August 2, 2023 – Still Waters

August is the 8th month of the year – one which has 31 days
June & July came and went (quickly), today is the 2nd of August, the 63rd day of Winter here in Australia, which means that..…wait for it
Spring will arrive in 29 days😊.
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Finally after four weeks life has slowly settled into some sort of a routine – a quiet non hectic routine nothing like at home. . .
Here I’m perfectly happy to look at gardens around town and know I don’t have to tend to them
Over the years I’ve been to local service clubs as a visitor but have decided to give them a miss this year.
With no choir or book club to join, any singing I do is confined to the shower and of course I can read anywhere and maybe tell you about the books I read.
There’s a ‘weekly ‘gathering of ladies’ for craft* in the camp kitchen – which I avoid….if I want to whinge about life I’ll do it at home with people I know….and where some handiwork gets done at the same time (*here people make a show of leaving it on the table but not doing anything*).

Something different though – is that we eat out far far more often (it’s a first world problem for me but cooking with electric in a very confined space is not on my list of ‘things to do’ – I’m a cooking with gas, give me room to move gal😊) . . and (another first world problem) the internet signal/reception for all carriers is lousy in the area we are staying!
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It’s been a sort of hit and miss week- I finished a couple of ‘small’ books and a few more of the little blanket squares but the ‘big things I wanted to get done never really got a look in. I began to read Fled but was sidetracked by those smaller books – the same thing happened when it came to making up the brown fair isle jumper, front, back and sleeves were sewn together but when it came to picking up for the neckline – well those easy to knit squares were suddenly far more interesting! It’s a good job there’s no deadline on any of these activities.

I have to say it’s been a while since I’ve been reduced to tears when reading a book – in fact I’d be hard pushed to remember the last time – yet it’s happened twice over this past week and all because of those two little books
Who says books written for children are only of interest to children and war memoirs are only of interest to men??.

The Odd Angry Shot – William Nagle. . .1975. 137pages.
Recollections of time spent in Vietnam, written as only an Australian could. Thoughts about happenings – then “Remember?” .
Seemingly larrikin behaviour mixed with dark humour mixed with emotion followed by ‘didn’t see it coming’ violence.
Do try to get a copy if you can – not a novel, not a full blown record of events – just one person remembering.

Seven Little Australians – Ethel Turner ….1894. 177pages.
Reminding me at times of The Railway Children and Little Women – this is a story about children, their father and their stepmother in late 1800s Australia.
Very ‘normal’ individual high spirited (described by the author as naughty) children aged 16 down to 4 – a young stepmother (with her own young child from the marriage) who took on the raising of (and lovingly caring for) those six children when their own mother died . . . she is the go between them and – a father in the army who tends to be strict yet caring.
Life just happens along full of daily ‘adventures’ – some that might seem strange in these days but were as possibly would have been then. Growing up is never easy – unexpected things turn up – some of them funny, some of them very dramatic, some of them very sad.
Yes, it’s described as a children’s book….but so so readable by an adult