To Russia with love.

2 weeks ago, for no good reason, I took the preposterous step of not blogging for 10 days. Even for a blogger who aims for 3 posts a week, not blogging at all was a bit of a heart attack occasion.

I stopped reading other blogs. [Sorry.] I stopped checking for comments every other hour, on the bus, in bed and on the potty.  I stopped signing in to Blogger the 1st thing after waking up. After 2 days of withdrawal, my brain happily went blank.

What did I do to fill those 240 hours? Here is a shortlist.

I vacuumed, mopped, dusted, wiped every surface including walls slimed by dog drool, then vacuumed again until the poor machine died. Considering it's a good brand and just 2 years old, I'm a little miffed about that. It's been sent away to get fixed. I don't know when it'll be back but I hope it's soon because I'm over sweeping a whole house with a dustpan. Thank goodness there are no tradesmen scheduled to come over.

I tackled the garden, weeding and pruning just about 2/3s of it. The constant rain has made everything overly lush.

We severely pruned back our flowering plum tree that's been sick, straggly and falling down on 1 side. Maybe we should just have taken the whole thing down, but it's our lucky tree.
"You guys DO realise I'm here, right?"

On a stormy night almost 10 years ago, A Really Big Dead Gum Tree at the corner of our tiny backyard fell on the little plum tree and broke it in 1/2. Without that sacrifice, the fence we share with our side neighbour, and the back neighbour's then brand new wall, would have crumbled. How could we put a fearless little tree like that down?

So we've tied it back and now hope for the best. Maybe it'll get some good sleep over Winter and bounce back in Spring.

While out walking Georgia, The Other Half also spotted some plants that had been left by the roadside, including this monster staghorn. 

He's promised to hang it up on the back wall this weekend. Seeing as how it took 2 grown men [and 1 grown woman] to haul it back on a blanket, I see a sore back and neck coming.

I picked up some cheap autumn colour for pots that have been sitting idle on the balcony. Given my green thumbs, they should thrive.

till the end of the month.

at the very least.

With my new found freedom from blogging, I caught up on my pile of outdated Time magazines. Then I watched a lot of terrible, addictive TV including [in no particular order of preference] American Idol, Project Runway, Wife Swap, Amazing Race and [since I read about it on another dogblog], Dancemoms too.

Ooops. I do so hope you won't think less of me for admitting that, but I never said I was clever.

I also managed to train capoeira 5 times a week until my other [good] knee collapsed. Enough said.

In those 10 days, Georgia started her new diet based on your welcome and helpful thoughts, experiences and advice [thank you!] and all the reading I'd done.

Raw meals are now separated from cooked. 

"That looks mighty skimpy. You're not going all frugal on me, are you?"

Just 1 big bone, every other day, instead of 2 little ones every day. We've tossed the unsuitable bones out and are now experimenting with new ones like chicken carcasses and turkey. Anyone out there has any advice on roo bones?

"Me like!"

So far, so good.

Having read on some dogblog or other about the possible dangers of eating out of plastic [sigh], we've even swopped her 12 year old plastic bowl [handed down from Jordan] for a ceramic one [handed down from Tiger Lily who used to live a few doors away and who, as I recall, was found dead in her backyard by her owners, having choked on a bone].

Still on the food front, we discovered a fruit we'd never ever seen or heard of before!

It's called achachairú or achacha [Garcinia Humilis]. Since the silly people at Paddy's wouldn't let me try one, I thought I'd share the experience with you here.

CLICK HERE if you want to read about this Amazonian fruit and learn how to open it. The white flesh is soft and has a texture and taste similar to mangosteen, a little sweet, a little tart. [I'm hoping you know what a mangosteen is, otherwise this information will be as useful as a freezer in Nome.]

The only downside, it has large seeds. So with a hard skin outside and a big seed inside, this is NOT what you would call a value-for-money fruit. I also just read in Wikipedia that the skin is traditionally used in Bolivia as a hunger suppressant. I wish I'd known that before I threw the lot away! Next time. Maybe if I publish this post quickly enough, The Other Half will read it and pick some up for me from the weekend market.

 

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A few days ago, struggling to get back into blogging, I attempted to write a post. A few drafts later, I deleted the lot. Boring. Boring. Sad. Oh oh. Writers block. Truth be told, if it wasn't for some poor man found dead in our local park on Thursday, I doubt I'd be here today. [Last I heard, the police are still not sure if it was suicide or foul play.]

But here I am, back in the proverbial saddle. So, of course, I thought I'd have a look at the dreaded stats counter. To my surprise, the [very modest] numbers were still holding! despite my absence! How was this possible?

Well, here's my best guess.

Apparently! this blog is being read in Russia! In fact, twice as many Russians [apparently] read this blog than Australians. For shame! [Note to Self: Must write more stories about possums, Bondi and damper.]

I have no idea who in Russia might [apparently] be reading a silly dogblog. I can only hope it's not anything nefarious. I decided to click on an unfamiliar link this morning and, rather like falling into Alice's rabbit hole, found myself at...

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...oh my! a digital spyware site? I'm not sure it's Russian since it was in English but still.

My mind is boggling. I am equal parts confused, nervous and inquisitive.

Just to be on the safe side, I'd best state here that, despite being anonymous, I am truly who I say I am -

A plumpish, not particularly sociable, cream cake-loving, menopausal housewife who has a bad knee [now 2 bad knees], lives in a small crowded house with an overly-bathed, opinionated dog and a grumpy equally menopausal man [though he doesn't want to admit it] who snores.

I am not a sleeper. You understand?

Meanwhile, let me take this opportunity to say to anyone in Russia who might be reading this - 

Hi! Привет! I hope you're enjoying the stories. If you like, you can say hi! Привет! back! [In English, if you don't mind, because I don't really understand Cyrillic.]

Whatever you do, please please don't spam me, okay? I beg of you. Do it to one of the other big and important blogs on my side bar instead.

Thank you! Спасибо! Have a nice day! Хорошего Дня!

[I do so hope those phrases are right. If not, please write a stern note to Linguanaut.]

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P.S. I leave you with this spam that I just received -

"Very soon this web site will be famous among all blogging and site-building viewers, due to it's fastidious posts."

Why, thank you Anonymous. You must really be reading my posts.