Click Here to learn about Boxthorn

pre-Edge mess was some boxthorn. Now, I don't know if you know about the curse of boxthorn, but it is not the most fun plant in the World. I have sent Nita a link on this horrendous plant. It has sharp thorns along the length of its stems which are bad enough when the stem is alive, but when it has dried, the thorns seem to become even more dangerous. Brian apparently blows up like a balloon on the affected area.

I will not allow Brian near it, and it is scattered through the garden. Of course, I won't let Alice near it either. I found one bit the hard way, and my finger is bothering me, but nowhere near what Brian would have gone through.

Brian says that poisoning the stuff just doesn't work. It has to be uprooted. I have a very old stump growing near the back door that is sending out shoots. I must get Brian to get it out. Even wtih our wonderful loose sandy soil, it will be a job and a half. Thankfully, the thorns some on the smaller limbs, so this does not have any. I have put the discarded stems with their thorns in the rubbish bin, with strict instructions to both husband and child not to go near the bin.

I've bought ten kilos of peaches on the weekend from Materia's and must now get into gear and process them. Mmm. My mouth is watering thinking about that wonderful peach syrup for milkshakes. Hopefully today.

The landlord, Alex, bless him, has said he will replace the hot water system. We just have to set up a time with him and Bob, the plumber.

Recently, when Alice and I went on a walk around dusk near the beach, we saw a full-grown kangaroo bounding along. At first, Brian didn't believe me! Then he thought it was a wallaby, which is virtually a smaller version of a kangaroo (pronounced: woll-uh-bee, stress on the first syllable). No, it was a big grey. Two metre job.

I'm trying desperately to get rid of the fat by going to the local gym a few times a week. It's coming off, but slowly. Still, it took a few years to put it on, too.

I've started doing door-to-door deliveries within certain areas of Warrnambool of Homecare products. These are mostly plastic knick-knacks that are really useful in the home and garden, but they deal in other things too.

I've also undertaken to be a school crossing guard at King's so that I can pay for Alice's piano lessons. If she does decide to be an Officer in the Salvation Army, having a skill in piano playing will be very handy. If she decides not to be an Officer, then it will be handy in any case. And I believe the discipline is good for her. She's been saying for some years how much she wants to do it, so it works in well. Previously, her hands have been too small.

I suggested to Alice that she give a Valentine's Day card along with some chocolates to a certain young gentleman in her life (sorry, I've been sworn to secrecy about who he is!), and they went over very well, but he's a bit of an innocent, and didn't even know about Valentine's Day and the ramifications of same. So that was interesting. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when his Grandmother explained it all to him!

We've had some massive thunderstorms around here, and I don't even want to look at the books stored in the garage, because I know there is a lot of damage there where the rain came in, both from the ceiling and from a blocked downpipe as well as under the garage doors. Ah, me.

New sunsets

Stirring against a

swirling sky

clouds form and re-form

in battle-lines of military grey.

Ephemeral and insubstantial

weighty and powerful

the clashes reach down

to the Earth below.

Each strike deliniates

a new campaign

and the leaking wound

of a solar goodnight

spreads its terrible beauty

across the sky.