Lumberjack Fairies

Every now and then something comes down, or blows over actually, trees especially. The species that recently decided to change scenery, luckily fell to the right side: away from the house. But still, it needs to be made suitable for the fireplace. So we started with the smallest (and bluntest) axe in the whole world. After two hours steady working we had done about 1/10 and decided to continue the next day. Of course we did not get around to do it that day nor the next week. Luckily there are some lumberjack fairies here, so one day when we get home, the whole tree is cut in pieces nicely fitting in the fireplace.

Turns out later, the fairie is a far neighbour, we don't know that well actually. Nice introduction. Might have seen us struggling.

Furthermore it has been 'earth hour'. That is a once a year hour where everybody switches off as many electrical appliances as possible. A bit 'sixties/hippies' story but very cosy with candles and a bottle of wine. Last year it was initiated in Melbourne (or maybe Sydney) and this year a lot of cities worldwide got involved. We are actually curious whether anybody in Europe or the USA got involved.

In the mean time we did buy a larger axe, but the locals keep telling us we really need a chainsaw.....

The magician

And yes, Constant has visited us - alias 'the magician'. Very nice!

For sure he had to mow the lawn, because every visitor has to do that. On the ride-on-mower that is.

He specialised very quickly in the woodfire though. Gathering wood in daytime in the sun, having a break in the hammock with a cold beer, in the evening the fire, nice! It is autumn now, so during daytime the weather is still very nice, but the evenings are getting cooler.

During the week he went off with a rental car, and Annet picked him up at the rental office on Friday, where he was already having a beer with the guys from the office.

Of course we learned some tricks, but we can not remember them exactly after 100 bottles of wine...

Family visit

A large part of the Wezenbeek family has been visiting us. Dad for two weeks and Johan and Marleen for about five days. We have showed them all kind of things. Obviously we first took them for a flight in our little plane.

Other items on the menu were:
* Philip Island to check out the koalas and (mini) penguins. They are so cute those koalas - they sleep, sleep and sleep some more. At sunset all the penguins appear at the same time from the water, neatly lined up (really!) - also fun. This is famously called 'The Penguin Parade'.
* Wine tastings with Dad. We visited a couple of wineries in the Yarra Valley to taste some of the local grapejuices.
* Day on the beach - that's only half an hours drive from our place and the bay was as beautiful as ever. There is also plenty of beach available, so you can always find a perfect (shaded) spot...

Dad got settled in pretty well after two weeks; no day was complete without a little nap under the gumtree! Johan had a taste of it as well (studied the koalas too seriously probably).

History

Since three months we've got a new Prime Minister in Australia: Kevin Rudd. He decided to immediately take some long overdue actions. First of all he signed the Kyoto protocol. Australia scores high on the pollution scale (mainly due to burning coal in elecricity plants) so it was about time to at least take a postive attitude towards this. We still don't understand why we're not using more solar and wind energy over here. Next he apologized officially to the 'stolen generation' of aboriginals. Until the late sixties it was policy to take halfcast children away from their mothers. A very moving film about this subject is: 'The Rabbit Proof Fence' . And although some people doubted what good this would do, it was a very emotional day for Aborginals of those generations. All this has made him the most popular Prime Minister ever according to opinion polls (73% approves of him). We look forward to what's next on his agenda.

Also, February 16th was remembrance day of the Ash Wednesday bushfires 25 years ago. Enormous areas on South Australia and Victoria suffered from this. These bushfires even got to our current backyard. Luckily enough bushfires on this scale are rarely seen and we've had safe summer.

Water

So there it is - our 'Gem'. It's not really in service anymore this water tank, we feed on the ones next to our house (on the bottom in the picture). We haven't got mains water so are living of rainwater that we catch via the roofs and which is stored in 3 massive tanks (total of 30 thousand liters). Ideal for Annet to do a study with our recently purchased digital rain gauge. How much are we using and how much do we catch? Considering the drought over here, we need to get an idea.

OK we are using about 250 to 300 liter per day so with full tanks well be fine for 100 days (although the tanks aren't suppose to get empty all the way of course). It has rained just 28 mm in the past 5 weeks (that's nothing really). This gives us, with our roof surface, about 6000 liters in the tank. That's about 45 cm per tank and we should be good for 20 days, for showers and cooking.

And of course after all that maths it has to be checked as well. The high tech method over here (that everbody uses) is to knock on the tank and listen to the difference of sound, indicating the water level. And, yes, it matches perfectly - bunch of freaks we're turning into. And very well aware of our water consumption.

At night we hear the possums having a ball on our roof. Where would they go for a piss? Surely not on our roof...

Neighbours

Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours (not just Kylie).

Our neighbours are great. Peter got to chat with them whilst putting out the rubbish bins. They recon it's been faaaar to long since the last neighbours get-together. So it was instantaneously decided that the next one was going to be next Saturday at their place. They'd be inviting all the others as well. So Saturday around 7 we see a selection of people coming past down the road with a plastic bag clearly containing a bottle of wine or other booze and something else. Good thing, because we decided earlier on to buy some drinks and snacks to take to the get-together. It turns out to be a fantastic evening and one of them even provided us with pictures of our house 30 years ago (their dad used to live in our house!). We still recognize it very well on the piccies.
As we are in the middle of planning a bathroom renovation, we brought up renovations as a topic as well. At the end of the evening we got the details for a plumber and a sparkie, and have checked out the two arty bathrooms (built out of miniature tiles and other unusual stuff) from our hosts. It also turns out that another neighbour has just bought and is selling 30 (thirty!) bathroom bases. And we got a garden expert to help us out as well. One o'clock in the morning we strumble uphill back to our place.

And today during our evening stroll we were invited for a cuppa somewhere else nearby. He was renovating as well and has a few more tips and contacts - great.
Also, he's got two young goats. Annet wants at least one as well now...

Changeable

Did we mention yet that the weather in Melbourne can change very quickly? Just before X-mas we were having torrential rain. So bad that the gutters came down. Well we were going to clean these anyway so that came in quite handy (not!). It was getting colder as well (17 degrees) so we decided to try out the wood burner - nice. Then on Newyears Eve, we sat outside in the evening and the temperature was 29 degrees -which was rather pleasant after a 40 degree hot afternoon.

This warm weather made us go to the open air cinema. There we watched two shows - the movie, Atonement, a good movie perhaps a bit heavy, and the second show: the unfolding of the beach chairs that you get there. Everyone gets his own chair and you can pick a nice spot to settle down where you can unfold your chair. Nothing special with that you'd say. Not until you see everyone go through al the variations how not to unfold it, leading to a real slapstick scenario. When eventually the chair is ready to sit on, the first thing you hear is the uncorking of the champagne bottle. Because in full english tradition a picnic should be accompanied by a matching bottle of wine - and that goes for open air cinema as well of course!

And of course for everyone following us on this blog: all the best wishes for 2008!

Lorrekeet

We moved house. Straight away bought the Barbie and been using it heavily because it is getting 30C now regularly. The last owners were rather experienced and hence they established the outdoor area just in the perfect location. Sun in the morning and nice and cool during the afternoon.
The garden is a constant parade of the most exotic birds. We've got the big white Cockatoo, that makes the most impressive landings using the plumage on his head as counter balance, the stupid birds that fly against the windows all the time or just fall off the telephone wire (full spec Laurel and Hardy style), the blue with red parakeet-like guy and of course our big friend with red pants, whom we of course nicknamed 'redpants'. This fellar particularly likes the nuts in the bush next to the Barbie. (see piccies)
Luckily enough Annet's bird-fobia is a lot less now, but when 'redpants' suddenly decided to do some exploring and sat on Peter's armrest, well that was just a tad too much still.