RENOS RENOS!!

 I'VE BEEN OBSESSING over the bathroom since i moved in.  it's appalling, fred flintstone would've loved it and he'd look completely at home in the bath.  Wilma would've moved out.  barney would appreciate the pebble tile accent, totally out of kilter with the clunky slate wall tiles. a complete mess 😱

so i've been haunting every bathroom outlet - taps, baths, basins, vanities, mirrors, tiles . . . many kms travelled and some success.  a few good websites found,  but now i need a builder to tell me my next step. someone is coming tomorrow, that'll be a start.

over a week now since sunny luke and etta came for the weekend.  it was just lovely, perfect weather to take etta to the beach to make sandcastles, a birthday dinner of coq au vin and chocolate birthday cake.  I'm not sure if etta's seen a cake in the dark with lots of lit candles, she looked totally gobsmacked.  

then sunday we all met susan and sean at jack rabbit for a beautiful lunch and time to sit out on the lawns overlooking the bay, watching etta trying to roll down a hill (she couldn't quite figure out the direction :0)  and simply enjoying the sun.  Sadly jenny and freddie couldn't come because mockie had hurt himself and was due home from the vet.  That was a real shame because they missed halls gap as well.

 

TWO MORE WEEKS!!

AUG 26.   

I MUST BE DISTRACTED - i suddenly thought of the blog this morning and it's been the 11th since i added anything. well, i'm off to tour the bathroom retail outlets so i'll do it tonight :0)

AUGUST 27

so . . . a catch up.  i realise with my shoulder issues over the past year that i don't have much of a record for new doctors so i need to use the blog as a way i can keep track.  apologies to friends reading this for boring old medical stuff 😕

About a week ago i headed off for a lazy day at the Pivotonian to see two movies.  It was a really rainy day and just past portarlington the car started losing power, i couldn't get up a hill.  rang RACV and waited an hour for them to arrive. had to leave the car in the shop and get a lift home.   that night around 10 i had a little pain that i thought i should check on so rang nurse-on-call. she rang an ambulance which arrived 3/4 hr later and promptly got bogged backing out of my driveway!  so they rang the RACV.  'they'll take a while' i told them but we waited anyway. i was feeling ok so no problem, i had a snooze.  but after another 3/4 hr they decided to ring another ambulance to take me in, long story short it was after 1am by the time we got to emergency.  a night in ED half asleep, being woken regularly for tests and blood pressure tests or by noises.  turns out it wasn't a heart warning sign which was my thought, but gallstones!  god!  i feel like i'm living in someone else's body right now.  

so i have two specialists to see, gall bladder guy on sept 1,shoulder sept 7.

the  upside was that sunny came down to drive me home and stayed the night.  very reassuring to have her here and an absolute delight to see etta racing naked around the loungeroom after her bath like an adorable pink little sprite :0)

we found this little rake around the corner in hard rubbish - etta was 

intent on raking leaves away from the pile sunny was working on

love this photo sunny took at the science museum

so, medical stuff aside - more interestingly i've seen friends, become more familiar with my surroundings, discovered a pretty wetland area, had a mini working bee with jenny, freddie, jenny and rob and started planning the bathroom.

I had ken bowen the building inspector here and he's thoroughly checked the house and garage, given me good advice and reassured me that the house is basically stable and on good foundations, has hardwood floors and most of the terrible stuff is visible and i already know about it.  so i feel like i can start planning now. 

 

my starting point - inspiration from these pics

yesterday i did the rounds of bathroom outlets in geelong. wherever i'm living (melbourne, wentworth) i always shop here for bathroom/kitchen renos because everything is in one area. i bought a very large round mirror at kmart for only $42 (compared to others online all over $200) and that's my starting point.

sunny luke and etta are coming today for the weekend, i've made a chocolate cake, a late birthday cake for sunny.   and we're having lunch with susan and sean and jenny and freddie tomorrow.   it'll be great to all be together, we missed jenny and freddie at Halls Gap

gorgeous full moon a couple of weeks ago

gail came over for a lazy saturday afternoon of scrabble and fish'n'chips, we walked down to edwards point just in time for a thunder storm over the bay, vertical forked lightning and a deafening clap of thunder

I'm missing the fabulous sunraysia skies but this one was pretty good

      The sun is over the water for a large part of the day, a lovely silvery sea

two of these fabulous yellow-tailed black cockatoos visited the 

tree on my fenceline a few days ago - i'm slowly seeing some lovely 

birds despite the raucous residents - wattle birds and masked 

plovers which swoop relentlessly, best avoided

this little acacia tree in the backyard is coming into it's own with lovely wattle blossoms

the wetland area at Edwards Point

coastal saltbush - i'd like some in the garden

I'm planning on knitting myself an intricate pillboxy hat 

this pic is my starting point

two weeks

golly time goes fast - and i'm not even doing very much.  it's mostly cold and my shoulder is causing me to nurse my collarbone and shoulderblade, waiting to get an appointment at the orthopedic surgeon. so unpacking (yes, still unpacking) boxes of books in the garage is a one handed job, and let's face it right now is too cold out there.

I'm slowly sorting rooms, i really want to just paint walls but i'll wait till i know what's happening with my shoulder.  jenny and susan and sunny have all offered to help so a painting weekend with some good food thrown in would be good in future.

this little grey

fantail is a new

bird here, very

cute

this little

fantail is a

new bird

for me

HALLS GAP - last weekend August 5-8 was our annual weekend in the grampians at Parkview North, the terrific house we had last year.  sadly freddie got covid so the jenfreds were absent, as were Jenny K and Claire and Jules, also crook.   I don't think i was the best company, my spirits have been low with the new house, getting used to a new location, missing the old one and my health issues.  but it was lovely to just be there in that lovely place, with susan and sean and sunny and luke with etta, the little dynamo who never stops.  she's such a busy little bee always finding things to do.  the sliding wardrobe in my room became our hidey hole/cubby with much in/outing and sliding of doors :0).  she's adorable, i was saying to sunny that i haven't been able to pick her up since she's been born, first because of lockdown then my hip and shoulder ops.  sad

                     

                                        Etta knits by great aunt Jenny

I was glad to get out to visit don, i didn't drive my own car otherwise i would have stayed a night, but we all went out and had a 

'turn about the grounds' :0)

     testing out the gumboots

SEAN built a magnificent fire  we sat out till late - it maintained its structure well into the night, really warm and wonderful to gaze into

back home and down to the sea at sunrise to get some 

pics of the Salty Bitches ocean swimming group

    THIS MORNING august 11 - indian mynas in the bare tree out the back, i have a large bare tree in the front yard too, 

looking forward to seeing what they are - i think one 

may be a liquidambar

COLOURFUL VISITORS

Lovely to look out the kitchen window and see two rosellas in the backyard.  One was showing a great interst in this blackbird and 

followed it around the yard until the blackbird decided enough was enough and took off :0) 

Beautiful markings