School Holidays

Sunday...and I'm feeling decidedly unwell..so decide to have a quiet morning at home John and Thomas set out for a Book Fair at Kingston. (after bringing my a very welcome cuppa)
I venture out to but some fruit bread a a couple of pastries from Cam's bread stall.. Alex arrives a bit later with his fresh veges...and despite the chilly wind and spitting rain, its worth the wait to buy a load to make some soup for dinner..

I enjoy a restful morning, reading the paper, doing some washing and ironing and snoozing.
The boys arrive in about 1ish with an interesting array of books. They had a walk along the beach and morning tea at Citrus Moon Cafe at Kingston...a good morning.
We had a restful afternoon.. After a snooze, John and Thomas went for a bike ride down to the
Sailing Club while I slept.
The weather comes and goes a bit today...its lovely to just sit and watch it..

Late afternoon Tom and I did a short wander along the lane way...just to get a bit of fresh air..
We stop to look at the lovely coloured oak leaves...

Early showers and dinner...then a quite evening before bed.

Monday and its a lovely sunny morning...but I decide to take it slowly.

There are a number of orders to get on with, so I just plod through them.
John and Thomas get to work pressing the Paw paw.. It has quite a pungent smell..(hence Tom's expression) They do three presses to get the most out of the fruit pulp and John is delighted with the result...  An excellent tincture.

John then makes batch of the new formulation of Mercurialis Comp Oint...including Mercurialis, Chamomile, Hypericum, Papaya, Aloe vera, Peru Balsam, Stibium, Calendula, Myrhh and Echinacea. The ointment comes together beautifully..with a silky texture and wonderful aroma.  A great achievement.

We are so caught up in our work that the afternoon closes in quickly and before long its getting dark and is after 5pm..
I get the fire going in the flat, make sausage rolls for dinner...and Tom makes an excellent Apple Crumble for dessert...well done!!

After dinner I enjoy phone calls with Pa and Sandra...so good to catch up on their news.
A quiet read then very glad to snuggle into bed...

Tuesday...Happy Birthday Hannah....
I enjoy a short walk this morning... The Poplars make a lovely silhouette against the morning sky.
There is a lovely reflection of the shining clouds as I cross the bridge.

After breakfast John and Thomas head for Hobart to do some banking etc
...No doubt a visit to a few book shop will be part of the morning activity.
I am kept busy with orders, phone calls and customers throughout the morning and in no time the boys return. They have found a swag of books in new and used book shops..John is happy.
We are kept busy with more orders and a delightful flow of customers during the afternoon.
We meet a couple from Apollo Bay who own a bookshop and who also used to grow medicinal plants, a family from Hobart who delight in playing with the wooden toys, a local who is so pleased to be getting good results from taking our medicines, a family from Victoria who use our medicines prescribed by a therapist we know and a man who is working on a local project setting up a medicinal plant garden on Bruny Island based on local Aboriginal heritage information..What an interesting afternoon of conversations....and we sell a few books too...
Glad to get the fire going about 4 out the back to cosy up the place .
There is pink tingeing the late afternoon clouds in the sky as I go to draw the curtains for the night.

We settle down to dinner, quiet reading and an early night.

Wednesday and its quite pleasant out this morning...not too cold.
I see black swans flying over the water and on my way back spot two white herons coming in to land on the rivulet..just lovely.
John gets Tom to work early taking a tyre off his car...it has a slow leak..Tom does a good job.

After breakie the boys take it up to the servo for repair..
Then Thomas and I drive in to Kingston to go to Big W. Tom is in need of some warm trackie pants and a couple of skivvies...he is growing out of his clothes!!. (I am enjoying dipping into boxes of size 10 clothes that Linda- John's sister- sent us awhile ago...they are fantastic)..
We do a quick whip around the Channel Court Shopping centre to get an idea of what is there...then head home.
Thomas is enjoying drawing and colouring ...keeps him busy for hours..

We have orders and customers through the day...but its fairly quiet really.
Its a lovely afternoon of occasional visitors into the shop...ready to chat.
I take the post up the street and spot Kay sitting in Red Velvet so drop in quickly to say hi.
Robyn (from school) arrives for a cuppa too...she is off to Alice Springs tomorrow...so exciting..
Will love to hear her stories when she returns.
John has a visit from Sally...a nursery woman.. She tells us where we can find Petasites in Fitzroy Garden in Hobart.. a medicinal Plant John has been searching for..
The afternoon passes quickly...
We enjoy an early dinner c/- Devour..a takeaway feast of Fish and Chips, Chicken Schnitzel Burger and chips shared between the three of us...and Tom even eats some fish and burger too!!
After early shower etc we walk up to Cygnet Primary School to be part of the community presentation by visiting Gyuto Monks..ceremonial Tibetan Monks living in Exile in India. They chant for about half an hour then the elder monk gives a talk on finding Contentment that is translated for us..during the talk Thomas joins the other children in another room and they do drawing with the younger monks... A very interesting evening.

Thursday and its a lovely sunny morning after a cool start..

Thomas spends his day between lego, reading books and helping John.

I get a bread baking for lunch...then in the afternoon make a Caramel Pear tart for dessert when Hannah arrives in tonight.

We have plenty of things to keep us occupied and the day goes quickly.

We eat early dinner then head off to the airport to pick up Hannah.

We thought we timed it perfectly...but I get a call from Hannah as we approach the airport...the plane arrived 20 minutes early!! Unheard of!! Anyway it makes things easy as we swing in and she jumps in the car.

We have a lovely supper together celebrating Hannah's birthday

 then slowly make our way to bed..

Friday and its not too cool out today...for those of us who go out!!

We breakfast then Hannah ,Tom and I drive in to Hobart to the UTAS Sandy Bay Campus .

We meet with Holly who looks after Future Student enquiries. She answers alot of Hannah's questions...Then we meet Paddy who takes us to look at the Accommodation options...he is delightful and obviously enjoys his job very much.

Its a very informative morning and Hannah is impressed .

After our meeting we have morning tea at Sandy Bay and Tom has a play in the park. Its an amazingly warm sunny day for 1st day of Winter....

We drive into town and take a look at UTAS Domain Campus where the Nursing School will be located next year...its currently being refurbished (We saw a plumber's truck there...advertising heat pumps...and hoped they are being installed). Hannah has a knack of finding historical buildings to do her study!!.

We head back to Cygnet. As we drove up the lane we met Jason and Finn. (Jason is a teacher at St James and Finn is in Tom's class). They had just ridden into town and called by to say hi. Finn and Tom were soon busy with lego etc and Jason  decided to ride back home towards Lymington to get his car and pick Finn up on his way to go fishing. The boys enjoyed their play.

Hannah made plans for baking a birthday cake then joined in the lego battle.

John and I work til late ..I design a new label for a cream he wants to make over the weekend.

After work we went up to Red Velvet for dinner...yummy..

Then home and once Tom was settled in bed Hannah and I did a few Downton Episodes before bed.

Saturday and excitement is building...one more sleep til Tom's birthday... He has asked if he can have a Nanna traditional present. (As in at Christmas with Susi...when he was able to open a present before 'the day'). We agreed so..he is looking forward to tonight.

After breakfast we drive to Kingston Beach and do a 2 hour walk along Alum Cliff track. Its grey but very pleasant walking. We do the circuit back along the beach...the only dog-walking beach around. Its quite amazing to see all the different owners and breeds of dogs..

We drive to Blackman's Bay and have late morning tea at The Beach Restaurant...yumm.

Then home , stopping at the Margate train for a quick play then dropping in the one of John's favourite shops....which actually often has good second hand books....

Hannah and I walk up the street and do some dinner shopping . We just get home before the rain starts to come down. Its cosy to be pottering inside. I have a snooze after John .

John gets on with making another new cream...for joint and muscle inflammation.

Hannah makes the birthday cake, Tom does lego and I do a little sewing...a nice afternoon.

We prepare an early dinner...then Tom has his wish granted and one present is opened... (with a little direction from John). Its the Harry Potter Dvd set... so our evening is now mapped out!!.

Tom enjoys his Birthday cake celebration

...then we all settle in for the  evening's entertainment.

Lots of fun....but wait there's more... tomorrow...