Mice and more
So, moved from the madness of Ingrid’s House to Treea’s place in Melbourne. This is in one of the classiest locations in Melbourne. The house itself is three story’s and opposite a large park, it was great to stay there and was very quiet and calm, even though a few days before a possum had broken into the top-story room that was to be mine and made a bit of a mess. It had climbed up a very tall tree and in through the window and settled until the Possum-catcher turned up, charged $200 and departed with possum. Treea and her freind Sky are great company and have been really, really kind to both Louise and I.
So I arrived late evening, very tired after my sleepless stay at Geelong, and Louise was turning up at 2am.
We had to share a bed because there was no other spare bed in the house. So still laughing at 3.30ish we turned the light off. Almost straight away there was a rustling in the handbags, light back on, and two very small, dark mice dashed back to safety.
Had a brilliant day, so lovely to see her, though she has changed since she’s been with her new man and is now more herself than ever - very refreshing!
That night off to sleep again, no night time disturbance, or so I thought, but when I woke Louise said “do you want the bad news?”. It seems she’d woken in the night to find a mouse in her hair - eek!
Next day she was back on the four hour trip to Perth, its a huge country isn’t it? leaving me alone with the mouse.
I cleared everything away from the sides of the bed and during the night I heard some rustling on the bedside table - they were obviously trying to build a bridge across, but didn’t succeed.
The next morning off to Tasmania.
The road from the airport to Hobart is one of the most beautiful I had been on anywhere. The autumnal shades of the trees, lots of oranges , yellows and reds against dark navy mountains in very bright sunshine, with a big expanse of sea(second deepest port in the world -46 meters) in the middle was simply stunning. Hobart itself has a lot going on, brilliant art galleries, a demonstration against the chopping down of the rain forest and two very good charity shops, what more could I ask?
I’ve got a woofing job with the Swanns, so David Swann picked me up after he finished work and we drove the 20 kilometers to their home in Aussie-bush-land. The house is stunning, high up with views over the North bay (ie facing the sun here), one of the loveliest gardens I’ve seen and a beautifully appointed house. I have my own suite with beautiful old iron bedstead and lots of lovely antiques. Outside the door to my room is a living area with a great massage chair, I’ve spent quite a lot of time trying it out already. Jacqui Swann is lovely and here where I stay is very near Kettering (this will impress a close freind of mine) Did quite a lot of hard gardening today, buggered my back - but hope they were impressed.
Here until the 18th, looking forward to seeing all the fabulous native birds, there is actually a very bright red robin, and today I saw a wren with a navy blue tail, there are sea eagles here too. David has promised to take me out with the torch tommorow night to look for wallabies and possums. Its 4 degrees tonight, the coldest I’ve expereinced in a couple of years.
Lots of love to all of you