THE JELLY GOT SPILT!

Hello my lovelies!

I couldn't find a photograph of 'spilt jelly' so I've had to make do with the unopened packet.

As the Kennedy cousins and their parents are arriving later today, I decided I would make some jelly to go with ice-cream for sweet tonight.  Strawberry jelly was duly made and carefully put in the fridge to set.

Papa came home with some shopping and as I was putting it away he said, "Would you like me to feed the dogs?"  

"Yes!" I said.  "That would be lovely."   Well, Papa went into the laundry, opened the cupoard and pulled out the dog dishes.  Into the dishes went the dry dog food.  Back into the kitchen where Papa opened the fridge and pulled out the dish holding the cold but definitely not set jelly.  He thought the dish was holding some leftovers for the dogs.  It went all over Papa, through the fridge, down the fridge doors, including the freezer and on to the floor.  

"Go outside and take off your clothes!" I said.  Papa didn't argue and I set to cleaning up the mess.  Every shelf was affected and even baskets holding stuff.  When I opened the freezer door more of the stuff poured into the freezer from where the jelly had spilled on to the edge of the door.  By the time I got to that lot, it had frozen!

Aaanywaaay...it's all cleaned up now.  We still have a bit of jelly left which we can divide between the children.  Adults will have to be left to cry.  No jelly for them!

Here's a photograph of the children on their way North.  I'm not sure if the little dog belongs to them.  When I got the photograph I wrote back to Uncle Aaron, "Are those children coming too!"

Love Nanxx

AND SHE'S AWAY!

Greer left after breakfast this morning.  She is now on the road, heading towards Bundaberg and home.  Her plan is to stop somewhere on the way for the night so that she can arrive home around lunch-time, fairly fresh with plenty of energy to empty the van and get herself settled again.

It's been a huge trip.  If I remember correctly, Greer said that since early December she has driven over 11,000kms!

We had a lovely couple of days together, chatting about 'old times' and when she came with us to church on Sunday, she felt as though she had travelled through the past and was sitting in our old church in Golden Grove again.

Andrew preached a fantastic sermon.  I'm sure there wasn't a sleepy eye in the place.  All backs were straight, hanging on to every word.  And the music too was wonderful.  The organist had prepared a Bach prelude and postlude.  I'm sure Opa would have loved it.

I'm off to Brisbane tomorrow to visit Auntie Emma and the family.  I think we are going to be doing a bit of sewing on her log cabin quilt.  She has bought some beautiful William Morris fabrics for it.  You can imagine us tomorrow taking it in turns sitting at the little lemon sewing machine, the cutting board and the iron.  Will take photographs for you to see how we are progressing.

Love Nanxxx

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

ARGENTINA

Hello my lovelies

I have been enjoying the emails and photographs from your Mumma.  And I can see on the board that a message from you Liliane was sent to the conference.  Love it!  

Papa and I were very interested to see that Andrew (Twiggy) Forrest was there and we loved the photograph he was in with your Mumma.  Do you think his nickname is Twiggy because his surname is Forrest?  For other readers of the blog the excerpt below is from Greer and describes Mr Forrest's role in the conference.

"I also attended this Inter-Faith Event hosted by Andrew Forrest which brought together about eight religious leaders from Argentina to promise to work with their communities to help them understand that before God they are free, made in his image and should live and work in dignity. Andrew Forrest’s vision is that if the religious leaders (the main centers of education and thought in most countries) help people understand their true nature and dignity, then this will help to create a momentum of people demanding of their leaders to better regulate business and employment conditions..."

I just Googled Twiggy and he has a very interesting story about how he came to have a relationship with God.  

Andrew Forrest   (1961 – )  mining magnate
Forrest publicly pledged this year to give away most of his fortune.   He revealed the biggest inspiration for his giving: the Bible. Forrest’s devout Christianity is unusual for a prominent Australian entrepreneur.

Forrest publicly pledged this year to give away most of his fortune – recently estimated by Forbes magazine at $5.7 billion – to charity. It’s a promise that could make him Australia’s greatest philanthropist. He revealed the biggest inspiration for his giving: the Bible. Forrest’s devout Christianity is unusual for a prominent Australian entrepreneur, perhaps especially so for one who thrives on risk and adopts a win-at-all-costs approach to business. But none of Forrest’s friends doubts his piety. They have experienced enough Forrest- led prayer sessions, or caught him sneaking a quick read of his Bible during enough hectic overseas business trips, to understand that belief in God appears to guide his every waking hour.

Admirable, but his way of finding God seems disturbingly trivial:

Forrest “found” God as a nine-year-old boy in the sandhills near Minderoo, the family property. He grew up in a family of Anglicans, but the Forrests were not overtly religious. Late one afternoon, Andrew was riding his motorbike miles from the homestead when he decided to throw the key to the machine away in the dunes to see if he could find it again. He related the anecdote last year: “One of the reasons I became a Christian and am still a Christian now is because after about three or four hours of fruitless search among the spinifex and the hot sand for this key which I was probably never going to find, I tried everything, every physical thing to find the key. And eventually, when I had given up all hope … I prayed. And when I came up from praying, there was the key between a little petrol overflow hose and the carburettor on the motorbike. “Now there’s not a snowflake’s chance in hell that I threw it there; I threw it over my shoulder. So I just thought, ‘OK, that’s cool, we’re showing off a little here, God. That’s a very obvious sign, I won’t ever test you again’ – and I haven’t.”

And, a final photograph of Twiggy with the religious leaders.

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

NO DOGS ALLOWED!

Hello my lovelies!

Papa and I had a bit of a run-in with the Ranger at the Ravensbourne National Park the other day.

"Let's take a picnic up to the lookout at Ravensbourne!" I suggested.  So, Papa put together a lovely picnic as the dogs jumped around all excited at the prospect of an outing.  Esky with picnic, flask, cups and dogs were bundled into the car and off we went.

It was a beautiful day, just perfect for sitting beside the lookout and enjoying the lovely spring air.  When we arrived we realized that NO DOGS were allowed, but as we are very good dog owners and there was no-one about but a lone bikie having his lunch at a nearby table, we tied the dogs to the table leg where we were sitting and set ourselves up for our lovely relaxing picnic.

My 'relaxation' was a bit disturbed when vehicles drove up the track to look at the view.  "Oh! No!" I'd say as each vehicle made its way up to near where we were sitting.  All the vehicles that passed as we were having lunch, stopped for a minute, looked at the view and drove off again.  HOWEVER, the last vehicle to come into view had RANGER emblazoned across its door.  You can imagine my reaction.  Papa just said "It'll be fine!", but I wasn't so sure.  So I leapt off my seat, grabbed the shirt off Papa's back - it was one of those checked ones he wears over his polo top, I unhooked the noisy dog who I knew would start barking, covered her with Papa's shirt, picked up the esky to try and hide her, walked over to the car, struggled to get the boot open with Molly struggling to breath inside the shirt, threw her and the esky in without even releasing her from the shirt, banged down the door and as the Ranger slowly climbed out of his utility, I said, in quite a high-pitched voice,"Morning!  Lovely day!"  He slowly walked over to me and said with a very authoritive voice, "Have you read this sign?"  The sign he pointed to was the picture of a dog with a line through it so I couldn't use the excuse that I couldn't read.   "We didn't realize there were no dogs allowed until we got here, so we just thought we would quickly eat our sandwiches and go."  He was having none of it and went into a long spiel about no dogs being allowed in National Parks, and the fine of $100.00 that was attached to members of the public who broke the rule.  

I felt so silly thinking he must have been watching the whole palava of me with Molly inside the shirt, staggering around with her under one arm and the esky in the other.  And...still ANOTHER dog tied up to the bench.

The good news is that he didn't fine us but we HAVE BEEN WARNED!  It's such a shame as the dogs are so good and, as you know we keep them tied up beside us when we go anywhere.

It was still a nice outing, and on our way home, we popped in to see if Don and Jenny's house was finished.  It was.  They had only moved in a few days before, so we didn't stay but we did have a quick run through their beautiful new home.

Here's a picture of me heading towards the lookout to enjoy the view.

Love Nanxxx

PUBLIC TOILET IN GOOMBUNGEE

Hello my lovelies

When Papa and I were travelling through Goombungee the other day, I saw this painting on the public toilets.  I thought it was just great.  The poor lady looks as though she's just going to make it! 

 A bit like your Nan :)

xxx

LAST STAGE OF THE JOURNEY HOME

Hello my lovelies!

The last place we stopped off at before arriving back at Auntie Emma and Uncle Michael's was at the Tweed Regional Gallery in Murwillumbah, New South Wales.

As you can see, this gallery is set in a beautiful part of Northern New South Wales.  It's not too far from Byron Bay.

The gallery opened a new Margaret Olley Art Centre which cost around $4 million dollars to construct.  The new Centre houses the 76,000 objects from the studio of artist Margaret Olley, who died in 2011 aged 88.  She seems to have been a bit of a collector.

As you can see from the photographs the Centre has been built in the gallery in such a way that you peer through the windows to view the various rooms of her original home which was somewhere in the area.  From what I can gather, the rooms in the Centre display the rooms of her home exactly as she left them.

Here's one of her paintings.  A lot of her paintings were of scenes from inside her home.

And a lovely cuppa at this table before heading for the car and our last stop in Brisbane.

Another couple of photographs I took looking over the countryside.  As you can see, it was quite smoky.  We're at that time of the year when we are coming to the end of our dry winter and are getting desperate for some rain. 

 Actually, talking of smoke and bushfires, everyone was very nearly evacuated from the wedding as there was a fire close by.  We watched the helicopters carrying their huge buckets of water past the wedding venue towards the fire which was to the left of us.  Thankfully the police took pity on us all and allowed us to carry on with our celebrations.

Love Nanxxxx

ON THE WAY HOME FROM THE WEDDING

Hello my lovelies

As the wedding was in Coffs Harbour and involved quite a bit of travelling, we stayed in a motel for the night before heading back north again.

In the morning we headed out of our apartment to look for somewhere for breakfast.  This looked a wonderful place for breakfast, but unfortunately it was booked out.

Not to worry, we found another lovely place.

The leaves aren't real, but I think they still give quite a good effect.

After breakfast, it was time to pack the car, get our Sat Nav in place and turn the car around and head for home.

Again, we stopped off and had a bite to eat beside the Clarence River.

Oh! I just remembered.  The roadworks that are being carried out down in that part of New South Wales are just incredible.  I think a lot of the works are to do with the fact that the land is very flat and when the Clarence River floods it causes huge disruptions to traffic heading south, particularly to Sydney and the towns to the north of Sydney.

Here's a link showing details of the works that are being carried out.  It's costing billions of dollars.

On our final stop, we had afternoon tea at the Tweed Regional Gallery in Murwillumbah.

I'll put some foties up tomorrow of this stage of our journey.

Love Nanxxx

ON THE ROAD TO THE WEDDING

Hello my lovelies

Papa and I set off really early to go to Jemma and Jimmy's wedding.  The wedding was on Saturday, so we headed down to Auntie Emma and Uncle Michael's on Friday afternoon and stayed the night so that we could head off really early from Brisbane. Papa set the alarm for just after 4.00am and we had a quick shower and then headed off.

I think we travelled a good couple of hours before stopping at a MacDonald's for breakfast - yummy egg and sausage muffin.  This time the dogs weren't in the back with their tongues hanging out begging for morsels.

Back in the car and the next stop was morning tea somewhere near the Clarence River.  I've just fished out a piece of paper from my bin.  The morning tea was at Ulmarra which, my bit of paper says, 

"A visit to Ulmarra is like stepping back in time as the village remains one of the finest examples of 19th Century riverport in Australia.  The entire village is classified by the National Trust.

The lattice work and colonial style of the Ulmarra Hotel attracts considerable comment as it nestles on the banks of the Clarence River.  The hotel and village were used as the location for the T.V. mini-series 'Fields of Fire' - a story based on life in a 1929 Queensland sugar cane town."  

Scenes from the film 'The Picture Show Man' were also shot here.

The Picture Show Man portrays the struggles of a travelling silent film projectionist in rural 1920's Australia, as he and his troupe travel from country town to country town."

I'd just like to point out that it wasn't the picture show man who was silent, it was the films that he was showing.

Here are a couple of photographs I took of the two little streets.

And the photograph below is where we sat and had our morning tea - Papa had already packed some goodies and a flask for a nice cuppa.  We sat opposite the Police Station and lovely little house with the Frangipani in the front yard.

More foties tomorrow.

Love Nanxxx

VILLA VIVANTE

Hello my lovelies

Papa and I are heading off today for our trip south to Coffs Harbour and Jemma and Jimmy's wedding.  

This is a photograph of the venue where the wedding and reception will take place.  Isn't it beautiful?  It looks like there will be wonderful sunsets.  Papa and I are going to leave the dogs with Emma and Michael.  We'll stay the night with them and then tomorrow we'll get up really early and try and hit the road by 5.00am.  It's a five hour drive apparently but knowing how we like to have some stops on the way, we will probably take 7 hours.  So, if we leave at 5.00am, we should arrive in Coffs Harbour around 12.00pm.  The wedding is at 3.30pm so we should have plenty of time for a bite to eat and a shower before we head off to where we are to catch a bus with the other guests.  Apparently there's no parking at the venue.

Apparently 'vivante' means "alive, life, lively".  Here's a sentence with the word in it.

Ce dauphin est un animal vivant. (This dolphin is a living animal).

I think, by the sounds of it, there is a lot of fun ahead of us.

xxxNan

SUNDAY AFTERNOON 2.32PM

Hello my lovelies

Do you like this quilt Robyn has been working on?  She has used lots of different Japanese fabrics.  When you think of Japanese fabrics, these are the colours that come to mind.  Robyn has been making it for her daughter Kylie who lives in Brisbane.  Kylie used to live in Tokyo, so the quilt will bring back lots of memories for her.

Here's a close-up of some of Robyn's quilting.

Lynne has been working on a cross stitch.

And Kerrie has been continuing quilting quite a large quilt.

Today Papa and I went up the road to church.  We received an email from Simone, the minister's wife through the week in which she encouraged folk to stay for morning tea and lunch.  We haven't done the 'lunch' thing before and decided we would stay today.  It worked out really well and gave us a chance to get to know lots more people.  

I'm now about to start clearing my desk.  I've got a couple of bills to pay and after that I will probably try a bit more quilting.  My arm is still very sore and I now have a cut on the top of my thumb which is taking a while to heal.  Every time I try to quilt, it starts to bleed and I have to put my quilting aside.

Tomorrow I'm heading down to Brisbane.  I'm catching the 5.00pm bus back on Tuesday so I won't be away from Papa too long.  

We will be heading back down to Brisbane on Friday to leave the dogs with Auntie Emma while Papa and I head south to northern New South Wales, where Gemma and Jimmy are getting married.  The wedding isn't until the afternoon on Saturday, so we are planning to leave Auntie Emma's really early.

We'll head back to Brisbane the next day.

Love Nanxxx

CARING IN UMBRIA

How on earth did you squeeze all this in your suitcase Liliane?

Love Nanxx

READING IN UMBRIA

What were you reading Freya?

Love Nanxxx

QUILTING IN UMBRIA AND TOOWOOMBA

Hello my lovelies

I just love this photograph of your Mumma.  She looks so relaxed.  I'm wondering how she is quilting this beautiful cloth.  Has she put in batting and a backing piece of material?

It was a leggings, fleece and beanie walk today but lovely and sunny.  I noticed lots of signs of Spring in the gardens I passed, especially Jasmine which seems to be hanging over every garden fence.

Papa has headed off to his archaeology class and I'm about to have breakfast and have a think about what is on my list for today.  One of the things will be to make the binding for my Christmas quilt.  I pulled out some green bits and pieces yesterday and they are lying beside the machine ready to experience a metamorphosis and become the finished edge to a quilt that will be brought out each year at Christmas.  Aren't they lucky bits and pieces?

Love Nanxxx

WEDNESDAY MORNING 9.44AM

Hello my lovelies

I've been very good today and went for a walk this morning.  As the dogs had already been for a walk with Papa, Molly wasn't that happy about going for another one but I dragged her along anyway.  It was freezing cold and windy but I stepped it out in a brisk manner and managed to keep the blood pumping around the body.

When I arrived home, Papa was ready to head off to U3A and his guitar lesson.  U3A has been on holiday for three weeks, it being the end of semester break time.  I think he's glad everything is back to its normal routine again and he can take off while I am busy writing my lists of THINGS THAT MUST BE DONE!

After he left, I took off my extension piece of material on my Christmas quilt and moved it along to THE LAST PIECE ready to quilt.  I then dragged out my green box and chose some bits and pieces for the binding.  I think I may have enough of the back which still has to be trimmed to make the sleeve.  It's all happening here.

Today is quilting up at Kerrie's.  A good day to sit with a quilt on your lap and quilt as I said it's very cold.  It's to be cold and windy for the next couple of days.

I had a lovely morning yesterday up at Charis'.  Anne Green came along as well and the three of us sat out on the verandah chatting about grandchildren, books, gardens and a million other things that are too many to mention. Charis has taken a term off school so enjoying the days where she can decide what she would like to do.

The photographs of you, Mummy and Carolyn are just beautiful.  You all look as though you had a ball together.  

Golden photographs from Umbria.

Love this one.  Mummy looks particularly naughty.  And Carolyn looks as though she is seriously considering the suggestion.

Love Nanxxxx