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!

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.

Published in: on September 10, 2024 at 10:48 pm  Leave a Comment  
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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!

Published in: on February 3, 2024 at 10:43 pm  Leave a Comment  
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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…

Published in: on February 4, 2023 at 10:05 pm  Leave a Comment  
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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.

🙂

Published in: on February 4, 2022 at 11:01 pm  Leave a Comment  
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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!)

So cute!

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!)

This was the food…
This was the view ❤

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.

Dragonflies and leaves…
with a little sweet sounding bell at the end!

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

Yum! (but very sugary)

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!

Published in: on February 4, 2021 at 10:46 pm  Leave a Comment  
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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!

Published in: on September 10, 2020 at 4:40 pm  Leave a Comment  
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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! 😀

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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 ❤

Published in: on September 11, 2019 at 10:56 pm  Leave a Comment  
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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.

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The board outside…

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

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

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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.

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My mocha…

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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 –

Yes, I did sing along…

Here’s some more random interiors from the cafe.

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And one exterior…

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Birthday portrait!

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Got home, and my beautiful boys gave me my pressies, and the cards they had made ❤

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They know me… 😀

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Hello, Four!

It’s only just past 9am, and I’ve had a fabulous day so far! ❤
Bring on the year!

Published in: on February 4, 2018 at 9:17 am  Comments (1)  
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Pictures Of My Birthday Out

A few years back, when I was just starting this blog, I did my first photo post with snaps of my birthday day out. Today we went on a wander through some places I wanted to go, and I took some photos while I went.
Here they are. 🙂

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My latte, enjoyed after book shopping.

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Some comfy looking chairs, which I didn’t get to sit in (it was raining…)

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Steps. And feet.

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Another bookshop we had a look round – there were a few of these little bird skeletons dotted about.

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There were also a fair few spiders, presumably in some sort of resin.

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Yes, it was as big as it looks – easily 20cm across.

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The resident skeleton – it was there a couple of years ago too. Looks a bit unsure about being photographed…

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An “Action Figure” on the shelf…

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Rain on the way home.

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As it was my birthday, I wore my “special” rings – I got the Dance ring a couple of birthdays ago for myself. My biggest boy bought me the green stone Celtic ring that year.

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We won this cake before Christmas, and put it in the freezer for later. There was too much for Christmas, so we left it in there, and it became my cake… it’s a vanilla cake with cream and a bit of jam inside and white chocolate ganache and icing on the outside.

I’ve enjoyed my day. 🙂

Published in: on February 4, 2016 at 8:33 pm  Comments (1)  
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