Summer is coming and we are going to fun this summer....Hopefully,

 BUT

Would you believe it, got of the toilet (something we never talk about toilets, that is) and hurt my back. Since Wednesday last I have been lying in bed full of pain killers, sleeping and smelling of Dencor rub, which James say is just plain awful, and sinks the same – but what do I care.

Yesterday I got up for a little while; sitting is just not a good feeling. I hope that I haven’t done too much damage to my back as I have had the “needle” in the back last March which made me more human and I could do things, that I haven’t done in a long time. Now I am back to square one again. I do hope that I can get better without another needle.

This all happened, mainly because we had carpet laid. We have been wanting or should I say needing new carpet for the family room and hall way, really we could do with it in the other bedrooms too but seeing there is only the two of us here and no one goes into the bedrooms we decided against new carpet in those rooms. One room is the guest room with only a double bed in, another is where the computer/office is and James is the only person who goes in there. He also stores is Market Stuff in there, so there is not much room to move. The other room is my sewing room and no one would want to go in there as there is so much stuff in there, everywhere, BTW my sewing machine is in the lounge room and that room is getting the same as my sewing room. I have tried and tried to tidy/clean/de junk/get rid of, but for some reason nothing happens. I walk in turn around and walk out again totally overwhelmed, and then we go away again. The room is full of books/mags/wool/fabric/ and other stuff. All very precious to me.

Anyway getting back to the carpet, we don’t have much furniture in the family room which is just of off the kitchen but the furniture has to be moved. Neal and James did most of the moving, but there is a marble wash stand and that had to be moved. I didn’t want Neal moving it as when they were moving the lounge across the entry foyer they bumped into the door way and TV cabinet and nearly dislodged the TV from the top. So after that I didn’t want them dropping the marble top as it is over a hundred years old and I don’t know how brittle marble gets. So silly me lifted it into the lounge room and when the carpet layers were finished lifted it back. I shouldn’t have done that as now I am paying for it.  Getting of the toilet was the last straw. Hopefully I will get some treatment before we go away to Tuncurry next week. Being a short week I hope that will happen.

This morning, I had a morning tea with a neighbour, she came over to show us her photos of Ireland, and she spent with her friends 4 weeks there and in Paris and Wales. So she said yesterday she would be over to show us the photos as we had been there the year before. It was lovely remembering all the places that we had been to and some that only she had been to. I made butterfly cakes, there were lovely. It is a long time since I ‘played’ morning or afternoon tea. So after she went home and I cleaned up, and had some lunch I decided to have a lay down for about half an hour, well that didn’t happened 2 hours lately I arose. I must have been more doped up than I thought. I must say I do feel a bit better and today I have only taken 2 pain killers.

Hopefully tomorrow is another day and I will feel a lot better. I wanted to have the Grandchildren this week. But I don’t think that this is going to happen. I have 2 girls cousins both are diabetic and one of those is celiac, which makes for me being on my toes to keep up with the diet part of the time the girls have here. The 5 year old girl has nothing wrong with her and is pleasure to look after when she is here by herself I keep wondering if I have forgotten to do something. Funny that.  When they go home I feel as if there is a great big hole there and nothing to fill it as I don’t have anything to do.

James is getting the van ready to go to Tuncurry next week. We always go the Monday after school goes back, and we stay for 4 or 5 weeks. There are about 6 couples in their vans and one couple that rent a cabin for the time there. The men go fishing the women do different stuff and not together either. Some go swimming and some go shopping. I usually go to the beach for walks, to the rock pool for the morning and then just sit and talk to everyone that goes past. Our site in on the walkway from one part to the other at the back and most people walking through will talk to us as our van door faced the walkway. I have met some lovely people there over the 10 or so years we have been going as we have the same site every year.

I am still knitting a beanie. 

The pattern has only 11 stitches and a knit row. But boy is it taking a long time to knit. The needles I have the wool keeps slipping and I loose stitches and it isn’t until I get about 5 or so row later that I see it and then have to do the ‘frog’ stitch. I use pattern markers which I learnt about going the knitting group. Make is a lot easier to find out where the mistake is if you have made one and easier to fix. I wish I had known this earlier in my life my knitting would have been better somehow and I would not have given up on project so easily.

I had better go and get dinner ready, now, I would rather sit here but we both know that will is not going to happen got food to cook.

Hope you like the photos.

Until next time.

Live Life to the Fullest 

Sunfowers, there are lovely. We have lots of Sunflowers in the garden. They grew all by themselves.

The Pavlova I made to the fellas the other day. It looks good and tasted the same.

Part of my knitting cardigan. nearly finished

A Lovely Day on the Newcastle Foreshore

We (James and I)decided a couple of weeks ago to have a meal in a nice restaurant on the Newcastle Foreshore at Honeysuckle where all the restaurants are and there are a lot of them. They are all facing the Harbour.


We left home at 11am and drove down to the ferry wharf and waiting for us was the ferry. I always love riding in the ferry, any ferry will do. I think it is a water thing.


I have ridden the Newcastle Ferry since I was a little girl when we lived at Stockton. I loved it then and I still love it. I have, many time rode the ferries in Sydney too. The Parramatta Cat Ferry from Parramatta to Circular Quay at Sydney. From circular Quay, I have ridden the Manly Ferry many times over the years, and even to different wharfs in the Harbour. I think that Sydney Harbour is the pretties Harbour in the world.
I have ridden the ferry in San Francisco, New York, Hong Kong, and New Orleans and from Melbourne to Tassie although that was an overnight ferry and maybe not counted.


After getting off the ferry we walked down the foreshore to the Restaurant Il Grifone where we sat and watched to the world go by for an hour or so.

 We ordered the Bruschetta, and I ordered Tortellini and James ordered Marinara. Both meals tasted great. We both ordered coffee and relaxed in a great atmosphere.


We walked back to the Ferry via Hunter Street, which really needs a facelift.


All in all a wonderful day.

Socks for Winter

I have been knitting socks from this book. The socks are toe up and extremly easy to knit. They feel great and keep you feet toasty warm.
I knit the socks from Patonyle in different colours of Grey, which was the only colour that I could buy at the time.
I recomend the above book Socks from the Toe Up. Anyone that knitts patterns from this book would not be disapointed.

These are some of the socks that I have knitted from the book.

Winter is Coming

There is one month to go before winter is here. I am now enjoying lovely warm sunny days. The days are starting off a little bit cool, and as the day progresses the day warms up, and then in the early afternoon it starts to cool off. The speckled shade over the backyard look nice and inviting, just to sit and read or knit or even do some patchwork.

I know when Autumn starts as the Liquid Amber next door starts to change colour.
There are not many trees around here that do change colour with the seasons, but this one does and it is nice to see.

There has been rain most nights this week which is great for the garden and grass and most of all filling the water tank. There was a bit of outside housework to be done. James is vacuuming and washing of the gutters of the house. I know it look funny to see someone vacuuming the gutter but we do need to get the rubbish (leaves, bits of barks which is light enough to float on the wind and nuts that the birds drop into the gutters) out of the gutters so we have some nice clean water to use.

James cleaning the gutters, with the lovely Liquid Amber changing colours in the background.

These are some photos of the flowers of Azaleas in my garden and a  Petunia in a pot. Autumn the garden is really pretty.

Easter Weekend.

Some really big decisions have been made this month. One of those decisions is that I have decided to walk at  least 85 Kilometers per month. So far this month I walked 44 kilometres. Not good but better than none at all. Hopefully next month will be better. The weather is getting cooler, but the last couple of days it has been raining so that means I have do dodge the raindrops for a walk.  The walk takes me around the block, which is 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) that takes me 17 minutes, I don't think that I will get any faster than that as I seem to be hobbling by the time I reach home.

Hopefully in time my knee will get better but I really do not think that it will. I had a really bad fall while dancing. We use to go dancing 3 times a week, that was until I fell.
Getting Easter Eggs over the weekend did nothing to enhance the fact that I really need to loose the weight and do something nice for my heart.
All I can do is try.

ANZAC DAY 2011

25th April 2011

ANZAC DAY BISCUITS MADE FOR ANZAC DAY.

The ANZAC biscuits were so named because they were made by the women at home and sold to buy small necessities and luxuries for the ANZAC troops in World War I. These little "comforts of home" included things like soap, toothpaste, pencils, books and lollies.
The ANZAC biscuits were also sent to the troops because, being flat and made with oats and syrup, they travelled well and lasted longer, unlike standard cakes and biscuits. Originally the biscuits were called "soldiers' biscuits", and only gained the name "ANZAC biscuits" towards the end of the war, long after the unsuccessful Gallipoli campaign. It was an expression of patriotic pride in the Australian and New Zealand troops serving overseas.
ANZAC Day – 25 April – is probably Australia's most important national occasion. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.

What does ANZAC stand for?ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they took in that name endures to this day.
Why is this day special to Australians?
When war broke out in 1914, Australia had been a federal commonwealth for only 13 years. The new national government was eager to establish its reputation among the nations of the world. In 1915 Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in order to open the Dardanelles to the allied navies. The ultimate objective was to capture Constantinople (now Istanbul in Turkey), the capital of the Ottoman Empire, an ally of Germany.
The Australian and New Zealand forces landed on Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Ottoman Turkish defenders. What had been planned as a bold stroke to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915 the allied forces were evacuated, after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. Over 8,000 Australian soldiers had been killed. News of the landing on Gallipoli had made a profound impact on Australians at home, and 25 April soon became the day on which Australians remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in the war.
Although the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military objectives, the Australian and New Zealand actions during the campaign left us all a powerful legacy. The creation of what became known as the “ANZAC legend” became an important part of the identity of both nations, shaping the ways they viewed both their past and their future.
Early commemorations

The 25th of April was officially named ANZAC Day in 1916. It was marked by a wide variety of ceremonies and services in Australia, a march through London, and a sports day in the Australian camp in Egypt. In London over 2,000 Australian and New Zealand troops marched through the streets. A London newspaper headline dubbed them “the knights of Gallipoli”. Marches were held all over Australia; in the Sydney march, convoys of cars carried wounded soldiers from Gallipoli attended by nurses. For the remaining years of the war, ANZAC Day was used as an occasion for patriotic rallies and recruiting campaigns, and parades of serving members of the AIF were held in most cities.
During the 1920s ANZAC Day became established as a national day of commemoration for the 60,000 Australians who had died during the war. In 1927, for the first time every state observed some form of public holiday on ANZAC Day. By the mid-1930s, all the rituals we now associate with the day – dawn vigils, marches, memorial services, reunions, two-up games – were firmly established as part of ANZAC Day culture.
With the coming of the Second World War, ANZAC Day also served to commemorate the lives of Australians who died in that war. In subsequent years the meaning of the day has been further broadened to include Australians killed in all the military operations in which Australia has been involved.
ANZAC Day was first commemorated at the Memorial in 1942. There were government orders prohibiting large public gatherings in case of a Japanese air attack, so it was a small occasion, with neither a march nor a memorial service. Since then, ANZAC Day has been commemorated at the Memorial every year.

What does it mean today?
Australians recognise 25 April as an occasion of national remembrance, which takes two forms. Commemorative services are held at dawn – the time of the original landing – across the nation. Later in the day, ex-servicemen and women meet to take part in marches through the major cities and in many smaller centres. Commemorative ceremonies are more formal and are held at war memorials around the country. In these ways, ANZAC Day is a time when Australians reflect on the many different meanings of war.

The Dawn Service
The Dawn Service observed on ANZAC Day has its origins in a military routine which is still followed by the Australian Army today. During battle, the half-light of dawn was one of the most favoured times for an attack. Soldiers in defensive positions were woken in the dark before dawn, so by the time first light crept across the battlefield they were awake, alert, and manning their weapons; this is still known as the “stand-to”. As dusk is equally favourable for attacks, the stand-to was repeated at sunset.
After the First World War, returned soldiers sought the comradeship they had felt in those quiet, peaceful moments before dawn. A dawn vigil, recalling the wartime front line practice of the dawn ‘stand-to’, became the basis of a form of commemoration in several places after the war. There are claims that a dawn requiem mass was held at Albany on 25 April 1918, and a wreath laying and commemoration took place at dawn in Toowoomba the following year. In 1927 a group of returned men, returning from an ANZAC function held the night before, came upon an elderly woman laying flowers at the as yet unfinished Sydney Cenotaph. Joining her in this private remembrance, the men later resolved to institute a dawn service the following year. Thus in 1928 150 people gathered at the Cenotaph to for a wreath laying and two minutes silence. This is generally regarded as the beginning of organised dawn services. Over the years the ceremonies have developed into their modern form and also seen an increased association with the dawn landings on 25 April 1915.
Today dawn services include the presence of a chaplain, but not the presence of dignitaries such as the governor general. They were originally very simple and followed the military routine. In many cases, attendance at the dawn service was restricted to veterans, while the daytime ceremony was for families and other well-wishers. Before dawn, the gathered veterans would be ordered to “stand to” and two minutes’ silence would follow. At the end of this time a lone bugler would play the Last Post and then conclude the service with Reveille, the bugler’s call to wake up.
In more recent times families and young people have been encouraged to take part in dawn services, and services in Australian capital cities have seen some of the largest turnouts ever. Reflecting this change, those services have become more elaborate, incorporating hymns, readings, pipers, and rifle volleys. Other services, though, have retained the simple format of the dawn stand-to, familiar to so many soldiers.

The ANZAC Day Ceremony
At the Australian War Memorial, the ceremony takes place at 10.15 am in the presence of people such as the prime minister and the governor general. Each year the ceremony follows a pattern that is familiar to generations of Australians. A typical ANZAC Day ceremony may include the following features: an introduction, hymn, prayer, an address, laying of wreaths, a recitation, the Last Post, a period of silence, either the Rouse or the Reveille, and the national anthem. After the Memorial’s ceremony, families often place red poppies beside the names of relatives on the Memorial’s Roll of Honour, as they also do after Remembrance Day services.
The above text was taken from http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac/anzac-tradition/

And that is why I make ANZAC biscuits.

Home Again

We arrived home from Tuncurry on Friday. We both didn't want to come home as we always have such a relaxing time, just chilling out, swimming in the rock pool,fishing on the beach and talking and eating with friends.

James was sick for the 1st week we were there but we got the camp set up in one day as usual.



Our Camp by the walkway, I do wish there was more grass.



The water was a nice 25 degrees just nice enough to stay in for an hour or so.

I also bought myself a nice umbrella for James to sit on the beach without getting to hot.
I was in the water so I really didn't need it. I did sit under the umbrella for a couple of hours on a few occasions and just sitting there was nice and relaxing, watching the children playing and the boats coming and going.

We did have a few days of rainy weather, which was OK, really, we just sat and talked to everyone that passed us by.
The Park was the fullest I have even seen in the 10 years that we have been coming. I think that the floods up north had a  lot of caravaners staying closer to home.
James caught a few fish, but really there wasn't a lot of fish around for anyone to catch and all was complaining about it.



James was very lucky to catch these fish all in one day.



James cleaning the fish he caught

There was one really big fish caught by our friend Howie.


Howie with his Tailor which was weighted 3kg. a nice big one and tasted great too.

 

Tuncurry Here We Come

Every year at this time we go north for a month to Tuncurry (New South Wales Australia) a little beach side town. Beautiful beaches for swimming and fishing, great lakes and river for fishing and boating, nice drives for just relaxing, and a good shopping centre for when it is raining, there is also a movie theatre for when one needs to chill out and the most important shop of all is a Patchwork shop and a Craft Shop both in walking distance of the Tuncurry Beach Caravan Park

 http://www.tuncurrybeachcaravanpark.com/
Although it has been raining since Sunday we have packed the caravan, with everything that we need. This year we decided to cut down on what to take.
James has his clothes toiletries etc and of course his fishing 'stuff' I do hope that he can catch a lot of fish. As I don't really want to get out of bed at the crack of dawn and walk miles and miles up the beach to fish, he can catch the feeds of fish for us as he has done in the past.
Now me, I have packed my clothes etc, and they are important and another thing that is important is my craft 'stuff', knitting - the red cardigan I started 2 years ago in Benidgo, when I thought that it would be a good idea to knit myself a cardigan. My Hexagons
http://justmyquiltingstuff.blogspot.com/

http://hexagonalley.blogspot.com/

are packed and ready to go. Also Sandi is coming too, as I am going to knit a cardigan for her and her cousin Tillie, now I think that there is enough for me to do for a month especially when I will be doing a lot of swimming in the rock pool and socialising with all our friends that are coming with us and of course I hope to make some new friends too.



James doing what he loves =- Fishing and catching some too.

Dolls Dress

For the last couple of weeks it has been so hot I haven't felt like doing anything.

In fact the only thing that I have been doing is watering the garden first thing of a morning and seeing that the plants of ok and then putting on the Air-Con and sitting inside doing my Hexagons http://justmyquiltingstuff.blogspot.com/ which are coming along nicely. Not really fast enough but one has to be patient. Now I have to have a little rest from sewing the Hexagons as my hands are getting sore. So I have decided to crochet a dolls dress

http://www.abc-knitting-patterns.com/1029.html

My friend made one of these dresses, it was the same pattern but the pattern was written differently and hard to decipher. The person who wrote the pattern Now has made it easier to read and to decipher, so I decided to crochet the dress just to see what it would look like.

Books I have Read.

I thought that it would be a good idea if I had a list of books that I have read. Over the years I have read lots of book as one does, but never kept a record of them.
It will be very interesting just to see what type of books I like to read.

Barbara's book montage

Barbara Andrews's favorite books »

 

Barbara's books

House of Angels

by Freda Lightfoot

Kept me interested on every page.

I read this book in one day.

Looking forward to reading more of this author

The Frozen Circle

by Peter Watt

loved it as I do all Peter Watt's book.

Great story line.

To Touch the Clouds

by Peter Watt

Excellent as usual. Keep it up

An Elm Creek Quilts Sampler

by Jennifer Chiaverini

Good book. Well done

The Lost Quilter

by Jennifer Chiaverini

A very good story about quilters and quilts

 

I will update the books that I am reading often