A long housesit

The beautiful house I am currently occupying - the same one as in my last post - originally started as a 6 week sit, then turned into 3 months, then into a year and is now a two year housesit! These are the kind of housesits that are often used to hype housesitting, but in reality are as rare as hen's teeth. I have certainly lucked out! I mentioned in my last post that I had been hesitating over whether or not I should stay for the long term. I decided to stay on and am very glad I made the decision. Even if I am not in my inner city haunts - it is beautiful and restful here which has been helpful in allowing me to try and catch up on an enormous backlog of work.

There are no pets but as it is in the country, there are certainly lots of animals around. The current animal interaction involves two deranged magpies who spend entire days hurling themselves at their reflections in the French doors of the main bedroom and making a dreadful mess on the windows and on the verandah. I think they have a nest in one of the nearby trees and are too stupid to distinguish a reflection of themselves from a real potentially invasive bird. I put brown paper on the outside of the windows and that seems to have cured the problem.

I mentioned a cat that used to live here but which disappeared a couple of years ago when another housesitter was looking after it. But while on holiday at home (!) in August, the house owner saw it running across the road as he was driving along. He called the cat which rushed over and he took it home but it was gone again the next day - but not before he had taken numerous photos. It would appear the cat is living happily somewhere down the road hidden on acreage.

After an enormous amount of rain earlier this year, there is now no rain at all and everything is very dry.