Category Archives: Holidays

Beautiful Bendigo

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The regional city of Bendigo is a little over 30 minutes drive from where we live and we go there regularly to access shopping and other services.

However, our day out yesterday was a much more pleasurable excursion than simply grocery shopping.

We went to the current exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery, ‘Paris: Impressions of Life 1880-1925‘. This exhibition is curated from the collection at the Musee Carnavalet in Paris runs for 4 months in Bendigo until 14th July 2024.

Late autumn in the Arts Precinct of Bendigo is the perfect time and place for a Parisian excursion without a long-haul flight to Europe. Although, I must admit it has whetted my appetite to visit the City of Light again after our brief one day excursion there in 2017.

A spectacular entrance.

A wall mural showing an interior of the Musee Carnavalet. I am putting that one on the travel bucket list.

Back outside – a streetlamp and sunshine.

A late autumn street scene in Bendigo.

Champs Elysees in Paris (taken in 2017).

We enjoy travelling but there is also plenty to do in our local area.

A Month Later

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Well, here I am. Back again, finally.

The last month has been a bit of a rollercoaster. We headed off on holidays for 2 weeks to Hawaii and California. This was our first overseas trip since 2019 when Covid threw a spanner in the works of our (and many others travel plans). The trip went well and we enjoyed our time away although I was not particularly well for the second week. We still managed to do most of what we had planned but I did lay low for nearly a week once we were home. Consequently, the planned holiday blog posts did not all happen but I have the photos and stories and will update them one day.

We are definitely back into the swing of doing things at home. In fact, so much so that there has barely been time for writing. Blogging, like any other habit, requires constant, regular actions to maintain and I have let that slide a bit but hopefully tonight’s post will herald some regular posts in the coming weeks.

I began today by cleaning and sorting out the freezer section of the fridge/freezer in the kitchen. It is probably difficult to really see much change apart from the lack of crumbs in the drawers but at least I now know exactly what is in there.

I also have an upright freezer in the shed which has lots of packs of grated zucchini, mulberries and stewed nashi pears at the moment. It certainly tends to reflect what has been happening in the garden.

I made a batch of chilli con carne and we had some for dinner and there are now another 9 serves in the freezer.

When I cooked the rice to serve with the chilli I cooked a bulk amount and froze enough for 6 more serves. If I am going to use time and energy cooking food I think it makes sense to cook extra for another night.

There are a few other things happening in the kitchen but I’ll save those stories for another day.

Getting Ready

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There has been more doing than writing going on here in the past few days as the countdown is well and truly on. We are off on Sunday on our first overseas trip in nearly five years. It is a relatively short jaunt of two weeks to Honolulu and a couple of spots in California.

My posts while I am away will be on my travel blog, Somewhere, Anywhere so consider following my adventures there.

We have plenty to do in the next couple of days. The packing is well underway but a little tricky as it will be warm in Honolulu but San Francisco, in northern California, is still quite cool and showery. In fact, I am probably taking as much for 2 weeks as I would for 2 months. I have made a couple of tweaks since I took these photos. I am also taking a jacket, vest and scarves which are not shown.

For the warm days in Honolulu.

And the not so warm in San Francisco.

A selection of footwear.

Finally, I added this skirt after making it yesterday. It is navy and white which fits in nicely with several other pieces in my wardrobe. The fabric is a drapey 4-way stretch and not something I necessarily would have chosen myself. I was asked to make a skirt and the lady provided the fabric which had a border print along both edges and since the fabric was very wide I had an unused strip which she was happy for me to use so I decided on this skirt for myself. It is probably a bit shorter than I would normally wear but I have thrown caution to the wind and decided it would be a perfect addition for casual beachside wear.

I will add one more post here on Saturday and I will show you the other sewing project I have been working on today.

Four Days of Fun

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It is now 4 days since our granddaughters arrived from Queensland. They are here for 10 days and we are trying to find a balance of interesting things to do with a 16 year old and 14 year old.

After we picked them up at the airport we found a spot for a picnic lunch before we headed home.

A spot of mulberry picking rounded out the day.

On Tuesday we headed to Bendigo to buy a birthday gift for Miss 16 as well as a couple of other errands.

Yesterday we went to nearby Lake Cairn Curran for a BBQ picnic lunch, paddle in the water and a walk with the dog.

Here is a view I captured while waiting for lunch.

Finally, we picked up this DVD from Castlemaine Library before the girls headed to the local pool for a swim. We watched ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ in preparation for our outing today. It was interesting to note that some of the scenes were filmed in a town where we used to live, although the film was made long before we moved there.

Our first view of the rock.

Almost at the top.

A view of the surrounding country.

A quick op shop stop on the way home and Miss 14 found this pair of denim shorts for $4. A sundress completed her haul for the day.

Tonight we watched ‘Looking For Alibrandi’ on SBS On Demand and they both enjoyed this movie. We have plenty more adventures planned so most of the regular chores have been put on hold while we enjoy spending time with this special pair of teenagers.

Home From Holidays

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I am back after a short hiatus. We travelled to Adelaide and surrounds for about 10 days. It was mostly about catching up with family and friends which seemed to entail multiple very pleasant lunches and a couple of dinners in a variety of establishments.

We also took a couple of trips down memory lane as we revisited homes and places of interest of importance from when we lived in South Australia from 1987 – 2001.

Of course, there was plenty of op shopping in ‘new to me’ op shops. I wrote about some of my finds in my last post. This continued for the whole trip. Today I am doing several loads of washing now that I have unpacked. This includes the various new additions to my wardrobe.

I happened upon an online advertisement for a Banksy art exhibition so we spent a rather thought-provoking couple of hours there one afternoon. I loved the fact that there was quite a bit of background information about the pieces which added significantly to the overall experience.

Finally, no trip to Adelaide is complete without some views over the water. Fish and chips with a view of the sunset from Henley Beach.

A bit further south and this is the view from a lookout at Aldinga.

Ready For Guests

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You have probably seen photos of the guest room and it has been used once when friends stayed overnight last month. However, the other room has been a bit of a dumping ground for empty boxes and other items yet to be sorted.

This morning I spent getting both spare rooms ready as we have family coming to visit from interstate and they will be here for a week. I have even hung some artwork in the empty room.

The designated guest room is fully furnished.

The spare room is slightly more sparse but comfortable. The QS air mattress is made up with plenty of warm bedding.

We will be picking up our daughter and 2 granddaughters tomorrow morning when they arrive from Queensland. I am really looking forward to their visit.

Gorgeous Green

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One of our plans during our holidays was to do some painting. This may not sound like much of a holiday but we were happy to help out our daughter who lives interstate.

A recently completed renovation had completely transformed the bathroom and just needed some finishing touches of paint. The vanity, doors, wall and floor tiles are all white or very light coloured so she was looking for a strong, dramatic colour for the remaining small areas of wall. Green was her preference, however, there are many choices. After one previous false start with a test pot we narrowed our choice.

The internet is a great resource and much better than simply looking at a colour chart in a shop as we have done in the past. We were able to compare technical specifications such as the depth of colour, reflective capacity and formulation. Finally, there are photos of completed rooms so we were able to visualise how our choice might look with a substantial portion of white contrast.

Here is the result of our handiwork.

The colour is Dulux ‘Plasticine’. I would love to know how they come up with the names for some of these colours.

This is the image which confirmed that our idea would work. Although it is not a bathroom it does have a substantial portion of white or light coloured elements. The tan/natural colours were the inspiration for the light fitting in the toilet.

Last Post (for 2022)

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I feel as though this blog has limped to the end of the year. Only 44 posts with a mere 12 in the second half of the year. The reasons are multiple and complex.

After 11 years of writing this blog it sometimes seems that there is nothing new to write about. Do I want or need to cover the same topics over and over again? Despite some misgivings I have decided that there is plenty I have to share with readers old and new. If you have any ideas, suggestions or requests please let me know and I will try to cover them.

I did not think that things could be much more challenging than 2021 when I faced my mother’s terminal illness and subsequent death. However, 2022 was equally difficult in many respects. I lost 2 friends, both of whom were younger than me, to cancer, this year. Others are dealing with health challenges, too.

While Covid has severely limited our ability and desire to travel overseas in the past few years, we have once again managed several trips within Australia. I have not documented most of the short trips on my travel blog in most instances for the simple reason of security. As well as our holiday to North Queensland we made several short trips interstate to visit family and friends.

The end of a year is always a good time to review what has gone before, albeit, without dwelling too much on the past. It also presents us with a clean slate and an opportunity for fresh beginnings. That is certainly likely to be the case here as we hope to complete the sale of our house and subsequent relocation in the early part of 2023. There will be plenty of adventures ahead for us.

Thank you for sticking with me in 2022 and I will be back in a bright and shiny 2023.

Happy New Year!!

This Week

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Today is 28th December and we are in that strange final week of the year – the week between Christmas and New Year. It can seem like no-man’s land and even has some rather creative names, including Twixtmas, Witching Week and Chrimbo Limbo.

Depending on your personal preferences and circumstances, the lead-up to Christmas may have been lived at a frenetic pace. Even those of us who have made a conscious decision to aim for a more low-key Christmas may find that most of our activity in the past month has been geared towards those few days centred on Christmas Day.

Therefore, it is hardly surprising that post-Christmas can be a bit of an anti-climax. When you combine this with the fact that many people have some sort of holiday break and another celebration a few days away it is no wonder that we are are feeling a bit topsy-turvy.

Additionally, the New Year is the moment when we tend to choose to rule a line under the past year and really look forward to the year ahead with gusto.

So, this Chrimbo Limbo (my personal favourite) what are you doing?

I am choosing to use the time to reflect, re-arrange, plan and prepare for the year ahead. I do not know what 2022 will bring but I do know that I want to use my time wisely and live my best life without dwelling on the past or wishing my life away.

Buy Nothing November – Final Analysis

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There has been a bit of a hiatus as we were on holidays for part of the time and occupied with various happenings at home.

Since my last post the only additional stuff I bought in November was 4 items of clothing from an op shop while we were on holidays. I spent the princely sum of $13 for 2 pairs of white shorts, a black top with white spots and this lightweight pair of loose trousers.

I am not sure whether they are meant to be pyjamas but I will be wearing them for comfy loungewear at home.