Just one more month!

I cannot believe it is only one month until Christmas Eve is upon us once again! Time sure flies when one has had a very busy and full year! So with Christmas on the doorstep it means the shops are getting busy and Christmas events are brewing with end of year concerts and pageants as well. Sophie is still teaching dance and her students were performing yesterday in one of the local pageants, so we looked after little Wade while we watched and waited as she was dancing too! Lots of local businesses provide floats and it was a beautiful morning for it......

Local schools including kindergartens and dance schools are involved and this group were from the kindergarten Larry went to 60 years ago!....... 

 And even Larry's old Primary School.........

And then Sophie's group who all did an amazing job dancing non stop for an hour.........

 Sophie dashed over to say hi to Wade and you can see her dashing back to her position in the centre!........

 The Navy, Scouts, Girl Guides, Gymnastics, Emergency Services, the local Hospital and so many more were involved.......

 And who doesn't love a pipe band? The bagpipes always give me goosebumps and a tear in the eye........

 and then finally that jolly man in red with the long white beard arrived.........

 I recently had contact from a friend that I lived with way back during my nursing training over 40 years ago. It has been so wonderful to reconnect with her again so after the pageant we had planned to meet for lunch at a local cafe. I knew her husband from my days working as a GP practice nurse as he was a drug company rep who would drop in from time to time - what a small world and I didn't even know he was married to Pip! A huge group in the cafe were celebrating a 70th birthday and look at the cake!! An enormous creation filled with Italian Cannoli pastries - yum! I found the bakery online and thought I would suggest it to the family for one of our celebrations but maybe not at $300....but then again we could have a big party as there are 110 cannoli inside! What a work of art that you can see here at St George Cakes........

 The other little people in the family are also busy preparing for Christmas and Emily and Brett shared these lovely photos on facebook........

 I've still been creating but when does one say 'enough is enough'?!! The cotton rope bowls for my upcoming market have been looking at me all week and I decided that they were a little boring and plain. So I started adding some hand stitching, fabric strips, tassels and beads and even pom poms..... but maybe 'enough is enough'!!??....

During the week was a good time to be creating indoors as we had a massive storm of 100km an hour winds and our front garden took a battering. My beautiful rose arch was badly damaged and at one stage we thought we would lose it all together. So for now we have temporary stakes and ropes while we decide what to do as the structure is broken in several places. So it went from this glory......

to this overnight........

 I had only just picked some blooms the day before so I must have had a premonition......

But don't you just love these delicate herb seeds that hung on in the back garden? Parsley, dill coriander and sweet peas.....

 It seems crazy that at the end of November we have had to drag out our Winter clothes again - one day 37C and then the next only 17C. The local beach was blowing a gale but good for a walk in the fresh air and of course the mandatory coffee.........

So I hope life is treating you well. I will conclude with my favourite 'Happiness Is' quote that I forgot to share almost two weeks ago.....it says it all really.......