June: jam-packed

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.

JK and I had several eatings out, to use up entertainment vouchers. THis was heritage gardens cafe, and we also went to the Windsor Castle.

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. 

This is not lunch with Cass, but it is notable that on one of our walks I got to pat a Samoed.

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.

We have some borrowed lights at church which I love.

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. 

Me looking professional.

I've started wearing my hiking boots to work every day. Since I wore them on the Kiama walk, I realised they are quite comfortable, and also warm and waterproof. So suddenly their cost per wear is shooting down!

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.

May miscellany.

After Tocal Field days, I had a few days off here and there, caught up on some big housework jobs, and tried to rest. Unfortunately after I push myself, I have a few weeks of inflammation, worse arthritis and fatigue. This lemon pie was probably a day off treat. 

How perfect is this Koko Black easter egg? JK bought some easter chocolate on sale because we lost ours to the mouse. The mouse was a lingering plague but seems to be gone now.

I cleaned some of the yuck off the back cement... the rain was unending and things were getting slimy. I also caught up on my emails which were yucky too.

I also did Banjo duties again.

And also build the second part of the spare bed.

I had a bunch of medical things to get done. Still trying to solve the mystery of the 2020 gum lesion so I saw an immunologist and got a lot of tests done, pathology and a chest xray - no idea what is going on. Next job is a biopsy. I'm now on another drug, which is for the lesion and also for RA.

Being tired, going to appointments and tests, made me irritable and I caused this car accident. 6 week wait for smash repair. 

After the smash repair appointment I treated myself to Spotlight (yuck) and Howards storage world where I got this amazing new shower caddy that holds properly and wont rust.

And another job that I finally crossed off the list was getting rid of my old mattresses, now I have the IKEA ones, and there was a council Mattress Muster. So I really got a lot of big jobs done, well done me!

Music has been going well. The band I put together for 6pm has gelled awesomely, and we had lunch after music prac (minus a covidy member, this is her joining in on the phone). We have been practicing on Sunday at 11am in my garage, but now it has become cold we have moved to A's granny flat practice room, and now we have a lot of songs under our belt we can practice 2 weeks music in one session.

The weekend after field days I ran the practice for the Renew conference band. Everyone played and sang well together and I played cello. The end of May was the conference. I was a bit stressed about the Friday night set up and practice, as it was 3 weeks since our first practice, but overall I had lots of faith in the girls. And I was able to think, once the Friday is done, on the Saturday it will just go how it goes and it will be fine! One song leader had to pull out being sick but we had it covered, everything went very smoothly and I could see women really enjoying the music and getting into the singing. The whole day was really successful and the music was a part of a whole great thing.

Once I all these jobs were done, and Renew was off my mind, I checked in on my weight and found out I'm still gradually putting on kgs. Slowly but steadily. So I have implemented some resets. 

• 3 workouts a week (30 min)
• lunchtime walks
• no chocolate at work
• cut out black tea

So basically more exercise and less sugar and caffeine. I was not very excited about this because feeling inflamed doesn't make it fun to exercise, but I did some research and found out that exercise is very good for RA. And, it definitely didn't make it worse, because the inflammation dropped off after I started regular exercise. I've probably reduced my dark chocolate intake by 80% and black tea by the same. These are good improvements. Hopefully this is a sustainable lifestyle.

Some funsies! Had a fun Saturday, with the Maitland Taste festival where JK and I bought cheese and salami and flowers.

And then we went up to Singleton for a light festival and queued a long time for korean food truck chicken. Heather was visiting!

Regular lunchtime walks: baby swans! Between the 2 adults swans so you cant see them but there are 5.

And that is that! Made it through May. It's not the easiest month of the year, with TFD and Renew, and sometimes I am struggling with having a housemate and not having as much of my own space. But I got a lot done, managed my stress well (still reading New Morning Mercies) and finished with better habits than I started. Lots of answered prayer.

April: too short!

When I last wrote, I was doing Covid. On the weekend when I was better I planted seedlings and bulbs, and fenced off the garden because Sweep goes in there to eat compost. A lot of the bulbs started to show only a week later! I gave the leftover bulbs from the show bag (at least half of them!) to Kirsty.

I felt pretty good to go to work, although I had a cough and I had a nap at lunch time in the library each day. I also noticed I made a lot of mistakes such as going to music practice on the wrong night, discussing doing something twice and doing it once, turning taps the wrong way. This is apparently covid fog, it isn't like a fog it's like being stupid.

I played cello for a praise night at church on Thursday before good Friday. I did pretty good! I think I'm probably getting good enough to keep up with church music, so I am thinking about stopping lessons soon. Maybe finish this year or end of term 1 next year. There are other things I would like to do. I'd probably have to take lessons again in future if I let it go for too long though. But ideally it would be nice to stop lessons and transition to playing in church bands and similar.

AM came up on Thursday night for the easter long weekend. We went to church on Friday and I invited parents over for lunch and G was popping by too. I was worried I didn't have a big enough chicken etc but we mixed up a nice salad to supplement baked chicken and veggies.

JK and sweep left which was just as well as AM finds animals stressful when they jump on her and leave poo to step in. 

On Saturday AM and I headed out to the Mt Tomaree walk, there was also a good ice cream cart there and we got fish n chips for lunch by the bay. We checked out a "Green shed" junk recycling place but it was shut for the public holiday.

At some point I made sourdough. I made another attempt at artistic cutting. Better.

Tragically our easter bunny chocolate was destroyed by a mouse. The mouse/mice continues to plague us weeks later. It keeps finding chocolate in places we have forgotten. It has eaten poison, but bounced back. It nibbled into a bag with a scarf in it, in my jumper drawer, and dug into the soil of an indoor plant in my bedroom leaving dirt on the carpet. Sick of it.

Anyway, we were both quite weary and had a lot of rests on the weekend. Other than the walk, our activities were also restful, such as a picnic, and a cafe lunch, and watching Austenland.

Not much open on easter Monday but we had a fancy lunch by the river. I always forget how good a posh drink is and I should get into making them. I think this had gin, lime and mint? It was great.

Small win, after a week on FB market place, some people claimed my free single bed! The joy of getting something out of the house/garage and knowing it has a new purpose. 

Back at work, I was trying to catch up and get things printed and organised for Tocal Field Days. It was a mixed blessing but everyone was on leave, so work was calm, but not easiest to get things approved.

Social life. Went to a games night at this house at Clarence Town with other 6pm church gals.

Did pub Trivia with Aleisha and her sister and grandma. We did pretty well, came in the top 50%, and it was aimed at current events rather than like history and geography so my short term memory of what I had heard on the ABC recently was a boon. I could name a politician for example.

And I went to the movies with Cass and JK to see Lost Kingdom, fun!!

Here is the tent at the start of the set up. I got D to help me hang those banners and others the week before, while it was sunny. Note the grass. It did not survive.

And then the week of was 3 days of hard work. Getting these signs picked up, trecking around college collecting all the display boards and power cords and so on. On Thursday I walked 14k steps or 10km. So I was tired before the event started on Friday.

Tocal Field Days had lower numbers this year because of the rainy days and mud, and probably because of the economy and the election, who knows. But our tent talks (which I organised) did just as well overall, the educational game was a success, just the right amount of challenge and all ages could have a go.

This was a moment of chaos that made me laugh.

It was exhausting though, and I have decided that's it for me, no more organising and setting up. Next year I will design the signage and work in the book shop. 

Some fun highlights were I got a free haircut from the DPI H2Cuts stall! And I met some DPI colleagues from other programs who shared out tent, they were cool and great at pitching in with the packing up. I also bought myself a pair of farm boots, Blundstone 660s. So far very firm, hard to get on. Comfortable to walk in but need to loosen up in general. I was originally worried I got the wrong size, but I think they will be fine. I just can't get them on and off easily and so on. And, I was saying hi to a friend in the tent and her friend recognised me as the person with the green chairs on marketplace! Small world. My chairs went to a friend of a friend.

We got nearly everything packed away on Sunday night, in a nice orderly clean way with lots of instruction from me, because I was clear that last year was a nightmare for me to deal with after their "help". Note the grass. RIP.

The next morning the tent was gone! The last few things we left were just stranded there and muddy.

I actually hurt my toe wearing new boots cleaning these banners.

Here is a little print job that just made it in time for the field days, a kraft paper honey label with gold foil for the bee. 

These are the boots. Dark brown.

Oh and one night when I was lying in bed tired I bid on 2 ceramic vases in an online fundraiser auction! So I am expecting a Shelby Sherritt small vase to arrive soon. I wasn't expecting to win but I'm not sorry, it's fun to do something random and buy a tiny vase for $200. Lucky I didn't win both though.

Today it's Wednesday, my first chance for a day off, 8 days of hard work done. I'm feeling the sorest though. I expected to be sore and tired with the field days, but the fatigue was delayed. I'm getting things done though because things need doing. Got rid of the mouse poo from my drawer and vacuumed for example. Cleaned my muddy boots after Tocal. 

Still got things to do. I am dogsitting Banjo this week, and sometimes I go before and after work, but last night I stayed over the night. Someone just texted me to house and dogsit over a weekend in May but I said no, housesitting just adds logistical complexity to life. I have a duty to Banjo though. The other thing is our first and maybe only band rehearsal for Women of Truth now called Renew, which is this Saturday, I've booked the church for it. I need to think and plan the songs, as I am not playing piano but cello. But I am also having Friday off so there is time to get my brain into gear AND rest. The Renew band is another thing I think I will drop. This is the 5th year and 4th time I've done it. Time to pass it on and take a break. So I am looking forward to next year being a year with some space and energy that I may or may not fill with new things. It could be nice to have a down year. I think April and May could potentially be a nice time of year, if I'm not busy and stressed. I could do the thing where you take a few days off to join the public holidays together and have 10 days off in the middle! I've definitely managed the stress better this year though. Anyway, tally ho!