60 Years Ago Today

It is 60 years ago today since my parents were married on a wintry day in Sheffield England. Rationing was still in force so the wedding was very simple with my Father wearing his Australian Naval Uniform. This photo was taken with a Box Brownie Camera and was very small and in very bad condition when I started work on it. It was the only wedding photo they had. My Father died in 1988 and my mother is now in a care facility but I am thinking today about the love they had for each other. They brought up 5 children and there are now 11 grandchildren and 4 great grand children, all beautiful and talented kids. And yes as I am the oldest of all these descendents I am feeling my age today :)

Australians All Let us Rejoice

Today Alan was involved with the Light Horse Troop at the unveiling of the last of the murals in Memorial Lane in Gympie. The ceramic murals in this Memorial Laneway are unique in Australia and are all beautiful works of Art. They commemorate the services of all Australians in conflict, peacekeeping and the home front. This photo shows Alan standing in front of the mural which depicts WW1.

THe last mural which was unveiled today commemmorates the cost of war in human life.

Here it is after it was unveiled.

While we were waiting I spoke to a lady whose brother in law wrote the words above in his diary the day before he was killed at El Alamein in the Middle East. I was able to find a picture of a Corvette on one of the murals which was similar to the ship my father served in in WW2. It was a special and meaningful way to celebrate Australia Day. We are free today only because of the sacrifices made by so many.

Inspired by Shepard Fairey

This week's Frameworthy Challenge had us all inspired by the amazing portrait of Barack Obama by Shepard Fairey. You can see this and more of Fairey's work here http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&rlz=1I7ADBR&q=Shepard+Fairey&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title I decided to work with a sepia photo of my mother Doreen taken in 1942 when she was 15 years old. At that time she was living in Sheffield England which was the target of frequent bombing raids. I realised as I was working with this picture that my mother's entire teenage years were overshadowed by fear and war. It must have made an enormous impact on her life. You can't see it in the photo but she was wearing a brooch which was an image of a spitfire plane. I love Fairey's work and I enjoyed this challenge immensely.

Mid Summer

So here we are in that hot humid mid- summer time. We spend a lot of time indoors looking out at this time of year. Between mid morning and mid afternoon it is too hot to be out, even if we were to go to the beach. I read lots of books and do my digital art and Alan watches Cricket and tennis. Lewis the Cat lies on the sofa and sleeps all day :) He is not silly. We don't get a lot of work done in the garden although Alan goes out late and mows, or early to light our bonfire which burns all our garden waste like palm fronds which don't compost. We are finding all our herbs are happy in this weather and the chooks are still laying an egg a day as long as we keep the water up to them. I picked a capsicum last night for a pizza so they are doing OK but the rocket (aragula) has run to seed in the heat. We don't even try to grow lettuce. Yesterday Alan took a dozen eggs up to one of our neighbours and came back with an egg plant and some tomatoes. Then this morning another neighbour gave us a jar of pickled beetroot. Its all good :)

Happy New Year

I notice from reading my Blog List that Bloggers everywhere are reflecting on the past year and planning for the new one. I am still thinking about my word for 2008 which was `now'. It is in the present, right here and now that we create our future and my word from last year has really brought that home to me. Mindfulness in all things can really change your life.

This quote from Hal Boland really sums up my thoughts at this time `Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us'..........