Thursday 21st March 2013

We had much better weather this week.  We started with showers and a drizzly day and then it has fined up to hot and sunny which is good because the boys are away this week playing golf at Nelson's Bay so rain was not on the agenda.

Friday 15th March 2013 Joel and Emily arrived about 6.30am to spend the day with me while Anne was at work.  It was a shame that the showers were around as we were restricted outside.  Between showers we walked down to the railway to see the trains and have an ice block.  Joel took his toy camera and took numerous photos of everything on the way. (I wonder where he gets that from).  We had a little time out in the garden trimming some plants.  Joel has his own garden scissors that he uses under my supervision and he loves working in the garden.  Lucky we have the covered verandah so Joel and Emily could play in the sandpit when it rained.  We had a lovely day with Joel and Emily having fun dressing up in my long beads.
That evening we went to the club for raffle night but had no bonus wins in the meat raffle.

Saturday 16th March 2013 we did the household shopping and I bought an Hibiscus plant for the Golf Club Gardens from one of the local nurseries that had them at discount prices.  After shopping I picked a bunch of roses to take to Sally, my beautician, and went for my manicure, pedicure etc  which was badly needed.

Sunday 17th March 2013 Rod & Anne did not come over for breakfast as Peter was leaving for his week of golf at Nelson's Bay at 8.00am.  Shane called in on his way to bowls for a quick catch up.  At 10.00am I went over to golf where I was playing with Phil Carter, Rosalie Dyer & Fred Middleton.  We had a good day at golf with Fred being our champion golfer of the day.  My highlight was getting my drive on the par 3 12th pin high.  That evening after golf I went to dinner with Mark & Anne and a few other of our golfing friends  to the Gosford Hotel.

Monday 18th March 2013 I was at F-Troop at 7.00am for another busy day.  A lot of our volunteers were away playing golf so there were only seven of us working but we dd get some good work done.

Tuesday  19th March 2013 I played golf in the Ladies St Patricks's Day Team Event and my playing partners were Rosalie Dyer, Kath Payn & Rae Brown.  We had a good fun day and Kath was our champion golfer and won our division on the day.

Wednesday 20th March 2013 I was up early to cut some roses from my garden to take to Margaret who takes care of our tax work each year.  I had a good catch up over coffee with Margaret and Paul who have just come home from a holiday in Singapore.  In the afternoon I did some dead heading of the roses in my gardens at home and then did some editing of my travel photos of San Francisco.  I put some washing on and the washing machine froze mid cycle which meant I had water draining through unchecked for hours before I noticed that the machine had not turned off.  Fortunately it was just a little hic up and it worked next time.  Something like this always happens while Peter is away.

Thursday 21st March 2013 (today) I was up early to tie down the climbing roses at the front of the house that have all gone feral.  I have been able to get in two morning walks this week on my walking machine and am gradually increasing the speed so I can get my fitness levels back up.  My arthritic feet are not too happy about it however.    I have done some more editing of the San Francisco photos and plan to get most of them onto the travel blog tonight - all going well.

Tomorrow afternoon Joel, Emily and Rod are coming to spend the weekend with us while Anne has a weekend off celebrating with her girlfriends in Sydney.  With some luck we will get some good weather.

Thursday 14th March 2013

We had much better weather this week so I have been able to get out an about in the gardens either here or at the golf club.  We have not seen our little ones this week as they were away camping last week and this week their car broke down so we did not have our grandchildren hit on Sunday.

Friday 8th March 2013 I had lunch with my old work mates from Coopers & Lybrand days - Lorraine, Margaret and Nancy.  We had lunch at Alexanders in Gosford and afterwards I had some retail therapy at the shops.  That evening we went to the Golf Club for raffle night and dinner.  We won a leg of lamb which was a good bonus.

Saturday 9th March 2013 we did some household shopping.  Peter went to golf and I went over to the club for three hours cleaning up the wedding garden for an afternoon wedding.  Saturday night we went out for dinner to the Lebanese Restaurant with Col & Lauren and Di & Neil.  Di & Neil are off on another caravan trip so it was good to catch up with them before they left.  After dinner we all came home to our house for a nightcap & finished up getting to bed about 2 am.

Sunday 10th March 2013 Rod, Anne, Joel & Emily were to be coming over for breakfast.  We had breakfast cooked and waiting and then got a call from Anne to say the starter motor in the car needed to be replaced so they had to stay at home to get it fixed that day so Anne had a car for the rest of the week.  Shane called in on his way to bowls so it was good to catch up with him.  His house renovations are coming together.  We went to golf at 11.30.  Our playing partners were Kay Frewin & Arthur Collien.  We had a good day at golf and played well enough to win a ball.  I excelled myself by getting three birdie putts in a row, two at 40 foot or so and the other a gobbler off the green which was a good highlight.  We did not stay to go out to dinner as we had all the breakfast food still left over and we were tired from the night out before.

Monday 11th March 2013 we were up early for F-Troop and had some big projects to do.  We worked there until 12.30. After lunch and a nanny nap we went out to Erina Fair as I was having a problem getting Peter's iPad to restart.  We took it to Andrew at Dick Smith's who fixed the problem in  minute.  As usual with computers - it is always easy when you know how.  We picked up some bargain buys in K-Mart for our Vietnam holiday that I needed.

Tuesday 12th March 2013 was our 47th Wedding Anniversary.  I went to golf with the girls and Peter had a restful day at home.  My playing partners were Sheila Williams & Eileen Major and we had a nice day even though our scores were not too good.  I ended up in the edge of the dam with one of my drives and came out covered in dirt after trying to hit the ball out of the muddy grass.  We went out to "Trackside" for dinner to celebrate our anniversary.  The food was nice and I enjoyed a champagne.

Wednesday 13th March 2013 I spent the day in the rose garden at home, dead heading, weeding etc. In the afternoon I did a few more of my holiday photos for the travel blog.  I only have San Francisco to go now and all my photos from the USA trip are done.

Thursday 14th March 2013 (today) I was up early to do some more walking.  I have been trying to get some walking in about three or four times a week on my machine on the verandah.  Arthritis in my feet has been holding me back - so I am going a little slower so I don't aggravate my feet.  I have got some good books on my Audible app. so I am back into listening to books while I walk and garden. Today I listened to "The Secret Garden" and old story but a nice one if you are into gardens.  After that I pruned back the large overgrown Banksia Rose that is over the back pergola.  By the time we had it all cleaned up we had filled two green bins.  We have had good weather all week and today was the first day I have had to water the garden.

Tomorrow I am on babysitting duty from 6.15am in the morning while Anne is at work.  We were supposed to be doing a BBQ for a charity day at the golf club.  I have been able to get someone to fill in for me so I can look after Joel and Emily all day.  I hope we get some good weather so we can get outside.  

Thursday 7th March 2013

There was precious little to this last week as we had some terrible weather over the weekend.

Thursday 28th February 2013 I did some work on the gardens at home and edited some travel photos and caught up a bit at home.

Friday 1st March 2013 It was not a good weather day so we went to Erina to the movies to see "Lincoln".
I enjoyed the movie especially the lead role - well worthy of winning an Oscar.  There were some parts of the movie that I would have left out and other parts that I would have included more.
There was to have been a garden wedding this afternoon - but it rained so much it was transferred to the balcony of the clubhouse.  Rod & Anne called around in the afternoon to pick up some camping gear as they were going to Anna Bay for the weekend.   Friday evening we went to the Club Raffles and badge draw - but no bonus wins tonight.

Saturday 2nd March 2013 There was to have been another garden wedding but it was raining so hard that it was not worth the effort of trying to clean up.  It was terrible weather all day so I got a lot of travel photos done. Our playing partners for tomorrow's golf rang to say they did not want to play tomorrow in the wet and we happily agreed to cancel golf.

Sunday 3rd March 2013 we had a lazy morning as the kids were away camping.  It was still raining right up to lunchtime.  I went out and picked a bunch of roses to take to Lynn & Ron's as we were meeting at their place at Terrigal for lunch with all our fellow travellers going to Vietnam.  We had to put in our visa applications and passports for the trip.  We had a lovely lunch and discussions about Vietnam that we are all looking forward to.  The weather had cleared by the afternoon which made it a pleasant day.  We had eaten so much for lunch that we did not bother with dinner.

Monday 4th March 2013 we were up early for F-Troop.  The weather was still clear so we managed to get some good projects done around the clubhouse without taking heavy machinery out onto the course.  Rod & Anne got home from their camping trip with both the kids sick with colds.  They had terrible weather the whole time they had been there - but at least the tent did not leak.

Tuesday 5th March 2013 I played golf with my playing partners Lorraine Bignall & Anne Cropley.  The course was very heavy as we had seven inches of rain in the previous week.  Our golf scores were not great but I did have a good gobbler shot into the hole at the 11th which will take me back next week.  In the afternoon Shane called in on his way to bowls to have a catch up chat.  Shane has been doing renovations on his house while he has been on holidays from his work.

Wednesday 6th March 2013 I caught up on my washing and spent the whole day dead heading the roses after they were battered by the heavy rain.  The roses have been beautiful this year.

Thursday 7th March 2013 (today) we had an easy morning taking a trip out to Bunnings to get some plants for the Golf Club gardens.  In the afternoon we attended the funeral of a 29 year old Member who committed suicide this week.  It was a very sad funeral as he left behind a partner and three little children.  After the funeral we went to the Golf Club to do a small job there and ended up staying for a few drinks afterwards.

The weather has cleared and it has been good for the last few days.  Let us hope that it continues so we can dry out a bit.