Weekend Snaps

I did almost nothing on Saturday. I don't think I even left the apartment. I did sort some papers, well I put them in piles, and then into different piles. I haven't actually put any away yet as it just became too boring. I also found I had a huge pile of paper used only on one side, much more than I could store. Luckily mum needs some scrap so I will give it to her. I have a lot of articles to put away as well but I want to double check they are all on my Endnote library first. YAWN.

On Sunday I went to Warrandyte with Mum and Dad, there was a festival on but we sort of bypassed it and went for coffee at the bakery.

We read the Sunday Age and I was reminded why I don't buy it.It seems that to be a columnist in Sunday life you have to have the Awkward Lean down pat.

(God Mia Freedman is obsessed with weight loss. YAWN x a million)

I was mystified by the attraction of labelling outfits as 'Stepford Style'. How empowering... not. Mum asked why I was taking a photo of it and I told her it was so I could be rude about it on my blog and she heartily approved.

Then we guessed the weight of the pumpkin. I don't know how heavy it was but as I haven't received a congratulatory phone call I think we can safely say it did not weight 26.25 kilos. 

Then we had lunch at Mum and Dad's and I checked out the vegie garden. This is the Cavolo NeroI planted, going well except some of the leaves have a kind of aphid on them.

My Jerusalem Artichokes. Hard to distinguish amongst the green jungle; they are the tall leafy things in the middle. I planted them years ago before I moved out and they grow well most years, but this year they have been taller than ever, about 3 metres tall.

They are flowering now. They are a member of the sunflower family and when I first planted them and they grew so tall I expected enormous flowers, but they are just like baby sunflowers.

Bees on the fennel.

Hamish eating his bone.

 Belladonnas, they always pop up around now and look very cheery.

A pink cyclamen.

 

Figs. Hoepfully mum gets time to net them so we get some fruit before the birds/possums/fruit bats. 

 Some strange native pea that grows separately at the top but is joined together at the bottom.

Dogs in Jackets and Open Gardens

I did a little bit of work this morning, actually I read a lot and that resulted in finding the correct page numbers for half a footnote. Argh. This afternoon I went to see Mum and Dad, we were meant to visit my great aunt but time got away from us. those of you keenly following the adventures of Hmaish will be pleased to see him in his coat, unless of course you think dogs should never wear coats. Mum is conflicted, she doesn't believe in dogs wearing clothes but Hamish's inimitable cuteness has won her over so much that she dressed him in it just for me to see.

My leopard print flats. I have been rationing wears as I worry about them wearing out and I luff them.

There were lots of lovely flowers in the garden and the smell of the freesias was amazing. 

The lemons get eaten by possums, sometimes they just eat all the skin off so there are skinned lemons on the tree. Funny ole possums.

I like this azalea with its pink spots.

Gorgeous, not sure what this is.

Mum and I went to some open gardens in Eltham, lots of natives and mud brick and wattle. Native gardens aren't really my taste as a confirmed Baroque lady, but they were lovely spaces. The first in particular had lots of spaces to discover.

Apparently these stepping stones used to be the only way to get to the house until the lady's grand daughter moved in and they needed a safer path. Love it.

This is the house, very cosy.

 

I found a chicken! There were three and this was watching me, probably the greedy one who is always waiting to be fed.

The yellowest wattle ever.

The swimming pool.

Cake,shopping, birthdays, earrings, rainbows

A busy weekend, in some ways. Maybe not in the ways I intended (like thesis and, um, well, and more thesis). I haven't even looked at my thesis... Hang on.


I just looked at it then and it still isn't done.

What I did instead included.

Went for walks in the rain, not by choice exactly. I did see a rainbow and that made it worthwhile. Plus wasn't it strangely warm in Melbourne on Saturday?!

I bought this book finally. Have been meaning to buy it for ages, it is an excellent guide to Melbourne architecture, only short entries but good if you want to quickly find out a date or an architect.

I made a chocolate torte. This is the egg whites being mixed in and it looks rather pretty. You can see the finished product further down. This is the recipe, it worked out splendidly and I highly recommend it. The top of the cake had a crispy melt in the mouth crust and the inside was fudgy.

I then made a spritz and finished making some jewellery. I bought the gold bits of the earrings from sportsgirl but I took them apart to add clip ons and also added the green beads to make them more exciting and dangly.

I also made the yellow necklace, a shop in Melbourne was closing down so I bought an entire jar of the yellow beads, 75 in total and made this very long necklace. I have a thing for super long necklaces. When it isn't looped it comes down past my belly button.

Today we had a family dinner for my sister's birthday, for father's day and to see my uncle whose birthday is next week. Much fun and champagne was had.

Pumpkin tart with goat's cheese. Nomolicious.

The finished birthday cake.

The obligatory photo of Hamish the Wonder Dog. Also the only family member who doesn't mind having his photo plastered all over my blog. He is very clean at the moment as he has a skin condition that means he needs to be bathed twice a week, which is probably like me having to bathe every 10 minutes.

Then I went to look at the garden, which is growing well, weeds and all. I like this multi-coloured silverbeet.

I picked some to bring home.

Lavender

Fennel

Daisies

Some kind of star flower.

Cherry Blossoms

Daffodils, slightly rain damaged.

The Gnome. With his headless squirrel.

More blossoms