May is a marathon.

And now I reflect on May! I am very thankful that I survived the amount of stuff I did. I knew it was going to be full and busy, and whenever I started getting stressed, I remembered, yes, it's a busy month, just hang in there, it will be back to normal after Women of Truth (yesterday). 

A moment to appreciate a very soft jumper I bought. Probably have too many jumpers now, I have a bit of a thing for them.

So, work was busy. A few big jobs that I felt like I had to paddle fast to stay in front of them all. This was a nice thing though, I helped a colleague from Goulburn use a fake photoshop program to draw flora distribution maps for his book. So we will get PSD files from him instead of a bunch of sketches we have to digitise and make look nice. This is its own reward, and yet he also gave me honeycomb!

We had Term 2 home group start up and a pot luck dinner (all the carbs ....) and I made loaded fries. They were nice but I felt sick from nothing but carbs for dinner. Really must eat more veggies.

This is what my tummy looks like now. I have a triangle of scars at the bottom and a row of injection bruises from the clexane on either side of my belly button. Not pretty.

OK! The first big hump of the month was the Tocal Field Days at work. The lead up is a bit busy and then it's a 3 day weekend of CROWDS and stuff. Just some photos to capture it.

Tiring but a great event. I have some time in lieu to take but haven't had much time.

I did the wardrobe season changeover! This is the winter stuff being aired. Note my veggie garden and the box I have over my kale, there has been a plague of green grubs this year. Normally kale is impervious to pests.

I had my follow up gynae appointments in the middle of May. Being examined and touched is a bit tiring. I rewarded myself with a visit to the nursery to buy plants, or lunch with Ros who came with me for the second one.

This was disappointing because I was supposed to get an IUD implant but my anatomy is so retroverted they couldn't do it, I'll have to go back and have a general aneasthetic to do it. The last appointment was also weird, because it ended up being a total accident, I didn't actually need it, but I did ask some questions and found out I needed 3 more weeks of clexane. Which is also disappointing really. I thought I had finished.

Mum and I went shopping, which isn't something we ever do, and I picked a watch for my birthday present from my parents, and mum picked a new handbag.

I did some garden tidying and bought some replacement gardenias to complete my row.

Our household garden spider.

This is one of the cutest photos I've ever taken. C started enjoying saturday morning walks with me, we have done 3, but on this day she stayed in bed and missed this.

I rearranged the furniture! I had to, to fit music practice for WOT conference in my house, but also it's nice to change, it makes the house feel new.

Mum and I went to a fundraiser high tea on Mothers Day weekend, for the local P&C, and we both bid and won sets of pearls!

I like mine, I have been wearing them to work. Pearls and a white shirt, very nice. Or pearls around the house just because.

I've been enjoying watching this lady paint on instagram. It inspired me to try palette knife painting, and also I wanted to paint something for Liz for her wedding, of a photo I took of the river when we were kayaking near her house this year.

So I watched 2 youtube videos about palette knife landscapes, and I got to it! First, sketch the picture in pale blue.

Then start at the top and work down!

Then go back and do the details.

It took all in all 3 hours. I was amazed at the fast results. So the next weekend I tried again! I took this photo at work near my car, and my phone was terrible at captureing the soft light and also the hills were really flattened and small in the distance, whereas when you are there they are close and higher. So I photoshopped it to be a more helpful guide.

And on this same weekend, last weekend, my middle sister got engaged! Her fiancee looks like a normal person.

As well as baklava, I also love crumpets with lemon butter and berries. And this stripy dress is in the process of being culled. I decided to wear it 5 more times and then OUT. Stripes are in fashion at the moment, and it looks nice at work, but I don't like it, I always choose another dress and feel guilty. So this is it's last season. It is 5 years old too.

One of the big projects at work this month is collecting content for the tour app for the homestead. I found out the fig tree in this photo is probably 450 years old! There are so many beautiful things at Tocal Homestead.

And then yesterday was Women of Truth, the end of weeks of organising the music team and the words and the sheet music and the practices. An email every night all month it feels like. It went well, in that the first session went perfectly and everyone liked it, and then we went downhill a bit because so tired and 12 songs (plus repeating 2 so 14 songs) is so many songs you just can't do them all well. The band was happy at the end of the day though! I had pulled people from different churches and different ages so it was a mix that represented the conference. And I was happy with the mix of songs, they went well and they reinforced the themes well. It was a job well done, and I'm glad it's over. I'm looking forward to next month and having some fun plans for myself on my weekends!