One week left of my travels.
Last night after a three and a half hour delay in Auckland. (Plus my brother had dropped me off early at the airport so he could make a noon time meeting which meant I was there way too long to be comfortable. Plus my belly was longing for simple food after days on the road). I arrived in Melbourne.
Oh and before I forget! If you live in New Zealand check out Backyard Games. Online. Lovely wooden games for the family.
I use one of their cornhole bags (like little sandbags) for underneath my camera on uneven surfaces.
It was wet and chilly when I arrived here last night. My floor length gabardine coat that I wore every day this trip kept up beautifully! As I stood in the rain waiting for my pick up. Waiting some more.
Anyway now I have a week here in the burbs of the big city. With my beloved daughter. To get my shit together before launching back into work life.
Goodbye beach at Mount Maunganui.
My daughter will be working next week allowing me to finally get to some serious writing. The Sustainable Sunday newsletter will be starting back up again next Sunday!
I have a loose plan with Three objectives.
- Promote the new cleaning business. Yes. We have gone out on our own and we have created a small family cleaning business. We will offer an environmentally responsible cleaning service. Again and again and again! For this I will do my black mold reparation training as another feather in the cleaning cap. And set up the social media accounts this week.
- Populate the farm. Getting ready for all the new animals. Piglets. Calves. Chickens. Ducks. Turkeys. All are ordered and will begin to arrive the week after I get back to Illinois. (I still want a new peacock but that will come down to luck.)
- Get more efficient. (What does this even mean?!) Paperwork efficient. Time and motion efficient. Time and motion is one of my favorite studies as you know. Streamline production. Make some bloody money.
- While I am in Melbourne. Do my daughter’s windows, lawns and I am thinking of mowing her garden as well. The couch grass has beaten us!
- Clean up the writing. Specifically relaunching Sustainable Sunday. Refocus!
- Visit as many of your blogs as I can this weekend – so leave a comment then I can come find you.
Ok. Today and tomorrow are relaxing days. It is Saturday here in Melbourne, Australia. Today is big walk day!! Tomorrow is spa day (gift from daughter).
And now I must get up! It is already 9 am.
No TKG TAKE TEN for the next two days. See you on Monday my Tenners!
Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
29 responses to “Time to Get Organized”
I hope you have a lovely spa day. I’m looking forward to meeting the new farmy family!
it is going to be full on! Just the way I like it!
Oh my! A surprise in the list with the new business. I hope at some point we get a bit more on how all that came about. In the meantime I am honestly so excited to get back to the farm. It has been a lovely adventure with you and the family to the south but gosh I miss the animals and the old barn and the mud and… I have realized that I am probably not a good traveler. A week is about all that I can muster and then I want what I know surrounding me again. Funny how living virtually alongside your travel experience sort of cemented that for me. I didn’t even leave home! Do enjoy your spa day. I wonder if they serve wine along with a massage 😉
they have a restaurant so there will be wine involved!
wow, add a new business and new animals into the mix! enjoy the spa day!
it is going to start to get busy fast!’
It’s funny how that cycle works. We commence our holidays bearing a little home life ennui. But by the last few days of the break the enthusiasm and ideas return. Which we happily execute until it ebbs. And so on. Enjoy your time in Melbourne and carry the energy back with you.
I love Melbourne. I always get the best ideas here!
I’m going to try leaving a comment here again. Ever since I’ve been in England, the site has not allowed me in. Anyway, it sounds like you are ready to get back home and get to work. I love reading other people’s plans and yours are wonderfully ambitious as always. I’m here in the U.K. for another week, too, and in a few days I know I’ll be itching to make lists and get going again. My teaching duties are over so I’m hoping to get back to serious writing as well. I get twitchy when I’m not writing.
My grandchildren are trained to make sure I walk every day or grandma gets twitchy! I love that word. I hope your writing is going well now that you have time to settle in.
I’m so happy I can comment again!
We just returned home from two weeks in southern France, and I know this feeling of wanting simple food. That breakfast could fill several people!
yes! So much food! Now that I am in Australia with my daughter i settle in for a little protein and lots of veg!
Perfect!
Enjoy the time with your daughter, always special. A spa day is such a great gift. xo
the last time I had a spa day was in Milan!! It was glorious. So I am looking forward to this!
A new cleaning business! That is awesome. It is very exciting g that you are getting more animals and people on the farm. It sounds like the old farmy may be coming back. As I was reading I was reminiscing about the old days with the bustling farm with animals and woofers and the cooking. I remembered the guy from Argentina who shared his recipe for chimichurri. You always shared pictures of the food for the day or the wonderful dinners. Those were the days! I hope the new business and the farm are bustling again soon. Enjoy the walk and spa.
I also yearn a little for the old days but without the dying animals and mastitis in a milking cow! I am trying to build the farm with more community input. So we will see how it goes. This summer I will be growing a lot of food!
I have loved seeing pictures of your travels, but I also look forward to more farm pictures when you’re back stateside! I just subscribed to Sustainable Sundays on Substack…although I find Substack a bit of a mystery. LOL
Substack is a treasure trove – but there is so much good writing there! I don’t even try to compete which is so liberating!
You’ve certainly gotten around while you’ve been gone. Given us lots of great photos and the ten minute videos. The only place I really want to go is a place of my own, where I can get my possessions out of storage (and not have to pay the huge fees anymore) and gt busy with the things I have had planned for a long time. With the housing market the way it is right not that’s not helping things at all, oh well, hopefully something will work out. Brat the cat deserved a whole house to rocket around in with lots of places to hide or climb (I’ve got some ideas about building him a room of different levels with nooks and crannies, ramps and walkways all over. Enjoy your spa day with your daughter and safe journey home.
I do hope you find your forever home soon. House prices are going down fast in NZ maybe the American prices will follow suit?!
Goodness, is it really only a week left of your travels? Time goes quicker and quicker, it seems.
The NZ café breakfast looks delicious. I’ve never been to NZ but it appeals to me. I’ve enjoyed following along with your travels 🙂
The new plans all sound very exciting!
the breakfasts in NZ cafes are amazing. Just gorgeous. Almost art really!
I’m glad that busy to do list includes a spa day!
But first I am going to mow my daughter’s lawn!! Ha!! 😂
We also have been doing a lot of traveling, Amsterdam for the tulip festival, then Prague, and now I am on the west coast of Florida visiting some very old and precious friends from high school. Although we would never call each other old, it was just a long time ago. It’s funny that we never seem to feel like we age on the inside. I am looking forward to seeing and hearing about all your new farm animals, and am so happy you have had lovely visits and a break with your children in New Zealand and Australia. My mother used to clean my house including reorganizing all my cabinets. Other people told me that they couldn’t imagine allowing it but I always said she was just showing her love for me and embraced it. Safe travels and enjoy your spa day. I look forward to getting back to blogging when I get home.
We don’t age on the inside. Which I am so grateful for!! And all my kids know I get twitchy without something to do. So they make sure to have piles of laundry end folding waiting for me!!
Oh you are always so busy! Love your passion 😊