Upclose in the Garden

Although I appreciate our lovely, large front garden I don't often walk around and look at the various plants. Between the spring showers today I wandered down from our street frontage to the house with my phone in hand. As I did I took a few Upclose photos.

The camellias, gardenias and magnolia have lost their blooms but the azaleas and wisteria are bursting into bloom.

Looking down from the letterbox

The first row of azaleas

 A corner of cliveas

These azaleas match my hot pink glasses

Dainty groundcover is taking over

An orchis lives on a tree

An old slow coach has a sunny spot

The last of the camellias

Another clump of azaleas

Dainty and white ??

Yellow cliveas

These pretty blue things are coming up all over

The lavender is scraggly but the perfume perfect

No need to buy lettuce this week

Silver beet is doing well

The very first lemon on our tree ever

I think we'll be getting more lemons

Waiting to be planted out

I think this is a pest

Another old duck

Hedge in desperate need of a trim

Looking back up the drive to the letterbox

Cooking in PJs

We love having grandchildren visit in the school holidays.

Muffins and Cookies are on the agenda today. Cooking in PJs is cool.

The Book of Me - Prompt 5 - Your Childhood Home

Back in 2013 I participated in a challenge which required us to write a post that responded to a few prompts.

I published these posts in a private blog. Following is a repost from 5th October 2013.

This week Julie Goucher of Angler's Rest asked us to respond to the following prompt in The Book of Me, Written by You activity.
The prompt for week 5 is Your Childhood Home

When did you leave home?
Where was it?
Where did you move to?
Was it rented or owned? – with parents/Grandparents
Was it inherited
What was it like – describe it – each room.
Were there a favourite room?
Is there anything you particularly remember from the house?
Pictures
The road & area
__________________________________________________

My first home was just a room in a house in Kensington opposite my maternal grandmother's home. I think, while my dad was at work, my mother and I spent most of our time across the road. In post war times housing was in short supply in Sydney so finding self contained accommodation was a challenge. I have absolutely no memories of this place.

As it happened my father's two younger sisters had moved from the country to Sydney and were renting a one-bedroom flat in what was then a fashionable area, Kings Cross. They must have taken pity on their brother and his family as they gave up their flat for us and moved into the family home with their parents. I believe we moved here when I was about one and we stayed till I was around nine. I remember our Wedgwood blue kitchen, the dark Jacobean furniture, playing in the park with my little friends and being spoilt rotten by elderly, childless next door neighbours. I don't have any pictures of the flat but I was able to find a current photo of the building on a real estate site and it looks pretty much how it did when I was a child.


Kentwood Court, Kings Cross

When my parents were offered a Housing Commission home in Malabar I was nine, they had been looking to purchase a home closer to Sydney but decided to take up the offer of this house at Malabar that was 8 miles from Sydney's CBD and a 1 mile walk to public transport. I think it was quite a shock for my mother who was used to having the city on her doorstep to move to a house where the closest shop was a mile away instead of the 50 yards was used to. My father purchased a car very soon after the move to Malabar.

I loved having my own pretty pink bedroom and a yard to play in; there were lots of young families in the street so even though I was an only child there were plenty of playmates. We seemed to have a lot more freedom than children do these days and I remember being able to go with my friends to swim in the rock pool at Malabar or in the safe beach down at Little Bay.There was a lot of vacant land in the vicinity so we kids were able to build cubby houses and explore to our hearts content.

The thing that I didn't like about this house was that it was in an unsewered area and we did not have a septic tank, ours was an old-fashioned dunny. I was especially spooked when I had to visit our outside loo at night



Our little house at Malabar before the garden grew

Even though she was a country girl I don't think my mother ever got used to living at Malabar. When I was in high school I returned to the inner-city school that I had attended when we lived in Kings Cross, I had to catch three buses to get to school. When I was 14 we moved again. This time it was to a brand-new home unit (apartment) that my parents bought at Randwick, a suburb that was only 4 miles from the city and much closer to transport and services.

I loved living in a home unit with its modern bathroom and inside toilet and we even got our first telephone connected, that was teenage heaven. Although it was a small building there were half a dozen other kids my age in residence, we quickly bonded and had a wonderful time just hanging out or getting sunburnt at Coogee Beach that was only a 15 min walk away. When I left school and started socialising our convenient location made it easy for me to travel about and get home safely. A taxi fare home was only two dollars from busy Peters Corner.

Although our living room wasn't huge Mum always seemed to be able to accommodate and feed the groups of friends I brought home from the beach or our youth club for a meal. My teenage years at Randwick were very happy.


Geniaus aged 16 in the garden of our home unit block

I don't have any photos of the interior of the Randwick building but I do have some pictures taken on the last day that I lived there, my wedding day.


With Dad and Mum in our living room on my wedding day

Pink Carpets

 As our camellias come to the end of their season they lay pretty pink carpets over our lawn. 

Skip-Bo

 Paddy loves joining the family for a game of  Skip-Bo. He enjoys teaming up with his big sister. 

Christmas Ornaments

Puzzling our way towards Christmas with a little help from grandchildren..

We love a jigsaw. 

Healthy eating

I try to be a healthy eater but sometimes it's a challenge. 

This latest breakfast cereal that my husband bought me was on the menu this morning. It was chewy but I think the cardboard box it was in would have been more tasty. 

Blood Moon

I had forgotten all about the Blood Moon last night until I saw a post on social media. 

I grabbed my phone and ran out on the balcony to grab some images. I didn't stay long as it was a bit chilly outside when only wearing my nightdress!

While I should have grabbed the camera which has a bigger zoom I'm happy with this distant picture that I captured.

Temporary Home

For the last few months I have been travelling between home and Narrabri while Robert is working in Narrabri.

Our temporary home above the empty shop on the right of this phote

In the last few weeks our temporary home has been in a new flat slap bang in the middle of Narrabri's main street. While it is only has basic furniture it is a light and airy apartment equipped with all mod cons. It is so convenient to the shops, supermarket and the local pub and Chinese restaurant that serve good food.

Local Pub Resraurant

Steak Special at the Pub

I have enjoyed spending time in Narrabri where I've had ample opportunities to explore north-western NSW.

Home again, home again jiggety-jig

It's great to be home again after three weeks away, even on a dismal day that says "Go back to bed.

Puppy Love

 A man and his dog. 

Mother nature made a fool of me

After days of  punk weather I showed off on Facebook with the following snap of this blue sky in our backyard at 12:27pm.  Several of my contacts remarked on our fortune in experiencing such calm conditions. I was thinking that the storms had finally disappeared.

Mother nature made a fool of me!  I later shared a further image of the same scene taken at 3:35pm from inside our home (it was too wet to go out on the balcony). Seems as though the rain is going to be around for a while yet.

We're free

 Although we were able to come out of isolation on Tuesday we decided to extend our time in quarantine "to be sure, to be sure." While I have graciously allowed Robert to invade my quarters upstairs we are keeping our distance for yet another day. The government instructions suggested that for the first days after isolation we should wear masks, we thought it easier to stay apart than mask up.

The good news is that Robert has emerged from his bout of Covid unscathed and I managed to avoid an infection. After his sore throat departed he was well enough to get outside and do some tidying up in the garden. He also spent some considerable time sorting through his stamp collection and he was able to watch the cricket on TV without having my complaints.

Most of these are in the stamp collection (image Pixabay)

While I tried to do a bit of decrapifying in my study and wardrobe I failed but I enjoyed watching the tennis, filling some holes in our family trees and reading until the wee hours. 

While we were isolating Robert got the offer of a few weeks work in a country town in north-western New South Wales. As the job comes with a house I am looking forward to joining him as I have never previously visited the area. 

I'm sure I'll find some cemeteries and museums to visit while Robert has his nose to the grindstone. 

Back to the Kitchen

Day Three in Isolation. 

Thankful that the patient is comfortable in the guest quarters downstairs and that ,in the absence of his company, I have Australian Open tennis, genealogy and photos to amuse me. 

Downsides are that I miss my breakfast in bed and have to cook our dinners.

No Boat Today

Isolation Day 3

We couldn't take the boat out today because conditions on our usually placid lake are rather turbulent.

Then, of course, as we have a Covid case in the house, we are in isolation for the next few days.

It ain't Man Flu

When he woke yesterday morning Robert was exhibiting some of the symptoms of Man Flu; he had a sore throat and runny nose. 

Although he had only been out in the community on a couple of occasions in the previous week he thought he should do the right thing and get a Covid test. We want to hold on to the one precious pack of RATs we have so he took himself off to a local testing centre where the queue and wait was very short.

Robert is fully vaccinated, having had his booster in mid December. We were both fairly sure that the result would come back negative as Robert is quite fastidious about mask wearing, hand hygiene, and social distancing. We rarely stray far from our home and avoid crowds when we have to leave our sanctuary;  we hadn't been near the one other family member who is currently positive in nearly two weeks.

When my eyes were barely open this morning he put his phone under my nose and said "read this". He had a positive result so we both have to stay home and isolate for seven days. 

We put our isolation plan into practice. As a close contact I went off to have the required Covid test while Robert gathered some provisions and clothing and moved into our guest quarters downstairs. The Lake provides us with much fresh air and we have high ceilings so we have opened doors and windows for airflow.

We are fortunate that the isolation area is self-contained with kitchen and bathroom facilities so Robert is able to prepare his own breakfast and lunch. I will deliver his dinner and any other necessaries to the landing halfway down our stairs. Our house design allows us to easily distance and isolate. During this time Facebook Messenger will be our means of communication with each other and family members.

This situation is a bit of a wake up call for me as I am thoroughly spoilt by my husband who serves me breakfast in bed each day, cooks the dinner each evening and it does the lion's share of domestic duties.

As long as his symptoms don't worsen Robert should be able to enjoy his sabbatical away from me and watch his beloved cricket in peace without complaint from me. Sorting out is stamp collection and weeding the garden will provide diversions when he tires of the idiot box.

With the amount of family history, photographs and documents that I have to organise, several books to read and the Australian Open tennis to watch I know that I will be fully occupied during this time.

I'm sure that our seven days in isolation will fly and just pray that Robert keep well and that I escape the virus.