a nasty experience involving balls

I brought home a leather pouffe from Morocco and today was the first chance to stuff it!  Instructions on the bag of beans is to do the deed in the bath:

little balls have escaped and just about filled up the whole bathtub.  I tried to wet them to make them easier to gather up but they reject water and then all tried to get down the plughole and block up the drain!




























Then I got the nearly full pouffe into the study and opened it up to put in  a few more balls and about half of what was in there escaped again!

So it's going to stay as a semi stuffed pouffe and I sincerely hope that no one ever undoes it's zipper.....
Up until today, I was sorry I hadn't bought more of them.....

murder in the suburbs

I live in a suburb of leafy trees and fairly quiet and respectable people.  You don't expect to hear about violence nearby.  I have a security door, but it's probably more useful for keeping dogs in or out of the house.

Last week the news reported that a couple and their dog had been found dead in their house in C.....d.  I have now heard the story.  They were in their late 30s - 40s.  The man went to school with Niall C at Terrace and has been working in the city.  The women worked at Cake Star as the cake decorator.  After they broke up, she came back to collect some of her belongings.  Unfortunately, she didn't make it past the front steps where someone she had obviously cared for once, shot her and her dog and then turned the gun around and shot himself.

The extreme arrogance of a person who does this type of thing is astounding!

back again

I am now home from 3 weeks in Morocco and one week in Jordan.  It was a great holiday and it is now also nice to be back home.
It's been rather hectic in the last week - all the chickens in the nest last weekend and then a lot of catching up with friends during the week as well as back to work........


DHL delivered some of the souvenirs from the holiday .. I don't know where I'm going to put them but it's fun having them and remembering the time when we first met!

 This bowl has already had it's first salad in it - it came from Fez and was free-hand painted at the pottery we visited.

 One Bedouin rug and another plus a leather pouffe which now needs to be stuffed

 I love the silver moroccan teapot - am looking forward to making mint tea in it.  The baby tagine can be used to put a tea light in which will be pretty on summer nights.

 I think this rug for here??

and maybe this one will get hung up somewhere?

We've had very summery weather this weekend with temperatures in the 30s.  Grand(god)daughter Audrey came to visit with her rubber ring and the pool got a bunch of swimmers -

 In the meantime, the bunnies have given up their tricks and are looking out the window to try to spot the next lot of visitors...

Devastation

I hate all the possums that live in the city.  Why can't they all move to the country and sit up in gum trees and leave us alone.

Apart from the evidence that one of the freeloaders who lives in my garden likes to sit on the swimming pool wall and piddle, the whole family must have been involved in the feast that involved eating all the leaves on my passion fruit vine and knocking over the pawpaw tree to get there.....

 You might find these photos rather unsettling - what used to be a veryrichwall covered with lush leafy passion vine (which not only looked nice but carried a promise of lovely fruit) has now been reduced to an industrial site with some sticks!!

 Look closely and you will see that one of my pawpaw trees is now lying horizontal (complete with green papayas on it).  the possum family have obviously used it as a vehicle to jump off the wall onto and then sit and eat the vine.

I do have some tomatoes which haven't been discovered by the possums - perhaps they don't eat them.  Unfortunately, these will ripen while I'm away.

The heavy pruning in the front garden was my fault, not the possums.  I am greatly relieved to see that things are now starting to sprout - the mulberry tree is even popping out some little fruit - it must have been just about to do so when Bill and I attacked it.

There is also a promise that the bridal tree will again grow up and shade my front verandah.

A new lease of life

Marina's chair was cowering in a corner covered with pretty pink rugs because nearly 30 years of use - three babies etc.etc. had taken it's toll.
I have enjoyed playing with it and giving it a new cover.

I brought up the old cover from Evans Head and picked it apart working out which order it had been made in and then cut out the pieces in RED!

 I didn't have the chair here while I was making the loose cover and so had to keep trying it on my Ikea chair - which of course it didn't fit!!

Then the chair arrived up here in the back of Bill's 4WD so it could have a final fitting

Not a perfect fit - it looks as though it would sit well in an English country estate!

AND it's about to be moved to the verandah again and covered with a sheet so that it can be collected and taken home again.  I hope Marina has many happy hours of reading in it!

goodbye london

Well - that's the end of the third London Olympics and I have enjoyed them, despite the fact that I haven't got Foxtel and had to make do with Channel 9.

Derrick was chosen to represent the volunteers and be thanked and receive flowers at the closing ceremony.  I got a couple of photos of him and then channel 9 decided they weren't of any interest and inserted 5 minutes of ads!!

A bit blurry, but there is he is on the centre stage!!!

I loved the concert - probably the best were:
-  Eric Idle looking on the bright side with skating nuns, bollywood dancers, Morris men, angels and bagpipes; and
John Lennon singing Imagine - with a previously unseen tape from 1971

It's sad that someone like this had to die unnecessarily but let's face it, he looked better at the 2012 olympics than The Who and Queen!!!!!   and I noticed that Elton John didn't even come?!

Darcy Bussel's dancing was amazing - Goodbye to the lovely flames

the week that was

last sunday I was invited to afternoon at Sue's place.  I expected a cuppa and a biscuit and a chance to meet her new granddaughter Audrey -  BUT this is what was turned on:

YUM!!!  no dinner necessary on Sunday night!!

On Monday I went to Sydney - was surprised to find ASIC in the Westfield building in the middle of Market Street - with all the designer shops!

I was too tired for bridge on Wednesday when I got home so I started covering an old chair for Marina:

I am using the Ikea chair as a template so I hope it fits that old chair at Evans Head

On Thursday Helen W came to stay.  She was up from Melbourne for work and it was nice to catch up with her after about 10 years or so!  She brought two bottles of this with her;

and I have to say it was  VERY NICE.  She told me it was $50 a bottle which is considerably more than I pay for wine - we managed to drink 11/2 b bottles of it but not a whisper of a hangover in the morning!!!

Kris is away as she had an operation on her thyroid.  I have therefore been cleaning.  This is the most useful cleaning thing I have had for a while

like a dustbuster on steroids - it just sits in the ironing board cupboard charging it's batteries and then sweeps up all the dirt!  For someone with a sore back, no bending!!

 I washed the floor and tightened up all the screws with my wonderful screw driver.

Then I did some chair covering while watching this fellow on the telly talking about his time in Korea: