I went for the arty photo look, sadly

Plum jam made on a slightly cooler evening in February.
 

 

Shakespeare in the Park

  Me going out for night out with the "girls"

Sorry, tried to be arty, failed miserably, but the photos show I think, how hot the summer has been, taken at all times of the day and night and the sun just will not behave. Note people wearing jackets at Twelfth Night, it got decidedly cooler in the evening under the trees. My mantra this year is go out more, so what if Basil's working, he's always working. I going to see the Wind in the Willows soon, it's in our beautiful Botanic Gardens, and signed up for a Laser Strike night. Went out to the market and stopped at a very expensive Op shop, bought Basil a milk frother, the lady at the counter didn't know what it was, it would have been more than $3 if she did know, I think.  On to the market where I bought a Chinese bamboo steamer and a book, ok, also a sausage in bread, with onions and mustard. Might as well confess my sins. No big deal about St Valentines day, neither of us celebrate it, we have been together 31 years, through good and bad, and we are in it for the long haul, the occasionally "brunch or movies out is our treat". I have been out for "brunch" actually twice last weekend, it reinforced what didn't need reinforcing, I LOVE BREAKFAST. I say  to one and all, goodbye at 5.00pm, with the smell of BBQ in the air, (not ours), children laughing, (next door) and the bloody crickets making a fearful racket in the trees. Love 
Aunt Bee.









Dahlias with half eaten plum, by me.

The printer and wi fi are out to get me???????

What a kerfuffle, with the printer, (still requiring intensive psychiatric help and the wi fi (now working) only working on the TV and Aj and Tom's laptops, but not ours,( and we all know whose is the more important) with everyone but the experts trying to fix it, it's been very stressful for ME.
How could you forget it's all about me, with the laptop, it's mine I tell you, mine, I only share with Basil because I have too.  Busy busy, hot, hot, bloody hot, to hot for me, but Tania (work) bought in this gel thingy which you soak in water and put around your neck, I bought 2 of them immediately, one for Baz and one for me, though to be fair I wanted something to encase me whole body, God knows what that would cost, the neck tie thing cost $25 for two, good deal I thought.Of course I haven't used it yet.
It's been so hot and I'm telling you something that I didn't let the family know about, so hot one night last week,I had berry ambrosia for dinner, that's right, that's the whole meal and it was delicious. 
What they don't know wont hurt them, they weren't home so mum rules apply. 
Wont bore with the rules because they are fairly fluid in nature, because I'm very good at adapting them to the situation as it develops, yes I get complaints, which is covered in rule one, Mum is always right.  Shall actually post tomorrow with photos, now there's a challenge. Love Aunt Bee.

This is coming to youall,from the comfort of my couch,through my new TV and it has been a trail. I'm going to be brief because to get this far has done my head in, Aj has told me I am on my own in this endeavovor. I shall experiment in the next few days and update my progress in this modern way. Forgive all mistakes as the bloody thing wont let me correct them. Aunt Bee

Photos are easy to download again, well it took me ONLY 1 hour.

7.30am and the surfers were out in the sea

Dave finds a basket in the sun

 

gorgeous great nephew

have faced my fears and am back walking on the beach

A quick post, the weather is fabulous, the days long and lazy. Some people already back at work, some not, yippee. Walking down the beach with Tom, everyone is smiling and talking to each other, walking their dogs and going for a dip, surfing, and jet skiing.
Lots of late Christmas books and DVD's arriving, mostly from the UK and the US, it's a prolonged Christmas which is great.
Hope your all recovered or recovering from the Festive 
Season, I confess I took down the tree on the 2nd. Noticed someone counting down to Easter, they should be given a strongly worded talking too. Aunt Bee.

It was a very Merry Christmas

It's 6.45am Boxing Day, and the sun is already burning down, at least we have a breeze. We had a wonderful Christmas Day, everything was prepared the day before, how odd I'm getting more organised as I get older. I went to 8am Mass, it was drizzling but oh so humid, I went to the church we got married in, it is a Pro Cathedral now, did you know that "Come all ye Faithfully has at least 7 verses, I do, I thought it wouldn't stop, brilliant organist, lousy singers, where's Gareth when you need him.
I thought I would faint, luckily didn't, all I could think about was my friend MM, who fainted going up to Communion, and  knocked out her two front teeth, her daughter very thoughtfully stepped over her, got communion and returned to her seat, while churchgoers helped her mother, it's how we bring them up, I think.
Tom came home, and we opened our presents, Basil asleep of course, I must have been nice, (I hadn't noticed), because I got lovely gifts, including Hugh's "Three good things", love Hugh and his crew, so I was very happy.
I gave Aj Skip Bo, so we had a game, he said "Why did we stop playing this game, I know, I absolutely thrashed you every time", see it's this sort of comment which really hurts and unfortunately means I have to put up his board by $50.00.
Aj is anxious to spend his vouchers with the Boxing Day hordes, they are so reminiscent of Attila and his Huns sweeping in to plunder, (not pillage you understand, not at a mall) but every thing will be stripped bare by 6pm. I just realized the term strip mall might come from the BD sales.
Tom returns this weekend, so glad he's coming home, his health is terrible, living in condemned building will do that, being 21 year old male doesn't help either. Yes, those of you who follow this serial, will know that means goodbye to my sewing room. I have 4 days to find a new place for everything, you can stop laughing now...............I have no idea, any solutions gratefully accepted, answers to this dilemma on the back of postcard please, and no I'm not asking Aj to move out, Tom doesn't play Skip Bo.
Off to see my nephew and new baby this afternoon, looking forward to that though, I have to drive to the "wilds" of Kaiapoi, up the motorway, laugh if you must, but my Alto isn't the fastest and sad men in 4 wheel drives think they own the road. Hope you had a lovely day, we did, as MM said it's the little things that are the best, we both had new potatoes out of our own gardens for Christmas lunch, how good was that. Have a great holiday, I have lots of projects for the holidays, all good in theory, but we shall see about the practice. Aunt Bee.

No photos in this post, but the mystery is solved. I tried to download some photos on the new laptop, still typing with two fingers, when Sherlock aka Aj said "oh that's not good, its coming up fat", what!!! well the card in the camera was his gaming card, what!!!, that's me saying what!!!.I did not do this but it explains the problem trying to download. So I need to get a new memory card. So it's good to know.
Went out for to buy a leg of Lamb for dinner, it's cooking as I type, new potatoes and salad,(sorry about giving you the whole menu) when we saw that an old "destroyed in the earthquakes pub" had reopened not far from us, it would have been rude not to go in, we sat outside and Basil enjoyed a Kilkenny and me a lemonade, no a real lemonade, I was driving. We had some prawns for nibbles, lovely, such a gorgeous day.
Work "do" on Thursday night, solo of course,as Baz was working, it was dinner and a show, Downton shabby, two guys playing 6 parts ha,ha, very funny till the "maid" yells at you" leave me alone you leso," so my new nickname is Les, oh great.
The new oven is wonderful but very fast, I have to be very alert and my not inconsiderable nose must be sniffing the air for burning. The dishwasher is so good, by hands are returning to their former glory, no that's a lie I have the hands of peasant. Sorry not a peasant, a hard worker.
Went to the market, picked up some books, including some old Beatrix Potters, a poetry book, GM Hopkins,and a David Bladacci, a large charger, very old, with a 
Christmas theme, some yellow roses, and some plants or the garden, didn't even spend $20.00. I love the market and I have missed it.
The best news this week is I am once again a great aunt, my other nephew and his partner had a son.Dad is thrilled his second great grandchild, my brother is over the moon, a grandfather at 64, we are slow breeders, it's the quality we go for, as my two are the youngest grandchildren I have told them I'm not in a hurry to be a grandmother.
I don't usually comment on news, but the events in Sandy Hook are horrendous, what can we do so far away but pray and send our thoughts to the families of all the victims.
Love Bee.

The two fingered typist.

Hello, greetings from my new lap thingy, so not used to it I am typing this with two fingers. It has windows 8, wow, not sure what it means in terms of my usage but itt's new.
Very busy few weeks, changing banks etc, buying a new oven not arrived yet and new dishwasher arriving Monday. We haven't had a working oven for yonks,and there was no way I was cooking Christmas lunch on the bbq or bench oven........madness, the dishwasher has been missed and I for one need it,so it's a early Christmas present.
Not much fair or market going, the "Contessa" and YT came down 2 weeks ago ,Chris, Contessa and I went out for lunch...............took a small break then get mince pies out of the wee oven, delicious even if I do say so myself. Lovely hot day and I'm making mince pies.
Last weekend I had the dreaded noro virus, spent the weekend on the couch, I wont go into details, but it was a weekend to forget.
This week is the start of the parties, have 2 this week, not feeling the Christmas spirit yet, too much to think about.
Photos will take time to do, not having much luck at the moment, be goog for now, this two finger typing is a pain. Love Aunt Bee.
Vera is on tonight, what a brilliant programme.