Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 12 November 2017

Over weekend I’ve had a sinus niggling headache caused by heat/dust/pollen. Cool change expected Wed should provide relief. The worst culprit could be a flowering bush that OH favours. Linda I envy you with your 3 layers of clothing. Expecting 36 C today and it is still only spring!

.

Last week news report that vandals had damaged headstones at a cemetery in the Clare Valley where OH’s g-g-g-parents were buried. He was not motivated enough to check even when I said I would drive. However Chauffeur Friend volunteered, desperate to escape from her regular duties. The ancestor’s headstone was OK but 46 others were toppled or smashed. Damage estimated $300,000.

.

.

In the district we also captured a former chapel, a cairn for a demolished church and explored the interior of the famous Sevenhill church. Begun 1866 by Austrian priests and completed 1997. Visited the Clare Bakehouse and saw this “Mob of Sheep” at a road junction (-33.8295, 138.6165). Very Aussie scene, the farmer with his kelpie (dog) droving a mob of (merino) sheep.

.

.

The alert kelpie ready to nip any stragglers!

.

.

Every sheep had its ear tag.

.

.

.

,

Later, I didn’t manage to post the above before meeting Travel Friend at Muratti’s for natter & lunch. Head feels better, must be distance from That Bush.

Evening all:

Lindybird: In that whole development all the palm trees have lights half way up.  I was sitting inside the restaurant and wondering how I could hear the people in the restaurant across the way when I realized the glass walls were gone and hanging overhead. I'm afraid most of my clothes could now be classified as "gardening clothes."

Rosy: Thanks for arranging to sort out the world tomorrow. I have quite enough to sort out with family!

AQ: That's awful about the headstones. I could devise all kinds of nasty penalties for that kind of mindless destruction  Love those sculptures - what's the material do you know? Found myself wondering if the artist had worked from a photo or used some kind of digital imaging (or maybe just great perception!). Funny you should mention allergies. I downloaded a bunch of podcasts for the desert section of the ride, where radio stations are few and far between and range from holy rollers to country music.  Anyway, a Science Friday segment had a program on allergy treatments (not much has changed in many decades!), but one guest mentioned a study done on dust taken from Amish and Hutterite community households in the U.S. She noted that the Amish use traditional farming methods while the Hutterites use more commercial/industrial methods.  The researchers introduced the two types of dust into mice used in the study and found that the dust from the Amish communities - and I think I'm getting this right - caused the immune systems of the mice to not react to allergens (gosh I'm sure there's a more fluent way of saying that!), whereas the dust from the Hutterite homes had no such beneficial result. I concluded that it had something to do with farming methods, but then the researcher added that the Amish wore their farm clothes in their homes while the Hutterites changed out of their farm clothes in their barns. Hmmm. Clearly, it's all more complicated than that but would suggest something to do with building a tolerance through natural exposure. Seems like common sense to some extent.  See what happens when you mention allergies. :-)

OK, better put a sock in it now.  Night all...

Unknown said:

Love those sculptures - what's the material do you know? Found myself wondering if the artist had worked from a photo or used some kind of digital imaging (or maybe just great perception!).

Annette - Copper coloured metal? Check the sculptor's webpage for lots of info (About us) and images of his work.

Good  Morning,  All.  Bright skies here today, but the lack of cloud has caused our first proper frosts across the nearby fields. All is white over. A bit of a contrast to you,  AQ!

Adored the fluffy looking sheep and the dog - and the way they even included the detail of the ear tags! The vandalism in the cemetery makes my blood boil - whatever happened to respect?

A lot of interest in various allergies, here, which I used to think was obsessive but actually they are becoming increasingly common.

Today's pic:

"That's cold!!"

WENDY- That is spooky! I was just thinking that you must have snow today, came on here and saw your post:-)

Heather should up date that video as my hills have vanished in a whiteout..

Settling on garden but roads have been treated.

AQ - Wanton destruction. At least you know that OH's ancestors' grave is OK. You got an away day out of it, though.... I'm going to look up the area, shortly, online. Don't envy you the high temperatures.

ANNETTE - I first read your post about the allergies early this morning, before caffeine had hit the spot, now have read it again and found it very interesting. My own, very non scientific thoughts are that a lot of 'modern' allergies could be caused because many children in the West are over protected from the very things that would build up their immune system. Everyone is so darned scared of everything.

LINDY - Good on you for the sorting out. I hate doing it but needs must, sometimes. Hope that your sis in law can use some of the new stuff.  When people justify their hoarding habits by saying things like 'We are from Aberdeen/Cornwall etc etc and we don't waste anything' it is said in such a virtuous way:-) Someone I know scooped up all her childrens' left over food because she didn't want to waste it, then complained about her weight, because she was eating her own portions as well as theirs. I did remind her where food ended up anyway (!). I'm not being saintly, just not disclosing my own bad habits...

Been to the Scrapyard, to say Goodbye to our old faithful car. My OH looked glum, as he would have liked to keep it for longer, but I had to make him see sense that there was not much point in having a car in the driveway which I can't hardly drive, and which is falling apart. We were given the vast sum of 90 pounds for it! Now I have to get to know Ruby, and find what all the switches on the dashboard do.

Heather - I suspect it's a bit of both, with allergies. On the one hand, there are so many man made substances around us in our every day life, which perhaps the body finds it hard to cope with, plus I agree that children need to experience a bit of grime! - some parents seem to try to wrap them in cotton wool.

I have a lot of clothes: I've said this before, that I've got three sizes of clothes as my weight fluctuates. Unfortunately this means that I tend to hoard the smallest ones, in case "one day I can get back into them again" and it takes a couple of years before it occurs to me that actually, they're going to go out of style meanwhile, plus they take up room in the house.