Amarina happened upon a termite nest in the front garden the other morning, so I dug it out and disposed of it along with much of a shrub that had been eaten away. I had wondered why the trees in the front yard were dying, now it appears we have the answer.
Yesterday afternoon we inspected the other trees in the vicinity of the nest and discovered that one tree was pretty much hollow so the boyfriend gave it a tug and the whole tree came down revealing the picture above. They had eaten the base of the tree, killing it and making it very dangerous, if it hadn't come down yesterday it could have ended up on top of a person or car. We are hoping that the termites haven't invaded the bottle brush, as it provides us with all of our privacy and also is host to a variety of beatiful native birds of a morning. It is doubtful that it will be able to be saved, with the termites being on either side of it, and two thirds of the tree is dead - which has only happened in the last few months.

I have tried calling the real estate agent to notify them, but they were engaged for the 10 minutes I tried - there is not much point rushing it anyway, they will write a letter about it to Roberto, the owner, who will call the real estate and tell them he will be down next week to fix it and then 8 months later I will receive an entry notice stating that he is actually coming, in which time the house will have fallen down around us having been eaten by mutated termites and we will have moved into the shed.

I am still waiting for the bathroom drains to be dealt with, along with the painting of the hallway celing, which he said he would take care of "the week after next" - which should have been two months ago.

I can't wait to be in a position to be able to move.