10-09-04

I'm afraid I'll have to be quick with this one - I spent far too much time packing, unpacking and re-packing for a four day trip interstate!

In a recent "Doing up the Block" in The Weekly Times, when you use oil-based paint, the author recommends using a bit of Mineral Turpentine and a slop of linseed oil

(exact measurements I'll leave to your imagination!), so that the paint "slips" a bit as he claims that the paint is always too sticky out of the can.  If you have access to "Penetrol" (I don't know what this is in other countries, sorry) that's even better than linseed oil, as it is faster drying, makes an improved paint, and it flows flatter.  Apparently, the idea is that if you can get hold of real turps and not the mineralised stuff, it's just the best you can do for any job involving oil-based paint.  So there you go.
 
From The Ultimate Book of Money Hints by Bay Books, 1995, Sydney, Australia:
  • When washing the dog, add a tablespoon of salt to the water to help kill fleas.
  • Fleas hate mint, so put some fresh mint under mattresses and mats and change frequently.
  • Pick a bunch of mint, chop it finely and pour a couple of litre of boiling water over it.  Stir well and allow to stand for 15 minutes.  Sweep it over the carpet.  The fleas will soon surface.  Be ready for them and kill them by wiping over the carpet surface with a cloth wrung out in kerosene.
For flies:
  • Put a piece of sponge rubber on an old saucer and moisten the rubber with 1 teaspoon of oil of lavender and 2 tablespoons of boiling water.  Add a little hot water each day and top up the oil with an extra drop or two twice a week.
  • Wipe over doorframes and windeow frames with oil of lavender, raw onion juice, kerosene or vinegar.  Wipe windows and mirrors with kerosene or vinegar, too, and then polish with a dry cloth.
We now have two lots of goslings, and all are doing well.  There are still sixteen geese laying!  One of our guinea pigs (cavies) has become a mum, but of the four babies, two died.  The other two are as cute as a rodent could be.  Actually, they are incredibly so.
 
The crows are gathering, knowing that they may have easy pickings.  Horrid things.  They certainly grab the old, discarded eggs from the nests.
 
All is quiet, other than that.
 
Eternity
 
I glimpse it in the stars
and the all but palpable blackness
that surrounds them and me
 
I can imagine soaring through it
never ending, warm and cool
 
I see it in the ocean
that stretches unendingly before me
the waves that beckon to carry me away
 
I imagine it in the sound of a bell
going on forever, its rings
like a drop, the circles expanding
 
And sometimes, it's You, Lord,
I feel Eternity when You talk.