Saturday 30 August 2008

Sunday Scribblings "Somewhere"

G'Day,
The Sunday Scribblings prompt this week is "Somewhere"
Well as you might know if you have been in here before and know me. I recently had what is commonly known as a sea change. I moved to Canberra on 19th of March this year. And yes it has been a big change.
I had often watched others become jaded by their circumstances or surroundings and thought of how they were looking for a promised land. A place where things are going to be better. A place where their unhappiness will change to contentment. A place where a new start will give them, whatever they desire. Yeah well! I never believed that. I thought that they were dreaming. You will still have your bills, work, etc, etc, etc.

Somewhere over the rainbow,
Way up high,
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a Lullaby.

One day I'll wish upon a star
and wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where flowers bloom like lemon drops
away above the chimney tops
that's where you'll find me

Not complete I know, but everyone must know this song all around the world.
I have seen friends move way only to miss what they had, and the people they knew.
Yes I know I have been doing that lately.
But I have also been learning and growing .
I have been testing my driving skills in the city traffic and leading on from that, my memory skills as I find my way around. A skill I have not needed for quite some time. My boss jokes with me that I need a sat nav. thingy but I can read a map better than I handle technology. ;) I only got badly lost once. Every other time I could get back to where I wanted by just taking a few turns. "The scenic route" He he.
I have had to learn to speak to and relate to new people and I am handling that O.K. which is something I have always been shy of. (Maybe it is easier if you don't know them.)
My family members are O.K. I think. My son is moving forwards out of his depression and he is progressing through things that he would not have dreamed he could do before moving here, so that is the most important and best thing to come from the move. Pete always seems to do well and thrives with new people and situations. Mum feels the cold but that is temporary and will soon improve. She loves the shopping and the wildlife that comes into our yard. We have access to goods and services and opportunities that were not available to us easily where we were before.
Though somewhere there was a house that was nearly paid off and it had a beloved garden and a pottery shed. There was a long term job where I knew the same people, for the longest I have known anyone all my life, except for family members. And I miss that. But I will move on and re invent myself. Scorpios are supposed to be able to do that aren't they? I will change and adjust and imagine and dream up a whole new future. Different from the one I had imagined a few months ago. There is an endless stream of choice to be tried out in what is left to be lived of this life. Money allowing.
One of my personal motto's is "You can't go back for anything". No matter how much you might have wanted you can only go forwards. To somewhere.

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Today Mum, Michael and I went for a drive to Bateman's Bay on the lovely south coast, around 2 hrs drive from here. Depending on how madly you can drive down the brown mountain, he, he. I am not that brave.
We took Rufus with us and he loved his run on the beach at South Durras. We walked for a couple of miles probably about 3/4 the length of the beach, and then we had to come back. A good work out for my little fat legs. The sand was firm and easy to walk along. It always surprises me how walking in such lovely places as the beach or along a bush track doesn't seem very far compared to walking the same distance along the streets. It was sunny when we arrived but the wind was cold and clouds soon came across. We took a fold up chair and Mum sat and waited for us, but soon retreated to the relative shelter of the car park and car. She didn't really mind though and was quite happy. She watched some rabbits rummaging through the coastal undergrowth and when Rufus came up off the beach he caught their scent and took off following it, we lost track of him for a minute or two, lucky he is a fairly obedient doggy and came back when he was called.
Michael drove as far as Braidwood on the way there and I drove for the rest of the way. I thought the steep, windy mountain roads down the escarpment would be a bit too challenging for him and he was tired from concentrating so hard from his part of the driving. But it is nice to think that he will soon have his licence and all of the driving won't fall to me when we go somewhere together.
Ever since the move though, Rufus gets nervous and gets a bit sicky which is not so nice if you are in the car with him. But that never stops him from wanting to come everywhere with us. And why shouldn't he.
O.k. that is all for this post.
Gettin' late.
Good night.
I will be back to read more of the Sunday Scribblings tomorrow.
Love Linda.

Monday 25 August 2008

Sunday Scribblings.

G'Day,
The Sunday Scribblings prompt for this week is "How I met..."
The first thing I thought of was Pete, my husband and partner in life and then thought that is so predictable. The next predictable thing was my Kids then I decided on Rufus.
You can see a picture of Rufus if you scroll down to my last post, smelling the first Daffodil in my yard to bloom.
One day we were having a luncheon at work, in Junee Hospital, I think someone was leaving . We used to each take a dish to share . Anyway, one of the nurses, Shane, came in and put up a notice on the board,"Puppies for Sale". I was thinking about my poor old doggies getting older and also my son David being by himself as he had not long left home and his impending birthday, so I thought, I would ask about them. They were Jack Russel pups, eight weeks old bred by an old lady Shane knew in Temora. There were 2 girls and one boy. Shane told me the old lady lived by herself and had both parents which she treated like her babies. The parents were good little dogs, well trained and maybe a bit on the protective side but that was how she wanted them. I sat for a while and ummed and ahhed a bit then nervously said "Can I have the boy one?"
About a week went by and I paid the $70 asked for and Shane bought a small cardboard box to work with Rufus in it. He was starting on the afternoon shift at 2.30 and I was on the early shift finishing at 3.30 so there wasn't much of a wait before I took him home. Poor little doggie! He was terrified, huddled in a box where he had dirtied and vomited and was a real mess. Needless to say the rest of that afternoon was a dead loss for work . I cleaned him up and chucked away the dirty box for a clean one. Then decided that some diversional therapy might be in order. I took him around to the long term residents to show him off. Everybody Oohed and ahhed over him but when I took him into C unit I couldn't get him off one of the old ladies there. Jean Hulm snuggled up the poor little fellow and settled him down, so I asked her could she look after him until my home time. She gladly agreed. After that Jean used to ask about him for quite a while but with her confused mind she soon forgot.
When I got him home he seemed to settle in and accept that he was alright now. He introduced himself to the kitten we had, and a game of chases soon began The kitten, who knew the lay out of the room better than him, got the better of the situation. Peter my husband took a liking to him straight away and for the few days that we had him before David's birthday, Rufus's favourite place was asleep on the lounge chair with Peter after work. Our other dogs, Bart and Fred sniffed him and judged him as no threat being so tiny and then pretty well ignored him. Until he came near their food bowls, as like all puppies when you first take them home remember from being part of a litter of hungry brothers and sisters, to get a feed you get in quick. On the weekend we took him over to Wagga and gave him to David.
David worked all day and soon decided that he didn't have the time to train or look after and clean up after a pup so he came back to us. After some sad soul searching from David.
He was actually then given to my other son Michael but soon the ownership reverted to Pete who formed a special bond with him. Now days his ownership is more of a household affair. He plays with Mike, he sleeps and cuddles with me and walks with Peter and begs food tidbits off Mum. He follows us all around and is never more than a few steps behind any one of us.
Rufus is a part of our family. He replaced our old doggies when they went to heaven from old age and is now a special friend and entertainment for us all. If he lives to be as old as our other dogs he will be around for another 14 years at least, they were both 16 when they died.
When Rufus was tiny and we were training him to the lead we would take him for walks and he would lay down and want to be carried, but as he matured he discovered the joy of sniffing where the other doggies had been by, and also learned where all the other doggies lived on the way to and from the shops and stirred them all up on the way past. Peter was so funny with him, a surprise to me because he never took much notice of any of the other pets we have had over the years . He even refers to himself as Daddy when he talks to Rufus. I tease him and say that Rufus is the love of his life. I even had to step off the footpath to make room so Rufus could walk on it and not get prickles in his feet when we went for a walk one day. I pointed that mistake out! He he.
The other suggestion in this weeks post was people you had lost track of.
I thought of Dorothy.
Dorothy was my friend in Randwick Girls high school in year 7. She was a beautiful girl. Tall and svelte with long blonde hair and dimples. She had no Dad and she lived alone in a horrible old flat on Crown street with her Mum. Her Mum didn't speak much English and I think they came from Russia or somewhere over there. Their tiny flat was in a very old building, upstairs along a skinny dark staircase. Just one tiny bedroom and I think Dorothy got that bedroom and her Mum slept in the lounge room.
Dorothy used to get picked on something terrible by the "nice " girls at school. A few times I stopped her running away after they had upset her. So she used to not turn up at school quite often.
I remember her having an elder sister called Lydia but she didn't live with them. I can't remember why. Her Mum was a worrier and used to worry about her terribly but for some reason she trusted me. Funny, my friends parents were like that with me. But I was probably the one leading them along to adventures.
Anyway Dorothy Ozerskis and I were friends. We used to save up for the weekends and go into the city and hang around the Museum or go for rides on the ferry across the harbour, or to the movies then we would go into the Strand arcade to a little shop and pool our money together to share a plate of crepes with maple syrup and act like ladies. Pretty special when you are 13 years old.
Later that year I moved to Singapore and when I came back to Australia and the same school about a year and a half later Dorothy was gone. Nobody seemed to know where she was and I lost touch with her. I used to imagine that she was a model or something as there was a girl that looked a bit like her in lots of the magazines around at the time.
I wonder where she is and what happened to her.
******************************************
My Sunday scribblings this week was posted o a Monday because on the weekend we all went to Wagga for my mother in laws 80Th birthday and family reunion. I will post some pictures of that later. The party was at the PCYC hall and all of our branch of the family attended, except David who had the chance to work over the weekend refitting a shop at triple pay that was too good to pass up. It was good to see faces, some of which I hadn't seen for years and had to do a double take to confirm who they were. Nephews and neices who were toddlers when I first came on the scene over thirty years ago and are now chasing their own toddlers around. Uncles and Auntys who I have heard of but I had not met before, and their children. I don't know how many were there.
On Sunday after the party I made plans to go to Junee to have lunch with my old workmates whom I have been missing so much. We all sat around the table and talked then I had a look in the kitchen where I would have been still working if I had stayed in Junee. They all moved into the new hospital less than a month after I left and want to go back to the old hospital again where everything was much easier and they had less problems than where they are now. When I left there I realized that I am never going to have that sense of belonging so well in a group of friends again that I had there.
Along the road between Wagga and Junee the wattle trees are all in flower and all the wild almond trees are too. Very pretty. I took some pics of the wattle trees for later. Dianne, the workmate I took out there with me, and I, talked about how some people don't seem to notice such beauty in the landscape and how sad that is. Funny though, there are a lot of people around who do not seem to notice what a miracle nature is and go about their lives without seeing it.
Pete, Mum, Mike, Dave, Annie, Michael and I had lunch together at the Union club hotel in Wagga. Mum had the roast lamb and got food poisoning so that spoiled the weekend for her. She was up all saturday night sick, so she is staying in bed this morning catching up on her rest.
Well that is about all for this post. Bye.
Love Linda.

Thursday 21 August 2008

Spring Backyard Visitors.

G'Day,
These are the last lot of pictures I took around the back yard here . Just to prove that spring is indeed on the way. Yay!.



These are the perfumey primroses I bought for the back table.





The Prunus tree is in flower.
And who ever Daphne was she must have been good to have this lovely flower named after her.















Close up of same.














Even Rufus is taking his time to smell the first daffodil in bloom.














The Ranaculas are unfurling, in white.














And Orange, there is a red one and a yellow also on the back table. Little pots of colour.














Now the puter is underling everything, and I can't make it go away. He he, so I will just continue.The next pic is a male eastern rosella. Isn't he pretty. I reckon this must be a young one from last season as the others around have paired up with females and this one was with a group of males. The pic is fuzzy because it was too bright looking in the direction of the feeding table.
You will need to enlarge this one. They are a little wary compared to some of our other visitors.














Hey look the underlining has gone. What did I do?Anyway this is a Galah. They are frequent visitors to our yard. And spend time with our Galah cheeky wondering why he can't come and play with them and ogling his seed dish. Two male rosellas are below him, you can see them a bit better here. There are a couple of top knot pigeons there too. Or crested pigeons if you prefer to call them that. They are common just about everywhere .














This is a sulphur crested cockatoo. He is looking at the feeding station and probably saying" Hey! she just filled this up, I better see what I can do about that". Or, "Take this bloody lid off so I can get inside!"














The arrangement of little plants I got for the back table.




























My kitchen window. My reflection.














Here is a small flock of Galahs having a picnic in the back yard. Their other name is the rose breasted cockatoo. The boys have black eyes (from fighting) and the girls have red eyes or irises (from crying). Now I am being silly. The pink colour on their chests gets darker as they age, the pink on the younger ones is a more dusty colour.














Same birdies. Right into it. But...














Don't sneak up too close or they......
Goodness me I am having fun tonight. I have just spent 5 minutes trying to get that picture of the Daphne to go in the right place. No luck there.
O.K. goodnight, I give up.
Love Linda.

Wednesday 20 August 2008

G'Day,
I am wanting to write but it is late at night and I can't put the pics I recently took for here by myself because I am dumb and never can remember how to get the file that has the pics on them that I want to post without my son doing it for me. Said dialogue goes like this.
"Mike can you help me put some pics on here?"
Mike sighs loudly, rolls eyes and slicks his tongue in annoyance.
"Bloody hell Mum you can do it!"
"I keep forgetting how to get the file that the pictures are on, I can do the rest of it".
"No I am busy".
"Please Mike just do that one bit for me".
"No you bloody do it, I have shown you a hundred times".
"You can do it faster and without any trouble, C'Mon just do it".
Swearing, bitching and grumbling he comes to the computer.
"Get out of the way then and give me room".
Click click click, all done in a flash with me still not knowing how it is done and the whole bloody circus is continued next time.
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O O
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Kids don't you love em! Even the grown up ones.
Bye Love Linda.

Sunday 17 August 2008

G'Day,
The Sunday Scribblings prompt for this week is "Observations".
I liked this prompt and decided to write about..........
I think I am an observer of Human Nature.
I love to learn about people.
There is nothing like sitting at a table with a throng of passers by while I watch them, and dawdle over a cup of tea. Something I pointed out to my son when he was sick was to look at people. There is no such thing as perfect, every person living has something about them that others think might be wrong by their own personal judgment.

Everyone.
Like that guy there, See the way he walks, he has a problem with his knee.
That lady there can't match colors.
I like that, I don't like that, that's not for me but good for them.
That kid thinks he is beautiful.
Mum take charge of that kid, you are the boss.
She smokes.
He is shy.
They are weird.
That one needs to please everybody no matter what the cost to themselves.
Everybody,
everybody.
That was not meant to sound like a poem .
At work and in life I love to observe people. Their particular personality traits that make them all individuals. The quiet ones, the social ones, social climbers, stubborn ones, passive ones, the strong ones, and how they get what they want, how they relate to each other. All of their traits are what makes each one of them unique and human. And beautiful in their own right.
But always remember, while you are watching and observing, they are watching you in return. Everybody, absolutely everybody judges you back. We all do it and it may or may not be a negative thing depending on how your mind works. So it is up to you how you choose to handle yourself and each given thing that pops up.
Yeah I guess I am waffling on a bit. But I am sharing me with you.
I also like to observe nature. There are lots of birds around where I live now and I have been watching them. Lately I have observed them pairing up in anticipation of the coming spring. The Rosella's have been in pairs and squabbling with outsiders to include their mate first at the feeding station. Our resident cheeky magpie has been nest building and I have been watching it come into my yard to find sticks. One day it had a large twig that it managed to extricate from the pile of clippings out the back. When it got the twig out it, he carefully measured whether he could lift it and fly with it back to the construction site, funny to watch. Over the last week or so it has been back stealing the coir fibres that line my hanging basket plants. He tugs away at the fibres until he has a good beak full, watching me all the while, then fly off to pad his nest with it.
Magpies make amazing nests, they even weave barbed wire and electrical wire into them with their strong beaks and use the same nest each year, doing renovations to it until it gets really big. When I was in Junee I used to always throw the clothes dryer fluff out in the back yard and the birds used to take it away for me and use it to line their nests.
We are all observers of what takes our fancy at any particular time.
That is how we learn.
Bye for now.
Love Linda.

Saturday 16 August 2008

G'Day,
I have been given an award to share from my blogging friend Merle. As I am not real up on computer stuff and am a bit lazy or forgetful to learn all this so I am sharing my award around the way I know how, without asking for help to do better. Here is my version .
Rules for the " Brilliante weblog" award.
1. Put the award logo on your blog.
2.Add a link to the person who gave it to you.
My friend Merle. Her link is on the side bar.
3.Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4.Add links to your nominees blogs.
5.Leave a message on your nominees blogs to tell them about it.
Well I can do all that except the link bit but the links are already here on my blog in the My favorite reads on the side bar bit so I invite everybody to go to them via there.
The people I want to nominate to share this award with are;
Pear Tree Cottage, she isn't on my side bar list so here is her URL. http;//xmastree2.blogspot.com/ A new friend in Victoria, Mexico.
Winterwood. She is on my list as Krissie. My sand groper friend.
Melli. My blogging pal on the other side of the world.
Robyn. My fairy friend in the mountains.
Martha. My sister in West Virginia.
Annie. My bird watcher mate in Queensland.


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Well today is Saturday. Another welcome weekend. Cold and sunny here.
I went to the pottery class last night and worked on turning the cylinders I made last week. I turned them on a clay chuck which was a new experience for me. A chuck ( little mound of clay) is made on the wheel and the leather hard pot secured on top of it then the excess clay is cut away from the pot, like wood turning except with clay, then the foot ring is added. It took some getting used to but I can see where it is better than the way I used to turn my pots. Then there was handles. Handles. I hate em. I can never get them just so. Well they look o.k to non potters but to a potter they would be second class. Anyway with practice I will be better. Next up is making a saucer that fits and matches. There is a lot of the fine details that I need to learn and the class seems to be traveling along a lot slower than the course outline suggests. I am not the only slow one though, we all seem to be about the same. I trashed one of the two cups I made last week in disgust when I wrecked the handle wrapping it up at the end of the night. Lol. Never mind it is only clay and infinitely recyclable until it is fired.
This morning I took Mum shopping in Tuggeranong. Our nearest big shopping mall type thingy, I measured it this morning as 7 km away. I bought a comforter set for the back bedroom, which is my spare bed, for when my sister comes to visit next month. It is a dark red quilted satiny fabric. Should look good but I haven't put it on yet. We also went to Bunnings to the plant nursery again. Spring is coming and awakening my interest in gardening again. Though it will be cold here for quite a while yet to come. I got 2 pink Arctosis to put out the front yard when the frosts have gone. We also bought a few more little pots , some Linaria and 2 more Ranaculas, 2 yellow Kalanchoe plants in early bloom, plus a large flowered white cyclamen to go in the kitchen window. I have put the outside ones in a large plant saucer to make a nice grouping for the table out the back. All up less than $50. I am adjusting my gardening habits to suit my new environment. I will adjust.
Other Linda news; I am dieting again, starting from this week onwards, but 2 kg less is showing up on the scales so far. I am hoping that it will ease my back pain and I can do my work easier.

Thursday 14 August 2008

G'Day,
It is a lovely sunny morning here in Canberra. Yes cold but what can you expect for our winter. My back yard is quite sheltered from the wind and a pleasant place to be. Yesterday Pete and I went to Bunnings which is a big hardware supermarket type shop because I had to buy a metal ruler as recommended by my pottery tutor. While I was there I couldn't resist having a look in the garden department, of course. I bought three little pots of color with Ranaculas in them. That is spelt wrong I know, but that's what it sounds like to me and I am too lazy to look it up. I also got a punnet of English daisies that said they had extra big flowers, a punnet of spring onions and a pot of common mint. I put them around the garden this morning. The mint went into a big pot that I made. It actually had mint in it before but I was sick of it being overcrowded and dumped it in the vege garden here. The soil in that bed actually looked really good when I started digging in it. So, maybe I am starting to feel less home sick for my Junee garden. Or, maybe it is just getting closer to spring. My favourite time of year. It looks like the bulbs I have been watching pop up in the garden for the last month or so here are Daffodils. A couple of them have buds on them now.There are hundreds of them. I wonder if Paula will get as much fun out of my old garden, when she moves in, watching the bulbs pop up and flower as I used to do each season. I planted most of them myself.
Michael and I have started cleaning the office we were to do in Kingston. My back is painful but I have decided that it is time to loose some weight and see if that will help me. Anyway this office is pretty cool. It is a graphic design and advertising place. Something that I saw that I like there is a white wall behind some desks with what looks like a shadow on it. On closer inspection it is a pale grey painting of a tropical setting. I looks great. It is just the right colour and angle that you would expect to see of a shadow cast from a silouette that is back lit.
On the tele and, most annoying, is non stop OLYMPICS. I don't mind watching some of it but really! Every moment of the day! My Mum sits there and loves it though. She makes comments and is totally confused by what is going on but will argue that she isn't. So that has given me the chance to retreat into the puter and read lots of other peoples blogs in the evening after work, when I would usually be relaxing in front of whatever show that was on which took me fancy at the moment.
O.K. it is time to get some lunch and think about getting ready for work.
Bye
Love Linda.

Saturday 9 August 2008

G'Day,
The Sunday scribblings prompt this week is ask?
I first thought of the eternal question. One that comes up.
When I was working in Junee Hospital I often saw people question if there was a god. Well I guess no-one living can definitively answer that can they. Though we all have our own personal beliefs don't we.
I saw the question come up when someone had been dealt a savage blow through a loved ones death or an accident or a cruel illness. I also used to hear it, as an expression, when some trifling thing had gone wrong. I would say "Oh God!" and I would get the tongue in cheek reply "He's not gonna help you" My answer to it all is "Well people are dying to find out!"
I could go a long way with this subject but I think I had better stop there before I insult someone and have the roof fall in on me. Lol.

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Back to everyday subjects.
As of last night I am a potter again. Yippee.
I had a bit of trouble opening the Canberra Potters Society monthly newsletter so I was not keeping up with news and events. I emailed the newsletter person to have it posted to me and it arrived via mail on Thursday. In it was an advert for a 6 session course starting up on Friday night to do repetitive throwing. So I jumped ( not literally) on the phone and got the last place on the course. The course involves throwing ( throwing is making pots on the potters wheel) and examining a form until you get it right and can match forms in size, weight and design therefore leading to developing a set of things. Last night we worked on samples of 6 cylinders ( four out of the 6 I made were a good match) then thought up a design that we liked for a set of cups and started on them. Good fun and lovely to have my hands back in the clay again. It was a bit of a rush finishing my cleaning work and then getting over to the other side of the city by 7.00 to start the course but I managed to get there on time so all was well. I had to O.K. it with my boss and family. Brett my boss said he would fill in for me on Friday nights until I finish the course so I will have to surprise him with a cup or something I make at the course. He would like that. Getting my son Michael 's transport home from work is another thing that needs sorting for me to go to the course, but we will sort that too. Best scenario , drop him off in the city to catch a bus home.
The course is taught by a production potter Cathy Franzi who works for Bison Pottery here in Canberra which sells high priced trendy type table ware. Last night someone asked her how many pots she made today at work and she said she had thrown about 150 mugs. Oh my god! That is about what I would make in total pots in two years. And less than that now I don't have a kiln connected here to fire them in. Anyway that is my start back on the potting trail here in Canberra. There are lots of great opportunities to participate in at the club with lessons and workshops. Should be fun.
I intend going to a craft fair that is being held over 4 days this week, this afternoon, so I better take action and go get lunch for everyone before we go. It is quilting and sewing and craft stuff like that. I have no money so I will just be looking.
Avagoodweegend!
Bye
Love Linda.

Wednesday 6 August 2008

G'Day,
On the weekend Pete and I went for a walk along the river bank down at Kambah pool.My dear old Murrumbidgee river looks quite different from what it does as it flows through Wagga and down on through the Riverina where I come from.
These pictures relate to a few of my previous posts over the last few weeks.






Anyway, the first picture is of a Wombat hole dug into the sandy soil of the bank. There must be lots of them down there judging by the scats and dug up patches everywhere.

Below is my darling. Can you see by the track why it would be better to walk around here in the winter rather that in summer when the snakes are around. Pretty feathery grasses.




























This picture is looking across the river, where it is still and reflective.














The above pic is of a wattle bush about to burst into flower. Wattle in its many forms is in flower at different times and places all year. Lots of it comes out in winter and spring. I don't know which particular one this is.














The moss growing on these granite rocks was a bright contrast to the other colours in the landscape.














There were quite a few of these little Casurina or river she oak seedlings that had established themselves between rocks in the rivers stream.














Here is a very big old casurina that had died. I liked the way the bark had shrunk and peeled back exposing the white wood underneath that had been bleached by the sun.














Another big dead casurina. I think that is spelt wrong.














This is of part of the gully running alongside the river.














These tall feathery reeds looked beautiful lit by the afternoon sun.














This pic is out of sequence but.. It is my nephew Terry, his wife Linda and their daughter Olivia who visited me recently.














Now back to the river again. Looking down from about half way up the bank.














Looking up stream.














And up stream again across the rocks.














And downstream. Silver reflections and silver ripples in the afternoon sunshine.














If you read about the parrots eating the pergola on the back of my house. Well these are the culprits. Two of these are male king parrots and the one with more green is a female. They are quite common around here but we didn't get them in Junee. When they fly they flash a patch of mid blue between their wings on their backs. Pretty birdies.














Same birdies on afore mentioned pergola. Female facing me, male facing away.














My Mum feeding some friendly magpies. The cage in the background has charlie, Mum's cockatiel in it. He is having a chew of the grass. Mum is getting quite funny and thinks she can be selective about which birds she wants to come into our yard to eat the seed.














C'Mon Maggie take this bit too!( Enbiggen. A term pinched from Peter's blog.) We are also visited by, galahs, eastern rosellas, crimson rosellas, sulphur crested cockatoos, top knot pigeons, miners, wrens and finches and of course the sparrows have discovered we put out seed as well as other birdies I don't know the names of. I once saw some black cockatoos fly over, they have a strange distinctive harsh call, but I only saw them once. Amazing since we are in the city.














And the naughty female king parrot again on the feeding station.See how the roof is chewed, the galahs love eating it.
I have been slowly sneaking the feeder a few feet closer to the house every few weeks so we can get a better look at our birdie visitors. They don't seem to mind and are getting quite used to having us sit and watch them, as long as we stay sitting down they stay at the feeder.
That is all for tonight, work tomorrow. Good night.
Love Linda.

Saturday 2 August 2008

G'Day,
The sunday scribblings prompt was a bit hard for me to think of something to write about this week. While I was laying in bed this morning I thought....

Do I have to have this face?
Do I have to have this nose?
This Skin?
This body?

Do I have to ?
Not be happy with
what nature gave me?
No.
I have to work with it
And do the best I can
With what I have.

Yes I guess that is a bit different from what everybody else has interpreted from this prompt.
I have never been the sort to want to change myself with cosmetics or had the money to change surgically if I even wanted to. But as I get older I think that the things that worry younger people, like vanity and fashion, don't apply to me anymore and I should be accepted as who I am and not by my exterior. I still sometimes think it would be nice to wear size 10 clothes and look like I belong in the crowd. Or that I should look pretty, but I accept myself and my view of what society may think I am. I have a like it or lump it attitude. I am a good person , I am loved by my loved ones. The others don't matter, Do they.