Merry Christmas 2011

G'Day,
As you can see from the date on my last post my blogging has dwindled somewhat this year. I do try but face book and it's voyeurism seems to take up my spare time.
I will get back to my blog periodically.
Anyhow!
I had a lovely Christmas this year. My Hubby Pete had holidays that ran across the silly season this year. It is the first year after many others that we have both been off work over christmas together. One or the other of us (though usually Peter) has had to work for many of them. He returns to work on the 1st of January, I on the 10th. I can't remember having a break that long for a looooooong time.
I was vacillating on how to spend the day but had a few welcome invites that we all were able to follow up on. I got to see all of my children and spend precious time with them, as well as see all my Hearn cousins and some of their grown children and grand children. Magic.
For the evening meal we went to my husband's niece's house. Then after that we went to my daughter's boyfriend's house and spent time there with her much loved adopted Nan , her partner's Nan. Most entertaining.
Peter and I stayed in a motel for 2 nights and came home to the boxing day sales for a few bargains. I bought underwear and sleep ware. It was pretty good price wise, even though all the clothing I buy is always on sale, hehehe.
On Christmas morning the streets of my old home town seemed so strangely deserted. You could have shot a cannon along the main street and not hit a soul. Boxing day was the same. Hardly any traffic at all, in the morning when I saw it anyway. The photo above is of an ancient tree that is on the bank of the Murrumbidgee river at Wiradjiri reserve in Wagga. I have had pics and stories of this spot in my blog quite a few times. I think last time the pictures I posted were during the drought and the old river was very narrow and shallow. It was lovely to see one of my favourite places green and full of life giving water again. I have always loved those majestic big old river red gums that grow down there. If you look closely at that photo, I am standing at the bottom of the tree to show just how big it is. I am a bit over 5ft & 3 inches tall.
Now THAT is a tree!
I was also interested to see that the local council has at last started to develop the reserve and have tarred part of the road into there, and are in the process of building a boat ramp. It is about time.
I guess if I was to say that some of the things I prayed for during the year; for my kids to be happy and have love, for water and rain, for my marriage to survive another year, have been answered. There were some rough patches.
So......Here is to another year. Another year with it's ups and downs , twists and turns to go through, with lots of love and laughter, work to keep our hands busy, um what else?
A year of enough.

Publish Post

That's all Folks!
Love Linda.

Sunday Scribblings "Life is Good"

G'Day,
This weeks Sunday Scribblings prompt this weeks asks us to write on the subject"Life is Good"
I am sitting at the traffic lights at the intersection of Yamba drive and Hindmarsh drive. It has taken me three light changes to get to here and I am enjoying spending my waiting time doing some people watching in the traffic on my way to work.
The people in the car beside me are enjoying their wait too. Their car is on my left and half a car length in front of me. The neck of the lady driver is all I can see of her, and her hands. She is nicely proportioned and her soft brown hair is drawn up tightly into a pony tail as she bops her head talking animatedly to her pasenger. They are laughing. She is driving a green Holden commodore, about ten years old, a strong sensible, reliable car. I guess they are in their late twenties. She is telling him a story and using her hands to accentuate the tale, holding them to show the size and shape of something, and waving her hands about in her description, they are happy and their life is good.
On the right hand side of me is a man in his early forties. His hair is cut short and he is thin and pale. I think he has that office worker look about him, but he is not dressed for the office today. His car, a white Mitsubishi magna, needs a wash. He is intent on the lights changing and he is sitting with his hands tightly clenched on the steering wheel. I can see the cords in his hands and knuckles as he grips the wheel. He is impassive in his facial expression but I imagine as he clenches his fists that he is going through his "to do" list and wondering how he can get it all done this afternoon so his day off work is productive, as his time is so precious.
The car behind me is an aging brown Mazda two seater. The lady inside it is probably in her 60's. She has dark brown hair which is perfectly groomed, never a hair out of place and if I touched it it would crackle from all the hair product it contains. Her make up is the same as her hair, perfect and she is wearing red lipstick. I imagine her working in a fashion boutique, she is probably the owner. This is a very attractive woman, one which is confident in her looks and ability. Her face is 1/4 covered by her large sunnies and she looks content to wait and enjoy her music as she sings along happily, she has noticed me watching her in my mirror and smiles back at me. Yes her life is good.
In the far left lane is a man in a Volvo. I watched behind me as he swapped lanes forcing his way across from the right hand side of the road, weaving through traffic until finding himself poll position to turn left towards the hospital. He is stressed, in a hurry. Tapping his fingers impatiently as he waits for the next change of the lights so he can be off and away around the corner.
Then there is the girl waiting behind him in that lane. She is driving a shiny red baby car, a Toyota I think. I bet she is on her way to work too and she turns the corner and then left again into the hospital car park. Then jumps out with her tea packed neatly into a plastic lunch box and runs across Yamba drive for the shift change and nursing handover. She likes her job, and her life is good.
My life is good. Like anyone's. Weathering the storms, riding the crests and troughs of the waves and keeping my head above water.
Bye.
Love Linda.

Sunday Scribblings" Omen and Operation".

G'day,
I didn't manage a post last Sunday but today I would like to combine that last prompt word with this weeks prompt.
I have been thinking about a friend of mine, an old work mate. I will share her with you.
For the purposes of my blog post we will call her Elaine.
Elaine has been on my mind because ...well, she is a long time friend of mine. I have known her for probably 15 years or more. Our children went to school together, and we worked together for many years as well. We still see eachother sometimes for coffee or lunch, though not as often as we would like, and I keep in touch with her on face book, so the miles between us are shortened that way.
She is a pretty lady and is only about 5 ft tall , but her size belies her strength.
I have seen her go through many trials. She lost her first husband to cancer. During those terrible end days of his illness she went beyond me, to a place inside herself that only someone who had gone through such trauma has had to go. Out of my reach she was switched off to many of us in her outside of the moment world. Yet in the following months I saw her not understand the people who judged her and her actions in that grief. Which was not a help to someone who was supposed to have been their friends. They didn't have the flexibility to see that each of us may react differently to that situation.
Several years later I had the privilege of seeing her rediscover love, a new husband who absolutely adores her and had a new child. Yeaaaay all cheer for Elaine!
This was all happening to her with the time of life stresses that bringing up teenagers can bring as well as several nasty other health scares with her daughter, youngest son, and a very recent one of her own to deal with. Is this a strong little lady or not?
Elaine is an inspiration to me.
A few years after her new marriage she became a small business owner and is now doing well for herself. She is sometimes challenged by the pressures of making a business work but keeps progressing through it with fresh new ideas. I am so proud of her.
Some of my favorite memories with Elaine are when we spent time together in my pottery shed and she wanted to make something out of clay.
Another memory with her was when her new husband had bought a little canary yellow corvette to renovate and play with. The day they picked it up she came around to my house and took me lapping the main street in the little car, so funny, especially so as the main street in the town where I was living consisted of probably a dozen shops or less and a couple of pubs, hahaha.
But....my very favorite memory of Elaine and one which always makes me laugh is....
In that small town where we lived you meet many people who have different personalities.
One woman in particular had a not so good marriage.(I wonder why?) Her favorite thing to do was try to flirt with other people's husbands, hopefully, in front of their wives. Well! This woman decided she liked the look of Elaine's first husband at a function one night and decided to try her games out on him, in front of Elaine. Oh I do love this story LOL. Which resulted in Elaine going over to the woman in question and smacking her fair in the face. Hahaha. My little tiny 5 ft tall Elaine sat her on her backside in front of everyone for her trouble. Needless to say the shocked look on her face and resultant sympathy from her friends was most amusing too. The same vixen lady, who shall remain nameless has some sort of weird need to try to upset other women with her games, is that a power game on her part, I don't know. She did the same to me.
But herein lies the two prompt words I am writing about.
Omen; don't mess with Elaine or you may find out you need an operation. Lol.
Love You Elaine.
Bye
Love Linda May.

Sunday Scribblings, "My Back Yard".

G'Day,
Sunday Scribblings prompt asks us to write about our Back yard. I often do, as you know.

Symbiosis.
The earth made up of particles,
broken down
from it's own plants and animals
over millenia,
there for eternity.
A true wonder.
Nourishing all before
and after itself.
My whole world
My Backyard.
********

Short and sweet.
I hope so anyway.
Bye.
Love Linda.

Sunday Scribblings "The Call".

G'Day,
Sunday Scribblings prompt asks us to write about "The Call".
Ok.
The call we all have to accept sooner or later.
I got the call late at night. It was after I had gone to bed and I was awoken by my husband who called me to the phone where I accepted "The Call" and was passed on to my Mum who gave me the news. Mary the lady at the hostel was sitting up with her and giving her support.
I made the appropriate phone calls, some then that night and a few more the next day. My sister was hard to track down because she was away from her home. She went to Sydney the next day to carry out arrangements etc.
I wasn't there.
I was stunned, though I knew that it was inevitable. I didn't go back to bed that night I sat up in the lounge room. Inevitable for us all sooner or later.
He had been receiving treatment in Sydney, radiation therapy, on a nasty lesion that had kept reoccurring on his poor chin. Good old Aussie sunshine had left it's mark on another victim.
I had seen him just a few weeks earlier and sat with him in the hospital. Spent a week there at the hostel nearby the hospital.
He couldn't shave his chin and it was really bothering him that he was untidy. I tried to very carefully trim some of the whiskers away from the lesion but it was too painful and he didn't trust me not to bump him there. He had become attached to a young nurse there and he wanted her to trim around there instead and I thought" oh well that's OK", she has his trust and she has more experience too. The heart attack came a few days later due to the effects of morphine used for pain relief.
We spent time together in the common room there, after noon tea and sessions with the other patients designed to share laughter and therefore relief from their respective situations. I told a joke and he watched the other patients faces as I spoke then grinned with pride when they all laughed at the punch line. Hahaha. Well I guess the other jokes were a bit tame compared to the one I told.
He said to me there, "How am I ever going to get your mother to stop talking?" and I said to him "If she hasn't stopped now she never will, that is just her". And he liked that too. He never said so, he wasn't very verbal, but the acknowledgement showed in his face.
On the last day I went to say goodbye. I was sorry to go but I was eager to get on the road and back to my children waiting for me at home 5 hours away from the city.
The doors were security doors and they closed and locked and you had to ring a buzzer to get back in. I said my goodbyes and he hugged me and went to kiss me but I drew away because the lesion on his poor chin smelt terrible and was weepy and I didn't want to get it on my face. I felt so bad about that. You can't imagine the guilt I felt afterwards. I went out the door and I knew right there and then that it was the last time I would see him. I turned around and started to go back for another hug and to kiss him, but the door had shut. He had turned away and headed back inside.
And I knew.
Mum looked at me and said "What is wrong?"
I couldn't tell her.
I put my head down and we went to the car.
I just wanted to get home to my children.
But I knew.
It is funny but, I knew when I saw his brothers and his sister, my dear Aunty Marion, in the same way, that it would be the last time I saw them.
My Dad has been gone for eleven years now. He didn't quite see the new millennium in. He died just short of a week after my birthday on 26th November 1999.


Good Night .
Love Linda.

Sunday Scribblings "Present"

G'Day,
The sunday scribblings prompt site has presented us with the word present.
So the biggest present of all.

For my present
I present to you
The biggest present of all.
She will feed you,
and care for you,
and you must feed her,
and love her,
and care for her in return.
I present to you
Earth, our mother.

That's all.
The ultimate present we all have.
Bye for this week.
Love Linda.

Sunday scribblings "Plan B"

G'Day,
Here is my meager contribution to the weekly prompt site Sunday Scribblings.
This weeks prompt is;
"Plan B"
Who has the ooooopmh to be living plan A.
The finance or luck to have their dream.
Just a small percentage of us may?
Those who influence us all,
though we don't see their all
The bad bits and sacrifice to get where they are
In a dog eat Dog world.
I am living plan B.

Yeah I know it does not rhyme. Why should I follow the rules? I have to be different.
Or am I just drifting along and letting it all happen to me, not taking the tiller?

Bye.
Love Linda.