Month: August 2020

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Thank goodness…

Let’s just say it’s been an interesting time since Thursday afternoon…..

  • Thank goodness for scheduling of blog posts…..and that the last couple were pubished on the correct day and at the ‘correct’ time.

It was a lovely day on Thursday, fine dry and sunny. Yes, the ones I like. The wind was blowing so washing was out on the line early…..only it didn’t stop ‘just blowing’ but turned nasty late in the afternoon.

  • Thank goodness I got it all in early or I’d have had a hard job getting it off the line…or blown away doing so

An early dinner was made, lights started flickering, I could see stuff flying down the street, I’d just turned on the gas heater to warm up the lounge room and then there’s this huge bang. Lights out and the spot where the motor is sort of exploded.

  • Thank goodness we weren’t actually close to it. Thank goodness I knew where the candles and holder’s were and more importantly where the big torches were.
  • Thank goodness we have mains gas……meaning we could at least cook, boil water and if need be keep warm by lighting the oven
  • Thank goodness authorities keep in touch via SMS so we were sort of kept up to date regarding estimated ‘turn back on time’

Problem was power is above ground here in my area; a tree (well more than one) had dropped and felled our main line on the road I featured in Sunday’s post.
Nature has a way of showing us who’s the boss and we weren’t the only ones in this predicament. There are only so many linesmen so many SES crews and so many people affected.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/driver-killed-by-tree-child-fighting-for-life-as-wild-storm-batters-melbourne/news-story/52efedf6460589e5a804245ab3835b07
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/wild-weather-more-than-130-000-homes-without-power-child-hit-by-tree-20200827-p55q1f.html

  • Thank goodness I didn’t rehome those big jam pans, because they proved really handy for boiling larger quantities of water. I‘d been using a small milk pan for hot drinks plus a larger saucepan to cover the inconvenience of no hot water for dishes so having them when the ‘boil water advisory’ came through meaning all water had to be boiled before use I didn’t have to panic. I can’t imagine how much bottled was bought by people in all electric homes.
  • https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-28/yarra-valley-water-users-told-to-boil-water-after-storms/12605930

Had to negotiate road blocks to get to a son’s home….thankfully stage4 ‘stay away from other houses’ was lifted for those affected and their families. Keeping the freezer door closed meant everything was okay…except for The Golfer’s box of ice creams. There was no way he was going to forfeit a brand new supply of 24 Magnums so he deposited them into son’s freezer and left our mobiles and iPads there being recharged.

  • Thank goodness for having unaffected family close by, and not having to worry about being fined for breaking the restrictions. We played it the right way (he took them down/ I picked them up) no hugs or kisses, we kept our side of the bargain

Fast forward Saturday evening and the crews are gradually making their way down the street.
This is now going to be a very non technical description…….each house has a power line from the cable running along the street, each line has a ‘safety fuse box’ before the live electricity is actually delivered, each ‘fuse’ had blown (not little bits of wire they used years ago but little gadget type things) so they all had to be renewed. The linesman was connecting ours and the meter box sort of went bang, very loudly, with a big bright fizz, enough for the little fella to come out with a few choice words swear very loudly 😊.
After a long wait the main switchboard, main switch, surge diverter and circuit protection were replaced so it was well after 11pm before our electricity supply was connected and the lights are back on again!

Here it is Monday morning and it’s surprising how much better you feel after a long hot bath and a couple of good nights sleep free from worry. All we have to hope now is the weather holds……living in an old house means lots of unexplained cool breezes…..and having no living room heating means I’ll be feeing it ……hopefully when the heater serviceman arrives on Friday (yes we had to wait that long) he’ll have the correct part and we start a claim with Ausnet’s insurance company.

  • But then….Thank goodness we do have an electric heater which we can use in the back bedroom come ‘office’. It’s a small room, there’s a couch in there so I can read or watch the compact tv while The Golfer plays around on his computer……all cosy and warm!

Oh dear I really didn’t mean to write this much to basically tell you …..a huge storm went through…we had no electricity for a couple of days and more….and now it’s back on!
So did anything interesting happen to you last week? 😊

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Lift up my eyes – Sunday Selections

Joining in with Sue (Elephants Child) for today’s edition of Sunday Selections


This is the view from the end of my street
taken on a bright sunny day

Another view taken on a different day
When I’m feeling energetic this is one of my walks.
Along the tree lined (main) road that makes its way up to Montrose in the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges (which you can see in the distance)

There are houses lining both sides of the road as well as small streets that lead to the estates that sprung up as the original orchards were sold off in the middle of the last century 1950s/1960s.

At certain times of the day it can be busy but somehow still have the feel of a country road.  There is that barrier of trees between the footpath and the road that sort of gives a feeling of protection to the walker

Believe it or not is a pleasant place to walk.  Maybe it’s the fact that the path meanders along and hasn’t been set out in a straight line or it could be the closeness of all those gum trees but I always feel much better after making my way along here and back home again.

Here we are at my ‘short walk’ turn around place – its 1km up to here from home so that gives me a 2km walk (about 1.25 miles).   And look, there were sunny blues skies on this day which lifted my spirits enormously


And looking back down the way I came I wonder
Which way shall I go home? There’s more than one 😊

~ ~ ~ ~.
As a footnote
Each time I take this short walk and see the hills in the distance
I remember this from my younger more regular church going days

Psalm 121 – King James Version

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help
My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth,
and even for evermore.

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How do they do it….

It appears my oldest granddaughter has turned into a fully fledged adult.
moving from this….

Via this….

Through this and other stages….

To reach this….

Gosh I wished I had looked this good and could have danced as well at 27!

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What’s on the table….

The table beside your chair that is.  The one with the books on😊

Three newish releases picked in the frantic rush at the library the day before lockdown2…….plus one that’s been on a shelf here at home for quite a few years.


Two I’ve just finished:-
Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier.
Rebecca was delightful, a real surprise. A love story with a mystery attached. Old fashioned writing when compared to modern day styles……maybe that’s why I enjoyed it. Wordy, so it had to be read slowly…..to be absorbed chapter by chapter.

Book blurb:- …….our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady’s maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives
~ ~ ~ ~

Transcription – Kate Atkinson
This was another surprise…..set during WW2, described as an espionage thriller I expected something a bit deep and maybe gruesome at times. It was light and easy to read yet if you are of a certain age filled with recognisable truths of how things were. It takes a young ‘naive’ girl, gives her a position as a typist eventually turning her a spy. Filled with humour (droll witty asides) almost farcical at times (I know the author didn’t intend it that way but I could see it set on the stage) follows the main character’s life through the ‘40s & ‘50s …..then to the twist that comes at the end. This I would definitely recommend.

Book blurb:- …….Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathizers, she discovers the work to be by turns both tedious and terrifying. But after the war has ended, she presumes the events of those years have been relegated to the past forever.

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There’s the one I’m reading at the moment:-
Good Girl Bad Girl – Michael Robotham
I’ve only just started this – so far so good. Easy to read, lots of dialogue, it does jump from ‘case to case’ but not annoyingly so. Which is to be expected because they are running side by side not now and in the distant past. Chapters devoted to one of the characters giving her side of the story are written in italics.

Book blurb:- ……forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven must determine if Evie is ready to go free. But she is unlike anyone he’s ever met—fascinating and dangerous in equal measure…….Cyrus is called in to investigate the shocking murder of a high school figure-skating champion, Jodie Sheehan, who dies on a lonely footpath close to her home……Cyrus is caught between the two cases—one girl who needs saving and another who needs justice. 

And the one I’ll follow up with:- Which I should just be able to finish by the end of the month.
Nine Elms – Robert Bryndza

Book blurb:- Kate Marshall was a promising young police detective when she caught the notorious Nine Elms serial killer. But her greatest victory suddenly turned into a nightmare. Traumatized, betrayed, and publicly vilified for the shocking circumstances surrounding the cannibal murder case, Kate could only watch as her career ended in scandal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So there we have my sum total of reading for August……down from the usual amount read any other August spent in the winter sunshine. Two I can tick off my yearly challenge…….one word titles – two were ‘grab & go’ picks off the shelf…..but fairly new releases, as luck would have it first books in new serIes.

What have you been reading during August
I’d be interested to hear if you’ve read any of these and what your thoughts were.

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Metoo….

The other day EC mentioned a cat of hers that ‘enjoyed’ being really close to her.
To the point of wanting to spend time in the toilet with her
I was sorting some old photos over the weekend and came across this
Taken in 1984 â€“ its me in a dress – don’t wear them very often these days
(lack of a waist is a terrible thing).
Me with my lucky black cat called Kitchy

Kitchy had the softest fur coat and the most gorgeous tail – long and fluffy
His mother was a brown Burmese who escaped while on call
– and his father – 
well only his mum knew who that was 😊

Supposedly a pet of one of our girls, he was my shadow.
He would sit on the side of the bath, keeping me company 
splashing away with his paw
all fun till the day he thought he’d try to sit on my boobs
and promptly slipped into the water

He was also one of those cats who would sit outside the toilet door
After a while he’d get fed up waiting
which meant there’d be frantic scratching on said door wanting to be let in
so he could try to jump onto my lap whilst I was ‘doing my business’

He loved to sing along with me – had a very good range of miaows.
He was the apple of my eye for many years
finally leaving us in December 1989 aged 16yrs

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Monday morning….welcome to Sprinter…

Because of a timing factor with medication I take on waking, breakfast comes at least an hour later so most of my days start with a cup of tea or maybe hot water with fresh lemon. However there have been some mornings recently when I’ve craved a cup of coffee, proper coffee, served in real cups just like at one of our (favoured) local coffee shops where it comes with one of their handmade chocolates.

They aren’t open at the moment (stage4 restrictions and all that) ……but if they were and we were having coffee together I’d just say….this says it all! My week in a nutshell!

Welcome to Sprinter….the time when it’s not quite Spring but still Winter.
Spring arrives officially in 8 days time (1 September) but…….

After the school bus went by early in the week we had a glorious day, the cherry plum started to blossom a couple of days later, it was warm enough for no heating during the daytime.

There was time spent outside enjoying the sunshine, warming sunshine, maybe a little cool at times but sunny and dry.

Then it was all change again- more cold air made its way up from Antartica bringing ‘polar blasts’, freezing rain, hail, you name it even snow in the hills. We’ve spent the weekend inside….no walks, no gardening, no reading knitting or even coffee on the back deck.

Remember the Dr’s appointment I had marked on the calendar, a necessary regular renewal one, also one for a little niggling problem that needed discussed. Timed for 10am I rang as they opened at 9 to make sure it was the same procedure as before……arrive at stated time (now with mandatory mask), sanitiser at the door, take a seat in well spaced waiting room, Dr will call you in.

You’d never guess what what I’d done, I’d only marked it on the wrong day. It was for the previous day……all those weeks with nothing else on the page and it was written on the wrong day. Luckily there was a spare one later that day……so I spent the morning reading……you really didn’t think I was going to do housework did you ??
Hopefully the prescribed medication will sort out the reflux, lump in throat feeling plus dry cough I’ve had because simple meals and Mylanta haven’t. If not it’s a gastroscopy for me to see what the problem is…… I suppose a camera down my throat is better than up you know what 😊

Visiting (and commenting) is still a problem – for a while even publishing was a pain. I need a quiet day to sort this problem out……or go back to my previous (very old and unupdateable) iPad which I’m loathe to do. Our desktop is The Golfers domain….I’ll just start to do something and it’s…..are you finished yet? So rather than make waves I’ll plod on as much as I can. Hopefully you’ll see me / hear from me during the week.

Contrary to how miserable I sound all is well in our house…..the day will begin soon……also the rain. Being Monday the big wheely bins get emptied today, lifted off the nature strip by a long extending arm protruding from a huge truck operated by one driver in the nice heated/cooled environment of his cab. Gone are the days of football players running along hauling bins up and emptying them into the back of the truck, training runs in all weathers.

I’m hanging out for my breakfast this morning but never mind that…..for some reason I could kill for a proper coffee, one made by someone else (not in The Golfers wizz bang machine) We do have some other coffee shops close by that were previously allowed to open for takeaway …….I wonder if The Golfer would pop down the street for me. I can always decant from the ghastly cardboard cup into a china mug at home……trouble is it just isn’t the same is it?

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There’s always one…..

I’m sure most of us who’ve had cats in our lives have had at least one who’s decided that ‘you are theirs’. They don’t just live with you and the family, they want to own you and you alone.

Kiera was one of those…..so much so she had the nickname of ‘my brown shadow….wherever I was she would be there…..as close as she could.

Meet Minnie ….she’s been providing my smiles recently
She reminds me so much of Kiera
(iizcat can be found at all the usual social media places)

Fun Friday – the day you forget the worries of the week.
I think we all deserve a smile at the moment 😊

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Sunday, wet Sunday

So what do you do when you don’t really feel like doing anything on a cool wet Sunday?

You find loads of old programmes to watch on TV of course.

Old as in years old.  Old series from years back.

Shows with names like Salvage Hunters and Wheeler Dealers…..those are The Golfer’s favoured time wasters.

They aren’t just on air on Sunday but each day of the week.  Early morning and then repeated in the afternoon!

Last Sunday even I got high on reruns…..I watched a programme about sheds!  A competition to find the Shed of the Year.  Dated 2015!

I vaguely remembered seeing it before but the craziness of it reeled me in again.  These weren’t just places to store spades and forks, secateurs and lawn mower…..these were works of art…..costing time and money to the owners.

Anyway amongst the entries was the tiniest little ‘thing’ just a little room with space just enough for a chair (and a heater) Called a micro shed – it was actually tagged on the back of a miniature steam train and used as the guards van.

There was a tree house shed, well more like a spacious living room high up in a tree with views of the countryside for miles about.

Then there was the Japanese Tea House shed decked out with oriental furnishings and decorations , set in a Japanese themed landscaped garden

But also included (more for interest sake I think) was my favourite – a hut/shed previously owned and used by the author George Bernard Shaw…… just a standard small compact wooden shed complete with table chair typewriter heater and a bed attached to the wall.  What was special about it was…..something  I’d never known about so was quite fascinated by the fact…..the whole structure was set on a turntable.  So it could be gradually moved to face the sun.    As my grandchildren used say years ago…..how cool is that grandma!  

 

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Parcel pickup with a difference

It was called parcel pickup for years…..you selected something, usually large bulky items,  paid for it, went off and did more shopping, then when you were ready picked it up from a holding bay at the back of the store.  You could of course have it delivered for an exorbitant cost.   Supermarkets used to deliver, you’d shop – pay – then they’d turn up later with all your groceries……online grocery shopping evolved  from that
Click and collect works in a similar way – you choose (except it’s online) you pay and then pick up in person (in some cases they bring to your vehicle)

Have you ever wished someone had shopped and filled your fridge with fresh fruit & veg plus milk and a loaf of bread so you didn’t have to face that job when you arrived home from a trip away. I know I certainly have.    And then there have been times when we’ve landed at Tullamarine and I’ve thought how great it would if someone was waiting there in arrivals with my groceries.   The Golfer laughs and says , wishful thinking never gets you anywhere, just get on and do…..meaning we’ll have fish and chips the day we get home then nip up the shops the next day.

So imagine my surprise last November (2019) when there’s an article on a web site I subscribe to about click and collect at one of the arrival halls at the airport!  Sounds like someone’s been reading my mind. Link below

Pick Up Your Coles Shopping at Melbourne Airport

Of course seeing that, that gave me permission a reason to hunt about online (aka ask Mr Google a few questions) and see if other supermarkets do the same thing.  Well it seems rival Woolworths do  and they began it quite a while ago  This article is dated 2013 – Link below
https://powerretail.com.au/news/woolworths-launches-airport-grocery-collection-service-at-tullamarine/

Just those two press releases – no other information on how this service works or even if it is still running.  Mind you, at the moment the airport is basically at a standstill……..very little going out….and even less coming in.  I reckon it’ll be years  (one at least) before we fly anywhere ….so it looks like I’m not going to be making that online order for my shopping to be waiting for me on arrival anytime soon!

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I love it…

I certainly love it ….and am very grateful…….when the solutions to my problems are found in the most unexpected places.

I think I mentioned I have a new iPad and I’ve had a problem commenting on blogger/blogspot (what is the correct term?) blogs No problem whatsoever with the old one……pain in the a***** with the new one.

Yesterday John (Going Gently) had a similar problem – Rachel (Rachel Phillips) offered a solution.
So I downloaded the suggested Opera browser and Voila problem sorted.  
Thank you Thank you. Thank you

Now I’ve just got to remember to work through that browser and not go automatically to Safari which is the default.

 

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Not Fun Friday

  • So we’re up in Mildura this past February having a week away with longtime friends from Adelaide. Well before the pandemic explosion, lockdowns and border closures.
  • We take a an evening sunset trip out to Mungo National Park, to the old sheep station along with the giant sand hills called The Great Wall of China.
  • My camera is clicking all the time, something I do willy nilly never knowing what I’ll ‘capture’
  • We’re leaving to make our way down to the bus – I see our friends (who’d had a little tiff earlier) had made up and were already on their way down the hill.
  • Never one to miss an opportunity (and without their permission) I snap away.
  • Certainly not well posed and with it getting darker by the minute this is their moment of togetherness
  • Framed and finally sent to them weeks later I wondered how it would be received

‘Love it Love it Love it’ was the reaction. ‘The two of us wandering off into the sunset – we’re growing old together and all is well with the world’

We get a phone call the other day. The husband had a prang in the car, all is well, just a bump on the head but precautionary body scan had discovered he had prostate cancer! Advanced into his spine! No signs….no symptoms…..picked up by chance.

All is not well with their world !

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Monday Monday….

A little blessing I saw online – a little something for us all

Here’s wishing you….
A great start on Monday 
No obstacles for Tuesday
No stress on Wednesday
No troubles on Thursday
Many smiles on Friday
A joyful Saturday
And a relaxing peaceful Sunday

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

So here it is Monday….how shall I start?

I’ll be the first to say that my life’s been a bit me-me-me recently so knew it was time for me to stop feeling sorry for me and think about others for a change. The latest stricter change in restrictions had me news hungry again, facts and figures hunting……pointing fingers at suburbs with high case numbers, blaming, ‘what on earth are they doing on that side of town, if we can follow the rules why can’t they’. That had to stop, so to clear my head I ‘worked’ on the family for a while last week and was ‘rewarded’ with a couple of photos posted (publicly) on other trees

Say hello to an uncle of my paternal Gt Grandfather John….brother to my GtGt Grandfather John…..or if you prefer,  my 3rd Gt uncle!
 John and Ralph’s father was called Archibald and their grandfather was Ralph – lol….if I had a penny for every descendant in the family called John, Archibald or Ralph I’d be rolling in it. Born in Co Fermanagh, he migrated to Canada as a young married man in the early 1830s where….from the amount of DNA matches I have associated with him…..he grew a large family.

I’d like to introduce you to a sister of Gt Grandfather John, a niece of Ralph (above) …..my GtGt Aunt Eliza 😊. She’s new to our family…..well she’s obviously been there for a while but I’ve not long met her.   It was DNA matches that sent me to her family and the realisation she really was ‘family’ as in really close to a direct ancestor. Eliza (born in Co Fermanagh) also moved away……as a young married woman to Australia in the 1850s. Firstly to South Australia then on to Victoria! Once this ‘Rona problem’ is fixed and we are free to roam again I’m taking a drive over to Footscray Cemetery to ‘Hello’.


And now I’m ready for my breakfast, porridge fruit and coffee today.
How are you keeping your mind busy? Our 2nd wave here in Victoria doesn’t seem to be subsiding so I’m wondering if this 6 week hard lockdown is going to be enough.

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Nothing to do and all day to do it…

One week of August gone and nothing on the calendar except for a hair appointment made weeks ago (not valid now due to stricter restrictions) and a GP appointment also made weeks ago (still valid – practice open following very strict guidelines)

It’s been one week of bitter cold weather that made its way up from the Antartica – I realise the weather gods will never please everyone but I’d much prefer the hot blast making its way to Europe from the Sahara (the one I’ve been reading about on some blogs). The snow came the other day….not actually in my garden but I could feel It in the air (and my bones)…… and now we have rain and high winds to look forward to….going to be interesting….I see there’s a severe weather warning plus a sheep graziers warning flagged……..let’s just say it’s a good job we don’t have anywhere to go to

We’re busy doing nothin’

Workin’ the whole day through 

Tryin’ to find lots of things not to do 
(Bing Crosby, Cedric Hardwicke, and William Bendix)

Looks like I’ll be taking my lead from the cat!

You know
Having nothing to do would be good if it wasn’t because of such a serious matter.


	


	





		

		
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We’ve been there….
	


	
	

		

East Alligator River Crossing  
aka Cahills Crossing. 
Northern Territory Australia 
Ford across East Alligator River where dangerous salt water crocodiles may be seen close – up or more safely from the track of the Manngarre Walk through a monsoon vine forest.





Something turned up on fb today that reminded me of a trip The Golfer and I took 
 up to the Northern Territory many years ago. 
I wrote a little bit about it in another post HERE
 (photos….which have deteriorated a bit…. were taken in 1992)

We  drove from Melbourne to Adelaide   
where we hitched a ride (both for us and the car) on The Ghan to Alice Spring
(It only went that far then)
and made our way on up the Stuart Highway to Darwin  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Highway. 





We went out and about visiting as much as we could
Came across Cahills Crossing one day but decided not to cross 
The water is tidal and deceptive.  higher than you think   
and the mention of ‘swimming handbags’ on signs   
puts me off anything 😊




















https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-27/gary-lindner-cahills-crossing-crocodile-manager-kakadu/9786650






And this is what turned up in my feed that brought back that memory.  The car in the video is going towards the high side, towards the side where I took my  photos from.















	


	





		

		
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Now for something different……
	


	
	

		

Wouldn’t it be great to say I’d done something different – unfortunately here in Victoria it’s still the same ol’ same ol’…….well that’s not quite true but it’s too involved to try and explain 😒





We have to look on the bright side though and I’m sure that in a few months time we’ll be able to do something different……again.





Mind you, over the last couple of weeks I did find something to do that I hadn’t done for a while – I put the ‘big boys’ knitting to one side and had a go at these…..again























 





 





 





 





 





 





Trawling through some older parts of the blog turned up this post from 2018 which along with this one from 2012 reminded me that giving should be fun……not just knitting from one end of the row to the other.





A couple of little Teds, and what look like squares which (if you follow the instructions in the 2012 post) will turn into basic fingerless mittens, are keeping me occupied at the moment.





I’m still feeling the disappointment of my last read so decided that it was time for one of those ‘I really should read this sometime’ books ……one that after being rescued from an op shop has been lying neglected on a shelf here at home for years.





So far so good, after a ‘strange’ courtship Maxim and his new wife have just arrived at Manderley. Small (tiny) print means it’s daytime reading, I have to concentrate so it’ll be read (and savoured) in small doses. Decisions Decisions – oh what to do….. read or knit. I suppose finishing Ted’s faces would definitely be a start 🙂










Ginny from Small Things hosts a monthly meme called Yarn Along  Sort of a ‘show and tell’ featuring the knitting and reading you’ve been doing recently. Do pop over and see what others have been up to.

	


	





		

		
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Lower your expectations
	


	
	

		

I certainly didn’t expect the flowers in the little posy gifted from my daughter














To have deteriorated so much by the end of the week. 
I had to cull the old and add some new to make what looked like brand new posy.














Honestly, lockdown 2 is doing my head in. I’m wondering what I did expect
When I had them in the lounge room with the heating on and as we all know, 
fresh flowers and heating don’t go together.














I’m wondering what else my addled brain will let me do this coming week?

	


	





		

		
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An it’ll do day….
	


	
	

		

Yesterday was almost perfect, one of those ‘just out of the bandbox’ days.  A fraction chilly overnight (3°c)  then bright sunny dry and for just a little while nearly warm enough for short sleeves.  If all winter days were like that I wouldn’t mind being trapped in Victoria and not sunning myself in Qld.  Looked outside first thing and thought It’ll be a perfect  washing day then sort out the freezer day.  I know I know, very humdrum but it has to be done now and again 😊.   





Costco had trays of Osso Bucco cut of veal, good sized pieces, each with  plenty of meat as well as the ring of bone filled with the lovely marrow,  decided to slow cook that for today’s main meal.   So looking in the freezer I’m thinking , I’ll just add some extra stewing beef that’ll stretch it to more than one meal, and also I can add the remains of the beef joint I sliced and froze thinking It could be minced and used for shepherds pie….which hasn’t happened and with a little extra liquid maybe I could squeeze 3 days from it.





Onions – tick.  Tinned tomatoes- tick. Garlic – oops no fresh not even a jar of minced. Change of plan……plain tinned toms out – ones with added basil & garlic in.   Oregano – tick. Thyme – no.  Well there’s some mixed herbs in the cupboard which are Thyme Sage & Marjoram…..that’ll do  A couple of Oxo cubes for the stock.  The kitchen smelt good all day, It might taste a little different but I’m sure it’ll do  😊





Pumpkin soup making turned into an ‘it’ll have to do’ exercise as well. Had the pumpkin and onion chopped then realised no carrots left.   Last time I shopped the supermarket was out of them; none loose or bagged not even the cheaper Odd weird shaped Ones.  Looks like I forgot to get some from elsewhere.  No sweet potato either in the fridge so I ended up cooking pumpkin and white potato soup.  With the weather coming up next week it’ll do nicely for lunch.





What weather I hear you ask.  
Well this was the forecast when I looked last night and if they’ve got it right today will be like yesterday, then it’s downhill as we’re in for a cool/cold wet week.  Just a slight additional word on Tuesday and Wednesday that’s a little off putting.  One of those four lettered words I’m not keen on – like wash, cook, iron, mend…….SNOW.  
It mentions Mt Dandenong – that’s a bit close for comfort.  Right on our doorstep, just a little drive up the road.  Hopefully we won’t see it down here in the foothills but I think the soup’s going to come in handy!















It’ll be a day in the garden today – not sitting sunning my self in my sunnies with my knitting by my side but digging, weeding, raking.  I’ve looked at it all winter and kept saying to my self – it’ll get done one day. That’ll be today I think.  Hope your Sunday is a good one.

	


	



		

	

	





		


		

			

				

	

	

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