Eyes down and looking….

So we have been home nearly two weeks now and I’ve been all enthusiatic about getting back into the swing of things again.  Some good weather days meant I was pottering about in the garden thankful that my back hasn’t played up for a while and that I am able to do so – some not so good days meant I ‘played housewife’ cooking hot dinners and finally returning the last of the ‘summer weight’ clothes to the wardrobe clean, ironed ready for when summer finally arrives here in Melbourne. Of course when I was doing all that the other house occupants had other ideas on how to spend their time 🙂

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I managed one morning at the op shop last week feeling great when I arrived and leaving for home feeling crook with a raging headache and I bet you know what’s coming next 🙂
Yes, by the next morning this had evolved into drippy nose and sneezing accompanied by a sore throat.  Spring colds are the pits.  Looking back I think I must have been ‘bequeathed’ it the first time I went shopping after we got home which I suppose is one argument against having to do the tiresome round of the supermarket!

I tried filling in time resting and reading – two books left from the pile I was gifted from another traveller when we arrived in Bowen came home with me.  A couple of really old ‘classic’ paperback novels I’d hung onto thinking I would finally get to read them this time round – they seemed to have passed me by years ago when first published and don’t laugh but once I opened them and turned the front cover I realised it wasn’t going to happen this time either.

imageimageClick on the second photo and you will realise watery eyes and fine 1970’s print don’t go together
so they have been relegated to the back bedroom for the time being.

Yes, my reading mojo came back whilst we were away and I consumed 15 books in all.  Most were borrowed from the library but some were in the ‘drop and swap’ box found in the park laundry area.  Many travelling Grey Nomads read and not wanting to carry extra weight around will leave for others to read and maybe pick up something at the same time to be left in another place further down the road when they have finished with it.  I’me working on some posts about the books – there are far too many to talk about in one and some were very different to any I’d read before so I’ll think about them for a while.

Today I finally felt capable of driving and talking sensibly to others so popped down to the library to find something new.  What I did come home with was Sarah Thornhill by Kate Grenville- the sequel to The Secret River which I read earlier this year and which was made into a two part series for ABC TV so I’m looking forward to seeing how the family coped in the Hawkesbury region all those years ago – Oh and look at the size of this print lol  I do like the improvements in modern publishing methods – Yes it’s a hard back copy but even today’s paperbacks are definitely readable without being Large Print

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What have your eyes been up to recently?

Home……

We’ve been home for a few days now and after the initial shock of the much lower temps as well as trying to get the washing dry under cover courtesy of the cold wet ‘welcome home’ weather life in the suburbs is happening again.  Being near the end of September I didn’t think I’d be wearing the same weight winter clothes as before we left but thanks to the ‘one up there’ who is in charge of Melbourne’s fickle weather that wasn’t to be. The weekend did bring two warmish spring like days – great I thought, now to show off my tan – Ha Ha that was a short lived thought as I was back to tracky daks and a fleece top today lol

It was time to come home – no matter how much fun I’m having 8/9 weeks away is my limit.  It’s not that I don’t miss the house, people or routine – it’s more the feel of where we live.  The local environs, the treed areas, the closeness of the hills.

Whether I see them from a distance – close to Yarra Glen

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Or closer to home – approaching Croydon on Mt Dandenong Road

Nearly home

In Montrose and close to Boronia

Montrose Dandenongs War Memorial May 2015

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From the end of our street

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And even for a short time during Winter and Spring when the leaves are gone (or just emerging) from next door’s Oak tree – if I look really hard over the garage roof and through the branches – from the laundry room window 🙂

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The Dandenongs – they spell home to me 🙂

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandenong_Ranges

http://www.travelvictoria.com.au/regions/yarravalley/