Trees

I find trees are quite interesting, different shapes. We have two trees in our garden, same type, one was put in about a week after we moved in. The other about two years or three years later. We moved into the house in 2003, so the first has been there for fifteen years, the second one maybe twelve or thirteen years old.

They are maybe eight metres apart. Older one is in the side garden, younger one in the front.

Older one is massive and has been for a long time, over the roof of the house, has been trimmed several times, gives a lot of shade. Younger one is maybe just over a metre high, never flowered and looks very scrawny. The second one was put in to shade part of the front of the house, but that has never happened.

Anyway, Lucy and I saw a very interesting shaped tree on our walk last week, I am not sure if I have captured it well enough but one branch had doubled over and is growing out the other side. It doesnt appear to have been broken and then grown but it may have and healed itself.

Rain Forest

Out driving yesterday most of the scenery was great and we missed the rain excelt for a heavy shower on the way home.

Finding your Feet

New movie came out on Thursday and I had seen the shorts which looked pretty good and there were somepeople from the most excellent marigold hotel in it. Turned out I was wrong, it was only one not some. I figured with those people it had to be good.

It was good, funny and sad all rolled into one. I cant think of the woman's name, not sure that I even know it but she plays a great part in both movies.

Most of the characters were retired and basically just about life in general but definately worth while going to see.

There were a few new movies that looked good as well, may have to go again this week, thank goodness for citybuzz membership which only costs us 8 or 9 dollars to go.

Night grocery shopping

Seems like a good idea. We had been considering an ice cream for after dinner which meant a trip to the little shop as we dont usually have any at home. Warren happened to say that he was out of yoghurt and there was also no bananas. He has both for breakfast.

I looked at the time, 6.45 pm and grabbed my tablet to check opening/closing times. The grocery store where I usually go was open til 9 pm, bonus. "Lets go, we can shop tonight rather than tomorrow and you dont miss your breakfast stuff"

Got all that we needed and a bit more besides or that wasnt on the list and went to check outs. None were open, not one! Move to the self serve, out of the four three were being used and one was out of service. Great! I hate those things anyway! But there was no choice.

Warren has used them and he said he would do it, Grrrrr, it seems just about every second item, the machine says call an operator. They came over and pressed a button so we could continue. Eight times, I counted for eighteen items! What a joke especially when after payment, the machine stated, "Thank you for using the fast lane". We both made the comment that it certainly wasnt fast to go self service.

I will stick to shopping during day light hours and use a check out operator, thank you very much!

Winter Olympics

It has certainly been good to have something to watch on TV, especially with the heat last week.

Today was much cooler and I got lunch and turned the TV on, to see an Australian girl in the ice skating. As one who cant skate, tried to once and fell off the skates, they were just too high, I marvel at anyone who can do this and make it look so easy!

Well, she did an excellent job and then they quickly changed to the Apline skiing with another Aussie ready to hit the slopes. However as she crossed the line, it was a Canadian! What the?.

Warren informed me that I had been checking out the back of my eyes and had actually missed about four skiers.

I dare say we will hear if there are any medals around and will probably catch up on the news.

Water Lilies

It was a bit cooler this morning and I wanted a longer walk with Lucy so we set off in the car to a park I had found on the map.

Oh boy, Lucy found lots of different smells, often it was more of a pull than a walk. Lots of ducks to see, she doesnt know what they are but keen to get closer.

Decluttering

Its a good time to do it just after returning from being away as one has done without things so it stands to reason that those things are not really needed.

When there is lots of space it is just so easy to put things there in that space to think about another day. Well that day has come although it will take more than one day.

My plan was to get rid of things/stuff (dongxi in Chinese which I like the sound of) from our bedroom, it had become quite cluttered over the years. Surely we dont need two bedside cupboards, admittedly they weren't along side of the bed but they were still there. Our excuse was when we changed beds from a suite about six years ago, we lost the drawers that were in the other bed, there was two drawers on each side of the bed.

We had had three cane cupboards put together to form a set of six drawers, well we got rid of one cupboard but kept the other two.

I cleared mine and removed it from the room and then we went and bought the new bed which needed more room. as there was only one day inbetween buying it and it being delivered, we had to move fast and empty the bedroom. Not sure if it was a good thing or not, i guess it did point out to bothof us just what was in the room and how much we didnt use.

Two bookcases were emptied, all books are now on the floor of the study but the pile is getting smaller over time. Now that we are looking at them, we know we no longer want to keep them or that we would not read them again.

Clothes are being sorted through and either moved on or out. I have to go out later and so I am taking the opportunity to load the car to take to the Op shop. Its good to pack it up but the final thing is to get it out of the house.

Happy to say that bedroom only has one bed, two bedside cupboards, one dressing table. With less junk in there, it is easier to keep tidy.

I expect to be going into March and still decluttering but thats okay, I can live with doing a little bit each day.

I have found interesting stuff though, like seven empty shoe boxes, a lot of stuff comes under the heading of why do we have that?

Snow?

I went outside this afternoon and saw one of our trees. It looks like snow but no,  with the weather as hot and dry as it has been, it didnt take much of a wind to blow thw blossoms off the tree to make it look like it had been snowing.

I needed some elastic

To finish a project that I was working on, so I drove to Spotlight to buy some. As I walked in, I saw tables of quilt covers for 40%. What a bargain!

As we had talked about buying a king sized bed, I wondered over to the tables to see if there were king sized sets there. Mainly queens and doubles but I looked and looked and looked some more. I did see a black set with rather ornate gold stitching, hum, I do like black but I couldnt see that set being in our room. Next one was jade, very nice but again it would not fit with anything we have, so I kept looking, coming to the last few. Snatched it up and went to buy the elastic.

Telling Warren over lunch, he uttered those fateful words "Do you want to go and look at some beds?" Sh........ yes! We had decided that we would wait until the middle of the year, why? Icant remember why. He said that we need to visit at least three places before making a final choice. We bought in the second place.

We bought a new bedroom suite about five or six years ago and are quite happy with that we just wanted a king bed and a mattress to fit it.

so so comfy.

Early morning gardening

We just had to go to Bunnings this morning. Not happy with our reading lights in the bedroom. Warren had made some nice compact fluro lights several years ago but they had fallen apart and so went in the bin. I had grabbed the two bed lights from the guest room but find to use them properly, one had to lean over on one side.

We decided to go to Bunnings to "see" what they had, Warren's, I fully intended to buy something better than what we were using. We ended up with pretty much the same as we had had. Quite happy with the way they worked so why change.

I had said to Warren a couple of weeks ago that next time we are at Bunnings, I wanted an eggplant plant, we had had a couple sometime ago and it was great to be able to go and pick one from the garden. It was hot even though we went early and there were heaps of people there.

Well, we got our lights and I went to the garden centre, saw some basil and some capsicum, then I saw the eggplants. Opps came home with all three. Warren had said that if I bought them, they couldnt sit around for a few days until they dried out and then died. No, no, I assured him, I would plant them.

Trimmed the existing basil which had gone to seed and was blocking the sun from the solar panel, then I planted the rest. Each punnet had six plants in them, eighteen little holes I had to dig! They are in and watered. I feel exhausted and its only 10.30 in the morning. Thank goodness the Olympics are on so we can relax and watch them.

Poor Lucy

Too hot this morning to go for a walk with Lucy so Warren took her out this evening. We could hear a bit of thunder as they got back, Lucy didnt want to go outside for a drink or even dinner.

Poor Lucy is scared of noises. I had to take her outside and stay with her so she could do a wee.

She came back inside and stood alongside of our chairs looking at the door,  I had closed it to cut out the sound of the wind and thunder.

The thunder has stopped and she has gone to her chair and is sleeping but I think she has one ear open just in case.

Building a salad

Its hot and so what to have for lunch? I didnt want to cook but I did have some salad stuff. I started with shredded lettuce, quartered tomatoes, I dont like tomatoes that much so I missed mine, cubed cucumber, avo and soft cheese. I made some mayo just with a cup of oil about the same of cream beat an egg into it add some mustard and or garlic.

I had some cold cooked pork which I added. Today it was even hotter, so it was salad building again. No cold meat today so I added a boiled egg and some bacon. Yum, we both really liked that and because I prepared it into the indivual bowls there was none left over.

The Davis Cup in Brisbane.

Yay, we get to go, it was my birthday gift. Couldnt get tickets for the Friday, which had the two singles, by the time we looked, there was only five tickets left and none were together so thats no fun. We went to see the Saturday session which is the doubles match.

We drove down to the station, far easier and cheaper to go by train, only to find the carpark our side of the station was closed. Hopefully there would be space on the other sidr, we drove around and surprise surprise there was plenty of room. Parked walked in and swiped our cards, discussed the best place to get on when a woman who was waiting told us that there were no trains, only rail buses. Great!

Just then the bus pulls up and we pile on, lucky it did only stop at three more stations before we got into the city, then we had to get a train to Roma street, then another train to the tennis centre.

Our seats were pretty good and venue is brilliant so couls see eveything. The match was good, it went for almost four hours.

After the train service was pretty crap as they had not allowed for so many people wanting to use the service. Rail staff had to hold people on the walkway over the lines for some time as the platform was full. Then they announced that the next train was an express and not stopping. We had already been on the platform for about fifteen minutes. Thankfully someone had some sense and another announcement told us that it would be stopping. The train wasnt even that crowded when we got on, we both got a seat.

Took that train through to Bowen, which was the furthest north the trains were going and had to stand in the rain waiting fot the bus. Two and half hours after the tennis finished we got home, normally its just over an hour travel.

Great tennis even though we lost.

bb

A Grubby Little Boy

Its not often that I think that but that was what came in my mind last night.

There was "breaking news" last night on the news. It showed a picture of a pregnant woman on the front page of a paper and said something about Barnaby (nit sure how to spell it) but with a name like that it can only be about our deputy prime minister.

The media of course were talking about him having an affair then there was the interview with his wife.

The whole story as such as we know is, he and his wife had split early last year. The pregnant woman had been one of his staff but she left his office about fifteen months ago. They are now living together and are expectong a child together.

All politicans who were questioned  said, it is his private life and did not concern his career, which I thought was very good of them until the last guy.

He just had to be smutty and with a wink and a nod, make comment about Barnaby hadnt done something that should have been done by a certain date, went on to say "Oh, well, we know what he has been doing instead" that was when I thought what a grubby little boy!

Stones Green Ginger Wine

Warren and I are still not 100%, not exactly sick but certainly not feeling the best. He has a racking cough and this afternoon went to the little shop to pick up some throat logenzes.
He bought a bottle of this home as well. We have had it before and it does seem to have helped so we had a small glass and then a sleep this afternoon. It is pretty strong stuff and especially when we hardly drink.

Several years ago I was very sick with a cold, Warren was away somewhere as usual and that night I felt like something to drink. All we had in the house was half a bottle of this that someone had brought to a party and left. I had a glass and went to bed. Woke up feeling great, went to work and people couldnt beleive that i was there as I had been so sick the day before. Since then it has been our goto when we are under the weather, hopefully it will work its magic tonight as well as I am sick of not feeling great.

AFLW

Yep, its back Aussie rules football womens league. Not every AFL team has a womens team yet, I think there is about eight teams. Its still very hot but at least they dont play until 3.30 pm. First match was Friday night and as we were going out we taped it and watched it Saturday morning.

The women play very full on and it is a very passionate. Since last year, seventy six new teams have started around the country. It is still free to go and watch and the three games that were on last weekend were almost a full house.

Iced coffee

We were discussing iced coffees the other day and I remembered the nicest one that I had had was about 30 kms from home.

Their version was to fill a soda glass with scopes of ice cream and served alongside was a small jug of hot coffee. Its up to the comsumer to add as much or as little as they want. The hot coffee melts the ice cream and yes, very very good. I havent had one in awhile. Warren said we must drop in again some time.

This morning we needed to head down the highway past the cafe in question. We both said that today was the day to get an iced coffee, it was going to be my lunch.

Grabbed the first car park and walked through the alleyway to see a closed sign. What! Then we see that it was for sale. We decided that it wasnt just closed for the day but had been closed for some time as there were big cockroaches on the floor.

We went over to the shopping centre and was disappointed in their choice of lunch, very little available. We did have an iced coffee, not the same though and Warren had a doughnut and then came home for lunch.

A rainy day

It was a washing day but it was raining. I went shopping not that I had much to buy. Took the opportunity to take two bags of clothes to the op shop and they had a sale. Fill a bag with books for $5, well I couldnt resist a good read so now have about a dozen new books to read.

While having morning tea, Lucy was acting like a loon, of course she hadnt had her walk this morning as it had been raining. The rain seem to have stopped so decided to take her out but I did grab an umbrella on the way out. Just as well I did as just about all the way we had "Chinese Rain". It doesnt rain like that here very often but  "Chinese Rain" that we have dubbed it, is very fine misty rain that it seems ridiculous to use an umbrella but if one doesnt then it doesnt take long and are wet through.

So Lucy got her walk, Warren did put the washing on and through the dryer and now we are watching the Davis Cup on TV, Australia v Germany and so far our young guy is in front, hes about 189 in the world up against the number 5, good tussle.

Triton work bench

Warren bought one of these this week. He used to have one, actually I think I bought it for him for his fortieth birthday but along with lots of other things we sold it before we moved north.

There is also a cutting table to go with it. It has onky been here a couple of days and he hasnt made anything with it yet! Not sure how old it is but it is the same model as the one he had. Nit been used for quite some time so it is having a good clean and oil etc first. I have requested window shades for the side of the house where the sun hits.

He made one years ago for our bedroom with a view to remove it in winter but it has stayed there all the time and cuts down on the sun shining in and therefore heating the room.o