October bursting out everywhere.

October has mostly been a good month. Always good to get daylight hours back and see spring abundance and have a holiday. The surprise is how much happened. I thought I'd blogged everything and then I realised I'd missed several things in my phone! I really like that about this monthly blog post. G said the same thing. You get to the end of the month with an impression of how your life is at the moment, but a careful look at your diary or photos reveals another story sometimes. Right now I'm feeling a bit out of routine, haven't exercised much this month or done much cello practice, had many bad tummy days, was pushing hard at work to get things done before holiday and my car is dirty. I also went to Sydney twice and Mudgee for a week and saw lots of friends and had a lot of fun.

I had the 4 month checkup on the Mirena, and so far I have not enjoyed it. But it’s worth continuing for another few months because it looks like it could be gradually improving, and if it works than that’s a solution that stops endometriosis damage for 5 years, just in case I need my remaining ovary in the next few years. It’s annoying that part of this is to keep my fertility options as open as possible, even though that doesn’t seem likely. I haven’t ever set my heart on motherhood but having to have conversations about the realistic likelyhood of having children now decreasing sharply etc etc, with a damaged setup, it’s forcing me to process that now.

I have a sort of thin, stretched out period now, that upsets my stomach for most of the month. I’d prefer my normal arrangement frankly, but we’ll just have to see how things settle. 2 weeks of an upset gut is background to normal life that sometimes makes life a bit harder. Like I’ll not be able to do Jillian without feeling sick or getting cramps sometimes. But other times I’m fine. It’s weird. I’m trying different diet things too. No dairy. Now its dairy OK but no cheese or chocolate.

October is good for some spring cleaning, decluttering, unsubscribing and other tidying things. I have removed spiderwebs and negotiated my mortgage. I now technically own half my house! (If I combine my savings and shares into my mortgage.) This is really good, to be on track to being debt free.

I’ve continued my regular painting weekends. I plan to offer this painting as a gift to my friend who built my gardens. I gave a small one to AM. Another one I will give to a colleague.

Ages ago JM and I bought tickets to see the Piano Guys (piano and cello and 2 friends) at the Sydney Opera House. It was my first time seeing a good classical cellist play live solos I think. It was a fun show and also fun to be at the Opera house in nice clothes just for the day and spend time with J.

There was an echidna at work for a few days!

I’ve finished illustrating a children’s book at work! This was one of my significant jobs for the year, that I did over about 2 months and pushed through to print just before I went on holidays this month. It was slightly anxious, as such things are. Hoping it looks OK when it gets back from the printer and no mistakes in it.

Designed a mead label.

One weekend I volunteered to park cars at Tocal for a beekeeper field day. Found a birds nest.

Realised how tired and flat I was in October. Stomach didn’t help, then pushing to get work done. I feel like now I’ve had a week holiday I’m ready to coast to the end of the year though.

Went to Riverlights which is a multicultural lantern event in Maitland, with mum and her friends. It’s a really colourful joyful event.

Mum turned 60 and us kids gave her a hot air balloon sunrise breakfast. 

One of my irises this year. They have loved the drought.

 And now the fun stuff! My first holiday in forever! I could not wait for this, I was hanging out for it all October. I started with a half day off on Friday, drove down to Sydney and AM and I went to the pop up Globe theatre and we saw Comedy of Errors. It was great, the theatre was amazing, so small and clever.

On Saturday we went to the art gallery of NSW and saw the John Russell exhibition, Denise also joined us. We heard a free tour of it which was good. The eye mixes the colour. JR seemed like a nice friendly person and I like that he tried a lot of different techniques. That's what I'm doing, so maybe its what I'll always do.

Then we watched ANOTHER globe production, Macbeth. I think I preferred this but it was great to see 2 contrasting productions, same cast same room but different approaches. Macbath was pure traditional olde shakespeare, the accents and the costumes and everything, whereas COE was a bit more modernised and interpreted.

On Sunday I picked up Elsie and we drove back to Maitland, went to church and I repacked for Mudgee. On Monday morning we set off, buying an icky sticky cake on the way, wearing our comfiest driving clothes.

I've never seen Australia look like this. Normally the grass is a bit browned off. The drought, however, has meant that all the browned off grass is gone, so now that parts of the state have had rain, there is nothing but all new green grass. Looks like english parkland. And then you get to a bit that hasn't had rain and its still bare and brown.

We arrived at Mudgee and decided to go straight to my favourite cafe for lunch and look at some nice shops. But we didn't stay out for long because I was having a crook day so needed to go home and rest.

E gave the family her favourite game.

We checked out the chicks and the chooks.

And I scoped the landscape for my plein air painting.

On Tuesday we went for a walk along the river and then came through the visitor info center and looked at some more shops. This was our favourite, it sells coffee, art supplies and free dog pats. They also run art classes and pottery classes and I would love to do that next time I visit.

My favourite shop from my suburb shut and I found it in Mudgee! I tried on this dress but didn't buy it. But later in the week I came back and bought a blue tshirt dress with pockets. I have bought too many dresses now.

Then Helen joined us for wine tasting and cheese platter at Logan's winery. It was stunning and delicious and relaxing.

E and I went to Lowe's organic winery too, patted a dog and had more food.

I decided to start my painting and I am very pleased with the result. Nothing magically different about it but now I know it can be done!

On Wednesday E and I went to Gulgong which is nearby and quite unique. For a start its a different scale to every other country town. It started as a mining shanty town so it doesn't have those massive wide streets for turning livestock drays around in. It's very quaint. We went to 2 museums, firstly the Henry Lawson centre.

Being midweek, many shops were shut, but the violin shop was open (random) and he played for us.

 The other museum was one of the sort I've seen in Bussleton, a sort of historical hoard of the town. It takes up half a block of shops and houses joined together, with a room for each collection. Carriages, lawnmowers, fashion, blacksmith, health, music, audio visual, war (shown below), bakery, general store, women pioneers, Royals, and more more more.

Helen got some books and I read this one about a woman my age who was widowed and also getting her house fixed for rising damp. A really good insight into caring for a dying person, grief, and all that stuff. True story.

I did another smaller painting but not as good. Looks messy. The difference is hard to define between good and bad.

E played a lot of boggle with D and sometimes with chicks.

On Friday morning we left for a daytrip drive home. We stopped at Rylstone (op shop, yarn shop, yum cha) and Kandos (not much) and Ferntree Gully for a short bushwalk. I had to pull a piece of bark out from the bottom of my car where it was wedged and maybe broke something.

Before my holiday I was pushing myself to get work done, but now I feel way more relaxed like I'll just be able to plod steadily away and get things done by the end of the year, no sweat.

Arrived home to sweet pea garden!

On Saturday morning we went to Aussiecare and then over to Newy for brunch with JK. We did some admin (and blogging!) in the afternoon. And I had a family dinner at the golf club restaurant for mum's 60th birthday which was loverly.

On Sunday I got baptised. Matt and Caroline and Kimberly, Denise, Elsie and JK were all able to come as well as Heather and the family. There were 7 of us from church in a batch, the pool was much warmer than I feared. It was a special day and I'm glad I've done it.

I did a lovely ploughmans lunch - thick ham and cheese and sourdough and butter, plus olive oil and dukkuh. Quick lunch before then off to the baptism then back for afternoon tea and mudgee honeycomb.

Back to work but it was a fun week. I did little jobs on Monday then Tuesday-Thursday was our annual team workshop. I enjoy big picture thinking and goal setting and hearing about last 12 months achievements. This year it was at Tocal so everyone came here, an easy year for me. 

We did some learning from each other. My team taught how to do video feedback in the eLearning site. We learned how to make beeswax wraps, tip a quad bike over easily and use a plasma cutter. My first attempt was not successful, my only exposed area was my ankles and a chip of hot metal got inside my shoe and burned the bottom of my foot a little bit. So the next day I wore longer trousers and socks, and the trainer wrapped safety jacket around my legs too.

Any time at the Homestead is amazing. It is such a beautiful site. Everywhere you look is charming.

Escaped heritage piglets!

We had dinner Wednesday night in the barn, of slow cooked American style BBQ. So good. Would have that food for my wedding or anything.

I cut out most of the letters on this metal sign with the plasma cutter.

2 colleagues and I performed 3 songs after dinner. It was delightfully atmospheric. I was the worst, bc of not having my cello on holidays with me to practice. But afterwards more people wanted to join the band, and my belief is that live music is fun even if its not perfect. It's the vibe.

And then because it was halloween we had a tour of the homestead as if it was a haunted house. I have not laughed so hard in a long time.

November ARGH. My goals are,

• Jillian 3 times a week 
• stick to my tummy diet (eat my own cooking)
• Cello practice
• Start thinking about carols in the garage
• Finish 2 projects at work
• Invite someone over for dinner