August 17, 2008
That is a harsh title but that is how I am feeling at the moment …….. stressed by some-one’s uncaring attitude. We have lived in our present home (rented) for two years, we are good tenants, the place is kept looking well and we will often get things repaired ourselves as we don’t want to wait on the landlord. There has been a storage of rental places in the whole of Australia and things are very competitive, our landlord believes that she can get an extra $120 to $150 per week. Because our laws do not allow landlords to put rents up an unreasonable amount they could not do that to us. We have been told that our lease will not be renewed, so we have to leave. That allows them to charge the new tenants the higher amount. We have offered to pay a lot extra just to stay until the end of the year, Jess is doing her final year of school and we are desperately trying to keep the world calm and stress-free for her and Graham is in the middle of a large contract that will continue to the end of October so he has very little time to himself. It is strange but at the same time that this is happening to us, Graham’s brother is going through the same thing. Their rent is going up by $60 per week and then they will be on a two month’s lease so that the ownercan put the rent again in two months time.
photo credit: ibm438
August 16, 2008
This was an easy one to do, I think to a certain degree every mother, parent or person does it. When things become too stressful you try very hard to detach yourself. One of these times in a parent’s case it is saying ‘goodbye’ to your children as they go off on their adventures or saying ‘goodbye’ to grandchildren or aged parents. I think to keep your sanity you have to have those moments of detachment , of turning off. In my case it is often daydreaming or watching people.
August 3, 2008
This involved a lot of thought. Then I had a great idea, my baby is turning eighteen next Wednesday. The years have gone by so quickly; to me, one moment she was a sweet little baby and now she is a mature, intellegent young lady. So therefore ‘POOF’ has gone the time. I really wish that the time had not passed so quickly.
July 24, 2008
‘Today I sit here a little melancholy and homesick for my family. Distance between people that love each other, always feels like a waste. It’s like having a million dollars, but not being able to access it’.
I just read the most beautiful post in the Shutter Sisters blog and she described exactly how I feel. I know as you get older and your children make their own way you are to be happy for them and their independence. But you know it is hard, you just miss them, you don’t really know what is going on in the lives….. the day to day things. There is much excitement when we receive an email from the girls and we talk about it for days. I got a message from Penny on my blog this morning and I am so curious to know why it took 10 hours for a round trip to the markets.
My older girls have promised when they stop travelling the world that Canberra will be their home, Adam and his beautiful wife Suzy talk about going back to Canberra and my beloved is in Canberra today and he rang me to describe the frost on the ground, the crisp air and the snow on the mountain. I felt ‘homesick’ but am I hankering for a life that does not exist anymore, our three older children grew up there and we did not leave until they went to high school. I know that the city has changed but I think that it is still bascially ‘Canberra’, where people talk about politics, where there are things to do every weekend, where wonderful old friends live, where you have the four seasons of the year and where you don’t have to worry if you to the shop in your ‘ugg’ boots. Do you think that I am kidding myself?
The mosaic in front of parliament house.
July 21, 2008
We had a really busy weekend,the highlight was my nephew’s engagement party held in a bush park need their house. It was lovely, we saw people that we had not seen for a long time and I got to cuddle the new babies. Our two little grand-daughters played very happily with their cousins and they were very busy. Liv (my grand-daughter) is showing a strong interest in digital scrap-booking and has done some very lovely layouts. She now wants to learn how to use the camera and to take her own photos. Both Suzy’s and my cameras had flat batteries, so she took photos with my iPhone, they weren’t too bad.
July 7, 2008
We had a lovely time, O’Reilly Rainforest is a slice of heaven. The weather was not that great but after all it is a rain forest. We all did a couple of the shorter walks on the Friday, then Graham and Jess did the twenty five km walk on the Saturday. If poured rain all day and some of the time it was extremely heavy, it meant that they couldn’t see any of the wonderful scenery as it was just low clouds. They got back just before dark, I was starting to get really worried, they were drenched to the skin and extremely tired. Jess was recovered by the next morning but Graham will still take a few more days to recover (old age).
I got time to stitch and read on the Saturday, sitting before the fire and occasionally looking out at the valley. It was such a peaceful day but I started to get very anxious around 4.30 as they were still not back. Luck I got the phone call not long after that to go and pick them up.
Jess at the beginning of the walk, at Binna Burra
The view from the villa at dusk.
June 23, 2008
It is a great topic for this week’s Illustration Friday, it is ‘hoard’. I don’t hoard much, in fact I throw too much away, as I really don’t like clutter although you wouldn’t think this is you saw my desk right now. I do have a hoard of buttons, I have my collection that I have gathered over a many years of sewing and as well I have my mother’s collection. I have them in glass jars and they give me a great deal of joy in just looking at them.
June 5, 2008
Yesterday I was reading a post from ‘My Words’ and she has had her blog made up into a book. It looked really lovely. This is such a great idea, it is a way of keeping the memories alive. I started my blog back in April 2005, I have been writing it for such a long time. For many of those years it was purely devoted to digital scrapping and my obsession with it. I now view it as a way of keeping and sharing memories with friends and family. An added bonus about keeping a blog is the new people that you meet and get to share yours and theirs ideas and experiences with.
Now I need some help. Penny(my daughter) an aid worker in Sudan and soon to be in Liberia wants to start a blog and numerous times we have discuss the name for it. She said to ask you for some suggestions; as I want to register her name as a domain name. Her experiences are just so wonderful and she is a gifted story teller, so I would really like her to start one soon.
photo credit: T U R K A I R O
May 11, 2008
Hoping that you had a lovely mothers day. A wake-up kiss from my daughter, a yummy breakfast at a local restaurant, time to read and watch ‘Death at a Funeral’ (an extremely funny movie); a quiet and beautiful day. My eldest daughter moves to Cambodia this week with her partner and daughter. Over the last ten years or so, I seem to be saying ‘good-bye’ to my children a lot, looking at this in the ‘glass half-full’ way……. they are really doing things that they are passionate about; that we have wonderful places to visit; we see lots of exciting photos (did you hear that Pen and Ses); we hear about a lot if adventures, like Pen taking fourty-eight hours to travel from Sudan to Cairo and it makes them the brautiful, caring people that they are.
The topic of IF this week was ‘electricity’, I really could not think of anything, so having at look at some of the contributions this week has been great. Love this one and this one (love the story attached to this one what a great thing to do with a class, have them finished the story)and this (had to put the link to this one in as this is exactly what Molly would say, trying to please everyone.) Just found this blog, I love all her illustrations. Now I will stop looking and go I to bed.
photo credit: James KhooJames Khoo
April 29, 2008
As you know I love reading “The Happiness project” which often leads to a lot of thinking. This morning I was talking to someone about happiness and he stated that you have a right to be happy, that all of your relationships should be working fine and that they should not make too many demands on you. Years ago we tried our hand at being Amway sellers, Graham’s dad was in it and he really wanted us to be part of his network. It failed miserably on our part, as we did not want to sell to other people but one of the hardiest things that I found was finding out about people’s lives. These people up to this stage had just been people that we knew, not close friends. All of a sudden you were thrown into the deep end knowing about their relationship with each other etc., knowing the ins and outs of their lives; to me this was too hard. Knowing about these people but having no real relationship with them. It seemed as too many steps had been left out and that you were not ready to be this involved in their lives. While on the other hand, there are people that you are close to and while they are not prefect (who is) you will do anyhing for them, you will take the good with the bad, because that is just what you do. I hope that I am making sense, what I am trying to say to love someone is to love them faults all all. Why this post, because I knew that I disgreed with what this person said but I did not have the words to say it. Now that I have had time to think about it I would like to discuss it more.
Anyway I want to share this lovely photo of Liv with you. She is five now and the most amazing things come out of her mouth, It is a wonderful thing to have a grandchild their perspective on life is very fresh and true.
