Musical Monday # 18

Musical Monday 

I was introduced to Musical Monday by Delores who copied the meme from another site.

I think it’s a fun way to show off some of the music we like and brighten up our Mondays at the same time. 

I’ll be finding my clips on you tube, so will simply credit that site since there are often so many versions of everything and I wouldn’t want to accidentally credit the wrong artist.

Today’s clip is:  Paul McCartney and Wings. 

Again.

What? They're a great group. 

Mull of Kintyre. 

I loved it then, I love it now.

and the lyrics, for those who like to sing along.

Enjoy. 

I do like Pipes and Drums bands. Quite a lot.

tagged by Mimsie for a Blog Tour

I was honored recently by Mimsie who tagged me to take part in this Blog Tour. 

We introduce ourselves, answer some questions and tag three other bloggers to also take part.
I generally don't like talking too much about myself, so don't take part in these things as a rule, but here I am.

1. Introduce yourself 
We can include photos if we wish, but I can't find the ones I am looking for. 

I am a German born Australian, born in Hamburg in 1952, which makes me a Hamburger, although at very nearly 62, probably a stale Hamburger. 
I know nothing of Germany, having arrived in Australia in 1953 and in all that time, I have never left.

I have been married and divorced twice with the first marriage gifting me with four wonderful children, two of whom have further gifted me with grandchildren.  

My first husband was in the Army and we spent several years moving up and down the east coast of Australia, living in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Sydney again, then Melbourne again, before coming home to Adelaide.
Even as a child, we moved a lot, beginning in the Bonegilla Migrant Camp in Victoria, going to Melbourne, then Adelaide, then Port Pirie. In Port Pirie we lived in six different homes during the ten years I lived there. After Port Pirie, I moved to Murray Bridge where I met my husband-to-be.  Now, in Adelaide, I have lived in ten different homes. I don't plan on  moving ever again.
At some point before Adelaide, we briefly lived in Port Clinton, South Australia (I'm told I was three at the time)and from there on a clear day Port Wakefield on the other side of the gulf can be seen. I was convinced I was seeing the other side of the ocean, where Grandma lived (Germany) and one day when the tide was out I took my 18 month old brother by the hand and told him we would walk across the sand to see Grandma. I'm not sure how we were found, but we were rescued by Dad before the tide came in. 

A few years later, in Adelaide now, it was my idea again to help my brother over the back fence and tell him we were going to help Mr ? paint his house. I'd seen the buckets of paint and watched him scrape and sand the boards, so I knew what was going on. I don't know how we got the paint open, but we did and we painted wherever we could reach. 
Bright green. 
The part I remember most from that day was the bath we had after being caught. There was a lot of kerosene involved to get the paint off our skin and out of our hair, then a bath, followed by another bath and being sent straight to bed. 

Not too long after that we moved to Port Pirie where I was in trouble again. 
All the little girls at school had a fringe in their hair (bangs) and I wanted one too. 
Mum didn't like them and preferred my hair long enough to tie to the side with a bow. 
I hated that bow, I always had and I still don't like them now. 
So I cut my own fringe. 
Made a right mess of it too, hacking crookedly and accidentally cutting too much side and back hair. Mum took me off to the hairdresser and I came out with hair short enough to be mistaken for a boy. 
Well, at least I no longer had to wear the hated bow. 

I learned what little I know about gardening from my Mum who always had a veggie patch wherever she lived and I remember planting carrot seeds that had been mixed with radish seeds. Mum explained the radishes would grow first and fast and when they were pulled out there would be enough room for the carrots to grow properly. I don't know what we did with all those radishes, I certainly never ate one.

Fast forward many years to 2008 when I bought my first laptop after my desk computer got completely fried by a virus.
One day, I read a small article in the Advertiser about "blogs", something I had never heard of before, and the addresses of several blogs were listed. I typed one in and discovered Kath who writes at Blurb From The Burbs. I was hooked. I LOVED Kath and met her in real life a year or so later, just before she moved away from Adelaide, going to Melbourne.  She now lives and works in Geneva with her husband and daughter.
I eventually found my way to other blogs  by clicking on the name of one of her commenters quite by accident and two years later, May 20th, 2010,  I began Drifting Through Life.  I'm still drifting....

Q. What am I working on?

A.  Not a book, that's for sure.  This blog tour is directed at writers, I can tell by the type of questions we have here. I do write, but not much, I'm a reader mostly. 

So what am I working on?
Right now, I'm working on my garden. The small patch of community garden right beside my flat, which I have claimed for myself.

Q. How does my work differ from others in its genre?

A.  My gardening doesn't differ at all from anyone else's I believe, we all rip out what we don't want and replace it with what we do want. So, same-same.       
                                                                                                                                               My writing, the little bit I do, probably differs because it isn't serious work, not a book I'm working towards finishing, not magazine or newspaper articles that have deadlines, it is small pieces written in answer to a word challenge every week, and always just off the top of my head, written quickly with no research whatsoever, apart from looking up some of the words in my Thesaurus to see how they can be used with a different meaning. I write down the words, let the subconscious percolate, then type out a story. Sometimes the subconscious isn't involved at all. I see the words and the story writes itself.                    It isn't work at all. 

Q. Why do I write/create what I do?

A.  Why?  It's fun. I enjoy it. If I didn't, I wouldn't do it.  And I like the reactions I get from commenters and from my neighbours about my garden-in-progress. 

Q. How does my writing process work? 

A.  See that long passage just up there? That's it, that's how my writing process works.

Now I'm supposed to tag three other bloggers. 
 
This is the hardest part. Who to choose that hasn't already done this? 

I'm not going to choose. 
 
I will leave this up to you, dear readers. 

If you would like to be part of this Blog Tour, please feel free to take this and pass it on.

Sunday Selections # 182

Welcome back to Sunday Selections!

This once-a- week-meme was originally begun by Kim of Frog Ponds Rock, as a way to showcase some of the many photos we all take, but don't get around to showing on our blogs.

The rules are very simple:-

1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title

2. link back to me, River, somewhere in your post

3. leave me a comment so that I know you've joined in and can come over and see what you've posted.

4. hop on over to TheElephant’s Child to see more of her wonderful photos.

Kath and Andrew often join in.

There are a couple of other participants too:

Jackie K at Working Through It

Gillie at The View from Here

I usually go with a theme for my Sunday Selections and this week I'm continuing with some photos of my section of the gardens surrounding these flats I live in.

You all remember the stand of thorny grasses down beside my flat?

 this is it. Spiky leaves, long thorns, overgrown and not at all pretty.

You might also remember I wanted to rip them all out?

well, I tried and cleared a small space in which I planted three small ground cover grevilleas.

But the entire job was going to be far too much for me, so I eventually hired someone to rip them out.

Ta-Da!!  Beautiful! with a nice load of mulch laid down.

Unfortunately, this meant my three small ground covers were now visible to all and sundry, one of whom helped him/herself to two of them. Rotten scoundrel!!

All alone, :(

I had saved a couple of dollars a week as often as I could since moving in here, in anticipation of buying replacement plants, I'm good with long-term goals like that, so off I went and bought a whole bunch of stuff. 
Then when the little ones got stolen, I worried about the good stuff I'd bought. 
Should I plant them? What if they get stolen too? 
Dilemma indeed.

I decided to plant the jades from the pots on the porch steps. 

They were looking good and had been there two years, no one had taken any.

In they went. They look smaller now they're in the ground.
I decided if they were still there a week later, I'd take a chance and plant the new stuff. 
But not all of it. Just a few, maybe half, and see if any get stolen. 
Digging the holes will be the hardest part. That whole area is full of tree roots and the under soil is clay.
I bought really pretty things and I don't like the idea someone will just help themselves.

Here is what I bought:

Kangaroo Paws, a selection in four different colours and assorted sizes.
This particular one will grow to 60cm high by 50cm diameter and I have three of them.

this variety is called Bush Dance. I bought three of these also.

a couple of small grevilleas, "Peach Blush"

two small banksias, "Birthday Candles" they will grow to 45cm high by 50-60cm diameter.

Two Coprosmas, "Pacific Sunset", these will grow 1.5 metres high by 1metre diameter. 
I like the tiny shiny leaves on these. 

Here's a close up of the labels so you can see what the tiny flowers will look like.

Grevillea. These little beauties will be 40cm high  by 60cm diameter. I hope they flower as profusely as the picture.

grevillea groundcover, this will grow 30cm high by 1.5 metres diameter, I only bought one of these.

Kangaroo Paw, "Bush Volcano". This one will be 80cm high by 1metre diameter

The Coprosma. I have two of these and will plant them close enough together so there will be a small hedge by the letterboxes.

Kangaroo Paw, "Bush Gold", these will be 1m high by 60cm diameter. I have two.

and the Kangaroo Paw, "Bush Dance", which will grow to 60cm high by 45cm diameter. Did I mention I have three of these?

When I had these delivered I put them alongside the flats, but when the groundcovers got pinched, I moved all the new pots into the back porch. 

 Half are still there and half are now planted. 

And photographed. 

Angel's Antics

*title suggested by Vicki* Thanks Vicki.

A few weeks ago, while Angel was still kitten sized, I was searching for a toy to keep him occupied, something he could play with on his own, so I could get more computer work done.

Someone suggested a "cat dancer",  I think it may have been Susan Kane. So I searched online, watched a you tube video of a kitten having a wonderful time with one of these "cat dancer" toys and ordered one.
(Actually I ordered three. One is stashed away in case the cardboard strips get chewed beyond saving).
I put one in the kitchen, down fairly low as Angel was small still and watched him play. He loved it.

this is a cat dancer toy. Small strips of tightly twisted cardboard, about one inch long,  threaded onto sprung steel wire. The other end has one strip of the cardboard and you can hold it in your hand to swing for your cat to jump and catch, or you can feed the single strip through the edge of a door by a hinge and then close the door to hold it in place. The wire will stand out from the door and tease your cat into jumping and playing.

this one is attached to a cardboard scratch panel fixed to the wall via "command" adhesive strips. It is in my bedroom, by the back door and Angel ignores it about 99% of the time.

I had the other one attached to the kitchen cabinet by the sink.

it didn't hang out far enough from the cupboard as I'd forgotten to bend the wire at a right angle at the top where it was attached to the door. I fixed that later.

Angel played with it anyway.

leaping all over the cabinet and often enough landing in his water dish making quite a mess.

about a half an hour later Angel was rolling on the floor, just occasionally batting at the strips of cardboard.

until he was worn out.

then he'd start over.

This lasted for about a week and then he'd had enough.  
Wouldn't go near it.
So I moved it, next week you'll see where.

Wednesday's Words on a Friday

On Wednesdays, Delores, from Under The Porch Light, has a meme which she calls

“Words for Wednesday”.

She puts up a selection of six words which we then use in a short story, or a poem.

I’m hopeless at poetry so I always do a story.

It’s a fun challenge…why not join in?

This week's words are:

1. calamitous

2. fraction

3. spanx 

4. glittering

5. ambitious

6. indispensable

and/or this phrase : a glitch in time saved mine

Here is my story:

"Well, how was it?" asked a grinning John as Mandy skipped in through the door.

She struck a pose and gushed theatrically, "oh what a calamitous day dahling!"

John's  mouth dropped open and he almost dropped his coffee mug.

"What??"

Mandy giggled, becoming herself again. "I was copying one of the other models. Right twit she was, acting all posh and pretending to be some foreign famous model, called herself 'Miranda von Dusseldorf' or something like that. 

Talk about ambitious! And pretentious! 

None of us believed her of course, we'd all heard her screaming in 'fishwife cockney' at her "personal dresser" when things didn't fit."

"So you had a good time then?" asked John.

"I did,"  said Mandy, "it was a great day. Make me a coffee while I go and shower, then I'll tell you all about it."

She zipped through her shower in record time and was soon sitting opposite John at the table.

"Go on then," he said, "spill the beans."

Mandy helped herself to a biscuit and began. 

"You remember we were going to be modelling those new "spanx" underwear thingies, apparently they're the latest thing in body shapers, and the designer says they'll be an indispensable part of any woman's wardrobe within six months ?" 

John nodded, watching Mandy's face closely. 

He loved how animated she got when telling stories of her days. Her eyes sparkled, her lips got that little turn up at the corners that wasn't quite a smile, but could be a full grin in an instant. 

Mandy continued, "well the photographer and the layout fella decided we'd all look better posing on the sand at the beach with the glittering waves in the background. 

Glittering waves! 

I ask you, who talks like that?" 

"Magazine layout people?" asked John.

"Yeah, probably. If I ever get too posh like that just smack me down to earth again would you?" said Mandy. 

"Oh, for sure," said John, "but keep telling, please."

"Okay", said Mandy. "At first he had us all leaning along the steps at the pier with 'Miranda' on the lower step as she was the tallest and the rest of us spaced out, then we sat in deck chairs and after that we lounged on towels on the sand. 

It looked like we were all wearing swimsuits, not body shaper underwear. 

Anyway, finally, the layout fella said we should all just play around on the sand and the photographer could take random shots. That way the reading public could see how well the "spanx" stayed in place no matter what a woman would be doing throughout her day."

"I wish I'd been there," said John. "You know, I waited all day for that plumber and he only just got here about an hour ago and said he didn't have the right size fitting, he'd have to come back tomorrow."

"Rats!" said Mandy, "so the dishwasher isn't fixed yet?"

John shook his head, "nope."

"ah well," Mandy said, we know how to wash dishes without one, no big deal."

"Anyway, after cavorting around in the sand, in tight fitting "spanx" you can imagine what we all felt like. Remember what happens after a day at the beach? Sand in everything? Including our swimsuits? It was the same with the "spanx". 

A fraction too much friction, you might say. I was glad to get those things off, I can tell you!"

"I bet you were," said John. "Describe them for me?"

Mandy thought for a moment, then said, "there are several different types of "spanx", there's a half style that goes from just above the waist to mid thigh, a regular style that goes from just under the bust almost to the knees and the full style which is a whole body suit from shoulders, with nice wide straps, a built-in bra and then all the way to the knees. 

Another body style is more like a swimsuit with very strong control fabric through the middle section to hold the tummy flat. That's what we were wearing. 

If a woman needs her thighs shaped as well as tummy and bottom, she'd choose the full style. 

They're all in beige which didn't look very nice against the sand, so I'm hoping they'll bring them out in better colours."

Mandy sipped her cooling coffee, then, "what?" she said.

"Nothing, just watching your face. I love the way you light up after a photo shoot, you really love doing them don't you?" said John.

You're right, I do," Mandy said and it pays well. We all got paid $100 dollars per hour for today, although 'Miranda' made a big show of telling us she usually earns much, much more".

She thought for a moment. "You know, I think I've seen her before, years ago, when we were living in Brisbane. She reminds me of that Shirley Washington. I reckon she's just a plain Jane like the rest of us. Wonder why she has to pretend she's someone she isn't?"