Everyone is alive and well at Hombu...  and PAWS has survived the firecracker season.

Bob is recovering from a sprained ankle, and that healing is coming on well; otherwise he his finding aspects of being back in the thick of things a little ... frustrating. Complaining that he never gets to do the work HE WANTS to do, because there are always other things needing his attention first.

We spent the morning in the garden... despite my claim of NO SPRING PLANT DAY, I ended up conceding to allowing the replacement of a few plants that had died. Somehow I ended up digging a really BIG and deep hole for my two tiny "river stars" - they're not even shrubs. So just don't ask... and in the rockiest ground on the site... but any way that was a few weeks ago, and there was great assistance from Shaun Thomas, Tasmi Quazi, Warrick Marlin and Bob.

Almost deep enough

Today I squared off one of the holes in the front dug by Rosario and Jeannie Sarno, and we started sifting sand and filling that - almost complete, and planted Sergio Sempai's "curry bush" near the bottom car park, and some plants near the verandah. That's 9 down, about 6 or 7 to go.

Shaz had an unpleasant accommodation experience in Jhb, and my course on writing columns, opinion and analysis was OK, but not what I was hoping for. I also have to admit that too much time has passed without communication - so it would appear that the big contract I was hoping for has fallen through. We'll have to see what else comes along.

Work is slowing down as most publishers wind down for the year - I'm having a 10 year training party on Saturday - and Bob's birthday is coming up on 1 December...