Sunday Selections #384

Welcome back to Sunday Selections.

Begun way back in the mist of time by Kim of Frog Ponds Rock and now continued by me, with a drastic relaxation of rules.

Originally meant for showcasing old photos lost on your files, never seeing the light of day, the meme has morphed into photos of your choice, new or old, good or not-so-good, anything you please, but nothing rude please.

If you are participating, please leave me a comment so I can buzz along and have a look.
Elephant's Child always participates, and her pictures are always worth seeing.

"when there's something new, in your neighbourhood..
Who you gonna call.."
the girl with the camera of course

there are three of these new gardens along the footpath by my home

they are rain gardens! I knew that as I watched them being constructed

you should be able to read this if you enlarge it

this diagram shows how it all works

the plantings are all still small and hard to see in bright sunlight

the grasses are easier to spot

here you can see the patterns left by water flow from the last rain we had

there are openings along the gutters to allow the water in so the gutters don't flood across the road

we also have new tree plantings along "my" side of the footpath

there are no labels, but the leaves indicate liquid amber and if you know anything about trees you'll remember liquid ambers grow wide and tall, very tall

which could be a future problem, because...

on either side of these new trees are the gums that have been there for years, where the rainbow lorikeets gather to get the nectar from the flowers, and straight up?

overhead power lines, which mean future butchering trimming for the new trees as they reach significant height  😧

Wednesday's Words on a Friday

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles.

The aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to mind.

If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along and read it.

This month the words are supplied by Lee and can be found here.

This week's words are:

1. attitude
2. uphill
3. insight
4. lessons
5. upheaval
6. canopy

and/or:

1. patience
2. engage
3. humility
4. strategy
5. fortitude
6. forbearance

here is my story: a little trip far into the future:

“Girls!” Miss Sandringham clapped her hands to get their attention, then asked them all to please be quiet and pay attention.

“Allow me to introduce you all to Mrs Trudi Pedersen. She will be conducting your lessons in Home Management and General Deportment within Society. 

During the next two years you are all expected to learn everything you need to know about being a married woman once you leave these four walls. For some of you it will be easy, others will face an uphill battle, but it is hoped you will all gain at least a modicum of insight as quickly as possible. 

I’ve taught you as much as I can about the cooking and cleaning that will be expected of you and now Mrs Pedersen will take you through the strategy you will need to be a proper wife. I would prefer you all to take heed and learn quickly, no one needs to partake in an attitude adjustment class, those aren’t fun, believe me. 

The committees responsible for this ‘House’, have spent the last five years searching the earth for suitable, marriageable men for you all, and even now, those young men are undergoing similar lessons in how to be husbands and good businessmen. I’ll hand you now to Mrs Pedersen, if you would all please follow her to the Rose Garden canopy, where you will have the afternoon to introduce yourselves and get to know each other before lessons begin tomorrow.”

As one, the girls turned towards Trudi Pedersen and followed as she led them to the Rose Garden. Once they were all seated, she asked their names and conversations began. “I’m a little bit scared, Mrs Pedersen, I’ve heard that being married is like being a slave. Will we have to be locked in our houses and only allowed out when our husbands say so?” asked Jemmy.

“No, not at all”, said Trudi. “That did happen for a while in the Dark Days, but things have changed and wives are allowed to live more normal lives now.”

“I’ve read about those Dark Days,” said Lucille. “There’s a couple of books in the Library that tell about the 25^th to 27^th centuries.”

“I’ve read those too,” said Kristen. “They’re pretty scary. Every wife was expected to have at least four babies to help repopulate the earth. I hope that isn’t still expected now.”

“Let me reassure you all on that point right now. Babies are expected, but not immediately, unless you want them right away, and you don’t need to have four, again, unless you want to. In the long ago past, 19^th, 20^th and 21^st centuries, many women had large families, as many as six or eight babies, but that was in unenlightened times and we know better now. If you want to have four it is allowed, but not expected.  We don’t want the same catastrophes that befell the overpopulated past.”

“So what will you be teaching us?” asked Megan.

Trudi said, “We’ll begin with a little sex education, to get that out of the way, you need to know how the babies come along; then there will be lessons in how to engage politely with people from all races, rich and poor alike, you will need to learn forbearance, how to show a little humility when necessary and of course how to invite guests to your own home as well as how to behave in a mannerly fashion when invited to others homes. I must add here that I had hoped there would be more equality now, less of the rich and poor classes, it is the 29^th century after all.”

“Please Mrs Pedersen, what is forbearance?” said Prudence.

“Forbearance is just a fancy word for patience. Fancy words sound more impressive sometimes and that is one more thing we will cover in the next two years. You need to be able to speak them naturally, not as if you had just read them from a dictionary. They need to become part of you, to show that you have been properly educated here at Marsh House.”

“Does that mean we have to sound like the snobs we read about, from the 18^th century I think, going about all uppity and pretentious?” said Alyssa.

“Not at all,” said Trudi. “The whole point of learning them early is so they come naturally into your speech so you don’t sound like you are “showing off” but simply showing knowledge and understanding. Now I know it may be hard for you to leave here after these final lessons are learned, some of you may go out strongly with confidence, others may face more upheaval and will need to develop a little more fortitude. That’s what I’m here for. To see you all through and safely married.

OMG Facts

It's been a while since I put up a few of these

1. any free-moving liquid will form itself into a sphere in outer space because of its surface tension.

2. a duffle bag is so called because the thick wool originally used to make the bags came from the Belgium town of Duffel.

3. 'Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself."
      -Actor/writer Tom Wilson

4. spoons are a millennia older than forks.

5. The word "robot" comes from the Czechoslovakian word "robotovat" which means "to work very hard"

my favourite here is #3 

Sunday Selections # 383

Welcome back to Sunday Selections.

Begun way back in the mist of time by Kim of Frog Ponds Rock and now continued by me, with a drastic relaxation of rules.

Originally meant for showcasing old photos lost on your files, never seeing the light of day, the meme has morphed into photos of your choice, new or old, good or not-so-good, anything you please, but nothing rude please.

If you are participating, please leave me a comment so I can buzz along and have a look.
Elephant's Child always participates, and her pictures are always worth seeing.

a multi-themed post today:

beginning with a few of my neighbour V's things:

V has one of those coffee tables made of "books"

it's lightweight and she put the castors on by herself, they don't come with wheels.

I love these book tables and would love to get one, anyone know where?

this is one of V's cats, I think the oldest one, who has been unwell lately and I successfully diagnosed a thyroid problem. This old boy is now getting well again.

here are two of V's spinning wheels, another is in another room with the small loom. Notice the rug in the bottom right corner? and a few in the picture above with the cat, V makes those herself from cat hair and alpaca hair.

Here's a few photos of Lola doing what cats do best:

on the couch

on the fleecy blanket

on the chair

oops, she caught me :)

much more relaxed now than this frightened girl I collected from the animal welfare shelter almost a year ago

here's an unusual sight for Adelaide

FOG!

I haven't seen any for several years, not in the city anyway. I often look towards the hills and see fog.

I couldn't see the end of the street

nor past the little roundabout just at the end of my block.

Wednesday's Words on a Friday

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles.

The aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to mind.
If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along and read it.

This month the words are supplied by  Lee and can be found here.

This week's words are:

1. comedy

2. shadows

3. loss

4. rainbow

5. emotional

6. heart

and/or:

1. contradictions

2. sensitive

3. legendary

4. engage

5. forever

6. never-ending

Here is my story:

The shadows filling my heart since the loss of my parents seemed like they would hang around forever.

I’d been moping around my Great Aunt Millie’s huge house since the funeral, over two months ago now and really didn’t want to go back out into the world where strangers would tut-tut over me, exclaiming how unfortunate I now was, an orphan and only ten, whatever will you do with her Millie? Great Aunt Millie’s answer usually contained the words boarding school, not a huge surprise since Great Aunt Millie was close to seventy, had never married and probably disliked children until they’d been through a “good Swiss Finishing School” and could hold a proper conversation.

Great Aunt Millie was fond of telling people how overly emotional I seemed and that I showed “sensitive” tendencies declaring that “after all, her mother was a psychic, you know, and quite well known.”

One day when I had been wandering around Great Aunt Millie’s rose garden, she called to me from the side verandah. “Lexie! Come here dear. There’s a parcel arrived and it has your name on it.”

I was a little astonished that she’d called me Lexie, up until now she had preferred the more formal Alexandra. I hurried to where she was waiting and we both went into the front parlor where a large cardboard box stood. I opened the letter attached to it and big black letters almost jumped off the page at me. “Lexie,” it said. “I’ve sent you a little something to carry with you on the train. You’re coming to visit with me for a while. Millie has been telling me you seem a bit lonely, so she’ll put you on a train tomorrow and I’ll collect you at the other end. Love, Uncle Finn.”

I turned to Great Aunt Millie, “I’m going away? You’re sending me away?” My bottom lip trembled in the way I knew meant tears would soon follow. Great Aunt Millie said, “only for a while, to help you cheer up again maybe, Uncle Finn has a smaller house with a lot more child friendly things in it, he’s a doctor in a small village with lots of children around, he thinks being with him will help you engage more with real life. Why don’t you open the box now? See what’s inside?”

“It’s a big box,” I said, “Uncle Finn said it was a ‘little’ something.” I tore open one end of the box and tipped it up gently so the contents could slide out. It was a unicorn! A rainbow coloured plush unicorn as high as my waist! I loved it immediately and hugged it to myself as Great Aunt Millie informed me that the upstairs maid, Constance, had been busily packing most of my clothes that morning ready for the trip and I should now go up to my room to select the outfit I would wear on the train.

I’d never met my Uncle Finn, although I had heard stories from my parents when I was little. Apparently he was legendary in the next county where his practice was, knowing everything there was to know about children and what made them tick. I began to look forward to meeting him.

The train trip was uneventful, Constance had travelled with me and would return that same day as the station at Glenmorran was at the end of the line. The train would rest, refuel and load passengers for the return trip within a few hours. About five minutes after getting off the train, I’d been enveloped in a bear hug by a large man with a great deal of wavy red hair. He put me down and put out his hand for shaking, as a proper greeting. “Lexie, I’m very pleased to finally meet you. I’m your Uncle Finn. Finnegan Flannagan, that’s me.”

I’d waved goodbye to Constance as we left the station in Uncle Finn’s big old Volvo, named Bessie.

That was several years ago and since then, my life has been a never-ending comedy of contradictions as I learned to do things the rough-and-tumble village way instead of the “good-finishing-school” method preferred by Great Aunt Millie in the city. I met every village child within a week and their families too, was accepted easily in every home, rebuffed by none and gifted a tiny cocker spaniel puppy by the girl who was to become my lifelong friend.

I never did go back to Great Aunt Millie and not to a boarding school either. Uncle Finn didn’t agree with such nonsense. “If a child has a good family around them, why send them away?” he’d say. “Kids learn a lot better in a loving home, that’s for sure.”

What the H was that Lola?

I swear if I hadn't just spent $35 on cat food, you'd be back at the animal shelter right now!

(just kidding)  

(maybe)

here's the back story:

since the weather turned cold, Lola has felt the need to almost always be in the same room as me, curled up nearby, sleeping.
At night, she comes up beside me in the bed and flops down by my ribs to sleep. 

Last night, or more precisely, early this morning, around 1:30am, she crawled up beside me and lay down. As usual, I reached out to pat her, in the dark, half asleep. 
And my hand must have landed on a part of her she doesn't like being touched. Accidently of course.
Less than a second later, I'm yelping and leaping for the bathroom and the disinfectant, while Lola skedaddles out of sight. 

SHE BIT ME!!

And not just a nip either.
I had a puncture wound in the back of my hand and I spent a good five minutes dousing it with undiluted disinfectant, then slapping on a bandaid and hoping the bleeding would stop. 

By 10am, my hand was red, puffy and painful, so off to the doctor I went. the clinic was busy, I had a wait of one and a half hours before I could be seen. I almost fell asleep there. 
Several hours later, I'd had the wound washed and bandaged, had a tetanus shot and was on my way home with a prescription for antibiotics. 

Lola met me at the door, hungry. I showed her my bandaged hand, still red, puffy and painful, said "look what you did!" and she just ran into the kitchen and waited for me to dish out her "ocean fish in prawn flavoured jelly".

Sigh. 

It's 9pm now, the hand is slightly less red, slightly less puffy, but no less painful.

Lola, on the other hand, is still irritating. She isn't sure if I'm still cross at her or not.  I'm not sure either.

Sunday Selections # 382

Welcome back to Sunday Selections.

Begun way back in the mist of time by Kim of Frog Ponds Rock and now continued by me, with a drastic relaxation of rules.

Originally meant for showcasing old photos lost on your files, never seeing the light of day, the meme has morphed into photos of your choice, new or old, good or not-so-good, anything you please, but nothing rude please.

If you are participating, please leave me a comment so I can buzz along and have a look.
Elephant's Child always participates, and her pictures are always worth seeing.

Today I'm showing you a few knick-knacks I picked up in thrift stores (op shops) while on a day out with a couple of neighbours. 

The day began with the op shops, lunch was had at a hotel, then a visit to a neighbour who had moved out of the city to a small hills area town and now has more space than she knows what to do with. 

We finished up with a stop at another thrift store on our way back to the city. 

this beautiful little owl was my first find and I was so happy to find him,

look how well his colour matches with my things.

this charming little bracelet fit my wrist perfectly, so I left it on and handed over the amount on the price tag, $3

this is blurry, but maybe you can see the silver pieces each side of the central blue bead are Buddhas

a little something that isn't wood as I first thought, I'm not sure what it is, but I like the kitty on the face of it, she stands out a bit, isn't just painted on, so I think this is some kind of pottery or ceramic work, but not glazed.

a small pottery goblet

a little purple elephant with a silver bead necklace

now leads the line-up on top of my kitchen cabinet

and I have since found these three jewelled girls to add

I also found this tiny ceramic skull, not even 2 inches high, painted with a different coloured flower on top, back and sides.

I know, I know, dust catchers, but I like them.