Recent crafting success.

Present for a certain gorgeous boy on the other side of the world. Hopefully it is helping to keep the chill of Winter at bay.

Finally, with no further delay, the Christmas post.

I was the very fortunate recipient of a Christmas parcel from Ilene.

I have used her picture as a) my camera is still on strike, it will take images but refuses to download them and b) CK packed all the decs up before I remembered my 'new' phone has a whizzy camera. But you can see she made an amazing origami tree all decorated with bells and beads. I examined it hanging in the window several times over Christmas and I still can't figure out which bits are folded to where. A very clever piece of sewing magic.

Ilene also made a napkin holder, placing inside some Australian floral napkins which brought a smile to my Antipodean face as did the mahoosive bag of Snickers which I got to enjoy all to myself as no one else up here has the good taste I do ;-)

Do you see the lil angel beside the tree? This was the ornament I got to open before Christmas. And finally there was a calendar. An Australian calendar. Funny how it always works out that I get to open a calendar on the 25th. And this year I shall definitely be needing one to keep track of my Christmas present from CK.

What is it?

Oh, it would be a whole blog of its own given the chance but it will settle for an introductory post all to itself. Stay tuned.

GSOH is what keeps us sane, no?

Move over Hasselhoff. The Aussie farmers are doing it bigger and better!

With thanks to QuiltyGal.

1. Go to Google Maps.

2. Write Japan as your start point.

3. Write China as your destination (by car).

4. Go to 43rd point on your route.

5. Did it make you giggle or smile?

Wedding words part four.

'Then a young man said 'Speak to us of Friendship.' and He
replied 'Your friend is your needs answered. He is your field in
which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for
your peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the 'nay' in your
own mind nor do you withold the 'ay'.
And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart:
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all
expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.

Let your best be for your friend. If he must know the ebb of your
tide let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you shuld seek him with hours to
kill? Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and
sharing of pleasures.

For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.'

Extracts from 'The Prophet' by Kalhil Gibran.

Wedding words part three.

Above you are the stars

Below you are the stones.

As times does pass

Remember,

Like a star your love shouldbe constant.

Like a stone your love should be firm.
Be close, yet not too close.

Have patience each with the other

For storms will come but they will quickly go.

Be free in giving of affection and warmth.

Now and always.

F. Jay Beacon. (adapted)

Wedding words part two/Blogtober self portrait

This is the only wedding picture we have on display.

Adaption of a verse by Anatole France.

"It is not enough to love passionately, you must also love well. A passionate love is good, doubtless, but a beautiful love is better. May you have as much strength as gentleness; may it lack nothing,not even forbearance, and let even a little compassion be mingled with it... you are human, and because of this capable of much suffering. If then something of compassion does not enter into the feelings you have for one another, then these feelings will not always befit all the circumstances of your life together; they will be like festive robes that will not shield you from the wind and rain. We truly love only those that we love even in their weakness and in their poverty. To forbear, to forgive, to console, that alone is the science of love."

Despite my comment here this actually wasn't taken in Swan Hill.

This one makes me think of a McCubbin picture.

Wedding words part one.

CK pulled out all our wedding albums yesterday.

I looked at them instead of getting organised this morning.

I had forgotten how lovely a day that was.

I had forgotten the words we had read out.

I am glad I have found them again.

Without You. (an extract) By Adrian Henry.

Without you every day would be like going back to work after a holiday.
Without you I would probably feel happy and have more money and time and nothing to do with it.
Without you plastic flowers in shop windows would be just plastic flowers in shop windows.
Without you Clark Kent would forget to become Superman.
Without you there would be no colour in magic colouring books.
Without you it would be an offence punishable by a fine of up to $400 or two months imprisonment to be found in possession of curry powder.
Without you all the streets would be one-way the other way.
Without you they would forget to change the weather.
Without you blind men would sell unlucky heather.
Without you there would be
no landscapes/no stations/no houses/
no chip shops/no quiet villages/no seagulls
on beaches.no hopscoth on pavements/no
night/no day/there'd be no city no country.
Without you.

Vale Dame Joan Sutherland.

Truly a great Australian

OMG!!! A Finish. **edited**

Way back somewhere a million years ago I posted about all the WIPs I wanted to finish before end Dec 2010 and guess what? Tonight I managed to finish one! Yay.

So now Princess C-W has a brand new QUILT, completely finished as in bound and and quilted and everything.

(Of course she has actually been using it for over 12 months but - shhhhhhhhh- don't tell anyone).

(I was hoping no one would notice, I should have guessed someone would pick up on my error. Locket.)

that is all it takes?

I step away from the computer for four hours and next time I look the Australian government is collapsing? Does this mean I need watch a screen forever to forestall any other serious situations occurring?

Who knows but by the morning (GST +11) Australia may have its first female Prime Minister!

I'm leaving on a jet plane.

Perhaps.



My flight is due to take off in ten days time. Seems ages right?



Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.









I live in the UK. There may never be a flight from this island again.



Heathrow will become a mahoosive apartment complex and Gatwick a nature reserve.



Even if the plumes from Eyjafjallajokull settle in the next 24 hours there is still The Backlog (insert dramatic noise - ba ba ba baaaaah) to be dealt with.

Currently my position is ok.

Viz
I am not hanging around the airport waiting for a flight.
While I am headed home I am also at home.
There is no urgency for me to get anywhere.
I am not stuck in a country where I cannot understand the language (although ...).

However even if I assume planes are up and running by Monday there seems small chance those of us who managed to book a flight NOT in a week an unprounceable volcano exploded in Iceland will get onto our chosen planes.

As yet I haven't spoken with QANTAS and their homepage doesn't even mention an eruption let alone cancellations and delays. Way to go on handling modern media QANTAS in-house pr/marketing people.

For now I shall just sit quietly and practice knitting those blurry Polly Jean socks and be grateful I am not the friend stranded in Belfast. He has spent his week a) being bombed b) having a solitary birthday and c) his hire car got clamped.

Theoretically I am going home .... at least once.

If not up to five times. You see that is how many times this morning I have typed the required details of my flight times and airline, my address, my names and my bank details into the blurry STA website and each time it says

'processing your request'

we hit a wall and I am met with

'Error, you have timed out of this window, we cannot proceed.'

So on the off chance I do get 6 e-tickets into my inbox next time I log into my email who fancies changing their name by deedpoll and coming with me?

Silly bugger.

After checking my emails this morning I have spent hours trying to contact my mother. Blurry satellites, handset cradles with a mind of their own and slippery hands have prevented me doing more than leaving messages.

Giovanna rang mid-morning (late night her time) and we talked. At the corner of my sight I saw CK say something to both children and then they walked off. d/Boy want back to his new Dr. Who magazine, Pr C-W stood looking out the front window for several minutes. He didn't get up and go comfort her. With a 'what the hell were you thinking???' glare at him I motioned her over to sit on my lap.

And this is how my children found out Grandad had died.

His rationale apparently was he didn't want them gleaning half facts from my phonecall. And he thought they knew. And there was a full moon. And his suit didn't come back from the cleaners. There was an earthquake! It wasn't his fault!!!!!!!!!

So until I get home in late April there remains little I can do but feel incredibly ineffectual.

the tyranny of distance

There are times when I realise just how far away 'home' is. Now is one of them. He has never even flirted on the edges of my top 500 favourite people but Sylv loves him. These are tough times people. Hold my mother and her husband in your thoughts please.

Went to London to visit the Queen but apparently she doesn't see 'derros'

Have I mentioned there has been a 'Rainbow Swap' going on? Some groovey chick I know came up with a plan and loads of luvverly international girlies agreed to take part.

I was delighted when my swap partner turned out to be the truly luvverly and fabulous Charlie P up in The Pigeon Loft . Very thrilled it receive this parcel of rainbowy loveliness last week.

Turns out Young Miss P.L. is incredibly talented as well as clever and beautiful as not only was the button notepaper and matching brooch designed and created by her but so too the fabric!

There was a rainbow explosion of ribbon from a sweet little noodle box chosen by her own fair hand

but I think even a whizzkid such as she would not lay claim to handcrafting the Skittles!

Being a parent of such grace and virtue I even held 0ff scoffing them down until Pr.C-W and d/Boy were home from school to share.

Once the excitement of Rainbow Swapping had died down a bit (three sleeps!) it was time to head up to town to the Big Smoke. Maria Juanita Conchita Gonzales delivered me faithfully to the train station and sat quietly waiting my return.

As I arrived hours before everyone else I let my heart fly free and found myself on Piccadilly at Fortnum and Mason's.

Combination of bucketing rain and d/Boy's school backpack adorning my dog-walking coat gave me a decidedly bag-lady air but they are far too mannered at my beloved F&M to comment (that and there is no doorman).

I swooned from department to department, floor to floor. I delighted in the lighting, the layout, the colours and the products. I even delighted in the prices, knowing full well that some of what they sold was even worth the money.

Already uber-burdened I bought just a few trifles with which to tease my soul.

Single estate chocolate (which the nice man at Loop appreciated on Saturday), some funky marshmallows we taste-tested for pudding last night (lemon was our favourite, violet not so much) and an F&M tea towel which already has a repurpose mission attached to it.

Eventually my past caught up with me and Moog and Locket tracked me down. We mooched up and down Marylebone High Street, enjoying the big city lights. Some of us enjoyed a little more than just the lights!

Then it was off to the plush hotel where it turns out the font of all knowledge isn't actually experience and practice but Messrs Google and Youtube.

It all got too much and Lesley threw herself backwards in sheer frustration.

Never one to miss an opportunity Locket claimed the pillow for herself and just kept on going!

After a great night's sleep for some we packed up our bags, hailed a cab and visited Loop, Liberty and Covent Garden before I gave in and claimed my train seat home.

With a delighted air I spotted Maria Juanita Conchita Gonzales sitting under the street light where I had left her 36 hours earlier. Bags dumped on the passenger seat , into the driver's side and a quick flick of key. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Someone had left the lights on and my little hot tamale was completely drained of her usual bouncy energy. I rang CK to come get me. The phone died before I finished dialling. Taxi was waiting on the rank but a look in my wallet revealed about £2.53 in change. Our little station has NO phonebox. The nearest ATM is a hike.

There was a collection of young people waiting by the station (locked) door so ignoring the half-empty bottles of alcohol they held and explaining my predicament I asked if I could borrow a phone. As one tall blonde lad passed his mobile over, the statesque blonde girl beside him asked "Are you Australian?" in a very Strine accent.

"yes." I replied as I dialled.

"We are too." she finished. Another girl then asked where I was from in Australia. As I said 'Victoria' the phone was whipped from my hand. Holding out my hand I said 'Ah,you will be form New South Wales then..'

As CK answered I remember thinking 'God was I ever that young and stupid?' Sadly the answer was a resounding YES!!

So our story ends with the exhausted princess being driven home by a faithful coachman in his comfortable hansom cab all the way up the hill where her knight in shining armour waited with a ten pound note in his hand to claim his beautiful bride.

THE END

A visual record of why I am grinding my teeth. And some nice things too :-)

This week Princess C-W and Granma have been cutting the fabric we bought AGES ok for her to make a first quilt. The cutting was a bit boring so Granma finished it and then came the fun.

Sort of.

Let me start with the finished design (to date).

Pretty yes? It will measure 16"x36". One day. When it is all finished. Maybe more if I can talk her into a border ;-)

Wanna see why I am grinding my teeth?


My girl having a lovely time making pretty patterns.

Uhoh .... what is that I see sneaking into the background?

And bingo! Literally without a word this happened. He silently reached down and started putting them into place for her.

I had to grab my camera and document it b/c I knew y'all would commiserate.


Having debriefed now I can move on.


Is everyone aware this has been an Ashes Summer? It has not escaped the notice of all small boys in my house.

Who wins which match is largely irrelevant. The score is only of interest so he has something to strive for as he bowls at the wicket in the garden.

Note the crowd in Bay 13 roaring its approval?

In the last week his bowling technique improved enormously and tonight he even managed to spin a few of the balls he sent hurtling toward me.

All I can say is with a delivery like that The Ashes will be interesting whichever team he decides to play for.

As for the crowd at the MCG. Well she went and had a well-deserved rest.

a sneaky peek, two finishes and a Summer project.

i don;t know if anyone remembers the saga of me trying to knit a chippie scarf and the Twiggy knitting group, both some many months ago but one of the side-effects was an intensification of my Noro dislike.

However with the wool sitting upstairs getting progressively twiggier everytime I looked at it I finally knitted it up into this hat last Winter.

But I didn't actually follow a proper pattern, just did the requisite number of decreases once I thought there was enough height to the hat. There is some possibility I may have left it a little late to begin those decreases ;-)

Fortunately the friend I am gifting it to (same one who didn't get the scarf it was originally) needs it to cover her ears as well as keep her head warm so YAY for my over-zealous hat knitting technique!

The Lower 40 has seen more than abundant growth over the last few months and Princess Curly-Wurly was delighted to pick this mahoosive marrow from her side of the acreage.

She was posing as Atlas just so we could all see how heavy this beast of a vegetable is - 4.62 kgs!

And there you have my finishes, wanna see the Summer project?

Coming home from a dog walk last night d/Boy asked if he could paint his cricket bat. As I listening to him enumerate his design ideas I thought 'Why not?' So many times children hear grown-ups say 'No' or some platitude that amounts to the same thing - Yes dear, Maybe later, or Oh no, I don't think so.

What a gift to be able to say yes. Yes my darling, go and use your hands to create something of beauty. Yes my boy, take your clever idea and your interest in cricket and join them to make a project you will remember forever. Yes d/Boy use your imagination. So once home he got his bat and rubbed it down with sandpaper, checking several times to see what came next. Finally he was able to apply the filler.

This morning he took up the task again and sanded back the filler. His mind buzzing with ideas of how to execute his design. I shall keep you updated.

And finally my sneaky peek.....

...... oh Summer Swap object how I have loved making thee.

It all kicked off yesterday when The Ashes started!

At the toss England elected to bat.

So Australia broke out the spinners.

Both deep and wide cover were necessary but the fielders relished the challenge.

Despite hosting The Ashes for the first time the facilities were stunning.

Then it was in for tea.

Tribute to my mother

Last year we went off on TGTH. The major reason for squandering any inheritance our kids may have expected on airline tickets was Sylv was having a major birthday just a few days before Christmas.


Lots and lots of people coming to sing happy birthday and eat yummy food.
Lots and lots of people standing there waiting to hear speeches.
Lots and lots of people I had to face.

I finally got a copy of my notes today. Giovanna is at Sylv's and is able to work the computer. Something which Sylv is unable (unwilling) to do.

I missed Mothers' Day in Australia last week, mostly because it was two months ago here in the UK. So, even though she won't read it (see above note about tech capability), I am posting my notes of that speech to share why I think my mother is so fabulous.


'Delighted to be asked to speak, to be given the responsibility because being the youngest I NEVER normally get to do anything!!


Horror when I realized I would have to write the speech and stand before you all as well! Prevent brain freeze turned thoughts to what I could say. What I should say!!


Lists seemed perfect format and if I were any kind of daughter I would have come up with a birthday-ful list of adjectives but I can see the sparkly sitting there and so I shall limit the list to just groups of five.



Five adjectives

Elegant, glamorous, strict, naughty and compassionate.

Elegant – Not many looked as good as that in those fashions from the 1970s.

Glamorous – watching Mum dress in fabulous gowns to go to dinner dances and being smothered with lippy kisses.

Strict – few were so silly to actually take liberties but Mark Morris got out of a telling off by playing the piano on the premise that ‘music soothes the savage beast’.

Naughty – I sat through my confirmation mortified that Mum actually would flick the rolled up lifesaver foil at ‘RonaldOurBishop’ as she was threatening.

Compassionate – childhood memories of sitting in the car while Mum helped at the scene of some accident. One particular instance I sat and read my book as she assisted some older gentleman (somewhat the worse for drink) off the road and back to his home.


From my mother I learned what it is to be a strong woman.

To have the courage of my convictions.
That laughter is essential.
To be true to my moral compass
That it is okay to cry (and sometimes unstoppable – cheers Auntie Lil)
Survival alone is impossible and the help, guidance and assistance of family and friends are invaluable. (sadly many of whom cannot be present today)



Were I asked to choose one animal to represent her – it would be an eagle.

Fierce when necessary, provider and protector but able to soar the warm currents as they come.

For what is life without a sense of joy and passion? And those things are so often to be found in the creative. All of us here have benefited in some form – a hand knit jumper (CK being the wrong shape not withstanding), quilts, marmalades, some of her fabulous roses, her handiness with a pair of garden clippers or her wisdom and energy.



Almost certainly Mum did not realize that each time she shared those stories of family history, jokingly repeated the nuns’ words or issued parental commands that she was building the framework of my life. So to finish let me tell you


Five things my mother said
(subtitled – Five things I heard.)


She said 'Don’t wear patent leather shoes and a dress.'

I heard 'Have a sense of decency and self-esteem.'


She told me about 'the day she took on the Australian Army – and won!'

I heard 'If right is on your side don’t be afraid if the other guy is bigger.'


She said 'Just wait in the car; I’ll be back in a minute.'
I heard 'It is essential to make time for people in need.'


She said 'PUSH!'

I heard 'Sometimes you have to work through the pain to achieve your goal.'


She said 'If Jodie Williamson jumped off a cliff, would you do it?'

I heard 'Think for yourself and don’t be afraid to say no.'



So for all of that and so much more – Mum, I thank you and I love you.



Ladies and gentlemen please raise your glasses to the birthday girl – Sylv. '