Around here

Wow it's less than two weeks until Christmas and we haven't even got our Christmas Tree up.  Last year we put it up mid November after a crazy 2020 Covid year.  This year we have had other important things on like formals, graduation, schoolies and my sister went on holidays and we normally make an afternoon of it as our family tradition.  Both my kids have part time jobs and social lives so this year we haven't been able to get a time to suit everyone.  Hopefully we'll be putting it up today or tomorrow.  I have a few friends who were in the same boat that we were all late this year for the same reasons as us with the end of the school year and our kids graduating High School it's been a few full on weeks.  I also now have an 18 year old...sounds so weird even saying that however I am a very proud Mum that's for sure.

Preparing for Christmas lunch I will be making this wonderful savory pasta salad which we make at Christmas time.  I also make Chocolate Belgian Slice which was from a Woman's Weekly recipe about 30 years ago.  I make it once a year at Christmas time which is always a treat.  When I first started making it I didn't have a food processor and had to put the biscuits into a brown paper bag and bash it with a rolling pin which was quite difficult to get all the pieces the same.  Now it takes a couple of seconds in the Thermomix and makes a lovely biscuit base.

Here's a recipe to make home made Christmas ornaments which are super easy.  Here's some lovely Christmas Lights we visited in 2019 and some from 2020.

I have been following Gillian Roe from "Tales of a Happy House" for over a year now and her embroidery projects are amazing.  This year she did a "Stitch a Day" of thing in her life.  She has now completed November so take a look at her latest pictures and blog post.   In 2020 she did a "Lockdown Sampler" which you can read about here.  This was her family's trip to New York Sampler which she did before Covid arrived.  This was her earlier Holiday Sampler to France and her Summer Holiday Diary.  The reason I love all of these artworks is they are personal, it reminds her of the holiday and trips and it's also slow crafting so taking time to sit and embroider.  I just love her work and she does beautiful crochet and crafting.

I read this article on Motherhood which I thought was very interesting about how we see ourselves during the day.

We had Billy visiting last week as my friends went on holidays.  He comes every school holidays and he's such a good dog and this is like his second home and he's very comfortable here.

I haven't made any sourdough bread for over a month so refreshed my starter and made a loaf today.  You can read about the master recipe I use here.

Some home grown coriander [cilantro] as a gift for my friend instead of flowers.

Afternoon light in the lounge room. 

Around here

Wow hasn't this year gone fast and what a crazy 2 years it's been living with a pandemic.  There's only 4 weeks until another Christmas and we'll have to put up our Christmas Tree next week.  Both my kids have finished school for the year with my son Graduated High School which is a huge milestone.  They both had formals and looked amazing and had a great time.

We've had lots of rain in Brisbane for the past 2 weeks and I think next week will also be the same so my lawn is looking very long and in need of a mow.  I have already started the Christmas Shopping and need to get a few more things for the kids.  It doesn't really seam like Christmas at the moment however when the Christmas Lights start on the 1st December we always go and see a few displays and that really gets you us in the Christmas spirit.  Check out this blog post with some "December Daily photos" from years back we always had the best time leading up to Christmas when the kids were little.  You wish you could step back in time as they were so small and precious.

I came across this amazing photography story this week of a man in the UK who tracked his half sister down in Australia and actually the sister was born in Brisbane.  They didn't know of each other as the Dad had lived the UK when the boy was 4 months old.  They both were into photography and when they found each other when he was 50 years old the half sister was living in Adelaide and she also had studied photography over the years.  They put together a collection of fused images of theirs from before they met and it's incredible.  Gosh what a story from half way round the world. 

A few weeks back I photographed good friends of mine on their property and here's a few of the images.  I first met them when Eli was just 6 weeks old and he is now 7 so my friends, time flies by so quickly.

Around here - Jacaranda's

So this week both my kids received Senior Awards and we we allowd to go to the ticketed event and it was also online at the same time.  So was very grateful as it's the last year for my son and it's the first time I have been to the school in the last 2 years due to events not being held because of Covid.  In 2020 the school celebrated it's 60th year which they had lots of plans for the year to celebrate throughout the year and of course all they could do was post Facebook memories and stories about the school.  

This week Melbourne came out of their 6th Lockdown.  This last lockdown was going to be a snap 7 day lockdown which ended up being 77 days.  Gosh they have done it tough.  My MIL said she has not had the family around since April and also does click and collect groceries with just popping into Aldi for 5 mins to pick her own fruit and veggies really early when no one is there.  I can't imagine it to be honest and I'm very happy that restrictions have now eased for them.

Queensland on the other hand has had a really normal lifestyle and I'm very nervous about the borders opening and everyone heading North.  I agree we can't keep the borders closed forever however the statement is "Delta is coming to Queensland" is a scary thought.  Myself, my kids and all my family are all double vaccinated so we are protected however I still don't want to get Covid no matter what.  If Queensland is 70% double vaccinated we will open the borders on the 17th December, 2021 which is great for everyone for Christmas but also equally scary if any of my family catch Covid for Christmas.  It certainly has been a very trying 2 years for many people all around the world.

It's 9 weeks until Christmas and 10 weeks until 2021 is over.  I still remember leading up to New Year's Eve 2000 it seems like yesterday however there goes a quick 21 years.  I was working for an IT company and with Y2K approaching  we were as busy as ever for the 2 years leading up to 2000.  My family and I were in Pottsville in NSW for NYE which was one hour ahead of Queensland so if anything happened we could ring our Brisbane friends.  My Mum bought all this 2000 memorabilia like plastic champagne glasses, funny glasses and the like.  As you get older the time goes much quicker.

Anyway onto brighter pretty pictures of the lovely Jacaranda trees that are in flower in Brisbane.

Around Here

Around here we are in Term 4, Week 2 of 2021.  Six weeks unit my oldest graduates and it's coming very fast.  Sadly due to Covid and Health Advice the Senior Awards Night will be online for the parents and we will receive a photo of our child accepting their award.  As the Senior Awards includes Grades 10, 11 and 12 there would be many kids and many parents so I understand big assemblies are still not happening in our schools.  I believe Graduation will be okay with 2 people per student which is what happened last year.  I'm very grateful that my kids have been at school all year with the exception of a few days of lockdown which would be less than a week of school time.

On the 15th September I celebrated my Birthday with my Tradition of a photo of myself with my kids and four cupcakes [I get to eat 2 as I'm the Birthday girl] and handmade cards from my kids.  This is the 16th year of this photo series which is very dear to my heart.  Here's a blog post and pictures from previous years.

Today is "FREEDOM DAY" in New South Wales today and the city is opening to vaccinated people as they are at 70% double dose.  Shops and bars opened at midnight and even Kmart was open and people got out for the first time in 106 days in lockdown to shop, eat and drink.  I can't imagine being in lockdown for that length of time.  I can do without the shops and bars however with a 5km radius I wouldn't have seen any of my family members for a walk so that would most definitely be the hardest part.  Hopefully the Covid numbers won't go back up again as they are now under 500 daily cases.

Victoria on the other hand are just about reaching 2,000 cases a day and rising and they have been the most locked down city in the World.  Not a great title to have and I don't think they are at the peak of cases yet.  They too will be easing restrictions when they reach 70% double vaccination.

Queensland is still closed to New South Wales and Victoria and honestly I'm a bit scared when they open up as Covid will arrive in droves.  We have managed our Covid cases in Queensland really well and our lives are pretty normal.

My sister lives in Perth, Western Australia and we were supposed to go to my nieces Wedding in April 2020 which got cancelled.  She did get married in November 2020 however we couldn't go at the time and the risk of the costs 2 weeks hotel quarantine was not affordable.  Western Australia has it's borders closed still and it sounds like they will be closed until April 2022.  Who knows when we will be able to go visit my sister and her family.

Here's a few photos of other things in our lives and hoping you all have a good week.

I made Elaine Boddy's of Fodbodsourdough crackers using 100gms of sourdough starter which I would add some salt and even rosemary to them next time however they were pretty simple to make and great to have with a dip.

Sourdough Crackers using Elaine Boddy's recipe.

Afternoon light on my Kmart fake flowers.

Afternoon shadows in the kitchen/lounge room.

A big tray of Nachos for a weekend dinner.

Pretty flowers in my pots are thriving.

My Rosemary Bush is thriving.

Around here

It's my Birthday week and the last week of Term 3 heading towards the end of the year.  I've written about my Birthday Tradition before where I have taken a photo of myself with my kids and Birthday cupcakes every year since 2006 when my daughter was born.  This year will be my 16th year of this Tradition which is very dear to my heart.  I don't care about presents from my kids however on my Birthday all I need is a handmade Birthday card from them and my Birthday photo.

I have a feeling we will be going into a three day lockdown this week due to a family of 5 having Coronavirus on the Southside.  Apparently this family caught it from a New South Wales person who visited them and stayed with them last weekend.  This actually makes me very annoyed because NSW is in lockdown so why is a person from NSW visiting Queensland and staying with someone.  We have the Grand Final of the NRL Football in 2 weeks time so we'll have to go into lockdown to get this cluster under control as I'm sure the Queensland Government will not want to cancel this event.  It is always someone from Interstate coming into Queensland with the virus.

Sydney recorded 1542 which is the highest number in this outbreak however October is expected to be the peak which is pretty scary.  Melbourne is expected to go the same way as Sydney and my kids Grandparents were hoping to come up from Melbourne in November as they haven't been able to visit in 2 years however that's very unlikely now.  Melbourne did it so hard in 2020 and this outbreak was caused by, New South Wales people who were supposed to be in lockdown heading to Melbourne.

In the USA kids have gone back to school for the first time in a year and the number of kids getting infected is on the rise.  In 2020 it was the elderly who was at risk however with the Delta strain it's the adults under 40 and kids who are at risk and spreading the contagious Delta virus.

Sydney wants to ease restrictions when 70% of their State gets double vaccinated however the cases are rising everyday and it was announced on Friday that there will no longer be any 11.00 am press conferences from the NSW Premier and it will now be online.  I suspect because from next week onwards those numbers are just going to get higher and higher and reach over 2,000 cases.

It's very worrying and I think 2022 is going to be very similar to 2021 in that while people are vaccinated cases will be high and life won't be very normal either.  In Queensland we are leading pretty normal lives however no Interstate travel or Overseas travel is happening but apart from that we are very lucky.  I'm very grateful to live in Brisbane and have our State so well looked after.

We'll see how this week goes and in the meantime here's some photos from around here.

Party Lights out the back.

Finally planted out the veggie garden with some lettuce, sugar snap peas, garlic chives, bok choy.

Afternoon sun on the back of the house.

Afternoon sun on the blinds in the lounge room.

Home made Foccacia with home grown rosemary and sea salt.

Home made sourdough bread.

My sister and I have spent a few days in the garden weeding, trimming and

planting these gifted to me "Moses in the Cradle" plants which look great.

We planted about 50 of them on the back fence line underneath these trees.

I felt like a big plate of roast veggies for dinner which was so tasty.

Ricky our Budgie.