11

Alice did very well in the Competition at Natimuk, with a second, a fourth and her team came second overall! But what was really exciting was that God provided a fallen gum tree over a creek and Alice at least partway conquered her fear of the Beam by crossing and re-crossing that tree. She did not fall at the competition, praise God!

The cicadas were in their millions, clinging to gum trees, other trees, on lawns... They only come out every seven years, and I found that if you pick them up and push firmly on the thorax, they will obligingly make their loud rattling noise. I decorated my beanie with cicada shells, which was a great topic of conversation for the tourists, and had my photo taken, with Ruth, the daughter of good friends of ours, by some Americans (who were lovely, and not the horrid stereotype of Yanks abroad).

At Hall's Gap's only Service Station, as we were filling with petrol, I spotted a huge moth - the biggest I've ever seen, fully 15cms across in wingspan. She was laying her eggs in the worst possible place, right on a building with not a gum tree in sight. I brought her home, along with a few cicadas, both skeletal and alive, and Alice had a full time of show and tell at school! Naturally, although it was quite a search, I found information for her to take so that it wasn't just a miscellaneous moth. I don't believe that it is fair on teacher to have her, in the process of a busy day, to burden her with identification of a mystery insect. I was blessed in that our Federal Research Body, the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation), had set up their website with a great e-mail enquiry service.

The duck picture - well, what can be said about a duck that is hoping to swim in a covered swimming pool?

Also, two pictures of Beau, our peacock, in all his glory. He was quite happy for Brian to get up close, obviously wanting to prove that old adage, "Vain as a peacock".

The cat (Cabochard) and her kittens have gone to the Shelter, organised by the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). As she was dumped on us, we did not have to pay for her going into the Shelter.

Actually, it was rather funny, trying to get her and her offspring to the RSPCA: I had caught her kittens the night before, but could not locate Mama. She finally turned up the next morning, so into the carry case she went, with the kittens. This carry case is a wooden framed job, with wire netting made to display cats at shows.

A few minutes out of Koroit, on the way to Warrnambool, Alice looks in the back of the van and in a panic stricken voice, informs that, "Mummy, the cat is out! And the kittens are getting out, too!"

Oh dear. Straight to the Shelter, instead of taking Alice to School. And pray that none of the animals gets underneath the brake pedal. We made it, the Shelter was barely opening for the day. I managed to corner all but two of the kittens, and, of course, sweet thing that she is, Mum was no trouble. The other two kittens disappeared up behind the pedals and behind the instrumentation.

One kitten finally came out around 5:30 that night. The other, a good friend decided to risk life and limb and hauled the little darling out, having chosen to adopt that one! What a blessing! I called it "Spitfire", it's sister easily far better natured.

It has been a time of Christmas crafts. A couple of nights ago, I learned how easy it is to make wreaths, using ivy wound around a wire coathanger, which had been bent into a circle.

Florist's wire holds the ivy down to where you want it. Of course, you can use any pliable greenery, and given that we are now into Summer, here, I have used grape vines in the past, but never so fancy as this!

After having given myself a bushy base, I inserted holly leaves and gum tree nuts, and then hot-glued red and green shiny beads to the centre of the holly leaves and silver beads on the nuts to added effect. The final piece was to bend over the hook of the hanger and add a bow to the top. I suppose I could really go over the top and spray with sparkle.

I am well on the way to finishing my Mum's Christmas present of a miniature room. Given that she used to be a retail jeweller and has just retired from being a wholesale gemstone merchant, it seemed obvious to make it a jewellery/gift shop. I'm trying not to crowd it. I was grateful, however, to locate a business card holder in darker wood with a clear glass top, that looks awfully like a display case. I found some beads that, stuck on top of each other, make fine perfume bottles. Resin miniature teddy bears, a Matchbox Rolls Royce (Mum always wanted the real thing, this will have to do), and lots of faux jewels are helping to complete the scene.

Brian is about to start harvesting the paddock. We have been blessed at some clearance sales in getting the equipment we need for the old Fordson tractor so that we can crop, rather than paying someone to do it. We have a mower and a baler now, but we still need a rake, apparently they are very expensive to buy at the moment, even the old ones such as we would require. One bloke quoted Brian something like $1200. Thankfully, I don't have to point out to Brian that household bills have priority. We will be checking with Aaron's employer to see if we might borrow his, as his tractor is far bigger and far more modern, and the rake is only just sitting at his place, not doing much.

We might even get a bit cheeky, and ask Russell if we could buy it or crop part of his paddock for him in exchange for it, as apparently he needs small bales.

The summer fruits are coming into the supermarkets now, and cherries are already down to $12/kilo at Materia's. The pigs are very happy with the variety of diet, and we have increased our loadings, as a small independent supermarket very kindly puts out their dead vegetables and fruit in large wooden crates for us to pick through. We use garbage bins to load on to the back of the van. We have so much that the excess is going out to the small paddock for Muppet and the Jerseys. There is not much feed available in that paddock, and I believe that the variety of food will do them well.

I have been trialling burning steel cans in the wood stove to see if they really can cut out the amount of soot build up in the stove pipe. So far, no. But I will keep you posted.

Today, our estimated maximum temperature will be 27C. Tomorrow, around 30C, and then showers. The King's College Annual Fair (Warmambool City Council Calendar of Events-look almost to the bottom of the page for Saturday, the 29th) will be on Saturday, so pray that the rain stops well before and that we have a nice, not too hot, day.

This is the time of year to plant all of your Summer crops if you live in the Southern Hemisphere. Don't forget to mulch as the plants come up, but don't have the mulch too close to the plants, and watch out for slugs and snails that take advantage of the ideal sheltering conditions. Why not experiment, and try out the Heritage seeds available from places like Digger's and Eden Seeds? Become a member of the Seed Saver's Network, and do your bit to secure your future. I have included a somewhat odd link that will give a bit more information.

Fruit

Ahh! That sweet burst

flavour

juice

all down the chin

cherries

apricots, sun-freckled, fragrant

grapes, crisp of skin, bursting with nectar

and the warmth and sweetness of manna-peaches

oh, roll on Summer!

Dominus tecum.

Leonie