Head in the clouds

Walking Lucy the other day, I happened to look up and saw a birds nest. Not that surprising given the trees around but this one was a little different.

It was on top of a light pole which was over a sports ground.

I think it may have been 30 metres or more above the ground. We didnt see the bird but Warren thought that it could be a pelican. When we go across to the bridge to the island we often see pelicans sitting on top of the street lights.

Mary Poppins Returns

Took Aidan to see this movie during the week. I enjoyed it and wandered if it was a bit too girly for him. After while having lunch and we were chatting about it, he was surprised that I would think it was a girly movie so that was good.  He particularly liked the singing especially the lamp lighters, the "learies".

Nice good feel movie with a bit of sadness but of course all good in the end

Cricket in church

What? Yep, I saw a doco this afternoon of a church in Melbourne that has opened their church for indoor cricket.

Ten years ago there was a lot of racial problems in this inner suburb. Dont know what denomination the church is but they thought by encouraging young people to play sport would help.

Apparently it has, although members have not increased.

Cricket is played in the church six nights a week. Umpires sit in a high chair above the wicket, there is the church wicket and the other end is called the pub end.

The centre aisle is the pitch and seems that the pews are pushed into the sides where spectators can sit, nets go across and whoo la, cricket is on. The priest or father does say a prayer at the start of play each night, he invites them to take part but it is not mandatory and he does keep it short.

What a brilliant thing.

Project of the month

I have been knitting beanies, fingerless gloves and neck scarves for a few months. These are for a charity run by a lady that I know, she runs weekly or fortnightly knitting groups at library around quite a large area.

Another friend of mine has been knitting squares for blankets, I am not sure when she started, she may do it from Jan to Dec but she made 20 blankets for the charity. She has set herself a challenge of making 25 this year. Some are knitted, some crocheted and some are knitted squares.

As it has been hot, I thought squares would be easier/quicker to do. I asked Katie, (20 blankets) what size she makes them. Approx 125 x 160 cms. My pattern is 7inches by 9 inches. It took me over a month to knit 45 of them and then three days to sew them all together.

I did seven rows of six therefore only using 42 and it measures 135x 155cm. It was easier to put the rows together by laying them on the kitchen bench and then stitching them.

I just used balls that I had in my stash and each one was knitted with either a white or cream. Not that happy with the colours. I will crochet around the outside in one other colour but when it is cooler.

I have started squares for a second and will only use two or possibly three colours,  I have four knitted already. All this sport on TV helps the knitting along.

 

Lunch yum!

Got a thing for food at the moment. Shopped at Aldi today and they have changed the store layout since I was last there. The checkers go so fast that Ihave trouble keeping up. Its not so bad if the groceries can be all on the bench before they start processing mine but that doesnt happen often. I said to Warren this morning that I wanted to go and he offered tocome with me.

Yay, he packed the trolley while I unloaded soit all went swimmingly. Although it did cost a little more than I was expecting as a few things ended upin the trolley that werent on the list.

One extra and unexpected was cooked prawns, a round of prawns was priced at $5.99, sounded like a good lunch to me cheaper than going to a cafe.

I put some salad and cheese and olives with them and there is enough for lunch tomorrow. A win/win.

Pizza!

Since I have changed my way of eating, pizza is one thing that I miss but tonight I made my own.

I have done it before but used a different and more simple recipe tonight.

175 gms of grated cheese, an egg, 60gms of cream cheeses and about 60 gms of almond meal. I thought it was for one but when I rolled it out, there was plenty so the rest,more than half has gone into the freezer for another time.

I cooked the base for about ten minutes while I cut up the bacon and ham.
Added bbq sauce and spread over base added bacon ham tomaoes and a slice of pineapple more to use it up than anything, a sprinkling of grated cheese and back in the oven for ten to fifteen minutes. Just long enough for me to clean the kitchen and pack the dishwasher.

This was dinner.

A most bizarre TV program.

Sat down over the weekend to have lunch and we usually fluck on the TV to watch something while we eat.

The guide had Indian Pacific, the full journey. It sounded interesting so we turned to that channel.

We knew that the Indian Pacific is a train trip that runs between Perth through Broken Hill and on to Sydney. We have watched the English program on train journeys but the guy that does it is very dry and boring, we were hoping that the Aussie one would be better.

The program had already started but that didnt bother us, except there was no sound then we realused that the TV was alright, there just no commentary at all. There was a camera on the front of the train, saw a lot of track and scenery out to the sides. Occassionally the shots went to the back of the train and there were a few seconds of aerial shots and a couple of times there was an overshot of where the trip was going.

We watched for about half an hour and decided that we just coulnt watch any more, so weird.

Tony Robinson's Time Walks

We drove to the beach and tennis this morning. Warren wanted to do a clean up around the courts. Lucy and I decided togo as well. Actually we were going to take her anyway but she wasdetermined she was coming. Warren went tomove some stuff in the rear back and Lucy jumped in and waited!

Now that we put her in the rear back rather than the back seat,she really enjoys travelling. I wonder if she feels more secure there as its flat. She sits up most of tge time and looks out.

We had a nice walk around a different area and Warren gotdone what he wanted to do. I assumed we would go to the beach for adrink after but he was keen to get home so I made an iced chocolate at home instead of buying one.

Sitting down to relax, thought we would flick the TV on and there was Tony Robinson. He was an actor and now does walks and talks. Wehave seen a few that he has done in England. Todays walk and talk was around Brisbane and he visited several places that Ihad not heard of, started at an old wind mill introduced by somebody Logan. Next there were statues that looked lime dalecks from Dr Who but apparently go back to a Greek tradegy. He also said that Brisbane had been called Morton Bay and several lots of convicts came here.

There was segegation when American war ships would stop for R&R in WW2. Many of the sailors and soldier were black Americans and as such were banishedto South Brisbane and allowed into the city proper. I did not know that happened here. Makes me want to research more of the history.

Nature is pretty wonderful

Took Lucy for a walk behind the tennis courts, the path runs along a creek and is tree lined.
These are what we saw.

Task Setting

As Warren was going to be working at the tennis I decided that it would be a good opportunity to clear and clean drawers in the house. Yep, good idea except I got involved with watching the tennis and so my clean out didnt start until yesterday where I did the "tupperware" cupboard. Not a lot is tupperware now but still all the plastics to store food.

Always the way, is lots of lids that dont fit anything so out they went. Next was the cup cupboard, had been given an extra six cups in the last couple of months and theres little breakage now so it was crowded. Found two with chips, havent been using them but they had been pushed to the back and a couple that the dishwasher had discoloured. There are still plenty so decided that we didnt need to keep them.

This morning, it was time to go into the sewing room. Three drawers are now empty, one box ready to go to the op shop, one bag to the bin and a few bits that I wanted to keep went into another drawer.

I have a small plastic set of drawers that had housed accessories, zips buttons ribbons. I have sorted those into a more reasonable lot. Found five ufos as well (unfinished objects) mainly they just need buttons and or buttonholes added to them.

Had to have a nana nap this afternoon, will be continuing tomorrow and through the days to come.

Yum, an easy dinner

Warren has been out all this week for dinner and I have just been grabbing what is around. As its been hot when we get up in the mornings after a late night, Lucy's walks have been changed to evenings and so its latish by the time I get to make my dinner.

Decided tonight that I should make more of an effort and this is what I came up with, quick and easy plus a light no cook meal.

Half a cucumber cut into slices topped with a mixture of cream cheese and a small tin of tuna, slice of red capsicum and parsley on top.

Spooky!

Came home from the tennis the other evening, made Lucy's dinner (she thought her throat had been cut as it was 5.30pm,her dinnertime is five o'clock).Made up a snack platefor myself then once we had both finished eating and had disgested a little I took her for a walk.
As she hadnt been for a walk in the morning, she almost pulled me down the hill.

I was in the kitchen shortly after getting back from our walk when I heard a strange noise. It sounded like a motor. I am not usually at home at night on my own but I figured it was something in the house but what?

Not the air con, that was on but a quieter noise, I put my ear near tge fridge, nope not that. I wondered if the fan in the bathroom was on, we had moved somethings in there earlier in the day. Nup, not that, coming past the linen cupboard, the noise was louder there and even more so when I opened the door.

Then I realised what it was but why or how come it was on was nobodys guess.
Years ago we bought a card shuffler, one of those must have gimmacky things, yes it shuffles cards but not that well. We used it a few times and then it became a kids toy. A couple of the grandkuds lived to play with it.

To my mind, it hasnt been touched for two or three years. At the weekend Ihad put some Christmas things on that shelf, I can only assume that something moved  slightly and the switch on the card shuffler was moved just enough to turn it on.

Disaster averted! Its very quiet in the house with just me and the dog.