Squiiish........

........that will be me tomorrow morning.  Squish.  It's time for the dreaded mammogram.  Don't tell it saves lives etc etc, I know all that......I still find it a painful, humiliating and embarrassing experience.  However, over the past few days I have getting into the spirit of the test by slamming the freezer door on my boobs a few times each day and lying on our pebbled driveway these cold frosty mornings while Kevin drives the car back and forth a few times over my chest.

There is something really cringe-making about having to take off one's clothes and show one's bits in public, isn't there?  To me, that also includes medical procedures which requires baring parts of one's body usually covered by clothing.  Makes me come over all faint at the very thought.  When I was younger I wasn't so self-conscious about such matters, if it had to be done then it had to be done, but the body changes which have come about with age have also brought more reluctance to show said body to anyone, including medical people.  It's not a pretty sight, folks.

We need a nice picture to take our minds off such matters.

Taken in Bayfield, Ontario. last October........such a lovely little town!

The sewing project from the fabrics in the last post is coming along nicely in between uke practice, and sweeping the occasional floor, and cooking, and choir practices, and shopping, and volunteering, and presenting a radio program, and relaxing......but never mind, it will get done......what has been done so far is looking good.

Winter has returned this week, very cold frosty mornings and some fog in the valley below us.  Being out walking in frost is not for the faint-hearted but if I don't go because it's cold it becomes very easy to stop completely.  If I don't walk it's because I have an appointment which means keeping an eye on the clock......like tomorrow morning's test.  That means most days I am out and about, struggling home up the hill with the sun in my eyes, and breathing a sigh of relief when I walk inside and shut the door behind me.

We have started planning our next trip away in a few months, heading north to a small folk festival a few hours away then continuing to the coast and going to.......who knows where?  We don't!  We will make decisions when we get there, even though we don't yet know where "there" is.  Our house sitters are already booked, just need to buy our festival tickets.  My new uke will, of course, be coming along; our caravan is quite small but there is room for a tenor uke.  There is room for a guitar too.....always take my guitar to festivals, it wouldn't feel right to leave it behind.

"When a color is chosen which is favorable to the complexion, it is well to associate with it the tints which will harmonize by analogy, as to use contrasting colors would diminish its favorable effect.  When a color is used in dress, not suitable to the complexion, it should be associated with contrasting colors, as they have the power to neutralize its objectionable influence."  

Another thing about growing older is the changes in one's hair colour and skin tone, which in turn governs what colours one can wear  We don't think of these things when we're young and slender, do we?  But it doesn't matter how much my skin and hair change, I do not look good in pink.

Enjoy your days!

Happy news

Last weekend our older son and his girlfriend became engaged, we are very happy for them!  No wedding details as yet.  Hopefully it will be in their home town of Canberra and not some far-flung exotic - and expensive! - destination which involves flying.  We like Canberra, have many friends there and are always happy to visit.

The fabrics below are to make them a gift, it won't be a quilt but will be quilted.  They are both musicians, Son is a drummer and Son's Fiancée plays French horn, hence the fabric choices.  Once the black skirt is finished this project will be pushed to the front of The List.

All that remains on the black skirt is to sew a hook and eye on the waistband.  It is truly lovely, hangs beautifully when worn, and the fabric....gen-u-ine polyester damask brocade.....suits the style very well.  But black skirts - indeed, any black garments - do not photograph well so there is no point taking any pictures.  Then it will hang in the wardrobe awaiting a suitable occasion; its first wearing may possibly be next month when the ukulele group plays in a concert.

Wonder if the Mother of the Groom wears a long black skirt?  Probably not......oh dear, weddings mean photographs....how dreadful.  Wonder if it's possible to shed 20 kilos really quickly?  Just as well all eyes are on the bride.....

Lately the weather has not been at all wintry, nights and mornings have been cool but not too cold, however that is set to change this weekend.  We are even supposed to get some very welcome rain from tomorrow.   Considering it's supposed to be the dead of winter now it's really very mild so the change won't be unexpected.  The local birds have been more active and noisy than usual today, perhaps they are telling us something?

The road between here and town is almost finished now.  Since we moved here that road has been rough and bumpy, sometimes during the repair work it was even worse, but it is nearly all fixed now and will be truly beautiful indeed; we will feel as though we are driving on a cloud.  No doubt the local hoons will love it.

"Hotel California" is proceeding well.  I was playing along with it daily on you tube but found yesterday that the original version had been removed, bummer, however I was able to find another version by that band in the same key.  The speed is a bit quicker but I can manage to keep up.  Had to miss out on this week's uke lesson as the radio station was celebrating its 30th birthday and I couldn't be in two places at once, but I'll catch up next week and find out what pieces we will be playing at next month's concert apart from 'Hotel California'.  Many of the pieces performed by other ensembles and various soloists will be classical, so we could be the comic relief.

"Dress at wedding receptions.
At wedding receptions in the evening, guests should wear full evening dress.  No one should attend in black or mourning dress, which should give place to grey or lavender.  At a morning reception of the wedded couple, guests should wear the richest street costume with white gloves."

Oh dear, my wardrobe - sumptuous though it may be - does not include white gloves.  Or full evening dress, for that matter.  Might have to go shopping for either clothes or fabric and pattern......it probably doesn't do to wear one's daggy jeans at one's oldest son's nuptials.

Enjoy your days!

Nice

The world needs more nice at present, doesn't it?  So many nasty and sad things happening out there.  So this will be a nice post.

My zygocactus is flowering.  There are much prettier and more spectacular zygocactus in the world, but this one is mine.

 When we bought our last house in 1987 this was left by the previous owners and the pot it was in was disintegrating.  A chunk of plant fell off and I shoved it in this pot, a gen-u-ine orange plastic pot left over from the 1970s.  The original plant died off, the piece I planted kept growing.....but it never ever flowered.  I brought it with us when we sold up and moved here, goodness knows why.....yes I do know.  I wasn't leaving anything behind for our buyer after the hoops she made us jump through.  I had run out of nice by then.  It hangs on our covered back verandah, and has flowered every winter since we came here.

Perhaps one day it might even be planted into a more glamorous pot with new soil........or perhaps I should leave well enough alone!

 My little project is finally finished, a souvenir of last autumn's holiday in Canada.  It's called "Leaf Peeking" and will be used as a table topper.  With the exception of the pale background print behind the leaves it's all batik fabrics.....I love the border print.  It's a very gorgeous green.  Have I ever mentioned that I am quite fond of green?

A few times recently we have woken up to frost, the hill behind us is quite white, and some mornings the shady bits haven't finished melting by 11am.  Well, it is winter after all......the morning walk has been a bit of a trial on such cold mornings, but I am persisting with it.  Cloudy mornings are easier, because the last part is uphill and it doesn't seem to matter what time I go out, the sun always seems to be in my eyes when I am coming home up the hill.  However, I am not getting up at the crack of dawn just to beat the sun.  Mornings just don't do it for me.

So far the fingers haven't fallen off, the difficult chords are becoming easier with the daily (except when I occasionally forget) uke practice.  It's the barre chords which are still giving me trouble.  A barre chord is when you place the left index finger across all the strings at once - that's not so bad if it's only one finger doing the work, but when the other fingers on that hand have to hold down other strings too, well, that can be a bit painful.  At least the narrower neck on a ukulele is easier to barre than a guitar neck, I have never been able to quite get the hang of that.  My fingers aren't particularly short, but just a bit more length on them would make barre chords so much easier.

Ah well, can't change what nature gave us, can we?  If we could I would be a bit taller, my fingers would be a little longer, my hair would not be going grey, I would still have the slender figure of my youth.  At the folk festival at Easter a friend who is a few years younger said she admires me and hopes to be as good as I am when she is my age, she considers me to be a role model.  It was meant as a compliment and I took it as such, but oh my.....I hate getting older.  I hate the way my hair is white round my face but still has a lot of its natural dark auburn elsewhere.  I hate the way my waistline is but a distant memory.  I hate the wrinkles which make my eyes look so small now, when they used to be big.  I hate the way some health issues, thanks to inherited genes, are surfacing.  Bugger growing old gracefully.  As far as I can see, there are no compensations for getting older.  Not one.

Much is made in the media about young women and body image, but what about Olde Phartes?  Are we not allowed some regret for our younger selves, or are we supposed to just be resigned to the fact that our most attractive years are well and truly behind us, be thankful for small crumbs like my friend's compliment, and uncomplainingly put up with our lot in life?

And this was going to be such a nice post.

"Can any one fancy what our society might be, if all its members were perfect gentlemen and true ladies, if all the inhabitants of the earth were kind-hearted; if, instead of contending with the faults of our fellows, we were each to wage war against our own faults?  Every one needs to guard constantly against the evil from within as well as from without, for, as has been truly said, "a man's greatest foe dwells in his own heart".

Indeed, the world would be a nicer place, would it not?

Enjoy your days!

To my Canadian family and friends........

.............best wishes for Canada Day!