I Have A Story

I have a story I need to tell, it is wrapped up tight inside my heart, but it needs to come out. I don't think I can do it here because the person I will write about would hate that. But I am thinking of another blog - a private one - maybe I would invite a few people to see it when it is finished, or maybe earlier, but I don't know. Has anyone else got a private blog that no one else is invited to read? Did you have one that started that way but then you opened it up to the world, or just some invited guests. How did it make you feel?

I just know I need to tell it, if not for me, for the person it is about, so that they understand.

Sentimental Sundays With An Anzac Day Twist

Last November when visiting my hubby's Aunty (one of my 'sisters') I was overwhelmed when she offered me this ring. It belonged to her mother, hubby's Nanna, who we both adored. That in itself left me speechless and almost in tears. Then she told me the story behind the ring.

Her father had bought the stone home from the Middle East during WWII (she thinks it was in a brooch) when he returned from his tour of duty before heading off to New Guinea. Later they had it made into a ring. I don't know what the stone is, possibly a topaz or citrine and one day I will have it assessed so that I know. But even if it is just glass, it still will always have a special place in my heart.

I never got to meet my hubby's grandfather. He committed suicide when J was nearly 9 and my hubby was 4. They were together when they found him in the back shed. A bond that no two children should have to share.

I asked my father-in-law who was 18 years older then J, and knew more about what had happened post-war, about his Dad when I found out about how he died when doing some family research. It seems he never got over the war and what he saw and possibly did. He was a hairdresser who enlisted to help his country. He served in the Middle East and New Guinea - I can't imagine the horrors he must have seen, which obviously stayed with him. I believe he loved his wife and 3 children very much, but one day it all became too much for him to bear and so he chose to leave.

My ex-father-in-law, was also a WWII veteran, and I remember being told how all those years later when I first met him, he was still occasionally having nightmares about it all.

I don't know if it is any easier for men and women who choose to serve in the armed forces and train to do so, but it certainly does not seem that it was easy for those that were either conscripted or volunteered to help their country.

So when I look and wear this beautiful ring, my heart will be touched by sadness and by love.

Ted, Beryl and baby Eddie (my f-i-l) in 1932

Lest We Forget 2010

They shall not grow old, as we who are left grow old.

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.

Lest we forget.

As posted before here Anzac Day touches my heart with sadness at the lives lost, it touches my heart with gladness for a country saved through the sacrifices of so many men and women. It is beyond my comprehension that so many lives have been lost in war. Not just the lives of Australian and New Zealanders, but men and women and children on both sides of war. The hope in my heart is for peace all over the world, for acceptance of people for who they are no matter what their religion or the colour of their skin. I wish there was a way that all the peoples of the earth could have enough to eat, enough land, enough money to survive. I wish the world was free of dictators and the greedy who through their actions mean wars still happen. It may be a vain wish, but it is my wish. As Australians let us always remember the sacrifices made for us by so many. Lest we forget.

She Returns

My Esperance Trip - A Quick Reflection

Day 1: Fly to Esperance, get ripped off by the Taxi driver and can you believe they don't take Credit Cards!!! Check into motel. Find room, why do they always smell so much - sweet sickly carpet cleaner or something - phew, not good for people like me with allergies.

Day 2: Get picked up by my wonderful colleague and drive to Stokes National Park - all up that day we did around 450 kms. Ended the day with deep sand 4WDriving, towards sunset, on the boundary of the national park. Next to us is a large farm, its paddocks full of grey kangaroos - think I lost count at around 40. Hard work trying to stay in my seat as we rocketed through deep white sand - apparently the way not to get bogged is to go fast - who would have thought. Ended up at the coast overlooking the majestic southern ocean, truly breathtaking - shame about the trip back down the sand track in the dark - watchful for roos, luckily they heard and saw us coming and hopped out of our way in lots of time. An 11 hour day - but what fun.

Day 3: Get picked up and off to Cape Le Grand and Cape Arid National Parks - we drove on the hard white sand flanked by aqua ocean for miles. Saw so many birds - Pacific Gulls, Crested Terns, Hooded Plover, Red Capped Plovers, Pied Oystercatchers, Sooty Oystercatchers, Silver Gulls - what a job, bliss. Amazed by the granite outcrops meeting the ocean. The white 'squeaky' sand beaches, the aqua ocean, the friendliness of staff I meet. Encounter with a carpet python right on the beach. Saddened by the dying banksia, struck down by Dieback, that is slowly working its way through our Parks. 30kms of corrugated track out to Poison Creek, lunch on the beach, more birds, fish jumping in the creek just before it makes it way into the ocean. Then 30kms back on the same road - reckon I lost cms off my bum - isn't that how those vibration machines work. More kangaroos and then some emus. Soaring wedge-tailed eagles. 650kms today.

Day 4: Off to Peak Charles National Park, miles of bitumen road before we turn off and drive down more dirt roads - through mud, over corrugation but most pretty good. Peak Charles and Peak Eleanora loom in the distance. Driving through woodlands now, salmon gums, then gimlet with it's bronzed stems, lots of mallee. Some very wet patches on the way out, a river crossing, then miles of straight road. Back to town to check out the Nature Reserves surrounding the 3 lakes, more dieback here, beautiful grey paperbarks fringing the lake edge. 450 kms today.

Day 5: A day in the office to debrief before flying back to Perth. Arrive late, very tired and glad to be home. My darling hubby has bought KAZZOOM to the airport so I could drive home in my little black beauty. Purring down the highway with no bumps in sight - bliss.

Day 1 : the beaches of Stokes NP (below)

Day 2 : Driving along beach to Cape Le Grand NP (below)

Encounter with carpet python at Hellfire Bay

Hellfire Bay

Death - Dieback disease

Death : wildfire Hellfire Bay

Old Man Banksia

Life : healthy banksia speciosa - stunning

Nature's sculpture : Cape Le Grand NP

Hakea laurina : also susceptible to dieback

Birth : Hakea laurina in stages of opening



Day 3: Peak Charles (below)

Peak Charles and Peak Eleanora

Salmon gums and gimlet

Day 3 : wetlands

Death : banksia sculpture against the grey evening sky

Paperbark sentinels

Hitting The Road Again

image : fotosearch.com

Well tomorrow morning bright and early I start the journey to Esperance on WA's South Coast. Working there on exterior design for our National Parks. This trip involves me travelling around to the various NPs in and around Esperance, taking photos, getting a feel for the environment - working out sign placements and then flying home to do up the suggested colour palettes over the next couple of weeks.

While I am looking forward to getting out the office, so to speak, it really is not a good time as work is flat out.

My anxiety is at full throttle as I don't really know any of the staff down there, apart from the guy who will be driving me around, and I have only met him once for about 30 mins. Still I am sure I will be fine once I get there. I just need to keep telling myself that.

So if I have Internet access at the hotel you may see me commenting on your blogs, if I don't then there will be a lot of reading for me to catch up on next weekend.

I will set the next Muse Wars when I return - hope you can wait that long.

An update on my son, he is doing well, now back at work, although working reduced hours for a few days. Thanks again to everyone who left such supportive and caring comments. They really did help my heart to feel uplifted.

See you on the flip side.