Changing lives

I'm experiencing something weird...

The other Monday I started school holidays, Richard was on annual leave and the boys went to work.  Work???

After all these years of the boys and I being on school holidays together it's all over...I won't say it was all over in a flash, because sometimes the school holidays couldn't end quick enough but it seemed to happen all of a sudden.

Tom has a job as a seasonal firefighter with the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources.  He has a contract until the end of May.  It's his first real job and it all fell into place at the end of his gap year.  He's been involved as a volunteer firefighter with our local Country Fire Service for 5 years and this helped him get the job. 

Michael has a school based traineeship so during term time he works 2 days a week, goes to school 3 days a week and also has external studies to complete with a trainer.  At the end of 2013 he'll be a qualified Horticulturalist.  He'll be working most days during the school holidays.

So with Richard now back at work after 2 weeks off, I'm home alone...just me...very weird.

So many wonderful things to see and read...

There are so many wonderful blogs and facebook pages just waiting for me to discover.  This morning I found one on facebook that had some great gardening ideas. 

A handy use of space and a great use for all those egg shells.  They suggest that you plant them directly into the ground as the shell will break down. 

But for me the best photo of the day would surely be this...

It was love at first sight.

My new reading aide

I've been sitting on my bottom far too much lately, reading books, blogs, playing games on facebook and watching tv, to the detriment of my wellbeing. 

I've put weight on, around the tummy of course.  I know it to be true because I can't quite get my knees as close to my chest when we do Humpty Dumpty at work.  Not to mention the zips on some of my jeans...hmmm they don't go up.

So while I might not of found a way to use the computer while exercising, I have managed to exercise and read my book while still sitting on my bottom.

Now if I can talk Richard into buying me an ipad, as a surprise gift of course, I might just be able to do computer "stuff" while exercising.  

Mission accomplished

After the heads up from Suzanne I headed off to Big W and bought Julius his new bigger pool.

I was a bit concerned that it might be too big...silly me he loves it.  Lulu spent a lot of time just running around the outside barking at him while he splashed around.

But eventually when no-one was paying her any attention she ventured in to try it out.

I won't be rash and say she's converted to actually liking getting her paws wet but she's warming up to it.

We have folded down the sides a bit so it's not as high because the last thing we want is any broken dog legs.  They are just like children, when they've had a good play out in the fresh air it's sleepy time.

When the going gets hot

...the hot get wet.

Julius doesn't really need any excuse to get
in the shell, he loves water.

As for Lulu, she hates water and will even

tippy toe over wet grass.

I'm on the lookout for a bigger clam so Julius can

splash around a bit more instead of just dunking himself.

He loves putting his head under the water

 to blow bubbles.

Of course we have a towel on standby all the time.

Hanky panky with a bit of spanky

Erotic thriller was the description on the back cover of "Be Mine" by Laura Kasischke and yes that was quite correct.  A book that you have to choose the time and place for reading it  and believe me sitting at the cricket surrounded by people was not the time or place. I had to keep closing the book when I became aware that someone was reading over my shoulder and then adjust how I held the book so  I could keep reading. Did I blush...no it takes a bit more than what was on offer to make me do that but I did glance furtively around a couple of times to make sure that no-one else was reading a couple of bits over my shoulder. 

One of the reviews I read said that the book promised everything but failed to deliver - I thought she held the thriller part together quite well and I wasn't able to guess the ending.  But if you don't like hanky panky with a bit of spanky then this book isn't for you.

Next book please...

Much better than green eggs and ham...

I couldn't believe my eyes in the supermarket today...premixed lime icecream and my favourite brand Golden North.  Normally we buy the honey flavoured or for a change just good old vanilla but today is the first time I've seen lime.  I couldn't get it in the trolley fast enough.

Richard loves icecream with lime topping and doesn't hestitate to ask at any restaurant, no matter how many stars they have, if he can have icecream with lime topping for dessert.

 

Pretty colour isn't it? 

 

How did it taste?  As good as it looked.  No need to add anything else to it, just icecream. 

Slim pickings

After finishing "Beachcomber" by Josephine Cox I decided if that was the best my bookshelf had to offer, I had better head off to the library.

So, Monday I got home from work and then remembered I didn't go to the library.  Tuesday as I left work I remembered I didn't have my library card.  Wednesday I actually left my whole purse at home - naughty naughty driving without my driver's licence and finally today I got there and borrowed 3 books.

None of the books on my "books to read list" were actually available so I grabbed one off the new book shelf and then found a shelf and picked 2 more.

I'm starting with "Be Mine" by Laura Kasischke - 'a compelling, erotic thriller about what happens when the boundaries of acceptable behaviour with family and friends are pushed to the edge'.

Blurb says:

Sherry feels that something in her life is missing.  She is a respected college professor, her adored only son has finally left home, and although she has a happy, solid marriage with her husband, how exciting is sex after twenty years with the same man? 

When, on Valentine's Day, she finds an anonymous love note in her locker - BE MINE - she is flattered.  As the notes continue to appear she becomes intrigued.  But it's when she believes she has discovered the identity of the sender that she starts to play a dangerous and ultimately deadly game with those closest to her. 

Here's  one review  and another .  Don't read them if you don't like too much information about a book tho. 

There are also bookclub reading notes available online...always a plus when you're looking for a book for bookclub. 

I'd like to think I'll start it tonight but I think I'll be asleep early - a change in plans for the eldest son and his friend meant he rang at 2.30 this morning needing to be picked up.  I'm pleased that finally he believed me when I said I would rather be woken up than have him walk home or wait around for a bus...yay how many times have I said that for it to sink in.

Happy reading.

A bountiful vege garden

Grabbed my basket this morning and headed off into the garden to see what was ready to be harvested.  All I can say is it's a good thing we don't rely on me for fresh produce.

And it didn't matter which way I turned the basket the result was still the same...pathetic.

Maybe if "someone" actually spent some time watering and tending to the vege garden we might get a bit more.

If you want to see what a bountiful basket really looks like check out my friends over at Enchanted Moments

You could also check out my blog reading list and find some other bountiful gardeners.

Romantic interlude

I've finished "the Tiger's Wife" and passed it along to Mandy from bookclub.  I can't say too much about it as that's one of our bookclub rules, no discussing the book until bookclub.  But I will say if you come across a copy, have a read. 

So as I'm still on holiday and I'm putting off starting any admin. work for this coming term, I've grabbed a book off the bookcase.

"The Beachcomber" by Josephine Cox has been sitting on my bookcase for some time now waiting to be read.  The publisher Harper-Collins desribes it as a "page-turning drama about struggle and triumph over adversity..."  The back blurb sounds like a bit more of a "romance after bad luck".  It's got 600 pages so fingers crossed for a good read otherwise back to the bookcase it will go.

The blurb:

In the summer of 1952 two people arrive in the pretty seaside hamlet of West Bay, Dorset to start a new life.

Kathy Wilson dreams of turning the derelict Barden House into a home free of the pain she suffered back in London.  As the summer stretches before her, she watches her cherished dream take glorious shape - though she grows curious about the lonely wanderer who strolls the beach below her window day and night.

His name is Tom Arnold.  He also seeks refuge in West Bay, needing a place to hide when the life he knew was brutally destroyed by tragedy.  Drawn to this aloof loner, Kathy feels a bond forming that will radically change them both.

But the shadows and secrets that haunt Tom and Kathy will not easily be dismissed.  And as two wounded people try to find the courage to open their hearts to love, the past threatens their fragile new beginning....

Sounds like a fairy tale happy ending coming up - nothing too taxing for the holidays...

"the Tiger's Wife" by Tea Obreht

A new year and a new book for bookclub this month. 

"the Tiger's Wife" by Tea Obreht

It's a debut novel as was "The Language of Flowers" that we read last month.  Tea Obreht won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2011 - not bad for a debut book.  Although I've read a couple of other Orange prize winning books and have wondered how they won, so we'll see what this one is like.

The blurb:

"A tiger escapes from the local zoo, padding through ruined streets and onwards, to a ridge above the Balkan village of Galina.  His nocturnal visits hold the villagers in terrified thrall.  But for one boy, the tiger is a thing of magic - Shere Khan awoken from the pages of The Jungle Book.

Natalia is the granddaugher of that boy.  Now a doctor, she is visiting orphanages after another war has devastated the Balkans.  On this journey, she receives word of her beloved grandfather's death, far from their home, in circumstances shrouded in mystery.

From fragments of stories her grandfather told her as a child, Natalia realises he may have died searching for the 'deathless man', a vagabond who was said to be immortal.  Struggling to understand why a man of science would undertake such a quest, she stumbles upon a clue that will lead her to a tattered copy of 'The Jungle Book', and then to the extraordinary story of the tiger's wife."

I'm halfway through the book (much to the detriment of my messy house) and I'm finding the tale intriguing so far. I think I've worked out who the tiger's wife is and I'm definitely wanting to know more about the deathless man, one meeting so far isn't enough.  I do have to put it down tho, because I don't think take away tea two nights in a row is a good thing.