Catch Up:

 You find us at Mount Martha this weekend (after a blog silence - sorry!)

The weather has been quite a lot colder over the past couple of weeks. We've definitely turned the corner towards winter. I've had the fire lit in the evenings, and during the day if I know we are going to be home all day. It was quite wet yesterday. Not downpour wet, just nice rain wet. So Lindsey and I went to the mushroom farm first and then went to the Zoo Drive market. There are tramway repairs along the lake road and one side of the road is closed. If it had been a nice day we probably wouldn't have got a parking space. As it was there were fewer people about. Parking wasn't an issue. Neither was overcrowding at the market!

There were some people about

although social distancing was not a problem!

Funnily enough, most people were gathered
around the hot food and coffee stalls :D

We quite enjoyed the market. We shared a steak and cheese toastie from Tim's Toasties. We bought pastries and pasta, tomatoes and eggs, sauces and stuff. A good, if damp, morning.

It was Lindsey's birthday on Wednesday. We had a lunch party at work for her. One of the doctors brought slow cooked paprika chicken. One of the receptionists made ham and cheese pinwheels. We had tiny cupcakes and a cheesecake covered in fresh fruit. And I made gyoza. It was a lovely lunch

Lindsey and I have been and inspected the Mount Clear Aged Care facility. It was opened just under two years ago and seems to be really lovely.  There are lots of lounge rooms, common rooms, dining areas. The bedrooms are all en suite with wet rooms. There are registered nurses on site 24 hours. There seem to be lots of activities and things to do. Jim is going there for a two week holiday on Thursday. I hope he likes it there. It would be very convenient for me, for when he needs to go into permanent care. It's only a couple of kilometres from home and it's just up the road from the butcher, the baker (when it comes back after the fire) and the IGA.

Boys snoozing up at Hill House:

If you look closely, you can see Jim huddled on the
bed behind the dogs.

And now awake:

Jim and Hugo

Jim and Rupert

Stella, for mysterious reasons, had a couple of teeth out a week or so ago. Her mouth is still bleeding and unhappy, and she isn't supposed to wear her front teeth plate for the next little while. So last night we had flathead tails with soft peas and milk-cooked sliced potatoes with cheese. Nice and soft. No real chewing required. I am planning meatballs for lunch today. I thought I might form them around chunks of blue cheese and serve them in a tomato gravy. Stella assures me that she can manage roast potatoes so we'll have them as well. And I'll sort out her (nicely full) fridge so she has lots of soft finger foods to hand during this week. I think she'll be able to manage a small seafood pie, some chicken sausages, boiled eggs, that sort of thing, don't you?