A busy Tuesday

I do a regular early morning Japanese lesson on Tuesdays. They are Grade 2 level, which should be comfortable for me given the number of years I have been studying Japanese. Mostly I find them a bit challenging. Tuesdays lesson was sufficiently challenging that I considered giving up Japanese and taking up Quantum Physics as being an easier option! I have no recollection of having studied that grammar before and usually I have at least a vague remembrance.

Perhaps I am a bit old to take up Quantum Physics. I'll stick with the Japanese. I dropped back into the baby pool this morning and amused myself revising plain form verbs.

I have found a book in amongst my language books that I bought years and years ago, when we were in Tupton, on Japanese verbs and basic grammar. I remember opening it and thinking " !!!!!!!!!!! " when I first got it. I put it back on the bookshelf and there it loitered. I'm not sure how it manage to get its ticket to move from Tupton to Mount Helen, but here it is. And it has a very useful chart for the various verb endings. It may yet come into its own!

Anyway. Back to Tuesday. After recovering from the Japanese lesson, I did some useful things at home and then met my friend Pat in Oscars in town for lunch. They do a lovely lunch sized chicken parma, which I very much enjoyed. We had a good lunch and a good chat. It was more than time to catch up. I haven't seen her for ages.

I had intended on Tuesday morning either to go and visit Stella or to go out to the crematorium and then do the other after lunch. I had done neither of these things, although I had put a chicken to poach in my slow cooker and chopped up a load of vegetables and done some washing and done the dishes and cleared up the kitchen. But I had not gone out.

I checked the time and thought I ought to go and visit Stella before it got too late. But I was well on the way out to the crematorium. I decided to go there.

I mentioned the other day that I assumed I had driven past the new cemetery and just not noticed it. I was wrong. It is out in a corner of Ballarat that I don't think I have been to before. It's enormous. You couldn't possibly drive past it and not notice. It was all quite an adventure.

I found the office and presented myself with some photo ID to collect Jim's ashes. And then I left. I was hardly there any time. And I drove past Stella's place on my way home so called in to see her after all.

All missions for the day accomplished!

In the absence of the more traditional mantelpiece, Jim's ashes are sitting in a box on one of the dining room dressers. I had thought to bury them in the fruit tree bed, which I have been "building" for months and months now. I must get on and get that done. However, I have discovered that it is Not A Plan to bury human cremations in a garden where you are planning to plant trees and plants.  It is perfectly legal but apparently human cremations have high levels of salt and might kill your trees. They (the cremations, not the trees!) would need to be treated first. I will have to think about this. I do not want to kill the trees that are about to be planted. Nor any vegetable seeds that I might spread between the trees. I can, however, spread ash from the fire in that bed. And my fire stove could do to be emptied. Although perhaps not right now. I have had the fire going this morning and I have no wish to melt another plastic bucket with hot ashes!

Freyja and Simon gave me a large bouquet of Australian native flowers at the weekend. My largest vase was a bit small for them and they were quite scrunched up. I have separated them and now have two vases of flowers.

I don't usually have flowers in the bedroom
I should do it more often

Dining room flowers

So that was my busy Tuesday.  And here we are at Thursday, on the last day of August, ready to drop into September and head towards spring. Mind you, spring has already started to appear. The wattles are in bloom, the mint and the tarragon are starting to reappear and if I don't get a move on it will once again be too late to move the rhubarb. (I think it probably is already too late, but I might risk it anyway. I intended to move it last winter and is still waiting!)