The best laid plans, and all that Stuff

Things do not always work as we had planned or hoped, do they?

The planned sewing didn't happen this week, sadly.  There has been some medical Stuff to get sorted out....but I have high hopes for the coming week.  It has also been very hot with severe heatwave conditions which saps my energy and makes me feel like doing nothing.  I am over summer - I'm ready for autumn now.

Never mind.  This, too, shall pass.  

We did have some excitement last week!  Just before lunch time on Monday Kevin and I were on our way out, and, as usual, he unlocked the right hand garage door to get the car. I usually get in the car in the shady garage. Imagine my shock horror when I spied a wriggling snake disappear under the left hand door, going into the garage! When we arrived home we contacted a snake catcher who duly came, as we thought it might be a brown snake. Brown snakes are nasty buggers.....very nasty indeed, and it was light brown. Probably not a brown snake, said our intrepid snake catcher, probably a whip snake, also venomous but nowhere near as bad; they are apparently quite placid and have tiny teeth, so don't inject much venom.

I don't care. A snake is a snake, in my book. I know they are protected, but there is only one of me and I like to think I am protected, and Kevin is too.

This is not a brown snake, it's a blue-tongued lizard, known in Australia as "bluey", but that is indeed the garage door under which the snake slithered.

Isn't this a peaceful spot? It's near the centre of Canberra, just 15 minutes from the centre of Australia's capital city.

And - we are planning the annual Easter trip to Canberra again, as we speak!

Our visiting musical guest has gone home, and - as always - we enjoyed having him.  He's not sure if he is coming next January, but somehow we think he will.  He's a nice bloke, and fun to have around; I have memories of him and I sitting around our kitchen table singing Hank Williams songs......well, why don't you love me like you used to do.....how come you treat me like a worn out shoe......

Words have been read, diamonds have been sewn although no more have been cut; the supply is perilous low, so hopefully more can be cut soon.  Choir and uke group are back so words have been sung and plinked; in a couple of weeks we will the first act at a memorial concert for the woman who originally formed the choir over 25 years ago, so that is a great honour.  The usual hunting and gathering have ensured that we won't starve, and that's it for the week.

Viola - you asked how many wombats are in my collection - the answer is.....I don't know!  Quite a lot, but I don't buy every wombat I see; they have to look like a wombat, not like something they are not.  The heaviest is a big 16 kg solid bronze feller which holds the front door open, and the smallest is a tiny gold wombat on a chain.  Many of my collection have been gifts too, so they have good memories.

Continuing with Etiquette of Public Places, Conduct in Church:

"In visiting a church of a different belief from your own, pay the utmost respect to the services and conform in all things to the observances of the church - that is, kneel, sit and rise with the congregation.  No matter how grotesquely some of the forms and observances may strike you, let no smile or contemptuous remark indicate the fact while in the church."

The fashions of the mid-1880s when this book was first published would, I would have thought, have made it difficult to kneel gracefully in public?  Remember - this was the age of the large bustle.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer