Saturday again?

(Bonnie, having an upright snooze in my overgrown garden)
Wow, another working week over! This week has been a bit of a blur with lots of re-filing (out with the old, in with the new), debtor statements and more reconciliations for the end of financial year. I haven't done much at home apart from cook dinner each night and wash clothes and watch them hang limply under the pergola. Any wind we had only bought rain with it.
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My menu for this past week:

Monday - Beef Stroganoff (Gus said the leftovers were even better for lunch on Tuesday)
Tuesday - Pork cutlets, tomato & zucchini bake, sweet corn on the cob and baked potato fries.
Wednesday - Southern style oven baked chicken strips, salad and potato
Thursday - Mac n Cheese for Bri and Me! :)
Friday - Devilled Sausages, mashed potato and green beans (Gus got home late from Adelaide so I had something hot in the pot for him)
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Sorry, no pictures at all! My computer man is coming on Monday morning to sort out my pc. It has scrubbed some files so I am hoping he can restore all of that and have it back to me on Tuesday. He is really good and reasonably priced.
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Bri is now on 2 weeks holidays then goes back to do her 4th term of Year 12 (she started Yr 12 in the 4th term last year) then in actual 4th term they revise and study for their exams. It just gives them more time to cram all of their learning into the 4 whole terms. She bought home a brilliant report so I think she is on track to complete her studies and do well and hopefully achieve a good ATAR score for her South Australian Certificate of Education.
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'Schoolies Week' is celebrated here at the end of last term in November and Bri was planning to go to Torquay in Victoria with some friends and rent a house for 4-5 days and chill out. That seems to have fallen through so they are going to stay closer to home and do the same thing. That makes me happier!
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Kirby comes home tomorrow for a week of her Uni holidays. She is in for a busy second half of the year (the final year of her degree in Marketing (Management) as she has been chosen to do a business practicum and is also a 'mentee' with a 'mentor' from the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra where she will see how the marketing is handled for the ASO.
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Some baking is on the agenda this afternoon - some Choc Chip Cookie Bars and I promised Joe, at work, some cookies for his kids as he has been supplying me with farm fresh googs! I also want to spring clean Kirby's room before she gets home tomorrow. Plus I have plenty of washing to deal with too.
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Wishing you a restful weekend (although mine doesn't sound it)
Cheers - Joolz

What a busy week...

We moved Kirby out of the room she has been renting all year and into this flat. She will share it with her friend Ash who is starting Uni this year.
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It was hot the day we moved all the furniture so the girls were quite pooped by the end of the day. We all were!
Kirby's room will come up quite good once she puts up her pictures and makes the bed, of course!

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Our unit has a car port which the other units don't have so they are lucky that they can hang laundry under there if it's wet and they can also put a table and chairs out there so they can sit out on warm nights. All the pots that are under the fold out clothesline are gone so that area is much tidier now. Angus bought 2 of the concrete pots home for me - I'll paint them a charcoal grey and will fill them with flower seedlings.
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The bathroom is a lovely, very dated 1970's style with blue tiles that really don't match and the grout is quite grotty. I gave it a cursory clean but next time I'm there I'll give it a deep clean (read...scrub floors with bleach) and Angus will do some more in there - remove old grout and re-caulk it. The toilet backed up the first day we were there and the plumber came on Thursday - $500 to repair a cracked pipe that is blocked with vines. Ouch!
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The kitchen is being gutted and will be fully replaced in early March. We will put down new vinyl flooring also.
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This is the lounge/living room, looking from the kitchen. The girls want to do a feature wall and put in cedar venetian blinds in here. The flooring is just vinyl so we'll get a nice floor rug to hide it a bit.
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Because our school term started back on Wednesday 27th, Brianna and I had to head for home on Tuesday. Angus and Kirby went to the cricket at Adelaide Oval. Once we were out of the city, Brianna took over the wheel. We headed off to drive the 400kms home - blue skies all the way.
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It was a long 400 kms of open road at 80 kms/hour!
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There were plenty of Aussie flags flying...
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This is the Big Lobster at Kingston SE. We like things BIG in Oz!
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Being Australia Day, I had to eat one of Australia's icons - a meat pie with sauce in a paper bag -
(or as some true-blue Aussies would call it - a dogs eye with dead horse - our own take on Cockney rhyming slang!). This one was a Stockmen's pie - full of big chunks of beef, lots of vegetables in a glossy, delicious gravy. Scrummy!
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Nearly home - my wide brown land. Mount Muirhead with a pine tree covered hill in the distance and freshly baled hay in the foreground.
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I hung an Australian flag in our front window for Australia Day - yep, that's me in the reflection...
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I have been out in the garden in the past few days, tidying things for the arrival of our guest, Chiara. She is on exchange from Turin in Italy and will stay with us for 12 days...
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I love my Black Magic agapanthus - it really stands out in the garden.
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The carpet roses are nearly in full bloom again...
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Fresh herbs from MY garden - rosemary, mint, oregano and basil.
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SPAGHETTI BOLOGNESE

I made the sauce from 350gms minced beef, browned in 1 tblspn olive oil with 2 cloves of garlic. Add a 700gm bottle of tomato sugo, my chopped basil, oregano and rosemary, salt and pepper and a teaspoon of sugar. Let this cook down for half an hour.

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Spaghetti Bolognese with a sprinking of parmesan cheese.
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How exciting! This is my first baby tomato on our bushes.
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It is a month since I planted out our Topsy Turvey Tomato planter. It's going well and it loves the water. I have been watering it every other day because I don't want it to get water logged and go rotten. It's all trial and error as we go along.
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We are having a quiet day today, giving Chiara a rest then we are off to the beach tomorrow with some other families. The weather is warm but not too hot so it should be a lovely weekend. Enjoy yours won't you?
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Cheers - Joolz

Here's what I'm up to...

Pip from Restisnotidleness had this nifty list on her blog, via Pip at Meetmeatmikes. Thought I'd give it a go:

Making: Chai tea - Twinings, milk and 2 sugars thank you. And I want to make some lemon cordial.
Cooking: Oatmeal cookies with cranberries from Hannah at Honey & Jam
Drinking: that Chai tea, mmmmmm! Later, maybe a nice Cabernet Sauvignon with dinner.
Reading: Never Say Die - Chris O'Brien. He is a very good story teller and I'm enjoying his story.
Wanting: Some sunshine today to clear the cobwebs from my mind.
Looking: out my study window, the window is dirty from the rain. Could do with a clean.
Playing: Bubble Shooter...until my shoulders get sore...
Wasting: yep, too much time playing Bubble Shooter!
Sewing: Nada, zip, zero, nyet, nil! Shame.
Wishing: peace for the bereaved families of the two people who's funerals I attended this week.
Enjoying: Saturday at home, all day.
Waiting: for the next load of washing to finish so I can hang it... inside!
Liking: the thicker doona I put on our bed a few weeks ago. Toasty warm.
Wondering: what Angus will cook for dinner tonight?
Loving: my family
Hoping: that Spring will arrive on time, on September 1. Sunny days, a sprinkle of rain at night -that would be perfect, right?
Marvelling: at Brianna, driving a manual car around our small back paddock.
Needing: some new clothes that fit me correctly. I hate buying clothes. Only time I use the word hate!
Smelling: my laundry detergent - Surf Small n Mighty - Oriental. Delicious.
Wearing: black tracky dacks, pink striped polo shirt and my crocs.
Following: Pip's list for this blog.
Noticing: Erk, it's after noon and I really haven't done anything!
Knowing: It really doesn't matter - I've got all day to do nothing! Ha!
Thinking: I need to buy some more viola seedlings to go in some pots. Pretty when they flower.
Feeling: Grotty. Need to shower then I might do some more Mary Wigham.
Boookmarking: Ladybird World Mother - bit of a giggle here and there.
Opening: the clothes dryer to take out freshly fluffed smalls.
Giggling: at an e-mail my sister sent me. I might share some of the sayings in a later post.
Feeling: ready for another cup of Chai tea.