Monday 29th November 2010

This week has flown by as I seemed to have something to do every day to keep me busy.

Being my Peter-free week I had great plans for some R & R but not a lot of that happened.

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 I played golf & the weather stayed nice. My golfing partners were Tania Burt & Michele Kennett & we had a lovely day with our highlight being Michele winning her division on the day. My golf was very ordinary but I enjoyed being out there.

Wednesday 24th November 2010 I was up early to cut some roses to take to Margaret Coleman-Ingham. Margaret takes care of all our income tax affairs & works from home with Paul so I combined a nice social morning with tax matters. Margaret makes a lovely coffee & that was part of the deal.

In the afternoon I went out to Erina Fair to pick up my new glasses which have been a blessing. I can now see properly when reading without having to peer through broken glasses. I also got a pair of transitional long distance glasses to wear for golf & they are useful when I am outside so much.

Later in the afternoon I called into the club to get the golf results & had a chat with a few of the Members still there.

Thursday 25th November 2010 I was up very early to catch a train to Sydney that would get me there by 9.00 am. I wanted to see the QVB Christmas tree that I like to view each year as it is so spectacular. It also gave me the chance to check out some Christmas Presents & do a little damage to my Visa card. The new Westfield Shopping Centre was up running (previously known as Centrepoint) & I was able to go through my old stomping grounds to DJ's via Myers overbridge. It is a good set up as I can shop all day in Sydney without getting my feet wet if it rains. We have had very hot weather for the earlier part of this week & today was very hot.

I needed to be home by 4.30 pm as Rod, Anne & Joel were coming for dinner. I managed to get a good train home & arrived in plenty of time to call into the Golf Club to pick up the results slip for the golfer's blog.

Rod & Anne arrived about 5.30pm with a Thai dinner in hand so I was able to have some good quality time with Joel before his bedtime.

Friday 26th November 2010 we had another very hot day. I was up early to spray the roses out the back & to cut back the Banksia Rose that had started to spread out over the clothes line. I filled up two green bins by the end of the day. Des & Yvonne Wilson called around to say hello & have a cup of tea. They were going to the Golf Club for dinner & convinced me to go with them for the Club raffles and Member Draw. It was a nice relaxing evening & certainly beat cooking.

Saturday 27th November 2010 I was up early once again this time to dead head, weed & spray the front gardens. That took me to 11.30am. I went to West Gosford to do the household shopping, banking etc. I picked some roses from my garden for Anne Stimpson as they had invited me over for dinner tonight. Later that afternoon Mark picked me up after his golf match & Anne had cooked up a lovely dinner. Mark & Anne are good company and I had a lovely evening.

Sunday 28th November 2010 Shane, Rod, Anne & Joel came for breakfast. I was not playing golf today as it was the "Nagger's Cup" Day at the club and my "nagger" was away. Shane has been busy painting his house so his day was going to be busy. Rod & Anne stayed until lunch time & went home when Joel was ready for his sleep.

In the afternoon I went over to the club to plant in a new standard rose at the putting green & spent a few hours tidying up & watering around the clubhouse. I also took some excess lilies from my garden to give to some of the golfing ladies that wanted them. I came home to shower & change & get back in time for presentation of the Nagger's cup trophies. I stayed for dinner at the club with Mark & Anne Stimpson which was another good night.

Monday 29th November 2010 (today) I was up very early to take some excess gazanias from my garden to put into the gardens at the club. We had a 7.00am start for F-Troop & even though rain was threatening we still had 14 volunteers which was good. It did not rain very much at all & I worked at the club until 1.30pm. Peter was returning home from Adelaide today so I went home to wait for his phone call so I could pick him up.

Peter did not arrive until 4.30 pm. His golfing week in Adelaide was good but the weather did not impress him. Later this afternoon we went to look at a house that Rod & Anne are considering buying. Their unit is difficult with a young baby so they are in the market for a house.

The weather forecast is for bad weather for the rest of the week which will not impress me.

We have our Christmas dress up day tomorrow & our plan for our team is to dress as Christmas fairies for golf. A wet day will not be good so I am hoping that the weather will hold at least until after golf.

Monday 22nd November 2010

This was a better weather week thankheavens & my headcold improved with each sunny day.

After the rainfall of Monday 15th November 2010 the rain continued all through the night & into the next morning. That was enough for me to review my decision about playing golf so I had the week concentrating on garden matters.

Tuesday 16th November 2010 We took the GPS system over to the golf club so that it could be updated with the golf courses in Adelaide that Peter is playing next week with his mates. While there we updated Peter with some more golf shorts as the Adelaide weather predictions were hot.

George Brand rang to say that he had some lavender plants ready for me to pick up so we went out to Terrigal to pick them up. George was in his garage propagating some more plants from the cuttings he had just done. I an going to create a "Lavender Way" at the golf course 16th tee

and can use a lot of lavender plants. George gave me about 100 plants so that will keep me busy when I get to them. We needed some more mulch for the Golf Gardens so called into Erina to pick up 5 bales of sugar cane mulch.

Wednesday 17th November 2010 I spent the day in the gardens at home weeding & deadheading. With all the rain we have had the weeds are growing overnight. Brian Gregory dropped around about 60 African Daisies for the 17th fairway garden so I have added that to my list of things to do this week. Later that night one of our F-Troop friends, Peter Murphy called around so that I could show him how to download a photo from my camera to his laptop. Like everything to do with computers - it is easy when you know how.

Thursday 18th November 2010 I spent another day in my gardens at home just pottering around. The green bins are chockers full from my efforts with the camellia trimming last week so I cannot do anything serious until Wednesday of next week after all the bins have been emptied.

I did a house clean & got the ironing up to date so that I could have a free weekend.

Friday 19th November 2010 was household shopping day. I called into Bunnings and bought myself another good quality plant spray as the roses have broken out with black spot after all the wet & humid weather. We have been invited to a BBQ on Saturday night so I volunteered to take along some "Rocky Road" so I put that together so I had it ready to go. I went over to the golf course & planted out the African Daisies as we were expecting a shower later that night so it was a good time to plant them.

Saturday 20th November 2010 I was up early to pick some Roses to take to Ray & Norma Presdees - our hosts for a BBQ dinner tonight. We had been donated some bush rock for the golf club gardens so I needed to go over to the club to move it into the orchid garden where I am going to plant some rock orchids. I was so disspointed to find that some vandals had been at the club on Friday evening & ripped the top off od one of the standard white iceberg roses at the putting green. As well some rabbits had been into the gardens & chewed the pansies down to the ground. I was not very happy. The club had a huge program on that day with the Club Foursomes Championships being played with 160 odd players, a garden wedding of 130 guests with a reception following in the Sunset Room, another wedding reception for 60 guests in the Magnolia Room & a 30th birthday for 60 guests in the Links Room. I was there in the afternoon to tidy up the garden area & the front of the clubhouse & to take some photos. Later that night we went to the Presdees to have a BBQ dinner with some of our golfing friends. It was a lovely night & we did not get home until 11.30pm. By the time I uploaded all the photos & finished the blog it was 1.30am.

Sunday 21st November 2010 I was up early as Rod, Anne & Joel were coming for breakfast.

Joel was in a very playful mood & enjoyed the sandpit, a dig in the garden, a walk around the block in the pram before having to leave to go to a christening at Maitland that day. We headed off to golf thinking that we had plenty of time to get there & arrived just in time to get to the tee.

Our playing partners were Mark & Anne Stimpson and they were great company. My golf was pretty woeful - a bit over tired I suspect but it was still a nice day. We stayed for dinner with Mark & Anne & Lorraine Bignall. I am playing in the Christmas Closing day with Lorraine & we are organising an outfit to dress up in for this year. Lorraine called around home for coffee & I gave her the outfit from last year that we are going to enhance for this year. It was about 11.30 pm by the time I finished the golf blog & Peter wa busy getting his things ready to go to Adelaide at 9.30 am in the morning fo his week of golf with his mates.

Monday 22nd November 2010 I was up early to organise myself for F-Troop & was over at the club before 7.00 am. We had 17 volunteers today which was great & I was able to get my main mission completed today & that was to trim & clean up the garden at the 17th fairway where I had planted the African Daisies earlier in the week. The F-Troopers were a great help as we needed the chain saw to get some of the shrubs trimmed. The garden looks much better for the makeover. Peter Messaged me from Adelaide to say that he had arrived safely & it was very hot.

The weather had been beautiful for most of the week & the forecast is for more tomorrow so golf should be on the agenda. The course is looking good and playing well so I have no excuses for my bad golf. Maybe a good early night may be appropriate for tonight.