Cute but destructive

Cute but destructive



Originally uploaded by Mistress B

I just love Australia's sulphur-crested cockatoos. As one of my mates commented, they are the 'bikie gang' of the bird world - loud, destructive, dominating and totally cocky.
As lovable as they are (even when screeching overhead like the devil's fingernails on a blackboard) they can do so much damage to a house. We've already had an inkling that they have caused problems in the past as many of the window frames bear ominous beak marks on them and are missing huge chunks from the timber.
Then today, I just happened across one of these little devils in the act of tucking into the balcony railing. Thankfully it had only just got started with one beakful before I chased it away, but I'm keeping a weather eye out for the buggers now.

Reno mayhem

There's currently six blokes downstairs, hammering, sawing, fiddling and generally working very hard! The downstairs 'grotto', as Phil is now calling it, is progressing very nicely. The wooden floor is now in, the sparkies are putting in all the electricals, plumber comes tomorrow to start the bathroom, and gosh, isn't it all exciting!

Storm Detritus

Will Bianca was taking gorgeous pictures of snow I was walking through the detritus left by the storm in Sydney. They forecast a very big storm but it wasn't that bad. Just how bad you ask... Well I have invented a new way to measure the strength of storms. On my to work from Dean and Lisa's, who kindly provided me with a bed for a night in Sydney, I passed multiple dead umbrellas. Obviously the more dead umbrellas you pass on your regular walk the more intense the storm. This was a 3 umbrella storm.

The other thing I noticed is that if you are going to brand cheap umbrellas with your logo you should only hand them out to people who know to put them in the bin tip first.

Blackheath snow

Finally, our first snow fall as Blackheathens!
I woke up about 2am last night hearing the sound of tree branches snapping, and took a peek outside. The moon was brilliant and in my sleepy state I thought I could see snow but when I woke up this morning I thought I must have been dreaming.
But no! It snowed a bucket last night! Trees are down all over the place, everyone was out walking and playing in it excitedly at 7.30am this morning, small kiddies stumbling around not really sure what the weird cold white stuff was, adults trying to not to look as if they were just as excited as kiddies... so much fun. Apparently the road from Katoomba to Lithgow is blocked because of snow and ice, so I guess that means I won't be going to work today ... DOH! I am at work. oh well.
Lots more pics on my Flickr site

Downstairs Grotto Reno

All this rain has meant that the builder has been able to get his team into our downstairs grotto.
It's good as it is totally separate from the rest of the house so we can stay warm while they work. The only thing we have had to do was empty it before they came, which considering the amount of crap the previous owner left, was no easy task (hence all our freecycling, http://www.freecycle.org/).
Next week the new windows and doors come and soon the wood floor will arrive. Its already plumbed into the central heating which are the silver pipes you can see in the ceiling.
So if you come and stay with us this is probably where you will stay =) with your own bathroom and warm well insulated space.
If you click through to the pictures you will see notes attached to tell you about the different bits.
Bianca writes: and for those of you curious about what all this means for our bush rat, the rat is rather curious too. It came in for a sticky beak the other day and was no doubt quite surprised to discover its favourite plastic chewables had all been moved. So unfortunately, renovations mean the rat will have to find a new home, unless of course it has been eaten by the new cat that seems to have moved into the neighbourhood

Morning constitutional walk

In between the rain, its been raining a lot around here, I managed to get a morning constitutional walk to Govett's Leap.
Thought I would share it with you so whipped out my phone to take this shot.
I have been a bit lax with blogging recently but feel that I am getting back on top of work, house, health etc. so I hope to be doing more blogging.

Cooking frenzy

The wind howled, the rain beat at the windows and trees toppled over around us, but inside our house it was a blissful scene of warm, cosy domesticity, with my brother Matty and his girlfriend Kate joining us for the long weekend.
As consummate dumpster-divers, Matty and Kate arrived bearing bag-loads of food salvaged from supermarket dumpsters in Canberra, which all needed to be cooked and consumed as Matty was going overseas and had to clean out his fridge. So Kate rolled up sleeves and dived in to chop up masses of butternut pumpkin, while Phil prepared pizzas, and Matty and I stood around looking beautiful (it's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it).
The hideous weather (which unfortunately claimed nine lives in NSW) meant we were largely confined indoors for most of the weekend so occupied ourselves with eating, talking, reading and even working. Very relaxing it was, although I'd like to brag that I single-handedly cleared our road of a large fallen tree, armed only with a hacksaw and plenty of pride.

First frost of the cold season!

Yep, temperature dipped below zero for the first time the other day - lovely and crisp, especially when one experiencing it tucked under a huge doona with a warm cup of tea in hand.
Unfortunately not the best weather to be getting new windows installed in. Going to be a few very cold nights ahead as the windows have to be taken out overnight and the frames fiddled with, so we'll have a few nights with boarded up windows next week. Eeek!