Brothers

                        
                        A brother is someone

with fun-loving ways

with wit and good humour

to spare.

He does thoughtful things

without any fuss

and when you're in trouble

he's there.

A brother is more 
than just part of the family..
he's also a friend
through and through.
And that's a description
that certainly fits
a wonderful brother like you.

Thank you for both being such awesome sons, that a Mother could have.
Mumma xo

Around the Yard

Planted this gorgeous Bougainvillea, hopefully it will grow up & over this old gate that I've put in the garden. 

Water Chestnuts are doing well, they are so much bigger than this already. They seem to grow before your eyes. I've never grown them before. So I'll let your know the end result!

Should be in for a good crop of Lemonade fruit this year. Although the tree is looking very heat stressed the last couple of days. Over 40cdeg & high humidity most days is playing havoc with the garden.

YTD we have only had 1.0ml of rain - not even a teaspoon.

Every other morning I pick my chooks a basket of this.....

they love it......

then they lay me these. I'm so thankful to them.

Not like Mother duck who likes keeping them all for herself.

Thinks there may be some little ducklings  to start this new year.

New Year, New Life

Hope you enjoyed your morning walk around the yard with me. I'm off to have a cup of tea & a piece of cold meatloaf (left overs from last nights dinner yum!)

Caroline xo

Wordless Wednesday

Riding on the Horses Yeah Yeah

 Went riding out on our friend "C's" horses. I'm on the left on his young stallion, he's on the right on his old stallion & my partner Steve is in the middle on a nice little gelding then.......

  it turned nasty cause we thought we'd jam n him.

 All in good fun though, three others joined us for a ride out. 

We had a great time.

What have you been up to? 

Enjoying any-time with good friends like we have been?

Caroline xo

Another Job done!

3 Doors + 12 Windows later all upstairs fly screens have been replaced. Not exactly an exciting job but alas one more job crossed off this years 'To Do List"

Now only the downstairs windows to do, plus a new security screen for the downstairs door & we're done!

Keep Calm and Carry On

Caroline xo

I Love old Houses but.......

.......they can be a lot of work.

I have lived in a lot of houses (about 25 by memory last count)

Brand spanking new, some where in the middle & the old. So I think I can pretty safely say I know what I like....give me an old house any day. 

You know the one's where the heart & soul of the house is held in the walls, where if they could tell tales there would be many to share. Where the floorboards creak one day in one place then another time in a different place. It's almost like some of these houses have minds(ghosts) of there own.The only drawback is that they are a lot of work maintenance, and this place is just that.

my yard looking like  the local council dump shop lol!

So what have we been up to?? 

Resealing the slab of the house.

Over time the slab has slowly began to leak moisture. If you happened to pick an item up off the floor it was most likely going to feel cool or even damp/wet during the flood season we experienced a while back. 

However we have had to wait this long for the extremely dry weather we are having now to dry out the slab right through and therefore the surrounding ground as well. When they concreted under these old hours years ago concrete wasn't like the super blend that they use these days likewise they didn't lay the plastic down under the slab either. 

Result...rising damp,moisture etc.

High pressure cleaning the slab before sealing

We started by taking the entire contents of downstairs out into the back yard, I swear it looked just like one of those council junk shops, you know the ones where they take all the things out of the tip, sell it to you for a ridiculous price then tell you what a good deal your getting. 
Seriously though I think it was a ploy by partner & Son to remind me of how much junk we have. 

Removing the carpet was fun yuck BUT really not as yucky as I thought(thank goodness) Straight into the Ute and to the dump it went. Next we had to clean the slab with a high pressure water cleaner (Gernie) & Chlorine. 

Then waited & waited & waited some more for it to dry. Of course a storm was brewing by this time and everything was dumped out into the yard. We started to prepare for the worse and gather the tarps. 

Finally it was dry enough to start applying the sealer, sweeping it in so we could fill any nicks or crevices in the concrete. Letting it dry between coats. Continuing this process three times over.

All sealed and dried AGAIN... and still no storm. Carried everything back in and piled it in the- I don't know where places as I haven't been able to find anything since. 
Never mind, it all needs to be transported back out into the yard again when we lay the new carpet.

New carpets will be a while yet though as Steve wants to replace some of the timber trim and we want to repaint. 
My daughter painted the orange feature wall(2nd photo) one Easter several years back. She had a lot of fun doing it but I think I'm going to go neutral this time around and open/lighten the place up a bit. Along with a fair bit of de-cluttering and organizing it should look good.

We will be doing it all ourselves through out the year. We normally do this as financial and time constraints allow. It ended up costing us around $150 to do ourselves with some product left over. In comparison a lady I know paid for this to be down and it cost several thousand. Better in our pocket I reckon!

So here starts my year of simplifying, de-cluttering, maintaining and hopefully organizing. 
Years ago when the children were young we used this area as a playroom, it has been used as a teenage retreat & as bedrooms for my eldest two when they wanted some independence before moving out. 
My office is down there too but since sealing the slab I have moved it upstairs to one of the spare bedrooms(but that's for another post)

Now, to go and sort some of this downstairs STUFF. 
Me thinks it would be a good idea to mark a Garage Sale somewhere into the calendar this year.

Interesting to see if I'm sitting here this time next year eating my words? Seems like we're off to a good start though.

Caroline

Daughters, Dogs and other Ramblings

Received a sweet little text tonight from my darling daughter saying

she's glad I'm back blogging. 

In the age of Face book being so important in people lives, I'm so happy she takes the time to check in at her Mumma's "OLD" blog.

Mmm...she never comments though ;)

So of course after that, I had needed to put some darling photos up of her and her gorgeous Border Collie Stevie.

Despite 2012 being such a hard year for me this year I am endeavouring to move forward with my life. Last year my home suffered greatly & so I feel did many of my close friends & family as they supported me through what was such a difficult time in my life. 

I've always been a person who thrives in a neat and organized environment & after a year of merely just "EXISTING" in my home I think it is well in need of an overhaul. I'm bursting with excitement at some of the plans and changes I've got spinning around in my head. Just to wet my appetite a little in advance of things I have just come back from an afternoon of furniture shopping (Whoops)

Another exciting thing I plan to do is nurture and develop some new friendships I made in the past year. As you get older I found that you rarely make "new" friends and we all become creatures of habit as we tend to move around in the same circles. Have any of you found that true for you as well?
When my children were young I found I was constantly meeting new people in various ways- the school, sports and other community and social groups that I was involved with through my kids. 

With last year being what it was I felt I didn't embrace my new friends caring, kindness and friendship that they gifted upon me BUT this year I fully intend to return that favour x 10 :) 

z

Also, last year I joined a small community group in our little town that is full of like minded people. I must say I was most pleasantly surprised when I joined as in many ways I had struggled with some aspects of this town :0

You see it wasn't a place I would have ever personally have chosen to live in given, the choice that is but desperate times made for major adjustments to our life and the way we lived so when I moved here (many moons ago now) I never really expected to stay!! As a young widow at only 26  with 3 very, very young children I had to move where there was a decent job that would support us, then I met my partner and dare I say- I think it was all "written in the stars"

Anyway it was such a blessing to have found this small group that when I continually came home at night raving about it my partner decided to join, it's all the more lovelier as it something we share together now. Finding things to do as a couple becomes more and more important, I feel as the children grow up and fly the nest spreading and testing their independent wings.

I have a few new projects that my darling partner helped me start last year. His part in my journey by helping & supporting me (& selflessly putting his own feeling aside despite them being as deep as mine)was helping me find new hobbies to learn, explore & enjoy. 
I hope to be able to share a few of those in time here, at my blog. 

So, I hope you all will continue to join me in my journey throughout the year as I regain(hopefully) my strength after 2012 the year that was!! 
Thank you to those few kind bloggies that sent me awesome messages/emails & to my faithful followers.It was encouraging to see in my absence I didn't lose any of you and that I fact in gained some newbies :)

Enough rambling, hope you all have a lovely Sunday, cheerfully spending quality time with those that you hold dear.

Caroline xo


  

Baking

Welcome 2013

Happy New Year

Blessings of hope, health, laughter & happiness to you all this coming year.

I couldn't wait for 12oclock this morning to welcome in 2013, I was very happy to put the year 2012 away to bed. Hopefully not to be repeated anytime soon.

Without sounding TOO "dramatic" (cause I am so not a drama queen) it was one of the worse years of my life!!

EXCEPT.........

for one blessing that was sent to us 2 days after my Soldier Boy son arrived home safely from Afghanistan (Whoops, that was a blessing too! ) & the day after Mothers Day.

On May 14th 2012 my first beautiful Granddaughter was born.

"Emmalyn Jane Rose"

Squeamish people please avert your eyes

-proud Daddy cutting the cord.

Proud Daddy, Soldier Boy & Emmalyn.

So what did all of you do for your New Year celebrations??
(quiet & peaceful, loud & disorderly.....tell me all the goss!)

We usually just have a quiet night but to make sure we REALLY did put 2012 to bed we lived it up over at "The Sunshine Coast" it was a lovely night.

 I suppose the moral of the story could be, even in a bad year there are always blessings.

Welcome 2013, I am excitedly looking  forward to getting to know you better.

Cheers

Caroline xo

The Unknown- Oh the places you'll go

This post has been edited by the blog author

the begininning or the end!

DR SEUSS's  book - Oh the places you'll go....If you've ever read it you'll understand why....if you haven't....read it!! It's not just a children's book - it's the story of one's life....EVERYBODY's. Sometimes despite all that happens people just need to know they are still loved & can/will succeed.

So to end here, I must say a BIG THANKYOU & Merry Christmas to all those I hold dear...including those few kind Blogging Buddies. 

Merry Christmas

Caroline xo