Posted in Fiction

Sorry- a very dismal bookish week.

Posted on by TravellinPenguin

I feel like this weekend begins a new winter chapter in Tasmania. We’ve had some glorious days then another cold front moves in but this is normal. Not long now until spring.

Daffodils are rising, the wattle tree blooms have us all sneezing and I’m hearing a lot about getting the seed potatoes ready for planting.

It is also time to shed a bit of weight and get the camera out and post up some new photos.

It is time to connect to people I haven’t seen in awhile. I am looking forward to sitting outdoors again while having my lunch or coffee.

This week I had long conversations with three beautiful friends I’ve not seen for awhile. Yet on Wednesday there was a wake at a pub for another. That turned into a bittersweet time as I met and spent time with her two sisters and her niece. I helped a bit the next day to help clean out things in the house. A sad process. Donate? Skip it? Give it away? Auction? A Vinnies truck (thrift shop) turned up for bigger donations. Then the sisters and I and another neighbour sat around in the half empty lounge room telling me their stories of the past and the history of our neighbourhood. The house has been here for a very long time. I learned so much and it was lovely watching them laugh at the memories.

On top of all of this I had my book group evening where we discussed Robbie Arnott’s book Dusk. A beautiful Australian tale.

On Tuesday evening I got to one of my photo club meetings where we shared a lot of photos on the big screen and talked of what we loved and what we’d change in the editing process of the photos. We also had a speaker who shared his landscape and seascapes photography and a lively discussion ensued.

However on Friday we not only celebrated Ollie’s sixth birthday we celebrated our 54th wedding anniversary We went out to a very favourite restaurant. We shared a bottle of local Tasmanian wine and a gorgeous meal with yummy dessert. We amaze ourselves that we are still here. Life seems so much more settled as we age.

Now it is the weekend and we are very tired and just enjoying a bit of reading, social media, journalling and I have started repurposing a backyard area because I Am. Going. To. Plant. Potatoes‼️😳‼️

Something I’ve not done before but as an old time American farmer might say, “I just have a hankerin’ to plant a dern tater.”

Thats the week!

Now I’ll go dig up some photos to illustrate this ‘dern’ post.

Have a lovely week and if you feel so inclined tell me something fun you did that gave you a little buzz of happiness or a small giggle.

See you next week!

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Author:

I live a retired life in Tasmania, Australia. I love books, travel, animals, photography, motor biking and good friends. I indulge in all these activities with the little Travellin' Penguin who has now shared five continents with me. We love book shops, photography walks and time with friends as all our family is in USA and Canada. I enjoy visitors to my blog so hope you'll stop by.

21 thoughts on “Sorry- a very dismal bookish week.”

  1. Sorry to hear about your friend, but having time to talk over stories and shared memories with others who knew the person is important and special.

    Two things made me happy this week – the whip birds have started calling to each other this week – I love their call and reponse. And our new neighbours moved in this week and we met their lovely sweet dog called Astral who was excitedly sniffing all the new smells.

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  4. ‘m sorry about the wake, meaning the loss of a friend, but these things always have a bittersweet aspect don’t they. I’m glad you had some sweetness in there too.

    Congratulations on your 54th! Sounds like you are both in a good place which is lovely to hear.

    As for fun things, we’ve been in Melbourne – are now on our road home – but we had some really lovely things this week. One involved seeing wattle hanging over and reflected in the Yarra (as we walked a small section of the Yarra Main Trail). Another involved attending a wonderful concert of music by Haydn, Beethoven and an Australian composer Cathy Milliken – and talking to one of the musicians afterwards. That was a real buzz. And the third was spending time with our delightfully entertaining (if also sometimes exhausting) grandchildren. Oh, and we had cup-filling adult only meals with our daughter and her partner, and our son (sans partner, unfortunately, who was looking after the kids). All in all a great week for me.

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  5. The first new housing estate I lived in, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, in the 60s, the topsoil had been taken away and there was only clay. One of our neighbours, an English migrant, entirely seeded his front lawn with potatoes, sensible in retrospect, while dad persevered with ‘lawn’.

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  8. My little buzz of happiness this week came today when I handed in a quilt to a charity which donates them to children in trauma. It caused me no end of problems so I was relieved when it came together in the end and many fellow volunteers said they thought it was beautiful!

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    1. Oh good for you Karen. I was in a quilting group which made a few quilts and other items for charity. It was a special thing that we did over a decade or so, but now all but two of us are in their 80s and not up to quilting so we meet for coffee and chat instead. I think quilts for children – which we didn’t do amongst our various activities – is a special thing. (We did quilts for fire and flood victim appeals, quilted gifts for a program for partners of prisoners, among other things.)

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  9. I found some old photos under my bed and giggled at one of my sister and me in 1958! The old haircuts and the old clothes 😂

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  11. We were very pleased this week to see that our ‘taters’ have finally, finally, poked a shoot out. We had just about given up on them! I love potatoes fresh out of the garden, they do actually taste different.

    This week I trialled a new recipe for Mascarpone and raspberry cake which is very nice. It took considerable self-control to freeze most of it instead of gobbling it all up straight away:)

    And today I had lunch with The Offspring and it was lovely to see him looking so well. I passed over his father’s ashes which I had had to collect for him because he was having heart surgery. Next up is the private ceremony to cast them in the waters near a favourite spot on the bay, and that will close a sad chapter in our lives.

    Best book this week was All the Beautiful Things You Love (2024), by Jonathan Seidler!

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  12. Oh, I have a hankerin’ to plant taters, too! And other things, pretty and edible…only 2 and a bit weeks til we move to our new home! After 20+ years in the tropics, I’ll have to dig-over my memory patch before planting!

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