Last week was ski week which was a whole week off of doing whatever we wanted to do! I was on a mission to clean out a couple of rooms in the house, and the first target was the sewing/study room. The motivator was to move fabric out of there into the hands of my co-teacher who wanted quilting cotton, so that helped me get started. The rest of the fabric I donated to Hope services and kept a year’s supply, so I don’t have to go out and get some more, as hard as it is for a fabric lover to hold back on staying away from fabric purchases! Having a clean room allowed me some space to discover leftover projects and things I wanted to create like a felted vest from my husband’s old jumper. I threw it in the washing machine and left it there to shrink to a really small size, and there was an OOPS moment, but then I got out my super sharp scissors and cut away and made a cute little vest, which reminded me of what Kat wore in The Hunger Games.

The other project I completed was a bulky knitted scarf with some lovely yarn a parent bought me last year for a holiday gift! I found some big wooden buttons, and now I have a very bright striped scarf to get through this winter and the upcoming winter in Melbourne in June.

As I am in a cleansing mode at the moment getting ready for the imminent move home to Australia, I figured I would cleanse my body and eat clean, start counting calories and pick up on my exercise to a higher level doing HIIT (High-intensity interval training). HIIT is intense really tuckers me out, but it feels so good. The idea is to do a day then a low-intensity workout like walking or riding and back to it. Today I did weights, and my arms are feeling it!

The thing is I have never been on diet of watching what I eat to utilise the right foods I consume positively, so I am really enjoying this and seeing what will happen. Hopefully, I can get toned in my body and gather more energy in the process. This is one of the recipes from the eating plan, and it is quinoa cakes cooked in coconut oil and served with salsa – delicious indeed and full of protein for a vegetarian.

Sunday after my first HIIT workout where my inner thighs were hurting from too many squats we met our friends from Oakland at Mori Point for a hike. Note that this hike was supposed to be low key! Instead, the kids and the dads decided to hike up that cliff you see in the first pic and wander through eroded paths on an unmaintained trail which caused me great difficulty as sometimes I am not too good with heights, cliffs and the ocean below. Eventually, we made it back to the ground safely, after I had fallen over into rocks, but all was fine. We had lunch at Rockaway Beach and headed back the safe way on a path!

From the trail we found this beach full of crab shells and a lot of flotsam and rubbish on the shore, perhaps it is a trap for trash due to the cliff and inlet – who knows?

On our way back to the cars we wandered through a path surrounded by pampas grass. The kids just loved it and were sword fighting with the tall grass. The funniest is when the kids were wandering within the grass with little bits of feathers moving around.

It was such a beautiful afternoon with warm sunshine and blue sky which made a perfect spot for taking some pics of the grass in bloom. Sword fighting or being Jedis the kids just loved them!

On our way back Calla lilies were in bloom growing wild, and a garden that was dedicated to 9-11 from a local volunteer Gardner had a selection of succulents and other fun plants in memory of lives lost.

The kids and my hubby are at the top of this hill they are waving down to us who were walking on the path by the road. They ended up taking the high road where there was not real way to come back to the path, so they had to backtrack and walk the long way back to the car. By the time they arrived the weather was super chilly by the beach, and it was time to go home after a very adventurous day!

All in all I had a very productive week of clearing out the sewing / study room and our master bedroom with the end goal of “Do I really need to take this back to Australia with us?” I still need to venture into the kitchen one day, whew!!