Visiting with the Little Man.

The Little Man has been sharing germs.  Consequentially 2 homes are down with the lurgy ~ which did not stop T1 from ringing to ask me over as he was behind on work & was getting our DILLY to help out, which meant, of course, they needed someone to take on the Little Man.

I had been battling sinus & tonsillitis since my last visit but what are mothers for if not for helping out when things get stressed?  So off I went. My DIL did not leave for work until the Little Man went down for his morning nap which meant I had 2 good hours to get things done in.  I made soup for dinner: this one. It is healthy, light & refreshing but surprisingly filling ~ & I had ODD about to deal with the gas & find me a bit pot to cook with.  And the bonus is it doesn't take forever to make.  Making it early meant the lemon had plenty of time to season the soup & extra to be added later. Washing in & folded.  I'm not even this good @ home in my own house! ☺

By the time the Little Man surfaced again I was all organised so off to the park with dog Teddy.

We have done the little slide but we tried the big slide ~ which is designed for children, not aged grandparents, & involved climbing & shonky wooden bridges & heights.  We were both a little unsure by the time we sat down & prepared to fly down the slide.

The swing was much more the Little Man's deal.

However the Little Man decided that an afternoon nap was completely out of the question even though his mother had come home specifically to put him down. I said not to worry, we would manage ~ & so we did.  We hung out ODD's washing.  We watered the garden & pulled weeds. When he began getting tired we walked down to the highway & watched the traffic.  I have no idea why the Little Man likes sitting in his stroller & watching the noisy cars & trucks, buses & trains but he does.

I gave him his bath early so his parents didn't have to deal with him, fed him & was just settling down with a book when his uncle arrived. There is always great excitement as all the Little Man's extended family begins arriving home & it must be wonderful from his point of view.

After nearly a year I think we are beginning to manage a relationship.  The Little Man knows I will take him out ~ quite a lot.  He gets very excited when his stroller makes an appearance & now he is walking was down the steps & underfoot as I tied Teddy to the stroller in preparation, all the while babbling at me excitedly.

He is 1 in a fortnight ~ getting old enough to remember from visit to visit that I am good for certain things even though I am not his mother.  And after 30 odd years & 5 children I am used to doing things with a child in tow ~ & at a child's pace.  If only I had been as wise as I am now 30 years ago!!! ☺

Little Surprises.

 The big news this week is the electrician has been! Yay!  After  months of work OT finally put in the microwave shelf ~ which he will have to adjust.  However we now have power in our kitchen & are nearly fully operational again. What's more, it cost us nearly a third less than expected because the boys had lifted out the cooktop & placed the oven on stools, ready to just be lifted straight in.  Moldings & things still to go but the big effort has been done ~ & very nice it is too.  It is super functional.  Even the MOTH has noticed.

 While we are technically still in winter with enough cold days still to light the fire, it is starting to warm up periodically bringing an extraordinary flush in my azalea bed despite the fact all my plants are still quite small.  Of course I now have to water more often & that is when I noticed it.

The first azalea I put in was a plumbago because I was taken with the deep maroon leaves & I thought it would add contrast during the months we were without colour.  Everything else has flowered constantly since it went in the ground ~ which is lovely but sort of worrying.  The plumbagos [yep, I bought a 2nd one] stubbornly refused to do anything at all, not even put out new leaf, but I wasn't fazed.  I had bought it for the leaf colour, not its flowers.  Besides the little tag on the plant said the flowers weren't anything spectacular.  Then this! Even given the photo is  washed out I though those deep maroon buds were sort of spectacular.

The Great Homosexual Lie.

I do not support the LGBT crew ~ so if you do I suggest you
don't continue reading.  I have a different viewpoint & that does not make me bigoted, homophobic, a hater [or hateful], mean, nasty or whatever other names normally get thrown around.  It means I have a different viewpoint & some evidence to actually support my POV.

I bet you've heard a version of "I was born this way" or "God made me this way" or "I can't help the way I was born~ like you can't help being heterosexual " & most people seem to have bought into this clever piece of propaganda without ever checking the scientific evidence. There is none.  Zilch.  Nado.

At least according to the John Hopkins study which was immediately & vitriolically attacked by the alphabet crew.  I can't keep up.  They keep adding letters.

If you really know God & your bible you know He hasn't made anyone *gay*.  He made people *tov* ~ that is functioning in the manner in which they were designed to operate. Tov is the word translated *good* in Genesis. The 1st command was to go forth & multiply so all the clever arguments about homosexuality being a normal aberration of nature do not hold water because homosexuality is by its very nature sterile. It is an aberration, pure & simple.

Now that alone should be enough for any sensible Christian before we get onto things like we are not meant to look like the world, talk like the world, think like the world or act like the world.  Nor can we expect the world to think, look, act, speak like we are meant to do.

Just the same the level of vitriol against conservative Christians has been incredible.  But of course the hippie generation bought into the *higher consciousness* ~ *we have evolved* ~ mindset, so Christians are being seen as unevolved & stuck in an ancient mindset with *an imaginary friend in the sky*. No, He's not imaginary.  Just because you haven't meet Him doesn't mean He doesn't exist.

It seemed to me there was no explanation for the sudden increase in the whole homosexual agenda, no explanation for why there were so many people running round saying they were born this way when many of the homosexual people I have known most definitly were NOT born that way.

Then, as so often happens, I was studying something I thought was completely unrelated ~ Romans 12:2.Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...

Most of my life I've heard this passage taught as knowing scripture, learn to listen to the Holy Spirit ~ that sort of thing ~ & quite right too!  But along the way I ran across the science of neuroplasticity ~ & yes, it is a science. 

Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to reorganize itself both physically & functionally.  It is used in cases of brain trauma, stroke, birth abnormalities etc. When functioning positively [ie as God designed us] it wires the brain  in healthy ways.  If we focus on negatives: depression, anxiety, hate whatever it also rewires but instead of creating healthy pathways it creates neurological chaos. Every thought we have is a choice & every choice is either reinforcing our neurological wiring or changing it & as this happens throughout our lifetimes it is perfectly feasible that homosexuals have trained their brains in aberrant ways from childhood ~ so early they do not remember when it began.

 And thus  homosexuality is indeed a choice ~ & why the *safe schools program* ~ what a joke! is so very dangerous.  This is why Christians can call homosexuality a sin ~ not because we hate the people [that is also a sin] but because the act is not beyond their control. Sin starts in the mind: These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. James 1:15

Homosexuality is a Great Lie ~ & we know who the Father of Lies is, don't we!

Fun Things.

So this is how my week went. I spent part of 3 days on the mainland looking after The Child ~ the grizzly, cold~ridden grump, then 2 days recovering from the trauma of it all & another day on the mainland to celebrate The Girl's birthday...& pretty cheerful about it all because I wasn't supposed to be preaching this week & I figured it has been so long since I had a week of I could afford to be a little laid back. I should never suppose anything.

I got 48 hours notice that my preacher had been unexpectedly called away & I would have less than 24 hours to come up with something!  This does not make me happy ~ despite the fact I regularly terrify those in the know by writing sermons @ the last minute.  Wonderful for the concentration ~ like the quip that the imminent prospect of death really focuses the mind!

Just the same there are some sermons that require a little more cooking than others. OT, who arrived to put in the microwave unit & the phone shelf, was most unsympathetic.  As a preacher himself he considers all one needs to do is pull out a bible passage & expound on it for 45 minutes ~ only that's not how I work!

 I have a 3~fold gift & one prong of that is teaching.  I am chronically incapable of simply expounding a passage until I have pulled it through the mangle of the actual Greek [or Hebrew], looked at what it is really saying & then looking at ways & means to apply this to everyday life.

I had the jump~off point several weeks ago [Romans 12:2] & as so often happens for me I had found some excellent teaching that would be very helpful from a practical point ~ only I hadn't listened to all of it, & a great little story illustration ~ I swear, this stuff just lands in my lap! ~ & hadn't stressed because I was supposed to have another week, wasn't I?

Even so, I got up Saturday morning & wasted several hours on Skype with my wonderful American friend, Seeking, then pottered round making coffee & considering my Farmville2 disaster, while I let the Holy Spirit percolate the whole concept of renewing one's mind on the backburner of mine.  No stress.  Seriously.

Once I get going I then just steam ahead because the Holy Spirit gets in there & just starts plonking it down: bing, bang, bong! I was getting along great guns & feeling pretty happy with how it was all going.  I'd got all my definitions sorted & was halfway through, heading into the more difficult aspects when our internet dropped out. No immediate panic.  I always save my work as I go.  At the worst I would only lose a line or so & probably easily recovered.

I don't know what happened but the whole blooming thing disappeared on me!  It was not on the clipboard.  It was not in *recover*.  Undo did nothing. After 5 minutes I realised I was in dire trouble. In 10, I wept.  All my work was gone & all to be done over again, on a day when I had a limited number of hours to pull this whole thing together! And despite everything I had just learnt about neurological pathways, about the way the brain is wired & the cause & effect of our thinking in purely physical ways.  Ouch.

Then, naturally, the printer refused to print & I spent a frustrating hour replacing ink cartridges, cleaning heads & nozzles & aligning things before it would even consider following commands.

Of course the other thing is somebody does not want me getting up & preaching this. The niggling, *not sick sick, just a little unwell* feeling that has plagued me all year suddenly bloomed into a full blown* My throat!  My throat!* of raging germs. I need all the spare prayers I can get.

Now that the sermon is safely finished, printed out & safely ensconced in my little black folder I think the whole thing is hugely funny.  It always is after but just at the time...well, I can think of more pleasant things that might have happened.

Friday.

I don't see a lot of my girl these days.  Even when I go over to babysit the Little Man ODD is invariably working.  It is rare that we get to spend more than a few minutes together so Friday was special.

Her birthday was nearly a fortnight ago but for 10 years ODD has worked on her birthday & so we opted for the first free day available for all of us & took her to The Courthouse.

This is a heritage listed building with lovely views & very pleasant surrounds ~ & depending on your view of life considered to be *classy*, though as ODD quipped, it was a lot less classy with her in it!

Ok, so we weren't dolled up like the really elderly couple who were obviously going to make an afternoon of their dining experience & were dressed to kill, but neither were we as yokelfied as the women sculling red wine; just somewhere middling & looking forward to a really nice meal.  

Brisbane, especially the outer suburbs, is not as cosmopolitian as Melbourne or Sydney & I knew from experience vegetarian choices would be limited but what there is is very nice & I thought the girl would be ok with the stuffed capi ~ which she was.  I had the entree of fried Camembert with a side salad of rocket, pear & walnuts as my main & the Man opted for seafood.

The courthouse is renowned for its service.  They always ask if you are celebrating anything special & of course we were.  ODD's sorbet berry basket arrived with a fizzing sparkler.  She loves sparklers!  I thanked the girl serving us & she was delighted we got so much pleasure from it.  Sometimes ODD reverts to being about 3!

And then we took selfies ~ not something the girl is enamoured of doing & as I gave her the camera the results are a little disturbing ~ to say the least. ☺

The Weirdness of People.

It's no secret; I find people difficult.  Nothing personal.  I find
me difficult ~ which is what you get when you have a difficult & complicated personality.  I learnt long ago most people don't get me & that makes social interaction hard.  I mean, what do you talk about when no~one has heard of Skara Brae & could care less about which strange book you are finding particularly fascinating @ present ...& did you know NASA...? I am generally woefully ignorant of the island gossip but Christians should be different ~ shouldn't they?

Sadly, the brothers & sisters in Christ have been the worst of the worst. Now that should, perhaps, bother me more.  I should, perhaps, have worked to mend fences & build bridges but as I don't actually like these people & have nothing in common with them [sadly I don't recognize their Christ, which is terrifying] & I am not by nature social, I simply let it go.  I rarely even run into them casually as I am so rarely out & about.

The Church is used to me & they have learnt if they talk about God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, I can actually be quite a good conversationalist.  I can even manage some politics.  History? Certainly!  And so we have jogged along.

Then the Spirit began on the MOTH about how this all looks ~ because oddly the MOTH is actually out & about more than I am ~ not me.  I mean, it's hard enough to get me to engage with people I actually like so the others had no hope.  However as the MOTH dithered we had one of those weekends when the lads arrived, fished & crabbed & prawned until my house was a salty nightmare ~ & forgot to take it all home with them!

Now I don't eat seafood so this was beyond a nightmare in my books.  I hate things to have died for no purpose so as the MOTH filleted & called the lads unmentionable names the Holy Spirit whispered: You know who should give this to, don't you?

I have an extremely wicked sense of humour & a fine sense of the ironic, so I was highly entertained as I passed on this revelation to The Man. I was not required to do anything except relay the information. The MOTH, who also has a delightful sense of the ironic, was also highly entertained.  What's more, it was the sort of doing thing that really amuses him ~ so off he went to deliver packages of seafood to all these people who have been very vocal about how much they hate our guts.

Now, they are all completely untrustworthy but it seems the Lord would like the visible barriers mended.  One group is prepared to do that, the other...well, they started to & then we did the Goodbye for John's dad. Like I said: I go nowhere, I see no~one ~ but John does: on the boat when he goes to the doctor; @ the doctors; when he does the mainland shopping; in the car while waiting for me...& people talk.  What they have been talking about is how brilliant the service for John's dad was.  Even the mainland doctor had heard about it & asked questions.  It seems the green~eyed monster, Jealousy, has once again reared his ugly head.

It extends, sadly, right down to a family level because our kids are mostly serving the Lord & even the ones not are doing great things ~ & because people gossip that does the rounds & adds more fuel to the fire.

Then our friend from the park ~ yes, that one, the one who screamed @ us, informed us roundly that the whole island hated us.  The whole island? Over 3 000 people? Most of whom have never met us & probably don't even know we exist. Surely you exaggerate, sweetheart...?

Meanwhile I am standing @ the checkout waiting to pay for my bread & milk, which is taking forever because of some holdup or other, when the chappie behind me, whom I actually particularly like despite the fact he is married to an avowed witch who is less than fond of us [& you wonder why I have people problems?] starts up: Had I head the news?  Trump is about to start WWIII.  Really? And hearing the real fear being expressed all around me I merely said I was glad I had something far greater to rely on in this sort of a crisis ~ & to chappie, if anything actually happens, well, it's been really nice knowing you...

And that is before we mention the elephant in the room~ aka marriage equality.  What a misnomer! Impossible to have a civil debate to express the Christian viewpoint without being howled down.  Beyond me how anyone @ all can support the madness but they do.  They are.  It was distressing me seeing Christian after Christian being vilified despite every attempt to express their viewpoint lovingly & respectfully but I think I have got a grip on it because it could have been anything really that has caused this Great Divide.  The issue is not marriage.  Not really.  That is just the rock this wave of rebellious man has chosen to break on.

So there are some things that I am holding on to.  No matter what happens Jesus is still Lord.  We have not lost till the law is changed. This is the clash of 2 world views diametrically opposed to each other & there is no way to reconcile them.

What's more, the Lord told me years ago, before Rhema, that He was going to shake everything that could be shaken & He was calling out His remnant.  I am seeing that now.  The Liberal church is in grave danger because the remnant, by its very nature, is always small, always counter~culture, always called to holiness in a wicked & degenerate generation. I do not think this is going to be a fun ride. I do think Jesus meant exactly what he said when He said He didn't come to bring peace, but a sword. And people think we're the mad ones...

How I Spent a Long Weekend.

 One of the drawbacks of growing older is that quite simply you don't bounce as well as you once did.

 T1 asked if I would come over after church & help out.  As I haven't seen my grandson in over 5 weeks [because he has been away with his mumma visiting his other GPs] I could hardly refuse.

 However one night became 2 ~ & would have been more if T1 could have swung it.  Seeing as my cats were most put out & misbehaving for the MOTH that was not really an option.  Besides, I really, really hate the mainland.  There is a reason I live where I do.

The Little Man had a cold ~ & we all know how much fun that is & how they so love having that long stream of snot wiped ~ but I am never quite sure that I'm all that much help.  Just one more person in the house not getting any sleep.  However I am usually up early & can take the Little Man while other things get done ~ though that would be easier if the child didn't scream @ the sight of me.  I know this will change as he gets older but just @ present it doesn't make me feel wonderful.

However colds make for grizzly, clingy children & so I walked ~ a lot.  Out of the house &  away from his stressed parents the Little Man was fairly amiable & happy to be entertained by the passing traffic.

In between I did get all the washing either off the line or on it ~ depending.  With 4 adults in the house, all of whom do their own washing, there is generally a full line, a full machine, a pile of wet clothes piled on the floor to be hung out & another in the tub waiting because whoever manages to snag the line seems to be chronically incapable of bringing in their washing once it has dried.  OT, for example, just gets what he wants to wear off the line rather than bringing everything in & putting it away.

T1, like the Chile Girl, really needs his sleep.  Without it he gets stressed & cranky, which probably accounts for his: I don't suppose you'd like to move in permanently, mum...? Um...love you all to bits, son, but ...No.

Meanwhile OT spent His extended weekend in my home & on my computer! *sigh* No, I don't really mind but I wish he would leave things as he found them rather than me having to ring to enquire where my lovely green alpaca rug ended up & why my computer screen is now in giant mode ~ plus there were 3 alarms set on it, which he had forgotten to mention to anyone!

So I haven't bounced well.  I have been sooo tired & my back is full of wonderful little knots that feel like I have been walloped by a 4 by 2 & bruised to within an inch of my life.

Home is a funny thing.  Ours is half finished & old & run down but it is where I happily potter.  I have my cats, my garden, my books ~ & I'm really not all that keen on being elsewhere. The curlews have arrived with their newly hatched chick. My cats have been lavish with their affection for how could I possibly abandon them like that & leave them with *That Man*, who obviously doesn't know they once were gods & treats them like... well, like ordinary beings!

Two days back & I am starting to feel normal again.  Just in time to head back to the mainland again as we are taking ODD out to lunch for her birthday on Friday. *sigh* I know it will be lovely but I sometimes feel like a hamster in one of those wheel thingies: running to no purpose.

Don't Tangle With the Holy Spirit.

I hate like poison to find myself embroiled in any kind of conflict. I do not like angry, aggressive people & under normal circumstances will go to great lengths to avoid any sort of conflict.

Hence Church~in~the~Park has always been problematic for me.  I believe, absolutely, we are called to do this.  At the same time I get why people get upset with us but of course the Tolerance Brigade has never been very tolerant of anyone but themselves. Legally we have contracted with our council to use the park for 2 hours each Sunday.  We are not always there due to weather, illness or other commitments but we are fairly regular during the good weather.

We have missed about 6 weeks but were right on track to return last Sunday.  It is still winter weather so a little chilly out of the sun & absolutely no good for swimming. We rocked up & began to set up to find that a single woman had highjacked both power points with the sole purpose of denying us power ~ with the intended purpose no doubt of sending us home with our tail between our legs, unable to deliver our message.  Normally I would have  been only too happy to head home but we had had a wonderful morning service ~ powerful & very anointed & obviously to prepare us for the park so I was in no mind to go anywhere. Nor was the MOTH.

This woman ostentatiously perched by the powerpoint ~ that we did not dispute despite our legal right to it ~ while we gathered round the table.  The MOTH is usually right into this stuff so he just opened his bible & began his standard preaching prayer from Romans 10.

The funny thing about people is they always know when they are in the wrong & she sooo knew she was in the wrong she was in fight or flight mode & literally shaking; shaking & backed into a corner.  We had not gone away as she intended. She could only get her ipod so loud ~ easily drowned out by Amazing Grace ~ about the only hymn or chorus I know multiple verses off & can sing without music~ & the MOTH's voice.

By then I was itching to get up & preach, which is so very unlike me, but itching I was because, boy! Did I have a message for her! What's more the Holy Spirit popped in some little extras about abandonment, both being abandoned & doing the abandoning & she began yelling & screaming @ me ~ so I just lifted my voice & went over the top of her.  Such a lot to be said for being drama trained. I refused to engage.  It was her problem, not mine, & if the Holy Spirit had something to say to her it was nothing to do with me.

The irony is, if she hadn't made such an issue of hogging the power she could have packed up & left any time she wanted but fuss she had & so she was stuck until we decided to end it. What's more she got a male with a good strong voice & a drama trained preacher so even when she got on the phone she couldn't drown us out.  We know the person on the other end could hear us too! She had backed herself into a position where she was forced to listen to a sermon discussing Lordship & sin.

 I know it hit home.  When I began on everyone serves someone or something, whether they know it or not, she got even angrier & ...well you can image but I just blithely went on pointing out we all have to obey the law of the land ~ drive on the right side of the road, get educated, do all sort of things we mightn't otherwise do because the law is our master ~ & that is not something you can really argue with.  Not logically anyway.

She was fuming with anger when she got on her phone & so we could hear quite a lot of her conversation ~ jailbird; lost her partner; lost her kids; denied access to her kids; due back in court ~ so sad.  So unnecessary. It really doesn't pay to tangle with the Holy Spirit when you don't know what you're doing. As the MOTH said: Captive Audience  ~ & all her own fault.

Goodbye, Farewell, Adieu.

On Sunday we had the Island Farewell for my FIL. We went from thinking there would only be about 4 of us to having to put out more seating & there was sooo much left over food ~ as always~ that it would all have been more than a little overwhelming if not for Sister C.  She got everything nicely under control, packed plates for the needy ~ & knew where to send them!

We had planned a short & very simple service, focusing on the positives.  The MOTH welcomed everybody then we all sang Peggy Sue because my FIL shared his birthday with Buddy Holly & was a big fan.  I'd managed to download a version with lyrics so everybody joined in ~ though no one actually got up & danced, which I thought rather a pity.  Peggy Sue is meant to be dance to. ☺

Then John led us in prayer based on Romans 10 before I did my thing. We are used to each other & creating a flow. Standing up in front of a crowd is not a thing that fazes me.  I know I read well & most people love a story ~ though I'm pretty sure I hadn't realised quite how confronting that story really is... Could have heard a pin drop the entire time.  We then had a minutes silence so everyone could say goodbye in their own way ~ an extended minute as I hadn't realised the computer clock stops when the music does!  Oops! Amazing Grace ~ which saw a whole heap of people dissolve & head out the doors to sob uncontrollably in the car park.  Missed that but my MIL mopped up ~ because it was less about my FIL than unresolved grief they were carrying. Then the MOTH thanked everyone for coming & pointed them towards the food.

The service itself was all done & dusted in about 1/2 an hour.  The socialising lasted about 2! *sigh* So we all know I'm not the social sort, don't we...

And all these people who have known us by sight for years as the Twin's parents, or CG's parents, or the Musical One's parents were flabbergasted to find we're pretty good public speakers ~ which I find terribly, terribly funny because I did all those years & years of drama ~ not because I wanted to act but because I wanted to be able to write good dialogue.  The spin~off, of course, is that speaking in front of crowds just doesn't bother me. But of course, no~one else knew that so we got lots of compliments on the whole thing.

What was lovely for me~ & why should I have been surprised after the Holy Spirit went to all the trouble of waking me up in the middle of the night & dropping the whole message in my lap?!~ was the really strong anointing present. Everyone sang both songs.  Put their whole heart & soul into it.  They were respectful & for so many, that is the sort of send off they themselves would like.  Simple.  Joyful. Mindful.

My MIL was delighted.  It was more than she hoped for.

The word going round in the prophetic realms for some time is that God is about to reverse all the hindrances, the blocks & the people holding others back.  I haven't paid a great deal of attention ~ you know, general prophecy.  Could mean anything really.  However we returned to the hall the next day to pick up an electrical lead the MOTH had forgotten & the office staff let us know in no uncertain terms that they had heard about the work we were doing for the community & wanted us to know it was appreciated.  After years of attack, slander & gossip it seems we finally have some credibility!

Waiting now to see how that plays out!  ☺

Gone Walkies.

I think I've said my cats are nut jobs....? This is how nutty: I put down food for the boys so I could sneak out & go for a walk along the mangroves all by myself ~ which is how I like to settle my mind & grow calm again when I have been deeply unsettled. My FIL's death has been deeply unsettling for many reasons but preparing for his island farewell on Sunday stressed me to the max, mostly because I'm not a techi but had a number of changes that I had to make & check on our church computer ~ a computer that really only works in spasms & with a number of important keys that simply no longer work, like delete & enter.

See if I don't distract my boys they want to come too.  Sadly my ruse was spotted.  The MOTH informs me that I was no sooner out the door than Marlow began agitating so partway along the waterfront I could hear this pathetic mew in the distance. *sigh* Before long my cat appeared, still calling as he hurtled under fallen logs & mangrove roots in search of me. Then it was on!

The presence of my cat flushed all the bronze~wing pigeons.  Their wap~wap~wap as they hurtled out of the groundcover startled other things ~

like this huge goanna, whose swollen tummy suggests that either it was pregnant or had just eaten a large & indigestible meal.

The cormorants draped on the rocks took off in a great flurry.

On my own I like to sit out on those rocks & let the sun & the salt breeze wash away worry & irritation. The mangroves make secret tunnels & amongst the birdsong & the wash of water is always a good place to pray.

With my cat in tow it was not to be.  The waves were a threat to me & he agitated until I followed him up the path to the top of the hill.  Now that this area has been fenced off it has become a sanctuary for wildlife.  I saw, unusual for here, whipbirds, who are shy though their call is distinctive, plenty of curlews & maggies, mistletoe birds, red~headed honeyeaters & to my utter joy our paddymelon. She took off fast & silent so no pictures.  Her joey was nowhere to be seen & should be too big to still be riding in her pouch.

As we pottered about I came upon this melaleuca [paperbark tree] whose trunk was shredded with a deep gorge & all the bark scattered in a wide birth about it. When I checked with The Man he said it was likely a lightening strike that had stripped the trunk without burning it.  Never seen anything like it before!

And then the 2nd lot of yowling began.  Cat number too slid under the fence & make a great commotion about having been left behind.  What is a girl to do?!

Not a Fan.

Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.

I am not a dog lover.  At best I will tolerate a friend's well behaved canine companion but the yappers, the barkers, the growlers & prowlers are not welcome at my place. Dogs are waaay too much work.

Our neighbours have a dog.  I think they were both rather relieved we didn't have a dog [as our properties are far too difficult to fence] & superior because we only owned lowly cats.  They have had to revise their opinion.

Firstly, Marlow & Kirby were raised with dogs so dogs, per se, hold no fears for them. Thus Marlow made it very clear on first acquaintance that pleb doggie was being way too familiar with a well timed swat across the snout that drew blood. Besides which, the rule that doggie must stay on his side of the divide does not apply to my cats, who swagger at will through his territory with great disdain.

Secondly, my cats are super protective of me & my neighbour was privy to witnessing Kirby's cheetah like tendencies in taking down his prey  ~ aka one pug whom he deemed to have upset me.  People who do not know cats are surprised by their fierce loyalty, their protectiveness & their love, which they think only dogs are capable of.

So my cats & neighbour's dog have things sorted between them.  My catz rule!  Then this week my neighbours have a house guest.  House guest has a foxie. Foxie is a yapper. For days we have been subject to this dreadful animal's incessant yapping.  The cats slunk around the house with tails lowered looking for extra cuddles.

At some point I went out to our clothes line, which borders our neighbour's property, & immediately this animal was in my yard yapping & snarling & carrying on.  I am wary of foxies; they're nippers so I growled at it to get back where it belonged. My neigbour, smart man, grabbed the dog & informed it that my cats would eat it if it came over here! lol

The animal bounced along the perimeter yapping constantly until the owner came over, shrugged & said, What can you do? I kept my mouth shut but my look must have spoken volumes because he grabbed his stupid animal & put it on its leash! What I wanted to say was: You could try training it...

I guess he decided I wasn't an animal lover because I made no overtures to be friendly to his animal ~ yet I will happily pet & play with our neighbour's dog, who is extremely well trained & rarely barks at all.  Plus I do my bit by ensuring my cats are inside by dark every night so any callers, yowlers & fighters my neighbours hear are not my cats.

I do wish all dog owners would train their animals.  I can't walk our block without being accosted by aggressive pit bulls, & met by volleys of agitated barking.  It is infuriating & destroys so much of the pleasure of taking an early morning or evening stroll.

There have been numerous recent accounts of dogs attacking & killing people.  The most recent was an experienced dog handler who was attacked & killed by her own pets yet our councils & governments tolerate the dog population much better than they do cats.  The only cats attacking & killing people are way larger than your average domestic moggie!

So, yeah ~ not a dog fan.