Summer holidays...

... are here! Finally! As always at this time of the year, it has felt like I have been limping over the finishing line. And now, on my first day off, I don't quite know what to do with myself (except stress about the four stories I have to write in, like, three minutes on my return in January).

The one thing I have been doing today is baking. Because we have SO many zucchinis at the moment, the only rightful thing to do was to turn them into cakes and - whoa - they are amazingly delicious. I won't say healthy because the vegetable component is far outweighed by the oil and the brown sugar. They are yum nonetheless.

Strolling

He's a bossy one, mine.
He even pushes his friends around.

Wiggly good time

Since 2008 continues to be the Year of the Winning Streak right up to its close (there's still a Lottery ticket in...), I was able to take E and a little friend to The Wiggles yesterday, because my Mum had won the four tickets in a raffles (and also a Dyson vaccum cleaner the same week).

It was quite amazing to see their little faces, because while we had told E and D they were going to see The Wiggles Show I think they thought we were taking them to see a DVD.

We got there a bit late so the boys had to eat their sandwiches in their seats before the show began. Then the lights went up and the boys went off. They were both so into it, dancing away and quite mesmerised by the whole thing - especially when the members of The Wiggles came up to where we sat to say hi.

Was a lovely experience.

Limewatch

One year Shaun bought me a lime tree for Christmas. Not last Christmas, not the one before ... I can hardly even remember when it was. I know we were in our previous house, so I'd say it was seven Christmases ago.

When he gave me it I was delighted. It was exactly the present I'd asked for. I looked after it, expecting it to repay me with bountiful fruit.

Nada. Nothin'

At this point I should state that I am not the best citrus-tree owner. I would like to be, it's just that I forget it's there. And therefore the poor thing goes unwatered for weeks at a stretch.

I'd pretty much given up on our lime tree actually producing fruit until last year. A wet summer meant, lo and behold, A LIME!

One. Little. Lime.

We stroked it and nurtured it and eventually when it reached about the size of a cumquat, we picked it.

We cut it open: it was virtually juiceless. Still, this was a victory. We had produced a lime.

This year, however, things are much improved. Oh yes.




We have many, many little limes.

The secret to our success?

My son is toilet training. So where do I deposit the wees that go in his potty? Said lime tree.
It's working a treat.

Tinsel and tat

It was about time we put up a tree. After all, it seems like everyone else has - we even have one in our office. It is beautiful, but then considering that it was organised and decorated by our Style Director I would expect nothing less.

My effort is far more modest. Oh yes indeed. Will you think less of me when I reveal that I paid $9.95 for mine at the Go-Lo bargain store? Possibly, but that's a burden I'll just have to carry. Last year we went all out and bought a beautiful little pine tree, with a view to keeping our living Xmas tree for many, many years. But after Christmas promptly forgot that you should, like, water it.

It didn't make it to February.

So plastic it is.

It took all of 2 minutes to construct (though I suspect we will be breathing in the VOCs for at least another two Christmases). My favourite bit of the tree is the paper star at the top, proudly painted by E himself.



































































Who knew Santa's helpers were so cheeky?

Great reading

I've read a couple of good books this year and among them is this one:



Mantras & Misdemeanours is everything I want in a good travel/life journey memoir. But before I go too much further I must fully disclose the fact that the reason I discovered this book is because its author is one of my workmates and a fellow resident of Marrickville.

Hers is an amazing story. Having been The Australian's religious reporter she'd picked up an interest in Buddhism, particularly the Tibetan kind, and had travelled to McLeod Ganj in India several times, as this is where the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan community in exile reside.

Her trips to McLeod Ganj suggested that there may be a story to be written, so she packed her bags (book contract in hand) and headed there for a year.

Not only does she come back with a great insight into the Tibetan life in exile, she wraps a beautiful love story around it. Within weeks of arriving in India she has fallen in love with a former monk - and then she falls pregnant.

It's beautifully written and a totally engrossing read.

I see red

Ah, the Bokashi is working its wonders. Finally we have had a stretch or two of sunshine and that means I can pluck a few of these little beauties now...




And there are about 400 or so more on the plants, ready to ripen. Yum!

Me and Heidi Klum, we're like that...

As if she needed any introduction, this is Heidi Klum. German model, highly, highly paid TV presenter and mother of three who always seems to "get her body back" minutes after giving birth.

I would never, ever have presumed to have anything in common with Heidi.

Until today.

You see, I glanced at this story in today's Sydney Morning Herald and did a double take.

Heidi keeps her teeth when they fall out? Wow, me too!

Well, I used to anyway. None have fallen out (thankfully!) in recent decades. When I was young I would hoard my teeth. (Apologies to anyone with a delicate disposition - not a pretty mental image, I know.)

For some unknown reason, the lure of 20c (as it was then) from the tooth fairy was just not strong enough to entice me to part with my chompers. No, I was into a longer term sentimental investment. (Yeah, whatever.)

This was all good and well until the day that my jealous younger siblings (who would always flog their fangs for 20c) discovered the little jewellery box I kept my old baby teeth in ... and took them into the garden to "play" with them.

Naturally, they lost them. Teeth. Gone. Sniff... I was most upset. I think Mum got quite cross with them both, because they were, after all, my teeth. And it was up to me what I did with them.

I haven't thought about those teeth in years (honest), but, gee, thanks Heidi for the memories...