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.

ENGAGEMENT ANNIVERSARY - 49 YEARS!

Papa didn't forget on Saturday!

Love Nanxx

EMLYN'S FIVE!

Here we are preparing for Emlyn's birthday.

And...opening the presents...

Love Nanxx

EASTER SUNDAY

Hello my lovelies!

How did your Easter Sunday go?  Here's the yummy chocolate cake I made.  It was yummy!

Love Nanxx

A CRAFTY POST FOR EASTER

Hello my lovelies!

I found THIS lovely post with crafty ideas for Easter.

Hope you're having a lovely day when you read this.  Don't forget to send me some photographs of the mezzanine and crafts you are working on.

Love Nanxxx

PALM SUNDAY

Hello my lovelies!

Today is Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter Sunday and the Sunday we remember when Jesus entered Jerusalem to shouts of "Hosanna!" from the crowds.  The crowds were so excited to see Jesus, they waved palm branches as he passed by on the donkey and they laid their clothes on the ground for him as he passed by.

Mark 11:1-11

When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’” They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,

“Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

We had a lovely service this morning up at the church and I noticed that the organist was wearing a tea shirt which had palms all over it.  I'm not sure she had planned to wear it because if was Palm Sunday or whether she didn't even think about it when she put it on.

After the service, we went into the hall and all shared a yummy lunch together.

Now we're home.  Papa is having a wee snooze in his chair out the back and I'm just about to start a bit of sewing.  I've prepared one of my log cabin quilts for tacking up at Robyn's tomorrow and I just want to check the batting again.  It isn't the normal batting I get and didn't actually fit the quilt top so I had to cut it in half and sew the halves together again in such a way that it made the batting wider.  The batting had to be joined by butting each edge against each other which was difficult to say the least and I just want to double-check it's not coming apart.  I think I'll go over it again with my zig-zag stitch to make sure it holds in place until the quilt is tacked.

Well I shall away and get started.  

Perhaps a cup of tea first!

Love Nanxx

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILIANE!

Wishing you a wonderful day today Liliane.

Love Nanny and Papa xx

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hello my lovelies!

Here are the gorgeous doggies the boys gave me for Christmas.  Aren't they wonderful?  They are sitting in pride of place on my small blue dresser.

Well, Christmas is all over for another year.  Our tree is down and packed away.  We no longer turn on the lights on the verandah and I am no longer hauling out the flour, butter and sugar to make mince pies and shortbread.  Although having said that, I did make a batch of shortbread this afternoon.  We're going to dinner up at Roger and Anne's in Cabarlah and I thought I'd take a 'plate'.  I'm also going to see a friend tomorrow for afternoon tea, so I'll take some to that too.

Auntie Emma, Uncle Michael and the boys left for Adelaide today.  They are visiting Uncle Michael's family who are on holiday in Victor Harbour about 100 kms south of Adelaide. 

 I noticed on the forecast today that the temperature is to be 38 degrees in Adelaide which in the old scale is over 100!

Papa has been busy today making a little gate to go at the top of the stairs on the back verandah.  This will make it easier for Papa and me to go up and down the stairs when we want to keep the dogs in.  Between the two of them, they create quite a lot of noise when they have free reign to do what they want and truth be told, I don't think they mind being locked up on the verandahs some of the time.

Today is quite hot - in the 30's so all the fans are going full bore.  It's now 4.15pm and I think it just might be time for a wee glass of vino down on the back lawn.

Love Nanxxx

ANGELS WE HAVE HEARD ON HIGH

Hello my lovelies!

Here's a wonderful rendition of the Christmas carol "Angels We Have Heard on High".  Watch to the end.

Love Nanxx

BIN COOKIN'

Hello my lovelies!

I've managed to get a few things in and out of the oven today.  Here are some gingerbread men.  Papa and I decided to just give the 'babies' belly buttons.  They would have been covered in currants if we had tried to give them a face and buttons :)

I also made a honey and apple cake to take down to Brissie tomorrow.  And...some shortbread and nibbles made from Nutragrain, mixed nuts and curry.   Papa is busy washing up the dishes of which there were many.

And while I was cooking, I downloaded these two and listened to lots of lovely carols.

Love Nanxxx

CHRISTMAS IS A'COMIN'

Hello my lovelies

Christmas tree is up.  As you can see I've put it beside the back deck.  Sinead, Finn, Oscar and wee Emlyn decorated it when they were here a week or so ago.  They did a great job.

Nativity on my lovely wee blue cupboard.  Do you like the frame on the cross-stitch?  The purple really picks up the purple in the letter.

...and the garden in December.  Look how tall the Leopard trees are!

Love Nanxx  PS  That's Papa under the hat!

CHRISTMAS BREAK-UP AT ROBYNS

Hello my lovelies!

Here are some photographs from Friday.  

Isn't Robyn's tree just gorgeous!  I just remembered when I typed 'gorgeous' that Fergus imitates me by exclaiming in a loud voice and holding his hands to his head, "I don't believe it!  It's just gorgeous!"

This photograph is a bit blurry but you get the idea!

Bonnie's quilt which she has been working on for quite a long time.  All that applique has been done by hand.  

And the table set for our lovely lunch.

Love Nanxx

DOGGIES DRESSED FOR CHRISTMAS LUNCH

Hello my lovelies

I thought you would like this photograph of Heather's wee doggies.  They were so cute when they came to meet us when we arrived for Christmas lunch on Monday.

Thankfully, for them, it was quite a cool day!

Love Nanxxx

BIBLE STUDY BREAK-UP

Hello my lovelies!

It was Christmas break-up for my Bible Study yesterday.  We have now finished our get-togethers for the year and will meet up again in early February.

To finish the year off, Heather suggested we all bring a plate and meet at her house for a Christmas lunch.  Heather lives in Ramsay which is South of Toowoomba.  I arranged to pick up a couple of ladies who travelled with me in my car.  As Heather's house is quite out-of-the-way, I set the GPS with the address and set off.  Well, what a journey we all had.  Let's just say that I think the GPS needs updating and the countryside in South East Queensland is looking lovely and green after the recent rains we've had.  

One of the ladies was getting quite concerned and at one point said in a quiet voice, "I don't recognize anything from my trip out here last year."   

"Have faith Joan!" I replied. 

 I knew that even if the GPS took us via Darwin, we would eventually get there.  And get there we did.  Heather's house is a gorgeous wee cottage set on top of a hill with fantastic views over the Lockyer Valley.  

As you can see Heather had set her home up beautifully to celebrate with us all.

That's Heather in the background, Simone, the minister's wife with her hair pulled back and Katherine, the Sunday School teacher sitting beside her.

It was a lovely day and as we were leaving, Heather gave each of us a big Christmas bag with lots of goodies in it.  And...on our way to the cars, we were given a pottted succulent that she had prepared for us all.  My succulent is sitting on a kitchen shelf and looks very happy.

Love Nanxxx

LOTS OF LOVELY BIRDS

Hello my lovelies

For my 'quilting' birthday, I requested fabrics with BIRDS.  Here are some of the fabrics I was given.  Aren't they fabby?

Carol came round the other day to give me some ideas of how I can use them.  A great quilt coming up!

I've also started cutting into them (a bit) for a 'Robyn' quilt I'm making.

Here's block number one!

Isn't this one beautiful (above)?  Papa says it is a swallow and its nest.  It's from a Japanese fabric range.

Which is your favourite?

Love Nanxxx