Scatterday J - Week 10

Hmmmm...... The letter J and categories Pointy Things, Restaurants and Sports, eh?

Could our challenge-setters have made our task any more difficult, I wonder?

It never ceases to confound me how, no matter how crowded my week, I can always find time to produce my Scatterday photo mosaic, and this week I've again (only the Lord knows how!) risen to the task.

These pieces of jewellery are rather pointy things - pair of marcasite clips and my Weight Watchers star pin.

Jonah's restaurant at Whale Beach, north of Sydney, was where my step-mother-in-law arranged for the three of us to fly, in a tiny seaplane, for an absolutely outstanding 60th birthday lunch for Boak this year. Here we are, trying not to be too distracted by the spectacular rocks and seascape in the background as we attempt to choose from the menu. I know there's no signage in the photo, so you'll just have to trust me. You do, don't you?

Finally, sport and I share but a nodding acquaintance. However I do own and love these pink-trimmed joggers and you can't tell me they aren't essential equipment for dozens of sporty activities. They may never have been actually used for jogging, but they have pounded the pavements of Rome and Palermo and kept my tootsies comfortable along the way.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Would you believe my dear father is 84 years old today? I'd love his secret for looking so young, wouldn't you?

Nothing wrong with his 'puff' either! Happy birthday, Daddy, and we all wish you many, many more.

Scatterday P - Week 9

Here you go - All three categories wrapped up in one photo!

RED - Alexanne is sporting her favourite red pants.
SWEET THINGS - She's our Princess, of course!
METAL - In her chubby little hands is a Georg Jensen stainless steel pen holder.

Nice, eh?

However, lest you label me lazy, and begin to pelt me with post boxes, poppies, pavlovas, passionfruit, peaches, posts, pipes, and other sundry objects, for not keeping to the rules, here is my mosaic.

RED - An assortment of red packets from my pantry.

SWEET THINGS - A pear.

METAL - A potato masher.

I'll try to be a good girl next week - but I'm not making any promises!

My birthday

While the actual day was yesterday, the children (Lachy and Merry, Ben and Sunny, and Sarah) arranged a splendid family dinner for tonight - with plenty of pink flowers! - to celebrate my birthday.

The menu was special - Korean barbecue, lovingly and authentically prepared by Sunny, followed by chocolate mud cake and berries presented with great style by Sarah, complete with sparklers. Yummmmmmm!

Thank you, everyone - I've had a wonderful time!

Nana and Pa get a visit from Alexanne

Alexanne, Sunny and I enjoyed a lovely visit with my parents - her great-grandparents - today.

When it was time for her to have lunch she sat in this very special little chair which has been in our family for 5 - maybe even 6 - generations. Following on from his father, Pa used it when he was a tiny tot (some 84 years ago) and Alexanne thoroughly enjoyed her little throne! Over the years the chair has undergone many colour changes, and now Pa has decided to paint it pink for our little Princess.

Here is our very proud Pa with his tiny great-granddaughter. And below is an equally proud Nana. What a blessed little girl she is!

Scatterday F - Week 8

Scatterday F - Week 8
Originally uploaded by dijobbins

Cold Things - For this one I delved into my photo archives. This was Christ Church, Oxford, on a freezing November morning in 2005, covered in crisp white frost, and enveloped in a chilly grey fog. In spite of the cold was absolutely enchanting!

Signs - Once I started looking, I was spoilt for choice here. Signs on my local shops (Food to Go, Flight Centre, Fresh Salad, Florist), a real estate For Sale sign outside a block of units in my street, and the Ferry Link sign at the bus stop. Couldn't choose one, so I've given you the lot!

The Elements - Fire, one of the four Greek classical elements. A no-brainer! (Gosh, I'm glad the letter wasn't Z!)

Happy Anniversary - and Congratulations!

It's hard to believe, but on Wednesday this week (10th) Lachy and Merry will have been married for a whole year. They wed on 10/10/06, on the 10th anniversary of their first date, in a romantic late afternoon ceremony in a harbourside park at the end of our street, and we had the reception in a marquee in our garden. Happy Anniversary, darlings!

Last Wednesday we were very excited to read an article on Jack Kerouac that Lachy had published in The Australian Literary Review. He has studied Kerouac and his writings in considerable depth over many years, and wrote his BA Honours thesis on him, so Lachy is something of an expert on Kerouac and the Beat writers. What prompted him to write his current article is the publication of the original version of "On The Road".

Here's what Lachy says:
"As you know, I’ve been reading and thinking about Kerouac and the Beats for many years. I wrote my honours thesis on On the Road and Visions of Cody, and Kerouac is one of my major inspirations. The recent 50th anniversary of the publication of On the Road has seen the release of Kerouac’s original scroll – the 120 foot long single-spaced strip of paper on which he wrote the first complete draft of the book in April 1951. The novel we have known as On the Road is actually quite different from the 1951 version, which is more of a memoir, with real names and real events. It isn’t as ‘literary’ as the 1957 version, but in many ways it surpasses it, if nothing else for the experience of that one, relentless, 300 page paragraph. If you haven’t read Kerouac before, or if you haven’t read him in a while, I would thoroughly recommend you pick up a copy of the new edition."

If you are interested in reading his article, click on the link above.

Scatterday C - Week 7

Scatterday C - Week 7
Originally uploaded by dijobbins

This week Scatterday is brought to you by the letter C, and the categories Furniture, Pizza Toppings and Hobbies. A really nice one!

Furniture - My favourite chair, from my bedroom. Of course it's pink.

Pizza topping - A big knob of mozzarella cheese. Yummmmm!

Hobbies - This is a detail from a cross stitch I created of a house we lived in for 10 years. Cross stitch can be so relaxing - though I don't do much these days.