Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 26 January 2020

Lindy, twelve years is not a long time ago. I guess it must have been more than twenty years since I was at the cinema. It was in Perth, Scotland, and I saw 'The Importance of Being Earnest' - OK just looked it up. I was exaggerating, it was only eighteen years ago! I'm very selective about which films I choose to watch on television, and always zap through the advertisements! Channel 5 has good films, but they have rubbish editors who just 'cut' the film when they decide to have an advertisement break, often in mid-sentence. I like something with a good story, not too much violence or swearing, and believable. And almost always, whether it's happy or sad, I end up in tears. I watched 'Love Actually' recently - and howled - such good therapy!!! For this reason if no other, I rarely watch films in the company of others - why should I choose to swallow my emotions?

Agree, it's great therapy. A good film has been proved to be good for lowering your blood pressure, because you 'lose' yourself for a while, whilst watching.

LINDA - the Irises are great - well done. We have multi-coloured this year and they are coming along well considering how late OH planted them!

J has his temporary glasses and is getting used to the current level of double vision, which will be corrected when his eye has settled and he can have permanent ones. Meanwhile, he can wear the patch if he needs to rest one eye. He seems happy with what he has for the time being. We totally rearranged our day so he could get them when they phoned to say they were ready, so M&S shopping is postponed to tomorrow morning.

Lindy: Those irises are gorgeous!!!!!!!!! I so envy you. All the vegetation is still asleep here. This has been the most dark and dreich winter I can remember. Also, I keep forgetting to tell you that your new furniture is very beautiful. I saw your last photo of the assembled unit, but I kept forgetting to include a comment. Hope you're feeling 100% now.

Tomorrow I shall be hibernating as our temp climbs to 42. Hurry up April and cooler weather.

ANNETTE – After the Cal fires was there a lot of talk talk talk, blame blame blame? We seem to have arguments here from climate change sceptics, those who think the Greenies are preventing undergrowth clearance and, most of all, that the ”authorities” are not doing enough or too late. Our PM is in the firing line for not calling out the army sooner. However the system works that the states have to ask for such help first.  Now that he has foreshadowed that there could be changes, I can hear the screams that the federal Govt is interfering!

RSPCA called for 150 volunteers to help wildlife on Kangaroo Island. They have been inundated with 13,500 offers! Meanwhile on KI, Adelaide Hills, South-East & Yorke Peninsula, Blaze Aid volunteers are quietly going about assisting farmers, replacing fences, clearing debris.

AQ - I might be imagining it but think that I heard on the radio that the indigenous folk used to clear the undergrowth as routine thus ensuring natural fire breaks? I just can't remember the details as was probably half asleep....

Good Morning. Dry here.

OG - Great that J got the temporary glasses so promptly. Hope he can cope, for now. The pot of irises on the right of the picture has a few yellow ones in it, but they're not out yet.

Diane - Thank you, we are enjoying the furniture - for most of our married life we've put up with second hand and inherited pieces, so it was nice to go and choose something.

AQ -- Your summers are not something to look forward to, unlike ours. I also thought I'd heard something about traditional use of fire breaks to control the outbreaks. Good that so many are volunteering to help with the devastated wildlife.

HEATHER & LINDA – Yes, the native Aussies used burn the vegetation regularly. Whether to flush out animals for food or whether memories handed down generations indicated that it was a good thing. Of course the country was less populated in ancient times and a wurley is easily replaced unlike our modern mansions, businesses, etc.

LINDA – I must say I prefer Aussie summers to those I endured in England. The high humidity flattened me. I may have mentioned a few June days I spent in London when temp reached 32 C. It was so hot & sticky that I found an art gallery with a/c, sat in each room for hours, studying every painting as long as I dared.

I noticed this report of Tassie raptors.

I too heard or read a report by an indigenous person about the former way of managing the land and the beneficial effects of some burning - but as AQ pointed out there were less people there then and they knew how to work with the land, rather than try to make it fit their perceived needs and wishes.

Nice morning so far, but expecting drizzle later. J is having a big tidy and sort out ready to return to work next week. He always has big ideas to be tidy, and invests in new storage systems, but never seems to finish!

I need to make a couple of cards (one birthday and one anniversary) this afternoon, but I think I shall now have a look at the garden plan for the new season - feeling inspired by the sight of Primroses and Snowdrops under the Birch tree in our little "woodland patch". We had no time without something blooming this winter - the Mahonia always fills the gap if there is one.