#1324 The First Tulip

FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE SOIL…

COMBINED WITH SUN, WATER AND A LOT OF LOVE…

COMES…

My first tulip!!!!

Isn’t she beautiful?

⚘🤩❤

#1323 Finding joy in Dora

Official day 1 of our holidays together.

We watched a movie. Granted it was a kids movie… but as we do when we go out, we try to make the damn most of it.

Coffee, followed by shopping, followed by movie… in the Vjunior theatre. We love it because for baby girl, sure she is 6, but she is that restless 6. That restless 6 that would rather jump and dance around than sit for hours at a time watching something. Even when she prompts it at home and chooses a DVD to watch, an hour in and she’ll be walking off, without a care in the world as to seeing it through. Meanwhile the OCD switch in me is turned on and flashing a warning red – “YOU CAN’T NOT HAVE CLOSURE!”

Of course she knows what happens in all her animated films. But still, how does she do it???

The Vjunior cinema is great because before entering kids have access to a whole lot of drawing, lego building and racing car facilities, and that’s before they’ve stepped into the theatre. Then inside, before the movie begins, and then at the forced intermission, they can go down a long slide that run downs the length of the theatre, and also jump around on a light-up mat at the bottom of the cinema floor. All this running and jumping we noted, is A GREAT IDEA… before the movie started baby girl was pooped, truly ready for resting and watching a movie.

High Five guys. High Five.

And then again, I like movies. I love stories… adventure, escaping into another world. Whether that world is in the form of a book or a movie, same same. I love going to another place, and even if it is a kids movie, you can be sure I will be reflecting with my inner child and laughing along, in conjunction with that other side of me that is always analysing ‘why does this work?’

Anyway, we watched Dora and the Lost City of Gold. It was great. I enjoyed it, and the references to the cartoon were funny and clever. It did feel a bit long, even though it was a mere 100 minutes, and baby girl, though she had the best time making friends as she ran up and then slid down the slide, and jumping along on the light-up mat, she sighed exaggeratedly to me at the end as she turned and said “please can we not go to another movie again… it was too long.”

Oh God that girl. I’ll have to wait a few more years until we can go off together and do Mummy-daughter movie dates. She still has ants in her pants.

We followed our movie sesh with a great TGIs dinner, and then a smashing round of games at Totally Games…

I love when we pick games that we can all participate in, and we’re there throwing discs wildly at some bunch of scary clown faces that we want to belt into oblivion all for the sake of some tickets… ahh bliss.

It was a long day and a fun one at that, and I just can’t wait for more 🙂

#1322 The start of something Saturday

We stayed home tonight, and just made home-made burgers with home-made chips, blasted Nsync and Michael Jackson and Outfield and George Ezra from the YouTube screens, danced in the kitchen and annoyed Mister F… just another Saturday night.

But it wasn’t just another Saturday night.

Hubbie is officially on holidays with us!

So in the words of Madonna –

“Saturday… celebrate!”

Or, something like that. 😉

#1321 Amazing cuz, Amazing Andy

It’s been a real quiet first week of school holidays .

Some cafe stops. Playground visits. Lots of groceries and stay-at-home days.

That all changed today.

We went out. BIG TIME.

We went to the city, to watch…

The ‘Andy’s Amazing Adventures’ Show!

Not only was it great to be able to watch the show, and see this man come to life on stage that baby girl (and I!) have watched on TV soooo many times before… but it was gifted to us by my cousin, who *ahem*, works in a field that seems to have a lot of perks!

But no, it didn’t stop there. As we arrived to the show, we were led through a side door and waited in this narrow grey corridor with pipes overhead and ladders on the side, until, guess who walked around the corner?

ANDY, HIMSELF!!!! Super star moment! 😲🤗🤩

I swear, baby girl is sooo lucky. She has met so many of her fave stars, she is gonna grow up thinking that this is normal. Oh man, darling, it is not. We posed for photos with him before going outside to our seats, which were also smashing thank you very much.

Baby girl was looking up and around and saying she wanted to sit on the upper levels, and she spied the antique balconies of the Athenaeum theatre… cuz and I were like “trust us, these seats are better!” *stalls*

Ahh, kids.

The show was brilliant. There were plenty of things to make the parents laugh, and being Andy it was super educational while still a ball of fun.

Baby girl walked away grinning from ear to ear, and funny as it may be, though we don’t get to see my cuz as often as we like… she ain’t ever forgetting him after this event! 😄😜🤣

Ahh cuz. Love you. ❤❤❤

 

 

 

#1320 Super seedlings

While Hubble is going off-the-chart planting trees and shrubs at the front of our house, I have been slowly gaining momentum with greenery of a smaller… nature. 🌱

Insert, the Woolworths Seedlings promotion!

As soon as I heard about the Spring giveaway, I had both of my green thumbs up. 👍 I was ON BOARD. After each shopping trip I go about turning the dry discs into soil, placing the seedlings in between, and tending them with water, sunshine, and fresh air every day.

On last count I have about 18. They are lined up along the laundry and kitchen window sills, and I think I’ll need another room soon, so big my collection is growing. Mark my words, I plan on converting them all to little pots so that I have herbs, leaves and vegetables growing in our yard, fresh and free, for us to enjoy.

The greenery sprouting so far? Bok choy, lettuce, rocket, and there is the smallest inkling of chamomile starting to spring forth.

Seeing them grow gives me so much satisfaction. Watch this space…

#1319 The pink patch and other effects

I liked something about the sky tonight. Here, I’ll show you what it was:

See that pink patch? I found it super cool.

And can you see what else I spotted? You might have to look really hard… but there is a waning moon, to the right. And then, a rainbow, to the left!

Ain’t Mother Nature and all those effects just grand?

;););)

#1318 Peninsula sunset no. 8

When the room turns orange, you have to find out the source.

I looked outside, and ran upstairs.

The view…

…and the same, close up.

🌅❤🤩

#1317 Deep reflections at a funeral

A sombre post today. Still with some gratitude, but definitely, sombre.

I was at a funeral today. It’s that event on the other side of the spectrum that makes you think. The event on the opposite side? A birth. Something so wondrous and magical that it feels as if all of life’s blessings have fallen upon your lap.

But death. That which is inevitable but which we don’t speak of.

Although both birth and death make us reflect and think about life, nothing quite shakes our core and makes us think about how far we have come, like the end of someone’s days.

IT IS INEVITABLE. Yet we don’t think about it, we don’t talk about it. I stood there in the church today, staring at the great bright and glowing chandelier above our heads, underneath where I married Hubbie, and where years later we christened our baby girl… thinking deeply.

How would my funeral be? Where would I be? Would I want to be remembered there, in an Orthodox church, a place of many beautiful memories for me personally, or in a church that spoke of my Catholic roots?

The answer came to me easily and abruptly. Despite my deep respect for my husband and his traditions, I wanted to go back to where I came from.

I shared this with Hubbie in the car, on the way to the cemetery. He nodded.

“Fair enough.” But that wasn’t enough for me. I continued.

“Have you ever thought who will be at your funeral? Like, it’s going to be those younger than us, most likely.” I started rattling off names of those near and dear who were a generation younger than us. I got choked up thinking of others.

“What about my friends?” Who of them would be at mine… or would I be at theirs? It was too much to bear. Suddenly the tears were welling up in my eyes and rolling down my cheeks. “How will it be? Who will be there to remember me?”

Hubbie reached out his hand to hold mine. “Don’t talk like that.” If anyone had thought of death, and of how grief took hold of your body, it was Hubbie. “Don’t think about it.”

And that’s what we do, don’t we? We go back to not thinking about it… not talking about it.

But like I said, death makes us think. And so it should. It makes us take stock of things, do a life inventory as it were, to see what makes us happy, if we are using our time wisely, and who we are spending that hard-earned time on… all sage questions, and things we should consider more often.

It made me think of those around me. Was I surrounding myself with the best people possible? Those who had my best interests at heart and made me happy? Would I be happy, at who turned up at my funeral?

So today I used this time to think. To contemplate and reassess what is around me. Put things in perspective. To remember to stress less, and LIVE MORE.

Because I have time. If you are reading this, YOU have time too. Take the event of death of a loved one as a most humble and sobering reminder to wake up to the signs of life and make sure you are on the right track… every day is a chance to start anew… every day is a chance to make your days count… and every day is a chance to make your life worthy and satisfying.

Make your relationships with your loved ones count. Surround yourself with the best people possible. Not just because they might be at your funeral… but because they should already be in your life, too.

Photo by Simeon Muller on Unsplash

 

#1316 The Briars Market

Today we finally got a chance to go to the Briars market.

I have been hearing about the Briars for some time now. Funnily enough, it is only a short 5 or so minute drive down the road from us, and we kind of, accidentally stumbled upon it on mine and Hubbie’s last day off on Wednesday when we were looking for nurseries, in search of plants for our front yard.

The Briars is a historic property steeped in history. Its settlement dates back to 1840, by retired army officer Captain James Reid. It was one of the first houses built in Mornington Peninsula by Europeans, and the Historic Homestead remains as this link back in time.

The beautiful and hilly grounds are comprised of 230 hectares of trees and gardens, wide, rolling hills, and contain a nursery (which we came across the other day), a Wildlife Sanctuary, the Historic Homestead, even an Astronomy Centre amongst many other points of interest.

Due to its wide and expansive location, it also makes sense that it can hold a market or two. Enter the Briars market. Held once a month in the sunnier parts of the year, stall holders and local produce people converge in stalls to bring the locals and those who travel from far, something to see and do with the family on a Sunday.

Well it was our time to see it today. While we didn’t stay for long and didn’t buy anything, it was a pleasure to walk its grounds and breathe in the crisp Spring air… and going by the historic nature of the grounds, it’s a place I would love to re-visit and explore, to plant my roots as it were, into this most humble and cherished of Peninsula grounds.

 

#1315 On the first day of school holidays…

… Baby girl and I saw,

The very people we weren’t meant to for 2 weeks. 🤭

Ok, so rhyme, failed. I found it funny though, that the day after we said

“bye routine!”

”bye friends!”

”bye school!”

Well, we didn’t see routine, or school… but we saw friends. 🥳

It was all good, it was all wonderful. A birthday party at a play centre, jumping and running and skipping, fairy bread and rainbow cake…

And a great first day was had.

We are pooped. Day 1, done. ✔️