mothers day

I has been a gorgeous day up here for mothers day.  I decided on my way home from work last night that I might buy my Mum a present

lots of yummy mummy bait.  Of course, she hasn't got much use for chivas, chips and flowers these days so she said I could keep them!
This morning I made breakfast in bed and my room looked like this

 The most beautifully wrapped present from daughter #1 contained a diffuser which is making my house smell lovely!  Love the card like a teapot!

I have put the diffuser on the trolley so it does the whole house (or the bottom quarter)

This morning I went with Liz to see an open garden in Wynnum - it was a bit short on aesthetics but good on organics.  I'm not tempted by all the prickly things he had growing there though.  

I am continuing with the great tidy up - am delighted to be able to walk down the side and pick a lemon or two.  I even have some mandarins which are starting to turn orange!

Since the heavy rain and lovely warm weather, everything needs to be pruned SEVERLEY and I am always very proud to have a full rubbish bin on a Sunday afternoon

 The pawpaw in the front garden has another flush of fruit coming on....

 And the bridal tree is looking beautiful.

I've had a lovely day and I think there might be more to come tomorrow when daughter #2's present gets delivered by Australia Post.

Results

Study now has a new look - I feel much more comfortable with it and soon I will be donating many military books to whoever wants them!

This is a nice spot for reading in the afternoons - like the ladies lounge.

Here is some of the things that have been removed and will now go to the Nudgee tip

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I'm afraid the sewing that I had planned for the Easter break didn't really get done - however I have nearly finished a chanel jacket - now I have to decide whether to put the frayed trip on the pockets (it's pinned here) or not

and I am having dinner with V&S tomorrow to celebrate V's 66th birthday.  She's having trouble sleeping so I have made her a monogrammed silk pillow case - someone gave one to me and a LOVE it.  I had a bit of silk left over so made her a matching bag to put socks or undies in when she's travelling.

 Easter was good but I wish I'd been at the beach!!!

Friday is good

I woke up this morning and was very happy not to have to get dressed and go to work!  I stayed in bed and had TWO hot cross buns and then got up and into the painting clothes.....
Anything that is not tied down in lukin street is getting a coat of paint!!

I'm sorely tempted to attack the glass fronted book case with a can on paint but think that he flutterings in the spirit world might become a bit frantic??!!  so it will probably survive - if only for the reason that it is VERY heavy and I would never be able to get it out to the verandah

My next task is to get everything dry and back into the study before Monday pm - and to work out what to throw away, what to keep, and where to put it all.

 Perhaps a garage sale???

These two guys have marched out of the mess and placed them selves on view in the hall.....

For a bit of light relief (and because I was in old clothes) I undertook some gardening....
this got converted

 to this....there's new fence hiding material and a kafir lime tree beside the compost bin now.

And Ailbhe's very pool-unfriendly trees got their annual pruning from my side - taking advantage of them being away for a day!

All of which made me require a sugar hit and this is what it was!!!!!

watch this space

This weekend was the last one with the study as it was....

 this was just a little test but once you start it's impossible to stop

 So - out on to the front veranda with the desk and on with some undercoat and semi gloss!










I'm going to have glass door knobs with swirls on them but I have to get back to Bretts as I only bought one to try out!

 Looks better already - I'm a bit reluctant to put the big old desk back as a nice Freedom white trestle could look good?

And here's just a bit of the room so that you can see that the eggs are truly broken but the omelette is definitely not made yet!!!

I don't know about keeping the hedge trimmer and broom behind the door - trouble is that they're close at hand when I want to use them.

life with a cold

I've been half at work and half at home with the flu this week.  It did give me a chance to look at the weedy garden and see what's happening;

 The two self sewn female pawpaws in the back garden are now starting to get lots of flowers and, just by chance, the other tree that grew up under the clothes line is a male so things are happening and baby pawpaws are expected to arrive in spring!

 The lemon tree is covered with fruit and the mandarin is also doing it's best - even though both of them are having to cope with grasshoppers and other nasties.

Lesson learnt - don't buy nail polish when you are not feeling well.....

 or this is what you might get!!!!!

 I also fell into my favourite shoe shop (to see if she had any tissues for my runny nose) and came out with two pairs of shoes.

They don't photograph well, but they are both pretty nice!
I hope I am better next week so I don't have to stay home and go to the shops.

Fruit is good for the soul

In order to boost my immune system, I have been trying to eat as much fruit as possible.
I started last week with these babies:

 put some clementines in a pan and boil them for a couple of hours....

 strain and wait until they are cool and then look at how beautiful they look when you cut them open!

 mix them up with some almond meal and sugar and look what happens!!!  Yum - the book club belles ate about three quarters of it and some hungry lawyers at work made short work of the remainder.

Then, I picked two papayas from the tree in the middle of my front garden

 I was a little concerned about the spots on them and hoped the fruit flies hadn't done their thing with them but look...

what magnificent things they are and so full of enzymes and vitamin C!!

Just so that I could get some protein, I got out my lovely pie machine!  You put some pastry and filling in and turn it on and out them come!!

 and look how delicious they are!!!   yum