The last of the sunny days

Winter is slowly creeping up on us over in Perth, we seem to have cold days, rainy days and sunny days all mixed in at the moment. But as June bustles along, it's clear we're heading for the last of the sunny days.

The last weekend in May I took the opportunity to head down to my favourite WA destination with some writing friends for a little R&R. Man was it worth it! The perfect way to farewell autumn and welcome winter with great company, good books, blissful surrounds, tasty food, quality wine, beach appreciation, explorations, realisations, hilarity and silliness and ofcourse a spot of writing.

Lately it's been a mix of creativity, socialising and burying myself under the doona with my favourite Grey (Earl of course) in one hand and a good book in the other - all of which have been an absolute tonic for my soul.

As the darkness of winter mornings make it increasingly more difficult to get out of bed at a productive hour, I'm taking on a training regime for the City to Surf in August to burn off all the extra 'layering' I've done in the lead up to winter. Urrgghhh is all I have to say about that at the moment.

But the thing I love most about the change in seasons isn't just that I can bring out all my favourite cardigans (I am a cardi-lover for sure!) but that it awakens my creative home-body self with writing, knitting, sewing, cooking and other crafty projects all in the works to accompany many a quality glass of winter friendly red wine.

How will you be spending your winter?

Long weekend love - this weekend's pearls

I love long weekends! And the four day Easter weekend is the ultimate long weekend on the calendar. It might be a week ago now, but I'm still buzzing from my long weekend and what may have been the last few days of sunshine, it this week's weather is anything to go by.

I decided to abstain from the Easter themed baking pressure this year and instead focussed on a few things that truely made my weekend.

Loading all of my CDs onto my computer (because iTunes deleted everything when I got my new phone dammit!). It was so fun to go through all of my music, I've got a pretty random mix from 90s, through the norties up to last year really. Great reminiscing material that's for sure and can't wait to make up a few new play lists and revisit old favourites.

Baking banana bread. I love banana bread and MR loves it too so it's a cute thing I like to do... baking it for him. (Ofcourse getting to eat it is a welcome outcome.) Add loads of walnuts and blueberries - yummy weekend treat!

Family and friendly gatherings. Oh so many! That's the thing about long weekends, everyone wants to see everyone (and drink loads - eekk!) Lots of fun and laughter certainly had. 

15 minutes of us. Ok so it was more like an hour over breakfast, but in a weekend full of gatherings it was nice to take a short moment to have a wee breakfast out, on a windy day by the beach.

Harvesting and planting. Ok so I didn't do anything too strenuous but I loved getting this tiny chilli haul from our plants in the courtyard and planting a few other things around to bring our garden to life more this Autum.  
 

What did you get up to on your long weekend?

Visitors at the Ten by six

I love having visitors!

Over the last couple of months we've been lucky enough to have to bouts of visitors at the Ten by six.

Ofcourse, one great thing about visitors is that it's really good motivation to get your house looking absolutely spick and span. For instance, while preparing for our most recent lot of visitors, I discovered the grout in our bathroom tiles, is actually in fact white, not brown! See, I might never have know that!

But all jokes aside, the best thing about having visitors from out of town is the opportunity it presents to get out and do things! See your city, experience it as a tourist and show your visitors what's so great about your pretty piece of the world.

Having visitors is a really good reminder for me, exactly why it is that I live in Perth - because it really is beautiful and I love it! Even though my immediates all live in different states and at times I wish we all lived closer, I love Perth, and right now, this is exactly where I want to be. But too often I get caught up in all the day to day stuff - working, housework, writing and when I come up for fresh air I often bury myself in a good book instead. It's easy to forget about all the great places to go and things to do in Perth.

Enter my most recent visitors. My Dad and Step Mum recently spent a few days visiting at the Ten by six before we went to Bali with my sister and her family to celebrate a big birthday for my Dad. It just so happened the weekend they were here was the Araluen's Fremantle Chilli Festival. I always intend to go to all the festivals and then when it comes to it, never end up getting to them. what a treat! We spent a beautiful day in Fremantle and the surrounds, took a drive up the coast road around Cottesloe, drove up and down many beautiful streets in the area 'house watching' as we like to call it.

The other great thing about having family visitors at your house is that they inevitably fix things around the house for you while you're off at work, just to be helpful. Running toilet - fixed! Sticky front door - smooth again. Weeds - gone. Dog bed - assembled.

There is much to be said for having visitors, even if they do have to squish in a Ten by six!

 

What's your favourite place in your city to show off when you have visitors?

My Fringe World 2015 'Must Sees'

Froget Christmas! Fringe World is officially my favourite time of year in Perth. The city comes to life with activity, with people, with performers and with awesome artistic displays, tinselled with strings of pretty lights. It's the time of year you remember that living in Perth is actually pretty awesome!

One week in and Fringe has certainly whisked me away. There are so many amazing things to go and see. Last Friday I saw Big Titty Ha Ha: Hard Time which was a bit of fun and I went to see Mummy on Tuesday night, written by Mick Devine and starring Claire Munday - it was absolutely incredible! A great peice of writing coupled with sensational acting, it was funny, quick witted, morbid and sad all at the same time.

There's still about another 3 weeks of Fringe World and here are a few of my 'Must sees' for this year:

10,000
Great new play by two Perth writer/actors about a couple who get thrown into a video game trying to save their flatlining marriage. Plus I'm doing the publicity so go see it!




Asking For It
This I can't wait to see - Adrienne Truscott's 'One Woman Rape About Comedy - tackling the big issues through comedy dressed from the waist up and the ankles down. Challenging the point of view that certain women's behaviour is asking for it.



600 seconds
Read: 10 minute plays. It's like a buffet - you can get everything and then come back for more. I love short snippets and it's awesome how much can be communicated in 10 minutes.





Impromptunes - Tune your own adventure
Improvisation + music - what could be better? Ok so I was a massive Wayne Brady fan back in the Who's Line Is It Anyway days and humour through improvised song is just awesome to me. 



Those who fall in love like anchors dropped upon the ocean floor
This received rave reviews during it's season at The Blue Room last year... and I missed it! By all accounts it's amazing and I'm so glad it's back, giving me the opportunity to jump aboard.



Metalhead
I saw this in October last year at Victoria Hall in Fremantle. Tiffany Barton is an exceptional Perth playwright and it was a hard hitting, emotional play. It's back with a new cast and a new director and I can't wait to see the transformation. 

This week's pearls

1. Catching up with some of my favourite Perth playwrights and a very exciting endeavor in the works for Fringe World 2015!
2. This animal print ceiling that I saw a cow's face in. Can you see it too?
3. Get Your Shorts On at Revelation Film Festival - great short films by very talented local film makers. Love seeing what Perth creatives are thinking up. It was fabulous!
4. My current favourite footwear.
5. Lifting 45kg in a squat - this made me feel pretty proud of myself, even if I did want to die a little bit afterwards.
6. This Friday night scene.
7. The absolutely amazing projections over some of Perth's beautiful old buildings on Friday night.

Home

There are a number of songs I could have picked for this post, Crowded House You Better Be Home Soon (an old fave) among many more spring to mind. But none other seemed more fitting than Edward Sharpe's joyous jig-along track to welcome you (by virtual way of typing)to our new home.

It has been an exceptionally busy two weeks of moving, cleaning, unpacking & a bit of friendly fun thrown in too. But how thankful we are that through the exhaustion we are home. 

For the most part, the Operation One Truck was a success but it's all those little things like removing junk, maneuvering plants and unaccounted for outdoorsy stuff, organising cleaners and pest sprayers that had us shuffling back and forth to Old Milney several times that first week. But finally I handed over the keys - the final inspection was done (not without a few hiccups of course) and Old Milney is now free for new tenants, as we are to enjoy our new home.

Apart from us, nothing has quite landed exactly where it belongs in the little unit yet; our new couch is still a few weeks away, we are yet to organise wardrobes and a spare bed/storage, even Zeus hasn't quite identified his 'corner' yet. There are so many wonderful ideas we have for the place that will take some time to execute. But we've managed to clear the sea of cardboard boxes (or at least confine them to the spare room) which has made being in our space much more relaxing! 

None-the-less we're both so happy to be home and know everything will (literally) fall into place soon enough and we'll start to establish a new kind of 'normal'. 

I look forward to brining you some pics very soon!