We hung a pretty bird-feeder under the shelter of the veranda to entice seed eating birds there. We could watch them through the window as they fed but the birds never came. A number of different birds should have come in from the garden for lovely fresh seed but they...
I was sitting opposite a window where the Venetian blind was at its open point. Looking through the window, the edge-on slats of the blind made straight lines down through the view, altering and obstructing what I could see of the garden outside. They seriously...
Come in, friend, I am so glad it is you, it is such a relief to see you. The house is a mess and I have not washed up. Sorry about that. If anyone had been coming I would have had to make an effort, capital “E” but with you I can be real. I do not need to put on a...
They probably call it ‘white-out.’ We were up there in a ridiculously tiny plane, totally engulfed in white cloud. We were utterly dependent on the expertise of the young man in the pilot seat. I felt as though some one had typed me into the cloud and then gone over...
Have you ever tried to say something and however hard you tried to get it right, it came out badly? I wanted to say something and wrote it out very carefully. The subject was a complicated one and had presented difficulties for a lot of people over a long time. My...
A small corner near the water tank was just crying for plants. Recently cleared of weeds and edged with cement, it made a delightful kitchen handy-garden, just right for a few of those vegetables deemed essential every day. We planted two red capsicums for flavour,...
There is one place in my garden where weeds never grow. It is such a relief to find just one place in the garden that is totally free of rubbish and totally free of demands. It allows me to rest and just enjoy being there. There is no work to do, it is shaded from the...
In an earlier era, when a steam-train reached its destination, the engine has to be turned and faced in the opposite direction for the new journey to begin. The driver, with meticulous precision, must drive the engine on to a turntable and place it so that it is...
My early years were spent where the old Roadside Mail Box was the only avenue for receiving messages. It was there long before the telephone link and it carried family news from around the world. The mailman would deliver letters and newspapers to our Box down on the...
It was isolated farming country with long distances between families. There was no telephone and no electricity so communication was by letter and light at night was by kerosene lamp or candle. Money was scarce and candles cost money so they were used sparingly....