Making Changes

After our rainy September and a week of lovely spring sunshine, during the first week of October we had a blustering gale force wind which knocked out our power.  It was out for half the night, then again for most of the morning.  Praise God I have a small gas camper stove top that I can bring out for such occasions which is perfect for my porridge and coffee.  It surprised me how dependent we are on electricity.  Unable to do much in the garden due to the weather, I wandered around the house trying to think of things to keep me occupied.  I fought off boredom by reading through three magazines that had been sitting around for months, moseyed around the garden between showers, propped up the banana palm which was heavy with bananas which later nearly snapped even with the props, due to the strong winds and rains which made the trunk soggy!  Unfortunately a few weeks later it snapped off the palm before the bananas were ripe!  I hung them is a shady spot where they slowly ripened.  Some of the green bananas which were still underdeveloped, I was able to cook up both as savoury and sweet dishes.

September is also when the bottle brushes are out in full bloom.  They attract so many bees which is a problem for my neighbour as my tree overhands the dustbin area and she is afraid of getting stung.  I tied back the branches and trimmed off the spent flowers which helped, then at the end of the month when it finished flowering, I asked her to help me trim back all the lower branches.  I also hedged it by taking off quite a lot of the height.  Hopefully next year it won’t be such a hazard for her.

Early October I visited a tattoo removalist for a free test to see if this treatment could remove the blue tinge left after having my lips tattooed red over 17 years ago.  I had called on a public holiday, to find out more, and was surprised that someone answered the phone.  I mentioned my blue lips and how people had thought I was cyanosed, had a heart problem or was  really, really cold.  He laughed.  I said ‘you can’t laugh’ he replied ‘you are.’ I said ‘well they are my lips.”  We both laughed.  Before going I asked my prayer team to keep me in prayer.  I arrived at the clinic very early and thought I could just go in and sit in the reception but the front door was locked.  Standing outside the clinic I looked around to find somewhere I could sit in the sun, then I thought I saw movement in the clinic so peered through the frosted glass to see someone at the reception.  He gestured that the door was open.  On entering I introduced myself and asked if he was the workaholic who had booked me in on the public holiday.  He was, stating he wasn’t a workaholic but had just come back from holidays and was catching up on work.  He, Dr Simon, then commented on how early I was, noting that he could see me immediately and escorted me into a clinic room.  He then went through the precautionary warnings about the procedure saying that he would do two top and two bottom spots to test how it goes.  Some ink can react differently either causing it to go white or black.  White lips would make me look dead and black, I said I wasn’t into Gothic, he said neither was he. The laser gave a sharp prick which made me jump.  The Dr said “I didn’t say it wouldn’t hurt”.   Three more pricks and it was over.  I was then told to wait ten days to see the results.  The spots didn’t turn black or white, so I booked an appointment to proceed with the treatment.

That morning I left the clinic and headed to the closest Bunnings to see if I could find a few things I needed for the house before returning home.  I then decided to call a couple of friends on this side of town to see if they were in and if I could visit.  Lorna, who lives just around the corner from the Bunnings I was at, was just going out for coffee with a friend. My other friend, a long time family friend who we had known from Christmas Island days was home.  It was lovely catching up with her although a sad time as her husband had only just passed away. There was lots of reminiscing and catching up over a cup of tea.  Praise the Lord my lips were not really affected by the recent treatment although they had four salmon pink spots where the laser had been.

From here I headed home via ALDI with a quick look around for a shelf I wanted to put up in the kitchen, then to the bulk food shop at Karrinyup for some ingredients for my muesli before heading home for a coffee fix.

This month I’ve also been inquiring into solar battery which is a whole new world!  After our power outage which lasted 7hrs I thought having a backup battery would be a good idea, especially as I believe our power will become more and more unreliable as we change from coal-run power stations. I made a few inquiries and received a few sales pitches for their particular type of batteries. Both sounded so convincing as they promoted their brand and criticised the others leaving me really confused.  I then went back online and found a great website with non-biased information for solar batteries here in Aust.  As I read through reams of information, all of which was very interesting and enlightening, I came across the frequently asked questions and saw one that caught my eye.  Basically it said if I’m getting paid for the power which I feed back into the grid and the tariff exceeds my usage I shouldn’t bother with a battery!  Oh wow! That solved everything!  I decided I’d put up with the power shortages and just use my gas camping stove if I needed to do any cooking.  Who knows what will happen in a couple more years.

More work around the garden, pulling out the lavender which self-seeded along the edge of the rose garden and between the brick in the path.  These plus other self-sown plants I put into tube stock containers to sell at our Community Garden Open Day along with seeds from my garden. Laura, one of my new neighbours, spotted one of the baby bobtails on the road outside our driveway.  Typical teenager wanting to do his own thing and putting himself in danger of the traffic.  I’ve see the other two babies/teenagers wandering around my garden and given them treats to try to encourage them to stay in the garden where they’ll be safe. On occasions I’ve picked off juicy green caterpillars or picked up a snail from a neighbour’s garden which they love. It’s such a delight having them around the garden, I often go out to see if I can find one of them.

While jogging in the early morning I was surprised and delighted to see the florescent blue of the male Fairy Wren dart across my path.  The female is grey with blue tail feathers. The male bird attracts the female with his fluorescent light blue cheeks.  It was very special seeing the male wren that morning.   The red tailed black cockatoos have also been seen amongst the banksias. Another surprising event was when one of the maggies on my usual route swooped me! At first I thought it was fighting off another bird which was dive bombing it but when on my next morning jog it reoccurred. I stopped, eyeballed him in the tree above me and asked if he had turned off his face recognition!  Maybe he didn’t recognise me with my summer plumage, I was in singlet not my usual T shirt?  On the third morning, I heard his beak snap as he flew towards me, as I turned to face him there was a butcherbird swooping on his tail. I had an ally fighting for my cause. None of the other maggies took any notice of me, they continued to ignore me even if I was only a foot away from where they were rummaging for food.  This behaviour was very strange.  Maybe he was from out of town and had paired up with a local gal.   Since that day it was hit and miss, sometimes I’m bombed and other times I’m not.  Sometimes it seems like I get a warning snap just to let me know he’s still around!  There may be several reasons why it’s not every day; maybe since having a taste of his own medicine from the butcherbird, he has decided it’s not nice being pecked at, or he’s off with the kids in another area of the bush.  Whatever the reason, I’ve pasted some eyes onto my swimming goggles and wear them so it looks like I have eyes in the back of my head, hoping this puts him off.  It seemed to work. One morning a maggie flew in, landed close to me and really checked me out. He looked confused, Why do you have eyes on the back of your head? I’m not sure if it was the same one who had been swooping me but I’m hoping even though it looks bizarre it will continue to work. I’m looking forward to all the babies growing up and the season being over so I’m left alone!  God willing next season he will recognise me as not being a threat.

My friend Janice came down from Newman to do some shopping, and a chaplaincy course.  She stayed with me three nights catching up with people, as well as her shopping.  On the Monday I was invited to join some of her friends to celebrate her birthday so we drove together to Fremantle.  I left early as I wasn’t in the mood for lots of chatter and took off to Kings Park for a short stop over before heading to my laser therapy appointment to get my lips done.  I arrived early and looked for parking, realizing the last time I parked I had thought the sign said free parking from 8am – 6pm when it had actually said FEE parking!  I parked and sat in the car waiting for the rain to stop and noticed the parking meter was advertising a parking app.  At first I thought I don’t really want another app but thought I’d take a look at it anyway.  I was impressed and decided to give it a go.  Putting in the time, meter number and how long I wanted to park.  I gave myself plenty of time just in case, as I had no idea who long it would take to do my lips.  When I entered the practice the doctor was waiting in the foyer.  “Oh! I said had I known you were here I could have come in earlier as I was just sitting in the car.”  I was in and out within 15mins, but boy oh boy did it hurt!  It was like little darts of fire on my lips!  I was thinking, “Why didn’t I put Emla cream on beforehand to numb the pain?”  Sitting back in the car I reopened the EasyPark app which had promised to let me know when my time was up.  It actually displayed a ‘Cancel Parking’ button.  Wow! Yes please.  So instead of paying over $4.00 for 45 minutes, I only payed $1.17 for 14 mins parking!  I was impressed!

After our stormy days when the weather had calmed I was back down the beach after my jogging.  Boy was the water cold!  But well worth the plunge beneath the icy waves. It’s such an invigorating way to start the day, it just takes another couple of hours before my extremities warm up!

After about a year of trying to get the Community Garden membership form and payment window up and working, I found someone who could help.  The first person we found offered to help out but after they took an initial look and promised to get back to it, didn’t.  Then another member who helps out at the busy bees asked her neighbour who is a Web engineer.  It took him about 20 mins to make a few changes, add a few things and there it was up and running.  Or so we thought!  He didn’t have time to teach me so I’m praying that my TAFE lecturer will be able to give me some lessons so I can make any future changes.  I was ecstatic to think it was finally done but it didn’t last long.  The following night at our committee meeting I was told it didn’t work on the mobile phones.  Then after a few days it didn’t work on my computer either!  What on earth is going on? Unfortunately the expert was really busy and after taking another look which seemed to help a bit, he said that maybe it was how it was set up and sorry he couldn’t give us any further help! It’s been so frustrating!  Then before we knew it our Open Day had come.  There were quite a few visitors attending our workshop on soils as well as those who just came to look around the garden.  We had kids’ face painting, cakes, preserves, seeds and plants for sale.  All in all it was a very successful morning.

I’ve also been planning my travels for winter 2025 – having done extensive research on things to do in Japan, I settled on a 4 day walking tour.  This is going to be a special trip as not only will I be turning 70yrs but it will be my first visit to Japan.  Having found and paid a deposit for the walk, within 48hrs I had also paid for my travel insurance, a lovely girl helped me through the process which, praise the Lord, also came with a senior’s discount.  While attempting to pay I was cut off which turned out to be a God send, as when I was reconnected to my helpful assistant she was able to reduce the cost even more.  In total it was reduced by $212!  What a blessing.

More blessings are coming my way with five out of the ten of the grafts the gentleman put on my fig tree having taken.  I’m still not at all impressed with the way he hacked my tree and will have to keep an eye on the joins as they are very open and exposed to the elements which means they are susceptible to disease and mould. It will be interesting which fig varieties they are. If they all survive, my tree will have seven different varieties including its original Black Genova. How exciting.

Photos: 1. Daviesia horrida or Prickly Bitter-pea    2. Trimming the bottlebrush from top of bin enclosure    3. One of my roses    4. Grapes in the making which I planted in my neighbour Ann’s place    5. Selling my seedlings at the Community Garden Open Day    6. One of the grafted figs.

Prayer & Praise Points:

I praise God for this beautiful spring weather, sunny days and cool morning and evenings.  The bush is full of spring flowers and there are many types of birds and ducks which have returned to raise their young.

Praise the Lord for the great results on my lips.  I’m so blessed all went well and I have normal coloured lips again.

Please pray for my sister, Jen, who is slowly recovering from her hip injury.

Please continue to pray for Gayle’s ongoing health concerns, especially her eyes; for Anthony Higgs who is still waiting for a shoulder replacement, also for Elsie and Ross Winchester waiting on the Lord for healing. Believe with me for the Lord’s intervention and total healing for all of them.

Pray for those who have lost family due to age and illness.

Continue to pray with me for world peace.  For the Lord’s intervention in the Middle East, Ukraine and Russia, and all countries dealing with major disasters, wars and the unbelievable hardships they cause.  Pray for all those caught up in the suffering these events have caused.  Pray that God’s peace may be known by all people especially for those who live in despair, that they will find hope in Christ Jesus.

Please keep my sisters, Tricia, Jen and Kat, in your prayers.  Pray that they will come to know the love of Jesus.