NaNoWriMo?

 It barely happened this year for so many reasons outside my control. I'm forgiving myself, though - it really was just impossible - and I'm thinking about giving myself some time over summer when I can try to do some serious work. I factor in a space where I can study uninterrupted daily so why not make a similar space for writing? Since this time of year I'm usually awake at around 5:00 AM instead of turning over and going back to sleep for an hour - never very successful because I only doze fitfully  from then on - I might as well get up, make myself a decent mug of coffee then sit down and write, mightn't I.  I'll let you know how this works out. 

I can see one problem with this plan, though. I've always liked my afternoon nap - I truly should have been born into a society where the siesta was mandatory. Even in the days when I went out to work I'd find somewhere private where I could have a doze of twenty minutes or so during my lunch break (this was back in the day when a lunch hour was actually an hour). I can see I'm going to have to make sure a short nap doesn't morph into a long sleep but that shouldn't be impossible.

While getting actual words down did not go as I'd planned during NaNoWriMo I did do some thinking about the story line. There's always been a section in the middle of this novel where I just couldn't seem to get things to work - and now I know why.  This means I can fill in this blank space - at the moment marked by place holder chapter headings - and move the story on so it links with the next part - which is already written. I always knew this would be three novels but I hadn't planned how or where each of the successive novels should end  - or begin for that matter. Now I've worked it out - and I have to say it's something of a relief. 

So there you go - NaNoWri-Mo may not have worked as it's supposed to but now I can move forward and I'm really looking forward to doing just that.

Wildlife Seen in My Garden

The wildlife has been really been busy around our yard over the last two days. Well, it is still the Nyoongar season of Kambarang - the season of birth - although we'll soon be into Birak - Summer in the European calendar.

1. There's a very amorous froggie in the frog pond. He's a motorbike frog  - Litoria moorei - and has a been calling most of the day and night in hopes of attracting a mate. You can see and hear what he sounds like here http://museum.wa.gov.au/explore/frogwatch/frogs/motorbike-frog

2. There are frogs everywhere at the moment. I went outside the other evening and when I came back there was an adolescent frog settled high up on the glass door into the family room. When I say settled I mean it. Convincing it to move so I could open the door was not easy.

3. And in yet another froggie tale my cat has been waking me at night banging on my bedroom window for several nights. Last night he started doing it before I went to bed and when I shone a light onto the window ledge there was a large frog completely ignoring the knocking much to Mr Puss's frustration.

4. It's not only frogs appearing in the garden. Yesterday I went out early to check my seedlings not paying much attention to anything except the task in hand. I looked up as I reached the clothesline which is just above head height and came face to face with a kookaburra which was focussed on the frog pond in front of it. I don't know who was most startled but it had no intention of moving until I spun the line around. Kookaburras are widespread here but they are actually feral having been introduced from the east coast over a century ago.

5. We know summer is close once the bobtails (their proper name is Tiliqua rugosa and they are also sometimes called stumpy tailed lizards) appear and when Pisces went out yesterday afternoon one was sunning itself on the driveway near the front door. We've had several living in our garden for as long as we've lived here. They mate for life and are live bearers. Since they can live as long as fifty years they are likely to be the same one who moved in when we did.

6. Flocks of several species of honeyeaters and wattlebirds are taking advantage of the birdbath outside my study windows. They are quite a distraction as is the resident willy wagtail and all are remarkably unfazed by my presence when I'm working in the garden.

 

Decluttering - Onwards and Upwards

 For the past far too long as you might remember I've been working on decluttering the house. It's been pretty stop start due to all sorts of things but mostly health problems. When it's not Pisces producing yet another obscure health oddity it's me - although to be honest he's way ahead of me these days. I'm making some progress on the house but while the pile of donate or recycle in the hall is more than half gone I have yet to deal with a biggie - the outdated computers and their accessories. They're still here unfortunately although the bulk of the dead phones and other obsolete electronics left the house ages ago.

Over the years that I've had computers (which I have to say is a very long time now) quite a number have passed through my hands. Some - the old desktops which I gave up using around twenty years ago - long ago died and went off to PC heaven but that hasn't been the case with several ancient laptops - and these are old, very old. They have been stored away and all but forgotten until now - mainly because I had no idea how to get rid of them. It all seemed too hard and much simpler to shove them in the back of a cupboard and forget about them. 

Now, though, it's time for them to go. I've found a charity that refurbishes computers and donates them to those in need and, as they also take old devices for parts, I'm hoping they have a use for these relics. Somewhat to my surprise, despite their age and neglect, they still work although their software and operating systems are many years out of date and their batteries - well, let's just say they're no longer fit for purpose. When I checked it turns out I was more efficient than I thought back in the day and had backed everything up. So that's a start and most of the clean up of the laptops is done but there is still a mini device from the days before tablets came in which I doubt will be of use to anyone. It, too, will have to be checked out and restored to pristine factory status before I can rid myself of it.

 It's all been very time consuming and I wish I'd done it long ago. Yes, I know that would have been the sensible thing to do but there you go. You do what you do - or don't do - and live with the consequences. Oh well, at least once they're gone there'll be one less thing to do, won’t there.

The Importance Of Remembrance

 I've been thinking about this a lot since Remembrance Day on November 11. Pisces and I always make the effort to mark the day by standing for the one minute's silence at 11:00 AM (We do the same for ANZAC Day). It's not hard to remember to do this on either day because the build up is covered widely in the media. On television and radio and in print and on social media there is extensive coverage and of course there are the poppies being distributed at shopping centres. Honestly you'd have to be completely oblivious to miss it - and yet, it seems some folk are.

I got to thinking about this specifically because just at the end of the minute's silence this year - when Pisces and I had both stopped what we were doing - the phone rang. I was somewhat shocked but answered it because the strident noise broke my concentration - it's hard to focus when a loud noise is screaming at you (our phone is set to the highest tone because Pisces is somewhat deaf). The person on the other end wanted to arrange a medical appointment for Pisces and was somewhat shocked when I pointed out that we were trying observe the one minute of silence. 

It's not the first time this sort of interruption has happened but it is the first time I've made it clear this is inappropriate. If the traffic in the city can be brought to a halt for a couple of minutes while buglers play and people stop to remember the horrors of war (in the city centre all traffic lights are turned to red so this can happen) why can't businesses of all sorts do the same unless there is a safety issue? I'm always appalled that our local shopping centre doesn't at the least announce the time and play the bugle calls over the public address system. It has never happened in my experience. 

The thing is the whole event takes only about three minutes and truth be told, however busy our lives are, we can spare that amount of time. These ceremonies are important because while we've heard the old adage about those who don't know their history being bound to repeat the mistakes of the past we need to be reminded of that. This is a way to allow us to reflect on our nation's past, a way for us to remember the waste of lives that war brings and just maybe we might remember that and avoid being rushed into a similar war in the future.

In memory of John Ellis, Robert Ellis and Horace King.

Remembrance Day 2020

Lest we forget 

Cactus Flowers

 Look what I found when I went out to water the potted cactus this morning. Cactus flowers!

Aren't they lovely? These are some of the smaller ones about the size of my spread out hand but there were a couple of others that I couldn't reach to photograph. One is a huge - about half as big again as these - and a glorious creamy white and the other - also huge - is a rich, deep cerise in the centre shading to purplish at the edges. 

I've been growing these for many years and most of the time they are fairly messy, nondescript and frankly look very uninteresting but then they produce these stunning blooms. Unlike the cacti that only open for a short time at night these open during the day and stay open for a day or so. It's a lovely gift for a gardener.

Printer Blues

About a week ago I went to print something from my computer, something I do frequently, and received an error message. The printer driver for my HP printer that I've been using for the past five years had suddenly become malware according to my Mac and if I used it I risked damaging my device. It gave the option of ignoring the message so I tried to go on with my printing only to find it was impossible. I did the usual stuff - turned the computer and printer off and restarted it, ran a malware scan - then tried again. No luck. So I went to HP support. No mention of a problem. Hmmm. Then I tried Apple Support. Same result. Hmmmmm.

Then, somewhat belatedly, I thought of seeing if there was a wider problem than my little set up. Turns out owners of HP printers and Macs everywhere were having a similar problem and while for me it was an inconvenience - I just needed to print out some household receipts  - for business owners it was proving much, much worse. As we wrestled with the problem - various work arounds were suggested but most were only partly, if at all, effective - the news slowly filtered through that there had been a miscommunication between Apple and HP resulting in "certificates" - and I have no idea what that means - being revoked with the upgrade to the Catalina operating system meaning the printers were out of commission until that could be sorted. HP were very sorry but it was all okay, though, because we could use the Air Print facility of our Macs until it was sorted. Simple.

Except it wasn't. My printer is about seven years old and originally belonged to my Dad. It does not recognise Air Print and there were many other printer owners with the same problem - a perfectly functional printer we couldn't use. 

I gave it a few days assuming it would be quickly sorted. It wasn't, though, so, given the age of my printer, I decided it might be wise to buy a more up to date one and off we toddled to the shops with a list of Air Print ready printers in hand. I settled on one, brought it home and yesterday went to work to set it up. 

The instructions were very clear and I worked my way through the set up fairly quickly. When I tried a test run was when things started to go awry. I got a succession of different error messages - these ranged from a paper jam - nope, no paper available - there was plenty, the ink cartridges were installed incorrectly - they weren't - and the messages, none seemingly related, just kept on and on. I went to the company support page which was useless, reread the user manual - I was doing everything as I should, and even posed the question to the internet but got nothing useful back. By now it was three hours from when I'd begun and the migraine I'd had niggling at the beginning was a full blown attack. Life was not fun and I started to think I had a dud device. 

In desperation I ran through the settings once more - and discovered the paper size had for some unknown reason reverted from A4 to US letter. I changed it back, tried another test and it worked. It's still working today although I confess I've been checking the paper size setting every time I've used it and my fingers are firmly crossed that it was the only problem.