Sunday Selections #606

 

 

 

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files. 

Huge thanks to Cie who gave me this wonderful Sunday Selections image. 

The meme was then continued by River at Drifting through life.  Sadly she has now stepped aside (though she will join us some weeks), and I have accepted the mantle. 

 

The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to me. Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen.

 

I usually run with a theme.  This week I am focusing on gratitude.  When I first started to explore in the blogosphere more than a decade ago I had no idea what benefits it would bring me.  And I have been blown away.  I have met some other bloggers (and loved them).  Some of you I will almost certainly never meet, and it doesn't matter.  So many of you have become very dear to me.

I also have some physical demonstrations of just how supportive and generous bloggers have been.  I have been sent cards.  I have been sent gifts, carefully chosen to match my interests/obsessions.  Some things that people have made I have fallen in love with and purchased.

I am in awe at the talent and creativity I have found here.  You have enriched my life (and our home).  Many, many thanks.

Sadly Batty and Odie are still unwell.  If they don't make a dramatic turn around we will be back at the vet on Monday.  

So I have (of course) turned to the garden for comfort.

 

These orchids are thriving (and spreading) in a number of places in the garden.  Which makes me happy.

Thank you again for the many, many benefits I receive from your friendship and your blogs.  I hope your week is packed with joy.

Oh.

Last week I published my entry to the WEP Challenge for December:  Holiday Celebrations that are out of this world.

Today I learned that I won. 
Flabber-smacked and Gob-Ghasted doesn't begin to cover it.
There were so many talented authors who contributed.

A HUGE thank you to Denise Covey and Yolanda Renee for the safe and welcoming place for us to flex our muscles.
An equally HUGE thank you to Alex J. Cavanaugh who judged the challenge.
And thank you to everyone who participated and/or commented.

Please swing by here and congratulate everyone - and read all the entries if you haven't yet done so.  They were all winners, as is anyone lucky enough to read them.

Sundays Selections #221

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files. 

The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.  Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen.

Like River I usually run with a theme.  This week?  Gratitude.

Thank you one and all for your comments and messages of support.  They have meant an immense amount to me.

Himself has reverted to type and his recovery is not smooth or without complications.  There has been a trip to Intensive Care, and he now has fluid on the lungs.  Not much fluid I am assured.  But still.  He is not breathing easily and even the slightest exertion makes him breathless.  Just the same there are some signs of improvement and fortunately no date for his return home has been set.  He has been sent home too early from other hospital trips and I don't want him home until the only direction he is going is up.

In the midst of the chaos, the worry, the fatigue there has also been beauty.  For which I am thankful.  Very thankful.

At home.

Eastern Rosella

Cockatoo

Corella

young Currawong

And in the sky.

Gorgeous, one and all.

Grounding and Gratitude.

Since late  2012 I have been a collaborator at Vision and Verb.  A part of me has felt that I have been there under false pretences since I don't have a fraction of the talents of the other 'women of a certain age' who contribute there.  I have been in awe at the posts, and have grown very, very fond of the other participants.  Sadly, Vision and Verb will be closing down at the end of this month. though I will continue to stalk stay in touch with those talented women.

In my last post for them, I finished by saying how much I had gained from the other contributors.  Which is true.  But applies equally to all of the people I have found in the blogosphere.

So I am reposting my final post for Vision and Verb here.  And that final paragraph applies to the people who visit me here just as much as it does to the global collaborators from Vision and Verb.  Thank you so very much.

Grounding.

A few weekends ago I was working myself into a frazzle, running from pillar to post battling with a huge and self imposed to-do list.   Each time I crossed something off the list, I would add another two (or three) things.  It was manifestly impossible, and I was beating up on myself for failing to work miracles.  All my muscles hurt and I alternated between the urge to burst into sobs or to snarl.

Rain was forecast and working in the garden was on the list.  As the skies darkened I snatched up my gardening tools and rushed outside.

And stopped, dropped the garden implements and came inside for my camera.

As I looked down the valley at the play of light on the clouds and at the trees glowing I could feel the tension running down my body and into the earth - which has a much broader and stronger back than I do.  With each breath of appreciation I could feel my soul ease.  Yes, I did do some gardening, but then I came inside and consigned the list to the bin.

Where it belonged.

And, the comfort I got from the skies that day, mirrors the comfort and support I have found here.  Thank you one and all.  Since I took my first tentative steps here I have been supported and encouraged.  You have, all of you, enriched my world.  Thank you.

He is home...

Thank you so much for all your supportive comments and emails.  They have meant a lot.

On Wednesday I went to visit.  He was on oxygen, a drip, and had a catheter and a drainage tube installed.  They had just promoted him from ice and water, to clear fluids.  And told me that they intended to send him home the next day.  The drainage tube could be removed some time next week.

Lemon-lipped doesn't begin to describe how that made me feel.  Ballistic with anger/disbelieving/teary/overwhelmed.  All of the above.

I considered simply refusing to come in and pick him up.  With no money, no clothes and no keys it would have been interesting to see the hospital's solution.

Somehow the idea that it might be a touch premature percolated into their grey matter.  So they kept him for Thursday, subject to review on Friday.

This morning, they were balanced on the fence.
 ' Maybe he can go home, maybe we will keep him for another day'.  'We will take out the drainage tube and see...'

When I went in at the start of visiting hours, the drainage tube was still in place (draining freely and copiously).  He was still on oxygen and he still had a cannula in his arm.  He had been told his diet was unrestricted.  Progress of a sort.

It took three staff to remove the drainage tube.  When they let me back into the cubicle they were telling him that he would need to keep a careful watch to ensure that it didn't become infected, back up with fluid behind the incision, ooze pus, become painful (more painful?), become red and swollen...
'If it does any of those things you can see your general practitioner.'
 'There is a three day wait to get in to see her.'
'Oh, perhaps in that case you could ring the hospital...'

Which we most definitely will.

Over the next hour they took him off oxygen and put him back on it.  They made him walk and cough.  They removed the cannula.  They took him off oxygen again.  And announced he was free to go and that they had someone coming into his bed shortly.
 'And if you wait downstairs, we have prescribed medication to go home on.  The wait might be several hours...'

He was already an attractive grey colour, so I negotiated for the ability to pick up the medication for him later in the day and got him home.

When I rang a couple of hours later to check they assured me the medication was ready, so I went back in.  They lied.  It was nearly ready.

There are still quite a number of unresolved questions.  He has an appointment in the surgeon's rooms in four weeks time.  At that appointment we will not be fobbed off with flunkies, or given a scanty 75 seconds of the important man's time.  I will get answers, and I will indicate deficiencies in the treatment he/we received.  And, if necessary I will go further.  And further.  Which will make the skinny one cringe.  Tough.

On a much nicer note, over the next few days I hope to be able to visit your blogs again.  Thank you again for your support and your patience.  It has meant a lot.

  

Come Howl with me...

Last Saturday the lovely Gary from Klahanie stunned me (think gob and smacked, flabber and ghasted) with the Semper Fidelis Award. Gary epitomises loyalty and support.  Consequently I don't think a week goes by without him receiving a richly deserved award or six.  I was very honoured by his gesture, and will ALWAYS be happy to dance beneath the moon with him.

Needless to say, the award comes with rules/conditions.

1 :  Add the Semper Fidelis Award logo somewhere on your blog.
2:  Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog.
3 :  Nominate five bloggers whose loyalty, friendship you value and you consider being part of your "pack of wolves".
4 :  Post something special for each one of your nominees and dedicate it to them.  Such as a quote, saying, poem, picture.  Anything you think would pertain to that person.
5 :  Let the nominees know that you've nominated them. 

The first two conditions are easy-peasy.  Done and dusted.

And then the difficulties begin.  I have been blown away by the magic and the wonderful people I have found in the blogosphere.

Each and every day.  I am educated about a wide range of things.  I have wept with and for other bloggers.  I have laughed with other bloggers - sometimes until I wept.

I am shown beauty.  Beautiful creations, and beautiful people.  I am in awe at the many talents that lurk here.  There are writers by the score (and drat them I succumb to their wiles).  There are painters, poets, ceramicists, photographers, makers of books...  I am shown birds, animals and gardens which make me drool.  I have been invited to play on other people's blogs - and have had a heap of fun doing so.  Not only have I been shown beauty, I have been given it too and in some cases I have been allowed to buy it, and bring it into the eclectic clutter I call home.  I have met and loved two bloggers, and would sacrifice small unimportant body parts if I could meet a few other special people.  (Preferably not my body parts.)

Some of you share one or more of my obsessions.  Others have introduced me to their own.  It is such a privilege to be invited into your homes, hearts and minds.  You have supported me while I have whinged, bitched and moaned during difficult periods in my life.  Some of you have been here at my back through my whole journey in the blogosphere, and others I have found more recently.   

You can see my problem can't you?  How can I limit myself to five bloggers.  Fifty-five bloggers wouldn't be enough.  So I am going to cheat a little.  I value you all - more than I have the words to adequately express.  So...  if any of you would like this award to call your own (and I know that some of you don't do awards) please, feel free to pick it up and run with it.

This is for all of you.  Come dance and howl with me - under the moon, the stars and the sky.

 YOU BRIGHTEN MY DAYS

 YOU ENRICH MY WORLD

 

Warmth and Wonder in the Blogosphere.

I hope you are comfortable with your beverage of choice beside you.  This post is going to be on the long side.  There will be a kazillion links which of course you can ignore.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.  I cannot tell you how much your comments on my last post and your supportive emails have meant- except to say that they have frequently moved me to tears very different from the ones of rage, pain and self pity I have been indulging in.  I am humbled by your support, and the fact that some of you have kept coming back to see how I was.  Did I say thank you yet?

When I started playing in the blogosphere in February of last year, I had don't think I had any idea what blogging meant, and what it would bring into my life.  I have been entertained and educated.  I have wept with you and laughed with you.  I have been shown creations of amazing beauty and creativity.  Some of you share one or more of my obsessions.

I have met two bloggers in the flesh - and loved them both.  One lives in my city and the other one did, and returns for child minding duties.  I have made friends with bloggers around the world.  Deep and meaningful friendships with people I may never meet, but cherish just the same. 

And, as if those blogging benefits were not enough, I have received cards from around the world, I have won prizes, I have been given so many things by so many people and I have bought items of beauty made by very talented artists.

From Gemma, who also often sends me emails of support I received this card.

This card came from Becky - an author who has been very, very busy getting her book ready for publication.

And this is one of several cards I have received from Kim - a woman who, when faced with an appalling family tragedy, is finding ways to ensure that others are not forced to grieve as she does.  You rock Kim.

I mentioned that I have won things...

I received this wonderful cookbook from Delores, a gesture made even more wonderful since although her diet is restricted she is not a vegetarian - much less a vegan.  This was a prize I won for essentially cheating.  She wanted us to guess what she and her husband would eat, beginning with the letter X.  I had no idea and said it would be eXtreme and eXtraordinary. 

This gem was also a little deserved prize for reading and commenting at a blog whose posts I always greet with glee.

And on Monday the post person delighted me yet again.  I have always admired the works of this ceramic artist and have offered to buy several pieces.  Instead - for the cost of a donation to the Starlight Foundation this beautiful, beautiful bowl arrived at my door.  A very small price to pay.  Done and done.

Another artist who showers me with gifts can be found here.  The cards below are hand made, as is the book which makes me smile each time (often) that I pick it up.

Copperwitch, knowing of my love of penguins sent me this wonderful brooch.  It arrived at a low point in my life in the middle of the skinny portion's surgery earlier this year.  She tells me that the blogging penguin is the one facing in the opposite direction - which makes sense to me.

Ginnie and Marcie gave me the gift of trust and, showing much more confidence in me than I have, invited me to blog with them every three weeks.  Some very, very talented women blog at Vision and Verb.  

There are also objects which caught my magpie's eye so that I immediately fell in love/lust and had to have them.  These are some of the things I have bought from very, very talented people.

Sadly, Two Tigers has suspended her participation in the blogosphere for a little while.  I hope that she returns - but even more I hope that she is enjoying life.  I have now bought prints of several of her photographs - and love them all.

All Consuming faces significant health issues of her own.  Despite this she is a talented jewellery maker and, among other things, posts photographs of her most recent work on her blog.  She listened to my less than subtle hints and started making earrings (one of my obsessions).  I have now bought two pairs - and have been given another two.

A couple of months ago yet another talented artist posted a painting which she called Mouselini.  It reminded me strongly of a cat who loved and was loved by the skinny portion.  So naturally I bought it as a gift for him.  He saw the striking resemblance (WhiteCat was a bit of a thug and not a pretty cat) and also fell in love with the painting.

And finally a painting I fell in love with when it was put up as a work in progress .  I loved it then, and I love it now that it is hanging in our lounge room.  I smile as I go past, and I have prevented Jazz from rubbing his snotty nose on its corners.

Yes, I am still in pain.  Yes, bits of me don't work as they should (or at all really) and my mind has gone out to lunch without inviting me.  I still weep, but it is past time that I made my wobbly way forward again.

And you, the miracles of the blogosphere, have a great deal to do with this decision.  You uplift my spirits, you touch my heart, you enrich our home.

Thank you.

An Update and Thank you all

Thank you all so much.  I cannot tell you how much your words of support have meant.

The Smaller Portion was operated on this morning.  He had to be at the hospital at 6 this morning and was warned that tardiness would cost him his place in the queue.  This meant real suffering for someone whose preference is to spring out of bed at the crack of noon.  With the help of his sister we were there on time.  Early even.

An incredibly convoluted admission process followed.  First he had to complete two forms.  Having done so, he was told to sit down in the waiting room.  Then they called his name again and issued him with stunning hospital wear including stockings, booties and a very fetching cap.  Having donned it he was told to sit down in the waiting room.  Where we waited.  And waited.  Then he was called again and had to complete another form, have his blood pressure taken and a sample vial of his blood taken.  Then, you guessed it, he was told to return to the waiting room. 

Finally he was called again, asked more questions and told to climb onto a hospital bed.  As they wheeled him off to the theatre I asked if they could ring me when the operation was finished, and tell me the outcome.  'Maybe.'  'Perhaps it is better if you ring the Patient Enquiries number at 10.30'

Which I did.  To be told he was still in theatre and to ring back in an hour.  Which I did to get the same response.  When I rang back at 12.30 I was told that he was in Recovery and would be for at least an hour and a half.  And to ring back.  And no, I couldn't talk to anyone in Recovery.  I finally established he was in a ward just before three.  The phone rang out the first time I tried to talk to them.  The second time, the phone was answered and I was told he wasn't there.  I said he was.  'Oh, yes so he is.'  Further interrogation reveals that he has had an ileostomy.  Sadness.  Both of us hoped it wouldn't be necessary.

So his sister and I decided the hospital has stuffed us around quite enough for one day and we would go and see him.  And the rotten remote for the car refused to function and consequently the car refused to move.  I got out the teeny weeny screwdriver set and got to work.  Nothing was going to stop me.  And it didn't.

When I got to the ward and went to see him he asked me what had happened.  THE ROTTEN FESTERS HADN'T TOLD HIM.  Oh joy, oh bliss.

I have had a glass of red wine and may have another.  I have told his sister (who has been nothing but helpful and who I wish to Jericho) that there are vegetable noodles for dinner.  If she would prefer something else she is free to forage.

Thank you all once again.

Friendly Blogger Award

The lovely River passed this accolade onto me this morning. River herself epitomises friendly and nice, as was illustrated by her distress earlier this week when she had thrown a very mild hissy fit at someone who had been ungracious, rude and just plain mean to her.  Anyone who was less nice than River would have ripped him a new intimate aperture and rejoiced in his discomfort.

To accept this, all I have to do is link back to River, then award this to other bloggers that I think deserve it.

I have been brooding about this on and off all day. I have been very fortunate since I started playing in the Blogosphere earlier this year.  I have been welcomed and met with friendliness, kindness and support on all sides.  People commenting on my blog have also been, (with one exception) very friendly.   The exception firmly believed that she was commenting on someone's elses blog and, since I pointed that out, has not been back.  A blogger who disagreed with me (not at all the same thing as being nasty) has become a friend.

I love the glimpses of other people's lives I have been given.  Many blogs are filled with beauty.  Others educate me.  Some entertain me.  Others do all three.  I am in awe at the creativity of people around me.  I have met one wonderful blogger, and corresponded with others.  How can I possibly complain?

Essentially what I am saying is that I cannot nominate any particular bloggers for this award.  If I visit you, or you visit me, consider yourself a recipient of  the Friendly Blogger Award.

And thank you.

Yesterday's Treat(s)

Yesterday while having breakfast we were watching a cocky having his.

And then, having finally got all the bulbs that have been delivered in the ground, we had an outing.  And went somewhere I love.

Lake Burley Griffin is about half an hours drive from us and there are frequently greedy swans and kangaroos to be seen.  So we packed some bread up, took my camera and headed off.

We were mugged.  They couldn't get to us or the bread fast enough and were not gentle taking food from fingers.  The swans appeared to be the bully boys and were not letting the magpies, crows or moor hens get any food.  And when we threw it further away the swans chased after it, honking indignantly.  I think at one stage we were surrounded by eight swans.

And then we wandered about 100 yards away to this:

I think that only cats relax more thoroughly than kangaroos.   And I am so often grateful to live in the bush capital and have treats like this readily available.