Friday afternoons hold so much possibility. The local radio station just played Rain by Madonna, which brings back so many memories. I am currently reading Isabel’s Daughter by Judi Hendricks, which i haven’t been able to concentrate on because the sound of the windchimes keep on distracting me (in the best way possible).

This morning, i made the crust for a cherry pie that i plan to bake tomorrow, because you know, there’s nothing like a cherry pie to usher in summer.

As i was having my afternoon tea of honeydew melon and apricots with yoghurt and a cup of my favourite English Breakfast tea, i looked through some cupcake recipes to gift to my new neighbours upstairs. I think i have settled on chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing. You can never go wrong with chocolate, i reckon.

Right now, i am craving some rich fruitcake. My auntie bakes the best fruitcake every year for Christmas but we only get to taste it on Christmas day so i may have to look around for a small piece elsewhere. Oh, how i love the Christmas season.

Words are not flowing today and i’m feeling a little mellow but here are some things that are inspiring me and making me happy:

This video of Alanis Morisette’s Not as we. Just beautiful.

Eating well- homemade beetroot dip with carrot and celery sticks, chickpea and zuchinni fritters with a spinach and tomato salad, oatmeal and raisin cookies with a cup of coffee.

Pilates.

Date night at David Jones, where we are perched on stools, drinking our coffees and milkshakes and maybe having a slice of carrot cake.

Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth. She never disappoints.

This blog.

Peonies.

This local magazine.

My new white summery top.

Summer in 4 days.

Walnut and raisin sourdough from Sonoma, toasted with butter and honey. Is there anything more satisfying than good bread?

Dreaming of a sweet, charming and welcoming home for our future.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating. We don’t celebrate thanksgiving in Australia but i know we all have something we can be grateful for at this very moment.

I am addicted to a lemon, honey and ginger tea concoction that Kristy made for us last week. I’ve been having at least a glass a day. It is wonderfully light and refreshing and it seems to be helping Jonathan’s recovery from the flu as well. It is cool and rainy today and i am looking forward to a glass of this healing drink soon.

It’s my birthday next Friday and i am so excited! I love birthdays! Jonathan has bought a dress from me from one of our local shops, Elodie on Bronte. I know this because i am apparently very good at extracting secret plans from my husband. He actually brought one of my dresses to the shop and asked the lady there to recommend something that was similar in taste to what i had. Full marks for thinking ahead! Now the dress, wrapped up in black tissue and in a white paper bag, is sitting in the bedroom and i am not allowed to have a peek/accidentally rip it open until my birthday. This is torture for me.

I believe in birthday weeks so the whole of next week will be rather nice for me. I have a very full week of work but we are watching Interplay at the Sydney Opera House on Thursday night, i’m having afternoon tea with my girlfriends at Bills Woollahra on Friday afternoon and then walking over to Bronte Road Bistro for dinner with Jonathan. On Saturday, we will be at Good Food Affare at Castle Hill. The advertisement for it has been absolutely beautiful and i cannot wait to see it in real life.

I love how this week holds so much anticipation.

This is my view right now. It’s quite extraordinary, really.

My trip to the supermarket yesterday resulted in some swiss muesli being bought. For breakfast today, i had that with some yoghurt, strawberries and milk. Oh, yum! I’ve been having days and days of buttered toast and honey or jam so this was a nice change.

I have also started running five days a week. The first week was quite a torture and my muscles were sore everyday but by week 2, i was keeping a nice stride and that was encouraging. I used to be able to run for an hour without any trouble but considering that i have not attempted that in two years, i was wise enough to start slowly. Also, i live in a hilly place, which really adds to the runs in terms of intensity. My favorite bit of the run is still the end, where i’m going downhill and pass by the house next to mine that has beautiful wisteria hanging off its roof.

It’s my week off this week and it has been so nice. I’ve been catching up on all the television i’ve missed and also packing here and there. Today, i need to clean and pack the kitchen up. It would be so much better packing if if i knew where we were moving too but we haven’t found anything. We have to be out of our current place in 20 days so not too much time left!

Last night, Jon and i watched Wall-E (part 1 of my first year anniversary gift to him) and i must say that i really enjoyed it! The animation was very cool and it was surprisingly a sweet story! Next up, Nights in Rodanthe when it gets released in November. I read the book when we went to the snow and it will be interesting to see the movie. I’m a sucker for those types of movies anyway and will probably love it!

Alright then, i’m off to make a cup of coffee and continue perusing blogs. Ah…days off are great!

I’m feeling out of sorts today. I may be coming down with a bug but it’s more than that. I feel sad and having not felt this way for a while now, i seem to have forgotten how to handle it without making everyone else upset as well. I want to go out and try to do something that makes me feel better but at the same time, i want to curl up in bed with the hot water bottle at my feet and a good book to read. As i’m writing this, the latter seems more enticing.

Two days ago, our landlord called us to say that she needs to move back into the house and that we have to vacate in six weeks. I love my home and have grown very attached to it and it is going to be very hard to let it go. The mere thought of packing, cleaning, moving and then setting up house again makes me frustrated. And trying to find a new house with our budget in this horrible rental market is going to be very hard. But i’m trying to keep my head held high and be ok with this situation. We’ll have to move around the time of our one year wedding anniversary which is just crazy considering that last year, we had to move house 2 days after our wedding. I don’t know what it is with me and accommodation- i have moved every year since i came to Australia and the first year i was here, i moved three times. It would be so nice to find a house and be settled in it for at least two or three years. That probably won’t happen unless we buy our own home, which we cannot afford at the moment.

I keep focused on the positives to get through this time and dream about the home we will design ourselves in the future. Seeing myself sitting on our front porch step and drinking a cup of tea makes me feel infinitely happier.