Month: June 2017

B has been a friend since the very early 1970s – right from when we were New Chums and hadn’t long been in Australia.  The Golfer and her husband met through a shared interest (not golf) B and I also had a common interest – CRAFT

Now even though our children are about the same age she’s a bit older than me – not quite what you’d call a generation – possibly a much older very young at heart sister.  And that’s how I’ve always viewed her – some one who I could talk to about anything.

As friends often do there were times when we saw each other quite frequently and others when because of circumstances hardly ever for maybe a year or two.  We’ve shared all three of life’s ‘gathering’ – Births, Deaths and Marriages. – Some Christmas’ and Big Birthdays as well.

Retirement changed things for both of us – so much to do and so little time to do it lol. We thought being a Working Woman was a busy time – retirement is not much different- just a different set of appointments :).    B moved last year (downsized by choice) and I hadn’t been to her new place for quite a few months so it was time for a catch up in real time.

Right, long story cut short.  I teed up a time last week – come in the afternoon she’d said.  It’s much more relaxing.  Such a big hug when I arrived, tears when I produced the very little posy of flowers from my winter garden.  Nothing was blooming in her new garden.  Tea was drunk in tiny china cups and dainty pastries eaten.  We laughed about ageing, new replacement eyes, new replacement ears (cataract ops and hearing aids lol) Forgetfulness as well – when she moved I’d written her new house phone number down on a scrap of paper as you do and couldn’t find it so looked online.  Decided I’d not lose it again if I added it to my mobile contacts and discovered it there already 🙂

But this isn’t B – it used to be wait while the kettle boils then make your own coffee to suit and help yourself to cake from a tin on the side.  She’d talk about her latest projects or her Probus group or how her indoor bowls was going (Victorian State representative no less!). When I asked she said all was well with the new place, the garden was a problem but she’d sort it come the spring.  Then the phone rang and she made no move to answer it.

Awkward moment – it seems that as well as her brother and two of his good friends whom she’d known for many years dying within a week of each other it turns out over the past few months several friends in her age group had become unwell and died suddenly – and the news had come by phone.  I was lucky to get through the other day because she ignores it most of the time.

It’s the little things getting her down more than the phone issue.  Don’t laugh but no sunny aspect to her garden being the main one.  Maybe if I act differently, she said, life will change.  Then the sensible side of her emerged and she told me about the appointment she has coming up with a grief counsellor next week.

We did promise each other we would go out of our way to spend afternoons together far more frequently from now on.

It was one of those afternoons.

One where we had nothing arranged or even a desire to arrange anything.

What to do – what shall I do ?

i could start pinning Doug together.    As you pin you have to tuck the long fur inside the two pieces so it doesn’t get caught up in the seam.  A bit time consuming but a necessary evil needed to be done  before I begin to sew the pieces together.

I could knit – except I’m ‘between garments’ (meaning I’ve finished everything I had on the go so have nothing on my needles) and if I cast on something else I’ll just carry on with it and not get round to Doug.

I thought I might read – that’s always good to pass the time away.  After all it was a cold winters Sunday afternoon and an hour on the couch with Kiera and a book would be good.  I’d had loads of fun during the first six month of this year and read books like crazy.  So I updated my ‘Books read in 2017‘ page (see up on the header) and then looked over what I’ve got sitting here.  A couple from my Alphabet challenge and one a ‘pick a book – any book’ off the shelf.

Nope didn’t fancy any of them – I do have another on the go so best I finish it. It’s about a strange (in a nice way) family so I might get a post out of it.

And it looks like Doug’s big legs won in the end. I had some news yesterday that means I’m going to be seeing a lot more of Doug in the next few weeks.  I’ll tell you about it another time 🙂

And how about you- what did you do this past Sunday afternoon?

There is nothing most little children like better than something cuddly and warm – and there is nothing Gt Grandmas like better than to be able to give those little ones something cuddly and warm.

So with that in mind I went rummaging through the cupboard in the hope I’d find some books and papers from a few years ago.  Insert triumphant look here when I emerged clutching this.

 

A long time ago I used to ‘dabble’ in the art of  teddy making.  That was back in the 1990s and early 2000s.  Everyone I knew at the time was at it, friends were churning them out quickly so I thought ‘can’t be that hard can it?   Oh my goodness – I was so stressed at every stage of making my first one – but I was hooked.lol   The fact my friends were sewing them on a machine and I was hand sewing didn’t deter me.  I enjoyed seeing them evolve from a piece of fur to something like Doug (in the picture below.  20 inches from the top of his head to the soles of his feet.  Almost like a new born babe 🙂 )

Doug now resides at our house – his 21yr old owner is busy with her life and can’t care for him 🙂

So here I am again about to tackle another one.  Fur – check!  Pattern check!

 

90 minutes later – because it’s not quite as simple as it looks – Doug 2 is cut out and ready to go.

Looks like my knitting will be going on the back burner for a while 🙂

 

Doug is a bear designed by Wendy Bergamin who Bears no more but Beads

http://www.bergaminbeads.com

The pattern was made available in a copy of Dolls, Bears and Collectables.

Regarding the last two posts

i need to tell you all we aren’t actually in Vancouver at the moment.

The photographs are from our 2010 visit.

Several people (in comments and emails) had mentioned not having seen the sculpture so I thought Id explain where it was and how to get there.

I seem to have misled some of you – Sorry 🙂

If you’re looking for Vanier Park that’s where you’ll find it 🙂

Make your way out of downtown Vancouver all the way up on the right hand side of Burrard Street.  Over Burrard Bridge resplendent with busts of Captain George Vancouver and Sir Harry Burrard – Neale and there it is – down there right beside the river (English Bay).  We usually stay in a hotel on Burrard Street and I’d say it’s about a 10/15 minute walk but to give you a better idea of where it I’ve taken a screenshot (courtesy of Mr G)

Click the photos to enlarge 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burrard_Bridge

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanier_Park

There are several museums and other places of interest there plus lots of walking tracks and space for people to enjoy themselves.

For a long time I would take loads and loads of photos when we were away and then realised I was ‘missing the moment’, so eased up and began to look at things with my eyes rather than through the camera – which means there arent huge numbers of photos to share – but hey, the memories are there inside my head instead 🙂

Anyways here are a couple from a window in the Maritime Museum.  The beach is I think part of Kitsilano and if you take the right hand walking track you’ll come to the big sculpture I showed in my last post

 

What I do/did like about this area – surprise – surprise 🙂 – is/are all the benches available to sit on and enjoy the fresh air looking at or wondering about the big high rise ciity buildings right there in front of your eyes.

 

Looking through travel photos with the aim of reducing them, I  found this.

Gate to the Northwest Passage

Vanier Park  Vancouver

Created by Alan Chung Hung as a symbolic image providing an awareness and celebration of Captain George Vancouver’s voyages and achievements 

http://creatorsvancouver.com/gate-to-the-northwest-passage/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gate_to_the_Northwest_Passage

I’ve been lucky enough to walk Vanier Park several times

Its a very striking sculpture, I don’t know what you think but unfortunately each time I’ve  seen it it just looks to me like:-

One very large window frame minus glass 🙂

On a dry sunny winter’s day it stood there waiting
Waiting to be cut down
The last of the season
Not in its prime but still looking good

Once inside,  this little late bloomer, last one of the season, opened its heart
Sitting there on the window sill
Patiently waiting, waiting to be admired
From the inside and the outside of the window pane

Yes all the winter pruning has been done

Now to wait until spring when the roses return 🙂

Cathy

 

So what does one do on a glorious sunny dry winter day?  I feel guilty saying these are the winter days I enjoy because dry means no rain and no rain is not good for Melbourne (or come to think of it anywhere else in Australia) Anyway it was so good to be sitting outside on the deck enjoying the warmth provided by our clear outside blinds instead of sitting inside trying to keep warm by the fire.

There was the Finishing up/ Making up / Sewing up of a cardigan to be done plus starting another and this was the opportune time to do it.  One more for the charity box 🙂

As I sat there knitting I kept having a funny feeling something wasn’t the same yet couldn’t put my finger on it.  Then it dawned on me I could see curtains moving in the flats at the back – don’t remember seeing that before. Then I remembered we’d cut a little tree down (a Wattle / Acacia) that had beautiful yellow balls of fluff late in the winter yet grew all straggly and split during a very windy storm earlier in the year and the owners of the flats had lopped some branches off the big gum tree.  Senior Moment 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now about that word – did you know today – the 2nd Saturday in June –  is World Wide Knit in Public Day?

Knitters young and old are encouraged to take their craft out of their homes, display it to the world and encourage others to learn the skill.

Home

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Knit_in_Public_Day

I didn’t exactly fill the brief properly – I took my knitting outside – but not actually in Public though.  However seeing as how my back deck might not be quite as private as it was previously perhaps my effort of neither public nor private could be be called

Knitting in Semi Seclusion 🙂 🙂

A fair while ago, in fact many many years ago, one of my cousin’s wives (yes he had more than one) did part time modelling and was involved with an advertising agency.

I met up with him at my aunt’s house one day and after asking how Helen was he said – ‘Oh she is deeply involved in the promotion of a new perfume’.  Constant management meetings etc etc!

Anyway not long after that I was in the city browsing round Myers ( one of our large department stores) making my way out to the front entrance when who do I see but Helen.

I’m not sure about overseas department stores but here in Australia cosmetics are placed right there as you walk in.  Bright lights, shiny counters, along with well dressed, manicured, immaculately made up with hair in place youngish girls at the ready to advise which of their company’s products is ‘Just Right For You’

No, Helen wasn’t one of them – she was ‘deeply involved in the promotion of a new perfume’ – walking the floor, perfume bottle in hand, spruiking this ‘fabulous new line’ by offering sprays on the wrist (which is what they did in those days….Nowadays they wave little bits of card in front of you)

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and ‘my big girl’ mentions her daughter had found a very much needed part time job – in Costco.  (Very much needed to help pay for her newfound desire to be a pilot)  Jokingly I asked what department she would be in.

‘After training she will be the Assistant to the Cashier on the tills’  was the reply.

I’ve made The Golfer promise (if she’s working anytime we shop there) not to tease and harass our little checkout chick about making sure things are lined up properly so the cashier can scan them quickly 🙂

Never a truer word spoken

 

 

Cup of tea – Pile of Books – Birth Month

All correct

Not sure about the old bit though!

WINDOWS 10 Grr !!

WHY DO PEOPLE IN MY HOUSE NEED A CHANGE?

AN UPGRADE IS NEEDED HE SAID

I ‘LIKED’ WHAT WE HAD – I ‘UNDERSTOOD’ WHAT WE HAD

STATUS QUO SOMETIMES SAVES A LOT OF ANGST

I’m sure I’ll get over it in time – however Thank Goodness I have an iPad 😊

( For the record- this past couple of weeks have been testing.  All did not go well with the ‘self’ installation – The Golfer had to resort to calling in a grandson’s young friend (who is in ‘the techy business’) – problem solved.  I hope!! )

It would appear that while we were away during April a new set of neighbours brought a cat with them. One who liked to roam and one who obviously thought our back garden and all the pleasures to be had there were his and his alone.  All this time poor unsuspecting Kiera was languishing away in her holiday home just down the road.

I thought it odd when she wouldn’t stay outside during the day – this was on warm  sunny days early in May not like the recent cooler ones.  Then I caught her at the glass  back door growling and having a hissy fit at the offender who was sunning himself right there on our back deck.

Before then we laughingly called her my brown shadow – now it’s like having a brown blob glued to my body 😊

Take today – after all my complaining about the miserable weather we actually had a dry clear sunny day. I tried to put her outside to enjoy it and she promptly turned round almost in terror to push her way back inside.

And this is where she sat (until I turned the fire off)

It was almost as if she was looking to the fire for an answer.

Answer me, oh my love.  Just what sin have I been guilty of?

Why me?  I’m just a little old lady trying to enjoy the twilight of my life ??

Anyway I don’t mind her being inside when it’s yuk outside but I drew the line with today’s weather.  So I popped her in the old cat pen at the bottom of the garden – that way she could catch the rays and feel ‘safe’ at the same time.  Wouldn’t you know it,  she obviously didn’t feel it was a problem being outside at all because she promptly fell asleep 😊😊

click on the gallery then slide to the left for a better look

The seasons changed here in Australia on the first of June.

June is busting out all over – Here comes Summer!  

Oh Oh – wrong season. It’s Winter that arrived !  Not my favourite of seasons, and as we will be wintering at home and not Far North Queensland all I can hope is that it will be a mild one.

I had already planned (and finished) the first couple of items for this years winter charity knitting drive so dropped them off during the week.  As usual I have several more things on the go and there’s still a large amount of wool waiting patiently for its turn to shine.

 It’s also the time of the year when the little Japanese Maple shows off its gorgeous red leaves down in the back corner next to the Lasiandra.  Of course if we had a bit more sunshine it really would shine but……..

Mother Nature has been keeping the big round yellow ball hidden most of this past week. I wandered round the park today and popped into Montrose just a couple of kms away and couldn’t see the hills from either place.  The lower picture shows the hills that should be visible through those trees.  The gloomy weather didn’t stop the ducks roosting on the poles though 🙂

 

 

 

And this what you should see under that low cloud in Montrose – not quite in the same spot but not too far down the road.

 

The weather man has promised us a low of about 4c/39f tonight and a cool Sunday so I spent the afternoon making Pumpkin Soup. Enough for lunch tomorrow and the rest in the freezer but I forgot to take a photo so if you click this link to a previous post you will see what I made.

https://cranethie.wordpress.com/2011/02/23/new-twist-to-an-old-favourite/

Strange as it sounds (and I’ve friends who think I’m loopy ) it’s on days like today I’m glad I’ve changed my exercise plan from the gym to the local pool  Fancy going to the pool in winter they say – well, I said, the car parking at the pool is smaller and far closer than the huge great one at the leisure centre so if Im going to get cold or wet going back to the car I’d rather it be for as short a time as possible 🙂

click the photos to enlarge 

 

 

Now and again I’ve been known to need a Ventolin puffer – late onset Asthma my GP calls my condition. Many older Australians are coming down with it – even those who (like me) have never smoked or put a cigarette near their mouth.

My little brown shadow aka Kiera (she whose life at the moment consists of basking in front of the fire when it’s on and grizzling quite loudly when it’s not) is getting older – Christmas Eve this year she will be 18!  Yes, she’s quite an oldie and recently was diagnosed with Asthma.  Feline Asthma !.  It wasn’t hairballs that was causing the coughing after all 🙂

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_asthma

Anyway, because she isn’t the most co-operative ‘person’ when it comes to medicating (try opening her mouth to drop a pill in – if you dare!!) the vet suggested a puffer – how the h’ll do I get her open her mouth and take a big deep breath in I said.  Oh, she said (the vet that was) we now have spacers and mouthpieces small enough for cats.

So home I come with one of the above (at an atrocious cost I might add) hoping to be able to coax little Miss Madame to sit still long enough to inhale the steroids that will bring relief.  Look on the web I got told, there is lots of information there on the whys and wherefores of these devices also some really good training videos.  Training I wondered – who that was for – me or Kiera?

You must watch this one – fun all the way.  And going about things the way that was suggested worked.  Well, nothing is perfect but it works on most days.

Are you talking about me??

I’ve watched and marvelled over the years as grandchildren have changed their appearance as they’ve moved through their lives from babies to adults.

Recently this took my breath away

Having left all her ‘attitude’ years behind her

We now have one sassy fun loving confident young lady!