Camino in Cygnet

Monday morning and there is a light frost today.
As I go my usual way..I spot a scallop shell denoting the beginning of a short Camino...set out for the St James children to follow in celebration of St James' feast day on Wednesday. Nice.

We have a fairly busy day today with lots of orders to do ..
The day passes as usual.
Tom is excited as scouts tonight is Mad Scientist theme...he gets his outfit sorted out by himself...and is very pleased with himself...

John and I walk him down to the Scout hall then continue on to do a beautiful circuit walk up through the Golf course and back though town.. So lovely to enjoy the evening together.
We get back and prepare dinner then both go down to pick up Tom...they are having fun at the hall..
A nice cosy night ..
Tuesday and another frosty start..

I set out mid morning to go down to the Community Garden. We have a wonderful morning carrying on with pruning the fruit trees. Later in the morning it was all hand on deck to move the chicken coop.. I helped round the cooks up and held a lovely red hen while the coop was lifted into a new spot.We enjoyed a cuppa and chat afterwards on the sunny veranda..very enjoyable..
Back at the shop we had orders to do...then later in the afternoon Ryan dropped in so we could talk  about reviewing house plans..a productive start I think. We all want to be able to build on the hill...but we just have to rethink the options..
A lovely evening spent at home.. Hannah is on the way to San Francisco...already in Auckland...exciting.

Wednesday and cool out again...

Its St James' Feast day today...so I take a quick look at the decorations in the church.. (Thomas has told me he made a special fish for the display). There is a school mass at 11am  but I won't get over as we have things that need attending to here..

The fish are displayed throughout the church..it looks lovely

The day passes and we see some lovely customers today.
John and I take turns having walks up the street for various reasons...its nice to see what is happening in town and who's about..
I spy Tom in the noisy group of St James children going past the shop at lunchtime...on their way to Burton's Reserve..he looks so happy ..
Tom has rock climbing this afternoon after school...which he loves.
I enjoy a lovely afternoon tea chat at RV with the St James gang...
I make a Pistachio Brownie for Tom's lunchbox that turns out well..

Home and we have a quiet evening together..

Thursday and no frost today.

 I do a loop through the Community Garden to see what the group did yesterday...more pruning has been done...it looks great.

The chooks look happy in their new home.

We have a busy morning of orders and John makes a new Hypericum Cream as well as a Hypericum/Calendula Cream.

We have a busy morning of orders today.
Yummy bread for lunch..

After lunch I go across to Tom's class to help out. His regular teacher is not there today..
She is glad to have me and another Mum there as we are walking the class down to the Sailing Club as part of their Camino journey.
It's pretty hectic as we have to stride out to get there and back in time...and I'm with the stragglers down the back...an interesting..and definitely not a calm, reflective experience...but its a lovely afternoon to be out.

Back at the shop we get on with filling and labelling creams.
Devour take-away for dinner...yummy!!
Its a lovely quiet evening...

Friday morning and Thomas comes on my morning walk to show me "heartbreak hill"...(the school is training for cross-country next Friday). It's a lovely walk in the foggy morning.

Then we do the Camino walk up to the cemetery...

Its lovely to have Tom's company.
We get busy with orders and filling creams and the morning is gone in no time.
The sun has come out , so I take the post up the street to get out for a bit ...its a sparkling sunny winter day!!

As the afternoon progresses the clouds roll in...

Before long Tom is back from school..

We have a peaceful evening at home...enjoying a Beef Stew with Parsley dumplings..and salad. Yum

Saturday and I am up at 5.30 boiling the kettle for a cuppa..We settle in to watch the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in London...Tom gets hungry for breakie by the time the athletes begin parading...it does take a long time . He is not disappointed by the lighting of the Olympic Flame...(he has been really keen to see how they would do it)

We potter about during the morning. I do some washing , sewing etc. The boys read..

Later we do some gardening..John plants out some of his seedlings with Thomas while I do some weeding.

We go for a lovely afternoon walk around town...up past the Cygnet Primary school and around to 'heartbreak hill' then down back through town...just before the rain comes over again.

  

We settle in for  Harry Potter night with Thomas...

 

Cygnet to French Island

Sunday and its Market day again....a Mid-Winter market in both halls!!

John gave Cameron a hand to set up (as he was lining up to buy a cake from him) and Cam gave John a loaf of his delicious Pumpkin Bread...yum..

We enjoy a morning of pottering doing a few chores.
John and I wander up the street to get his RV morning coffee..before we open the shop.
Its lovely to see everyone arriving to set up.We stop and buy some vegies form Alex on our way back.
The morning starts out lovely and sunny...but the rain clouds come in by the afternoon.
We have a number of customers in buying books..
Tom's friend Finn comes over to play for a few hours. They play lego then have a bit of Star Wars computer time.

I thought we'd go up to Wattle Grove to collect kindling but the rain came in and remained steady all afternoon. The boys didn't seem to mind.

I enjoyed having a drive of the Subaru when I took Finn home to Lymington...about a 10 minute drive up the Cygnet Coast Road..even got it a bit dirty!! so we don't stand out so much now.
Home to a quiet afternoon and evening..

Monday and the morning Star is stunning this morning..being 'trailed' by the moon..

The day is a mix of customers and some orders...but we are not rushed off our feet.
Before long Thomas is back from school ...with a tooth in a little bag...its been really wobbly and giving him grief!! So we are all relieved
Soon time to get ready for Scouts.
They are cooking dinner outside tonight so he is looking forward to that..
John and I enjoy walking him to the hall..we spy a couple of swans in the creek on the way home..nice

Tom returns having had sausages...but is soon scrounging for food to finish off at home...
Reading time with John then off to bed...and John and I aren't far behind.

Tuesday is a bit of a cloudy grey one..
I head down to the Community Garden session at about 10am. I have decided to forgo my Wed morning at school kitchen for a bit..in lieu of Tuesday mornings in the Garden.
Its pretty wet underfoot, so I wear my gummies..

I meet some lovely locals and together we begin pruning the apple trees...a big job as they have not been pruned for some time. Soon it's 12 and we stop to have a cuppa and shared morning tea on the back veranda of the house backing on to the garden (owned by Liz..who is a local councillor)
Its a great morning and I look forward to next week.
We get on with orders for the rest of the day.
John has found a lovely possie for Hedwig today...Thomas leaves him with us in the shop..to look after during the day. John delights in finding new things for Hedwig to do..

After work I get the boy's dinner organised early as I have a School Board meeting in Huonville tonight. After the meeting we are going to dinner at Franklin..
Its a really enjoyable evening..

Wednesday morning is beautiful..

The day passes with orders to do and a few customers..

Nolan drops in in the afternoon to give us a pumpkin from his garden...they have an over-supply. We have a good chat about living up on the hill...he is our neighbour at Wattle Grove.. We learn more about the constraints of growing things given the wildlife up there..Its an interesting discussion..

In the evening I get all packed for my visit to French Island.. its the Annual Sister's Weekend...I leave in the morning and return Sunday.

We have a wonderful couple of days together...enjoying great walks, food, conversation, laughter, singing and a few farm jobs too..

Just a few highlights.....

Thanks for a lovely weekend...my beautiful sisters..