A peaceful day

Hello friends,

Just wanted you all to know that last night my beloved father passed away quietly at home surrounded by his family.

We're all holding up pretty well.

Thank you all for your kind words and prayers over the last three weeks since he was first diagnosed. They have all meant so much to me.

That's why I want you to know. Because you are my friends. And you care.

Thank you for that too.

Psalm 142

1 I cry aloud to the LORD;
I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy.
2 I pour out my complaint before him;
before him I tell my trouble.

3 When my spirit grows faint within me,
it is you who know my way.
In the path where I walk
men have hidden a snare for me.

4 Look to my right and see;
no one is concerned for me.
I have no refuge;
no one cares for my life.

5 I cry to you, O LORD;
I say, "You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living."

6 Listen to my cry,
for I am in desperate need;
rescue me from those who pursue me,
for they are too strong for me.

7 Set me free from my prison,
that I may praise your name.
Then the righteous will gather about me
because of your goodness to me.

...reading Bottersnikes and Gumbles in front of the open fire, munching on daifuku, and listening to this:



Nice.

This is what Heather's doing. What about you?

The tourist information about our Central Victorian town says this:

Swimming, fishing and boating can be enjoyed at Wooroonook Lakes, 14 km west of town... There are camping and picnic facilities and the lake is stocked with redfin and trout.

Only ever since we've lived here - 8 ½ years - our lake has been dry. So dry that in 2006 the 'lakes' were the site of a large fire, destroying houses, bushland, crops and pastures.

Recreational lakes are a large part of the community life in the dry, hot Northern regions of Victoria. In past days many of the townsfolk would camp on the shores of the Wooroonook Lakes all summer long, travelling in to town for school or work during the day and spending the evenings and weekends water-skiing and fishing and picnicking. Sounds idyllic really, doesn't it? Imagine, too, the birdlife, and the kangaroos!

Now suddenly, these halcyon days are more than just a dream from the past. GWMWater are refilling our lake.

Jemimah and I drove out to the lakes the other day to observe their progress. It is slow, but it is sure. Already the frogs are making their presence heard (where did they come from?), and the birds and ducks are enjoying a bath and a splash.

Of course there is a long, long, long way to go. In the photograph below you realise how small the puddle of water is when you observe that this lake covers all the land from the trees on the horizon to the tree in the foreground. So far GWMWater are merely testing the flow rates before the actual refilling takes place, but there are signs that this year there may be water in the lake.

That is so exciting! I never thought I'd see the day.

Next time we visit we'll wear more clothes. It was freezing!

We jumped back into the car to make some drawings in our Nature Notebooks, and to eat the peanut biscuits we had packed and then took a bit of a drive around the edge of the lakes. We inspected this crop testing site...briefly - too cold...

...and took some photos of this pretty flowering gum...

...and were impressed by this wall of tumbleweeds. Apparently this mainstay of the American Wild West stole into Australia in a sack of flaxseed a century ago. It is certainly making its presence felt here.

It is good to remember that Nature Study the Charlotte Mason way doesn't need to be formalised. Despite the cold, Jemimah and I had a marvellous time wandering around the shores of our until now imaginary lake.

I wonder what it will look like in a year's time.

Maybe next summer we'll be camping on its shores too. What fun that will be! Woo Hoo!!

We spent yesterday evening posing for family photographs. Just me, my brother and sister, my mum and my dad. Some were funny, most were sensible. All were important. We had a terrific lot of fun doing it too, although my brother-in-law, the photographer extraordinaire may beg to differ there, as he struggled with cramped quarters and fading light.

In the last ten days since we discovered my dad was ill, we've been spending a great deal of time celebrating and having fun. We've been strengthening our family ties and making our already strong bonds even stronger. We are so blessed to have been given this time, and we're making the most of every single teeny tiny incy wincy minute.

My aunts and uncles met together with us for morning tea after church yesterday. We munched through my cousin's raspberry muffins, my aunt's pattycakes and another cousin's choc chip bikkies. We sipped on Dad's Drambuie (the bottle the same aunts and uncles gave him for his birthday last weekend), and nice cappuccinos. We looked through the album of photos from last weekend's festivities. We talked, we laughed, we loved and we cared. We were all there together for a common purpose, and spending that time together was the most important thing in the world.

Later, at afternoon tea time, our own nuclear family: parents; siblings; and sibling-in-laws were at it again. Drinking tea and eating more deliciously unnecessary sweet stuff. We were celebrating life; we were celebrating each other; we were celebrating family.

We cracked open Hubby's much loved bottle of Martell Extra, and drank Dad's Glenlivet from plastic medicine cups. (Later we thought to bring up the crystal glasses, but the medicine cups were more fun.) What's the point of putting good bottles away for a special occasion - there will never, ever, be a better time than right now. Family time.

There is little doubt that this will be the pattern of our days over the coming weeks. The amount of alcohol might of necessity be allowed to deminish slightly, in deference to our livers, but the coming together as family, the laughter, the joy and the happiness of being together will continue. Our family will endure.

Given the same circumstances, would yours? Are your family ties firm? It times of difficulty would you pull together or fall apart? Do you express your love to the important people in your life now? Before it is too late?

One day soon the memories we are creating now will be all we have. Those hugs, those kisses, those prayers, those stories shared - these will sustain us through the dark days. We will remember the good times. But even then we will build on them. In those days we will gather together again. We will drink champagne. We will laugh, and we will cry. In the hard times our family will not be torn asunder, our family in those days will be strengthened even more.

Our family will be strong enough to withstand the bad times because in the good times we are making sure it will be.

Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.

Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.

Psalm 73:23-26 NIV

My Auntie Mary tells me it is time for a Grannie Update. So here she is. She's a real grown-up rug now. 110 squares of warm huggly cuggly warmness. Oh I do love you, Grannie!

You can see my cushion there too. Alas no update on the buttons as yet. Soon, I hope. I'm halfway through knitting its twin. Maybe I'll put them on the spare bed when they're done. Good plan?

This is my Japanese haribako. Which just means sewing box, but sounds so much more exotic and impressive somehow. It is just so kawaii, don't you think? Prettiness in practical items really appeals to me. You can see the scissors in the top pic, complete with tinkling bells, along with a pretty little needle holder my sister-in-law gave me for Christmas a few years ago. I like it too.

I notice that in the Grannie pics you can see part of my Asiatic Pheasant china collection. Would you like to see some close-ups? We don't use the pieces much any more, although we used to once, but I just love seeing them there in their cabinets. Like?

So here are a few of my current favourite things. Well, this week anyhow. Actually, my favourite thing right now is my Dad. And my Mum. And my husband. And my daughter. Of course.

But mostly my Dad. This week.

Have a nice weekend, my friends. You're my favourite things too.

So I guess it comes as no surprise to discover that I read in bed. Do you? In the evenings I do serious reading - my Bible Reading Plan mostly, or my Bookclub selection - but in the mornings I read frivolous stuff. Like magazines or craft books. Or travel guidebooks. Or Kateigaho magazine which is both - Japanese Arts and Culture in a glossy magazine. I love to just flick through the pages and dream a little whilst sipping on the EBT* that the tea fairy delivers by magic each morning to my bedside. It is nice.

Today when I went in to make my bed I noticed that the magazines on the bedcovers made quite a pretty pic and so I snapped it to share with you here. And here it is - my bed just as you would have seen it this morning. Untouched.

*EBT - English Breakfast Tea. Twinings please, weak black, no sugar.

You may recall the pictures of Jemimah and her entrepreneurial cousins selling lemonade and cordials at my father's birthday celebration on Sunday. You can't blame them really, can you - with an almost revolving door of friends and relations arriving and leaving, there was a great opportunity to make a buck or two.

Somebody should have told them that 5c a cup was too cheap though. That's what I charged when I was a kid, and my lemonade was homemade!

What they really needed was this gorgeously whimsical lemonade tree that Jennifer from Cup of Coco has made for a client's playroom. Wouldn't your kids love a thing like that? I know the cousins would.

Still - in a way - nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small - we haven’t the time - and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.

Georgia O’Keeffe

Flowers on the bedside are a luxury really, aren't they, hidden there just for your own private pleasure. You don't need a big arrangement either, just a few dainty stems of something to put a bit of joy into an otherwise cold and bleak winter's day.

I picked two little bunches of narcissi for our bedsides today.

This one is for Miss Jemimah, a little bunch of early flowers, appearing in late June before winter has even really arrived, and holding on for weeks. I wish I knew its name.

The other is for me - a little arrangement of Erlicheer in a souvenir cup from the Coronation of King George VI back in May 1937. Erlicheer's clusters of creamy petals, up to five flowers on each stem and incredible scent make it a delight for simple arrangements like this.

Delicate, miniature early-flowering narcissi - the harbingers of spring. I love them, don't you? They make me feel happy, and we all need a dose of happiness on a daily basis.

Especially now.

Thank you to all my wonderful friends for your loving prayers and comments over the last few days. Things continue to be pretty sad around here, and I have found myself rereading your lovely comments repeatedly. Thank you so much for caring. I'm sorry if I haven't been visiting your blog. I'll try and get my act together soon.

Did you know, my Mum went to school with a boy named John Quill? He was nicknamed Daffodil.

True.

Parents can sometimes be so cruel.

Picture Study the Charlotte Mason way is one of the Inspirational subjects. It is a peaceful interlude in our busy day, and it has always been one of the favourite parts of our week.

Our study is simple, and lasts only five or so minutes each Thursday. We study one artist each twelve week term. Sometimes it is the artist suggested on the Ambleside Online rotation; at other times we choose an artist better suited to our current study. Here I explain our choice of Japanese printmaker, Andō Hiroshige 安藤広重 as this term's study, and it has been one of our most enjoyable ever owing mainly, I feel, to our visit to the marvellous Ukiyo-e Ōta Memorial Museum of Art during our recent visit to Toyko, where we were able to view the exhibition The World of One Hundred Famous Views of Edo by Utagawa Hiroshitge and see first hand the museum's extensive holdings of the works of this renowned printmaker. Viewing the printing process was also an eyeopener, and it is always fun seeing bloopers - those prints that are released in error with the wrong colour in the wrong position...

But I digress. I am good at that.

Once we have selected our artist, we look in depth at six of his works, introducing a new picture each week. One week we will also look at a picture of the artist himself - ideally a self portrait but if not a depiction painted by another - and discuss a little about his life and things going on in history at that time. We concentrate on the interesting or unusual here, or on parts of the artist's life that are relevant to the paintings. We find his home on our map, and write his dates of birth and death in our Book of Centuries along with a small colour print of our artworks - Jemimah's choice. I always try to remain conscious of the fact that our subject is called 'picture study' and not 'artist study' for a reason. We are not studying the history of art either, but rather learning to appreciate the beauty contained in the artwork itself. We are studying the pictures.

Jemimah looks at the work for five minutes following which she narrates what she remembers to me. Sometimes her detail is impressive. At other times she struggles a little. Especially if she doesn't like the work so much. Some weeks she draws a picture narration of all or part of the picture. We write the title of the painting, the artist's name and the date of completion on the back of the print, and that is all, the first week.

The picture goes into Jemimah's Own Book of Masterpieces -right on front. She delights in this book - simply a collection of all the pictures she has looked at since she started school - some 60 or so already. They are all dear friends to us.

The next week we look in more detail at the same picture. What season does it depict? Does the artist have a favourite colour or technique? Has he signed it? Why do we think the artist painted it? Can we tell in what era it was painted, and how? Is there anything we would like to know more about? Do we like it and why? Jemimah narrates again, and we're done.

At the end of term we look at all six paintings together looking for themes. Did the artist always use the same medium, are are some watercolour and others oils or acrylics? Are all the paintings religious or fantasies or following some other uniting theme? Are the paintings realistic or not? Which is your favourite and why? Can we learn something about the artist by looking at his art? Are his works similar to those of other artists in her Masterpiece Book?

That's it for us. Unless there is an exhibition somewhere that we can see. It is always wonderful to see a piece of art in reality. (Can you remember how disappointed you were when you stood in front of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre the first time? How small she was!!)

There is one other 'unless' too. And that is really the purpose of this post. As we stood viewing Hiroshige's prints in Tokyo that day, hubby and I were both startled to see a print that we both knew very well.

It was the picture you see above. Kamata-no Umezono. 蒲田の梅園 Plum garden at Kamata. Or maybe apricots. One or the other, anyhow. Only our copy looked like this.

Or sometimes like this.

Yes, we had a Hiroshige jigsaw at home in the Box Room. We looked at each other with amusement. How did we not realise!!

Back home in Australia we lost no time in rectifying our oversight. An extra painting was added to our rotation (not even from the same series as the others, but does it matter?) and Jemimah was set the task of completing the jigsaw. For school. She was delighted.

Jigsaws are a fantasmagorical way of studying a painting in depth. Never will you spend so much time looking at the detail of a piece of art. We first experienced this with a Dali painting. Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bumblebee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening 1944 to be precise. We worked on it during an especially cold July weekend in 2008 when the whole extended family were in Daylesford to celebrate my dear Dad's 80th birthday. Jemimah has loved Dali since that time.

Her experience with the Hiroshige print has been just as successful. Her narration this morning included a discussion of the use of a palanquin by travellers on the highways to Edo. She discussed the fabric on the cushion to make it more comfortable. She talked about Hiroshige's use of cobalt blue as an accent colour. She told me how this artist often cuts things in half - we only see half the palanquin for example even though that is in the foreground of the work. She talked about perspective and the size of the trees. She noticed all the pilgrims strolling beneath the trees. She spoke enthusiastically and with delight. I too was delighted. We'd been learning and having fun to boot. It was great.

Our jigsaw was a gorgeous wooden (yes Lisa - not only the Queen does wooden puzzles) Liberty puzzle. We love the puzzles from this company, as well as those from Wentworth in the UK.

This spring Liberty are featuring puzzles of stolen paintings and other related works as part of what they're calling the Stolen Art Project. Their new Spring 2010 puzzle offerings feature paintings that have at one time been stolen, and a few that narrowly escaped. Some remain missing to this day. In each case a brief history relating to the art theft is included alongside the image. Have a look at the pieces here. One day when Jemimah is older we will do a unit of Art History on Stolen Art. I wonder whether my beloved will take that as reason enough for me to purchase the entire collection of these works in jigsaw form right now.

Today.

Anyone else like jigsaws? Anybody else like these wonderful wooden ones with their whimsy pieces? They're much harder than your bog standard cardboard ones, aren't they? What is the best number of pieces in a jigsaw puzzle in your opinion?

I read on the 'net somewhere yesterday that jigsaw puzzles are unique in the way they exercise both the left brain and right brain simultaneously. Apparently working on a jigsaw puzzle actually creates “connections” between our left and right brain. The analytical left brain sees all of the individual pieces and tries to fit them together based on logic; the right creative side sees the “big picture”. They say that jigsaw puzzles require us to use both sides of our brain which results in a balanced mind and an increased ability to learn. Makes sense, sorta.

Regardless of the health and learning benefits, jigsaws calm me down. There is something peaceful and relaxing about piecing one together.

I wish I were walking through a plum garden in Kamata right now, but doing a jigsaw puzzle is pretty fun too. Especially if it is as beautiful as this one of Hiroshige's.

There is a lot of sadness in our Peaceful Home right now. Things are not good. Not good at all. But through the sadness are the good times - times of laughter, of fun, of joy and of hope. Through the sadness flows thankfulness for our faith in God, for family and for friends.

It was my dear Dad's 82nd birthday yesterday. We celebrated with Christmas in July. (Sorry, Ruby, it is not even safe to visit me in July, it seems!) Tears flowed, but so did the champagne. And the Drambuie!

Here is a peek at the nice bits of our yesterday in pictures.

Sigh, I wish I could show you the people pics - they're the best ones...
Happy, Happy Birthday to my Wonderful Dad. We love you.


And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7