13th April, 2024

It's been two perfect autumn days. It would be good to get another follow up fall, but there's no rain forecast for the next week.

Yesterday I fueled up the car at the other servo, our usual one being out of commission while they dig out leaky fuel tanks and replace them. We don't have an account with the new one, so I waited until I needed half a tank to make it worth their while writing out a receipt for our taxes. They are asking people to stay in their cars while they pump the petrol as it works out faster now they are handling the traffic of two servos.

Then I shopped around and found another two dry feed blocks, picked up some isopropyl alcohol for Geoff and went to Mitre 10 to check on the whipper snipper. Turns out they couldn't get it going either so sent it home with me to start the warranty process. When I emailed the maker they said I have to initiate the warranty process with the store. I sense this is going to be yet another slog.

Today I got four loads of washing out, rescued the chocolate mint plant that Geoff mistook for a weed, put out the lick blocks and gave Star a halter lesson. She did really well, I managed to put the halter on her and lead her around and change direction all in the first lesson. It helps that she is inclined to follow me anyway.

I did some weeding, and selected a place to put the lovely hot pink geranium. Still haven't decided where to put my jasmine. I trimmed a dead branch off the daphne and tidied up the red lantern tree, doesn't sound like much but I haven't done much besides water for a long time. Having become inspired I went down and picked a yoghurt bucket of hop flowers and hung them up to dry.

This evening I got out some colour pencils and a sketching pad and played around making patterns for half an hour, just getting my creativity in shape for setting up in the craft room. Geoff cooked a roast chicken as a test run for cooking one of Arfur's ducks, he wanted to see if the oven was working properly. It seems to be, so some time next week we will be ducking.

I picked a dozen apples, ran them through the apple-izer and put them in the dehydrator. They are reasonably thick slices so I think they will take about 12 hours to dry. I've been pinching some every time I walk through the kitchen as they are delicious. These are king david apples, a cider variety.