ANOTHER UNEXPECTED VISITOR AND SOME MORE SPRING

What do you do when you get into the shower, you are wet all over and you see you have a huuuuge spider very, very close to your head! Well, no one is near, no knight in shining armour, and you are all wet. Well, I just decided I would finish my shower!! 

And do you see the gap in behind him, I'm sure it was a him he was soooo big, he decided he needed to hide from the sight of the naked me! I wonder why! Well, he squeezed into the crack but had to struggle to get the 'last' half in. The legs twisted and waved, absolute clumsy ballet steps, really hilarious! At last he managed but as I bumped the door in my haste to leave the shower he rushed out, I'm not sure who was moving the quickest at this stage. Now I'm waiting for him to climb out of the shower and then I'll try to catch him with a towel and pop him outside.

Another brilliant sky today and the blossom trees are looking beautiful against the blue backdrop...

Hope you have all had a lovely day. See you soon!

WISTERIA AGAIN AND CROCHETED RUGS IN A SPECIAL PLACE

A stunning wisteria glimpsed this morning...you may realise I loooove wisteria, the scent is just divine and brings back many memories for me. You've probably gathered already that  I do loooove it!!

And then we popped into a church, we hadn't been here before  and thought the crochet and knitted rugs were a wonderful idea for those cold Sunday winter mornings. AND look at the toys in readiness for the children...wonderful ideas!

 Handstitched kneeling cushions.

Very thoughtful additions to the church!

THIS MORNING's BIKE RIDE

Really no words necessary this morning....

Wisteria and grape vine tangled through the sweetly scented pittosporum, (I think!) the scent was amazing!

Beautiful Spring!

OUR SUNDAY

E has had a birthday today and we have had family here to celebrate at lunchtime. The lovely thing about grandchildren and birthdays is how they make it such fun for the rest of us. Cards drawn, words written that touch the heart.

And the 3 1/2 yr old had to join in, note the writing!! Not the best photos here but you get the picture!

I love love love the effort the kids put in! 

Now you all know that Pa is bald and has a beard, wears boots, is 69 and is much loved by all his grandchildren. Just wish they all could have been here! 

 Kate asked me tonight which book I was reading from my lovely  pile....

The book is set in Northern Australia, going between past and present, a mystery involving two families and I'm really enjoying it. I don't normally enjoy reading outback type books but this one has something  that has me interested. Stayed in bed rather too long this morning as I didn't want to put the book down. Now we have our fire going, the room is nice and cosy and dinner is heat-ups! Bliss!

A SHELFIE! SOME PROMISING BOOKS FROM THE LIBRARY.

I've been looking forward to using this term...a SHELFIE as opposed to a SELFIE! I read it somewhere, I'm not sure where now but thought it was very funny! I'm very happy taking SHELFIES, and never would I take a SELFIE!

There is almost nothing as good as a large pile of books waiting for me at the library...all those books full of promise, mystery and hours of quiet delight! 

Reading is almost the most relaxing thing I can do, it can block out the world when my world isn't quite the way I would like, it can just be the deliciousness of getting stuck into a book that almost makes me salivate, it is so good. But then, when this delicious book is finished, nothing else is as good and some of the pleasure of reading has disappeared for a short time! Luckily though the passion for reading comes back to some sort of equilibrium and on I go to the next book.

I've been thinking of this quite a lot as I have just finished the latest Louise Penny book, THE LONG WAY HOME. She is a Canadian writer, writes mysteries that have such depth in them, such understanding of our human foibles and every word is has to be read. A good thing for me as I learned speed reading when studying to be a teacher and I often skim through a book too quickly and probably miss too much. Anyway, back to Louise Penny! She has written a series, all stand alone, concerning an Inspector Gamache and a tiny village tucked away in Canada. Her writing has matured and deepened so much over the years, fascinating to watch. So, if you need a good series to read give her a try!

I'm not sure whether Bear enjoyed the book, he does look a bit bored!

I'm looking forward to reading THE TAXIDERMISTS DAUGHTER. Kate Mosse's other books have been good. Hopefully lots of enjoyment her for me!

FAMILY TIME

We have had a lovely few days with daughter Kate here from NZ, all too short, always is! Not so long though until Christmas when all the family will be here. Lots of talking and laughing, sisters, nephews and niece, mothers and fathers all clamouring for little bits of her. 

Painting swans as you may have seen on Kate's blog, Greedy For Colour.

No time to stop for a phone call from her brother in Perth!

She will be home now even though her flight was cancelled and she had to wait for another couple of hours at the airport after I dropped her off. The one time when I didn't go in with her as I had to get our car home for E to drive to Melbourne and she had to wait all that time on her own...we could have had a little extra of that special time!

I left her at 7.00 am and toddled on home, having to stop at a layby to make a few phone calls. Paddocks and paddocks of canola beside me. I always think I would love to lie down in the middle of all that yellow...I'm sure it would be magical!!  However I do think the canola crops have a mass of chemicals poured on them so I'm not sure that lying in them would actually do me much good!

Beautiful early morning light....I love it.

THRILL OF A GREAT BUY THIS MORNING!

We have discovered a little market stall in a back street here. There are always bunches of parsley, today two varieties, and coriander when in season and almost always bunches of proteas and/or leucodendron. Today I scored!

All this for $6.00! The bunch of parsley, $2. The flowers $4! 

Proteas, from South Africa originally but do very well in our Australian conditions, as do the leucodendron varieties in the following photos. The only thing missing from them is a scent...I do love to have delicious scents around me!

The above are leucodendron, a South African shrub from the proteaceae family. So pretty and the bonus is they last for ages in a vase. The lime green variety adds that lovely colour to a garden and then there the pink ones above. I had always thought the lime green was my favourite but the pinky red wins hands down today!

Lately I've been keeping the parsley at the back of the sink in a vase and we just snip/pull bits off as are needed. Almost as good as having your own parsley growing at your back door! Two dollars a bunch !!

EARLY CHRISTMAS AND A GLIMPSE OF OUR FATHERS'DAY

While in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago and saw this wonderful shop window, even though I do think it is slightly early for the Christmas theme. The  reflections from the glass made it rather difficult to take the photos but I think you can see reasonably well...the reindeer were rather gorgeous!

Hope you've all had a good weekend. We have, a quiet one, always good for us.

It has been Fathers' Day here and the father in this house has had a good day. Early family phone calls and then a cup of tea with family locally. They have all been sick with the nasty flu that has been going around so we have kept our distance. It was lovely to see them and of course the little ones made a big fuss over their Pa, three of them wanting to sit on his knee and be as close as possible to the chocolates they had given him! Which he of course shared with them all! I was amused at the 3 1/2 year old who said to me on the phone,'it's Pa's birthday today,' 'No, it is Fathers'Day,' I said, to which he replied, 'Well, it is Dad's Fathers'Day too!'