Gazebo

 In the summer of 2019 we bought a gazebo for our backyard.

We hadn't realised quite how big it was when we bought it.

It said it was simple to erect and to take down.  We did not find it so, though this might be because we do not go camping and never put up wind breaks or sun shade at the beach.

Once we got it up, we left it up until the autumn.

We did not put it up last summer.

January, 2019.
There are vegetable beds there now.

Since then we have had a patio put in by the dining room door and have put patio furniture on it. I have been considering what sort of shade cover to put out there. I think, eventually, that I will have a permanent shade sail put up, or perhaps an awning. But in the meantime, I remembered the neglected gazebo.

I decided that Jim and I might have a major falling out if we tried to put it up together. It was a close run thing last time! So I asked Lindsey if she would help. And yesterday she and Emily came round and put the gazebo up quickly and efficiently.  It *just* fits where I wanted it to go, if placed at a jaunty angle. It will definitely do for the time being. And perhaps until it falls apart.

Today, as you might have expected, it is pouring with rain, quite windy and a bit on the chilly side.  No patio picnics for us today!

Holiday Tuesday

We decided that we would go out for lunch again on Tuesday. We had been to Webster's on Monday and had a lovely lunch. We didn't want to go there again, and we thought we ought to try somewhere different to Piper's. We didn't want to go too far afield for I was taking Stella home after lunch. Then I remembered the existence of a small coffee shop in Mount Clear, opposite the IGA.  I had never eaten in there but the menu looked alright and the only time I had looked inside it seemed friendly and vibrant.

So we gave it a go.  The staff were friendly. The cafe is charming. The menu is indeed alright. And the food was more than acceptable. I was also quite impressed that when I asked for a plate of chips with fried egg and bacon for Jim it was produced with friendliness and grace despite it not being on the menu (although a plate of chips was, and they do an all day breakfast so it wasn't too much of a push). We will go there again. And next time we'll take Stella to our local cafe. They spent the recent lockdown period installing disabled access from the car park so she will be able to get in.

Then I took Stella home and Jim moved up to Hill House for the night.

After a weekend of beautiful sunrises, this was what had greeted us at the dawn of Australia Day:

Almost autumnal!

I devoted myself to clearing out Stella's fridges and the freezer in the garage while I was at her place.  The drinks fridge in the garage hasn't worked properly for years. The freezer was throughly iced up, and had very little food left in it.  The drinks fridge had defrosted by the time I left yesterday. The freezer hadn't, not properly. There was still quite a lot of ice in it.  I stuffed it with towels and left it to it.  It will probably leak onto the floor, but the garage has a concrete floor so shouldn't be too problematic to clear up.

Then I turned my attention to the fridge in the kitchen. It is always full of food, but a lot of the stuff at the back gets forgotten and becomes inedible.  I emptied it, cleaned it and restocked it, plus I added plates of sausages, hard boiled eggs and smoked salmon and a big bowl of salad which Stella can graze on.

I've emptied the fridge

Stella is supervising

And here it is, all organised.
And Stella can see and reach
her provisions

I will consider the freezer in the kitchen the next time I am down. There are only so many white goods you can deal with in 24 hours.

We celebrated the tidying of the fridge with an egg and bacon sandwich at Fine Foods in Mount Martha and then we went and had a look at the beach. Stella had her take away egg and bacon sandwiches at this little car park during the Melbourne Lock Down when the cafes and restaurants could only do take away and people were restricted to a 5km radius from their houses.  Stella was very fortunate that her beach and local shopping centre are easily inside the 5km limit.

No restrictions at the moment.  We can come and go at will.

And then I went home. I rescued Jim from Hill House and we pottered on down to our place where Brandy and Whiskey were pleased to see us.  They hadn't starved.  Their biscuit bowls were still almost full!

Musings

Our new glasses have arrived. Mine, you may remember, are for reading and computer use. They may take a bit of getting used to! They certainly make reading easier. The computer is also clearer, although I keep forgetting to wear them! But I also keep looking to the distance - and wondering why everything is all fuzzy 😂   Speaking of which, I have ordered a new pair of distance glasses and I have sent my certificate to Vicroads so I won't have to wear glasses when driving. When the new licence arrives without the restriction on it.

Jim, on the other hand, is delighted with his new glasses. He had been struggling along with his emergency reading glasses but was finding it hard to see the TV and anything else in the distance.  He can see clearly again now

His new glasses suit him well

It's a public holiday in Australia tomorrow. Neither Lindsey nor I works on Mondays so it is an extra long weekend for us. So on Friday, after work, Lindsey went to Mount Martha and on Saturday she brought Stella up to Hill House for a long weekend in the country. We don't have energetic plans for her visit. Just some gentle pottering around. And lunches. We all like lunches!

After some fairly indifferent summer weather (cool, damp days with a few really pleasant days in among them), we have had our first burst of hot summer weather in Ballarat. Not really a proper heatwave because it's only supposed to be two or three days of really hot weather. And it hasn't (yet!) been as unpleasant as it has been in Adelaide or Sydney.  High 30s, light winds, low humidity. But I really must remember to put the windscreen shield up when I leave the car outside.  The insides of cars get spectacularly hot when they are left out in the sun and the outside temperature is in the 30s.

A weekend's worth of sunrises from our place, looking towards Hill House:

Rupert is very much better. He has been put on tablets for his wonky hips and is now bouncing and galloping and playing again, although his gait is still very camel-like. He seems none the worse for his dramatic encounter with bloat. Both he and Hugo were very pleased when Stella arrived for the weekend.

Hugo and Grandma Stella

Rupert

Eyesight

 I have been short sighted ever since I was a child.  I think I had probably been short sighted for quite some time before anyone noticed.  It was picked up when someone realised that I couldn't read the board at school.

I don't remember now whether that was at the end of primary school or towards the beginning of secondary, although I think it might have been the latter.  What I do remember, quite vividly, is the surprise I felt when I put my first pair of glasses on. Not just that I could see, but that the world wasn't meant to be fuzzy, the stars twinkled brightly in the night sky and weren't just a blurry blob, the moon had markings that you could see without a telescope.  It was all quite startling but it was the stars that stunned me.

Anyway, I've worn glasses ever since then, although not so much for reading. I have had multifocal glasses for more than a decade but I often didn't bother wearing them for reading.

You may remember that Jim lost one of the lenses from his glasses a little while ago and I made an appointment for him to see the optometrist that I use. While I was about it I made an appointment for me too, partly because I didn't see her last year, for obvious reasons. I like to get my eyes checked fairly regularly because my father had glaucoma and my mother has macular degeneration. Not a good genetic mix! But also, I have noticed recently that my eyesight is not as good as it might be.  The world has once again become fuzzy.

It turns out that my eyesight, which for distance has slowly been improving, has now changed so that I am slightly long sighted in one eye. No wonder I can't see properly. My new glasses will be for reading and computer work and not for distance. And I do find that it is easier now to read with my glasses than without. My optometrist has written a form for VicRoads to remove the requirement that I use prescription glasses when driving. And I think I might have to get a new pair of distance glasses.  I actually can't see properly through my old pair and there are some occasions when it is useful to have a pair of distance glasses, especially when I am tired.

We don't know if Jim's vision has changed much. This is the first eye check that he's had since before we left the UK. It is true that in the UK they give you a copy of your prescription but if we brought it with us it is long misplaced. He has another appointment in 6 months so the optometrist can have a quick look to see how his eyes are going.

A Few Days in Summer

After a run of wet and cool days, we are now enjoying a run of very pleasant summer weather. It's been still and warm and sunny for a few days now. It's a bit windier today and we are expecting a cool change later this afternoon, but I have finally put away the free standing heater and brought the pedestal fan out,

Saturday morning at Hill House

Early this morning at Tani

Jim and I decided that the cardboard cat castle wasn't earning its keep. The cats weren't using it and it was taking upon a lot of space in the lounge room. So I started to dismantle it. It turns out that Brandy and Whiskey might not like it as a single castle but they do rather like it as three separate play areas. I have stopped the dismantling for now and the three separate play boxes don't dominate the room quite as much (especially since one of them has moved into the dining area :) )

A box of Brandy

Otherwise, it's been a quiet few days. Lindsey and Ian had a few days in Mount Martha, staying in a AirBnB not far from Stella's place. We stayed at Hill House with Rupert and Hugo. I dropped down each day to sort out Brandy and Whiskey and to do useful things at our place. Lindsey and Ian came back on Saturday afternoon and we moved back to our place. 

Lindsey and I did the Saturday Shopping on Sunday. We dropped out to Elaine. The Mushroom farm is on holiday for a couple of weeks so we couldn't go there and in any case it isn't open on Sundays. We went into town and did the supermarket and the scoop shop. Jim and I  went up to Hill House to help clip Rupert's toenails and to check out the garden. Jim has been enjoying watching the cricket on the telly. I have been enjoying pottering in the gardens at Hill House and Tani. It's all been quite pleasant.

I lost Hugo on Saturday morning.  Couldn't find him in any of his usual spots.  Not on our bed, though Rupert was. Not in the lounge room. Not on the dining room couches.  Not on his bed in the front yard. Not on his bed in the back yard.  Nowhere to be seen. Then I found him. And he was on a bed. But it was the bed in the guest room.  The door had obviously not been properly closed!

A start to 2021

We welcomed 2021 by hosting Lindsey, Ian and Stella to lunch at our place on the first day of the year.  I said it last year, and I'll say it again. Starting the year as we mean to go on. Lunches, joviality, conviviality.  Didn't work last year but I'm hopeful ...

Salad platter for our New Year lunch,
accompanied  by seafood and fried chicken

And a New Year present for Brandy and Whiskey from Lindsey:

Jim and I took Stella back to her place on Sunday afternoon, after a fortnight's holiday in Mount Helen.  I think she enjoyed it. We had lunches out and lunches in. We went to the farm shops and to the greengrocery shops. We went to the lake and out into the countryside.  We saw an echidna. Ian cooked her amazing dinners. After a long, long year of lockdowns and restrictions and physical ailments I think she rather enjoyed the opportunity to get out and about and to do some exploring.

She was also quite pleased to get back to her own place, her own routines and her own bed.  Holidays are fabulous and fun and coming home again is a pleasure.

Jim and I stayed over on Sunday night. We had gone down in Lindsey's car rather than in Ziggy, partly because there was a lot of extra stuff to take to Mount Martha as well as Stella's things. Lindsey's car was jam packed full. You would never have got it all into Ziggy. Also, I was hoping to get Tony's electric piano into the car.  On Monday morning I carefully, carefully measured the piano.  I carefully, carefully measured the interior of Lindsey's car.  I calculated that it would *just* fit.  Jim and I slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly manoeuvred the piano out of Tony's study and slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly levered it into Lindsey's car.  I decided to leave the piano stool until our next visit, later in the month.

Then we left Stella in the hands of her carer and took ourselves and the piano home. Lindsey came by to help us move the piano into my study and to swap the cars back.

I can't actually play the piano.  Stella has, quite accurately, pointed out that I had had piano lessons and it is quite true that I did. When I was a child in London. I think I was probably six or seven. We left London when I was nine, so it had to be earlier than that.  I can't actually play the piano in any meaningful sense now.  I can read music. I know what notes the keys on the piano play.  I can pick out a one fingered tune.  That is not actually piano playing.  But it's a start. I have no wish ever to be particularly competent. No concert pianoing for me. But it might be fun to learn to play something. Lindsey has lent me a book for adult beginners.  I have ordered a couple of books online.  I might look into online piano courses.  YouTube is bound to have something!

But not today. Today we are at Rupert and Hugo's place. Freyja and Simon came for a spontaneous lunch (I made a vegan lasagne that I was quite pleased with). Our friend Julia came too for a cuppa and a chat, bringing 10 month old Baby Henry with her.  Rupert and Hugo were absolutely fascinated by Baby Henry. Baby Henry was fascinated by them. A mutual fascination society :-)  And then Rupert and Hugo discovered that 10 month old babies drop food on the floor.  A definite win!