WEEKLY CHAT (non-osprey) SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2016

Hope the new week is kind to all...

Lindybird: How distressing for your friends who moved to a town house. My sister and BiL have a lovely house in the country but are thinking they should be closer to services/family - all in Bucks - and are very concerned about the options.

Lynette: Was this your former family home that's listed and has been in limbo for a year? You mention a landlord who went broke....

Hot here these last couple of days and more to come, but still, we've had a nice summer. Got my "project" table in from the garage tonight with an eye to starting on the dreaded sorting and culling of photos taken over the last - um - decade.

It was granddaughter's birthday today. She went out with her coworkers last night but didn't have a great time. She now works with people in detox treatment and apparently saw too many party types throwing back the booze who reminded her of her clients.

Anyway, best thoughts for all for the coming week.

  • Good news about SiL, Heather. One less concern for you.

    We have just come back from seeing A Tale of Two Cities at a local theatre. I didn't know how it would work out on stage, but it was very good.

    I  cam imagine that your salad suddenly tasted strange, Annette. I watched some of the debate on the news. Yes, well!

    Thinking of Diane and Margo, and their families.

  • My Sunday bus trip was great. For those who want to “visit”, I notice that Google StreetView didn’t drive through Kybunga. Try the satellite view where Kybunga Rd meets Seven Sisters Rd. That’s it - only a few houses amid the paddocks! Railway long gone. All I can suggest is that you view my pics (taken last year) - the hall, former church and a cairn with town plan as it once was.

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    A visit to the Medika Gallery in Blyth. Artist aims to paint the seedling stage of Aussie eucalypts. He’s done 700 of 900. Browse birds & eucalypts here.

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    Lunch was put on by the local historical group at Hart Field Day site. Homemade minestrone or mushroom soup, followed by small pies of various flavours, incl vegetarian. Tea & coffee. All for $10. The site has field trials of various crops. The founder of the field days K & his wife came on bus for tour of district, pointing our crops – barley, durum wheat, canola, peas. He grows durum, a hard wheat for pasta. It pays twice as much as wheat for bread flour. We stopped at a former Presbyterian church, now a private home. The lady showed us the wee hall next door, used as her sewing room plus a bathroom & bed for family visits. This church & hall stand isolated at a crossroads. The hall was used as a school until new one-room school built 1923 a mile away by railway siding (railway long gone.)

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    For afternoon tea we went to K’s home. Mrs K showed us the original 2 rooms of first owner, 2 more rooms added by next owner, and now there are 11. A quick drive around Brinkworth where I captured 2 churches, Anglican closed 1997, Uniting still in use. Then 2-hour journey home.

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    Linda - I saw a review on TV of “Bridget Jones Baby”. He rubbished it. Never believe reviewers.

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    Heather – Great news for s-i-l (and the family).

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    Thinking of Margo & Diane. {{{HUGS}}}

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    This morn a quick trip to Kmart for Miss-soon-to-be-5’s birthday next week. Some clothes and craft kits. Things there are so incredibly cheap. I don’t like to think about how much the workers in those countries to the north of us are being paid. Severe winds, worst since 1982, predicted this afternoon. Plus up to 4 ins rain in Adelaide Hills. Some places are still recovering from recent flooding. People busy sand-bagging yesterday, some moved furniture out of house completely. We should be safe enough here. OH decided not to go out for lunch lest he get caught in storm. That was a roll of thunder, I’d better post this before I lose it.

  • Lindybird: I loved the Bridget Jones movies; will put this latest on my list of DVDs to order from library.

    AQ:  Hope the expected storm doesn't meet expectation!  I have the same feeling when I see the low prices on items made in some countries. There's a lot of talk about trade agreements in our presidential debates; maybe I'm  missing something but when politicians say they're going to "bring jobs back home" I wonder if some of their supporters realize how much prices for those items would increase given the much higher salaries, benefits and operating costs the companies would have to pay  to produce them here.  Oh my, that street scene (if you can call it a street) of the Kybunga Road is 8 years old and you can see where various shots were "pasted" together. Your two shots of the buildings are nice. I see the town's school lasted about 100 years and assume it was like one of those one-room schoolhouses that early rural US towns had.  Some of those plant/bird paintings by Ian Roberts are lovely - very delicate. Took a drive around Blyth, which looks like a nice little town; was interested to a fat palm trees (haven't noticed them in other drives we've taken). I do like the metal work on some of the houses,especially in those curved porch roofs and supports. Had to smile at one intersection which had a car parked with a For Sale sign in one view and another one parked in the same spot in another view - a universal sales tactic it seems. Hope your knee survived.

    Hope Wednesday is kind to all.

  • Good Morning.  Grey here but dry today, at least so said the forecasts!  Will get my bedding out on the line, so that I'm up to date with laundry. My OH is taking his cousin out for the day and has forbidden me to have anything to do with it - he won't have her disrupting our plans. Yesterday she spent most of the day with another cousin, which got her out of my sis-in-laws hair for a bit. We try to keep her occupied, but I pointed out that sadly, that just means that she feels more welcome, and wants to return        << sigh >>

    Spent yesterday evening on the phone whilst not watching M. Portillos excellent travel series. Youngest son has had the flu, or so he says - not pleased when I pointed out that after a day and a half in bed, he dragged himself into work, whereas with "real" flu you are incapacitated for a week. I should think he had a virus. Fingers crossed that he hasn't given it to all his family, anyway.

    Annette   -  I said to a friend, the critics often get it wrong and don't seem to appreciate that sometimes we just want to drop our belief and have a good laugh at someone who gets things wrong, but still battles on in an effort to seek happiness. That could apply to all of us, it's not a perfect world.

    Thinking of Margo and Diane.

  • LINDY - Manflu! Tell me about it...

  • My OH has left with Awful Cousin.  I spoke to sis-in-law yesterday, as coincidentally, we met her in the car park as we came out of the cinema.  She is already tearing her hair out.  Cousin produced A4 sheet copies of photos of a lot of her relatives in the Isle of Wight (she visited there before she came here, this time).  My poor sis-in-law was trying to eat her cornflakes and pointing out that 99% of them were unknown to her, and that in fact, most of them are dead!!  "But I wanted you to be able to put a face to their names" says A. Cousin.......

    Sis-in-law is praying for Friday, when she leaves for the Lake District which she insists on visiting, even though the people there had not seen her for over 45 years and she knew them some years before that, when they were neighbours.   Then sis-in-law can get on with having her bathroom stripped out, as she is having it remodelled.  Sadly the plumber could not do it this week, LOL!!

  • Heather:  I hope your OH is feeling a little better.  Feeling dizzy and uncoordinated is very discombobulating.  My OH is increasingly grumpy as he ages, and I remember my father being the same.  I think they hate it when they are no longer in charge of themselves, and everything else, possibly!

    Women just battle on, as usual.  They're used to having to do it.  Sorry, to any men reading this!!

  • LINDY   Jolly good of OH to take AC away for the day. Methinks you will have to pamper him when he gets home. Will this be the last you see of her before she goes home?

    No swimming for me today as the fitness club is closed for a few days for improvements to the gym. OHs hours have changed so he is no longer doing a full day every 2nd Wed and so should be home shortly after 1400. This is because of cuts to the support users hours due to council cut backs. OHs hours every 2nd Sat have increased so he will still be working the same hours weekly, until Dec when he will only do relief work.

    Anyway Benson benefitted and we are not long back from 1 1/4 hour walk in the woods. It is a pleasant day, so washing should now be dry and I'll have a fair bit of ironing to do. Hate ironing hanging around, so must get on.

  • The bees just loving the sedum.

  • Lovely, dibnlib.  Our sedum isn't out yet, but we have some nerines which are pretty.  Less of them this year though, and don't know why. Possibly Bonnie dug some of them up!  Well done on all your healthy pursuits.  With all that walking, plus swimming regularly, you must be fit as a flea!

    My OH will say goodbye to his A. Cousin on Friday:  I'm hoping not to set eyes on her again for a very long time, myself.....