birthday | 1000 Fields of Roses

Books, Birthdays, And Country Drives

I went on a bit of a road trip today, checking out the Little Free Libraries in our local area.
I turned 57 today – an age I can’t quite believe I can apply to myself, but an age I am thankful to have reached.

It’s been a lovely day.
We started at the far end of the route I had decided on, and found ourselves in a kind of fairyland…

The idea of the street libraries is to “take a book – leave a book – share a book”. It’s quite OK to just take a book, but I somehow ended up with a stack of books that I already had, so I left one wherever I took one.
Some places had other things as well.

(this is where fairyland comes in 🙂 )
The trees aren’t free (there’s instructions on payment, by donation, I think) but it is free to talk to them.
They like it.

There are a few places around the area with honey.

Some with eggs, or herbs and other things to pick.

There was a good selection of adult books at most places, and also a good lot of kids’ books.

A cool, sunny day

but I was about ready for a nice, cold drink…

Caramel (LF) milkshake.
Yum!

So, we wended our weary way home, stopping here and there, until we got back and I could rest and relax.
Our household has various dietary differences at the moment, so it didn’t make sense to get a whole cake that I would end up eating, mostly by myself.

My birthday doughnut!
(lemon pavlova flavour)

Happy Birthday to Me!
😀

Published in:

Travel

on February 4, 2026 at 5:30 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: birthday, Little Free Libraries

Once More Round The Sun

Another year older…

I have had such a lovely day!
From not being able to venture far from my door these last few years, to rambling round the second hand book and charity shops of suburban Brisbane! 🙂
Bit tired now, though.

We started out in Paddington, in a charity shop I’ve been to before.

A nice, leafy part of the suburb.
One of the things I like about this place is that they have a big section outside with free books – yay!

The CDs were from inside, so, not free (but just $1 each), and the C.S.Lewis trilogy at the top was from Koorong – marked down drastically to $10 because of the “tear” on the front cover. Yes – that tiny flap on the top right… All the others were free, and included books from three series that I collect 😀

From there we went to check out The Cupboard Under The Stage, which is inside an antiques shop, presumably in a building that used to be a theatre.

It was very blue.

…and theatrical.

No books for me, but I was glad to have seen it.

From there, we wandered across to West End.
Looked around, didn’t buy anything.
Saw a mural, hidden round the back of a shop, and peeling a bit.

We had morning tea at Hope Street Cafe.

Pretty 🙂
I only had a taste, though.

I had a hot chocolate with cardamom and rosewater syrup.
It was…interesting. A bit coconut-y, for some reason. But nice.

The greenery made lovely shadows on the wall.

I enjoyed being out and about.
I also enjoyed coming home and having a cup of tea!

Apart from my books, I picked up some lovely things, and my Mum gave me some more.

The perfume bottle has dragonflies around it.

The jingly lavender-scented bird is guarding some of my books.

As is the happy little mermaid.

And the tiny unicorn (with the broken horn 😦 ) has made its home at the end of a rainbow.

❤

All of this, and a beautiful bouquet from church 🙂

This getting older’s not so bad!

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Thinking....

on February 4, 2025 at 11:20 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: birthday, Catalyst Church, Hope Street Cafe, Koorong, The Cupboard Under The Stage, Yesterdays Thrift Shop

Of Age

My Sweet Bean turned 21 today.
❤

Where has the time gone?!
There were no riotous parties, but he seemed to enjoy his day.
He chose his “cake” (a salted caramel chocolate cheesecake, I think).

It looks good!
Half of us couldn’t eat it (lactose and chocolate) so the rest went back into the freezer for another day.

So – time marches on.
I don’t feel quite old enough for my “baby” to be 21, but then, we’re looking at our 30th anniversary on Sunday.
Decades of goodness 🙂
Age has its sweetness, and glimpses of beauty…
a resting point on the way to the next flourishing years.

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Thinking....

on September 10, 2024 at 10:48 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: 21st, birthday

Searching Out Sparkles

I’ll be 55 tomorrow.
My first presents came courtesy of a lovely friend ❤

A hedgehog!
(It says it’s a raccoon, but I see a hedgehog 🙂 )

It came wrapped in a scarf. It’s been a bit hot to wear scarves, so I’ve draped it over my chair so I can just look at it…

Then my Mum gave me some things (and books…)

A bracelet (I got the necklace today).

Two wooden vases (silky oak and camphor wood), with feathers to display in them.

In other years I’ve spent my birthday combing through the charity shops for shiny, sparkly, colourful things. And books, of course. I like to go further afield, which has often meant closer to Brisbane.
This year I haven’t felt up to much in the way of travel, but I still wanted to go somewhere different.
So – off we went this morning to Rosewood, where I had a good look around.
I found books, and some clothing. And some pretty things.

Behold – the sparkles! 🙂

A shiny heart!

Just a reminder…

A couple of pots, and a word for the year.

A mug to take if I travel to Hobbiton.

Some more “indoor flowers”, and a use for the lustre pot in the earlier photo (I already had the incense sticks).

Shiny!

I don’t suppose I’ll feel much different tomorrow morning.
But I know there’s always room for sparkles!

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Thinking....

on February 3, 2024 at 10:43 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: birthday

Another Trip Round The Sun…

…even though it was raining some of the time!
Another birthday nearly over, and I had fun. The rain was quite nice – it’s been very hot and humid the last few days, so it was good to have a coolish day.
We went in to New Farm, did some shopping at the charity shop there, and stopped off at one a bit closer to home. I love finding the little oddities there, and I like the idea of recycling interesting things.
I got books (of course), and also these –

The cat is some sort of scent burner.

My family gave me lovely things as well, so I have been richly blessed today ❤
Ate nice food, enjoyed my day… feeling a bit tired and achy (well, I am getting older!) 😆
I’ll start on my next year tomorrow…

Here are some tiny flowers I came across today 🙂

Not sure what they are, but they’re delicate and sweet.

This may not be a flower…

❤

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Thinking....

on February 4, 2023 at 10:05 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: birthday

53

Another year round the sun, and another day out in the Big City!
Every year my Babe gets me to decide on an itinerary, then chauffeurs (and bankrolls 😀 ) me through the day.

I decided to start this birthday with breakfast at a place I haven’t been to in many years. The Pancake Manor has been around since 1979, but I didn’t get there until the early 90s. It’s open 24 hours (as it was then), so we got there early to miss the rush hour traffic into Brisbane. Back in the Old Days 🙂 , I used to sometimes go after a night shift – lingering over fluffy pancakes, in all sorts of flavours, at 2 or 3am. The building used to be a church, and it’s still got that sort of style. The life size knights are still at the door as you come in, but I couldn’t see the huge throne-like chairs that used to be in the centre of the room. We sat in the pews against the wall…

❤

These days, my journeys tend to be planned around fatigue, so we didn’t plan to stay long. We had a look around New Farm – browsed (and bought from) a charity shop there, then picked up a Hero panini for lunch from the New Farm Deli – another place I went to 30 years ago. I lived just up the road, so I was a more frequent visitor there than at the Pancake Manor. The food is still amazing, and the Deli has grown considerably since then. Definitely worth a visit! 😀

By this time I was running out of steam, but so pleased to have made it that far! We got home about lunch time, and I’ve not been doing much since.
My sweet boys both got me pressies, which they went out of their way to find for me. I love how they put such thought into it, and how their choices reflect who they are ❤
I didn’t really feel like eating a lot of cake, so we picked up some Unicorn (fondant) Fancies. Just big enough for a candle, and a taste of birthday cake…

Yay for today!

…and now there’s only one thing left to say.

🙂

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Thinking....

on February 4, 2022 at 11:01 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: birthday, New Farm Deli, Pancake Manor

Putting On My Dancing Shoes

It’s been a long but happy day.
On my birthday I like to take the day to go out somewhere, mostly to shop at op shops and have a good coffee somewhere. The last couple of years I’ve gone back to my past haunts, taking the train on my own, and getting back later in the afternoon. This year I didn’t think I’d manage the travelling, so my Babe took me in to have a look at some places I’ve seen as we’ve passed by on the way in to town but have never had the time to stop…
My morning started with a cup of tea and heart shaped chocolates in bed. My sweet boys got me another pop vinyl – this time Hedwig (I still need to get a Harry Potter!)

We went fairly early to start the day, while I still had energy.
It seems a bit superficial to spend my day shopping…
I tend to buy second hand for most purchases – I like re-purposing things, and you can find all sorts of weird and wonderful treasures. Today I picked up some books I’ve been looking for (yay!) as well as other bits and pieces.

Stopped for a coffee and a GF brownie (hadn’t had breakfast!)

We went down the road to another shop I’d seen often but never had the time to go into. No second hand stuff here, but lots of lovely handmade things! I splurged on some dragonfly metalwork.

with a little sweet sounding bell at the end!

Cake when we got home – another unicorn in my day 🙂

I found a little Harry Potter ooshie, so that can keep Hedwig company until I get a bigger version 🙂

And my Mum sent me a clip of “my” song…

It’s been a full day, and I kept going longer than I thought I would.
The world is well…
and now it’s time for bed!

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on February 4, 2021 at 10:46 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: birthday, Janelle

Unicorns And Dandelion

…and Sweet Beans!
Today is my Sweet Bean’s 17th birthday. It’s also a school day, so he’s been working hard – two mock exams done in the last week, and assessments in for the term. Just course work to catch up on, but it means that birthday celebration will wait until the weekend.
Pizza and ice cream for tea, though!

In the absence of wild partying, I can only enjoy the grey peacefulness of the day with my new unicorn mug and dandelion coffee!

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Thinking....

on September 10, 2020 at 4:40 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: birthday

Sweetest Bean @ 16

Sweet Bean is looking forward to a quiet day tomorrow, after finishing his exams for the term today… he feels he did well, but above all is glad he’s done! 😀

Celebrated that, and his birthday yesterday, with a bit of Grapetiser. We’ve had lots of cakey type celebration as well, and he had a fun afternoon with his friends Saturday – we left them to it and went upstairs. They seem to have spent the time talking and catching up (and eating…) They’re all wonderful boys, and we’re always happy to have them round.
So proud of my beautiful boy ❤

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Thinking....

on September 11, 2019 at 10:56 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: birthday

Another Year, Another Coffee

It’s my birthday today! Yayyy! I am 7 in dog years today 😀
Went to Rafter and Rose for breakfast this morning with Hubby – we were pretty much the first ones there, so had our pick of the tables.

The board outside…

The other side of the board – not my sentiments this morning. I love everybody today!

Sat in the corner, with a good view of the empty early morning streets.

The cake/muffin selection above was amazing – we got some to take home, but opted for a breakfast. This was one portion, but we shared.

My mocha…

The design was either a swan or the Sorting Hat.Tasted gorgeous.
We ate and chatted, and I revelled in being able to go out and enjoy a meal without incident. The music was a selection of 80s music, which made me feel young… Started eating with the Eurythmics and finished with this –