Weather.

Can you believe that it was 11 degrees here earlier in the week:

And then twenty five degrees yesterday. Break out the bare legs:

Look at the crabapple tree in our garden:

Spellbinding isn't it. For two weeks of the year it makes my heart sing.....and then after the blossom has been strewn from one end of the house to the other it morphs back into a rather nondescript small tree. Alas.

No sooner did the new school term start than some of my children started vomiting. However, yesterday they were all accounted for at their respective school/kindergarten/creches. So I went out to lunch with my husband. I wore this:

Jeans from the Outnet, jacket from Asos, Hermes scarf and the Gucci handbag that I bought at their flagship store in Firenze four years ago. I can't remember what it's correct name is, but it was one that came with a complimentary monogram.....and they made me a coffee while they worked their handiwork. My Dad had died the week before. It reminds me so vividly of that strange and painful emotional place we were all in, in a city that has witnessed the day to day life of humanity for a very long time. And so do my memories of sitting, with our children, under the dome of the Florence Baptistery, staring through the void into the vast reaches of the sky:

That was my first trip to Italy. The next time I went back, I was pregnant. I wonder what my Dad would have thought about that. 

So, back to yesterday and the glorious day.....we went to lunch. My husband and I are such creatures of habit.....for YEARS every Thursday he took me to lunch at his club for a steak. Now we have changed allegiances and go every Thursday to Flathead Fish Cafe. It is really very good there. Last week we even took all of our children. The lunch special of 2 courses for $21 is a bargain....where else can you have two courses, with wine and four children's meals & fizzy drinks all round for under $100. Look how delicious the food is:

Plus there's a really nice neighbourhood, village vibe going down. But don't worry, even if you don't live in our neck of the woods, you'd still feel included. The owner/chef is usually in the kitchen and is only to happy to share his ideas on how to cope with the foibles of puff pastry and/or the state of the Tasmanian scallop beds.....if you fancy a chat. I love a good food chat.

And then, just because the sun was shining, after school I took the children for a cake and a milkshake at Sweet Envy:

This violet macaron had my name on it:

And I ordered my birthday cake:

The heady spell of the blossom on the crabapple has made me start pondering what I'm going to do with this chair that I picked up out at Gowan's for $100:

 I'm thinking it might be utterly transformed by velvet 'blossom':

Or 'pale rose':

Maybe with a contrasting piping, or maybe not. Help!

Can you believe that it's back to twelve degrees today and at the corner shop there was talk of snow.

Rx