An Absent Blogger, A New Year, A Chickenbone Ship and Some Other Stuff Too...

I've been a very slack blogger.  Sorry about that.  Did you even notice?  It would appear that I needed a blog break.  To be honest, I didn't even realise it had been that long since I posted anything other than Wordless Wednesday until Chyken said 'You need to blog, it's been too long'.

I think I got caught up in a lot of things.  I have started rotating shift work, and although I'm really enjoying it, it seems that some other things seem to have fallen by the wayside.  One of them being blogging.  I have been reading everyone's blogs though, even if sometimes I am a week behind, I do get there in the end.  I am yet to just give up and 'mark everything as read'. 

I love reading blogs.  I love the peek into other people's lives that it allows me.  I like seeing how the other half live.  I don't always comment, usually because I am reading them either on my iPhone or during my breaks at work and the work computers are ancient and a lot of the fancy commenting systems you people have just won't work.  It's very frustrating!  Die Disquis, Die!

Over the last few days I have seen what feels like eleventy billion '2011 Wrap Up' type posts.  I've skimmed through them, clicking on the odd link only to discover I'd already read it anyway.  I think Veronica summed it up best in this post...

"I don’t do resolutions and I find posts recapping the year terribly boring. If I like you, I’ve been reading your blog for the past year and know what you’ve been up to. You don’t have to tell me again."

I wouldn't go so far as to say I find them 'terribly' boring, but I am left wondering what the point of me reading the blog all year was if there's going to be a post telling me all the important bits at the end anyway.  I may as well not read anything until December.  I'm not going to stop reading, but do you see my dilemma?

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It's got really hot down here in Melbourne.  Santa did bring me a pool, but we are yet to inflate it.  We've been doing a lot of this...

We tend to sit outside at Castle during summer. It's pleasant once the sun goes down.  Chyken likes to amuse himself with crafternoon type activities.  Like Chicken Bone Ship Building.

Chyken let me loose with the power tools.  I drilled 3.5 holes and then I got bored.

Another fad to hit the Castle recently is bubbles!  Santa gave me a bubble wand for Christmas, one of those stupidly big ones that makes millions of big bubbles all at once.  Then I got this one!  It makes billions of little bubbles.  Unfortunately they are round, not bee shaped, but they are still pretty cool. The cats try and chase them.  Then get surprised when they pop in their face.

New Year's Eve was quiet.  We had some wonderful friends visit us at the Castle to see in the New Year and some neighbours put on a beautiful, but unexpected, fireworks display when the clock stuck 12.

We had air horns and Chyken dragged out his trumpet for a rousing duet of 'Tequila' with some other neighbours.  All in all, a great night.  Unfortunately I didn't take many photos, but here is one of the lanterns and candles we had out the back. 

I'm not one for resolutions, but I am looking very forward to this year.  Starting with a beach holiday next week.  Huzzah!  After that it will be back to work, and there are some changes in the wind at my place of employment, so it will be interesting to see how that pans out. 

There are also some other things coming up in the land of Chickens and Bees, but more on that in another post.

I hope you and yours had an excellent Christmas and New Years. 

Bring on 2012!