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Caroline at The Simple Things asked – Why do you live where you live??
Follow those links and you’ll see the fabulous place she had near to where she lives.

I suppose we live here in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne ‘cose we are close to all the things we enjoy.

We are an hour from the city (Melbourne) just over an hour from the coast and so so close to the beautiful Dandenongs and the Yarra Valley.

click on the photos to enlarge

A green leafy suburb with some streets like this one not far from mine leading to a roundabout……………………………….

Where if turn one way and go up the road you can then follow the Tourist Road up into the mountains you can see in the distance……………….

Or you can turn the other and make your way to a larger ‘town’ with shopping centres and the railway to the city…………………………

The walking path along here is fairly narrow not concrete but made form gravel and runs past fenced gardens in some places and others with tall leafy treed fences instead . Have to be careful if I use this route for my daily walk – its not as level as it looks and can have me puffing in places lol

One part of the journey takes me past this special spot. Our local Anglican Church, calm and relaxing, a little bit of heaven nestled in amongst the the trees 🙂

Half way up a hill you’ll find a seat with a fabulous view- I know ‘cose I’ve used it on more than one occasion as its a fair slog to get up that hill:)

As you come up that hill you can look up and off to the Dandenongs in the distance or back down over the wetlands . This is just a little look at a place I love and would miss if we moved away

Whats it like where you live?

Would you like to show us around a small part and tell ‘Why you live where you live’

Told to me this afternoon – from 10 year old grandchild

What do you call a train loaded with toffee?

A chew chew train

Trying to work out this scheduled posting thing

Should leave blogger at 7.05pm Melbourne time

Cathy

You make people feel euphoric and dreamy.

You’re very addicting.

How to date an entry that is to be posted at a later time LOL

The one just posted titled Yesterday should have been published in the morning – our time :))

Anyway hope you enjoy it

Yesterday I was trying to get some shots of the raindrops on the Sedum and this is all I could come up with.There has to be a knack in getting the right angle to show what you want people to see – does that make sense to you?

Considering the awful heat and lack of rain we have had this summer the roses in the background of the next photo still look quite healthy, they are at the back of the bed and near tall shrubs so they get some shade at the hottest time of the day and then into the afternoon.

This is the crop of Sedum that took Kiera’s fancy – the close up photos are from a different crop.

Even tho it doesn’t look like it the whole of the bed was mulched quite heavily at the start of the season and also after the last rain we had before Christmas yet the ones at the front didn’t fare so well. With the strict water restrictions we have I couldn’t rationlise giving them precious drinking water from the tap, on the times I had a bath I would bucket them but in the end decided they would have to take their chances the same as everything else.

What an awful looking scene this is, can you see the remains of the little veggie patch we dug in the middle. We planted cucs and other bits there last Spring but even tho’ it hurt me to pull them out in the end the lack of water took its toll and it hasn’t been that expensive to buy what we needed. Plus I have a friend who grows for a living and we’ve done very nicely from her gifts over the Summer

I must remember to take those buckets back to the paddock and get them filled with horse doodad again. Theres a whole load ‘maturing’ in the background ready to dig in with the roses again this winter and if you don’t get there when the lady is clearing the paddock you miss out – on those days she’s the ‘best friend’ of half the neighbourhood. LOL

As you can see I had company – Kiera aka Brookwood Maura Delight, yes she’s a Brown Burmese, – who always likes to know what’s going on and puts her nose in to all sorts of places, whether its appreciated or not!

I’m reckon she’s thinking – ‘I’m not sure where I’m going but it looks interesting’

Anyway we’d just had shower of rain and having a go at the real art farty type stuff I was trying to snap raindrops on theSedum Autumn Joy which appears to be the only thing that seems to have survived. Not sure about the salvias in that area………..there seems to be green shoots coming up there so we can but hope lol

Watch out here comes sticky beak !!

She hung around while I snapped away……………………I’ll show you those tomorrow – but today is all about this little madam.

Then she tootled off to investigate the Nepeta patch under the roses – what roses you ask. They are still there – just.

Last weeks rain will have done them good and if the cooler weather continues I’ll give them a pick me up drink of Seasol and a little haircut.

‘Now this smells familar’

The cats love Nepeta and it always puts on a good show in the Spring with the early rose blooms.

No rolling around on the plants like they often do on sunny days but I think she still reckoned she could smell that lovely aroma that comes off this plant when its crushed.

On Sunday Dh and I went out for the day, one of his get togethers with his exservice mates. We went to the army base called Puckapunyal near Seymour.

Odd you might think for ex airforce fellas but there are big things there and anything big is of interest to them lol

To get there we chose to take the Melba Highway via Yarra Glen and then through the Kinglake/Toolangi Forest. The main highway is now open to through traffic but the roads to Kinglake and Toolangi that branch off it are still closed.

I tried to get some photos but the car seemed to be going all over the place – this one shows (sort of ) the police car at the Healesville Kinglake road block – but after taking a couple I just sat there in shock.
All that destruction is awful to see – blackened trees one kilometre after another – what it would of been like on those awful days is unimaginable

Anyway this is where we went, or rather where the men were going and the women tagging along for the ride.

There were big ones, small ones, old ones, ones from ww1, ww2, other countries, you name it there seemed to be one there.

Lots of displays under cover, this one very special

All lined up for visitors to wander around and have a look see

Of course at the end there was a gift shop

Guess what they sold – boxed sets of model tanks all ready to be put together. This is just one wall – there were a couple of others with bigger boxes!!

Yes, what’s next indeed

Well this certainly has been a rough time here in Victoria recently.

We have had to put up with a heatwave and bushfires and then to top it all off and make sure we aren’t getting too comfy again this evening we had the pleasure of an earth tremor lol

Just before 9pm my house and many others shook when the earth moved – 4.6 on the Richter scale

http://www.matter.org.uk/Schools/Content/Seismology/richterscale.html

Not very big but enough to make my windows shake and the bottles on the kitchen bench rattle against each other. I heard a noise and wondered why a huge noisy truck would be driving down my street and then when the shaking began realised what it was.

And then as if that wasn’t bad enough to top the evening off Collingwood beat Essendon in the footy 😦

Busy day today (Friday) however this arrived in the inbox and tickled my fancy.

Enjoy but open minds please

Paddy’s Fingers

Paddy was working at the fish plant in Cork when he accidentally cut off all 10 of his fingers.

He went to the emergency room in Cork’s hospital.

The doctor looked at Paddy and said,

Lets be avin’ da fingers and I’ll see what oi can do.

Paddy said, “Oi haven’t got da fingers.

Whadda ya mean you haven’t got da fingers?

Lord Tunderin’ Jesus, it’s 2008!

We’s got microsurgery and all kinds of incredible techniques.

I could have put dem back on and made you like new!

Why didn’t ya bring dafingers?”

And Paddy said,

How da f### was I ‘spose to pick ’em up!

An English lawyer and an Australian are sitting next to each other on a long flight.

The lawyer is thinking that the Aussies are so dumb that he could put something over on them easily.

So the lawyer asks if the Australian would like to play a fun game.

The Australian is tired and just wants to take a nap, so he politely declines and tries to catch a few winks.

The Englishman persists, and says that the game is a lot of fun.

I ask you a question, and if you don’t know the answer, you pay me only £5; you ask me one, and if I don’t know the answer, I will pay you £500, he says.

This catches the Aussie’s attention and to keep the lawyer quiet, he agrees to play the game.

The lawyer asks the first question. ‘What’s the distance from The Earth to the Moon?’

The Australian doesn’t say a word, reaches in his pocket pulls out a five-pound note, and hands it to the lawyer.

Now, it’s the Australian’s turn.

He asks the lawyer, ‘What goes up a hill with three legs, and comes down with four?’

The lawyer uses his laptop and searches all references he could find on the Net.

He sends e-mails to all the smart friends he knows, all to no avail.

After one hour of searching he finally gives up.

He wakes up the Australian and hands him £500.

The Australian pockets the £500 and goes right back to sleep.

The lawyer is going nuts not knowing the answer.

He wakes the Australian up and asks, ‘Well, so what goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four?’

The Australian reaches in his pocket, hands the lawyer £5 and goes back to sleep.
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Well known fact – Don’t mess with the Aussies :))

Yes it really rained yesterday, in fact it poured.

After another wild and windy day, another Total Statewide Fire Ban Day and one of High Alert for so many areas, it rained, and even tho the day didn’t turn out to be as hot as predicted, 32c/90f was the highest by late afternoon it was really humid.

My garden is saying thank you but I think for some of the plants it has come too late and methinks there will be a mass burial in the next month or two, by then the prospect of really hot days should have declined.

Yes it rained and the drivers seat in my car got wet.

Its been so long since there was even a prediction of rain and well over two months since actual drops fell on the ground so I have got into the habit of just wandering away from the car and not even closing the windows so I’ll have to get back into that mindset.

Reminder to self – close the windows when you leave the car even in the driveway of the house.

It was still wet (the seat that is) this morning and I had to drive down to the gym with a couple of towels on the seat or I’d have had a big wet b….. whe I arrived.

Have been good with the food intake and the exercise since my confession of being overweight earlier in the year and so far have dropped nearly 5kg/11pounds since joining WW last November.

A few friends remarked it didn’t seem alot in that time but I feel it went on slowly I don’t mind it coming off slowly as long as it stays off.

I have been meaning to say Thank You to those bloggers who left messages of support at that time, it really meant a lot to me and helped me focus when other things sort of got in the way.

So I’m off for a walk now, there are some grey clouds up in the sky and today they look like rain ones and not smoke ones so that means I’ll just have to walk a bit faster to get home before they empty. Also its quite cool out there, almost cold so that’s another reason to walk a bit faster lol

Any adult feeds the young and the young ones can yell quite loud and long and give the impression their throats cut and they are dieing of hunger. Poor mum, dad or aunty can’t shovel it in fast enough some days and I’ve seen the adults almost give the young a clip round the ears if it goes on too long.

They don’t seem to be afraid of anything and are really quite bossy, can even front up to big crows if they dare to land in my garden. They know and tolerate the cats and I always know when the cats are wandering about as the magpies come out with a different cry to their usual carolling.

Female magpie carolling – see how she is standing up with her mouth open

Young about to be fed while others forrage around

Heres a male I saw on my walk last Australia Day (January 26th) – he’s much bigger than the female and has a white back

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As I said they come to visit each day and are a real pleasure to watch

I love bridges – Do you?

I like looking at them and imagining whats on the other side.

I like the memories these photos bring back as we are just beginning a cruise we took to Alaska from one of our favourite cities.

These two bridges have a similar shape, serve a purpose as well as looking good and blending into their surroundings.

The first one is in a little park close to where I live and the second is in Numurkah where we spent some time last November. Not very wide but low across the water they have lots of room in the span to stop here and there to look down and see if there are any fish swimming underneath.

Yes I like bridges :))

Well here I am, feeling a great deal better than this time last week; its been a week of sorting out lots of things.

The main one being that last Wednesday we managed to find a permanent place for my aunt in a very nice nursing home not far from where I live. Only a 5km/3 mile drive – no time at all ‘cept its on a main highway so it depends on the time of the day and the traffic lights lol

Still in a bit of pain she was very weary after her time in hospital and spent a few days resting in bed or a chair but now is taken down to the day room and dining room to socialise and take part in activities. She has had a visit from the hairdresser so looks nore like her old self and this mornings activity was the visiting manicurist who provides all the residents with hand massages and manicures – which she will love as all her life till recently she had beautiful long ‘painted fingernails’

Thank you for all your lovely comments and best wishes in the last post 🙂 (smiling)

Friends knew all was not well when I didn’t turn up for a coffee morning and didn’t answer the phone but used the machine instead, ‘cose theres one thing they do know about me and that is I like talk and will only put the machine on if I’m going out lol

I have stayed off the the computer, in fact closed the blog for a few days, have slept well even with the worry of fires and the effect it has been having on the local population and have begun to take an interest in my craft UFOs.

What can I say ‘cept I am feeling so much better than this time last week, it feels like a big weight had gone from my shoulders.

So heres a joke someone sent me – I roared when I read it as I can just imagine it happening lol

CLAUDE THE HYPNOTIST

It was entertainment night at the Senior Centre.

Claude the hypnotist exclaimed: ‘I’m here to put you into a trance; I intend to hypnotize each and every member of the audience.’

The excitement was almost electric as Claude withdrew a beautiful antique pocket watch from his coat

‘I want you each to keep your eye on this antique watch. It’s a very special watch. It’s been in my family for six generations’

He began to swing the watch gently back and forth while quietly chanting, ‘Watch the watch, watch the watch, and watch the watch…

The crowd became mesmerized as the watch swayed back and forth, light gleaming off its polished surface.

Hundreds of pairs of eyes followed the swaying watch, until, suddenly, it slipped from the hypnotist’s fingers and fell to the floor, shattering into a hundred pieces.

‘SH*T’ said the Hypnotist………… ……………

It took three days to clean up the Senior Centre!!!!

I think its time for a smile:))
Cathy

Chicken Surprise

A couple go for a meal at a Chinese restaurant and order the ‘Chicken Surprise’, the waiter brings the meal, served in a lidded cast iron pot.

Just as the wife is about to serve herself, the lid of the pot rises slightlyand she briefly sees two beady little eyes looking around before the lid slams down.

‘Good grief, did you see that?’ she asks her husband. He hasn’t, so she asks himto look in the pot.

He reaches for it and again the lid rises, and he sees two little eyes looking around before it slams down.

Rather perturbed, he calls the waiter over, explains what is happening, and demands an explanation.

‘Please sir,’ says the waiter, ‘what you order?’

The husband replies, ‘Chicken Surprise.’

You’re going to love this……………… You’re going to hate yourself for loving this!………….
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‘Ah! So sorry,’ says the waiter, ‘I bring you Peeking Duck!’

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A bit tired today after a lot of running around yesterday.

Went to visit A Pam early afternoon (2pm) just as a Dr arrived to examine her. She had a fall late last week (yes she’s in a temporary place where theres supposed to be carers watching over them!) and the RN’s were a bit worried about some aspects of her movements – outcome he sends her off to the Emergency Dept of our local Public Hospital in Ringwood for a more detailed examination.

Knowing how long transport can take I went home saying I’d go to the hospital when she arrived, just walked in the door when the nursing home rings to say shes left, Ambulance transport got to her fairly quickly trouble is when she arrived at E & A she’s classed non emergency so has to wait for about an hour for a cubicle before anybody is free to assess her.

After a while things start to happen, very cursory examination by one of the Drs ( if this happened the other day why is she only just coming here?) BP taken, ECG is done, then about an hour later an xray and then what seems hours later a CT scan on her head.

“I need to pee” “No you have to stay on the bed, heres a bedpan” “Not using that”

So its time for cajoling and persuading this very annoyed 85yr old who has dementia to do something she really doesn’t want to do – success – if we looked the other way (and closed our eyes lol)

Its hard waiting and waiting with staff hurrying by but nothing happening and nobody coming to see how you are. Not sure how she would have got on this time if I hadn’t been there.

About 10pm I got sh….ty and asked if Pam could finally have a cup of tea now that all the tests had been done – she hadn’t eaten since lunch at 12noon – and they were all smiles and said ‘Yes NAD, nothing abnormal discovered, ‘corse she can, and by the way she can go home we’ve rung for transport’

She finally left at 11.15pm, such a late hour to send her back to the nurisng home and I got to bed at midnight.