My son phoned me today.  He lives in a very large city around 350kms away, and nearly always calls me once a week.  He and his partner have been looking at small 2 bedroom dwellings to buy, and even a small 2 bedroom on a shared block sold out for $900,000. It’s so disheartening for young people.  If I had to enough money to become a property developer, I would find a way to build nice affordable dwellings.

My son said how he envied my generation, and especially for the way we were able to live as children with a lot more freedoms than children today.  I think generally that us true.  I told him how the reason I moved  to this small timeless town was because it v reminded me of some parts – good parts of my childhood.

Thanks so much Helacat.  We had a very wet summer so no fires.  Such a relief but severe flooding in other states.

A third person at work has now been tested as positive to COVUD – a 91 year old client. I’m testing myself everyday and so far, so good. I’m wearing my mask when I go to the shops, and glad as told as y was announcement of substantial increase in Omnicrom.

I’ve been really busy today giving my kitchen añd walk-in pantry a really good clean. I certainly have a lot of tinned food.  I think I should give most of it away.

Something else too which I think is important – having strong volunteering organisations who can provide support with natural disasters. We haven’t been affected in this state by the recent devastating floods, but our towns volunteers have recently travelled interstate to the flood areas to help.  Fortunately, the army is now also involved.

Because of our irresponsible govt who had cut funding to fire services, without support from volunteer firefighters, the fires would have been even worse. We have a great CFA in this town, but with forests surrounding us, if we can, we need to get out early when fires come close.

Thanks Helucat.  Yes the skin cancer has always been a problem where I live.  Summers can be brutal.  I’m in the south but not in a coastal region.  There is snow in winter sometimes half an hour from where I live but we are in a valley so don’t generally get snow but heavy frosts through winter.  Autumn and spring are nice though.

Interesting that you say that about foraging.  As I don’t know a lot about credible wild plants here, will hold off but I know there is a native fruit in the far north called Kakadu Plum which has the highest concentration of Vitamin C than any other fruit in the world. You can buy it in capsule form, but it’s expensive. Surely we must have edible natives here.  The quince grows so well as do roses and yet NO rose farms.

Its really easy and cheap to buy free range eggs here as so many people keep poultry.  I have an elderly neighbour who dies deliveries on his electric trike!

I think growing vegetables is a good idea.  I would like to plant just a couple more trees but need to select carefully as I do have a couple planted way before I was here which are too large.

I’m thinking about some more Crepe Myrtle trees on the sunny side of the house as they lose all foliage in winter buy provide shade in summer. They seem to grow well here. There is also a type of fruit – I’m trying to think of its name that grows well here.  Yyou have to cook it for it to be edible. Looks a little like a cross between an apple and pear. Beautiful with vanilla ice cream.

I worked 2 sleepovers in a row. It was a public holiday here, but on the way home, I found some stores open.  I wanted to buy some things to help stay safe from this outbreak of Japanese Mosquito Virus and Encephalitis.  I found some fun things – sandalwood and citronella mosquito coils and some sandalwood and lavender incense.

I wasn’t home long when I got a call to say that somebody at work has tested positive to COVID.  The first c all was to ask if I was prepared to go to the isolation unit to care for this man. I said yes but they can’t get enough staff prepared to work there so for now at least they are keeping him where he is.  A staff member has decided to take immedi are leave as her young child has just recovered from measles.

I’ve picked up another 12 hour shift, but got another 4 phone calls from them asking if I can work more.

I found myself feeling a lot of anger and resentment at the person who brought the most recent bout of COVID to our workplace.  Not really worth going into, but basically se e nd that she went to A CIVID hotspot interstate. She has messed up things for a lot of people, and put our safety at risk.

My friend was angry that I picked up some work, but I will manage with just the one 12 hour shift.

Tomorrow I’m going to do more gardening and tidying up of the Palace. The weather was perfect today.