SATURDAY AFTERNOON AT 4.43PM

Hello my lovelies!

Kerrie took this photograph the other day.  I am sitting on her front verandah.  Only the 'other' Kerrie and I were there for quilting so Kerrie decided we would sit on the front verandah.  I think I match the quilt I'm quilting!  Can you see the beautiful plane (I think) tree in its autumn colours in the background?

Toowoomba is looking very autumnal now.  The weather has been pretty much perfect this last week and is set to continue this week too.  I have moved the table on the back verandah a bit more towards the shutters so that I can get some of that lovely northern sunshine in the morning when I am eating my breakfast and doing a bit of reading.

Today has been a bit of a quiet day.  I did my usual chores then sat myself down at the table on the back deck and read the weekend papers.  After the papers were all read I proceeded to read the book I'm currently reading which is called THE BENEDICT OPTION which I am really enjoying.  Lots of underlining going on I can tell you!

In between all this Papa popped in and out to the church to help with some of the renovations that have been going on.  Someone has left the church a beautiful grand piano which has meant that in order to bring it into the church we have had had to alter things a tad.  Next week is the grand celebration of all the renovations completed and the piano's installation.

Girls from Fairholme College are coming too to provide choir music.

We have all been asked to bring a plate for the giant morning tea we are going to have afterwards in the hall.  I'll try and remember to take my camera.

Tomorrow we are having a baptism service when Ava and George are going to be baptized.  Ava was born at only 25 weeks - only half cooked - so it is a double thankfulness to God - one for her life and also her baptism.

I'll forward the church newsletter where you can see a photograph of her when she was born.

Did you go to church last week?  If you did, can you remember what the sermon was about?

Love Nanxxx

PAPA THE PHOTOGRAPHER

I was eating breakfast and checking out some Christmas recipes.

I sent him off this morning with a long list to buy lots and lots of baking stuff and as soon as I'm finished this post, it's on with the apron, the fan, some Christmas music and out with the butter, flour, eggs, fruit, honey, cocoa, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, tins....

Love Nanxx

COLOURING IN

Hello my lovelies!

Look at this fabulous Bible!  I mentioned to my friend Robyn that I wanted to buy a Bible for someone I know and she said, "Oh!  I bought a Bible some time ago.  Perhaps you would like to give the lady this one."  And away she went to look for the Bible.

What do you think?  Isn't it wonderful.  Imagine how even more beautiful it will look when it is all coloured in!

The translation is The Message translation which is easy to read.  The man who sat down and translated the whole Bible into this easy-to-read version is called Eugene Peterson.  

Here he is with the singer Bono.

Perhaps you could put this on your Christmas list :)

Love Nanxxx

WASHING THE HOUSE AND PRAYING

Hello there my lovelies

Here's a photograph of Papa taken the other day.  Today, at this moment, he has the gurney going and is washing the northern, western and back deck areas.  I shall move in when he's finished and give the floor a mop and clean the windows.

While he's been directing the powerful gurney hose out the back, I've been sitting at the table doing my Bible Study for Monday.

We are still studying Chronicles which I'm really enjoying - all about Solomon and the Temple.  I love this verse where Solomon prayed to God at the dedication of The Temple after all the building work had been completed.

Then Solomon stood before the alter of the Lord in front of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.  Now he had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had placed it in the centre of the outer court.  He stood on the platform and then knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven.  He said:

...But will God really dwell on earth with humans?  The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you.  How much less this temple I have built...

What a beautiful verse - and to think that a thousand years later, God did dwell on earth, not only with humans but as a human being.  

We have been loving all the photographs that have been coming through from Italy.  It looks absolutely gorgeous.  What a special time for you all.

Well I must run and see how Papa's going.  I must make sure he doesn't overdo things.  

Love Nanxxx

THE SNOW GOOSE

I forgot to mention this book which has the Dunkirk emergency happening in the background of the story.  It's a beautiful book and tells the story of Fritha who finds an injured snow goose.

It was also made into a film.  

Here's Fritha showing the injured snow goose to Philip who lives alone in an abandoned lighthouse.

When your Mummy was a little girl and getting restless in church, I would take a pen and notebook out of my bag and write the story of the Snow Goose as she watched.  But I would change Fritha's name to Greer as I wrote.

Love Nanxxx

READING IN UMBRIA

What were you reading Freya?

Love Nanxxx

MY HOUSE IN UMBRIA OR SUNDAY MORNING AT 10.33AM

Hello my lovelies

Because you are in Umbria and our thoughts are full of all things Umbrian, Papa and I decided to haul out our old DVD of the movie from this book.  We had seen it before but it was wonderful to watch again.  I didn't remember half of the story and was very surprised by the happy ending.

Maggie Smith, the main actress is a joy to watch and listen to. Here she is stepping into a train compartment in the movie.

As you would probably guess, her clothes were magnificent in the film.

While watching the film, I was reminded of Adelaide.  I think it must have been the grapevines and the European weather.  The beautiful garden that was created  during the movie reminded me of Adelaide too.

William Trevor, the writer of the book, was not only knighted by the Queen but also received many awards for his writing which included being nominated five times for the Booker Prize, and was listed for the Nobel Prize for Literature as well.  Here's a link to some information on him.

At the end of the movie, the viewer is left with the feeling that Emily Delahunty's (Maggie Smith's character) life is going to be filled with what everyone imagines living in a house in Umbria brings - sunshine and happiness.

I know that both you girls, as you look back on this holiday with your Ma and Pa, will also have wonderful memories of your time in The Castle in Umbria.

Love Nanxxx

BRISBANE, ANTARCTICA AND A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD

Hello my lovelies

Well I arrived home last night after a few days down in Brisbane.

While I was in Brisbane, it poured and poured and when I spoke to Papa on the telephone he was most disappointed because the rain had not reached Toowoomba.  As there are no clouds on the horizon for the next ten days or so, he has hauled out the hoses and is beginning to water the trees and shrubs before they decide that no-one cares for them and start to feel a bit low.

As you can imagine, when I arrived home, the dogs went berserk.  They were very happy to see their Mama home.  I had to drop my bags, take off my glasses and sit down on the couch with each of them on either side of me and give them good scratches along with lots of words of how much I had missed them.  Molly especially was quite beside herself making lots of 'crying' type noises.  Oh dear!

Papa has been working in his shed while I have been away.  He has been doing lots of jobs to make his shed nice and tidy and organised.  I think I sent a photograph a while back showing the new workbench he had made.  Roger up at Cabarlah gave him some sheets of 'stuff' which he is using to line some of the walls.  Then I think the plan is to put some shelves and hooks up to take his tools. Once he's all set up, he's going to make me a couple of coffee tables to go beside the couches here in the kitchen.  There's a little table between the two couches but I think we also need a table on the other side of the couches too.  I downloaded a photograph from the Internet giving Papa an idea of what I am looking for.  I would like to paint the tables too in a nice 'Porter's' colour.  Forget grey in this house!  It's all Colour with a capital 'C".

While I was in Brisbane, Emma, Fergus and I went to visit the Art Gallery where there were a few installations set up especially for children.  I think the Gallery is preparing for the onslaught of children when they break up for their end of semester break today.

Wee Fergus had a wonderful time with one of the installations which was made up of heaps of really large blue bricks, hoses, and rope.

I've asked Auntie Emma to forward some photographs. When I receive them I'll send on.

There was another installation which Fergus liked.  It was to do with all things Antarctica.

The folk who had created the installation had done a wonderful job.  From the ceiling they had hung grey/blue nets to symbolize the sky.  They had also made gorgeous clouds which hung from the ceiling.  They had been made with beautiful material which had stiff metal edges around the edge.  I wish I had taken a photograph for you - they were beautiful and would look great in any bedroom :) I've had a look on the Internet but can't find any images.  As the installation was set up for young children, there were Antarctic-type soft toys everywhere;  puffins, seals, polar bears, penguins, more penguins and even a gorgeous otter.  I'm not sure if otters live in Antarctica but this one looked quite happy as it wasn't too cold in the Brisbane Art Gallery.

There was also a fantastic drawing/painting exhibition of works created by children around Australia. These were obviously inspired by the artist and Antarctic explorer Alison Lester.  As you can see from the article below, Alison kept in touch with the schoolchildren of Australia by email, detailing all that she was up to while she was in Antarctica.

CURRENT EXHIBITION: ANTARCTICA - ALISON LESTER AND FRIENDS
From June 24 - July 12, this remarkable series of works is a collaboration between artist and Antarctic adventurer Lester and the schoolchildren of Australia. 
Children's author, Alison Lester, travelled to Antarctica in 2005 as an Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) Arts Fellow. Her regular reports back via email to the schoolchildren of Australia resulted in a unique collaboration of imagination, inspiration and innocence.
She has created a series of paintings inspired by her experience, and is working on developing a children's book from the series. Created in collaboration with the schoolchildren of Australia, the resulting works are both poignant and charming, a blend of childlike naivete and the deft hand of an illustrative master. The outcome of this creative dialogue is unlike anything most of us have seen, both because of the subject matter, and the process of the art that created it. The product of many imaginations, many months, and many surprises...

Here are a couple of works from the exhibition.

I could have spent all day looking at these drawings/paintings but Fergus let us know that it was "...time to move on."

Girls, would you tell Mummy that I've just finished a great book called A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD by Jennifer Egan.  She might like to put it on her 'holiday reading' list.  Here's a photograph of the cover and a link to Wikipedia.

Love Nanxxx

BRISBANE, ZADIE SMITH AND SUNDAY LUNCH

Hello my lovelies

Well, I'm back up the hill and into my cosy clothes.  It is FREEZING here!

I arrived back home late Friday afternoon and the first thing I did was have a long, long shower and get into the lovely pyjamas Auntie Emma gave me for Mother's Day.  Then I slipped on the gorgeous pink, soft bed socks and made my way down the hall to the kitchen where Papa had a G&T sitting on the table waiting for me!

Yesterday was a quiet day.  I had grand ideas of all the things I was going to do but in the end I just pottered and finished a great book I was reading.  Papa kept up the cups of tea and between us both we had lovely view of the garden as we periodically got up to move our chairs back into the sun.

The book I was reading was by an English author called Zadie Smith.  Here's a photograph of her and a link to the book which was called SWING TIME.  Mummy might like to get a copy.  She would really enjoy it.

I had a lovely visit down to Brisbane.  It is much warmer than here and because I had only packed warm clothes, I had to borrow something from Auntie Emma.  On Friday, we went for a fabulous walk in Southbank.

I love these deckchairs which are scattered around Southbank for visitors to sit on.

I didn't have a close look at this statue to see who it was but I just loved the blue heeler by the man's side.

Today Papa and I are going to have a relaxing morning and then at lunch-time we have been invited to our friends Don and Jenny for lunch.  They have recently moved to a rental property at Kleinton which is a bit further out that Cabarlah so it will be nice to have a wee nose in a new home.

They are in the process of building a fab new home in Cabarlah.  We may, after lunch take a drive out to see how that one is going.

Well my darlings I shall away and perhaps speak to you both later.

Love Nanxxxx

SITTING ON THE FRONT VERANDAH, MAY DAY AND JEREMIAH

Hello my lovelies

I'm sitting here at the table on the front verandah.  It is the most beautiful Autumn day imaginable.  I've been watching petals falling off the Camellia as there are obviously birds in there having a wonderful time.  I can also hear Papa in the guest room practising his guitar.  He's just finished singing and playing a Dylan song.  

While sitting here in the sunshine, I've been eating my breakfast and doing a bit of my Bible Study for Monday.  Although there's no Bible Study tomorrow as it's a public holiday for MAY DAY.  I may decide instead to march with THE WORKERS.

The first of May is known by different names. INTERNATIONAL WORKERS' DAY, LABOUR DAY  and of course MAY DAY.

The people who celebrate the first of May as a WORKER'S DAY celebrate the role of workers in the workforce rather than the owners of the companies.  "Let's celebrate with the workers!" I say.

And of course if you remember CAMELOT, it is also an ancient Northern hemisphere Spring festival.  Sing along with me girls..."It's May, it's May!"

Anyhoo!   While I've been working here on my Bible Study, I've been reading bits and pieces in the Bible and I thought this one was just beautiful.  I'm reading THE MESSAGE Bible which is an easy to read translation.  

Here's an introduction to Jeremiah...

"Life is ambiguous.  There are uncertainties.  Loose ends.  It takes maturity to live with the loose-endedness of life.  But if we refuse to live with it, we exclude something that may very well be essential and dear:  the hazards of faith, the mysteries of God.  The book of Jeremiah ends inconclusively.  We want to know the end, but there is no end.  We want to know that he was finally successful so that if we live well and courageously, we, too, will be successful.  Or we want to know that he was finally unsuccessful, that a life of faith and integrity doesn't pay off, so that we can get on with finding another means by which to live.  We get neither in Jeremiah.  In Egypt, the place he didn't want to be, with people who treated him badly, he continued to be tenaciously faithful, magnificently courageous, and yet heartlessly rejected.  All of which add up to a towering life, terrifically lived.  And though we don't know if his ending was happy, we do know that his character was heroic. Maybe that's all we need to know about his story.  And maybe that's all we need to know about ours."

Faithful and courageous!  That's my prayer for the week for myself and my family.

Love Nanxxxx

QUIET DAY WITH DUST, EASTER AND STREET LIBRARY

Hello my lovelies

It's been a fairly quiet day today.  That is, apart from the builders next door.  Lots of banging, shouting and laughing.

I had just finished mopping the verandah when I heard an electric saw going.  I looked up and saw they were cutting cement sheets for the ceiling above the new verandah and heaps and heaps of dust was being blown my way.

I quickly ran and locked the doors to Papa's office.  Just then, Papa arrived home with all the shopping.  "There's a lot of dust coming from next door David." I said.

"What from?"  he asked.  When I told him, he went straight down into the garden and called on the builder.  He explained to him about the dust and I could hear the builder apologising profusely.

When Papa came back I said that I didn't expect him to speak to them because all building involves some dust somewhere along the line.  But Papa said cement dust is a different matter.  He said that the men shouldn't even be cutting the sheets without protective masks and eye wear - which of course they weren't using.   So there was no more cutting with the saw and Papa said they were probably using cement cutters.

After all my chores and lunch, I settled down on the side verandah to read the new book Papa picked up from the library for me.  He had picked up a couple last week which I just couldn't get into.  This one though is keeping me reading.  It's set in Ireland and is a mystery novel.

There's no Wednesday quilting for the next few weeks as Kerrie's in France at the moment.  But I do have quilting this Friday with Robyn which will be lovely.

Talking of Robyn, she sent a fabulous link with Dolly Parton singing "HE'S ALIVE!".  If you click here you will be able to link into the song.  Listen to the song to the end.

Here are some more photographs from Easter.

This photograph is of the Street Library round the corner at Mary-Kate's place.  Her house is the one with the Jacaranda tree outside where the children decorate it with beach-balls, flip-flops etc at Christmas.

Hope the cooking classes are going well.

Love Nanxx

VERY USEFUL

Saw this wonderful piece of bathroom furniture which includes space for the soap, book, wine and a candle and thought, "Mmm!  I think I know someone who could make good use of this."

Seen on www.usefulorbeautiful.blogspot.com.

LOT'S WIFE AND WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Still have a splitting headache from the extraction on Monday.  I can now open my mouth without too much pain and before going to bed peered in to have a look.  It was not pleasant.  There it sat all lonely like Lot's wife!  I already had a tooth removed some years ago on the one side of Mrs Lot and this week it was the other side's turn.  How long this woman is going to stand on her own I do not know.  Time will tell.  I will keep you both informed of any impending doom to her status.

Today I'm supposed to go to quilting at Carol's but as I'm not feeling terrific, I'm going to stay home and rest.

Loved the photograph of you and your Muma Liliane.  Are you enjoying being an 'only' child for a few days?  It will be lovely to hear how Freya has been going with THE GAME when you go home again.

Papa has taken himself off to his U3A this morning.  He is studying King Lear at the moment and seems to be enjoying it.  He cheats a bit in that his copy of the play has plain English on the one page and the Shakespearean language on the other.  This makes it much easier for him to understand what is going on.  It can be a bit difficult when you are reading Mr Shakespeare's plays but given time, you get used to the language.

I like his earring.

Did you know...The English language owes a great debt to Shakespeare. He invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words wholly original.

If you click here you will see some of the words he invented.  He was a very clever man.

Well my dears I shall away and have some breakfast.

xxxxNanny  PS  Wonderful, wonderful rain.  We've had over four inches this week so far and more to come.  Woo! hoo!

A BUSY DAY IN THE GARDEN

No, not this one.  Not sure where this one is.  Somewhere in England I think, or maybe Scotland.  I think Papa may have taken this photograph.

And not this one either.  This is the back garden of Auntie Emma's first house in Brisbane.

And not this one either!

Definitely this one!

After breakfast, I gave the house a big tidy, put away all the boxes of materials which were strewn all around the house, tidied my office, gave the place a dust, then a vacuum and finally a mop.  Then it was into the gardening clothes, my lovely hat on, tools in hand and into the garden to do some weeding.

I had done some weeding the other day, but hadn't finished, so today was the day for finishing.  I also decided that since I was in the garden, I would make sure all the major shrubs and trees had a good watering.  Because we had some rain the other day, Papa switched the water over to the tanks.  I took the clock timer into the garden with me and have been giving the big stuff ten minutes and the small stuff five minutes.  I don't think I'll get the whole garden done today, perhaps half - that is the watering.  I've finished all the weeding and have raked it up so that it's easy for Papa to put into the bin for me.

Today I'm going to cook dinner and I'm going to make that ragu/pasta dish I made the first night you arrived here at Christmas.  Do you remember it?  It has lots of mushrooms in it and is just yummy.

Did I tell you our television isn't working very well?  It's fine with the normal channels but whenever we use anything that involves the internet such as Netflix it keeps cutting out.  The TV man came out yesterday and replaced something in the TV but before he left it was still cutting out.  He suggested we let the TV upgrade itself and see how things were in the evening.  Well in the evening things were just fine and we were cheering at the prospect of having full access to the internet again.  But no!  This morning it was doing it's cutting out thing again.

Don the TV man came after breakfast and has taken it to the workshop.  He says his internet connection is fine there and he will put on a couple of movies on our TV.  If it doesn't cut out, then the problem lies with our internet connection.  The only problem there though is that we have already been on to Telstra and they say that our connection is just hunky dory.  It will be a problem if he comes back with the TV this afternoon and says it's all OK down at his workshop.

Oops!  The bell has rung!  I'll away and moves the hoses.

Back again!

Papa picked me up a book at the library yesterday.

As you can see, it's called THE STORY OF A NEW NAME and is written by an Italian woman called Elena Ferrante.  Only, that isn't really the author's name.  The person who has written the book wants to remain anonymous so the world is having a whale of a time trying to discover who the author actually is.  Personally, I think if she wants to remain anonymous that people should let her.

She has written a number of novels.  This particular one I have here is the second novel in a series.  I finished the first one called MY BRILLIANT FRIEND a couple of weeks ago.  It was just wonderful tracing the story of two girls growing up after World War 2 in a very poor part of Italy.  Both girls are very intelligent but one of them who is extremely bright finds it difficult to keep up with her studies because of pressures from her family and finally leaves school and marrying very young.  This second book, I imagine chronicles the next stage of their lives.  The next in the series is called THOSE WHO STAY AND THOSE WHO LEAVE and the final one is called THE FORGOTTEN CHILD.   The writer has been described as "...One of the great novelists of our time..."  Perhaps Mummy would like to read the books when she has time.

Well I shall away.  Tomorrow I'm heading to Robyn's from my monthly Friday quilting group.

Love Nannyxxxx

WASHING FEET, QUILTING AND PREPARING DINNER

Hello my lovelies

Just home from quilting at Kerrie's.  Papa is making a Nicoise Salade for dinner and he has just made me a wee cup of tea as I sit to write to you both.

The day started with a walk, not with Molly though as Papa had already taken her.  The front steps were all wet after a very brief shower through the night and it was quite misty too.

After breakfast, Papa left for his U3A where they are studying Shakespeare's Hamlet and I had my shower and made myself beautiful for quilting, even painted my toenails!   As I had some time to spare, waiting for Kerrie J to pick me up, I did a bit of my Bible Study for next week.  I had to laugh at part of the reading where Jesus puts a towel around his waist, gets a basin of water and as was the custom then, begins to wash his disciples' feet.  At first Peter is astounded that Jesus would stoop to do something that was considered the job of a servant and when he says to Jesus, "You're not going to wash my feet - ever!", Jesus says to him, "If I don't wash you, you can't be part of what I'm doing." Peter then says "Master! Not only my feet, then.  Wash my hands!  Wash my head!"

As I said yesterday it was Kerrie J's birthday today.  I took some photographs for you with her receiving all her bits and pieces.

She was thrilled with them.  Leona made a delicious orange and almond cake which we ate off gorgeous tiny plates with little silver forks.

Carol finished the binding on a little quilt for her grand-daughter Maddie.

The plan is that it will be a little cot-quilt for her dollies.  Carol originally started the quilt when her daughter Catherine was a little girl.  When Carol started it, it was going to be a wall hanging.  I'm sure Maddie is going to love it, as at the moment, she is using her Muma's dish-towels as blankets for her dollies.

Yesterday, after breakfast, I asked Papa if he would help me move carpets around the house.  I decided that the green carpet in the kitchen area would look better in the library and the plainer colour that was in the library would look better in the kitchen area.  So with sleeves up, we moved all the furniture, rolled up the carpets, swapped them over and moved all the furniture back.  I'm really happy with the change.  What do you think?  I think the green carpet really picks up the grass in the picture and the plainer one looks better in the kitchen what with all the colours in the quilts on the walls.

I also brought out one of my wee dolls that Auntie Emma gave me and have added it to the little table beside the couch.

It's been a bit cooler today with the temperature around 30 degrees but Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be around the 38 degree mark - pretty darn hot!!

Well I'm off to do a bit more on my Hebridean quilt.  Have added a couple more hills and have almost finished the trawler.

Love Nannyxxxxx