Irene's Blog

A nice little visitor to my garden.

After days of exceptionally hot weather up around 38ºC to 40ºC each day and not cooling down much at night, we had a cool change around 5pm today. What a relief. It's to be cooler, in the mid 20s, for the next few days and hopefully we've seen the end of the hot weather and we can give the air conditioning a rest.....after all, it is autumn. As the clouds rolled in, this was the sky from the back of the house - it looked really weird. It would be nice if it would rain, but I'll believe that when I see it.

Have you ever had one of those days where a minor, nuisance of a problem has taken up most of your day. Well, today was one of those days for me. It all started mid morning when one of our 3 smoke detectors beeped - not just that little chirp you get when the battery needs replacing, it was 3 high pitched beeps but not at regular intervals as you'd expect. I got the ladder out and replaced the battery as I figured that would be a good start - but that didn't stop the noise. I then checked the battery I'd just put in to make sure it wasn't a dud but it was fine so I made sure I'd put it in correctly, positive and negative in the right place. Okay, should be okay now - nope, still beeping. I got the vacuum cleaner out and vacuumed inside and outside the detector even though to my eye, it looked fine and after about an hour of silence and thinking all was well, that darned beeping started all over again. What now I thought. I don't want this continuing all nigh...

CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES 100g icing sugar 8 digestive biscuits 50g butter or marg tablespoon cocoa powder 15ml boiling water Coating (I use desicated coconut or chocolate sprinkles) I used double measures to make the batch in the photo. Put butter or marg into mixing bowl, stir until soft (I put in microwave until it melts a little). Sieve icing sugar and cocoa powder into mixing bowl - stir well. Put digestive biscuits into blender until crumbs (I put in a bowl and smash them up into really small crumbs with the bottom of a glass). Put biscuit crumbs into mix and mix well. Pour boiling water (15ml or more if the crumbs need it, but you don't want them any way runny, just so the mix holds together) and mix with all ingredients. Roll mix into small balls and then roll in coating and refrigerate. You can substitute some of the water for rum if you like rum truffles.

Not long to go now until Santa comes. Our tree went up on 1st December and looks really lovely especially at night when we have all the lights flashing. I've been well ahead this year having done just about all of my Christmas shopping at the end of last month. I've even bought most of the food for Christmas dinner and only have a few last minute things to get - I've really surprised myself as I'm usually running to the shops at the last minute.

That's me got my new garden bed done behind the retaining wall I built a while ago. It's looking great and can only get better as the plants grow. We're on water restrictions here in Melbourne, so I have to save water from elsewhere to water the plants. We all take water so much forgranted but when you're told you're not allowed to water the garden except for two days a week between 6am and 8am, unless you use recycled water from the shower or the washing machine, it certainly hits home and means lugging buckets from the house to the garden just to keep things alive - especially if you forget which day you're allowed to water and find that you have other things to do early in the morning.

Last night, we went to see Jeff Wayne's musical version of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS at the Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne. I've known the music for years as I have the old vinyl double LP which came out in 1978, plus the cassette and now I have the CD. It's a really good show with lots of special effects including a huge Martian tripod ship which is lowered on to the stage with flashing lights, smoke and explosions. The late Richard Burton stars as the journalist who appears as a 3D hologram talking head at the side of the stage. A 30 metre wide screen with animation of the storyline also shows the singers / actors close up. Jeff Wayne conducts the 10-piece Black Smoke Band and a 40-piece String Orchestra. Moody Blues’ Justin Hayward returns to reprise his role as The Sung Thoughts of The Journalist. The show also features Shannon Noll playing Parson Nathaniel, Rachael Beck as Beth, Parson Nathaniel’s wife, Michael Falzon portraying The Artilleryman. Manfred Mann Earth Band’s Chri...

We're just back from a short break in Geelong and did some sightseeing down the coast while there. The weather was perfect and Geelong looked better than ever - it's been a good few years since our last visit so we noticed quite a few changes. Eastern Beach looked brilliant in the sunshine. I love these decorative bollards which are all along the foreshore. They add colour and interest and a bit of humour to the area. This is the lighthouse at Point Lonsdale. This area is one of the most dangerous parts of the coastline with many wrecks in it's depths. Ocean Grove is a lovely little town with a great surf beach and lots of nice places to eat. The Blue Fin Café on the corner serves very nice food at a reasonable price - and has an all day breakfast which suited my husband. We only had a short break of 3 days but we made the most of our time and toured all over. Every beach is lovely and all the little towns are clean and well looked after.

This was at 8.30 this morning and my son's car at the front of the house. The roof is covered in thick frost which is as close to snow as we get around here. Even with the sun shining on it, it took a while to melt. The frost has gone now and it's a lovely sunny winters day in Melbourne.

Today, we went to visit our daughter where she works at HMAS Cerberus, the Royal Australian Navy's premier training establishment near Hastings. I took a few photos, none of which would be regarded as a security risk, but I was aware that I just shouldn't be snapping photos all over the place. This is one of the two churches on the base. The Wardroom is where the officers are served their meals. It's very ornate with two chandeliers and has two large murals, one at each end of the room. Across from one of the churches, there was a park with a small lake/pond but because of the drought we're experiencing right now, there was no water in it.

After their Easter Egg hunt, the twins decided to count how many eggs they'd found. They had such fun searching for eggs in the garden, then again seeing what was inside each egg, then when they were finished, they put all the chocolate back inside the hollow plastic eggs. Kept them busy for ages - and they hardly ate any of it which was a miracle. The golf was on as you can see - what a lovely golf course it was too. Could that be Tiger playing a shot?

My latest project has been fun and very rewarding. If a grandmother can build a retaining wall with this system, anyone can. No mortar needed, just a bit of muscle power to lift each block into place - they're very heavy. I now have muscles I didn't have before!!! If you can get the first course straight and level, you're on your way. I started off with a string line and a spirit level but eventually just did it by eye as that seemed to work best for me. Once my arms have recovered from all the heavy lifting, I'll remove the shrubs that are behind the wall now and put in top soil to bring the garden beds up to the level of the top of the wall then I'll plant it out. Right now, I'm enjoying just looking at what I've done - the rest can be completed once I've recovered. - HAPPY EASTER -

What can I say - I couldn't resist. Chocolate is just too much of a temptation.

Dancing to MTV Twin grandsons, Lachlan and Corey, came for a visit today and while MTV was on television, they had fun dancing. Next time it might be a good idea for me to open the blinds a bit more as the film is a bit dark - no sound by the way.

We had a lovely Christmas with the family. Loads of good food, laughs and fun. My son got a new Nintendo Wii games machine and when my son in law came over, he and my son decided to having a boxing match. Two knockouts later, we were all ready for Christmas dinner and what a workout they got. The twins loved their new TONKA trucks and other gifts - I think they really know about Christmas now!!!

What a busy day I've had. I decided to convert a large, heavy corner TV unit to a low one so armed with a hammer, screw driver, saw and pliers I set to work. It didn't take too long really, but every muscle in my body hurts as I'm not used to so much effort. I took the top off the cabinet as you see it in the BEFORE shot and put it on the low unit in the AFTER shot which looks perfect. Here's the BEFORE and AFTER shots.........

We're in a drought so when it started to rain we almost cheered, until I went to the mailbox and found SNAILS!!! There were loads of them all making themselves comfortable in my brick mailbox along with my mail.....talk about snail mail. Now I'll have to see if I can find some solution as putting your hand in to get your mail and it coming in contact with a snail isn't something I want to do. Another problem is that the snails love to eat the mail - bills I don't mind, but other mail is a definite no, no!!! Is there a solution? No doubt I'll have to go to the local hardware store / garden centre and ask for advice. I've checked on Google and only come up with crushed egg shells or copper strips - there doesn't seem to be many websites where they talk about this problem. I'm looking for some spray or powder perhaps that will last for some time.

We took a drive today up the Dandenong Ranges which are only minutes from where we live. We went to the park at the Silvan Reservoir where we fed the Rosellas. It only took about 10 minutes after we arrived for about half a dozen Rosellas to come down for the seed we'd brought with us. We get plenty of Rosellas and other wild birds in our own backyard at the bird feeder I have there, but these ones at the park are much less timid and will land on your hand, shoulder or head if you happen to have seed with you. Actually, if you have biscuits, they'll go for them too. We had a packet of ANZAC biscuits open on the table and one Rosella decided he'd like one so he just helped himself.

Now 3 years old, the twins had a great birthday. Their main gift from their mum and dad, was their motorised motorbikes and they sure did give them a good workout when they came to visit. They're quite a pair and full of energy. They are inseparable and without prompting, gave each other a big hug - so cute.

I have nothing but praise for The Alfred Hospital, Commercial Road, Melbourne where my husband recently underwent major heart surgery. The care he was given at all times was exceptional from the minute he was admitted, right through to ICU and the ward staff - all very caring people. I watched as his personal ICU nurse cared for him and operated the life saving equipment necessary in these circumstances and have such high regard for the skill required and the responsibility, which I myself wouldn't like to have on my shoulders. My husband is now home recuperating after a 10 day stay in the hospital, and feeling really well considering the severity of his surgery. My thanks go to all the medical staff involved with his care. I tell a lie, I do have one little complaint - the water at the hospital. It tastes absolutely terrible which means also that the tea/coffee supplied to patients is atrocious. Hot drinks taken from the ground floor restaurant seem fine, but the water supplied...