Roses from two gardens

Here in Melbourne there is Cup Fever.

And, as the advertisements on the billboards around the City say, it's "The Celebration that stops a nation".... The Melbourne Cup is a famous racing cup and quite a few Melburnians will be either at the racecourse or glued to the television on Tuesday (it's a Public Holiday here in the Metropolitan area of Melbourne) hoping their horse romps home first!! The rest of us use it as an excuse for a lovely long weekend (or make sure that if they have a day off it falls on the Monday) so they get the weekend and Monday and Tuesday off too.... My niece, Miss Sophie from Regally Blonde blog is off to the races 'a la corporate stylee' - no doubt she will tell us all in a post in the next few days. She has bought a beautiful dress to wear too but quite frankly my daughter (her cousin) and I have a running joke in the family that she could wear a paper bag and still look stunning!! I worked Sunday but I have today and tomorrow off and Mr SE had a holiday today too. It was lovely to spend the day together. We did a little gardening and I picked this lovely bunch of roses (photo above and below).

And the rose in the photograph below is photographed from the garden of our NEW place. We move in a couple of weeks so as well as a little gardening we have done a LOT of tidying and sorting out. Mr SE and I rent a house here in Oz so if we feel like a change or feel that our house is no longer serving our needs we can 'upsticks' and search for another. Which is just what we have done. Liberating in a way. No mortgage and in a way, no responsibilities. Suppose this is weighed up against the thought that rent could be viewed as 'empty money' or throwing it away but we do get to live in a lovely neighbourhood here in Melbourne which we would never in a million years be able to afford to buy into. For the time being the only house we own (or half own with the bank!!) is our little cottage in England.

Anyway, I am very excited about the new place... It's in the same area as where we presently live but it is a little smaller in size and a bit more quirky - also there is more outside space and two large decks. And the outlook is gorgeous too. More photographs and information when we get there.

Wishing everyone a very good week.