Melting …

My shoulder is slowly but surely thawing!  It no longer FEELS like a frozen shoulder … until I try to wash my hair or reach up high - BUT - it's almost there.  I reckon' by July 16th (6 months exactly) it will be completely healed!!

Already I can do so many more things now …

Like go birding … 

…well MY kind of birding!!

 He bribes me on a 1.5hr trip south of Adelaide with the promise of seeing Albatross and Whale(s)!!  The chance of an Albatross is due to the particularly horrible weather heading for coast of S.A. and apparently they like that kind of weather.  The whales are due to … well … it's winter and they migrate along the south coast regardless of horrible weather or not … apparently.

….is anything out there?!!??

The horrible weather arrived as we were driving down and I guess our combined weight stopped the van from being blown over in the crazy winds and Joseph's slow (ever so slow) driving that stopped us from crashing in the blinding rain!  At the "best whale-viewing spot" we could see from the car there were no whales  - or maybe there was but due to ridiculous waves it was impossible to tell.  So we braved the weather and made it to the nearby cafe for cake and coffee.

No whales out there

We drove a few kilometres further along the coast and made the short walk onto the beach on the Great  Southern Ocean that looks out toward Antarctica (it is really the Indian Ocean according to Joseph but not according to every Australian I know)

 … and  we are rewarded with a rare (and fleeting) glimpse of a

 HOODED PLOVER!  

Not sure why they are so special but they seem to make the two-minute walk worthwhile. 

There it is!
(the black dot is his head!)

  The tiny campsite is just over the sandhill and we are the only people there!!  It's snuggly warm inside the van - so snuggly that by 2.00 a.m. I have to open out the window next to me and let the howling wind in to cool me off!  Note:  this is a WINTER storm!!

Next day -  the trek to find the Albatross…  Turns out the Albatross is best seen on the bluff that is a two-hour hike from the campsite and - well - my kind of birding doesn't include two-hour hikes to anywhere-  let alone out onto a wind-blown bluff and especially not out onto a wind-blown bluff in the middle of a crazy storm!  So Joseph packed a lunch and headed out on HIS 4-hour trek and I sat snuggled in the van with the windows open watching the Fairy Wrens hopping around

 - and the kangaroos.   

 I did "hike" over the sandhill to the beach and managed to NOT get bitten by a snake due to socks with my Tevas! and even though the weather was still pretty crazy I sat on the platform and enjoyed the view and  I thought I saw an albatross and pretty sure i did not see a whale!!   

Albatross?

Joseph made it back hardly wet at all and sadly no Albatross!    He had a couple of "lifers" so was moderately happy but he totally disputed my Albatross sighting!  Humph - back home we go - that's enough birding for me!

I can also do things like … 

*Enjoy a nice Birthday lunch

… with Alecia, sis Jen and Fiona … at the Art Gallery of S.A.

*Attend openings!

Our neighbour Bev is an amazing artist who made these painting using a technique she calls



and she had an exhibit at our favourite local cafe
Red Lime Shack

That's Bev- the artist!

crazy stuff!

Collen -I waned to buy this for you!

  

* Help Mischa demolish the back of his house! …

Mischa is so patient with me!

Just chipping away … as I  do!

Hmmmmm...

Taking it from this ...

to THIS!!
and even THAT back wall is going!
We took off the red bits the following weekend.

…and Joseph cleans up the bricks
so that Mischa can reuse them - at $1 a brick these days -it's worth it
(pavers? ( no freezing here) or walls?)

* Have a Canada Day party!

I cajoled/persuaded/bribed my family to come over and celebrate Canada Day (Aust. time). They were told to wear red - and they did!!

Good 'ol Canada Rocks! .. those **@@!! boxers on brother David!!

I played the National Anthem for them - poor dears - they have no idea - which hand/which heart!!

Menu:  Corn, ribs, hot dogs, coleslaw & pizza (it was cheap night at Dominos!)

Ice Cream with hot choc fudge sauce (or maple syrup

 but I think they thought that was a bit too weird!)

* Help at the Community Garden

Not so much handwork for me this time - but the guys are working hard building the plots (due to concrete on the ground the beds must be raised) - and of course always available for a BBQ!

*… and of course …. look after # 1 Grandson

He just gets cuter ...

and more cuter-with ribbon in his hair!

* VISA VISA VISA!!!

We also received the wonderful news that Joseph's visa had been granted!  This means he can stay in the country for as long as he likes.  He can go "home" to Canada but can't stay for more than 5 years!

It was a bit of a non-event in the end -  because the week before Immigration had sent an email asking for all kinds of forms that we didn't think needed be submitted and copies of forms we were sure we already did!  So with hearts pounding Joseph sent a polite reply with copies of the copies, we had already submitted and querying the need for further forms!  Et voilà the following week came the official acceptance email with a copy of the precious visa!  Urgh - seriously - they play with people's lives and they just don't realize it!


 … Anyway off we went (walking) to celebrate !!!!

He's pretty excited to be celebrating at one of the six hotels in the square mile of our neighbourhood!
….and pretty excited they have champagne glasses!


Next party is Christmas in July - with the Ingham side of my family!  Yikes that's gonna be a treat! :)

Life goes on … frozen or not …

 So I've completed my self-prescribed rest period for my shoulder and it seems to have helped … I've entered phase 3 - the one where the pain subsides but the shoulder remains locked (frozen)- and sadly - I'm almost enjoying it!.  So now I'm starting the stretches again in an attempt to get it moving …

Still … life goes on …

The turning point (in the pain department) came after spending a lovely day with Pat & Alicia. We visited the most amazing display of art pieces  made from felt!! (silk and wool) some you could wear and some simply hang on the wall, but all of them stunningly beautiful. 

 Then  Alicia let me sit and watch her make a stew  - yep - I sat and did nothing while she worked in the kitchen for over an hour and then I sat some more while we ate the delicious stew and then I rested some more during the 1hr drive home because  Joseph had a few reds- ergo I had to drive! - but HE actually changed the gears for me! .  Yep - all the way home we argued;  I figured "up" was enough - HE wanted the number!!  "second, third etc. - how on earth can anybody be conscious of what gear they need to change to, WHILE THEY ARE DRIVING???!  Still, it seemed that after that lovely afternoon, the pain ever so slowly diminished - so I guess that's what friends are for eh?!!

Now that the pain is a little less I decided that I could do more physical activity!    A group of neighbours organized a Community Garden nearby with an old building on the site that had been neglected for quite a few years.

Not quite the real "before" pic - new siding has been added in this photo.

So Joseph helped by scraping and painting etc. 

and then the day before their first Open House there was nobody available to clean out the inside so I figured I could sweep!  

Cleaning the counter - using the sweeping motion!
(everything you see underneath was onto minutes before)

 It was pretty gross (and dusty) and it was the hardest I've worked in about two years, but I plugged away most of the day and the shoulder didn't freak out and at the end I was mortified to think that yikes!  - perhaps hard work might be the cure I'd been looking for!!??  Urgh! 

Well, you had to see the "before" to appreciate the "after" but I was pretty chuffed with how the room looked...

 Joseph managed to paint the front door and it was ready for the Open House the next day.  

It's not FLW red 

 It was a beautiful day for an Open House and to try and raise some $$s ...there was a  Sausage Sizzle!  (Canada = hot dogs + bun - Aus = sausage + slice of white bread)…

and we contributed some apples

 and right next to us on Dock One - the clipper City of Adelaide was celebrating 150 years with lots going on so that helped with passing traffic

That's the clipper there in the background - with the ferris wheel in front-of course!!
luckily the ferris wheel was just for a day - but the clipper remains!

and they even had Eric Bogle performing (he of The Band Played Waltzing Matilda fame)!!  I still find it amazing that right here in little 'ol Adelaide lives the man who wrote that amazing song (and a bunch of other great ones (Green Fields of France, Shelter etc.)
The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
and some Ottawa friends might know that I'm wanton to stalk Eric whenever he performed within 300kms of Ottawa!  - and well now it's even easier -so I invited him and his wife over for a snag and tour and I was pretty excited but I'm about the only one who was!  

Still the crew were happy with their takings for the day and even some new members, and I won a competition in the local paper for a huge PLANTED crate, so the garden is on it's way and it's nice to be part of a "community".

There's still more happening in The Port...

A new Food Market opened down the other end of the dock and Kim

 the son of our apple-orchard friends (Graeme& Fiona) is there selling the best-organic-in-Australia apples  and the best fresh juice from those apples (that he presses right there)

This is the hand-press he uses to squeeze that "to-die-for" juice!

He sells the honey and beeswax candles from the bees he keeps and he cooks the apple crisp his (9-month-pregnant) girlfriend makes in the wood-fired pizza oven he brings along - oh yeah - and he made the counter (with sink and running water) and the tables and chairs by himself...

That's Fiona sitting (for once in her life) on Kim's tables&chairs he made from wine barrels (of course!)

and he works even harder than his parents (if that's possible) and so the least we can do is to help him and are happy to be working in "retail" again; Joseph  sells and takes the money (and tries hard to keep it sorted and neat and tidy in the drawer) and because there is no till to tell me how much change to give, well I wash the jars for the juice.  

Hard to see the counters Kim made- but there's another one behind where I wash!

 But for a few precious hours it's that special feeling talking to customers and making them happy and it makes me miss ONW sooo much!

We even have a playground next to the market!  yippee!

So with all that, we were pretty freaked when the owner of our rental decided to sell.  I just can't tell you how wonderful it is to live here. If we can't be in Canada anymore, then living here makes it so much easier to bear( bare?) 

View from roof top deck.

It's just a beautiful house (bigger than we need but …), with the most amazing view (well, at night you can't tell it's a cement factory), with (as it turns out) great neighbours (there's another blog right there!)

There's our neighbours - we are the one with the yellow roof and shade sail on the top level
- our bedroom window on the bottom level just behind the tree)

That's the clipper being moved to it's new spot.

 within walking distance of the stores (just a few good ones but they're trying!)

 I walk along the wharf to the shops (a few more minutes away)

5 mins (max) to all of my family and the only blip is Jasper (and his parents) are on the other side of town (40min drive) but  we must have done something right  somewhere along the way, because it turns out the new owners are happy to let us stay - for another year anyway.

… and just so you know - we would LOVE to have you come to visit and share all of this with you!

Couldn't miss having our favourite boy included!