A celebration of a life well lived...

The main reason for DH's cousin's visit to Australia, was to scatter her mum's ashes at Kangaroo Point here in Brisbane, where Thelma had grown up. This was organised for the first Tuesday of Adrienne's visit. 

Firstly that day, Thelma's half sister Jeanie, had a meeting with Adrienne here at our place. Other than long distance phone calls from the US, aunt and niece had not met previously. 

In the photo above, Adrienne is showing Jeannie a book of old family photos that she had put together as a gift for her aunt. 

After a cuppa it was time for us to head off and meet up at Kangaroo Point with some more of the family. The area has changed a bit since Adrienne's mother Thelma, lived in the area with her grandparents. 

Sadly the house of the Mohr family has just been demolished in the last few months...gasp!! On that corner in the photo you can see the hoarding on the building site.

The cousins' great grandfather Frank, had been a ferryman before the Story Bridge was built. Just across the street from the old house had been the old slipway down to what had been a jetty for the ferry...

That's a present day ferry on the river, just out from where we had all gathered...bit different from the one that Frank rowed! 

Adrienne's mum had always talked about the 'big rock' that she and her cousins had played on and delighted in jumping off...I'll caption it so you can see it more clearly...

On a holiday back to Australia a number of years ago, Thelma and her cousin Edna revisited their grandparents' house and street and posed on 'their rock'...they were apparently surprised that the rock appeared much smaller! 😉

A touching moment when Jeannie and Adrienne hold the ashes' container and remember Thelma...

DH had previously checked the tides' information so the river level would be high when we gathered to scatter the ashes. However...apparently the times given ( 11 am) for high tide are for the mouth of the river, not where Kangaroo Point is...therefore it would be another hour before the high tide there. So...

The rest of us 'watched from on high'! 

So 3 of the boys helped Adrienne down to the river level and she gave a delightful speech. She told us that her mother had always said she wanted her ashes scattered in the Brisbane River...until she heard a number of years ago that the river had become rather dirty and she had changed her mind. But 20 years ago a relative had told her it was cleaned up and so the plan was on again. 

And then, Thelma's ashes were scattered...

A group photo...

( a daughter and grandchildren [and 3 spouses of those grandchildren], of Johanna, Ethel and Mary Mohr.) 

Then it was time for lunch...and there could only be one choice of venue. A story that Thelma would tell  Adrienne was how Grandma Mohr would send young Thelma up to the nearby Kangaroo Point Hotel to tell Grandpa it was time to come home for tea. 😉 It is now the Story Bridge Hotel and is a short walk up the street. 

We sat out in the garden at the back of the hotel...the Story Bridge was above us!!

And how's this for a set of stairs that lead up to the bridge...

It had been a lovely ceremony at the river and what a fun get together we had over a yummy lunch too!!

Who do you think you are? Or the tale of two sisters.

DH's cousin from the US has been staying with us and her 16 day trip has been quite a whirlwind. I know her head has been spinning and I feel as though I'm in a spin dryer! Lol. 

Cousin Adrienne's lovely mother was, what is affectionately known as an Aussie war bride; she married a US airman stationed in Australia during WW2, and went to live in the US after the war.

Married in Scott's Church, Sydney.

Adrienne had known of her Australian family, especially the family of her mother's Aunt Ethel. She of course knew of her grandmother, Annie.

( photo as a young woman)

And of course, her grandfather, Billy, much loved by Adrienne's mother...

Adrienne's mother died in her 98th year, 5 years ago. It was then that it was revealed that Annie's sister Johanna, was really Adrienne's grandmother...

And her biological grandfather???? Well no one knows. 🙁

Johanna was later to marry and had 3 more children. One of these is still alive and 95 year old Jeanie is of course Adrienne's aunt! 

And these 2 were finally able to meet last week! 

At 95, Jeanie has the odd 'bad day' according to her daughter, but that day was definitely a good day with Jeanie regaling all of us with stories about her mother.

Now Jeanie and her 2 brothers gave Johanna a lot of grandchildren...yep! a whole lot of new cousins for Adrienne. DH's family had also grown up with these cousins too of course and one Saturday my brother in law and my sister in law hosted an afternoon tea for Adrienne to meet some of her new cousins...

Well over 20 turned up and extra tables and chairs had to be hurriedly brought out!

( DH's grandmother Mary, was yet another sister of Annie, Ethel and Johanna. For some reason there seems to have been a family 'split' at some stage resulting in branches of family not being aware of others. Before 2009, Adrienne had had no idea of DH's parents and siblings. And until 2011 she had not known of Johanna or her descendants and vice versa.) 

But now her family of cousins is quite large and even a bit overwhelming trying to remember all those names! 😉

Wool on Sundays...

Once again, joining in with Janine over at the Rainbow Hare blog to write about anything which relates to yarn.https://rainbowhare.com/

 Well I haven't done much of anything with yarn in this last week, so instead I'm posting some 'old pics'. 

Over the last few years, I've found my 'niche' in K4BN...joining donated squares into blankets ready to be handed out to the needy. And sometimes I like to have a bit of fun when I take photos to share with other members of Knitting for Brisbane's Needy. ( I also like to take photos so that the donors of the squares can see how important their knitted or crocheter squares are in providing blankets for those who would otherwise be cold.) 

I call it 'yarn bombing', but by the definition of Magda Sayeg, the 'founder/inventor' of yarn bombing, strictly speaking my version isn't...but that's never stopped me! Lol. 

Magda describes yarn bombing as...'When you take knitted or crocheted material out into the urban environment, graffiti style or more specifically, without permission and unsanctioned'. 

Another definition that I once found by 'googling' was...'

A yarn bomb is form of street art where yarn in any form (knit, crochet, latch hook, cross stitch, amigurumi, or simply wrapped) is attached to an object in the public environment.' 

So, back to my attempts at yarn bombing; I drape the blankets over railings or furniture...anywhere at my house where I can display them for photos.

Over the railing on the front verandah...

Another time I draped the finished blankets over the railings on the side veranda...

And one time when it was raining and I wanted to get a photo, I arranged the blankets on the modular

 ( sectional) lounge...

I have some bags of donated squares at the moment which are just waiting to be turned into blankets, so I wonder where I can drape these when they are finished...? Hmmm...we have a long section of hedge at the eastern side of our property...now that's a possibility. 😊

Wool on Sundays...

Joining Janine over at the Rainbow Hare Blog in Wool on Sunday. This week Janine's post featured a beautiful crocheted purse and a very interesting video featuring Magda Sayeg who started the Yarn Bombing 'çraze'. Like me, Janine enjoys the whimsy of yarn bombing but is torn by the fact that the yarn could be used to make items to keep people warm. (And my K4BN friends and I get a mention in this blog post! Thank you Janine!)
 Now what am I going to write about this week? In a recent post, I wrote about a local yarn shop Knitch, which was closing down. At our last Knit and Natter there, I did a bit of shopping. (As you do!)

One item I bought was this...

A modern day version of French Knitting! (It's very swish; you just turn a little handle and rounds are done in no time)

Oh what memories come flooding back, even when I just type the words 'French Knitting'!  I 'discovered' French Knitting when I was at primary school. And I found it so much fun. 

Remember the 4 tacks in the wooden cotton reel?

This one actually belonged to my first husband and somehow it was still in my craft 'stuff'. ( his mum would have packed it with all his belongings when he moved to Queensland to get married) It would have originally been used in the late 1950s...the little nails are a little rusty.

Some fellow students in my class had beautifully painted ' knitting Nancys' instead of the cotton reels, but most of us had the latter.  ( a quick Google shows there are many names for these spools)

Years later as a teacher myself, I bought a number of the modern day mass produced knitting Nancys for my class to use.

So yet another generation was being introduced to this addictive craft. 😃 .
As well as using the Knitting Nancys with my class we also experimented with making spools with cardboard tubes with paddle pop sticks taped to the top, and even fruit juice tins with either 3 inch nails or paddle pop sticks taped to the top rim.

When researching for background for this post, I found an interesting site here which is all about the history of French Knitting or Spool Knitting as it is also called.
If you have memories of French knitting you may also remember the age old problem of this craft which was finding a use for the long cords that were made. I remember my mother showing me how to stitch the cord into a coiled mat for under the teapot as it sat on the table. But often the quite long lengths of cord just languished in cupboards/drawers/boxes etc.
But then, we didn't have Pinterest in those former times did we? I had a great time checking out the ideas for how to use the French Knitting cord here. So many wonderful ideas; good job I bought that swish new spool!

Missing...

With the best of intentions, after my last post, I meant to write a series of posts about our Sydney trip. I took photos of some beautiful scenery of the coastline of the Sydney area and to the south. I have photos of lovely old buildings too...and bridges...and landmarks...you know how it is when you travel...it's so easy to take lots of digital photos! So one day those posts with the Sydney photos will get written. 

This post though will be about our house guest who arrived this morning...at 6am some of our family were at the Brisbane International Airport waiting for the Qantas flight from LA.

Last year DH and I stayed once again with his cousin Adrienne who lives at Huntington Beach...Adrienne and her partner had 'spoiled us rotten'; taking us to all sorts of places.

Adrienne's mum Thelma, was a cousin of DH's mother and she  had been an Aussie War Bride, who went to live in the US after WW2. Thelma lived to the ripe old age of 98 and passed away in early 2011. Her wish was for her ashes to come back to Australia and be scattered near her childhood home at Kangaroo Point here in Brisbane. And that is the main reason that Adrienne has made this visit. 

The other things on her wish list are a trip to Taree ( in New South Wales)  to visit her grandfather's grave and to see ( and photograph a sunrise and a sunset) Stradbroke Island. ( near Brisbane) And I'm tagging along on those trips too!!!

So back to this morning...the family members who were in the welcoming committee of 6 at the airport, came back to our place for a light breakfast...before our guest of honour went to the spare bedroom to rest...jet lag. 

When she is rested...let the fun begin! She has heaps of other cousins here in Brisbane who are looking forward to catching up with her, as well as some cousins from Melbourne who are arriving on Monday afternoon...it will be a busy 16 days!!

Wool on Sundays...

Once again joining in with Janine from the Rainbow Hare blog for Wool on Sunday. But I'm not writing a post about my knitting projects.

This week I'm writing a post about the lovely knitting that a man called Rob does for K4BN (Knitting for Brisbane's Needy). Rob regularly drops off finished items to me so I can hand them in for him. The previous time he left a bag full of items I asked him if he would like some donated yarns. People often donate big bags of yarn. And it so it was a month ago I was able to get 2 bags of 8 ply yarns for him that had been brought along to the Scarborough Knit and Natter. 

Today Rob dropped in 3 items he has knitted using some of that yarn...all adult sizes which is wonderful!

And he also brought over a rose from his garden for me...how lovely! 

And the Rose has the most beautiful fragrance.
Thank you for all those enquiries about how my foot/ankle is healing. I guess every day there is improvement. I still have the 'dirty toes' bruises and the foot is still swollen but no where near like it was a week ago. I still have the 'ring of Saturn' around the ankle and that part is still quite sore. On Wednesday I report to my GP who will organise some more X-rays. 

I still can't really walk without the moon boot. So it will be interesting to see how things go during the coming week. And it all happened 'in a flash'...

The Tramways Museum

On our second day in Sydney, DH and I went to the Tramways Museum at Loftus, in Sydney's south. As a couple of 'tram tragics' it was a wonderful outing! There is a large building which houses the museum, a tram track that goes through the grounds of the complex and then travels into the adjacent national park.

While we waited for the next tram ride, we walked around the museum...trams ran in the city between 1879 till 1961 when they were scrapped.

The map of the Sydney Tram Network

One old tram was intriguing...it was a prison tram; obviously used for transporting prisoners.

There was certainly lots to see as we walked around the museum...

And there weren't just Aussie trams either...

What was verboten to wear on that Austrian tram!

Then it was time for the tram rides! Being school holidays there were lots of people...the first tram we rode on was a Melbourne tram...

Just near the museum was a control box...

And we also passed this very interesting building...(well building site really)

It was actually a sandstone façade from an old building in Sydney's CBD which has been erected in the museum grounds. Then there has been building work behind. Eventually it will be the new administration building for the museum...what a wonderful project...but expensive I'm guessing.

Interesting signs in the old tram...

As I mentioned, the tram lines go out of the museum complex and into the national park. To do this, the tram has to cross a busy highway...lights sure help to do this safely! lol

The tram following us was a Brisbane tram; destination Newmarket!

It was a class of tram known as the 'Dreadnought'. In my childhood these trams were just advertising trams'; they carried billboards on the side and went on various lines...just advertising!

But the highlight of our time at the Tramway Museum for ex tram conductor DH was this...

Yep! He was given the task of swapping around the tram's power poles ready for the journey back to the museum. And he did it perfectly even though the last time he did it, was December 1968. That's my boy!!!