Sunday, May 30, 2021

Covid 19 Projects - 1 Year on

Andy's Covid project was to make a workbench from recycled timer using hand tools and old school techniques - fancy fitting joins. The workbench is finally finished and looks great after its second coat of oil.



Meanwhile my covid project related to the garden - creating a dry river bed which became a dry pond. Trying to avoid spending large quantities of cash, I spotted a load of free river rocks last weekend on the Buy Nothing Garden Facebook page. I did have to spend $30 for several hand picked larger feature rocks and a couple bags of crushed granite. I'm happy with the result.

 

In other parts of the garden - I've undertaken the task of creating a garden beneath Katy's window. It's been bare since the trampoline left. The difficulties with this area is that it is south facing and therefore is in shade most of the time. Plants therefore need to be both frost tolerant and shade loving. I've gone with a couple of ferns and a correa. Also as I had a heap of smallish river rocks leftover, I decided to make a use of two gabion square cages which will form the base of a seat. Making or sourcing the top is now Andy's new project so watch this space!




The veggies continue to thrive while avoiding Indi's attention. I may need to cover them before we go away to deter the cabbage moths from nibbling on them.










Sunday, May 23, 2021

Ainslie Majura Virtualgaine

The ACT Rogaining Association last year under the shadows of Covid, created the Mt Rodgers Maprun Mayhem 3 hour virtual rogaine. The event was such a success, several more virtualgaines have been run in and around the Canberra region.Unfortunately we haven't been able to make any of the others until now! The stars aligned - with no prior commitments, Cath and I decided to participate in this Ainslie Majura Virtualgaine.

Conditions were ideal - a crisp sunny winter morning greeted us. We based our route on our pre-existing knowledge of the area and optimised it to be a nice run! And it was! Apart from a loop around one control site, we cruised around the base of Mt Ainslie before climbing halfway up Majura. As we approached the final controls Cath added in a few extras just because! We were plodding away from our last control when I joked that we should get one more... then we realised if we did we would cover 21km. And so we got one more 'final' control before hobbling back to the start / finish area. A great time out.




 

Thursday, May 20, 2021

Coastal Orienteering

The Autumn Classic weekend of orienteering based at Broulee had finally arrived. The number of entries well exceeded expectations (400+) and added a little more pressure to ensure the events ran smoothly. Rob and  John had set excellent courses. They together with Andy hung and collected controls plus the other paraphernalia associated with meticulous planning. Like any orienteering events, a large group of fantastic volunteers helped out with many administration duties, setting up, running the computers / timing systems, sorting out the starts and packing up. Both events were very successful with many positive comments from competitors. A long and tiring weekend but oh so nice to be close to the ocean again!


The airbnb was a perfect base - about 200m from the assembly area which meant the girls and their friends wandered back there when they were finished and bored.

It wasn't all about orienteering though - we managed to include a morning surfing session on Saturday with local guru Navid plus a few visits to our favourite coffee spot - Mossy Point Cafe and another photo in the boat! 

Also the three girls - Ella, Mira and Katy decided to try a night surf!! Crazy kids I say!!

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Haircut #2

We booked Indi in for her latest haircut a little too late, then it got cancelled and rescheduled by a few weeks. So by the time the Grooming Genie guy came around her hair was very matted. Unfortunately for her this meant he had to cut much shorter than we would have liked. Indi is back looking like a terrier and an unhappy and cold one at that. Luckily for her unicorn suit!! In preparation for next time, I've bought some scissors and might have a go myself before her coat gets too tangled. We all prefer shaggy Indi.





Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Secret Weapon

Indi has always been fascinated by the chickens but more obsessed with the rats / mice that come to visit the chickens and scavenge what they can. These rodents approach the chicken coop via two routes - over the back fence from the neighbours jungle and shed as well as through the side fence from the next-door neighbours after emerging from under their woodpile.

Often when I have been attending to the chickens or hanging washing on the line, Indi comes up for a peek. Occasionally she will spot a rodent (way before I do) then intently watches it hoping that it will make a poor decision of where to run to next. This can be followed by a burst of activity from Indi signally that it has indeed made that bad decision. Several times she has cornered or come close to catching the rodent.

The other afternoon as I walked through the back gate, I was greeted enthusiastically by Indi. Normally she would follow me inside but not today. Instead she disappeared behind the veggie patch and looked to be digging. Intrigued I went to investigate only to see her holding a mouse in her mouth!! Luckily she dropped it when I approached. It was clearly dead without any evidence of injury and rigamortis had not yet set in. I could imagine Indi chasing it and poking at the poor creature with her nose for hours and wondered if the poor thing had died of shock.



At least we know if the mouse plague that is currently decimating the crops and grain stores in central west NSW makes it to Canberra we should be ok and Indi will be extremely happy to have friends to play with!!

Monday, May 17, 2021

Autumn in Colour

 A fantastic colourful time of year in our garden!

  





Sunday, May 16, 2021

Upcoming Adventure

Last year we explored the idea of a West Coast camping trip. With Covid settling down in late 2020, we bit the bullet and paid a deposit on hiring a 4WD camper. Originally our trip was planned for May however, by the time we decided to proceed, the car was no longer available for that time slot, instead it would be June / July. Since then, we have been busy booking accommodation and tours.

We fly into Perth in mid June having a few days to catch up with family and friends before picking up the 4WD camper. Over the next three and a half weeks we make our way up the west coast finishing in Broome. Nana and Grandad are flying up to meet us in Broome where we will hang out for a week. Our holiday concludes in late July when we fly back to Canberra.

Our itinerary has us visiting Jurien Bay, Kalbarri, Monkey Mia, Coral Bay, Exmouth, Karijini, Karratha and Broome. We hope to swim with sea lions, manta rays, dolphins and whale sharks to name a few. We look forward to exploring the gorges in Kalbarri, Cape Range and Karijini National Parks. We are interested in learning about Indigenous communities and their rock art and the history of pearl farming. We are especially excited about the adventures we will have with Nana and Grandad in Broome.

Now we are just counting down the days....








Saturday, May 15, 2021

Grateful

We are so grateful to have had this little lady in our life for a year! She brings all of us so much joy!