PICTURES THAT TELL A STORY

I think these shots of youngest grandson L3 tell the whole story – this was the first time he discovered the absolute delight in ‘licking the bowl clean’ after we had made finished helping me make cup cakes.

CHIT CHAT

It's 1.47am - oh yes, I've been to bed but wasn't able to sleep so got up to make a cuppa. As I sit here the rain is simply 'hosing' down outside. Our weather has been in the range of extremes recently to say the least. From 40C a couple of weeks ago, the last 10 days or so have been blessedly cool - even down to 18 - 19C a few days with rain, rain, rain. The pool is almost full to overflowing and the ground is absolutely soggy - but hey! whose complaining? Not me - this is great compared to those who are flooded out to our north - and have been burned out to our south. I'm grateful that I don't have to water the garden and that everything is beginning to look so beautifully green again.

Have been home from the wedding over 2 weeks now but I don't seem to be able to settle somehow. Had morning tea last week with son, d-i-l and daughter which was really great and the first time we've been able to catch up like that. Now that daughter's eldest is at school and youngest at preschool, maybe we can do that on a more regular basis. I have finished off making a baby cardigan for a friend (thought I'd better move myself since the baby is now 5 months old!)

I've finished all the stitching on Heirloom Homecoming Sampler but haven't been able to buy the tiny pearl rice beads to finish it completely. I think I'm just going to have to leave them off. I really want to get it framed. There's only been a couple of times that I've ever had my stitching framed from scratch as I like to stretch it myself but this time I haven't been able to find any foam board either so I may just have to resort to taking it and getting it done.

Well I think I'll try my bed again and see if I can get some shut-eye. I've got the boys coming tomorrow so need to have my wits about me!

HOME AGAIN!

Have I really been home 4 days? The week away seems so far back now. Primarily the trip was to attend the wedding of my niece but we had a great time catching up with rellies and friends we hadn't seen for a long time, some in fact for more than 20 years. The weather was blissfully cooler than Sydney but extremely humid however it was certainly more comfortable than here at present. We are still going through very extreme heatwave conditions which saps the energy levels woefully.

The wedding was stunning. The bride looked truly beautiful (what bride doesn't) and everything seemed to go without a hitch. A wonderful venue too and a truly memorable day for all.

My grandsons E5 and L3 have begun new phases in their little lives. One commenced 'big' school and the other is off to preschool for two days a week. Once the weather settles and it becomes more bearable, then I'll truly feel life is kind of back to normal again. Roll on that cool change early next week!

JUST CATCHING UP

Since I was here last, I’ve had a birthday. A fairly ‘non’ event – but we did go out and have a nice meal at a favourite restaurant not far from home. I’ve started walking in the mornings again – my toe is not quite healed yet and still a little tender, but I’m now able to get my shoe on and the coolness of the early morning is just so refreshing. I’m not at my best during the hot weather. I tend to retain a lot of water in my body and it really saps the energy out of me. I feel so much better when it’s cooler.

These awful high temperatures are persisting. The weather office insist that it’s just ‘normal’ for this time of the year in Sydney but we keep hearing radio and TV reports saying the temps are ‘so many above normal’ for this time of the year. I know it doesn’t help but I tend to check the outdoors thermometer frequently to see if it’s cooled down a little. Last night was Sydney’s hottest night in 12 years!

Anyway, DH and I are ‘escaping’ from it for a few days and we’ll be on an early flight in the morning ‘over the ditch’ to our homeland. We’re staying a week and will attend my niece’s wedding while there. We’re looking forward to that.

Hopefully by the time we arrive back home the temperatures might be more bearable - for me anyway!

A MOOCHING KIND OF DAY

After the searing heat of the past few days, today has been blessedly much cooler. The temperature did get to about 32C early in the afternoon but later a really strong wind has sprung up which has cooled everything down quickly. What bliss! I just don't handle these hot days very well and far prefer the cooler weather. A friend emailed me that it was -4C in upper New York State - now I'm not saying I want it to be that cold - but the fresh breeze coming in the back door now as I sit typing this, is just wonderful. I'm hoping for a better night's sleep tonight!

I have been busy though, despite the heat. Yesterday I completed an 8" x 8" scrapbook album I've made for my niece to record photos of her new baby and a visit to the shopping centre was successful in finding some little gifts to send to A9, our grand-daughter who lives in Texas and celebrates her birthday in a few weeks time.

Tomorrow I'm helping a friend assemble her wedding invites so there always seems to be something to keep me busy. Even when the heat outside is simply awful, I am grateful that I have somewhere to shelter me from the elements and I am reminded that my God cares for me and supplies my needs - I am so blessed.

THE BOYS ARE BACK

Friday morning saw grandsons L3 and E5 at the door at 7.45am. Mum was off to work for a half day and the next 5 or so hours stretched out before me. The temperature was a cool 20C – so vastly different from the few days before so until it warmed up a bit, activities would be inside the house.

Breakfast over, the games began. After game cube’s Mario for E5 and pairing card games for L3, finished jigsaws, Reader Rabbit and other puzzles and a game of ‘soccer’ outside, I was rather glad to see mum arrive back to take them home. Here’s a couple of pics of one of the morning’s activities.

THE ADVENTURES OF A STICK INSECT

After 3 days of temperatures of 38C and 40C (100F and 104F), mid afternoon a storm broke – a fairly typical summer Sydney storm – high wind, heavy rain, thunder and lightning. As I looked out the window my eye caught a movement on the sun umbrella which I’d taken down to avoid it being knocked over. Somehow, Mr (or Ms) Stick Insect had been blown against it and it was clinging for its life to the fabric of the umbrella. I was fascinated by the way it was battling against the elements and seemed determined to hang on to it’s anchor.

It seemed to be trying to move but neither up nor down had much effect as it was battered by the wind. Eventually it managed to turn itself upside down and with a few tentative steps made its way across the umbrella – which is when I decided to be a rescuer. It was well outside it’s usual environment and although not totally familiar with it’s way of life, I didn’t want to see it land in the pool and be drowned if it was flicked off by a heavy gust.

The rain still pouring down, I donned my gardening glove (I was fully clothed!) and went outside. Grabbing it gently I placed it in a little ficus shrub growing in a pot at the back door. It quickly sought the shelter of the inside twigs – where it was at least safe from the belting wind and rain. I made a quick trip inside for my camera and took a shot – can you find it amongst the leaves? (due to some technical difficulties the pics were not able to be uploaded)

Half an hour later, the storm was gone and so was the Stick Insect. They are quite friendly creatures and I believe some of the species can be kept as pets. They eat tiny insects such as aphids and are considered desirable in the garden. I hope it has found a good place to hide amongst the many trees we have around our yard – and continues to devour the pesky aphids from my roses!

ONE WEEK LATER

Another trip to my doctor this morning has resulted in my toe nail being removed. I’m thankful it’s been done, as a precaution against infection I’m taking an antibiotic and now the real healing can begin. With a wedding to attend in 3 weeks time, hopefully an inconspicuous covering can be used instead of the big thick bandage I have now, as open sandals will be the footwear I’ll need to use. Thankfully it is our summer season so the worry about cold feet won’t enter into the equasion. Pretty pink polish won’t be used either – maybe a prettily flower covered adhesive bandage could be found or even one with a bit of bling! I’ve seen them for kids with all kinds of designs on them – but never with ‘adult’ wearers in mind. But now I’m really getting carried away. Maybe by then just a plain old flesh coloured bandage will suffice.

BIRTHDAY (BASH) CELEBRATION

Celebrating birthdays is always fun – especially when it’s a family member. A group of us celebrated DS’s birthday last night. It was a day early but we enjoyed a beautiful meal together at a very popular little Italian restaurant not far from home and had a fun night which included being serenaded in song with piano accordion accompaniment. The ‘chicken’ dance, ‘hokey tokey’ and YMCA for young and old was highly energetic and had us all entertained and was a fitting end to the evening.

Certainly it was one we’ll remember!

THE MORNING AFTER THAT

The visit to the medical centre was pretty disappointing yesterday. The 'machine' had broken down in the X-Ray department so the report on my toe couldn't be retrieved. "Well," the aged doctor said - "I had a look at the film and it looks OK" - hopefully that means there is no broken bones!

With a hasty "put on a simple dressing" to the treatment room assistant - he was gone!

I'm not sure what my next step is since I have a bruised toe with the nail hanging off. I think I'll be making a visit to my regular doctor tomorrow to see what the next step should be.

Apart from the toe problem though we spent a pleasant New Years evening with family and friends, enjoying a bbq meal and later playing Wii games. That was so much fun - especially with a family who are all extremely competitive. Watched the wonderful fireworks display at 9pm on the TV and headed home about 10.30pm to do it all again at midnight. Sydney excelled itself with pyrotechnic magnificence!

Welcome to 2009! May it be a healthy, safe, happy and blessed one for all!

THE MORNING AFTER

After a really restless and (almost) sleepless night, this morning I'm feeling rather sorry for myself. The fall yesterday has shaken me up a bit, and with the beginnings of bruising starting to show in many places, and the soreness to match, I'm planning to spend a very quiet day today. Not sure if I'll even feel like working on my stitching.

I have to make a visit to the medical centre this afternoon to get results of the X-Ray taken last night, and for my toe to be dressed so once that's done, I'll post the results.

TWO SURPRISES IN ONE DAY – ONE GOOD, ONE BAD and a little bit of Hogmany

I walked to the Post Office this morning instead of driving. Not very far – about 40 minutes there and back. A surprise package awaited me and I could hardly wait to get home to open it. It was a New Year gift and came from Scotland from a lady I’ve recently met through my family history website. She decided she wanted to search for her family and through the internet found that we share the same Great Grandparents. It has been an exciting few weeks of introduction and comparing notes. Interestingly, we share many of the same interests apart from genealogy. She explained in a note with the gift, the Scottish tradition of ‘First Footing’ or as she says in Edinburgh, ‘First Fittin’.

On Hogmany (night of Dec 31st) visits are made to relatives and friends. At the New Year bells, the first foot should be tall, dark and handsome to bring good luck to the house. It is tradition to bring a dram of whisky, a piece of coal and salt or perhaps some ‘clootie dumpling’. The whisky to toast the health of the host, the coal to put on the fire and bring warmth and something to eat so that the house will not go hungry. Her gift was a bottle of very fine Scotch whisky to help us bring in the New Year. Somehow, I don’t think our New Year celebrations will stretch to anything like that after my second surprise late this afternoon!

I went outside to remove the dead heads from the rose bushes – good for the compost heap. It has been another hot day – temperature reaching to about 35 degrees Celsius and it was still very warm. I was probably not thinking about what I was doing – I often daydream while in the garden – even now I’m not sure exactly how it happened – but I found myself in pain on the ground, my knees, elbows and nose being the most painful. I was anxious about my glasses and my teeth but both seemed OK. I gingerly moved myself over to my back and as I lay there on the hot pavers, tried to assess the real damage. From the top down I realized my nose was feeling ‘squashed’ and my lip was cut. Elbow on my right arm stung from a graze and my wrist was painful. Left arm seemed OK. Both knees were also stinging and I felt sure they were grazed too but on closer inspection when I was able to get up into a sitting position, they looked OK but bruising beginning to show. The biggest surprise when I looked further down as the pain began to hit hard was my big toe on my right foot. What a sight it looks! I won’t begin to describe it as it’s rather nasty. When I’d gathered my wits about me I realized that I had tripped on the top step of three which takes us from grassed area to paving below. I shakily made my way into the house and relayed the news to DH who is having a few days off work. A trip to the medical centre has proved inconclusive but an X-Ray was taken and I’m to go back for an appointment tomorrow get the results and the possibility of having the toe nail removed.

As I write this journal, it’s 1am – yes I have been to bed but can’t sleep. Somehow I think this is going to be a very long night!

BULL BY THE HORNS?

Well - at least scissors cutting thread!

I did it - I 'bit the bullet' as we say here 'down-under'. (In other words I gritted my teeth and did it - even though I was nervous of making a mess of it)

Here's the result.

CROSS STITCH WIP

I know I said the next photo of Heirloom Homecoming would be the finished piece, but having worked on the hardanger section on and off over the Christmas period, I felt rather pleased with the way it's turned out - so far - so here it is. Now will be the hardest part for me - I hate cutting - never feeling quite confident that I'm doing it in the right spot.

I'll have to be brave though and hope I don't ruin the whole thing!

CHRISTMAS SURPRISE

For many years now the adults in our family have chosen not to give gifts to each other at Christmas time. The kids – well that’s a different matter – and they get spoiled rotten!

Yesterday we joined with family and friends at our son and daughter in law’s house where we had a scrumptious Christmas dinner with all the yummy trimmings. Lamb, beef, ham, baked vegetables, plum pudding, pavlova, fresh fruit salad and cream. Yummy!

Opening gifts from the tree is a special time of sharing too. Much excitement and piles of ripped paper as gifts from family members were opened. My two eldest grandies surprised me with a special gift – a beautiful ceramic bird bath. For a number of years now they have seen the beautiful rainbow lorikeets and native Noisy Miners arrive in our backyard to greedily eat grain bread and scoop from the tired old plastic plant pot saucer that holds their water. From today they have a brand new shining bird bath – well up off the ground – where I’m hoping they will soon come to drink and bathe. So far I haven’t seen any of them venture in – but being the cheeky, inquisitive and friendly birds they are, I don’t think it will be long!

CHRISTMAS IS COMING!

The lead up to Christmas this year seems to have been so much busier than other years. I really don’t know why but there seems to have been so many things to do, functions to attend, letters to write, cards to send, Christmas goodies to bake – the list goes on. Had ‘grandies’ to help put up the tree too – they loved helping – Grandma followed up putting decorations on that were’nt so secure – and the too high places.

Put a new set of ‘sparklies’ up outside under the eaves – this time a solar powered lot which are working well with enough sunshine each day to continue to power up the batteries.

While driving home last night (approx 35km) from a (rather cold) carols by candlelight combined bbq evening, DH and I commented to each other on the few homes we’d passed which had been lit and decorated for Christmas – compared to other Christmases. So when we drove into our street and did a circuit of our tiny area we were thrilled to see more Christmas lights (almost) than we had on the whole journey home! A couple in particular are magnificent displays and must have taken hours to prepare. There’s something about lights and decorated homes at Christmas that give me the ‘warm fuzzies’!

So with only 3 more sleeps before the ‘man in red’ arrives to deliver gifts to all good children, I was just thinking how grateful I am to be living in a country which still (despite pc) celebrates the coming of the Christ Child in the good old fashioned way of mangers, shepherds, Magi, gifts, stars – and yes, even trees and lights.

To any who may either deliberately visit or accidently stumble across this journal, my prayer for you is that you might have a safe, happy and peaceful Christmas. Blessings to you all!

HEIRLOOM HOMECOMING WIP and other things

Had a really busy but enjoyable weekend. BBQ lunch at North Avoca (NSW Central Coast) with 'Top of the Hill' friends. Rushed back to Sydney to change and head of to Artarmon for an engagement celebration of a nephew. Sunday went to church service and later to another BBQ lunch at Greystanes with friends for a casual bible study afternoon. A very satisfying weekend all round!

Work in progress - report. Heirloom Homecoming Sampler section 2 finished.

Coming up - hardanger. Not at all sure about how to do this - will need to seek some advice I think. Only attempted this stitching once before on a tiny bookmark. This will be a challenge for me.

Next pic should be the finished piece I hope but I'm really enjoying this one even though I am having to use a headband 'blow-fly' type of magnifying goggles over my regular glasses. Not sure how good that is for the eyes generally but will have to persist despite all my best efforts originally to do without it.

Maybe my next project should be a visit to the optometrist to order a new pair of stronger 'close up' glasses!

I'M HOPING

For the past few months I've had a really sore back, (nothing really new but worse than usual). After a couple of bouts of some kind of flu/virus which left me with an awful cough, my back pain was worse so eventually after rounds of doctors and xrays, an MRI scan was performed. This showed some nasty looking bulging discs which were pressing on a nerve. Treatment? Not much really - do nothing - or get jabbed in the back with some cortisone into the root nerve.

Decided nothing venture, nothing gain, I had this procedure done this week. At present I think it's 'settling in' - at least it's not worse than it was before. Apparently may take up to a week to do this 'settling' so I trusting that it does the trick.

No pictures this time - although strangely enough I got a couple of the procedure with the report - but I'm not putting those in this journal!

OUCH!!

Have you ever been bitten by a Rainbow Lorikeet? No? Until a couple of days ago neither had I, but I know now how it feels - OUCH!! It happened like this:

If you've read any of my earlier posts you will remember that I feed little lorikeets fairly regularly in my back yard. A couple of months ago a flock of the hated brown Indian Myna birds turned up with a couple of them eventually trying to nest in the next door neighbour's pergola. These two have stayed in the area and have continued to terrorise the native birds which roost in the nearby large gum trees.

A few days ago I noticed one myna bird 'dive-bombing' one of the lorikeets - actually making a run at it and pecking it's little green head. I made an attempt to shoo it away but it kept coming back however, wisely, the lorikeet took off and didn't come back. Two days ago the myna bird was 'at it' again. This time injuring the lorikeet it was attacking to the extent that it couldn't fly. I saw it in the yard again an hour or so later, looking sick and again being 'dive-bombed' by the myna. It began vomiting and just seemed to be rolling on its side, not being able to get up. I managed to get a box and thought I'd cover it over until it recovered a little. I threw an old tea towel over it (or at least I tried to get it over) but the breeze caught it and it only covered half of the bird. I made a dive for it myself hoping to pick it up and get it in the box but in the process it grabbed my finger and wouldn't let go. Perhaps it thought it would have a go at me instead of the myna! After physically having to prise it's beak off, I managed to get the box over it and I retreated to the house to clean up a bleeding finger. Oh did it sting. The bird had taken quite a chunk out of me!

Inside I washed it off and smothered it with an iodine-based antiseptic cream and wrapped it up. I can tell you though my heart was thumping after the experience. While the bird seemed to recover enough to get itself out of the box about 3 hours later, I'm left with a very sore finger - but I think I'll live to tell the tale. However my resolve is to try to hire an Indian Myna bird trap and get rid of these backyard pests once and for all!

FAMILY REUNION

It had been planned for more than 18 months and ended up with 22 of us gathering at a resort on the Gold Coast. A week spent with family like this is just such a pleasure and getting to know a couple of new family members made it even more special.

Being one of 5 boys who now live in two different countries it’s difficult for DH to get to see much of his brothers which is why the ‘reunion’ was decided upon so long ago. The first one we had was in 1990 to celebrate a special milestone birthday – this time we celebrated with another brother who was also having a similar birthday to remember and a great night to mark the occasion was enjoyed with the highlight being (apart from the beautiful birthday cake and choir), a game of pass the parcel, complete with well thought out descriptions for each lucky beneficiary!

Being together in the one resort meant that we were able to ‘visit’ with each family but still ‘do our own thing’ at other times. The whole group visit to Seaworld was definitely a good day with everyone getting to do and see what they wanted. After everyone watching the Dolphin Show together, we went our different ways to check out displays and rides to our hearts content. Meeting occasionally throughout the day was a time to discuss what fun it was on the Bermuda Triangle, roller coaster or Water Flume ride – or how I could have possibly have missed getting photos of it while being at best viewing spot!

Whether having BBQ’s, dinner at Sizzlers or just visiting each other’s unit to catch up, all were in agreement that this was a great way to spend time together – and we have resolved to do it all again in three years time!

Thanks for the great memories family!