Seasons Greetings to You All!

 It's been a torrid few months around here - if I don't decide it's all better forgotten I'll fill you in some time - so for now I wish you and yours all the best of the season and with a New Year that treats you well.

Well That Was Not Fun

We've been without house internet access for nearly a month and the house phone which comes through our ISP has also been non-functional. This has meant I could only get on the internet via a Personal hot spot using my phone  which is not ideal. It chews up data and I only have a small amount of data on my phone - I've had to go to a higher and more expensive plan just to do the essentials like the grocery shopping and to see if I could find anything that might help. I've tried everything I could think of as well as every suggestion I could find on the internet. Nothing helped.

No-one seemed to know what was actually causing the problem. Our ISP checked our router  - and said it was working perfectly. They contacted the NBN (the National Broadband Network) and  technician spent some hours putting temporary patches on their cables. This is because we are on the aging copper wire system that should have been fully replaced when the NB came into being - I won't go into the details of why this didn't happen except to say it became a political football. This system is starting to fail and there's now a rush on to retrofit it with the modern fibre system but with so much to be replaced we have to wait our turn hence the temporary patches.

Unfortunately none of this helped us. But then - after nearly three weeks of being sent back and forth between the two companies - with the help of a very patient man from my ISP - I had the internet. We were on the phone for over two hours trying one fix after another. As I can't see very well these days I had to get Pisces, who is a complete computer illiterate, to read things out and which led to some interesting moments. We got there in the end, thank goodness. Phew. Then the next morning we discovered our phone was out again and the internet was gone - again. 

Since then - after another marathon session with a technician lasting nearly three hours - we have now had working internet and a phone for a few days without any outages. The only problem was that now my airPrint printer still didn't work. You'd think it would have been fairly simple just set it up again but no. I tried and tried before giving in and calling support. The guy was initially helpful but when he couldn't get it to work - and to be fair we'd been on the phone for over an hour at the time - he told me that I should get in touch with my ISP to check my router password. Not helpful because I knew I had the correct password. 

As I scrolled through the website totally frustrated another number came up as the company contact. I took a deep breath, tried it  - and success! A very helpful woman worked through the problem with me and finally - finally everything was back in working order. Yay!

This is why I'm at last able to blog - I didn't forget you . Truly. I worked out that altogether during that month I spent close to fifteen - yes, 15 - hours trying to get the whole mess sorted. So far it's back and I have everything possible crossed that it stays that way.

It's Still Winter

 although today feels more like Spring - at least until you (and by you I mean me) realise that you're wearing thick track pants, a log sleeved (and very warm) winter top, a thick cardigan and finger less gloves so you can type. As you might guess we're not too good at preparing for the cold here. We're pretty good at dealing with summer heat with most houses with air conditioning - and there I go again saying summer.  It's silly because it doesn't suit our seasons at all. There's an unofficial move to use the local Noongar which don't rely on arbitrary dates but go more on what the weather is actually like. By that calendar we're now in Djilba which has wet days but increasingly there are fine days and cold nights.

Back to how we cool our houses. The vast majority of houses have evaporative air conditioning which works well in dry heat which is what we have mostly. It's not so good when it's humid and here climate change is having an impact with the number of humid days increasing.  Its other limitation is that it only cools the air not warms it.  - and we have not traditionally built our houses for cold. Roof insulation has been mandatory for some considerable time but that's more aimed at te summer heat striking down. More modern houses are equipped with reverse cycle air conditioning but that still leaves at least half of all of the houses without it. 

We do have heaters  - in our case we're fortunate because we have better than most insulation together with a big heater that pumps out heat and combined with ceiling fans effectively heats the whole house quickly. Others aren't so lucky but even so there's also a reluctance of many to put any heating on except in the evening. You can tell when it's a chilly day in Perth because that's when somewhat shame faced someone will sidle up to you and admit to turning on the heater during the day. 

I'm somewhat fixated on the weather at the moment because I have been supposed to be having two Vegepod raised garden beds installed for more than a month. I should be getting ready to put in seedlings for my summer vegetable garden but Vegepod the kits are still in the garage and 36 bags of potting mix and 180 paving slabs are sitting out in the garden waiting for workers with a compacter to come, put down paving and put the kits together. 

So far the company has postponed because they've been hit by COVID - possible, wet weather so the paving can't be done - plausible, and the latest - the paver has the flu - maybe but my suspicions have raised because another worker from the company who was here to do some gardening mentioned the paver had quit. Hmm. 

If it wasn't for the paving for which we don't have the equipment I'd ask Virgo and her husband if they would help us and setting up the actual pods wouldn't be too difficult. Instead we shall just have to wait and hope they can get their act together, I guess, because at the moment here skilled workers and tradespeople of any ilk are in acutely short supply. That's what happens when a country that relies heavily on bringing in qualified workers closes its borders as Australia did during the pandemic.

Our latest date for the work to be done is next Wednesday. I won't be holding my breath.

In something to raise my spirits somewhat - the final flock of little brown birds is making the most of the last of the daylight to bathe in the bird bath.

Afternoon Parade

 I'm sure we've all heard of the Dawn chorus when the sun is still below the horizon but the birds are up and asserting their territorial rights in song. If like me your wake up time is linked very much to sunrise this is a magical time of the day as the songbirds sing their hearts out. It's a joy to listen to but I confess in midsummer when dawn arrives at around 4:30 AM I tend to wake up, listen for a bit and then pull the sheet over my head and doze again for an hour or so. I'm usually up by around six wakened by the sun even with my curtains drawn.

In winter, of course, all this happens much later and I'm usually still tucked in until shortly before the light starts to appear at a little after seven. This means not much time to spend listening to the birds since the day's routine  has to get moving. This is when the alternative of the afternoon parade of birds visiting my birdbath becomes a delight as they vocalise as well as drinking and bathing. They are all so different and come in relays of different species.

The djitti djittis or willy wagtails (one has just rather bravely taken its afternoon bath despite the chilly weather), ravens and laughing doves come whenever they choose unlike the other smaller birds. The ravens are solitary and can appear at any time of day, often bringing some dry bread stolen from a rubbish bin to soak. The only ones prepared to try to dislodge them are the willy wagtails. These small birds smartly dressed in back and white - they remind me of a portly man in a dinner jacket - are convinced that they don't have to retreat for anything or anyone and will take on even bird as much bigger than itself as as a raven. After a few beak clips above the head even the bravest raven will decide it's not worth the discomfort. The doves don't so much bathe as just stand in the water to cool off in the summer and in the winter they've only interested in snatching a drink. They, too, are quickly sent on their way when an angry willy wagtail, less than a quarter the size, lands on the rim of the birdbath and bounces up and down chattering loudly.

The others come in quite distinct groups. 

The first to come are the wattle birds and they arrive from around 4:00 to 4:30. These are mostly red wattle birds but we sometimes get a little wattle bird.They come as singles or pairs and drink then bathe spraying water everywhere and accompanying it all with harsh, raucous cries. In summer they can get quite wet and then they move out to sit on the fence to fluff out their feathers and dry off a little. 

Next it's the smaller honeyeaters about half an hour later. We have several resident species - brown honeyeaters, singing honeyeaters and New Holland honeyeaters. These come in ones and twos, sometimes threes, and of them by far the most striking are the New Holland honeyeaters with their handsome vertically streaked black and white coats. The brown honeyeaters are, well, brown as are the singing honeyeaters but these sport a black patch over their eyes making my children call them bandit birds. They are unfortunately very fond of grapes so we lose a large part of our crop to them every year. These all drink then bathe quickly before flying up to the nearby banana palms to fluff and dry off.

Once the honeyeaters are done successive little chirping flocks of much smaller brown birds flutter in like so many tiny falling leaves. I've managed only to identify weebills which come from time to time. The others remain a mystery, what an ornithologist friend of mine calls LBBs - little brown birds. They don't stop only snatching a drink on the wing or skimming their bellies across the water's surface. 

And then we're done.  I have to confess this parade is very distracting because the bird bath is in clear view from my study window and when my attention wanders - and it does more than it should I'm afraid - I spend time when I should be doing other things watching the parade and listening to the birdsong chorus from high in the trees as daylight fades.

I've Been Sick

I suppose I should fill you in little although  I have mentioned before that I have chronic health problems. This means I need to be very care about how much I do because if I push myself too far my body decides I'm not listening to what it needs and takes its own action. This means I fall in a heap where all I can do is go to bed and sleep. 

I knew I was pushing things because since my hospital stay in December I've been battling the residual effects of my injury - the nerve damage may never heal fully  - and I should have realised that this meant I wouldn't be able to do what I was used to doing - but I didn't or maybe I was just ignoring the signs. Whatever the reason I fell in a heap and ended up barely able to get up let alone do anything.

The  problem was that we have a lot to do around here - there are some essential repairs which need attention and these won't wait.So I just kept pushing and pushing, ran out of spoons and paid the price. If you haven't heard of Spoon Theory with regard to chronic health problems I recommend you look at Spoon Theory by Christine Miserandino where she explains the problems of living with chronic disease using spoons. Sounds bizarre but when you watch the video you'll see the logic. 

I'm out of spoons again today - we discovered a leak into my fabric stash cupboard so everything had to be pulled out, sorted to decide what was ruined and had to be discarded and what to keep and I'm less than halfway that process. Now after some repairs by Virgo's husband who is always kind enough to respond when we need help with such things, I have realised that I need to destash at least to some degree. If you've never heard of this term nor had I until I was talking with my artist niece who knows about such things. Destashing is when you let go (ideally to a good home) most or at least some of the accumulated collection of whatever you've collected to feed your craft/hobby - and if you've been knitting and quilting for as long as I have there's a lot. It turns out to my amazement that here are actual websites devoted to this!

I still have to decide on what to keep - I'm not finished quilting and  knitting yet  - but with the damage forcing me to sort things out it seems a good time to at least rationalise what I have and only keep those items I really need to. I'm pretty sure I won't have the spoons to tackle it quickly but it will get done if more slowly than I'd like it to.

I'm Still Here

 despite multiple frustrations.

For a start I'm still only able to access my Blogger Dashboard on Firefox and I can't comment on anyone else's blog  with any other browser if they use Google for their comment section. Weird and irritating if hardly earth shaking.

Much more concerning is that my eyesight is worsening. I've known this was coming eventually - I just hoped eventually would be a lot further off. This change means I'm having to take some practical steps to make life easier and safer. As I think I've mentioned before I've been seeing an occupational therapist who specialises with vision impairment as well as back problems and she has been helping me with the equipment I'll need to be able to stay in this house in the long term. 

This is not a cheap exercise. So far I've got a new bed - and very comfortable it is, too. Why I didn't realise just how much a sagging old bed was affecting my back I don't know. I guess I'd just kept compensating by adding pillows, none of which was actually doing the job. So now I'm sleeping better - and Puss and I still have room to share. In a side note which is probably of no interest to anyone but me  my old bed was taken away by the local council this morning to wherever old beds go and the space it was taking up is now free.

Then there's my office where my old chair had just become unusable when I started this process. Virgo had left an old one of hers when she moved out and although I'd made vague attempts at giving it away no-one had been interested. This was just as well as it turned out as it filled the gap while I was waiting for a better replacement. The new one finally arrived a few days ago - where it's been since it was ordered nearly five months ago I have no idea - we've been joking that it must have required someone to make each component by hand - and it is so, so much more comfortable.

The next step is to sort out the lighting. My artist niece introduced me to daylight lamps and -  now there's a floor lamp for the family room where I have a new armchair which offers back support - and before anyone asks, yes, I should have realised long ago that trying to use an armchair with no back support and designed for someone with much longer legs than me was making my bad back worse. I guess until now when my back injury is affecting my ability to walk, there hadn't seemed any necessity. Well, there is now if I want to stay here living a relatively normal life. There's also a daylight desk lamp for my office about to come into my life - and there is to be under the cupboard bench top lighting in the kitchen. Swoon - as my vision has declined that whole area has become impossible for me to use except in bright sunlight. Since the last item is quite  cheap we're also going to invest in cupboard lights that come on when you open the door. Who knew such things existed!

The next thing to deal with is the garden. With my mobility somewhat impaired and unlikely to improve we need steps and rails and raised beds so I can continue to move around safely and work in the garden - we're on the side of a hill so there is more than one level to the yard - and we're busy getting quotses for these items. We do already have new rails for the existing steps so I can get to one of the lower parts of the garden safely - and safety is a crucial factor in much of the outside area. Some of the rest will have to wait for a while as will updating the rest of my office at least until we save up a bit. In the meantime things are already looking better and I foresee a brighter future - pun definitely intended.

Password Woes

 Yesterday I had occasion to download something from the App store - I've been working with an OT to make things a little easier around here since my back problems have  left me with some mobility problems and she had suggested an app that could help. She found it on my phone and I put in my email address and then my password - and nothing happened. I tried again - and again.  Still nothing. Did I have the right password? Did I have the right case? she helpfully asked Well, yes to all her suggestions, but by now I had the distinct feeling that she was beginning to think I was some sort of idiot and had just stupidly forgotten it. 

We moved on to some other things and when she left I went back to trying to get it to work. Nope, not happening. I checked and everything else on the computer was working as it should. I even tried turning the whole thing off and on again. No change, nada, zilch. So I decided to click on the "Forgotten your password?" tab and change my password. Good idea you might think? Well, it would have been if I could get it to accept any of the passwords I tried. I'd enter them, click on continue - and nothing would happen. I tried multiple different variations and then things moved up a notch. I began getting a message which read "An unidentified error has occurred." This did not fill me with much hope but I pressed on trying one password after another. 

Then I got an email saying my password had been changed. Well, that wasn't much help, was it. Which of the twenty or more passwords I'd tried had it now decided to accept? I hadn't a clue. By now I had been trying to get this to work for close to four hours and my patience was wearing extremely thin so I muttered a few words my mother would definitely not have approved of, gritted my teeth and tried again - and it worked. I had to update my other devices - and it worked there, too.

I have no idea what caused the problem - I guess I never will - but this whole debacle proves what I've always said about computers - they're wonderful when they work.

Decluttering - Again - Or Should It Be Still

 I've been decluttering for  - well, it seems like forever. We have to move all the furniture soon to get our new flooring down so it seemed a good opportunity to get rid of all the surplus "stuff" that has wound its way into the house so when we move the furniture it won't be such hard work. Ive been working through the house and have established an area where things go until they finally make their way out the door.  There are designated boxes for various charities - these are all ready to be taken out now - and as well there items to be put up on the local Buy Nothing website. We've ordered a skip for the weekend to take a load of broken and and other useless junk so I am under  some pressure to get everything that needs to go in it sorted but I'm not panicking too much as I do see yet another skip in the not too distant future.

Today's decluttering area was my office/craft room. I've been working through the house and this is the last big area I have to get into. While the office part is relatively organised - I tidied the shelves and cupboards a while back and got rid of a lot of what I no longer needed - the craft section was not in the same pristine condition. I had got as far as sorting my sewing bits and pieces and I have to say the drawers of my sewing table and sewing machine equipment are looking pretty good. 

I can't say the same about the rest of the are, though. This is partly due to my having lost momentum after when I hurt my back and was incapacitated for several months but if I'm honest it's also because I knew it would be a big job so I've been working through the rest of the house while building up - how shall I describe it since enthusiasm is definitely not the right word - maybe sufficient incentive to tackle it is closer to correct. 

In the end it was all that was left to be sorted so that's where I've been today. I hardly knew where to begin because I've always been keen on making things with my hands so I've collected quite a lot of materials. In the end I decided to attack the knitting because I thought it would be the easiest. My wool stash is already safely stored in a cedar wood chest so it should have been only knitting needles and other tools - or so I thought. So you can imagine my surprise when I found a half finished Aran jumper. I do remember starting this some years ago but why I never finished it is a complete mystery. I've always loved knitting complex patterns especially Arans - as anyone looking in the drawers where I store my woollens would know - so that I started it is no surprise, it's just why it's still sitting there unfinished that's a puzzle. For now it's set aside until I can fix the line I know will be visible where I left off too long ago.

That aside I've now got all the knitting paraphernalia sorted - and there's a lot. Assorted needles of all different sizes and types, row counters, stitch holders, wool sewing needles, crochet hooks and these are just some of them. So the next time the urge to knit strikes - and it will now winter is here and it's chilly - I have all my knitting needs at hand. I'm just hoping I don't find anything else that has been sitting there out of sight, unloved and unfinished for a long time. Tomorrow I'm moving on to the patchwork section.Wish me luck.

Australia Has Voted

 On Saturday we as a nation girded our loins, stood in the queues for our ballot papers and pencil all in a COVID safe social distancing way, filled them in and posted them in the ballot boxes. Then we went out to enjoy our Democracy sausages. Then all that was left to do was to wait for the counting to start which it did as soon as the polls closed at 6:00 PM. 

If you haven't heard of a Democracy sausage you're obviously not from Australia. To bring you up date with this very Australian custom I should explain that polling places here are largely placed at schools and other community buildings. Because we have compulsory voting and there are consequently crowds the school P & C  (Parents & Citizens) associations and others have been taking the opportunity to fund raise with stalls selling baked goods and other things probably since Federation.

This all went up a notch in the mid 1980s. That's when we noticed our local primary school adding a sausage sizzle - a freshly cooked sausage wrapped in slice of buttered bread with tomato sauce. They weren't the only ones with that idea, of course, and soon the sausage sizzle had spread across the country and morphed to cater for just about everyone by adding vegetarian sausages, buns with a choice of condiments - and sometimes fried onion.  Yum.

Somewhere around 2010 we started to hear the term Democracy sausage being used and soon everyone was calling it that. Well, why wouldn't we. Australians take their voting seriously but we also like a bit of fun along the way. It wasn't long before there were websites showing just where you could get your Democracy sausage and which places had the best menu. From then pretty much everyone I know was saying they were going to get their Democracy sausage instead of saying they were going to vote. 

I missed out on mine this year. Due to my inability to stand for long periods - at the busiest part of the day the queues can mean you are standing for quite some time - I did a pre-poll vote. This is an early voting option - they are open for about a fortnight prior to election day and cater for those who are disabled or who for whatever reason will be unable to attend a polling place on polling day. Alternatively you can cast a postal vote and as well this year there was the additional option of phone voting for those forced into isolation by COVID. We do like to make sure everyone who is eligible is enrolled and can vote here. 

As Pisces took me to the pre-polling place he was able to vote there as well but there was a problem. He was so conflicted at missing out on his Democracy sausage he actually considered going to our local primary school and buying one. Commonsense prevailed sort of because while he stayed home he decided he'd cook sausages for lunch.

Ear Worm Songs

 After I found the clip for Right Said Fred a couple of weeks ago I seem to have unleashed a lot of memories of songs and other silliness that were mostly complete nonsense but which were very popular for a while and have stuck in my memory. Some were way before my time in their first iteration but would be replayed for a new audience when some DJ would take a trip down memory lane. Not all such trips were well advised but some were gems. Here are a couple you may have heard and enjoyed or which may be new to you. Enjoy.

The Thing sung by Phil Harris

Then there was The Ball Bearing Bird by Frankie Davidson

 

And how could I forget Star Trekkin' by The Firm

Update

 Did you miss me? I meant to be back much, much sooner but I still can't get to my Blogger Dashboard on any browser other than Firefox. This is annoying because I prefer to use another browser but, hey, I can work with this. So this is a catch up on what's been happening around here.

First of all there were the usual seasonal celebrations in our case mainly family oriented. The Thursday before the Easter break began we celebrated the Cambodian New Year with lots of yummy food and catching up with family. Then we had another family lunch on Easter Sunday - this is another tradition  for us all where we go to my artist niece's home. They live on a bush block about an hour from Perth and it's always fascinating to see what new and quirky and changes they have made. As well as this we have a bunch of family birthdays in this period so lots of family and fun.

While I seem to be the odd one out in my family having missed out on the visual art gene it is showing up in the next generation. Miss Nine and Miss Six visited during their school holidays and spent some of their time drawing - and produced some quite passable efforts. These now adorn our fridge. Master Two's drawings are a little more problematic although he insisted that his swirling green creation was a rainbow. We took the littlies to the park behind our house where a good time was had by all and they left with a promise of a baking session next holidays. When I suggested the girls think about what they'd like to make there was no waiting. "Cookies," they said.

We were lucky we could do that because then Perth was blanketed with thick smoke on and off for a number of  days. This means those who like me have a bad reaction to smoke can't get outside. It's a  pity because it's a real pleasure to be outside now the summer heat has eased. The smoke comes from preventative burning off in the bush and on country properties and is a frequent problem at this time of the year. I understand the necessity but hate the experience.

Oh, and I've been writing up a storm. With all my health problems I'd just about stopped doing anything creative - but here it is again with a succession of short stories ready to be edited and wrestled into something worth reading from their somewhat messy first draft shapes. It's been very satisfying I have to say and with luck some of them will end up going places.

Something to Amuse You Until I Get My Blogger Account Fixed

Equinox

 Yes, I'm writing this on the March Equinox, that magical day when everywhere day and night are supposedly each 12 hours in length. It's not really so, though, it turns out. Depending on where you are on the planet it can vary considerably. Here in Perth, Western Australia, daylight lasts 12 hours and 9 minutes while further south in Hobart in Tasmania, it ist 2 minutes longer. That wasn't a surprise but when I looked at the figures for McMurdo Base in Antarctica I was surprised to see that they have 12 hours 40 minutes of daylight. It's probably more accurate to say that day and night at the Equinox are in the vicinity of 12 hours all over the planet. Oh, and as well that day is only when the sun is above the horizon and doesn't include other periods when there's still some light such as twilight.  

This, of course, led me into wanting to find out more about twilight. If, like me, you thought twilight was just that period of the evening which we call dusk you may be surprised to learn there are several periods of twilight. There's what we call dusk and dawn for starters but there are also technical terms for different times during dusk and dawn. There's morning Civil Twilight which begins at the instant when the Sun's geometric centre is 6 degrees below the horizon and ends at sunrise while evening Civil Twilight begins at sunset and ceases when the Sun's geometric centre is 6° below the horizon. This is that time when the sun is just below the horizon and there's still enough light to be out and about to work or play. Civil Dusk and Civil Dawn it turns out aren't time spans at all but the specific moments when Civil Twilight ends and Civil Dawn begins. Then there's Nautical twilight which precedes Civil Dawn and follows Civil Dusk. It begins when the Sun's geometric centre is 12° below the horizon in the morning and ends when it reaches the 12° point in the evening. It gets its name because both the horizon and brightest stars are visible enough to allow navigation at sea. Phew!

If that's not enough there's also Astronomical Twilight which is when the geometrical centre of the Sun is 12-18 degrees below the horizon and is the earliest part of dawn and the latest period of dusk. For most of us living in cities with their light pollution there's little difference between Astronomical Twilight and night. The sky is dark and many stars are visible. Astronomical Dawn and Dusk are the moments when the sun reaches that 18° position. Astronomers can make out more stars in this period but to view fainter and more distant ones they have to wait for night.

I found this all fascinating as you can see and if you want to find out more about such things I found the Time and Date website very informative. It has lots of other interesting topics. The National Weather Service website was also helpful.

Birds Bathing

In my continuing attempt to avoid the mess the world's in - war, climate change, floods I could go on but I won't - I'm soothing my mind with birds.

 I'm lucky enough to live in a suburb of big blocks which is surrounded on three sides with ideal bird habitat. Closest to us is a golf course which was established as a country club back in the days when this whole area was bushland. The golf club has made a serious effort to keep wildlife friendly and the small lakes and bushland within its boundaries houses a resident mob of kangaroos. We don't often see a sign telling you to watch out for kangaroos in the middle of suburbia but there's one on the road behind where we live. Add to this the bushland of a large pubic recreation area, a bushland reserve and another golf course all only a short distance away as well as a park directly behind our block and we have a wealth of natural habitat.

This means wild life especially birds spills over onto the blocks in the surrounding streets. I found a Purple Swamphen grabbing a quick drink when I went out to change the sprinklers early one morning and we've had several ducks nest in and around our place. They were  probably Pacific Black ducks - though it's not easy to tell since they interbreed with other species - and they have a perilous trip to take their ducklings back to the safety of the golf course. As well in the late winter to early the shelducks arrive to graze on the new grass shoots.

To attract birds to our garden we have a birdbath much appreciated by the birds in the summer in particular. It's strategically placed so we can see it and while there are often visits over the day it's late afternoon when it really gets busy. I've been trying to identify all the visitors but that's proved impossible. I unfortunately don't have a great camera for capturing fast moving targets - and some of them are very fast - so many of the little brown birds will remain a mystery. Instead I'll give you a list of those I've managed to identify in the past few days.

The willy wagtail is around the garden most of the time. These are handsome little fantailed birds -  around 20 centimetres -with black backs and wings contrasted by their white chests. We have a nesting pair here and they are incredibly tame, to the point that we have to keep. a watchful eye when we're on the grass hanging out the washing so we don't tread on one. They aggressively claim the birdbath at times and djitty djitty furiously if any other bird however big has the temerity to want a drink or bath. They'll happily take on a raven which at around 50 centimetres is considerably bigger than the willy wagtail and more often than not the bigger bird leaves the defeated. When they bathe they really bathe and come out to sit on the side of the bath wet feathers fluffed out before they shake themselves and fly off.

Then there are the honeyeaters, the largest of which is a pair of red wattlebirds. These are some of the biggest visitors at around 33 centimetres and can feel entitled to have the bath to themselves as well while they have a thorough bath. The smaller honeyeaters usually wait until the wattlebirds are shaking themselves on the side of the bath before they begin to come in. They fly in and out so fast and often in small flocks making it very hard to recognise them. So far I've managed to identify these: New Holland honeyeaters - these are resident here and we often see them out in the garden. Then there are the singing honeyeaters - also common here and extremely fond of our grapes. We're being visited by brown honeyeaters, too, as well as occasional white cheeked honeyeaters. 

There are some other tiny birds which had been defeating all my efforts at getting a close look at them until yesterday. They come in a small flock, flying in at great speed to flit around in the water then leave just as fast which means getting a good look is all but impossible. They remind me of a flurry of little brown leaves caught up by the wind. Yesterday, though, one of them stopped for more than a second and I think I can confidently say they are weebills. This is the smallest of the Australian birds and I'm pretty chuffed at having finally being able to identify them. We've also just had another unusual visitor, a striated pardalote. I knew these were occasional visitors to the country club golf course but I have never seen one here before.

Along with these we get Australian magpies and magpie larks from time to time as well as the odd pink and grey galahs - these all live in the park we back onto - and, of course, the ubiquitous (and feral) laughing doves and spotted doves. These last two were released over a hundred years ago around the then newly established zoo and have since spread all over Perth to the point that many folk think they are natives.

Well, It's Been Interesting

That's me trying to be positive which is not easy when there's all out war between Russia and the Ukraine, we've just sweltered through the hottest summer on record and there is the worst flooding in recorded history in Queensland and northern New South Wales. All these are things I can do nothing about unfortunately any more than I can about the rapidly rising numbers of Omicron which have hit the state. We've been largely protected from COVID until now by our hard border policy but this variant is so virulent that once someone brought it in  - who knows how - it's spread like wildfire. The border restrictions are soon to go there being no point in the community being isolated when the virus is already here. It's expected to peak at the end of this month and as our vaccination rates are very high  - the majority of people like Pisces and me are triple vaccinated although there are still some holdouts - this should mean most who get it will get it mildly. Let's hope this and the mask and social media distancing mandating will work.

To add to our woes the federal government is in election mode - even though the date for the election hasn't been announced. It will have to be done soon because the election needs to be held no later than 21 May which doesn't give much time for actual electioneering. We can be sure that it's coming sooner rather than later because with the government having had a less than successful time in the final sitting week of Parliament distraction is at work. We were treated to the PM at home with his family recently during which he strummed a ukulele apparently unaware of how that reminded many of us about how he holidayed in Hawaii while Australia burned under wildfires in the 2019-2020 summer. He's not the only one giving us a glimpse into his family life with the leader of the opposition party doing a photo shoot for a popular women's magazine and there will no doubt be more of the same right up until election day.

In something even less entertaining I have spent some time looking at my poor garden. Although Pisces has tried he's not a gardener and that combined by wave after wave of temperatures in the high thirties and low forties Celsius, almost continually since the week before Christmas until now, means the garden is a disaster area. Before everything went pear shaped the garden was looking the best it had in years. I'd got a number of different heritage vegetable seeds and they were already planted out and starting to produce, various cuttings I'd nurtured had also been planted out and everything looked green and lush. Now it looks like someone took to it with a blow torch. My brother had warned me that it would be bad - burned to a crisp was how he described his garden and he and his wife had been nurturing theirs, but mine is even worse. I hardly know where to start with it but, on the bright side, now my knee has stopped folding up on me and my back and leg pain have eased I can actually, albeit slowly, start doing something out there. I've brought plants back from the brink before. There's no reason why I can't do it again, is there.

In more positive personal news I've been writing every day and since Christmas I've added two more first draft stories to those I'm writing about the women of ancient Greek mythology. I started the first story back in about September and got three stories done to first draft before I got stuck on one story I really wanted to tell. I finally finished that a couple of weeks ago which freed me to move on to the new ones and I've now started a third. Where these stories will end up I have no idea but I'm having a ball writing them.

Further News?

 Well, not really. Post hospital I've been being a good girl and doing everything my doctors and physiotherapists require of me. So far so good but the point when all could fall apart is still about three to four weeks off. 

I've a few concerns. I still have numbness and altered sensation in my bad leg (it feels as if someone has applied an elastic bandage too tightly over a thick pad on the sole of my foot - I've actually woken up trying to take this non-existent bandage off a few times.) This, combined with my numb leg, makes walking somewhat difficult because I can't get any normal rhythm going. As well walking without the walker is also hard although I am persevering with hands free walking in safe places where I have easily accessible things I can grab if it all goes sideways. Sigh.

So life is not a bowl of cherries at the moment - but since it's cherry season in Tasmania there is actually a bowl of these delicious goodies in the fridge right now. I'm going to savour every bite of these luscious imports because in the wider world Western Australia is in the middle of shortages and consequent rationing of some food and grocery items. This is because we import many consumables from the eastern states by road and more importantly by rail and currently unprecedented rain has caused serious flooding and both road and rail links have been damaged. The road is now open but it will take some time before all the trucks backed up in South Australia will reach the Western Australian distribution centres. While this will help it's expected the rail line, which has been most badly damaged and brings the bulk of supplies, will be unusable for several weeks - and this means cherries are unlikely to be available since the local season has finished.

We're not going to starve, of course. We have local sources of fruit, vegetables and meat and there are still local suppliers of dairy products but to see how the shelves have been stripped in panic buying you'd think we'll never see food again. Of course we can't always get our favourite items but Pisces and I are largely enjoying the substitutes we're being sent - we mostly do our grocery shopping online and if they don't have what we want we get given something different. Apart from that some of the shortages have encouraged me to pull out my old yoghurt maker and start making my own again and when I can manage to stand long enough to knead some dough I just might make bread.

Catching Up

 I don't know if you've noticed but I've been away for a while. I have to say it hasn't been much fun. For a few months I'd been having increasingly severe levels of what I was told was sciatica due to a back injury I sustained many years ago and which has been an ongoing problem ever since. It flares up and after rest and/or an injection it subsides and I go back to normal. This time though it hadn't responded to a couple of injections and was getting steadily worse. While I waited for an MRI and my GP threw ever more painkillers at me I was getting more and more disabled. Walking was slow and painful and I was having to use a walking  stick all the time. Then I woke up on Saturday 9 December and couldn't even shuffle into my bathroom which is only a few steps away. I rang the bell - my husband and I have one each in case of emergencies and this was definitely one. Even before he arrived from his room - he snores like a train these days - I'd realised this warranted an ambulance ride to the Emergency Department. 

Ambulance services are somewhat stretched here at the moment and this was obviously not life threatening - excruciating maybe but even severe pain does not qualify - so it was close to two hours before it arrived. The paramedics - usually called ambos in Australia - were great. They quickly got me into a wheelchair and up our very steep driveway and onto a stretcher in the ambulance. It turns out that ambulance stretchers aren't all that comfortable for someone with severe back pain that all their strong painkillers weren't even touching. Sigh. 

All but one of the hospitals north of the Swan River (this pretty much cuts the city in half) had their EDs closed and ambulances ramped outside so I was taken to one some distance away in central Perth where I was triaged and taken in fairly quickly. The ambulance ramping problem has been on-going for some time and while you will get immediate treatment if it's life threatening you might otherwise have quite a wait in an ambulance so I was very grateful I got in so fast. 

A succession of doctors came to assess me over the next couple of hours and it was decided to admit me and book me in for the next available MRI which was on Monday. At last - I already had an appointment for one outside the hospital system but it was at the end of January so this was a great improvement. While I was in the ED I'd started to get numbness in my foot and by the time I got to the ward it had progressed up to my thigh. Along with all this my knee kept giving away whenever I put ant weight on it. As a result I spent the next ten days wheelchair bound  before advancing to the walking frame I'm still using. I do have exercises to do that I'm assured will eventually kick in - the time frame is ten to twelve weeks and I have to say they had better work. I have no desire to stay like this. 

I had my MRI on the Monday and it exposed several lower spine issues - one is the joint damaged so many years ago and as a result now seizing up in multiple ways, the other is a bulging disc in the next joint down. How I damaged this joint is a mystery - although I have a few suspicions. I'm a keen gardener and had dug over the veggie patch which might have had something to do with it. At this point I was transferred to a private hospital to be put under a physician who specialises in spinal injuries. She arranged for me to see a neurosurgeon who offered me the choice of a specialised injection or surgery. Unsurprisingly I chose the injection. For now it's wait and see - apparently it can take some weeks to work so wish me luck.