The quilt which was an 18th birthday gift is now in the hands of the recipient.
Yesterday was the 18th birthday of our elder granddaughter. Her growth from baby to young lady is beautifully captured in the reel of photos below.
It has been an absolute joy to witness her transformation and watch her finish her secondary schooling. She is now poised on the threshold with exciting life and career prospects ahead of her.
Congratulations!!
Almost 2 weeks since my last post. While I haven’t been writing there seems to have been plenty to keep me occupied. Sometimes it is difficult to get motivated to write as I am loathe to repeat myself and after 14.5 years of blogging it can begin to feel like more of the same. However, in a lot of respects our lives and routines are remarkably repetitive.
The spring weather is as unpredictable as ever with days that hint of the coming summer interspersed with others that feel like winter. Nevertheless, we are enjoying the spring flowers and fresh foliage growth. The fleeting nature of spring flowers makes them particularly special as we have a small window to enjoy them before they are gone for another year. The daffodils are finished but the wisteria are looking their best this week.
Like every year, 2025 seems to be gathering speed as we race towards the end of the year. We no longer have work Christmas parties, end-of-year school activities or even a huge focus on a family Christmas but the countdown to Christmas has crept up on me.
We had a short break last week and spent 3 nights at Walhalla, about 3 hours east of Melbourne. It is a historic gold-mining town which now has a permanent population of 20.
This is a view from our accommodation one evening.
It occurred to me today that it is 10 weeks until we fly to Europe for a trip which we hope may include a white Christmas.
Before that we have another 2 night short break here in Victoria as well as about 10 days in Queensland visiting family, a weekend of volunteering/attending the local Folk Festival and the usual round of events, meetings, visitors and so on.
I really do need to be organised to make sure everything goes smoothly.
How do you feel about the latter part of the year? Are you planning or already prepared for Christmas and the year’s end?
Today is GMan’s birthday and coincidentally we arranged to go to Melbourne with the express purpose of going to the exhibition of French Impressionism at the National Gallery of Victoria. It includes over 100 artworks drawn from the extensive collection at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
However, the first thing that caught our attention was before we even entered the gallery. The bare plane trees on the footpath outside the gallery were adorned with a series of threads of paper cranes as today is the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. This modest yet powerful memorial was appreciated by many people passing by.
The exhibition is very popular so there were lots of people around but still enough space to view all of the paintings as well as the detailed information adjacent to each.
Here are a few photographs of some that particularly caught my eye.
Entrance to the village of Osny by Paul Gaugin.
Two peasant women in a meadow by Camille Pissarro.
There were 19 Monet works in the exhibition. Some were quite familiar subjects such as waterlilies, the Japanese bridge in the garden at Giverny and haystacks but here are a couple of less well-known pieces.
Road at La Cavée, Pourville
Boulevard Saint Denis Argenteuil in winter
Finally, a view from inside the foyer of the gallery.
After the gallery adventure we headed back the Elio’s Place, a small European bistro in Flinders Lane for a birthday lunch. Then it was a couple of errands before catching the train home. It was a full and fun day out.
I have put my head down and done some concentrated sewing over the past couple of days. It is a birthday gift for our elder granddaughter.
The result is that I have now completed 21 patchwork blocks which is half of the total needed for a QS quilt.
I wrote a post in February which you can read here in which I mentioned that I had done the first block.
Here are the other 21 blocks ready to start sewing.
The disappearing 9 patch is essentially a 2-step process. The first is to sew the 9 pieces together and you can see some of them here at that stage.
After that, each block is cut into 4 pieces and rearranged before restitching. This gives the overall random finished pattern.
I hope to have the patchwork completed in the next week or so but it is somewhat dependant on other activities.
I know that I am a couple of days late for American Independence Day which is celebrated on 4th July. 6 years ago I had my own version of Independence Day as 4th July 2019 marked my last working day in the office. Interestingly enough, it took me another 3 weeks before I was sufficiently organised to even write a blog post which combines a measure of relief and optimism. You can read it here.
A themed dinner with work colleagues.
Well, here I am 6 years later and still writing this blog – I have actually been writing it since March 2011. Life has had some ups and downs, some expected and others totally unforeseen. We managed a mere 6 months of retirement before our collective worlds were turned upside down with the arrival of Covid-19 in early 2020.
There was plenty of time for gardening.
There have been family events – milestone birthdays and weddings as well as several funerals. The death of my mother in early 2021 left an enormous void in my life and that of many others.
Farewell, Mum.
While Covid-19 did put a dent in our overseas travel plans for a few years we made up for that with road trips within Queensland and interstate once the tightest restrictions had eased. The addition of a new puppy in 2020 gave us plenty of distraction, too. We resumed travelling abroad in 2024 and have plenty of plans for later this year and beyond.
The household seems to revolve around Islay.
Our biggest post-retirement change was a move from Queensland to regional Victoria. Although we bought a home that was only a couple of years old there continue to be some modifications needed to make it completely to our liking.
We have settled into life in our small country town and life hums along in a regular rhythm of activities at home, volunteering, cultural events, visits from family and friends as well as travel near and far.
Enjoying a local Writers’ Festival.
Did I really know what to expect from retirement? Not really, but it is simply a matter of finding your own pace and space.
Yesterday was my birthday. No special milestones but simply another year around the sun. It was a quiet day but as with each Sunday for the past several months I played Scrabble with a couple of other people I have met. Yesterday was one of my more successful outings as I won 3 of the 5 games that we played.
This year I shared my birthday with Easter Day, the first time this has happened since 2014.
As part of the Easter Festival in our town the tower on Mt Tarrengower is lit up. I like to think that was in my honour!
Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes. They are really appreciated and I am feeling very loved.
I know that it is a slightly odd title but it really describes the last 8 days or so.
As I mentioned in my previous post, we are on holidays in Queensland. This is my home state and where we lived for 22 years before moving to Victoria about 18 months ago. I am delighted to be on holidays here and we spent a week at the beach over Christmas with both of our daughters and 2 granddaughters. We have enjoyed spending time with my sister, brother-in-law and brother as well as catching up with several friends.
However, underneath all of the fun and socialising I had an odd, nagging feeling that somehow unsettled me when I least expected it yet I could not pinpoint the source. That was…………until yesterday. I realised this was the first time I had returned to Queensland on holidays from interstate since my parents had died. The odd feeling was coming ‘home’ but Mum and Dad were not here. 2025 will mark the 4th and 24th anniversaries of their deaths respectively. I love and miss them both every day but this trip has turned out to be particularly poignant. I am so glad that I figured out my feelings as I honour their memory.
Well, here we are at the end of another year. Like most years, this one has had its ups and downs, highs and lows.
There has been overseas travel and renovations at home.
Sad farewells to friends and family members who have left us far too soon.
Catching up and celebrating with extended family – siblings and cousins.
Regular routines and out of the ordinary adventures.
Living in a location with 4 distinct seasons and lots of deciduous trees clearly defines the seasonal cycle through the year. I appreciate the seasonal changes and cherish the special aspects such as savouring seasonal produce when it is at its best.
We will be spending New Year’s Eve with family but I suspect we may all be in bed well in advance of midnight.
Resolutions are not really something that I do but I am keen to work on some key principles and encourage others to do likewise as we move into 2025. Things like kindness, gratitude, sharing, empathy and community spring to mind. Nothing too big or exciting but simply woven into every day and making a difference to our own and other people’s lives.
I love this image and have used it each year on the blog for a few years as I like to think of the waves gently washing away the year and leaving us with a blank page ready to write the story of the upcoming year. I think it is a better reflection of my attitude to the New Year than fireworks and popping champagne corks.
I would like to close this post by thanking each and every one of you for your interest which encourages to continue writing this blog after almost 14 years.
Happy New Year and best wishes for 2025.
I have made some fleeting references to some red and black patchwork that I was working on in the latter part of the year but I couldn’t reveal too much as it was a gift.
This is a photo that I took in the very early stages when I was still unsure of the overall plan.
It all came together quite quickly as I used some larger pieces in places rather than all disappearing 9 patch blocks. This after it had been quilted but before the final trimming and binding.
The quilt was not actually a Christmas gift but an early (milestone) birthday present for my brother. I know I won’t be with him to celebrate on the day so this was a good opportunity to be able to give it to him in person.
I was very pleased with the result and I think his smile says it all.
I am quite surprised that I have not used this blog title previously as we have spent several Christmases at the beach over the past 10 years or so. It is always somewhere different and this year we opted for a house at Peregian Beach for a week with our 2 daughters and 2 granddaughters. My sister, brother and brother-in-law joined us for Christmas Day.
Our lunch menu was a mix of tried and true favourites along with a couple of new recipes.
In fact, when I was re-reading some old blog posts today I stumbled upon one from 2017 and the menu looked like this:
Proscuitto wrapped asparagus and haloumi **
Cold curried chicken **
Rice **
Parsley and cranberry crusted salmon
Mango and avocado salad **
Beetroot and feta salad
Green bean salad with slivered almonds
Meringue roulade with berries and pistachio nuts **
The items marked ** were on the table again in 2024. The meringue roulade is a particular specialty from our younger daughter and she excelled herself this year. She thinks this is the best one she has made.
I took this photo before the addition of the chopped pistachio nuts which add a nice touch of festive green contrast to the raspberries and pomegranate seeds.
A new addition was a Crispy Balsamic Thyme Potato Torte which we all agreed was a winner.
I will add the recipes for both of these in posts over the next couple of weeks.
I hope you have had a celebration which suited you and your family (everyone’s circumstances are different). Wishing you a safe and peaceful season from our home to yours.
organised castle 