Autumn Sunshine and Busy Bees

If I have to return to the office, I might as well pop out to lunch at decent places like Stand by Me in Lyons.

Okonomiyaki

A sunny autumn day makes glorious photo shoot weather for the cats, as Penelope poses among the leaves, and Melantho clambers among the hop vines. 

This weekend's trig was Mt Majura (and there's a second one up there too). We went up the steep way - of course we did. There is an easier slope, by which we descended.

Amazing camouflage on this fellow

At the bottom of the hill/ mountain is Majura Pines, an excellent location for mountain-biking with heaps of purpose-built trails. Him Outdoors was particularly impressed with this bike mechanic station with its pump and spanners. 

As recommended by Design Diva, we went to the Sunflower Maze in Majura Valley while we were in the area. The sunflower maze is made up of hundreds of the big yellow blooms, and it is actually less of a maze than a connection of corridors, down which people wander. It's kind of cute with couples being romantic, kids rushing around in excitement, influencers taking photos, and friends enjoying the sunshine and something just a little different. There's also a section where you pick your own to take home (separate from the 'maze' itself), although we are at the latter end of the flowering cycle and the remaining plants were a little ragged, so we left them where they were. The bees were happy. 

This is also the home of the Majura Valley Farmgate where fresh local produce is available through an honesty pay system. We picked up some free-range eggs and some lemon curd. 

As it is the first of the month, it is clearly time for an update on the bedside book pile (which has got two additions and three completions. I'm never actually sure whether this means any progress is being made, but I am at least reading and learning things. 

On Sunday, I was part of an 'Edwardian Gothic Wedding Decoration Bee'. The Lovely Bonkers' First Born is getting wed, and Calamity Sue was having a shindig to prepare for another shindig closer to the time. Now, I am not known for my sewing prowess, but apparently I can wield a pair of scissors and make a decent cutter-upperer. This is the result of some of my work (there were people with sewing machines and textile creativity who made most of it happen, but I helped - honest!)

We were rewarded with cheese on this delightful board, of which I now finally know the purpose. 

Puzzling dinosaurs and trick cakes!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I seem to be incapable of cooking omelettes. The egg-based breakfasts I make are very tasty, but they are always more scrambled than solid. 

I have decided that we should make the most of our weekends to go and visit local institutions, rather than sitting around in the house. This weekend's outing was to the Botanic Gardens; currently they have teamed up with the National Dinosaur Museum to create DinotraX - a discovery trail showing life-size dinosaur sculptures, living fossil plants and winged monsters. Him Outdoors was somewhat sceptical, saying it was just for kids, but what does he know? I had a great time!

This one is modelled on the oldest known T-Rex who apparently lived to 28 years of age and was called Sue. (True story.)

Fairly terrifying, right? Well, not to this wee kid who is protected by his groovy sunglasses and adorable dino backpack!

After all that excitement we felt the need for cake and wine at home. 

And then we began a puzzle for the evening's entertainment. 

Cake Decorating Solutions - Canberra teach folk to decorate cakes rather awesomely. This was kindly donated to our work by the brilliantly talented and generous Emma Cake. What a great start to the week!