Easter Domesticity

I hope you have all had a lovely peaceful Easter like my family has. We have eaten too much and relaxed with books and videos. Plus exercised the body with beach and local walks.

Ducks on the local pond.

All four of the family got together for a dinner of Roast Lamb and vegies, with fresh fruit and custard for dessert. Plus the occasional chocolate Easter Egg.

I managed to persuade the 'boys' to clean their bedroom! The washing machine has worked hard!

Libraries open on Easter Sunday, it being a religious holiday, not a Public Holiday so my Sunday work was quiet and productive. Hopefully the resulting chaos on the Tuesday after Easter will not be as much as previous years as Victorian School children will be going back to school.

Easter Tuesday is the busiest day of the Library year, with this stuffy,"out-of-date", slated for 'Domesday' profession doing thousands of loans & returns, hundreds of queries and many more IT troubleshooting. Lots of eBook queries and other parts of the 'Learning Commons'.
As many of the members of the public seem desperate to use our facilities, I think the book and libraries will continue for quite a few more years. The recent Pew Study of American Libraries also predicts this, as Libraries remake themselves for the 21st Century. Australian studies (ALIA) also confirm that we will be useful for years to come.

So lets relax and enjoy a brief respite before tomorrow and in the next couple of weeks the Federal and State Budgets reveal how much we may be living beyond our means. Or at least the Liberal Party's version of it.
Happy Easter everyone.

I'll leave you with a photo of the new Christhcurch Cardboard Cathedral service yesterday. Thanks and love to my family.

Christchurch Cardboard Cathedral NZ 2014

Sunshine in Winter

This morning was cold and crisp. Great swathes of white fog concealed the roads and the ghostly car lights meant cautious driving was needed for my trip to the local heated swimming pool.
But once I emerged, exercise having warmed my blood, the bright wintry sunshine kept my spirits warm.

My solar panels are still generating about 3 kwH per day, which is not bad, but nowhere near enough to keep my house going. Fortunately the house is designed not to need heating on these sunny winter days, until the sun goes down when the efficient wood heater kicks in.

The Melbourne Solar Conference 2013 was held yesterday and today. Barely a peep in the press until today when the Opposition Environment Spokesman Greg Hunt indicated that the Coalition promises to scrap any contracts entered into by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), set-up recently to encourage action for renewable energy.
Given this agency was set-up to be as independent from Government and was initially supported by the Coalition in Opposition, I wonder why this change has occurred.
The Coalition favours Direct Action for its Climate Change Policy. Surely ARENA would be an important mechanism for such Direct Action by funding a number of projects?? Or does the Coalition only mean to encourage Soil Carbon as its only action?
Putting all its eggs into one basket is certainly direct and dumb!
Who has been whispering sweet $$ into the Coalitions ear? The Electricity companies perhaps, whose business models of high peak electricity costs are being undermined by all the distributed generators us solar people have installed?
Certainly the car companies have demonstrated they can only surivie in Australia with Government support.
My Facebook feed generated this report http://tinyurl.com/d3oophl on the same topic in the US.
Action is certainly needed on Climate and not the Coalitions wrecking Action!!!

Spring Street Heat

As another plus 30 degrees C days heats up, the State politicians provided some unique heat of their own.
The shock resignation from the Parliamentary Liberal Party of Frankston MP Geoff Shaw, the Tony Nutt (Simon Overland ) affair and then the decision by Ted Baillieu to resign as Premier last night, kept the ABC news team on the hop all over the country.
Talkback radio has been running white hot on this affair with interviews with the new Premier, Denis Napthine and anyone else who wants to have a say.
I doubt whether any of this will spill over into "saving" the Federal Labor Party's election chances.
But it is interesting how the Liberals and Labor pollies sack their leaders.
Will we get the same outrage generated in the media regarding the legitimacy of Denis Napthine as we did for the Gillard Government?
I doubt it and yes there are important differences in how the changeover was done.
But discussions by many including this Precarious Climate blog by James Wright shows that what was done by Gillard and now what has happened overnight with the State Libs is legitimate.
The Libs have as much a right to govern Victoria as Labor has in the Federal sphere.
Will the type of politics in the Victorian House of Reps now mirror in some ways the negotiation and perceived weakness of the Gillard Government in the Federal sphere?
Whether the Labor Party can muster an attack on the Victorian Government of the steadfastness, negativity, hysteria, effectiveness and media management that the Federal Libs and Tony Abbott has managed, I doubt.
All I know is that its hot at home and getting hotter elsewhere.
Media field days roll on!