Local Government Elections

 Coming home from an appointment on Thursday and seeing the vote catching signs up along the roadsides I remarked to Pisces that we hadn't got our ballot papers yet. Got home, looked in the letterbox and there they were.

Local Government elections are the only elections here that are not compulsory and many people don't bother to vote although everyone who is eligible gets sent their ballot papers. Since it's only a matter of reading the enclosed information about the candidates, deciding who to vote for then filling in the forms, putting them in the prepaid envelopes and sending them off I find this hard to understand. I suspect in part it's because these elections are local and many don't see that there's any point. 

Pisces and I don't agree. Who is voted in can have a major impact on our lives on a local level and we feel we should have a say in who represents us. We've both been interested in politics all our adult lives. It's how we met and, although we're no longer actively involved, we're still avid followers of what's going on in all levels of government - it's a rare day when we don't discuss politics - and consider our votes carefully. 

With that in mind we intend to sit down in the next few days and thoughtfully fill out our ballots. I hope that others do the same because the decisions our local councillors make will affect us for years to come.

Perth Has Gone Nuts

 Why, you might ask. Well, in these plague times some things have had to change - and one of these is the AFL Grand Final. For those of you from other parts of the world AFL is Australian Rules football or Aussie Rules and the state of Victoria claims it as its own despite it having always been equally popular elsewhere. For years the VFL (Victorian Football League), made up of the Victorian club teams, enticed away the best players from local teams in the other southern states where AFL is also very popular. As you can imagine this made for some considerable ill feeling. Eventually the VFL decided to expand the competition to include other states, changed its name to AFL and now there are AFL teams located in Western Australia and South Australia which had always had a healthy local competition as well as New South Wales and Queensland where rugby league is the dominant game. The AFL in Victoria still largely runs the competition which means, despite the teams from other states, they claim the Grand Final at the MCG every year and they've signed a contract that all Grand Finals will be held there until 2059.

I have to say this rankles, especially in Western Australia, where Aussie Rules has always been the dominant form of football. We now have two teams as part of the AFL and they are have a huge following although neither has reached the finals this season but even when one of these teams does come out on top of the ladder the Grand Final is still played in Victoria. Given the distance we are from that side of the continent this means that the majority of the fans don't get to see their team in a Grand Final causing much resentment. Speaking for myself - and having been to an MCG Grand Final some years ago - I actually think we're better off watching it on TV. What you lose in atmosphere you definitely gain in seeing the match but obviously not everyone agrees. 

Sadly in this pandemic year the whole of Victoria is in lockdown and COVID is rampant there. It's heart-breaking because they had been virus free for months after a lengthy lockdown last year until the virus made its way from NSW. I won't go into how this happened but it's not a pretty story and since Pisces and I both have family and friends in Victoria it's very distressing for us and many others. This left the AFL struggling to find a venue and Perth, which is currently COVID free and has a new state of the art sports stadium, was their only option.

Western Australia has embraced the event. The teams might not be local but many local footy fans have adopted one or the other. There are decorations, competitions, fans who have somehow acquired team merchandise holding finals parties all over and huge enthusiasm with free public transport included in the tickets meaning trains and buses have been crammed with excited fans. Knowing this is likely to be a once in a life time event for most West Australians they are determined to make the most of it and at least the telecast will allow all those folk stuck in lockdown elsewhere to see it.

With that, I'll say goodbye for now because the match has started and although I'm not as rabid a fan as Pisces it is the Grand Final.

A Wedding And A Funeral In A Pandemic

 Last night we went to a wedding. Well, sort of. 

A close family member moved to Canada just as COVID first showed up in China. She had met her now husband while they were travelling and spent some time visiting Canada and getting to know him and his family. They came here to catch up with her family then headed back to Canada where they moved in together. There were plans to come back at the end of last year for a visit and then, of course, everything changed. 

Rampant COVID world wide and the lock downs and hard borders made any prospect of travelling impossible but life and love goes on even in a pandemic and even if it's in a different form than we expect. They've acquired pets, bought a house, gotten engaged and now are married. The sad thing is that none of her family - parents, brother, aunts, uncles and cousins - or long time friends could be there. It was disappointing for all but they arranged a Facebook Live Stream. With the twelve hour time difference between Ontario and Western Australia we would normally have been just about ready for bed but we watched and wished them all happiness. I have to say that the Live Stream technology is not perfect as it kept shutting down and added to that we lost the internet several times. Fortunately this disruptions were not during the important parts of the actual ceremony.

It's been good that we had this happy event because in the last couple of weeks two close friends have passed away and we have so far attended the first funeral - well, not so much a funeral as a wake since he specified that he didn't want a funeral. It was sad and touching and we were able to spend time remembering a dear friend and neighbour but COVID touched this as well. Although Western Australia is presently COVID free so those of us who live here could gather one of his daughters and his grand daughter were stuck in lockdown in Victoria and couldn't come. 

We've been very lucky here - hard state borders aren't popular with the federal government or some other parts of the country, particularly NSW where most of the outbreaks in Australia have originated and a different approach might have been advantageous to all of us - but apart from the initial several months of lockdown last year here in Western Australia we've only had a couple of brief periods when an active case in the community had needed some intensive contact tracing. This has meant we can go about our lives pretty much as we always have but as you can see it doesn't mean we aren't affected by the pandemic. 

Many of us have family and friends in parts of the country already in lockdown and worry about them daily. Pisces and I both have family in lockdown interstate, several of them in hot spots, and that's before we even get to friends. With the situation as it is we're continually amazed that there have been demonstrations by anti-vaxers and others who, despite all the evidence, believe the pandemic is a hoax and demand that everything gets opened up. In the minds of these people all these sensible steps to ensure the safety of the population are trumped by a belief in myths and conspiracy theories. 

Pisces and I were vaccinated as soon as the vaccine became available partly because we belong to a group that is most at risk should we get this virus but also because we can see the danger of our health system being overwhelmed as has happened in other parts of the world if it should become rampant in the community. Yes, vaccination won't stop us getting the virus but it will make it much less likely that we'll end up in hospital or die of it and for us those are very good reasons for being vaccinated. The health mandated restrictions that our governments are imposing whether it's lockdowns, social distancing, requiring check ins at venues or that masks be worn are all under temporary orders. They will be lifted. Freedom is not being taken away - following these restrictions is part of being a member of a community and keeping the population safe. The saddest part is that these protestors are putting the rest of us at risk by their behaviour.  I only wish they could see that.

Cleaning Up

 - the garden that is. The local council does a green waste collection once a year and it's ours this week. The weather has been kind with a succession of sunny days so we've been working at getting as much of what isn't suitable to compost out the front. This is quite a challenge (aside from arthritic hands and general "spoon" shortages) because we have a battle axe block (we're in the corner of an "L" shaped roadway). This means most of our block frontage, which is very narrow, is taken up by our driveway and the small area that isn't has a power pole stuck in the middle. Our neighbour usually kindly lets us add to her pile but this time she doesn't have room - due in part to the recent Council tree planting in inappropriate places on the verge. The situation is compounded by the fact that we somehow have to get our ordinary rubbish bins out for collection and we've taken up most of the space we usually use for that. With some difficulty we have piled everything as far as we can from the power pole. Let's hope they use some commonsense and that we're among the first to have our pile removed. 

The good thing is that we have pruned everything that needed attention. Most of this is in the form of invaders from our neighbours. This is not the fault of our current neighbours - we're very good friends with them and they are battling these nasties as much as we are. The trouble is that back in the dim and distant past someone - several someones in fact since the problem comes from two of our five neighbours - inflicted some vigorous succulent creepers on us all. They are different and both are attractive but invasive. Unfortunately both also shoot from any leaf that's knocked off which wouldn't matter if this didn't happen frequently but as they're brittle every time they're so much as touched leaves fall and we invariably miss some. They also shoot prolifically from their roots - one is actually forcing the panels of the fence apart and cutting it back just encourages it to grow more. Sigh.

On a more positive note Virgo's husband, who called in with her and the children on Fathers Day, spent some time relining the lily pond which developed a leak a while ago when the back fence was replaced. Miss Five and I had spent some time cleaning it out a few weeks back but the rocks which hold the lining in place proved too heavy for us to move. The pool relining actually turned into fun time with Miss Five and Master Two having a great time paddling in the filling pool. The water is currently maturing and in a few weeks we can put in new lilies and some local pigmy perch to control the mosquitoes. In the meantime I'm thinking about ways to restore the cool, green lushness that was there before the fence was put in while making very sure - since there will need to be coverage of the fence - that I don't create the sort of problems that I've been dealing with elsewhere in the garden for myself or my neighbours.

Edible Blossoms

 Miss Nine came over and we spent a lovely time together investigating the garden - specifically which flowers you could eat. I love to grow edibles and so the vast majority of plants in my garden, even those in the flower garden are edible and even at this time of the year we could find some flowers to try.

We began with borage flowers (proper name Borage officinalis).

I grow these mainly for the bees and they are actually pretty small as you can see from the bit of finger visible on the left of the flower. Miss Nine loved these when she was a toddler insisting on going out to pick some as soon as she arrived. They are supposed to taste slightly of cucumber - we weren't convinced of this - but they do make a lovely addition to summer drinks. We decided they weren't all that exciting, though.

Then we moved onto the heartsease, also called Johnny Jump Ups from their propensity to appear all over the garden (proper name Viola tricolor), also small but pretty flowers the bees love. 

We nibbled and decided they were pretty bland but would look lovely in a salad.

Next stop was the nasturtium bed (properly Tropaeolum majus). They are also known as Italian cress I'm told.

These were much more interesting with a mild mustardy taste and a slight and pleasant peppery aftertaste. We would both happily eat these.

The calendulas (proper name Calendula officinalis) are looking lovely. They have a lot of names - pot marigold and common marigold (from Mary's gold) the most common.

They, too, had a pleasan flavour which we would try again.

We decided to leave the sweet alyssum - also called Sweet Alice or Sweet Alison (properly called Lobularia maritima) to the multitude of bees although I'm told they are good eating, too, and add a sweet and peppery note to a salad. 

Although she wanted to we couldn't try any roses because they're not in bloom right now. Next visit perhaps.

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I've Been Sick

and it's entirely my own fault I have to say. As someone who has had chronic ill health for more years than I care to mention you'd think by now that I would have learned to pace myself. Nope.  

What happens is that I feel quite good - by my standards that is and if you're fit and healthy you'd probably not agree. For me this means my aches and pains aren't causing me too much grief and I have enough energy to be tempted into tackling some of the mountain of tasks around here that really need doing. In this case some sunny days after weeks of rain and cold enticed me out into the garden and I took to the vegetable garden planting, weeding and digging. None of these are things I can't or shouldn't do but (as I should know by now) they're all things I should only do in small amounts. Of course, I neglected that aspect, didn't I, and even more foolishly I kept pushing myself even when I knew I had reached my limits.

Inevitably I ran out of "spoons". Worse still, I had tried to borrow against those I needed for the future which is both stupid and has a high cost. If you don't know about "spoon theory" it was devised by Christine Miserandino as a way of explaining what it is like to live with chronic illness. The "spoon" stands for each measure of energy you have available to you every day and "spoon theory" is about how much you have and how you use it. If you're fit and healthy you have enough "spoons" to do whatever you need and want to. If you are chronically ill the reality is very different. You can read Christine Miserandino's essay on "spoon theory" here.

The result of this folly was that I ended up exhausted to the point that I would get up, feed the cat, have breakfast then fall back into bed and sleep for most of the rest of the day before having a snack and going back to sleep. Pisces, having lived with me for many years, is used to this pattern but this time I had so depleted myself that it went on for longer than usual. The other side effect is that exhaustion increases all the discomforts that come with my illness so that although I'm in bed it's not restful. Chronic pain is not something that it's easy to live with at the best of times and lying in bed actually exacerbates it. 

Eventually my body managed to find some sort of equilibrium, enough at least for us both to enjoy the round of visitors that come with Fathers Day. Unfortunately that doesn't mean I'm completely back to my normal self, just that I have enough spoons for me to do the essentials of life - which today means do the washing, change the bedding and water the potted plants. By the time I've had lunch in a few minutes - one of the frozen mealsI keep on hand for times like this - I'll have reached my limit and will have to go and have a snooze so I can find enough spoons to bring the washing off the line later. It's frustrating but that's life.