Spending Time .......

Celebrated my birthday this week ...... not that I'm counting them any more....had a lovely day and finished up out to dinner with the family and best friends at a local hotel....had the best seat in the house next to my Gboy who started prep this year......they grow so fast !!



my birthday last year - he's 3

Me and my main man this week - he's 4





Time slips away from us so fast and we should spend every minute wisely. Enjoy everyday!

Getting our Greek on .....

Our monthly lunch was delightfully hosted by J&M on Sunday and the general theme was all things Greek !!  There were all the usual suspects...Lamb, eggplants and yoghurt topped off with garlic.

Entrée from the Big K and Robbie...Eggplant dish..YUM.. (everything grown in their garden!)

The hosts served fried haloumi and watermelon salad...............who knew !!

Also pasta rice and roasted cherry tomato salad......delicious.

J & A bought along a side of lemon potatoes greek style.....very tasty !!

J & M also served up special lamb dish with a fabulous feta and chilli garnish.

Have to say I feel I let the side down......very stressful week and I was supposed to bring Greek dessert.....what can I say...I stopped at the bakery on the way down and bought a lovely mars bar cheesecake....I'm sure they have mars bars in Greece????  No photo included, it's in the Hall of Shame ..... Never mind, next time I'll do better.



Back Yard Update....

We have well and truly begun work in the yard ..... removing the old concrete and wooden steps was the first job....followed by the guys with the bob cat cutting out the areas for the new retaining walls..  The yard is pretty steep and we are moving the steps to a position where they are not in the way of the new garden beds.  I am trying to create a permaculture garden which also includes trying to reuse as much as possible of the old  material we are taking down.

These steps were really an eyesore and very impractical....glad to see them go

 We have repurposed part of the wooden steps and are using the other timbers to make more garden beds.

We are burying this lot under layers of dirt ... easier than removing it completely.

The digger had to manoeuvre around some newly planted fruit trees...

 

Holes ready for the retaining wall....what a mess at all that red dirt

No sooner were the holes dug and ready to go... the rain set in.....lots and lots of sticky red mud.. caked onto everything ... the dogs feet in particular !!

Dirty paw prints on the bed...

Lots of floor mopping and  a change of bed linen today !!

Dying By Degrees........

My elderly father is in hospital again ........ it's been an ongoing struggle for him over the last five years.....every day he edges further and further away from the father I knew... as his mind deteriorates and his memory fades...his loss of mobility and endless list of health issues from end stage emphysema, heart failure, daily self catheterisation and massive inoperable inguinal hernia...the list goes on....strangers now shower him as we try hard to keep him at home with my elderly mum trying to care for him....he is at times a very difficult and angry man.  His dependence on others for the simplest of tasks and what he sees as the loss of his dignity is heartbreaking....at only 46 kg now he is half the man he used to be. ... It's difficult to deal with him at times as he strikes out at those closest to him....At times I question is it love or empathy that keeps me continually running back and forward to take care of him and I guess it's a mixture of both, but on the hardest days when he is at his worst I think it is out of duty and honour to him as my father that makes me keep going back.  I hope the current generation will retain the same respect for their parents as we all head into our supposedly golden years.

Happier times...me and dad at his 80th birthday , 6 years ago....