A good innings...but I still miss her

I had to say goodbye to my old girl at the weekend.

She'd been with me for years... I found her early one morning in 1991 on the way to work and she couldn't jump into my car quick enough. She was a lovely girl and very tolerant, even when I brought other cats and dogs into her life

She travelled around the country with me...in fact my friends used to joke that she had more frequent flyer points than me

I miss her. A lot.

Secret Garden?

We have great neighbours!

It's a fact. Lots of people never get to know who lives next door to them, or who's across the street...but we're lucky to know a lot of our neighbours, to the degree we all get together a few times a year for casserole nights, BBQ's, a quick Friday night pizza or a trip down to the local RSL for a meal...our table can get rather large though because we usually have to book for up to 14 + kids, depending on who can make it.

Our neighbours are so good, a few years back we decided to "get connected"

This photo isn't of a gate leading to a Number 10 secret garden...It's better than that.

It's a gate MONT and his mate, Man of Number 12 put in to connect us.. It makes so much sense when we want to have a quick catch-up drink on a Sunday afternoon or if one of us needs something like an egg or milk or whatever. It's also been terrific because when the kids next door were getting to an age where they could stay home alone, but still needed/wanted the security of someone close by, we'd just wedge the gate open so they could come straight through to get either me or Mont if they needed us.

We all find it pretty amazing that the occupants of 7 houses in our street all get on so darn well. Some go fishing together, other's play golf...most of us just get together for drinks and food...

How many of your neighbours do you know... and do you get together much?

My friend Sue

I want to tell you about my friend Sue.

I've known Sue for more than 25 years. We met back in the 80's when we were both working for the same company in a regional Victorian town. Sue's originally from Sydney and had moved south for a new career opportunity. I was from Melbourne and had moved for the same reason.

Voila! We met and hit it off immediately. In fact we became such good friends that even when Sue moved back to Sydney and was planning to get married, she asked me to make her Wedding dress...and I even threw together our bridesmaid's outfits.

It was a truly lovely wedding and her husband is a gorgeous bloke.

Anyway, I told you that MONT and I are heading to Ireland soon for a wedding...and I'll be able to catch up with Sue there. No, she hasn't moved there, but is on a sort of retreat while she writes a screenplay.

During her overseas sojourn, she's also done some sightseeing in Rome and Edinburgh...because she can!

...and she started a blog.

I urge you to check it out. It's terrific.

It's in the Mail

My Mail Exchange gift is on it's way to my "mail exchangee"

I had great pleasure wrapping it in various layers of tissue and some old looking vintage paper yesterday

Then some bubble wrap....

...finished off with some tough as nails brown paper...and some string.

Hope she likes it!

Mail Exchange

G'day all.....hope you're all fighting fit and ready for a great weekend that's not too far away

I've been super busy this past week so haven't been posting much...but I thought I'd find time today, so I could tell you about the Mail Exchange I joined a couple of weeks ago.

I read about it here and thought what a darn good idea!...

Chantelle of Fat Mum Slim fame paired everyone up and our task is to send our respective exchangees a gift worth between $20 and $30. Each person detailed what sort of things they like ...here's what I selected for my mail exchanger...

There are these pieces of fabric...

A little Eiffel Tower

...and this vintage children's book and a vintage children's dress pattern book by Enid Gilchrist.

I hope she likes them! I had fun finding them all...and in the process found a wonderful fabric store that sells only vintage style prints.

I'll tell you some more about it next week... it's truly magnificent!

Africa Comes to Melbourne

Not sure if I've mentioned before, but we have fantastic neighbours!

The people who live at Number 12 have become really good friends, so much so that we've often said if ever either of us decide to move house, we'd have to find somewhere that has two, neighbouring houses for sale because we like living next door to each other so much.

Each Christmas we exchange gifts with them and their two gorgeous daughters...and this year they gave MONT and me a day with them, at Werribee Open Range Zoo.

That's where we all went yesterday afternoon. Apart from the beautiful animals, they also have a special entertainment program at this time of year...yesterday it was "Rhythm of Africa" with the ASANTI DANCE THEATRE...and it was fantastic!

Asanti dancers

There was of course lots of wonderful animals, like Tony.

Tony's a mature gent who likes to keep to himself a bit, but sadly, he also has an allergy to what giraffe's generally like to eat, so he has to have injections and a daily brush down to keep him functioning, well, like giraffe's function.

This is one of the younger males in the group. Lovely isn't he

There are zebra's roaming the plains....

...and Meerkats...

...and of course these guys. Very Regal!

because he can

ahhhh, not so regal.

...and the most dangerous of them all...the hippos, who just wanted to stay submerged for most of the day.

...and these gorgeous creatures.

Stunning!





Hi there handsome

We all had a great day!

Blue and Green Should Never Be Seen

... Unless of course it's Jasper Conran's designs for Wedgwood.

My girlfriend "G" and I don't get a chance to catch up on or around Christmas Day, what with family commitments and all, so we usually get together on the Saturday after Christmas and have a cuppa and exchange gifts.

This year, I nearly cried when I opened my gift and saw this gorgeous duo. It's funny how some people just know you so well...