Merry Christmas

and a happy New Year to all.

I'm usually not much of a fan of the Mariah Carey song All I Want For Christmas is You but I did enjoy this a capella version by Out of the Blue.  It was originally released as a charity fundraiser and is still available for download.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The New Year is Coming

and it can't be soon enough for us because 2017 has been one health problem after another. Starting with my continuing illness, which started after my hospitalisation at the end of last year and from which I'm still not fully recovered, nothing has gone as we planned. Granted these days I usually manage to stay up until around 5:30 PM with an afternoon rest of only one and a half hours (in the early stages I was collapsing by 10:00AM and the time I can stay up has slowly increased over the year) but I still struggle to do much and my - our - social life has suffered greatly as a result. I'm not the only one with health challenges, either. Pisces still has his own problems to deal and while he is beginning to feel better, he still has quite a way to go.

Then, just after we sat down on Monday and planned out how to catch up on many of the things that have had to be put on hold (because neither of us have been capable of doing much beyond surviving) disaster hit - again. A few weeks ago we bought a new oven - our old one had started belching out smoke a couple of months ago and there was only so long I was prepared to go without a functional oven - and yesterday the electrician came to install it.

Everything was going well - the oven was installed and working (not without one unpleasant surprise - the person who had installed the old oven had not done the job properly and it could have led to a serious fire so just as well it was being removed). There were a couple of other things we wanted fixed, too, and I climbed the step ladder to check out one of these. So far so good and I started climbing down. Then, as I reached for the last step, the electrician came in, I turned to speak to him, missed the step and hit the floor.

Now I have a broken bone in my foot and I'm wearing a cam boot for some weeks at least. This is heavy and awkward and I'm certainly not going to be able to do any of the many physical things that were a major part of our carefully worked out plans. It's enough to make you wonder what we've done to make the Universe have it in for us.

Small Amusements

1. I was talking to a friend who gets her grandchildren dressed and off to school a couple of mornings a week. Grandson (10) has been being generally obstructive but is finally fully dressed and in his room reading. His sister (7) is struggling. She can't find her school uniform t-shirt, only one of her brother's which is far too large. She goes off in tears to phone Mum who assures her she had put it out ready. Grandmother is trying to sort this out when she suddenly has a thought and goes to check on brother. He has on his sister's t-shirt and when told to take it off gets very mouthy. This grandmother is not one to take any nonsense and threatens she will take it off if he doesn't so he complies still having many words to say. They are running late by the time sister is dressed so grandmother says she'll drive them. Her patience is now exhausted so when grandson is dilly-dallying about getting in the car she tells him he can walk and leaves. (The school is just at the end of the street and they usually walk unless it's raining).

After school and the kids come home to get ready for grandmother to take them to swimming. Grandson comes in when he's changed his clothes and says, unwisely, 'I was almost late for school, Nan, and I was talking to my mates and we agree you were over the top making me walk.' Nan is so NOT impressed and relays this to his parents, who are equally unimpressed. Oddly enough grandson has not tried this again.

2. Then I was chatting to the sheep poo delivery man as you do and he was telling me about his ten year old son - do you see a pattern here? This time the boy is at school and does not want to do physical education for some reason. His excuse: 'See, miss, my dad has a bad back because of his work and I think I've got a bad back, too, so I shouldn't have to do exercises.' Didn't work out well for him either.

There's a Jitti-jitti in My Garden

Jitti-jitti - sometimes djiti-djiti or chitty-chitty - is the Noongar name for the Australian willy wagtail - the Noongars being the local indigenous people of south western Australia. I think it's a particularly appropriate name, too, given the way these endearing little birds chatter. Their common name of willy wagtails is because they spend a lot of of their time shaking their rumps with their tails fanned up, and as you might have guessed if you know anything about birds in Australia, they are related to the Australian fantails. They are cheeky and I've yet to find anything they are intimidated by. They take no nonsense from anyone or anything and will drive off much bigger birds without any sign of nerves. Around here they regularly take to the Australian ravens and kookaburras, both of which are much larger and can be aggressive.

For a long time willy wagtail numbers had plummeted but recently they have recovered and now they can often be seen and heard. The one who's chosen our garden as part of his hunting grounds - they catch flies, small moths and mosquitoes (the last in particular makes them very welcome as far as I'm concerned) - arrived a couple of weeks ago. He's very bold, sitting on the fence chittering at me while he waits for something suitable to eat to appear. Very handsome he looks, too, in his black and white tuxedo with his tail fanned up before he swoops and grabs whatever morsel he's seen in mid-air. He isn't the least bit bothered by my working in the garden and will fly down to grab a snack no more than a hands breadth away from me.

in local Aboriginal legend they are regarded as gossips but they figure in other stories in different parts of the country. In some places they are considered birds of ill omen though I have no idea why such a charming, little creature should have that reputation. To me they are very special little birds and I hope their resurgence continues.

If you're interested you can read more about them here. Oh and I tried to find a photo but turns out there aren't too many in the public domain and those that are were somewhat underwhelming.