It rained overnight and early this morning - reasonably substantially. It is quite a relief for the garden which is looking parched. It is now sunny and hot but in the brief damp the snails had a ball...

I didn't have the heart to kill them off and out of concern for our lizards main food source I let them be. Except for the three that Laurie ate! He normally is full after one so he must have been hungry. You can tell if he is as he will poke his head out of his house and lift his chin up.

We went last weekend to the Botanic Gardens again, this time with Matt, Christine, Jeremy and Natasha for a nice picnic beneath the trees listening to some jazz and blues music. I remembered to take the camera and took some photos of the local wildlife.

We had a great time and I made gyoza for the first time. They are little Chinese dumplings with mince and cabbage in them. The dipping sauce was fantastic with soy sauce, ginger and spring onions. The receipe was from Gourmet Traveller's Annual Cookbook (first one) which is really cool. They don't have the receipe on the site but they do have some other ones.

The weekend before we were at the Sydney Salsa Congress. I didn't end up taking any photos but we had a great time. Alison, my sister, performed and they looked very sexy and professional. I enjoyed the workshops the most and particularly the Brazillian Samba class which was so energetic and a great workout. Yes, that is the one where the ladies where next to nothing with the big feather headresses and wiggle their butts a lot! Nathan and I are also two weeks into a six week course with Salsabor which is going well. We learnt a great routine on Monday night that hopefully we will remember tonight when we go to 6AM in Manuka. A newish dance stuido runs it, Kokoloco and they look like they will offer some good classes.

Not that we will probably ever attend any, as the plans for Melbourne move are heating up. Nathan has found a job that he is keen on applying for and I had an interview on Thursday for another job with the Victorian Cancer Agency. I don't think it went well enough for them to employ me but it was hard to tell as it was over the phone. It just depends on the other applicants I guess. There are still two other jobs that I have applied for to find out about, though I may not have made it through the short list for one of them as it has been quite a while since the applications closed. We are waiting to see where our jobs will be before worrying about a house to live in - though Richmond, Abbortsford, Kew look like good suburbs to live in. Nathan is pushing for a townhouse or apartment in St Kilda, but I don't think I can live without at least a small courtyard with room for a garden, preferably with one that hasn't been so meticulously landscaped that I can plant some seeds and maybe some herbs. I might have to go without as large a garden as I have now but that is ok. I can leave my gardening hobby for a while and pick it up again later. We'll see, there may yet be the perfect house that is not too far out of Melbourne. It also depends where our jobs are located there may be a leafy suburb near by.

Well I haven't done a lot of writing lately with all this dancing and job applications though I have re thought through some of the main plot and sent the first chapter to my Mum and sisters for a review. I need to get moving with the next chapter so that they can review it. It is good to have someone to deliver each chapter to as it helps me get motivated.

Yesterday we went to the Botanic Gardens for an evening of jazz. It was quite hot, but it cooled off while we were there and it was nice and shady under the eucalypts. The ACT Herpetological society was displaying their reptiles and we went and had a look. There were some lovely snakes and quite a few Blue tonuge lizards that the kids could pick up (not the snakes). There were also a few of the little rare corroborree frogs that they are breeding at the gardens - only as big as your fingernail and black with bright green spots. It inspired me to take a photo of my lizrd to show you how big he has grown. He was out and about on the lounge room floor for most of the day today and was having a good time.

I have also finished the redraft of the first chapter of my novel and will be sending it to my Mum for the first review. It has taken me about 6 hours to redraft it but I have learned a lot in the process. I have been reading Fiction first aid, by Raymond Obstfeld and he has some good insights into how to pace the novel and to increase suspense. It has enabled me to be more objective in my writing and it has improved a lot! I will keep plodding through and have made a vow to devote at least 2 hours a week to writting. So far so good but I have been able to find time on the weekend - it will be much harder this next week when I will be in Sydeny for the Salsa Congress!

I saved these flowers (Dietes Grandiflora or wild iris.)from the rain. Yes I know rain and in Canberra! It hasn't been a lot - half hearted and only for the last hour and it looks like it might be clearing up. Hopefully there is some more to blow through. This weekend I plan to get out in the garden and trim back all of the oregano that is getting a bit stragly and tidy up a bit. I have a few tomatoes just starting to yellow. Last weekend I dried a heap of peaches and cooked some for the freezer - peach, ice and cointreau blended also makes a nice drink :) The tree did an amazing job this year and there were probably 30 peaches all a good size. It actually helped that the neighbours went away for X'mas (as did we) with a broken tap that had a steady stream of water (not gushing) from the hose that soaked the peach tree.

We are back from our trip home to Tassie for X'mas. We caught up with everyone including an 80th birthday party for Auntie Doreen! It was great to see the nieces and nephew again and feel included in our families lives. Its a confortable and warm feeling that I miss living so far away from everyone. Our shared history is something that is hard to replicate in any other way.

Nathan received a kite for X'mas from me and spent a couple of the windy days entertaining people and himself flying it. Firstly at the Boxing day BBQ with Auntie Ruth and family, my mum and sister and Nathan's mum, brother and sister, grandma, uncle. It was quite a family gathering.

Nathan flying his new kite at BBQ in Penguin

And various onlookers...

Helen, Meg, Linda, Alison and Olivia in the background

Sam and Chloe

We were reminded how beautiful Tassie is when we visited Black River for a spot of fishing (unsuccessful) and a BBQ. Also how cool the weather is! By the end of the week we were getting re-aclimatised but it was still jumper weather unless you were out of the wind.

Black River looking out to the Nut at Stanley

I am getting worse at goodbyes as the years go on. Because of this, we are considering moving to Melbourne as something that might make it easier to get home more often for weekends. I am not sure how much it will change things as it won't be as close as living in Tassie. I am thinking it might be nice regardless as it seems that I have more friends and close people in Melbourne now than I have in Canberra. Nathan is not so but then most of his friends have left Canberra and there is no guarantee that they will come back here. Coming home to Canberra I really do think I'll miss my house and garden but they surely can be replaced quite easily and we will become quickly familiar with a new place so that it won't be long and it will feel like home too. Hobart would be closer to family but I'd have no friends or family in Hobart itself so I'm not sure it would be that much better. Anyway we've been thinking about moving on and off for a while now - it seems that everytime I go home it comes up again.

Did some work on the novel today and already it is looking a lot better. I have only redone the first 2000 words which took 2 hours. So it is slow going. I made plum jam and plum sauce (3 small bottles of each) with the plums that had fallen off the tree and those that I had picked before I left. I also poached some before x'mas and they are in the freezer so that is not a bad amount for the tree's first year. The peach tree is heavily loaded though the fruit is not quite ripe yet. When they are ripe I will have to think of some creative ways to use them up - I'm thinking the dehydrator will make some nice dried peach. I'm not sure I'll need anymore jam so it will have to be frozen as well as what I eat fresh. Nathan is not a big fresh peach fan.

Anyway I am thinking of making Wednesday night my call home night. I'll keep it a short conversation and pick different people each week. If I make it regular then I will get in the habit of calling. I can even include a few friends in the list. I think it will make the distance seem less. So expect a call on Wednesday nights every three to four weeks! I think that was my only new years resolution.

A big thankyou to John Clanchy for holding a free workshop yesterday that I went along to. The workshop was for unsuccessful authors who applied for John's mentoring through the ACT Writer's Centre this year. It was great to talk with a few emerging writers about motivation, inspiration, working habits, difficulties and their responses to those problems. I enjoyed just talking about my novel with some other people and get remotivated to tackle the editing that is required. There was also some great advice from John on how to cull out some of the more boring bits of my work and it highlighted how difficult it can be to put a scene from my head into words. He also gave me some useful grammar tips! I have three days set aside after Christmas to write (and maybe mosaic) and will this afternoon get a few pages ready to print out. I think I realised yesterday that I will be better at editing on hardcopy rather than on the screen. I will give it a try. My only fear is that I will want to write substantial changes in and hardcopy won't be that easy if that happens. I also need to finish what I left off months ago which was a listing of all the characters and an exploration of their motiviations, attributes and a little backstory for each of them. Partly this is so I remember who they are! but mostly it is so that I can drop bits in that make them more real. I'm also thinking of expanding my chapter by chapter break down so that I can get a better all over feel for the pace and tension in the novel.

Anyway enough blogging which is just distracting me from getting down to business.

Well last night was the last faceting evening for up to 3 months while the club moves buildings. Thankfully we have found a new home in an old parks building from the ACT government. We have been searching for over two years for a place to house our faceting and rock polishing and cutting equipment. This means there will be some delay before I get back to faceting. Last night I transfered the pink SRB and it is now ready to cut the crown. I also finished off the pavillion for the green quartz square that I mentioned sometime ago that I put on hold to start Ali's tear shaped stone. I still haven't the heart to tackle the tear again yet not until I have a better strategy to ensure that it comes out aligned. I don't mind too much that there will be a delay - it will give me the opportunity to do other things Tuesday night. I have made a promise to use the daylight time that we have after work to accomplish tasks around the house - at least until 8.30 each night. I am just about to go out and water the garden and tie up the tomato plants. I may even do a bit of pruning before making dinner. I have also started scrapbooking the photos from our Europe trip and have that to finish off. Plus there is always practicing some salsa moves. Talk to you later.

Sorry I haven't written in a while - I've been meaning to write for a few days now and have been busy. Work has a Dec 5th deadline and I am in Melbourne for a course next week so I have been a bit preoccupied. Hopefully once they are both over I will be more balanced and watch less TV when I come home from work! After the month overseas for work I had a couple of weeks off before going back to faceting again. I have made some progress though. I started the blue tear shaped stone that I planned for my sister Ali. Unfortunately I have had difficulty with the pattern from day one. Firstly the index was incorrectly labled as 96 when it was actually 64. I only noticed this part way through the rough cut. Now though I am having difficulty lining up the pavillion breaks with the girdle. In despair I have halted work on it and started instead a standard round brilliant in pink CZ for Nathan's mum, Helen. It is a relief to be back to something that doesn't twist my brain. Somethimes I wonder if this is really a great hobby for a woman with natural difficulties viewing things in 3D. It is going to plan and should be ready in another three to four weeks - hmm nearly in time for X'mas.

Square synthetic quartz, blue tear CZ, pink SRB CZ

I was impressed by my collection of flowers in the garden as I was hanging out the washing this morning and thought you might like to see them. Particularly the pyrethrum daisy which is so happy and smiling. I'm really happy with the garden this year there has been a nice balance of flowers since Aug, hopefully it will keep it up for a bit longer. We are pretty dry up here but at least we had some rain last week. It hasn't taken away that dry feeling but it all helps.

Lavender

Pyrethrum

Californian Poppies

I was reading Claire's blog and skipped along into her friends Dijanne's page and read about her participating in NaNoWriMo this month. Good luck! I wish that I had entered this year but have resigned to putting the novel writing on hold until after this work stuff and course are out of the way. Hopefully I will be able to focus on it more next year. I am trying to get through other things instead that are less thought full such as knitting the jumper that I started about a year ago and scrapbooking the photos from our Europe trip 18 months ago! I didn't print them out until two weeks ago - that is the trouble with digital photos - the need to print them isn't there. I really like having something hardcopy to look through though so I will do a bit more in the next couple of weeks.

Nathan is planning a mega kayak down the coast for this afternoon. The weather looks great so it should be nice. It will be good to do some exercise I haven't been doing much lately apart from Friday nights at salsa. Better go and get ready.

We have been going to the Holy Grail these last few Friday nights to try out our salsa dancing skills. This last Friday there was quite a crowd, with performances from funk dancers as well as a great couple of salsa couples. If you are in Canberra and keen on salsa you have to come along for a great night - more info. There is also the Sydney Salsa congress coming up in January next year where my sister will be performing professionally. I'm looking forward to seeing the international teachers that come along and give some great classes. It is a pretty full on weekend so we will have to build up our stamina to make the most of it.

Well I did a lot of work in the garden this last weekend. I ordered the delivery of 1m of mulch and spread it about the front yard. It is amazing the difference it makes when the mulch is fresh and vibrant. It won't last too long as it will fade to a dull grey in the sun. It really makes the plants stand out so I had to take a photo. I also laid a few pavers along the path. The thyme path was not doing as well as I would have liked in the more exposed part. I am pretty please with the garden now and it should be right for a while now. There is one section near the purple wall that needs another plant and that should just about do it. It has been very dry lately and it is only the end of October - I hate to think what it will be like in December if this keeps up.