WEE RODNEY HAD NO BACK FEET

Here's Rodney!

Papa and I sat down to watch SUPERVET last night.  One of the patients was a wee Westie called Rodney who, as my title says, had no back feet.  The lady who brought Rodney in to see Noel, was from a charity that looks after animals who don't have a home. 

The lady wasn't sure what had happened to Rodney, whether he had been born that way or whether another dog had bitten off his wee feet when he was a very little puppy.  

The programme showed how difficult Rodney found it to walk.  He would sink to the next joint on his legs and try walking like that and sometimes he would even try walking just on his front legs.  SOMETHING HAD TO BE DONE!

Praise be for Dr Fitzpatrick.  He organised new prosthetics to be made and when wee Rodney was a bit older, he was operated on to have them fitted.

Here he is not long after the operation - the wee man!

He looks as though he's saying, "Look people!  If you have a problem with your feet, I can highly recommend Noel."

The final scene showed him walking with the lady and another dog.  You wouldn't have known he had anything wrong with his back feet.  He was running in and out of bushes, through puddles - having a wonderful time.

It was such a great story.  Perhaps you could Google it on Itunes and see the whole programme.

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

TUESDAY 9.25AM

Hello my lovelies

Auntie Emma and Fergus have not long left to head down the hill back to Brisbane.  We've all had a lovely couple of days together.

One of the first things Fergus and Papa did together was to make a wee trailer to go on the back of his bike.  Fergus loves to put things in 'trailers' as he's mad on trailers and anything else that can be hitched on to a vehicle of any sort.  Here he is with Papa putting the trailer together.  Papa had prepared all the pieces before he came.

And here is the finished product.

I think he was quite pleased with it.  It has been packed into the back of Auntie Emma's car and is now on its way to Brisbane.

While Auntie Emma and Fergus were here we took a drive to see if we could see some of the new Bypass that is being built here in Toowoomba.  We took the road up to Highfields from Toowoomba.  You don't go too far up the road before you can see some of the work - not a lot though.  While we were driving to another lookout to see if we could have a better view, Auntie Emma noticed lots of large trailer type vehicles with other smaller vehicles with flashing lights.  Before you could say "Wow!", Auntie Emma swung her car off the highway on to some dirt and grass where all the vehicles were parked.

After talking with some of the men with the yellow jackets on, we discovered that these vehicles, together with police vehicles had escorted the huge trailers carrying steel all the way from Brisbane.  They had set off around 10.00pm the previous evening so that there wouldn't be too much traffic on the way and arrived at the site around 5.00am.  So, it was a long trip.  We were so lucky to arrive when we did as the trailers and escort vehicles were getting to leave to do another trip to collect more steel for the bridges that are being built on the new Bypass.

Here's one of the smaller trailers.  Two huge ones had already left and as they were leaving gave big 'toots' with their horn especially for Fergus.  Fergus got a bit of a fright and went and sat in the car to watch the last one leaving.

After they all left, two of the yellow-jacketed men came over and chatted to us and gave us lots of information about what the journey that day had entailed. To get up the Toowoomba Range, the trucks had to be pulled up!  Here's a picture showing how large the trailers were.

Here's a video showing drone footage of the progress on the new road.

And a wee picture of Fergus and me chatting while having lovely strawberries and ice-cream.

Hope you had a nice time down in Montpellier.

Love Nanxxxx

A LOVE STORY IN EMERGENCY

Hello my lovelies

Mumma sent me some photographs of your brunch in the beautiful garden with Claire.  It looks as though you girls had a wonderful time creating a gorgeous hairstyle she might use for her wedding.  I just loved it.  I'll have to ask Mumma if I can put a photograph up on the blog of her hair.

It's a cloudless day again today and I have all the doors open, plus Papa's doors on to the side verandah.  I can hear him practising his guitar.  He has a lesson this afternoon at U3A.  Because he will be out for the afternoon, I am on kitchen duty and will make a lovely stew for tea tonight.

I was watching one of my favourite programmes on television last night - 24 Hours in Emergency. The programme is a documentary of 24 hours in the Emergency Department of St George's Hospital in London and apparently is one of the busiest emergency departments in the world.

What I most love about the programme is the stories the people tell, not only of how they injured themselves or became sick, but also the stories of their lives.  The camera jumps back and forward to speak to the person while they are in hospital, with the relatives and when they are back home again.

This particular story was about a very elderly gentleman, in his mid 80's who had come in by ambulance because of a very severe cough and difficulty breathing.  His wife came in the ambulance with him and you could see that she was quite a bit younger than her husband, probably my age.

Because of his age, the doctors didn't want to do anything invasive to his body such as putting in a drain - he had fluid in his lungs, so they decided to see if giving him some drugs would do the trick. He had previously been in hospital with the same thing some time before and the doctors wondered if perhaps the previous infection hadn't completely cleared up.

Time passed and it became obvious that the drugs weren't working and the man was becoming quite distressed with his breathing.  The doctors decided they would have to put in the drain but first they took the man's wife into the 'relatives' room to have a chat to her.  They wanted to know that if he took a sudden turn for the worse had her husband made any decision as to what he would want them to do.  Often with very elderly folk it is better to let them die peacefully than try and extend their life which might entail months of suffering before they die.

As you would imagine, his wife became very teary at having to make such a decision and said she would have to talk to her husband first.  As her husband was suffering from the early stages of Dementia and was therefore quite forgetful, she wasn't sure if he would understand her questions.

As it was he did and he said that if things didn't go according to plan, he didn't want major surgery. He wanted to be allowed to die peacefully.

When his wife went back to the doctor, still in tears, she said that she knew her husband's decision was him thinking of her and the burden he might be on her if the doctors continued trying to keep him alive.

As the camera was going back and forth, in one of its 'forths' when she is sitting at home after everything was over and talking about his illness and their relationship she talked about how she had met her husband.

Her husband was the friend of one of her brothers and one day, he asked her if he could walk her to school.  She said she didn't think anything of it, just someone walking her to school.  At this time she was nearly in her last year of high school.  As they were walking he said to her, "You know, you are just the sort of person I would like to marry."  and she said, "Well!  Why don't you ask me?"  And he did!

After they were married and no children were coming along, they decided to check things out with the doctor.  The doctor did some tests and told them the sad news that they would never have children of their own.

Not to be deterred, they adopted two beautiful African children, a little girl and a little boy and THEN when she was about forty and feeling a bit unwell, she discovered she was pregnant.  So in the end they had three children!

At the end of the programme, the camera zoomed in on her crocheting something for one of her grandchildren and there sitting beside her with a big smile on his face was her husband.  Three cheers for the doctors at St George's!

Here are some of the staff that appear on the programme.  You might be able to see a programme on You Tube.

Love Nanxxxx  PS  I love the different colours of their uniforms.

VISIT FROM THE KENNEDYS AND SUPERVET

Hello my lovelies

It's been a busy time here at Kenneth Street.

As you know, last week we decided it was time to redecorate Papa's office.  Once all the furniture was removed, dust-sheets laid all over the place, not to mention furniture all over the place too, Uncle Aaron telephoned to say that he, Auntie Janet and the family were heading north to Mackay from Melbourne and would like to pop in on there way.

Well, we were thrilled of course to see family but looked around and thought "Where on earth are we going to put everyone."

I emailed back to tell them we were in a bit of a guddle and they very kindly emailed back and said that Uncle Aaron, Auntie Janet and Emlyn would book into a hotel to sleep for the two nights.  That left only Sinead, Finn and Oscar to bed down for the nights which was no bother in the guest room.

Then, just a few hours before they arrived our computer got hacked!  This is a real treat just before visitors are about to arrive and you have to think about cooking a meal for eight people.  Papa and I had to run around cancelling access to bank accounts and credit cards.  The banks said that we had to have our computer professionally cleaned before they would set up Internet access again.  So, it was on to Sasha who quickly came to the rescue.

He delivered the computer back to us yesterday and we went to the bank today with his letter. Hopefully everything is AOK now.

It was lovely to see the Kennedys.  They left yesterday.  Here are some photographs of their stay.


Here's Finn,

and Sinead eating her breakfast.

While everyone was here, we watched quite a few episodes of THE SUPERVET and in this photograph, Emlyn is carrying out an operation on Molly's little soft toy.   Here's a link to The Supervet.  I think you may be able to look at some of the vet's cases on the website.

This photograph is of Oscar.  His soft toy Milo had a wee operation too and Sinead made a little cone for his head so he Milo didn't pull his stitches out.

While they were travelling from Victoria, Sinead made some of her 'little' things.  Once she arrived at Kenneth Street, we put them in the oven and baked them so they would become hard.  Here's a little pie.

Avocado, crackers, olives, carrot sticks and peppers.

SOME of her collection!

And here they all are heading off again.  Emlyn was making a funny face.

Love Nanxxxx

SUPERVET

Have you seen this programme - SUPERVET?  Papa and I watched a couple of episodes on SBS on Demand last night.

The Vet, Professor Noel Fitzpatrick runs a fantastic animal hospital in England.

He carries out major operations on animals that a lot of vets wouldn't even attempt to do.  Can you see this wee doggie has lost a foot and Noel has made a new one for him.  He's just amazing is Noel.

Perhaps you can find the programme on your television or perhaps on YouTube.

If you do find an episode to watch, make sure you have a tissue handy.

NOT TRAVELLING, BUT VISITING AND WATCHING

Hello my lovelies.

The plan today was to go for a wee drive, perhaps south and have a picnic or morning tea at Allora.  However, we have since discovered that today is the Felton Food Festival.  "David!  Do you think it's the Felton Food Festival tomorrow?" I asked yesterday as we were planning our wee outing.

"I think it might be." he said and proceeded to check things out on the Internet.  And sure enough the big day at Felton is today.

Papa and I went to the Festival last year and said "Never again!"

The dust!





The cars!

 The smell of hamburgers frying!

What is it with Toowoomba and the Darling Downs?  Everyone, but everyone heads out to these events and end up clogging the highways and bi-ways.

However as much as I don't really like these events I must admit that the environment will probably look fantastic after all the rain we've had.  I remember when we went last year or the year before, the dust was so bad that while we were driving, we couldn't see far behind or in front for the dust.

There are a lot of dirt roads to get to the Felton Food Festival.

We reminded each other that we are retired and don't have to do anything on a weekend when it's busy.  So, we will go south for a picnic through the week.

Today though, we have other plans.

We are going to pop up and see Roger and Anne for morning tea.  We haven't seen them for ages. Roger has been in Japan ski-ing for a week so it will be interesting to hear how that went.  Also their son Alistair, his wife Wendy and their children Tucker and Quinn will be moving in with them soon as they are about to start a big renovation on their home not far from where we live. They live just off Campbell Street.  In fact they may have moved in with Roger and Anne already, so we may catch up with them too.

We watched the very last episode of Call The Midwife last night.  I have so enjoyed the episodes which chronicles a world I lived in as a child.  My mum gave birth to five of her seven children at home just like this - cot in the corner all ready.  Although I remember my mum had a basket for her newborns and it was called a Moses basket.

Love Nanxxxx

PHOTOGRAPH OF THE DAY, CONCERT AND WHAT I DIDN'T DO

This looks fun Liliane.  Beautiful skies, beautiful mountains and beautiful girl.

Papa and I headed down to Brisbane yesterday morning.  When we arrived, Auntie Emma and wee Fergus were at the door to welcome us.  Fergus was so excited and became even more excited when he saw the cardboard box Papa was carrying.  In it were lots of pieces of roads that Papa had made for Fergus to play his cars on.  Papa had painted the roads black so that they looked like bitumen and had also painted the white dashes on the road to distinguish the right and left for the cars to drive on. Fergus was thrilled and went upstairs to gather his big collection of cars together.

Once we had brought everything in from the car, we took the tracks and cars outside and had a cuppa sitting in Auntie Emma's beautiful garden.  All the work has been finished now and Auntie Emma is really pleased with the outcome.

After lunch, Papa and Auntie Emma went to a timber yard that her architect had recommended her to go to.  At the yard were various types of timber and one especially that Auntie Emma was to look at. Papa and Auntie Emma brought the samples of the timber home, much to Fergus' delight as he added the timber pieces to his 'road' collection.  The timber looked lovely.  It was a type of oak and had been finished in a 'distressed' look to look a bit like driftwood.  Very soft colour, almost grey.  Papa felt though that Auntie Emma could probably buy something a bit better and a lot cheaper elsewhere.  I can't remember where the discussion finished but I think Auntie Emma is going to continue looking at different timbers.  These timbers are for flooring upstairs in Auntie Emma and Uncle Michael's new house at Mt Coolum.

Through the week, Auntie Emma sent us three photographs her architect had sent her.  They are just amazing.  Even though the building of the house hasn't started yet, the architect was able to send computer images of what the house will look like and has even included furniture in the images too.

After Papa and Auntie Emma arrived home from the timber place, Auntie Emma and I headed off to have a look at bathroom stuff in a gorgeous bathroom shop quite near where she lives.  The bathroom stuff was just gorgeous and I went round with Auntie Emma saying "I don't like that!"  and "I don't like that!"  I think this worked quite well as I was able to say why I didn't like something and Auntie Emma was able to narrow down her choices.  It is so hard when you are faced with two thousand hand basins and you have to make a choice of one.

Then it was home, dinner and time to get ready for the concert.  Auntie Emma had bought a ticket for me too which was a surprise.  I thought it was going to be a musical night out for Papa and Auntie Emma.  The concert was held in the Concert Hall at Southbank.  As we drove alongside the river to Southbank, the city looked quite spectacular all lit up.  The bridges too were all lit up and the one I especially like which resembles sails was lit up in a rose colour.

Once parked and into the concert hall area, Auntie Emma and Papa went off to get a drink and once they had bought them, they found me again and we wandered outside.  "Oh!  Look at that lovely view!" I said as I was looking over a balcony.  Auntie Emma said "Turn around Mum!" which I did and there to my surprise was the city on the other side.  "Oh my goodness!" I said.  What a surprise it was.  So beautiful.

Auntie Emma had managed to get good seats for the concert and not long after we were settled, Eddi Reader came on stage with her entourage.  There were two guitarists, a bass player, an accordion player, and five young people from the Queensland National Orchestra;  three violinists, a cellist and a bass player.

Eddi Reader is an amazing singer.  Just wonderful!   Every song she sang was wonderful.  A couple of highlights though...

She lived part of her life in Maryhill which was a very poor part of Glasgow when she was a girl. She talked about parties her family would hold where they and their friends would get together.  There was obviously quite a bit of drinking and smoking at the time and Eddi did an impersonation of her mother whose name was Jean.  Jean was a really good singer and at some point in these parties, the family and friends would call on Jean to sing her favourite song.  Jean was always a bit reticent about singing and would only sing after she was cajoled by everyone.  So Eddi pretended to be her mother with a pretend cigarette in one hand and a pretend drink in the other.  We the audience had to pretend to be the family and friends and cajole her into singing a song.  It was hilarious.  "Go on Jean!" we all shouted.  "Nah!" said Jean as she smoked her imaginary cigarette.  Finally she said "Oh! alright then!", placed her pretend drink on the pretend sideboard, pulled her jumper up to her neck and started to sing Moon River occasionally taking a smoke from her cigarette while she sang.

Although it was very funny and her singing just beautiful, as I watched and listened I imagined that Eddi's mind and heart were full of wonderful memories of her mother.

Another highlight was the last song;  Auld Lang Syne.  Apparently Robert Burns only wrote two verses of this famous song.  He was not only a poet but a collector of poems and songs and other verses were from his collection.

Here's a link to Eddi Reader singing Auld Lang Syne at the opening of the Scottish Parliament.  The Queen at the end doesn't look too enthusiastic!

As you can imagine Eddi Reader would like to see Scotland as an independent nation.   "To put it simply", she says "England takes five pounds from us and gives us back three.  They have been doing that for over three hundred years, but what makes it worse is the fact they tell us how to spend that three pounds."

I think the present leader in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon is going to ask again if the people of Scotland would like to be independent.

here she is singing another lovely song.

It was a great night.

Today after we drove home, I was supposed to go to my first garden club visit with my friend Carol. Unfortunately I was feeling really unwell with my tooth, headache, sore mouth, throat, and ear and telephoned Carol to cancel the visit.  I also telephoned the dentist and they asked me a few questions and told me to stop taking the Codeine/Paracetamol tablets, which I have.  I headed to bed and woke up around 1.00pm so had a lovely long sleep.

Hopefully I will feel a lot better tomorrow.  I have an appointment to see the dentist again on Monday and will cancel the appointment if I feel more improved by then.

Well my dears I shall away.  Looking forward to talking on Sunday.

xxxxNannyxxxx

AFTERNOON TEA, VISIT FROM GREER AND SONGS OF PRAISE

Saturday afternoon, Robyn telephoned to ask if we would like to pop round for some afternoon tea and discuss some ideas for work she wants to do to her garden.  Robyn and Con live in Campbell Street, not far from where we live.  You walk up tree-lined Campbell Street to go to Queens Park. Robyn and Con will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary next month and were having a think about what to do to celebrate.

After a lot of thought they decided to renovate part of their back garden.

We had a lovely afternoon sitting outside on their patio eating delicious pear cake freshly cooked by Robyn and drinking lots of tea in a dinner-set they received as a wedding present.  Robyn said that the dinner set has, in the past, only been brought out on special occasions but she has decided that she is going to bring it out now for everyday use and enjoy it rather than it sitting in a cupboard unused.  And it was a joy.  Gorgeous blue and white beautifully shaped and good sized cups with saucers and side plates to match.  We also had dainty forks to eat our cake with and the forks had a story to them as well which I can't quite remember.

Papa, Robyn and I discussed the garden and Papa has given Robyn Jamie Ross' telephone number. Jamie used to do all Papa's work before Papa retired from building.  Jamie is a super good landscape designer and gardener.  Papa said to Robyn that he is very happy to meet with her and Jamie when they discuss ideas for the garden together.  It sounds as though a bit of underground drainage work will have to be carried out first.

Con is leaving everything to Robyn as she is the gardener around the place.

Sunday, our dear friend Greer arrived.  Greer lives about four hours north of Toowoomba at a place called Bundaberg which is, I think, quite famous for its sugar production.  Greer lives in a little village about 15 miles from Bundaberg called Bargara.

This photograph of Bargara gives you as idea of the beautiful beaches there. Greer takes a walk on the beach every morning.

As you can see from the photograph of Greer and Papa, Greer has a van.  The van is all kitted out with bed, fridge, stove etc and each year she travels all the way from Bargara to South Australia and on to Perth and all the way back again.  Her son Peter, his wife Ellen and son Felix live in Adelaide and her other son Andrew, his wife Denise and their daughter Eden live in the bush somewhere near Perth.

This year Greer set off from Bargara on the 6 December and will be home tomorrow the 14 March.

Papa and I hope to visit her sometime this year, perhaps in June.

Before Greer arrived, Papa and I watched Songs of Praise which was being broadcast from Northern Ireland.  We were a bit disappointed that Greer hadn't arrived as she would have loved it.  Greer is from Northern Ireland.

One of the people they spoke about in the programme was C S Lewis who was born and raised near Belfast in Northern Ireland.  C S Lewis is the man who wrote THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE and the other books in the series about Narnia.

Apparently C S Lewis used to get hundreds of letters from children all over the world and the programme talked about one particular letter from a girl called Anne.  Anne asked C S Lewis why he had depicted Jesus as a lion in his Narnia books and C S Lewis wrote a beautiful letter back to Anne saying that in creating Narnia, he created a land of beasts and for the beasts to understand who God was, God sent his son as a lion - the king of beasts.

Here's a statue that stands in Belfast to recognise C S Lewis and his Narnia books.

And a picture of behind the wardrobe.

Must run - dentist awaits.

Hope THE GAME'S going well Freya.  Have fun with Noor.

Don't forget foties from Gindersland Liliane.

xxxx Nanny

I'M HOME AGAIN!

Hello my lovlies

I'm home again!  As you know I went down to Brisbane on the bus on Tuesday.  I booked to come back to Toowoomba on the bus on Friday but on Thursday, after Auntie Emma and I came back from picking up the boys from school, I got a big surprise as I was climbing the stairs from the garage.

There at the top of the stairs was Molly!   "Molly!" I shouted.  And then Papa popped his head around the corner!  "David!" I shouted again.  Papa had decided to come down and surprise us all.  We were all so pleased to see him, especially Fergus.  "Papa!" he said and Papa gave him a big hug.

It was lovely visiting Auntie Emma.  We didn't do anything terribly special, just the day to day stuff, taking the boys to school, taking Fergus to his new Kindy, shopping, cooking and all the other jobs that need to be done each day.

Fergus has started at a new Kindy.  It is the one I sent photographs of the rainforest at the bottom of the garden and the bridge.

Fergus has been finding it a bit difficult settling in as everything there is new - new teachers, new friends and a huge new garden to play in.  To help him settle in, Auntie Emma and I had along chats about ways we could help him.  We thought up lots and lots of ideas such as taking him a bit later in the morning and bringing home a bit earlier.   This means that in the morning Auntie Emma takes the boys to school and then comes home again with Fergus and has a nice quiet hour or two with him before he heads to Kindy for a couple of hours.  He is nice and fresh and enjoys his time with his Mumma.

When it's time for Kindy, Auntie Emma packs him a yummy morning tea and off they set for Kindy.  Once there Auntie Emma stays with Fergus for most of the time, helping him and other children who are new to the Kindy.  After the indoor play, Fergus usually goes outside to play in the sand-pit and that is when Auntie Emma leaves him, but not for long, only an hour.

When it's time for lunch and an afternoon rest, Auntie Emma picks Fergus up and brings him home where he has a lovely bath to wash all the sand off.  Then he lies under a wee blanket with his lunch and watches Play School.  Once Play School is finished, Auntie Emma takes him upstairs for a wee rest.  He calls his time on the couch his 'relax time' and his sleep upstairs his 'rest time'.

Auntie Emma and Fergus have a rest for about an hour when it's time to pick up the big boys.  This seems to be working very well and no doubt this new routine will change as he gets a bit bigger.

This week Auntie Emma bought a vitamiser thingy so the boys could make themselves smoothies.  Each morning and when they come home from school, out comes all the ingredients for their smoothies.  They use milk, yoghurt, and fruit - if I liked milk and yoghurt I would make some too!

The painters were working at Auntie Emma's.  She was having some walls painted and the back fence.  The walls were painted in a cream colour and the back fence a lovely bluey grey.

Andrew, the man who helps Auntie Emma with her garden popped in during the week for a chat about planting.  Auntie Emma has just about finished the main work in her garden and is ready to finish off with plants now.  It looks as though she and Andrew have picked some gorgeous tropical plants for the garden which, once they are planted and established will create a lush landscape for sitting in.

On Friday, after dropping the boys off at school, Auntie Emma, Fergus and I popped into Bunnings to see if we could find a swing for Fergus.  A visit to Bunnings is probably Fergus's favourite outing.

When we arrived, he grabbed his wee trolly and skooted up and down the aisles.  He was most disappointed that he couldn't buy the sign which said AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY which he had been pushing around while Auntie Emma and I were looking at swings and screws.

There was a bit of a three year old tantrum when we were leaving, when he threw himself on the ground and cried but Auntie Emma and I just wandered off and looked at something and he decided he wasn't achieving much so lifted himself up and came to see what we were looking at.

Once home, Papa got busy and hung the swing from Auntie Emma's new pergola.  Fergus just loves it and because it has a baby seat, he can give his teddies a swing too without them falling off.

Here's a photograph of Fergus washing his bike.

You can see his new swing hanging from the pergola.

Friday night Uncle Michael's office had a big party to celebrate the renovations to their offices.  Michael's company decided to extend their office space to the floor below and have created a beautiful staircase connecting the two floors.  As you can imagine, this involved a huge renovation and the party was to celebrate the official opening of the new offices.  Over four hundred people attended including judges too!

Auntie Emma was supposed to meet Uncle Michael at the office in all her party clothes but because she had a terrible cold she decided to stay home.  She had been taking cold and flu tablets but was still feeling pretty sick.  It's a good job she didn't go because Uncle Michael didn't get home until nearly midnight.

For dinner that night, Auntie Emma ordered some fish and chips and Papa went to collect them.  We set up a wee table and chairs in the garden and had a fish and chips picnic!  Fergus is getting to the age where he loves to be asked to do things.  "Fergus!" we would say.  "Would you mind getting me some tomato sauce?"  He would down his plate, climb off his chair and run to get the tomato sauce and with great care squeeze some on to each of our plates.

In the evening we all cosied up to watch a movie in the front room with wee Fergus between Auntie Emma and me.  The boys kept us all in the cinema atmosphere with a steady supply of Smarties and Maltesers from the fridge.  Because Fergus had had a wee 'rest' in the afternoon he was quite OK to sit through the movie.

The movie we watched was THE COMMITMENTS which is just hilarious.  It is about a band in Dublin around 1990.  There's quite a lot of bad language but it fits in with the story, and  Auntie Emma felt the boys would handle the language OK - and they did.  They were laughing and laughing through the film.

While we were watching the movie, we recognized one of the band members who is in one of Auntie Emma's favourite films which is called ONCE.

If you click here you can hear Glen Hansard singing one of his songs from ONCE.

The doggie picture is nothing to do with the film ONCE.  I can't remember where I saw the painting, but I thought it was just gorgeous and that you would like it too.

Will away.

Love Nanxxxxx

IT'S ALL I'VE EVER KNOWN

Hello there my lovelies

I know I sound like a broken record, but it is HOT here.  I just checked the temperature out on the verandah and it's 39 degrees!  There's a huge heat-wave thing happening across Australia just now. Tomorrow is to be the same, but we're all hoping that Monday will see some relief.

Papa and I got up early this morning - well, Papa did!  I was a bit behind the times and woke up with the sun shining into the bedroom.  It was up and at it as we knew it was going to be a hot one.  Papa got the mower going, then the whipper snipper and I got going with the blower.  Pot plants received a nice drink and I even sprayed all the weeds growing in the paths.  Then it was lock-down!  All doors and windows closed, fans and air-conditioner on.  Papa is now sitting with a coffee and his ear-phones on watching a movie.

I have my sewing machine here on the table.  I have been working on the 'grass' for my Hebridean quilt.  I'm hoping that my strippy idea works as I haven't been able to find fabric that I feel would work.

Did Mummy or Daddy mention that Auntie Emma put the 'lost dog' on her Facebook page.  The Council have picked it up and will keep it for a few days after which, if Auntie Emma would like to, she can adopt it.  She sounds very keen.  It sounds as though it is a lovely dog.  Here's a photograph Auntie Emma took.

And...to keep the doggie theme going, Keith down the road sent photographs of his son's new dog. She is called Adelaide and they got her from the pound.  Don't you think she looks gloriously happy?

Here's another photograph I thought was gorgeous.  It's from one the blogs I occasionally pop into - DOWN TO EARTH and they have just recently bought this dog.  Her name is Gracie and apparently she is gazing longingly into the wheelbarrow which has a chicken poo and straw mix inside.

Keith has just popped in for a cuppa so I'll close for now.

If you click on the link below, there's a lovely story about a lady in Ireland.  The story is called IT'S ALL I'VE EVER KNOWN

click here

Love Nanxxxx

VISITING EMMA'S, SEEING FERGUS NEW KINDY AND WATCHING A GREAT MOVIE

Hello there my darlings!

Well, it's just after 9.00pm and Papa and I have come upstairs to bed after watching a great film downstairs with Emma and Michael.  The film was called HI!  MY NAME IS DORIS and starred a very famous actress called Sally Fields.  When Sally Fields was very young, about your age Freya she played the part of a flying nun!  Can't really remember much about it, but I think it was quite funny with her getting into all sorts of crazy situations.

In this movie, now that she is about seventy, she played the part of an old lady who falls in love with a very young, handsome man.  It is so funny in parts and of course quite sad but it had a happy ending which was good.

I hate to sound like an old record repeating itself over and over, but it is VERY HOT HERE.  Apparently January was the hottest month on record and this month is shaping up to be much the same.  Because the temperatures are in the mid to high 30's, there is next to no chance of having rain and needless to say, everything is getting very dry and a lot of plants are really struggling.  We have temperatures now in the mid to high 30's for the next week at least. 

This afternoon I went with Auntie Emma to pick up Fergus from Kindy.  He is going to a new Kindy this year and it is just lovely.  It's in an old Queenslander which has a ginormous back yard that falls away very steeply.  The Kindy people have used the terrain in this back yard to make an amazing playground for the Kindy children.  It has stairs galore, huge sandpit, rope bridges etc etc.

Fergus took us on a guided tour when we went to collect him which was really sweet.  "Here's the bridge." he would say.  "Here's the sandpit.  And here's the forest." which was a wall painted like a forest underneath the building.  I forgot my camera but when we drop him off tomorrow I'll try and remember to get some photographs.

When I was at quilting yesterday, Leona one of the ladies showed me this hilarious short video of an emu and a sprinkler.  I can't seem to 'copy' the link but if you Google EMU AND SPRINKLER you should find it.

Well, I'm away to ma wee white bed.

Talk tomorrow.

Love Nanxxxx