October opening.

 And so we farewelled lockdown. Here are my last good memories of lockdown - takeaway dinners with my bubble buddy.

We also had a crafternoon and made cards, with Georgina JK and Aleisha joining us on zoom to chat and craft.

I tried to maximise my newly discovered new local vietnamese with takeaway work lunches as I had to finish up working from home.

I felt a bit anxious about fitting good habits and a normal diary of activities into my life again. I'm having a crack at 5.30am alarms to have more time and less pressure before work and I've been able to be more regular with my cello practice and bible reading. I am going well with my energy most days, and I've bought heaver weights to use my app as a strength work out now they have added a weight feature.

I still have paint to use up so I did 2 windowsills and the front door. Just a subtle change.

On to garden news! The garden is still an eden, with the first blooming of my climbing roses, abundant jasmine flowering, and still lots of sweet peas and poppies to pick. The roses smell amazing. The shade from the roses makes the garden cooler, it's pleasant to sit under them.

The view out my windows is transformed and softened as I hoped. The trees next door are still missed but no longer do I see the stark fence and sky!

Pink blooms and you can see the white jasmine covering the fence behind.

I've wrestled a few spiky bouquets of roses out for me and loved ones.

I've had some candle bottles for a few years and now I have a fit place to hang them and light them I enjoyed that for a few evenings.

Now to the leaving lockdown experience! I bought this souvenir tee shirt that says "I come from a lockdown under" to celebrate it as well as to honour James Valentine leaving ABC radio afternoons.

My first joy was going for a walk without a mask on.

My second adventure was on thursday after work, going to a lounge shop and spotlight. I bought zippers to fix my 2 old hoodies and a new sewing box.

On Sunday lunch JK came to my LGA and we had honey chicken and beef noodles at a nearly empty restaurant at Greenhills. Not enough double vaccinated people I guess. GH is certainly a lot busier 2 weeks later. 

I went back to home group, and went to a Pinot and Picasso event for a friends birthday.

I also took a day off work to go to Singleton LGA and see the nieces, we went to the Dr and then we tried to nap while J went to the car repairer. 1 napped the other cried so we ate a mulberry instead.

I moved my work set up back to the office on Monday this week and that went well. It was a big and long week but I only had one fatigued morning.  The other designer went on long service leave after 35 years, probably to retire who knows. I'm helping organise his farewell and gift. His leaving will make work different for me. I started book layout work which I'll now be taking on, I've decided to do it in the afternoons and my usual workload in the mornings so that will contain things fairly.

We also restarted park walks on Friday. The roads are so busy now but the park is quiet again yay! W can talk a lot now.

In family news, someone in a whatsapp group was offering a spare dog so I offered it to mum and dad and they bravely accepted him. Banjo was extremely stressed to be moved house twice in one week and taken away from his dog wife, so he was difficult to manage. The first 24-48 hours was all about escape, hence the baricade below.

When I visited after 2 days he was not desperately trying to escape, he was coming to us for pats, but he was panting non stop, so must still have been stressed. Eating a little bit.

2 more days after that he has stopped the constant panting and comes and lies near us. I walked over today for lunch. This is me in my old giant hat. 

I've had an empty weekend, just life admin, exercise etc, and lunch at parents. Tonight church regathers but not in our usual school, in an old uniting church building, so that will be interesting and different. Excited for no packup! 

September flowers.

   

I have very little to share regarding September. I enjoyed it. But did very little even for lockdown. See above, I spent one day building a challenge grid based on a Kath n Kim meme. This was a highlight.

I did some creative design for myself, which is extremely rare. This is an Eastern Rosella design. It isn't for anything but it was an idea. And it was a good challenge to make a repeating pattern.

My food related triumph was making butter chicken from scratch following the Recipe Tin site, and unusually for me I used all the correct ingredients and it was wonderful. It was enjoyed by me and Ros at one of our bubble buddy nights - curry themed. We have also done takeaway pizza, home made stir fry, and fanciest of all the Bao Banquet. We watch a movie (like the new Cinderella) or sometimes just the Dog House and the Ambulance show.

I made a dress! A new pattern and a fabric that took me 3 attempts to purchase. It has pockets. 

On my many walks I have been noticing things that look like geraniums but different so I'm creating a collection. Eventually I will have geraniums in pots under my bedroom window and ivy geraniums in hanging baskets. Grow something in every available inch!

This is my favourite beauty spot in Maitland, it is on the road behind Maitland Park and it has a lot of lavender and a lot of Paulownia trees. Magic in the evenings. I've been picking lavender and jasmine from this walk and making the house smell nice.

As well as walking I have got back to my 3 workouts a week habit, using the downdog hiit app as well as Jillian. I put on fun music and in fact my warmup is just randomly dancing to a song, I'm enjoying it a lot. It has been good to have a break and just do the running and walking, and now the music and the variety of the app is keeping me engaged. I'm actually feeling strong and healthy, except for the occasional day like I spent most of last Sunday on the couch exhausted for some reason. I did my shopping after breakfast and when I got home I had a flat battery and didn't want to get out of the car and put it away. After about 5 hours rest, TV and napping, I felt a lot better. Suddenly got tired suddenly got OK again. But mostly everything is OK healthwise this month and I'm grateful for the energy. I am going to bed early and waking up early so hopefully daylight savings is an easy change!

Night church now happens via zoom instead of watching youtube in the morning, and I've also been joining a tuesday and thursday prayer meeting that started on zoom. This screenshot marks our churches birthday.

And I have really enjoyed the Single Minded webinars on loneliness. This one was about the self. Would repurchase.

I had a list of things to do at the office so one day I had a lovely excursion to Tocal and photographed the bees in the canola while I was there. A beautiful place.

The lockdown has been like a time travel experience where we all live in a small village and spy on our neighbours and bake bread and go for a promenade at the park in the afternoon. And now we can enjoy a picnic. Charming. It really is nice to have a simple picnic without a kids birthday party or something. It is a delightful time of year to be outside. This was my first use of birthday present jumbo picnic blanket with some vaccinated friends. Probably the loveliest time I have had this whole month. Very blessed to be vaccinated. The following week I had lunch with my parents at Morpeth.

Last week I must have been in a mood because I bought a spiky matt off an ad on facebook. My neck is stiff, probably from too much phone use rather than stress. I've used it 3 nights in a row. It is certainly uncomfortable and that's all I can say. 

This week I discovered a new vietnamese restaurant open for takeaway and it is yummy, I had it twice for lunch this week. I never get to buy lunch at Tocal so it is the one perk of WFH except there was nothing to eat near me except pizza and kebabs - until now!! Pork belly banh mi! I am excited for when we can eat in!

The garden has been transformed this month! From this photo on the 10th september, there were a decent number of rose leaves and lots of poppy buds...

The roses are now bushy and covered in buds, the jasmine is covered in leaves and buds on the fence, I have been picking poppies constantly and also sweet peas, the geraniums and irises flowering... It is wonderous to behold. Every spring is like this, it is always beyond my expectations.

This afternoon had a very short intense hailstorm. Such fun. 

The end.