The joy of music

Yesterday's Twilight Recital at USQ was Ensemble A250 - Matthew Kinmont on cello, Marilyn Meier-Kapavale on piano and Martin Crook on clarinet - playing Sonata for Cello and Piano (1915) by Debussy, a Bach cello fantasy and Brahms Clarinet Trio Opus 114. The intimate theatre and the rapport with and between the performers made this a very special recital.

Frosty mornings

We have had a few frosty mornings in August and are waiting on warmer weather to plant for spring. It makes a great difference to the house when cloud obscures the early morning sunshine, but Sunny Boy works well most days and pays well for our heating when it is required. The sun also provides us with plenty of hot water and our tomatoes continue to thrive against the solar heated brick wall.

An independent water supply

Carers of the Murray Darling catchment may disagree but all rainfall collected on our block is returned to it, unless it evaporates from bird baths and washing or transpires from vegetation.
Our house is now connected to our new concrete reservoir and we have transferred 7000 litres from our plastic tank. This should last us until the next rain event, which is forecast for the end of August. There are many rocks scattered along the trenches, now being filled, so there is plenty of physical work to do to restore the lawn areas and complete the landscaping around the new tank.

A weekend in Melbourne

We flew down to Melbourne last Friday and stayed in East Melbourne. It was wet when we arrived but Saturday turned out fine and sunny. We walked across the Fitzroy and Treasury Gardens then down Flinders Street to Federation Square where we followed the river downstream past rowers training, to Docklands. and Victoria Dock. We then caught a City Circle free tram back up Flinders Street to Parliament House and walked back past St Patrick's cathedral and the East Melbourne synagogue.
The purpose of the visit was Mary's birthday party with a nice gathering of cousins. After that we visited the Steel monument in St Kilda cemetery and had dinner at a pub in Sydney road, Brunswick.
It rained on Saturday night and Sunday was a record breaking cold day, but we headed north to fine weather at Metcalfe, passing Mt Macedon with a nice frosting of snow.
On Monday morning we had another walk across the gardens to the top of Collins Street before heading out to the airport and home. It was nice to come back to our clear blue sky.

Things are happening

This week the plumber is connecting the tank to the house. This involves a lot of trenches, pipes, wiring and things. The rain has gone and it is good weather for it.
On Sunday afternoon I found a new eucalypt seedling on the top part of the block, then on Monday another, and today yet another. That makes 13 volunteers. At this rate we will have a nice stand along the top boundary, extending the line along the ridge. Won't the birds be pleased!
I wonder what else will come up on our native grassland?

A weekend at home

We decided not to go camping and walking this weekend. Instead we pottered at home, which is a nice place to be. We were still waiting on the plumber so not much dirt moving to be done.
We watched a wonderful movie on Saturday night RAN.
On Sunday we went for a drive to Irongate Nature Reserve which is 50 km SW from here, between Mt Tyson and Pittsworth. We really enjoyed it. It is interesting how a walk with labelled plants can raise one's awareness of remnant vegetation. We noticed it more on the roadsides after the visit, and look forward to another, when we will be carrying the list of plants, so we can find the ones which have lost their labels.
We are enjoying the cool clear weather at present.