Brooklyn, Paris, Cleveland?

Today I went to see my Mum down in my 'hometown' of Cleveland.

Situated 45mins east of Brisbane by the bay (Moreton Bay) the Redland Shire used to be a sleepy farming district but alas has blossomed over the last 20yrs into a thriving mini-metropolitis! I still feel the charm, but it has certainly been lessened somewhat with the mushrooming housing developments on the subdivided farming land. Each visit, I find more land being consumed by developments and it does break my heart alittle. Bring back rural living or at least larger home blocks with a less monotonously-rendered appeal!

Anyway, off my anti-development soap box!

My visit today took me back to other years, where about the same time I would be enjoying the delights of christmas shared with my parents and grandma. The days when I lived at home and toiled long and hard over handmade christmas cards and gifts! The days when my wonderful grandma was still alive and joyful, and sitting with me watching King's Choir on Christmas Eve. Glorious memories!

My grandma two years ago, at her home for one day only, and a special day that was.

Each year out of home reminds me how I have slipped more into laziness with store-bought cards and gifts and seemingly the joy of christmas diminishes just a tad each year too. Now this is quite an admission for me, as I LOVE Christmas! I adore the decorating, the gift giving, the carolling, the midnight church services, the visiting of friends and celebrations with family. But to be honest, I think the older I get the more I wish I was younger for Christmas sake! It also makes me wonder if children bring out this joy again at Christmas time. What a delight!

Anyway, off my self-indulgent soap box.

On a merrier note, I took great delight today in other aspects of getting older - observing and aiding your parents adopting new technology! Notably my mum and the woes of the computer age! I am apparently a computer wiz according to my mum's high IT standards and so I am called in to explain all manner of error messages and broken internet connection problems. Today was no exception! Mum was confused about a 'drive error' (and I have to admit, so was I) that appeared as she failed to connect to the internet. Donning my IT whiz-kid robes I strode into the room and looked quizically at the screen in a most thoughtful IT-superior manner- then I did the failsafe routine of checking all buttons and then if all else fails hitting the computer. Thankfully, I was able to avert stage 2 violence when I realised Mum had not actually turned on the vital link with the internet - the modem! With a flourish of satin robes I departed. Another disaster curtailed by IT girl!

Later that day I had another chuckle - this time at the strangest children's name I could possibly imagine hearing - and in Australia, nay, the Redlands! Now, I'm quite au-fait with the latest celebrity trends of naming your children after the city in which they were conceived...case in point: Victoria Beckham and her son Brooklyn. Au-fait, if not bemused! So strike-me-down speechless if I didn't hear a woman calling her child "Cleveland" at Victoria Point today! Cleveland?!! What next?! Ormiston for his sister?! Oh that gave me a good chuckle!

So Merry Christmas one and all! I hope you have a little child inside you that takes great delight still in celebrating Christ's birth. If not, I hope you enjoy it through your own children or other's or in whatever way you can! (I find a good verse or two of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" works wonders for me ;-)....



Jingle-all-the-way Jen xx

My mum's garden...

Thought I'd share the tropical "jungle" that is my mum's garden. I loved it as a kid, and still love coming down to visit them and seeing what's new and what's flowering.

It's always staggering to think of the time she puts into the garden and how it has evolved over the 20+ yrs they have been there. They planted everything from scratch on the bare block before I was born and it has grown into the 'jungle' (as my friends used to call it) that you see today. Full of gum trees, shade loving plants, rainforest trees, natives and a few vegetables (that's Dad's turf!).

And it's not just the flora! In terms of fauna - she regularly sees koalas in the gum trees, lots of birds due to the natives planted, blue tongue lizards, pheasants and a few snakes!

Here is the newest part - the little pond area:

Mt Glorious - it is!

Today was a Sunday.

Technically, you may be right in reminding me that the monks may say otherwise, but I say in all other respects it felt like a Sunday!

And what a delightfully fine day it was too - for celebrating, belatedly, my mum's birthday. Andrew and I had organised lunch, at the cafe we discovered on our last trip to Mt Glorious. So, together with my godmother - Murph, family friend - Ted and Mum and Dad, we all trooped up to this glorious mountain retreat for a leisurely lunch. And, unlike last time, I had my camera with me to capture the moment (and the view).

The birthday 'troops'

The Birthday Girl's Sparkler Moment

My Godmother - Murph the Magnificent



The cafe has a spectacular view over the valley and you can see, on a fine day, all the way to the islands in the bay. We had a table on the verandah to take in the view to its fullest - and I was delighted to see they had made an extra effort for our birthday group - with lovely additional touches, such as flowers, tablecloth and candles!

A bird's eye view!




A few quintessential Hargreaves-isms from the day:

1) The heated horticultural conversations - One particularly extended conversation involved what the prolifically-fruiting citrus tree in the garden was. Mum swearing it was a Tangelo and grilling the waitress on this (not to her satisfaction) - while everyone else swore it was a grapefruit (Andrew, wisely, abstained from the heated discussion!). Dad brought up the leaf structure being closer to an orange in his debate (good point Dad), while Mum used the 'pimply' appearance of the skin and size of the fruit for her counter argument (hmm). Ted then disappeared to 'borrow' a fruit from the tree to take home for confirmatory testing - ie. taste testing! I tell you - I have no idea where I got my love of science from!


2) The Trivia King - aka: My Dad sharing with me his tips for remembering over 80 countries' flags! Apparently he's decided that 'flashcards' are the way to go - makes it a lot easier to train your memory that way. He's neatly printed out (all in work time of course) these flags and plans to test Andrew and I next time we come down to visit them...hmm now when is that again? 2009? Would love to see the government big-brother IT department looking through Dad's IT usage and seeing 'Azerbajahn, Quebec, Turkmenistan' and 'flags', coming up continually in his search records! I tell you - never a dull moment!


Actually, I have to admit that I'm secretly very impressed with Dad's mental ability and his voracious reading habits. Also, I'm continually awed by Mum's horticultural knowledge and wish I remembered half the things they told me. But alas, I've got the dreamer side of Dad's genes and the impatient side of Mum's genes - mix well until an even consistency, bake on high for 9 months and voila: a day-dreamer who loves to create and seek out new projects, but doesn't retain much from any nor really get a substantial lot done in the process!

Talking about projects - the beautiful rambling garden at the cafe inspired me, yet again, to look at my own poor backyard and get 'stuck-in'! Plus, the warm and cosy enclaves inside inspired further day dreams a la Martha Stewart!

The cosy enclave inside

So, all-in-all, the warm weather, the good food, the great company, the gorgeous surrounds combined to make me feel that Sunday had come early!

Mt Glorious - well worth the drive!