07

I am listening to the Theme from St. Elmo's Fire, one of the most beautiful of pieces, it seems so understanding, so empathic, so gentle. One of my favourites. And I love the purity of the violins in it. The way the piano wends its way through the music is just wonderful, like a trip into a sweeter soul.

I have just been listening to an interview with a woman who will be representing our Country at the Olympics in trampolining. This is only the second time that trampolining has become an Olympic sport, and this woman's story is fascinating: she was a trampolinist up to the age of seventeen, when she went on to other pursuits, notably diving. She didn't even give up on fitness, however, and twenty years later, took up trampolining again. Two years later, and she's of such International standard that she was picked for our Team. Wow!

We had all but one of the baby guinea pigs die on us, and I think it was because I moved all of them into the one cage without ensuring that they all had enough "bedrooms" to cluster into at night. It was just too crowded, and the babies, being that much smaller, ended up getting kicked out. Brian has since, very kindly, made up more bedrooms, and they seem much happier now. Alice has named the remaining baby "Rebecca", and loves crooning her to sleep in her arms.

The fledgling pigeon is doing well. He can make good bunny hop attempts at flight, so it is, like most things, just a matter of time before he, too, wheels and turns in the sky above us.

I saw a Rosella parrot flying over our Farm this morning. I telephoned Brian in a state of high excitement, and he was just as chuffed. He says that they were here in good numbers a couple of years ago, but he hasn't seen them since then. They love eating flowers and drinking nectar. And they can be quite destructive of fruit, and the blossoms prior to the fruit setting, but we haven't had that problem, probably because of the lack of numbers. Truly, God has blessed us with beautiful birds on this Continent. I don't know about the noise they make, though, it's almost like those early television comedies where the stunning redhead (and my apologies to all redheads, everywhere!) comes out with a screeching voice!

And now to something really fascinating, although some of you may have come across these sorts of things before, or made your own version of them, after all, "great minds think alike" (the corollary to this, of course, is that idiots never differ, but I wouldn't dream of telling anyone this).

Jill Redwood, writing in Earth Garden magazine for June-August 2003, has some wonderful solutions for little problems that can be so annoying.

For poly pipe or garden hose ends that are no longer flexible enough, soak the ends in hot water for five to ten seconds, and they'll be pliable enough to do the job. Bring the boiling water out in a thermos with a wide mouth.

When you have goats or other herbivores who trample good feed underfoot and then, of course, won't eat it, pin another piece of wire between posts so that you can sandwich the herbage in the middle of each fence. If you have hay cribs, place a catch tray firmly underneath each crib, this will save you both time and money.

To make an instant drum cutter, sharpen a piece of spring or mild flat steel. If it is really soft metal, heat to a blue or purple colour and dunk in cold water to harden. Jill recommends that you bung on a wooden or dense foam or rubber handle on the unsharpened end. She notes that this will cut drums in half easily. If you want to cut curves rather than straight lines, make sure the end is tapered. The Editor has noted here that if you cut a drum that's ever contained flammable liquids, always fill it with water first because sparks can ignite the fuel vapour and blow you to Kingdom come. Subtle but relevant.

If you don't have a proper hatching box for chicks, and using a hot water bottle only works occasionally, either cooking or chilling, try this: if the babies are active enough to walk about, put them in the bottom of an esky (large insulated carrying container, used for cans or bottles of drinks and party food, made with polystyrene foam) and fill a plastic botlle with hot water. Put a thick sock over this and leave it in a corner. The baby should snuggle up to it if cold or move away if it's too hot. the small lunch box sized eskies are hand for this. You can put thze lid on or cover it with a blanket or towel.

For frizzy boot or shoelace ends: dip the ends in candle wax and shape so they fit through the eyelets. I imagine you could do this with a number of different procedures. I know that many a pearl threader will run her silk thread through a wax candle very quickly so that the friction melts some of the wax on to her thread, thereby strengthening it and slowing down the readiness of the thread to knot.

Rice can be "cooked" in the 'fridge. Cover the rice in cold water plus and inch (25mm), and place it in the refridgerator overnight. By the morning the rice has absorbed the water and can be heated up or used cold.

Ain't she clever, folks?

Quote of the week from Lisa McInnes-Smith, "Liking is an emotion. Love is a commitment. God chose to love us first."

Brian will be hopefully going for a job with one of the local hospitals in their laundry department. If he gets it there will be no more night shifts and no more twelve hour shifts. He'll start at 7AM and finish at 4PM. He won't be out in all weathers, and, if the pay is good enough, he won't ever have to worry about people spitting in his face again when they have had too much to drink. Please pray God's Blessing on this.

Hello, hello?

I'm on the 'phone, waiting, waiting,

What can I do while I'm waiting, waiting?

I've pressed button 1, then button 5

heard the Muzak (endlessly it seems)

And I'm still waiting, waiting.

I know they appreciate my call,

'coz they keep telling me so.

They won't keep me waiting long, they promise

Is half-a-hour long? To be waiting, waiting?

No wonder they say they monitor calls

Frustration can make for nasty words.

I have my information ready

my blood pressure is up

and so's my time - shall

I call again tomorrow?