and that I started back at my Friday night swim squad.

Otherwise- I’m such a procrastinator!

Weekend tomorrow, then business as usual from Monday. Which may or may not result in more frequent blogging!

Beached as…

A lazy summer school holiday Saturday.  A sleep-in. And some family beach time. Twice in one day! (Actually three times for Ms 16 and Ms 11 – amazingly Herself stayed up after her early paper run (yes, more often than not she goes back to bed at 7.30!) and took her little sister down for a swim before breakfast.

It’s only in the past four years or so that I have finally learnt the knack of body surfing. We’ve lived here, only a few hundred metres from the beach, for 12 years now, but it’s only been the last few years, after so many spent taking turns to mind children, that I’ve been able to get some  tuition from the master (ie. time out in the surf with my bodysurfing husband.)

These days we all hang out together ‘out the back’. Well, four of us head out there – Ms 14 with her boogie board, and the rest of us eschewing the use of equipment. And we catch waves. The Daddy rides them in, usually till his toes are scraping the sand. Then he brings Ms 11 out with her boogie board. He shoots her off on a wave, then catches one himself. (If he times it right, and the waves are the right sort, he can sometimes ride the same wave as her.)

Rinse, lather, repeat.

And grin at each other like dopes each time we stop, and stand up out of the wash, exhilarated. (NB. When doing this without rash shirt (like at 7.00 late this arvo), I have to make sure ‘everything’ is tucked back into my swimmers before standing up.)

I still can’t ride them in as far as him (he makes me laugh with how ridiculously far he can go), but I’m doing pretty well for an old girl who didn’t really take it up until in my 40s.  It’s got to be good exercise too – with all that wading/swimming/diving under waves to get back out. (That’s what I keep telling myself – and after a couple of hours worth of doing that today, I don’t think I’ll have any trouble getting to sleep tonight.)

Each time today I called it quits before the rest of them. I usually do. They probably think it’s lack of stamina. But I like my quiet time where I stand there, soaking it all up. One of those moments where you couldn’t pay me to live anywhere else in the world.

Our canyoning trips.

Canyoning is something that M. introduced me to many many years ago now. He’d done quite a few before I came on the scene. After that, he didn’t get to do many without me, as I was totally hooked.

Just to refer back to some definitions/descriptions I posted once before:

A wikipedia definition

Some photos of our past canyoning trips…

The one we did two years ago – Bells Creek

The website of one of Australia’s canyoning ‘gurus’

Back in the old days we’d spend many a summer weekend up in the mountains going canyoning. (It was pretty handy that M’s parents had a holiday house up there…) We’d often do one on each day – something that I and my ageing body can only look back on wistfully now…

Januaryitis

I get it every year, albeit, each time, a slightly different mutation of the post-Christmess, summer school holiday ‘blahness’ that sets in once Himself is back at work and I’m at home for a couple of weeks with the slothing, holidaying children.

The symptoms vary, but usually always involve feeling slothful oneself, and at the same time feeling guilty for not “achieving” much in the day – perhaps to the extent of still being in bed when one’s beloved breadwinner is off at the office.  (I did manage to get myself up today before he left. So guilt symptoms a little less today.)  Mind you, most days I’d happily trade places – and let him deal with the blandness of school holidays at home. Things like getting-ready-to-go-to-the-shops clothing issues that I went through yesterday. (Strangely enough when I tried to relate to him the 11 yr olds crop top/bralette/strappy top issue of the morning, he really didn’t want to know.)

January 2010 has, so far, given us a few minor challenges and inconveniences.

Ahhh, home sweet home…

Home, where my computer is not working, the washing machine has chucked a wobbly – stopping when it comes to pump-out-the-water-time, thus leaving me with a backlog of laundry, and the furniture company has decided it needs to take our table top today or tomorrow (for fixing of  a dodgy joint). Right while Ms 16 has two friends staying from out of town! Handy timing that…

But! We had a good week away. The main purpose of our trip was to go canyoning, and that we did. (One day with friends + kids who we hadn’t seen in some time, and one with just the five of us.)

We also saw (and stayed with) various relatives either side of our stay in the Blue Mountains, so we can sign off on the seasonal family obligations, even if, apparently, my mother is a bit miffed that this time we stayed with my sister. (Shocking, that…)

Plus we had a BBQ with a couple of M’s old school friends.  (and families), who we hadn’t seen in a few years either.

In the middle of summer we had a couple of foggy, misty days where we were rugged up in polar fleece tops (and I confess to even turning the heater on one night!) The following day, of course, we were sweating profusely as we trekked down the bush track into the canyon. That’s Australia for you. A land of climatic contrasts, no matter what time of the year.

Christmess.

Blogging kind of took a back seat over Christmas preparations round here, even though we had a stay-at-home, just-us-5  pretty stress-free day. [OK, what really happened is that I used up all the words in my head trying to finish up our yearly online 'newsletter' !!]

I’m also working on downsizing the stress involved every year, but I still have some work to do in that department.

In the lead up to Christmas, till now…