Plant attack

Monday:

After Easter Show and Easter eggs, and it being that time of the month, I am up 0.2 kg this week. Never fear, it will go again quickly. As long as I manage a moderate chocolate intake! So much Easter stuff in the house.

A couple of garden-related things happened today. I went outside for about two minutes, and reached over some bushes to move a pot. Half an hour later I had a stinging rash up the inside of both arms. It only lasted an hour or two, but it was weird because I’ve dealt with those plants many times over the past two years and not had a reaction. It was a fern, I think, that got me; with little bronze hairs on the stems. When my arms started to hurt, I realised I had the hairs stuck all over my shirt. Maybe they only attack at a certain time of year.

Then Tim was out the front mowing the lawn when our neighbour came out with a chainsaw and asked if we’d like him to trim the tree between out properties (but on our land). It definitely needed a trim, branches were trying to take over our driveway and some were too heavy for the tree and collapsed on the ground. And it was blocking the water meter. So we said yes, but of course Tim had to stay and help drag the branches around and we had visitors arriving so he was all filthy and sweaty while they waited. And the tree has gone from full and bushy to rather bare at the bottom. I don't think Tim is entirely happy, but I am satisfied with the result and we didn't have to pay anyone to do it.

We had family over in the afternoon for Dungeons and Dragons, and then friends over in the evening so it was a busy day. I ate a lot less 'junk' (some Doritos and a chocolate marshmallow bunny) than I used to, but more than I should have. As usual these days, the bunny (sugar!) made me feel a bit sick. I never learn. Or maybe I do. A couple of times in the past few days I've taken only one or two bites of something sweet then decided I didn't want it so didn't eat it.

I haven't done any gardening (or any other exercise other than unavoidable walking) for two weeks while I had the flu, need to get started again tomorrow as I no longer have that excuse. The weather will be cooling again which makes it easier. I don't deal well with the heat.

It is my Poppa's 100th birthday coming up in May. My mother's father. 100! Still living in his own home without any assistance. Getting pretty deaf now and rather hunched, but otherwise fine. He's amazing.

Party

Saturday:

We did some gardening in the morning, and while Tim was digging out yet more tree roots he found that they were attached to a big tree stump under the ground! When we had the land cleared for the pool, several large trees had to be removed, and they ground the stumps down but only to 20cm below ground level (I think). I had to get someone to come and completely remove one stump that was in the way of pool construction, but this one was left. We'll just plant around it. It will rot down eventually. In fifty years or something.

We had a lovely swim in the afternoon. With the heater only on for a day and a half in was still a bit cool in the water but you got used to it. Lovely hot day. The weight I've lost makes a big difference to how I feel in my swimming cossie. We're going to work hard on the garden this week while we're all on holidays and then have a pool party the next hot weekend.

In the evening we went to a birthday party, one of Tim's lesser-known cousins. It was a 1920's theme, some people really dressed up but we just wore our best approximation of flapper fashion from what we had. The party was fine but the food was awful! It was dinner time, there wasn't a sit down meal but plenty of finger food, little pies and mini quiches and deep fried stuff etc. Unfortunately, as well as all being terribly unhealthy it was all cheap inedible frozen food bulk purchased, that none of my finicky household could eat. Even the pre-sliced cheese was horrible. On the other hand, the dessert table was magnificent! I had to have something (not home til late) so my dinner was a spring roll, a couple of handfuls of chips and some petite fours. The macarons were delicious. I'm sure I had plenty of calories but I didn't feel like I'd eaten a single nutrient. Oh, except one fresh raspberry that I ate off a little tart then threw the tart away.

I did take a Duromine tablet in the morning after only one day off, no nausea all day. Tim and I are both having some hay fever symptoms so I don't know if that was affecting the queasiness. Either way, hopefully that has passed. I've been eating too many calories for much of the week and I weigh the same today as I did Monday. Only one more day to see some kind of a loss this week.

Cronulla

Wednesday:

Lovely spring day so we went to Cronulla beach. There is some kind of football grand final on soon and the Cronulla Sharks are one of the teams in it, apparently, so there were flags and blue/white/black streamers everywhere. Although I grew up in Sydney, my father was from another state and followed a different football code so I've never even watched a... NRL? game. Still, go Sharks!

We had to park quite a long way from the nicest beaches (the closest one, Shelly Beach, lives up to its name and is a bit rough on the feet) so had a lovely 20 min walk along the shore until we got to the main beach. I didn't even put a toe in the water today, I sat on the sand and watched the kids who went right in up to their necks and body-surfed on little waves. The did come out a bit blue around the gills though, shivering. It is still only the first week of spring!

Even covered in sunscreen, I felt like my legs and feet started burning the moment I sat down so I draped a towel over myself straight away. I am pretty confident I didn't get burned for once, but I'll keep you posted. [later: sigh, I didn't get burned but Jas is a little pink on her upper back.]

After about 45 mins we walked a little further to our favourite lunch spot. The kids had burgers and I had chilli lime wings. Quite nice, but sweet rather than the spicy I was expecting.

Then a nice walk all the way back. There was a little beach down below the cliffs that we want to visit sometime, it looks like you have to clamber over rocks quite a long way to get to it. Next time. It even has shade! And only a handful of people. A secret beach. Ok, not secret, you can see it from the path above, but it looked very exclusive.

Jasmine took this last photo, she liked the framing of the trees.

We had to hurry home because another company was sending someone to give us a quote to remove the trees. I was not impressed with this one! He quoted three times as much as the cheapest company, and that was for "cash" ie so he doesn't have to tell the government and pay tax. So he was trying to cheat me and the government! We are very law-abiding people and would not be using his company even if his quote was reasonable. As Jasmine said "how are they going to pay for schools and roads if no one pays tax?"

I am getting none of my usual work done but I'm having a nice school holidays so far and so are the kids (I hope). Tomorrow we have scheduled a shopping trip for new clothes, the little blighters keep growing!

Good news and bad news

Monday:

It was another day of sun in the morning then cloudy and grey in the afternoon. The kids and I did the grocery shopping in the morning (yes we did get a treat from the patisserie but we also bought a lot of fresh fruit and made a lovely fruit salad in the afternoon) but by the time we got around to wanting to get out in the sunshine, it was gone. We'll have to make sure we snatch the sunshine tomorrow, if there is any.

Two kookaburras are now visiting several times a day hoping to be fed. And I saw three little skink lizards basking in the sun outside near our bathroom, and have decided to believe one of them is Skinky with his new girlfriend.

The good news today is that we have word we are allowed to remove the problem tree that would otherwise block our pool, so that is moving forward. Yay! We'll still have plenty of native plants around the house.

The bad news is that when my father died last year he left a bit of money to my children. Since they are not yet 18, the executor is in charge of what happens to it until then. There are ongoing issues of organising that which I find very frustrating. Endless emails back and forth. There is goodwill on all sides, it is just normal bureaucracy I guess. I've hated the whole process of dealing with both my parents' estates.

It was nice having the kids home today. House full of giggles.

Grey

Wednesday:

I seem to be affected by the weather much more than I ever remember being - although maybe I just didn't notice before. On sunny days I am happy, on grey cloudy days I feel sad, lonely, and trapped. Perhaps because this is a particularly dark house with inadequate lighting, it is very gloomy on rainy days like today. Come on spring, get your act together! And I need an electrician.

I also feel a bit unsettled because I just found out something, by accident, about a close family member that I really feel they should have told me about. Because we are family, and because it is not about me but it does affect me. I'm going to need to bring up the subject with them. A bit awkward. I won't talk about it here because if they don't think it's my business, they certainly wouldn't think it was your business! I do respect their privacy, but as I say it does affect me and I need to talk to them about it.

... well I spoke to them and they thought they had already told me, were sure of it, so there you go.

I'm still going back and forth with the council and the pool builders about the big tree. Waiting for a final decision.

I just checked the weather report and it's clouds and rain for days. Blah. Maybe I need some kind of sun lamp.

Another Tuesday

Tuesday:

I meant to get out to the park, I really did. But the weather turned a bit gloomy in the afternoon so I knuckled down and worked at home in my comfy armchair and got some really good editing done. My goal is to get that finished by the end of this week, which coincides with the kids' end of school term. I'm scribbling changes on a hard copy print-out, so I'll still need to type them up, but that is easier than the thinking creative work I've been doing. It's nearly done, and polished, and a reasonable approximation of as good as it's going to get! It's been a long process, even not counting 40 years of practice. Over a year of writing, then a long break due to life happening, then about a year of rewriting and editing and polishing.

Then the scary bit, looking for a publisher.

I spent some time this morning dealing with issues about our planned swimming pool. It's those damn trees. The council decided one big tree right in the middle of the backyard has to stay, there is also a protected zone around it so that is most of the backyard blocked. They sent a suggested revised plan with the pool squashed down one side. The rest of the yard would remain wild scrub, I guess; full of lizards (nice) and spiders (not nice), under the tree constantly dropping leaves and branches (Australian gum trees like to drop branches with no warning, and although they are evergreen (ever-grey more like) they drop leaves all year round), not great for a pool. Or a pretty garden or lawn or seating around a bird bath. We had to get a big gum tree lopped at our old place in Canberra because it dropped a big branch on our neighbour's roof and broke some tiles. It is not a particularly nice tree either, it's not the one I thought we were going to have to keep. So I've been in conversation with our pool people, I told them about the bushfire protection rule which seems to allow us to remove the tree anyway because it is close to the house and we are in a bushfire-prone area. They haven't confirmed yet. It's a bit of a worry, but I guess we'll work with whatever we have, even if it ends up being a little plunge-pool in one corner. That would be sad though. I feel like we have a completely unusable back yard at the moment. None of us have been out there for ten months except to plan the pool! The kids need a backyard they can play in.

Another coast walk

Wednesday:

Feeling much better today after a decent night's sleep.

I was waving goodbye to Aiden this morning when the tree guy from the council arrived. I didn't have any notice of this one coming, he probably didn't need me to be there. He looked around the backyard and made notes on his little map, singing or humming the whole time. I asked if he foresaw problems with removing any of the trees and he picked out one gum that was a lemon-scented somethingorother. It is the nicest looking tree out there and right in the corner where it won't affect the pool, so although it doesn't fit with my theme for the future garden I won't really mind if we have to keep it. It's the ugly scrubbly and/or dead ones I want to get rid of, as well as the ones where the pool will be.

I decided to drive over the coast again for another try at the walk/edit combo. I was able to park right next to the beach so I could leave everything in the car and walk unencumbered. I walked for a bit over an hour, and got tired and hot and sweaty which is great. I like to feel tired at the end so I know I am pushing myself a bit. It was a bit cloudy today but still very warm, perfect for walking.

I then walked a bit more around the restaurant and shopping area to find a nice café for lunch. Full sugar disclosure, I had a lemon squash "spider" (ice cream float) without even thinking about it. At home I only drink water and tea, but when I'm hot and tired I suddenly want instant calories.

My feet were sore by this stage, the down side of having skin on the soles of my feet as soft as a baby's bottom is that they abrade very easily and even the best of socks start to feel like sandpaper! I really need to toughen up.

I picked up my manuscript from the car and strolled into the park by the beach. I had a lovely view and the scent of the sea, but it didn't work out. There were no tables free, and trying to wrestle an unwieldy stack of papers into submission on a sloping lap while I sat on a bench, making notes and sometimes looking things up on my phone, was too hard.

So I drove home again. So sleepy from exercise and sun! I thought about crawling into bed but I knew that if I had a nap I wouldn't sleep as well tonight. Cup of tea instead.

Same same

Wednesday:

Pretty normal day. I did the things I usually do.

My walk this morning was to the library. I took a couple of photos of a "scribbly gum".

This is a type of Australian eucalyptus tree that gets marked by beetle larvae and looks like it's been scribbled all over by a child. As far as I know it doesn't do any major damage to the tree, and looks quite pretty. Beetle graffiti!

I saw a teaser for an upcoming news show (which I didn't watch) that seemed to be saying the Australian nutritional guidelines are being changed to reflect that "low fat" isn't the most healthy diet. Yay! Finally the government is catching up to what studies have been showing for many years.

Although I do wonder what research in ten years will tell us. Too much bacon, not enough bacon...

Breakfast, coincidentally, was crispy bacon and salad.

Lunch was half a steak and a huge pile of mushrooms and onions, snow peas, and cucumber. No skimping on vegetables today! And I had no need for an afternoon snack, no hunger except as mealtimes approached.

Dinner was lemon roast chicken and diced vegetables. And a bit of potato. And went back for a bit more chicken. I wasn't especially hungry, but I am a good cook! So tasty.

In the evening Jasmine had some Nutella on toast and went I walked in the kitchen I saw the jar still on the counter and had a yummy spoonful. Hmmm, not exactly on plan. But choco-licious.

Six degrees of separation

Thursday:

There was a movie some years ago called Six Degrees of Separation which suggested that we are connected to everyone in the world in six or less links. I don't know if that is true, but I had a "small world" moment today on a much more local level. I put an ad online for free packing boxes for the 60 or so we had in the garage, the woman who picked them up this afternoon lived about 20 minutes drive away so not really that close. We chatted while loading up her car with the boxes, and it turns out she is best friends with my husband's aunt! Quite random. We have different surnames, it came up when talking about the school the aunt teaches at.

It was lovely and cool today despite being the third day of an Australian summer, and I went for a leisurely walk up to the library and back. I'm going to have to join the gym though, it's just going to be too hot for me over summer.

One book I borrowed was about the DASH diet, which I have investigated before when my husband first got high blood pressure as it was specifically designed to combat hypertension, but is also generally considered to be good overall diet. Since I have so much trouble looking after myself, maybe it will be easier if I'm doing it for his health? This is an updated version, published 2014. Essentially it seems to be a plant-based diet. Not actually vegetarian, but with fruit and vegetables and pulses etc as the main part of every meal, garnished with a small amount of meat and fat. Very little processed food. Keen on a wide variety of different coloured plant foods. It seems very sensible to me, but I don't know if we could stick to it! We are very much carnivores here, meat is the centre of every meal. Even if we don't cut down on meat too much it wouldn't hurt us to eat a lot more vegetables, and Tim would be very happy to do so. He likes the damn things. I've had a lifetime of struggling to find ones I like and trying to work out how to cook them.

The tree-trimmers came and cut off that branch that was broken. A truck came with five men! This was their last job of the day and a very easy one. Nothing over head-height, so no ladder required. Chainsaw and slice slice slice, broken bit cut off and a few more bits reshaped. Branches picked up, a few seconds with a leaf blower and done. Amazing what you can do with the right tools and experience. It would have been a couple of hours with a small blunt saw and my puny muscles!

Housework day

Wednesday:

I was home all day today, dealing with this and that. Ever since we got our new internet set up here, we've been able to receive emails but not send them except by an inconvenient roundabout method from the provider's website. I spent two hours on the phone with them this morning and finally got that fixed. Then there was the tree out the front, at the end of last week a big branch split from the trunk but wasn't quite separated, it was draped across the sidewalk and blocking our mailbox and people walking past. Today someone came out and gave me a quote to get that dealt with, and they are coming back tomorrow. Even if I knew where our gardening tools were, we don't have a chainsaw or anything hefty enough to deal with issue.

I also had to wait most of the day for a delivery. As well as the dining table (which I called about today and we expect to get a couple of days before Christmas!!! I hope!!!) we bought a couple of other items of furniture, like a wardrobe for Aiden as his room doesn't have one. I ordered a bright red flat-packed kid's wardrobe from the local hardware store, hopefully that will come soon. He doesn't have anywhere to hang the few items that need hanging, like his school shirts. But anyway, today was a "lamp table" for the lounge. It is going to be our recharging port, at night all recharging technology sits on that table, plugged in nearby. I wanted to make sure everything was out of the bedrooms, and also kept where it wouldn't get lost. Now it all has a specific place to live. And a drawer to put spare bits in. But that didn't come until mid-afternoon so I couldn't leave the house most of the day.

Aside from that it was housework day. Urg. What fun. I don't have a specific day of the week for housework, and of course some things need to be done every day, but sometimes when I don't have anything scheduled outside the house and I can see the laundry piling up or whatever, I just say to myself "today is housework day" and get it done. Well, some of it anyway.

Despite any grumbling I do here, I am actually very happy at the moment and content with my new house. Especially on a lovely cooler day like today.

Tree porn

Thursday:

Could all you trees please stop having sex in public?

The pollen count is "extreme" at the moment (it's autumn here so it's from trees not flowers, and I've seen a gust of wind shaking a huge cloud of green dust from the trees as I run past). My husband has had a headache for a week and my eyes water so much I can't wear mascara. When you're blonde like me that is a real issue! And my ears are itchy.

Today has involved some editing work in the morning then taking the kids to "Kid City" in the afternoon -- an indoor playground with huge slides and a jumping castle and ball pits and all that. They are big enough now that I can just let them roam free instead of nervously running around after them. I sat and read. The I took the boy to gymnastics and the girl to the library then home. Nearly time to get dinner started then pick up boy.

No exercise yet today. Maybe I can fit some dancing in after dinner.