Another hot dry day in our neighbourhood. Just had our Nana nap and feeling at a loose end. I usually go and play cards on Thursday and my body clock says I shouldn't be at home today. We had the family gathering last night for Xmas Eve. We've had it early this year to fit in with having the most family able to be here together at any given time close to Christmas. 9 our of 23 of immediate family was the best we could manage. It's a shame so many of the family live so far away. It was a great evening with all the trimmings you might find on a Scandinavian table for Christmas eve. All cooked by the GD. As usual the almond in the Ricecream ensured that all the desert was eaten before the almond was revealed by one of the family, who with great difficulty had managed to conceal it in her mouth till everyone had their fill. The GD then donned the Santa hat and handed out the presents from under the tree. It will now be a very quiet Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with one of our sons visiting from down south, the GD and I. The son will leave on Boxing day and four friends will arrive to spend Boxing day and overnight with us. A couple more people will also join us for Boxing day lunch. One of the nicest things I like about Christmas is receiving Christmas cards and Christmas letters from friends describing their year's activities, many of these from all around the world, we only hear from at Christmas. At our age it's nice to know they are still with us. It's always sad though to receive a card that tells of the loss of a loved one.

The photo is of too helpfull elves (two grandchildren) who visited a couple of weeks ago and helped to decorate the Christmas tree.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

At last, I feel like I'm getting somewhere with all things Christmas. It's been a mad rush this year and I still have a couple of gifts to get. The chore of wrapping, finding boxes to fit and posting presents is just about done. I'm sure it would be so much easier if the family were close by, but they are scattered all over this wide brown land. The tree is up and as we are expecting a couple of the younger grandchildren through the week for a visit, I thought I would leave the decoration of the tree till they were here. They liked having that job last christmas if I remember correctly. We might have one of the immediate family with us for Xmas but waiting for confirmation. We also look like having an early Christmas Eve celebration to fit in with some family who will be away visiting other members of their family before Christmas. Gee it gets complicated when there are split families to gather around. With some luck the GD might get some christmas lights up tomorrow but since we both have to go to skinscan tomorrow it might not happen. I have to have a sunspot cut out of my hand and one on my temple. Not looking forward to that. We spent the weekend before last up the coast for a surprise 70th birthday party and then had the guest of honour as our guest with his wife for a couple of days early last week. As usual the challange of the Rummykub took place along with a little of "the creature" (Yule Schnapps). I didn't win. We are feeding two Kookaburras now but only irregularly as we don't want them to become dependant on our feeding. We need rain badly in this part of paradise so if you are having more than your share please send some our way.

In addition to the PeeWee which spends most of it's time in the pool area admiring itself in it's reflection on the glass pool fence, we now appear to have a visitor to the back clothes drying area. This kookaburra spent a couple of hours in this area yesterday afternoon. I think the main attraction is that we have a small water feature under the tree and used to have a couple of gold fish in it. The kookaburra is quite happy to take a little bit of bacon rind from within about 3 feet of me. I guess if fish isn't on the menu then bacon rind will do. Looks like we will have to put some mesh over the water feature when we replace the fish. We have fish in it to keep the mosquitos from breeding in the water. There's also 2 pairs of crows nesting across in the park and they seem very busy at the moment. "Ain't nature wonderfull".
We have just spent a relaxing, enjoyable up at the farm - Bella Vista, with Lindy & GB. It's always nice to get away and even nice to get away and stay with good friends. The British Lass from Scotland (now from France) was visiting her friends at the farm also, and we enjoyed catching up on her life since we first met her about 5 years ago.
There has been a few bushfires filling the air with smoke lately. This hasn't been good for my poor lungs. We are getting pretty desperate for some rain in the South East but there doesn't seem to be anything significant on the way. I guess one of the pluses with the dry weather is that the wildlife come a little closer to find their food and water. Just hope we don't get ducks utilising the pool as the PeeWees leave enough droppings around to clean up.
We had the house spring cleaned last week, gee it's nice to look through clean windows. There was still the remains of the dust storms which passed through here several weeks ago which seemed to have found it's way into every nook and cranny. All gone now and the fly screens have lost their slightly pinkish look.
Today we are both off to the Skin Scan Clinic to have any sun spots frozen off. I'm not particularly looking forward to that as my skin is a perfect example of the effects of our harsh sun on the skin and I usually come out looking like a case of the pox with blisters in all sorts of places. No doubt, better than having them develope further though.
Catch you later.

Whilst on our cruise the auction on board was selling works by an artist called Patricia. Isn't her work fabulous. I've tried to find her on the web but there are so many artists called Patricia so I haven't been able to establish if she has a web site. I also saw a brief video of her working on one of her pastles (I think) - she made it look so simple. I love the vibrant colours but she also achieves such a relaxed feel to he works. I couldn't afford to splurge on one of her bigger works and missed out on the smaller ones on offer. Hope you like this example as much as I do.

One of the pretty beaches in Maui where we made a port of call on our cruise.

Did a bit of gardening yesterday - cutting back more of that prickly, spikey boganvillia over the back fence. The GD and I had a quiet BBQ outside were I have re-arranged the outdoor furniture after cleaning all the red dust off everthing from the dust storm while we were away.

It's a beautifull sunny day in this part of Qld and after watering the flower gardens I decided I'd better catch up on a bit of mending. I ruined one of the GD's shirts in the process. It's getting on a bit but the stitching was pulled on one side. After carefully unpicking the seam I thought I would iron it flat so then when I sewed it I would get a neat finish. I've been ironing this shirt for about 5 years and apart from the seam that needed attention, it was still as nice as the day he bought it. You guessed it, the iron burnt a hole in it. It's one of those synthetics which needs very little ironing. I'd just complained yesterday that he changes his gardening shirts far too often and they do need ironing. Well now he has one that doesn't.

This afternoon I'll take myself off to Bridge. I'm starting to get the hang of playing Auction Bridge but the scoring still has me confused.

Although we've had a couple of small showers over the weekend, we could do with a lot more.

Still missing Puschka - half expect him to walk in the door.

Catch you later, M

Our pet cat Puschka has gone to Pet Heaven.

No photo's today. Yesterday was one of those days when it starts off with everything going smoothly but doesn't end that way. I couldn't do anything wrong at cards and won both in the morning and in the afternoon. It was a lovely day, not too hot, a nice spring day. That all changed when I got home. The GD was working in the garden, the dog came to greet me and tell me it was his meal time but then I went looking for Puschka our 16 year old cat who hasn't been real well. I found him in one of his favourite areas and he looked like he was sunning himself but sorrowfully he was dead. When I went to touch his fur was sort of tacky - strange I thought with tears in my eyes. I went down to the garden to tell the other half that what we expected could happen, had come to pass. After he'd taken him down to the vege garden to prepare his last resting place I went back to the place I had found him. I heard a whimper nearby and discovered that the neighbours Fox Terrier dog was cowering in a corner and his mate from next door had his nose under the fence where the Foxie had dug his way into our yard. I think he knew he had done something terribly wrong. It became pretty obvious what had happened to poor puss. He would not have had the strength to defend himself. I went back down the garden to have another look at Puschka and yes there was blood on the other side of him and the tacky fur was because he'd been in the dogs mouth. Puschka was old and not too much time left for him anyway but he didn't deserve to die like that. Well I've got that off my chest but there's still a few tears left. He had been part of our family for a long time. The GD informed the neighbour but apart from her saying she was sorry her other half hasn't shown his face with the same commiserations. I don't know why some people have pets when they are never home through the day and sometimes late at night. The pets get up to mischief and they don't get the attention they deserve. We wont be replacing Puschka - we are getting old and it's too heartbreaking when a pet goes to pet heaven. Now it's just the GD Couch the dog and me. Today is another day.

Hi

Cool Dude (The GD) in Papeete

I think I have just about caught up on all the mundane things around the place. I've managed to edit about half of the photographs taken on our long voyage. I've trimmed most of the overgrown plants in the garden - them that didn't die on me. This afternoon I started to tackle the bouganvillia. This has to be done in stages to avoid nasty injuries from the thorns. So far so good.

I don't think I mentioned that the cat was just skin and bone and flea ridden when we got home so after a week we took him to the vet because he also wasn't eating. Well, they couldn't find anything wrong with him other than he's quite old and any further tests for things like bone cancer would be too invasive for him and we wouldn't be following on any treatment if he had it. He's not in any pain or miscomfort. The fleas are no longer a problem and he's still not eating much and fussier than ever about what he eats, when he does eat, so we think he's just a senile old cat and will live out the rest of his life in his garden as he sees fit. That all resulted in a pretty hefty vet bill. The dog didn't take long to fit back into our daily routine - looking for too many treats.

We received a little much need rain today but nothing like the rest of the area has had in the past couple of days.

After all my Contract bridge lessons on the ship I came back to find that my community centre played Auction Bridge. I think with a little practice I'll to able to adjust to the difference. I found Contract Bridge a little more challenging and interesting though.

Off to play cards again tomorrow, thursday - 500 and then Hand & Food Canasta.

I don't know when I'll get back to painting but I have a few ideas up my sleeve for when I do. I think I'll give pastles a go as I have seen some really great works using brilliant colours, which always appeal to me.

See you soon with a couple more shots from the cruise.