a trip to the south

I recently went to Melbourne and Tasmania to catch up with some friends and to celebrate a couple of birthdays, including mine.  It was lovely to see everyone....

firstly the old school friends - we haven't really changed much ....

I loved seeing my niece and her children

and, of course seeing my children and their other halves

We had a great lunch at a vineyard near Launceston

and went to an amazing shop near Develport (perhaps more about that later)

and Robbie and JJ came over for coffee



































and Mikey's 21st was a good night and a chance to catch up with Mike and Rob

 I'm glad Jimmy was able to make it!!

plants and flowers and garden animals

I received a lovely birthday present from the southern relations - a multi bottle flower displayer beautifully screen printed with birds.  As I wanted to take a photo of it and show off, I had to make do with whatever was in the garden so geraniums and gardenias are on show.  Friends who came for drinks last night were VERY impressed.  As you can see, in recognition of christmas, I have two tinsel trees and one stocking on display with a couple of cards.......  My big tree has been lent to a friend and I will take some more tinsel to the beach where we're all going to be for christmas.

It also looks good from the top with my Indian carpet beside it

Marina arrived from the country/seaside with a christmas present - she has been collecting my broken china over the years and has now mosaiced it all into a lovely pot.  sort of like patchwork but with china.  How lovely that I now have some recycled joy!!  It might be worth breaking a few more bits??

and in the meantime, there are a variety of animals (not living and breathing) outside trying to protect me from the possums!  they're not really doing their thing because if you look very closely, you will note that there is possum wee running down the glass wall!