Sunday Scribblings "Poem"

G'Day,
The Sunday Scribblings prompt for this week is "Poem".
I decided I am not a good poet, though sometimes I can write a bit so I would write about another persons poem. It sort of makes a continuation of the Adult/Child theme from last week.
Here ti's.
When I was a child I liked to read short stories and poems. The poem "The Swing" by Robert Louis Stevenson was my favourite. I memorized it at a very young age and used to hop on the backyard swing and say it while swinging through the air. I loved that swing. It was a safe way to fly and I had control of the height, speed and just how long I stayed. When you are a kid there isn't always a lot you have control over all by yourself. I used to swing with the dog or one of our chooks on my lap and giggle madly when the chook was drunk and couldn't walk straight when I let it back on the ground. Cruel but funny just the same.
The poem though. Now as an adult I see that it is a view from a safe place. An adventure for a child behind the safety of the garden wall and I love that. Flying, feeling the wind in your hair, and a sense of freedom. When I was a child I was always singing, made up and bits of song I knew, and I did that on the swing, flying through the air. I was never a brave child, the swing suited me best.

THE SWING

How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall, Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the country side

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown
Up in the air I go flying again, up in the air and down!

Funny how some things from our childhood are committed to memory so well and others are sifted through and away isn't it. There are of course others that I remember and love, some of them by this same author. Like the Land of Counterpane and the one where the child is watching the world pass by from the window of the speeding train.

Then there is "My Country" by Dorothea Mackellar. Love that one too. That one is committed to memory by all Aussie school kids. Or if it isn't it should be. Patriotic and speaking of the beauty around us. I must admit though I couldn't recite all of the verses nor do I know all of them.

MY COUNTRY

First Verse

I love a sunburned country
A land of sweeping plains
Of rugged mountain ranges
Of drought and flooding rain
I love her far horizons
I love her jeweled sea
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me.

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Other stuff:
The house hunting is not bringing results at the moment. We have a date to be gone from this house. The auction we attended was pretty bad because the house sold for way above our limit. but we sort of knew it was going to even though it was worth a try. Never mind, put it down as a learning experience. We won't be able to buy a house of our own before the moving date and have it all finalized before then so we are now looking at renting short term, maybe until the first home buyers grant is finished in December or even when the grant amount is cut in half at the end of September. Then the market won't be so competitive hopefully, and the prices might come down slightly.
There is a Frederick McCubbin exhibition on at the national gallery until mid next month and I would love to go and see it. I love his work. Yeah, more patriotic stuff. Beautiful scenes of early Australian life in the bush. Love it. Maybe later this afternoon if we don't get too wrapped up in packing boxes. I should buy a poster and have it framed. Hmmmmm I like that idea.
My cat knows something is going on with the packing boxes and was playing in them last night. Climbing into them, hiding and peeking out of them. So cute. She is also looking worried at them. This time though she is not getting away from us. Poor darling.
Last night I made a date and walnut cake. I didn't use a recipe because I was being lazy but it came out nice anyway. I left the dates and nuts in big chunks , good stuff. Next time round I might play with putting coffee in it as well, that might be nice. I like playing around with things and not using recipes, they usually work out, I also make biscuits like that. I said usually but I don't often have a failure with doing things that way.
I had better go and see what Pete is up to, then tackle the linen cupboard.
Bye
Live Linda.

Sunday Scribblings "Adult"

G'Day,
It is sunday scribblings time again. This week the prompt is "Adult".
Well I am the adult. The one who is supposed to be mature. The one who looks after everything and everyone and holds it all together.
But......some days I do not want to be.
I want to be looked after and tucked into bed, and kissed goodnight.
I want to be fed and cuddled and cajoled and cherished.
I want to be a child again.
I never want to lose the wonder of seeing the world through a child's eyes.
Discovering the magic of nature and being within it.
Today Pete and I went to the Botanic gardens here in Canberra again. One of my favourite places. The first picture above is taken under the bridge in the Tasmanian rain forest section. The fog is created by big misting machines whose job is to keep the humidity high for the plants in that area. Looking through the mist and breathing it in is magical, mystical, mistical if you like wordplay like me.

I never want to lose the child's wonder I feel at wanting to walk the boardwalk and find the magic around the next bend, in beautiful places like this. This is in the rain forest gully. Rain forest like this grows along the eastern part of australia in tiny pockets, just inland from the south coast of Victoria and N.S.W to the ranges of Queensland. The great dividing range. There is not much of it left now days due to farming and logging.
Or miss seeing the wonder of new life unfurling right before my eyes like this new leaf from an antarctic tree fern, tucked away, to be rediscovered by me. The bud is about 5 inches across and will grow into a branch probably 6 ft long. Magic.
I want to be the child who sees this flower as a big bush tooth brush.
I want to play explorers in the bush. I would name this tree the turtle head tree and use it as a landmark in my games.
I want to sit on the rocks, take off my shoes, dangle my feet in the water, watch the bugs skittering across it's surface, and listen to the water tumbling down the little water fall. And I did. Well, not the shoes, it wasn't warm enough today, but you get the idea.
I want to feel the joy I still feel when I look at the beauty of nature. Like these little papery native daisies in flower at the moment in the gardens, planted between the rocks and tumbling over them.
I want to find giant plants who lived long ago, and imagine them in a scene from a dinosaur movie.
I don't want to be an adult if it means taking things like this for granted.
Just look at these fluffy balls of wattle aren't they magic. Don't they make you want to reach out and touch them and smell them.
Don't you marvel at their brilliance when in full bloom like this? This is a snowy river wattle.
I want to be the first to discover magical little things like this cluster of hardenbergia flowers sneaking along the leaf litter and popping up to delight me in their perfection.
I want to be the naturalist who discovers a new genus of wattle like this newly planted red wattle. Tiny, yet flowering proudly to show the world "look at me!".

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We are house hunting at the moment and it is not fun. The house we have been living in since moving here to Canberra is being sold. The owner has is heart set on a small land holding and house on the south coast and needs to sell this property to acquire it. I love this house but is beyond our budget so we will have to move. We have finance and deposit to buy but the housing market here is so expensive. There is a first home buyers grant that we are not eligible for. It ends in December this year so the market is full of people trying to buy before it ends. I don't begrudge anyone else their dream but it does make it hard for people like us. It gives them an advantage and makes the market more competitive pushing prices up.
We bid at our first auction yesterday. The house went way beyond our and even the agents estimation in price. Anyway. If you want to have a sticky beak at this house, the one I can't keep, go to google and put in All homes, then 7 Bayly place to see the pics. We had it looking all spick and span for the pictures to be taken and were complimented by the agent and owner for looking after it so well, that is nice but we still do not get to keep it. It is a great house and you will see why I love it but it is just too expensive. We also had an open house on Saturday so we stayed away looking at other houses and dawdling around. Very disheartening seeing what is available. It did show us however what we do not want and will not be happy to settle for. See..... there must be an upside to everything.
Something will come up though. I am a bit worried that this house will sell ( because it will, easily) and we will have to get out before we have something else to go to. That will mean getting another rental house and moving twice. Yuck! Such a lot of work. I could have rented one of my boss's houses if we had been told about the sale of this place a week earlier. He has been renovating it. My son painted and worked on the inside of it, I cleaned it and pruned the roses for him.
Last time I moved it was a nightmare. We had been there for 15 years and accumulated so much stuff. Stuff I wasn't able to throw away,because I am not good at doing that and other stuff I had to keep for sentimental reasons. Also a nigtmare because Pete was away working in Canberra already and I had to do 90% of it by myself,and when he did come home he threw anything in boxes and didn't label them so that was very hard to unpack when we got here. He he he, not impressed. Poor Pete.
Ah well I guess being an ADULT is putting up with all that and changing and learning along the way from it.
Bye
Love Linda.

Spring is a coming!

G'Day,
Spring is coming. I took these 2 pictures in my back yard this afternoon before I left to go to work. It was beautiful outside today after an early frosty morning start. I spent most of the morning warming myself in the sun, it got to 15 degrees here today. I sat at the back table with cups of tea, and emptied the worm juice out of the bottom of my worm farm. Diluting it and putting it around the front and back garden.
The first picture is of the prunus flowers out the back, in a vase with the snowdrops from out the front. Pretty. I made that mirror on the wall years ago but ended up with one less white tile so the pattern is out of whack. A bit like me, says something doesn't it. I carved the mold for the tiles myself out of plaster. You can't see it here but they have flower buds and leaves on them. Except for the white glaze they are commercial glazes. I still have it in the shed somewhere I should do more of them.
The tree (prunus nigra) was absolutely buzzing alive with honey bees busily doing their stuff.

My in Tray.

G'Day,
I couldn't resist posting this picture. This is my cat Boo. She loves to sit with me while I play on the computer. She sits beside me on the shelf. Every now and then she decides it is time for her to remind me that she is there and demands a pussy cat kiss and cuddle by sitting right in front of my face on the keyboard so I can not ignore the fact that she needs some attention.
The fact that she sits with me while I play on the computer may actually have something to do with the fact that there is an outlet for the gas heater coming through the wall right below where she is sitting, but I like to think that she wants my attention.
We got Boo from the vets when she was about 6 weeks old she was so tiny and the last of the litter from an abandoned cat. She just stared at us with those" too big eyes" and we were sold.
Boo and our dog Rufus came to live with us when they were both babies and they grew up together and get on great. If it came to the crunch I know Boo could beat Rufus hands down in any fight. They play rough and tumble together, though if anything happens to Rufus and he yelps the cat comes running from anywhere to see if he is alright, looking all worried and gives him sympathy and pussy cat kisses. They chase and jump over each other and wrestle, quite funny to watch. She knows just how to tell him enough and he obeys her. She puts up one paw and taps him on the nose and he stops right away. He learnt very quickly that means stop, and if you don't.....yeeow!
Boo has always been an inside cat because we lost a couple of cats previous to her on the road so we kept her indoors. She does, very nervously, sneak outside occasionally and we send Rufus out after her, telling him, "get the cat". He rounds her up and chases her back inside the door.
We have had Boo for about 2 and a half years but she was lost for 8 months until recently when we managed to get her back again.
When we moved to Canberra I took her to my son David's house in Wagga because he was going to look after her until we got out of rental accommodation and into a house of our own again. She opened the window the same night and took off never to be seen again. I put ads in the newspapers, left notes at the vets, told all my neighbours and workmates about her going missing. I even left her picture in the drawer with a letter for the new home owners of our old house in case she found her way back there, 40 km away. My old next door neighbor Tracy was a childcare worker and when one of her Mum's delivered their child to her one morning, she said to Tracy that she had just been to the vets in Wagga and they had asked her if she knew who lived at our old address. She said no, but she knew who lived next door and she would let them know about the micro chipped cat they had found. Tracy rang me and I rang the vets. The vet said they had just sent her to the pound, so in a panic I rang the council and they said they would keep her for me. Phew!
My son David went to pick her up and I went to the real estate agents to beg them could I please, please, have her in the rented house we are in and they said yes. I got her back that night. She was very skinny and her fur was a bit matted and needed some attention but otherwise she was o.k. It was so weird, she walked in, sniffed the furniture and greeted Rufus then she climbed up on my lap and sat there purring loudly for the rest of the night. She was home! New house, new town but she was home. God knows how she had survived through the past 8 months when she was out on her own.
Boo is amazing. She is also very quirky. She has a special routine which she follows every day. At certain times of the day she sits in the bedroom window, then moves on to the potato box in the kitchen, you are not allowed to pat her in either place or she will bite you. Then it is on to my bed where she sleeps for a few hours, then under the spare bed in the back room for a while then the blue floor rug in the family room, which she loves to run to and turn suddenly, so that it twists up, she doesn't like it to be tidy. You are not allowed to pat her while she is on that either or she will bite you.
Other things that she does which are quirky are, she has a fetish for those stainless steel scourers that you clean pots and pans with. If I leave one of them on the sink overnight when I get up in the morning it is in some strange place on the floor chewed up and attacked.
She also attacks straw handbags and eats their handles off. I used to have a handbag that was straw and had to resort to hiding it in the wardrobe, but she found it and chewed off the handles anyway.
When I clean the bathroom she loves the smell of bleach and sits nearby purring loudly the whole time I am cleaning.
She is also very good at opening doors and windows but they have to be sliding type ones. She wiggles and pulls at them until she can get a paw around them and then just slides them open. Which is really annoying if you are sitting on the toilet or if you are trying to keep a room warmed up.
And, if you are on the toilet that is when she demands a cuddle. She has you trapped and knows you are not going to get up and run away I suppose. He he.
Other weird things she does are she waits for you to get out of the shower and she looks at you until you open the shower door then she goes in and licks the warm water off the glass. I really hate when I get out of the shower and she rubs up against your legs when they are still wet, it feels creepy.
Every morning as soon as you let her, she rushes into my bedroom and jumps up on the bed for her cuddle. She won't take no for an answer and will pat your face until you put your hand out from under the covers and comply. Then she will give you a pussy cat kiss on the nose then snuggle down and sleep at the back of your knees or near your feet. That is unless she feels like playing. Then she wants you to wiggle your fingers under the covers so she can play attack cat. Crunch! You wouldn't believe how fast she is. But she chooses to never hurt you and only to attack when your hand is well protected under the covers.
She is also a scaredy cat and if anybody comes into the house she doesn't know, she goes into hiding until they leave. She is also scrupulously clean with herself.
How she gother name is funny too. My daughter wanted to call her some totally unpronouncable mythologiacl name that she had chosen for her as she was into that type of stuff ath e time band I said no so she yelled at me and said "What do you want me to call her then Mum? Boo Boo kitty fuck" and I yelled back" Yes! Yes! anything but that other stupid name you chose!" So we all laughed and she became Boo! The other bit got dropped. It is actually a line out of some movie that my daughter had watched. Nice little teenager she was.
Ah well it is bedtime. Gotta work tomorrow morning.
Goodnight.
Love Linda.

Sunday Scribblings "Fantasy Dinner Party"

G'Day,
Back again to partake in this writing fun with Sunday Scribblings this morning.
The prompt this week is who would you like to have at a dinner party, living or dead, why, and what would you serve them.
I had to do a bit of thinking on this one. I am a bit of a social flop at times because I worry about doing or saying the wrong thing or that people don't like me or I won't be good enough. Social things like dinner parties are hard for me, so I wimp out and don't do them. I would have to know someone very very well to be confident to have them at my dinner table without worrying and be comfortable with it.
But since this is a fantasy dinner party, maybe I could get the world's leaders together and wave my magic wand and make them best friends and peace makers.
Nah! that's never gonna happen, I am a dreamer.
Maybe I could get someone like Jamie Oliver to come along and he would do the cooking for my party, then I would be confident that the cooking was good enough. Nah I will do it myself anyway. I am not that bad a cook. I tend to be one of those cooks that doesn't follow recipes, I just get an idea in my head and play with it, it usually works out o.k. Though I reckon if it was for an occasion I would stuff something up by trying too hard.
Since it is a fantasy dinner, there has to be eight people I reckon I would love to get to know.
I love Peter Cundall. He is a gorgeous old character. He is from the Gardening Australia show on the ABC. (Have a squizz on my side bar, there is a link to the show on there) He retired last year at the age of 80 and still has his hands in the soil no doubt in a zillion different ways teaching and influencing gardeners in this country, just like he always has.
I would love to meet and get to know my grandparents. I Missed having them. Only my maternal grandparents were alive after I was born and I do not remember them well but I cling to the few memories I have of them. Joe Trenerry died when I was 9 and Esther died when I was 5.
My paternal grand parents were both gone before I was born. Arthur and Pearl Palmer. My mother told lots of stories about them, not all of them were positive, and I would like to see for myself.
I reckon kids miss out on not knowing where they come from. I would like to have known them all better.
To make me laugh, Billy Crystal, his facial expressions and his movie characters always get me laughing.
Um one more, well I could think of lots more people I would have liked to get to know as well as lots of friends I would like to see again and I have moved away from, now that I have started my numb head writing here at the keyboard.
I would love to meet a blogging friend and be her friend face to face, she is on my side bar here also. I would like to invite Merle, she is a real sweet heart.
What would I serve them?
I reckon a nice Barbecue out in my back yard then have them all sit in the sunshine outside around the back table would be nice. So it will be a midday meal.
For starters I could serve a nice pate' with water crackers and a dip with crudites.
Then I would cook on the barbie, some nice rump steaks. Some chicken thigh cutlets that I coat in rogan josh curry paste mixed with a bit of olive oil and cornflour to seal it all in. That works well. Then some big mushrooms cooked whole (I love those on the barbie) and potatoes part cooked beforehand, sliced into rounds, and some tomatoes cut in halves and zucchini sliced length ways, all on the hotplate too. With a nice crunchy green salad with herbs out of my garden in it and Italian dressing. Or maybe that dressing I like to make with chopped garlic, olive oil, sugar, cracked pepper and balsamic vinegar put it all together in a jar and shake the shit out of it. Some crusty Italian bread too.
For sweets I would make a pavlova and top it with kiwi fruit, fresh cream, shaved chocolate and strawberries and put a big bowl of fresh fruit salad with it. To make it all Aussie I would finish it off by going out to the shed and getting my billy from the picnic gear and making billy tea. Maybe my grandfathers would enjoy getting together doing that job. Oh I didn't say wine. How about some nice reisling or a fresh light moscato, that is what I like to drink anyway. Beer for the boys.
How does that sound, Do I pass?
Bye
Love Linda.

Grumble, bitch, whinge, groan, moan.

G'Day,
I have just spent the whole day looking at houses. The trouble is the ones we can afford are not the ones I would like to buy. Like I said in the title to this post. Mumble, bitch, whinge, groan, moan!!!!! Ah well I will just have to get on with it won't I, and do what I can.
The lovely house we have been living in since moving here to Canberra is up for sale and we can not afford to buy it. The price is $550,000, too much for us.
I love this house. Yes, there have been times when I have thought it was a bit of a waste having so much space to play in, but when I look around at what is available on the market and the prices. Oh Dear, I want this one. Maybe I am spoilt from having this one.
I looked at 8 houses today, running all around the south side of Canberra in the process. The prices of the ones I looked at would be about twice what you would pay for the same thing in Wagga, but still less than you would be paying trying to get into the market in Sydney.
I am also not looking forwards to the process of moving and packing again. Grumble, bitch, whinge, groan, moan. I have no complaint against this house's owner, he is a nice man and of course he has to look after his own interests, but, but, but..... this is such a pain in the arse.
Three of the 8 houses I looked at today were alright for our budget. I liked them but they are so much smaller than this one.
A couple of the real estate agents though, they have me shaking my head. Most of them have been helpful and nice but a couple of them have not been and are too pushy and I feel I shouldn't trust them. I guess they are just doing their job but I reckon they play customers off against each other to push up the price and therefore their commission.
So to salve my grumpy mood I came home and made a batch of bikkies with peanut butter and chocolate chips and I am now eating them. Silly silly me, talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. I really don't want to put that weight I lost back on again. I also bought a bottle of Moscato for tonight. I may as well go the whole hog if I am going to do it.
I have planned a nice dinner for Pete and I tonight, I am cooking a small chook and making baked cauliflower in cheese sauce and baked veges. Michael is in Wagga for the weekend at a birthday party so it will be just we two at home. If Pete wasn't working it would have been nice to go out somewhere, but there you go, that is not going to happen, he will just come home and eat, then crash, asleep, on the lounge for an hour before going to bed. Ohhhh! Whinge, bitch grumble, groan, moan.
I have started making a couple of quilted doily type things for the coffee tables in my family room from a nice Japanese printed fabric I got at the craft and quilt show last weekend. Red of course, what other colour do you think I would choose. I love clear primary colours best, not murky mixed ones. So far I have cut them out and have done about half the stitching around the print to quilt it. Maybe I should do that instead of sitting here typing and whinging.
Oh Linda! stop being such a pain! I can't help it, I know I am a pain.
I might prepare the dinner and go to bed for a while, maybe I will feel better when I have had a sleep.

My Men!

G'Day,
Here is a picture of two of the men in my life. My eldest son Michael and my Husband Peter.
Boy are you gonna get in trouble for this one Lindy!

These boots were made for walkin'
But that's not what they do
And one of these days these boots are gonna.......
Kick you in the bum for posting these pictures?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

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zzzz

Sunday Scribblings "New".

G'Day,
The Sunday Scribblings prompt this week is "New".
I am a bit cynical sometimes but... There is nothing new in this world.
Everything has been here in one form or another right from the beginning of time and throughout history.
Every drop of water ever made was here right from the beginning, it all gets recycled and redistributed as part of the earth's cycle of renewal.

Symbiosis.

Every drop of water,
every grain of earth,
every atom of carbon,
all reused and reused again,
in different forms,
to make our world what it is.

We are all a part of the cycle.
The seasons of the year,
the birth and death of earth's flora and fauna,
the making and unmaking of the land and the sea.
Everything.
Eternal.

Long after we have gone,
the earth and the universe,
will continue its renewal.
In this renewal everything becomes new,
Reborn.

Symbiosis, I like that word!

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I just took these pictures a few minutes ago in Macarthur park, beside our house.
On cold days (like today) the Roos come out into the open spaces to graze and soak up the sunshine. In the warmer weather they stay mostly in sheltered spots during the day and come out at dusk and dawn to graze.
I counted 14 in this mob. Big bucks and some does, with a few smaller young ones.
They are standing looking to make sure I don't get too close, and are alert and ready to take off to a safer distance from me.
Look at her, she is coming this way. That is too close! Boing. Boing.
That is the big male standing alert and watching me. He would have been taller than me by a long shot and very powerful and well built. They can grow to about 6 ft tall.
Canberra is pretty cool in that it is a big city with allowance and consideration in its planning to incorporate local wildlife. There are Kangaroos and birds everywhere even right near the heart of the city. The suburbs are built with these parks and walking tracks linking them with nature corridors, which encourages the animals. I love that. The roos can be dangerous on the roads though and lots of them are hit by traffic all the time. There have recently been culls of the roos. The conditions here are made more favorable for them because of the grassy areas and parks, so they can breed up to levels that are detrimental to themselves and the environment. Of course there are always complaints, but there are so many of them. I have been lucky not to hit one on the roads so far, with gods blessing I hope I never do.
I guess our intervention makes itself felt in strange and opposing ways in nature all the time, doesn't it. We try to be kind and find that if we interfere with nature we cause an imbalance, that in the long run, is not so kind at all.
The first picture on my blog today is also in the park beside my house. It is Cootamundra wattle in bloom. There are many different wattle species in Australia and there is always one type or another in flower all year round. Cootamundra wattle, Acacia Baileyana, is one of the species native to the area around Junee where I lived before coming to Canberra. Junee is just down the road from Cootamundra. Out of its native area this tree becomes a feral pest. But just look at those beautiful fluffy balls of blossom. It brightens up the coldest winter day and makes me go ahhhh!
I planted a line of them along the fence in our paddock beside the house in Junee. Beautiful. Only one is still alive now because the others succumbed to borer attack which killed them. They have a short life span of about 10 years but seed readily, and renew themselves which is why they can become such a nuisance out of their own environment.

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Speaking of new. I will soon have to find a new place to live. This house is being sold and as it is above our price range we will have to go. It is maybe a good thing as it could be the impetus to make us buy our own home and not pay off someone else's investment mortgage for them. It is something we have been talking about ever since we moved to Canberra but we were put off by the price of real estate here and had been procrastinating. Well....things are not going to get any cheaper are they. In fact the market here is starting to go up again. There was some talk of it dropping slightly because the govt first home buyers scheme will end in a few months time, but I am not holding my breath. We went looking at open houses yesterday, 5 of them. I am looked out. There were 2 that seemed o.k. One in particular was o.k. not far from here and close to shops, beside another one of those nice nature corridor type parks etc. 3 good size bedrooms, yard not a bad size, though garden practically non existent, well , I could have some fun with that. The main bedroom has an en suite, I want one of those, I insist, I am naughty and don't want to share. It had good potential. It is funny though, last time we bought a house all we had to do was look around art a few, choose and offer for it. Now there is competition between buyers and you are lucky if you get a look in. we went o an auction in the morning just to watch what went on and learn. The house was very very nice and we knew it was obviously going to be out of our price range as soon as we saw it even if we had intended to buy that one. It sold for $577,000 and there where 5 people seriously bidding for it. It was a 4 bed & office, renovated home, landscaped, built in probably the late 80's, with a lovely sunny atrium in the center of it.
One day I will get a new home. Not newly built but new to me, and it will have a little patch of dirt I can play in and feed and plant and grow in.

G'Day,
Today we looked at a house. We came home and made an offer which was gazumped just a few hours later. The house itself was quite a good size but in original condition even right down to the curtains, shag pile 1970's carpets and wall paper. It did need a LOT of work doing to it. We have thought better of it and given up on that one. I have spent tonight and last night on the puter looking at houses for sale on the south side of Canberra. The market is so competitive at the moment with several lots of buyers all putting in offers for each house. So prices are beginning to go up again and the real estate agents are having fun playing prospective buyers off against each other and vying for better prices for their clients.
On Monday we went to Wagga for my husband's Uncle Kevin's funeral. When we were there we got a phone call from Brian, our landlord, saying that he is putting this house we are living in up for sale. It is beyond our price range so we have to start looking for a house to either buy or to rent elsewhere. I hate moving and it would be much nicer if we could move into a home and have the money we put into it actually go back to benefit ourselves rather than pay off someone else's mortgage. It is such a big step to take though. We have a deposit and could probably get a loan o.k. but the repayments are so expensive now days. Scary stuff eh? A modest house with the features I would like comes to nearly half a million dollars in Canberra now.
I should buy more lottery tickets.
I am a dreamer but not necessarily a risk taker. I should have done this over a year ago when we first moved here. The prices have steadily kept going up here despite the financial crisis experienced in other places. The market is very competitive. There was a minor housing price slump here but the market has recovered.
This Tuesday I started cleaning another house. She is the school principal at one of the schools I clean and is a very nice lady. Her house is close by so I thought I would give it a go. I was also asked could I clean another house for one of the teachers at another school but I let that one go because I don't want to get too tied up working every morning as well as each afternoon. I have turned down a few private jobs now, I could end up with too much work otherwise. But on the other hand it is nice to know that people are noticing I can do good work. I guess that is why I get asked.
This afternoon when I got to one of the schools to start work there was a shoe party. A pair of purple leather boots immediately caught my eye and I thought Ooh! But I ordered a nice pair of bright red leather, pointy toed flatties. I can't wear heels. I usually just buy black when it comes to shoes so red shoes is a step away from my usual boring style. The boots had heels, so I couldn't have them. The idea of the shoe party was you look at the styles, try on the sizes then choose the colour and finish and have them delivered to order. Lots of the shoes I look at in the shops are just so unsuitable for me, they are the wrong shape and uncomfortable so it was nice to find something that wasn't and I could order to suit.
Other trivia from my boring life;
I booked Rufus into the vets next Wednesday to have his nasty little doggie bits snipped. He won't be happy, it has been a long time coming, but it needs to be done to stop some male behaviors that are very annoying and unacceptable.
Males...... don't get me started on that subject.They are fascinated, from the time that they discover they have an appendage between their legs, with what they can make it do, and the fascination pretty well lasts.... for the rest of their lives. He he.
I know these things! I have spent most of my adult life cleaning up after them.
What would we do without our men. Love em', hate em', can't live without em'.
Ah well it is late and I should get some shut eye very very soon so I can jump back up and do it all again tomorrow.
Goodnight.
Love Linda.

Sunday Scribblings "Anticipate"

G'Day,
The Sunday Scribblings prompt for this week is "Anticipate".

Elizabeth.
Did you ever anticipate that a hundred years or more after you were gone, there would be a great great grand daughter that you had never met, and who had never seen you, but would still have you on her mind?
Did you ever anticipate that she feels you beside her when times were tough?
Did you ever think that the trials you went through in your life would show her how strong you were, even though she only knows a small part of your story.
She is proud to have a tiny bit of your blood still running through her and her children's veins?
Did you know when your children were taken from you because you were the wrong colour that she would remember you and your pain in losing them?
Could you anticipate that there would be a direct line running straight from you to the future and to her family, and many other descendants?
Or that she would envision your image and try to make a sculpture of you?
Or because she felt you were unable to speak up for yourself against government policy of the time that the sculpture would be built with no mouth to symbolize that inability.
Maybe you believed thought that the ancient blood of your ancestors would disappear in your choice of a partner of different ethnicity, which was what the government envisioned. It hasn't.
That your G.G. grand daughter only found out about you by default from one of her cousins. Her father, your great grandson, hid the fact of your aboriginality from her to protect her and her sister from the negative public opinion that he grew up with and denied. Even though he was often asked about his looks. He grew up in different times.
Could you see him walking down a bush track with his girls, showing them the beloved bush, with a switch of gum tree to flick away the tiny bush flies on his back, or blowing a loud whistle across a gum leaf.
Did you know that the sound of a didgeridoo would go straight to her heart or that the colours of aboriginal art would inspire her to carry them through?

Elizabeth.
Here's to you girl!
Here are your 3x great grand children who still carry your blood.
A candle lit for you and each of my children.
Another for my husband and I.
The little bottles that the candles are burning in are from my niece's wedding. Cassandra, another of your 3x great grand children, who now has 2 more decedents of yours to be proud of.
Your blood lives on. You survived.
I wonder if someone so close and yet so far in the distance from me, will ever know my story....and yours?
Love Linda.