Life On The Mid North Coast Via My Lens - Transitions
Lets walk a while ..
Oh game of life how you do like to spin the wheel and play your cards with surprise!
On the 22nd of March we received a termination of lease notice due to some major foundational building repairs that had to happen to the house, like many on the Mid North Coast we had to get on the home search, to say it set us in a spin would be an underestimation! We got lucky our leasing agents wanted to keep us as tenants and they had a house that worked for our brady bunch crew and on the 14th of April we got approved for a home.
My father-in-law made this chess board from pallets, pretty clever I think.
So began the game of moving pieces!
But first we coffee (naturally right)
Have you come across this local treasure yet? Its nestled under the trees of Roto House they have some wonderful events and groups, wish they were around when I was a new Mum with bubs that loved to be outdoors.
From a distance - so cute!
Somewhere in the start of moving we had morning tea with the in-laws, coffee from Round & Round and tasty treats made with love by my M.I.L, we are so lucky to have such a nurturing and maternal M.I.L as she is always keen to help, host, cook, drive or provide any help she can to the whole crew.
I'm a farm girl still at heart right so when there is left overs or a big event going on ..what do you do? You cook up enough food for an army in preparation!
Step one in the prep food cook up- breakfast. So i cooked up a big batch of frittata to pop into the freezer at work so we have some good fibre and protein filled breakfast that I don't have to think about while we move.
Next on the list was a Slow Cooked beef and pumpkin curry.
This was pretty good, threw it into some take away tubs, on beds of turmeric rice and bitter greens for extra goodness and into the freezer they went for "heat n eat" meals.
If you want the recipe for this one I got it from the Taste website and its got a good health rating - mind you I did ad extra spices and chilli because we like it with plenty of flavour bang in our house. You can get the recipe right here.
Next up was Chicken Lasagna a family fav, I cant tell you what went into this other then plenty of grated veg, chicken mince, philly cheese and lasagna sheets because its always different ..oh I know with this one I never made a proper white sauce as some of us in the house are avoiding flour at the moment so instead I made a mix of ricotta cheese, sour cream and parmesan cheese instead and it was delish...this one certainly went faster then the other frozen meals made. I think we ended up with the beef curry, lasagna, chicken casserole and beef stroganoff.
Now the last food related photo was these bad boys for the moving weekend, I cooked of some snags, chopped them up and popped them into some silicon muffin trays, cracked an egg over the top, sprinkled a little cheese on top of the egg then baked them at about 180 until the eggs were mostly cooked then i took them out of the oven and let them finish cooking from the residual heat.
Then when it comes to eating just zap it in the food fritzer (the microwave) for 20 seconds, wack it on a toasted english muffin and tada you have breakfast, even the removalists enjoyed a couple of these between loads.
In between packing and moving we went to the Dawn Service and showed our respect to those who did what they had to do, with no mindset of agreement or disagreement just a show of respect. My father wore his fathers medals and my Godfather word his own and together they stood in solidarity and support, both where young men at the time of the war and both felt it in different ways, one went to war and the other was to young and was not drafted but both along with so many other young men from what I understand had no real idea what was in front of them.
I am proud of both these men, they have both been rocks for me at different times and to see them standing together on such a sad, yet proud day was very emotive.
Two very hard working Australian men who I am proud to call family.
This little guy was so devoted to his owner, eyes only for his human, I could not resist a photo.
Then as the speeches fell onto our ears and into our hearts there was something really moving about the way the sky started to soften and the birds started to fly about, contrasted with the old bricks, the new lights and the Hotel sign that again I had to "snap" not a technically correct photo however the feeling is still there.
Again another technically incorrect photo but I don't care because sometimes its more about the feeling then the structure. As we stopped for a quick coffee from another local fav, Breakwall HQ. The softness of these clouds complimented and opposed the rocks of the breakwall and it had me all whoo whoo and my camera was out and up to my eye again.
It seemed to reflect my contrasting and mixed feelings of moving, it was a bit yaay and a bit bummed out all at once, yet overall for the best.
This is my Mums beloved Pavlova plate, she was renowned for her pavs, the things you find when you move. I love the shade of blue in it, this was going to be the colour of my dream car - a VW convertible beetle.
ohhhhh lala the textures that had me completely side tracked while I was meant to be packing, I use texture images in my digital mixed media art, if you want to check a few out here is a quick link for you, see if you can spot this texture in any of them
Mixed Media Artwork Gallery
...and back to moving ..ohh wait I found more textures ..honestly I may have A.D.D!
This glassware, the light and me had some quality time together while packing, shhhhh dont tell the family ;)
Then after all the food prepping this is what I had for dinner on ANZAC day, slice made by my MIL and a glass of wine...no I didnt eat all that slice, most of it disappeared when I was not looking. Meanwhile how is the cool light play between the shadow and reflection of the wine in the glass and the texture of the paper ..whoops distracted again!
As I walked into our new home with box after box this beauty gave a supportive hug, my body is booked in for a little overhaul (we found out the date mid move after waiting for so long and having injections for months and months) as the course of life has left it with a few scars that have been giving me grief for several years now and every now and then when the pain was getting to high and yet I couldn't let on to the family or they would have made a fuss, this amazing and wonderful tree filled with life gave me a moment to pause and breath then keep putting one foot in front of the other.
In a few weeks this tree and I are going to spend some quality time together as I recover from an op that may slow me down for a week or it may slow me down for 6 weeks, we wont know till the surgeon makes his cut.
On that note I must say farewell as I have a months worth of work to get done just in case. Hopefully you have enjoyed the images, maybe you have read the words with them and maybe not but either way thanks for being here, thanks for allowing your gaze to pass over a few of the things that found themselves in front of my view and my lens.
Till next time we stroll, Peace, Love and Happiness Cherie
