JUST BREATHE

My blogging buddy Bee Jay from Wales has prompted me into action with her kind inquiry into my absence and well being. 

It has come on a day which I had vowed to spend like this !

I'll tell you why.

March

I had only been home from Hervey Bay where Dad was recouperating from his surgery ( he has melanoma cancer in his leg ) a short time when we flew to Sydney for a family celebration for Sally's 40th birthday....... Yes, I have a child who is 40 !!!!! How did that happen ?

Four days of eating out and walking kilometres around Sydney in very warm weather and then home, arriving about 8:30 pm .

At about 8:45 pm I received a phone call from my brother to say Dad had been rushed to hospital suffering from toxic shock and it didn't look good. Hasty preparations ensued and I arose at dawn and headed north arriving about 8:30am to find , to the amazement of the medical staff , that Dad seemed to be improving and the prognosis was more hopeful.

 He is an amazing man and in the following two weeks gradually this feisty 94 year old fought his way back. He has had all the lymph nodes in his upper left leg removed in a bid to stop, or slow down, the spread of the cancer as he is determined to be around to look after Mum ( also 94 soon). He's been looking after her for seventy years now and intends to be around as long as he can as she is beginning to struggle with her memory.

Eventually Tony flew up to drive me home as I was suffering from a severe ear infection myself.

April

As it is when you have a prolonged absence from home I was struck with a home decorating bug.

In my absence Tony had remodelled the garden on one side of the house.

It is so neat and tidy now. ( well, except for the hose ! )

It prompted me to do a drawer cleanup so armed with lots of different sized containers I set about the task of bringing some form of order to my drawers.

Phew ! That felt good and I can often be found gazing fondly at the beautiful sight of everything in its place !

We then moved on to redecorating. 

I love the French Provencial look. You know, white painted furniture with a little county pine combined and have finally convinced Tony that the clean cut modern look will never be welcome here. 

Our dining room has always been a little cramped with a sideboard and mirror on one side of the table and a very large bookcase containing a display of blue plates and books on the other.

We emptied the bookcase - a lovely piece of furniture but just too large. It won't fit anywhere else in this house so has been reluctantly put up for sale on Gumtree. Unfortunately no takers yet !

We've moved it temporarily here but it will travel to the garage next weekend till it is sold.

In its place on the bare wall will go a large photo - one of ours from our travels. We've moved the wine rack further down and Tony is going to give repainting it cream a go. 

This is not the permanent photo but you get the idea. 

Beside it on the wall will go a plate holder with blue plates when I find one.

The blue plate collection - just pretty plates, not valuable ones - now lives here.

The plates look so pretty with the light background.

As a final touch we added some very fancy new light fittings to the lounge and dining room.

Very posh indeed !

Then we moved on to the entry.

We replaced this 

With this

Once again using some photos from our last holiday.

We take so many photos when we travel that we have decided to use them for our artwork on the walls to enjoy them and they can easily be updated when we have new ones.

There is still more to do as we paint some coffee tables cream . 

I'll keep you posted !

I also made a quick visit to Hervey Bay to check on the Oldies. They are going OK but the leg is now an ongoing problem treated daily by visiting nurses, my brother has had a fall and now needs a shoulder replacement and his partner is recovering from a recent hip replacement !

Sally meanwhile has decided to study to become an animal physiotherapist ! This involves enrolling in Liverpool (UK) university to do a Masters and a move to the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane where she can do practical training with a dog physiotherapist. ........and to do this she must sell her duplex ......and to do THAT involved sprucing up her place and a HUGE cleanup !

Guess who helped there ?????

Let's hope it sells quickly.

May

 

Tony's mother turned 95 so of course we marked this milestone with a family party.

Her 82 year old sister flew up from Melbourne for the occasion and stayed with us for several days

Which meant daily visits to Nana while she was here.

She left yesterday, it was lovely to see her.

So today looks like this

And the laundry looks like this !

So that's it. 

The year has  been a bit busy.

Very tiring and taxing.

A holiday in Austria is being planned for September ( all being well ).

If you have managed to get this far with me in this marathon post, I thank you.

My blog is a bit like a diary so I needed to catch up.

I miss my blogging and will try to get here more often from now on.

And thank you Bee Jay for the caring message.

Cheers.