now a thirtysomething from Brisbane
I’ve had a really productive weekend, thanks to the sunshine we have had. All my washing is done, clothes are ironed, the house is cleaned, I’ve sanded and primed my new shelves. I’ve done my food shopping and planned what my meals for the week. Purged a few more things from my room and organised photos.
This is where I iron. Out on the deck, hoping to catch an afternoon breeze or two and enjoying watching the going ons in the park. Much better than looking at a blank window.
I, Helen Thura Palsson, make a commitment, that I in 2010 will post more regularly and bite the bullet and get some of my backlog taken care of. HP 1010 09JAN10.
175/365
Mango! Mango! Mango! Mango for all winter long, well maybe a month or two. Mum and I met up at the Kelvin Grove markets today and the most amazing buy was a tray of Honey Gold Mangos. Honey Golds are literally gold! They are my favourite mangos by a mile, the name describes them perfectly. Golden flesh and a sweet taste. We both got a tray of 15 for $14 each! We got a $1 discount because we bought the two trays.. Normally Honey Golds sell for between $3-4 each at the shop so we got a fantastic buy. I peeled, sliced and packed 10 of the mangos and now have 14 bags in the freezer of honey golden mango goodness!
174/365
My first set of Shiny Brite ornaments
173/365
I went to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy on Thursday night and they were just so much fun. I got frocked up in mostly era appropriate clothes and just danced!
172/365
Walking home today along the river, the city just looked so dreary!
171/365
I just love this note that was written on the back of a parcel I received a few days ago.
170/365
I put this polish on my toes today and whilst I love the colour, I’m not to sure about the quality. The bristles on the brush are really short which made putting it on a little different to my other nail polishes. At the end of the day, the colour is fantastic and the colour is named Helen!
169/365
The end of a 36hr oh so getaway to Double Island Point. I love how the water ripples over the sand.
168/365
We came across this dugong carcass on the beach up at Double Island Point.
167/365
My little pink pony Christmas tree.
One ornament a day from the 1st till the 24th. My own tradition.
166/365
Hydrangeas from the farm, I just love those colours
165/365
It took me till day 165 to post a movie! I love how the banner flutters in the breeze. You will have to click on the photo to go to Flickr to watch the movie.
164/365
I went to the Paddington Antique market to see if I could find any Christmas decorations (and I did!). I walked past this necklace a few times and kept coming back to it. Now it is mine. The stone is a blue topaz. I adore it!
163/365
Nothing says summer like handful of prawns, a summer ale and a home-made dipping sauce (coconut cream, sweet chilli sauce, toasted sesame seeds and a dash of sesame oil.
162/365
My purchase at the Boxing Day sales, very lovely, high thread count sheets. I just love how the white linen looks with the quilt.
161/365
I spent Boxing Day morning cleaning out my childhood room. I only have a few drawers left to go through which I will do in the coming weeks. On the 27th, I had this terrible feeling in my stomach that I had forgotten to take a photo on the 26th. I had forgotten all about playing with this camera and taking this photo! phew!
The Farm is where we head of course!
There was a big morning tea with pineapple dip of course as well as all the other usual suspects. Oh I do love a plate of Jatz and a bowl of pineapple dip!
There was washing up to be done.
And the Christmas Tree. The tree was actually in the living room but I carried out to the turf to take photos…. I love this tree. I found it on Ebay for $9.95, I carefully waited till the last minute to place my bid, hoping no one else wanted it as much as I did. No one else did and it was mine for the starting price. Let me tell you right now, I was prepared to pay a lot more than $9.95! A quick drive to Ipswich and it was in the boot of the car. It is made in Italy, I guess in the late 50’s to early 60’s. It is a little over 6ft tall and is a combination of white, silver and clear tinsel. I’ll have to take a close up photo today when we go to the farm as it actually have leaf shaped tinsel mixed in as well! There are a few of the little white pine cone branch tips missing but oh when the light catches on the tree doesn’t it looks amazing!
The wind of course picked up when we went to take photos, (hence why we are holding the tree) and the sun wouldn’t stay out for long hence why there is sun in Mum’s photo but not in mine.
160/365
It was just a few little knick knacks under the tree, I got a candy thermometer, Matthew got various fiddle toys, the kitchen got an oven mit etc.
It was roast veal and veggies for lunch which Matthew was cooking. Whilst we waited, Grandad put his legs up (of course) and Mum and I went down to the Black Flat to explore and take photos.
Then it was time for lunch (lunch round 3pm of course). Bon-Bons with silly jokes and trinkets inside, roast meat and veg, gravy in the Christmas gravy boat and of course dessert. Plum pudding, trifle, flummery, jelly, custard etc etc!
Then you guessed it, time to wash up again!
That was Christmas at the Farm 09. Who knows what next year will bring.
Another year, another Christmas. This year Christmas was much, much smaller than last year. Christmas Eve it was just the four of us and Christmas Day it was just us four and Grandad.
I woke up on Christmas Eve to see this. Strangely enough, now that I’m on holidays I’m typically up at 5, you just can’t ignore those birds! When I’m at work though it’s the alarm that wakes me some time between 6 and 6:30. I was pulling back the curtains, and saw this most delightful reflection on the window next door.
159/365.
That was the start to a bigggish day. I had presents to wrap, bags to pack etc etc. It was only six days ago but I know I did something of semi-importance before heading to Mum’s (I think it is kind of weird how even though my brother and father live there as well in conversation I will say going to Mum’s, carrying on though).
Christmas Eve, means Mahalia Jackson, a fancy afternoon tea, presents, four pots on the stove and waiting for it to get dark enough to have dinner. One of the downsides to having an European Christmas is that well we don’t have short hours of daylight in summer do we???? Dinner is of course, smoked lamb, mashed potato, peas, glazed carrots, cauliflower and broccoli au gratin with rice pudding for dessert. At some stage during dinner I asked Pabbi if he had ever got the almond. As it had come to me that I didn’t think I had seen his name in the book. Pabbi’s response was not since coming to Australia. I spoke to soon. As is always the case, Pabbi stirred the almond into the pudding and dished out pudding, making his usual comments of you sure don’t want more….. Well this year Pabbi got the almond! (Mum/Pabbi, has this been written in the book?)
We had a new addition to the table this year. For many years I have adored the Swedish Christmas Candelabra/Candolier that we’ve had but I don’t ever recall seeing it plugged in or lit up. This year, I pulled it apart, stripped out all the wiring and replaced the fake candles with real candles.
So pretty! Adds a fair bit more light to the table as well when paired with the four candles that we usually dine by at Christmas.
Once the washing up was done it was of course time for the tree. I got a 3L mixing bowl form my Kitchenaid, some biscuit tins (a pretty old Sunshine powdered milk tin and a collectible Milo tin from 2003 when they had the 70th birthday celebrations) and a bag to match my quilt.
Mum had asked me during the week if I had any brittle left from the packages. I said of course I do. When I arrived on Christmas Eve, Mum asked if I had any left….. I said no. One of Mum’s presents was a container of brittle!
That is Christmas Eve….
We’ve had our dinner by candle light, we’ve had our smoked lamb and rice pudding. We’ve listened to Mahalia Jackson.
The presents have been opened. Now we retire to rest and look forward to the farm tomorrow.
Merry Christmas, Gleðileg Jól etc.
I had the most enjoyable time the last few weeks at work decorating Level 12 for Christmas. There was originally to be a competition between the two floors but due to the drama involving the contract transition as the Chandler Mcleod staff faced uncertainty as to their future it was called off. I still kept on decorating though 😀 This is what Lv 12 ended up looking like. One of the doctors is quite a Christmas nut and brought in a heap of decorations for us to use. One of my most favourite had to be the garland we had across the counter.
Sadly yesterday we had to take it all down. Gosh the floor looks empty and bland now!