We were on our way out today, and noticed something odd at the neighbour’s house..
Might be a bit hard to see… but that’s a tomato plant. In the guttering of a two story house.
I could quip about “blooming where you’re planted”..
..or talk about overcoming adversity, whatever your circumstances.
Really, I just want to find a very long ladder and harvest them before they’re overripe. They look lovely and juicy..
A while back, not long after we moved here, I took a walk that went past our old house. It was quite a shock – one of my beautiful jacaranda trees had been chopped down, and there was a huge fence all around the perimeter of our previously open front yard. I didn’t walk that way again.
The other day, I was on another walk. The weather was worsening, so I decided to take the short cut home – which went past the old place. This time I made myself stop and look. It wasn’t too bad… the new owners are obviously able to make better use of the space than we could at the time we were there, and it looks loved. I looked a bit longer, and then realised that they’d kept the “Welcome” hanging I left on the door. And that made it better.
I belong here now..
it’s messy..
..but comfortable.
I have my “stuff”
I’ve made a place, with my lovely and loving family around me..
This is here – the past is past.
This is home.
One more visit to Dicky Beach on Friday morning..
..where littlest bean honed his stone skimming skills..
Then we were off to Kings Beach in Caloundra.
The boys had a swim for a bit, then were asked to get out of the water to allow a group of fishermen to bring in a school of mullet.
The net was attached to a truck at one end of the beach, and the other end was taken out by boat to attach to another truck.. they were drawn together and then pulled in by hand..
It was only a small school – the first of the season.
It was quite exciting to watch, but also confronting to see the fish trying to escape. We don’t eat fish much, but we do have some in the freezer.. I do think that if we are going to eat meat/fish, we should be willing to  look at how it gets to our plate..
The seagulls flocked, but were ultimately disappointed, even though they were thrown a few fish.
The fish were separated into male/female containers – the females would still have the roe inside, so could be sold for more.
A bit more swimming before we went up the mountain… a typical crowded Queensland beach in May 🙂
Little bean spent the next night in a tent out past Maleny with his friend and another four boys. It was freezing, and I’m not sure how much sleep was had.. there was some tension and “overwhelm” happening over the 24 hours of the party, but they had fun overall!
The adults at least got to sleep inside – still cold. It was a house full of Whovians – this was behind one of the chairs in the lounge.
I didn’t sit there.
It was a school project, made by the eldest daughter of the family… there was a lot of random art dotted throughout the house.
We sat out next to a small barbeque fire that evening, toasting marshmallows and chatting. You know when you meet people and it’s like you’ve just known each other for ages? It was like that… It was the first time we’ve met half the family, and we’ve only caught up with the other half a couple of times… we felt comfortable there, though.
They run a flower farm, native trees and flowers, by the look of it, grown by biological farming. It’s the off season, so there’s not much by way of crops at the moment.
This was our view over morning tea (with extra marshmallows)
Obviously, there’s much more to a farm than toasting marshmallows over a fire… I could get used to this as down time, though 🙂
The other fields..
… and the view from the back verandah.
We had a busy time, but fun..
We’ll be back! 😀
It was my Mum’s birthday last week, so we had a Birthday Afternoon Tea today… invited some of the family round, sat around and talked, met my cute little cousin-once-removed (?) for the first time … a nice afternoon 🙂 I wanted it to be pretty, but easy to put together –
I put together the cupcake holders, but we didn’t have anything to put in them in the end.. My sister made cucumber sandwiches, to the most authentic recipe she could find..
Pink gingham seems to have been a theme..
Salmon and cream cheese little toast thingies, and macarons..
Dainty-ish scones and jam and cream..
We set the teapots up on the breakfast bench, each with a different tea.. we had Green tea and Jasmine, Organic black tea, Earl Grey, Masala Green Chai, and French Rose and Vanilla.. My Aunt brought extra teapots, complete with cosies..
What a hoot!
The Birthday Girl! (and my sister!)
Happy Birthday, Mum 😀
The boys were back at their Youth/Kids evenings tonight, so we had a coffee at Urban Pantry and enjoyed the start of the crisper weather… I love the cooler nights, when you just can’t decide whether to put a jacket on, or not 😀
There were herbs and heritage plants to hide the traffic..
.. and live music to listen to..
Yes, I know that’s a very fuzzy photo..
This is Rebecca O’Donnell – check out her music (downloadable from her site) here..
We had a longer time to savour our coffee/tea.. biggest boy walked to his group meeting. It was a lovely end to our evening, and we got to catch up with friends, as well as chatting to various people..
A friendship circle (you put a candle in the middle..) and the remains of the coffee/tea.. feeling the community vibe at the Top of Town 😀
Lately, we’ve had just enough time between dropping off and picking up boys on Friday evening to have a cup of tea/coffee at Urban Pantry in town..
Tonight the oldest’s evening thing was earlier than normal, which meant we dropped them off one after the other, and had an hour before the first pick up. We started off by going to D’Arcy Doyle Place, where there was a “Prayer for the city” event, but we could only stay a half hour before we went back for coffee. We’ve been catching up with some people we met one Friday evening, and who have been there each Friday since… unfortunately they didn’t get there tonight 😦 but we enjoyed our evening, and saw some other people we knew..
There was a jazz type band playing while we sat outside the cafe (out of tune, says hubby… and, well, yes… but it didn’t matter..) I used to go to a cafe years ago after I finished work. There was always music playing somewhere or other. I miss doing that. There’s something about a dark sky, live music, and a good coffee…
Wholehearted Living with Brene Brown …post by Dr Susan Mathison (and check out her blog..)
a bit of creativity, a bit of eco consciousness, a bit of inspiration.... hopefully not a lot of pompousness and blathering :D
i'm not entirely sure what's going on here... let's travel along and see...
1000 Fields of Roses 