Snoskred - Life in the Country

It’s been a busy day here in Snoskred-Land. The Other Half had the day off, so we went for a drive to the PO box to pick up some scammer mail and a package for me yay! We bought some meat in bulk which we’ve now food-saved and frozen. We stopped at the Cheesecake shop because I deserved Cheesecake. I took the day off from the computer mostly but I’ll be back and writing something special tomorrow. For now, enjoy the whale photo.

On Tuesday we fixed the balcony. We used the high pressure spray to clean it and then put our plants in groups to create little ecosystems - as suggested by River - also because there are drains in the balcony where the run off water goes so it was better to group them near the drains.

We installed the water feature as well. The palms around it got a little too much sun where they were, I’m hoping the new spot will be better for them. In front of the water feature you can see my herb garden in a much more convenient spot to pick the herbs. In the below picture you can see my office window - I can open the window and hear the water which is lovely.

I was reading on A Spot With Pots the other day about ladybirds. I’d noticed since we planted the herb and tomato plants we seemed to have a lot of ladybirds appear seemingly out of nowhere. I thought it was cute. Now I know they are eating my plants!

The Hibiscus have begun to flower again. These are some of my favourite plants. I’d like to have about 20 more of them because they are available in so many colours and variations.

The fuschia is so beautiful right now - this is another plant I would love to have more of.

The jasmine is flowering and it smells gorgeous!

So there you have a little garden update. I hope you enjoyed it!

Hi, this is the Big Kitty typing. The Little Kitty has the attention span of a goldfish and is too busy stealing my Tuna and the warmest spot next to the heater so don’t expect her to be posting anytime soon. The Humans are busy looking at this funny website they found - Daisy the Curly Cat. I laughed at that funny cat too, but I was inspired to say something myself! Here’s what I look like, in case you forgot. If you Humans reading this want a bigger view you can click your mouse on the photo. I like mouses, too. I have to tell you something. Our Humans are going out more and more, and leaving us at home without the heating on. Ever since they got that new car they take off for hours at a time. When they found out we could turn the airconditioner on from the remote control with our paws they hid the remote in a drawer. Now we’re having to find warm places to curl up instead of hanging out on our cat towers, which is where we really want to be.. People say we’re spoilt kitties to have so many cat towers - these are only two of them. We have more in other rooms. Today when they got home I found these photos from when they were out and I thought I would post them so you can see what kind of fun those Humans are having while they leave us kitties alone.. cold.. with no laps to sit on. What side of the road are you supposed to drive on in Australia? Or doesn’t it matter, can you just drive in the middle? I think that is really dangerous and my Humans should keep away from cars like that, right? Do you agree? Maybe you can change sides as long as there’s nobody on the other side, I don’t know. This driving stuff looks confusing. I don’t like cars. I don’t like those cat carrier things the Humans always put us in when it’s time to go in the car either. Why can’t we just roam around the car and find a nice warm spot to sit? My Humans are smart. It looks like they pulled over in order to get away from the scary drive all over the road Holden car. My Dad Human has a joke about Holdens - they’re just holden together. But I seem to remember he drove one once. That was a long time ago. My Mom Human likes cows. I remember when they took us to see the EVIL Human with the BIG NEEDLE and we drove past some cows, and she was yelling “Hi Cows! Hi Cows!” at them. The Dad Human tells me she does this anytime she sees cows. I told him I know where the earplugs are and maybe he should use those in order to concentrate on the road better. But look at the view these cows have from their field? I don’t have much of a view here. This house only has one level so I can’t sit in an upstairs window and survey my kingdom. Wow, it looks like those Humans were going fast! The Humans keep the car in the Garage. I like the Garage. It’s the only room in the house we’re not allowed to go into but I can’t understand why. Whenever I get in there they say GET OUT to me. I like to hide in between the boxes so they can’t pick me up and carry me out. These cars look like that car they keep in the Garage, and look, they have that XR5 Turbo thing written on them too, just like that one in the garage but I don’t think these are theirs even though it is hard to tell what color the car is when it is inside. Is it possible that three of the five XR5 Turbos within a 50km radius were all parked in the same car park today? Wow, look at that! Why can’t the Humans get a house with that kind of view where I could look out and dream of catching fish out of the water with my claws all day, and lazily watch the Humans on the beach with one half closed eye? I’m not a beach cat. I don’t like sand in my paws. But if you could make me a special pair of kitty socks that keep the sand out, I’d like to roam around this beach and put my paw prints everywhere. Do cats have to be on a leash at the beach? I don’t do leashes. Those are for dogs. Intelligent animals who can bury their doings don’t need to be on a leash, but I wouldn’t want any dogs to chase me. That silly dog next door, he barks all the time at nothing. He just stares off into space saying woof, woof woof, woof and disturbs my napping. I have to go sit on the windowsill and look down at him all superior like. When the Humans got home, they put all this stuff on the pool table so we could sniff it and check it out. I think they should give the money cards to us. Clearly they can’t be trusted. They go out for a drive and bring home a new car, and then they go out in the new car and bring home.. stuff. What is this stuff useful for? It’s not tuna, cat towers, toys for us to play with or kitty safe milk. We don’t need it! The Humans tried to get us Kitties to stand on those scales but we refused to put all four paws on at once. We don’t want them to take our Tuna away. Even though that Little Kitty could be considered plump, I keep telling the Humans she is just fluffy. Bye for now from the Big Kitty!

A photo of the moon rising over the lighthouse at Point Perpendicular, Jervis Bay.

What is the worst thing that can possibly happen to a positive thinker? To be partnered with a master of negative thought. The Other Half is not negative all the time, but certain situations are bound to produce pain for all. Today has been quite a painful day.

When we left the car people last night, they told us they would call “by lunchtime today”. Having been in sales myself I know that if you give a customer an expectation like that, you better follow through and deliver. Having the partner I have, a helpful note for the future is - tell them if they don’t call, it’s going to result in a horrible chain reaction of doom and gloom in my household, and I’ll call off the deal just because of the pain I have suffered due to them telling The Other Half they would ring, and then not doing it.

So here’s what happened - it’s been a day of The Other Half making stupid assumptions and me wanting to beat him up because of his negative thoughts.

Just before we left at 11am, The Other Half discovered a funny icon on his phone. When he checked out what it meant, it seems his mobile phone had disconnected itself from the network. For all we know, it had been like that all morning. There was still an hour till lunchtime and no message on the phone, so The Other Half assumed they had not called. We drove off to Jervis Bay to see the real estate people and how is this for ironic? The house we’d pretty much decided on renting was rented yesterday. So had we not gone car shopping.. clearly it was not meant to be.

But another house we’d driven past before but crossed off the list because it was for sale was now off the market and rental only. This house was just seconds from the beach and backed onto a reserve with trees and wildlife. I would be able to put out a bird feeder. We arranged a time to go see it in a couple of hours, and headed off to drive past it one more time, check my PO box and have lunch. When we drove past it looked small from the outside but we figured we’d take a look because the location was so great.

As we were driving back from the PO box, it was now mid-day, and the other half said to me “It’s lunch time and they haven’t called”. I could hear the negative thoughts in his head - things like “the finance has fallen through and they don’t want to call and tell us” “they can’t find us a car” and various other negatives. I said “maybe they have lunch mid-afternoon” and told him to quit doing that negative self-think that he always does, and why doesn’t he just call them himself?

We went back to look at the house. Everything about it was perfect, except for the fact that it was too small. For two people we have a lot of stuff. I could see my dream of living close to the bay slipping away.. for today at least. We went to see the other agent and they have a couple of options, I’m waiting for a phone call to line up times to see them. I can’t explain this urge to live near this bay to anyone but it’s like a silent screaming inside of me. That’s where I have to be near.

So by this time it’s almost 3pm, and The Other Half complains of a headache and that he was feeling like he was coming down with something and he just wants to get home. By the time we got home his mood had gone from not feeling well to complete doom and gloom. Still no phone call. In his mind the deal has completely fallen through, and to make matters worse I’m mad at him because I know what he’s doing to himself. He knows it, too. He knows I get pissy when he does this dance of negative self talk. I say “Just make the phone call already!” He prefers to sit and dwell on how things have all turned to shyte. He does this for an hour.

I am sure I have mentioned before that The Other Half suffers from Call Reluctance. That’s when you don’t want to make a phone call for fear of hearing what they’re going to tell you.

At 4pm he finally makes the call. What do you think he was told? Everything is fine. They think they have found a car but they have to wait till tomorrow for confirmation. The finance is all approved and it was yesterday when we left, it’s just something the finance guy had to sort out on his end. No doom, no gloom. Just his negative self talk doing his head in - and mine by proxy. Of course he feels better now and the headache miraculously vanished as soon as he got off the phone. If he’d made that phone call earlier, think of all the suffering he would have missed out on!

This post got in the way - I was going to write about Feng Shui and Aromatherapy. I’ll take a bit of time to put that one together now because I’ll try and put in a few easy Feng Shui basics and tomorrow is Hump Day Hmmm..

Chuzzle.

A view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon

or is it..

Yesterday while The Other Half was in the shower and we were making plans for the day I had a thought - I felt like going for a beach walk. It didn’t take much to talk him into it and it was a lovely day, so we were off to a place I’d heard much of but hadn’t been to yet. All these images can be clicked on for a larger view. No wonder I’d heard much about it, because it was very beautiful. I got my shoes all wet crossing the little creek to get up on those sand dunes and look down into the crystal clear water.But it was worth the wet shoes. Little fish were jumping out of the water, and other sea life could be seen in the creek including some mud crabs. I’m going back here again for sure. After we were finished at the creek we went to one of our favourite spots for a walk out into Jervis Bay. At low tide you can walk out quite a distance into the bay without getting feet wet at all. This photo below looks backwards from where the above shot was taken. There’s a nice little bridge over mangroves with much sea life in there. Pelicans are absolutely huge birds but in this photo above they look small. This shot above looks towards Huskisson and Vincentia, both lovely towns situated on Jervis Bay and much sought after to live in. This shot above looks out towards Honeymoon Bay, where we like to snorkel in summer. The Other Half named this next shot “Worshipping the Bird God” Next we drove to Currarong, where apparently one of the people behind the Survivor series lives. It is a really beautiful place. We were met by a Kookaburra and soon after we made our way to the beach this guy and some of his friends were laughing. They have a beautiful rockpool at Currarong where you could go swimming, it is quite protected from the waves and as I stood there on the little stairs I was watching fish swim by. Beautiful! This is my favourite shot from yesterday and coincidentally I took it. See the little star effect created by the small aperture?

I hope you enjoyed my beach walk photos.

Some months ago I wrote about hairdresser hunting. Since moving here I have had some horrible haircuts, and the last one which was back in September was so terrible I had not been back to a hairdresser since. It’s taken 9 long months to grow out the layers put in by the last woman.

So I have been putting it off for as long as possible but now that it is winter and the hair was really long and taking ages to dry, I had to firmly pressure myself into going and finding a new place to get it cut. I’d seen this place in an alleyway off the main street of our local town which looked interesting. I went, I got my hair cut, and it feels a lot better. But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.. a place that does everything. Haircuts, waxing of legs and eyebrows, all in one convenient location. That hairdresser does not do it. ;(

After getting hairs cut, the Other half and I went for a drive to get some night photos. The moon was almost full and we were hoping to get some kangaroos at night pictures. There were no roos out and about, but we did get these. Where the last shot was taken, as we stood there the water is so crystal clear even in the dark, that we saw a big stingray gliding through the shallows in the moonlight. Amazing. I want to spend more time beach walking around there. Both shots are long exposure and we were using a tripod. It was windy at the first photo location - and there were rabbits! The second location was much calmer, no wind really and no waves, but there were also rabbits. Sorry, I didn’t get any rabbit shots, they ran off before we had the camera set up. Rabbits but no roos. It’s full moon for a few days now, we might try again over the next few days.

Today we went to do a few chores and also for a nice drive through the mountains. I thought I would share a couple of pics from today with you. We went to a lookout at the top of a local mountain and just as we got out of the car we spotted this scratching around in the bushes. It is a lyrebird. We’ve seen a few since we moved here and the last time we drove up in the mountains one ran out in front of us, luckily we missed it. Back in our Zoo days we used to sit and eat lunch in front of the lyrebird enclosure and many times we were treated to the amazing mimicry calls from the lyrebird nicknamed Chooky. You could call him and he would turn up, and often launch into his little dance and song. It was very difficult to get a photo of him as the lyrebird prefers to hide in the rain forest, so I am happy we got these shots today. This is a male, the female has a much shorter tail without the beautiful feathers.