Day 287 - Vegies planted!

Phew! Vegies planted just before Melbourne Cup Day, we made it - but it was HARD WORK! That's because I had to do most of it because the farmer still has his leg in a splint.

Day 286 - a luscious rose and a fiery sunset

A most luscious rose growing in our garden at the moment.Later in the evening I captured the last moments of a fiery sunset - a fitting end to my week.

Day 285 - Peaceful evening

My day off -again! We bought the vegie plants that we'll plant on the weekend. I went to an eMug (Apple Mac) meeting. Back home and after dinner, we were sitting on the balcony from where I shot these photos.

Day 284 spider activity

I was pleased how clearly the web came out - it was a bit of a shot in the dark! You'll see it better if you click on the pic though. No sign of the owner, just her prey.Can you see the sunbeam shining through it?

Day 283 - icecream sky

A beautifully dreamy early evening sky offered some solace after a day to be forgotten. These pink clouds always make me think of icecream.

Day 282 - vegie garden in the making

Michael weeded the old vegetable plots today (as his father is still incapacitated)in readiness to planting tomatoes, lettuces, zuccini - before Cup Day! The potatoes were hiding under the dirt. The lemon balm grows just outside the laundry.

Day 281 - Selvi and Sevim

Here's a couple of lovely girls! Selvi is 5 months now and is very cute and plump.

Day 280- Korean restaurant

this was fun - cooking our own thinly sliced pieces of marinated meat at a Korean restaurant in Glen Iris last night

Day 279 - SAC Day

I snuck in this photo with my webcam as my yr11 class were working on their language analysis SAC. They're a good class and hopefully they have mastered the art of identifying persuasive language devices using the correct "metalanguage" and are able to describe how the language positions the audience.

Day 278 - My Day Off

Perfectly lovely. didn't have any school work to do for a change although that will all change tomorrow. Our property is looking unusually manicured since Adrian got to it with his brush cutter. Slatted shadows from the pergola looked interesting on the bricks in the afternoon sun.

Day 277 - Year 12's Last Day

Our Year 12's last day - they were very well behaved. Much writing of messages on t-shirts and a celebratory assembly which was surprisingly thoughtful and entertaining with a number of different films the students had made.

Day 276 - Ancestors

This lovely lady was unearthed the other day from a box buried in Nick's study. She is Emilie, Nick's grandmother's older sister. This studio photo was taken in Egypt when Emilie was probably in her late 30's - many members of this family had white hair before they turned 40. Originally from Smyrna (now Izmir), Emilie and her husband left for Egypt long before her sister Anna (Nick's Yiayia)arrived there as a refugee in the 1920's.It was in response to her older sister's urgings that the widowed Anna and her 3 young children left the inhospitable refugee camp in Athens and arrived in Alexandria, 1 year after their forced departure from their mountain village of Kouklouja overlooking the beautiful and once predominantly Greek port city of Smyrna.
Emile's eyes and eyebrows remind me a little of Stefanie's.

Rosellas

These rosellas were playing on the grass outside my bedroom window this afternoon

Day 274 - some lovely boys

My nephew and his two sons came up to see us today. They had picked up their nan / great nan (my mother), took her to their childcare fete and then returned to the hills after a fun packed afternoon! Mum had a really enjoyable time and it was great to see my little great-nephews who are growing up very quickly.

A trip to Mine

Penelope has a little job working in a baby shop in Olinda at the moment. It's called Mine and stocks beautifully handcrafted toys and items of clothing - all fabulously expensive.Pen says it's a very pleasant and unpressurized environment catering mainly to tourists. Mum and I visited her there today.

Day 272 - Funeral

Today I attended the funeral of the daughter of an old friend and colleague. Erica was just 35 years old and died from an aggressive and rare form of cancer.She and her husband had recently bought a house close to Erica's mother who suffers from Parkinson's Disease. She was planning to start a family when she first became ill. Erica was Celia's only child and much adored. I had fallen out of contact with Celia and her husband and had no idea Erica was ill until I heard of her passing. Her young husband spoke courageously of his beautiful wife and her zest for life and Celia too bravely paid tribute to her daughter's love and achievements in her short lifetime.A reminder indeed to treasure our loved ones whom we should never take for granted.

Michael's birthday dinner

We had a birthday celebration for Michael tonight.

Day 270 Roast

Nick had an old school friend drop in for tea tonight and we had the King Island lamb I bought yesterday. It was very tender and tasty. Nick's sister had called in today and prepared this meal for us so I can't take credit for it but I certainly appreciated it.

Day 269 --Belgrave shopping strip

Belgrave shopping centre straddles the dying curves of Burwood Highway before it transforms into Monbulk Rd. It's about 10 minutes from where I live and I often go there for some speciality shops - today a butcher's that sells King Island meat.

Garden Action

Lots of activity in the garden this time of year.

Sunday

A busy day with the usual weekend jobs to do but took time out to appreciate these yellow beauties I planted last year, brightening up a corner of the garden.

Day 268 - birds in tree

Late in the day caught these birds in our neighbour's big old poplar tree just coming into leaf.

Day 267 - ROME

My brother lent us his double volume set of the DVD series called Rome about 6 months ago and they have been just sitting on our bookshelf. With Nick being so house bound at the moment, we decided to start watching them and they're quite addictive - sort of in the West Wing category. We're up to the 2nd series now.

Day 266 - A Fine Day

My day off was a big improvement on yesterday. Met for lunch with dear friend and former work colleague, Heather, who has just returned from a very enjoyable sojourn in France and Italy with the Sisterhood - Women's Travel What a wonderful concept - Heather thoroughly recommends this travel group and I scored the Cezanne print. You can also see my wisteria in flower and that ubiquitous kookaburra staring boldly into my camera- very cheeky young bird.

Day 265 - Another Day

A long and tiring day. Thank goodness it's my day off tomorrow.

Day 264 - School Assembly

This is what our whole school assemblies look like - 1200 students sitting, shoeless, on the floor of the lower level of the school stadium. We do have a more comfortable presentation auditorium but it only seats 250. So, this isn't an ideal environment for students to sit and be spoken to for about 40 minutes - no wonder they start to squirm a bit. Just as well we only have these big assemblies about once a term.

Day 263 - Sun dappled early evening.

A golden setting sun threw gentle beams onto the garden and into the house. We are now saving an hour of extra sunlight a day which is why I caught these last rays as we sat down after dinner. The clock sitting on the mantlepiece usually hangs up higher. It had just been wound forward an hour but I couldn't reach to hook it back up onto the bricks.

Day 262 - violin in the making

My younger daughter's young man, Isaac, is a luthier - a maker and repairer of stringed instruments.He showed us today a violin he is making using spruce and maple timber - traditional European materials.He will finish it using a transparent golden brown varnish so the natural wood grain will show through.He would like to keep it to play himself but it will eventually go on the market.

Day 261 - Burningoff

Kookaburra watched as the huge pile of branches, bark, dry leaves and sticks crackled merrily and then dwindled to a pile of ash.You can also see the pristine job Adrian has done on our backyard.

Day 260 Home plumbing, and Homebirth

Pictures show my brother doing some plumbing repair for us. He's not a plumber but patiently worked out what was to be done and successfully completed the job. The other is my virtual rally photo that joined the homebirth rally at Canberra last month where I pledged my support for the right of women to chose where they give birth. See http://www.homebirthaustralia.org

Day 259 - backyard cleanup

With Nick in grumpy post operative mode, he was in no position to argue that we don't need help cleaning up our property for summer. So, it is Adrian to the rescue! He's doing a wonderful job - very thorough - and he'll be burning off those two big piles of garden debris this weekend hopefully.There's a kookaburra nest in that old dead hollow tree but they wouldn't pose for me.