winter pleasures

 Evening sun in winter

 The picture we liked

July 9 2016

Everyone helped Edd and I have three days off in Dromana on the Mornington Peninsular. Bo looked after the farm and her parents in law lent us their unit to stay in.   I booked us in to the hot spa for two evenings so that Edd could work his knee in the hot water.    It was gorgeous.   Edd spent most of the time in the deep hydrotherapy pool but I explored all the other pools that could be found by walking on concrete paths that wound their way up the hill under the Ti-tree.

There was a Turkish steam bath and a very hot sauna too.   It was actually raining and quite cold, but I was quite comfortable walking round in my bathers because I could jump into a hot pool every few yards.   It actually rained solidly all the time we were away.     We had planned to walk along the beaches and beach trails but it was not the right sort of weather and we soon worked out that walking up and down the town streets was a better way to go.    They are all next to the sea so we still got lots of fresh sea air plus I found lots of charity shops to rummage through.  

We found a fabulous picture in an art gallery of women in the rain.   We would both have loved it but it was not in the sort of price range we would ever consider.   The colours, composition and light were superb and you could have stayed interested in what was going on for years.   I found it truly inspirational.

On the way home we arranged to visit a man who sells bromeliads.   He had an amazing small garden packed full of many coloured bromeliads.   Small paths led between them and the man knew each plant by its common name.     He had created an absolute paradise, and transformed his back yard into something very special that he even earned money from.    I brought several small plants to add to my own collection but I would have loved to come back with a truck full!

We are now back on the farm and have spent this afternoon trying to save the Bhutan pine that was attacked in the night by feral deer.   The deer have never bothered us before so this is a very bad sign.   The rabbit proof tree guard that the deer threw aside is now replaced by a much tougher one of chain link and four star posts.    I just hope the tree survives.

I am  spending time every day tiling in the shower.   Owing to all the curves each mosaic tile has to be laid individually, so I have rather a long task in front of me!   I am using small mosiacs on the lower parts and base of the shower and bath because they do not need cutting.    Cut tiles tend to have sharp edges, which are not good for standing and sitting on.

I took Al and Ti to the airport last week and they are now visiting family in the UK.  My mum seems amazingly with it and cheerful and has loved seeing them.  Not bad when you consider we were all expecting her to die with in hours a few weeks ago!   She may make her 96^th birthday yet.