Every Christmas when the girls came home
we would all (4) play SCRABBLE....MACKAY rules which meant that if anyone was stupid enough to leave the table it was open slather to cheat (very character building)


This year I WON... big time and fair...no cheating...but every time Alison tried to think I guzzled my bottle of water...a bit off putting........ for Ali who is 'sensitive'











Melissa and Alison tried revenge but outclassed... I had already won.
And I knew I won honest and true...
Melissa was unsure and used a calculator...but I still won!

Some christmas photos

Alison and Andrew....Christmas eve...






















Melissa and Alison .... Christmas day.... How could I ever worry about Don's being with us?...just looking at these two...rested my worries...

Wishing you all a merry Christmas!

Every Christmas for almost all of the time the four of us had together the girls would try and dress in matching or opposite dress up for Christmas...often home made.

We have so many photos taken (by tripod) of the four of us in our Christmas finery.

Don absolutely loved Christmas and was the centre of any shenanigans going on.

Years ago when both our mums and Don's lovely sister Judy were still alive sometimes there would be over 16 people in the house, often all sleeping where they could...of later years the numbers got fewer...

then Alison our youngest became seriously ill, something she is slowly recovering from...almost there.

We chose then just to have us four for Christmas, because she would need to rest during the day often and we structured the day around her energy levels. I still remember her resting in bed and Don going in, tipping the electric wheelchair back to a lying position and keeping her company till she was well enough to reemerge.

I was so lucky to have so much time with a man who "understood"... life the universe and a bit more.

This year for the first time since 1982 I won't be having Christmas in our home. This time it will be Melissa's turn to puck up that baton... stupidly I didn't put decorations up because i will be away over Christmas...next year I will...I didn't think it would make a difference. I even lent last years Christmas tree out (its a real one in a pot - Norfolk Island Pine). I have been so bloody miserable because there hasn't been a build up...go figure that. I loved our little Christmases...with piles of prawns from just up the coast, and salads, and lots of silly pressies...but the thing is we all realise that Don held the floor at Christmas...he would have us laughing and being as silly as cut snakes, breaking all the rules... as we said in chorus "There's no rules"

I'll be away for a week and hope to do the rounds before I leave tomorrow morning...if i don't have a happy safe Christmas and break all the rules okay; be silly as a cut snake, whatever strikes your fancy. I will be with Melissa and Alison and Melissa's new husband's family so wish me luck. But I somehow feel that where the three of us are, some part of Don will be there also.

Sling's Post about the "Bossa nova" reminded me of

some songs

..tried hard to find the one called "The Stomp" by Little Pattie...but found this from Daddy Cool...think I may have posted one of theirs way back...but still worth a listen... I thought these blokes were great... The Eagle rock is my favourite somehow it reminds me of long summers, a little of the dreaded weed...not much and all organic... and Don out on his surfboard ...a lone surfer on his longboard...he knew where the isolated beaches all were... good memories

Makim and Clancy - The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

I listened to this the other day driving into town..always loved this...there was something gentle about the singing....How the Pommies fooled the Australians about World War 1. They were shameless in their betrayal ...lest we Australians forget the lack of respect that the big powers in this world hold us in.

This broke my heart afresh today...

Today my youngest sent this to me via You Tube. It broke my heart in a healing sort of way if that makes sense.

The day after Don died at our home last May there was the most incredible sunset. Ali and Andrew stood at the slip rails looking towards the setting sun and Melissa came out with the camera and took all these shots. Today Ali apologised because they were not as clear as the original photos. She needed not to apologise. her favourite childhood tune was the Garfunkel song "Bright Eyes" and she put it with the photos, a few thoughts and the Superb Blue Fairy Wren photo I had emailed her. She knew how special these birds ere to Don...her dad. I still remember her standing out there away from the hubbub inside the house looking to the skies...mourning her wonderful dad...her and Melissa are struggling still as I am because of the nature of the killing and death as opposed to just death. So when she sent me this today...I lost the plot...but thats okay...

This is a male "Superb Blue Fairy Wren", who was flitting about in the branch outside the window behind my computer. He is absolutely tiny and a cocky little creature. he was dancing along the branch with a little browny female and bugger me but they both dropped down into the bushes beneath the tree..I though ... and leaned out to see better...and there he was with not one but three little females zipping in and out the bushes...


What was amazing was that out of the ten photos i tried when i got this one, he sat for the longest time looking in at me through the window, for all the world looking like he was posing...

These little birds didn't come last year but were there the year before...









Then I lost the cat only to find her atop this bit of furniture... Hmmm... will have to make sure she has company and a big bell round her neck till the little birds finish up...If she goes for a magpie or galah she'll be the one running which might be a good lesson

First photos of little Cous-Cous who i bought home on Tuesday. She was a little skittish in these photos, and seeing ghosties in all corners but has now settled a bit.

She has had a rough beginning being dumped with a full litter of kittens about 6 years ago. They were all found homes but she was to be put down.

Then an old couple saved her and cared for her> She is very quiet and gentle and so much like my old cat in nature, who died Feb 2007, that its uncanny.

The old lady developed dementia and her husband became ill so they went into a nursing home and as it is in our compassionate society even their little cat was stripped away from them.


Again she was on death row, till she was rescued by people who do this and made a special effort to find this little one a home.

Through a friend of a friend and here she is.


The house feels so different now there is another living being here. I was just too lonely after my dog Thorn died...

both of us needed each other.

This time it was only a harmless green tree snake...

I walk with my eyes down to the ground, around here in summer, but then at least I don't see the masses of Chemtrails they are lacing our sky with - to what end... these are not jet contrails as the jets are up much higher and the craft laying these are often visible to the eye and low down compared to the jets that fly between Sydney and Brisbane. No one has explained to me why a small town such as ours would have four jet planes in the sky at any one time all visibly laying these trails down and all at different tangents and directions. No one can tell me why I get a sore throat which comes on quickly and I know when I go outside they will be there and they are 100%.

The difference between a contrail and chemtrail is that contrails dissipate and leave only a small trail but these buggers go right across the sky and depending on wind they hang like mares tails...in time all joining up so what was a bright sunny sky becomes a dirty murky sky. For my Australian blog mates type in Chemtrails Australia or anything with the word in and you will see pictures of skies you will not believe. I know its true because our area seems to be hit so often. People need to look up and those older of us need to think about how blue the sky was when we were kids...it was total blue...now it appears as a washed out version. The authorities admit some of the spraying but say its weather modification - they have no right to modify the weather because they wouldn't have a bloody clue what the long term affects on the planet and our health will be with their mucking about. Gaaah! They make me bloody mad.

I remember the "scientists" from the Agriculture department telling farmers and councils it was okay to poison rabbits with 245T... my dad used to put it in the boot of the family car and with his bare hands distribute it the the farms he did work for. Its a major component of Agent Orange used in the Vietnam war...and while they were using it against the people of Vietnam and the soldiers from the US and Australia etc many of whom were drafted...they were extolling the virtues of it to Australian farmers. http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2004/s1063294.htm it might be said "Father forgive them for they know not what they do" in a pigs ring They know full bloody well what they are doing and always have...its about money power and the stupidity and corruption of Government who never protect the people unless there's a buck in it somewhere.