Two days ago I went to see Lesley and her beautiful family. I think they liked the quilt.
How lovely to see a student again after 16-odd years!
Lesley and her husband are also very keen gardeners, so I had a nice little walk around their veggie patch, and left with some apricots and sweet pea seeds.
No rest for the wicked. Georgia’s best friend since kindergarten is expecting a baby in a couple of weeks. Another teddy bear quilt is on the go – this one in blue.
Dad Joke of the Day:
This is a sweet little quilt I made for an ex-student called Leslie.
Yes, I’ve reached the ripe old age where ex-students are now having children of their own…
The quilt measures 44 cms X 50 cms.
It has Hazel’s seal of approval. This was taken before I popped the quilt into the washing machine.
Yesterday I finally took the cover off my new sewing machine and relearned some of what I was taught at the handover. Thank goodness for Youtube videos!
The teddy bear fabric is from my stash, while the backing and binding fabrics are from the quilt I made for Evan29, back when he was Evan23. It’s a good thing that fabric doesn’t go off!
The backing was fabric that I’ve had in the stash since the kids were small. Leslie loves her garden, so the strip on the side is a nod to that.
I bought the pattern online, so I’ll probably make a couple more of them, just to get my money’s worth, haha! Georgia’s best friend since kindergarten is expecting a baby in a couple of weeks, so he might get a blue teddy bear quilt soon.
Dad joke of the day:
Here’s one of the best things to happen in 2025. Hazel is now 4 months old, is almost twice the size of Scout and she’s a joy and a delight. Such an easy puppy, with a delightful meld of Poppy’s intelligence (well… for a Cavalier…) and Jeff’s sweetness.
A few weeks ago, I found a smelly ‘present’ on the back room rug, right near the doggy door. I told her off in a very stern voice and put her outside. When I went back to the front of the house, she came back through the doggy door, went into Georgia’s room and whimpered, telling her all about it. She’s such a confident, outgoing little puppy that it’s hard to remember how soft her temperament is.
She was a big hit at Christmas, which was at my place this year.
I looked at the forecast for Christmas Day, saw that it would be in the mid twenties, which is perfect weather for eating outside under the verandah. I went to the nursery and bought these VERY expensive paper daisies for a festive theme. A few days later, the weather bureau changed its mind and said that it would be a chilly 16°C/61F, so we ended up eating indoors.
Damn.
It was a strange Christmas, the first in my whole life without Mum and Dad being there. Mum is still more or less bedridden after her fall a few weeks ago, so she stayed at Bonbeach, and we all popped in throughout the day to visit her. Kate had organised bottles of Chandon for her to give everyone, all wrapped up in red bows, and she ended up having a good day.
Action shot of Evan29 and Hazel. They’re both hairy beasts.
Evan29 has moved back with me, but in the new year, he and Georgia will be moving into Mum’s house to keep it occupied and for Georgia to gain some much-needed independence. Georgia is beginning work in myotherapy in Hampton in a couple of weeks, which is less than 10 minutes from the house, so it’s perfect.
This will be the first time IN MY LIFE that I will be living alone.
I’ve been the only adult in the house since 1997, when I left my then-husband, but since then I’ve always had at least one of the kids living with me. I look at Mum, who has always shared a room with someone for her entire life, until Dad died in May. My sister too, has never lived totally alone. When you think about it, few people have. Most people move from childhood with their family, to share houses/uni dorms, to marriage.
My friend Cathy from high school has lived alone since her husband died in 2018. “Once you get used to it, it’s fantastic!” she said to me. “There are NO RULES. If you feel like a grilled cheese sandwich at 10 PM, you can do it. Sleep in? Absolutely.”
Who knows? It could be quite nice.
I didn’t plant all that much in the veggie garden this spring, as I’m travelling again in March onwards. The zucchini have already started to produce, and this is the first haul I’ve packaged for the freezer. Now that I’ll be living alone, this may supply me for most of the year – and this is only the beginning of the growing season! The beans have started, while the tomatoes are more leaf than fruit so far, although I’ll get some.
The garlic I planted before I went to Iceland has all died. I think thrips or something may have sucked the life out of them. This is the 3rd year I’ve tried growing garlic, and I don’t think I’ll bother again. Melbourne’s climate doesn’t seem to like it.
However, it DOES seem to like potatoes.
When I first put in the wicking beds, I planted some seed potatoes from Aldi as a first crop in one of the beds. Since then, I have dug for the occasional spud, but they’ve pretty much overtaken the entire bed. I decided to let this particular wicking bed lie fallow this summer, so I pulled out what was growing there – mainly self-seeded silver beet and celery – and I unintentionally harvested all of these! Who knows how many more are lurking just beneath the surface.
This fed us for a few meals, and of course it’s my favourite flavour. Free.
Whenever I harvest some of my potatoes, I always think of the meal in Warrnambool I shared at Loretta’s house. Her husband grows potatoes, and the home-grown spuds were part of the meal. 🙂
In order to use up some zucchini, I made a zucchini slice and had the bright idea to pull up one of the beetroot I’m growing and grate it up to add to it. This is the mixture before I put it into the oven. It looked disgusting, but oh well. I thought we could always eat it with our eyes closed!
But look what happened when I pulled it from the oven an hour later:
I have no idea what happened, but it was a Christmas miracle. All of the colour went back into the beetroot pieces and dinner was saved. The added beetroot was delicious.
In the background of this photo, you can see the new project I’m working on. Cotton washcloths for the kids’ new place. There’s no way any child of mine is going to move away without having some washcloths with them! I’m knitting one a day, with cotton bought from Spotlight at a measly $7 a ball. I tried using bamboo a couple of years ago, but I think that cotton is better, so I’ve switched back.
I surpassed myself this year.
I kept my goal the same as 2024, thinking that I probably wouldn’t reach it due to all the travel and the extra time blogging every day. However, I didn’t factor in all the time spent hanging around at airports, or the time on planes when there wasn’t a movie I wanted to watch. I’ve read some cracking books this year.
When James flew in to join us in Iceland, he brought some Irish gin with him. We had gin and tonics on Diamond Beach in Iceland, which is a wonderful memory. I tracked down the gin in Australia and bought 3 bottles of the stuff, as a celebration of wonderful friendships and amazing memories.
WHAT a year I’ve had!
It’s been a weird mix of absolutely outstanding fun, mixed in with the most challenging times I’ve had since the kids were small. I’m so very glad I booked all the travel I did this year before Dad had his fall. I was able to see the most stunning things and see so much, which was absolutely needed. Looking after a little old lady takes up SO MUCH TIME and mental bandwidth. I had no idea until Mum and Dad’s world fell apart.
Mum’s actually very lucky to have 2 such different daughters who are both active in her care. Kate and I balance each other out. She’s very good at the day-to-day stuff, whereas I’m better at the more long-term decisions and the financial admin stuff. Together, Mum has pretty good ‘staff.’
Next year Kate and I both have travel booked, so there’ll be a bit of juggling going on. Mum’s overall mobility is becoming an issue, as she may end up being bedridden for life after this fall, if she can’t get her legs working properly. Anyway, that’s an issue for Future Frogdancer to deal with, if it comes to that.
Anyway, that’s a round-up of what I’ve been doing since returning from all the travel. I haven’t even touched my very expensive new sewing machine, but in the new year I’ll hop on and learn how to drive it. I owe a few people some baby quilts. And yes, Scott – I haven’t forgotten your quilt.
I hope 2026 is a year for us all to remember- for all the right reasons.
Happy New Year!
Dad joke of the day:
Today I’m staying home, ready to meet people who are coming over to buy some things that I’ve put up for sale from Mum’s house – and a couple of things from mine, while I’m at it. We’ve done so many op shop runs, but every now and then I’d find something that looked as if it should be sold, rather than donated.
I bought this chair 10 years ago from Marketplace, when I moved into The Best House in Melbourne and realised the master bedroom was HUGE. Now, I’ve inherited my great-aunt’s bedroom chair, so I’m releasing this one back into the wild. So far, for $100 I’ve had no offers. I might slash the price just to get rid of it.
Yesterday I had a conversation with an upper arm surgeon about Mum’s case. If she had an operation, it would run from 4 – 6 hours, and would necessitate opening up not just her humerus, but her shoulder as well. This shoulder is pinned together from when she had a fall a decade or so ago. They would have to take all of the hardware out, replace it with bigger hardware, then try and pin the splintered humerus back together.
“With your mother’s underlying health issues, her age and frailty, the chances of heart attack or stroke are huge,” he said.
Personally, I can’t see her surviving 6 hours on an operating table. So we’re going for a brace, hoing that the bones will re-knit into a new shape that will give her at least limited mobility.
It was a stressful conversation. There’s no good alternative, but just shitty alternatives that have more or less risk associated with them. She’ll be going back to Bonbeach today or tomorrow, where she’ll lie in her bed for weeks. At the moment she can’t even scratch her nose by herself, because the other arm muscles are torn.
“How are you feeling, in yourself?” I asked Mum yesterday.
She looked at me for a second, then said, “Well… I’ve been happier!”
“I bloody well hope so!” I said, and we both laughed. She’s putting on a brave face, but her future is pretty bleak. She knows that better than anyone.
In happier news, Miss Hazel is now a gangly teenager, all arms and legs. She’s a clever little thing, with a chattiness that I haven’t seen before in a cavalier. Already, the level of her back is as tall as Scout’s head. I never realise how tiny my little snag is, until I measure her against other dogs.
Hmmm… I really need to get my deck painted, don’t I?
I just realised that it’s only 1.5 weeks before Christmas. I’m hosting.
Yikes!
Dad joke of the Day:
A strange, spooky thing happened yesterday. I received a text from the Queensland man who is driving down to pick up Dad’s vintage car. As I opened the text, Spotify started playing the song that we played at Dad’s funeral…
Mum’s Boppin’ Bangers (my personal list set up by Georgia) has THOUSANDS of songs on it. What are the odds of this particular song playing right at that moment?
***
Mum is STILL waiting for her operation, 6 days after she fell and broke her arm. It’s appalling. Twice now, she’s been prepped for surgery, left to wait all day without food, only to be told late afternoon that she’s been bumped off the day’s list.
She’s an 85-year-old woman with a diagonal break in her humerus, which basically means that there’s a large spike of bone poking into her arm muscle.
Last night, one of the nurses on the ward gave me a phone number to call to escalate her case. I spoke to a woman who promised to bring it up at the morning meeting with the surgical team.
“We’ve been really nice up until this point,” I said. “But this is unacceptable. I’m her advocate and I wouldn’t be doing my job if this continues to be put off.”
She was number 7 on the surgical list yesterday. She’d better be further up today…
Dad joke of the day:
Three days ago Mum went out to lunch with a couple of friends. After lunch, while walking back to the car, she suddenly said, “I have to stop.”
She stopped walking, but she kept pushing her walker. It moved forward and she fell, breaking the humerus very badly in her right arm. Her left arm is badly strained.
She’s been in hospital ever since, unable to even feed herself. Hopefully, she’ll have her operation later today, but we’re looking down the barrel of months of rehab. Her legs have deteriorated in strength so badly that she’s often in a wheelchair. Now she’s in strife with her arms.
The photo is from yesterday. I went and picked up my brother and we went to see her. We walked for miles, then when we got there, she was off getting an x-ray!
The serious fall was definitely going to happen one day – we’ve dodged so many bullets along the way this year. Still, it’s a new chapter for sure. It’s crazy. This time last year, Mum and Dad were happily living in their home, preparing for Christmas. And now… this.
A few days ago I did something crazy.
My sewing machine that I’ve had for 12 years ……
….. I just popped back to check exactly how long I’ve had that machine. I bought it in April 2009 and from the very first time I used it, it caused trouble. I’ve been wrestling with that bastard of a thing for 16 years!!!! It never ran right. I even replaced the motherboard and it still wouldn’t behave.
It’s a wonder I stuck with the quilting at all. As I was scolling past blog posts, they were all saying, “Mr Darcy jammed again”… “I was wrestling with Mr Darcy all day”… etc. I can’t believe I’ve waited 16 years to get a new one.
I’m trying to finish a baby quilt for an ex-student. A week ago, I jumped on to finish piecing the top. The foot pedal was running really slow. The thread kept breaking. Somehow, I knew I’d finally had enough. I got up, unplugged it and threw the whole thing in the recycling bin.
Cutting Cloth in Alphington (MILES AWAY) was having a Bernina Day last Saturday. I drove over there, petrified, and bought a demo model that Bernina salespeople used at a quilting show. A thousand dollars off!!! I was happy it was a demo model because I knew that it would work.
I picked it up a couple of days ago and had a two hour lesson in how to work it. I unboxed it yesterday and today I’ll see how much I’ve retained from the tutorial. In February, I have 3 X 3-hour tutorials to REALLY learn what this baby can do. I’m not sure that I’ll need every lesson. All I do is make tiny straight seams and loopy free-motion quilting. I’m not interested in buttonholes and embroidery.
Still, wish me luck. I’m full of fear, born of 16 years of uncertainty with my old machine. But imagine if it works properly???? All the quilts I could make…
Here’s some puppy porn. Scout looks very old in the unflattering sunlight, and you can see how, at 4 months old, Hazel is already way taller than her. An hour ago I took them for Hazel’s first walk. It was VERY EXCITING for Hazel. She walked really well, but was all over the place, trying to sniff everything.
She’s a good girl. Very sweet and loves anyone she meets without fear or favour. The very loud kids next door have been coming over after dinner to play with her. I thought Scout would be scared, but when it dawned on her that kids can actually THROW BALLS, then it was on for young and old. The dogs are crazy, the kids are crazy… so everyone’s happy.
Dad joke of the day:
Yesterday we had all Mum’s children and grandchildren and most of their partners at Mum’s house for a massive clearout of both inside and outside. It was a BIG day. Mum and Dad bought the house brand new in 1960, for the huge price of 6,000 pounds. The kids looked ill when we said this. “That wouldn’t even be enough for a deposit now!” said my niece.
Mum and Dad had a lot of stuff, and they were against anything resembling Swedish Death Cleaning, so it’s been a mammoth task to get the interior to a stage where we could have the kids over to choose keepsakes. They weren’t hoarders, but they’d had 65 years to cram every cupboard and drawer full, while Dad’s garage and other areas of the property were, again, crammed as full of stuff as he could get them.
As you can see, Kate and I spent ages laying out all the things in each room, (all the while chucking out the garbage stuff.) We’re getting collectables like Dad’s watches and model cars valued, but everything else was up for grabs. Mum’s kids have already been through and we’ve taken what we would like, so now it was the grandkids’ turn.
First, we stayed inside. Mum gave the 4 granddaughters her special jewellery and told them the stories behind it all, and there were tears all round. Then we went from room to room, and the grandkids took what they wanted. If more than one person wanted an item, they threw a die to see who got it. Closest to 6 won. This made it fun and stopped any possible bad feelings.
We kept most of Mum’s art in the second bedroom. Everyone went home with multiple paintings that she’d created over the years. We didn’t roll the dice with this room. Everyone took art that spoke to them, and it was lovely when they’d come out and show Mum which ones they’d selected.
Then, they moved outside to clear out the garage, behind the garage and the sideway. Everywhere, Dad had stored Riley car parts and other items of junk that he thought might be useful someday. It was a nightmare. However, with 13 people working like the clappers, they got rid of an astonishing amount of stuff. Two skips were full by the end of the day and my BIL’s trailer was piled high with car parts to take to the metal place.
I didn’t help outside. I was cooking snags and handing out sausages and bread to whoever walked past. Then, I was keeping Mum in her wheelchair company so she didn’t feel low, and doing various other bits and bobs.
Three guys from the Riley Club came over in the afternoon and helped with the sorting of the car parts, so we knew what to keep for future sales and what to throw into the trailer.
As we left at the end of the day, the skips were surrounded by people taking stuff. Someone had the good idea to put the good stuff (aka op shop donations) on the front lawn, and it was all gone. This saved my sister and me hours of work!
It was such a productive day! Four of us are going back on Monday to finish the job, so I’ll get my hands dirty with car parts etc then. A couple, walking past as I was getting into my car, asked if the house was going up for sale. I said, “Yes, in the new year.” They said they’d be interested.
It all went beautifully. Many hands certainly do make light work.
In other news, Thermomix has released a new model and they have a trade-in sale. I’ll never get rid of my trusty tm31, which I bought 12 years ago, but I wasn’t in love with the tm5. When I saw that I could get $500 off a new one by sending back the tm5, I thought about it for a while and decided to take advantage of the offer.
My sister is a consultant, so she got my business. I didn’t tell her I was going to do it… I went on the website and placed the order, naming her as my consultant. “I wonder how long it’ll take her to see this?” I said to Georgia.
Ten minutes later, the phone rang. “Hello, I’m Kate. I understand you’re interested in buying a thermomix. I’ll be your consultant.”
I laughed. “Gee, that didn’t take long!”
I have to say, the tech has certainly advanced. This latest model is very intuitive. I’ve only used it once… we were so tired yesterday we got fish and chips for dinner, but I think I’m going to enjoy using it very much.
In puppy news, Hazel is growing like a weed. She is terrific at “sit” and “stay”, house training is going very well, but the rule about leaving sticks outside is proving more difficult for her to grasp. She and Scout play together all the time, though Scout reserves the right to tell her off if she’s annoying.
Fair enough, too.
Dad joke of the day:
Have I posted this photo of Georgia before? Isn’t she pretty?
Here are some more pretty girls.
Another week with Hazel sees my decor being transformed into a forest scene. She loves bringing sticks in from the garden. Scout has now decided to allow Hazel to sleep overnight with her in the big dog bed in my room, which is wonderful. A couple of times, though, Scout has snuck out in the wee hours and I wake to the sound of toenails on the wooden floor, and a little snag asking to be picked up to sleep on my bed. She needs a break from puppiness every now and then.
Today Kate and I are spending time at Mum’s place to sort through Dad’s ‘office’. It’s full of his memorabilia and hundreds of model cars. One of my jobs is to get them valued. I can’t wait until all of this is done. It’s such a drag when there are books to be read and puppies to play with.
Centrelink has finally assessed Mum’s estate to see how much she has to put towards her care at Bonbeach. Holy shit – it’s a LOT of money each month. I wouldn’t mind except that it seems a bit sad that after scrimping and scraping for decades so that they wouldn’t be a burden on society, she’s now having to pay a fortune for the same care that a person who’d spent every penny they ever earned would get for free.
I wish in years gone by that they had given some money to the grandkids to reduce their estate a bit. The kids are at the ages when they could do with some help, and it would have made Mum’s care slightly more affordable. It’s too late now – gifts are strictly capped by the government, so giving money away isn’t going to help Mum out.
Still, it’s her money, and paying for her care is the most important thing to spend it on. She had another fall yesterday, but we dodged another bullet as she didn’t hurt herself. Her mobility has decreased with astounding rapidity. The nursing home staff are now putting her in a wheelchair to avoid the chances of another fall. Her legs are getting too weak, so I’ve booked regular physio appointments for her to hopefully get some strength back into them.
My sewing room is stuffed full of Mum’s papers, but yesterday I forced myself to go in there and cut out some fabric for a baby quilt for an ex-student. Stay tuned… the baby is already 4 months old, so I need to get cracking. It’ll be a teddy bear. I want to do some sewing every day, as I have a few quilts in the pipeline that I want to make.
Well, I’d better get off the laptop and get ready to go to Mum’s place. That office isn’t going to sort itself!
Dad joke of the day:
I’m typing this as two little dogs are sleeping beside me, happily digesting their breakfasts. Well, Scout’s beside me, but Hazel has decided that her optimum sleeping position is on my outstretched legs, so she’s on my legs. I’m not sure how well this is going to go as she gets bigger, but that’s Future Hazel and Frogdancer’s problem to work out.
Life is pretty quiet here, with such a young puppy in the place. She meets new people every day – Mum’s nursing home is great for that – and Scout has learned to stick up for herself when Hazel gets a bit too much for her. Hazel has an intense love for a good stick to chew on, so between that and the pot plant she dragged from one end of the house to the other, she’s bringing the outside in.
Her breeder has taught her to SIT. I discovered this a few days ago when I decided that she should learn to sit for her meals. When I issued the command, she promptly sat. I’m sure it wasn’t my delivery, so I sent a quiet ‘thanks’ to her breeder.
I’m so pleased I impulsively bought her. I’ve missed having a Cavalier, and every time I see that Cavalier head, I’m happy. I’m not saying she’s an unmixed blessing, though. She wakes once every night and I have to take her out to the garden, where she hunts snails and obligingly goes to the toilet. She goes straight back to sleep again, which is amazingly good. Unfortunately, she’s a bit like Macbeth in that she murders sleep for me for an hour or two afterwards. She’s very good at the housetraining, which is a big thing for me. With both puppies and humans, house/toilet training and introducing solid foods were always the biggest chores.
I’ve planted a few things in the veggie garden, but I don’t know how terrific a gardener I’ll be this summer, as Mum’s financial affairs and the organisation of Dad’s estate continue to loom large. Also, she’s not doing particularly well physically, with a few falls and an increasing intellectual detachment from everyday concerns. She loves it when I bring in the dogs to see her, but she’s not using her hearing aids all the time and that, of course, leads to less and less engagement with what’s going on around her.
Dad’s been gone for 5 months now. It’s a bit scary to see her decline in that time, though thankfully, she’s eating REALLY well. No one wants to see another parent starve themselves to death. We’re doing everything we can to make life interesting again for her, though now that she’s been told to use a wheelchair every time she wants to get around, it limits what we can do. She used to be such a one for going on long walks, but it appears those days are over.
Kate and I have nearly finished clearing out the house. There are lots of things laid out for the grandchildren to choose from as keepsake items for themselves, and we’ve scheduled a working bee in a few weeks to Get Things Done. We’ll be hiring skips and clearing out the garage and down the side of the house, where Dad stored a tonne of car parts. Mum has 8 grandchildren, so they may as well put themselves to use. Many hands, as they say.
My cousin is coming to visit tomorrow, which will be nice. Another new person for Hazel to charm!
Dad joke of the day:
Well, it’s been a week and Hazel has settled in beautifully. Scout, once her mouth settled after having 5 teeth extracted on Monday, has discovered that it’s really fun to have a little sister to play with. Poppy and Jeff weren’t ones for playing doggie games.
David32 and Izzy popped in to meet her yesterday and the dogs were doing zoomies and wrestling on the lawn for ages. Scout had her “happy” face on, which, after the cavaliers died last year, hasn’t been seen overly much. It’s making us so happy to see Scout so happy.
Yesterday I rang Dad’s best friend from the Riley Club to talk about selling Dad’s cars. Unfortunately, even though Dad’s vintage and veteran cars are so beautiful, none of us three kids is in a position to keep them, so they have to be sold before we can then sell Mum’s house. Nothing was done while I was away for 6 weeks, so clearly it’s my job to get things moving with the estate. To be honest, I’m tired of thinking about it all, so this coming week I’ll be looking for watch valuers and model car valuers, as well as starting to advertise the cars.
Ugh. But it has to be done. Kate said that she can see Dad wringing his hands in anguish at the thought of his precious cars and the contents of his garage being removed, but my attitude is a lot less sentimental. Mum is the one who has to be taken care of now, so I just want to get the job done.
The garden is coming along. We had a ton of rain last night, so things will be leaping up from the grund in a day or two. I went to Bunnings last week and now I have tomatoes, zucchinis, cucumbers and lots of self-sown silver beet and lettuce. So much for nt planting anything much this year!
Dad joke of the day:
Dancing With Frogs 