Musings

I am still not getting the hang of this pastime as quickly as I should. Ended up commenting on my own blog a few minutes ago, but am hoping I eventually got it right.
It is lovely and wet here in Eltham, and too wet in other parts of Victoria. The terrible floods in Gippsland have been horrendous and one sometimes wonders why nature gets it so wrong sometimes. But all that water is a beautiful thing after our most awful dry.
Our garden is looking rather lush now, and we have been cheerfully planting out more shrubs in the hope that they will establish before the summer is with us again. Why is it that time moves so quickly as one ages?
I have taken up knitting again, with a vengeance. Have completed two jumpers for Ray in the past few months, and have another almost completed. Have been totally astounded at how expensive yarn is to buy these days - 'the drought' - said the lady in the woolshop. Yeah, right!
But, a friend has put me onto the Bendigo Woollen Mills, who sell yarn at less than half the price I paid, so that will be my next trip I think. About two hours from Melbourne, in Central Victoria. For those of you who don't know Bendigo, it is a wonderfully historic city, and, with Ballarat, was the centre of the goldrushes back in the early 1800s. There is also a fabulous Chinese museum in Bendigo, as there was a large population of Chinese who followed the gold rushes, and I think our country may have been the poorer without them.
We are hoping to go to Mildura in a couple of weeks. Ray and I both love it there, and we certainly enjoy the inexpensive citrus fruit. I remember our last trip in Spring last year. I was almost drunk with the perfume of the orange blossom which seemed to pervade the air for miles around. Even better than apple blossom!
I said in my last post that I love apostrophes. I meant to say exclamation marks!!
Had a lovely lunch at Federation Square yesterday, and was quite amazed by the number of Americans around. After we had passed an American lacrosse time, I suddenly remembered that it was their 4th July celebrations. A email from my American cousin this morning confirmed this anyway. It is awful how we tend to forget dates important to other countries. It will be bastille day soon, and hopefully I will be able to indulge in some lovely French pastries. When I was still working, the head of the French faculty always purchased these beautiful pastries, and cakes, for the staff and students to purchase on Bastille Day. Lovely. I have to go out and collect my own these days!
We had our four grandchildren on Tuesday, and it was lovely. It was also nice when they went home and I was able to collapse into a chair with a nice cuppa.
I am reading the biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner at the moment, the woman who left her home and collection of art etc. to the people of Boston. Ray and I visited there in March, and it was absolutely wonderful. What a fascinating character she must have been, and she knew and entertained many of the literary and artistic greats of her time. Whistler and Henry James spring to mind without the book in front of me.
I belong to a book group, which meets once a month for lunch in a private home, and we gossip and dine and here and there discuss the books we have read. What a great variety there is. I try to read at least one enlightening book per month amonst all the Clayton's reads (you know, the book you read when you are not reading?). I thoroughly young adult literature too, which is a hangover from my school library days. I have just finished reading a recently published thin book, called 'The tuckshop kid' which talks about juvenile diabetes. Each chapter is preceded by a tuck shop list, and I realised that I should have been paying more attention, because each list shows an improvement in the hero's diet. A good read for 10-14 yo reluctant readers or for anybody who likes to read. I feel that adults miss out on so much good reading because they think they are too old for young adult books. Not true at all!!! So out you go to your libraries folks, and try some of the young adult reading.