Laura Seabrook's Ramblings

When I prepared for this Bobby assumed I was going to take him, for a walk because (I think) put a hat on and hung the spare mobile phone around my neck (I listen to the radio on it). I tossed him a titbit and escaped out side, shutting the door behind me. I would love to take Bobby with me, but I figured that I wouldn't be able to keep a steady pace if I did. I took the walking stick with me and started up Charlton St. And Jenny, who lives across the road stopped in her car and asked where I was going and would I like a lift. I got in and got her to drop me at a bus stop on the edge of Barnsley ("A" in the map above) and walked back from there. Bobs was happy to see me when I got back.

Google Maps says that this journey is 2.0 km long and should take me 25 minutes to walk. I did it in 21, so it was a mildly quick walk. Ideally I should be exercising for at least 30 minutes, and walking faster than a stroll. I might use Google Maps to plan future trips, since it will give me length travelled and the times for a casual walk. If I can beat that time I should be exercising, right?

Some things I need to do in future:

• Wear shoes/boots, not thongs; and
• wear decent pants, not my garden tracksuit pants which are a bit "holey".

Went down some different streets today than usual, and kept on seeing flags flying in people's front yards. I saw (in no particular order):

Boxing Kangaroo - from when we won the America's Cup.

Australian Flag

Eureka Flag

Rainbow Flag

The Finger

Proud to be Christian

Film logo

Had not realised just how popular this is for people to do, nor how varied my neighbourhood is!

It's cuurently 12.4°C outside, and 7.9°C inside, at my place! Today - that seems really cold (though no doubt some bright spark will comment on how their location gets to -°C in Winter. I've been letting my PC warm up before I touch it. I watched the end of Eurovision last night under the covers - Gabby and Bobby joined me.

9°C | °F	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu
Current: Partly Cloudy
Wind: NW at 23 km/h
Humidity: 58%	17°C | 7°C	18°C | 10°C	19°C | 10°C	20°C | 10°C

I've created a Flicker set that documents a walk I used to take with my dog Pegasus. I would normally drive us both to the Start point, and then walk in a large loop. This would take anywhere between 1-2 hours, depending upon how many detours we'd take.

This is not virgin forest, but an area well trampled by the human boot. I love it anyway. O'Donnelltown Bush Walk

I walked the dogs this morning, and found...

...a layer of dust about. That's the sun up there. Not as bad as Wednesday though. This was the view facing the opposite direction:

Considering the dust, and the fact I have asthma (a light touch) I think I might stay home until this clears. Either that, or wear a dust mask and goggles (both of which I have). However, the prospect of being on a bus driving in the middle of this is not that appealing. I might go to uni if Michelle's driving, but I hope she doesn't - there's going to be accidents out there!

Some photos from this morning when I took the dogs for a walk, a week after a local bush fire. Also see my Google map.

This map shows the area of local bushland burnt in 2000 (yellow) and the area burnt a week ago (red). The indicator at bottom right shows the location of my home

( More under cut )

It seems that Victoria and South Australia are in for extended heatwaves this week. Also the ACT has a bushfire warning current. Seems like more of the same to me - this Summer has been hot and sticky more times than not.

At least the Australian Government has good advice on heatwaves. The risk of bushfires is more of a worry. Back in 2000 everything between Barnsley and Holmesville went up, and it took well over a year for it to recover. Back then there were horses in the horse paddocks behind Charlton St, and because of overgrazing there was little to burn. But there haven't been horses there for over 5 years, and it wouldn't take much for a fire to rip through it.

Just part of living in Australia.

Jayne told me Wednesday morning that I cried and sobbed in my sleep so loudly it woke her and Alex (her son). Apparently when asked I said "I'm fine" but I don't remember this at all (then again, I said the same thing while asleep when asked if I wanted coffee the night before). I've been so sad lately after Peggy's death. Maybe I needed to do some more crying.

In the morning while I waited for Jayne to wake up, I watched Pan's Labyrinth. A film about any number of things, where being true to oneself is more important than staying alive. Very sweet and sad.

I knew though that I needed to go home. Spent most of the day travelling. Normally I like the trip by train, but yesterday I just felt tired. It wasn't the regular 8 carriage intercity train, but a shorter 4 carriage thing that was poorly air conditioned. Hated it, and was glad to get off at Cardiff. Did a little shopping on the way home. Not much. Was greeted by Hallie at the front gate. Kevin and Michelle were in the shower so I quietly went out the back for an hour and read a comic, and then just sat there thinking about things.

I finally met Kevin, who seemed glad to see me back. Then I borrowed Hallie and went for a bush walk to the cairn. When I walked the fire breaks and bike tracks around here with Pegasus, I discovered a cairn on top of a hill. I have no idea who started it or why it was there, but it had survived the big fires of 2000 (when everything between Barnsley and Holmesville was burnt to the ground). Every time something important happened in my life, I'd walk up there with Pegasus and ad another item or rock.

This time around it didn't seem right to go alone, so I took Hallie with me. I also took a windbreaker I'd bought the day (shown left) before and marked 7 of its 8 petals P E G A S U S. It'd been a while since I'd been there (Peggy wasn't up to the walk the last year) and the animal trails up to the top were overgrown. But we got there, and I planted the windbreaker on top of the cairn. Ave Pegasus.

Then we walked home. Been a long day, and later when I walked to the chips shop with Bobby (who seemed very happy to see me) I found that it was shut, so it was a cheese sandwich, watching House on TV, and an early night for me.