Happiness is being where you want to be and doing what you want to be doing. As such, happiness requires nothing more than an adjustment in your attitude. ~ Ralph Marston “The Daily Motivator”
How true....
I began my Friday in a terrible state. I was woken by a rat making noises in the corner of the bedroom! Ahhhh! Worse was to come. On investigation there were not one but two rats setting up home in the bottom drawer of my bureau. More and louder AHHHHS! Hobo 1 to the rescue and with broom in hand he hastened their departure from the house.
How did they get in you may ask? We are having renovations done. Our old wooden soldier settler’s house built back in the 1920s is having its front and side verandahs replaced - and not before time as you can see. A good paint job was hiding a multitude of sins!
It has the dogs confused!
A gap had been left under the doors by the removal of the floor boards. As usually happens in the country, the builder was held up for three days waiting for the new flooring to arrive. With our cold wintery nights, Mr & Mrs Rat had accepted our warm open-house invitation and moved in. YUK!
With rats gone I inspected the damage...not much but the contents of every drawer would need to be washed- messy blighters! Oh well here was my day mapped out for me. Washing! Not my favourite activity.
Breakfast brought a further surprise. Not only had our uninvited guests set up house, they’d had a midnight feast as well. Each pear in a bowl of pears sitting on the kitchen counter, had been tested before the best had been selected and consumed. More and louder YUKS!
At this point Ralph’s words came to mind. “This just requires a change of attitude,” I told myself and from this point a beautiful, happy day unfolded.
Between loads of washing, I washed and trimmed the pears, and made a delicious bowl of poached pears for dinner. Yummy!
In the process I discovered some wilted celery in the fridge and with the addition of an onion and half a parsnip made a lovely bowl of celery soup for our lunch. More and Louder Yummies!
Motivated I went on to prepare a dish for main course to accompany our pears - Open Roast Chicken with Orange Juice and Apples. The recipe is from one of my favourite recipe books, “Reader’s Digest One Dish Meals the Easy Way”.
When Hobo 1 decided at lunch he need to make a quick trip to Gladstone, I was free to go with him. I knitted up another coat hanger cover on the way in and out; met our granddaughter quite by accident in the car park and had a quick chat with her while we drove to the post office to collect the mail and arrived home to a delicious dinner ready for us in the slow cooker.
To end the day I curled up in bed and continued my tour of Tuscany with Frances Mayer, author of “Bella Tuscany”. Last night I visited the Greek ruins in Sicily, was reminded of sipping limoncello on our world tour and visioned myself eating “almond cake and thick lemon pie topped with roasted local almonds” whilst gazing out on the deep, blue waters of the Mediterranean.
Who cares about rats? It’s just a matter of attitude.
