Here we are, November already and the calendar is now full until we go away in early December. I’m loving that we can now say things like ‘when we’re in the UK next month.’ It’s the little things.
Speaking of little things here’s what made me smile last week…
Birthdays…
Birthday season continues in Chez Tracey with a happy birthday to my father, Chief Roarer of the Lyons Den, and also to my mother-in-law in Canberra.
Not to be missed from the Scorpio birthday fest was Kali aka @adventurespaniel who turned 11 yesterday.
This meme…
With thanks to Leanne at Cresting The Hill.
This quiz…
With thanks to Peter Fitzsimon’s column in Saturday’s paper…
Q. What do these words all have in common? Banana, Dresser, Grammar, Potato, Revive, Uneven, Assess.
A. It is that if you take the first letter of each word, place it at the end of the word, and then spell the word backwards, it will be the same word. Brilliant, yes?
Christmas is coming…
Now that Halloween is over, we can legitimately start talking about Christmas.
Christmas shopping…
Forgive me while I bask in a moment or two of glorious superiority, but I’ve nearly finished my Christmas shopping…and before you look at me like that, it has to be done and dusted to take to Sydney with us at the beginning of December.
This shop…
In the course of looking for inspiration, we found this shop – Cedar & Vine in Yandina. We bought pressies here last year, but they’ve since relocated to bigger premises and it’s so much fun. They normally have chooks wandering around too, but apparently, there’s a python lurking so the chooks were locked up yesterday when we visited.
These cookies
I’m on a bit of a shortbread fest at the moment and these ones have orange zest and choc chips in them. Sort of like a shortbready Terry’s chocolate orange. I’ll pop the recipe up later in the week.
Jacaranda
Some more jacaranda love…just because.
Planning…
I spent yesterday afternoon helping Sarah plan a Monopoly Board Pub Crawl for when we’re in London.
We won’t be visiting the outliers ie the light blue and brown squares, but have a pretty cool route with some good pubs lined up for the other colours on the board…watch this space.
Nanowrimo 2019
It’s November so that means it’s NaNoWriMo time. For the uninitiated, National Novel Writing Month is an annual event where writers challenge themselves to write 50,000 words in a month.
I do it most years but normally I blog about it in the weeks leading up to it. This year, while I’m participating, I haven’t got my act into gear to write any hints & tips posts.
Anyways, I’m running to target at present and will update you as I go.
Saturday Kitchen
No Saturday kitchen this week as we were out for lunch. I did, however, do these Moules Marinere which we had with crunchy baguette.
and finally…
I laughed so hard when I saw this pun…do you get it?
Okay, that was my week…how was yours?
And Anyways... 
OMG – A Monopoly Board Pub Crawl?! That sounds like too much fun. I look forward to reading that post (and seeing the photos).
BTW – How in the heck is it November already?!
Oh, I’ll be posting the photos…by the end of the 11th pub they could be a tad out of focus though!
That quiz is genius and both those memes had me laughing out loud. Those biscuits look scrump-diddly-umptious as do the moules which are a favourite of mine! As for the Monopoly board pub crawl, I did many of those back in the day, they are so much fun!
It’s been so much fun planning it out. I found entire websites devoted to Monopoly pub crawls!
My husband would love that quiz so I’m going to give it to him when we’re on the plane THIS month – and I’m still not packed! I love the jacaranda tree and all that gorgeous purple colour. And that meme about Mondays is the best!! Another great week Jo. We’ve had lots of rain down here and last week was very hectic but hoping I can get through this week without being told I look tired 🙂 #lifethisweek
I’m still not happy about having to be packed 3 days before we go away lol. Here’s to being told that you look “rested”…
What a week! Fine photos!
Thanks!
Hi Jo – glad you enjoyed my retired meme (one day it’ll be your favourite day of the week too!) I’m not so good with the mango meme though (shows my lack of foodie-ism). The word play one was very clever and I’m all on board with kicking Halloween to the curb and bringing on Christmas – I’ve done the majority of my Christmas shopping already too – just have to figure out what to get my lovely husband. He bought me a weighted blanket for my birthday – I’ve had the ads for them popping up on my FB feed and he obviously decided that was a sign! I’ll let you know if I sleep better (I’m not sure they’ll block his snoring though!) Good luck with the writing challenge!
Funnily enough I saw another meme in the same vein on the same day – it had a word in it though that would have upset my parents lol.
Good stuff! Pub Crawl, muscles and cookies, all dear to my heart. I’ve been thinking of planning a pub crawl for my 65th birthday in May. We have a great downtown area with lots of cool places. You post gives me inspiration.
There you go…something to plan for and look forward to…Have a great week.
I had to laugh at your “retired” meme. I am retired and I AM happy on a Monday (and every day)! Thanks for starting my day with a smile! 🙂
Funnily enough, I saw a different one on the same subject that day…the other one had some swear words in it though…lol. I’m not retired, but my husband is & he is much happier on a Monday than I am!
Jo, love the shots of the jacaranda tree. The trees on our road aren’t in flower yet. This week we have had “Aussie” temperatures as in the late 20 – the early ’30s and viewing trees with blossoms, and bare branches seem rather strange. Temperature-wise we will be back to normal in a day or two. Life has been busy as usual though never too busy to notice blooming trees or not in our case 🙂
The pohutakawas will be out soon for you – and the poincianas for us. That flash of red tells you it’s nearly Christmas.
Some pohutakawas are already blooming. Which for some people it means a good snapper fishing season and for many others a hot summer.
well, there you go…I didn’t know either of those things!
First things first, Jo, these photos are stunning. I’m so impressed by you photographers. I love the word quiz, and I wish I had a couple of those cookies! #MLSTL
Thanks Christie…I’d save you some cookies but my husband made short (no pun intended) work of them.
Great photos of Kali, Joanne. Interesting on the quiz. I wonder whether there is a name for these type of words. I love orange and chocolate together. I will watch for the recipe. Beautiful photos of the jacaranda!
You’ll need to try the shortbread – my husband made very short (no pun intended) work of them.
I will watch for when you post the recipe, Joanne. Tis the Season. Always the season for something good:)
And it’s never too early to start with the festive baking.
Hi Jo, this is the first time I have noticed how lovely your photos are. The jacaranda one is particularly impressive. I also think attempting NANOWRIMO is cool. I’ve never done it, but one of these years I will!
Thanks Michele. I’ve participated in Nanowrimo for probably the last 10 or 12 years. Some years I make the 50,000 words, some years I don’t.
Lots of excitement and anticipation in this post Jo! I’ve just followed the lovely Kim (allconsuming) and Rob on her first trip to NYC and it was the best! I will look forward to your London trip. I enjoyed Jan’s European adventures and Sue’s trip to the North….see, no plane travel required…or packing! Mind you I am a wee bit jelly.
We stopped Christmas presents for adults many moons ago, and did grandkids until we moved…and they grew and each got some money deposited into their parents’ accounts to spend at AFTER Christmas sales. I kind of miss the shopping until I remember the ‘stress’ of the choices. My big deal of a day is coming at the end of the November…yikes!
Thank you for linking up for Life This Week. Next week’s optional prompt is 45/51 Share Your Snaps #9 11/11/19…the second LAST for 2019 (where did that year go!) Hope to see you there. Denyse.