Turned out OK!

What started out as a pretty ordinary, windy warm day has suddenly become just the most beautiful spring afternoon.  I remember thinking as a teenager how weird it was that old people  loved their gardens so much and got excited if a flower bloomed.  Well congratulations to me.. I am officially old!!! I was just out the back and thought I must get a couple of photos of all of this.  The sun streaming down over verdant green paddocks, flowers just coming into bloom and trees into blossom.  It really is good to be alive and living right here let me tell you.!!!! Thought I'd share all this with you .. I just know you can't wait!!! (typed slightly sarcastically!!)

It followed me home ... can I keep it???

The beginning of our very own herd!!!!

Nothing like coming home and finding the back paddock has 2 new inhabitants!  2 cows from 2 different farms decided to make a run for it and hide in the bottom paddock.  Took a while and a little coercion to get them to leave.  One went fairly quietly off down the road back home, the other decided it was much better to jump through the bottom fence into next doors paddock.  They were a little fascinated by the chooks who seemed to take it all in their stride however.  You know you live in the country when there's a cow on your doorstep!!  Gotta love it!!!!

Cows???!!  who cares!

There is a Sun after all

I actually managed to kill only 2 out of 3 this time!

My wonderfully jam packed herb garden

Our own little garden path

Went a little over the top with the poppy seeds I think -
there's actually roses and probably unknown things
hiding in there!!!

A Day in the Life of........

Yes I'm aware that I don't go out to work BUT my days to seem to get rather filled up anyway. I wake up with Himself and the alarm at 5.00am and when he gets out of bed I luxuriate in having the whole space to myself.  I love him but somehow his 'side' of the bed starts in the middle and then moves over to my side where I spend 3/4 of the night sleeping on the edge of the  bed where my rather sizeable derriere threatens to topple me onto the floor.  Now our bedroom is actually the size of a normal walk in wardrobe, it has room only for a very small table next to my side as his side is right next to the door which when slammed open unexpectedly can cause Himself concussion if he's laying too close to it.  Anyhoo, next to my little table is literally the sliding door of our cupboards...yes right next to, so if I did fall on the floor, and there have been some close encounters, I could possibly be wedged for hours.

Then after about an hour of me snoring like a Massey Ferguson tractor (apparently) during which time I seem to cram lots of dreaming in I see the boss off to work and start to manoeuvre my body out of bed.  I have my early morning calls with daughters, brother, friends and others after which I have brekky, get dressed and start the day.  There's the bed to make, and I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to that, then the kitchen to be tidied, the bathrooms cleaned and a general house clean.  Then down to the shed to feed the still banished cat and then grab the chook food and into the girls I go.

Now I'm very fond of my girls, they lay beautiful fresh eggs for us every day and don't cause us too much distress, and they're really fun to watch.  I often dig the chook yard over for them, so they have plenty of worms and bugs and they gets lots of greens.  We had to put a fence around their rather large yard  because the foxes were killing them at a rapid rate and  it was terrible.  We have a lovely old girl who I call 'Mother" and she is one of our original girls which means she would have to be around 11years old now.  She has arthritis in one leg and so we limp around the yard together.

I think there's still room to move!!

I do love it though.

After seeing to the girls I normally either have washing or gardening to catch up on and the weather dictates which one comes first.  If its beautiful and sunny the washing goes on and then  out into the garden to check on newly planted vegies, cut back some of the overgrown bushes and just generally tidy up.  Because I love that overcluttered, overfilled look, and as people know that's what our house is like, the garden is chockas!  I threw some poppy seeds into the rose garden last year and now its crammed and the roses are struggling up through the masses. I've planted lavenders, hollyhocks, wisteria and bouganvillea etc etc.  The wisteria hasn't moved in about 5 years and the bouganvillea turned out to be a totally different type but slowly the house is being encompassed by all these different climbers until I s'pose one day we won't even be able to find the door!!! But then again neither will anyone else and as people will tell you, whilst I love the friends I have I'm not overly fond of people these days.

Again I digress ..... we now have a little dog compliments of our eldest daughter.  We lost both of our own gorgeous dogs within the last 18 months and weren't going to get another one however, this little staffy was getting a little frustrated and hard to handle so up to Nan and Pa's for attitude readjustment and of course now a permanent home.  She's pretty cool though and just follows me around all day and sneaks up onto the couch of a night time but thats ok.


So hence between housework, gardening, chooks, dogs, cooking and all other things my life can appear to be extremely  busy with those lovely little breaks in between time when you can just sit back with a coffee and look around and think .. well who's a lucky girl then!!!!

It's Friday Night and Footy's on!

It's Friday night and the footy's on TV and himself is ensconced in his chair, chips and drink at the ready, to do battle from the lounge.  The footy season's at the pointy end now (a little cheer from me) so of course every match requires the assistance of the 'lounge chair referee' who sees all and knows all and NEVER, EVER makes a mistake!!!!

I'm not a sports fan I admit, although I have been totally absorbed in the Para Olympics.  It's a pleasure to watch elite athletes who don't take themselves too seriously and who exhibit sheer joy in competing. There's a lesson to be learned by all from these wonderful people.

Sooooo, whilst the voice from the lounge blares out "you're a wanker umpire"  or "bullshit, are you blind you dickhead" I sit here typing away thinking of things to say.

I have however, been reading a wonderful book called "Mezza Italiana" by Zoe Boccabella.  Katy gave it to me and like her it has made me wish that a nice Italian family would take pity on me and adopt me and teach me  everything Italian.  I did get on the net and learn a few new phrases which I'll have to try out on the first random Italian I come across.  The book is the story of a young girl growing up in  Australia with an Italian father and an Australian mother and her rebelliousness against the very culture that later in adult life she embraces.  She and her Australian born husband, who incidentally becomes almost more Italian than her, travel back to and live in the house in the little village of Fossa, Italy, that has belonged to her family for generations.  It got me thinking though how it can affect you when you are born in a different country or into a different culture and be raised elsewhere.

Our street i n East ham for the Queens Coronation
a month before I was born

 I was born in the East End of London and even though I was a baby when we migrated out here (Mum, Dad, my brother and me) I grew up hearing about all the places in London that my parents lived and worked in and the sort of things that they did with  both of their families.  Dad's family was very large with at least 12 or 13 surviving siblings, but I've never known what it was like to have Uncles, Aunties, Cousins etc.  Plus I think as you get older you start to question where you belong.  We shifted around so much when I was a child that I don't think I've ever put "roots" (and that's not Puberty Blues type roots either) down.  The house we're in now is the longest I've ever lived anywhere and yet there is still something missing. I have been pondering this question and it occurred to me when I was looking at the photos that even though I was only a small baby when we lived in London I wonder whether living in the old Victorian '2 up 2 down' as we did had an effect on me.  Maybe the security I felt even then is something that I got from the old house and that feeling is what I've been looking for and why old houses are so appealing.

My brother and me in London not long
before coming to Australia

Don't get me wrong I love it and where we live but there's still that sense of not belonging and I do wonder whether that will ever change.  Anyhoo that's my D&M for today, hopefully tomorrow I shall think of something light and fluffy to write. Until then   Ciao

Leave the Rubbish on the Side of the Road

A lesson to be learnt today. My dear lovely slightly older than us neighbours are extremely generous in not only sharing their time, thoughts, and their home grown produce but apparently their hard rubbish pick ups.  I do think however, that after this little incident they may not be quite so helpful or caring.

I was visiting our daughter who only lives in the town nearby when my neighbour came knocking at the door.  In her hand she had an ice cream container with what looked like compost in it.  She was quite excited because they had found some bags of it on the side of the road when they went for their morning walk, and thought maybe a truck had dropped its load  going around the corner.  So she and her husband had collected it all ready to throw around their garden with gay abandon

She was a little curious however, about the brown beads mixed in with the soil and asked me what I thought they were.  She thought maybe they were seeds of some type and they didn't want to use it on their garden in case something grew.!!! I asked her what she had done with them to which she answer, "oh we left one in your driveway in case you wanted it."  Beeuoooouuuutiful!!

I explained that they would have been dumped because people had been growing 'plants' and obviously needed to get rid of the bags quickly. To her puzzled look I told her that they were the remnants of hydroponic marijuana plants and that she now had 3 bags in her possession and apparently we had one!..

When I came home there it was in the middle of the driveway for all to see, including the coppers raiding the house on the next road!  So whilst imagining myself trying to explain to the Police that the bag was a gift from the well meaning pensioners down the road, I dragged it out of site.  when I opened it, sure enough there was the main stalk of what must have been a reasonably healthy plant for all to see.  So I'm not sure how we are going to dispose of it but at least we only have 1 to get rid of whereas Bonnie and Clyde down the road have 3!!! Let this be a lesson to all of you, if it smells like compost and its in a black bag dumped on the side of the road, DON'T PICK IT UP AND GIVE IT TO YOUR NEIGHBOURS!!!!!!

Winter in Full Flight

It's 4.21 on Thursday and the temperature is 4.0C with the wind chill factor taking it down to -1.4c. Literally freezing!!  I've had the wood fire going all day so the house is toasty warm and I know a lot of people are fed up with winter but I have to say on days like this when I'm inside and cosy I love it!  We're in for a bit of a battering apparently with thunderstorms etc and we've had lots of rain and some  hail but it is winter and this is what you get up in the hills.

I've had my lovely friend Sharon over today and we sat by the fire at the kitchen table drinking champers and having lovely freshly made cream of spinach soup, from the garden of yours truly and having a good old chat and a laugh. She's always good company (and I'm not saying that just because she might read this!).  I'm very lucky to have good friends, not many mind you.  As we said today I wouldn't have to hire a hall for a party, but the friends I've got I know I can rely on and vice-versa.

 I've had a bit of a lazy day today so I'll probably force myself to do some ironing, yes I iron.... I know boring... just so I don't get a fit of the guilts, then the only thing left to do is lock up the chooks who are probably all frozen anyway, and get back up by the fire.  Himself is stuck away at work at the moment but will be home tomorrow, so looking forward to seeing him.  I must admit though I don't mind having the telly to myself or being able to potter around in the house til all hours without disturbing anyone.

Just reading what I've put down and realised that "I've got to get a life!!!".  But I'm actually not sure what to do to be honest. I've always been reasonably contented being a domestic goddess and have pretty much gone to work in the past because I had to.  I'm not overly creative, or a gourmet cook, hopeless at sewing at knitting, I'm still working on a jumper for himself from 2001!  The beannie I'm knitting for the baby won't be ready til she's about 12 so I'm really at a loss as to what to do when I grow up.  I do sometimes wonder whether I would be doing something for me or because these days it's all the done thing.  It almost seems a bit of a crime to be at home and be reasonably contented.  I've never been a career type of person and I envy these women who climb the ladder and seem able to raise a family, sit on numerous boards, are qualified lawyers and manage to do 10 hours of exercise a week and look sensational.  Sometimes my biggest challenge is putting my knickers on the right way round!! In my defence I would like to think that I'm a good wife and mother and grandmother AND friend and I guess if that's the best I can do then that's not so bad.

Well on that note I shall finish this little bit of self-indulgence and go do something constructive! Not sure what but will figure it out as I go.