the swing of things

It's been a busy week but I'm catching up and getting back into the swing of things.  This morning I looked out the kitchen window to see 3 young things selfieing hairbrush karaoke from their rental van.

Not the best photo, but you do have to be reasonably discreet about these things!
Then I settled down to breakfast.

I have indulged because it is the 18th - never let a chance go by.  Thanks to the September edition of InStyle Magazine, I've learned that Chanel has 3 new perfumes out and that oat oil is becoming common in cosmetics.  I've also picked up a cuppla ideas for re-inventing some wardrobe items.  Perhaps that justifies the $8.95 price.

Back to Adelaide blogging soon.

Back by Popular Demand: What I did in the holidays.

Having just finished reading Circe, in which Odysseus features quite prominently, I shall start with Travel Tales.  Quite rightly, this story starts with the Spirit of Tasmania leaving Devonport and the view from my Recliner.

Once again I found my way to the Westgate Bridge the next morning and headed north west.  I stopped in Dimboola for a coffee and decided to drink it at Pink Lake, which not only was suitably pink but was being admired by one very suitably dressed.

I didn't actually do much driving once I got to Adelaide.  On a whim one morning I drove to the Botanical Gardens to check out the edible and medicinal plants' beds.  It was raining and I had the Gardens almost to myself except for in the Diggers shop where the staff were very helpful in my quest for caper seeds.

I also journeyed to Encounter Bay to spend an indulgent day with The Floosie.  Oh, I could go a bowl of that pumpkin soup right now!  We couldn't yoga because it was school holidays (I'm not sure that I see the logic either).  We didn't walk because of the howling tempest.  But we did enjoy ourselves!  The garden is looking settled and thriving - as is The Floosie herself.  And all that wonderful book talk.  Of course, taking a photo never crossed my mind.

My other longish journey was to Ukaria just outside of Mt Barker.  This was a dream come true for me because I had long been curious about the philanthropy of Ulrike Klein, co-founder of Jurlique.  I loved that a skincare company was established in the Adelaide Hills, and then was very intrigued when it was sold and Ulrike built an intimate world class concert hall on the land.

Nothing like a labyrinth to get me excited!

Getting warm...

And there it was.  What  you can see here is mostly the cafe, where you can get glasses of bubbly, cheese platters and other pre-concert essentials.  I was there to listen to a programme of predominantly Karl Jenkins' music.  Fabulous. About a 15 piece orchestra and 45 voices, with beautiful views to the outside while the concert is in progress.  Well worth the drive.

Eating Adventures

Mum and I made our seasonal Sunday pilgrimage to Longview Winery.  The Winter menu was superb, the spiced cauliflower and the polenta chips and the osso bucco divine.

Cheese and dessert were pretty good too.  The staff there are always good and we even have our own parking spot for next time.
Other eat-outs included vego meals at Central Market with Helen, Tamasin and Willowa; spicy seafood at the food court in China Town with Pru; and back to Plant 4 with Pearl for coconut milk and felafel, from all of which I have only this photo taken while Pearly Girl went in search of curry:

Mum and I developed quite a taste for Captain Hook fish and chips, and salads.  We only went to Mercato a cuppla times but had a few takes of sushi.  I'm overjoyed that Mum also discovered a liking for lamb yiros and salt'n'pepper squid from the Greek place, now called Plato's, on Walkerville Terrace.  Possibly overpriced but a delightful experience.

Makes you think.

(to be continued)

Last things first

I will get around to blogging my Adelaide Jaunt.  I got home on last Thursday and mostly slept.  Friday it was yoga, tai chi, lunch at the school with the 24 Carrot Program then School Association business.  It was also very windy

and I can well imagine that one day the waves will roll into our street.  Yet again ignore those strange sky markings that periodically appear in my photos.
Saturday it was off to Oatlands to visit Steve selling calendars at the Bullock and Heritage Festival.  Sunday off to serve eats and hot drinks to participants at The Winter Challenge at Orford.

It wasn't quite Le Tour - participants had to kayak, run, road bike and mountain bike - but it was well worth it for us.  Participants were genuinely surprised that all the cakes and biscuits were homemade, and very happy to carb load.

We raised over $1000 for the school, well above our $300 target.
Yesterday I went to the gym, started on the washing etc and finally got out in the garden.  I pruned the japonica back to the blossoms and this morning enjoyed the small birds feeding on them.  Today was zumba, more catch up gardening and washing, and back to my treasurer responsibilities for a cuppla organisations.
I also finished this book

which I picked up at the book cupboard at Lochiel Park, just across the Torrens from Mum's place.

Happy snaps

I'm off to Adelaide for the rest of July so will be seeing some of you very soon.  I haven't made any plans yet - will see what Mum is up to.

Firstly, a wedding in England (but close to Wales)!!!

my second cousins Mark and Paul

dog worship runs in the family

my cousin David and all his family

the lovely Frances, Oriana and Aloma

Paul and Jenna

Our gym instructor is in Fiji on a mother and daughter yoga retreat, so The Queen of Hearts, Mrs O Henry and I went for a walk instead of gym.

strange but true

looking down on the other side of Triabunna

the Thumbs in the distance

Spring Bay

A nice way to say goodbye to Tribes for a while.

the fortnight past

A fortnight with all the usual pleasures and a few extras thrown in.  It was also a time of some sad news:  the passing of two stalwarts of the Bellerive Historical Society Betty and Jean.  Both of them with Mrs History and me from the start of the Society.  Bellerive treasures.
Curiously both Mrs History and I had historical interludes - see Fleurieu Magic blog.  Neither of us have been much involved in things historical recently, becoming The Floosie and The Babe in our new environs.  (My) Steve has been working with a Woodsdale chap on the 2019 Sheds Calendar.  Next year the calendar will include a blurb about each shed.

Steve and Keith at the Woodsdale History Room.

Steve's 2019 shed paintings are on display.

Steve has family links to Woodsdale.  His Aunty Flo lived there after her war time RAAF service.

The only picture I've ever seen of Florence (and this one grainy and too far up the wall)

The next excitement was Whale Census Day last Sunday.

We nobly chose to stake out the view from Old Saltworks (don't get excited by the mysterious re-appearance of those blobs).

Sadly no whales came to see us.

Last night was The Big One - the opening of the Festival of Voices at the Bushland Gardens just south of Buckland.  Frank Sultana (??????) and Mental As Anything (!!!!!!!!) were the acts

but unfortunately their flight was held up by fog in Brisbane so Ange Boxall undertook, at very short notice, to entertain us.  She was great and I will always admire her for singing on and on as we got the news that the Mentals' plane has just touched down, they were picking up their luggage, they're on their way, etc.

Frank Sultana went on first as the Mentals' archetypal roadie checked things out.  Mr Sultana writes his own songs.  They are darkly amusing and revolve around crimes of passion.  He gets a great sound from his Parlour Guitar.

And then, the big event.  Mrs Omniscient Henry and I managed to sit down for the first 3 numbers

this is not Mrs O Henry

but the moon and the fires and the music got too much for us and we danced the night away.

Home just before midnight to have pizza with Steve, who had wisely started eating before I got there.  Mrs O had to wake up Henry to make sure he knew all about it.  Fabulous night.

Breakfast at TDS

I have been quietly fearful of today because it was my first stint at the Breakfast Program at Triabunna District School and I wasn't sure what to expect.  Like most times, there was nothing to fear.  I was rostered on with the School Nurse so thought I'd be in safe hands.  She failed to show but the lovely Cath from Zumba and the Walking Group turned up instead and I knew I was in good hands.  Cath is one of those capable, unflappable people who just gets on with what needs to be done, and she's done Brekky Club many times before.
Schools have been very much on my mind recently.  Having read Vivienne Westwood's book and just finished this book on Margaret Preston, I've realised how important art teachers are.  I'd quite like to be one and am so pleased and proud that this is what Georgia does.  And I know she does it very well.

'Art' was never an option for us 'bright' kids at school.  Now I think it is integral to producing thinking and aware citizens, and has the advantage of appealing to children and adolescents under the guidance of informed and passionate teachers.

Rain on Tuesday

I have finished reading The Old Ways which I thoroughly enjoyed, though I had hoped for less Scotland and at least some Wales.  George Borrow's walk from Cambridge to St Davids was mentioned in pilgrim passing.  Like the Floosie I was most entranced with the path across the sea when the tide is out, having risked similar (but far shorter) forays with the ever present dread that the tide will suddenly turn and the sea come rushing in.  I should have greater faith in the moon.  And not think of tsunamis.  I had never really thought before about the situation in Palestine where you can't safely wander, always being under suspicion from the Palestinians and the Israelis.  What an awful way to live.

I have now also finished reading Vivienne Westwood's Diaries.  I've never been a fan of her clothing designs but I understand much better now what she is trying to achieve.  She is a fascinating woman and her Diaries are easy to read, huge fun and thought provoking.
Today is the day the librarian forecast for Saturday - grey and raining.  I have taken advantage of it to read Agatha Christie's Ordeal By Innocence.  Something about it didn't ring true when I watched it on television a cuppla weeks ago, so I had to get the book.  Well!  Totally different murderer!  Definitely requires further investigation.

A propos of nothing, saw this little cutey in the garden the other day.