I'm without a car for a couple of weeks.
I've noticed just how much I rely on the car. Today I walked and caught the tram into the city with the girls for a doctor's appointment and then rode my bike to visit my sister...I'm shattered.
Much as I love living in the leafy green suburbs (where not even a coffee is walking distance) today would have been much easier if I lived in Fitzroy.
This map is from an old street directory picked up at the Camberwell market yesterday - so good!
I can barely contain my excitement.
I opened a box that had simply been relocated from house to house. I'm embarrassed to admit we moved over a year ago.
I had thought the view master slides had been lost along the way so imagine the thrill when I uncovered these yesterday!
The view master has been in constant use since ... viewing the 7 wonders of the world in marvellous 3D & delicious desaturated, scratched 70s style.
Happy weekend lovely folk.
& thinking it might be time to dust the old girl off & give her a run.
Thanks Kate for making me appreciate them all over again & get over my pony = headache phase.
Yesterday we watched The Man From Snowy River (1 &2). We're all completely in love again.
Thank YOU all for appreciating the noticing. You are completely ace!
& how a bit of warmth changes everything.
After days & days of grey it was such a welcome sight.
Hoping you're feeling the kiss of the sun at your place.
They stink!
I actually did a U turn on the highway to take this pic. The alpacas were yarded & I guess ready to load onto a truck. It was very considerate of the alpaca farmer really as having them in a confined space made it easy to photograph them.
I haven't really taken much notice of alpaca before except for the fact of how divinely soft alpaca yarn is. I had no idea they smelt so rank nor did I know about the possum like hiss they make.
I went in search of ponies.
I packed the kids in the car & headed up to Mansfield. I managed to drag the rain with me & it teamed all day yesterday. The ponies weren't very co-operative!
BUT...
I stopped at Pemberton's on the way up just to scope things out. You see this is where we used to keep our own ponies when we were kids.
My heart was in my throat as I snapped this pic.
Happy weekend all.
Daybreak on January 11 2011 @ Broadbeach QLD
Life is mostly froth & bubble,
Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's troubles,
Courage in your own.
This contribution came out of "Enid's" autograph book. I bought the book with the all time Rummager.
B Williamson
Our Lady of Mercy College
Goulburn July 24th 1917
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If you would like to help Pip has a fabulous list of links here.
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I missed a day.
I had uploaded a couple of pics and then my internet dropped out...I was in Queensland. Then I dunno it just seemed wrong to be blathering on about my stuff when there was so much going on.
Safely back in Melbourne I'm thinking a LOT about the floods and those who have lost (& are yet to lose) homes & family.
She's a force.
Magical & powerful.
This is a moonah. They are everywhere down the coast & they are my mother-in-law's absolute favourite tree.
The moonah doesn't really float my boat but the silhouette is quite special.
I think I'd like to have a crack.
It seems like polo without the ponies. I've got a very clear picture of myself in bare feet with a mallet in one hand & a capiroska in the other. I hope they're licensed.
The "ghost town" feel of Melbourne in January makes me brave(r).
I'm more inclined to scale a fence or wriggle through a hole in the cyclone wire. The fear of winding up in jail seems more remote...surely the police are down the coast too?
Just super loving the club rooms.
January is the very best time to be in Melbourne.
It seems that everybody leaves town on Christmas Day & things don't really fire up again until school goes back. It's bliss.
If I close my eyes I can hear the tumbleweeds rolling down the street. I love that normally manicured lawns are ignored. Littered with weeds they look just right to me. Any green space should be left to ramble in my opinion.
Today marks the return to school for the smalls.
I really enjoyed the Noticing project and plan to continue it. Maybe quietly on Flickr & maybe here too...we'll see.
I'm back into the swing of all things crafty too. Amazingly, I'm following instructions. Usually, I would have a look, read ahead, cut corners where I could & sort of adapt the instructions to suit my style. I probably wouldn't have bothered with the tracing & just hacked straight into the original pattern...oh horror!
But as I've been charged with testing responsibility I thought I better do it right!
Noticed elsewhere:
divine knitted beanie
Be brave.
Mix things up.
Have a crack.
I am not, by nature, a risk taker. I'm a first born, married to a first born. I follow the rules and do the "right" things. In my head I'm so much braver, sassier & have more guts. When it comes down to it, I don't take the road less travelled. I tread the same well worn (& well loved) path. I enjoy the pace & the scenery on my road but I confess I do sometimes wonder about the road less travelled.
When it comes to making yes, yes, yes with the risk. I just dive in, trust my eye, make it up as I go along. Interesting isn't it? There's always the round filing cabinet if it all turns to shiz.
Noticed elsewhere:
Risk takers I admire... Claire, Bindi, Pip, Michelle. Girls with big plans & making stuff happen. Power to you.
We're still on school holidays. I'm soaking up the last couple of days with my fresh-back-from-the-snow kids and we've got big plans for today.
I've noticed how much the anticipation & lead up to something new excites me. I've been making myself finish off a few things before I got stuck into my next project. With it firmly in the forefront of my mind I do plan to spend a couple of hours curled up on the couch with this DIVINE cheater print from the ever fabulous Aunty Cookie. It's available in three colourways in her store now.
Noticed elsewhere:
hairpin leg wine cabinet
(I really want to get my hands on some of those legs for the whole daybed idea)
Don't forget to pop in & add your link if you're playing along this week. I'll looking forward to catching up next week.
I had reason to be at The Mall in West Heidelberg yesterday. A place I haven't been since about 1985.
I stepped out of my car and as I took my first steps towards Cambridge Arcade I felt my scalp tingle and every hair on my body stand on end.
I could hear Non's Italian heeled shoes clip clopping beside me and I could smell her sickly sweet perfume. Max Bygraves was singing somewhere in the distance. Non's knitting was spilling out of the hessian bag I was carrying for her. I smiled knowing that she'd not be wanting to waste her 15 minute tea break just sitting in the tea room and chatting to the storeman.
I notice that the heavy steel grate that we'd struggled with had long been replaced but the terrazzo stairs are still there and I gasp...remembering how strangely scared I felt when I had to take those stairs alone.
I leave Non in the arcade and take the front entrance into the store. I feel tears welling in my eyes and a lump rising in my throat. Surely the store was bigger than this. It's a discount store now. Gone are the bays for holding yarn and the wall that divided the shop front from the "warehouse". There's been no refit though. The same peg board lines the wall where we used to keep the laybys and the floor and wall paint remain as they were.
As I walk toward the back of the store I spy the door to the tea room and a faint waft of International Roast coffee fills the air.
The shop which now occupies the space at the end of Cambridge Arcade is fittingly called The Family Store.
And this morning I went back to snap myself some memory anchors.
It's what it's all about isn't it?
overlooking the water bottle on the bedhead,
saying nothing about the teabag in the sink,
not minding about the running shoes left in the middle of the bathroom floor,
keeping silent about the sugar bowl being left on the bench,
understanding that shoes should be left beside the footstool,
admiring the collection of sporting trophies,
supporting the house-to-home-junk-collection,
reluctantly framing the team photos,
& for Len and his wife the "pool room" laundry where he was allowed the poster of some 70s (Essendon) AFL hero in her perfectly pink sanctuary.
That's a marriage folks.
Noticed elsewhere:
birthday month at draw pilgrim
isn't it just begging to be opened?
Of course, I'm way too chicken for that kind of thing. It was all I could do to summon the courage to take the pic.
Noticed elsewhere:
beautiful greeting cards