Just Nicky

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink July 30, 2006

Tim’s post about the water referendum in Toowoomba has started me thinking. While I’m a little disappointed that it failed, I really can’t blame them. I don’t think I could in all good conscience vote to add water recycled from sewerage to our drinking supply. I just couldn’t trust its quality enough.

I do think, though, that we need to be using as little fresh water as possible and reusing/recycling water where we can. It’s not always easy to do, though. It’s not possible to recycle the grey water in our house. All the pipes go straight down through the slab and there’s nowhere we can intercept the water without major excavation, etc. One summer we did redirect washing machine water onto the garden, but it’s not particularly healthy for the washing machine. It puts too much strain on the pump motor, so I don’t really want to try that again as I’d rather not have to replace the machine any time soon. Bailing bathwater out in buckets is something else we’ve done and may do again this summer. It’s hard-ish work for what feels like little gain, but if water restrictions are tough and it will help keep the garden alive, then I’ll do it.

The front garden won’t need much water this year. All the plants out there are natives or succulents and they’ve all been there for over 12 months, so they’re well settled in and hardened. In the back yard I have grand plans to move plants and plant out pots, as well as growing some vegies, so there’ll bit more water use there. I’ll do the watering either by water weeping house under the mulch or by hand, so (fingers crossed) none of it should be wasted.

The garden is one place I’d be happy to use recycled sewer water. It would be a major engineering work, but I’d love to see recycled water plumbed to all garden taps. I think the stats are that about one third of all water usage is on the garden, so it would make a substantial difference. It definitely needs to be a feature of future housing developments, particularly in areas like ours. Werribee is in a rain shadow so we get less rain than other areas. It all falls on the YouYangs. We get about half as much rainfall as Tim’s side of town. The Werribee area is also where most (?) of Melbourne’s vegie growers are located. And, serendipitously, it’s where the supply of recycled water is situated. It seems logical doesn’t it? Yet, apart from some vegie growers trialling recycled water a couple of years ago, we’ve heard little or nothing from the various tiers of government about plumbing it to existing homes or putting it in new estates.

Hair raising July 28, 2006

I got my hair cut today. I don’t know whether the hairdresser did a good job or not. I can’t tell because I’m too busy hating the way he dried it. He pulled it straight and flattened it out - as is the current fashion - and it really, really doesn’t suit me. A face like mine does not need flat, straight hair on top of it. This is how it looks:

It looks a bit better if I put the top part back, but that raises a whole other issue. The Grey. I have a lot of grey hair at the front of my hair line. All the hair that fell out after I had Finn came back grey. I usually colour my hair when it starts to show, but I’m considering leaving it to grow. I have this vague fantasy that it might actually look kind of good. I’m sure I’ll get over it soon.

Eggstraordinary

This morning one of the chooks delivered a giant egg.

I hope it didn’t hurt too much.

Blossom July 25, 2006

Yesterday while I was outside cleaning up various types of poo I thought I felt a hint of Spring in the air.

Today I looked out the loungeroom window to find that the first blossom has opened on our tree.

The towel has been thrown

I sat down at the computer to work on my assignment and decided that it’s not going to happen. I’m going to drop out of this subject.

This is the way I make decisions sometimes. Something just clicks and it’s done. There’s no going back once it happens.

I could cite a number of reasons - some good, some not so good - but at the root of it all I just don’t care enough about it. It’s not something I’m particularly interested in. It’s something I picked up just because the Open Universities website recommended it. I really should have gone with my gut and done one of the subjects that really grabbed me.

I could be annoyed that I wasted the money it cost to enrol in it, but in some ways it hasn’t been a waste and I refuse to regret anything. What actually annoys me is the way I know The Mavis will look at me when she finds out. We’ve been there before and it always results in an argument.

For the next study period I’m enrolled in Introduction to Psychology 1A through Monash. I’m considering doing this subject as well. These subjects are the types of things I want to do, not writing pretend 500 word tenders to solve a problem.

Procrastinating July 24, 2006

I sat down at the computer planning to work on my third assignment while Finn was engrossed in watching Jakers. The flaw in my plan came when I decided to check blogs and stuff while composing my thoughts.

That was nearly an hour ago. Finn is now on his way to bed - a story with Dad being the preamble to being tucked in. I’ve done no work on the assignment and won’t make a further attempt tonight.

Tomorrow is another day and, I think, crunch time for this subject. If I don’t get my shit together to do the assignment in time for submission by Friday, I’m going to pack this one in. No, this is not good, but I really don’t like the subject and am finding it all but impossible to muster any enthusiasm for the assignments.

The confirmation of enrolment for the next subject I’m planning to do arrived today and I got all excited about it. I can’t wait to ditch this dog and move on to that one. I’m considering enrolling in a second subject for the next study period because I want to get on with things and because I think that having more, rather than less, to do is a good thing.

Pretty pictures

From here, via stitchalicious.

My blog as a graph:

And Farkenace as a graph:

There’s a heap of them on Flickr.

Tubes

A US Senator describes how the internet works.

Who knew?

I wonder how Bill Heffernan would describe it? Probably as a gay, left wing plot against farmers.

Bendigo Wool … and sheep too. July 23, 2006

We trundled off to Bendigo yesterday to visit the Sheep and Wool show and to see Finn’s Grandy and Helen (although I completely forgot that Helen was in Bendigo until Friday night).

At first I thought the show was going to be all sheep and no wool as we wandered past and through tent after tent of sheep and alpacas, but eventually we found the main shed full of wool crafts. There was some very boring stuff there - all beautifully made, but sooo boring - however once I got past that there was some lovely things to look at and, of course, buy.

I bought 2 balls of the yarn at top left, but the other must still be in the car (I hope). The big skein is likely to become my sister’s birthday present in September, unless I fall too much in love with it. I was most excited to find the needle rolls, though, since I’ve been looking at them online, baulking at the prices (usually $50 +) and promising myself I’d make my own, one day. The large one for straight needles was $18 and has 9 pockets. The smaller one is intended for circulars and cost $12.50. The best thing is that I can use these as a template for making my own - when I finally get around to it.

There were other sheds of wool crafts where I would have liked to have bought some bits and pieces, but we were rapidly running out of cash and nobody seemed to take credit card, which is not such a bad thing as it stopped me from going overboard.

World Traveller

My eldest niece, Eli, is in Africa and has recently updated her blog and uploaded a heap of photos to Flickr. So far this one is my favourite.

I’m soooo farking jealous…