ALL SET TO WATCH THE WEDDING

Hello my lovelies!

I may, as usual, not have gone overboard with the dress and shoes, but at least I thought to wear a hat for the wedding.

Have you watched it yet?  Loved it!  Squealed in parts!

Love Nanxx

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

JEMMA AND JIMMY'S WEDDING NUMBER 2

Hello my lovelies!

Some more photographs from the wedding.

Here's a photograph of Charis with her friend Tula.  Tula has been Charis' friend since schooldays.

This photograph is of Mary who is Neil's mum.

Photograph of Bryce, Jemma's little brother who was the MC.

Now, I wonder who these two are!

Another gorgeous photograph of Jemma and last but not least, Jimmy.

Love Nanxxx

JEMMA AND JIMMY'S WEDDING

Hello my lovelies!

Well, we are back home after our long trip south to Jemma and Jimmy's wedding in New South Wales.  As you can see from the photograph above, it was a beautiful day.  Isn't this a gorgeous photograph of Jemma?  I can't remember what the minister was saying at this moment but it obviously made her smile.

I just loved the back of her dress - the front too of course, but the back is also very important on a wedding dress as this is what most of the guests see when the couple are being married.  Can you see the amazing needlework that has been done on either side of the dress?

And here are Jemma and Jimmy signing the register.

...and the bridesmaids.  I just loved their dresses.  They reminded me of the sea and sky.  And don't you just love the orange lilies?  Charis said these were Jemma's idea and they work so beautifully with the dresses.

I'll close for now, but I've got heaps more photographs to put up in the next few days.

Love Nanaxxxx

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

HOW'S SCHOOL GOING?

Hello my lovelies

Well, how did you both get on yesterday?  Did the school have regular classes or was the day a bit 'irregular'?  I'm looking forward to hearing how it all went.  Unfortunately, Papa and I won't be here this weekend as we are heading south to Coff's Harbour where Jemma and Jimmy are to be married.

I will remember to take my camera and get some lovely shots for you.

The photograph above was taken at church on Sunday.

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

ASSEMBLED FOR A WEDDING

What a gorgeous photograph!  And...the dresses!  What can I say!  They are all just stunning.  

I've been enlarging the photograph as large as I can make it and have been carefully examining every bit of the dresses. I love the tulle on Mummy's dress.  

Freya, Papa said that your dress was one of Mummy's.  Can't believe it!  It seems only yesterday you were a wee bubba.

And you Liliane!  What a gorgeous dress!  I just love all the pin-tucking in the bodice.  And the socks and shoes just set the whole thing off.  

The four of you all look wonderful and just looking closely, I realize that you are all matched up colour-wise.

Would love to see a couple of photographs of the wedding.  I remember you did the bride-to-be's hair one afternoon in her garden and covered it all in daisies.

Love Nanxxx

FORTY EIGHT YEARS AND A VERY, VERY WET BATHROOM

Well!  The day began with me opening my eyes and finding a lovely gift lying on my pillow.  Papa had remembered!   In the envelope was the most beautiful card and when I opened the little package, inside was a gorgeous brooch.  Papa bought it at the art gallery shop here in Toowoomba.  The brooch is a circle covered in what looks like black linen which has been painted with a beautiful grey leaf.  

While I was thinking about what a lovely man your Papa is, he came running out of the bathroom where he had been shaving and shouted "Connie!  You must come now Connie!"   I leapt out of bed and ran to the bathroom to find water pouring out of the cupboard.  "We've got a burst pipe." shouted Papa.  "Hang on!" I said, and ran down to the laundry to grab some old towels.  Ran back to the bathroom and Papa ran to turn off the water outside.  What a mess it all was!  There was water absolutely everywhere.  In all the cupboards and in all the drawers.  I took everything out the washbasket and all the towels and dumped the lot in the bath and then proceeded to empty all the cupboards.  Needless to say, all the tablets had to come out of their packets as the packets were just sodden.  I've now got all the towels in the washing machine on the spin cycle.  

Thank goodness we were here.  I'm heading to Brisbane today and Papa's travelling down tomorrow.  Imagine if this had happened while we were away.  Papa said that all our lovely floors would have been ruined.

We're just waiting for the plumber to come now!

And some photographs of the happy couple!  Wedding, young parents and older folk!

The last photograph is with dear Anny and Adrian who were married on exactly the same day but a few miles east in Holland.  Happy Anniversary dear friends!

Love Nanxxx

A BEAUTIFUL DAY FOR A WEDDING

Hello my lovelies

Yesterday my friend Heidi's daughter Pippa got married in the church Papa and I go to - up at St David's in Mary Street.

As you can see from the photographs, Pippa was a beautiful bride.  Don't you just love her dress?  I loved the neckline, the lacy material, the sleeves, the back - in fact I just loved everything about her.

Her new husband Neil just loved everything about her too as from where I was sitting in the church I could see he just couldn't stop smiling and as I can lip-read quite well, I could see he couldn't stop saying, "You look beautiful!"

Do you remember when you were here last year and we went up to St David's for the Christmas Eve service?  Well, if you remember, the church is in the shape of a cross inside with places for people to sit, not only in front of the minister but on either side too.  As you walk into the church, I was sitting to the left of the minister right up in the corner, so I had a wonderful view of the bride and groom.

I took the photograph above from where I was sitting.

Here's a photograph of everyone arriving.  By the time it was time for the service to begin, there wasn't much room left for anyone else.

Don't you just love the bridesmade dress and sparkly shoes too? When I spoke to Heidi, Pippa's mum, she told me that the bridesmaid Amanda, was an old school friend of Pippa's.

After the service, everyone milled around outside and then made their way into the church hall for a wonderful afternoon tea made by the ladies in the church.

At the Sunday service this morning, the minister Andrew Clarke said that he had received word from The Palace to say that when Prince Harry is ready to marry, he has said that he will be accepting no-one else but the ladies from St David's to prepare his and his new wife's post wedding Afternoon Tea.

Love Nanxxx