Blessings of still having my Mum,Childrens Laughter ,an Indulgent purchase and some craft...what more can there be!!!

 One of the many blessings of still having Mum at almost 92 is that she sneaks and leaves me a little surprise now and then when the violets are out,this is something I will miss one day,it is the little things in life that are special.

 A visit from our daughters two youngest for 5 days was wonderful,our daughter was in the annual 48 hour Oxfam walk,we are so proud of her she lasted the whole distance,her feet are not so happy lol...so Olivia helped me at work...

 It was great having a gate opener to get into some of the farms......

 Here she is in all her gorgeousness sitting in her favourite spot on the edge of our pond,Livvy escapes from a teasing brother for some quiet time.

 PA PA cooks the breakfast of fresh eggs for him and the children,another thing they always do,notice the lovely table cloth,Bobs pet hate so therefor a plain table to eat from...at night it is graced with a cover mostly.

William helps Pa Pa do a repair that Grammy caused,sadly the whole wheel had to coem off to do it! i got caught on the edge of a cattle grid and it pulled the trim off,it is so easy to do as the cattle trucks often pull the steel out of shape and it is dangerous.

 I could not leave these at the shop,they were $1 a pair and in vintage colours,actually the brand is Vintage something lol..I will give some of these away ,they are vaccumn sealed and in such lovely soft cream,pink,blue and green.

 At last I have finished my rug,it has ended up quite large as long as a single bed,I ran out of pink wool and when I bought more the dye lot was different i was thankful it was a rug and not a jumper! so i had to make an even amount each end of pink waves,just because I am a symmetrical person,at times a curse! lol but it is done now,I think I need to rethink colours this is the third I have made in these shades.

  Trimmed some hand towels to put with some of grannies gardens wonderful soaps at Christmas time.

Trimmed some tea towels just for the sake of it.These will also be given away.
That is about my lot for this week.Life just seems to tumble by so quickly,I found when we took the children part way home yesterday I was pooped!!!
Maybe it was the 2 hours at the park,maybe it was the cooking marathon on Saturday,maybe it was the non stop chatter,maybe I am just getting old,it does not matter it was wonderful,worth it and we can't wait for them to come again,we know we are alive when William hits the door lol.
So we have been loved up by Livvy and bashed up by Will,Molly will sleep for days as she loved  chasing the kids and Great Nana will miss them terribly.
In my last post I mentioned that the tiny lady helping out was to be Queen at the Seniors event that was held yesterday, I did not go I have stepped back but I got a call from a very excited Queen she was so surprised,very well deserved,so wonderful to make someone feel so special.
Have a wonderful week,I have to go now to work but this evening hope to catch up on all the blog reading that I have missed while the little ones were here.

                             HEY GOOD LOOKIN' WATCHYA GOT COOKING?



Life has been a bit hectic,blogging has been on the back burner so just a few pics and not much else today,I apologise if it is little self indulgent...but here we go....

 Somone new has come to live at our house and we love her!!!!!!!!

                                    She makes wonderful meringue,this is Lemon and Passionfruit  pie.

                                                     Bonoffee pie a family favourite....

                                                             Strawberry Cheesecake.....

                                                    My apprentice biscuit crumber.....

 Upcycling of fruit juice bottles,I have never seen this before and an old lady bought some in from the farm for sale....

 Simply cut a hole in one side and load it up,these held 2 dozen eggs...but you probably all knew about this already...lol.....

                                                                 "What you got there Mum?"

                                                   "O'h my favourite,I think I will have that one!"

 All the cooking was for this day,our annual Wrap and Giggle for the seniors of the town,I know I am supposed to give it all up,but I said just one more time,this time 2 beautiful students came to help,there were 12 of us ladies as well.

 SHHhhhhhhhh!!! don't tell anyone but that little lady in the pic will be this years Queen,she has no idea and her quilt is lovely and yes I forgot to take a pic...typical..!

 There was a ring at the doorbell and the local Pizza place in the next town heard what we were doing and delivered pizza's...after all that cooking...I still put out all the chicken and of course the sweeties,it was a wonderful surprise and even those that did not usually eat it did.Well done Domino's!

 No more Pics  said Mum,she was in there helping bless her ,she had a lovely time with the girls..isn't she great for almost 92!

What more is there to do after a busy day,all plum tuckered out,Molly too as she was busy saying hello to everyone,a snooze was well deserved.
Thanks for visiting me and my ramblings,see you next time...have a wonderful week for of sunshiny smiles,warm hearts and may every kindness come your way.

                                                   The Journey of our little Home.

Twenty tow years ago when we lived in the next town 10 minutes away,our lives changed forever after a fatal car accident...no it was not us in the actual accident but Bob was an Ambulance driver and having attended many horrific scenes over the years,a little girl was killed ,not a mark on her body...this time the Ambulance driver could take no more and a shell came home that evening,3 weeks later the roller-coaster ride started.Bob had a massive breakdown,Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome it is referred to now,and he and we changed forever.
We were in a home provided by our work, a nice modest home and we loved where we lived.Government jobs are not very sympathetic when they find that the worker cannot return and after 6  months it was obvious that Bob could not,he was still a very ill man.So in all their kindness they gave us 5 weeks to get out! lovely! we were given the choice of Bob resigning or being sacked,we were  advised that we should let them sack Bob that way he would get more benefit from his Superannuation,this we did.
It was not a lot of money but enough to buy our home,our haven.For Bobs return to health the priority was to get a safe place for him,for him to feel secure and no one could put us out,so the search began for something cheap that we would have no mortgage for.There was nothing until we asked about our little town,it was not eveyones fav place to live ,now everyone wants to live here lol.
Then we found a little box house full of character and affordable...so the Johnstons moved in and life started to get to some normality,it took 10 years Bob eventually he got better,her is different but in a good way..life is funny.
So we bought this little home and as it had no shed or kitchen! we had enough change to put a kitchen in and built a garage for Bob or a shed as we call them.
Lots of people comment on our front verandah imagine the neighbours reaction when on a whim Bob investigated to find that those 2 front windows were in fact once a verandah all filled in to make 2 tiny extra rooms and so the little box became the princess she now is,those two front room take all the afternoon sun in summer and it almost cooked us inside the house,now we have coolness and breezes come through and we love her...so here is the now and before's .


After......

Before,new roof,gardens,verandah wrought iron and a face lift ,I don't think you can see them properly but there are 2 green frogs at the base of the steps and they are still there,where I grew up we had 2 chooks on ours lol must be an old Aussie thing. Anyway thats our little story,and although the gardens have changed again and the verandah now has a swishy settee to sit upon and wall ornaments,she is still home even the before pics are wonderful as we were blessed to find something affordable in the times when everything was starting to get more expensive,we paid $60,000 for her and her value is now almost $300,000 what a strange world of finance we live in.how hard for the young to find their nest. I have just found that the pic is not saved correctly and I can't seem to change it but I think you get the general idea lol typical me!!!

                              A gorgeous Sunday...what a blessing after many cold days....

Bacon and Eggs fro brekky on Bobs favourite toy a little gas BBQ that uses cylinders,so economical.

Strip all the beds and wash the sheets...nothing so beautiful to me than crawling into the bed the night we have the fresh sheets,bliss....I would do it every day f I had the energy lol..

 I saw this at Mr Miles farm this week I could not believe it,he even let me touch his foot before fluttering to a higher branch,can you see Mr Owl?He is a Tawny Frogmouth.

 Shopping from Bunnings ..yes and there was more!

 Here it is Mulch,plants and an arch what fun for Sunday.

 Before......very unkept and sad all but the bulbs.

                                       
 After..looking up the yard, a new bird bath and arch that is the aged look.

After looking down the yard,the shrubs are all smaller varieties and the bulbs all still in there,the shrubs will all be about 1 mtre so it will be very pretty in a couple of months.

Before ,the old stump garden,over run with daisies and nasturshims,Bob wanted to make this a native garden to attract native birsds so it just has Grevillias and Kangaroo paws in it,this will be plenty as the shrubs mature.

                                   
After,as you can see we have mulched everything with sweet sugar cane mulch ready for summer.

This is the garden that backs up to the vegie garden,it was always the "do it one day" garden

It now is the home for the old wishing well,Roses and some lovely succulents,there is a Boganvillia climber going to be over the pagola poles.Behind on the other side of the wore are Passionfruits and Blackberries.

So that has been Sunday and finally something nice and yummy for dinner...This  is a chicken and Pasta dish ,made the same as Lasagna and the Prochuto? on top o'h yumm simple and easy to end the week...except..we had this through the week and Bob has a leg of lamb in the webber for tonights dinner..of course I will have to take a pic or he will never forgive me..
Have a wonderful evening and enjoy your family.

I will take you on a little tour of my week,a moment of wondereverything grows....so off we go....

                                                      Tragedy..How Close is too Close....

As you know we live in a little town,most everyone used to know everyone but we are growing rapidly as the mining boom takes over our once beautiful valley.However our street is one of the older ones and so there are not many newcomers in it,so we all still know one another and look out for each other.
Six houses down from us is/was a lovely couple always together,not even shopping apart they were as one.
Less than one year ago Murray the husband retired and although just in  his 60's he was so vibrant and talked of not wanting to get bored so he asked his cousin Rob if he could go out an d help on the farm a couple of days a week,so excited, Murray went out for his first day and low and behold a couple of hours there and he literally died at the wheel of the tractor,a massive heart attack.
Val has struggled so much with Murray's passing,she was a bowel cancer recoverer,always talked to Bob as you do to the postie,he is many people's confidant but for some time now she has not come out to meet him and chat,instead of gradually coping without the other half of herself she got more depressed and yesterday turned into a horror story for our street,Val hung herself in her carport.
How terrible for her 2 daughters,I do not know who found Val,I cannot bear to think of how desperate she must have felt...how much courage and planning it took for her to do this.
It brings to mind all those people you see,never apart where ever they go,not any independence whatsoever,choosing to live as one.How hard this is when one goes first.
My aunt and uncle were like this so much so that when Uncle Roy went into a nursing home Aunty Thel would walk everyday in her 80's to sit with him then walk all the way back,when he passed she literally stopped eating properly until 10 months later she joined him.Aunty Thel never made friends outside the home she did not need them as they had each other so when he went so did life.
I think we need to have a life outside our marriage,interests,friends,hobbies,most of all connections.
How many friends /acquaintances do you have that your family probably don't know,I know I have some that I chat to along my way.people on my mail run that I have become a friend of but not socially but they are connections to life.

Please if you are just insular to your marriage think about how you would cope,find a little interest now,get a hobby,go to bingo even,just something...don't rob your wonderful family of 2 loving parents let them have at least one of you left.
I cannot bear to think how Murray and Vals girls must be feeling,no grandparents left,no more wonderful Mum hugs,and apparently daughter hugs were not enough or grandchildren hugs,I guess no one hugged her like Murray did.
I just think this is so devastatingly sad.The day before  in our nrxt town a young Mum 41 died from a heart attack leaving 3 girls,I am sure she would have traded places if such a thing were possible,it is tragic when someone dies of natural causes but just horrific when we take the breath away that God gifted us.
I pray that Val is safe in her beloveds arms,that it is all she imagined it would be,that peace is the only feeling she has,as the horror of the real world is just starting to unfold for those left behind.
RIP Val.