The Williams sisters

Last night I went to bed early with a book. But the book put me to sleep and I awoke around 1.30 am with the light shining in my eyes. One of those little flashes went off in my brain saying, "tennis!"

So I wiled away the rest of the night watching tennis from Wimbledon. One Williams sister is a louder grunter than the other and succeeded in keeping me awake right through their game. Who else can remember when tennis was grunt-free?

Brother Peter sent out an email earlier in the week with new rules to promote interest in women's tennis. Very funny, Centre court is to be preserved for pretty Russian girls with pert buttocks, sylph-like maidens will make soft moaning noises when striking the ball.

I wonder where magnificent creatures like the Williams sisters would be banished to in this new order?

Much and all as I love watching them and admire their domination over the game, I do wish they weren't sisters. I find that makes it hard to choose which one I want to win.

And, honestly, if they continue to dominate like this it could get boring very soon.

How to Lose a Saturday morning

If there's one thing I could give lessons on, it's wasting time.

Honestly, I think that would be the one thing at which I could really, truly, excel. I might be able to "do" a few things but I bet I'd be much, much better at avoiding them with just the slightest distraction.

Today I managed to spend a whole morning trying to get a photo of a fantail. Why? I have no idea! A bit like Sir Ed Hilary and Mt Everest - "because it was there!"??

The cows that are due to calve are around my house today. Even after all these years I still love to witness a calf being born, so I keep checking to see if there is any action. And every time I look I am distracted by the fantails. They just love to accompany the herd. The cows disturb the little insects they eat when they munch through the grass, so they are desirable companions.

There is a delay on my camera between when I press the button and when the photo is taken, so I'm hopeless at action shots. And fantails flit around very quickly. But there is one photo I like.

The fantail in this shot is behind the twig but you can see where it is by following the cows eyes. And the cow in the background is keeping its eye on another one.

See, I'm not the only one distracted by the lovely little birds.

Friday My Town Shoot Out - Celebrate Life

What a great topic!

I've thought and thought about this but I always come back to children. For me there is no celebration of life that can compare with a child's enjoyment of doing what they do best.

The pleasure they find (and give) when they:

run

jump

splash

dance

sing


laugh

explore

experiment


learn new things

live without fear

and never grow up

Learn from Others

Learn from the mistakes of others.

You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.

Just capital

Just a quick little story.

I know my kids said all sorts of things I thought were cute when they were littlies. But I didn't record any of them and now the things I thought I'd never forget are gone.

I've been trying not to make the same mistakes with my grandkids. Trying to remember to write about the little things they say and do that amuse me.

Georgia is five and just loves school. She is very earnest in her efforts to be a "good girl", to please her teacher and her family. And she loves to apply her learning.

When she eats at my place she likes to use the tiny parfait fork I gave her to use when she was first learning to feed herself. Today, however, after her food was served she returned the little fork to the kitchen utensil drawer and announced, "I'm not going to use the little fork today, I need a capital fork."

The concentration of a 5 year old

Little lessons

When you start a new job I always think it takes a while before you get the hang of how it will work out, before you get the "feel" of the place. I'm glad I had a little time out between my most recent job and this new one or the leap from one to the other would have been enormous. An educational institution is very different from a small, struggling business. It's tempting to blurt out, "Do you know how tough it is out there in the real world? Do you not know how well off you are? Does the word recession mean nothing to you?"

And I'm adapting to the difference between working predominately with straight-talking men contractors and politically correct women. I can imagine the fun the contractors would have if they witnessed our little morning tea this morning to celebrate a team member's birthday.

The little party was held in the Health Centre so I suppose it was to be expected that blowing out candles would be a major issue, when there is the dreaded Swine Flu to be considered.

But one of the nurses had a resolution to the dilema. The same number of candles were put on the cake as the number of people present. Each person had to remove a candle from the cake, make a wish for the birthday girl, then blow the candle out.

Quaint idea, huh? It took a while, I had to rush off early because I had another appointment. It didn't dawn on me to allow more than half an hour for a morning tea.

And that's just one of a myriad of little things I have yet to learn.

Lovely visitors

I've been blogging for 5 months now. Doesn't seem that long. I wonder how many blogs of others I've looked at in that time. Safe to say hundreds at least. First of all I added many to my Bookmarks and visited them regularly. Over those few months, that list has changed a bit, some have been dropped off for one reason or another - and others have been added.

Funny thing is My Favourite Links hasn't changed since I first started. Until last week, that is, when I added my brother's sailing blog. I was lucky to be directed to Mike and Bev and they have inspired me, in different ways. I stumbled across Barry all by myself and he remains what I aspire to. The blogger whose writing ability I envy, the story teller I dream of becoming.

Just recently I have added myself as a Follower of a few blogs I particularly enjoy.

I very rarely leave comments on the blogs of those I visit. Adding myself as a Follower takes long enough to test my patience. Only those who have dial up internet in an area where the telephone lines haven't been upgraded since they were first installed will understand. It's slow at the best of times, worse when there has been rain and sometimes the connection just keeps dropping out, over and over, for no apparant reason until, in the interest of my mental health, I just have to walk away.

So, to leave a comment I must first decide what else I want to achieve today, how long do I have. I guess because I leave so few comments I get over excited when I see a comment on my blog.

Barry left a comment about my Friday Shoot-out. I have been touched by the master!

I know it's silly but I am so thrilled about it!!

Friday My Town Shoot Out - Colours of the Rainbow

How many colours are there in a rainbow?

I read there are anywhere from three to as many as several thousand.

It depends on who is counting and what we believe we see. It's a bit like life - what we expect is what we find.

I'd be happy to find all these colours

I remember "Richard of York got bushed in Victoria."
(interpretation bushed is Aussie slang for lost and Victoria is a state of Aust)
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet
or I made up a story

An old man sits deep in thought by his red wagon


gazing across at an orange flower


while the floodwaters creep to the yellow trees at the foot of the green hills
all under a blue sky

and thinks she's wasting her time looking for an indigo shot
because modern thinking scientists
(he's up with modern thinking)
do not accept indigo as a separate colour
because on the electromagnetic spectrum it's between about 420 and 450 nm in wavelength, placing it between blue and violet
and wavelengths shorter than about 450 nm are violet.
Not that she will understand a word of that!
Wonder if I should find some violets for her.


Nah, these will do and they are growing by the roadside.

Frazzled brain

New job equals frazzled brain. But there are at least twenty faces I can immediately put a name to, so I think I'm coping. And, honestly, the other staff are the most positive, friendliest bunch I've ever come across in a workplace. They all seem to enjoy their work. Even the ones you've "heard" that I'm Australian haven't been having a dig.

Seems like there is a very health grapevine! On Day One a lady asked did she detect a slight Aussie accent and by Day Three a man who stopped me in a corridor to introduce himself, is telling me how he loves "I Love a Sunburnt Countrty" - and is reciting it word for word! A Kiwi reciting an Aussie poem, now that was a new experience! Except he thought it was written by Banjo Patterson and I didn't want to appear a smart arse by telling him it was Dorothea McKellar.

This brain needs some time out!

The curtain raiser.

Gosh, but it does feel good to be working again! I think I'm going to have to lift my game when it comes to what I throw on my back to wear to work. No excuses of not wanting to ruin good clothes when I have to work out the back in the workshop with this job.

Seems like I might be a very busy girl in this job. One young woman was so glad I had started she threw her arms around me! Either the boss is totally disorganised and mucks this girl around or she has lots of work stored up that she wants me to do. Probably neither, I know nothing about the place yet but I can let my imagination run riot for now.

I think it will be to my benefit that the boss lady is in America at the moment so I'm spending a day within each of the departments that report to her.

I'm lucky to have the opportunity to get to know some of the players before the main game starts. In footy speak, this week is the curtain raiser!

Oh, almost forgot. Just so you can appreciate how simple and uncomplicated my life is. Last night as I was drifting off to dreamland I was jolted awake by the realisation that I had spelt sashay incorrectly in yesterday's post. What was I thinking?

You'd think I had more important things to worry about, wouldn't you?

When Evening Shadows Fall

Today started with a heavy frost, then turned into one of those absolute crackers of a day that typically follows a frost. Now the sun is setting and I'm reminded of that old song, "When Evening Shadows Fall". I found a 1936 version by a Mrs Jimmie Rodgers on You Tube. Mrs Jimmie Rodgers was no lark! But the qauint, nostalgic old song suits my mood.

Because I'm starting my new job tomorrow, today I felt compelled to finish all the sewing projects I've started and not finished, so I've been hunched over the sewing machine all day. Tomorrow I'm going to sachet forth (does anyone sachet forth these days?) with a new bag, complete with matching glasses case and makeup bag. I might hand sew a few sparklies on the glasses case tonight.

I was surprised to get so much usable material from the an jacket of one of my daughters. But forgot about the handles until it came time to add them and discovered I only had two strips anywhere near long enough and they were from the front opening. Had to remove the buttons from one strip and there are button holes on the other but that doesn't bother me.

So tomorrow I join the staff at the polytechnic in town. Still can't quite believe that someone has given me a job at 64! Wish me luck!!

My town Friday Shoot Out - Metal

I wonder if anyone thought of M for Metal when they were doing last week's Friday Shoot-out? Didn't enter my mind, I must admit.

When I hear the word "metal" the first thing I think of is our metal road. My Aussie relatives sometimes look a bit puzzled when I refer to living on a metal road. Here, where we have such a high annual rainfall, if it weren't for the metal the councils spread over our roads, we would go nowhere whenever it rains. The metal compacts to give us a hard surface on the roads. It's a proper B to drive on just after the metal has been applied and its sitting loosely on the surface. It's not usual to find myself muttering "Oops, nearly got caught in the loose metal."

And I all too clearly remember number one son explaining how he came to wreck one of our cars - "I went a bit wide on the corner and got caught in the loose metal." Actually I think the senior daughter and younger son also uttered those very same words. Kids who learn to drive on metal drive nearly always come undone somewhere along the line but by the time they have learnt to control a car on a metal road, they are usually good drivers.

A pile of metal beside the road awaiting application

Our metal covered road as it twists and turns on its way to the farm


Road side adornments - there are three of these along the road today.
And none of them is the one I'm missing from my car!


Beside the road are the farmers' letter boxes, this being the standard model
(raise the red flag if you want the mail man to pick up a letter to be posted).

I had to resort to the dictionary for a definition of metal. Think I am safe in putting tin and steel into this category.

Modern steel cattle yards

As I drive around my local area I see the occasional old tin shed, some still in use,
others that have outlived their usefulness.
This one was full of hay for the stock.

And then there are the more frequent newer models -
(more serviceable but lacking the character, I think).

I cross the solid steel railway lines, once over a level crossing

and via an overbridge.

At the shopping centre steel is used for the bike racks


and for a place to sit a while


Take a couple of old metal chairs, pain them a pretty colour and you have a nice spot in the early morning sun.

Thank you, Saint Parascheva

At last it is done. I wish, oh how I wish, that I felt hugely gratified by having met the challenge. Instead I just feel relief that it is finished.

Bev, the quilting evangelist, the zealous advocate of all things quilting, challenged her sister, Chris and me to make a raggy quilt. Neither Chris nor I knew what a raggy quilt was but Bev, with the patience of a true reformer, explained it to us and sent us instructions.

Some of my siblings have loads of patience, some have little to none. That gene is very random. My sisters have it in spades, I missed the boat completely. Trish is a fantastic seamstress, crafts amazing creations, including beautiful quilts. Along with the patience she has artistic flair, another gene that passed me by. My sewing projects are purely practical and I like them to progress quickly, to see a result without hours and hours of input. Quick, if not instant gratification is more my thing.

So why did I say yeah, OK, I'll give it a go? I honestly don't know because it has tested me sorely. More than ever before I admire those who produce those handcrafted works of art. Quilting truly is an artform.

So here's my raggy quilt, Bev. I love the little cushion, that was quick and easy. I plan to make another three and give one to each of my grand-daughters. I think they will like them.

When 5 year old Georgia was at my place a couple of days ago I was bringing the quilt in off the clothesline and said to her, "Do you like the little blanket I made?" She looked at it quizzically and said, "Don't you mean quilt?" How can a five year old know about these things?

I am now giving thanks to both Saint Anne and Saint Parascheva. Someone really should sort out which one is the patron saint of sewing. Maybe Saint Anne could help with the humble sort of sewing I do and Saint Parascheva could provide assistance to the more exotic quilters.