I just walked outside to get a note from my car.  I checked the empty mailbox and picked up a free newspaper off the driveway, and paused for a minute.  The bright sunlight made me squint a little, but I was suddenly struck by how lovely it was.  8:30 in the morning, 20C, blue skies, no wind, birds singing, just... a gorgeous autumn morning in Southern Queensland, and I get to experience it.  It's not very often that I think about that sort of thing, but I really am very lucky.  Add to that finding the most awesome Queenslander, who actually wants to marry me, and many other things that all come together to make my life amazing, perhaps I should reflect on it more often!

I could eat it right now

The wedding cake has begun.

The garden take 2

It's definitely not cared for as much, this second garden of mine.  If it's lucky, it gets weeded every few weeks, and my housemate is pretty good at watering it for me. I transplanted the raspberries to spread them out a bit as they were all growing out of the one spot and they're looking a little worse for wear - but it is only 1 day in so hopefully they will pick themselves up over the next week or so.

I

I have repotted the mangoes now, having reduced their numbers to four, which is double what I planned to start with, but Kurt in some unusual lapse of judgement agreed to allow four on the balcony so... four it is.  Two are Summer Pride and two are Mareeba Pride but I'm not actually sure which any more... which is a little sad.








The tomatoes grown from the seeds of an old tomato plant are going crazy.  I didn't have the heart to kill any of them so they are rather over crowded but we will just see how that goes.  One or two are starting to flower (they are cherries).


The second round of sunflowers have ended up less than half the height of the originals - which towered over the top of the fence.  However it is a lot cooler at this time of the year (going in to winter) so I'm not really surprised.  They're still pretty, and the added bonus is that they don't need staking!

It's my third winter in Oz.  Actually it is still autumn, but the last couple of days have felt very wintery with winds off Antarctica, or something like that.  Yesterday I saw a woman walking her dog (surprise) and she was all wrapped up with woolly gloves, scarf... it was about seventeen degrees so it could have been a little extreme.

The night before last it dropped to just six degrees!  That was a shock to the system as I found myself having to get up to find my winter blankets for my bed - I didn't expect to be at that stage this early in the winter.  Having now run out of every blanket option that I own... it better not get any cooler!

Did I mention that I cycled 60km all at once last weekend?  Well by "all at once" I mean 30km there, pause for breakfast, and then 30km back.  It was fun, and hopefully we can go again this weekend... but other activities might get in the way, such as archery, which K has been looking forward to for months.  When he called to try to find a booking last year, they said there was a one year waiting list!  But they emailed a week or two ago to say they had a cancellation, and would we be interested?

We also have an engagement party with K's family on Saturday.  Did I mention that cycling may not happen? 

And I've got a sore throat so I'm drinking hot chocolate for breakfast.  Because I know that chocolate and sugar will make me better.  So there.  If I had icecream, I'd probably eat that too. 

We are so awesome as far as wedding planning is concerned, we have way too much time between now and August, there really isn't very much left to do!  We have to sort out wedding invitations and that's pretty much it for now.  Everything else will all come together over the next three months, and hey presto, August 22! 

More excited than anything at this precise moment in time, although I do yoyo between daunted, excited, freaked out, relaxed and stressed...

TTFN!!!