Well, we are shaking and baking here in Orange, NSW! We all have our nutrititious shakes for breakfast (the kids love them too) and then wonderful baking goes on during the day for our tea time. Yes, it’s back to English customs – with another meal added in to the day for good measure! So, yesterday Ro and I went to lunch with four other ladies at her friend Maggie’s home and we ate a lovely Greek style meal that Maggie had prepared. I had second helpings of all courses and a Turkish Delight (made by Maggie) with my Greek coffee aferwards. We had a great time enjoying the company of other women – all married with children and grandchildren, with two of them divorced – and we pronounced how wonderfully talented women are in all things generally.
Then, we rushed home for tea time that Ro was hosting for Pat, an older friend of her mother’s (my Godmother, Thelma, who died this year.) Pat was there with her granddaughter-in-law (Mel) and Mel’s two children, Pat’s great grand children, of whom she has eight all told! Pat is 85 years old and looks very healthy. Years outside in the garden and generally living life on the land, I suspect. Mel was there to hook up with Ro’s daughter-in-law (Jane, who is married to Alistair, Ro’s elder son) and her two young children who all live with them for the moment. We had delicious home made tea cakes of Portuguese tarts (creme caramel in filo dough) and a home made sponge cake with REAL double cream and fresh passion fruit. No, I did not have any room for them, but did taste a tart in the evening. No dinner for me, I was so full. So, I had a shake just before bed and felt excellent this morning. Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it too?!
This morning it was downtown on my bike – downhill all the way there and uphill all the way back – to check on a couple of new friends in town I am talking to about Isagenix. I helped Keith load up some old lumber to go to the tip (dump, in the US) and played with young Hugh for a while outside. I tried to get a photo of a currawong bird, who is making a nest in the tree on the patio, but he kept flying off when he saw me. They look like a huge magpie. There are really not that many smaller song birds here, which I miss.
Ro’s daughter Pippa is here for the weekend from Sydney and so the house is jammed with people. I am dossing down in Ro’s office on a rollaway bed – which is cosy, because I have my computer there and the loo (bathroom) is opposite and the kitchen is right next door. Sometimes, Ted – a lovely chocolate colored Himalayan cat – will come and keep me company. Ro and family were never cat people, but they adopted him from some friends moving away and simply adore him now. I will test my skills for taking and downloading a picture of him later today – so keep checking back. Meanwhile, here are a couple more local photos.
Back patio
Back patio and garden - bare in winter, which is now
View from front
Busy road in town!
Taken on my bike ride home
