The road ahead

At Kevin's last medical appointment the doctor confirmed what we had suspected for some time - a diagnosis of dementia.  He has Alzheimer's.  It's early stages yet but given that both his parents suffered from it in their later years, it's not surprising.  I don't know if there is a hereditary component, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was.

So we don't know if the road ahead will be bumpy - I suspect at times it will be - or smooth, which it mostly is now.  It will probably be a combination of both.  

Oh, well.  We can only do what we can do, can't we.....which is to keep our sense of humour as intact as we can as much as we can, and smile when we can't.

Moving on to happier Stuff.

We both had medical appointments during the week (mine was nothing drastic, just the Olde Pharte quarterly check-up) so the knitting came along with me to pass the waiting time.  The finished back and sleeves are plain knitting but I can't resist adding a pattern panel in the centre front; it's interesting to knit, and it's interesting to wear.

This is a cable panel from one of my knitting stitch dictionaries.  I can't remember what it's called, but its basketweave effect puts me in mind of wet sand on a beach as the tide goes in and out.

The collection so far of three-inch strips for the outer border on the house quilt.  It's a large quilt so is quite a long way round.....and I haven't cut very long pieces, which was probably a bit short-sighted of me......so some longer strips, which can be mixed in with the shorter ones, will be cut.

The house quilt will have its turn back in the sun once Arboretum is off being quilted, and I am looking forward to working on it again after so long.  There are a couple of days in the coming week which don't have commitments, so that drive to the quilt shop further north looks like being a goer; it certainly has a much bigger selection of batik fabrics than the local one here.  Kevin is still able to drive, for which I am thankful (I don't like driving but I know that one day I will have to be The Driver) so it's an excuse for an outing.

How has everyone been this week?  We spent time at appointments, and foraged enough to avert starvation.  Stitches were knitted, and also sewn by hand; the pile of diamonds waiting to be sewn together is getting smaller, then the three-diamond hexagons will be sewn in rows, or perhaps in blocks of three or four.  Yet to be decided....songs were sung and plinked, but there will be no uke group tomorrow as it's a public holiday for the monarch's birthday.  Most of my life it was the queen's birthday, it's been a few years but I'm still not used to saying 'king'!  There was a king when I was born, but I was quite young when he was replaced by a queen.

It's now June, so winter is well and truly here.  This morning was cold enough for a frost and quite frosty it was too, we are enjoying having a fire.  There is chicken simmering away in the slow cooker which, I suspect, will be welcome in a few hours; chicken thigh fillets cooked with Dijon mustard and maple syrup which we will have with rice and vegies to soak up the sauce.  On the kitchen bench is a butternut squash waiting to be turned into soup tomorrow as it's definitely soup weather now, and I haven't made any yet.  My version of pumpkin soup is cooked with green Thai curry paste, chopped onion and chicken or vegie stock, and some coconut milk stirred through once the squash is soft enough to be blended.  Depending on how heavy-handed one is with the curry paste it can be a good way of clearing out one's sinuses, too.

Neither of us like very spicy foods so there will be enough curry paste to an interesting bite, but not enough to take our breaths away.  We prefer flavour to heat - they aren't necessarily the same thing, you know.

"Presents of the bride and bridegroom.

Where the bride makes presents to the bridesmaids on her wedding day, they generally consist of some articles of jewellery, not costly, and given more as a memento of the occasion than for their own intrinsic worth.  The bridegroom sometimes gives the groomsmen a scarf pin of some quaint device, or some other slight memento of the day, as a slight acknowledgement of their services."

Pictures are appearing online of the wedding of a minor member of the British royal family, a second wedding for both bride and groom.  The bride went for the full white regalia, even a veil over the face when entering the church (an anachronism if ever there was one, I reckon; these days a groom is quite familiar with his bride's face before they meet at the altar) and the teenage daughters of both bride and groom had to wrangle a long train and veil while walking into the church in the rain.  I don't know what, if any, gifts were given.  Those girls certainly deserve a diamond or two each, for sure.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

Fraying at the edges

Isn't this a fun block?  It's called Frayed Sawtooth Star and comes from EQ7.

 Next month is my turn to provide a sample block and instructions to make it, for my quilt group.  Some of the women seem to have an aversion to triangles, so I always make sure that my blocks have some.  The background is white on white, my sewing table is white....can't tell where one ends and the other begins, can you?  When several blocks are set together a secondary diagonal line is quite noticeable.

Here is the current project, a new purse for me.  This is the lining, with one of the side seams having self-made bias binding applied over the seam; all the inside seams are finished this way.  It's a more attractive colour that this, the machine light was shining onto it and making it appear washed-out.......and yes, all that quilting was done on My Lovely New Bernina by me before the pieces were cut out.

Sewing has become possible again, so long as I take plenty of breaks and don't reach forward too much.  Wednesday last week was one of the worst days since I went Under The Knife; at sewing guild my machine was set up on a table and it was a bit high for me to use comfortably, so after a short while I stopped sewing.  However by the time I arrived home it was agony, and it was for the rest of the day too.  Ever since then I have been very careful with what I do, which is why, for a while, I am sitting here at the computer having coffee instead of sewing.

Was I the only person in the world who was annoyed by the treatment given to various country's flags by many idiots at the sports carnival which recently finished?  Flags have their own protocol; as far as I know they are not to be dropped on the ground at any time and should always be treated with dignity.  Wearing your country's flag round your shoulders as a cloak is not dignified.  If you want to dress up, use your mother's old curtains.  While I don't think Australia's flag design is relevant these days and would love to see it changed, I respect what it stands for.

Only two days of February to go, and we have had less than half the average rainfall for the month again.  Rain is forecast for tomorrow but it's doubtful that we will get much.  Last year's rainfall was well below average and the past two summers have been hotter than average, so water supplies in many places have dried up.  A local bloke told me recently he thinks we are in for an early, long and cold winter because he has seen snakes on the move shedding their skins.  As one who doesn't do reptiles I will take his word for that......I am not going out and about looking for snakes, believe me.  Australia has some very deadly snakes and many of them live in our area.  On our recent trip to Canberra we noticed that many trees are looking autumnal, poor things have gone into an early dormancy because it's been so hot and dry.  Autumn won't arrive for a while yet, but colours are already changing and leaves are dropping.  Hopefully there will be some colour left when we go back to Canberra in April for the folk festival.

Some pics of the wedding have appeared on the photographer's web site, so if you would like to see them let me know and I will send you the link.

"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"."

The folks writing the etiquette book in 1885 knew a thing or two, didn't they?

Enjoy your days!

It was a lovely wedding

Fun, and funny in a happy rather than a silly way.  It was also very hot, 39 deg C which is over 100 F; even the cafe where the reception was held was hot because their air conditioning wasn't working properly.  Fortunately its roof opens which allowed warm air out, it is on the site of a former observatory which was sadly burnt out in bushfires ten years ago - and our son had even arranged for an astronomer to be present, once it was dark!  If one wished one could walk outside in the dark to where a telescope had been set up, and look up at the stars.  But as one has been known to fall and break bits of one's person which is not a good thing to do and one was wearing sandals with a higher heel than one is used to wearing these days, one decided to stay indoors and talk to people - friends from our son's time at high school, and friends from his time playing in community bands, and some of his friends in his new life, and his new in-laws.

Our cameras weren't even taken out of the car, but many of the young folk were taking happy snaps and selfies, quite a lot of which have already been put up on facebook.  The official photographer was wandering round taking more happy snaps, and the families lined up in turn for the official shots.  They won't be ready for a few weeks......it probably takes that long to make the groom's mother look human, you know.  Just as well photo editing software is available these days.  For a few days beforehand my shoulder had begun to hurt, and by the time the wedding rolled round I was in quite a lot of pain - which will probably show in the photos.

However, we still need a photo or two for a blog post, don't we?  So here are the little glass wombats which were my Christmas present from our newly-wed son and his wife, a month before they were married.

 Aren't they the cutest little fellers?  The big one is only a couple of inches long, the smaller one is.......smaller.

And here is their penguin friend, brought home when the same son was plying his musical trade on cruise ships - it came all the way from Ushuaia, at the southern tip of South America.  He was amused to see penguins swimming alongside the tender when going from shore to ship one day and brought this little one home with him because he knows I like glass.

Last Friday the physiotherapist said to stop the shoulder strength exercises and to go back to only doing the flexibility ones because the pain had become so bad, she said the bicep is unhappy - it was re-attached to the shoulder during the operation.  Didn't even know it had become unattached.......the long car trip probably didn't do it any good either, it's over 700 kms each way (which is over 435 miles in old money) so double that for the return trip, not all on flat smooth roads either, and then add more for driving round while in Canberra.  Just when it was making good progress too......it could be lifted almost up to shoulder level......ah well, no doubt it will improve again soon.  Right now it hurts to reach out to turn on the kitchen tap.

The two quilt blocks which were cut out recently have been sewn (albeit with a certain amount of agony) so that is tomorrow's quilt group obligations met.  At present it's back to no sewing, just reading and doing crossword puzzles and tootling round on the computer, and living a slightly boring life, while waiting for a very unhappy arm and shoulder to settle down again.

"The congratulations.
At the wedding feast, or At Home, friends who congratulate the newly-married couple should address the bride first, if they have any previous acquaintance with her, then the bridegroom, then the bridesmaids, and after that the parents and family of the bride and groom.  They should give their good wishes to the bride and congratulate the bridegroom.  If they are acquainted with the bridegroom and not with the bride, let them address him first and he will introduce them to his bride."

Indeed.

Enjoy your days!

Looking forward to going away.......

.........and the gardenia given to me by my friends at the folk club in Sydney just before we moved here to the Small Smoke is getting ready to flower, and I will miss its prettiness.......such a shame.

 Several months ago it was repotted as it was outgrowing its pretty red pot, and now it is growing beautifully.

Lots of buds getting ready to open, which of course will happen when we are not here.  Quelle bummer.  Perhaps I shall ask our house sitter to take a photo for me.

The skirt lining is done, zipper is inserted - it was very quick and easy, I don't know why I was so uncertain about it - hem is sewn; now for the outer layer, but as the past few days have taken on a life of their own there will be no time before we go away on Thursday morning to sew even one stitch on that.  However we will be home for ten days between our holiday break and the trip to the Big Smoke for the shoulder operation, so I'll just have to see how fast I can move in that time. Still need a little bag for the wedding to carry my glasses and hanky (because the MotG is probably allowed a little sniffle); so far I haven't seen one I love enough to buy but will keep looking.  Somewhere out there the right bag will be waiting for me.

The wardrobe has increased by a few more shirts to make life easier after the surgery, most of them are soft light cotton voile which is a good choice for summer.  A pretty green one (have I ever mentioned that I am quite fond of green?), a couple of blue ones, even a deep purple one, now have their places in the wardrobe.  It doesn't matter what one wears at home but for trips to the shops etc., one does need to look respectable.  They will probably be worn with capri pants, or as I call them, Old Ladies' Shorts.......because there comes a time in a woman's life when she shouldn't wear shorts in public any more (although it's allowable in a camp ground) but it's a bit warm for long pants.

A few Flower Basket blocks have been prepared to take on holiday, some knitting will go along too, there's a bag of books and my tablet thingy is also loaded with books to read.  And of course my uke and some music - can't leave that behind!  A new song has been learned ready for the singing session on Friday night.  Here is where we will be, then we will be heading towards the north coast.......and who knows where we will end up?

Oh dear, the bushfires of the past few days have been very nasty.  The weather has been very hot and dry with low humidity and strong winds, for several months now rainfall has been well below average, so conditions are right for fire.  Even though the fires are several hours' south of here we don't escape; last Friday morning when I went for my morning walk (at 6.40am, that's the crack of dawn you know) the valley was clear although the distant hills were a little hazy which is not unusual early in the day.  Barely half an hour after I returned home the view had disappeared, the valley was full of smoke and there was a heavy smoky smell.  A south-easterly wind had blown it this way, and it took a few hours to disperse.  I would have stayed indoors if that smoke had been in the air, it's very unhealthy stuff.

We love Australia, but she can be very cruel sometimes.

"The promenade dress.
The dress for the promenade should be in perfect harmony with itself.  All the colours worn should harmonize if they are not strictly identical.  The bonnet should not be of one colour, and parasol of another, the dress of a third and the gloves of a fourth.  Nor should one article be new and another shabby.  The collars and cuffs should be of lace; the kid gloves should be selected to harmonize with the colour of the dress, a perfect fit.  The jewellery worn should be bracelets, cuff-buttons, plain gold ear-rings, a watch-chain and brooch."

Something to keep in mind when I am slopping round the camp ground in shorts.

Enjoy your days!

I spy some music.......

Here is the promised pic of the engagement present.  It's not meant to be a forever heirloom, just a bit of fun.

A set of place mats with a musical theme.  It uses six different fabrics, and once cut the pieces are swapped around so that all mats use the same fabrics but in different places, as you can see.  The blue was chosen because the engagement ring has an Aussie sapphire in the centre.

The wedding will take place at the start of next February, so now I need to start thinking.....what does the mother of the groom wear?  It won't be over-the-top formal but somehow I don't think jeans would be right.  When one is short (can't do anything about that) and fat (other people tell me I am not but I think I am, thank you menopause and genetics), one doesn't look good in anything at all.  Just as well all eyes will be on the bride.  At this stage I am leaning toward a skirt and top, the skirt would be in a print with the top in a co-ordinating plain fabric.  If the skirt fabric is suitable there might even be extra purchased for a matching wrap.....I am thinking of a rather luscious green (of course), blue and brown silk I saw recently in a local fabric shop.....it was very beautiful.

Next Tuesday the shoulder has an appointment for an ultrasound and x-ray to see what is happening in there, then back to the doctor a few days later to find out the verdict and to decide what happens next.  If it should be found that an operation is necessary (and from what Emma The Nice Young Physiotherapist told me, that will probably be the case) the next decision will be timing.  If the shoulder is strapped in a sling for some weeks I won't be able to play ukulele, which will be sad.  It will also curtail some other activities such as sewing and quilting.  All in all, it may be a rather boring time; remembering back on the time my arm was plastered while it healed from its break, it was very boring indeed.  I could do crosswords, and read, provided I sat at the table - holding a book was quite painful.  Now, though, I have my fancy new electronic gadget upon which to read books!

Last Sunday my radio program had its first airing in its new time slot, as they say, and let me tell you three hours of talking on air is more tiring than two.  One of the changes in the air is to, as they say, play "more of the hits from the 80s, 90s and noughties" and if it is decided that my program will do that then I will cease presenting.  At present I play a mix of folk/blues/jazz, some old swing band music, nearly all of it from our own CDs........I lost interest in popular music in about 1975 and would be totally out of my depth playing music from later years.

This winter has been fairly mild and dry, local plants are somewhat confused and are starting to bud and send out new green shoots although spring shouldn't be starting until next month.  However that changed last night, it was very cold, and this morning we woke up to a heavy frost, frozen water in the bird baths and the news that the temperature had dropped to minus 5.6 overnight - the coldest this year.  That's 21.9 degrees if you still use old numbers.  Tonight will also be very cold, minus 4 is forecast.....but that was last night's forecast too!  It is preferable to the heat we had last summer; one can always add layers, but there are limits to what one can remove in summer, especially in public, and still maintain some sense of decorum.

"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."

And if one doesn't have any white gloves.......?

Enjoy your days!