16 January 2017

Peaceful, quiet? Not all the time

I often tell you how peaceful it is here in our one lane, dead-end street. There's not much passing traffic except for the migrating birds that visit us on their way to who knows where. Apart from the work we do in our home to support the life we want to live, not much happens here. It's ordinary days lived by ordinary people. But last week all hell broke loose and we just sat back and observed.

Just beyond that picket fence is our usually quiet street.

After a few days of intermittent rain, on Monday night a tree came down at the end of our street (two doors down) and it took out the power pole supplying electricity to the street. Hanno woke up in the middle of the night and saw the Energex team set up out front trying to restore the power as quickly as they could. He got our torches out and when he came back to bed he told me what had happened. When I got up and looked outside, the men were working away in silence with shielded lights giving them light to work by but directed away from the houses. By sun up, the power pole was back up, trees cut down and the next couple of hours were taken up with the lines being rethreaded along the power poles and the connections to the houses checked. Our power pole suffered damage and we had to put in an insurance claim. We were told the power would be on again around 12 noon but ours didn't return until 2.30pm - just as the ice cream was starting to melt in the freezer, surely the measure of a prolonged power outage. It might even be the international standard. 😎

Fruit bread and butter pudding.

Then on Friday, Sunny came in to collect Jamie after work and asked why all the police were in the street. She had to drive past many armed police and thread through police cars to get to our place.  We had no idea what was happening but found out later from a neighbour that there had been a big drug raid, lead by the SWAT team, in a house a few doors down.  Gulp. 

A family meal. You can always tell where I'm sitting. It's where the big cup of black tea is.

All the while we continued doing our daily chores and apart from living without power for 14 hours and knowing these things were happening around us, we were not alarmed by the outside world moving closer to us in our street. We're in our haven here and we feel safe.

I've been knitting a fair bit and I'm pleased to have finished my year's worth of dishcloth knitting. I started another shawl after the dishcloths and that's progressing well. I'll be doing a knitting post very soon so I'll save the details for that. I've baked, cooked, watered plants, and sat awhile in the garden in the early morning and thought about our new season garden that we will plant in March.  It's not far away so I'd best start thinking about the seeds I want to plant. They need to be ready to go in the ground in eight weeks.



When I have some spare time I do an hour or two on my family history.  Cupboards have been cleaned out, the fridge tidied, decluttering is in full swing (again), we've been teaching ourselves how to groom Gracie, I've been sewing, mending and organising my sewing room. The morning chores start with the bed being made and the kitchen tidied and the hours progress slowly from there. Our main meal is eaten at lunch time and a nap taken is after lunch. We have the pleasure of Jamie's company until next week. He's been such a help to us and he makes us laugh. When he goes back to school in a couple of weeks time, I'm going to do a few more cupboards so we'll go into the year with most of our cupboards clean and organised.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

And life goes on.

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26 comments

  1. It is nice, isn't it, when you feel like your home is a haven, where you feel content and safe, no matter the drama going on outside your gates. Meg:)

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  2. RIIVS: Rhonda's International Ice-cream Viscosity Standard.....yep, I think that will catch on. :-)

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    1. You work for the government, Phil. Get them to add that to the list will you?

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  3. Lovely post, Rhonda. As the world around us becomes more volatile, I find myself retreating further to the comforts of home. xx

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  4. Glad the outside world did not encroach too much into your haven, except for loss of power for awhile.

    You continue to inspire me dear Rhonda and I thank you for that.

    Happy January ~ FlowerLady

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  5. Wow you had a lot of action happening that week in your usually quiet little street. We also had power outage too due to rain but no drug raids!

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  6. That is a lot of excitement close to one's home! Glad you were shielded from whatever craziness was going on down your road. Your meal looks amazing. Fresh bread, some meat, delicious veggies....what a feast. You inspire me to do more with simple ingredients.

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  7. luv it - The melting of the ice cream is definitely the international standard for measuring the severity of a prolonged power outage!

    It must be something about quiet one lane streets. We had the same experience a few years ago. Our street was filled with RCMP cars and armed police (they are always armed but this was the swat team) and they were raiding the house 5 lots down from us. It was a huge grow op. The house was filled with plants. The funniest thing was that the neighbours on both sides of this house were RCMP officers and they never noticed a thing. And considering that the grow op had wired themselves into the meter of one neighbour it should have been obvious. I commented nearly every time we drove by that the people who lived in that house must be Vampires as they always had all the windows curtained and even covered with paper.

    How do you get your eggs to come out looking so perfect? Mine are always a mess.

    Sunnymidnight

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  8. That is a lot of action for a usually very quiet street. I'm glad you felt so safe and comfortable in your home. Home is our haven, our safe place and exactly where I want to be too.

    Also love the look of your poached eggs. I've tried every method and now use the silicone cups. Your pudding also reminds me of Mum's bread and butter puddings.

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  9. What a fabulous post. It really does show the beauty and simplicity in the mundane and 'normal' side of life
    Thankyou.
    Cassandra xx

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  10. Only the other day I was listening to reports of how long it took to have power restored in South Australia after a storm. I think we are really lucky with Energex as they seem to get straight out there and I guess they are well prepared since we do get massive storms. The drug raid is a hit scary but at least those neighbours will be gone if the swat team were there - well I hope so!! Interesting that you have to make an insurance claim on a power pole - is it not the property of Energex? Just as an aside I have a friend who is an accountant and she said she is shocked by how many people don't have house/ contents insurance. You hope you never need it but I'd hate to be without. Glad everyone was safe and I love your backyard.

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    1. It is the pole on our property, Shangri La, not the street pole. On these large blocks, the line doesn't run straight to the house. It connects to a pole about half way into the property and then to the house. When the lines came down they must have yanked the line going to our pole and now our pole is standing at an angle.

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  11. I truly look forward to each and every post, Rhonda. Always inspired in some way. I have been working through the January chapter in The Simple Home while reading through Down to Earth. My home (and my sanity) is already better for it! Working on my home folder.
    I always like to peek into your kitchen...Am inspired by the pics today. I noticed the change of curtains from the embroidered ones. I'm also working on knitting new dishcloths - the weave one in your book, as I found I liked the feel of it better than others I tried.
    So often wish we could sit and visit... You have meant so much to me and the betterment of my home and life.
    Hugs from Sarah in New Mexico, USA

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    1. Hi Sarah, I still have the ones I embroidered, I'll use them on something else at some stage. I'm really pleased the book is working well for you. xx

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  12. I certainly enjoyed your post, dear Rhonda.. It is nice to live on a quiet street even if your are surprised every now and then.. Love reading your everyday chores and daily living.. Your pics are always wonderful and I wanted to mention how sweet your profile pic is.. Have a great week, my friend.. xo

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  13. Though not as dramatic as yours, we recently had our normally peaceful haven intruded on by logging on a large tract of land about 1/2 mile away, which went on for several weeks. It seems they're done now, so we're back to our usual peace and quiet. I like your power outage standard :o).

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  14. I love reading about your daily life.
    In this case - very interesting times over the past week.

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  15. Love your posts, Rhonda!
    So lovely, so simple, so peaceful, so wonderfully normal & set apart from the way most of the rest of the world lives.
    Thanks so much!
    ~Sue

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  16. Our power was out for several hours on friday after a big wind storm. I heard that some people didnt get theirs back for 3 days! My inlaws house also had a power pole come down that no one seems to know why. Looks like the week for bad power.

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  17. Lovely post Rhonda, it is nice to have that secure place to hide away from the horrors outside in the big nasty world sometimes. I only watch the news 2 times a week but each time I do someone has committed a violent act against someone else, it is really sad to hear. Your salad plate looks yummy, inspiration for another meal. We too had a pole in our yard due to the long distance back from the street to our house, glad we never had a problem with it as they can cost thousands.Pleased to hear you are settling into a routine looking after little Gracie, she looks a real character. best wishes from Judi

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  18. Never a dull moment eh? Glad you hyggying safely xxx

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  19. Love this post Rhonda. We had the power out for four DAYs recently (the whole of South Australia was blacked out!). Because of our pantry, our garden, our stockpile and our routines, we survived quite well. We lost the contents of our freezers and some medicines, and we couldn't get cash from the ATM. No telephones, as our batteries ran out and no internet. It makes you realise how much we have become reliant on electricity - but at the same time, how resilient you can be when you have to. Fortunately, the hospital has their own back up generator, but the surgeries, supermarkets etc were all closed. No drug busts though 😻

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  20. HI Rhonda! It's been awhile since I stopped by but now that I have returned home full-time I am trying to get back to reading blogs and posting to my own more. We had that same experience with Federal Marshals coming in the night to capture a man that had been staying two houses down from us... scarey. It's hard to avoid the violence but I don't invite it in either. We are preparing to sell our house as Scott got a new job in the upstate of South Carolina and have been living in a small cottage owned by Scott's sister this past year. We've learned that living with less is so much easier.

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  21. Such turmoil around your peaceful home, I'm glad you are all safe! Your egg salad looks so delicious, I love a big cup of tea too but mine has a dash of skim milk added. My dishcloth pile needs some new ones as a lot are looking a bit tatty now.
    Looking forward to your knitting post. :)

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  22. Rhonda, I cannot begin to tell you how calming I find your posts....yes, even this one, with power outages and a police drug raid!!! Thankyou!!

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