Stuart is 21

I was invited by my friend Anne Ferrie to join the family to  celebrate her eldest son Stuart's 21st  birthday.
He is at Uni in Canberra but came home on Tuesday.
Anne and Paul have 18 siblings between them, so dozens of cousins of Stuart and Alistair were there mostly boys. Stuart is the 5th to turn 21 in the last 6 months.

Paul, Alistair, Stuart and Anne.

 Paul spoke of early intelligence (coming 3rd in Australia's branniest kid) winning awards in many science areas. Anne told of his reading a sign outside Office Works ' No membership required" at age 4. He is a great musician, teacher, brother and son, and there were friends from school, Uni family and music joining in the evening. The evening catered for by a brother who is a chef. Talking to Anne mother she said it's good to have children with handy skills!

Weeding: is it gardening?

It is quite daunting to have the yen to garden and grow things to have to spend days weeding to start.
My garden has been taken over by this plat that while easy enough to remove spreads like wildfire if not attacked regularly.
So with some cool sunny days I decided to get started

Weeds everywhere under the apple.The bricks almost invisible  

Hopefully with some herbs planted it will keep the weeds down.

Before: Looks green but only weeds

After: With Dog.

Weed between all the bricks 

After: but before clearing under the apple tree

Had to pull up the bricks to get at the mat of roots 

Plenty of room for planting now
Still have some areas by the fence but I feel justified in doing the herb planting now

Japanese cuisine

For this last week I have had Dr Masako Katsumaru staying with me, as she visits Melbourne and talks to staff in the Eating disorders clinic at RCH.  She works with Hisako Watanabe and we have had good times this week.
She is down at the Great Ocean Road today and loved the trip to the Fairy Penguins.

She brought me a gift of a new 'fad' in food in Japan called Fu
It is, of course! beautifully boxed and each packet is a mix of things for soup

The square thing is wafery and you press a hole in the middle with your thumb, then add 1 cup boiling waters and the sauce (miso) packets that come with it.

In the wafer is vegetables etc

Delicious !

PINK!

At the Unit where they lived Bridie and in particular Sean both hated the  Camellias at their front door as they dropped endless flowers all over the drive and step and had to be cleaned up.
So imagine their horror to find they have at least 5 trees at the new house!
I offered to sweep it up last visit but we didn't have a broom or rake.
So I bought an outdoor broom and a rake for Dylan
Bridie warned me a lot more had dropped so imagine my delight to see this. Messy Yes but beautiful:  it is at least 5cm thick

But we got in there and cleaned it up

Good timing too as it rained in the afternoon and it would have been so slippery of the stairs.
However there are still more to come