Monday

Peonies from my best friend Shelley – thanks so much! They were such a treat.

It seems odd, when I have every Monday off, for the rest of the working world to have it off as well! I feel like I should have tomorrow off as well to compensate.

I'm chipping away at the book I'm working on, and enjoying sitting at my desk with the back door open to the garden. It's a balmy 22 degrees with a little wind and just bloody perfect.

We had a quiet weekend, mainly because I've been warding off a head cold, which has been coming and going since last Tuesday. 

Saw a lovely Michelle Williams movie (Take This Waltz) on Saturday morning with my best friend Karen. While we both enjoyed it, we did sit for a few minutes afterwards and grumble about some of the odd things in it, like the really bizarre conversation Margot (Williams) has over coffee with the bloke she fancies, in which he tells her what he wants to do to her, at which point any self-respecting woman would either slap him or go "eew..." and walk quickly away. There was a sort of wacky collage of weirdly incongruous sex scenes, to boot. And we'd have trimmed it by a good 20 minutes with some judicious editing. But other than those gripes, it was fab!

David and I are off for a long weekend in Adelaide from Friday morning, he as guest of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and me as tag-along. We love exploring a good city together, and we are really looking forward to it. I think we're going to seven or eight shows, and a gala dinner. Yay! Packing the wicked boots and the leopard-skin coat ...

Lovely stuff

There are three kaffir lime trees in our garden, and I was mystified when one of them started producing oranges. It seems the limes are grafted on to root stock, and one of our trees has two trunks – one with the distinctive kaffir lime leaves and the other, the root stock, laden with oranges.
Curious to know what sort of oranges they are – with their squat shape and roughly-dimpled peel – I summoned help from Mr Google and discovered, to my utter delight, that they are seville oranges. The actual thing. Perfect fruit for marmalade.

So yesterday, the first day of winter (we also made celebration porridge), I went gathering, and boiling and bottling, and now I have nine jars of fabulous – if I do say so myself – bitter orange marmalade.

Midway through the process, after the whole fruit had been boiled alive for two hours, filling the house with the most fantastic sharply-orange scent, the recipe blithely said: " ... then add the juice of two lemons ...". WTF? It was after 6pm by now, so David and I nicked the front lamp off Will's bike as a torch and traipsed off into the park behind our house where I happen to know there is a magnificent lemon tree with branches hanging over someone's back fence. The marmalade was saved.

Next time, I'll get a funnel to help get the scalding hot lovely-stuff into the jars without getting it everywhere. Lots of stickiness in my kitchen this morning! But YUM. Seriously. A whole planet of difference from the factory stuff.

Friday

We've had some deliciously cold nights, so I've been sleeping like a log. And I'm addicted to peppermint tea, which is all that Will drinks. He and I make a big pot every evening, and we drink the lot between us. And that also helps me sleep, I think, rather than caffeine-loaded regular tea.

I'm starting the day slowly here at Schloss Zed. First load is in the machine. Then a little computer catch-up (that's my desk, above, in this morning's mild winter sunlight), another coffee, and a bit of work on the book – editing, not writing. But my best friend Shelley was reminding me this week that I really ought to get Julia out of the kitchen where her guest is still making coffee and where I abandoned her so long ago ... and I'm wondering if she may need to be transplanted from the backwoods of Tuscany to rural Australia. I do have lovely plans for her, that she'll definitely enjoy ...

Tuesday

When I got home from work today, a box from Japan was sitting on the table.

These are birthday presents from Lily – how well does she know her mum?

I can't believe the rabbit linen. 

And the dragonflies. My mind is already whirring with ideas of things to make. How brilliant.

There was also a stunningly-wrapped roll of exquisite handprinted papers, so perfect, and a pair of these ...

Winter Birkies! Already on my feet - and so warm and comfy.

Thanks, Lily! I love everything. And I love you t-h-i-s much (hands out wide, like we used to!).

:: I'm having great trouble getting the pics exactly as I want them with this new Mr Blogger, which is a bit of a pain. Anyone else finding it difficult? And scrolling to the bottom of the post is impossible, as well. Aaaargh.

Monday

 I started the day with a little chat to this fella, sunning on the succulents I'm growing in pots outside the back door.

Then it was off to La France for petits four avec mes amis ... sitting in my best friend's sunny garden, enjoying the sunshine, a big pot of tea and some book talk, blog talk, garden talk, telly talk and general catch-up chat.

Le Jardin - avec cardie (!

It's very comfortable to be back to my regular working week after a month full-time. I simply don't have time in my life for all that work!
:: I walked through a web a few minutes ago when i went to bring in the washing, and now something has bitten me on the shoulder ... uh-oh. It's a little bit spidery round here for days and days, we had an enormous golden orb weaver spider out on the front verandah, but I've just noticed she's gone. This is what they look like (click).

Showery joy

I spent about 40 minutes of a very precious morning on the weekend, scrubbing out the shower recess.
So much bloody grout. So many bloody corners. And glass, for goodness' sake – with frames and even more bloody grouting. Let alone a framed glass door that pivots in such a way that you can't get to bits of it – obviously designed by a man who has never ever in his life had to clean a bathroom. Just as the Dyson vacuum cleaner is designed by a bloke who must never, ever vacuum anything other than a small room with no furniture in it. And don't even get me started on the nooks and crannies in the average fridge ...
Anyway, as I scrubbed in the shower, wearing only a grimace and a pair of spectacles, I thought about the perfect shower.
And this is just about it.

Apart from the meeting of floor and wall, there are no corners, and lordy lordy! No effing stupid, stupid glass. Roomy, too. And see how the sunshine gets in? No mould!
If the curtain gets manky, you can just chuck it out.
Big wall tiles, so there's much less grout. And though the floor tiles are tiny, with lots of grout, it is not effing white.
And when I build this in my home I will have a hose on the outside wall, just around from the door, for even easier cleaning!
(Picture from Desire to Inspire ... I think.)

Snuggly

We were very excited to learn the temperature was going to drop to 10 degrees C last night.

Time for Big Red's first outing!

 So much to celebrate with the start of cooler weather (fingers crossed ... mind you, it even rained this week). The Dockers beat St Kilda in Melbourne last night, and Colton got voted off American Idol. Yay and yay!

Have a great weekend.