Abundance

I'm Back !

Its been a long and busy week and I was away from home far longer than I expected to be. I left early Sunday morning and arrived back mid day today. As I turned the key in the front door it was such a lovely feeling. Oh but its good to be home. :-)

We headed down to Brisbane on Sunday to join a group of friends from a wine tasting group that dates back to the days of the wine tasting lunches at the Lyrebird Restaurant. How many years ago was that......I'm guessing it was around 1994. Lovely friends who have not changed over the years. Its always good to catch up. It was a degustation lunch at the Manx Restaurant on the river. Tomato consumee, soft shelled crab, duck breast with du puy lentils and Panna cotta with quince. All served with delicious wines. I have to say that the dessert wine did it for me...a sparkling moscato. Mmmmmm. Thankfully Mama was there to pick us up and take us home. What a nice day.

The rest of the week passed as a blur with me changing my plans almost hourly. I managed another trip to the dentist to tell him that the antibiotics weren't working, a change of script and I have an appointment week after next to have the offending tooth pulled out. You can't rush these things you know!!!! I needed to know that Mama would be there to pick me up afterwards as previous experience tells me that I will go to pieces. Pain...that's nothing....its the sitting in the chair with my mouth open and every man and his dog having a poke around in there that's the problem. How weird is that!

I did spend one day shopping for some new clothes. I must be unlike most of my fair sex in that I do not enjoy clothes shopping OR having my hair done. Hmmmm. Day one and I came home with two new sets of underwear. That wont take me out and about this winter!!!!

On my way down south the next day to do an inspection of our rental house I popped into the shops and managed to pick up a skirt,top,two new jackets a pair of shoes and a scarf. It was exhausting. That's it for this year. Why can't I just wear my jeans and t-shirt every where? OK so the knees are a little stained from kneeling in the garden...they show I have a life !!!!!

While I was down there I popped in for lunch with The Great Dane and his wife Gemini. Lovely people and a lovely lunch of home made meatballs and pickled red cabbage. How good is that!

That morning on my way out I had dropped Tiggy of at the vets to have his teeth cleaned. He always gets very excited when I take him to the vets with all those doggy smells. Being a boy he tries very hard to "mark" over any interesting smells that he can find and I usually manage to stop him doing so. This occasion was a disaster. I put my handbag on the floor by the reception desk while checking him in. I kept reigning him in to stand close by me....big mistake. As I bent down to take out my purse I noticed more intense sniffing and pulled him in close. That was the mistake. He promptly lifted his leg and peed into my handbag. Thankyou Tiggy. I love you too !!!!! The nurse was lovely and trying hard not to roll around on the floor laughing, kindly offered me some "spray and wipe." Which I of course gratefully accepted. I have to tell you....it doesn't do it!!!!! I spent the remained of the day hoping people wouldn't think I was some poor old lady with an incontinence problem. Said bag is now in the garbage bin. I really couldn't stay too angry with him as when I went to pick him up they told me he had an adverse reaction to the anaesthetic and his heart rate kept dropping and they had to keep reviving him during the op. Poor little boy. Maybe we need to look at a doggy tooth brush. Now that could be an interesting exercise. I will think on that for a while !!!!!

Thursday came and I should have been back on the farm but our brother in law had sadly passed away on Monday after battling cancer for a long while. We headed over to the Gap for the funeral service which is unfamiliar territory for us. After a quick phone call to a friend who lives in that area he was able to direct us. Aren't mobile phones wonderful! It was a long morning but we were able to catch up with other family members at the same time. I dropped the Gorgeous Boy back at the office and returned to our city home. Off with the "good" clothes and on with my work clothes and out into the yard to mow, brush cut and do a general tidy up before heading out for a quick grocery shop. Fortunately Mama cooked dinner that night. Thank you Darling it was wonderful. Roast Pork and vegetables with her special mushroom and potato bake. AND pan gravy. Clever girl :-) My favourite dinner and it couldn't have come on a better day.

This morning I went with the girls to The Princess's school to join the children for the Friday Chapel service. Today the prep class were singing a special song to celebrate Pentecost. They had made little headbands with a cardboard flame on the front to represent the Holy Spirit. You were beautiful Sweetheart. I was very proud of you. Then back to load up the car and return here to the Farm. " Gee but its great to be back home, home is where I want to be. yeah......."Simon and Garfunkel you said it all.

First things first.....I wandered over to the veggie garden to see how things had survived. Its looking good. I gave everything a water and cropped the veggies. Lots of lovely figs Mmmmm

Then I headed back to the house. Oh no! We used to have a little problem with citrus leaf minor on the new citrus. We don't any more. The dreaded "Wobblys" have been in while I was away. We don't have any citrus leaves any more. Grrrrr. To add insult to injury they have also eaten two beautiful flowering vines and been into the herbs and massacred the parsley and horseradish. Its probably their revenge now that we have fenced off the vegetable garden from them. :-(

One of the sad citrus trees and a white flowering vine in the back ground

Just before dusk I managed to plant out some celeriac seedlings that The great Dane had given me. Thankyou Jorgen They travelled well.

Its been a busy week. I'm glad to be back. Time for bed now.