Nantucket Chook Show

Sorry I missed yesterday. I meant to post as usual but got distracted by other things.

Today I continued my journey into the world of smart casual and (with the assistance of my personal shopper, Lizzy) bought a vest and a pair of shoes that both go with my new trousers. We were also rather taken with a chocolate brown suit that could double duty as a coat for the casual trousers...and as everyone knows, you can never have too many suits...

It was good to hear from Andy B again though it seemed to disturb Jacko that so many of you were happy to read some poetry. I notice that Jacko tried to claim that he only knew poetry involving musical beans, but he is really obfuscating. I know for a fact that he knows a poem about a lady from Nantucket too. I learned an interesting thing about Wordsworth on the weekend (and I have quite enjoyed reading Wordsworth again recently). Wordsworth wrote and entire history of the Church of England in sonnet form. You'd have to really like poetry to stick that one out I think.

Beno is moving house this weekend so I will head around to help him out. He was telling me about his time living in Switzerland this week. Renting your house is the norm in Switzerland apparently and so the unwritten rule is that you always help people you know move house because its a dead cert that you'll be moving sometime in the next 12 months too. He said when he had to move house people were almost demanding to be allowed to help. Anyway, he also had a pretty good idea about having a series of roving vegie garden festivals over summer (when the vegies are in full flight). The basic idea is to have a bit of a bbq and check out how we each manage things in our vegie gardens, pick up tips and new ideas from each other, eat some of our produce and generally have a nice day in the garden.

More good news is that there is a chook show at the Goulburn Show Grounds on the 19th of August so I will head to Goulburn for a bit of a visit. Check out the cute breeds and hopefully meet some local (to Canberra) breeders from whom I can get chicks. The Canberra and Quenbeyan Poultry Club guy snubbed me because I wasn't interested in keeping a rooster and breeding pure bred chooks.

Politics aside (try to remain calm AK) I was pleased to hear about the Mersey Hospital. When we think of poverty in Australia the electorate of Braddon is not what immediately springs to mind I suspect. I think many of you would be surprised to know that Braddon has the highest incidence of poverty of any electorate in Australia....and the electorate of Lyons next door is second highest. This parliamentary research paper on electorate poverty rates is a couple of years old now, but I am assuming its still about right. I don't care if its electioneering, let them have their hospital I say. AK has been reading the blog quite regularly and has complained that there aren't any flame wars he can get his teeth into. This is his big chance.