planted in garden:

aubergine, basil, capsicum, celery, chives, corn, parsley, spinach, thyme, tomatoes, zucchini. actually, Bulldog did the whole lot. i just put it in alphabetical order and sprinkled the slug slam.

peace out chicken

saturday nite found us in the big smoke:
wishing love and peace and
a hippy happy birthday to
titania, queen of the fairies!
my dahling mel!!!

and dancing the night away with sir,
who is my favourite dance
partner of all time.
cos he never minds that i just twirl
around and around in circles
while he moves like michael jackson.

in which i thought that something was doomed, but it turned out amazing

chicken and veggie stir fry for six:

slice an onion lengthways and gently sautée in olive oil, cover with lid to finish steaming.
slice 6 happy boneless skinless chicken thighs (= $1 a person for meat and it's so easy) into thin strips and sautée with the onion until almost cooked.
add a maggi butter chicken sachet/water that ya found in the pantry.
squirt in some ginger from the tube, squeeze in half a lemon, sprinkle over a spoonful of raw sugar.
simmer gently 5 mins, cover until nearly ready to serve.

rinse and slice:
celery (diagon alley)
carrots (super thin using edge of grater)
half a cauliflower from granny and geed
one red red red capsicum
asparagus also from granny and geed
button mushrooms (quarters)
until they fill up an entire stock pot.

rinse and bring to boil 2 1/2 c basmati rice. when the rice lid is on, sort of gently steam veggies, trying to stir occasionally. turn on and off and place lid on and off about four times as ya wonder whether they've cooked enough to take that crispyness away but still be al dente.

when rice is cooked, quickly reheat chicken yummies.
spoon rice into big square bowls. spoon over the luscious spring veggies. spoon over the chicken yummies. that's a lot of spooning.
rescue mushroom and asparagus reofferings from the littlest peeps and EAT IT ALL UP.
five six stars X

scruffles

well, the skool term started with a bang! on monday and i had a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. i think it was because my maths class was cancelled and then i taught two surprise classes, one of which was fabby, and the other exhaustingly stink. what is WITH some kiddos' complete REFUSAL to be nice to any teacher who is not wielding the RED PEN? cos i noticed a nutso thing last term: some of my leetle kiddos respond so differently to me as a teacher when they're in "my" classes, than when they're in a class that i'm babysitting. but on monday: hey big kids, we could actually have some fun this hour, but you are being ridiculously rude and disrespectful, and so i am forced to play the power game. nasty precious. and it makes me wonder, what am i doing this for?

but then yesterday and today happened and they were beautiful stars-aligned-days. well, i completely ballsed up one relief lesson cos i got the classroom AND instructions wrong, but the kids had such a cool buzz that they just rolled with it. my "real" classes were absy fabsy and made me think that i might just be remembering how to teach after all. those leetle kids all got caught up in moments of learning and inspiring each other and i could've clapped my hands for the fairies.

and hey, there was love in the universe... one kiddo said, "ooooh, miss, i LOVE your dress! do you think i could borrow it?" and another said, later, "miss! i LOVE the flower in your hair. i think you should give it to me!" yeah, it seems that lollies aren't enough. but the funny-bone-tickle of the day was when one of the kids announced something about the planet mercury and i exclaimed how happy i am about learning a new thing every day, even now that i'm 76! and then i overheard a lad saying, "oh pffft, she's only THIRTY..."

fave new dress, from trelise cooper cheapy-temt-shop.

it has gorgeously crocheted ruffled lace capped sleeves

(woah, descriptor overload)

which are hidden by The Ubiquitous Black Cardy.

DISCLAIMER: the self portrait is
an ode to last october.

and in hindsight, the ONE dress OCTOBER

is too funny, cos this year i've worn
my boots and a black cardy
EVERY DAY FOR THE LAST FOUR MONTHS X

it's good to come home now and then ay bro... eat some ice-creams... do some bombs...

this is our latest fave: (press play)

cos *wheeeee!!!* we're on the downhill slide of TWO WHOLE WEEKS of skool hols. hoo boy. it's been so grand. i feel like we're homeskooling again, without the skooling part. there's been candles lit. saucers with the espresso cups. loads of laughs. old friends. new friends. people we adore. parties. cleanouts. beach daze. lazy dinners. mountain climbing. stories read. wii played. mountains of whiteware delivered. mould anti-moulded. lego played. cupboards sorted. ice creams eaten. just waiting for a little more heat arrival before the bombs. and oh, my camera's broken, so all i have are the party pics, stolen from various fb albums.

grutty's pre-bash fiftieth bash:

becks's outrageous fortune partay:

i know, i really need to upload some pics of katie-does-the-dishes, or katie-reads-stories-to-her-bubbas, or katie-weeds-the-garden.

but it might spoil my reputation.