Irene's Blog

YARRA VALLEY CHOCOLATERIE AND ICE CREAMERY What a lovely day we had today, the last day of 2013.  We went to the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and Ice  Creamery in Yarra Glen.  After having a look through the glass into the area where they make the chocolates, we wandered around admiring all the various packs of chocolates which could be purchased. Viewing into the area where the chocolates are made So much to choose from  It was hard to pull ourselves away from the counter where they sell individual hand made chocolates Finally, we decided to have an ice cream which we really enjoyed.  Lachlan had a rich chocolate one, Corey had strawberry, Jackie enjoyed honeycomb and I had my favourite, rum and raisin.   Yarra Glen is a lovely little town and the surrounds of the Chocolaterie is really nice. Well worth a visit.

CHRISTMAS 2013 We had a lovely day today celebrating Christmas with the family.  Lots of gifts, food and good company.  Everything ready for Christmas The table before the family arrived John unwrapping a few presents My new scarecrows - I love them

MY VEGGIE GARDEN - OH, HOW IT'S GROWN Not so long ago, I put in seedlings for lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, peas, beetroot and onions and in no time at all it's grown. I'm thinking I may have put in too much but I didn't expect it all to grow so well. I've already been using some of the lettuce and looking forward to being able to pick a few tomatoes and have fresh carrots on my plate.  I've just noticed pods on the pea plants so I'll relive my childhood by picking those to shell. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME Not quite my birthday, but yesterday I was given an early treat of high tea at the Skyhigh Restaurant on Mt Dandenong by our oldest daughter and grandsons.  It was a beautiful, warm day and the view from the top of the mountain was fairly clear.  We could see all the way to Melbourne and beyond to the bay.  These are a few photos taken while we were there including the lovely afternoon tea that was served to us with as much tea and coffee as we wanted.  We ate so much, we didn't need dinner that evening. It was a really lovely family time.

JUST CALL ME FARMER IRENE I'm trying my hand at growing vegetables - first time ever.  I set up two raised garden beds and had veggie mix soil delivered which I had to cart from the front of the house around to the back.  It took me 2 hours to do it but it's done now and I had the aches and pains to prove it. I went to the garden centre this morning and picked up a variety of vegetables including tomatoes, lettuce, beetroot, seed for carrots, onion and peas.  I also bought a few cantaloupe (rock melon) seedlings just to see if I could grow those plus a couple of strawberry plants. I got a bit carried away as I only have a small space to grow all of these but it'll be interesting to see what is successful and what isn't. I've put down snail bait, lots of it, to deter the hungry snails we have in the garden. Hopefully this will be a great success since I've put in so much work to get it started.

SHOPPING This afternoon I went shopping with my daughter as she wanted to buy a new bedroom suite.  We'd both seen a bedroom setting in a store's catalogue and fell in love with it, that was until we had a look at it in store.  Not as good as it looked in the photo but she found another suite, very similar but better quality, in the same store.  Somehow, this was meant to be as this other suite was on sale, the last day of the sale, saving a lot of money and they actually had one in the warehouse so she can get it delivered this coming week. Sometimes you have to go with the flow and you end up with what you're meant to have.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LACHLAN AND COREY As a birthday present from their mum, the boys got two new friends - Oscar and Charlie, two gorgeous chimps who they absolutely love.  What lucky boys they are but I guess that means their mum now has 4 cheeky monkeys to chase after. 

REPAIRS ALL DONE At long last, the repairs from our termite invasion are complete and what a difference to the room.  I actually like it better than before and I loved the way it looked before.  At least, after spending all that money to repair the damage, we have something different. I'd hate to have spent all that money and have it looking exactly the same as that would almost be like spending thousands of dollars on nothing. Before and after.........nice new carpet, curtains instead of vertical blinds and new paintwork makes such a difference to this end of the family room / kitchen / meals area.

PINK DOES MELBOURNE In July, my daughter and I had a wonderful night out to see PINK in concert in Melbourne.  What a show it was.  We bought our tickets 9 months ago and she was well worth the wait. I'd been playing her CD in the car for weeks, much to the annoyance of my husband who had to put up with it.  Her trapeze and acrobatic work is fabulous and her voice was just as good as it was on CD, even though at times she was flying through the air or upside down. I can't wait until later this year when the DVD of this concert will go on sale as then I'll be able to relive it.  I just hope my husband has recovered from the continual playing of the CD by then because that DVD will be played over and over again.

TERMITE INFESTATION NEARLY ATE OUR HOUSE What a time of it we've had over the past few months.  A crack in the plaster of our ceiling which I thought was just cosmetic, turned out to be so much more.  On investigation, it was discovered that we had termites which had come up the stumps of our house in two places and those nasty little critters had eaten their way through our family room over what must have been the past year, completely unknown to us of course. We had to get the whole house treated with Termidor then wait 8 weeks before we got the all clear so that repairs could start.  My beautiful tiled floor had to be completely removed so there we were in the middle of winter with a massive hole where the floor used to be. The builder we engaged did a wonderful job replacing bearers and joists beneath the floor with the damage going further than expected right through under the laundry, bathroom and livingroom.  To check the wall beneath where we first noti...

EASTER 2013 Look who we met while out shopping - The Easter Bunny.  The boys got a couple of chocolate eggs but the adults got nothing - not fair.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN Well, not actually on the road again as we were never off the road but having a new car means we'll be on the road a bit more often enjoying ourselves.  Picked the new car up a few days ago and it's so lovely - Mazda 3 Maxx Sport Auto.  It has all the bells and whistles and we will never get lost because it has an inbuilt sat nav.  Can't wait to do a decent trip down the coast. It was sad to see my old Mazda 626 go but it was 16 years old after all and gave me good service.  I got that car secondhand when it was 8 years old and in the time I had it, I didn't have one single repair job and you can't say that very often with an older car. The dealer when checking it over couldn't fault it - not a scratch on it anywhere and inside it looked as good as new. We traded in two cars for this new one. The other car traded in was also a Mazda 3 in red but a Neo hatch. It was only 3 years old and had very low mileage, 14,000 km.  It was a manual ...

SYDNEY HOLIDAY : MARCH 2013 What a great holiday we had in Sydney recently.  Firstly because we got really cheap return airfares Melbourne to Sydney saving a bundle then we got a good deal at the hotel / apartment we stayed at - one bedroom with lounge area, full kitchen, bathroom and laundry. We stayed for 5 nights and did all the sights. We were within about 100 metres of Darling Harbour on the city side and it was a short walk into the main city centre.  This was the view from our window We visited Madame Tussauds where we "met" many celebrities from politics, movies and TV - Julia Gillard, Australian's Prime Minister, was ever so keen to hear my thoughts on governing the country!!! A ferry ride from Darling Harbour took us around to Circular Quay where we saw the Queen Mary 2 which was berthed and towering over just about everything. No visit to Sydney can pass without photos of the iconic harbour bridge and the Opera House - On another da...

SCHOOL HOLIDAY FUN The boys had fun with my old typewriter. I don't think they'd ever seen one before but thought it was fun. Somehow, I don't think they'll be replacing their computer at home with it.  Took the boys bowling and even though I hadn't bowled for about 40 years, I did not too badly.  We all had a lovely time. Yesterday, we went to the movies to see WRECK-IT RALPH - even we adults enjoyed it and had a good laugh. We had the whole cinema almost all to ourselves - going early in the morning has it's advantages.

We went up to Surfers Paradise from Melbourne a week ago and had a wonderful holiday with our daughter and twin grandsons.  At the airport, we were met by a chauffeur and S-T-R-E-T-C-H HUMMER to take us to our apartment at The Peninsula just opposite the beach at Surfers Paradise.  What a way to start a holiday. We had a 2 bedroom apartment on the 32nd floor of The Peninsula with a wrap around balcony taking in views all around.  We visited Dreamworld and Warner Brother Movieworld where the kids had a ball on the rides and even surprised us by wanting to go on the rollercoasters - I think they must have taken bravery pills. They also had their photos done at a vintage photography studio where they had props and costumes to dress up. Each of the boys were gangsters and their mum dressed in a gorgeous 1920s style dress and headpiece.  The photos, done in sepia, really looked authentic.  All too soon, it was time to come home but we have hundreds of ...

Today Stephen and I visited the boys at their school - it wasn't a great day weatherwise, but we enjoyed seeing their classroom and all the work they'd done. They especially wanted to show their Uncle Stephen their notebook computers which they use in class.