Last night's sleep was very rudely interrupted at 4:30am by a mosquito biting me on my right ring finger, and then proceeding to buzz around my head for ten minutes until I managed to squash him against the wall with my hand. While I love how Skye leaves the doors and windows open all the time (the house always has such a nice, fresh, airy feeling to it), I closed my windows earlier this evening... let's hope that this keeps the mosquitos outside!
Mosquitos aside, I do find myself getting up quite early here; my room faces east, and the morning sun comes streaming in starting around 5am or so. Today I was awake at 6:30am, and I read for forty minutes before getting up and making myself porridge. Since Skye has no microwave, I make it by heating milk up on the stove and then adding the oatmeal. Today was rather amusing because I used the oatmeal I had in my food bag instead of the museli Skye leaves out in a jar on the counter (porridge with sunflower and pumpkin seeds is a little too weird). The problem: I bought my package of rolled oats at the same time I bought powdered laundry detergent, and even though the washing powder is now stored across the room, the oats taste faintly of soap! Ugh. Oh, well. I added a little extra cane sugar to the mix and they tasted just fine. :-)
I spent the morning in the front garden again... it was four hours of pulling up weeds (or what I hoped were weeds; sometimes I'm not sure if what I'm pulling up is what Skye wants me to pull up!). It's a long and labourious process, made longer and more labourious by the intense sun. I already went on a sun rant yesterday, so I won't go on another one today. I was grateful when some clouds moved in and provided a little protection and cover.
After lunch I had some free time; I walked down to High Street and posted some mail (Skye's and my own), and then went to the New World supermarket to pick up some more milk. Skye gave me money to buy organic milk, but they were all out, so I bought regular milk instead. She wasn't thrilled, but seeing as I am the main person who drinks it, she didn't make a fuss. The milk here is so much richer than it is at home; everyone drinks "standard" milk (homogenized) here like they drink 2% at home, and "full cream milk" is also popular (which would be like drinking half & half!). I bought a small bottle of cream a few weeks ago to put in tea, and found it was more like whipping cream than cream back home.
I went to the church again this afternoon and practised "The Giving Tree"... I'm starting to worry that the cold I had last month (for the whole month) damaged my vocal chords, as my voice still hasn't recovered. My upper register is very breathy and weak; here's hoping that it improves in time for my performance in ten days or so.
Before dinner I spent two hours in the work studio sewing knitted squares together for another blanket; I'm getting pretty good at it. Who knew I'd hone some sewing skills down under? It is quite peaceful to work in there; the doors are open, so a fresh summer breeze blows through, and with my iPod set to shuffle my favourite songs I worked to a varied aural palette of Ray LaMontagne, Tori Amos, Vienna Teng, Barenaked Ladies, Le Vent du Nord, and The Reverend Horton Heat.
We had a late supper (quiche, yum!), and now it is 9:30pm and I am actually tired (that's what getting up at 6:30am will do to you). Tomorrow will be more gardening in the morning, but I think I am going to call Warwick and see if I can head up to his and Elizabeth's place in the afternoon and try out their 1885 Bechstein!
~Carolyn~
No comments:
Post a Comment