Strangers in Mid - Flight.

Nothing much has been happening here these past few days. No.2 son goes back to school on Thursday. This is his last year of High School, so we have been getting things ready, picking up school books, checking that his uniform still fits blah blah  blah. I hate this time of year because it is disastrously expensive.

The little turtle that dropped from the sky, whom we named Squirtle, was handed over to Wildlife rescue. They will release him/her somewhere safe. We were becoming quite attached to it. Another visitor dropped in. A large Dragonfly. I usually get rather small ones buzzing around the place, but this is definitely in the Sumo wrestler category.

It's quite a beauty.

 Sorcha is still slapping Baxter around. As he walked past her the other day, she just extended her paw and whopped him in the head. I think I like this girl!!

It's Raining Turtles.

Strange things always happen around my place. Take today for instance. There I was minding my own business when I thought it was all too quiet. Hubby was watching some television, No.2 son was in his room, the cats and the dog were all accounted for. Wait a minute, there is one more dog who is outside and being way to quiet, and you know what that means. Yep, trouble.

So I look out he back door and there is Sorcha looking back at me very oddly. The first thing I spot is my container of fishy fertilizer now has puncture marks in it and is leaking all its contents. Then there was that odd look. I walk towards her and notice an odd shape on the ground. To my astonishment she is playing with a little turtle. I pick the poor darling up and race back inside. Hubby and  No.2 son couldn't believe that I was indeed holding a turtle.

It is a Common snake-necked turtle who in summer can make extensive overland migrations to find water. We think it was ambling along and was picked up by a falcon or eagle. I think it was the latter as when I looked out a little later, a huge bird was taking off from next-doors tree. Hubby thinks it was trying to land in our tree and dropped the turtle. So we are taking it to a rescue place tomorrow. It's so cute.

Watching our every move.

Now a picture showing Sorcha sleeping. What is so interesting about that you ask? Hubby says she is a disgrace.

Humpy Humpy Romance - The Case of the Rejected Suitor.

One young,(neutered) gentleman named Baxter, in his prime and alone. Into his life crashes a beautiful vision, tall, lithe, hairy and single. Unfortunately also just been de - sexed.
All these unusual feelings are being stirred within him as she lies provocatively around the house.
" I know", he thinks to himself, " I'll just test out these unusual feelings on this hairy amazon".
So he saunters up to her as she lies carelessly on her bed. He batts his liquid eyes at her. He moves in and licks her on the face.

SMACK.

One slightly disoriented and confused Baxter lurches away. She can't be serious. He thinks he will try again, after all, he is devastatingly handsome.

SMACK.

Ok, the rejection is now complete.

I'm at a loss.

Baxter is such a pest.

I tried to tell him, really I did.

Haahaaahaaaa. I have been wanting to smack him for ages!!

Memories.

Yesterday was No.2 son's birthday. He turned 18. It is amazing that he is 18 because he was born premature and was not expected to last the night. The first 18 months were tough, but he came through it all with no hearing, eye or brain damage. A true miracle. A little girl was born on the same day and the same weeks premature. When we caught up with them 12mths later she was wearing hearing aids and had vision impairment. He won't be the tallest of men, but it is a small price to pay for life. I will be forever grateful to the staff at the specialist neo natal unit for the care  they showed both No.2 son and myself. Especially one male nurse who called my room in the wee hours of the morning, and said to come over to the unit as it was going to be No.2 son's first feed of breast milk, a whole 1ml.

I shuffled over and held No.2 son in my arms while watching the milk go through his feeding tube. That small kindness, I shall remember till the day I die.

Questions.

Who is sneaky, underhanded, stubborn and a foodaholic?

Sorcha.

 Who booted both Sorcha and Baxter out of their dog beds?

Supreme leader Ladybug.
 

Ah yes. Just another day at the office.

Let the games begin.....

Sunday:

Bonsaimum: Sorcha is scanning the perimeter. I think she is planning a breakout.
Hubby: No, she won't jump the fence. She is just checking the yard.
Bonsaimum: I still think she is planning something.
Hubby: You are worrying about nothing. Trust me.
Bonsaimum: It's not you I am worried about.


Fast forward to Monday morning:

Bonsaimum arrives home from grocery shopping. Notices one very harassed Hubby. Turns out that Sorcha used a compost bin that was against the fence as a launching pad to next doors backyard and their dog. Hubby was blissfully unaware until he heard yelping. She had finished playing with next doors dog and realised she could not get back over the fence.
One very embarrassed Hubby had to go and retrieve Sorcha from the neighbour who was also blissfully unaware that a strange large hound was prancing around with her 'guard' dog.

The result:

Compost bins emptied and moved. Trellis will be making an appearance on the fences to make them higher.

Just wait until he sees what else I have in store for him!

And....

It didn't take long.

Usurped.

I can't believe it. I have been removed  as all powerful kingpin. Worse, her tail keeps slapping me in the face. Oh the indignity.

Oh don't listen to him. He is such a whinge bum. I don't deliberately smack him in the face. You believe me don't you? Mwahahahahahaaaaaaaa.

We are Back.

Well, after a 930km round trip we are finally back. We had a pleasant trip up to Portland, not too hot and no smoke around. We didn't get to see much of Portland as we arrived early in the evening and were absolutely knackered. We were amazed at how dry the conditions were, no wonder the fire authorities were worried about the fire close to Portland.

Dry conditions on the way to Portland.

Portland. It rained!

Although it rained, the fire authorities warned that Friday was to be an extreme fire danger day. And it was. We left early Friday morning after picking up our 'package'.

Sorcha--our Lurcher.

Sorcha, our new family member had just been de-sexed on Wednesday so we wanted to get her home and comfortable. The temperature reached 41.5C on the way home. Our poor air-conditioning really worked hard. On the way home there was a wind change,( and I don't mean courtesy of Sorcha), and the smoke from the fires was now quite visible.

Baxter is now annoying following Sorcha around. Let's see how the next few days go.

Road Trip

We are off on a short road trip tomorrow of approx. 464km. We are heading to the western side of Victoria and will be keeping a close ear to radio fire warnings as there is a major fire just to the west of where we will be staying. The weather should be ok on Thursday but Friday  the temp is rising again to 37C. So why are we travelling westward...........watch this space.

The down side of the trip is that the house, etc, will be left in the hands of No.1 and No.2 son... God help us!

Even the ladies are looking worried.
 

No, coming with us is not an option.......

Wildfire.

I can't watch the news. There are fires in 3 states, now it's NSW battling multiple fires. Horrendous. My thoughts are with all those involved with the fires and battling them.
On a lighter note, No.1 son made it back from his overseas holiday relatively unscathed, well, apart from spending one night in hospital in Thailand with severe gastro. He brought me back a lovely Thai silk summer dressing gown and the cutest little backpack.

A friend of mine gave me 3 plant cuttings months ago and assured me that the flowers would be spectacular. I have one that took root and within the last 4 days has flowered. I would of had 2 more but for Hubby not looking and mowing over them. One struggled and sprouted again, gaining height and was starting to look really healthy. Then the usual happened. Hubby mowed over it. He tells me that he thought it was a big weed. I could really smack him some days!

My surviving plant.

Nice and Dry.

Well we survived another horridly hot day yesterday. 41C. The alerts and fire information were all over the radio and TV telling us it could be another day as bad as Black Saturday, Feb 7 2009. Thankfully it wasn't. I remember standing on the roof of my house in 2009, watching the darkness getting closer and embers falling on me. We were lucky there was a wind change and the fire didn't make it into town. It was the first time ever I had our car packed and was ready to go. My friend who lived about 10 mins from us had the fire stop just short of her home but the house at the end of her road was burnt to the ground. The people of Kinglake and surrounds suffered horribly and there were many deaths.
So we stuck by the portable air conditioner. Outside the air conditioned room, in the hallway, it was about 32C!

Today we went for a drive to buy some plant pots. I took some photo's of the country side to give you some idea of just how quickly the green fields brown off and become very dry.

Acres of dryness.

It is positively cool here at the moment- only 29C.

Ok, It's New Year and........

My lovely Hubby gave me a new camera for my Birthday/ Christmas, and since I only worked out how to use my old camera recently after having it for  *cough cough*  many years, the relationship between myself and the new camera thingy is going to be interesting. For one thing, it has more zoom. God help me. That means more buttons and push thingy's. But, as they say, the show must go on. I shall perservere, I shall stay the course, and I WILL figure out how to use the bloody thing and all it's buttons.

Now for something completely different:

Things are afoot in the vegie garden.

The parsley has gone to seed.

Hmmm, I have just figured out how to get rid of the date stamp. There is hope for me yet!