I am quite amazed how much I did in June. I guess this is why I blog! I’ve been feeling like life is all admin and mundane busyness amongst disasters, but the photos on my phone tell a story of beautiful walks in nature, trivia with friends, lots of nice food, seasonal garden rituals… thankfully many things beyond the regular routine of work, church things, exercise, washing and cooking, keeping on top of emails, and watching TV, while it mostly rains.
Firstly, I had a poppy flower very early. And a zinnia came up too.
At the start of June, I went up to Singleton and spent time with the family. I had a church prayer meeting early on the saturday and a dog friend walk scheduled later, so it was a busy day. It was Julia’s birthday around then so we started playing her game Cashflow.
On the Wednesday I decided to join the public sector strike. I was undecided about actually going in to Newy to the rally, but finally JK drove me in, she walked sweep and I marched into Town Hall and watched the Sydney protest live streamed. It was most interesting. Also interesting, there is a lot of blue sky in the photos this month but I'm pretty sure these were just rare breaks in the rain.
We had lunch at the Autumn Rooms which is my favourite cafe in Newcastle.
The following weekend was the long weekend and I took Friday off as well, since there was a break in the rain and there was an adventure planned with my colleague Jen, to drive to Sydney, meet at Central, train down to 2 stations north of Kiama, and then do an 8km coast walk to the blowhole, and catch the train back.
We had amazing weather and there are a lot of different coast formations to admire. I particularly liked The Boneyard, a rainforest track down to a little pebbly beach.
The blowhole was huge and spectacular!
I was exhausted by the time I caught the train back to my car at about 7pm, at Wahroongah. I drove to AM’s place, ate a lot of her chocolate, and had a good sleep. We had a nice catch up in the morning, and then I drove home at lunch. The traffic was horrible, but I got off the freeway as soon as I could and went through the countryside towards Cessnock.
I listened to the Classic FM screen music countdown over the weekend. I really enjoyed it and heard nearly all the songs I voted for.
Over Saturday and Sunday I pruned my roses. That was a JOB. My green bin was full. I had lunch with mum, as dad was away and JK was somewhere I forget.
On the PH Monday, I went for a walk at Mt Tomaree with M from church, and JK and sweep came and hung out at the beach. We had bacon and egg rolls for lunch.
In the arvo I had 1 or 2 phone calls with friends because there was some sad business going down, but basically spent the afternoon in my back yard getting all the sun I could. And then someone at church did an open invite to meet at the Morpeth boat ramp for a walk, and to make the most of the perfect weather I went along.
Tessa organised a spontaneous trivia group at the Bradford hotel, so we went along. We took over the table of a bloke on his own and he helped our team and we had some interesting conversation. Would like to go back there because the trivia host gave out snacks!
On the 3rd weekend of June, I went for a walk with Fi and saw this nice flat rainbow, had a night church meeting, and then lunch with Cass in Maitland. This was to use up a dine voucher and also make up for her not making it to my birthday brunch.
On the 4th weekend of June, JK and I went for a walk and then to the night markets with Tessa, and had delicious slow cooked beef thing, and then chimney cakes, everything was delicious and I got obsessed with narcissists.
On the Saturday we did the rescheduled dog friend walk and Sweep played with Stormi, another black cavoodle a little bit younger, who belongs to a friend from home group.
I must have picked my lemons and made lemon butter this weekend too! It’s an exhausting job.
I’m going to include last weekend in this month - I spent Saturday sewing a new skirt from the pattern of an old skirt I unpicked. I am really happy how it turned out, and it has a pocket! On Sunday we did our monthly music practice which was A LOT because we added a new member to play drums and oboe, and just helping her find her place was vey draining. It was something I was anxious about, but we got through music that night sounding good and no disasters, but only just! And we had less time before church because 4pm church ran late, a song needed a verse typed in, and basically everything was just a bit harder than usual.
I’ve been breaking a lot of things. Since the car accident, 2 glass bottles (with flowers), my slow cooker lid, and the precious ceramic fungi I got for my birthday. I just glued the fungi back together this afternoon. My car is currently in the smash repaid. I decided to throw out the slow cooker, and I am looking to replace it with a multi cooker of some sort. Maybe the sort with an air fryer. I am driving very carefully in Dad’s car, because I really don’t want to damage it or bust a tyre in one of the pot holes.
Work has become unmanageable. The workload is too much now, as expected. I like to be on top of things but the reality is now things just have to be left and pushed back. I am not going to start doing long days to get it all done, because it’s never going to be done. I will work long days if there is a deadline or an event, because that makes sense. But just having to take on the work of the person who retired, obviously that makes it an 8 day a week job and there’s no point trying to fit it in 5 days. I think the most annoying thing though is that facebook posting has gone from 30 a month to 30 a week, it’s like a never ending hungry monster now.
I took some photos of varroa mite surveillance activity. It is very fascinating to watch this response being managed and the mite being traced. It is unknown yet whether it will work or not but in a couple more weeks we will know one way or another.
My shoulder and neck have been not improving, after a few months. The pain has changed, so something has been happening, and it is less in my back and more in my shoulder joint now. I am seeing a physio and doing as much exercises, stretches, massages, etc as I can. What I finally started doing this week was stopping sleeping on it. This makes it a lot less painful and stiff in the morning, but obviously it’s hard to retrain myself to sleep differently.
For historical reference, Maitland is currently flooding again. It flooded in March, but it’s bigger this time. I’ve still been able to get to work, but most people haven’t because the highway and so many roads are cut off. I haven’t taken any photos of the flood water because tbh it’s just not that exciting anymore. It happens all the time. There will be a few years of drought, and then another flood. They’ve happened every 7 years or so since I’ve lived here (mid nineties) This is why I live on the top of a hill with good access to shops and the M1 (and Tocal, amazingly).
I’ve been obsessed with finding cotton jumpers to wear to bed as PJ tops. Less thin and gappy than actual PJ shirts. And I purchased a puffer jacket, because this winter is extra cold, and I want less weight and restriction on my sore shoulder. I love it.
Anyway that’s about it! Life feels pretty dreary with the rain, the sore shoulder, the busyness, the breaking things, but there are really many lovely diversions to be thankful for.
