This staghorn

My window on the world

Sort of came to a grinding halt last week due to medical tests and lack of money paid WHEN IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN PAID!!!

But here is where I sit to do all this research and writing that I do after I have taken copious photographs. It is also where I do all my Family History work.

Next week one of my tasks is to get a new motor for the foundtain on the wall near my desk so that I can have the tinkle of water to keep me harmonised.

Tuesday, I traipse over to RPA where the very informative neurontology nurse, Alison, is going to strap me into a device that will rock from side to side and up and down. Yes, she knows that I am prone to both car sickness and sea-sickness and is used to "the obvious reaction". On Thursday I am over to Missenden Road way again to be podded and poked by the opthalmologist. I think the main thing he is going to do is to check whether my retina has fallen off its perch.

However, the week is not all medical tests. Tomorrow, I train up to The Blue Mountains to spend the day with the wonderful Joan Elizabeth. Wednesday I get to tour over State Parliament House in Macquarie Street. Thursday I get an introductory tour over the State Library and then on Friday I get to look after my daughter's cat as she and Darren choof over to Hawaii for a week to attend a friend's wedding.

Retirement is okay thus far.

My courtyard

Here are my new digs with my persona starting to show. I do have a table to go with the black chairs but have to use that inside until I find a dining room table I like. I have a dining room. A dining room!

A sunroom. A laundry. A courtyard.
A dining room. A living room. A kitchen.
A bedroom. A bathroom.

Each area is quite commodious to these eyes.

This is the largest footprint I have held sway over for quite sometime. The tiling is a very mediterranean thing to do (the owner is Greek) but it is easy to clean and the cats love its coolness.

I waited for a bus to come past to show you how far I have to walk! It is only one bus route: the 389, which meanders charmingly through Paddington.

Now ... where was I?

This is a little treasure, which we are so lucky to have found. I say "we" because although I first found it online, it was my son-in-law who was convinced it was what I was after and who took me to check it out.

It is all on one level. The shower has space for a stool and is not over a bath. There are no internal stairs like at Glebe. It is about 5 minutes by car from Kirsten's place in Double Bay. It is about 100m from my father's nursing home and there is a bus stop right outside - important if the driving ban continues. It is the ground floor of three apartments and is entirely tiled - meaning very cool which I noted yesterday when the mercury topped 40C.

This first image is of the north facing sunroom directly inside the courtyard and exactly where I have set up my work space.


The other criteria were that I needed space for my cats and for my plants. So there is a large courtyard (which I now know to be common area but not used "much") which is tiled making it very easy to maintain - except maybe for the eucalypt droppings but the tree has such other delights that it can stay! The little "out" building across the courtyard houses the garage for apartment 3 and my laundry. In my head, this laundry is now my "shed" with all that connotes in the Australian psyche. These photos were all taken whilst waiting for the moving guys to bring my junk over from Glebe.

Tomorrow, I will start a leisurely tour showing how I have made the space my own in the last ten days.

Pining

Having been away from my garden, small as it is, since Tuesday 20th October (nearly 3 weeks), it has dawned on me how rent asunder I feel. In that time, I have seen it twice, plus we have endured a 37.5C day. I expect a lot of damage when we are re-united on Thursday.

But that will be a challenge for me to overcome which I shall relish.


These photos were taken in Vic Park as I walked up to the University on Friday to hand back my swipe card and say hoo-roo. Agapanthus and Jacaranda flower at the same time and are close to the same colours - except that aggies can also be white.

Come Friday, I will start to post about the new venue for my transportable garden1