Back at home, Daniel finished writing his final paper and I proof read it for him before he turned it in. We spent some time outside doing yard work. We have a small area directly outside our door that I cleaned up and laid down pavers to make it look nicer. And Daniel worked by our walkway digging and putting more pavers down. It was hilarious because we don't have tools. Daniel used a fallen palm tree branch to dig, and I was using a rock! We were pleased with our efforts. Then he had one more online final which he finished in time to have a celebratory dinner. I walked to a fish and chip shop as he was answering the last few questions, to purchase some chips. While they were cooking, I went next door and chose a bottle of red wine and took everything home. We made a green salad and watched part of the film, "Thor" together, happily making fun of it because it's easy to do. (It entertained us, and that's the point, right?) We are both very grateful that Daniel only has one semester left to complete his Master's degree.
Friday morning we woke up early and because it was sunny outside, we did a load of laundry. We knew we had to go back to the insurance place and afterwards we wanted to visit a nursery to buy a few plants for our outside space. At first we were going to walk, however, after saving so much time with the bikes, we changed our minds and took off. One of Craig's bikes has a basket on it so Daniel hopped on that one, hoping the plants would fit!
Daniel stayed with the bikes while I went upstairs to take care of the insurance errand. It was quick and easy and as we made our way back out onto the street, I noticed a couple of our friends having a coffee at a cafe. We stopped and said hello and our friend invited us to sit down and visit for a bit. We did and he bought us a drink. Daniel had green tea and I ordered a chai tea. We sat and sipped, laughing with our friends and watching people walk by on the street. After half an hour they were off for a business meeting, so Daniel and I collected our bikes and rode to the plant place.
We had a nice leisurely time admiring all the green beauties before making a few choices. We decided we enjoy having a small herb garden and we purchased a lovely planter to fill with parsley. We have to go back soon for another planter and some basil. Then we picked up a jade plant variety called "minima" and another neat shrub called, "aeonium atropurpureum". The lady working at the nursery helped us pick out the best soil and we fit everything perfectly into the bicycle basket. A few stores down, Daniel wanted to pop into an Eastern Religious shop to find a statue for the "alter" in our living room. They didn't have much of what we were looking for, however we did find a lovely wall hanging of the God, Shiva which is now living above our sofa.
Back at home we had a mellow afternoon and by the evening Daniel informed me he was going to shave his head. A few minutes later he called to me from the bathroom: "Babe? Can you come help me shave a mohawk?" This surprised and excited me so I hollered, "Yes!" and went to participate in the hair cutting activities.
Fourth and final hair cut (at least for this year)
Making the outside of our home a little nicer
Daniel admiring his stone pavers
(plus plants and parsley!)
Welcome to our home, Shiva
We tapered and blended it so it wouldn't look too extreme
Can you see that he's also decided to grow a mustache?
Not to be outdone by my husband's new badass-ed-ness,
I'm now wearing a backward baseball cap. Constantly.
Saturday was another beautiful day. We had a relaxed morning. Daniel took our lounger chair outside and laid down on the walkway to read in the sunshine. After a bit, I joined him with my own book. We spent a fair amount of time letting the sun warm our winter bones and then we went on a walk to the Gabba Fruit Market to get the last of our food needs for that night. At home, we cleaned and did more relaxing before it was time to start cooking.
The house warming was a complete success. We have some truly lovely friends here and they came to share in the positive energy that is our happy new home! Everyone visited with everyone else, and I was so content to hear and participate in beautiful conversations filled with laughter. There was heaps of food and some people even brought us gifts. We have a new orchid plant that makes me very happy! We have new candle holders, and a framed poem about gratitude that is now hanging by our front door. Daniel received some organic coffee, and my friend, Ash from Ireland gave us Bailey's Irish Cream. We have more left overs than we know what to do with!
Daniel is ready to start the party!
We made apple, cinnamon scones, spinach and artichoke dip, veggie bars,
caprese salad skewers, and hummus.
Yay for friends!
Absolutely love these folks from St. Mary's.
Angela, Bob, and Brian
Daniel chatting with Chris, Tom and Annie
Sandy and Ash getting to know each other.
I love this photo because my friend, Jenna in the background has such a happy smile on her face.
Apres la fete; a content couple
Everyone went home before ten and we had enough energy to clean up. We love and feel so much gratitude for everyone who showed up to help make our new flat fun and peaceful!
This morning was another gorgeous promise of sunshine. Daniel and I rode our bikes to church and our friends who couldn't make it to the house warming gave us a plant to take home. (So nice!) After we peddled home, we spent another hour or so outside on the lounge chair soaking up some rays. If the weather stays like this, we plan to visit Streets Beach sometime this week for a cool off in the pool.
Our friends, Bob and Jenny bought a new camera.
Bob is really excited about it and wanted to take our picture after church.
He just sent me some photos from last night and this one from this morning.
We're not naked!
Love and miss the Durrant parties! Looks like much fun!
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