This is a pic of one of my favourite dolls, who happens to be called Meg. She was sculpted by a lady who lives/lived in Newcastle, NSW Australia. I put a skeleton in her so she could be posed, but at the moment she has 2 broken arms! Which I must mend. The photo is very blurry, but I had made my mind up I would upload it, & so the quality is very poor.
This is a pic of little Cookie, who was scuplted by another Australian sculptor called Karen Blandford- I think she has since married, & may have a different name now. I also put a skeleton in Cookie, & she can be posed. Luckily her skeleton has not broken. The pic is very bad, seems blurry, but after taking about 110 pics, couldnt get the camera to do better- or it must be me!
This is a picture taken this morning in the garden, of a Tibouchina flower, & even those turned out blurry. I love the colour of these flowers, & this little tree just grew by itself, so I didnt have the heart to kill it, I just transplanted it, to a more suitable location. It must have been determined to live, as even I didnt kill it. Haha.I dont know why I am such a bad gardener these days. I used to have a nice garden, & could get things to grow quite well. Now I just have a brown thumb.
My Grandmother had a great fondness for her garden, & she would leave the dishes in the sink to get out into the garden before it got too hot for her. She love little Lilly of the Valley, they were her favourite flowers. Never seem to see them these days. She also had plenty of bulbs & I have always loved spring flowers. I saw a pic of some yellow primroses & was reminded of my Grandmother's garden, & how she loved primroses too.
There was a huge pink Cabbage Rose grew in the centre of the lawn, & I loved that big, full blown rose. It had the most heavenly perfume, & if I stop to think about it, I can smell it now. The flowers would be so heavy they would weigh the branches down, & the bees loved the blooms. I suppose she treated it to some of the cow dung mix she used to make. She would get my brother to collect the cow pats from the paddock, & then she would mix them with water to make a potent mix, which seemed to do wonders for the garden- vegetables as well as the flowers.
She used to have a friend who visited her once a week. The friend was a Welsh lady- how I loved to listen to her lilting accent! She would arrive on the bus in the afternoon, & stay until a later bus took her off home again. I could never understand the friendship. It was so formal. They never called each other by their first names- it was always Mrs W, & Mrs D.
My Grandmother used to make cucumber sandwiches, & fruit cake & they would usually be having afternoon tea, when I arrived home from school. If I was lucky I got to have some sandwiches or cake. And Mrs W seemed to just chat away non stop, sitting in my Grandmother's dining room. And my Grandmother would just go out to the garden, while Mrs W chatted on, & my mother always laughed about this. My Grandmother would pick her parsely or whatever for tea, & just come back inside to hear Mrs W still chatting away, & she would just murmur & carry on with getting things underway for tea.
Mrs W was a widow, who lived alone. She never stayed for tea, & I suppose there were no late buses, she would like to get home before it grew dark. She had a huge orchard, & used to boast about all the fruit she had, but she never brought so much as an apple for my Grandmother. We kids used to have a giggle about it all behind the tankstand, well out of earshot of our Grandmother.
Sometimes, when my Grandmother was on one of her garden missions for vegies or parsley, I would stay & listen to Mrs W, but I cant remember any of the things she used to talk about. I find that quite extraordinary really. I wonder if my brother can remember topics of conversation. I just remember the wonderful accent. And how she wore her hat all afternoon!
I can only remember my Grandmother going to visit Mrs W once in all that time. It was when my mother took her home in her car, & Mrs W invited us in to see her orchard. I dont think we came away with any fruit either! How funny.
Remembering that has brought a smile back to my sour old face!! haha.
5 comments:
Hey, I can get to your blog now! Hooray!
Love that tibouchina. They must be hot weather plants because my parents have them in Qld, but you never see them here in Victoria.
Yes. The intense colour of that Tibouchina is stunning. I have one of my lists going for plants that I wish to put in my garden. I love being reminded of the ones that I love - this will definitely go on the list. The other one I was reminded of just yesterday is the Frangipani (sp?). I LOVE the smell of the flowers and pick them to float in a bowl of water. It can be a bit of an ugly tree - but if pruned well it can look vigorous and gorgeous.
Meggie ,
Mrs. W. was indeed a quaint old thing -- Our very grandmother taught me the " Taffy was a Welshman " Rhyme , I think partly because of her , which would be considered very Un - PC these days haha . Mrs. W. used to burble happily on about all sorts of things from politics to religion & scarely paused to draw breath , but often talked about her son Llewellyn ? and his doings . I believe she was a widow -- How on earth she and our Grandmother became known to one another & on visiting terms I have no idea , -- I do remember our G. telling me ,when I remonstrated with her about leaving Mrs. W. alone in the house that " Ha, She won't even realise I've gone , until I get back ! " -- A truly strange relationship .
We did get a large amount of fruit from Mrs. W's place on at least one ocassion , I am sure -- She had a veritable treasure trove / grove of laden plum trees -- every type imaginable and did give us a big bag full ,(from memory ,anyway ) She also had pieces of canvas laid on the grass in various places -- " To help kill and keep the lawns down " . I suppose the poor old girl had no one to mow her lawns ?
Another wonderful, amusing tale from your past. That Mrs. W must have been quite a character. I adore Lilies of the Valley, too. I can smell them right now... Happy Valentine's Day!
We have a lot of Lily-of-the-Valley but it is currently beneath a lot of snow. I love the smell of them. Mrs. W sounds like quite a gal. I think there were more strange people back in the day. Not sure why.
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