Holiday Monday

It's a holiday Monday here today, the official public holiday for Australia Day, January 26th. The weather has cooled right down in Melbourne & it looks set to be mild, if not cool, for the next week. Other parts of Australia are dealing with fire, torrential rain & flooding so hopefully the weather improves for them as well. I'd be very pleased with a little rain at the moment. We've had no rain since before Christmas & my tanks are nearly dry. I used mains water on the garden for the first time in years last weekend. You can see how dry the lawn is in the photo of Phoebe I took this morning. She's just about to pounce on that stick but she's seen Lucky quietly minding her own business in the corner of the garden

& she thinks maybe chasing Lucky is going to be more fun than playing with an old stick. Lucky had been supervising my tidying up of dead branches & cutting back the camellia & hebe so I can get to the big water tank more easily.

Another of Phoebe's favourite places to survey her kingdom is the car. Lucky runs away from the camera but Phoebe poses, revelling in the attention which is just what she believes she deserves.

I'm still looking for ways to use up the zucchini glut so I've made another cake to take into work tomorrow. This time it's a zucchini, almond & chocolate cake. I'm also planning to make some pesto this afternoon although I had to buy a bunch of basil to make it. Last year, I had so much basil that I was able to freeze pesto & I was still eating it in the winter. I don't think I'll be doing that this year. I also finally have a couple of tomatoes changing colour so I think they'll be ready to eat this week.

The other theme of my long weekend has been Richard III. The results of the scientific tests on the remains found in a car park in Leicester will be announced next Monday & I'm beside myself with excitement. The Richard III Society have funded a facial reconstruction of the skeleton & they will be producing a special Ricardian Bulletin for their members with details of all this work. There will also be a documentary on Channel 4 next Monday night, The King in the Car Park, & I would love to be in the UK to be able to see this. Fingers crossed it's released on DVD or picked up by TV here. The film crew followed the archaeological team throughout the dig & were there for the great discovery &m the scientific tests that have taken place over the last few months. It's all looking very much as if the team will be announcing that the remains are those of Richard III. The title of the doco gives it away, doesn't it?

So, I've been rereading Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time for the umpteenth time. I've written about my love for this book here & I also have a biography of Richard by David Baldwin so I may read that next. I read on Facebook that the paperback edition of Baldwin's book will be released soon with extra chapters on the dig & its results. If the remains are those of Richard, it won't give us a definitive answer to the mystery of the Princes in the Tower or whether he poisoned his wife & planned to marry his niece. However, it will clear up some myths about his appearance. The hunchback myth could be dismissed at last & the facial reconstruction will be fascinating. The wounds on the skeleton could also answer the question of how Richard died. So, lots of interest in not just the central question - is it Richard? - but also the scientific tests & their analysis will keep historians busy for some time to come.