Heatwave

We have had a few days of 40 degrees - the first of this kind of heatwave for a few years, after a couple of wet and cool summers. Some fires near us but nothing too worrying, unlike Victoria. The smoke coloured the sunsets for us for a couple of days.

The heatwave was forecast a good week out so we planned on a few days down the beach and it was gorgeous. The water was freezing cold but it was high thirties in our little beach town which is really hot for us, and only comes from nasty strong westerly winds. For a couple of days each year we think we really must get air-conditioning (like the couple of days each year we think we need better heating there) and this was absolutely one of those times. It's one thing to sleep with the ceiling fan on, another to sleep with no sheets and no clothes, but you know it's really hot when you get a wet towel, wring it out and cover yourself in it while the ceiling fan evaporates the water ... it sends you off to sleep just fine and then you wake up two hours later under a dry towel. That is the kind of hot I do not need in my life.

So we had some excellent swims, drank many iced beverages, read some books and lolled around in sarongs until the cool change came through Saturday afternoon and it dropped fifteen degrees in an hour. And yesterday on the way back up the hill it was misty and 11 degrees ... much nicer. Now all we need is a few days of solid rain. 

Kitchen cupboards

Some time in the blur before christmas I re-painted the front panels of  the kitchen cupboards ... which of course I have been meaning to do ever since we moved in. Why then? Who knows, but when the urge for a project hits, I do it. One of my children has been diagnosed with ADHD and there is definitely a strong genetic component ... I don't think I would be able to support a diagnosis for myself but I do have a lengthy list of learned tricks to get myself to do things. 

This is the cupboards before - actually before we moved in - when we brought number one out for an inspection (and snacks). The light aqua blue is actually quite lovely and looks nice with the floor.

Unfortunately it did not work with the dark blue that we put in the hallway, and which the painter also used to go around the hearth in the kitchen.

So I painted the cupboards the darker blue as well. It's quite a striking colour and perhaps not something I would choose for a kitchen ... but it definitely looks better having it all the same, rather than different blues. 

It took about three quarters of an hour for each coat (I did two) so not a huge job. And you wouldn't want to look too closely at the edges ... but for a kitchen that we'll probably have to replace in about five years anyway, it's fine.

Happy New Year

Look at this, the first post for 2026!!! I don't make resolutions, but after the massive changes of 2025 I am looking forward to a gentle, settling year of quietly seeing what is what. 

We are continuing to learn about summer in the country. The flies were driving us MENTAL so I bought some fly screens to wear under your hat. Or over your hat if you cut a big hole at the top (of the screen, not the hat). Either way, it is an absolute lifesaver, we were going crazy with flies on our face the second you started to sweat. They love a bit of moisture.

Here is a very scrappy quilt - called "Voodoo doll". I had made a few dozen of the scrap blocks so decided to use them up in this bold extravaganza of dots and purpleness.

I got in a car to go to the hardware store today and it was the first time I had been in a vehicle for ONE WEEK. Can you imagine? I had been down to the quilting premises a few times (we are having a tidying / sorting / decluttering effort) on my bike, but nothing else. The rest of the time has been at home on a project to clean, mend and re-paint the inside of the garden shed ... shocking no-one it has taken much longer than we thought. I will post photos when it's done but - fair warning - it is the dodgiest set of handy tasks ever done by anyone ever. 

In the neighbourhood

We're not doing much but the days are flying by. We went into Canberra for drinks at friends and overnighted at other friends, which was a good chance to catch up and, probably, buy a car off them. Many birds, single stone.

It hasn't been very hot in the mornings so I took the chance to go for a bike ride around the neighbourhood - although not down the main street which was insanely busy!!!! After twenty years of driving through the main street at this time of the year on my way to the coast I am now Shocked and Horrified by the number of Canberrans on my roads. 

This is the way that google maps keeps trying to get me (and visitors) to come to our place. It thinks this is a perfectly normal road that your average sedan should go down. We haven't had significant rain for a couple of weeks - so the creek is very low - and there is NO WAY I would take my average sedan (or my new shiny ebike) over this crossing. When I give people the address now I have a copy-paste sentence I use about ignoring google maps if it suggests this route. Apparently it is one minute quicker. 

I spent most of one day dealing with this apple tree - yes, that whole lighter green part is a single apple tree, and the red thing is a normally sized wheelbarrow. The tree is enormous and absolutely covered in apples. Gosh the grass is brown isn't it, we do need some rain. Unfortunately the apples are full of bugs, and the birds are starting to get them, and most of them are dropping on the ground, so I went in to rake them up. 

Once you get under the tree you can see that most of the branches in there are dead, so I went back in with the reciprocating saw and secateurs and gave it a solid chop. Just the dead stuff, which should be OK. 

We've chipped it now, it took an hour, and in winter we'll think about how best to prune the living branches. And perhaps do some spraying - it is so incredibly prolific I'd like to figure out how to keep some of the fruit.... they are small and green but going slightly red on the tree, so could be any sort. 

Lovely quiet christmas week

It's been a very delightful few days here with number two - who is now safely back in Melbourne to party on and also move flats I believe, one suburb over and a slightly more lively house. We didn't seem to do much during the visit; just one trip back into Canberra to see friends and also briefly hit up the Braidwood shops (doesn't take long).

Christmas day itself involved a few presents, a bit of food, quite a few drinks, the new Knives Out for entertainment and reading many books. As a freelancer? hustler? person-trying-to-make-a-living-in-theatre? number two can work from anywhere any time, and took a few calls and spent some time on email shopping scripts and making connections. I think, I don't really understand how it all works. Sounds fascinating ... and there was still time to make the christmas pav. Perfection.

Number one is having a lovely time in Europe - we had a video call from Lubeck where they spent Christmas - and photos of selected highlights across Paris, the Hague, Hamburg... (museum d'aerospace! the ICJ! minatur wunderland! everyone has their own highlights :))

Frequent flyer

No, not me, I am very happy to be an infrequent flyer these days. But that was the name I gave to this quilt because it is made up of lots and lots of flying geese blocks. Hilarious play on words, I know.

It was meant to be a scrappy quilt but could actually have benefited from using fewer fabrics, because then there would have been more surprising shapes. You do it in rows of flying geese that are offset, so then if you use the same fabrics in adjoining blocks you get odd shapes ... but I used almost too many scraps for that to work.

Nonetheless, I do really like it, the colours are lovely and it's gone straight on my bed because it looks good with the gaudy ikea curtains that I love. 

Very basic meander quilting. In other news, I had another lovely day at the beach, we went in to Canberra for drinks on Saturday (very fun) then back on Sunday to pick up number two from the airport for a few days! It is very lovely to have a child at home and we are trying to make sure the countryside isn't too boring. Also, a few months of bar work is resulting in some excellent christmas cocktails - this is a caipirissima. Icy and rum and lime and delicious! Yay for kids with random part time jobs. 

Busy christmas things

There seems to be the same number of christmas events that there used to be at work - but without the joy of slacking off work at the same time ... because every day is a slack off day! Haha, retirement, the only downside is constant leisure. 

We had our usual long boozy christmas lunch with friends (31 years and counting) - we even managed to get them out to the countryside. Some stayed over and a good time was had by all. I'm not sure if you can see the christmas stockings hanging from the mantel - that was the quilt shop challenge for the show this year, I did one to be companionable but ended up doing two left sides so had to do two right sides to match and ended up with two stockings. And now they hang over the mantel (not to be filled, far too old for that nonsense, purely decorative at this point).

We still have enough roses to make a bunch. Maybe we'll get a second flush? I don't know how roses work. The garden club christmas lunch was fun - met some new people who (like all new people we meet) were very interesting and terrifyingly well qualified in random ways. People have such interesting lives (not us). The art class christmas lunch today was also fun but it was 37 degrees so I did not have a cocktail with my meal and scarpered down the beach instead. Where I went for a swim at 5.30 when it was still 30 degrees but the ocean was COLD. Same again tomorrow apparently. 

We did a run into the city for shopping (presents, food) and did not miss going to the old house to clean it one bit. Our old cleaner still works for the neighbour so rang yesterday to report that there were eight tradies' utes outside the house doing various things (air conditioning we think). We agreed that some works were probably over due but (a) some people have more money than sense and (b) young people today have no stamina.