Ouch ouch ouch.......

........today I went to the doctor about a little 'thing' on my forehead, and sure enough it was a little lesion that had to be burnt off. By gosh it stings. My forehead looks as though someone has punched it hard or I walked into a door. I feel like Cyclops with that eye in the middle of his forehead. Unfortunately that's the price those of us with northern European ancestry pay for living in sunny Australia. For the next week or so, while it heals, I will not look as lovely as usual.

So to cheer me up you are all invited round for a cuppa and a nice piece of cake. I'll even get out the good china. This very pretty set (four cups, saucers and plates, plus a creamer and sugar basin) were inherited when my mother died several years ago, and I think may have been a wedding present when my parents married in 1946. The design is "English Rose" by Royal Doulton and possibly dates from the 1930s. The oh-so-glam tea cosy was made by my mother's Aunt Laura, my grandmother's sister. I have some of her tatted lace, isn't it delicate? The lining is pale green rayon taffeta and is ruched over the curve, there is a padded lining of white cotton inside.

The fabric which suffered a colour run last week is still ever-so-slightly pale green. So I have put it away in the stash cupboard for the time being, and bought new fabric for the challenge quilt. Pretty though it is, for this quilt I don't want pale green, I want white. It will be worth it, when it's all done.

We have no wildlife reports this week. Haven't seen the blue-tongue lizard again, and the frog(s) have been quiet too. But the garden is growing well, and some of the decisions as to what to keep and what to get rid of are gradually being made. We have been here now for nine months so we don't think there will be many more garden surprises - soon the plants will be thinking about their winter sleep.

Did you all have a lovely Valentine's Day? We went out to dinner to celebrate Kevin's birthday, Aussies of our generation don't generally do the Valentine's Day thing. It seems to be bigger with the younger folk and is really pushed at them by the media.

Now that's over we will be bombarded with Easter......chocolate, yum.......hot cross buns, yum again...........

It was surprising how many of you don't do retreats either, for the same reasons that I don't. Makes me feel better about not going, as reaction from several of those who will be attending made me think I must be a bit weird for not wanting to share a bedroom with several strangers. But that's how I am, and that's how you are too.

"If a gentleman calls upon a lady, his duty and his respect for her demand that he shall appear not only in good clothes, but with well-combed hair, exquisitely clean hands, well-trimmed beard or cleanly shaven face, while the lady will not show herself in an untidy dress or disheveled hair. They should appear at their best."

Untidy and disheveled? Doesn't sound like any of us, does it?

Enjoy your days!