Winter chill sets in.....

It has rained alot during the night...luckily it didn't come down during th Lantern parade.
Its really chilly outside today.

John gets to work doing more re-arranging...
I do some cooking and Tom ...Lego!!
I drop Tom out to friend Finn's place at Lymington..about 10 minutes drive along the coast road.
The back to do some more sewing.

Alex and Cameron set up their vege and bread stalls out the front under our awning...

We buy some goods and I get a soup going..
The weather comes and goes but the temperature doesn't rise much. But we are so cosy inside it doesn't really impact on us..when the sun shines we have it streaming in...its a good day.

Tom arrives back aboput 2 ish ...Melanie and Jason drive him home..nice.
He and John do a bit more in the shop ...
Evening starts to fall...and we decide to watch a new DVD John bought me yesterday...The Sound of Music !! Yes...you read that right!!. We heard some of the music playing on the radio on Friday..and it reminded us of what a lovely film it is...and thought Tom would like to see it...especially as John's dad was born in Austria.. It's a long film and we don't finish it as tom is nodding off after his fun day.

Monday and it is quite a wet morning so I don't go out walking ..
The boys do Tom's reading in the shop after breakie...and call to me to come quickly...with my camera...
What a sight...

We have stacks of orders today and work flat chat all day to get them done...
Tom has had a chilly but good day at school...he stops by the fire to "thaw out"...
As I walk Tom down to scouts...there is a sprinkle of rain which could easily turn to sleet...brrr.
We are glad to have our tasty homemade Chicken and Leek pies for dinner!! Very warming.

Tuesday and the morning sky is so clear. We have a fantastic sight of Venus and Jupiter.

There is a small frost today...and I walk with confidence towards Burton's reserve...just before crossing the road I skate on some ice..but manage not to fall over. Phew!!
Its truly beautiful out this morning...a group of black swans fly overhead. They make their way each morning to graze in the back paddocks.
Today we have a small wood heater installed in the work area...it takes most of the morning for the installation...and with doors open as the workman come and go..its really freezing..
But once we get the fire going in the afternoon, John sets up to fill an Urtica Urens gel...a warm spot to work now...

We go for a drive after work to see if there are any Pink Lady Apples for sale at a farm on Guys Road...then travel up Slab Road to take in the view of Cygnet from there... Then we go up to wattle Grove as the light is fading...to see if there are any Jonquils in flower. There is one bunch, but we suspect there will be more ..
Its pretty chilly and we can see snow covering Sleeping Beauty..up the valley towards Hobart...But it is stunningly beautiful up there.

Wednesday and again light frost makes walking a bit hazardous...

...especially over the icy wooden bridge...The sky is a magnificent blue..
John has the fires going in the shop/work rooms..and its looking real cosy.
The boys set up to do Tom's morning reading in the work area..

The sun shines... and Tom makes his way to school (you might just spot him in this photo)

The flat will be warming up too. It is quite a contrast walking into the flat after being in the shop..the flat has light and sun streaming in through the high north windows...the shop is dark and cool facing west.
I get a loaf of bread baking for lunch...yummy!!
There is no Kitchen lesson this week for Tom's class..Roy the teacher has to go to Hobart for a training day..
We have a few orders to get done..then concentrate on re-stocking shelves etc.
More orders come in again in the afternoon....
I enjoy afternoon tea with the girls at RV...catching up on their family news and listening to their "shop talk" about school...
Its pretty chilly walking home and I'm glad John has the fire going..
We have a lovely relaxed evening..Thomas doing some drawing, John sorting and cleaning books and I do a bit of knitting..finishing off another hat.

Thursday and there is a big frost again...just beautiful out early. (crunching across the grass reminds me of childhood ...walking to school through the Concord Golf Links..)

There is a sheet of ice over the puddle in the park

Its a stunning sunny day again...cold and crisp though. I go up the street at about 9.30am to take a photo of the old-fashioned mural painted toilet block before its demolished..and there is still alot of ice on the ground.

Balfour House looks like fairyland with its frosty garden.

John and I get some orders done..enjoying the warmth in out workspace .
There is a funeral in the Town Hall this morning for a local woman. I did not ever speak with her..but would see her delivering the Classifieds each week..She was certainly a presence in my week and I will miss seeing her in her lovely long tartan skirt.
It is very moving to witness family and friends coming together to prepare the hall etc. After the service they line the street and wave Bev off...such a beautiful tribute...

John spends alot of the afternoon/evening re-arranging the bookshelves. Its alot of work and takes time to get it alphabetical. I've made more category tags for the different sections.. We are really looking like a bookshop now...

I go ovet to Tom's class to do some art/craft activities...Its alot of fun as usual. We work on background sheets for Aboriginal art to be displayed nest week for NAIDOC week. We wet paper and stick on pieces of earthy coloured crepe paper..then peel the crepe paper off again...leaving colour patches over the page. The children will then glue a cut out kangaroo, snake etc on top... Its very effective.(even though my hands turn a strange colour!!). I really enjoy being in the classroom...the children are lovely and Kim and Sharon are such delightful women to work with..
taking the last of the post up...and the pavers are still icy in places...amazing.
Tom works on his homework while I light the  fire and get dinner going.
Off to Zumba tonight. Claudia really keeps up the pace tonight..I can't believe I actually get quite hot on such a cold evening. Its all good fun..even if I struggle to keep up with her moves!!
Nice to get home , shower and have a quiet read before bed.

Friday and its already 11 degrees when I go out walking..
John is doing more in the shop with the books when I get back..and Thomas has his head in a book.
We enjoy breakie and get on with the morning chores before school/work.
I give Sandra a call as it is her last day at the pharmacy at Pennant Hills...the end of an era..John and I have anguished about leaving Sandra behind and now feel relief that she has a good future to look forward to working at Cherrybrook. But today will be a strange day for her I'm sure..
Its a fairly quiet day order-wise...but that gives us time to get on with other tasks.
We have a number of local customers today which is lovely.
Tonight we are attending a very special event at Peppermint Bay ... we will be dropping Tom off at Ryan and Minky's place then going with them to an intimate dinner and performance by Richard Tognetti (Artisitic Director of Australian Chamber Orchestra..and Violinist extraordinaire).
It is a wonderful evening.... We arrive about 5.45 and enjoy a drink in the bar area. Eventually more patrons arrive from Hobart by boat. We are served small bowls of  Clam rice,sea urchin butter with wild garlic....delish!!!
We are then invited to take seats in performance area set up at the other end of the building. We are treated to a varied mini concert..given by Richard Tognetti, a female ACO colleague and Brian Ritchie. The program ranges from classical to contempory classical to folk to punk rock...they obviously enjoy themselves...and whilst alot of the music wasn't to my taste, it was fantastic to be exposed to some amazingly technically extraordinary music.
We then take our seats for dinner...a wonderful meal devised by Dave the chef at Peppermint Bay..

Raw Tasmanian Kingfish, Kohlrabi, Mustartd Oil,Mustard Leaf
Smoked marrow Raviolo, Nettle sauce Black truffle.
Grassfed wagyu oyster blade, Salsify, Alexanders, Oyster sauce
Angelica Cake, Lemon, Liquorice, Yoghurt

We thoroughly enjoy the company of Ryan and Minky and the evening is a memorable, once in a lifetime experience. We are very aware that we would never have this sort of opportunity in Sydney. Ryan just happened to be told of the event and immediately thought to invite us along too...

You can just make out Richard in this photo...his signature spikey hairdo is framed by the lit doorway behind him..

Tom has had a really nice night with Arlo, Ruby (Minky's 11 year old daughter) and their babysitter Zoe..who is just lovely. We are glad to snuggle into bed when we get home...

Saturday and we have a slow start (for us anyway).

I make my way into Hobart to do some secret Birthday shopping for John. Its a beautiful sunny morning.

My well laid plans don't come together so I have to do a bit of back-tracking..but I manage to get all I was after in the end.
The boys had plans to buy some star pickets etc and take some of the trees up on the hill to start planting...very exciting...
When I arrive home they are not there so I go up on the hill and we meet one another on Cawthorns Rd. There are cattle back on the land so John has not planted anything...We go down and just wallaby proof the trees in a safe area away from the cattle.

There is a new calf...born this morning down by the dam

We drop home for late lunch, then head over to Woodbridge. Last night Dave  served up dessert with a garnigh of Wood Sorrel (Oxalis). John is hopeful it will be the Oxalis we need for a cream that we could make...Dave generously takes time to draw John a mud map of where to find it. We go in search..but unfortunately it does not appear to be the variety we need.

Thomas is delighted with the warm hat I found for him at Salamanca Market this morning

We head home and soon decide to get through early showers to settle down for Harry Potter DVD.

We are glad that we watch it early as by 8pm we are all well and truly looking forward to our beds...

Winter Solstice week

Sunday and its Market day..in both halls this week!!Its pretty dark and cool out today..

 Tom does the rounds and actually decides to hang on to his money today...(he has seen a lego model in town he is saving for)
John scouts for books but does not find anything.
I do some vege and shopping from Alex .
There is the usual line up for Cameron's bread.

Otherwise we get busy on big orders that have come in.
Its a bitter cold day out...and good to be busy inside.
I had hoped to go up on the hill today ,but that is not appealing as the rain comes and goes..
The afternoon is spent finishing the last chapter of Harry Potter...a mammoth marathon that has been the focus for John and Tom for months now...
I finish my lantern for Saturday's parade...quite happy with the result. It doesn't match the interesting shaped ones I saw yesterday, but it's pretty...

(there was a Lantern Making day in the Town hall Supper room...and children wandered out with all sorts of weird and wonderful creations...)
The weekend comes to a close..

As we head towards Winter solstice on Thursday this week the mornings are dark and our daily routine is pretty much filled with getting orders out...its very busy every day.

Ned brings our new book shelves over on Monday.. John is very pleased to have them...and as usual, Ned has done a fabulous job.

On Tuesday there is a very big funeral for a former St James teacher who passed away unexpectedly at 58 yrs. John and I witness the guard of honour and funeral cortege. It is very moving. There is a wake held in the Carmel hall...feverish activity goes on as preparations are made during the day. Lovely to see the community coming together supporting eachother..

Wednesday morning brings our first heavy frost...with an overnight low of -1.5 degrees C. Although still dark when I do my walk, I can see the white blanket of frost that has fallen on the town. I skate on some icy footpath outside the bottom pub and crunch in a frozen puddle in Burton's Reserve...
Its just magic!!.

We eat breakie by the fire in the shop as the flat is quite chilly this morning.
We keep the fire roaring today and are nice and warm..

John is in his element....busy expanding our book shelf displays and on Thursday  he and Tom remove the cupboard doors and drill more holes for the shelves. It is changing the look of the shop....but it will give us more display area.

Even though it is very cold..I brave the night and zip across to Zumba...we do some new routines that I don't have a clue about (having missed 3 weeks)...but I just keep moving ...more or less in the right direction...It's good exercise..

Friday and its another cold start...with a frost...but not as cold as Wednesday.

The sun is shining..so even though its cold out.
We have a big order to prepare to send to Taiwan. John gets busy making a cream to fill the order..
It's the Catarrh Cream ...such a glossy smooth texture..lovely.

The day flies by as we are flat out processing orders all day.

We have the company of one of the locals who comes to enjoy the warmth of the shop. She stays all day reading her book quietly in the lounge chair...so delightful to have human presence in the shop as we work..

The afternoon sun on the hills out the back is so beautiful..I can't resist a photo..

 

John works away at getting more books out on the shelves as he plans to do a bit of rearranging over the weekend.

Friday night closes in quickly...and we venture up to Red Velvet for a well earned meal..Delightful Ben looks after us well as usual... We are glad to wander home and snuggle down for the night.

Saturday and the boys are up and ready to head to Hobart to a book sale. I have a slow start...enjoying breakie in bed (courtesy of the boys)...then get up to do washing etc...
I have a lovely morning making a big pot of vegan minestrone soup for the Lantern Parade celebrations in Loongana Park tonight.

I enjoy doing some sewing...starting to make some warm pants that will come in handy..
The boys arrive in from Hobart laden with books...and a lego !!

The afternoon is spent re-arranging the shop area and sewing...
Thomas and I go up the street to see if there is any action in Loongana Park...and there is preparation in progress.

Very exciting....not long before it begins to get dark.

Thomas lights his lamp at home just to try it out...

We rug up and walk up past Loongana Park to Cygnet Primary school at 5.30pm ...the park looks terrific...

.....everyone is assembling at school for the 6pm parade...fantastic atmosphere.lots of interesting lanterns..

We parade down the hill and onto the main street to the park...There is a truck up the front with someone playing the bongo drums...and the occasional whistle...very festive....Its just wonderful..

I help out with getting the soup in cups...it is free with bread for anyone who would like it..Lots of people around town have made pots of soup for the purpose. There is also hot popcorn..

After a short shadow puppet concert (which I didn't see) the bonfire is lit..

It was a fantastic night...
Thomas had great fun racing about with some mates from scouts..
He walked home and settled in for the night.