So much to do

We had our little break and now it is full on with the cleaning and packing and decluttering and getting stuff done. All of which we should have done ages ago of course ... I forget just how much we have accomplished over the past year when there is still so much to do. I am at the point where I would like to throw out all our belongings and start over, but I realise I might regret that decision in a couple of months. So I will show some of the very brainless painting I am doing - it is basically just doodles to quiet my brain for a bit.

Diane Antone's blobby birds have been popular.

A monochromatic something.

Always flowers if I'm stuck.

An A3 sheet of mini landscapes, this was quite fun and also made me a bit pleased with myself, that I can paint a few different types of scenes. 

I am just working two days a week through January to give me time to do house things and also not bust a foofer valve. January is always very quiet here so I can keep on top of work without too much trouble. The doctor put me on blood pressure pills which should help ... I am blaming work but I should probably blame fatness. Luckily I can do something about both, although work might be easier to discard than the blubber. 

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2025 - the retirement year :) it hardly seems possible, but here we are, and I am ready for it. We managed to get a couple of good beach days in after Christmas, both swimming and doing some sewing. The cat assisted me. 

But that will be the last of the relaxing for a few weeks ... I have to go back to work and it will be full steam ahead getting the Canberra house ready for sale and doing things to the Braidwood house before we move in.

We hauled up a couple of camping mattresses and chairs and some plastic plates to spend New Year's Eve at the new house - start 2025 as we mean to go on. We had takeaway pizza for dinner and a bottle of the good champagne before sleeping in the front room, and getting used to all the noises and creaks of an unfamiliar house. 

So many parrots! And insects, and a tiny skink. We will get it emphatically sprayed before we move in. We put paint samples on the walls (antique white? whisper white? natural white? polar white?), pulled up the tacking strips, despaired at the (lack of) kitchen cupboards, resisted the urge to get stuck into the garden beds and failed to kill any rabbits by running over them in the car. Poison is apparently a lot more effective.