I’ve spent all of this week at home, blogging my little fingers off at the computer keyboard and simply enjoying two of my favorite pastimes ~ writing, and recording family history.
The weather has been very obliging during my week indoors as well. It has rained, constantly, all week. So imagine that, I haven’t begrudged spending time behind my keyboard one little bit in favour of being out in my garden, because there hasn’t been any sun! đ
During one of my frequent breaks from the computer this morning, to put on a load of washing and grab a cup of tea, I happened to look out the window, and there it was…the Magical Mountain had returned!
Mount Warning hasn’t made an appearance this week at all, in fact we’ve had so much mist that our back garden has rarely made an appearance! Even with a mass of white clouds in front of the mountain it looked as magical as ever.
Even the sun is trying to make an appearance!
You never know, I could even be able to do some gardening this weekend, if this change in the weather continues. đ
Wherever you are in the world, and however you chose to spend your time this weekend, me and the Magical Mountain wish you a simply “Magical Weekend”! đ
One of the most time consuming, although thoroughly enjoyable, items on my âto doâ list, is to sort through old photos I inherited from my parents. I have two brand new scrapbook style albums, which will become the new home for most of the photos, after they have all been scanned and labelled.
Another album I have to work on is a very old photographic record of my parents voyage in 1951, on the ship the âSS New Australiaâ, which brought them and their three young daughters from Southampton, England to Sydney, Australia, a journey taking them over one month, when they travelled across the world in search of a new and improved life.
In among a paper bag full of photos I discovered three restaurant menus, carefully saved and well preserved after all these years from their weeks on the âSS New Australiaâ.
On the back of one of the menus, printed Wednesday, December 6, 1950, I found a poem. As I read the poem, I couldnât help but think what a thoughtful gesture it had been, giving these immigrants so much hope for their future lives, in particular with the line âYours is the Earth and everything thatâs in itâ.
Note~ After deciding to record these thoughts here today and researching how many others there were on the same voyage as my parents (over 1,500 people) I happened to notice the date when they arrived at their destination of Sydney, Australia.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge in the early 1950's
The âSS New Australiaâ sailed into Sydney Harbour on the March 19, 1951, exactly sixty-one years ago today. And just by coincidence, today is the eightieth anniversary of the opening of the âSydney Harbour Bridgeâ!
~ ~ ~
âIfâ by Rudyard Kipling
âIf you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
And make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about donât deal in lies,
Or being hated donât give way to hating,
And yet donât look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream â and not make dreams your master,
If you can think â and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster,
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth youâve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build âem up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch and toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: âHold On!â
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings, nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything thatâs in it,
And â which is more â youâll be a Man, my son!â
Rudyard Kipling ~ Photo scanned from my book "The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English"
My mind is a-mush with so many ideas scuttling around in it! My husband has often told me that I have âmore ideas than a dog has fleasâ, said in a tone that suggests this isnât at all a good thing, although I beg to differ!
Isnât it indeed a good trait to have, one in which one is never bored, hopefully never dull and revving at the heels, ready to rush off and begin The Next Project? Isnât this the very trait said to keep one young and active?
I rest my case.
To help my mind in remembering all the projects I wish to begin or complete, I think I would be well advised to write a to-do list, one which will have me organised, accountable and will aid me in not forgetting one single important aspect on my list.
To begin my to-do list, (which I intend writing here, to remain accountable,) the first item on my list is to add pages to this website. You all want to know about my other blogs, donât you?
It wasnât long after I began this site that I came to the realisation that one blog is just not enough! With so many ideas of different subject matter, ranging from one end of the spectrum to the other, then back again, I decided to start first one new blog, followed about a year ago by another.
One of these blogs âMemoirs of my Lifeâ is where I record the ramblings and reminiscences of my life. Some are old memories, or stories related by family members who are no longer with us. Other stories I have written are here-and-now stories, written when something significant has happened and I donât want to forget the moment.
It wasnât an easy road for me to follow, when I began my âMemoirsâ blog. I felt concerned that someone who knows me may read something I have said and feel offended in some way. If you pay a visit to âMemoirsâ you will notice that I write here incognito, by the name of âAnnie Pottsâ.
Well, it is time for Annie Potts to confess to her writings and take responsibility for her words! In all honesty, I really donât know what I was worried about, as I would never in a million years write anything with the direct intention of hurting  someone! My feelings now have progresses to the point where, if someone is upset by something Iâve said, then so be it! That is for them to deal with, not me! Although, whilst I may be sounding defensive at this point, again, why? I have nothing to be defensive about!! (What was I thinking???)
Moving on, as âHome Life Onlineâ is now in danger of making a strong imitation of the sometime ramblings of âMemoirsâ, Iâll mention my other blog, âA Sense of Spiritâ, which began its life just over a year ago. Again, I felt reluctant to write the words that my heart asked me to, but again, I have made a strong recovery and have written more frequent posts at âA Sense of Spiritâ of late.
(Here I will digress with a question ~ does anyone else feel the need to make apologies for their beliefs, or is it just me? I seem to have made a habit of starting blogs, but not wanting anyone to read what Iâve written! Figure that one out!!!)
The building of another website is on the cards also, a website which I have been itching to build for years! It involves one of my life-long interests, that being genealogy. I spoke to a not-so-distant cousin in England about my idea for a family history website some years ago, his reply being that it was a rather ambitious idea and he couldnât see how it could be done!
Trouble is, I couldnât work out how to put my ideas into a readable format either!! It wasnât until I came across the âRodgers Family Historyâ site that I began to believe that it is possible! Barbara has obviously put hours and hours of time and effort into the site, the results being absolutely fantastic! I have content galore to add to my new site and have been checking and re-checking details which will be added to this new website, before I begin.
As I am in grave danger of writing a to-do book, and not a list, let the list begin!
All of the afore-mentioned, including updating my âBlogrollâ, which can be seen to the right of this column. Oh, and remembering to update my âQuotes to Live Byâ, also in the right side column, just above the Blogroll, at least once a month. (Perhaps I should consider changing the title to âQuote of the Monthâ or even â(March, April, etc.) Quote of the Monthâ, which would force me to remember to do it!
Continue with my regular monthly contributions to the wonderful online magazine the âCalm Spaceâ. Each month, when my article is added to the âFreedom Spaceâ, I will add a post here also, so you wonât miss a single story!
Weed the garden. Yes, I know…boring! But really, you should see the weeds that have grown in the recent rain! I love taking photos around the garden to post here, and no one wants to see a photograph of the seasonal weed-growth, do they?
Start taking my beautiful rottie for regular walks. Itâs early autumn here now, so the weather will cool down, making early morning or late afternoon walks a very pleasant pastime. Tess has turned nine and is in danger of becoming rather portly, if we donât begin a regular exercise routine. Rottweilers should not put on weight, itâs bad for their joints, and we all love Tess way too much not to take the best of care of our Black Velvet girl. Regular walks with Tess will also prevent me from becoming portly, not to mention the new photo opportunities it will present to me! By the way, thatâs Tess in the photo at the top of this page. Sheâs such a beauty!
Last week I took up an old project, one which I began about fourteen years ago and I never did finish. My daughter, then just beginning school and in kindergarten, asked me to make a quilt for her bed, one of her own design, including an appliquĂŠ of her name. Â She finished school over a year ago, but I never did finish the quilt! We now have a drawn up design and the fabric for me to begin the quilt. I will âblog as I quiltâ, keeping an online record of my progress.
Start my range of âMade in Australiaâ garments, yet another idea I have toyed with for some time now. When Iâm out working, I sew. Yes, sew. That is my business, which I began from home, just after my first child was born, nearly twenty-seven years ago. My business has grown and shrunk over the years, depending on my families demands of my time at their various ages, now being at a manageable level (both business and family!), which suits me. I make school uniforms for a few of our local schools and as the demand for school uniforms is seasonal (eg mostly required at the beginning of each new school year), I go through some very quiet times, but at other times can hardly find time to lift my head up from my sewing machine!
Start up a new, online business. This is a very new idea and is more accurately described as an extension to my current business. No â not uniforms, but yes â it involves sewing. (Iâll keep that one just a bit under wraps for the moment!) Here is a photo, a tiny clue, to my new idea…
I woke her up to take this photo. By her expression, you can see she was not impressed!
Sort out all of my parents old photographs and replace, in chronological order, Â in a brand new photo album, with detailed notes beside each photo. I will also have to scan and reprint some of the photos, as some have managed to adhere themselves to the album pages! With my interest in history, both family and otherwise, it is necessary for me to preserve the memories of my family, both online and within the pages of books. Every family needs a family historian, right? In my family, although the interest exists among others, there is no one fighting me to take over the task of history-keeper. (And I wouldnât have it any other way!)
Spend some unrushed, quality time at each of our local Tweed Valley towns, taking photos, then returning home armed with all I need to write a blog post, to educate anyone who cares to learn, about our very pretty area, here in northern New South Wales, Australia.
This to-do list is long enough, for starters, at least! As I complete the task on my list, I will link back to the points made here today. Thereâs no danger of lost notes with this list…itâs all online!
If you have read all the way through to this point, I thank you for your patience!
 “In the morning, everything is new.
The day’s blank slate lies before me,
ready for my writing.
May it be words of beauty I write.
May it be deeds of grace I do.
May it be thoughts of joy I think….
As I go through the day,
keep my eyes open wide.
May I not miss beauty.
May I not miss joy.
May I not miss wonder.
Keep me awake and aware of the world.
It is my privilege to perform my morning prayers.
It is my honor to do what should be done.
As I rise with the morning, fog lifting slowly for my mind,
I pray not to forget these truths”. ~ Ceisiwr Serith
Usually at this time of year the heat of the day is so intense that working, or any chore carried out, even one as simple as walking to the kitchen for a glass of water can be a major task. Beads of sweat drip down the centre of our backs, forming into tiny streams of water which feel for all the world as if a spider is running along our skin.
Night time brings hardly any relief to the heat of the day. Temperatures may drop by a few degrees, but the humidity remains. Sleeping becomes a problem. Our diet usually consists of meat cooked outdoors on the bar-b-que and dishes of tossed salad. And water. Glass after glass of precious, hydrating liquid.
Psychological relief from the rising temperatures can usually be found by imagining time spent in the snow of the northern hemisphere as I lap up image after image of snow-covered roads, trees and buildings. It helps, temporarily.
This summer has been a different story though. Snow photos from friends and family in the northern reaches of the world are few. Feelings of spiders running down my back are even fewer.
Usually, as the days begin to cool by late March or early April, pockets of mist can settle into the valley below us, forming oceans of mist. These “oceans” can appear at any time throughout the cooler weather, depending on how far the temperatures rise during the day.
This year, here it is, early February, and the misty mornings have already begun. What a delight to behold! The misty mornings are eerie, quiet and magical. And good for the soul.
7.30 am
 “When in the fresh mornings I go into my garden before anyone is awake, I go for the time being into perfect happiness.”~ Cecilia Thaxter
âYou must constantly ask yourself these questions: Who am I around? What are they doing to me? What have they got me reading? What have they got me saying? Where do they have me going? What do they have me thinking? And most important, what do they have me becoming? Then ask yourself the big question: Is that okay? Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.â ~ Jim Rohn.
The month of January is often a challenge for me, in many ways.
With children home from school for most of the month, it is difficult to find any time to be peaceful, when they have music playing constantly in the house. I look forward to the house becoming quiet for a change, and hearing the sounds of silence yet again.
And there is always the heat issue, including our rainy season in the sub-tropics, which contributes to the humidity. Funnily enough, though, this summer has been unseasonally cool, an unexpected luxury which I am revelling in! While I have expected the heat to arrive I realise, with huge amounts of delight, that with each day of little heat, we move one day closer to autumn, when the weather will become cooler again. Ah…bliss!
None of us has any control over summer school holidays or the weather, so we might as well accept the inevitable and find the pleasure in each moment of every day. We can’t change these things.
It is incredibly easy to find the pleasure behind the noise in the house all day. The noise tells me that my children are still young enough to live at home. I can enjoy their company and they are indeed very good company!
And the warmer days allow myself and the rest of my family the freedom to enjoy our swimming pool, finding relief from the humidity of the days.
What we are becoming, on a personal level, is a matter in which we do have some control over. We have the choice of how we allow the people who we interact with throughout our lives to affect us.
Everyone we meet can, and does, influence our behaviour at the time of our meeting. They may also shape our future thoughts and feelings, unknowingly painting a picture of the person we have become, who we are constantly in the process of becoming.
The month of January has given me the opportunity to ponder the question of who we are becoming, taking my mind off the few days when it has been warm and when I have missed my solitude, and it is with much pleasure that I have written these thoughts in my article at the Calm Space this month, “An Infinite Work of Art ~ You”.
In My World 