You are so welcome today. The temperature has returned to what is cool for us at around 25.9 degrees celsius. We have endless energy and coffee is most certainly back on the menu. We also have cold or other hot drinks if you’d prefer. Me, I’m sticking to peppermint tea.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you that I didn’t achieve my goal of finishing my exegesis this week and getting it handed in. I went in to my office on Monday and discovered my Supervisor was not back until this coming week so I probably slacked off a bit. I spent more time doing blogs. It was the beginning of the month so I had my next prompt to get out for Times Past. Hope you will come over and join in. Last month’s contributions were all great and gave a rich view of eating out of a night in Times Past.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you that BILL and SILS (my brother-in-law and sister-in-law visiting from Germany) feel that they have had all weather thrown at them. On Monday they’d never seen so much water come down along with the lightning and thunder. SILS spoke via Skype to someone in Germany and asked if they remembered the storms in South Africa. The response was yes and she said “they were nothing like what we had last night. In a matter of a couple of hours we’d got 130mm. The next night the storm came from nowhere. Suddenly the wind picked up, gathering one of our sails with it, shearing the screws off at the wall. It came from the north and with force. Our electricity went down for a couple of hours but luckily dinner could progress thanks to a little gas burner that we have. We discovered later that a tree in our dog walking park came down and caught fire on top of the power lines with several explosions. Very exciting for those that saw it. We didn’t and were instead happily chatting by candlelight.
Peace has returned to our household. The dogs are on the whole happy with each others company and Muffin has quietened down considerably. My arms are no longer ripped to pieces and she is proving herself to be a delight. Even Roger is showing signs of love.
© irene waters 2016
Friday lunch this week we went to Boreen Point to the Apollonian Motel a hotel constructed in the Gympie of Gold Rush of 1870s and moved to its current location in 1987. A little bit of country for our guests and my Mum.
© irene waters 2016
© irene waters 2016
We didn’t take our dogs (we couldn’t fit them in the car) but we were quickly adopted by a couple of resident ones.
© irene waters 2016
If we were having coffee I’d be telling you that I had better get back to work. I am so close to getting it to a point I can hand in again I’m hoping Wednesday. I have turned off my referencing program and have fixed all references in the body of the text. All I have to do now is add some links (that might take a bit of doing as I have tried and can’t seem to get it to work), finish a couple of tables off and run through the last two chapters and check that I have included everything I wanted to. It sounds do-able to me and then I can enjoy the last few weeks BILL and SILS are here. I think they think I’m mad and between you and me I agree with them. If you see me visiting you’ll know I’ve achieved my goal.
Hope that you have all had a wonderful week. Looking forward to catching up soon.
Thanks to Diana for hosting our coffee mornings. Have a good week.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
Sitting here with a home-made ‘soya wet latte’ wrapped up in long sleeves and gillet – watching the poor man of the house scurry up and down the garden in the rain to bring in wood for the fire which is lit every night at the moment! (By the way that sentence length should be edited out of your work..) Envying your heat and sun whilst crossing my fingers you meet this week’s goals ❤️
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Thanks Lisa. Aren’t you luck the man around your house brings in the wood. That used to be my job when we had the farm and when I had exhausted the supply close-by I brought some donkeys to do the carrying further afield. At least it sounds like you are keeping warm. I know I can, I know I can….
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I use this bad back excuse more than I should.. He hasn’t noticed yet – either that or it makes him feel ‘manly’ ! Lol x
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LOL. Why not. Lugging firewood is not a lot of fun and it is mans work after all. This is why I am not a feminist. I enjoy not doing the traditional tasks of the man (including going to war) and I do also enjoy not doing the traditional tasks of the woman (haven’t cooked in years.) What do I do? I guess you know the answer to that. 🙂
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Men, women and writers 😀
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Almost there Irene, not long now! Final push and you’ll have it…yes!! And then you can take a deep breath, and as you say, really enjoy the rest of your time wih your family. So glad Muffin has settled down, what an adorable photo 🙂 Your storm sounds like the one we’re having right now, although no thunder, just rain and wind…again… A hunkering kind of a day. Have a wonderful weekend and here’s to Wednesday 🙂 ❤
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It is a great photo of the two of them. Hope your storm doesn’t cause any damage. The weather is quite strange at the moment – I guess it is climate change and we can expect more extremes both directions. I hope to be raising my glass on Wednesday — will let you know.
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No damage so far Irene, but a reprieve until it hits hard again on Monday. Weather warnings for us on the south west. Battoning down the hatches. I’ll have a glass ready and waiting for Wednesday…and the storms will be through by then too! Love & hugs 🙂 ❤
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I hope we are not being too precipitious. 🙂
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Me too!!! 😉
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Not yet but ever closer. Hope you are having a good week. xx 🙂
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You’ll do it my friend…not long now, I’ll be checking in… A good week so far, thank you! Doing a quick catch up today and tomorrow before I sign off. It’s my mother’s 80th birthday today, taking her out for a meal later, but we’re doing a family celebration on Saturday when all the troops are gathered. My boys arriving tomorrow evening, so I’m busy getting ready for all the family festivities which means I’ll be putting writing and blogging on the back burner until after the weekend. But I will not stress!!! Time to celebrate! And we’ll include your pre-birthday in that too, lol 😀 xx
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Hope your Mother has a happy 80th with all the family around. Yes have an early drink for me as well and wish your mum a very happy day from Australia.
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Thank you so much Irene, it was a wonderful celebration indeed and I will send on your wishes to my mum from Australia, she will love that! Coincidentally, she’s had an Australian pen friend she’s known since 12 years old. They’ve met a couple of times in all those years! I continue to raise my glass to you my friend, and await your good news… ❤
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Glad she had a good time. How wonderful to have a penfriend all those years. The penfriend I had in Canada when I was 12 I corresponded with for about a year. I’ve always been a dreadful letter writer. She and your Mum must know each other so well.
The good news is – I handed it in to my supervisor yesterday afternoon at 4.21.05pm I still have some graphs to do which I will do while I wait to get it back from her and hopefully she will okay (with her suggestions) to go for examination. If she doesn’t I will go into a big decline but at the moment raise your glass and celebrate – I missed my goal of Friday but I made Monday. Yeah!
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Glad Muffin has settle down and you can enjoy her. Storms out nowhere are frightening. Flowers over the dinning table are lovely.
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Yes it is a pleasure now having Muffin and am starting to forget just what a nightmare she was. I agree the flowers are lovely. have a good week.
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Everything you do, even without electricity and with a deadline, looks so relaxing and fun. I could wind down there so well! I know you’ll make that deadline, and I am delighted that Muffin and Roger are becoming friends. Muffin is adorable, and I think Roger will eventually bond tightly with her, We once had three dogs and they were a tightly knit pack despite being so different (German Shepherd, Rottweiler and terrier.
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Yes I think the bonding with Roger is well on the way and Bundy is accepting her better than he ever accepted Zac, despite Zac being in the household first. Mind you he was devastated when he died. Noelle you’d love it here, but then I’d probably love where you are too. I think it is just how you look at things.
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Glad you’re safe. Move along and finish up! Almost done. 💖 P.S. Adorable photo of your fur kids. Glad to hear all is well with them, too.
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Thanks I’m getting there. 🙂
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Glad you guys are safe and that Muffin is ever-improving. Hope that all is well this week!
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Thanks Diana. Hope you have a less eventful week after last week.
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Thanks! It’s shaping up to be busy tomorrow but pretty calm the rest of the week, which isn’t a bad ratio.
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I’m glad you are getting close to completing and meeting your deadline. I’m hoping you will fill us in to the content of your work. It sounds all-consuming! What is the name of the beautiful purple-pink flowering bush?
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I am doing research on the sequel memoir where I have had to write a creative work (a sequel memoir) and an explanatory exegesis. I plan on writing more about it when I have finished it because some of it is just fascinating (at least I find it so).
The flower is a bougainvillea.It is quite stunning but it does have horrible big thorns. They have pruned it so that diners aren’t in danger.
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Great progress, Irene. Well done! The photo of the two dogs is so cute. Is Muffin almost full grown?
Your storms sound nasty. We’ve had quite a few too. Quite scary. Lost our back roof where we have our office a few months ago and had the SES out. They’re fabulous. Our beach lost a few more trees in the latest storm. Very disappointing. The beach erosion has been so bad that council had to sandbag it to save the road.
Hope you’re having a great start to your week!
xx Rowena
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Thanks Rowee. I think Muffin has a month more to grow into her height and then she will fill out a bit. She looks like a gangly youth at the moment all skinny legs that are getting longer.
Have you got your office back into working order yet? I think our emergency services (especially the volunteer ones) are just fantastic.
Not there yet but getting ever closer. Hope you are coping with all the driving to drop off and pick up children.
Irene xx
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Thanks, Irene. Roof all sorted and office back together but it still has me in it and the kids tend to leave little mementos on my desk. It piles up pretty quickly. Did manage to relocate the mouse yesterday. I’ve largely set myself up in the loungeroom on my laptop with the air-conditioning. It’s a bit more social too, which has its pluses and minuses. Not always appreciated when I shut myself off. xx Ro
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Glad you got the mouse relocated — to the loungeroom? or into the garden? We used to use those traps which caught them live when we had the farm and we’d relocate them. In the end I began to believe it was the same one making his way back. Then it turned out it was bandicoots. You have probably become good at blocking out a certain amount of noise. Hope you manage to get some work done. Cheers Irene xx
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Dogs recognize dog lovers. 🙂 Muffin has grown so much and Bundy looks regal in his age. Your storms sound exciting and explosive. Nothing like an electrical outage to remind us of the softer lights in life, candlelight for one. I’ve been struggling with backlogged writing. I feel like all piled up and the best I can do is complete one article after another and stay focused on the end goal for Rock Creek, which is now April 15. You’ll get your words and pages and in the order you want.
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Sounds great timing for me. Hope your backlog is going down. I know how it feels.
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I’m reading this late, as the weather here sinks through the single digits (that’s Fahrenheit, and not Celcius – brrrrrrrr!). It’s “don’t open the door unless absolutely necessary” cold out there. I’m happy for lots of hot beverages (coffee, tea, chai), soup, and an abundance of firewood to take the evening chill off…almost time to light the fire.
I wish you the best of luck with your project. May all the rough places smooth out, and find you with time and energy to spare for enjoying your guests.
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That sounds cold. Hope it is starting to warm a bit, although a fire with soup sounds cosy. Thanks for good wishes. Handed in yesterday. Depending on what my supervisor thinks I hope to submit for examination in the near future. I now have a couple of weeks that I am going to enjoy with my sister in law and her husband before they go back to the cold of Germany. Thanks for dropping by to have coffee with me.
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Today it’s in the 50s, but very windy and raining hard. Last night we had snow, sleet, and freezing rain. We’ll want a fire tonight to take some of the damp chill out of the air.
Hooray on finishing your project, and your prospects for the near future. =)
May you enjoy your visit! Hope to have coffee together soon!
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You’ve made me feel cold just by reading. Hope it warms soon for you but then I am wishing winter upon us so I hope it isn’t that soon.
There is a bit of a way to go but this was the big hurdle (I hope). Thanks
Look forward to coffee again soon.
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It’s warmer now. Still below freezing, but sunny and pretty today. The sun is staying up longer and reaching a higher zenith. Sorry that means coming cold for you!
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