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.