Big Boris

R.I.P. Big Boris!!!   Our last remaining fish, which we put in a fish tank while we sort out the pond, has gone to that big fish tank in the sky. To be more precise, he is in a sort of holding pattern at the moment....in a plastic freezer bag in Jim's freezer in the shed!!

When Jim went to the shed this morning, there he was, floating on top of the water. Of course, we don't know how old he was, as he was pretty big when we first had him. But, there you are, I don't think they have a particularly long life.
 I am a bit miffed,if only for the fact that I had just bought a large tub of fish food!!!

Anyhow, when bin day comes round, he will join the general collection, well and truly frozen!!

Guess what!!!

Well.......I have just had an email from Dilys....nothing strange about that, as we correspond regularly...but she and Richard are coming to Australia again in March 2013!!  They are off to N.Z. first, to see their daughter and family, and then coming here for a week. I have been surfing the net to find a B & B for them...we only have one single bed here....which won't do at all, so I have sent her some details for them both to peruse. The ideal one is just across the road, but they are trying to sell, so I don't know what the 'state of play' is at the moment.

 I hope we shall have some nice Summer weather then, and we can show them around a bit. How lovely to catch up with both of them this time.
Here is a pic. she sent a little while ago....Ju, what a lovely cat!

What a sorry sight!

Well folks, this is the pond as of today. We emptied it a week or so ago, and the bottom was inches deep in silt and debris, so I had to bucket a lot of it out. We think there is a leak somewhere, although very slow, but  a new liner is probably the way to go.
Hopefully we can fix up the waterfall at the same time, now that we have a much stronger pump, so it would be nice to get it ready for Summer. Keep our fingers crossed there are no 'glitches' with it.

Away Again!

Benalla Park

Another View

The River  and water feature

Swimming in the pool at Mulwala

What glorious weather!

 

 

We had 3 days away. Two at Mulwala...our favourite motel. We knew the weather was going to be wonderful...and it was. We both swam in the pool on both days, and then went to Echuca for the third day. I had a swim there too.
It was a very happy trip, and we thoroughly enjoyed it all...except when we left Mulwala for Echuca, and accidentally went the wrong way!!  We have done this trip a million times, but weren't paying attention, and drove nearly 40 kms toward Albury, instead of away from it!!  What idiots. It made the drive 80kms longer than need be. A bit of a nuisance.
We stopped at the park in Benalla on our way to Mulwala, and it was such a lovely day, we had to stop and take a few pictures of the most unusual 'edifice' there. It has a lot of seating in the rotunda part. Never seen anything quite like it before.

What a Find

I was scrolling through the bits and pieces in Google Chrome, and came upon a program called Adblock plus. I downloaded it, and now there are no horrible ads on my blog!!
 I have only checked once, but I hope this is the state of play for the future, and I have also installed it for Firefox too. What a little gem!!  To get rid of all those unwanted ads that kept popping up was a good days work, in anyone's language. So hopefully I have got on top of the problem now.
 I should say that I have only just come to Google Chrome, and am really impressed with it. I tried it a few years back, and then ditched it, but now it has improved out of sight, so I shall be using it from now on.
 How satisfying to find something really good.
 Keep up the good work Google!

Word verification

What a shame we have to try all we can to keep out the spam, junk, and all other 'nasties' that can be insidiously slipped into our blogs.
 This is why I have the 'word verification' on.....maybe it will make a bit of difference, and I know it can be a nuisance, but what can you do?
 Of course, nothing is fool proof, but we do what we can. I would love to catch the blighters that spend their time trying to mess up other people's pleasure, and they would all be wearing their computers in very uncomfortable places!!!

So that's my gripe for the day....There's no apt picture for this post!
  I WISH THERE WERE!!
I have also made sure that only people on my contact list can view my mad ravings and very amateur 'snapping'!!

On a lighter note, Jim is finding all sorts of 'goodies' on Chrome. here is one of them!!
What can I say....the shed is obviously a lot colder than we thought!!

More 'Pondage'

Here is "Big Boris", happily ensconced in a temporary home.  The pond is just about empty, except for all the sludge, and now we have to get the new liner, and start from scratch again. Hopefully, this time we can stay in control of it more.
 He seems quite happy where he is...probably feels safe from all the birds that used to hover over the pond, no doubt looking for lunch!! In sole splendour, he spends his days shuttling to and fro........What a life!

Pond Update

Here is the start of the big "pond cleanout" !!  We have had to get all the water out before we can start cleaning it properly. The silt in the bottom is inches deep, so when the water is gone, it's shoes off, and  paddling around to get all the muck out.
We are getting a new liner, thicker than this one, and meanwhile, "Big Boris" is scooting around in a fish tank, not bothered at all.
 So the fun begins!!

The Pond

This is just to let you know that all the fish in the pond have been gobbled up by the Kookaburras and Egrets!!!
 We have one left......"Big Boris" and he is skulking under the plants.....too scared to come out. We had between 25 and 30 fish...including babies that were born in the pond the previous year, and some we had bought, and were growing at quite a rate. So we have decided that we shall clean the pond, and have it as a garden feature....with just the one fish...until we can organise a decent way of protecting it from all the predators. What a shame...we put a net over, but it was too late.
 Now we need the net for the fruit trees, so the plums don't all get eaten by the birds too!!
 You can't win, can you?

Slow Cooked Corned Silverside

This is such an easy recipe. It is cooking away as I write this. You can get a good piece of meat for between $8 and $10. Here's what you do:-
In a slow cooker put:-
1 piece of corned silverside
2 small (or 1 large) onion, halved or quartered
1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup malt brown vinegar
2 cloves garlic
2-3 bay leaves
2 litres beef stock
water to almost cover meat
A few Pepper corns

Put all ingredients in slow cooker, silverside on top of vegies. Make sure meat is almost covered with liquid.
Cook on  low for 6-61/2 hours, until tender and almost falling apart.
 Rest for 10 minutes before serving.
You can also make a tasty mustard sauce to go with it.

In a small saucepan put:-
a few tablespoons of the cooking liquid
1 tablespoon plain flour
1-2 teaspoons mustard
30g. butter
1 egg
2 tablespoons vinegar.

Stir all the time (only takes a couple of minutes), and add egg last.

This is sooooo tasty, and next day, the left-overs are great in a sandwich with pickle.