Nothing to do and Nowhere to go......

Eeek! It's been three weeks since the last 'isolation blog'. Doesn't time fly when you've got nothing to do, and nowhere to go.....?

I do appreciate that there are a number of our followers (not in a cult way) still working quite hard, whether that is still at their place of work or, indeed, 'working from home'; a huge shout out to them.

Today, I am going to be looking at two key phrases : NOTHING TO DO and NOWHERE TO GO.

NOTHING TO DO

Frankly, apart from the odd moment of gloom and misery that we're not travelling on our trip of a lifetime, we are surprisingly remaining upbeat and finding plenty of things to keep us occupied.
Dennis has found a new "acting" career which, if he could actually bring in some $$$$$$, would be a lot more useful to us. For those following Facebook, he has been re-enacting famous movie scenes and has shown great versatility from ET to Mission Impossible. Obviously, as his co-star, I have had to brush up on my thespian technique and probably need to do more upper body exercise if I am to competently lift his 9.7kg above my head!
He has rather stolen my limelight on the 'Good Morning' clips although he has provided much needed laughter especially first thing in the morning for Von and I. The clips also appears to amuse my Facebookers and WhatsApp'ers too, in some small way we hope we are helping in the 'raise the morale' stakes.
Contrary to belief, Dennis does actually enjoy it and we are giving him treats and days off having sought advice from 'Equity'. We've had no dawn raids by the RSPCA as yet.......

We continue to volunteer at the General Store in Kangaroo Valley village for a few hours here and there being gainfully employed bagging up and pricing produce, and then re-stocking shelves. Von did get the 'Advanced' course and can now also use the till. Thankfully this is one small business that may well survive the 'Covid19' economic downturn as it is the only store in the Valley and sells all sorts from fresh produce, tinned goods, sundries and frippery. Even better, a lot is local produce such as eggs, olives, veggies and honey.

When not doing bagging up, we are still helping around the property by mowing, pruning and tidying. Tractor, ride-on mower and petrol weedeater/whippersnipper/strimmer (NZ/OZ/UK equivalents(!)).

There is another small cottage (Gafa) on the land here, which is owned in a 'share' capacity by a group of families. Usually at Easter they all arrive for a 'working bee' but due to the obvious restrictions around 'essential' travel this was cancelled. So it was our job, along with Irene, to tidy which, initially, proved to be tricky due to a squatter being present; namely a Brushtail Possum (about the size of a cat).
'POSSUMGATE' ensued resulting in Dennis 'tracking' him/her very efficiently to a small gap in the mezzanine floorboards.

Thankfully we were able to acquire a humane trap and with some very tempting apple slices, within 30 minutes had trapped said Possum successfully.  Bloody awesome!

Herein lies a difference in culture between Aussies and Kiwis :-

Australia - Possum PROTECTED
New Zealand - Possum PEST

It would've been appropriate to shoot it or let Dennis eat it in NZ (not that he would've known what to do (unlike his cuzzy bro's Monty & Tank)), it is most definitely not appropriate here, so the idea is to humanely trap and then release. The release still has to be within a Possums natural boundaries, a car ride 15km down the road is a NO as any rival Possum would attack the newcomer. She/he was released on the same night and so far (fingers crossed) has not found its' way back to the comfort of the cottage.  Meanwhile,
Dennis has not quite realised the Possum has gone and still spends time sniffing out every nook and cranny.

One of the lovely aspects of our base are the marked trails across the whole property which are utilised by the 'Gafnicks' (those who have a share in Gafa) and also from when Derek and Irene ran an outdoor management training company (Operation Challenge). A great job is to walk the trails, refreshing the markers and pruning any obstructions along the route. Dennis is not allowed to participate due to the proximity of wildlife but is very happy snoozing in the van instead. It's a beautiful and relatively safe way (no snakes seen as yet !) of experiencing 'The Bush'.  (hee, hee, she said Bush)

At the end of a trail that comes close to 'our' cottage there is a perfectly placed twin-seat which looks out onto one of the escarpments and the 'sundowners' are 'majestical' (movie reference). Colloquially known as the G&T Seat.....and yes we did !

Whilst I have been satisfying myself with various items of machinery:

  Von most certainly is getting very 'Crafty' ! So far she has made 2 Insect Hotels...

 a CD Lamp (still under construction)...

patching clothing, sewing on a sewing machine, hand-made bracelets and Beer bread. She also decided to experiment with my hair....I'm not that convinced about that!

NOWHERE TO GO

Whilst we are currently unable to travel anywhere within Australia we have still managed to go camping. Easter arrived, we loaded up the van with goodies for a 2 night sojourn and, allowing for traffic (i.e Derek driving to his shed), drove the 100 metres to the next paddock! Having previously been perfectly mowed by my good self, we duly plonked ourselves right in the middle of it. 

Although not quite the same it was still nice to sleep back in the van again. No light pollution, we were treated to some amazing starry skies and Dennis enjoyed wallaby spotting.....as did I !
We repeated our camping trip this last weekend too, as part of Anzac Day commemorations, which saw an amazing foggy atmosphere for our #StandatDawn moment.

Auckland was our next trip...... on Zoom! Was great to be able to chat to some of our New Zealand buddies but always leaves me feeling a little 'homesick' in a 'NO WE CAN'T GO' way. 

I'm hoping that we will soon be given permission to travel within the states & territories, so at least a road trip around New South Wales might satisfy the wanderlust; she's a pretty big State.

I may be repeating myself here but we are SO very lucky that we do have SOMEWHERE TO GO right now though and the Cottage is perfect. I realised that my readers have only seen the deck for Dennis' performances so here are a few photos of what it looks like inside for those who have never been lucky enough to visit.

And this leaves us with AUTUMN...haha leaves/autumn. Mmm, anyway this has to be one of my favourite times of year here. The daytime temperatures are generally still warm and sunny, around 21-27C, albeit this week it is set to drop to around 16C (still in shorts and t-shirts). Nights are definitely getting cooler (add a hoody!), but results in better sleeping, and, in the mornings, fog which always lifts quite quickly to produce clear blue skies. We are lucky to have deciduous trees around the village so also getting the stunning Autumnal colours. 

It looks like the warmer weather is arriving in the Northern Hemisphere which, hopefully, means soaking up some well deserved Vitamin D for everyone up there..... but not drinking disinfectant... 

Kia Kaha my lovely friends and family; Stay Safe, Be Kind...... and soon we'll have SOMETHING TO DO & SOMEWHERE TO GO xxxx