Bonjour! Is anyone out there? It’s me, Michelle. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if no one is as I haven’t been here for almost 2yrs!! I really didn’t think it had been that long but here we are two years down the road and I’m finally back. It’s not that I meant to go awol, I simply kept saying to myself, ‘I’ll do it tomorrow,’ and as we all know, tomorrow never comes. And then there’s the fact I’ve been more focused on my painting and the blog that ties in with that which if you want to check it out you can find me at Revamped Revived Reloved where I’m sharing all my revamps and why I love Chalk Paint so much. But if you’d rather just hang out here that’s fine too.

Considering I’ve been gone for two years, you’d think I’d have lots of exciting news but that’s not the case as life is pretty mundane and boring here in the city. Since my last post we’ve moved house (still in the city though, ugh) to a great street full of lovely older neighbours who I now know and swap plants with regularly and every now and then I take them a jar of homemade marmalade or a slice of lasagne or a piece of cake. Maybe food is my love language lol It was my grandma’s and I never really thought it was mine but I do like to feed people and share what I have, so maybe food is my love language. And while I still can’t stand the city I do love my neighbours and we all look out for each other and our street is a lovely street with lots of trees creating shade for those hot summer days, lots of nice gardens and green grass to give golf courses a run for their money and really a little sense of community we have with each other.

I’ve also been home schooling my youngest for the last year and lets just say that that is hit and miss. It’s difficult enough to home school but throw autism in on top of it and it can be a real challenge but we keep pushing on and do the best we can. I do love the slower pace of morning and no mad rush to get out the door but there are times I miss school yet it’s just not for him and so we persist.

Hubby had a hip replacement op two weeks ago and is doing well despite having a fall Friday night which scared the absolute crap out of me and the boys. Thankfully he didn’t do any harm and Luke (our oldest) was able to help me get him up off the floor and back in bed. Lets just say he’s now learnt the hard way to not get out of bed when you’re still half asleep after taking strong painkillers! Men, I swear they’re more hard work than kids at times.

As for me, well its been a bit of a rollercoaster with everything that’s been going on but I’m still baking, painting and gardening. In fact this winter season has been the best I’ve had in three years of living in the city. Everything has thrived and grown beautifully and is doing so well but man has it been a mission to have good success in the city compared to the country. I can’t believe it’s taken three years to get a decent growing season and harvest. However, I am minimizing the garden as the weather warms up because honestly the heat here in Perth sucks! There’s no other word for it, it just sucks as it’s so damn hot all the time once summer kicks in that it kills just about everything. Last summer I lost nine rose bushes, an olive tree, a blueberry bush, pretty much all the veggies I was trying to grow including my pumpkins that were doing so well until the weather hit 45 degrees (Celsius) and stayed over 42 degrees for four days straight!! And yes I hand watered and used retic but here in Perth we have water restrictions on watering gardens and can only use retic and manual sprinklers twice a week!! I don’t know how they expect us to keep anything alive with those restrictions but once it’s over 36 degrees consistently here in Perth it simply becomes an uphill battle to grow veggies in your garden. And yes even those summer veggies that are meant to be able to handle the heat wilt under the blistering Perth sun. I think unless you’ve lived here and done a few summers here, you’ll never fully understand our heat. And so because I don’t want to go mad again losing my veggies, I’m minimizing what I’m growing and growing more flowers that will thrive in the heat, at least that will keep the bees in the garden.

The chickens haven’t happened yet but that’s mostly because it looks like we’ll be moving once again next May and so I’ve decided to hold off until we’re back in the country for good and I know I won’t be going anywhere for some time. I do miss having chickens as they’re such fun birds to look after and are so entertaining. The beehive is also on hold until we move for the same reasons as the chickens. For me chickens and bees are a big and worthwhile investment but only if you know you won’t have to be moving every so often as we have been. I’d rather wait and then enjoy it when they do come along.

I’ve also decided to learn how to use my DSLR camera properly and not just on auto mode. I’ve wanted to do photography since my teens back when it was all film that had to be developed but I never got round to it. Now, I’m in the mood to get going so I think I’m going to bring back a series I used to do on my old blog called Fridays Photography and in this way I can share how I’m going and what I’m learning.

Well that’s about it for now as it’s getting late and I really need to hit the sack. I promise I’ll be back soon and not in two years time lol…my mission is to be consistent, a minimum post of once a week and hopefully with lots to report. Take care for now and I’ll see you soon.

À bientôt….Michelle x