Category: Around the House
-
But no pyramids
Sometimes the daughter of one of my friends says jokingly, in the tone of a much put-upon teenager, “Oh, why can’t I come and move in with you?” I generally respond with something like, “You’d hate it. We’re too messy. And yesterday I found a mummified rat in the couch.” I accidentally sucked the mummified…
-
Pineapple
New to this week’s box of local fruit and vegies were a beetroot, some celery, and a pineapple! Cat not included. Shortly after this photograph was taken, Horace knocked the pineapple off the bench onto the floor while trying to eat the leaves, was roundly scolded, and went off to sulk on the lounge. The…
-
Heading south
We have been relatively unaffected here by the flooding in Brisbane – we live on a different river system, and while it did experience flooding (and we had to take rather convoluted routes home at times due to roads being closed), it did not approach the severity of the flooding in the Brisbane river system.…
-
End of the line
We have had so much rain recently that the dams are perpetually full, and the driveway is beginning to get soft and muddy underfoot (which it has never done before, it generally drains fairly well). Mud and thongs – generally the only footwear we wear when perambulating around the garden – are not a nice…
-
Winter colds
I am getting over my second cold of the year, after slowing the healing process by the scientifically proven method of resorting to the cocktail recipe book. People in books are always drinking hot toddies and feeling tremendously refreshed and invigorated, and I agree that the mixture of whiskey, lemon juice and honey does tend…
-
Hannah & the cats
Hannah, our friends’ two and a half year old daughter, was visiting with her parents last weekend, and enjoyed playing with the cats. I’m not sure that they really enjoyed playing with her – she liked to chase them, rather than patting or scratching. It’s interesting to see the difference in six months, when we…
-
The Great Wedding Cake Experiment
“Oh, we’re not planning on having a cake anymore,” said my brother. “But! Cake! Wedding! Cake!” I spluttered at him incoherently. And that’s how I came to be researching wedding cakes prior to his wedding, which is three weeks away. I knew I didn’t want to do the traditional fruit cake under hard icing, because…
-
In the dark midwinter
The coldest week we’ve had this month was probably the worst possible time for our hot water heater to stop working. Thankfully, due to our granny flat we have a separate hot water heater. Unthankfully, this means we have to dash over to the other building in the freezing dark every morning to shower. And…
-
In sepia
I knew when we decided to move from a suburban block to semi-rural acreage that there would be a lot more work involved in household maintenance, but when you move into a well maintained property it’s all a bit theoretical to begin with. As time passes, however, entropy asserts itself. We don’t have access to…
-
Keeping cool
Using some of the limes I bought on the weekend, and cooling down with water filled with sliced limes and mint leaves. I was drinking this while watching news of the terrible bushfires in Victoria. My parents (and me, although I was far too young to have any memory of it) left their home behind…
o frabjous day! 