APRIL 2004
Wednesday 28 April 2004
It was lovely to sleep in after my show and not have to get up to do 'Tuxedo Junction'.  Spent the day romping in the garden and having a great doggie time.  One of the trees outside smells like honey at the moment which is very pleasant.

Watched my favourite 'Wallace and Gromit' story!  Oooo!  Gromit is SO CUTE!!!

Tuesday 27 April 2004
Another huge walk today - but not as huge as yesterday.  Exploring areas I've not been before.  Ended up snoozing for a lot of the afternoon too.

Monday 26 April 2004
HUGE walk today - almost a marathon.  Went around the perimeter of Rookwood Cemetery, or should I call it - Rookwood Necropolis....  I found a rabbit to chase!!!  Left Mistress Hellen behind wading through overgrown fields while I had a very good run.  I didn't catch it - never meant to really.  I mean, what would I do with it?

It was so exciting in there!  Also loads of live people who were very generous with pats, treats (amazing how many people have food with them), praise and ear rubs.  Some very interesting smells and wildlife too.

Sunday 25 April 2004 * Anzac Day *
Deborah visits with her daughter Elana.  Mistress Hellen makes a variation of Anzac Biscuit for the occasion.  I stayed well out of the kitchen during THAT operation.

Had lots of fun chasing ball and stick during the visit and generally behaving like life was totally carefree.

Friday 23 April 2004
Visited zeRellies tonight.  Had a lovely time, some of it watching the TV and of course, what should be featured on a show?  Some huntsmen spiders!!

Wednesday 21 April 2004
Did my last 'Tuxedo Junction' show this morning - I think it went very well.  Listeners rang and said they would miss me - which was a lovely thing to say.

Late at night, things were all quiet and beginning to look like bed time...Mistress Hellen had made her last hot drink, I'm snoozing comfortably, when there's a huge crash and bang.  My reaction was to leap a few centimetres in the air and then bark like crazy, but I thought Mistress Hellen's reaction was far more creative - she poured a goodly amount of her freshly made hot drink into her lap.

Well, we just had to go outside to see what on earth had happened.  Of course, if this was a horror movie, you'd all be yelling - "don't do it - phone the police, don't go...oh too late".  Anyway - we peeked out the door and lying on the ground was a screen from the front window.  A few metres away, there was a cat - just sitting, looking innocent (as cats are wont to do!).

I stayed inside while Mistress Hellen (soaking wet and by this time starting to feel the wind chill factor through wet clothes) ventured forth to see what was going on.  Cat turned out to be very friendly....hrrrumph...and unhurt, the screen clips were broken but otherwise all was OK.  Not an alien or axe-murderer in sight!

Oh, and while she was out there, she spotted - yes, a huntsman spider on the outside of the window!!!  What else would we spot nowadays!  At least it was on the outside and not inside.  It had all 8 legs so it wasn't the latest intruder.

All we can guess at is that the cat was trying to get up to the porch roof (which is were our resident pigeons hang out) and had somehow managed to ..... oh anyways, we really don't know!

Monday 19 April 2004
ANOTHER huntsman incident!  Mistress Hellen went to retrieve her 'Handbook to the Bible' from the back room, and when she moved some papers, there was a huntsman, all curled up next to her book.  It wasn't looking very healthy - only 6 legs.  Oh dear, this one needs to be outside.  Suddenly the not very awake spider sprang to life.  Eventually she managed to capture it and take it outside.  We both hope it's OK.

Had another email from Harvey Beagle today.  He always signs off with something like "keep your ears out of your drinking water".  So if you want to proclaim a blessing on any long eared dog - that's the one!  "May your ears never fall into your drinking water".

Sunday 18 April 2004
A few weeks ago, when we were out walking, we discovered the most amazing smelling tree in a nearby suburb.  Three of them actually.  Rather nondescript looking trees with a very powerful apricot smell.  I suggested to Mistress Hellen that we try and get one for Missus Elizabeth's (and the rest of zeRellies of course) garden.  Today we were successful.  Oh and the name of the tree is Osmanthus Fragrans, just in case you're now wanting to dash out and get one.  In flower right now.

Mistress Hellen also picked up a few more plants for our garden, so there's more hole digging on the menu for me *happy tail wagging*.

After our outing to the nursery, we visited John and Margot - they live next door to where Missus Mum lived.  A lovely couple, always have treats on hand, nice things to say to me and a garden to snuffle around in.

Saturday 17 April 2004
Oh, I forgot to report another huntsman incident!  When we were up north last weekend, Mistress Hellen and Helen (yes, just to confuse things, Mistress H's friend is also called Helen!)...anyways, they were discussing all the huntsman invasions we've had recently.  In the course of the discussion Mistress H commented that she'd never seen a small huntsman - they seem to emerge into the world as huge. 

We all had to laugh later when, upon ascending to her guest quarters, Mistress Hellen found the smallest huntsman she's ever seen.  Right there on the ceiling.  She called me up (I was downstairs, sharing sleeping quarters with my canine friends) and showed me.

Some unexplained environmental disaster happened in the big fishtank overnight.  A lot of today was spent watching from a safe distance as Mistress Hellen carted water, set up extra filtration and generally kept herself busy.

Friday 16 April 2004
Oh Dear!  Another Bean Bag Incident happened today.  Mistress Hellen has taken to sitting with me at the front door while she reads.  This sitting takes place on a beanbag and today when she was moving around there was a 'pop' and we both looked at each other and said "oh oh".  Yes, the place where the bag was mended had come apart, spilling beans around us.

The bag was quickly removed to a safe place - for later mending when one or the other of us feels the urge to sew.  It's most likely to be Mistress Hellen wielding the needle since I'm not overly good at that sort of thing!

Later we did a bit of gardening.  Again I was given the job of digging holes!  Very enjoyable.  We're planting paw paw trees grown from seed - not for the fruit, but because Mistress Hellen loves the fragrance of the flowers!  Such a practical woman.

Richard of 'Grock Radio' (the show before 'Streamer Never Sleeps') has set up an RSS Feed for Beagle Diary and tonight I put links to it onto this website.  I also cleaned up the look of the site, removing the paws from the background and changing my logo.  I felt really good working on the site again.

Oh and if RSS Feed means nothing to you - it's a way of viewing information from a website without all the dancing, do-daddy ornaments and graphics.  You'll probably get a better explanation by searching for it with your favourite search engine.

Thursday 15 April 2004 (back to top)
Watched the fish for a long time today.  Not sure of Mr Dodgy Fin is getting better or not.  You'd think he'd make an effort considering how much trouble Mistress Hellen has gone to with looking after him.

Wednesday 14 April 2004
Announced my intended departure from doing 'Tuxedo Junction' today.  The show is great to do but is taking too much energy.

Tuesday 13 April 2004
Waved our cheery goodbyes and headed home from our holiday up north.  On the way home the car was slightly damaged by a rock!  It started by falling from a truck traveling in the opposite direction to us, skittling across the road and shooting under the car, hitting something under the car, tiddlywinking itself sideways then bouncing off the metal wall thingy at the side of the road and hitting the rear passenger side door.  Needless to say, for this to happen we were not traveling too fast - had slowed down for roadwork.  An inspection of the damage showed that we were very fortunate about where the rock hit the car - a few centimetres higher and it would have been the window that would have copped it!

Ah, it was good to be home again.  While Mistress Hellen unpacked everything I set down to work cataloging this week's Music Library CDs.

Monday 12 April 2004 (back to top)
Lots more romping in the fields and bush on the farm.  We visited the dam and had a swim too.  Later the humans went off to have lunch in a nearby town and we canines stayed home and played and lazed around.

In the late afternoon we had to go out and run around and look dangerous to ward off some eagles that were circling and looking expectantly at all the geese, chickens and guinea fowl!  Although it was great fun, we still were treated like clever pooches by the humans for being so effective at eagle deterring.

Sunday 11 April 2004 * Easter Sunday - Happy Easter! *
It was wonderful waking to a fresh country morning.  Bellie's paw was much improved so we ran around having loads of fun before breakfast.

After a morning of food preparation and sitting around chatting, the humans departed for some social occasion at a local winery.  We (Bellie, Smokey and my good self) decided it would be a good idea to round up all the tennis balls from the property.  We managed to recover about 7 of them - great!!!  Lined them all up in anticipation of the humans returning and wanting to play.

Bellie and Smokey are SO considerate of each other when it comes to playtime - they told me that their humans had them off to obedience school when they were young and that it just makes sense to share balls and sticks during playtime.  They are also very well behaved when it comes to food time which makes life very pleasant.

Saturday 10 April 2004 (back to top)
After a slow start we finally got moving on our way north.  Yes!  We're going on a little holiday - to catch up with our friends on the farm.  The very same people we visited back in August 2002, as recorded in the first Beagle Diary Entries!

It was a pleasant trip during the daylight hours and I enjoyed looking around, smiling at passing motorists and generally relaxing on the drive.

Our arrival was magnificent - everyone happy and smiling and getting re-acquainted.  Smokey was a bit hesitant at first and was more interested in herding us into a neat group than joining in the welcoming rituals.  Bellie was her usual self and wanted to know if I'd brought anything good to eat!  She wasn't able to run around because she'd twisted her paw the day before while braking hard to avoid slamming into a barbed wire fence during playtime.

Friday 9 April 2004 * Good Friday *
Visited Colin and Jenni and everyone else from the household, including Shadow, my doggie friend and Puma, the newly arrived cat.  Also had a bit of a sniff around the guinea pig, whose name I can never quite catch - it's Harriet or Henrietta or something.  I'm a bit wary of her because unlike Roxy (remember Roxy, the guinea pig who used to live with us but who had to go and live elsewhere because of Mistress Helen being very very allergic to him)...anyways where was I?  Oh yes, wary of Henrietta the piggie because she's been known to bite - has bitten Shadow on the nose a few times.  Roxy was never that forward!

There were fireworks in the area so Shadow and I started barking very loudly and behaving badly.  Mistress Hellen said I should have brought my headphones (the ones I use while on air) so I could block out the noise.  I told her I wasn't really bothered by the fireworks, I was just joining in with Shadow for the fun of it.  She konked me on the head with her hand and told me to stop being silly!

By then Patches had turned up.  He's Shadow's brother who lives nearby.  He had broken out of his yard and come to visit because he was distressed by the fireworks.  So then we all started barking and running around again.

Puma was supposed to be locked inside the house but came out through an open window.  Patches hadn't met Puma before and later said he isn't much fond of cats so he went a bit silly and the cat went all fluffy and started hissing and carrying on like something possessed.  Fortunately none of us were in trouble for that - mainly because Shadow and I know how to behave nicely near cats.

Thursday 1 April 2004
How astonishing - I mentioned no pool removal progress just a few days ago and this morning, there they were - making very much too much noise for my liking with all sorts of dangerous looking contraptions.  I stayed right inside while that was going on.

The Beagle Diary
A fascinating (perhaps) insight into Streamer's life with and without Mistress Hellen.  The diary is updated frequently.