A Home by the Sea

New Year New You Challenge

January 11, 2020January 11, 2020 Forestwood

I have been remiss in posting the last week, so here is the catch up in one post:

Day 3 – Remove negativity – I am often trying to do this, even when the world rallies around handing out negative vibes everywhere. This week has been particularly trying as my son has had some incredible challenges which have not been easy to watch. But all the more reason to roll on to

Day 4 and 5 – Message someone special and Think of the Positives – Completed

My positives included a variety of things but especially being able to enjoy a restful and relaxing Christmas now that the hard work of getting the new house ready was 90% complete.

Is a home ever really finished? There always seems to be some little thing that needs doing in one’s home? Weeding the garden and attending to plants is a never-ending task; a shelf needs to be put up, photos attached to the bare Snowy Mountain white walls and there are still some boxes to unpack…. but we are concentrating on the positives here so my mind drifts back to Christmas.

Day 6 – Smile More

Very good advice

I have the key to the door! The house is finally mine!

There were plenty of smiles on House Handover day – and every morning I wake up in this new house and look around at the fruits of our labour over the last year. It is a joy every day to live in this place. Sunshine, cool breezes, away from the bushfire threats and tonight, glorious rain! I felt like recording the sounds as it is a sound we so rarely here at the moment.

Day 7 – Cook a Healthy Meal – completed

I made these yummy vege frittatas with ricotta and parmesan cheese. Delicious. They freeze well too.

Day 9 – Take a long walk – I walked for 90 minutes – that should do it.

Day 10 – Do Something New – Still debating about what I can do…. I did co-start and join a Ladies Walking Group in my area. Yes, that ticks the box for this day.

Day 11- Read a good book – I finished reading Mons Kallentoft’s crime fiction novel from Sweden – Autumn Killing. A good twist at the end was a surprise. Not a bad read but I couldn’t focus on it properly as I started reading it so many months before.

Roll on Day 12…..

blogging

Day 3 – 30 day New Year Challenge

January 3, 2020 Forestwood

The third day of the challenge tells me to Remove negativity in my life – well they picked a difficult time to do that.

I am so focused on the situation with the fires and the lack of political leadership, I let fly this morning on the phone at a bigoted old conservative voter.

“But what Can they do?” I was asked by this old man.

They can fund the Fire Service, and buy planes to fight the fires.

“Ah,” the old man said, ” It is the Greenies fault, they won’t let them do anything.”

Apparently a small number of Green party politicians in the upper house of Government, prevents the Government from any kind of legislative change or action.

This is the mindset of the ignorant.

The Prime Minister does nothing, except reiterate like a broken record, “I understand people are angry,” and it transpires that the State Premier of NSW has cut funding for the Rural fire service and equipment, right before the fire season started. What impudence.

Volunteer fire fighters are fighting fires without breathing masks or protective equipment, risking their own health and lives. Unconscionable actions by the Government continue, and very little comments from those who sit in their air conditioned offices overlooking Sydney harbour or Canberra.

People are missing, thousands of homes burnt to the ground, 11.3 million acres of bush and more each moment – lost. To say nothing of the loss of animals, the loss to biodiversity and contribution of smoke and carbon to the atmosphere. Unprecedented climate conditions and the politicians do nothing.

So perhaps I really do need to remove negativity in my life today.

I am too churned up and after anger, follows sadness.

That helps no one.

I have to let it go, breathe and find a way to channel the anger into affirmative action.

Suggestions:

Sign a petition for action on climate change
Write a letter to your local parliamentarian requesting support for renewable energy and more funding fire services, fire management plans and fire fighting aeroplanes
Do what you can locally in your own back yard to help the plastic, (ie reduce plastic use, compost scraps, fire-proof your property, plant trees).
Join a Community group involved in rehabilitating bush, promoting land management
Donate to raise funds for those who have lost their home to fire
Share information on social media
Exercise your well considered democratic right at the ballot box.

Every person can help. Please do what you can.

blogging

What I am grateful for

January 2, 2020 Forestwood

30 Day New Year New You Challenge

Day 2

I am grateful for:

My beautiful family
My health – we take it so much for granted until we don’t have it
A lovely home to relax in
Small moments of pure joy
The luxury of having enough basic needs
Employment
Good Friends both near and far
The blogging community
Special friendships that teach me valuable lessons
Laughter – it really is good medicine
Challenges that help me grow
The opportunity to holiday to chosen destinations
My dog and the Schnauzer Community
Discovering my Passion in Art
The ability to be able to give back
Education – we never stop learning
The love of my children, husband and dogs
Clean water
Free speech
Mobility and Eyesight
Communication via the Internet – it has opened up the world
Visionary altruistic people in leadership

What are you grateful for?

blogging, home

30 Day New Year New You Challenge

January 1, 2020January 1, 2020 Forestwood

This blog wasn’t intended as a tag a long challenge blog but bringing in the New Year seems like a good time to try something new for a month. Take a big breath and dive in, Amanda.

Um… already I see a problem.

How can I identify the goals I want to achieve in the one moment? I don’t feel that organized. Here goes:

Day 1 – Goals for 2020

Return to pre-Christmas Weight
Organize my hobby space
Paint at least 10 projects – preferable 20 – 30, but that is possibly too ambitious
Finish reading the Nordic crime novels on my shelfs
Exchange books at the book exchange
Read one Non-fiction theoretical book on my shelf
Organize my genealogy notes and develop a workable template for collating information
Edit the book I am co-writing with blogger, Mabel Kwong
A holiday somewhere for birthdays/Easter at the beach? Wait, I live at the beach now….

More tomorrow at:

P.S. I would like to Challenge Chris Riley from LifeofRiley to join in.

Thanks to 40 fore Forty for initiating me joining in with the Challenge.

blogging, building, home

Join me for Tea – Spice Cake

December 22, 2019February 29, 2020 Forestwood

Tomorrow it will be six weeks since I moved into the Home by the sea and I haven’t really cooked a lot since then. Besides working and unpacking, and showing visitors around my new home, I haven’t found time to do any leisure baking. By that I mean more than what is required to sustain life!

I travel a long way to work so I often get back home late in order to avoid the peak hour traffic jams. On those nights, the MotH [Man of the House], improvises or uses the spouse-approved, (and proven), C.Y.O. method. Read: (cook your own).

First cake in the New Home

Having a quiet morning this week, meant I was ready to bake something and Ju-Lyn, over at All Things Bright and Beautiful, provided the final piece of motivation I needed to get me started, posting her Honey Spice cake recipe, (which she had adapted from Anita Bean).

I was determined to try it this morning. The MotH loves having a morning tea with freshly baked treats to the point that morning tea, with him, has become something of an art form.

Sitting together over a cuppa gives us a good chance to talk in a way that we don’t do, for the rest of our busy day – he is often at the hardware, Hi-fi shop, or pet store and I am busy pottering about getting the house in order, if I am not at work.

So back to the delicious cake. It was a throw-it-all together kind of recipe – they are really the best kind, aren’t they? No stress and it cooked beautifully in my new Westinghouse oven. [smile]

I was a little short of ground almond for this recipe, so I topped the measure up with a little extra flour. The recipe adapted beautifully.

With a light dusting of vanilla or icing sugar on top, to serve, this Spice Cake is light and tasty and just the perfect accompaniment for tea.

Ju-lyn had topped the cake with lemon icing, whereas I added a dollop of home made lemon butter, on the side, for a decadent indulgence.

As the recipe worked so well, I was thinking I could even be a little adventurous and add walnuts, next time. Or even try a gluten free version for my diet conscious son.

Will you try it?

Morning Tea Spice Cake Recipe

Adapted from Ju-Lyn’s Honey Cake which was adapted from Instagram @anitabean1

Ingredients

165g self-raising flour
60g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
50g brown sugar
50g runny honey
100ml olive oil
2 eggs (mine were 700 grams each)
1/4 tsp salt
4 tbsp milk
glace icing (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Line a 20cm baking tin, I used one with a hole in the middle.
Mix all the ingredients until well combined.
Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth surface with spatula.
Bake in oven 20-25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave the tin to cool for at least 15 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool.
Dust top with icing sugar and serve with a dollop of cream, or lemon butter.

I have got to go have another piece now. Join me for morning tea at the Home by the Sea. I will begin posting weekly morning tea recipes.

Will you join in – posting a recipe? #joinmefortea

building

It’s All Happening at the Home by the Sea

December 19, 2019March 23, 2020 Forestwood

The workers have really ramped up the action a notch.

This is happening just outside our backyard, right now.

Perhaps the tradies are getting a bonus to finish before Christmas? the MotH asks.

Tradies or Tradesmen?

I’m not sure if other countries call workmen on construction sites:-‘tradesmen.’

We don’t either.

In Australia we always like to shorten things, especially names, so tradesmen and not called tradesmen, but “Tradies.”

If someone says they will, “See ya in the arvo,” or “See you thissarvy”– they don’t mean they will meet you in some seedy bar in town, they mean they will see you after lunch, in the afternoon. If I was to say to a friend, see you in the afternoon, I would almost sound British!

But I digress.

Tradies might be Electricians, Carpenters, affectionately also called ‘Chippies,’ Plumbers, Crane drivers, Tiler’s, Glaziers, Concreters or anyone that performs a trade and often this is related to construction.

These guys and girls, do a certain amount of study at a vocational college but most of their training is practical, on the job. It is usually an apprenticeship of three or four years. They are often very fit, strong and heavily tanned young men and their language is often colourful.

So whatever you do, when you visit Australia and the Home by the Sea, don’t ask for few ‘chippies’ with your meal! See you later on thisarvy!

P.S. There goes on view to the East!

animals, building

A Natural Visitor

December 15, 2019December 15, 2019 Forestwood

There is a new visitor to the Little Home by the Sea. And his name is Billy!

We have decided. And he can’t disagree too vocally.

This little green tree frog has made our yard his home and is eating the annoying moths that we seem to have in our patio area. (Not the MOTH, of course).

Frogs are indicative of the health of the environment, so I feel this is a good indicator for our new estate, where wildlife would be greatly disturbed by the earthworks.

This is a good sign for our nearby wildlife corridor.

Did you know that you should always have wet hands if you try to touch or pick up a frog?

Otherwise, your touch can burn their skin.

Last night I swear I even saw a Joey in our street but it ran like a cat and no hopping was evident, so perhaps it was just a feral cat.

I will be watching for it, tonight!

building

Sea change Completed

December 14, 2019 Forestwood

The wind in your hair, the smell of salt water in one’s nostrils, and the laid back lifestyle. That is what we think of we most of us think of living at the beach.

Four weeks ago, we moved to a home by the sea, after more than 35 years living in the suburbs but that wasn’t the original plan.

After selling the house my husband had built with his own hands, we went looking for a minimalist low maintenance lifestyle close to family and friends. We were, for quite some time, set on re-locating to a townhouse in the inner city and having a weekend flat at the beach. The Minimalist Inner city lifestyle. Close to restaurants, all kinds of services and facilities and unfortunately, the sort of place, workers and commuters all love to live. So it is busy, too busy for us now that we are nearing retirement and the quieter lifestyle that provides.

Sometimes, the universe intervenes. We searched and searched to find the right townhouse for us. It wasn’t there. Or, if it was, someone else got there first and outbid us. I must admit we had a contract on another, but it didn’t feel right and there were problems so the contract was terminated. We decided the townhouse hipster lifestyle wasn’t for us. All the time, the universe was sending us here, to the sea, where we wanted to be.

The adult kids moved out, as there was no way that they were going to live up near the beach, some 20 kms away from the trappings of work, friends and the inner city lifestyle.

So it is quite a change – a sea change to move in to the house we have been designing and building for the last year.

There have been frustrating times, and some problems along the way, but overall the building process was a lot of fun. And we made it. Yay!

The Moving process, of course, is not at all fun. Most of our old furniture didn’t fit into a townhouse – so we disposed of it. We had so many boxes packed away in storage, and a lot of new boxes for the new furniture. They all had to be unpacked and removed.

But that is all behind us now. The boxes have been recycled, the packing materials dumped and we settling into our new routine.

The Universe was right, and we were lucky to find the right piece of land, negotiated with a builder at the right time and voila, now our house is our home.

Now we are ensconced in our new house and we are happy. We’ve met many new neighbours, many in the same stage of life as us, and travelling to work hasn’t even taken near as long as I thought.