This was dinner yesterday. My special homemade pizza was topped with anchovies, red chillies, olives, bocconcini and parsley and a drizzle of olive oil. Yum! We also had a bbq chicken pizza that i tried for the first time for lunch today and it was amazing- bbq sauce, mushrooms roasted chicken and cheddar. The third pizza you see is hawaiian. I’m not a fan of processed meat so i passed on this one. It was for the boys anyway.

I had the loveliest of weekends. On Staurday, Jon and i went to our friends’ place to mow their lawn for them. Alice and Rose are sisters in their 70s (though you would never ever guess their age looking at them) who live close to us. I stayed inside and chatted to Rose whilse Jon and Alice were outside sprucing up their garden. They are amazing women and we always leave their presence feeling encouraged.

In the afternoon, i baked some delicious banana bread and we sat down with some tea to watch Lost in Austen, a wonderful twist on Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. It was a lovey way to spend a Saturday afternoon, wrapped up in the world of the Bennett sisters. And even Jon enjoyed it (though he will never admit it to you!).

It was indeed a good weekend- enjoying the autumn sunshine, stopping to listen to the leaves rustling during our walk back from the bakery, baking, hearing strains of old love songs from our neighbour’s house and spending some time at home with each other.

Now, the smell of coconut almond muesli (or granola, if you call it such) baking wafts towards me from the kitchen. A pleasant smell just perfect for this afternoon.

Danish butter cookies remind me of my childhood and we found a very festive tin at the supermarket today. Some mint green tea for me and english breakfast tea for him as we sat inside and savoured the last tea we’ll be having together in our little house this year. Afternoon tea time always makes me happy.

It was a very good cherry pie, perfect for a hot Saturday afternoon especially after Christmas shopping in the morning. (It was madness, to say the least.) Tomorrow, we will buy some vanilla ice-cream and make this treat even more indulgent than it already is.

I hope your weekend was lovely.

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.