1000 Fields of Roses

It was a busy/weird week last week, but I’m glad to be back in action for the start of Christmas imaginings…
We had a fractured night last night.
The smoke alarms went off around midnight – for no reason that we could see.
I had not long slipped into a lovely sleep, which was something that has been hard to come by lately.
We got that alarm sorted.
Then it went off again seven minutes later.
My Babe deactivated our bedroom alarm, as that seemed to be the one that was triggering the others.

Back to bed.
And back up around 2ish, when they all went off again.
We were all stumbling around like zombies…decided eventually to deactivate all of them, and waiting to see how soon the electrician can come and fix them – they’re meant to be hardwired into the electrical system, which in turn (I think) is supposed to continually charge the batteries.
Because when the batteries run down, the alarm goes off.

Until they’re fixed, we’re following a roster as “human smoke detectors” – someone stays up all night to check for smoke. Seems like overkill, but even though we think there’s no actual fire hazard, we’re not completely sure what’s setting them off. And we’d all be lying awake wondering.
It’s Sweet Bean’s turn tonight. ❤

Well. In other news – we got the tree up today. I haven’t decorated it yet. I have put snowmen, Santas, baubles, and angels around the place 🙂 I’ll probably post pictures when I’ve done the tree 🙂
Sneak peek!

Yay!

The day was dry, but cool enough to do stuff (not something that’s been common lately).
I potted some plants. Organised some things. Did some washing (which seemed to dry almost instantaneously…)
I got another rainbow tie-dye dress at a Lifeline sale recently.
It certainly cheered up my backyard!

I already had the rainbow throw/cape thing.
You would think that wearing them both together would be a bit too much.
I would say that, in my opinion, you would almost certainly be wrong!
😀

It’s been a lovely day, but I’m a bit tired now 🙂
Caught up with friends at a Home Group break-up brunch (can’t believe it’s almost Christmas!).
Good food, good conversation…

Thankfully, we have a lot of good cooks.
I tried to make some shortbread biscuits, which I had planned as little “gingerbread” people holding shortbread hearts.
I had ingredients. I just couldn’t find my scales.
So I decided to eyeball it – shortbread is a matter of ratios, really.
Unfortunately, my measurement of the butter was a bit…overenthusiastic. And the sugar was raw sugar, rather than caster sugar.
I’m not sure what type of biscuit I ended up with. Tasty (the boys liked them), but – so not shortbread. The texture was crunchier than I’d expected, because of the bigger granules of sugar, and the lovely shapes I painstakingly put together spread in the oven. I didn’t have food colouring for the hearts, so I used turmeric. Spicy, and sweet 🙂

Here’s my cutters. I didn’t have a heart one, so I just cut those freehand. The butterfly and star were for extras.

I pulled them out of the oven a bit early, and cut shapes out of the mess, but it wasn’t what I’d planned.

Crunchy. More fragile than I’d hoped.
And a little turmeric goes a long way!

Still – a good day.
The table was set beautifully, and each place had a sprig of rosemary as well.
I brought some home, and have put them in water to see if they grow roots.

A day to enjoy.
And rosemary, to remember.
❤

The car’s still not operational.
We thought, initially, that it was the battery.
Got a new one, put it in. Nope.
Then we thought it was the alternator.
Got a new one, put it in. Nope.
Trying for a starter motor now…
Hopefully we’ll be up and running some time early next week 🙂

Since I haven’t been out of the house for a bit, I’ve been steadily working my way through my papers. I’ve accomplished quite a lot. It took me a while to work out how to sort things (and there are still some anomalies), but a couple of days ago, things seemed to fall into place!
Yay!

I’ve been sitting in my art room, with a cuppa and the fan on…listening to Enya, or Loreena McKennitt.
Just browsing through my history, finding things I’d forgotten I’d written over the years.

I’ll be glad when we’re mobile again.
But I’m enjoying my little creative oasis.
Piecing together papers, and cars…
And a cute mashup of cats and bugs!

❤

We had a weekend of mishaps – car stopped working (just before going to do the weekly shop), and the storm yesterday turned into big hailstones…no critical damage, but things that need fixing.

I was watching the lightning yesterday afternoon through my bedroom window – big flashy strikes, straight down to the ground, and looking like they weren’t very far away.
Decided to film a bit, although the rain was coming down in sheets by the time I started filming.

I had to cut this short so we could plug the leaks…
It doesn’t seem to be as bad as our last house. Pretty sure it was the fierceness of this particular storm that made things leak. That, and maybe the fact that the windows are old, the putty holding the glass in is brittle and largely missing, and the wood of the frames looks like it’s rotting.
Still better than we’ve had before. Certainly more manageable.

Here’s a view of the hail towards the end of the storm.

We had a look outside after the storm.
The yard looked a bit bedraggled.

Those dark patches on the pot are not dirt or leaves that have been kicked up. That’s where the hail punched through.
Here’s a better view –

Might need to repot that.
I’m absolutely amazed (and pleased 🙂 ) that my plants made it through so well, though!

The power went out for a time.
We got a bit hot and uncomfortable in the humidity, but it was only a few hours before we got power back.
And it gave us time to play trivia questions by candlelight with the boys ❤