Rory is handy. I am not.

When you see this, you know you've got a lot of work ahead of you: Daylight Savings hit this Sunday, so the weather around here is getting warmer and the days are a bit longer. We also just had a three day weekend to boot! To celebrate, we've started working on our garden, and have gotten quite a bit done! Its even starting to look (gasp) landscaped. Or, at least, the garden beds are there so that it WILL look lanscaped when we finally get around to putting in the plants. Rory bought a heapload of sleepers at Bunnings and created garden beds in the front and back yards. The layout below shows where we put in the new beds... they're the bits of blue. So, Rory spent the weekend sawing away at sleepers, drilling them in place, tilling the soil, and hauling the 5 cubic metres of dirt we got delivered. I helped a bit, but frankly all that drilling and manual labour is a bit out of my skill set. I'm more a running-to-the-hardware-store and making-lunch-for-the-workers sorta gal. But I do that really well. Except that when I went to the hardware store to get more sleepers, nobody was there to help me load them up and I banged myself in the head with one of them. I'm such a handy person. He created (as you can see from my rather ugly graphic) 5 beds in the front and 5 beds in the back. These three are going to be my veggie patch: (Picture coming soon. As soon as I find my camera charger, charge my camera, take more pictures and put them up. So maybe not so soon.) This one is going to be flanked by a fruit tree on either side. Think I might plant some colorful flowers here: (See above) And these are along the fence in the front yard and surrounding a tree in the front yard that used to be kinda lonely:

Obviously, this isn't the picture I had envisioned. I was going to take pictures of the BEDS, not of Alfie. But my camera ran out ofbatteries and I have been unable to find the charger. If you look in the background, however, you can see one of the beds Rory made... this one is surrounding the tree in the front yard.

There are a few more, but I might just wait and post pictures once I've planted something in them. Pictures of empty flower beds are, alas, pictures of dirt. Which, by the way, Alfie loves:

This is where Alfie laid for... well, pretty much for the whole weekend. He was in Doggie Heaven. Ah, to be a dog.

I think he was just the tiniest bit disappointed that we didn't leave the dirt in a huge pile on the front lawn. He played in it for hours on Saturday and then again on Sunday, digging giant, Alfie-sized holes, napping in the cool dirt, and burying assorted playtoys and objects, to be found later by Rory as he carted the dirt. Speaking of carting dirt, I was rather useful, come to remember. Our wheelbarrow's wheel had a most unfortunate puncture that rendered it all but useless for carting dirt, so I went and bought a new one at Bunnings. A self-assembled one. Now, wheelbarrows might look like fairly simple apparatuses, and they might appear fairly straightforward to put together, but, lemme tell ya... looks can be decieving. First, I put the wedges in wrong, so the angle to the wheelbarrow was all wrong and the wheel didn't touch the ground. Then, I did a step out of order, so the kneeguard thing wouldn't go in properly (not that I think that was a crucial component to the wheelbarrow anyway). Finally, I had the whole thing put together. Rory came over, examined it, then grabbed the wrench and started unscrewing with great abandon. Apparently I had put the bolts in the wrong way. As if that really matters.

Putting together the wheelbarrow, phase one. Note the incorrect angle of the handles. I put the wheel on and it didn't touch the ground. Oops. This stupid thing took about an hour to put together! That's another flower bed in the background. Alfie coming to have a look. He was somewhat concerned about the cursing and banging going on... this was about when I realized the wheel problem and had to dismantle. That's our new park bench in the foreground, by the way. I'm going to paint it, but haven't decided what color yet.

Next weekend we start the fun part, where I get to be in charge. The planting. I'm still trying to decide what sorts of things I want in each of the beds... any ideas? Keeping in mind, of course, that THREE of the plants I planted two weeks ago have already made their way to Botanical Heaven. Its been raining constantly since I planted them, but somehow, inexplicably, they're parched. Rory thinks it might have been because they were under the overhang of the house. Seriously, though. Its not that big of an overhang. They really should have been able to figure that one out. So I'm on the lookout for some leave 'em and forget 'em type of plants. As in, really forget about them. But I still want them to smell nice, have flowers I can cut and put in a vase, and attract lots of nifty butterflies and birds. Wishful thinking?

All in a Dog's Day

I know I post a lot about the dogs, but, what can I say? I guess I'm going to be one of those people who pull out fifty pictures of their kids to bore guests to death with. "And this is little Junior burping"... but, I don't have any kids, and my dogs are cuter and more intelligent than most people's kids anyway, so I know you want to hear all about them. Alas, without further ado, I present another post about..... The dogs. Sunday was a big day for Dogs In Canberra. The local dog park, down by the lake, hosted a fabulous event called "Dogs Day Out". Alfie loved it. He met, sniffed and licked hundreds of dogs, big and small, waded chest deep in the lake, got checked out at the free vet stand, almost stole somebody's egg sandwich off a picnic table (oops), and drank as much water as he could possibly hold in an attempt to mark every tree in the park. Harry just growled the whole time, but that's beside the point. Everybody else had a blast.

Alfie at Dog's Day Out, meeting his first friend.

I even bought both the dogs a Doggachino from a fancy gourmet, organic dog treat company. Classy, huh? All the other dogs at the park lapped up the stirred-soy-milk, liver-treat -sprinkled, Starbucks-inspired goodness like it was the last treat on earth, but not our dogs. Alfie and Harry sniffed it and turned their noses up, totally un-interested. Trust my dogs to have no class. Look at these dogs lapping up their Doggachinos: Our dogs' pathetic interest wasn't even worth a picture. In honesty, though, I think Alfie was just really, really interested in everything else that was going around him. Sensory overload. We also had a nice chat with the Canberra Greyhound Adoption Service, who are going to come out to our house to do a house check this next week. If we pass, we'll get to become foster parents for greyhounds through Friends of the Hound, an adoption group in Sydney. They were impressed with Alfie's outfit... Rory made him wear St.Kilda's uniform all weekend, in celebration of their AFL win on Friday night. But he was very, very cute, wasn't he? Now, do you want to see a picture of him burping?.....

Harry, on his way back from Dog's Day Out. He hangs his head out the window like nobody's business.

After the Dog's Day Out, we spent Sunday afternoon gardening. We mowed the lawn, which had gotten so bad that the Mommie Possum who made a home in the front had to send out search parties to find her young in the tall, tall grass. It tickled Alfie's belly, it was so long, and was definitely getting to be a snake hazard. I also made a flower bed in the front yard, up under the front windows. We are now growing jasmine, Lady O (a native shrub that has red flowers), and some ornamental cabbage. Its been a week now since I planted my pansies, and they're still alive, which I think is probably a good sign. Generally speaking I have a thumb blacker than coal when it comes to gardening.

See? Still alive.

Cool lettuce thing I bought at Bunnings. It was half off, apparently (according to dad), cause we're ending the lettuce growing period around here. Ah, well. Looks like I'll be having a nice salad soon!

That's the flower bed I made this weekend to the right. Obviously, its not very established yet. And we badly need to paint the outside of the house... we're hoping to get some small shrubby things to border this landing.

In the backyard, we planted lemon and lime trees and some native trees. Alfie was quite funny... we've very nearly won the Battle Of The Digging Dog in the backyard, and neighbours probably hear more of us sticking our heads out of windows saying 'No, Alfie! Alfie, that's a No!' than they would like. But he's a good dog, and he's almost broken the habit. So seeing us digging big holes without any yelling at all threw him for a HUGE loop. 'What?' his expression seemed to say. 'I thought this was a No.' But he got into it pretty quickly, and helped deepen one of the holes. We put the tree in, and, much to Alfie's confusion, started filling in the hole. When we were finished, Alfie looked at us, looked at the tree, and, very slowly, lowered his paw to start digging it up. "NO, Alfie!" we both yelled. But the seeds have been sown, and I'm willing to bet the trees won't last the week. Oh well, who likes lemonade anyway?

Happy Father's Day!

That's right. I didn't forget the fathers in my life way back in June, it was just that we hadn't celebrated yet. For whatever inexplicable reason, Father's Day in Australia falls in September instead of June. I suspect that it could have to do with the fact that if it was in June it would be in the dead of winter here, but I could be wrong. I just don't know. So, for Father's Day we decided to go to the local Lake/Park and have a picnic breakfast. We invited Rory's dad, Kate, Connah and Ryan and had a lovely bbq'd breakfast of bacon and egg sandwiches. As it happens eggs are somewhat of a challenge to do on a BBQ, but they turned out okay, if somewhat charred.

Rory in action.

There is also an off-leash dog park at the Lake, and seeing as Alfie would trade me in for ten minutes' play at the park, we had to take the dogs along as well. Poor Alfie. He got yelled at by some silly poodle lady because he ran in full flight up to her dog from the other side of the Park. Not to hurt him, mind you, but just for a sniff or two. He clearly hadn't done anything even remotely dangerous to the poodle, but I think the sight of Alfie running up scared his owner, cause she had a go at us about 'controlling' our dog. Uuuuhhh, at an off leash dog park? Pretty sure he can run. Good thing, really, cause I was afraid he thought the little white poodle was a rabbit and was going to tear it apart. Good Dog, Alfie. I mean,

VS. ?

A mistake any self- respecting greyhound could have made. Anyway, Alfie L O V E S the dog park. He runs, he plays, he sniffs, he barks, he steals other people's tennis balls, and he won't let us catch him when its time to leave. Harry, on the other hand, hates the dog park. Anti-social to his core, he growls at other dogs, demands to be picked up, cowers behind my legs and is a Grade-A turd to be around. Here's Harry, watching the ball he was supposed to run after like a cute little terrier roll away, to be eaten by another dog: And here's Harry following within a few footsteps of me. See that little pug dog bounding towards him? He gave him a good growl and snap. Still, though, differences aside, they're still the cutest dogs at the dog park. And, we need another greyhound. Poor Alfie needs a better friend. But Rory says no. So, Happy Australian Father's Day, Dad, PawPaw and Jay!

Away at the Footy

Apologies for not updating in quite some time... until this weekend, we'd had an uneventful couple of weeks. But get ready for a few posts!! On Saturday Rory and I went to the Magpies AFL Grand Final. AFL is code for Australian Rules Football, one of the more popular sports in Australia. Evidently Cricket is the most popular sport in Australia, a fact that I am both amazed by and unable to comprehend. If you're suffering insomnia and need a quick way to get some z's, without a doubt Cricket is the way to go. Otherwise, watching paint dry, tooth extractions and cleaning the toilet bowl are all immensely preferable pursuits. AFL, though, is much more exciting, even to me, the self-professed hater of all things hand-eye coordinated. I'm probably not sporty enough to explain it properly, but basically its a game played with 18 or so guys who try to get a ball between two goal posts by kicking, throwing, or otherwise advancing it. The game keeps moving and doesn't often stop for time outs, so in a lot of ways is a lot like soccer (I think. Soccer doesn't really do time outs, does it?), but its played with a football, so in some respects is like Rugby. You get 6 points for kicking the ball through the main goal posts, and then there are two side goal posts that you can kick the ball through for a point. If you're really interested you can look up the wiki page, but, in honesty, that's about where my understanding lies. The wiki page does claim the game is played with 'a ball in the shape of a prolate spheroid', so I'm not really sure how much additional understanding can be gleaned from it. Anyway, Rory has played for the Magpies Sports Club for a number of years, and this year the 1st -grade team made it to the Grand Final. The Sports Club separates their teams into 'grades'... the 1st grade is really quite good, with players getting paid and such, and then you have 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Anyway, we went to the Final Game this weekend, and they won by only 6 points!! It was really all very exciting, with an awards ceremony afterwards and all that jazz. It was a very football orientated weekend, actually. In addition to the Magpies game, Rory and Lincoln watched the St. Kilda (a professional team; Rory's favorite) Grand Final and they won as well. Good thing, cause their manly cheers and shouts made Alfie very nervous. Rory was also elected to be on the Magpie Club's Board of Directors... not sure what that entails, really, but there ya go. I shall keep you updated.

Our Weekend

Thanks Dad and Honey! The tree I blogged about last time is, in fact, a cherry tree. An Ornamental Japanese Cherry Tree, to be precise, according to my most informative neighbor. I tried making an arrangement out of the blossoms, but they don't seem to last very long. This weekend, we finally got all the rooms in the house sorted out! Rory rented a trailer, and we got a lot done... First off, our living room got a makeover! Before, we had these chairs in the sitting area over by the heater. They were okay, and I liked their shape, but I hated the way they looked in the room. Blue, green and yellow stripes hardly go with our burgundy, blue and green rug. We tried covering them with a throw blanket, hiding the pattern with oversized pillows and just plain ignoring them, but I'd resigned myself to the fact that we would either have to cover them or buy something new. As 1) I'm not very good at covering things and 2) our favorite second-hand furniture has recently closed down 'until further notice', we'd been wondering where we were going to find an affordable replacement. And then, luck struck! When we went to our friend Paul's house for our weekly Games Night, Rory noticed that Paul and Karen had a new couch... and were getting rid of their old ones! They're nice and neutral, work perfectly in the space and (best of all) were totally free! Pretty good, huh?! This is my favorite spot in the whole house... after I've made dinner and had a bath, I'm generally doing something on that couch. Its right by the heater, so it stays nice and warm all evening long. We picked up that wooden chest this weekend at Salvos, and I think it finishes off the area nicely. I recovered the top, which was covered with an ugly, stained, green fabric, and now we have a great chest that does double duty as an extra seat. We also finished off our office (previously our box-dumping room). We've been storing a whole heap of stuff in the office, shutting the door, and ignoring the mess and disorder that was just getting worse and worse. Before we picked up the desk we had to clean up the room so that we could at least open the door... I keep asking myself why I didn't get rid of stuff BEFORE we moved instead of moving it all and THEN throwing it away. Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? I had found a desk on ebay, and we went to pick it up, but unfortunately the lady we were buying it from wasn't home (this was AFTER she had confirmed that she would be and AFTER we had agreed on a time). Luckily, our good, standard stand by was open... Salvos! And they had a desk that looked better than the one we were going to pick up from the ebay lady. The trim is blue, which fits great with our color scheme throughout the house... blue was the 'decor' color from our paint chip! Here's what the office looks like now: So, we had a very successful weekend! Rory also finished off the kitchen, so the whole house is looking great! I guess next weekend we'll start on the garden... and THAT is going to be a big job.