I have Norwegian heritage and lots of cousins in the United States. The website that follows is the story of my grandfathers older brother Hilmar Rasmussen. This was compiled by his great granddaughter Erika Rasmussen.
A bit of family history
Visitors in the Garden
We are settling into the new house and we have spotted a few visitors in the garden. We have lots of birds circling in and out of the many trees. It’s not unusual to see some seagulls floating past out deck. Everytime I do a bit of gardening I seem to chop a tail off a skink.
We have lots of New Holland Honeyeaters and Little Wattlebirds . The latter has a distinctive call and seems to warn me off every time I step out into garden. The plantings in our garden lend themselves to birds feeding on the blooms. We are heading into winter and the banksia is still in bloom providing feed for some of the birds.
Other visitors include a couple of cats who live in adjoin houses they are elusive and difficult to photograph. Even the chickens from next door have stuck their necks though the fence looking for something to peck at.
Sunrise on the Deck
The move has happened or more precisely is ongoing. Moving is a monumental task especially after living in the one place for 27 years. There are so many little things that you forget, overlook or underestimate. The stuff that accumulates over a quarter of a century is amazing and has to be dealt with.
We hired two guys with a truck hoping this would be a one shot move. We were wrong they underestimated how much stuff we had to move. The truck was filled up with absolutely no room to spare. The biggest thing to be omitted was our rather large collection of pot plants . Lots of the pots that are very large and heavy. I had already moved most of my workshop stuff before the moving day hoping that this would increase the space available in the truck. We did 700 kilometres in the following three days moving stuff in trailers. It was all exhausting work.
I am writing this almost four weeks after the move. We are slowly unpacking the boxes and and putting some order in new the house. Inevitably there was lots of small jobs to attended to in the new house as it had been rented for two years.
The big lesson is not to try and replicate your old house. This causes a lot of stress as invariably the new house will be different. The thing is to start a new. We are slowly getting there and enjoying watching the waves and the sunrise on deck.
Victor Bound
This isn’t exactly a travel update although we are on the move. We have sold our house of 27 years and will be relocating about 102 kilometres away. We are Victor bound , Victor Harbor to be precise. This is our post working house. I’m not allowed to say retirement as swmbo feels that this is too negative.
We have been tidying our house since August 2021 in readiness for sale. The photos tool 3 hours, the 3D walk through took a couple of hours. Not to mention a couple of hours with the real estate agent. We called on family and friends to help with the tidying up. It was a lot of work.
The actual open inspection took 35 minutes and we had a sale. The legalities and such another couple of weeks. We move toward the end of March – Victor Bound
The Beat Goes On
I am not that active on this blog but I do try to get at least one post out for each WordPress update This has been more pertinent with the evolution of the Gutenberg interface. I say the beat goes on as I always have ideas for post but never seem to get around to putting the ideas down in words. This blog now primarily features book reviews of what I read and short stories on our travels. I do maintain another blog that suffers from a similar level of neglect sentimental about wood
Despite the covid-19 pandemic we have been quite lucky here in Australia. Because of our isolation we have been able to restrict entry into the country and limited the impact of new infections. Our federation of states has meant that we have been able to restrict movements across the commonwealth.
We enjoy living in a very large country with a mostly low population density so we have been able to travel within our own states and across state borders restrictions permitting. In South Australia where I live we have only had four deaths from covid-19 which is quite remarkable. In an unintended consequence of the pandemic the influenza rate is down on the five year average.
So as the title says the beat goes on. unemployment seems to have remained rather resilient and optimism is returning. Oh and I have managed at least one post for WordPress 5.7
Flowers in the Garden
Some springtime flowers from our garden.
Back in After Two Weeks
Well I have been locked out of the site for nearly two weeks. Thankfully my helpful admin was able to get into the gubbins in the backend of the site. Not quite sure what happened but the working theory is that Jetpack in one of its updates may have knocked the site out.. I’m not really sure but it was a hassle. I didn’t even get a am email so I could log in via safe mode. At its worse I was also locked me out of another site that I have. I discovered this when I decided to try and write a post from my mobile phone.
I still can’t access this site from my Android mobile phone. I can do most WordPress things form the phone except write and upload posts. Might just waiting for passwords to sync across the interwebs. So not much to write about other than trying to write a post and publish it. I also added a nice picture of an Almond torte that I made complete with buttercream icing.
A post from the phone
I’m writing this post from my phone. The first time that I have used the block editor from a mobile device. Seems to work ok it’s up to version eight oknow. However I was not able to upload a photo. I have tried this more than once.
Cold Granite Logan McRae #1
Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride
This is the first in the Logan McRae series. I’m not sure how I picked up on this probably a recommendation from somewhere. Anyway, Stuart MacBride has created a great character in Logan McRae. The book is really accessible I just fell into reading quite a bit during the first sitting. This is always a good sign for me. Our hero is the reluctant Logan McRae and we drop straight into his world. There is a back story he’s just returned to work after sustaining a very serious injury in the line of duty. In fact, so serious was the injury that he is referred to as Lazarus. He’s surrounded by a coterie of characters.
He is supposed to be on light duties on this return to work but of course falls right into the thick of things. Investigating child murders in a cold and bleak winter in Aberdeen. The way that MacBride paints Aberdeen its hardly inviting. There is also a good amount of humour in the book. At one point the locals who are struggling along the footpath in the rain are described as “looking murderous and inbred”.
In the end Logan McRae does get his man, a good and enjoyable yarn with lots of red herrings.
View all my reviews
Hahndorf on a Sunday
Hahndorf is a small town located in the Adelaide hills which has interesting German history. The original settlers Lutherans from Prussia name their town after the Captain of the ship that brought them to South Australia Dirk Meinerts Hahn, hence Hahndorf. Hahndorf is the oldest surviving German settlement in Australia being founded in 1839.
Today its a thriving town which is relies heavily on tourism. Sundays are particularly busy with lots of day trippers from Adelaide. Lots of food of German style is available. If its Wurst you are after Hahndorf is the place.
