Last day of Autumn

After a slow start to Autumn Winter has come knocking hard and fast.

I caught up with J and C for a trip to Hastings and Little Woolies. I showed great restraint and bought a pattern for a jacket. I will frog the cardigan I started and will buy one more ball of yarn for the jacket. In the past I would have bought another lot of yarn but I am determined to work through what I have. C bought some yarn to teach herself how to knit socks. That is on my agenda but not just yet.

We then went to a new cafe and had a lovely lunch and a good natter wherein we solved the problems of the world. If only the powers that be would listen to a bunch of middle to older aged women!

It is a decent size space and the owner is happy for us to bring our craft and sit for a bit We wouldn't do it if they were super busy but 6 lunches and a few coffees is better than empty tables.

I came home to the fire going and a toasty warm house. 

We have some salad that needs using so even though it is anything but salad weather we will have a bbq chook and salad for dinner tonight. I shall have red wine. Himself is off the grog at the moment.

Last night was the first fire of the season. 

If you look closely you will see a little mini-cat. Maxi was curled up on a chair elsewhere.

A slow Monday

And it's been delightful.

Three rang to ask if we could take some cold and flu medicine round to Amy who was too crook to get out of bed. I asked if he wanted us to take Sally to school but she was staying home to look after her mum. This is the kid who wasn't going to have the whole day off on Friday for the wedding as her mum didn't want her to miss half a day of school. I am biting my tongue very hard. Himself went to the chemist and dropped the drugs off. They made a world of difference and she was able to get out of bed. I remember when I had three littlies and was sick - I had to soldier on regardless. But mine is the generation that has our heads shoved so far up our arses that we have no idea how tough the current lot have it.

Anyway - enough of my griping. My slow Monday was the result of a conscious decision to just slow down. I find I do things at a great rate and feel I am always in rush. Even simple things. So I had a slow breakfast and did a bit of a tidy around. I baked a batch of biscuits - slowly. And dinner is bubbling away on the stove. I even tackled my daily puzzles slowly.

I pulled out my trusty k-mart citrus juicer and made a tangy juice for us both. We need our vitamin C at this time of year. Three oranges and two lemons and two limes. It certainly woke us up!  When I first plugged it in I blew a fuse. Himself was about to go and get another one and then thought to check the power point with another appliance. Whoops. It was the power point not the juicer. It's no big deal as we have plenty in the kitchen but the sparky will come and fix it when he can.

Winter is well and truly on its way.

The speckled effect under the Bight is a swathe of freezing cold air. 

Sunday

Himself got the hard rubbish out for collection. Some dude stopped and asked if he could have the microwave as he uses the magnets for fishing. I didn't know microwaves had magnets let alone they were used for fishing.

I baked.

Himself said if I baked rolls he would do hamburgers for dinner. I used the brioche mix.

 

He's buying the bread rolls! They don't even smell right.

I thought I'd brush the white loaf with water and sprinkle sesame seeds.

At least it smells good!

I remember my mother saying one should never bake if feeling unwell. My chest infection appears to have flared up again so that is my excuse for today.

A cold wintery blast is heading our way. We are in for a wet windy week with temps not getting above the low teens. My kind of weather! 

Random Saturday bits

 Aldi had de'Longhi toasters and kettles in their special buys today. I wanted the pale green ones as they go really well with the new kitchen. We had to return some kitchen stuff to Ikea so did that first (and bought some new bed linen - it was inexpensive!) and then went to our local Aldi. They only had the kettle so we grabbed that. They had a green toaster but it was damaged - sheesh. The next closest Aldi had NO toasters left at all. Off to Hastings and they had one green one left. No green kettles so we did well buying the first one we saw. I also managed to get a bread bin from Kmart and a couple of black utensil holders marked down to $5 each. Three is getting our old kettle and toaster (not that old and also de'Longhi so win win).

Am I evil for getting a smile out of this? 

I picked Sally up from school yesterday. They had an indigenous day - whatever that is. She had to wear yellow. In the window of their classroom was a welcome to country poster surrounded by feathers the kids had decorated. In the car she proceeded to tell me that white men came to Australia and stole all the children and now we have a sorry day. I am not denying the sad history of our early years after the Brits came. But can we please have it taught without the emotive language and explain the background of the ideas of the time. By all means explain that those ideas have since been proven to be wrong but at the time it was thought the right thing was being done and we know better now. We can't turn back the clock. We can't all leave Australia. We are who we are and we should be looking forward with hope, compassion and inclusion rather than back with blame, anger and shame. I have no doubt many will disagree with me.

I so remember exams like this. 

The one that made me cross was the one that went if a bath was filling at x litres a minute but the plug was draining at y litres a minute how long would it take to fill the bath. Put the bloody plug in ya dill.

Food for thought.

 Have you ever wondered what a sesame seed would grow into if you planted it?

I am tempted to try, now.

Pine nuts are not as straight forward as harvesting a pine cone or three.

I heard on the radio that the powers that be are planning to teach less geography. Kids won't be taught about continents, hemispheres, seasons etc. What is the world coming to?

A rose by any other name

 

These pretty flowers are called Anemones. Pronounced Ann-em-onees.

It is a common and quite pretty custom to name little girls after flowers. Lily, Ivy, Jasmine, Poppy, etc.

There is a little girl in Sally's class at school called Anemone. 

It is pronounced AnnyMoan. I wonder if her parents did this on purpose or had never heard the name of the flower spoken. 

It reminds me of a child I heard of called Yvonne. Pronounced Why-vonny.

It is hard enough having your name mispronounced or misspelt - Janet instead of Janice, Carolyn instead of Caroline, Lesley instead of Leslie and so on. But to deliberately change the pronunciation of a child's name is unfair. 

Like calling a boy Sue!

Briefly

• I deep cleaned the ensuite. So far nothing bad has been discovered. No unusual smells and no unexpected water leaks.

• Himself is installing the kick panels under the kitchen benches. Not without issues. A couple will have to be made by hand as they don't fit.

• Picked the kid up from school. We had a lovely time making a dream catcher. She fell asleep in the car on the way to her mum's work and is pretty sure she caught a dream

• Fish and chips for dinner. A treat on a Wednesday night.

• I have realised why I prefer knitting to crochet. Once the stitches are on the needles that's it as long as you don't drop one. With crocheting you can magic stitches out of thin air. At least I can unpick whilst watching mindless telly.

• I am still hibernating which means not catching up with friends today. I hope this passes soon. One at a time I can manage but too many, even though they are very dear friends, freaks me out.

• Tomorrow we have another conference call with the financial planner from our super fund. He sent over a detailed report but appears to have cut and pasted without checking. Himself is dubious. As a past project manager this is verboten in his books. We will almost certainly go with their recommendations but I see an interesting conversation.