A Weedy Weekend!

I’m sore today. I can feel every muscle in my body. In particular the ones in my legs – they seem to be causing the most havoc.

Why am I sore? Well, I’ve just spent 80% of my weekend weeding the garden at the old house. Squatting down and trying to pull out stubborn weeds that are so huge and ugly that they look like they’ve come from the prehistoric era is not my idea of a fun weekend. The tiny blades of grass trying to pose as weeds and the awful and irrepressible Oxalis and Kidney weeds weren't any better.  It had to be done though as we want the property to at least look presentable to prospective renters. Mum and dad even came to help out which was good as mum pretty much single-handedly weeded the front garden by herself.  Dad was savagely pruning the Murrayas out back and mentioned that we really should prune these every three months.  Gus looked at me and laughed and told dad we probably prune once every three years, if that!!  We are sooo not gardeners. LOL

(savage pruning of the Murrayas!)

(Gus mowing front lawn)

We also cleared out the junk that has been left in the cellar and under the house. I was pretty much gobsmacked to discover just how much rubbish there was! Thankfully this week is Council Cleanup week so we dragged it all out onto the sidewalk and piled it up!

The downside to leaving it all nice and tidy is that the scavengers will come around and mess it up. They really make me mad. I don’t mind them making money from our junk, but seriously, if I’m sitting out on the front verandah in FULL VIEW of everyone on the street, isn’t it just plain courtesy to ask if one can go through the pile and take items?!?! Grrrrr . . .

Now that I've had a chance to ponder over the events of the weekend, I’m actually glad that the weeds didn’t take up too much of my time. There were much more interesting highlights to the weekend . . .

Firstly, whilst we were almost heading off for lunch on Saturday, a guy in a ute pulls up and asks if we want some of our trees trimmed as they were pretty overgrown and one was almost touching powerlines. That was weird as it looked like he was just casing the neighbourhood for a job, even though we did need our trees trimmed. Who am I to argue with God’s providence?!? At least it saved us time ringing around for someone and waiting for their quotes. So we agreed to let him prune our trees and we went off to lunch. He’d almost finished by the time we got back, and it was pretty good. The trees looked better, although there was a lot to be said about the NEATNESS to which he pruned. LOL  (Let me add that this guy was actually supposed to be an experienced tree lopper!)

Secondly, for years whilst living in North Ryde, we've heard the dulcet tones of Green Sleeves echoing through the area which meant the impending arrival of the Mr Whippy van. We've never actually stopped the van as most times when we hear him, it's too late and he's already sped right past our house. This time we were all outside the house in the front garden when we heard him and so we stopped him. Unfortunately, I had placed my order BEFORE looking at the price. Can you believe that he charged $8 for an adult sized serving and $5 for a kiddie sized serving??!?! 8 bucks?!?! That's highway robbery, or more to the point, kerbside robbery!! That wasn't the only shock though. When he finished dispensing the "adult-sized" serving of soft serve and handed me the cone, I almost fainted. Check this out:

Woah! Can you believe the size of that soft serve?!?! The "kiddy" sized one (which you can just see mum holding hers in the background) was about the same size as an adult one from any other Mr Whippy van. Okay, so the size of the thing was massive and I will admit to having a love of soft serve ice cream, but this was ridiculous and definitely not worth $8!  We all felt sick after that ice-cream cone. Not that it's put me off soft serve . . . see further down. LOL

I barely made the drive home on Saturday night as I was so tired and sore. We had driven both cars down so we could load up as much as possible into Gus’ car whilst I had the doggies in my car. Unfortunately this meant that I didn’t have the opportunity to have a nap in the car as I was driving. Mind you, it didn’t stop my eyelids from wanting to droop! The ad campaign says I should Stop and Revive every two hours. That’s too much. I have to stop and revive every 20 minutes!!! LOL I hope I get used to this long distance driving soon.

On Sunday morning we headed over to the Blackheath Growers Market, which is fast becoming my favourite market for fresh foods. We had a yummy sausage and egg sandwich and a coffee for breakfast. Nothing beats a sausage and egg sanga from a Market - any Market!! We also managed to buy a lot more than last time as we were early and hadn't missed out on all the good stuff already!  We managed to get a loaf of multigrain sourdough from my favourite bread stall, Shepherds Bakery; a jar of garlic wholegrain mustard; some hand-made biscotti and a huge box of the yummiest muesli bars I've ever tasted!

After our little early morning shopping expedition, we were late in getting down to Sydney, so the day was partly wasted (also due in part to the other shopping side trip I had to do after lunch!). However, we eventually finished unearthing all the junk from under the house and put it all out on the Council strip ready for the garbos to collect. The garden is 90% done and all that's left to do is paint the side gate and get an electrician in to fix a couple of lights. I'll be so glad when North Ryde is rented out and I can go back up to the Mountains and hide in my craft room where I belong!!!

On the drive back on Sunday night, it was pretty late when we left North Ryde, so we decided to stop at the Service Centre along the M4. For the first time in years, I had Macca’s as a meal (not just the odd coffee or McFlurry as I am wont to do). For a meal choice that is supposed to be “healthy”, the Sweet Chilli Chicken Wrap was very disappointing. Of course the gorgeous picture above the counter shows a huge wrap with lots of chicken, oakleaf lettuce, tomato and cucumber hanging out of it. The reality was very far removed. A couple of sad looking strips of iceberg lettuce and some cucumber slices made up the supposed "salad". The fries were way too salty and I’d forgotten how thin they were. Thankfully we only shared the fries. Hmmm . . . at least the iced coffee made up for it. Why I know that Macca's is totally wrong but I still went ahead and ate it is totally beyond comprehension. I think it was the hunger and exhaustion that did it.

20 minutes later, we stopped again at the Blaxland Macca’s for a McFlurry (am I a sucker for punishment or what?). Okay, I have an awful weakness for McFlurries (see paragraph on soft serve above), but not when the soft serve is . . . well . . . soft and mushy. Ugh. The soft serve machine wasn't working properly. Again. This is the second time. Sad to say though that this STILL hasn't put me off getting soft serves/McFlurries in the future. Yes I know, I'm a lost cause. LOL

I finally made it home although the last leg from Blaxland to Leura was difficult. Not even the doggies could keep me company as they had fallen asleep! Oh well, at least I made it home in one piece and I live to tell you all about my adventures! LOL

Hope you enjoyed my interesting weekend as much as I did!  Until next time.

***hugs***