The simplicity of my day to day. |
This is where I write my thoughts, feelings and my daily trials, tribulations and happy things
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Prompt: Have fun with these words- subitaneous, reflect, address, wave, fuss, restrict, key, waist, and chronography The subitaneous arrival of my grandaughter from the other side of the country surprised us all. It caused me to reflect on the fact that all the fuss which usually occurs when expecting overnight guests is unnecessary . She just waltzed in and made herself at home. She even has her own key to our address. She gave me a kiss and gave a nonchalant wave to everyone else. It seemed to me as if she’d lost weight and I asked her if she’d been restricting what she had been eating. She said she’d been trying to lose an inch or two off her waist. She had no need to of course she has a wonderful figure and is really smart. I asked her what chronography meant but she had no idea. |
"The Bard's Hall Contest" ![]() Tagging Ẃeβ࿚Ẃỉtcĥ ![]() ![]() https://www.kspwriterscentre.com/retreatphotos https://youtu.be/tJZksO-zZI4?si=r5rAcn5xX-1vb1st Today being Wednesday I went to my local writing group. The venue is special as it used to belong to Katherine Suzanna Pritchard a famous Australian Writer. KSP, as it is known locally, hosts many would-be novelists, who come from all over Australia to the writer’s retreat there. There are quite a few writer’s cottages interspersed throughout the bush setting. We often host the visitors to our Writefree ladies only group on a Wednesday morning. I have shared the utube of one of the KSP writers who has written a novel about the latter part of her very interesting life. Katherine’s husband, the love of her life, and a Victoria Cross Medal recipient, was killed in WW2. She never recovered from his death. The old cottage dates back from 1896 and although it has been extended the rest of it is still usable and has quite an atmosphere. Check out the photos. It is set in the Perth Hills in Western Australia, a beautiful part of the world. The writer’s can expect to be joined at dawn and dusk by the local inhabitants. Kangaroos and Bandicoots and during the day, pink and grey Galahs, red tailed Cockatoos, and of course the resident cat. |
Tagged. Ẃeβ࿚Ẃỉtcĥ ![]() ![]() As I was entering my blog for Blog City today, the prompt reminded me of a special animal in my life. Although this particular four legged creature was a part of my life when I was about ten years old I often think of her fondly. This special lady, her name was Marilyn, was a huge white sow. My mother had named her after the seductive, glamorous Marilyn Monroe and her glorious swaying backside. Marilyn (the pig) was a prolific breeder and regularly gave birth to thirteen piglets and never lost one. What a wonderful mother she was. As in all farming there’s really no room for emotions and the day came when Marilyn was sold to a neighbour. I, in my youthful ignorance, prayed it was not her final journey! Anyway, this gorgeous creature refused to get in the truck and the driver lost his patience. He hit her with a stick. Mum was furious and grabbed the stick and gave the startled man a piece of her mind. “I’ll walk her there!” she stated. The sight of mum and Marilyn walking up the road has stayed in my mind to this day. |
Prompt: Pets
Do you like pets? Why do you think some of us love pets more than anything? Did you ever have a pet that impacted your life in a big way? So many pets in my life have impacted me in a good way. They all brought laughter and tears , happiness and sadness, but that’s the price of having a pet. There was Patrick the budgie, Whiskey the cat, Guinea pigs, rabbits, Crazy Crabs and numerous goldfish. But dogs have always been the main pets. Childhood dogs are a distant memory, Jinx the dancing Jack Russell, Tammy the poodle, who was mum to a litter of gorgeous puppies, and Brandy the mixed breed escapologist. Each one took a little piece of that little girl’s heart. The four individual dogs we’ve had since living in Australia have all been wonderful each in their own way. But Lucy, who died a month ago, was just mine. I had her for my birthday 12 years ago. Before I decided on her as a pup I sat on the floor at the breeders and asked Lucy if she was going to be my friend forever, and when she was dying but could still hear my voice I sat with her again. We looked each other deeply in the eyes and I told her how much I loved her and thanked her for being my best friend. |
Tag. Ẃeβ࿚Ẃỉtcĥ ![]() ![]() A strange, almost macabre thing happened to me yesterday. Just as the last of the daylight was about to disappear, I decided to go for a quick walk around the block, just to stretch my legs. I walked down our long driveway which is tree lined,— some of those trees must be over 100 years old with thick canopies. I had just reached the double gates when something dropped with a thud about a metre away from me. I stopped and looked on the ground. I wondered if it had been a bird suddenly dropping dead. I went closer, a little cautiously, but curious at the same time, after all, whatever it was had narrowly missed dropping on my head! I stared down at it in the gloom of the oncoming night and couldn’t quite make out what I was looking at. Then I realised. It was a headless baby bandicoot. The head had been neatly bitten or pulled off, the blood and flesh was still fresh and glistening. I stared up into the thick foliage, but couldn’t see anything moving. So I decided to go for a five minute walk before darkness closed in and then I would remove the headless corpse when I returned. But when I got back the creature had gone. Obviously the eagle or hawk had waited for me to move on before reclaiming his lost meal. It was sad for the bandicoot but at the same time the bird of prey’s chicks didn’t go to sleep hungry. Such is nature. |
Have fun with these words: red, black, gray, white, blue, questions, ghost, shelter and rainbow. I’ve been thinking about my dog today. I miss her and the house doesn’t feel the same. Lucy, my sweet Weinmarana, the breed that is also known as Grey Ghosts because of their colouring and their habit of haunting you. Wherever you are then they’ll be close by too. She went over the rainbow bridge four weeks ago and that sure was a black day for us. We’ve spoken about getting another dog one day, perhaps from the dog shelter but we’re not yet ready. You have to ask so many questions about a dog’s history if you’re considering a rescue. Does it like children or cats for instance? Does it like to escape or jump on furniture? I wouldn’t want one who couldn’t walk on a lead without pulling for instance. A puppy is out of the question, it would probably outlive us! It’s much soon to think about replacing Lucy. It’s getting cold. I’m lying in bed writing this blog at ten pm and it’s three degrees centigrade outside. This morning when I looked out of my window it was white with fog, but as yet we’ve had no frost. As cold as it’s been today the sky cleared and became a brilliant blue. I love this time of the year, our winters are so mild compared to many countries, but after the long, hot and dry summer it’s wonderful to be able to wear my favourite red woolly jacket. And Lucy would have loved a walk. She hated the heat but loved the rain. |
Tagged StephBee ![]() ![]() Third entry June Today has been what I might call tricky. Our daughter came for lunch. On the face of it that statement seems innocuous, but we haven’t seen her for several years. She lives on the other side of Australia. Relations have often been fraught but today she decided to fly home and try to repair the damage. Fair to say it went as well as it could have. I suppose this event has been part of the reason I’ve been looking back to the past these last few weeks. I wonder if looking back might not be a wise thing to do. After all, most of us could have done it better, made wiser choices, or chosen a different path. One of those old videos I’ve spoken about this week brought me joy. It seemed to encompass everything which has made my life worth living. It was taken on a day in 1980. My parents had retired to Australia to be closer to us. My husband videotaped us going to their door when they weren’t expecting a visit, and mum and dad were in the garden. My three little children ran to greet them and mum was laughing and dad was a bit put out by being filmed in his gardening clothes. It was a few minutes with everyone I loved captured for ever in time. |
What do you look forward to accomplishing in June? I’d like to try The Bard’s Hall Contest this month, it’s quite a challenge but we’ll see how it goes. I’d like to book a holiday somewhere warm away from the winter weather we’re experiencing right now. I’d like to visit my grandson, 2year old Alvie, our late addition to the family. We have two family birthdays this month and I’d love to see and celebrate with both of the birthday people; One year old great granddaughter Ava and 27 year old grandson Jacob who has little to do with any of the family so I probably won’t see him. I just wish I could convince him of the value of family ties, maybe he’ll realise it one day. |
This is my second entry for the month of June and for The Bard's Hall Contest (13+) JUNE: Annual Blog/Journal Month! Today has been a particularly lazy day. I woke up in the night to a massive storm. Hail, thunder, lightning, in fact everything the heavens could throw at us. My husband brought me my usual morning tea in bed and I listened to the weather and watched the trees outside my window as they swayed to and fro. I sipped the tea and all my previously planned day was discarded in favour of a day at home and a log fire. Wednesday is the usual day of the week when I attend my local writer's group. It's an all female group which has been going for 27 years. I've been a part of it for seven of those. Yesterday I wrote in my blog, about the fifty years worth of VHS tapes which have been on my mind lately. Watching them with my husband has stirred emotions. Those videos of us as young parents with three children under four years of age, brought both laughter and tears. Where are all these people now? Where have they gone? Where did the years go and why didn't we realise how young, beautiful and healthy we all were? It's a very good thing we can't see the future. My three babies are all in their fifties now, one is a grandmother herself. My other two, a boy and a girl were undiagnosed twins, each weighed over 6lbs when they were born. Of course this was in the times of no ultrasound, so these mistakes were made. How I missed having my mum with me then. My family were all in England and we'd emigrated just a year before the twins were born. One wonders how much of our life's experiences we use unconsciously as we write our stories. |
Words 252. : This is my first entry for the month of June and for The Bard's Hall Contest (13+) JUNE: Annual Blog/Journal I almost always write to a prompt so to be given free reign as to content is out of my comfort zone. Do I have anything special to write about? That’s what I’m asking myself. So here goes. So far 2025 has been a bit of a mixed bag. John, my husband of almost sixty years, and I live an ordinary life in the hills area of Perth, Western Australia. And yet we seem to get drawn into the dramas of others. We have three adult children, six adult grandchildren and six great grandchildren between the ages of two and seventeen. As you can imagine there’s always a drama to which we are drawn into. Sadly drugs and alcohol have infiltrated our beautiful family which breaks our hearts. We can only be there to listen. One is forced to reflect on one’s life on attaining 80 plus years. Recently more so. We have a collection of old VHS tapes which are causing us a problem. To get the number of tapes we have digitised is very expensive. One of our adult grandchildren attempted this weekend to show us how we could do it ourselves. Well, as it turns out, for two analogued brains it seems to be beyond our comprehension. My cunning plan is to plead helplessness and hope someone might take pity and volunteer to do it for us. I do have a victim in mind. (To be continued) © |