s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

So, on Friday I completed the Glen/Home fence, which subdivided the home paddock, creating the smaller glen paddock off to one side. Mind, this is not the first fence I have built, but it is the first I have actually finished. This one has a gate and everything! Hanging a gate ended up being easier than expected, so in a fit of productivity I hung a new gate for the Triangle paddock (have only had the new gate sitting around for about 4 months), then using some scrap lumber I built a pair of compost bins, finally providing a nice place for the organic waste. (We try to compost everything possible, so nothing organic goes in the trash. We don’t have any garbage pickup, so the trash often waits months before we haul it to the tip. If it is all just plastic wrappers then there is no stink problem).

Saturday we went and made a commitment. After many months of deep soul-searching, we have finally purchased a couch- two, actually, a 3-seater and a 2-seater. Both of leather in a style that should match our “relaxed to semi-barbaric” decor. We also decided to move Tam’s desk to the living room, which is large and L-shaped, and can easily swallow the giant desk into one corner. Once I finish deconvoluting the rats-nest of wires under the house I will get the phone jack in there hooked up again, providing DSL. Then we can move the computers in and take down the “temporary” computer table that has been in the dining room since the day we moved in!

And finally, on Sunday there were camels. We went to the film-festival showing of “The storey of the weeping camel”. It was a film set in Mongolia done by a German film student. Really interesting. I think we were equally fascinated by the camels and the Mongolian material culture. The camels because since we have been working with the alpaca for 6 months now we have started to learn some of the “camelid language”, and camels seem to speak a recognizable dialect. But boy are they big. It was startling to see a newborn the size of our full-grown alpaca! Just as fun was all the footage of life in the Gobi. Lots of great interior shots off Yurts/Gers, showing the furniture, wall-hangings, painted Tono (roof-rings), etc. We really must take a holiday to Mongolia some time. And we will have to bring empty suitcases that we can fill with cool stuff to bring back!

And to cap off a fun and productive weekend we went to see Tangerine play at Molly Malones down on Courtenay Place. Great music by Tim, Liz, Alan and Bruce, with some lovely bellydance during the second half provided by Beverly, Hillary and Sibylle. The room was totally packed (glad the fire marshal did not drop by!), and everyone had a grand time.