too old, too fat, too slow

for some it would seem...

SO   the   B i r t h d a y   B l o g 🎂🍾🥂🌠

This was not my birthday party.  It is from some years ago...sent to me by the then Mrs History.  I think it was her farewell Jazzercise bash before she left to live in Melbourne.  I'm sure she'll tell me if I have that wrong.  The former Mrs H, now Fleurieu Floosie, sent me a batch of photos for my birthday.  Made my day, and I shall delight you with them soon.  I'm in every one.

What I did on my birthday was:

made pesto with my delicious local olive oil, and basil from Her Majesty who also gave me blackberry jam and rhubarb relish

started a new nutmeg to do something - possibly sprinkle on a banana smoothie

started a new bar of Pears Soap - one of my favourite things

(Note curious reflection in tap, or mixer as I believe they're called these days.)

As if that was not enough excitement, I got books to read:

First to arrive, Thea Astley all the way from Spain, sort of.  I haven't read this yet.  It is to be one of the 3 books I'm taking with me to read on the plane, and I may be able to give it to Spanish Rose at Heathrow upon my return.  Plans are afoot!

I am making dreamy progress through this one from FF.  She has insisted I make, and photograph, at least one recipe.  It is all so delicious, but so far the warmed olives look most likely...  I may amaze you all.

Steve gave me this one and I finished it yesterday.  I really want someone else to read it.  It's a clever take on the writer / translator relationship but I think there's a flaw in it.  Answers on a postcard, please as my Number 1 Man, Ed Le Brocq, says.

Don the Postie delivered this one yesterday.  Another present from my Steve who kindly listens to Radio National so I can listen to ABC Classic.  I am still brooding over Irena Rey's Extinction so am not quite ready for this one yet.

When not brooding or reveling in Sundays and recipes, I am devouring this:

I am choosing to believe the Pisces horoscope, which says exactly what I want to hear.  Long may pleasure rule.

👑👑👑👑

Indulge me

 It's my birthday.

Steve  / Mr Google sent me this photo yesterday.  I don't remember seeing it previously.  It is timely.  And from a long time ago.  Wentworth River Bank days.  The summer of the rampant hollyhocks.  The deck is built and Rosie and I are ascending to our little heaven overlooking the Darling.  I have  my morning coffee and what looks like a book, though it's a strange way to carry one.  No glasses in those days.  I am wearing the sarong made from a piece of material which I'm pretty sure the then Southern Belle sent me for a birthday, despairing she could find nothing else in Portland (I may need correcting here).  It took me a while, and a massive magnification, to identify the wrap: the pashmina Sashi Babe brought me back form Italy.  So many things about the garden that I'd forgotten, though it was a garden in a constant state of flux.

I can't work out how old Rosie is here.  How I love her padding along beside me.  How I will always love her.  Once, walking along the billabong, I thought I saw her on the far bank.  I called out to her, then realised she was at my side - I had seen a fox.  Once I put a tiger-skin patterned scarf around her to transform her into a Tassie Tiger.

I love thylacines too, and carry a huge guilt for their demise and last sad years.  Amazingly Georgia found this birthday card for me.  How I wish.

I had asked George to make me a thylacine sleeping in a hollow, just like in this reconstructed picture I found online after seeing a similar image in a documentary.  It is not at the top of her 'makings list', and perhaps I am more enchanted by the thought of 'some day'.

Big Days

Triabunna is proving a popular motor home destination this year.  The free-parking area at the back of The Springy pub is chockers, as is the one beside the former butcher's and the other pub.  I took this photo as I emerged from the hotel after a Friends of Triabunna Reserves Gathering and braced myself to wend through the campers to the path at the back of the field that leads home.  I do love living somewhere where other people come to holiday.  It feels like being on holiday every day.

At The Gathering we resolved to pick up rubbish on Esplanade East.  I won't bore / scandalise you with photos of what we collected but I thought I'd share this idyllic photo of a chap working on his boat at a private jetty.  I don't often treat you to scenes of 'the other side', mostly confining my stories to the West side.

Talking of which, I arrived a little early for a Tuesday Lunch at The Village to be greeted by this perfectly set table.  Usually we rush around finding placemats, coasters, cutlery, etc at the last minute.  Dorothy, the pottery teacher, had got there early and set up for us.  Definitely a class act.

The food was beautiful, as usual, and it turned out to be Ingrid's birthday so we had 2 bottles of bubbly...

Then there was the day I heard the gate open, glanced up and there was a vision carrying this cake.  I confided to a neighbour once that Steve loves sponge cakes, so sporadically she pops around with one.  Light as a feather and delicious.

Steve himself is growing fine tomatoes.  At the moment, so is just about everyone else and people try desperately to give them away.  How lucky we are.  Plentiful food and no bombs.

Friday night I drove boldly to Swansea for a 7.30pm concert start.  As the Van Diemen's Band blurb says: NikoTeini, a living testament to a shared cultural heritage, features Niko Papageorgiou on the lavta (long-necked fretted lute) and Foteini Kokkala on the kanonaki (qanun, zither). 

As you can see they played in a rather sparse space.  I sat in the front row  and was mesmerised by their fingerwork but I longed to be sitting on a waterfront eating char-grilled octopus and drinking a chilled white.

Other Big Days have included St Davids Day, Lady Jayne's Birthday, my Mum and Dad's Wedding Anniversary and International Women's Day.  I think I have shown you this before (and I should have closed the blinds against the sunlight) but it seemed apt as I tai chi'd at the Community Health Centre.

This was our Triabunna Tivoli film last night.  It went down a treat, with spontaneous applause from the audience at the end of the show.  That felt good!

Others prefer to stay home for their indulgence...