Monday 27th September 2010

This was a full on week where I seemed to be flat chat every day and four nights out in a row did not help. We had mostly beautiful weather which was great for gardening & I used the opportunity to work on my gardens at home.

Tuesday 21st September 2010 I played golf and it was a monthly medal stroke round. My playing partners were Pam Cowin & Linda Rogers and we had a lovely day. I played to my handicap which made me happy.

Wednesday 22nd September 2010 I spent the whole day in my gardens weeding, fertilizing & mulching the gardens getting them ready for the coming hot weather.

Thursday 23rd September 2010 was more of the same & I managed to get the most of my back gardens done. Thursday Evening we attended the Gosford City Garden Competition Presentation Night at Erina and was happy that the Golf gardens got two mentions. We got a "Finalist" certificate for the "Best Commercial Garden and a "Finalist" certificate for "The Best Commercial Eco Friendly Garden". We did not win the big prize but came close. Better luck next year.

Friday 24th September 2010 was another busy day. I spent the morning finishing off the fertilizing, weeding and mulching of the back gardens before meeting with Heather, Lorraine & Des (my old work pals from Coopers & Lybrand days) for a nice lunch in Gosford. It was good to have a catch up chat as we do not get a chance to get together too often.

After lunch I had an appointment for a facial which was nice & relaxing. I felt that I deserved it after a hard few days in the garden.

That evening I met with Mark & Anne Stimpson, Anne's mother & a couple of their friends for dinner at the Gosford Golf Club prior to attending the Laycock Theatre for a wonderfully entertaining night by the Options Theatre Co. This company is made up of disabled men & women who put on a performance each year and I look forward to attending these shows as many of them are quite talented. This year the Theme was a "High School Confidential" which was set in the 1950's so the music was great. Mark & Anne's daughter Louise takes part in the show and does really well.

Saturday 25th September 2010 I was up early to catch up with some housework before going shopping for household stuff. I also needed some more mulch to finish off all the gardens at home next week. At 4.00pm we met up with Kerry & Norma Cubis & Mark Stimpson at the Grange Hotel for Pre Dinner drinks leading up to the Tigers Vs The Dragons clash. We had a BBQ dinner at Kerry & Norma's lovely unit at Gosford where we watched the match over a few drinks. Peter & Kerry are both Tigers supporters & Mark was a Bulldog supporter converted for the night. Disappointingly the Tigers were beaten however we all enjoyed the night.

Sunday 26th September 2010 I was up early to get everything in order for Rod, Anne & Joel to come for breakfast. We had the traditional Bacon, Eggs & OJ. Joel was much better this week having recovered from his chest infection of last week. Anne is still recovering from a dose of the flu. Joel had a great time outside as it was a lovely day. He dug the dirt in Peter's tomato garden & watched the birds building a nest in the garden. I took him for a walk in the pram around the neighbourhood which he enjoyed. At 11 o'clock we left for golf leaving Joel asleep & Rod & Anne watching Foxtel. The Golf Event of the day was the final round of the Team Series. We had not done all that well the first two rounds & would have needed exceptional scores to win today. Our playing partners were Mark & Anne Stimpson & we had a lovely day. The weather was good & the course was playing well. I scored 38 points, won a ball and lost a stroke off my handicap which was my highlight. Mark was our star scoring 4 birdies and almost getting a hole in one. After golf we rushed home to change & go back to the club for a dinner dance which followed the trophy presentation. It was a good day but very tiring. By the time we got home & I finished off the golf blog it was 1.00am in the morning.

Monday 27th September 2010 (today) I was up at 6.00am to be ready for F-Troop at 7.00am. We worked hard all morning at the club weeding, fertilizing and watering as I had not been there all week to do my usual clean up jobs. There was not a wedding last weekend so the wedding garden needed to be refreshed for this weekend. We have had some hot weather & the weeds are starting to grow. This afternoon I had to have a nanny nap as all the activities of this last week were catching up with me.

Tomorrow I have to play 27 holes in the Foursomes Championships so that will be a big day & I hope the weather holds.

Monday 20th September 2010

Another semi-busy week with a couple of nice pottering days in the garden to mix it up.

Tuesday 14th September 2010 started out to be a lovely day with the rain holding off until mid morning. I was up early & over at the clubhouse to set up the pink azaleas that we were decorating with for the Chip-in-for-cancer Invitation Day when we all wore pink to support the cause. I picked some lovely pink azaleas from my garden to boost the azaleas that we borrowed from the local nursery so that the clubhouse looked lovely for our visitors and members.

My playing partners were Joy Reardon (Toukley), Jan Hoban (Terrigal) and Jan Walker (Gosford) & we started out very well and made it to the 3rd fairway when the skies opened up & hit us with a deluge of water in a very short period of time. The course was unplayable so the golf part of the day was cancelled which was unfortunate. We did have an enjoyable day once we dried off and got inside the clubhouse. I had to go home to change as I was wet through & had no dry shoes to wear. We had a nice lunch & over the day & the previous week we managed to raise over $4,000 for the Breast Cancer Foundation which was a great result. My highlight was winning the raffles three times and settled for one of the prizes which was a $50 drycleaning voucher. My playing partners settled on booking in for the next team invitation day with me so that we could finish off what we started earlier in the day before the rain upset our results. After golf there were some balloons left over at the end of the day from the table decorations so we dropped in to see Anne & Joel so Joel could have the balloons to play with. Joel had a big day at pre-school & was very tired so we did not stay long.

Wednesday 15th September 2010 I travelled to Avoca Beach with Rosalie Dyer where we enjoyed a Pandora Benefit Day which was a luncheon and fashion parade at Avoca Surf Club. We had a lovely day but did not win the raffles. However one of the ladies sharing the table with us won one dozen bottles of wine and gave us one each - so that was a little highlight for us.

Thursday 16th September 2010 I spent the day pottering around my front garden - weeding, fertilizing, spraying and mulching to prepare the garden for the onslaught of summer. It is my favourite time in the garden when all the roses spring back to life and I have many of them in bud & even have a few roses in bloom. There is some beautiful new growth on the rose bushes so in the next month or two I should have some lovely visions in the garden. It was a beautiful day & even though the work was tiring I loved every minute of being out there in the sunshine.

Friday 17th September 2010 we had a shopping day - picking up some more mulch so that I can make a start on the back gardens next week, a trip to Bunnings, Aldi's, Coles then a nice stop for lunch after which we had a few hours at the club catching up with everything that was happening there. We were back in the club at 6.00 o'clock as Peter was on raffle duty with Col Matterson. We had dinner at the club but were not lucky with the meat raffles.

Saturday 18th September 2010 there was to be a garden wedding at the golf club so I went over about 8.30 to clean up & help prepare the wedding garden. It was still messy from the rainy day we had on Tuesday so there was a lot of cleaning up to do. When I had finished there I came home to do some more work in my front gardens as it was such a lovely sunny day. I went back to the golf club later to take some photos of the wedding & to pick up the wedding cushions out of the garden. It was a big day but I felt better for getting the work done.

Sunday 19th September 2010 Rod, Joel and Shane came for breakfast. It was a bit overcast but I was still able to get Joel outside for a dig in the garden & to play with the plastic clothes pegs that he loved. I also had time to take him for a walk around the block in his pram as we were not playing golf until 12 o'clock. Our playing partners at golf were Mark & Anne Stimpson who are our partners in the Team Series Event & that final is coming up next Sunday. My golf was a bit ordinary as it took me 12 holes before I scored a 3 pointer. Mark & Peter played really well. Mark was our star scoring 43 points including 4 birdies. The scores were so good that Mark's 43 points only won him a ball. We stayed for dinner at the club with Mark & Anne which was a good finish for the day.

Monday 20th September 2010 (today) we were off to F-Troop at 7.00am. It was a big day as we did not have a lot of helpers this time so I spent most of the morning raking & picking up sticks around the course. The boys finished the picket fence at the 18th tee which pleased me. After morning tea I helped Peter finish the painting of the picket fence & then left at 12.30 to come home to change to go to the funeral of Margaret Nash at 2.30pm - one of the girls I used to play golf with. I travelled to Palmdale for the service with Rosalie Dyer but we decided not to go to the wake as Rosalie needed to get home & I needed to finish cleaning up at the picket fence area so that we could say that the project was finished. Again it was a full day.

Tomorrow I am playing in the "Medal of Medals" playoff which is a competition between all the medal winners this year in the Ladies Tuesday Competition. It is a stroke match so we need some good weather to enhance the day.