Say no more...

A Loss

A beautiful person left us yesterday. 

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. 

Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

---George S. Patton, Jr.

One of my beautiful neices is constantly showing me beautiful photos. I want beautiful photos too, so I bit the bullet and asked her how she does it?

The answer is

Instagram

Considering that this is my first pic and I couldn't be bothered getting up of my fat little bottom to look for a suitable pic to take, this is pretty cute... There's all different kinds of effects you can get... turns a rather gnarly pic into something a bit... quirky... yeah, I like it.

It's about time...

to start blogging again. More than one person in my life has mentioned that I need to do it again. It is a different way of looking at life when I am blogging. Quite often those little moments get lost, unless I am blogging and then I think "This is bloggable! By golly gosh it is!"

Besides which, the children are pretty much refusing to read and so if I blog then they read it and that counts as reading hey? The Little Man loves to read about himself and his adventures and positive attributes, and The Nearly Teenager just checks it out to make sure I haven't said anything too harmful to his reputation.

Ha! To be a kid again!

So this morning's pic is this beautiful pumpkin come gourd come whatever it is... I Bought it at the markets about a month ago and it has been on the bench for so long, I have been failing to see it. I had no idea really what would be on the inside, thinking perhaps something like a marrow, but no! look at it! Gorgeous. Would make a perfect house for a mouse, but even better, it is tonight's dinner! Pumpkin soup! Delish!

I have had so much happen lately. I forgot to blog that I had a student staying with us. I had two but one moved out. Together they were wonderful, like brothers and I am sure they spoke their own language (other than Samoan). Such a madcap pair, had us all in stitches so many times... very entertaining and enlightening for me as one day I will have boys their age to contend with. (they are 17, nearly 18). So anyway, I am wondering what The Footballer will say when he finds out we are having pumpkin soup for dinner?

"Where's the meat?" I can hear faintly, then louder, louder, louder... Perhaps I should BBQ a steak as well...

who's that?

Who is that furry little thing curled up under my desk? I stretched out my foot and what do I touch but the soft little head of RubyRoo.

She is fast asleep, exhausted from the drama which unfolded this morning: both of them decided to roll in something disgusting in the garden and then come inside and share the aroma. It was mind blowingly putrid. Into the bath, both of them, the kids threw the towel from the doorway, wouldn't even come close enough to pass the towels to me... and there I was, in the thick the the fuggiest fug ever!

Bathtime is always stressful when your mother is washing off your most favourite perfume!

The Challenge of Rudolf Steiner - Trailer from Jonathan Stedall on Vimeo.

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"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."

— Andy Warhol

mum?

Is Mr Hall short because he's still so young, or is he short because he's short?

Growing

The chicks are growing so fast... since this photo was taken, they have grown so much more... They wake me in the morning with their chirruping. It is so loud, they want their breakfast, and they can fly really well? Strange, the first chooks I have had that can actually fly... We shall see what happens with that... Surfy Murfy is laying again, just one little egg every 2-3 days which is wonderful seeing as though the vet said she would never lay again after her injuries. So, after Christmas sometime, we will be getting 3-4 eggs a day... how exciting...

And another visitor

The other night we had a huge storm and it was so wonderful to hear a great dirty frog croaking in one of the down pipes. It is such an old fashioned sound for me now, the kids didn't know what it was, I had to tell them and they were so excited. He came out the next day and sat on the watering can all day. We gave him little showers on and off through the day, and he just loved it... Haven't seen him again... I wonder if he is the one who lived in the gate post at the front?

My paper daisies! Aren't they gorgeous... looks at the brilliant colour!

Nasty Mummy

This year I decided that I would actually put my foot down (and leave it down!) and so I told the kids that they would not be able to go Trick or Treating this year! The last three years somehow they have talked me into allowing them to go. The final straw came last year when they returned home with approx 1.5kg EACH of lollies! (Yes, I weighed them... I was so horrified at how much they had!!!) Needless to say that half of them got thrown out as they were unwrapped and unsealed. Who knows what could have been put in them...

So I told them that this year instead they would prepare the treats for the children who did come knocking and they would be the GIVERS rather than the TAKERS. They sat and made these little treat pockets and all was well... 

The Big Man left with Mr Purple for their usual Monday night football game and The Little Man was left to wait patiently for the hoards of children coming down the street.... in his wig of course.

After about an hour of this, giving and not getting, he started to get the cranks... totally disowned me and started to get rude about the whole thing... Imagine his horror when I dish up gnocchi (his second favourite, yes I'm a crawler, but with broad beans, asparagus, zucchini and onion!) I may as well have told him that there would be no lollies for a year by the look on his face. He picked out all the gnocchi, ate nothing else and did not even beg for something else to fill the hole... Oh dear!

Of course, today when I emptied his lunch box I found a Kit Kat wrapper. "Where did you get that?" "Oh Maddie gave it to me because I didn't go trick or treating." I can just see it, he will be playing that line for weeks to come, trying to weasel lollies out of all the kids... blasted lollies, who invented them?

Enter Detective Peter

Yes indeed, enter Detective Peter. The Little Man is now on the hunt constantly and particularly looking for things that his dastardly brother is doing wrong. Then he runs (or sneaks) to me and tells me about it. Hmmmm.... not quite right Detective!

This morning Detective Peter came to me about The Big Man playing his iPod instead of being in the shower. Hmmm... "I'm so surprised he didn't hear my footprints Mum!"

The Transistor Radio

I thought I had it all sussed. I had confiscated the iPod, the MP3 player, and something else (cant remember) I thought it would be fine. He cannot entertain himself in there unless he plays with his lego or such. Imagine my surprise when I go into his room after school drop off and find his transistor radio all tucked up in bed. His old Pa gave it to him for a birthday or something and even though the aerial is broken,  he just loves it... So very cute, this little man.

Faeries purses

When I was a little girl I always thought that these dear little heart shaped seed pods were actually faerie purses... I thought that the faeries picked one from the bush and used the seeds inside as money. I haven't seen any of them for years and years, and then this little one popped up amongst my strawberries.

Another visitor!

Here is Kevin. Kevin Kookaburra. He has become a recent visitor since he has realised that there are 35+ rats in these here cages he is sitting on... He also has his eye on the baby chicken cage just across the way behind him... He fills in his day looking in the cages perched on top. I guess he is trying to figure out how he can get to them... At the moment 30 of the 35 are still peanut and brazil nut size, imagine what he will do when they all start running around in there ten to the dozen.. which they do actually. It is so funny to watch, in every batch there is always a crazy dude who tears around running on the walls, fighting with the others, setting the place on fire... Anyway, good luck Kevin, but I need to to remind you that these little ratskis are Juliet's dinner not yours!

Every so often

a lady needs some flowers.

Sometimes I get the occasional bloom plucked from a nearby garden... tsk tsk... Other times I get huge branches of "It was wild mum!" bouganvillea to decorate my entire wall with... and other times it is just nice to spend half an hour in a beautiful florist shop, admiring and smelling and touching and deciding what it is that I would like today. This is where I go mostly, but their website is not nearly so beautiful as the shop... they really should do something about that...

Invariably, someone will ask... "Oh, who gave you flowers?" like it might be something exciting that they missed out on.

"ME!" I proudly say. I bought them for me.

I spy with my little eye

My vegie garden has made a comeback. I just woke up one morning and thought "That's it! It's time to get a growin'.!

I planted lettuce, rainbow chard, rocket, basil, mint, comfrey (for the chooks apparently), tomatoes, pumpkin, paper daisies (for the boys... we have been seeing them around lately and they are fascinated with them), thyme, beans, parsley, zucchinis and strawberries.

The lettuce, chard and rocket have been feeding us for about 2 months now, even with the odd bunch or two going to friends. There is nothing quite so wonderful as being able to share the bounty from your harvest! Sounds so lame... but I love it. 

The tomatoes are growing taller and taller and are just flowering up now. Once random little one that came up from last year in my basil pot is sporting lovely red fruit already. Every time I see them still there I am amazed that the little men haven't come along and gobbled them up, nothing like a tomato warm from the sun. They just taste different that way.

The paper daisies tried ever so hard to pop their heads up to the sun, but the enormous pumpkin leaves got in the way. They stand about a metre tall and are huge, bigger than dinner plates. I have never seen a pumpkin like it, but thought I would persist... mini pumpkins... 

Unfortunately every pumpkin that I picked had rotted through and fell apart in my hands... so disappointing. I had visions of baking them whole stuffed with yummy things like pine nuts and ricotta. So, the decision is made – Out come the pumpkins on the weekend and in go some peas. I have been pondering whether or not to try broad beans... a good crop would fill the freezer and the boys do so love to peel those thick thick skins off... Personally they remind me of big cattle ticks... but the inside so yummy and green...

When mum is out

What do baby chickens do when Mother is out?

Oh yes, hey escape the box they are in, causing her to have a heart attack when she comes home to find them missing. But not for long... chirruping like mad, I found them...

A visitor...

The other day the dogs were barking madly out the front. I yelled to make them stop, but it didn't work. They kept at it until finally I went out to see what the trouble was. This fellow... (can you see him, right down the bottom there, clinging on for dear life...)

had been travelling alone the ground, they had spotted him and decided to take a sniff. Of course once he retreated into his little caravan, they wanted him to come back out! I think I arrived at just the right time as they were starting to paw his beautiful house.

I ran to get my camera... I have never seen one this big... he is huge!

Camp

The smile is bigger than big. Trying to contain The Little Man and his excitement last night and this morning has proved a task too big for me. I have decided to just let it run its course. And... of course it is all coming to a head as The Big Man and The Little Man connect (as I write I can hear "No. This is a good shirt!""Oh yeah, well this is is a good wall!" All I have to do is endure another 15 minutes and then we can go to school and wait there with the other 100+ excited children. Heaven help the teachers!

But in all honesty he is SO EXCITED. It is his first camp. And after the fiasco of his FIRST birthday party, the prospect of this FIRST camp is too much for him. Please let him get to Wednesday afternoon with no accidents, no major friendship bust ups and just a little sleep!

The Present

Note to self: Boats like this can be quite noisy at 6am in the morning.

And, welcome to the family Enad and Retrop. Those of you who know us will surely be able to work out how these particular names were chosen... the story of Esio Trot should help you.

The party!

I am not much of a party or cake kind of person. A birthday is just another day really. which is quite horrible when it comes to children. I should be celebrating their years in a wonderful motherly way... tsk tsk... I will not say it out loud, but perhaps I am one of those bad mothers...?

Anyway, thought I would do the right thing, and on his 10th birthday, give him a party with 10 boys... that seems apt. Great idea Mum... Could have left it at that... yep... could have, but didn't. I turned it into a sleepover!

Uh huh! A sleepover!

(Shh... it was actually easy. The boys whom I invited were all gorgeous boys who knew their manners and it was a breeze.... kinda..)

Anyway. The plan was to all go to the local pool for a splash, enjoy the blow up slide and then settle down with a picnic dinner to watch an outdoor movie. Doesn't that sound great? I know, and the adults I had enlisted brought dip and bickies and brie and I think a bottle of red may even have been smuggled in later (not that we ever got to it...)

The children had a wonderful time, they were all blue around the nose and mouth, shivering like no tomorrow (they must have really ached the next day from all that shivering, I know I would have!). I did a final head count and sent them off to have a hot shower before joining us on the mat for a roll-up and drink, chippies, lollies all that good stuff.

Everyone was sorting out "I don't have drink yet! Mum? Jack needs a popper! I don't like this, you can have it... etc etc etc" when all of a sudden

OMG! It is all a blur after that for about 5 minutes... there was noise and people and moving and "OW!" and "OUCH" until finally the boys emerged one by one nursing their bumps and grazes, until... someone told me The Little Man was hurt. 

Mother Mode kicked in so fast! Poor Little Man... come to Mama, and then the blood started to flow and flow and flow... 

Long long story short... thankfully only My Little Man was hurt, none of the other 9 were seriously injured. There was much hysteria for a while, and then the excitement kicked in. My lovely adult helpers packed up that picnic site in lightning speed, ferried them all back to my place, fed them up, chipped them, lollied them, and plonked them in front a movie... what a godsend they were. I can never thank them enough.

And the result of it all... 7 stitches. Nasty nasty nasty. But he was sooooo incredibly brave and level headed the whole time... in fact kept reassuring me that it was ok. What a darling little man. His brother was quite concerned too which was nice to see. (But not so concerned that he couldn't hoover down a free hot chocolate and sausage sizzle!)

The cake was cut at 10.10pm, with 10 candles and 10 boys gathered around. They all thought that was soooo amazing! 10.10pm! What are the chances?! 

I really wanted to just say "Hey fellas, actually... more amazing is what are the chances of a whopping big branch falling on you at the first birthday party you ever had!?"

All good now. He's a star at school. He's a star at home and he is double digits now! What a Man!

It's all about me today!!!!

It is The Little Man's birthday today. He is 10 years old. Cannot believe that 10 years have passed. He is such a beautiful boy.  He is running around the house singing very loudly:

Then just in case the neighbours did not hear, he opened the door near their house and yelled it again!

He is soooo excited. It has been such a build up for him... well... kind of. Let me see if I can recall it all... (like I could forget!!)

Eggs

Only My Little Man would appreciate the aroma of a curried egg sandwich!

This morning he said to me as he put it in his school bag: "I just love having egg sandwiches! Every time I go near my bag I can smell that beautiful egg smell! I love it!"

The Big Man looked on in distaste as he gingerly put his lunch bag into his school bag, knowing that he will probably be taunted all day by his mates... 

Remember Roxy?

Roxy was the dear little chicken that started this whole blog! Her photo was on the very first post... I owe it all to her really...

Well, anyway, she passed away a few weeks ago. She was attacked by a UFO... probably an eagle, but can't confirm. My mother did everything she could to save her (bless her little soul). She now rests in mum's front yard in a quiet spot near the fence. Dear little Roxy...

Do you remember her? She was the chicken who was attacked by Harry (the soon to be English dog). He bit off her parson's nose and after much attention, care and love, she made a full recovery and even went on to lay eggs!

Now we are caring for Surfy Murphy, in the same manner as we did Roxy... but that is another story...

Need to get my mojo back!

A mere 10 posts this year and it is July. Shocking.

So much for all my great ideas and new years resolutions!

I have just spent time reading back over some of the posts and read things that I don't recall... Imagine what I have lost now in the last 6 months because I did not write them down...

My dementia is setting in well now...

I've been sewing again

I made this bag for a very pretty lady. It is a beautiful dark green linen, lined with a floral voile.

This bag was made for a lady who loves autumn colours. It is made out of sari silk and silk georgette. It is very pretty, but I think will be better as it ages. I have been experimenting with my own 'label' and sewing that in to things I make for other people... I think it looks cute...

The Elderly Part II

Our second visit was to Nana Spot. Sitting on her bed with the door shut, she had busy in the bathroom 'tidying up'. We celebrated her 90th in January this year. She was so excited to see the two cakes each with 45 candles... what a sight. That's her there, all happy and in a tizz.

She remembered 'the boy' and remarked many times on his beautiful teeth, how tall he was, who has brown eyes in the family, what a good looking boy. He would answer with more gusto than usual and then it would start again... what beautiful teeth you have... ooh and look how tall he is mum, nearly as tall as you, next year mum, next year he'll be taller than you.... where did those brown eyes come from... oh, the daddy... hmm... hasn't he got beautiful teeth....

and so it went on. We hugged, I tidied up the bathroom as there was quite a bit of stuff out of the cupboard, and went on our way, us to our next port of call, she back to bed, very happy, the visitors having made her day.

As we went to the car The Big Man remarked on how cute she was, how she kept repeating herself, starting with the questions, how often do you visit them all mum? Does she always know it is you? How many times did she say my teeth were beautiful? Do you think they are beautiful? Are they really?

And he still had a peaceful happy smile on his face.

The Elderly Part I

It was a long time ago that my then 85 year old grandmother TOLD my two young sons to please refrain from calling her OLD, to refer to her as ELDERLY in future.

Since that day, neither of them have called her old. They have respected it completely. They are still not fussed on 'doing the visits' as we call it. Three elderly ladies, all in a row. If they have tricked me into thinking they are sick and stay home from school, to suddenly feel better an hour after, then we 'do the visits'.

Today we did the visits but it was different. The Big Man and I went first to Grand Nana... very deep into her dementia, has lost all of her vocab and is very still. But her little eyes light up when she sees anyone, me too so that is nice. The man next to her took a liking to my arm and continued to rub and kiss it as I talked to Grand Nana. The Big Man just watched in silence as I allowed this to happen, then turned, kissed the gentleman on the cheek as I removed my arm from his grasp.

On the way out we came across Mister Jim. I asked him to tell The Big Man how old he was.

"Seventy!" he says, puffing his chest out with pride.
"WOW" says The Big Man with obvious admiration.
"Mister Jim, you are 70 plus....?" I prompt him, knowing that he is EXTREMELY proud of his age.
Mister Jim raised himself to his full height in the chair, making his cardy to move, and allowing us a peek at his suspenders holding his trousers up... "I am 98! Come here boy and shake the hand of a 98 year old!"
The Big Man shook his hand, a broad grin crossing his face, he broke into a really big smile, a rarity in The Big Man.

RRR, the house dog skits around the hallway wanting to play. It is quiet and peaceful, but Mister Jim has just given this young man a moment... man to man.

I love watching it. It made me smile... I think it was just what he needed.

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

In class today and we were discussing the Kubler Ross grief cycle and we then talked about the fact that Kubler Ross is a woman etc, and then I stumble upon this which is very very beautiful. I found it on the just mentioned: The Little Big Company... not sure where she found it... but very lovely and so apt for me at the moment.

Camping

Had a great time camping last weekend. Arrived just on dark, set up and got children into bed after dinner and campfire, and then hit the sack ourselves. Imagine the next morning to wake and find ourselves at the base of a most majestic mountain. So beautiful. Not a cloud in the sky, such a beautiful day.

Kids went off adventuring at sun up, littles one way, bigs the other, returning regularly to give us updates on the hideouts they had found.

Then off to Moogerah Dam to enjoy some boating with friends... nothing better for a boy (four in fact) than being towed behind a tinny on a boogie board. Heaven on a rope. T and I relaxed under this tree, knitting possum pouches for charity, watching the comings and goings of this very busy place.

It was absolutely idyllic. The sun shone across the water like this all day, obviously I chose the right place to sit.  It sparkled and shone all day, until finally it was too bright to look at as the sun set lower in the sky.

Then, as we made to leave, the traffic banked up and we had to wait a half hour or so as a rescue helicopter had come to the rescue of a young girl injured on the lake. Imagine the excitement for the boys to see the whole road blocked by a helicopter.

The crowds were thick, the excitement was rife, every little boys dream, except for... 

rock jumping into mountain pools... that's every little boys dream too...

And then, when they got out it was icy cold and their lips were blue and so onto a hot rock in the sun they went to try and gather some warmth from the sun, just like a lizard...

Hmmm... what else was there to do... oh yes, there was the fire lighting competition. Littles versus Bigs. Littles Won! YEAY! The only tinder they were allowed was from the bush itself and they only had a flint to work with. Took a lot of hard work and hunting but finally they found some old dried out thistle heads with seed fibres in it and voila! FIRE!

So exciting for all of us... we all want our own flints now for Christmas.

Look at this...!

I stumbled upon this gorgeous boot home. 

It is the winner of a challenge... think I might enter the net challenge which is up in June.

"We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another."

As you eat your bacon... think about it.

More videos from Animals Australia

Rosy / Fable

I am missing her more lately. I would so love to see her little face at my feet... pushing through that back door doggy door, rubbing that nose all over me in love...

Sometimes I really wish that I had kept her and persisted. But it was not the right time. She is happy.
Just look at her... Beautiful little thing....

My Little Men

What do little boys do while their mother is away?