12 of 12, December 2015

A day of errands and chores, although it began with me finishing off the 11th Arthur Ransome book (every few years I do an end-of-year re-reading of the series, and this year it was definitely time to reward myself with these gentle familiar stories).

I then loaded the car with the lawnmower and brushcutter and some bags of manure, as I had promised a friend to help her get her yard a bit more summer-season safe.

On the way, though, I had to go up to church to take my turn at tidying the building ready for tomorrow. There are more than the odd one or two rooms to vacuum (the heavy-duty footwear is overkill for vacuuming, but I took the opportunity to do some more wearing-in of my new bushwalking boots).

I forgot to take photos at my friend’s house (apart from the one below when we were done), but there was some brushcutting and some hacking of rampant boobyalla (a thick-growing fast-spreading wattle shrub/tree), and we managed to wrestle some old furniture out onto the front verge for the annual big rubbish pickup.

Since I didn’t wear gloves while doing all this hard work, my hands ended up rather grubby (and my arms got a little scratched too).

My friend had been making Christmas baubles for all the children in the class she has been teaching … and she made me one too. 🙂

When I got home, I loaded up the car again and took 10 bags of sheep manure to a different friend’s place. Our Scout troop is doing some fundraising and so I have a pile of these bags beside the house at the moment.

In the late afternoon and then later at night I had to transform the garage — which has somehow turned into a disorganised mess — into something vaguely resembling a spare bedroom since I have family coming to stay for Christmas.

In between the first and second shots I took a break to have tea, watch New Tricks and write a few Christmas cards (spoiler alert: sneak preview evident in the following photo).

I have a bad feeling that one of my tyres has a slow leak. Fortunately I have a little compressor (since I forgot to attend to this earlier in the day when I got petrol).

And just before I had a Radox-filled bath to ease my weary aches, I gave my now slightly-more-worn-in boots their first Sno-seal treatment in readiness for their first real adventure.

(The “12 of 12” project involves taking 12 photos on the 12th of the month. This provides the opportunity to get snapshots of different aspects of your life. I have been doing this since 2009.)