Stress relief

This weekend I have decided top have a relaxing time and do as many nice, quiet things as possible.
I started off on Friday night with lovely pizza in New Farm - thin base like in Italy and artichokes, mushrooms etc. plus half a bottle of Sav Blanc.

Then

 A quiet Saturday morning in bed with some of my favourites - breakfast in bed too of course and the weekend Australian.

 And then a bit of a swim and some quiet reading time by the pool with a glass of cold water and Delicious magazine.

 These are my new glasses which are from Coco Song, Italia and were very expensive.  The optician talked me into having multi focal lenses which I'm finding it a bit hard to adjust to - its a bit like looking down a tunnel.  I went to the theatre to see Summer of the 17th Doll last night and had to revert to my old bi vocals so that I could see the actor's faces!  Looks like I'll have to take them back and get different lenses!

This is just another spot I sat and relaxed in on saturday afternoon - reading The Cat's Table which I am really enjoying.

things that are changing

three things are different:  1. my hedge is VERY high, 2. Mr Morrow's windows are OPEN!! and 3.  there is a 2 story building behind him!

When a 96 year old neighbour dies there have to be changes.  Alan left us at Christmas time and yesterday his nieces and nephews had a clean up, which meant that for the first time in 28 hers, I have seen his windows open.  Apparently it made quite a bit of difference to the light inside.
There is a LARGE skip in Bourne Street which is now full of all sorts of things.  Those doing the cleaning up tell me that their grandmothers matching shoes, bags and hats from the 1920s were all still there - each set in an individual hatbox!

weeds are thriving

Because Alan had no children and has left his estate to be divided between nieces, nephews and their children and grandchildren, everything has to be sold.  This includes his fishing shack on the North Coast.  I guess we'll get another GMH (glorious modern home) along the lines of the one beside me.....oh dear, the hedges are going to have to be very high.

in the meantime, it keeps raining and the hedges keep growing!

and I can hardly walk down the side

the pawpaw in the front garden still has some fruit

the pawpaws in the back have flowers

and mr very rich builders house is nearly obscured!!!

Creatures in my life

I seem to have a lot of creatures sharing my life at the moment.  Won/t take photos of those that are flying around the house and garden doing all sorts of devilish things to my plants etc.

the elephant is still calling for a mate by the pool - we nearly had a flood that could have swept him away!

this possum doesn't seem to do much to deter his furry brethren

BUT the devil is better - the pashionfruit vine near him is actually doing very well!!

In this dark and gloomy palm, lives a poss and a rat - which one will win that battle/

I've put the baby elephant out with the big one in the hope that he will feel happier and put his trunk up - hasn't happened yet!

and here I am with the Peachester llamas!!!!!

celebrations and more celebrations

Great excitement here as christmas celebrations got underway!  We start the festivities with a celebration of our baby's birthday 28 years ago!  Who doesn't want a giraffe shaped kettle for their birthday???
Peter got off to an early start with his holiday shirt and santa hat

and then the following day we entertained 12 for breakfast (a monumental feat for me who doesn't like talking before 11am).

THEN came the presents:

and then, in case we hadn't eaten enough breakfast, we had 7 for lunch:

What a lovely couple of days - let's get back to WW immediately!!!

Floral tributes

I got home from a week in Melbourne to find that there were lots of things in flower in my garden (in spite of the weeds).  I therefore picked a bowl of agapanthus and red spider flowers

And then, when I came home from work on Monday - after a very hectic day, there was a LARGE bunch of flowers on the verandah from the RMC class of '51 wishing me a belated happy birthday.   There were so many flowers I had to put them in separate vases - and now my kitchen looks very bright!

Family

Where I live, I only have 'adopted' family members so I have just been south to Melbourne to see some of the blood and 'related by marriage' family.  We had a delicious lunch at Tosca's new home in Brunswick and here is the evidence:

I had a lovely lunch with Fi and baby Archer who was playing on the quilt I made him
:

and F and P also gave me lunch

Coming home for Christmas

My sojourn at Southport is over - the defendant is in the Southport watchhouse waiting until there is room in one of her majesty's prisons for him.  I think that is very unfair - no one deservesd to sit in a cell for three weeks - one shower a week and no outside exercise.
So I am now home and have swapped this view

early morning at main beach

FOR THIS - early morning in clayfield.....

BUT, astute readers will see that thete are some lights in the hedges and on the mulberry........
Christmas preparations are underway:

this is Toombul's effort

 

 

 

and this is mine!

this is what it looks like at night

and this is what is underneath!!!

There is also a new member of the Carrigan household - baby Archie