Slowly but surely

That's us, putting the house back together.  Slow, but sure.  You know, this is worse than moving house;  at least when you move you have cupboards and furniture and big stuff which is placed where it needs to go in whichever rooms it needs to be in, then you unpack your boxes of small stuff into said cupboards, and everything is just fine and dandy.

We are shuffling furniture around, and moving stuff, and trying to work out how to fit a larger cupboard's worth of stuff into a smaller cupboards because the larger ones aren't made any more.  Moving house six hours away wasn't this difficult, you know.

Ten days ago the furniture and most of the packed boxes were brought from the garage into the house so now the car can be parked out of the hot sun, something for which, considering the heatwave conditions we have been struggling with for weeks, we are very thankful.

In recent times the population of galahs on the hill behind us has boomed, it must have been a good season for babies!   A few youngsters sitting on our fence, the babies are slimmer than the adults and the colours aren't as bright.

A few of the flock foraging, but as you can see the drought is bad and there's not much of anything to be found.

 A visiting teenager, with some of the flock behind.  Young ones don't have the head crests that adult birds have, either.

I like galahs.  They can be very noisy, raucous even, but they can be very funny birds.  My grandparents had a caged galah when I was a child, goodness knows how old it was....they can live to extraordinary ages in captivity.  They possibly could in the wild too, but how would you know?  One galah in a flock looks much the same as its feathered friend flying alongside.

Yesterday a local guitarist checked out my guitars for water damage, and they are all right.  I am so relieved, you can't begin to know how much, a weight has been lifted from my shoulders; new strings (to be purchased early next week, the spare sets in the cases will be thrown out because they have probably rusted) and they should be good to go......or hot to trot, as once would have been said.

We decided, while we're throwing money around like it's going out of style, to get rid of our dining room table and chairs.  The buffet had to be chucked after the flood....sigh......and trying to buy something which looked good with the table and chairs, with the limited choice available in a country town, had us scratching our heads.  I never loved that setting although I didn't hate it; when we bought it Kevin liked it more than I did, but now it's gone gone gone, collected by a local charity shop a couple of days ago.  New table, chairs, buffet and coffee table will be delivered on Monday.

As I said, slowly but surely.

A few tumblers have been joined, but I am trying to hasten slowly with them although they are very quick to join.  We are planning a trip to Canada later in the year, and I will need a take-along project, so that will be It.  Work has started on another project involving hand work, but no pics yet as it's to be a surprise for its recipient.  Hopefully it will be finished when it needs to be......no guarantees here though, folks. 

"Parents who indulge in gossip, scandal, slander and tale-telling, will rear children possessing the same tastes and deteriorating habits.  A parent's example outlines the child's character.  It sinks down deep into his heart, and influences his whole life for good or for evil.  A parent should carefully avoid speaking evil of others, and should never exhibit faults requiring the mantle of charity to cover.  A parent's example should be such as to excite an abhorrence of evil-speaking, of tattling, and of uncharitable construction of the motives of others.  Let the mother begin the proper training of her children in early life, and she will be able to so mould their characters that not only will they acquire the habit of bridling the tongue, but they will learn to avoid the presence of the slanderer as they do a deadly viper."

Yes.  Much gossip and slander is currently being spoken about our local Member of Parliament, and much of it is true......the wife and four daughters are an established fact, as is the mistress and her expected baby.  There is more, much more, the whiff of corruption is strong, and it is all true.  Who knows where it will end?

Enjoy your days!

We have carpet!

Everywhere in the house which should have carpet now does.....bedrooms, family room, hallway, and good room.  (Anyone else have a 'good room' in their house when they were growing up?  We did; back in those days children were told 'stay out of the good room' because it was kept pristine in case of visitors.  The rest of the house could be a total pig sty but our parents - mostly our mothers - made sure that one room was fit for the odd guest.  We were then allowed in under sufferance.)

We like our carpet choice much better than our pick last time, and much more betterer than the carpet which was here when we moved in.  Now we look around and see our choice of carpet, our choice of tiles and our choice of wall colour (although those pink pink walls we inherited still give me goosebumps at the very thought).  The fussy frilly curtains and pink blinds were also replaced a few years ago by our choice of slightly textured cream blinds and no curtains, and now the rooms are a restful unfussy very-slightly-buttery light cream.

Sigh of contentment......

Packing, unpacking and sorting has commenced in the sewing/stash room.  The plan is to be totally ruthless and only keep anything I like and hope - I nearly wrote intend, but I may not live that long - to use.  Under the window is now a set of cubbies with a shelf top, four spaces across by two down, replacing a larger desk which had become "somewhere to dump stuff".  The two new cupboards are smaller than the cupboards they are replacing so that will leave me with more floor space for moving around.

Consequently the camera hasn't seen the light of day this week, so there are no new photos for you!  However do not despair, to counteract the fierce heat which has been making our lives miserable for the past few weeks here is a colourful foretaste of autumn.  Only a couple of months now.....

This was taken with the late afternoon sun shining through the trees.  I can't identify these trees for you, I'm sorry!  Perhaps the Canadians will know; I can recognise most of the garden flowers we have seen on our visits but the trees have me stumped.  Except maple.  I can usually identify maple trees.

 The evergreens with deep gold in front, then bare trees......I love it.

 On a rainy day, our last day in Toronto before we flew to B.C.  The suite where we have always stayed and where this was taken has been sold, quelle horreur!  We will have to look for somewhere else as convenient.  Those blue spruce trees are so pretty.....we don't have them here.

Only a couple of months to go.....fortunately it has cooled down for a week or so, and we are relishing the chance to enjoy temperatures lower than average for a while.   It will, sadly, warm up again by the end of next week.

The home renno TV channel sometimes shows people house hunting and/or renovating in Canada or U.S.A. during autumn, and the colours are soooo glorious.  We like renno porn.

A few more tumblers have been joined, and a few more cut.  Currently the total stands at 366 cut, leaving 474 still to be done.  Better get cracking......

"Unmarried ladies should not accept presents from gentlemen who are neither related nor engaged to them, nor indebted to them for some marked favors.  A married lady may accept presents from a gentleman who is indebted to her for hospitality."

I wonder if this still holds true?  In my giddy youth the implication was, if one accepted a present from a bloke to whom she was neither related or engaged, she was under an obligation to repay "in kind"......and I'm sure I don't need to spell out to you what that means.

Enjoy your days!