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.

Last week of holidays

Thomas and I had a fabulous visit to Sydney...

Tom loved the Narnia Exhibition trip with Jess, was great to see Pa doing so well...delicious dinner celebrating Lucy's 24th birthday, meeting baby Edward Bowman and catching up with family, visiting Sandra...then Ma (who gave us a smile)...a lovely morning doing Wedding Dress fitting...then enjoyed sunny afternoon watching Aaron's soccer game...then the reason for the visit...Elsie's 21st!! What a great night!! Tom had a ball with the glow sticks....thanks to all for making our visit so enjoyable

We arrived back in Hobart bright and early on Sunday (thanks for getting up so early Hannah!!)

John had already done an Absynthium harvest on the way to the airport...

We drove home...Tom sleeping in the car.
Thomas discovered to his great delight...his toy friends had got up to mischief (with a little help from someone!!)...

Once they were cleared away..I had a snooze for a bit.
We enjoyed a peaceful day...reading Harry Potter..and just pottering about. I got alot of washing done and made a delicious lentil vege soup for dinner.
We decided to watch the second Harry Potter DVD at 5pm then have dinner..
Tom was delighted of course...
A good day.
Monday and I enjoyed a walk noting a mass of black swans grazing in the paddock..

..then joined John in the shop...answering email enquiries and getting orders sorted to do tomorrow.
We eventually got Thomas up and had a lovely breakie.
More 'Harry' enjoyed by all... I did a bit of knitting.
We all wandered up to RV with our own mugs and got takeaway hot drinks..which we brought home.

We set out for Wattle Grove after 12..taking snacks with us.
We worked for about 4 hours...taking down most of the fence and stacking fence poles etc for future use. It was simply magnificent on the hill...no wind at all...just peace and extraordinary views...a wonderful afternoon. Finished up by collecting a couple of boxes of kindling...

Home to hot showers and soup...and more 'HP'...this last book is just soooo exciting its hard to stop reading..
Peaceful, cosy night at home.

Tuesday and as I head out for my walk I notice our Yellow Recycling bins are being delivered...very exciting (we are a little behind the mainland with this concept).
Its grey out..but delightful to sight black swans overhead and some near the creek.

The boys get to work bringing in firewood while I make a batch of apple oat biscuits..
We begin our working day with lots of orders that have come in over the weekend...and more come during the day.
We have a number of customers today buying books..
We price alot of the books that John bought at a Book Fair on Saturday..
Tom and I do the post run about 3.30pm with a full trolley load.

We stop in at IGA on the way back to collect empty boxes that George has put aside for us...they are great for packing and posting our orders.

John makes a Calendula Cream and fills it.
Ryan and Arlo arrive for an afternoon meeting to talk some more about the house design etc.
We wave them off in the cold night and are very glad to snuggle down for dinner and a reading session.

Wednesday and there is a good frost this morning..very fresh out.

The boys set up another lamp on the desk in the shop as it can get quite dark on grey days.
I get a bread on the way..
After breakie and a Harry Potter session we begin the working day.
John and Tom head up to RV to get coffee/Hot choc. Tom decides to stay and have his there. John said Ben set him up near the fire on the lounge...really lovely.. Tom returned about half an hour later having enjoyed his drink and a read.
There are alot of orders to do and John tackles a mountain of paperwork..
We have a number of customers through the day who buy books...lovely.
Tom enjoys lego, reading his Zac Power books and going out to climb the trees near Lotus Eaters.
We do a walk to the post during the day to enjoy the sunshine.
There is a big funeral taking place at 11am. Must he a well known and loved local.We watch the crowds arrive. After the Mass they process behind the hearse up to the cemetery..then there appears to be a wake in Carmel Hall. Something good about being so closely connected to the sad events in town as well as the joyous ones.

After work we drive into Hobart as Katmandu is having a members sale day..Tom is in need of some more thermal tops as he is fast outgrowing what he has.. We pick up a number of useful items..
Then to North Hobart for dinner at Raincheck Lounge before driving home.
John has stoked up the fire so its still glowing when we get in.
Hot showers and a Harry Potter session before snuggling into bed...


Thursday and its quite foggy and grey...but not as cold as yesterday.

After breakie John and Tom go into town to the Maritime Museum.. John hasn't been there yet.
There are orders and customers buying books ..keeps me busy through the morning.
John and Tom arrive back about lunchtime.. They had a lovely time at Museum and also took in a bookshop along the way...
Ryan and Arlo come visiting with Minky's brother Chris who is over from New York for a bit. Tom enjoys a play with Arlo while Ryan and Chris look at books. John gets busy making an Aurum comp cream while I do more orders...the day passes quickly.
Its a cold grey drizzly night and I opt for a night home with Harry Potter...missing Zumba this week..
We head to bed pretty early as we are all tired..

Friday and although dark and grey...its not so cold out.
We have a busy day with orders and Tom keeps himself amused with lego creating some amazing models ..

By evening its getting cool and I make Lamb and Rosemary Pies for dinner...yum.

We enjoy a gripping HP read as nearly finished the final book now....

Saturday and we head to Hobart to go to a Book Sale. Its a cool morning..

We pick up numerous boxes of treasures...

Its pretty chilly though. We stop at a bakery cafe in North Hobart for breakie before going into Hobart for a few things...
On our way home we stop to cut some willow branches...for lantern making...
That afternoon..Tom and I make up his lantern for the lantern parade next sat night.. I make a start on mine...but will finish it tomorrow as we have to set up for the next Harry Potter Movie....
Tom loves it ...I am not so thrilled...I find it very 'dark'...we enjoy our dinner of pies again...then cosy down for the night..
Market day tomorrow...