Consider the lilies...

Yesterday Julian let me choose a bunch of flowers for myself. This is what I decided on:I am really looking forward to watching these lilies open up and bloom over the next week. There has already been a little bit of progress since yesterday :)

I'll (try to remember) to keep you posted...

Making Cards!

I have actually done something creative today...

A little while I bought some card-making things (cardboard, stamps, and 'choc chip' coloured ink) from Stampin Up. In addition to a card I made at a Stampin Up workshop, and the two cards I made today, I now have 3 cards:

Here is a pic of the frog card (for Anita's {aka 'frogwoman'/'greenlady'} b'day!! ) (the envelope for this card has a frog very conveniently hiding the ugly boxes meant for the postcode) and the cake card (which was made at the workshop for no-one in particular...):

And, just because I love it so much, the flower card (for Em's birthday) again...

And my ever-so-slightly artistic shot:

What do you think of them?? (and what do you think of our 'beautiful' carpet?!?)

Of Pumpkins and needy cats

Hello!

Julian and I went to a carboot sale today after church and look at the pumpkin we found:


It's 1.7kg, nice and heavy for its size like a good pumpkin should be :) I'm thinking most of it's going to be soup and some of it I'll glaze and bake. We also got some green beans, raspberry jam (homemade! yum!) and some handmade soap. Next week I want to buy purple potatoes! Sorry, I can't remember what they are actually called, but the guy says they ar great to put in soup because of the colour they add. Sounds yummy and pretty, and I can't resist...

As I write this my cat, Dougal (go here to see a pic of him), is sitting on my lap (not curled up - actually sitting up) watching me type and use the mouse, trying to figure out how it all works... he just learnt how to select large amounts of text at once: stand on 'shift'. He has been sooo needy lately: everytime Jules or I sit down it's only a matter of minutes until he's sitting on our lap, cutting off our circulation. But we love him! He's our (usually very low-maintenance) baby!

Ahh well, I think I have procrastinated enough... better get back to that uni assignment!

**edit** the pumpkin was actually 2.8kg - not bad for $5!!

Hi again! (At last)

Hi everyone! It's been a while, but I'm back! Yay!


The last month has gone very quickly, what with uni and a couple of camps. I was hoping that Easter holidays would give me a chance to catch up with uni reading, but with a youth camp at Woodfield Lodge (I was a leader there - so exhausting!) on Easter Monday and Tuesday the holidays have sped by. The honours class was meant to be having a picnic together today at the Hobart Botanical Gardens, but it is pouring with rain, so it has been postponed.


My sister is coming over this evening to help me clean the house (I haven't done the dishes for soooo long) because she wants to come over tomorrow with some friends and make chocolates (I have the moulds! Heaps of them!), and seeing as it wasn't my idea, I am not going to do all the cleaning by myself. She's fine with it, and she gets tea cooked for her tonight too - it doesn't bother me at all that I make her clean my house so she can visit!! Ahh well, it's not like it bothers her either...


My thesis for honours is making progress. My idea has changed and is beginning to get some depth. In a nutshell: How have Aborigines been portrayed in Tasmanian children's literature, and what impact have their portrayal/s in literature had on Tasmanian culture? I have soooo much reading to do. I should really be doing my reading instead of being on here (or on facebook!).


Hopefully we will get a charger for out camera soon so I can stick some (recent) photos up here. Here's a pic of my cat (whom I Adore) to keep the blog lightly visually stimulating (I like this pic because I think it is amusing that the flowers are in focus and Dougal isn't):

See you later!!

Uni's back... what more can I say...

Today is Tuesday. Uni went back yesterday. I am thrilled. So thrilled. By what? By the 9am starts and the 3hr seminars. By the set texts and the 3 to 6 seminar readings for each seminar each week.

It's not really that bad. But boy, I have SO MUCH reading to do this year! I wrote out a timetable yesterday, and according to that I should be reading right now. Oh well! And I don't really have that many hours where I am actually at uni. This week and next week I have about 15 contact hours. But in weeks 3-8 I only have 6 contact hours (with an extra 3 hours in three of the weeks, but most of them are for watching films). In week 9 I have 9 contact hours, and in week 10 I have 3 contact hours, and then - apart from essay writing - I am finished for first semester. But even though I don't have many contact hours, the amount of reading and researching does turn it into a full time job - one you can't forget about when you get home :( I am determined, however, to keep my evenings as free as possible. I will need to have that break time! (It will also make great panic time for when I am feeling overwhelmed!)

My camera is still uncharged because the silly charger won't work (grrr). I'll have to do something about that soon so I can stick some more photos up. For the moment though, we will all have to make do with cartoons. This one illustrates a typical morning for a typical uni student:

Of nieces, reading and clean toilets...

Hey everybody! How are you?????

I just want to say thank you to the people who prayed for Julian and his job interview this afternoon. He seemed quite happy and peaceful afterwards, so lets just keep praying and trusting that he'll get this job! He should be hearing back in about 3 weeks.

And take look at my gorgeous new neice, Isla. She has the most amazing long thin fingers! Everybody is like, 'Oooo, a pianist.' I have only seen her once, while she was still at the hospital, and she is my sort of baby: cute, quiet and accomplished at sleeping :) She was born a week ago, and I am sure that by the time I see her next she'll look completely different. *sigh*... they grow up so fast...

I don't really have anything exciting to share (besides, of course, Isla's birth), though I was rather silly today! Uni starts on Monday, and what did I do??? I bought 7 books in the Anne of Green Gables series!!! I am so pleased! All up they were only $31.50 (I found 6 of them in a second hand shop for $5 each, and asked for a deal, so essentially paid for 5 and got 1 free. The other one I got from another second hand book store for $6.50). I have read all of them except one: Rilla of Ingleside, so I am looking forward to reading that :)

While we are on the subject of reading, I have now read two of my texts for uni (No Road (bitumen all the way) and Voices of Marrakesh) and am powering through In Patagonia. So I am pretty happy with myself.

I also bought some toilet cleaner today, which is great as before I had to ue Handy Andy and that is not really meant for toilets. So at the moment the toilet smells beautiful - like lavender! Feel free to pop in and have a smell!

Catch ya lata xx

Easy Peasy Veggie and Kidney Bean Salad

I made this last night to have with some fish fillets, and it was so yummy and so easy to make. All the veggies are raw, so you are getting the maximum amount of nutrients possible. Sorry there is no photo - the silly camera charger is broken! Just try to imagine the thin sticks of orange, green and red, with the deep purple-brown of the kidney beans...

Easy Peasy Veggie and Kidney Bean Salad

About 170g fresh round green beans, top and tailed and cut in half
1 or 2 carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks (I used 1 but 2 would have been nice)
1 red capsicum, seeded and thinly sliced
1 tin kidney beans (about 400g), drained (chick peas - or any other type of legume - would work just as well)

Dressing (these are the approx. amounts- I hardly ever measure for things like this)
3 tspns seeded mustard
1 Tbspn lemon juice
1 or 2 Tbspns oil (extra virgin olive oil would be best, but I just used veggie oil)

Stick all the veggies and the kidney beans in a bowl. Mix the salad dressing and pour over the salad. Toss with salad servers. Enjoy and feel healthy!

This would serve 3-4 people as a side dish, though Julian and I ate the whole thing last night (with a bit of a fight over who would get the last bit).

Bushwalking on Mt Wellington

Hello my dear bloggees,

It's been a week or so since my last blog, but don't think I've been ignoring you because I am lazy. On the contrary, I have been so busy I haven't had time to think, let alone get on write. I was so tired on Sunday that I actually slept for 3 hours in the afternoon - and I have to be REALLY tired to do that! All weekend I had been looking forward to Monday, thinking Finally I have a day where I'm not doing anything and can even sleep in.

Lo and behold, Sunday afternoon one of my friends rang (waking me up, thank you very much!) asking if Julian and I want to go for an easy bushwalk up Mt Wellington. I say yes, and she says she'll ring me back with the details. Well, it turns out that the person organising it all decided that we'll meet at the Springs at 9:00am. Bang! There goes my sleep-in. We get to the Springs the next day, and it is decided that we'll walk to the top. BANG! There goes my easy walk! In the end (thankfully) we didn't walk to the top as one of the group members (not me) was having too much trouble. Instead, we walked a reasonable way up the Pinnacle Track, before turning onto the Organ Pipe Track (we were so close to the Organ Pipes - those cliffs are absolutley magnificent! We saw some climbers, and were totally impressed: those Pipes go straight up!). After finishing the Organ Pipe Track the walked down the road for awhile before going on the trail that leads to Sphinx Rock, where we had lunch. After that if was an easy (flat) walk back to the Springs and our cars!!

All up it was a 3 hour walk, and very enjoyable. We didn't take our camera, but one of my friends did, and if I can figure out her email address, I will see if I can get a copy of the photos so you can have a squiz at them, because the view was amazing!