Yesterday was the day I consider my day off.  I try not to book appointments and I leave the day free to do what I feel needs to be done, or do what I have in mind to do.
We knew that the rubbish man was coming at around 7am.  We also knew the bin was relatively empty and there were weeds still in the ground we wanted to get rid of.  They seem to be like the most efficient weeds out.  They stick to our cloths and use us to go from one place to the next.  And the thing about weeds and all plants in general is that one seed does not produce on plant.  One seed potentially produces many plants.  These weeds were following the script.
Anyway these weeds time had come though they did not know it.  I was up and atom and thought I can give an hour to pulling weeds.  That is what I did.  From 6am I had our bin open and was pulling out weeds and loading the bin. 
My goal was to deal with every blooming weed I saw.  I went up and down one driveway, and across the centre strip, and up and down the other driveway.  I also dealt with the approach to the home.
In the end I could not see one weed I wanted taken away. (I saw a couple later when wiper snippering in an area I had not touched).  That took about 30 minutes
Merril’s mum arrives late tonight so the next thing I did was to start setting up the room we are making into a granny flat (when someone actually accepts the job).  I did stuff initially and left Merril to make it the way she wanted it.
Merril did heaps of things.  Nothing like us putting our heads down and working to a plan.
I had to move doors we are keeping and rearrange the Studio (our word to identify which shed) to house them.
I also did something that was reinforced by a quote I used the other day.  “Gradually then suddenly.”  I studied some stuff I am interested in.  I figure this is a gradually time.
One thing is for sure though.  I was cactus by the end of the day. 

We do find the birds that visit fascinating.  They all have personalities of their own.
We tend to give the birds names.  Thise names mean something to us most of the time.  There are Myna birds that are not native.  We see them around.  They are super intelligent as far as I can see.  I reckon there are so many of them as they will not let you get close to them.  Not that I want to.  The ones that happen to land in the yard I chase away immediately, and they depart almost as soon as they see me.  We call them Terry.  We see them as terrorists.
The other Myna’s we call “the gang.”  In a group they are tough.  Alone they are wimps.  I do not chase them away.  I don’t like them, but they have been here for ages.
There is a Pee Wee that visits.  Actually he and his wife do.  Ok it may be a he but we call the male Pee Wee Penny.  That starts with p.  The name we have given it sounds better then the initial that the p reminds of us.  Psycho.
Well it really seems to be.  It does not seem to relate to anyone.  It does what it does.  And what it does is weird.  It has a fascination with it’s own reflection and lands on window ledges that do not exist.  There is one window in the shed that has only the tracks.  The bird momentarily grips on to them.  Again and again.  Time after time.
And the car.  Park it in the yard and the Pee Wee must land on it.  It has learned it cannot walk up the front window pane as it slides down it.  When I say learned it may only be wishful thinking really.  It sometimes still tries to walk up the slippery pane without success.  I would not call sliding down the pane success.  So it flies from the bottom to top and top to bottom.
There is one Crow couple we have become friendly with.  We have a really original name for the male crow.  Krow.  Crow with a K.  Krow.  They are trusting birds.  My most memorable moment with the Crows was having one sit on Merrils chair (it was empty) while I sat on mine.  A moment of togetherness.
There are other birds that visit, and everyone seems to have a distinct personality.  We love that they visit – except for the Terry’s.

Yesterday was different.  We were having a dinner for around 12 here for the first time.  I really did not know how it would go.  One thing I thought though was that we may have too much. 
Everyone was bringing enough for themselves and another.  One guy who could not make it even said he was bringing around a meal.  When he arrived, he explained why he did not have it.  While driving here it had tipped up onto the floor.
I am wanting to do this sort of thing once a school term.  This was the first time ever.  A learning curve really.  Merril was getting together stuff she was preparing.  I was responsible for a portion of dessert.  But truth be known, Merril bought it.
While Merril was out getting stuff I decided to do a few things around the place.  I blew the leaves from pathways onto the lawn for mowing.  I did the wiper snipping.  All went well until it was time to mow.  I could not get the mower started.  I looked at a few chords and checked stuff.  I may have looked like I knew what I was doing but I did not.  The mower is battery operated and not responding at all.
Turned out the third battery I tried worked.  I was surprised the other two were not charged at all, but they were not.  No matter really.  One worked and turned out to have enough charge to do the yard.
I watered after that.  It did rain later on but it was not the soaking sort of rain.  It was just the brief light rain that was enough to wet everything but not to soak everything.  I was glad I had done what I did.
It sort of ended up looking a picture.  I was surprised how much the little bit of work I did took out of me.  I would do it again and probably will, but it is definitely more taxing than it used to be.
The diner went well, and we had plenty.  It was delicious.  I learned some things for next time too.