A Sunday Stroll around the back of the house

Once upon a time, when you put photos into Blogger, it put them in chronological order. Now it just puts them in random order and it is almost impossible to move them around. Short of putting them up individually, there doesn't seem to be much that can be done about this and, truth be told, I really can't be bothered putting them up individually.  

So here, in random order, are the photos I took late yesterday afternoon when I went for a potter around the back to see what was going on:

The tiny little bit of woodland at the back of our place
That's our fence on the left

You can tell spring is on the way:
the wattles are in bloom

Progress, such as it is, on the building site

More wattle flowers

The local children have built a bike track around the trees
Very enterprising, in my view

Our place, as I was walking back up the drive

The walkway over our side fence

Another view of the construction site.
They'e been very busy lately but don't seem to
have achieved very much

 It was a gloomy, drizzly day for most of Sunday. I lit the fire first thing and settled in for a day at home.

I enjoyed the online cooking class, which was from a rural setting somewhere near Nagasaki. The translator was the same person as Monday. The cook was her mother and the entire enterprise was supervised by one of the household cats. Both classes were people in their home kitchens showing how they make Japanese food. Not professional chefs, not professionally produced. Ordinary Japanese people showing their skills to ordinary people in Australia. A good way to spend an hour on a drizzly Sunday afternoon.

Inspired by the class, I made a prawn and noodle stir fry for lunch

It was a quiet Sunday, as befits a Lockdown weekend. Jim spent most of the day watching car and bike racing on the TV and seemed quite happy with that. And Brandy and Whiskey enjoyed the "tents" that I had made for them. Not that I thought I was making tents. I thought I was drying sheets in front of the fire. But obviously, sheets on clothes horses make perfect cat tents

Brandy

Whiskey

My Lockdown Life (with pictures)

I have been doing some experimental baking. I tried making dough with flour, dried potato, yoghurt, yeast and a little salt. I was intending to use it more as pastry than as bread. And I made these:

This was filled with mushrooms and cheese.  It was very tasty but the mushrooms cooked down and the cheese escaped.  Next time I'll cook the mushrooms first so there is more filling and less air in the middle - oh, and seal the edges more firmly.

These were filled with chicken, asparagus and feta. The bread dough rose more than I had expected. They were like a toasted sandwich with thick slices of bread.  I'm definitely going to make them again, but I'll roll the dough much thinner next time. They made an excellent lunch with a side salad for Lindsey and me at work on Wednesday. Jim had homemade chicken and vegetable soup which I left in a picnic flask for him . He's struggling with the microwave now and he definitely would not have enjoyed cold soup.  He had one of these, filled with cheese on the side:

These are non-experimental plain white rolls

With the left over yoghurt dough I made some flat breads, which were very tasty with some hummus and tzatziki

Our current bread supply came from the Mount Clear bakery, which I called into yesterday morning when doing a top up shop. I had intended to call into the butcher as well but there was a long queue waiting outside plus the allowed number of customers inside. I decided to go to the butcher on Monday and went to the IGA instead, where I might have accidentally run into Lindsey.

In a further foodie adventure, I went to Tokyo for a cooking class on Monday at lunchtime. We learned how to make rice and sweetcorn, chicken wings in a rice vinegar sauce, yucky horrible okra and yummy miso soup. There were two other students, one in Sydney and one in Margaret River. I am doing another class today at lunchtime, although the leader isn't in Tokyo but somewhere else in Japan. The classes are part of the Japanaroo festival which is usually an actual physical festival in Sydney but which this year has gone online, to the advantage of those of us who do not live in or near Sydney!

We have had some lovely late winter / early spring weather lately, although Friday morning didn't start quite so well:

Very atmospheric, especially as it rolled in from a clear, dawn sky
and obliterated it

But then it went away and the rest of the week has looked more or less like this, interspersed with some rainy spells, largely overnight:

I am quite pleased with progress in the back garden, though it could do with considerably more attention. The front yard has had no attention at all!

Perpetual spinach, which I might replace
in a few weeks. They're beginning
to get a bit stalky 

View of the veggie garden, which needs some attention

Silverbeet / chard.
Can you see Brandy hiding in the picture?

Sprouting broccoli and celery
(with little pots of sand in the corner)

Last year's asparagus plants are starting to throw up new spears. The gooseberry and blackcurrant bushes are starting to grow new leaves. The herb bowls are starting to reshoot. Although, it has obviously been a fairly mild winter - most of the mint didn't die back at all. But spring is definitely in the air.

Oh - and it turns out that I hadn't ordered a greenhouse. Had I read the page further I would have noticed that I was entering a lucky dip. I might very well have entered the lucky dip just for fun, but it wasn't at all clear that that was what you were doing until you had scrolled way, way, way down the page, which I didn't until several days after I thought I had ordered a greenhouse. I was surprised to get a pair of gardening gloves in the post and even more surprised to find the pretty card thanking me for entering the lucky dip.  An expensive pair of gardening gloves. Mind you, had the greenhouse turned up, it would have been a very cheap greenhouse. Oh well. Caveat emptor, as they say. And you can't have too many pairs of gardening gloves.

In the meantime, the boys are all enjoying the lockdown conditions. Mind you, I'm not sure that things have significantly changed for them

Whiskey, helping me not to make the bed

Hugo, surveying his estates
 from the comfort of his new snuggly chair

Rupert, passing the time of day
on his beloved, ancient couch

Brandy thinks that if the bedroom clock says
that it is before dawn -
then it is much too early to get up. 
Jim is much inclined to agree 😉💤🛌

I'm beginning to think it's my fault!

We were supposed to be going to Gillie's place on Sunday with the rest of the Sunday Lunchers. Alas, the no visitors at home restrictions were still in place so Gillie postponed it (again) and rescheduled for a date in September.

I decided that we might not be able to have visitors at home but we could still go out for Sunday lunch so I booked a table for Lindsey, Ian, Jim and me at the Swiss Mountain Hotel and invited Gillie to join us.

Alas. I think the virus noticed what I was doing and wandered out into the Regional Victoria to have a closer look at my plans.  It got the directions a bit wrong and headed north from Melbourne rather than west. But it was enough to signal the reintroduction of a regional lockdown.

I was on my way out to the mushroom farm at 11:00 on Saturday morning. Lindsey was working so I was on my own. I put the radio on to catch the premier's daily news briefing, to see when the lockdown would start. I was disconcerted to hear him handing over to the State's Chief Health Officer. He had obviously said what he wanted to say but earlier than his usual time. This did not presage good news! I turned to the news radio station to learn that the expected lockdown had indeed been called - but for 1pm! It was already a little after 11 😱

I certainly had time to continue out to the mushroom farm. Probably not to get to Elaine and back in time if I also needed to go to the supermarket. Perhaps I'll go from the mushroom farm to Woolies, which isn't really a diversion on the way home. One of the routes I can take goes past the Delacombe shops, plus there's one in Sebastopol. However, common sense suggested that Woolies might not be an entirely delightful experience given that a lockdown had been announced with 2 hours notice.  I stocked up as best I could at the mushroom farm and went home via the butcher, bakery and IGA in Mount Clear. The number of people in the Mount Clear shops suggested that not going to Woolies had been a wise choice!

In fact, as I have said before, the Mount Clear shops can keep you perfectly well stocked even if their vegetables can sometimes be a bit hit and miss. You obviously get more choice at the larger supermarkets and you can often buy things in larger quantities. But we are definitely not going to starve if we have to rely on our local shops for a fortnight or so. We aren't going to starve if we have to rely on them in the long term. Plus, the Buninyong shops are also within our 5km limit so we even have choices.

But no Sunday lunch out. So I prepared a Sunday lunch at home. Again. 

It certainly wouldn't have outdone what the Swiss Mountain would have offered but it did well enough. I had a butterflied leg of lamb, plus loads of fresh veg. I had a nice bottle of locally made wine and cracked out the wine glasses. I only wish that I had turned over the teeny tiny cauliflower before I took the photo, so you could admire its cuteness.

I made an experimental loaf of Lockdown Potato Bread, experimental because I used dried instant mash rather than proper mash, just to see what would happen. What happened was a tasty, fairly fluffy loaf of bread. Not quite as fluffy as it would have been if I had used real mash, but more than acceptable.

We had some lovely weather over the weekend. At one point, later on Sunday afternoon, I went for a wander on the building site to have a closer look at what they've been doing. 

That's our place just over the fence.
We are towards the top of the site

I have cancelled my trip to Marlo. I was supposed to be going in three weeks and had planned to leave Jim at Lindsey and Ian's place while I was gone. It doesn't seem likely that we will be able to have visitors at home in three weeks, even supposing that we will be able to travel around the state. I realise that care giving is allowed under the Covid restrictions, but it seems a bit cheeky to take advantage of that just so I can swan off to play with the Snowy River for the weekend. I'll reschedule it when I can do it without being cheeky.

In fact, I have decided to stop planning things in advance, even if only a day or two in advance.  I think in future I will simply see who, what and where are available on the day and organise things with no notice at all. By the time the virus has noticed what I'm doing, it might be too late for it to interrupt it.

Surprise!

I was slightly surprised yesterday morning, when I looked out the lounge room window, to see this pottering about on the construction site

It was surprisingly busy out there.  In addition to the new machine and the two regular earth movers, there were loads of white vans and lots of human activity.

After the district nurse had been and I had had a Telehealth conversation with Jim's continence nurse, I went to have a sticky through the many gaps in the fences:

They are making surprisingly steady progress, which you can't see from our front windows.  I must enjoy the view towards what's left of the reserve and the houses on the other side while I still can.

I begin to have some sympathy with my mother who says that the large majority of her "social" activities are in fact medical and paramedical appointments. In my case they are largely Jim's appointments, if not directly for him then about him. Continence nurse, district nurses, podiatry, aged care consultations, Dementia Australia, GP appointments, home maintenance, Occ Therapy, the list goes on. It's exhausting trying to keep track of it all 🤣 Thank goodness for my trusty wall calendar and my online diary, otherwise Jim and I would be in a permanent, chaotic state of muddle!

After the excitements of the morning, I accepted a lift with Lindsey out to the Delacombe shopping centre for a visit to the supermarket. I was slightly surprised, when we emerged from Woolies, to hear what sounded suspiciously like someone playing the bagpipes outside the building.  This might not have surprised me in Derbyshire or Yorkshire and wouldn't even have attracted my attention in Scotland but I have never heard them being played in Delacombe before. We wandered out into the car park and there, by the entrance door, was not a bloke in a kilt but this:

I can say with complete truth that the Cookie Monster was almost the last thing I expected to see!

I don't know how well buskers do in the Covid era.  I never carry cash unless I know I am going to be somewhere likely not to have card readers. Most farmers' market stalls do have card readers but a small number do not, and most trash and treasure market stalls only take cash. I do not expect to need cash in a large shopping complex. Fortunately, I did have a little small change in my wallet. The Cookie Monster has it now. I assume he was out of cookies and biscuits if he had been reduced to busking in a regional Victorian shopping complex. That, clearly, is against the natural order of things!

So it was a surprising day in many ways. I am not expecting today to be similarly surprising but I suppose that is the nature of surprises.  You don't expect them.

The view of our house from over the "back" fence

And some clouds at dusk, looking north east (ish)

Dead Money

I was reading an article over the weekend which was discussing the idea that renting a house rather than buying is paying out dead money. At the end of ten years, or however long you rent a house for, you have nothing to show for it and the landlord has had someone else paying the mortgage on their investment property.

It was an interesting article, weighing up all the hidden costs, disadvantages and benefits of buying and owning against the benefit,  disadvantages and hidden savings of renting.  I am not sure what conclusion the author came to. I think she eventually decided that whether to rent or buy and the benefits thereof are down to the individual, their personal and financial circumstances and their willingness/desire to move around as against staying put.

I would agree that there are benefits and disadvantages both to renting and to buying. However, under Jim's and my specific circumstances, I am very pleased that we own our place. I am glad that I have been able to replace the horrible curtains with the blinds of my choice. We would never had got permission to install a wood burner, and I wouldn't anyway in someone else's property. I am pleased with the patio and am looking forward to the new "greenhouse" that is on its way (I am not looking forward to assembling it; I might need to employ someone to do it for me). 

More to the point, I'm not sure we would have got permission to put in the aids that Jim needs to function in the house. I couldn't have just put grab rails up around the place.  I *might* have got away with the replacement shower; I'm not sure the estate agent would have noticed it. He would definitely have noticed the grab rails. He would certainly have noticed the new toilet seat. And eventually I will put in a new, more functional bathroom. I think he might just have noticed that. So had we not owned the place, at some point soon we would have had to move into something more suitable for invalids.

So there, for me, is the single biggest advantage to owning rather than renting. As the occupational therapist said: It's your house; you can do what you want to it.  Well, within reason. I decided against the black rubber ramp that the council would have been willing to fund to the front porch. They won't fund a concrete ramp. And we might want to sell the house one day. We have to keep aesthetics and buyer appeal in mind as well as functionality and frugality. I have no wish for it to take another 3 years to sell a house that I am either no longer living in or that I don't want to be living it.  That would definitely be dead money!

Tiny signs of spring

We had some absolutely lovely weather over the weekend. It wasn't especially hot but it was sunny and still and mild. The only reason I had the fire going on Sunday was because there were still glowing embers when I got up early on Sunday morning and it seemed a pity to waste them.

Brandy and Whiskey were not complaining about having the fire going, even though I kept it quite low for most of the day.

Brandy and Whiskey on Sunday evening

The Zoo Drive market was up and running on Saturday morning, although the Talbot market had been cancelled on Sunday. It was good to see the Zoo Drive market busy, bustling - and Covid restrictions compliant. And sunny 🌞. It was busy at the Mushroom Farm too. Not so busy out at Elaine, but it seems to be ticking along quite well.

Winter has fought back with the coming of the new week. It was cold and dismal and drizzly for most of yesterday. But you can see the beginnings of spring in the wattle flowers, the little leaf buds on the gooseberry bushes, the beginnings of the new raspberry shoots and the tiny regrowth of some of the garden herbs. Spring is not burgeoning, but it is showing signs of life.

A bloke came yesterday from the Ballarat Home Maintenance place to put some hand rails up around the house. Two in the shower and one where the towel rail was in the bathroom; one in the toilet; and one on the front wall by the step up onto the porch. He was an hour later than expected and rang, shortly after I had rung the office to check I had the right day, to say he couldn't find us. I gave directions from the University roundabout. He had found the roundabout but simply hadn't seen the service road that leads to our street.  He also didn't see the number on the front wall, nor the number on our house wall. He found us eventually!  I can't do anything about the lack of numbers on the other units, but I have put a street number of the front wall, and there is a giant number on our house wall!  There are also, now, hand rails in the appropriate places

It's Freyja's birthday today and Melbourne is, as last year, in lockdown. As last year, I have her birthday present here, waiting to be given to her.  I should have given it to her when we met in Daylesford!!  Never mind. As she says, birthday seasons are all the rage and it's nice to have ongoing celebrations. 

Sunday evening light, viewed from our patio doors

Free for you:  Cat in the Grass photo

Locked down, again, again

All I can say is that it is just as well that the Daylesford, Hepburn Springs adventure was not the weekend just gone, for on Thursday evening at 20:00 Victoria was plunged into a surprise lockdown.

In fact, Lindsey and I  were not especially surprised. I don't suppose we had expected to go from 0 Covid cases to lockdown in 36 or 48 hours or whatever it was, but under the circumstances we were expecting a lockdown announcement. We didn't know when but we were sure it was coming. The only surprise was that it started at 20:00 on Thursday evening and not at the customary 23:59.

Fortunately, Lindsey and I had already done most of what we needed to do on Thursday before the announcement was made. No need to rush out and do the shopping before the lockdown started; we were nicely stocked up.

It was Jim's and my weekend to go to Mount Martha and I had booked a table at the Dava for 3 people on Sunday. Partly to celebrate Jim's and my twelfth wedding anniversary and partly because Stella only gets to go out when someone can take her and it's not always convenient for people to take her out for lunch or morning tea or whatever. Obviously, we couldn't go to the pub for lunch under lockdown conditions, but Jim and I could still go to Mount Martha. Care giving remains one of the reasons for leaving home. I have the letter from Stella's GP, written when this all started, confirming that she needs weekend care. Nothing has changed since he wrote it.

I took the makings of a Sunday roast with me. Just because we couldn't go to the pub didn't mean that we couldn't have a proper Sunday lunch, the makings of which I had picked up on Thursday before the lockdown announcement. My crystal ball was obviously not cloudy on Thursday! We had slow roasted pork shoulder, scalloped potatoes, roast apple pieces, purple and green cauliflower, broad beans, green beans, snow peas and carrots and apple gravy. I think I might have outdone the Dava 😋

With it we had a rather nice zero alcohol sauvignon blanc. I usually find zero alcohol wines a bit sweet but this one has a bit of bite to it and isn't too sweet. We wouldn't have got that at the Dava!

Stella, enjoying her Sunday lunch

And then, just like that (and this was a surprise), the lockdown in Regional Victoria was lifted. As of midnight last night we were returned to the restrictions we were under last Thursday. Not in Melbourne, which continues to have worrying numbers of cases, but definitely in Ballarat.  So if the Daylesford adventure had been planned for today, Lindsey and I could go but Freyja and Simon could not, which would be a bit ironic because really it had been their adventure which Lindsey and I had gatecrashed!

In between lockdowns, I bought new blankets for our couches. Brandy and Whiskey approve:

They also approve of the wood burner, although it took them a little while to get over their initial suspicions:

Don't burn your nose, Whiskey

I did, however, have to move their beds back a bit as the day progressed. They were clearly getting too hot when up close 

Not too far back, though, or they push the beds back closer :D

Now that we are once again in between lockdowns, I must look into getting a fire guard. I do worry about them burning their noses or paws when I am not watching