Winter! Brrr!

Where I live, the winters are not bad. We occasionally have a severe frost – but that is about it. It is a good life – I can grow my food – both tropical and cold weather crops. Those are the reasons why I picked this area in which to live. I live on the eastern coast of Australia, known as the lower mid-north coast and I am in easy driving distance from both Sydney and Brisbane.

Now that the weather is cooler, I dress accordingly. In the tropics one seems to always be in summer clothes – in the south of Australia, winter clothes are worn for much of the year. Here – I can get the best of both worlds – dresses even in Winter, but scarves, beanies, gloves and heavy sweaters can be worn sometimes, particularly this month. My knitting and crocheting skills still get used. Next year I will share some of my patterns with you all, as in the Northern hemisphere you have the reverse seasons to us. As my blog is Read, Eat Dream – I have a short story for you to read, a delicious recipe to make and hopefully eat, and a dream to follow. Enjoy.

***

Looking her best.

She rummaged through the clothes in her wardrobe, trying to figure out what she would wear. It seemed important to her that she looked her best today.

She picked out the black jeans, and the olive green sweater, and went off to the bathroom to shower.

Afterwards, she stood in her underclothes looking at the jeans on the bed. Why had she picked black! That might be an omen. Surely she could have thought that through a bit better. Colour was what she needed. Be gregarious. Be cheerful! That was the ticket.

She tossed the black jeans aside, and went back to the cupboard.

She had NOTHING to wear!

What was she going to do?

She threw out the brown slacks – too boring. She tossed aside the woollen dress that always fell wrongly around her hips. She discarded the fair-isle jumper that scratched her skin. The long skirt at the back, all scrunched up and wrinkled, just wasn’t right for the day! She grimaced at the tweed jacket that always made her look fat.

Eventually, after various other outfits were rejected, she decided on a simple blouse, cardigan and blue jeans. She tugged on a pair of socks, and did up her runners. She felt good.

She looked in the mirror – tomorrow she would be different, but today she was finally satisfied with her appearance.

Johnny didn’t say a word as she got in the car. He was only the chauffeur after all, but it would have been nice if he had complimented her. This visit was important. She sat in the car, muted by stress. The journey seemed to take forever.

When she finally got to the hospital, they ushered her into the ward.

“Right,” the nurse said. “Strip off and put on this theatre gown.”

So it hadn’t really mattered after all – the clothes just sat in a plastic bag at her feet as she waited for her cataract surgery.

Barabrith – Welsh Tea Bread:

250g mixed dried fruit of choice

125g raw sugar

250g SR flour

1 egg

½ tspn mixed spice

1 cup cold tea.

1. Soak fruit overnight in the tea with the added sugar.
2. Next morning, pre heat oven to 180-200°C.
3. Add egg, flour and spice to the fruit mixture. Mix well.
4. Place in 2 greased loaf tins or one large square cake tin.
5. Bake for approx 45mins.
6. Serve cool, sliced with butter. Serves 8-12.

***

As I get older and am living on my own, I have discovered that friends are an important part of life. We all need human contact and someone that we can talk to, to share out innermost thoughts or to discuss the days news items. The thing I miss most about being on my own, is the companionship of another my age, with my standards and similar, if not the same, views. The number of times I have felt like turning to someone to laugh or comment about an item on the TV, only to discover an empty chair, is too many to count.

Even my children’s books tackle this topic – friends are important all through life.

My books are available from me for AU$18 each plus postage. If you are interested, please contact me at maureenlarter@gmail.com and I will be able to give you more information.

My facebook pages are:

https://www.facebook.com/BooksByMaureenLarter

https://www.facebook.com/AlphabetanimalsofAustralia

https://www.facebook.com/Sweetfields-Publisher

Linkedin : MLarter

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Twitter : @MaureenLarter