Housework – it just never ends.
Last Sunday I started the day with a couple of hours of mowing.
The mowing isn’t quite so critical this week but by next Sunday it will be.
It’s amazing how everything just keeps growing.
Mind you, if it didn’t we’d be in big trouble.
So this week’s mission was to clean the motor-bike.
I’d ridden it from Sydney to Devonport and to our new home.
It still had the travel dirt and I tended to feel a bit embarrassed about being on it in public and so it hasn’t been out much of late.
Getting it clean was one of those things on my to-do list which somehow managed to keep sliding as a priority.
Don’t know why that should be and I guess it’s not something you’ve experienced (or is it?).
Anyway, a couple of hours with water and soap and then a good dose of polish transformed it into a beautiful machine once more.
Now to take it out into the world – Tasmania is famous for some of its rides and I’m looking forward to getting out and about.
(Danita has suggested that since it’s a while since she’s been on it, perhaps it would be best if she met me at the bottom of our driveway – it is a rather steep one after all.)
While I was at it I also cleaned the lawnmower – having been used a few times it was starting to look not quite so new so it got a going over as well, although it did miss out on the polish treatment – not much chrome on a lawnmower to get nice and shiny.
Having done that I was wandering around the yard and kept finding weeds.
We seem to be doing very well in the weed-growing department.
There are dandelions and a range of spiky things I haven’t yet been able to identify which are growing nicely.
Sadly, the things we want are taking their time about it, or dropping out completely.
We have a BIG fig tree which was covered with tiny figs which Danita and I were very excited about.
Sadly, we’ve had a couple of seriously windy days which resulted in the total decimation of our crop.
We also have plums, nectarines, apples, avocados, lemons, oranges, grapefruit and more (what a wonderful orchard we’ve arrived at).
The lemons and grapefruit have been a real treat.
Since being here I’ve made a point of having a grapefruit every day straight off the tree (can’t get any fresher than that).
While not qualifying as a variation on “The Grapefruit Diet” it is lovely to have a super-fresh one each morning.
Anyway, as I was saying, the weeds here are doing very nicely for themselves (AGAIN!) and so require constant work in the garden to get them under some sort of control.
As part of our diverse range of weeds we include spiky, spreading things that are determined to take over the entire area (if not bent on world domination, but that’s another story).
There’s even a decorative passionfruit – now if that’s not pointless I don’t know what is.
It spreads through and under everything nearby, produces nice flowers but then has the audacity to quit at that point – no fruit.
So more time was spent cutting that back as it had got a tad out of control.
After thoroughly exhausting ourselves (Danita with housework and me with cleaning and gardening) we went off to visit the Mersey II.
It’s the newest addition to the Tasmania/mainland freight carrier fleet, is the latest thing in marine technology and has just arrived from Germany where it was built.
There was an open day to have a look around it and it’s HUGE!
One of the things we found remarkable was that we could park the car right at the dock and there weren’t huge crowds to contend with – another of the joys of living in Tasmania.
Then back home to more housework – I’m still trying to find things in boxes.
Does this housework stuff ever end?