Things I have to tell No 1....!

for my children

I tilt at windmills......

and just sometimes I win!!!

                                             

                                                                Ted Szukalski

                                                

As part of the lovely award 

karina 

presented me with

I have to tell

6 things about me

that you don't know

I figure I can drag this out a bit

Karina did not say I had to tell all at once!!

                                                                                                                                           painting by Frank Stock

I love the old style windmill, dragon style!

though I don't mind the modern green ones either

so if you

 know your classics

you will understand why

I also quite fancy dragons

                                                                                                                          here

But the real thing I have to tell

is 

that

 I collect Don Quixote

This was my first piece 
my family bought it for me
after I fell hopelessly in love with it
It makes me laugh!!!

I don't have an extensive collection

some pieces are old some new

most pieces came to me with a story

 and often the story is as 

important as the piece itself

Goodnight

Into the ether.........!

We sit at our desks

our kitchen benches,

our tables

curled up in comfy chairs

and in our beds

And

we read,

we type with passion, 

about our crafts

our families,

our decorating,

our lives

and things that catch our fancy

then we send it out into the ether!!!

It's a funny place, this blogging place

we start, not knowing what we are doing

I wonder, sometimes, if we ever know

what we are doing!

 Do we  ever stop and think

about how,  what we say, may affect someone else

There are people I have never met,  who,

because of my blogging,

 know me better than some of my long standing friends

 but we would pass each other on the street without recognition

You come from all around the world,

for a short time we meet here 

and I'm saying all this

 because...!

Because today I got an email from

Karina Gentinetta 

to say

pssst!  You may want to visit my blog, Julienne

so I went visiting and imagine my surprise and joy

when I saw she had presented me with

Now whilst the award is lovely

it was the words she wrote that got me

totally emotional!

Karina thank you

it may take me awhile to choose someone

to pass this on to

but you have to know

YOU MADE MY DAY!

bless you

Now apparently I am supposed to tell you seven things about me
but I am going to ask your indulgence 
and tell you tomorrow because today should be about


Karina


and her generosity of spirit
 so go visit her
you will be amazed at what she has achieved

Goodnight

It's not home anymore....!!

This is the area

I grew up in.

A family suburb on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour

the cars parked in the driveways

were Holdens,

Fords, and the occasional Bentley.

My parents paid 14,000 pounds

for our house

it was three stories high

(if you count the attic with it's two bedrooms

and the playroom built into the slope of the block!!!!)

and it had a view straight through

the heads of the Harbour

it sold recently for over

2 million dollars

I do wish they had kept it!!!

 The homes were all a bit tired, 

the gardens often had a bike 

on it's side in the drive or

a cricket bat lying on the lawn

and  the grass was  often just slightly too long

and the gardens were a bit free flowing,

hydrangeas and camellias were the plants of choice.

It was not an untidy suburb, it was just a family

place.

recently I went back to visit 

and it was not the same

There is not a bit of peeling paint

 to be spied anywhere

the gardens are manicured to 

within an inch of their lives

the cars in the drives are 

BMW s,  Mercedes Benz, and Suburus,

 mostly large 4 wheel drive machines

It is beautiful, there is no doubt about that 

but somehow it

 has lost that fabulous  familiar feeling

that said 

you are home!

all images were found here

Goodnight

New dashboard!!!!!!!!!

Did every bodies dashboard

change today?

If

YES

you will understand,
 please, 
if I miss your post

as the new dashboard

only shows

the last 19 posts!!!!!!!

I can only get to the computer

about twice a day and as I

follow quite a few of you

I am afraid you may get lost in the system

Why do Blogger

not understand

that

when

you

are

on

a

good

thing

stick

to

it

Does anybody agree with me?

!!!!!!!!

The cooking class....

Last Sunday 

we had a real treat

Instead of cooking for others

we cooked for ourselves

under the very learned

eye and hand of Johanna

who has just come back from

a week of cooking classes at

 Casa Ombuto in Tuscany

we all arrived in the commercial kitchen....

oh dear I must have been late

the tables were set up

like this and each place had a jar of aromatic salt

as a gift from Johanna

she briefed us on what we were going to be doing

.....some of us were listening!

but the pasta lessons were not for everyone

some of us thought we might have made

 a... tiny.... wee.... error!

but mostly we worked well together

even Mother and Daughter

and the pasta turned out surprisingly well

then we all sat down

 while the meal, we had helped prepare,

was plated up and served to us like this

Millefooglie di baccala e porri su crema di rucola

or

Codfish & leeks with puff pastry on rocket cream

La Sfoglia salsa con meanzone

or 

Spaghetti with  eggplant sauce

Bistecca Fiorentina

or

rare steak with salad!

Semifreddo aile noci e ciccolato bianco

or

Walnut and white chocolate semifreddo.

. . .

our cooking class was

  a taste of Tuscany

I am not a fancier of fish and I loathe eggplant
but I can honestly say, I thoroughly enjoyed every
mouthful of this delicious meal!

and it would appear

 I have broken all my promises to myself

 and have allowed some images of an aged me to appear!!!!!

I am linking this post to 

Jenny Matlock and Alphabet Thursday

goodnight

World wide shopping...!

We are in desperate need

absolutely, desperate need of a 

new duvet cover 

for our bedroom.

I would normally go and buy a plain white one

but really our bedroom here 

needs more than that.

It's quite a large room 

and the ceilings are 14' high.

Wall are French grey, carpet grotty cream

white marble fireplace with pale green tiles

We inherited deep red silk taffeta curtains

the colour of the dark middle of this apple.

We have a large square bay window and 

one other window in the room so it is a lot of curtains!!

Got a quote to replace with fairly ordinary

(but nice) fabric

$7000.00

we live with the curtains!!!!

This is what I would like but it only comes

in a comforter set!

                                                                       I pinched this from renee finberg. I think!!

so

                                                                                                                                                                           potterybarn

I went looking

                                                                                                                                                                        Pottery Barn

                                                                                                                                                                  

 and nowhere in Australia could I find what I want

or for that matter around the world!!!! 

                                                                                                                                                          Ralph Lauren

                                                                           

some are too light

                                                                                                                                                                  pottery barn                                                                                                                     

some the red is too red,

so

what does a girl have to do

 to find the right duvet cover 

when she has the whole world too choose from

and still can't find the one that

will be just right...

the one that will tie the room together?

Goodnight