rattfan | Sunday Recap

Sunday. Cooler than yesterday, which is an intense relief. Saturday was so hot and humid that nobody moved very fast. I went out anyway, to Fantastic Planet bookshop to check what was there and later to the Moon and Sixpence faux-British pub in the city to catch up with

vonstrassburg who was in town from Sydney for a few days. That is a very nice little pub, btw, with lots of comfortable-and-fattening British food on its menu which really needs to be eaten at midwinter for maximum benefit! The apple pie and icecream was about all I could face, given the temperature outside, which was close on 40^C and which I had recently been walking in. Some others of

vonstrassburg's friends, all from the SCA, also showed up and I got to hear some gossip of that organisation which, I have to say, strongly resembles some fannish gossip/disasters of my acquaintance.

I used to share a house with

vonstrassburg back in the Dark Ages but we refrained from sharing any personal gossip from those days as we are adults who share great mutual respect and also have about equal dirt on each other :-) Good to see you, anyway!

Today morning was spent hefting an aviary over a giant bush and a shed to deliver to friends who can make more use of it than I can. [We were kind of hoping you wouldn't get out of bed and come out, guys, because then we could've left it in your carport...]

So I think that's my exercise for today. I am trying to at least walk half an hour on days I'm not doing much else but think I can let myself off that. Then I cleared up the area in my yard where aviary had been, did some watering, topped up the pond and fed the minnows. One frog displayed himself; the others are...somewhere. I'm thinking of putting in a bog garden next to the pond (where aviary was) to extend the territory and cover available to the frogs. I believe what you do is essentially start out to build a shallow pond, then mostly fill it with soil and add the sort of plants who like to have their feet permanently in water. That'll allow more frogs to live in the habitat. I'm not too sure what the current carrying capacity of the yard is but more has got to help.

Work stuff probably interests no one, not even me, but at least the courts are just about back to what they're pleased to call normal operations after the January shutdown, so I'll do my usual 3 days a week and money will come in, which is always good.

I'm looking forward at the moment to Swancon, which will be a chance to break routine and catch up with people for a few days. My rats are going to be ratsat so I don't have to keep going home to take care of them. This will no doubt displease them as they are the world's most spoiled pack of rodents, used to being catered for but they will manage, even if they are not allowed to partake of any meal the ratsitters are having.

Ye gods! It's close to the end of February. Two months of 2009 have almost sped by and I was still getting used to the New Year. Most of it's been boiling hot, so hopefully it'll cool down a bit by Swancon as I'm planning to ride my bike in.