It's a long time, 20 years, and a short amount of time too. And yes, that does say Mrs, just in case you were wondering. We don't make a song and dance. The last time I wrote about it was back in 2008, if you're the curious type. You can be. I don't mind.*

In the meantime, let me catch you up on what's been a bountiful month.

IN APRIL:

I WENT TO... Brunswick Heads. There was never going to be an absolutely perfect time to take a break, but we booked it and rolled with it and we're so glad we did. Even as I sat crunching out study notes in the evening, it was nicer to do so sitting on a veranda overlooking water.

I ATE... Brunswick Heads and villages of the Byron hinterland all have great food. I can recommend Footbridge, Park St Homemade Pasta Bar, Table View and Hotel Brunswick, all in Brunswick Heads, and the one hatted Town restaurant in Bangalow.

I OP SHOPPED... There are four op shops in Brunswick Heads. Only about 1600 people but four op shops, and the same again of antique or vintage sellers. There's also the glory of CWA rooms in the main street of Bangalow, a church op shop and more of the same along with a craft co-operative and second hand book barn in Mullumbimby. Heaven. 

I picked up a great, 1970s collared leather jacket, a floating summer cotton dress with embroidered and beaded torso, an embellished wide leather belt and long silk sleeveless button-up top. I also squirreled away a 1960s department store mail-order catalogue and 1950s Eucalyptus identification bible with a reference to a variety named for my partner's grandfather. 

I MADE... A lot of notes. A lot. This study thing leaves very little time for knitting. 

I READ... I finished book two of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitana series and am now on to book three. It's a slow burn, but you do eventually get sucked in. I also finished, short chapter by short chapter, Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953, by Elizabeth Widmer. If you're curious about Plath, it's an easy but rich and rewarding read that's also very much about a changing America, an emerging pre-war youth culture and even what I'd define as a pre-1970s 'niggle of Feminism'. 

* However, if you say or do anything to make my family, especially my kids and grandkidlets feel like rubbish I will hunt you down and tie many, many, many knots in your yarn stash. Do we understand each other?