Sunday, 22nd of March 2015

This is Mount Kembla among the clouds. — Mount Kembla as well as a lot of clouds.

Since last night it has been raining off and on. Today the temperature is only in the low twenties (Celsius!). Still, we decided, it would be good to have lunch at the Forest Grove Cafe. Last time we went there after lunch and had only coffee there. But we like the place for we can sit there in the open with a view onto the lake. And it is only a very short drive from where we live!

So today, we went for lunch to the Forest Grove Cafe. One of the lunch specials was grilled fish. Both Peter and I ordered this dish. It came with baskets of chips as well as a good selection of salads and a dressing of our choice. We were served a huge platter of food. It was really a bit much for me. After the meal I finally remembered to take a picture of our table with Peter’s camera. Peter had taken the photos of the lake before the meal arrived.

This is only a picture after we had finished our meal. — This is a picture after we had finished our meal.

Yesterday morning I cut once more a bit of grass using the big scissors while Peter was doing in the house some vacuuming-cleaning for the weekend. When he was finished, and it was my turn to wipe the floors, I suggested to Peter that maybe he could finish the cutting of the grass while I was wiping the floors. It did not take Peter long, to cut some more of the tall grass. Then he decided, he could really use his push lawn mover to finish cutting the grass properly. By the time I had finished with the wiping of the floors in the house. he had already finished his outside job! From inside I observed how he took to pushing the lawn mover. So I took some pictures of it through one of the windows!

The above is a view through our kitchen window (facing westwards).

I like it that we did get a bit of rain overnight, as well as a bit of drizzle today. Hopefully, very soon our little grass area is going to show a bit of green again. This grass never grows at all when it doesn’t rain enough. It is at the northern side of the house and a lot of very tall trees take the sun away from it in winter. I hope some more grass is going to grow before the dark winter months are upon us! 🙂

Another Weekend gone

It was a good weekend. We had the family visiting with little Lucas. And we received the great news, that in September Lucas is going to have a little sister or brother. How exciting this is for the whole family!

Caroline and Matthew arrived yesterday at lunchtime. This afternoon they left again to go back to Sydney. Yesterday we had Kartoffelsalat (Potato Salad) and Bouletten (Berlin Meat Patties) for lunch. Caroline did bring some cake which she had baked herself. We had this yesterday for afternoon coffee when Monika came with Mark as well as Troy and Ryan who did bring little Lucas along. Ebony, the newly expectant mum, had stayed at home to have a little bit of a rest.

This is what my plate looked like for lunch, yesterday, 9th February 2914. — This is what my plate looked like for lunch, yesterday, 9th February 2014

Caroline, Matthew, Peter and I went for a bit of Supper to the AGA (Australian German Austrian) Club.

Last Week of January 2014

On Monday, which was part of the Australia Day Weekend, we had ice-cream in Enmore, an inner suburb of Sydney. We went to the Cow and the Moon. They make terrific ice-cream. For $ 6,50 you can have three different flavours. And they give you a very generous helping of each flavour in a little plastic cup.

The yeast cake that daughter Caroline had baked for our visit, was very good. She had put fresh plums and crumbles on top and served it with beautiful fresh whipped cream. She baked such a big tray full. Lots was left over and so she packed up a few pieces for us to take home, which we did eat pretty quickly. It was so good! Yummy, yummy. Not so good for our intentions of not putting on extra weight, though! Matthew made us lovely cups of coffee to go with the cake.

Today is the middle of the week, Wednesday. For this afternoon I have an appointment with Scott again. He is the guy who’s helping me to have a pain free New Year! He is a FINCH THERAPY therapist. He makes me do a lot of exercises at home. I think my mobility is getting better. I don’t get puffed out so easily anymore. And this FINCH THERAPY is supposed to help when you have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. So I thought I give it a try. My right hand is much better now after the operation. However I feel that my wrist needs strengthening a bit more. I am very happy that I can do with my right hand so many more things now that I could not do before the operation. (I can pour hot water into cups as long as the water jug is not filled up too much to make it too heavy for me! I can tie my shoe-laces, I can even fasten the hooks at the back of my bra and I can cut my toe-nails!)

I love to wear my toe shoes for a walk on the grass in Lakelands Park. The grass gets cut regularly by the council workers. Last week it was pretty short. In the meantime it has grown again a lot. At seven o’clock in the morning Peter and I went there for a walk. We both had put our toe shoes on. Peter had warned me that the grass might still be wet this early in the morning. But I pointed out that the sun had already been up for a while, that it hadn’t rained for several days and that the sun would soon get very hot. But Peter was right: There was a real lot of morning dew! We felt like walking through a wetland and our shoes became very, very wet. Peter did not enjoy this at all. After a while he became very grumpy. He blamed me for making us leave this early in the morning to walk over the grass. He said that never, never again was he going to do this. He felt just terrible. On top of it his knee started aching, and he couldn’t walk properly anymore. Poor Peter!

Coming back home, we noticed our shoes were full of grass bits. We brushed these off and left our shoes outside to dry. Peter rushed to the toilet and I made some coffee and toast for us. Peter soon felt happy again. I think next time when I see the grass being this wet I won’t go out on it but wait till it dries off a bit. Sorry, Peter, for making you walk on it today.

This picture was taken about a month ago. The grass was much shorter then.

Monika’s Birthday

Today, on the 5th December, is Monika’s birthday. She invited us for afternoon coffee and cake. Monika’s daughter Krystal baked a beautiful chocolate cake which Monika filled with lovely jam and fresh cream and decorated the top with grated chocolate and cherries. It turned out to be the most delicious Black Forest Cake!

We're getting ready to have Coffee and Cake — We’re getting ready to have Coffee and Cake

EASTER

It was great to see the family over Easter. It’s Easter Monday today, another holiday. Today Peter and I are on our own again. We took some pictures yesterday with our lovely eight months old great-grandson Lucas and the whole family while they were at our place. We had Black Forest Cake. Baby Lucas had a taste of it too and liked it! He had his bottle, sitting upright and holding the bottle all by himself. He was keen to finish it right to the last drop!

Peter and I might go for a drive later on. For lunch we are going to have just left-overs from yesterday. We had yesterday a very colourful lunch. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of my lunch-plate. However it definitely looked very colourful. There was “Hackbraten” (Meatloaf!) with gravy and champignons, Brussels sprouts, red cabbage and boiled potatoes. Also a glass of beer with it. It’s such a simple meal but everyone liked it. We had Caroline and Matthew for lunch with us. Later on all the others arrived for afternoon coffee and cake and a little welcome drink. We were ten adults plus Baby Lucas. In about two weeks we are going to spend some time with our family in Melbourne.

Our drive to Melbourne in a rented car is going to be a great event for us. We don’t drive straight to Melbourne but have a few overnight stops on the way to see a bit of the country. We are very much looking forward to this.

Peter’s sister Ilse writes this is going to be an unforgettable Easter for them for there’s still snow all over Berlin. The asparagus farmers in the area fear the worst for their crops. It’s just too cold to grow anything. Large parts of Europe are still in the grip of winter. How much they long for warmer days and a bit of sunshine!

We had plenty of chocolate Easter eggs. I helped myself to quite a few and loved them!