the joys of airconditioning

The climate in Brisbane is hot and humid and one thing that makes a huge difference to living comfortably here are North Easterly breezes.  My house was designed to catch those breezes and this means that I only use my aircon occassionally. 
However, Mr veryrichbuilder who is proving to the world that he has made it, has built a concrete block house that shuts out all breezes.  I came home this afternoon to find this:

 

this beauty is sitting about 25cms from his fence (and one of the only parts of the fence that is not all concrete - it is to be filled in with horizontal wooden slats so the sound will travel well through that!

 

I think it really adds to the ambience of my garden - thank heaven my hedges are growing.  

Rented flat in new farm is looking good!!!!!

A traveller returns

A prize for the person who knows what this is:

 

here's a clue......

  

Born in Italy

 

they are the fur cuffs of my exhausted coat which has been to America for a month and has been from West Coast to the East and braved many snow falls and blizzards!  You can see how tired it looks!

In New York, it visited the MOMO and brought me a lovely scented candle which is needed here to combat the rather musty smell from having a wet ceiling and carpet after rain got in in the storms. Written on the candle holder is "if you truly love nature you will find beauty everywhere".  I'm not sure which is more beautiful - the possum that has declared my swimming pool fence to be his own personal toilet or the Chinese fir tree which has just popped it's cones and delivered about 20kg of fir seeds to my pool and surrounds!

so it's off to the cleaners for the coat, a re-uniting with it's cuffs, and then back into the cupboard beside Victoria's wedding dress - I wonder which one will be the first to be worn again?

the sofas of number 53

While the city of Brisbane has been flooding, I have been on enforced stay-at-home leave.  The office building I work in has been closed and the power turned off.  My suburb has not been affected at all.  It has been quite surreal to think of all the people suffering from the floods while I sit here in the sunshine, and I'm not really able to join a work gang and help clean up. 
For want of something to do, I started considering my STUFF.  One important fact is that I have FIVE sofas - how can one person possibly use all those?  Being a great believer in cushioning, some of them have been re-cushioned lately and some are sadly in need of same - here they are:

poor little front verandah - sadly in need of something - it has to wait until the building next door finishes!!!!!

this poor thing is stuck in a room upstairs and is in danger of DROWNING!!!!!!!!

The ladies lounge sofa has had several lives - seems to now be leaning towards palm trees, elephants and pineapples.

Monkeys and palm trees - this one is for Floss

the elephant couch - perfect for tired people

I am thinking of downsizing - what fate awaits all these old friends?

What did I get for Christmas?

a stand to hang bananas on

 amongst my presents were:

a florentine tray to put my tea set on

a quilting jigsaw

a spoon that weighs

and a dress up Elvis

It just goes to show that when you have a variety of interests, you will get a variety of presents!!!!


We had a quiet christmas at home with flossntossntom - and that really was the best present of all!

bit of a nicole ritchie pose there floss! 

Bullies

I am very upset.  I came home yesterday afternoon and found two lkarge digging machines roaring around on the building site next door.  The owner builder, Mark was also there doing things with his spade.  As I walked in my gate I gave him a bit of a wave but he turned his back on me and walked away.

I then looked at what used to by my garden beside the dividing space between our two properties....... this used to be a hedge that I have planted and nurtured in order to have something green to block the concrete outlook.  it is now a lot of broken plants!
When the diggers eventually stopped their horrendous noise, I went out and called Mark over - I said that at least he could have told me what he was planning to do and that he could have been a bit more courteous.  His reply was to stride across to the fence line yelling at me and, when he got within reach, he took off his gloves and shook his fist in my face as though he wanted to hit me!  He then told me that he knew I was the one who had rung the council about him taking down the tree. 

It then went from bad to worse with him cursing me for everything that had happened since he bought the property.  It seems as though my neighbour over the back is his enemy as well at another neighbour a few doors down!  The only person who is apparently alright is his adjoining neighbour on the other side who he describes as a nice old lady - in fact, she is scared of him and is just putting up with it in the hope it will stop.
He is a bully who isn't good with words and appears to have a large inferiority comples so the only way he can get his message through is to yell and offer violence.
I felt last night as if my very existence had been threatened by the shouting - this is my home and used to be my safe haven after work.  That has now been violated.  I have told Mark that if he EVER threatens me again, I will take it further.

view frrom the good side

My neighbour is trying to finish his house an move in by Christmas.  There's another scaffold up now which is a bit of a worry as the last time he had scaffold, it fell down on my side of the fence.  The impact of his monument is plane in these photos of the views from my west windows!
Above is the view from my kitchen window - at least my tree is there!  On the right is what I can see out of the family room window!

Christmas is coming

I can't believe it - early december and I actually have a christmas tree AND lights up!  The reindeer are out looking for some decorations and hoping they will get to see their sisters soon.