James is safe with friends in SA, and will hopefully be on his way to Zimbabwe soon. Relief. I worry a lot.

Tomorrow is the start to our spiny Lobster season, and the weather, having been promising, is now looking very iffy. We may go. Or not. Tanks are full, gear ready. Well, mostly. I have to do some last minute sorting to do. A few big crays in the freezer would be very nice, but the weather may prevent it. It would probably be a good thing for the grass (which needs mowing) if it were lousy. In the meanwhile those Capsicums I was upset about not coming up? Well I have a load of King, and Golden up. The Jimmy Nardello and Healthy aren't yet. And the Diamond and one Ping Tung eggplant are up. I have planted out some of the Salsify (it will all germinate in seed trays. outside, next to where I intend to plant it. Almost none germinates in the ground.) and I've got more scarlet runners up and planted, and more germinating. I've also purple King and blue lake runners planted, and blue ballet squash, Triamble pumpkin, queensland blue pumpkin, and Kaki (which has hull-less seeds) pumpkin in the hot-house. For a bloke that doesn't like pumpkin or beans that much, I hope my success there is on a par with my eggplant success (1 fruit last year!) I did get 4 Queensland blues and 2 butternut last year, despite having dug up the plants and moved them. Funny, I love peas, eggplant and capsicums - and never get anything like the weight of pumpkin and beans I do of them. I do like pumpkin seed so I hope the Kaki variety grow.

Oh the potatoes are putting up leaves. I could probably use a few more beds of those. The problem is finding a fertile spot where the rats won't get to them (last year I planted in the old chicken coop, and the rats got more than we did. Too far from the house for the cats. I sometimes wonder if those who buy all their food have any idea how much hassle it can be to grow!

A day that had seen rain, and wet sheep

The windows are streaked with rain, and it's a bit cooler again. We've had about 25mm, which will have Norm and shearers cursing, and the guys who have finished shearing, smiling, as the grass is needing it. As the seasons move on we go to haying, and the grass which should be rushing ahead, hasn't got long enough yet.

I made date loaf today while refilling the biscuit (AKA çookie) tin, in some the time I would have taken to weed or plant or water. One cup dates, one cup warm water, add together. 1 cup brown sugar, 2 cups flour and one tsp of baking powder and one tsp baking soda. 1 egg, 2 tablespoons of marge... rub into the dry ingredients, add beaten egg, and stir in the soggy dates and water. Pour into a lined loaf tin. Swear a lot when you discover that you forgot to put on the oven (180 c for around 45 minutes - more for the short fat tins, less for the long thin one. It freezes well)

I've located the part I need for the Speed Queen... in the US. But they will ship internationally... to Canada. Ah well. It's sort of working for now.

And now I return to Arawn, Gwynn Ap Nudd and a great deal of confusion. Welsh myth must be the most confusing of a great many confusing mythologies. (I'm doing some homework for a possible book, before the Scottish Country dancing tonight).

James flew out today, so we're back to just the two of us. We'll miss him. (wry smile) one day, looking back he may come to long for the good old days of only having to pay for his own petrol, without all those hassles like rent, vehicle, food, telephone, internet etc. Anyway, he's a married man now, and, provided he can sort out his visa back into Zim, he and Alana are very close to the point where they will have to be reliant on no-one but themselves. heh. Like yours truly did way back when, I think he may find that's harder than he realized. As parents we do our best to prepare the kids for this, but only reality really does. Anyway, I think we all went through it. Now- far too late - I really appreciate my poor parents efforts to steer us along, and to make life easier, safer, and more comfortable. They gave us so much we didn't appreciate and wasted rather. They weren't always right, sometimes we actually did know better, and the world had changed, but, um, I got it wrong a lot. By heavens I was stupid and pig-headed, and unbelievably ignorant and arrogant. I wish I'd done a better job of telling them that in the living years. Like most of us, I just didn't listen and had to learn.

In the tiniest of insignificant ways I had a little window on the US disaster this morning (and I emphasize it was really nothing to compare)- For some reason the drip irrigation had lost a bung, and flooded the one tank. - about a foot over the veg seedlings. Much bailing ensued. I at least had somewhere dry to bail to, and nice bright sun and a still day. It looks like most of the plants will be OK. And int another bed... the hoppers have arrived en masse. They are TINY. But in millions... I need to get a turkey really soon. I also need to figure how to kill the beggars.

The rat lay onthe mat

It was a beautiful day yesterday, with a rather startling dead rat on the mat to greet early morning toes. I suppose better dead than munching in the pantry.

It appears the solenoids to the Speed Queen are stuffed. I have been able to get it to useable for now, while I try and replace them. This is not a happy idea for me, as my electronics skilz are tepid, and James will be gone before they get here. Still, what must be done, will be tried.

The evening saw us go for a dive in the long summer evening - It's sundown at a quarter to eight now, and getting 2 minutes later every day. We pay for it in winter, but it's great now. We only hit the water after 5. Got our Abs and went looking for fish, and James shot a silver trevally with the adapted mono-point flounder spear (a handspear, with a single barbed thin prong, with a wider pole beyond) I missed. He put a bit much into it... right through, onto the pole itself. And as he tried to lift it... It swam off as the hole was now bigger than the barb. It was destined to die, and I'd have liked to have brought it home for tea, but Barbs saved the day and caught a beautiful flathead on a little latex fish (this is a link to the seller's store) something I bought on e-bay dirt cheap on spec - and replaced not quite so dirt cheap, but not ridiculous, from the seller's website. The picture doesn't do them credit as they're far and away the closest to our hardyheads of any artificial I've met, with a very natural movement in the water. They're deadly on salmon, popular with other rock fish... and appear to work on flatties. We didn't know this and were still looking for fish for tea, when we spotted something I've been looking for here for years - Scallops. It's out of season and they were undersize (close-ish, though) but we did dive down and check they were indeed live scallops.

Alas poor Speed Queen...

So in the post-apocalyptic world which household appliance would you like to lose least? Lets face it, they make our lives easier, make it possible to do more - or the same in less time, enabling you to spend more time watching TV, blogging, surfing the net or working.

Life without freezers be hard for us, eggbeater I'd miss. Same with bread machine (in that kneading takes time) and going pack to hand mincing would be a pain. But, as our faithful Speed Queen (big automatic washing machine - basically a laundromat machine without the slot that cost us a bit extra in dark ages 16 years ago, finally had its first hiccup. The solenoid controlling the inflow of water has packed up, and it overflowed... replacing the washer would be $1900 - before transport, so I guess, baring a sudden boom in my book sales or a movie deal, we'll never own another Speed Queen, as something smaller, cheaper (undoubtably less reliable) will just have to do. However ingenuity may yet come to my rescue, as the hot-water (which has never been used) solenoid appears fine. So let's see if my fixit skilz (which are rather rough and ready, tend to involve 6 inch nails, 12 mm bolts and 4 pound hammers...) can triumph.

I am feeling rather mellow and slightly unwell. I have just had pork roast for dinner, and a glass of wine, both rather unusual diet items (the pork much more than the wine) and I think it's ate too much, too rich. Another self-sufficiency bloke gave us some pork and, thinking it a treat we hadn't had for years I roasted it. Barbs and James ate roast pork at the pub last night -when they went to games. James has booked his ticket for Wednesday, so along with the new crayfish season (starts Saturday) I lose the other diver in the house. We will be sad to see him go for other reasons of course, but I was sort of looking forward to a dive together. Oh well. He and Alana will be together, which is more important.

So help me out here...

I'm trying to write a piece of the current book which takes place in a farm kitchen - very much an old place. No money for modernization after the mid sixties. A wood-burning range, so smoke and soot have got in and onto everything, no matter how you clean. There is electricity, but not much past a light and the old round-edged 'fridge. No freezers, no electrical appliances. Tell me what your memories and ideas bring you of such a place. I have one in my head, but it's in Africa. I want Australia, and the US and even UK - to see what they have in common, what resonates.