driving miss robyn ~ insane

this gal got her drivers license yesterday - she can now legally drive herself on the road. oh my gawd. She is all grown up - but I don't know it, I can't accept it. How does a mother cut the ties to let their baby fly? I have given her a vintage St Christopher medal (blessed of course) to put into her car & I have asked St Michael the archangel to be with her each and every time she drives - but still I will worry - cause thats what mums do. isn't it?

ooh you are such a busy little bee

that is just what Joe said to me yesterday afternoon.....

yesterday went to Rozelle flea markets - me with my camera slung over my shoulder like a tourist - hoping to capture some photos like Corey & Tara do - but of course nothing but junk, real junk. Oh I guess not - there were some gorgeous vintage clothes & jewellry, vintage books galore & I did mangage to buy some old matchboxes & vintage cards that I thought I may be able to use.. and I bought an old beaded purse for the doll I am making for sewing group. I thought of taking some photos of the stall holders but their faces didn't look like they would wanting to be having that - they were hot & grumpy. so I smiled and went on my way.

then we trotted off to Frasers motorcycles to buy something for Joes bike...hmmm I got to thinking - strawberries are in season, how about a trip out to the strawberry farms? so off we go - through the city traffic and out to the country side.

along the road are many stalls that sell fruit and vegetables that are grown by the farmers. Little stalls made of corrugated iron and maybe a little shade cover. I jumped out and this poor elderly italian woman was sitting there in the oppressive heat selling strawberries by the bucket. Her hands were stained red - from picking or maybe it was from eating them... I felt so sorry for her in the heat. "How much?" - I asked .."$5 a bucket" she said - "I will take 4 buckets and a bucket of tomatoes - thankyou" and she smiled. back in the car - excited that I was going to be bottling that afternoon - not thinking that I was going out to a Christmas party at 6. oh no! that didn't cross my mind.....so we got home & I got all my paraphenalia out to begin bottling.....and proceeded to wash and hull the strawberries * eating as I went - thinking of the little italian lady- it was 4pm by this time. then I realized I hadn't prepared the syrup - so I quickly got that done and put it in the fridge to cool. packed the strawberrries in the jars, feeling very much like sweet Kansas Rose - taking a photo to show everyone, thinking myself very, very industrious and feeling very connected to my grandmothers befor me and another brain storm PORT ! - I will use port to preserve them in..what a delicious idea - so I went and got the port decanter and proceeded to half fill the bottles. topped them up with syrup and in they went.

put them on to preserve, raced in the shower, dressed and ready to go. Time to get the bottles out. done - all put out to cool over night. Showed Joe - who said - 'how much port did you use?" - I told him only what was in the decanter and he laughed . ' You know - that was more than a bottle of port?' ------ do you think they will be yummy? one botttle of port between 7 bottles of strawberries.

coughing, spluttering - trying to play catch up

I watered my garden this morning - we are allowed to water on Sundays, so before it got too hot I went out into the garden for an hour or so. Then it got hot - so I came back in and thought I would play catch up on the blog visiting - I tried to visit most - but this damn coughing gets to me and I have to take a break.

I am trying to get to visit - please bear with me - I haven't abandoned anyone. It seems that my throat is kind of affected and it will take a few days to heal itself, you see, the other night when the fire first started, I mistakenly left my window open and woke during the night with my throat parched from the acrid smoke from the bush fire and now all I do is cough. I am not sick nor do I have a cold. So I am treating myself with manuka honey and some tissue salts for inflammed throats. But it is time that will heal. cough, cough, splutter, cough - that is me at the moment - a lovely vision.

ps - I really love you all - you are such great people - I feel blessed that our paths have crossed in cyber space.

yesterday & today - a rambling post that probably doesn't make much sense at all.

yesterday - I didn't get to visit many of you - I played house - I cleaned my kitchen - the stove, the pantry and washed the floors. All I have to do now is give the dishwasher a run through and I am done!

I also crafted & created! more of a mess than anything else ha! no really - I did quite a few of my Christmas decorations & did a little bit on my dolly for my patchwork group present (we each take a gift & receive one back). I have made a doll,who I might add is quite 'out there' and have even used melted beeswax on her face - she is looking good!
I went to the post office and sent my first batch of decorations off - I need to do this in batches as Frank, my post office man would be overwhelmed if I took them all at once. so as I package them up, I send them off.
here are my first batch at my front door ready to be sent - they are winging there way to 6 recipients ~ the next lot will be sent next week.

I also wrapped my glitter gal Christmas swap package up & one of my Society of Secret Faeries packages are ready to go on Monday. I get so excited when I send little parcels off to someone. It is like a sparkling little bubble in my solar plexus region, an effervescent bubble, that builds and builds til I can contain it no more - like I feel I am going to burst. Then I have to wait a week or more to see if it got there safely. And believe me, patience is not one of my virtues. Not at all. Patience is one of the lessons that I came here to learn. I am failing.

Oh and Sophie and I are sick - we have allergies from the smoke and both of us have been coughing all night.

Joe and I are off to breakfast in Leura this morning and I am going shopping for my stocking buddy! Also want to find a few bits n pieces for a friend for Christmas. Oh and I am going to the op shops also to find some old books for an altered book. Love those things! I want to do an altered book swap oneday..... oh the swaps I have planned for next year. there is the glitter swap & the friendship bag swap ~ and others of course.I can hardly wait (patience, child, patience).....

so there you have it - early morning thoughts from me

oh and the fires are still burning. The rain stopped at lunchtime yesterday and the fires were controlled but next week they are expecting unfavourable conditions - so we will deal with it then.
have a wonderful weekend!

this morning

so far so good - I look out my front window and can't see the billowing smoke this morning and no sirens. It is a little cooler however -today is supposed to reach in the 30's (approx 90 or so fahrenheit) . I haven't heard from my son - he is probably resting or still out there. I guess no news is good news. I will take a walk up to the fire brigade later and see the updated message board. Those guys from the brigade are true heros, dinky di aussies and thank God for the Salvos who are doing the catering this time. Feeding all these men and women is a mammoth task
Last night it was an amazing sight to see over 50 fire trucks from all over New South Wales going up in convoy. The lights flashing but going slowly - people were honking the horns and waving. Great to see this support for these volunteers - yes, they volunteer to fight these fires. aren't they wonderful?
here is a link and my home is south-east of the fire.


the fire report at 6.30am this morning

we sit and wait- an update

updates follow below -as they come

6pm - I came home from the dentist today to the news that a spot fire had started one town up from us and was threatening our village. An ember had 'flown' 10 klms to start this spot fire - shows you just how fast the wind is gusting. The smoke is thick and the sky is black. Sophie was sent home from school early. Joe has been up on the roof making sure our gutters are cleaned out. Our hoses are all ready incase embers drop into the gutters. We have been told that villages have been put on alert to evacuate . So, we sit and wait - do I sleep tonight? not sure - the temperature is supposed to stay around the high 20's to low thirties over night. The air helicopters are flying, dumping 200 million litres of water so far into terrain that is inaccessible to the fire fighters.

I tell you the world has gone mad -last week on Wednesday we had a temp of 7 degrees C and today it was 33 C!

thankyou so much for the prayers and thoughts of us all down here - the gorgeous Blue Mountains on fire and being destroyed.

10pm we have been told by our local bush fire brigade that the threat to our dear little village has passed at this stage. The fire is burning away from us and the wind has dropped. If the wind changes and we are in any danger we will be notified with plenty of notice. So we can go to bed. Not so for the firefighters still out there. My son is expected home around 1 am for a sleep.

once again - thankyou to each of you for your care and concern xo

Wednesday night update