Blog frog

This is our bathroom frog. He sits scrunched up in a corner of the ceiling. I thought for a while some ugly bug had spun a cocoon up there, but one day it jumped at me! It's remarkable. Obviously there is enough steam from our showers to keep him happy. I thought frogs needed a whole pond, but no, a bit of warm steam a couple of times a day does the trick. Or maybe he runs himself a bath after we've gone?

Where the frog lives is diagonally at the other end of the house to where Pam the python lives, so hopefully he's fairly safe.

I have had a great day today, one of those days when I remember why I live here. I'm going to regale you with all the details so you can see how incredibly simple a gorgeous day is.

I went shopping for a fundraiser with Jay, another member of the Landcare group. I hadn't met him before, he's new to the area, but I liked him a lot. He and his wife are pregnant, they are lawyers, and he is a bookworm. I've decided I need to put more effort into knowing people who are really local, like in Federal and Goonengerry, rather than having to travel at least half an hour every time I want to socialise. I'm going to start having games nights! Like Pictionary, and scrabble. Does that sound unbearably daggy? I could invite say three other couples and it would be fun and relaxed and an altogether better option than dinner parties with long silences that I feel compelled to fill with inane chatter so no one feels uncomfortable.

After we got back from shopping, Jay stayed for a cup of tea and we discussed how to poison camphor laurels and dealing with the council. It was very relaxed, sitting on the deck in the sun. Then I made caramel slice for the fundraiser (how country wife is that?) then walked around to Delia's with the ingredients for the cornbread. Delia lives around the corner, she's in her sixties and one of the stalwarts of the Landcare group. So we had a cup of tea and discussed her problems with her children. Her daughter has moved in and has brought the ugliest dog I have ever seen - and I adore dogs. The dog is an adult shar pei and you know, I think they are just a travesty of dogs. It seems cruel to deliberately breed a dog that has to live its life that uncomfortable. It can't breathe properly - it snuffles - and they have to clean between its wrinkles regularly or else it gets ulcers.

Anyway when I got back I had personal mail - not just bills - waiting in the letterbox. How often does that happen? So I made myself yet another cup of tea and read them stretched out on the day bed in the sun. One was a birthday card from Mum, and the other a letter from Hilary (hi H!). Hilary's life has a kind of similar trajectory to mine - committed passionate career woman, moves to the bush and downsizes career significantly, regularly beset by anxieties about whether she is doing the Right Thing. It's great though - reading her letter I thought, what an amazing life she is leading, teaching children drama, writing her second magnum opus, teaching community groups the legal ramifications of Howard's latest efforts to make our society a more secure place for businesses and generally living in her life rahter than running on a treadmill.

I must be very suggestible. When I came back from visiting Mel & Mona in Sydney I was convinced that I am wasting my life and I should be plunging back into the world of careers. Then I get a letter from Hilary and everything's alright with my choices (please send more letters H)

Here's Lovergirl home from work - now we are going into Byron to see some theater - a program of local short plays that have won a competition - a perfect ending to a very good day.