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!

Doo doo dooooo, lookin' out my back door.......

Although we live in a country town we aren't right in the centre of it, we live on the northern edge with no neighbours over our back fence........except for these fellers.  While having lunch today I heard 'moo' which was then repeated a few times, and looked up to see the whole herd watching me through the back window.  There are more beasties but I couldn't get them all in the shot.  The white-faced feller seems quite interested in our rosemary bush!  This is crown land leased by a local bloke who sometimes has a few horses and/or cattle which are bought, fattened up then sold again.  At present we think there may be 16 in the herd, but they don't stand still long enough to be easily counted.  At times it can smell somewhat.....rural.....when we go outside, but it is still better than where we lived in the Big Smoke.

The hill is deceptively steep too - it doesn't seem like much in this pic, but believe me - it is steeper than it looks.

It's been a very long time since we had a Wombat of the Week (WOW), there can't be too many left which haven't been shown on the blog, but this one hasn't.  It's a bag screen printed on very nice quality linen, which our son and his GF (now fiancée) gave me last Christmas along with other goodies, and it gets used a lot.  Speaking of said couple, their package has been sent and when it has been received I will show a pic here.

Lately many blogs I have looked at have mentioned bloglovin', can someone please tell me what it is, what it is for and what does it do - preferably in words of no more than four letters and no longer than one syllable?  Their website is as clear as mud.

There are some changes in the air at the radio station, my program is being shifted to Sunday afternoons and will run for three hours instead of the current two.  Could be interesting......we'll see how it goes.

Last weekend's uke concert went well, we were applauded and people said nice things to and about us.  It has been uploaded to the interwebz and you should be able to see it here; I'm in the middle.  Now we are getting into even more advanced stuff, picking tunes instead of just strumming chords, starting with "Hey Jude".

I am trying to see where in my life I can fit in that shoulder operation, I suspect the day is getting closer when there won't be much choice but to have it fixed.  Next Tuesday I see my GP to start the ball rolling, she will no doubt suggest (yet another) ultrasound, then the next step after that will be to see the specialist.  Not looking forward to Going Under The Knife, but just the same it would be nice to have a shoulder which doesn't hurt.  Let that be a lesson to you.......don't have your hands in your pockets if you should happen to trip and fall, it was a tumble a few years ago which broke my arm and tore the tendon in my shoulder.

The other night at choir we were told what to wear for next month's concert and the women are asked to wear an ankle-length black skirt, if they have one.....and thanks to my recent time sewing I do, now!

"Promiscuous introduction. 
There is a large class of people who introduce friends and acquaintances to everybody they meet, whether at home or abroad, while walking or riding out.  Such promiscuous introductions are neither necessary, desirable, nor at all times agreeable."

I'm sure none of us would do that, would we?

Enjoy your days!

You could have knocked me down........

...........with the proverbial feather!

On Monday afternoon I had a phone call from the manager of the local breast screen centre about my recent complaint.  She apologised that I wasn't given the use of a change room, said that is not their normal procedure, and staff have been spoken to so that it won't happen again.  Every woman who goes through there will now be offered one of their four change rooms.  Four!  And I wasn't even given one!  It seems that the technician thought I was anxious about the test (and so I was, but it was because I had to bare my unlovely body to the gaze of a stranger) and took it upon herself to take me straight into the screening room where I had to undress and dress in her presence without being asked if I would like privacy.  The manager noted that I had removed myself from the list for future tests, apologised once again, and asked if I would reconsider.  No, I said.  Is there anything which would make you change your mind, she asked.  Yes, I said.....when there is a machine or test which does not require me to remove one stitch of my clothing I will put my name back on the list, but until that happy day comes I am staying off.  They can name that change room in memory of me, because I won't be back.

It was a surprise to be contacted just a week after I sent in my email, and even more of a surprise to get an apology and an assurance that procedures had changed as a result.  It pays to complain, doesn't it?

You probably all think I am a pampered princess, but I'm not.....just a woman who is struggling to come to terms with changes brought about by the ageing process, and failing miserably.

* * * * * * 

Until we visited the region we had no idea that the east coast of Lake Huron in Canada was called the Sunset Coast.

If one is so inclined one can enjoy the sunset from the beach in Goderich, then race madly up the hill to watch it again from the top.  We settled for the top only.  It's a lovely town, parts of which were badly damaged when a tornado came ashore almost two years ago, on August 21, 2011, but which has kept its spirits up.  We would love to return in a couple of years to see it again......perhaps we may be able to, who knows?  It has a very nice quilt shop (I did help the local economy a trifle) and what looked like an interesting music shop which, due to our visit being on a weekend, wasn't open when we walked past.  The owner of a local restaurant where we had dinner has a son living in Australia, and when he found out we were Aussies he sat down and talked to us for a while; he really misses his son which we can relate to, as we miss our Canaussian son too.

But just think.....if said son hadn't gone adventuring off to Canada all those years ago we probably wouldn't have visited either, and we would never have seen even one Goderich sunset......let alone three!

* * * * * *

Last night we spent some time working on Hotel California for this weekend's upcoming concert, and we - all of us in the advanced group - decided that Anne (who has a strong voice and knows the song very well) would sing the verses with the rest of us joining in the choruses.  It's a song which sounds best when sung by one voice rather than by several, so now the rest of us can plink away merrily and concentrate on those tricky chords instead of the words, which is quite a relief.  There are many other songs I can do much better, including the others we have been practising for Sunday's performance.

"During the performance complete quiet should be preserved, that the audience may not be prevented from seeing or hearing.  Between the acts it is perfectly proper to converse, but it should be done in a low tone, so as not to attract attention.  Neither should one whisper.  There should be no loud talking, boisterous laughter, violent gestures, lover-like demonstrations or anything in manners or speech to attract the attention of others."

Indeed.

Enjoy your days!

Thank goodness that's done

The dreaded squish is finished and done with, and I decided I am not doing it again, I have taken my name off the list; I would only be eligible for one more free test anyway because of my age.  It wasn't great, was somewhat painful, and of course embarrassing and humiliating as always.  But what I really find confronting is the fact that the change room has disappeared.  When I first started having them back in the 90s one was shown into a waiting room, then ushered into a change room by one's self where one undressed from the waist up, replaced one's top, then went back into the waiting room until called.  Said waiting room also had magazines, a TV, and tea and coffee.  Gradually the amenities disappeared, and on my last Sydney mammogram four years ago the change room had also disappeared; one had to undress and dress in front of the technician.  Somewhat undignified I thought, but had to go along with it.  Two years ago for my first local test here there was still a change room.....but alas, last week it was back to undressing and dressing in the room with the machine and the technician.  Talk about stripping the last shred of dignity from a woman who already hates her aging body........

Never again.  I sent a comment on the breast screen website to the effect that I found the lack of a change room only added to the unpleasantness of the experience but, apart from the automated "we have received your comment" haven't yet heard from them and indeed will be surprised if I do.  As a friend said the other day, our generation is fairly modest.  Despite reports to the contrary we weren't all raging exhibitionists in our younger days, even though it was the 60s.

My cyclamen is flowering!  When we lived in Sydney I could never get them to grow, but last year I succumbed to a pretty cerise one thinking it would be showy for a short while then it would die.  It flowered, then died down as they do but didn't die completely, and recently I noticed it is flowering again. 

Isn't it pretty?  When this pic was taken it was sitting in its small pot inside the larger pot, but it has been repotted and now it lives in the striped pot.  It lives in our beer garden not far from the cerise zygocactus, and they are very cheery flowers during winter.

Yesterday I splurged and bought myself a new electronic gadget with which I can listen to music, and read books, and surf the web, and all other manner of wondrous pastimes.  It is a Samsung Galaxy and will be a very useful addition to our electronic gadgets.  Not that there are many, you know.......we still don't have smartphones, we are a couple of old dags.  Our phones are quite low tech.  

Not much to report from the sewing room, the engagement project is proceeding slowly (life has been very busy lately, what with shopping for the new electronic gadget and also for a new oven which should arrive in a few weeks) but is coming along nicely.  Uke practice is powering along and I can play the chords to "Hotel California" quite well.....all together now, 1 2 3 4, B minor strum strum strum, F sharp strum strum strum, A strum strum strum, E minor strum strum strum etc.......on a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair.......in ten days' time we will play it in public.

Last Friday a group of us from the Monday night choir sang for a local women's group and I was also asked to play uke and sing a couple of songs on my own, which were very well received.  It went well if I do say so meself, she says modestly.  We have been asked to sing for them again next month so perhaps I should learn some new songs; probably shouldn't inflict "Hotel California" on them.

Although this winter has been fairly mild the nights and mornings are cool, and while we have several frosty mornings the temperatures haven't dipped unbearably low.  Despite the sunny days it's quite cool in the shade, so the winter clothing choice of some locals makes me wonder......sweet young things wearing shorts and summery tops, with high woollen boots and thick scarves wrapped round their necks......little bare thighs blue from the cool breeze wending its way round corners.  

"Coughing, sneezing, etc.

Coughing, sneezing, clearing the throat, etc., if done at all, must be done as quietly as possible   Snuffing, hawking and expectorating must never be done in society. A sneeze can be checked by pressing the thumb or finger firmly across the bridge of the nose.  If not checked, the face should be buried in the handkerchief, during the act of sneezing, for obvious reasons."

As children, we were told "coughs and sneezes spread diseases".

Enjoy your days!

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!