So, my apologies for not responding to comments or visiting blogs. I did manage to read the comments, but I was in a place with very limited reception on my phone so no response from me. More on that later.
So for some visuals, here is the Sponge that started the week. I used to be afraid of baking sponges. You hear so many stories about them sinking, being temperamental, not rising etc. I am afraid no more......behold in all it's glory a sponge with strawberry cream filling that I made for afternoon tea last Saturday for my Dad and younger sister when they popped in.
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| Yum |
And after that, I spent a mad Saturday cooking, doing laundry and writing lists so that I could leave guilt free for Gwinganna which is in the Gold Coast hinterland. It was fabulous. I went for a 5 day Wellness program with one of my close friends from Melbourne. She is a mother of 4 (spaced the same as mine, but her last pregnancy was twins) who works nearly full time, and was needing a break. I needed the break from the stress of the past few months with my Mum's illness.
So, it was a great week of concentrating on ourselves; exercising, eating very good for you (and delicious) food, spa treatments in the afternoons, lazy stretches by the pool reading and chatting and laughing and a little bit of crying, and being re-educated via seminars on wellness, healthy eating, exercise. It was a great circuit breaker for me; I've come back full of energy and feeling like a lot of the stress that I've been holding onto has melted away somewhat. I guess a massage every day does that for you! And as an added bonus, I lost another 1 KG, which now puts me at the lightest weight I've been since having children 7 years ago (I lost 4 KG through stress over the previous month).
And everyone survived my absence, although I had been gone no more than 4 hours when my youngest had a trip to hospital with a bit of superglue to the head involved (Mr AV said "it was nothing really, just a scratch"....). As none of the children have had to go to hospital before, this was somewhat unfortunate. And so today, I'm catching up on time with the children (gratifyingly they were all completely overexcited by my return), doing an awful lot of laundry, cleaning up and tidying up and getting some food into the house as the cupboards are bare.
So, while I was away, here's what happened to my garden - it literally exploded with blossom and flowers. I picked these pretty single petal roses for the hall table this morning - they are an unknown climber in the back garden. My mother, the rose expert, told me last year that it was an old rose, probably one of the French ones, but she couldn't remember the name. Unfortunately it's slated for removal as it's where the extension is going, but I'll enjoy it for its final season.
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| David Austin's Sharifa Asmar |
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| Flag Iris |
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| Crabapple, which has finally blossomed |
And to match the flowers outside, I got out for their first wearing of the season my new Alice + Olivia floral jeans (stalked them on the netaporter sale until they had my size back in stock). Here is a bad iphone pic to show you:
Enjoy your weekend everyone x