TUESDAY MORNING AT 9.42AM

Hello my lovelies!

Here are Wayne and Papa leaving for Geham to put the cross up.  Can you see wee Molly and Spotty Boy looking up at the cross? 

And here it is up!

And here's the back garden under construction.

It's not looking the best.  You can see where Papa has tried reseeding the grass.  The pipe sticking up in the middle is from the overflow from the tanks under the house.  He has moved the pipe underground to make way for the new water feature :)

And here's wee Molly saying hello!

She had just had a brush!  As you can see she is wearing her winter coat :)

And...finally, a lovely photograph of the sun shining on some of our lemons and a wee plant Papa bought for me.

Love Nanxxx

AT THE CROSS...

Hello my lovelies!

This is the wee Presbyterian Church out at Geham which is just a bit further than Cabarlah where we used to live.  As you can see it's just a small church.  Our minister Andrew goes out there to take services about once a month.

Andrew asked Papa if he would make a cross for the church, so Papa has been busy in the shed this week.

Here's a couple of photographs of him working on the cross.  It's made from very heavy wood.  He has finished it and tomorrow he heads up to Geham with another man from church to install it.  I shall try and remind him to take a camera with him and show you what it looks like when it is put up.

HERE'S a link to a beautiful song about the cross.

Love Nanxxx

SATURDAY 3.09PM

Hello my lovelies!

Do you like these quilts?  Aren't they just GORGEOUS!  I would love to say I made them, but I didn't.  I think I saw them on a blog somewhere - or perhaps it was Pinterest.  

It's been a busy week here in Kenneth Street.  Neighbours coming and going which is always lovely, plus outings to quilting and church.

Yesterday was the church outing.  Peggy asked me if I could help with the catering for a funeral for an elderly man who had been the minister at St David's a long, long time ago.  I can't remember his name, but he was 94 years old when he died so had lived a long life. So, work began at 8.00am when the army of helpers arrived to begin the preparations.  The army consisted for Peggy, Gay, Fay, Jan, moi and others who popped in with cakes and slices and offered help too.  We began by setting out the tables in the hall - two long trestles which we then covered with our sparkling white, Presbyterian ironed tablecloths.  Then, we placed side plates on each corner and off centre on the table.  Next, serviettes and flowers.  Then it was back into the kitchen.

Peggy had brought the supplies for the sandwiches - lots of soft, fresh bread, ham, cheese, eggs, lettuce, pickles...   I wish I had taken my camera to show you the hive of activity that took place.  Next, the two urns were filled, the one for tea and the other for coffee.  Mugs were put on the trolley which was wheeled to the hatch where we would serve the tea and coffee.  Little tables were put out with chairs around for the oldies to sit down with their sandwiches, cake, slice, biscuit and cuppa and lovely gingham tablecloths were place on these tables.  Peggy had also brought some flowers - white camellias from her garden.  She had made a gorgeous display and these were placed on a stand in the hall.  Fay disappeared into the garden with secateurs in her hand and came back with a few little red roses and some leafed stems.  She procured a lovely vase from the storeroom together with some florist foam and proceeded to make a lovely vase for the centre of the tables where the food was to be put.  We had everything organised by about 10.45am.  The service was underway in the church and the multitudes were to arrive at the hall around 11.30am when the service finished.  We surveyed the results of all our efforts and decided it was perhaps time to have a sit down and eat some of the sandwiches and cakes, tea and coffee before everyone arrived.

When everyone started trooping it, I think they were really surprised by how wonderful everything looked.  By the time it was all over there was still some cake left for Sunday's morning tea!  I was fair exhausted by the end and walked back down the hill around 2.30pm.

Today, we were going to go down to Auntie Emma's but things got a bit mixed up, so, instead, we took the dogs to Queens Park for a walk.  Papa met Ray, his guitar teacher and we chatted with him for quite a while.  He hasn't been at all well.  He is still recovering from a big operation on his throat.

When we arrived home, it was time for lunch and Papa made some toast with this gorgeous bread he bought this morning.  It's from a new shop called The Baker's Duck.

When Papa came back with the loaf he said that the queue was down the street when he got there!  We will take you there when you are next in Toowoomba :)  The place has a coffee shop too.

Tomorrow we're going out to Jenny and Don's for lunch.  Jenny has started a new business (with her daughter Katie) as a function organiser.  I think this includes weddings, birthdays etc.

Here's Jenny with her daughter Katie and here's the logo for their company - Forget Me Not Functions.

Well my dears I shall away, make myself a cuppa and sit down and do some sewing.  

Love Nanxxx

FORTY NINE YEARS

Hello my lovelies!

Today is the 49th anniversary of Papa and me!   When you say 'forty nine' years it does seem a long time, but in many ways it doesn't seem long at all.  I still feel just the same as when I got married.  Back then it was the swinging 60's. It was the era of mini skirts and that's just what I wore, although it wasn't a skirt it was a dress with a wee coat over the top and it was just above the knee which was short for that time.  My Dad picked me some flowers from the garden and put some tin foil around the bottom and that's what I carried into the registry office.  I remember some of the flowers were sweet william.

  None of us had a car at that time, so Papa organised a car from the car hire folk to pick me up.  The car-hire folk wanted to make the car all 'weddingy' but as you know, I'm not really one for 'fancy' and I said "No thank you!  The car will be just fine as it is!"

It was pouring with rain that day but nothing could have dampened my happiness.  I was surprised at how short the 'service' was and was a bit worried I wouldn't pronounce the word 'impedement' correctly.  I think the sentence went something like, "I see no legal impediment why I should not be married to this man." or something like that.  

At the wedding was Auntie Margaret and Uncle Louis, Papa's mum and dad, my dad, a friend of Papa's with his girlfriend Teresa, Auntie Mairi and Uncle Angus and a friend of mine.  After the wedding we headed back to Milngavie where Papa's mum put on a lovely lunch.  I ran upstairs and slipped out of my wee outfit and put on my jeans, grey jumper and I think Adidas sneakers which I just loved at the time - three stripes you know!

After lunch, we caught a taxi into Glasgow to Central Station and settled ourselves into a lovely carriage on the train and headed to Oban for a week's honeymoon.

  When we arrived at our lovely hotel on the esplanade, I opened my little case to find that someone (Auntie Margaret I think) had filled it with confetti.  Here's a picture of the hotel - Corriemar Hotel.

A few months later we cut out an advertisement to go to Australia for ten pounds and we were off again, this time by aeroplane!

Today we're heading out to the Two Birds Cafe for lunch.  Here are the lovely Two Birds...

...and here's their cafe.

Love Nanxxx  PS  I couldn't find a wedding photograph - but when I do, I'll post it.

FLOWERS

Peggy gave me some of the flowers after the church service.  She actually gave me two lots, one of which I popped into Margaret down the road.  This one is in the bathroom.  Gurgus!

Love Nanxxx

PWA LUNCH AND A GAME OF TENNIS

Hello my lovelies!

Well, here we are at Saturday again.  I do not know where the week goes.  It's been a busy week for Papa and me.  Yesterday was the PWA quarterly dinner st the church.

PWA stands for Presbyterian Women's Association and this dinner is attended, not only by the ladies of St David's but by ladies from 'far away' places such as Gatton, Roma, Stanthorpe, Bell...

I had never attended one of these dinners until Peggy extended an invitation last week. I decided to arrive a wee bit early - half an hour - thinking that perhaps I could help with setting up for the occasion. Papa dropped me off and took himself off into the church for the regular prayer meeting that is held there each Friday. When I went into the hall and into the kitchen, it was already a hive of activity.  It didn't look as though there was actually much left to do.  Long tables were placed in a U position in the hall.  They were covered with sparkling white, beautifully ironed (as only Presbyterian ladies can do) tablecloths, cutlery and flowers.  It looked amazing.  And the food!  "Where did all this food come from?" I asked one of the ladies in the kitchen.  "It comes from us." she said.  There were shepherd's pies, pots of cut up vegetables, pumpkin soup bubbling on the stove, french sticks a-plenty, and lots of dishes with good old apple crumble and custard.

Before Papa and I left to go up the hill, I asked him to cut me some flowers to put in the two toilets so I set to with my secateurs and replaced the old flowers with the new ones.  I always think it's nice, especially if there are visitors to the church to have some nice flowers where they wash their hands.

Around 10.30am, after all the ladies had morning tea, (I won't go into all the baking which was done for that, but you can imagine) we all trooped into the church for the devotion and the guest speaker.  The lady from Bell who was supposed to do the devotion, couldn't make it as her husband (the minister I think) had taken ill the night before, so we spent some time in prayer for him and then we sang a couple of lovely hymns.

The speaker was from an organisation called Emmaus. Emmaus is an organisation which supplies Bible Studies to folk all around the world.  The studies can be purchased, completed and then returned to Emmaus for correction and comments.  In Australia, the largest outreach with these studies are the prisons.  HERE'S a link to the organisation. 

 After Bryson had finished his talk, we all returned to the hall for lunch and surprise, surprise, Papa and Andrew the minister arrived to check how things were going :)  So, a seat was found for them both and off they went chatting about this and that while they tucked into their lovely lunch.  Simone, the minister's wife who periodically looks after babies whose family lives aren't the best, arrived with wee Paul in her arms.  She had to take off and pick up her wee girl Emmy-Claire from school, so I took wee Paul while she scooted off to get Emmy-Claire.  Wee Paul is a wee darling and Papa had him laughing and laughing as he played "Boo!" with him.  By the time Simone arrived back, he had had his bottle and was starting to get a bit sleepy.

After lunch it was back into the church for some more singing and a lovly devotion from an elderly lady about ways we can show Christ in our day to day relationships.  She was so lovely and gentle.  After she finished speaking, Bryson got up to talk a bit more about Emmaus - this time speaking more about personal experiences the prisoners shared as they approached and completed their studies - especially as they began the studies and further down the track when they had completed some of them and had a greater understanding of what the Good News is about.

While he was speaking, Emmy-Claire was getting a bit fidgety, so I suggested we go for a we walk, which we did.  Then it was time for afternoon tea and the mammoth job of washing the dishes from lunch.  It was amazing though how fast we got through them.  They had already been rinsed so it wasn't too difficult.  I washed, Emmy-Claire rinsed and ladies, including Papa who arrived to help with the clean-up dried.  

And before I headed for home I plaid a game of tennis with Emmy-Claire.  "Is Connie a good tennis player?" asked Simone when we came back from the court.  "No!" said Emmy Claire :)  

Today is a quieter day with all the table cloths on the line and a bit of ironing to do this afternoon:)

I still haven't told you about last Sunday when Kassandra's wee boy was baptised.  It was a wonderfull service.  

Beter go and get some of my chores done.

Love Nanxxx  PS  Because Papa did so much to help with the 'dinner' yesterday, he asked Peggy is he qualifies as an honorary member of the PWA!  PPS  Five spelling errors!

A NEW QUILT

Hello my lovelies!

Do you loik?  I'm not sure what to do with this material - perhaps a log cabin?  

But, isn't it just delicious?  All autumny with squirrels with little green jackets, acorns, nuts, berries and little autumnal poems.  What could be nicer to make into a quilt at this time of the year?

Love Nanxxx