Month: September 2024

Posted on

Life last week – OR – Between birthdays and days out it’s been all go…….

(Photos will enlarge with a tap/click or using two finger spread). 

Well, the week got off to a good start with another of our children becoming eligible for a seniors card…..yes ‘our little girl’ turned 60. That would make me……old enough to be her mother😊. Although I do wonder where all those years went from the time she was just a little one in Singapore.


A little gathering that evening gave me a chance to chat with the new ‘householder’ – ‘oh it’s terraced I said… (party walls – very close neighbours)……. “no grandma it’s an ‘open plan townhouse’ and out the back, at the end of our ‘little enclosed garden’ we have a 2car garage “ (very important for 2 car families, means no street parking – and all the associated problems)

“it might be small grandma but it’s all ours. We could have gone for a larger ‘fixer upper’ but we don’t have the time so this’ll do us for a while”

So we’re off to visit her some time soon – about 40 mins away – and unload……pass on – several sets of wine glasses, a set of kitchen scales as well as various other items that haven’t been used by us for quite a while. Much better than the op shop!.
She does know and has approved ‘the donation’

Out to the warm water pool very early on a very cool Tuesday morning. Bliss!.
Same others there as before walking to and fro. Natter, natter, natter
This week’s cryptic overhead comment – “she’ll be sorry she ever met him”. .

Had a few chats with residents on Wednesday because due to a ‘mix up’ …their’s not mine….the scheduled ‘new’ activity didn’t take place. Learnt of several losses as well as several new arrivals, so I’ve some ‘getting to know you’ chats coming up. I did have a little smile when someone mentioned that XXX was now ‘safe in the arms of Jesus’…..it was an expression my granny (Dad’s mum) in Belfast used, was placed in death notices and inscribed at the bottom of the headstone.

Old online photo – more recent ones (after cleanup)
have family in them

Then on Thursday we were off out for a quick drive up the road to Healesville.
Seeing people’s dams so full was a sign of the wet Winter (and continuing Spring) weather in these parts, here’s hoping they won’t dry up too quickly once Summer’s heat arrives

And seeing the vineyard gangs out at work was a reminder that farming in whatever form is an all year round all weather occupation. They look to be working on a block of fairly new plantings (still have protective covers/sleeves on so maybe put in last Autumn) you can just make out the new growth on the older vines in the background and on the hillside if the photo’s enlarged.

Even though it was a chilly wet day we wanted to continue our ‘occasional lunch dates’ so it was lunch at the RSL…..definitely not as large a branch as elsewhere but has reasonably cheap cheerful and not too bad lunch deals……after seeing someone else’s (yes, I’m that person who looks at the plates going past my table) I had a chicken snitzel. Good choice, proper chicken – not those pressed forms some places serve plus cooked just right. Why do some places think it’s ok to serve very crispy, very dark brown, almost burnt offerings – because the fat was much too hot?!

Lunch was followed by coffee at you know who’s club a short drive away…….sorry no palm trees. Just miles and miles of National Park….that’s …a very shaky looking range of hills with Mount Riddell further to the ‘right’ ….through a dirty windscreen. (Someone went over the speed hump just as I tapped the phone 🙁)

*****
To round the week off Friday afternoon was Book Club #2. The one where we all read the same book (chosen by the library). These ladies are all so very different to my ‘other group’ – far more serious- sometimes I wonder if it’s my thing but then they do help me understand that what one reader may take from a book is not always the same as another. And the ‘new leader’ puts on such a fabulous afternoon tea I’d miss going just for that😊.
****.

With just two events on the calendar for this week coming I’m hoping it doesn’t change and turn out to be as busy as the one just gone
We need time for sitting and pondering and I didn’t get to do much of that
so wish me luck!.

How was your week…..busier than you liked…..or slower than you enjoy

(To comment please click on post title and scroll down)

Linking with Min’s weekly feature – Wednesday Words and Whimsy – you’ll find the link HERE at the end of Min’s posts

Posted on

🧶 Smiles at journey’s end….

(Photos will enlarge with a tap/click or using two finger spread).
******

I’m not sure what makes me smile more……

Coming across fields of cane stretching along the road at Proserpine and knowing there’s less than an hour to go….

June 2024

Or catching our first glimpse of The Dandenongs in the valley at Yarra Glen and knowing we’ll be home in much less than an hour…..

September 2024

Yes, we’re home, home to changes….and being grown up enough having to accept them. Wishing it was the end of a journey and I could smile about it.

Another CT scan after getting home (thank you sympathetic GP ….and Medicare) showed all my aches and pains in Bowen weren’t totally due to ‘the bed’. This report noted far more changes than the most recent one – moving to severe in more levels than before plus pinched nerves (remember the numb foot).
Spinal Stenosis is a pain….. one I certainly didn’t sign up for – diagnosed well over 10yrs ago so you’d think I’d have accepted it by now!

I’ve become increasingly unsteady on my feet lately which had me thinking about my responsibility to those I volunteer for.
Assisting them to and from the hair salon plus on and off the mini bus as well as out and about on outings days, making sure they don’t come into harms way so (sadly) I decided to discuss other less active roles I could take on.
Wednesday sees the start of a new one ….overseeing a quiz activity……possibly including a stylised form of Bingo……..there are some very knowledgeable residents in this particular ‘household’ (same concept but with a different organisation) so I’m hoping they all know the answers 😊.
*******

And on to something else. . . . .well a couple of things……
things that definitely haven’t finished their journey

At last, the Guernsey has a finished front, back & two sleeves – now to rustle up the energy to pick up the neck stitches and work those rows…..remembering I used 2×2 not single rib for the waist and sleeve bands – a mistake made on a previous knit🙁.
Nothing worse than seeing that after everything’s been made up – there’d definitely be no smile then

As for the book I’m trying to finish – even the author said it wasn’t her best work.
…….in her online diary, she told her younger self “Focus on what you’re good at. A BIRD IN THE HAND is a flawed first novel, ….source.
the problem (for me) is the amount of words she uses plus the amount of characters that keep on appearing so I’m thinking of flicking through from p1 and noting names and relationships as a reminder of who’s who – case of the ol’ grey cells are slowing down in many ways.

*****.
The weather has been decidedly Melbourne since we got home – not sure where Spring has got to – we’re past the equinox now (temps and daylight will be going up🙂) and even though spring flowers have appeared Winter is still hanging around… much rain, many cool days and cold nights with the odd sunny day here and there

Definitely C&A time still! …….My mothers play on ‘coats and ‘ats’ –
(C&A were a High Street clothing chain back in the day)

However there were many smiles when I saw that once again my two little clumps of Bluebells had made it to the end of their yearly journey 😊

Past their best but pleased I got to see them. Sept. 2024

Hows your life been recently- would you like to share some of your smiles?

(To comment please click on post title and scroll down)

I’ll be sharing this post on Kat’s Wednesday feature – Unraveled Wednesday……where the talk is all about craft, books and life in general. There might be more ‘life in general’ than books and craft in this post but you can find out what others are up to HERE

Linking also to Min’s weekly feature – Wednesday Words and Whimsy – there’s an interesting world of wonder and joy out there, you’ll find the link HERE at the end of all Min’s posts

Posted on

📘Oh the places you go….September

At the end of last month’s post I left you enjoying the sights and sounds of the Wild West,….I then moved across the country a bit to try and discover ‘lost treasure’ before crossing the Atlantic to visit three very different places ……..after which I felt it was time to go home to Australia 🇦🇺

Lost Oklahoma Treasures – W Craig Gaines 2021.
Misplaced Mines, Outlaw Loot & Mule Loads of Gold (nf)

If you ever want to know where there might be a hoard of buried treasure in the state of Oklahoma then this is the book for you!
One to dip in and out of and maybe generate interest in that ‘treasure hunt’ you had in mind
Full of snippets of information/legends/tall tales about gold/cash/jewellery that for one reason or another was hidden in various ‘counties’ and mostly never recovered. One section on social history of the state was interesting reading but lost on me with no prior knowledge of all the ‘international owners’ of the land (Native Indians – French – Spanish).
Chapters on Shipwrecks, Outlaws and their Loot as well as The Indian Nations made good reading. If you like following along with a map this might be of interest to you – I found it on Hoopla
******

  • The Galway Girls – Susan Colleen Browne 2018
    Two best friends search for their heart’s desire in this small-town romantic story set in Ireland……The Galway Girls is a warmhearted tale of women’s friendship and of love lost and love found among the misty green Irish countryside!

A soft easy to read novel about two ‘young neighbours’ in a small village who share their feelings about the happenings in their lives as well as those of their families. Full of family relationships, farming on a small scale, fun goings on, old love – new love, hopes, expectations, disappointments
#4 in a series (Village of Ballydara) so there were a few references to things that happened in earlier books that made me think it might have been better to have read them in order but I was after a G book and this fitted the bill. Anyway they’re all there on Hoopla so they might be just right for summer reading!

  • Tangier in the Rain – Fabien Grolleau 2022.
    In 1912, Matisse is feeling a little fed up. In Paris, Picasso is hogging the limelight, so Matisse decides it’s time for some fresh air, a little space, and a different kind of light. That’s it, he’ll cross the Mediterranean and start painting a new kind of nature. He’s going to Tangier. Problem is, when he finally gets there, it starts raining

Another new way of reading for me – a graphic novel. Seemingly there are readers who only read this style – let’s just say it served it’s purpose in providing me with a book that covered the letter T.
A simple story with illustrations (more refined than a comic book) seemingly about the time Matisse visited Morocco and it rained!

You might like to read this article about that visit and how it influenced his style of painting at the time 👇

Did You Know That Henri Matisse Went to Morocco?

Fitted the letter K but oh dear what a slog. The second of (now) three books centring around the infamous coffee shop but unfortunately (for me) It didn’t seem to have the freshness the first book had – the whole storyline was so drawn out plus interest in the different lives of all the characters certainly wasn’t there the way it was with the first book.
******


Lillian’s Eden – Cheryl Adam 2018

The Eden referred to in the title is a small town on the coast of New South Wales – Lillian and her family move there to ‘look after’ Aunt Maggie. Aunt Maggie is on her husband’s side of the family…a rather dysfunctional family.

Aunt Maggie is Eric’s mothers sister, she is unconventional, the ‘odd one’ – as well as knowing all the family secrets she also has all the family money The story begins with a family visit to Aunt Maggie hoping for a loan but instead they get offered the house next door (owned by AM) on the proviso Lilian cleans, cooks and generally looks after her AM.
“Butter her up and she’ll leave it all to us” is Eric’s way of thinking
Lillian does that under suffrage because Aunt Maggie can be a bit of a tyrant but as the months go by she and Maggie become friends – each needing the other – almost dependent on each other. A ‘humorous’ at times yet reflective read about life within a 1950s family in rural Australia.

A is for Alice, my mother (and gt grandmother’s) given name as well as part of the title of one those novels that passed me by in my younger days. Alice Springs in the Northern Territory was a bit rough and ready when we visited in the early 1990s so goodness knows what it really was like at the time it became part of the focus of the novel

A town like Alice – Nevil Shute 1950.
Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman living in Malaya, is captured by the invading Japanese and forced on a brutal seven-month death march with dozens of other women and children. A few years after the war, Jean is back in England, the nightmare behind her. However, an unexpected inheritance inspires her to return to Malaya to give something back to the villagers who saved her life.

We’re back home now (after ‘wintering’ in FNQ) but as things haven’t gone the way I hoped recently I’ve only just begun to read this book…..however I’m really enjoying the style of writing with the solicitor Noel Strachan narrating his efforts to find his client’s heir (Jean Paget) and guiding her through the process of realising her inheritance. I’m sure I’ll enjoy the rest of it……

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

******

And there you have it…..
My attempt at matching letters of the alphabet to place names/countries
Of the 26 choices I made, just 4 were a disappointment


Letters and Places 2024

📘 April – A is for….
📘 May – Have book will travel……
📘 August – Where to now.
📘 September- Oh the places you go….

Sharing with What’s on your Book Shelf Challenge

(To comment please click on post title and scroll down)

Posted on

🧶 Now for something different….

For some reason I’ve been tired, weary and rather flat recently….

A bit like this year’s ‘winter shoes’ that have seen better days and will be retired when we return to Victoria in a short while….

I’m just biding my time here now really hoping ‘new shoes’ in the form of returning home and viewing it with fresh eyes will put a spring back in my step….

Kilsyth – A different environment altogether
End of my street looking towards Montrose and The Dandenongs
2km/1.25mi away
A sea of trees – not a wave of water in sight


It’s been such a strange winter up here – earlier on it was much colder than usual and now it’s become exceptionally warm – far too early in the season for day after day of very high 20s/80s. Unlike at home where we’re renowned for the ability to have 4 seasons in one day, here there are only 2….. this link describes it as wet/dry – hot/cool also windy all year round😊

But I really shouldn’t complain – because after my last feeling sorry for myself whingefest a certain someone aka The Golfer said “come on, we’ll go and have coffee at ‘the club’ ….it was so relaxing sitting on the high outside deck enjoying the view along with the cooling sea breeze (such a pleasure to be there) I forgot my aches and pains…..and also to record my delicious coffee and cake🙁

For various reasons we’ll both miss this town – it’s one place I enjoy returning to. A ‘working town’ that carries on living its own life after the seasonal visitors have all left but never complains while they’re here

So what’s the different bit all about??.
Well since unraveling and righting the guernsey ready to finish the front I haven’t touched it again. Enthusiasm left the building right there and then….but I am about to use my fingers in a different way.

Many years ago xx cross stitch xx was my craft of choice – then the eyes started to (we all know about the ageing of eyes don’t we😊) so as yarn is easier to see than embroidery floss it was back to knitting.
Because I’m hoarder person who is loathe to throw/give anything away……I paid good money for that…I might use it again – there are still pattern/design books, silks/threads, tools etc etc sitting in a cupboard just waiting for that to happen- well you never know, it might…..


Before we came away I had a little rummage – had reason to look for something and tucked away in this publication I found a nearly finished slightly adapted ‘new house’ sampler.

Who I had it in mind for and the reason it’s unfinished is long forgotten – after adding a little saying under the houses…..‘Happiness is homemade’ – corny but cute….I’m hoping I can revive it.

I read an article once about creases in Aida cloth.
(I know, it should have been rolled or stored flat)
which involved the freezer and ironing ‘frozen’ or microwave. Must see if I can find it.

A granddaughter has just bought her first house, and unlike some of her cousins (everything must be brand new or definitely unused) she’s been gathering new or nearly new bits and pieces from friends and other family.

“I want a home grandma, not a showroom” which I’m hoping means my ‘new with maybe a little lived in look to it’ sampler will be well received.
*****

And here’s my breakfast table early this morning (Tuesday)…..before it became a fraction on the warm side
Cereal with dried fruit, fresh fruit, cuppa tea…..plus embroidery paraphernalia to sort, a handheld fan and a book.
What else do I need to begin the day?

* * * Ann Cleeves first published novel A Bird in the Hand….a laundry room find……is a bit of a slow starter. Three chapters in I know a local ‘birdwatcher – twitcher’ has been murdered and retired civil servant George Palmer-Jones (who shares the same hobby) has agreed to ‘find the murderer’. Apart from that I have no idea where it’s going but am enjoying how new characters and little bits of the story line are being introduced as though they’ve been in full view all the time.

(To comment please click on post title and scroll down).
********

I’ll be sharing this post with :- 
Wednesday Words and Whimsy hosted by Min and found HERE. 
Also Unraveled Wednesday hosted by Kat and found HERE

Website Built with WordPress.com.