:: 52 weeks of happy, 1/52 ::

This year I'm joining in with 52 weeks of happy.  Top of the list for me this week is -

1.  Talking to my Dad every day on the phone.

I took this hand held photo earlier this year.  I love it even though it's not our best photo.   I hope you don't mind me posting it Dad?!!

2.  Air conditioning especially when it's 38C.

Your calender looks perfect Louise.

3.  My gorgeous dog Sophie who has been keeping me company outside while gardening.

4. Sitting out on the deck to have breakfast or coffee while enjoying the flowers in the garden and the sound of the water feature.

I hope you have many happy moments this week.

Anne  xx

Queen of Kong

Yesterday I took our cats Stripey and Bungee to the vet for their annual checkup and vaccinations.  I'm happy to say that at 12 years of age they are both doing well and Stripey's hypothyroidism is under control with tablets twice a day.  

While talking to the vet, I took the opportunity to mention Sophie's recent reaction to the brisket bone I gave her and he said that some dogs can react badly to the fat content of the bone.  He said the boiled rice and chicken I was giving her while she was sick was the perfect bland diet until she had recovered which she now is, thankfully.

When Sophie was a puppy I bought her a Kong which has long since been destroyed.  So while I was paying the bill at the vet I took the opportunity to buy her a new Kong and a one of those manufactured bones that is good for chewing but wont do her any harm.  I'm saving the bone to give her on Christmas Day as we will be spending the day away from home with my sister.

When I got home, I filled the Kong with pieces of homemade bread crust and gave it to Sophie.  She had so much fun and was kept occupied for hours trying to get that bread out.  Here are a few photos of her enjoying herself.

Charlotte in the background and evidence of dog hair under the occasional table.  :)  Oh and evidence of a happy, well treated dog!!

The Kong has rolled under the sofa and Sophie is waiting for me to get it out for her. 

So cute with that tongue hanging out.

She looks pretty good doesn't she?!  At this moment she is out on the back deck sleeping in the sunshine.  She asked to go out and is very content snoozing away the hours.  Stripey is trying to climb on my lap while I'm typing this post and purring loudly in my ear.  There is nothing quite as wonderful as a purring cat.

Well I'm off to make pastry for Christmas mince pies.  The fruit mince has been happily doing it's thing in the fridge the past few days.  It smells divine.  I'm not sure if it's the brandy or the lemon rind but the proof will be in the tasting I'm sure.

Have a wonderful weekend and good luck with your last minute shopping, baking and general preparation for Christmas.  Have FUN!

Anne  xx

In my neighbourhood and what my dog did!

 Yesterday when I was driving to yoga class I passed this front yard all decked out with Christmas hats and giant candy canes.  I didn't have my camera with me so went back today to take this photo.  The house is set quite a way off the road so I tentatively made my way up to get a closer look.  I think it's rather a cute idea. 

 

Last Sunday afternoon hubby and I went to the local movie cinema to see the latest Bond movie which we enjoyed immensely.  In front of the car park and on the main road through our local town was this fantastic yarn bombed tree.  I took the following photos today too.

 

 

 Someone has put an incredible amount of work into this display and I love the bird cage too.

Now to the DOG!!!

I love my dog, I really do, but sometimes I don't like what she does.  In the last six months (please bare in mind we are talking about a 10 year old dog not a puppy), she has developed some not so nice habits like getting out of the yard, trying to dig under the gate and upending my pot plants on the back deck.  I did wonder if she was letting me know she wasn't happy that I left her for two months in May/June while traveling in Europe and the times I've visited Western Australia this year.  (She's always been at home and with family members).  She usually sleeps out on the deck at night in a very nice sheltered and warm kennel but as I was feeling sorry for her, we started to let her sleep in side.  She then developed another bad habit of sleeping on our lounge chairs which is NOT allowed.  Perhaps you may think I'm harsh but she is a pale Labrador and Labradors shed two coats of hair.  We have fabric lounge chairs and her hair gets stuck in the fibers resulting in vacuuming taking 30 minutes for one lounge chair. It's bad enough having two white haired cats let alone a dog that when she wags her tail, she sheds enough hair to stuff multiple pillows and cushions.  

Yes, it's a bit of a long winded story so if you are still with me well done and thank you for your patience.  In my wisdom (not so wise I since discovered), I bought a lovely big brisket bone for her thinking it would keep her busy during the night while she got use to sleeping outside again.  It did keep her quiet and out of my pot plants but two days later made her very sick with diarrhea and vomiting.  I felt so bad for her but she had to stay outside the second night because she was so unwell.  Apparently not too sick to do this though.

The guilty party.

  She is well again thankfully after a diet of boiled rice and chicken but I'm still not going to let her inside at night because she will be up on the chairs again.  We've tried putting things on the lounge chairs to stop her climbing up, so much so that we had boxes, bags and other paraphernalia nearly up to the ceiling.  We tried putting sachets of smelly things unpleasant to dogs like eucalyptus and tea tree oil on the lounges, we even sprayed eucalyptus air freshener near the chairs but to no avail.  After I cleaned up the above mess I decided that I would pour a liberal amount rosemary essential oil over the pot plants in an effort to keep her from upending them again.  It has worked for the last two nights, so fingers crossed she is breaking a bad habit.

Never a dull moment eh?!

May you all have moments filled with peace and well behaved dogs (if you have one) in the lead up to Christmas.

Anne  xx

 

Spring posy and a new dressing gown

Last week I decided to have a wander around the garden to see what was flowering, what weeds needed to be pulled and how my little vege patch was faring.  I picked a small posy of flowers and plonked them in this pretty bright aqua jug to brighten up the table.

The Sweet Peas and Roses smelt divine.

The last summer dressing gown I bought was just before I got married and although I still have it hanging in the wardrobe, it doesn't fit around me in quite the same way as it use to.  Time for a new one only this time I decided to make one.  Considering the luck I've had recently with trying to make some clothes for myself, this was a brave undertaking.  I used this pattern.

I decided to make a medium size which has turned out rather roomy with quite long sleeves.  I can assure anyone who is a sewer that this was not 2 hour sleepwear.  I'm very happy with how it turned out.

I found the boys, Stripey and Bungee side by side enjoying a sleep on top of the couch this morning.  We call Stripey (the cat on the left) blob blob, which he is of course.

They had all that room and a choice of chairs to sleep on but no, the top of the couch it had to be.

I leave for Western Australia with Genevieve on Sunday to visit Dad and Mum for two weeks.  I'll try and pop into blog land if I can.

Take care everyone,

Anne  xx

The cat that likes corn

We once had a cat that ate fettuccine and other interesting non cat food.  We now have a cat that likes corn on the cob.  Here is Stripey tucking in to what is left of my corn cob.

Some people might be grossed out by this I suppose but think it's really funny.  He really gets into it, trying to eat it like a piece of meet.  Bits of corn go flying and he makes the funniest noises while he is slurping, licking and chewing and usually purring all the while.  Guess you have to be a cat lover.

Anne  xx

Home again

Hello, I'm home again in Victoria and back to cooler temperatures of 26C instead of 39C.  I actually feel like doing something, I had forgotten how much the intense heat saps your energy.

While I was on the farm I bought Mum a new bougainvillea plant.  She expressed a desire to look at the lovely blossom while doing the laundry in her outside wash house and I had so much fun creating an easy care patch of garden for her to make this possible.  My big strapping nephew very kindly cut down and grubbed out a dead privet shrub making space for the new garden.  I used whatever I could find including an old discarded 44 gallon drum, wire from some chicken netting, an old piece of trellis, some garden tie wire, stones from the farm, other pot plants from Mum's garden and a white pot for the bougainvillea. 




Mum and I both love the rusty drum although Dad thinks it needs a paint.






On the last Monday I was staying with my parents, my brother came over in the morning to deliver fresh milk, have a cuppa with us and was then on his way to move some sheep.  I hitched a ride with him so I could watch his amazing sheep dog Jessie in action.

It was an absolute joy to see her working and my brother says she is very mature for such a young dog.

Late Monday afternoon my brother took me, my nephew and the two dogs to Lake Baandee for a swim.  It is a salt lake which rarely has water in it due to the low rainfall in the area.  There has been water in the lake for the past two summers although previously it had been dry since about 1999.
My brother swimming with Bonnie.


 My nephew with his snorkeling gear on.  There was nothing much to see except a few mosquito larvae, he had fun anyway.
Gorgeous Bonnie with a salt and sand encrusted face.

 After swimming for a bit, Jessie decided it was time to go home and sat in the back of the ute.  She had to wait for us as we were having too much fun.

 Sun setting over the water.

 
 

 This is my favourite.


We came out of the water very crusty with salt but as I managed to float on my back for the very first time due to the saltiness of the water, I didn't mind. :)

I had a good flight home to Melbourne from Perth and passed over these salt lakes, one in the shape of a heart which I thought was rather lovely.

Flying over the township of Esperance.

Beautiful coastline along south eastern Western Australia.

So now it's back to the routine for a few months and then hubby and I are off to Europe for a couple of months.  There is a lot to do between now and then, so I had better get cracking.  Thank you for taking time out of your day to catch up with my blog.

Anne  xx

Evening sky

One of the wonderful things about visiting my parent's farm is being able to see 360 degrees.  There are no trees obscuring the view like where I live in Victoria.  On a clear night you can see millions of stars and tonight I went outside to get a star fix.  I could see the Southern Cross, the Two Pointers, the Seven Sisters and the Saucepan.  There were stars near and far, some twinkling and some blazing, such a magical night sky with the Milky Way clearly able to be seen.  No light pollution out here.

Last night I stepped outside to take some photos of this sunset.

Allow me to introduce you to Hector and

Humphrey.

These two gorgeous farm cats (pets) were very hot and flaked out on the pavers trying to get cool.  It was nearly dark so I used the flash to get decent photos of them.  Hector or Hecky as he is called is timid and not too keen on strangers getting close.  Humphrey is a sook and will take all the attention you give him.  He is quite happy to sit in the wheelbarrow and go for a ride up to the wood heap which is rather cute.

Today has been another hot day of 38C with a cool change tomorrow and a temperature of 36C expected.  :)  Two degrees make all the difference I can assure you.  

Anne xx

And then there was one

Hello everyone, how are you?  It has been relatively quiet in my little patch of the world and I must say I'm rather happy with that.  Not too much stress and not too much to do allowing me the time to enjoy summer and the garden.  Before talking about the garden, I'm sad to say we've had another chook die.  She had been sick on and off for the past few months and became very weak.  We now only have the one and fortunately she is looking wonderfully healthy and still laying an egg for us most days.  She is lonely though so we might look around for a companion for her soon.

I've been spending a huge amount of time in the garden pruning, planting, replanting, weeding, tidying up and replacing some plants that have come to the end of their life.  There are so many pretty flowers in the garden at the moment and the photos below are just a small sample.

We are hoping for some strawberries soon.

The raspberries are suffering this year from an infestation of woolly aphids.  I found a spray made from pyrethrum, garlic and chili which has sent them on their way.  There were normal aphids on the roses, so they were sent packing too after a good spray.

I recently came across this quote which appeals to the artist in me.

Google images

While we are in the garden, it seems chooks are not the only animals the like having a good dust bath.

Hubby saw Bungee on the driveway and at first though he was the nasty grey cat from across the road, he was that dirty.  When Bungee wanted to come inside, he was locked in the laundry until he had given himself a good bath.  He was most indignant as he was expecting to be allowed to bath himself on either my bed with a white coverlet (I think not), the light beige sofa, (nope) or the other casual sofa which has a cream coloured cover.  In your dreams Bungee.

Before I go, I would like to say welcome to my new followers and thank you to those who are still following this little blog and interested in what I get up to. I'll be back soon to show you a few things I've been playing with.

Until then, wishing you all a lovely day/evening,

Anne  xx