Feels like it should be snowing!

Honestly, here we are in the driest state in the driest continent where temperatures can reach upwards of 45 deg and it's only eleven days into winter and we haven't gone above 6 degs. here at Prospect Hill for 2 days.  Last night it was literally freezing and now at 3.20pm it is 6.6 ( I lied- it's just above 6 degs).  But the sky is blue and the word 'bracing' doesn't begin to describe what it feels like out walking the dogs.

So I sat down in the office, after thawing out in front of the wood fire in the lounge, and started having my usual dreamtime moment looking up English cottages on the net (in particular Miss Marple's in St Mary Mead  -  and please don't tell me none of it's real!) when I came upon a likeminded soul who is striving for Miss Marple's garden and also loves clothes and hairstyles from that era.  What a relief.  I thought I was the only one and now I can reassure my daughters that it's quite normal for people to have their little fantasies even if they don't involve Travis Fimmel (Vikings) or Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy).

It was so nice to read about someone else who just loves the gardens, cottages and dress style of a past age and I wondered how many people out there feel the same.  I think part of it comes from seeing, rightly or wrongly, a gentler time where people were more courteous and life seemed to run at a slower pace.  No mobiles ringing constantly, or the 'ping' of emails on the computer and to receive a letter from a friend or loved one was something to be relished over a cup of tea.  Now even with all the modern conveniences we have at hand, we are incredibly time poor.  The stress to get the computer going or even to try and make a phone call to a government department can be overwhelming. But as soon as you see the little thatched cottage with it's twist of smoke rising out of the chimney and the garden packed with so many different colours and species of flowers it seems to calm the beast. I always thought when we moved to the country life would take on the calm serenity of St Mary Mead, (minus the constant murders of course) but alas it was not to be and our life especially seems to be hurtling forward at a frightening pace.

I think that at some stage I shall have to stamp my feet and make a stand against modern technology and all that goes with it just to save my sanity.  Then perhaps I'll be able to concentrate on picking out my best 'pinny' and baking some comfort food and then relaxing with a lovely cup of tea in my best china, with not a mobile or computer in sight!

It's 7.30 on a Sunday morning and himself had to get up at 4am and go to work, so after a little doze I decided that it was about time I got back into all of this.  It doesn't matter that no-one else reads it because it actually feels quite good to sit down and express myself.  I was laying in bed thinking what on earth can I write, at times my life seems almost boring, but then I went through all the things that have happened in the last few months.  Himself has got a job driving trucks and is also doing a training course which hopefully will mean a teaching job at the end of it so that the rest of his working life will be a little easier on the old body.  Our eldest daughter, who you will know from her blog, Inspired Kate, has done remarkably well with her photos.  She's won the top prizes at our local fair and has got a lot of interest off the net, does local school and family photos and for a girl whose photography claim to fame was taking lots of different shots of her feet and the sky, she really has achieved.  Our youngest daughter has managed to come out the other side of a bad breakup and come home, save up and has bought herself the most gorgeous little cottage in our little town.  She's incredibly excited and moves in on the 20th December.  Pretty damn proud of both of them.  So all is good with husband and daughters.

The beautiful granddaughters are just sensational little human beings.  Chloe, now 7, is gorgeous, confident, loving and just a treat to be around, the little one Summer, or Pingu as we call her (she has her very own "pinguanese language") is just a huge character, very independent and is soooo cute!! We are blessed I can tell you.

Then there's me and after all this is ALL About Me!!!! Well I've come to the conclusion that I'm a little boring.  I need to get off my backside and do something so I'm thinking next year, that I shall look into doing a language and trying to learn the piano.  I've had all these plans for ages and then something else happens and I have to put them on the back burner but not this time!!  I had the big 60th this year so time marches on and I need to achieve a few things.

Two things I'm very excited about is, going to a couple of concerts.  The girls bought us tickets for Bruce Springsteen, who I last saw in 1985 when I was 31 and he was 33 I think.  Well a bit damn different this time I can tell you but I'm really looking forward to that and then Ladies and Gentlemen it's the Rolling Stones!!!  It's cost us 3 weeks food money, (I told himself if he had just taken me in 1995 it would have been sooooo much cheaper!! ) but who cares.  For Gods sake they're accumulated age must be nearly 300 years, and I'm never going to see them again, while I can still stand anyway!.  I shall be Iboprufenned up to the eyeballs that night let me tell you, like most of the audience I would think.  It's no good smoking anything, we just go to sleep on it at our age, so painkillers it is.

Don't think there's much more to say except that Haven Hill is still going well.  Sometimes I get restless but the thought of actually walking away from my little house snaps me right back, so I guess I'm here for the long haul.  I have friends who are talking about moving into 'Lifestyle Villages' and that's pretty scary.  It feels a bit like saying 'well that's it life's over for me I'll just wait here for the call up ' and I'm afraid I'm not ready for that.  I look at the number 60 and all of a sudden it doesn't look that bad.  I'm feeling pretty good, and I'm enjoying thinking about all the things we'd like to do.  We had talked about getting a caravan and doing the old Grey Nomad thing but the son-law, a Harley rider with himself, came up with idea of a Harley Spider and trailer. Might be worth a thought, we'll see.  Do like the idea of a van with everything setup though, just walk in and grab a drink and everythings there!! We'll see.

Nan's Big Day OUt

Glorious day on Wednesday so why not take my gorgeous 5 nearly 6 year old grand-daughter out for morning tea.  Being a creature of habit we decided to go to our little local Cafe in Meadows which Chloe loves.  I have to say when I went down to pick her up she brought a tear to my eye.  She had got herself dressed in one of her prettiest summer dresses, brushed her hair back and put on her pink headband with the flower on it, had on sparkly black shoes (you would love them Jodes) had her pink and black handbag over her arm and her very pale purple (more lavender actually ) lipstick on.  She looked absolutely gorgeous and what made it more special was that she had done it all herself to go out with Me!  So off we go and she picks the tub chairs in the corner of Balance Cafe where we have an Iced Chai and out of her bag she pulls not one of those games the kids all play but a pad and pencil and starts to draw things that she can see.    Then we have to write down the menu for Pa's tea that night in order.  She's a corker let me tell you!!!

Well it was all too good so back into the car and off to the pictures.  We had a great time and afterwards she wanted to come back to our place for tea and then go home to Mum and Summer.

What have I been doing you ask??? Well.....

Since my last blog in 2012, yes I'm slack, so many things have happened within my family.  There's been a relationship breakdown, not himself and me thank goodness, one grandaughter turning 6 the other one turning 1 and starting to walk, jobs lost and then gained and then lost, another knee replacement, that makes four (no I don't have 4 legs it's 2 on each ) lots of rain then  no rain, daughters getting another year older and a big one looming for me!!!  I think that will do don't you?

Apart from all of that, we are all still reasonably healthy even though himself and I creak a bit more , and make that awful grunting noise when we bend down to pick something up.  We seem to have lost control of some of our bodily functions too.. What the???

I just love the way we force ourselves to stay up until 10pm cause we're all grown up now, even though we'd really liked to be tucked up by 6.30-7pm.  We stay home if it looks like rain or it's a bit cold, I stop drinking after 4 glasses because the hangovers last for a week now. And guess what I LIKE IT like that!!

I watch all the ads on TV with these fabulous retired couples canoeing and kayaking, skydiving and pedalling their way around and I think "Good on you!!!"  Just at this point in time I'm fairly happy just doing my thing.  That's not to say that one day in the future I might decide to bungey jump naked from a tall bridge, (possibly suffocating myself with the layers of flesh that roll down  as gravity takes hold) or squeeze myself into a wetsuit that makes me look like a rissole in a condom, and go diving with the sharks but right now I'm all good thanks.

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!!!