"The Devil Went Down to Georgia"

I love skilled fiddle playing and so for today's sliver of joy I give you Celtic Thunder's Ryan Kelly performing "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" with Nicole Hudson playing the violin.

Enjoy. 

Forest Xylophone

I've been struggling to find much more than a sliver of joy in life at the moment - although I do have to say having a four year old throw herself onto your lap and wrap her arms around you for no other reason than she is pleased to see you and to have a one year old's face light up when he sees you are pretty pleasurable slivers. 

Given the times we're living in we need to treasure such moments so I've decided - instead of dwelling on the mess we're in - I'm going to share anything which gives me pleasure for a while. The same friend who posted "Those Were The Days" found this lovely video. I gather it's been around for quite a while - it was made made as part of an advertisement some years ago - but this is the first time I've seen it. Here in the middle of a forest a wooden xylophone plays. Enjoy.

"Those Were the Days" sung by Mary Hopkin.

 I've been trying to write a blog post about how time has gone mad during the pandemic and frankly it was just too depressing to finish.  Then a friend of mine started putting up links to songs from way back when and this one by Mary Hopkin came up among them. It struck a chord with me, nostalgia for the "good old days" being something a lot of us are feeling these days. I hope you like it. 

I Haven't Been Ignoring You - Truly

  - although it might have seemed like it. My absence was due to a technology fail. It's quite a saga which left us without a home phone and internet for several weeks. 

I'll tell you what happened - but first for those of you who aren't Australian - a bit of history. Way back in 2009 the then Australian Labor government announced they would be establishing a National Broadband Network which would replace our ageing copper network with fibre to every home giving us internet speeds to bring us up to date. Then Labor lost the next election and the incoming LNP Coalition government said it was too expensive and instead those of us who weren't already fortunate enough to be connected would have to have a fibre to the node system with a node in the street and using the existing and less than efficient copper network for the actual connection to the house. (The LNP are still in government and have decided - now that the predicted failings of this system are obvious to all but with most households connected by it - they'll have to retrofit the whole network at enormous cost - but that's politics for you. It doesn't have to make sense.)

As I said the bulk of homes are now connected and the NBN has finally reached our suburb which meant we needed to connect before November when the current service to the area will be cut off.  The NBN is a wholesaler so you have to work through a retailer which then connects you by modem to the network. I did a bit of research, found a deal that suits us and signed up. There were a number of steps to take over a couple of weeks until the NBN technician came and connected us a week or so ago - except we didn't connect. Nothing worked. No landline, no internet. The only working phone was my mobile. 

I contacted the ISP which ran some tests and informed us that it was a fault with the NBN. They then arranged for an appointment with an NBN technician which took place after another week or so. A very helpful technician came today and finally we are connected. 

So it's all good, isn't it. Well, yes, except our internet outage came at a bad time for us. We had a serious health problem to deal with this week and I needed to do a lot of what was associated with it - like hospital admission forms and dealing with emails from various specialists - online. This meant I had to use my mobile phone as a hotspot. As I only have a small amount of data available on my mobile plan (I don't use my phone much for the internet) it has left me out of pocket because I had to buy a lot of additional data. Sigh. At least the health problem is now being treated and all on that front looks like it will be well in the long run.

Footsies!

Despite continuing foot problems it had never occurred to me that I could - or should for that matter - have regular treatment by a podiatrist. I've had orthotics for many years but apart from that I've been telling myself I'm quite capable of taking care of my own feet. I've been sending Pisces off to have his feet attended to for some time but I hadn't considered it for myself until a recent assessment by my physiotherapist persuaded me I should look into it.

Truth be told I should have realised I did need it. Some of my toes are no longer as they should be - they are getting more and more misshapen, I have painful areas on the soles of both feet and my plantar fasciitis has flared up. Hmmm. You'd think that would have alerted me but no. Still, after a visit with the lovely podiatrist, Paula, I've had a bit of a wake up call and I now have a list of things to do to deal with all these problems. This includes new orthotics - those I have are falling apart and since they are five years old will probably no longer be what I need anyway - and new sandals for every day wear. Turns out wearing thongs - flip flops for those of you in other parts of the world -  every day is not the best for your feet. Again I knew this but I don't like wearing closed in shoes unless I have to and while I'm here at home it seemed simpler and easier to just slip on a pair of thongs. 

Well, I've now had it made clear to me that this has to change. Apparently the reason for much of my discomfort is down to poor foot support - and that's at least in part due to not being able to use orthotics while wearing thongs. Paula tells me there are alternatives - I had no idea there were - and I have a list of specialist shoe shops that I need to visit to see what I can find. As well I need to make an appointment to get my orthotics upgraded. Apparently in five years your feet change a lot - something I should have realised anyway - so it won't be as simple as making adjustments to those I already have.

All this means I've just spent a while going down the internet rabbit hole of looking for sandals for those of us who need sensible but really, really don't want to look as if that's what we're wearing. It turned out not to be as horrible a task as I expected so now I've a list of sandals that actually look good and should do the job and tomorrow I'll be off to see what I can find. I may be a while.

Poppies!

 This is one of the poppies in the garden bed outside our family room.  Nothing unusual about it, it's just a gorgeously red poppy with a black centre of the sort that you find everywhere. I've been growing and enjoying them for years.

But this morning when I went out I discovered this beauty right beside the one above. The colour is rich and the centre a pale cream. I assume it's a mutation - and one I'd like to preserve but unfortunately by the time I found it the bees would have been very busy pollinating for several hours so the chances of the seeds reproducing the same colour are fairly remote. Just in case though I'm going to save the seed capsule and see what I get next year. Who knows I might be lucky.

My Ginger Harvest and Other Delights

This year's ginger crop.

It wasn't quite as prolific as last year's unfortunately but it's still a success story because many years ago I was told that it was impossible to grow ginger here. Naturally I took that as a challenge and have been growing it ever since. This lot was from one 35 cm pot and last year I got probably half as much again. I use a lot of root ginger so when I replanted this time I added another similar size pot. Now I just have to work out how to store my harvest. I'm thinking I'll try freezing some already grated in ready to cook portions and see how that turns out.

It's not only the ginger that's done less well this winter either. Because we've had a very low rainfall despite the damaging storms earlier - and that was after a hotter and dryer summer than usual - it's affected pretty much everything in the garden. I've been able to grow enough greens to feed us but even staples like pak choy haven't done as well as I'd expect so I'm very grateful for chard, kale, lettuce and, of course, the beetroot.

It's not only the vegetables either. Many of the winter bulbs simply didn't flower - lots of healthy looking leaves but nary a bud among them. This has meant a much less colourful garden than usual this winter.


That said things are finally looking up in the flower garden. The Flanders poppies are flowering as are the Spanish bluebells, calendulas and nasturtiums. Many of these are in a large bed outside the family room where we have a wall of glass so I see them every time I look out which is a real joy. As well I noticed some heartsease flowers this morning, the red and green kangaroo paws are in bud and, of course, the alyssum has never stopped flowering. Oh, and the sweet peas are finally starting to climb up their support so with luck they'll soon be in flower, too. It makes up to some degree for the missed daffodils, tulips and jonquils.