treats
It was our son’s birthday on Friday and he’d flown in Thursday night to spend a long weekend with us. We spent Friday in Bunbury, where my Mother lives. Although we managed to squeeze in lunch at our favourite Italian restaurant, the rest of the day was spent on Mother Business. She has moved into care and is slowly settling. It was never her plan to leave her house and garden but she has become frail. She’ll be 93 this year.
Knowing we’d be home on Saturday we arranged birthday treats to be delivered. Delicious bags and boxes arrived quite early. The box contained six authentic croissants, the long paper bag contained a baguette and the wonderfully presented cylinder was packed with macarons. Luckily, he shared, so a special start to the day. We settled to the weekend papers, online news and treats. Later (much later) we went out for sushi.
What’s in the box?
Macarons!
Our son lives in Kalgoorlie and he misses some favourite food places so his visits usually feature trips to our favourite yum cha restaurant, but not this time as it is Chinese New Year and the yum cha restaurant will be packed! Sushi is popular from two different places, and Vietnamese cuisine, too, except our favourite cafe is closed for renovations. When he lived in Adelaide he shared a unit and worked with boys from India, so curries feature, too. He also makes good curries.
home maintenance
During the two years of Covid lockdowns, closed borders and limited social contact, we took over cleaning the house as the cleaner was prevented from visiting. It took two of us almost all day once a week to do the whole house. This was because we tidied things away, did repairs, put things in better places and sorted things that could be discarded. Coffee breaks featured, too.
Now we are doing the cleaning ourselves again. We’ve removed the fabric cover from a sofa and all the cushions, plus two antimacassars and washed them. It looks so fresh and crisp again. We also got two leather cushions on another sofa refilled and I have used leather dye to repair worn areas on one of the arms. As soon as I have the time I will treat both leather sofas with saddle dressing.
I sanded and repainted all the chips in the door frames (so many!) and removed four pictures from a wall so had to repair the plaster, sand, plaster again, sand again and then paint. I like less on the wall, highlighting a Margaret Preston print already hanging there. Also treated a metal door frame outside which was rusted. Annoying as I’ve treated it twice before but this time I sanded, treated, primed twice then painted. Everything dried quickly in the 40ºC heat but the primer required 16 hours drying and curing time before the next coat. Finished off with white paint. Finger crossed. Later I repaired a few chips in the floor tiles using a two part resin mix. A friend then told me she scrubbed all the grout throughout her house with a toothbrush and then she sealed it. I know when to stop!
There’s some tricky bits to clean, such as the corners where skirting boards meet, the shutter frames and an intricate sculpture. Found an effective and easy to use solution! A long handled artists’ paint brush with firm bristles. Works so well on picture and mirror frames, too.
The advantage of doing these jobs ourselves is we have made decisions about decluttering, repairing and rearranging. I have also repaired paintwork and brick paving outside but there’s so much more to do. Too hot to garden but some other jobs can be tackled in the evening. We have a ‘handyman’ list and hope we’ve found the person to do those jobs. I think this frenzy of activity indicates how often we were in Bunbury, staying with my Mother and things became quite neglected. Now we need to catch up.
Meanwhile, I’m back reading all those posts online about keeping your house clean in 30 minutes a day, how to develop a routine for the immaculate house and even studying the spreadsheets of the immensely organised. Doesn’t seem to work for us.