Surprises in the post.

I had a lovely surprise in the post yesterday.   Opened my door to see this pink parcel sitting up near the door.    It was from my friend Julie, from "A Succulent Life".   I wish we had such pretty post bags here in Australia.

When I opened it up I was thrilled to see these lovely gifts which Julie has sent me for my birthday.

Julie must know from my postings of "the farm" that I love pretty birds.  It is a tea towel, and has a pretty braid edging.   I think I will save it to use to wrap my hot scones when I make them rather that wipe dishes with it.

Dont you like that big letter S.   I can hang it on the wall which I will, and when I get old and forgetful, if I ever forget my name I will at least know which letter it begins with.  Thank you so much Julie for your kindness.

Julie also remembered that I need to have a good laugh and I did when I opened the card.

This is so funny.  Inside the verse reads

   "From one glamour puss to another"

Julie that made my day. Thank you.

Cooking Lesson

There is a saying which I have found to be very true......which is....."you are never too old to learn"....another is  "If in doubt read the instructions"

How many of you have seen or used this product:

With the addition of the sauce it looks like a very tasty, easy and convenient meal for someone living on there own who has lost the inclination to spend hours in the kitchen cooking exotic dishes doesnt it.

Some months ago while browsing the shelves in the supermarket I spotted these products and thought what a good idea.....just put the sauce in  a pan, drop in the pasta bits, heat it for a few minutes,  and presto!..... dinner is ready.  Did not bother to read the directions, being a bit of a know-all when it comes to cooking.  After all I did feed a large family many nourishing home cooked meals over a lot of years.

After dropping the pasta and sauce into the pan and heating it,  I sat down in front of tv to enjoy this new experience, not having had ravioli before.   Well all I could say was yuk!    Not even the addition of some good parmesan altered the awful taste.  Decided  I would stick to the basic bolognaise with basic pastas that I had always made for myself and the leftovers went into the bin!.

Recently, when visiting my son, his wife had asked him to bring home something easy for dinner, and he arrived with this very same thing that I 'hated'.   Being a nice guest I did not say anything, and then later when I walked into the kitchen..... there was all the pasta boiling away in a big pot.   "What are you doing ?" I asked....."cooking it, Mum"......"oh, do you have to boil  that?"   .....

The penny dropped.....no wonder I had not enjoyed my lot....I had eaten it virtually raw!!!!!!! aaaark!.

Am pleased to say that the dish was delicious, and I have vowed to try this again whenever I feel like something simple and easy for dinner.

So I learned the hard way.......firstly read the directions....and secondly  be prepared to learn something new every day.

What a Week It Was

Well it is so good to be home again after such a busy and eventful week.  The day I left it was my 75th birthday, and  my son's wife had a lovely little pile of goodies all wrapped beautifully, sitting on my bed,  which included a whole lot of skin and facial lotions and potions...(well we can all live in hope eh)

Included also was a new portrait of my lovely "grandchildren"...the puppies.

This all meant a celebration, and what better way to do so than drinkies by the pool.

After a day recuperating Son and I headed off to Melbourne to attend a grandaughter's wedding, leaving his wife in charge of the puppies.

Neil  took great delight in telling everyone he had claw marks on his arms where I held onto him during takeoff.   My flying experiences are very limited and the take-off is a very scary thing.  To say nothing of the bumpy landing on the way home.   I slept most of the way home only to wake when the plane made a turn to come into the runway.   Looked out the window  to see water....we had come in from the ocean side of the coast.....very scary I can tell you.  All I could think of was that we did not fall out of the sky until we got over land.  I have decided the actual flight is ok just dont like going up and down.

Mother of the bride collected us from the airport, and we went home to a party barbecue where I was able to meet 2 grandaughters who I have not seen for a long time.  Also got to meet my lovely little great grandsons.   They even had a cake and candles for my birthday so I got to celebrate twice.

We were told the Melbourne weather was going to be warm, but instead were greeted by typical Melbourne weather....wet and cold.   It was such a shock to our systems when we walked out of the terminal into the freezing wind.  If that is their idea of warm I would hate to live there when it is cold.

The day of the wedding did not improve, but managed to ease off at the right times for the bride to arrive and depart the church.

Halfway across Melbourne on the way to the church, I remembered that I had forgotten my camera and my phone....damn!.....too far away to go back for...so the only photos I have are what I took on the Friday night, and those I stole from Facebook. 

Hayden, Lachlans brother, the second page boy

Nana with Lachlan great grandson and one of the page boys wearing his new motor cycle gloves. He rides a peewee bike  and is fearless

With son Neil and daughter Kim

Mr and Mrs Roche

Rach with brothers Tom and Brent with Lachie climbing a tree in the background

Two lovely grandaughters, Rachael and Misty

 I will finish off with my tale of woe:

While I was getting my clutch bag ready I was shocked when the gold frame round the flap came off in my hand....so I very carefully replaced it and hoped i for the best...no time to shop ....this was when I should have put my phone and camera in the bag.

On the way out to the car I had a tiny slip on the wet path but took no notice as I did not  actually fall.  Because it was  raining lightly when we arrived at the church we were able to go inside and stand at the back.    It was a very old building and I felt myself sinking into the floorboards. I said I thought the floorboards were rotten, and  discovered I was leaving holes in the wood.   On inspection of my shoes saw that both the soles had come off the heels when I slipped and all I had were two round balls sticking down from the heels.....yikes.
It is a while since I have had to walk around on tip toe but managed it as elegantly as possible. Thank goodness the reception venue floor was tiled.....hope I did not leave any scratches.

That is not the finish......made  a quick dash to the bathroom before the bride arrived, and succeeded in tearing a hole in my new pantyhose that I had paid a fortune for......so was beginning to ask myself whether I should have gone or not, when blow me down my ex husband who I had been told was not invited walked into the church.........that really took the icing off the cake!!!

Son Neil put a lot of photos from his camera onto a memory stick I had, only to discover when I got home to my own computer that it would not fit into any of the usb ports at all......damn!!! not my week it seems.


 

Tast catch up

To prove that I have not been totally idle, here is a photo of my latest Tast effort.  I decided to do several stitches on the one piece.   Now all I have to do is to keep going so I dont get so far behind again.

I have called this mother fish and family, and it comprises palestrina, pekenese, up and down buttonhole, liinked double chain, oyster, algerian eye stitch, bullions, sheaf, and a couple of drizzle stitches.

I still have cast on buttonhole, pistil stitch, and knotted buttonhole and I will have caught up, but then there is another on Tuesday....yikes.....no time before I go to do these, although I have a design prepared......promise I will try to do better.

Serenity visitors

Sorry my friends for going away for so long, but some of lifes hard knocks caught me unexpectedly and as a result I have just felt like hiding in my little cubby hole. I have forced myself out into the world again, and would like to share some photos I took while out at the farm for some peace and quiet and R & R.

First of all we discovered by chance there is a little family of these darling little rabbits, although they won't be darlings when they are grown and eating everything in sight.

The ducks from the dam came to visit, although they did not bring their little family this time   My favourite birds of all below did not disappoint and turned up one morning while I was sitting out on the patio

This year we have an addition to the family of visitors.  A pair of scrub turkeys have taken up residence and are great to watch.   Of course photos of "Serenity" would not be complete without pictures of the wallabies and their babies. There were two does with babies of different sizes.  I don't know if you can see the white spot on the eye of our almost tame wallaby at the bottom, called "shorty".   It was a tick which was there for a few days and then thankfully it disappeared.

These are the only galahs which are coming in at the moment, the arrival of the lorikeets seems to have frightened a lot of the birds away.  The lorikeets are very aggressive towards the other birds, and even though we have tried chasing them they always come back.

I will just finish off with some photos of my flowers.  The iris have been magnificant, and my orchid had been in flower for about a week when I arrived.  It was so nice to be out in the country again, and I appreciated the quiet, which gave me the opportunity to relax and put the thoughts of my troubles to the back of my mind.

 This week I am off to Melbourne for the wedding of my eldest grandaughter, which I am really looking forward to.  I have not flown for 16 years and am a bit nervous.  Son is coming with me and has booked us in business class which I am hoping will be more roomy so I dont feel so claustrophobic....and also have better food..:)   Keep your fingers crossed my friends that the weather is kind..although when I lived in Victoria the saying was "if you dont like the weather...wait a minute"

Finally!!!!! Something to blog about

Sorry I have been missing from blogland  for so long, not because I wanted to just have been having a break and lurking.   Nothing exciting has happened lately since I returned from holidays, except catching up on things round the house.

Also have been in a slump and not felt like stitching.....just lurking round the internet and watching tv.

Finally I have pulled myself up by the bootstraps and finished of this which was a work in progress.   My creative mojo seems to have gone on holiday too, so all these stitches I am behind with are on the one piece of embroidery.  Not very inspiring, but they are completed and that is my aim at the moment.

This is the piece I had as a WIP, and now after adding some buttonhole wheels and beads I have completed as much as I am going to with this.   The background fabric is one that I dyed from a workshop I attended some weeks ago.

It has been so cold here still, that I wanted to know what the temperatures were...sort of a masochistic thing.....so purchased this little gadged which sticks itself to the outside of the window so I can see how hot/cold it is before I decide to venture outside.

Oh, and I should mention that I have been shopping too.  Have a wedding to go to in October in Melbourne, and decided I would wear an outfit from another wedding, but add a different top under the jacket.   After walking the length of the main street the other day, I was about to give up finding something suitable, when I spied a lovely blingy top on a rack outside a shop.   It was just what I had in mind, and it fitted perfectly on my new slim body.   The best part was it was reduced from $200 to $50 because a few of the beads had come loose.

Easily fixed with the  little bag of spare beads and sequins  that came with the top, and feel very pleased with my bargain.

The skirt is in getting the hem taken up at the moment, but is gored with a little flip out at the bottom.    The grey sequins have taken on the colour of the pale blue jacket.   It looks grey in the picture but is actually blue.  it is good to give this an airing after sitting in the wardrobe for 14 years and still looks fashionable.....well for an old lady it is.   Also just happen to have a pair of gunmetal grey shoes that will go perfectly......too bad I just recently threw out the matching handbag that was very scratched...might have been able to renew it.

Building sandcastles

It seems forever since I went away and it is so good to be back home again even though the weather has been bleak and awful since my return.  Holidays are nice but being back among my own "stuff" makes life so much simpler.   I did not even turn on the computer for 3 days and retreated to the couch under a doona to watch the Olympics.

We did get to build sandcastles and had walks on the beach.   The weather was not kind enough for swimming though although we did have some nice sunny days.

Late one afternoon the girls had a lot of fun with their father building sandcastles.  It is lovely to see them all so happy together.

On the girls  last day we had one last walk down to the beach where we again dug a moat round the sandcastle and had fun trying to rescue it from the surf.

Even the seagulls got into the act.

During the week I took the girls to see the Katy Perry movie, which they enjoyed, and there were walks down to the shops, where Georgia scored some new clothes...purple jeans and a haircut which she was so happy with.

It was all so busy, the time flew by and before we knew, it was time for the girls to return home.   Very sad for their father as he misses them a lot.

I don't know how they found us on the 22nd floor, but every morning for a few days we had these visitors coming for breakfast of apple and honey

We were even treated to the antics of some playful whales out in the ocean that was so exciting to see.

Now I really must concentrate on catching up with my Tast Stitches so I promise some photos of the results soon.