As I stepped outside at 7am to scrape the porridge pot into dog's dish this morning I was greeted by a rose pink palate in the eastern sky behind the sparse crown foliage of the messmate and peppermint trees. Magnificent. I heard the garbage truck entering the street so I went inside and got the skin I had peeled from the chicken breast that I'd cut up and put in the oven to dry out as dog treats. The chicken is easier to cut into small pieces without the skin, and the gluey mass of skin is hardly fit for little dog. I put boots on and walked up to the bin that Gordon had taken up to the street last night. The truck does our side of the street on the way back and we are the last so there's a few minutes grace to get to the bin before the truck picks it up. On the way back I inspected the tiny eucy seedlings growing from seed I collected from a special tree on a trip a while back. I put some dry dog minis out for the birds and noticed as I took my boots off that in ten minutes the eastern sky had changed to a delicious bright yellow on the clouds against the now blue background which had been grey a short time earlier.
By this time I was inspired to my back teeth with the prospect of another day, and the promise of an evening meal and wine, the wine from which I had abstained all working week as is my normal habit. I have had a full week of activity some of which was different, including a trip to Neerim South to pick up an advanced lemon tree last Monday, for my dear friend Maria as a present.
On the way back I visited a friend, an old football team mate Leigh Candy in Warragul where he has retired from the Education Department. He has a lovely renovated house almost in the heart of town and has been busy making over the garden to his taste and interest in native plants. A streak of blue dye through his white closely cropped hair showed he has maintained some eccentricity. It was not related to his support of the Carlton Football Club he assured me when questioned, and said until recently it had been a pink streak, just something he had gone with in company with his partner's daughter and he actually liked it. Back in our football days Leigh turned up wearing caftan and thongs whatever the weather and smoked a pipe, the contents of which were dubious. He talked of yings and yangs and things of which I knew nought. I remember our coach 'Lace' saying to him at half time one day when he was having a quiet day, "Look Lethal, I don't give stuff about yings and yangs, just get the footy." Get the footy he could when his yings and yangs were right. He kicked five goals in our preliminary final resurgence from a mile behind, four in the last quarter, and followed this up with five in the Grand Final in what he said he knew was his last game. And a premiership and Best and Fairest award in his last season.
That Monday night I had a meeting with the Puffing Billy working group to prepare for the stakeholders meeting with PB and council bigshots and politicians the next day. The pollies in the end were apologies. There was no real progress to come from this meeting, only assurance from PB that they would work with Gembrook Community Group to address the problems to the mutual benefit of all parties. The CEO said he could not agree to putting the Thomas Tank Days planned for spring summer autumn 2017/2018 on hold, as we requested, he would need to take this to the board. Their decision would be known by us at the next meeting scheduled early June. Meetings meetings meetings, no change to plans yet. I do not believe they have any intention of altering their plans. Farce.
On Wednesday Gord and I planted Maria's tree in the position in her garden that she chose when we mowed her grass on Tuesday. It looked lovely. The Trini Lopez hit song 'Lemon Tree' (very pretty) from the 1960's was in my mind. Maria wasn't home when we planted it but she rang and was so happy. I was so happy too. If I had done nothing else for the week, after enduring the torture of these PB meeting and all their bullshit, the pleasure I gained from seeing that tree in the ground safe and sound and hopefully to thrive in the future is huge. It got a bit knocked around on the trip back from Neerim as I had to lay it down in the trailer and the bouncing caused a lot of soil to fall from the 40cm pot, and the trunk to move up and down weakening the roothold. But I think it will be alright, it is well staked and it's a good time of year to plant.
I stopped at Bunyip on the way back from Warragul and bought a battery powered Husqvarna chainsaw which I can't wait to test drive, and get on with my pruning and removal program planned at the farm over the next couple of months.
A pleasant day today with rain coming, I worked well yesterday to get most of the picking done to make today light. A good football game it should be tonight between Geelong and Bulldogs, by the fire with a bottle red. Fabulous Friday.
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