Assembly Line

I have had a quiet Sunday at last, busily churning out these Disappearing 4 (edited when I realised there are only 4 to start with) Patch blocks. They are fun to do, and I feel as though I made good inroads into the assembly of these blocks, which I cut out over a month ago.


To our surprise our little grapefruit tree has been busy too -we have 6 fruit (as compared to two last year!) . Looks like the shade structures we created to get it through the very hot summer we had this year, was appreciated.

DD has been busy too -at last his shed has a work bench (easily assembled with allen key provided!). I know he is looking forward to moving his projects here and finally enjoying his shed. It will be good to get the stuff out of the carport too.

I have only had one day off this weekend, but it was a good, restorative one. I have to say that I am happiest when I am at home, and if the day includes sewing all the better!

This is new

Ever since we bought this house over 15 years ago, I have wanted to do something about the ugly bathroom. The thing I hated most was this window -it is too high and too small. The room is darker than it need be.

This week we took Step One of our bathroom renovation (yippee!) when we ripped out the window and installed a glass block window.
The surrounds of the window will be finished when we do the tiling.

The window has greatly improved the amount of light coming in to the room (sorry, this picture does not really illustrate that as it was taken very early in the morning!)

There are many steps to go and it is going to get uglier before it gets better.

• The purple bath needs to be made white.
  
• The purple and green tiles are coming off to be replaced by white.
  
• The brown floor tiles will be replaced by grey.

• There will be a new vanity with a grey marble top.

• There will be a new shower cubicle with a sliding glass door.

I am glad we have finally started.

Rather than offend your eyes with any more ugly bathroom pictures, I thought I would end with a pic of the new kitchen cupboard my DH has just painted. We bought it from the local Op Shop. It was an ugly baltic pine stain, and so we painted it white to match the kitchen.

There are glass doors for the top and solid wooden doors for the bottom, which DH hasn't had a moment to paint yet.

I am very pleased with the amount of storage it is offering, and how the new cupboard has inspired me to get on to de-cluttering some of the other cupboards and generally making the kitchen work better.

I will post another pic when we have the doors on.

35th anniversary weekend

35 years ago I walked down the aisle to marry my lovely DH. The church has now been bulldozed to make way for housing, and the reception centre is now a sports medicine clinic! Our union has survived, however, and we are still in love, still fascinated by each other, still best friends, still learning about each other, still growing.

We took ourselves to celebrate, to the hotel where we had our first anniversary dinner. They have redesigned the restaurant over the years so it is now a 'Margaret River Wine Bar' type of thing, but the food was excellent (just as it was all those years ago). It is named the Parmelia after one of the ships which brought the first settlers to the Swan River. In 1977 it was the only five star hotel in Perth Western Australia!

We checked in and lapped up the 5 star treatment -valet parking, someone to bring our bags to the room, and enjoyed having our breakfast brought up to our room on one of those trolleys with white cloth -just like you see at the movies! (grin)

We spent this morning having a leisurely walk through King's Park -stopping for coffee on the way. Here are some pictures of the lovely Western Australian wildflowers we saw. Just like being married to my own sweetie, I never tire of them.

My lovely mum

From this lovely lady I inherited:

• a love of singing around the house
• a talent for story telling
  
• a real sense of fun
• the essential use of hands when talking!

(I recognize my Dad in some of these traits too)

From this lady I learned:

• how to read
• how to knit
  
• the power of family
• the courage to get through
• the way to say Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch and a few other words which are part of my Welsh heritage
• When is St David's Day (1st March)

My mother was nearly forty when I was born, so I didn't know her when she looked like this:

But I love this photo of her as a 17 year old. I reckon she would have been a real sweetie.

When I was in my late teens Mum was in her late 50s and she loved to tell me stories of how things were when she was young, working in a grocer's shop where the butter was cut from a block and shaped with butter pats, sugar was weighed and packed in brown paper with string, and cheese was cut from a large wheel.

She told me about being in the ATS during the war, and the adventures she had starting work as a typist for an officer in Chester, when she couldn't type! How she was once on the city wall when the air raid siren sounded, and she was caught out in the open with no shelter in sight.

She married my dad during the war. He basically wooed her with letters! I cannot imagine how they felt as he went off again each time after a period of leave.

They brought up six of us, scrimping and getting by, until they emigrated to Perth Western Australia, and our lives started to look up.

On Mother's Day these are the things I remember with gratitude and lots of affection. She is gone now, but she is in my heart.

When life gives you lemons...

...from your wonderful Meyer Lemon tree -a cross between an orange and a lemon, which tends to fruit only once per year...

...you can find yourself with quite a lot of lemons to share! We have been passing them off to friends, relatives and workmates in bundles of sixes for over a week now.


I juiced quite a few and have frozen them as ice cubes, which are quite sensational in a gin and tonic :) or to give a zing to cold water on a hot day..

My darling Hubby (DH) got busy and processed quite a few to make the most wonderful tangy lemon and lime marmalade -YUM!

He also made just three jars of Date and Lemon chutney from Stephanie Alexanders' A Kitchen Garden Companion", which is also wonderful. Sometimes we pretend we are one of those posh "deli cafes" and serve, for dinner, some cold home roasted chicken or beef, served with home made relish or chutney, and lots of salad, on home made bread or foccaccia.

There are still quite a lot left! Preserved lemons next, I think...

Thanks for visiting this blog. Please feel free to leave a comment -perhaps you can suggest something else we can make with lemons?