Monday, January 31, 2011

A wombat called Tilly

G'day. Well it's another very hot day in parts of the land down under. At the moment it is 43 degrees outside and the wind is blowing which makes it worse. I guess it's nothing compared to the massive cyclone that is heading towards Queensland. As if they haven't had enough problems up there with the terrible floods that resulted in many people losing their lives and the damage that has been done to homes and properties. It must be hard to pick yourself up after something like that and now to know that what they are calling a "Super Cyclone" is heading your way. But, us Aussies are known for being tough and pulling together in trying times. The picture is of a gorgeous little wombat called Tilly, a friend is a wombat carer and this little girl is only about two months old, her mother died after being hit by a car. I didn't want to let her go, shortly after this photo was taken she snuggled in and went to sleep on my lap.She will be looked after for quite some time and is then allowed to come and go as she pleases, at some stage she will wander off and make a life in the bush for herself. I must admit that wombats are one of my favourite native animals that we have here in Oz.We have a rather large full grown one that we see sometimes, though it hasn't been around for a while and this morning while I was going for my early morning walk before getting ready to go to work I saw a young kangaroo hopping along in one of the paddocks. We are quite some distance out of town, so it's not unusual for us to see the wildlife, there are quite a few kangaroos around here at the moment, they are not much fun if they get in my garden and wreck havoc though, but it's always great to see them in the paddocks.  Take care....

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Part of my front yard.

G'day. This pic is of a part of our front yard, my husband made the seat for me a few years ago.When the tree on the right has all it's leaves, it's a great spot to sit. It's a scorcher of a day here as the weather man told us it would be. It has topped the 42 degree mark, but, thankfully there is no hot wind to make it worse. After a couple of days like this, the garden will look a bit worse for wear and I will be out watering again. All the rain we have had this summer has been great as it has freed me up a bit by not having to water, though of course in Queensland and parts of my state, Victoria, that have suffered severe flooding, the rain became a nuisance and that's putting it mildly. We are on tank water here, so even though sometimes we can get too much of it, we appreciate it when it does rain, it's very expensive to buy a tanker of water, which we have had to do many times in summers past. Our dam is so full at the moment that my husband had to dig a channel to let some of the water run off as there was the real worry that the back of the dam wall would collapse. Some time ago the weather forecasters said that this would be a very wet summer here in Australia, well they sure have been right so far and what a blessing it's been for me anyway as I wilt in the heat. I much prefer the winter, but, no doubt as our summer still has a few months left to go, the hot days will still be plentiful. There has been no more news from the estate agent, it really is a waiting game, anyway I'm sure it's too jolly hot for people to be out looking at houses. They would have to be really keen. When I walked out of work this afternoon, I raced to the car and turned  the aircon flat out and as soon as I got home I started the  air conditioners going, so I might just kick back, stretch out on the couch with a book that need to be finished before the library sends me a nasty letter. Oh, and maybe a nice cold drink as well. Take care...

Saturday, January 29, 2011

I have followers...Yippee

I am excited as I have four followers. Thank you so much . I appreciate you taking the time to read what I write. As my blog name is quilterliz, I thought I had better show you why I call myself that. I have been quilting for some years now and even though it is just a hobby I have in the past sold some of my work, but I find it very hard to part with things that have taken a considerable time to make. The quilt in the pic is now hanging on one of the large passageway walls here at home. In the pic it is draped over a queen size bed, so as you can gather it is rather large and took me many, many months to complete. Quilting and patchwork is popular here in Australia. Getting away from craft, it's very hot here today, a top of 42 degrees is expected where I live in North Central Victoria, Australia. We have had a lot of rain this summer which doesn't usually happen, so it's a shock to get a hot day after all this time, these are the kind of temperatures we get here in summer. When we had the bad bushfires in Febuary 2009 (Black Saturday) the temperature here reaches 45, it was a shocker of a day. One I hope  we never go through again. The worst thing about selling a house is you have to keep it so clean and when that house sits on acreage some of that has to be kept tidy as well, hence me and the whipper snipper,well I was out early this morning before the heat set in and had the whipper snipper going. I don't know what it's called in other countries, maybe a brushcutter!! Anyway the place looks lovely now and now that it does, I bet nobody will want to inspect, isn't that usually the way? Thank you once again to my followers. Bye for now. Liz...

Friday, January 28, 2011

Waiting, waiting, waiting.

Another couple came through to look at our property today. Agent said they just loved everything. She wanted fruit trees, he wanted good shedding, well we have all of that and more, throw in a couple of hundred olive trees, a few hundred roses (I'm not lying) and a few hundred native trees and it's all here. We really want someone that will love the garden as much as we do, because we planted everything that is here when we moved in and it is all established now and is just beautiful, especially when the roses are out as a lot of them are now. It's a bit daunting when anyone first sees our garden as they think it must take a great deal of work, but it doesn't, apart from the mowing which does take a bit of time as we have quite large lawn areas, the garden itself is well mulched and I would be lucky if I need to spend an hour out here a week.The agent is very hopefull with this couple. We will keep our fingers crossed. Bye for now.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Saga continues..

I have mentioned in previous blogs that we have our property here on the market, well the saga continues. We have had a few people through over the last week or so, one couple came yesterday for their third visit and after being here over an hour they told the agent that they thought the garden was too big for them and would require too much work. Didn't they see that in either of the previous visits? Another couple had come earlier in the week for their second visit, the first time they were here they stayed nearly an hour and a half and had a good walk around the all the paddocks checking fences etc and checked out the house as you would expect someone to do that was interested in buying, well after their second visit which I believe was another lengthy one,they told the agent they don't like the colour of the carpet in the house which is pure wool and a flecked cream colour. They oviously walked around with blinkers on the first time as well !! Another couple came and just loved everything, but there's just one small problem, they haven't put their house on the market yet, which they need to do to buy another and said "Oh, we are not really in a hurry to sell and buy at this stage.More time wasters. Just got wait for the right people I guess.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

'What's a blog?" my friend said.

Was telling my friend at work this morning that I have started blogging, you would have thought I was telling her I was flying to some far away galaxy on a broom stick. I could see straight away that she had no idea what I was on about. When I explained the concept, she said very seriously "Why would you want to do that"? After telling her that it's a good way of knowing what is happening to others out there in the world and what other people on this great earth think  and feel about and that  it is enjoyable, she still thought I was bonkers.I have no doubt that when I go to work tomorrow I will be asked by a number of people about it, because as we all know, word gets around. I was hoping the little light on the answering machine would be blinking when I got home with a message from the real estate agent telling me that there was so many people wanting to look at our house, that she had to fight them off with a stick, but, alas that was not the case, no message from her or anyone for that matter. Bugger.Patience is not one of my strong points, where are all the potential buyers out there, don't they know what a great place this is to live? Yeah, I can hear you asking "If it's so great, why do you want to move?" Well, just because we do... Tomorrow is another day and the day after etc, etc. Plus the novelty of keeping a house super, super clean is becoming a bit wearing. I have been in homes people have had for sale and have realised that some people just don't care if their house is untidy or downright dirty when people come to inspect looking to maybe buy and I vowed that my home would be spick and span, well spick and span might be flying to that far away galaxy on a broom stick shortly! Take care.

Monday, January 17, 2011

The pain of selling a house

Has anyone out there experienced the time wasters that come to look at a home you are currently trying to sell? Well it's happening to us. We have had our property on the market for a few weeks  now and on the weekend just gone, a couple came for their third look and low and behold they told the agent it is too small "Oh DUH" How many times did they have to come here to realise that??? We have a four bedroom home, it's a large home and these people have one child a boy aged 17. We have also had a couple turn up at our front door, not once but twice to have a gig, the last time they came was three nights ago when we were getting ready to  have our tea, my husband was not impressed to say the least and some of the words expressed turned the air blue. I told them the first time that they needed to go through the agent, but they won't listen. I relented and showed them through and yes I admit that I am a coward and haven't told the estate agent about this, I imagine her wrath would be more than I want to handle. But, we continue the saga and wait for the next ones.