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Thanksgiving
We had our own little celebration of Thanksgiving here today although it was quite limited compared to back home where everyone is off for the day. Here it was a normal week day and there was plenty happening. The Scientist worked all day and I went for an ultrasound of my shoulder. This evening Game Fanatic and I joined a friend with his mum at a the game shop. Thanksgiving dinner was squished in the middle of the day.
The Scientist cooked a turkey roast from the grocery store and I made mashed potatoes, green beans and sweet potatoes. Â Most important this year was the pumpkin. We’d come across a kiosk in the local shopping centre that sells chocolates and sweets from overseas and they also happened to be selling cans of Libby’s pumpkin puree. For $9 each. I don’t know how much it costs back home but I imagine it can’t be more than $3 or so at most. I procrastinated about it and thought I would see if it was still available today when I was nearby for my ultrasound. As it turned out, the Scientist bought some yesterday and was going to surprise me by making a pumpkin pie. But I spoiled it all by changing several plans for the day. Ah well…I ended up making the pumpkin but only made the filling and baked it like custard instead. We didn’t have any until tonight but it was really nice and tasty. This was the first time in nineteen years I’ve have pumpkin “pie” in Australia….although I did have it a couple of times while visiting family back home.
In all it was a lovely day and we had a nice but simple meal.
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Mowing
I got a blister on my hand today. It was warm today and dry and I was motivated. So I went outside in the latter part of the afternoon and mowed…and mowed…and mowed. All the weedy grass that had been pulled a few weeks ago was still there but now it dry and crispy, leaving its seeds everywhere. It looked about as horrible as the tall grass did. I didn’t finish the mowing job but I managed to clear large sections of the back yard and the side of the house before moving to mow the front yard. It all looks so much better now. The Scientist came out and helped by pulling out more weeds/grass even though he should rightfully have been taking it easy as he’d done a blood donation in the morning. Between the two of us, the garden is looking far more respectable now.
We have a few ideas of changes to the garden. We’ve got some large pots that have nothing growing in them so I plant to buy some herbs to add to the garden. The chilli plants are coming back to life so I might buy one or two more of those. I don’t know if I will bother with jalapeño or not as they just don’t seem to survive here. I also moved a pot that previously held a thai chilli along with a fig tree growing wild. The chilli plant is long gone but the fig looks like it’s growing a bit. I moved the pot to the back of the house to see if it will be okay with a bit more direct sun.
A less immediate plan for the backyard is to have a patio installed. We may or may not get that done this year but it’s one of our planned major projects. Our idea is to try to mostly enclose the patio so we can move exercise equipment there but also to have one end open to allow for eating outside under cover. This will be good for the dogs as there will be a decent covered area to stay in outside. We are still considering possibilities at the moment and clearing up some of the mess in that area so that we can get a proper quote on it.
In the front yard we have a few lavender plants that have been there for years but most of them look a bit scraggly.  The old plants are most likely to be removed. One of the plants is almost all deadwood so it’s not exactly pretty there. We are considering adding lavender or something simillar on the side of the driveway. We’ve had terrible luck with most plants there so I am not very optimistic of our chances. Meanwhile new lavender plants have grown wild under our drain pipes next to the carport. We also want to till all the ground in the front and try to do over that area properly and make it mostly natural,
One thing I noticed while mowing the front yard was there were so many seedlings growing from one of our shrubs. We bought one of the plants years ago and it uprooted during a storm. But in the years since, several plants have grown and it’s actually turned out to be an invasive plant so I really don’t want it any more. The main plant is now stretching out towards the street and one day I will cut it all out. But there is also an old bottlebrush tree that is now dead in the midst of all the living plants and that will most likely be the first to go from that area. It had pink flowers on it but never really grew much even though it lived for probably fifteen years.
Anyway, with all the mowing I did, a blister developed right under my right pinkie finger. I don’t think that’s ever happened before so I guess I did a lot more mowing than usual today. Â Next weekend we plant to do the side of the yard and to finish up the other areas with whippersnippler and other fixing up.
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The family that gardens together?
Last month we had rain for something like 20-21 day of the month, which is far exceeds our normal September rainfall. Our grass in the backyard grew higher and higher and I despaired as I wasn’t able to go out and mow. Eventually it grew tall enough that mowing was going to have to wait until it had been trimmed down a bit.
We had some dry and sunny days last week but I found myself down and out with more allergies/cold and tonsillitis until early this week. Â Fortunately vertigo wasn’t involved this time but I was pretty knocked out again. Twice in a month…
Anyway, I finally came out of the haze and felt well enough on Monday. The weather was also in agreement so I bought some new grass clippers and a set of hedge shears and pruners. The grass clippers were the expensive type but worked a lot better for my left handed use than the last set I bought. Just for that alone I think they were worth. The Scientist and I went out into the back yard and tried out the tools. The grass clippers were really a bit too slow for the amount we needed. The Scientist pulled out the line trimmer and managed to cut a lot of the tall grass down. Then it came down to mostly pulling the grass out by hand that was most effective. I was still using the clipper for some place but most of it was weedy winter grass.
We were making a bit of progress but time was short and rain was expected again on Tuesday. I joked that I should get the boys out to help us and then did just that. Normally I would get some fairly negative responses to such a request but both Game Fanatic and Lego Lover came out without argument and started helping. After about an hour of work, we had managed to clear out a huge area, leaving mostly outer areas of the garden to be dealt with later.
It was rather nice having all of us out there working towards a goal and getting a bit of enjoyment from it too. I really appreciated the help the boys gave and mostly appreciated how willingly they joined in.
I’m under no illusion this will become a regular thing but I do hope we can join together in this way again when the need arises.
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Dark and stormy nights
So far in September. I think we’ve had some sort of rain all but about three or four days. It never rains that much in September here…at least not in the nineteen years I’ve lived here. I think the weekend might bring a break from the rain. So far the forecast is just for partly cloudy and no mention of moisture. One can hope…
The past few nights we’ve had some particularly fun times with strong winds and some rain mixed in. A tornado hit down someplace around Perth but here we escaped the worst of the wind. Last night we had a severe weather alert and there was indeed severe weather in some areas with trees knocked down and power outages. Tonight there is no alert for us locally but it still sounds pretty loud out there.
Our grass in the backyard has grown so tall it’s over my shoulders in places. We have an electric mower and it just hasn’t dried enough recently to get rid of it. I’m hoping this weekend provides opportunity to clear some of it out but I suspect it’s going to take a long time to get through everything.
Meanwhile there is a strawberry plant growing wild in my herb pot. It’s been a year or two since I had a strawberry plant in there but the leaves definitely match it. I wonder if it will grow into a proper plant in a few weeks. It would be lovely to have some home grown strawberries again.
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Getting around to…
I’ve had on and off issues with my shoulder for years now but finally decided it was time to do something about. I saw my physiotherapist today and she says it’s rotator cuff impingement and bursitis. Also some of the muscles on the upper back around my shoulder blades are really tight. She showed me some exercises to do using thera-bands that I should have around from when I was doing rehab on my knee. She also did some massage work on my upper back and it was so sore and tender there and I didn’t even realise it. It seems I am probably in early enough as my range of motion in my arms is still pretty good.
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Flickr
I’m been using Flickr off and on for several years now. I have photos going back as far as 2005 when I started my account. Back then I just used the free account as I wasn’t uploading a whole lot. Over the past few years, I’ve been taking heaps more photos and posting more on the website. It’s interesting to see how my photography skills have changed over the years. I also have been far more ruthless about keeping only a handful of photos most of the time rather than keeping 1o shots of the same thing. Well, I still sometimes keep multiple copies but oftentimes I delete far more than I keep. It’s usually just a matter of not being able to decide between photos.
Back in the early years, I didn’t have all that many views of my photos, aside from family and friends. Once I started uploading more photos, my views went up but then there would be many days where I’d have none at all. I’ve noticed lately that I’m getting quite a few views daily without even trying. What’s funny is the photos being viewed. Probably the most popular ones are the photos I took at our science museum, Scitech, a few years ago of several plastic bottle sculptures in an exhibit about plastic waste…I think… They aren’t great photos but the subject was interesting. People keep coming to see these same photos all the time. I guess they must be doing searches and my photos come up but it’s kind of funny they are the most popular when they are pretty mediocre overall.
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Online learning
I started a few new online courses on Coursera last week. The first one was the Ancient Greece class and it’s been rather slow-going. I signed up for this mostly for the benefit of Lego Lover but I rather doubt we’ll be there for the long-haul. The lecture videos aren’t particularly engaging and it feels like forever to finish just one. I also think some of the reading is going to be a bit much for Lego Lover so it might be an early casualty. The second course is History of Rock and Roll Part 1. I enrolled in this a while ago, then unenrolled and decided to try again after all since the Scientist is doing this course this time. That one is quite engaging and relatively light work so far. I’ll know a bit more once the quiz is released. There’s also Dino 101, which is completely for the sake of Lego Lover. So far, this has been the best course suited to Lego Lover. It’s not particularly complex, easy enough to be handled even by upper primary students. It’s quite engaging so Lego Lover and I are both enjoying it considerably. He really loves the subject matter too, which is funny because he didn’t when he was much younger like many of his same-aged peers.
The big challenge right now is the class on Modern and Contemporary American Poetry. I have never gotten into poetry in any way but I’ve always felt that I must be missing something since so many people love poetry. I don’t know that this particular set of poetry is the best starting point but I thought it would be good to challenge my notions of poetry and see if I can gather up some better appreciation and perhaps enjoyment of it. This first week has been about Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. I am familiar with both but doubt I’ve read either of these poets in the past so knew nothing about either. I’ve only watched the videos about Dickinson so far but it’s been interesting how they can spend half an hour discussing such a short poem. I won’t say this is without merit but I guess that blows me away to some extent. One thing I did after watching the discussions of her poems was to go and read about her, which might be been more practical beforehand as it puts her work in better perspective.
I ended up dropping out of the Modern and Postmodern class that was so philosophy-based as I got behind on the reading and then the video lectures so there didn’t seem much point carrying on. Perhaps I will make attempts at reading on my own and try the class on its next offering. Assuming something else doesn’t catch my attention. At the very least it go my mind working in ways it hasn’t for years. Not even when I was back in school to do my masters in library and information science….
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Allergy attack, for sure
My vertigo isn’t gone yet but it seems to have taken a step back the past day or so as my allergy attack has become more obvious. I’ve not often had the most typical of allergy symptoms and this time is no exception. Most of my symptoms run along the lines of massive itchiness, fuzzy head/dizziness/vertigo, tiredness, tingly and sometimes numb head,  lips and mouth, etc. It reached the point yesterday where it was worth risking massive dryness from Sjögren’s syndrome to take an anti-histamine. It didn’t exactly do a whole lot for my symptoms yesterday but it also didn’t cause as much dryness. Possibly it’s going to take a couple days to get much effect.  Funnily enough, I now have a more typical runny nose…I might even start sneezing next. :)
I obviously did not go to work yesterday although the Scientist had offered to drive me there and pick me up. I decided I wasn’t likely to be that productive and I think I made the right decision. I’m hoping tomorrow will bring considerable improvement and will see if I can work a few hours if that is the case. It won’t cover all my hours but would be better than none this week. We are in for more rain this week so it might just wash the nasty airborne pollen away for a while….meanwhile creating a blooming environment for even more pollen to be created in the next few weeks.
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Pilates
I think I’ve added a new favorite to my exercise classes at the gym…all video classes, of course. I came across a Power Pilates class for over 45s and I decided to try it out. I really liked it and it felt great on my back. I have found it better than doing yoga when I’m exercising earlier in the day when my body is still feeling rather stiff from the night before. The other day I went to the gym before heading off to work and I thought the yoga would be just what I needed but found I just couldn’t do it that day. I switched to the Power Pilates class and it worked out really well. Â Yesterday I tried another class that was mostly pilates and that was also quite nice. I’d thought the class was one I’d done before but discovered it was mostly moves that were new to me. I’m really looking forward to trying it more and hope the Elements people who make the videos will continues to do pilates-specific classes since it’s a nice complement to the yoga classes.
Most of my exercise routines have been with these classes lately and I’ve really been focused on the yoga and pilates classes. One thing they seem to be really helping is my abdominal area which has been in bad shape pretty much since Game Fanatic was born. It’s only been a few weeks but I notice many of those muscles are getting stronger and my tummy isn’t pooching nearly as much as it used to. On top of that I’ve managed to lose a bit more weight even though I am not doing as much cardio as I was before. I think it’s helping in the strength area in similar ways to the weights. Whatever is happening, I am really liking it and with the yoga and tai chi classes, it’s going quite well for me.
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Yearly repeats
I started taking my Beconase for spring allergies early this year, partly because I noticed everything was blooming early due to considerable rainy periods in the last several weeks. I also knew I was going to be working soon and was hoping to bypass any disruptions to my work hours. For the most part this seemed to work and my hayfever hasn’t really been too bad this year. On the other hand, my ears have continued to be blocked so the Beconase obviously is not fully taking care of the ear issues. Yesterday I started getting those first signs of vertigo that have hit me around this time the past couple of years. Â It’s not particularly severe so long as I stay mostly still and don’t make sudden moves. But it is disruptive when it makes ordinary issues like driving impossible. Looking back on this blog, Â it seems my last bout was almost exactly a year ago. I don’t know if it’s allergy-related or not, but it’s certainly interesting that it’s mostly affecting me at this time of year. My temporary/casual work project looks like it will be finishing up this week, at least for the work that I was doing. Tomorrow is most likely my last day but if I have vertigo I won’t be able to drive there. Here’s hoping I get up and feel a lot better in the morning as I haven’t had nearly as many hours of work this year as last year, despite an extra day each week.