Two weeks leave is never enough. I spent the first week running around for my mother to doctors and immigration interviews and the second trying to recharge my batteries.

Tim (my husband) is home though for 2 weeks he had daily intravenous doses of antibiotics administered by a series of charming nurses. The drugs would have cost us over $250 per day - thank goodness for private health insurance. His knee is looking much better. The swelling has gone down and the redness receded and he manages to get around quite well - sometimes even without crutches.

Because of the treatment we couldn't go away on a much needed holiday but were able to take a break of one night at a lovely B&B in the Perth Hills, Falls Retreat, run by our friends Jenette and Peter. We spent the night in a delightful self-contained suite that was snug and warm despite the winter temperatures and rain outside. Peter cooked dinner - a simply delicious curry made with fresh, authentic ingredients, not just the bottled curry sauces that we usually use - and they treated us to a slap-up breakfast served in the suite next morning, as they do with all their paying guests. Thanks guys, we had a great time.

On my return to the library I found an email from Ralph Mattner, librarian at Swan TAFE, advising me about Swan's Community Services Blog http://swantafecs.blogspot.com/. He also pointed me to these two sites http://jokay.wikispaces.com and http://jstuffed.blogspot.com , great for anyone interested in the Learning Community.

ResourceShelf this week contains links to searchable databases from some of the major art museums around the world at http://digbig.com/4mfck.