Category Archives: Uncategorized

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Lest We Forget, 2026

Today is ANZAC Day in Australia.

A time to remember those who fought for our freedom, who made the ultimate sacrifice and who served and are still living with the consequences of their service. The medals in the image are my grandfather’s, from WWI, the ‘Great War’ that was supposed to end all wars. He won the Military Cross on the left for conspicuous gallantry, rescuing an injured fellow soldier under fire, was injured himself and spent the rest of the war as a PoW.

Let the memorial day of all nations teach those who regard war as an economic tool, or a way to flex national status or military strength. It is not. The price for military ambition is rarely paid by those who start wars. It is paid for in blood and sacrifice by ordinary men and women, and by those left behind by their loss, their pain or their inability to return to ‘normal’ life.

I am grateful, and I do not forget. Thank you for your service.

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

From The Fallen by Laurence Binyon

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Anatomy and security

Yes, I have been away from WordPress a long time.

Yes, there is a reason. Aside from two months of personal family issues I’ve touched on already, it appears I’m back on board the Pain Express. X-ray and CT results are in, and now I’m paying the price for a flexible youth and middle age.

Until I was well into my 50s I had a fun time doing the splits on demand, knotting my fingers impossibly – and I can still put my palms flat on the floor when I touch my toes. But this flexibility isn’t strong, it isn’t durable, and it’s eroding, fast. My left knee will need replacing soon. My left hip joint is demineralising and the cartilage is eroding into floss. The right facet joint of my T5/S1 vertebra is severely eroded. It hurts. Constantly, internally and to the touch. I will be 65 at the end of the month, and I’m deeply, deeply resentful of the physical degradation. If you’d told me at 20 that I could exchange my flexibility for a more pain free old age, I would have taken it in a flash, but no one warns you.

And finally, I’m horribly, terribly afraid for the world right now. Specifically for Europe and the Arctic, potential theatres of war and irreparable ecological harm, but also for everyone who stands against unjustifiable annexation of a sovereign nation, and is prepared to stand up and say No. And to anyone saying this could never happen, a brief excerpt of US Deputy Chief of Staff Steve Miller’s interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper:

We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world… that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world.

The language is clear. The entitlement is breathtaking. I had hoped that as a race we had progressed past iron laws into peace and cooperation. It seems not.

Jeg står sammen med Grønland og Danmark 🇩🇰

Kalaallit Nunaat Danmarkilu peqatigaakka 🇬🇱

 

 

 

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ScrapHappy December

Welcome once again to ScrapHappy Day!

It’s the day I host ScrapHappy, a day for showing something made from scraps.

It’s December, and this will be the last ScrapHappy of the year, so I’d like to take the opportunity to wish all observers, commenters and contributors a wonderful festive season and a peaceful and prosperous New Year. On to the scrappyness! I’ve made a lot of tiny hexies while I listened to podcasts and YouTube videos. I’m still not entirely sure what I’ll make out of them but one idea that has presented itself is to make a clock face, with the hexies graduating from light at the centre to dark at the outside of the ring. Since the little battery clock movement I have has black hands, this will make it easier to see the time from a distance. VanEssa the caravan needs a wall clock, and this might just fit the bill, since it will be very light. When I have a few more hexies I’ll mock up the shape and see if it’s legible. Otherwise, I will certainly find a use for these tiny jewels of fabric.

ScrapHappy is open to anyone using up scraps of anything – no new materials. It can be a quilt block, pincushion, bag or hat, socks or a sculpture. Anything made of genuine scraps is eligible (including food). If your scrap collection is out of control and you’d like to turn them into something beautiful or useful instead of leaving them to collect dust in the cupboard, why not join us on the 15th of each month? Either email me at the address on my Contact Me page, or leave a comment below. We welcome new members. You don’t have to worry about making a long term commitment or even join in every month, just let either of us know a day or so in advance if you’re new and you’ll have something to show, so we can add your link. Regular contributors will receive an email reminder three days before the event.

Here are the links for everyone who joins ScrapHappy from time to time (they may not post every time, but their blogs are still worth looking at).

Kate, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Karrin,  Alissa, Tierney,
Hannah and Maggie

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Managing expectations.

It has been a difficult month.

We lost my brother a month ago. It has made mortality very real to me.

My second-oldest sister has had a stroke. It’s on her right side, so she can still talk, thank goodness, but she’ll need extensive rehab and may not be able to go back to independent living.

Higgins Doggins

My darling Higgins is sick, having lost over 15% of his total body weight in the last 10 days, and now progressing (surely that’s the wrong word?) to vomiting, unable to keep his food down.

He’s currently at the vet’s for an ultrasound, biopsy and full blood panel.

I can’t explain to Liam where his brother is, and he’s following me closely from room to room in case I also disappear. He’s clearly confused and a little anxious.

My auto-immune disease is kicking up a fuss, which is exhausting. At times it feels as if I’m walking on a moving ship’s deck. The tinnitus is deafening.

And today is the anniversary of my father’s death.

So, I’m not feeling any blogging joy or motivation. It’s time for some retrospection, some processing, some self-regulation. I’m very sorry I’m not reading and commenting as I usually do. I’m sorry I don’t have any many pretty things to show. I have the Black Dog on my back and it’s time to do the work to dislodge him.

Hopefully, I’ll be back soon.

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One with the stars

Yesterday, we lost my brother Thom.

Dying is not an elegant, romantic process. For most people, it’s a progression of millimetres until the body decides it’s had enough. Thom remained in control of this process despite all odds. He stopped when he was good and ready, in a small window when no-one was at his side despite my nephew’s unsparing and dedicated vigil of several days. So like him, to wait till he was ‘unsupervised’.

Thomas Dekker, 1945-2025.

He loved a cigar, a glass of geneva, good food and good company. He was clever, and funny, and knowledgeable on an incredibly wide range of subjects. I can still hear his voice in my head… He was carried off by a massive stroke after several years of bad health, and because he’d had the forsight to sign a DNR, he was simply made comfortable until the time came. We had the opportunity to say goodbye via WhatsApp, to tell him we loved him and that it was OK to let go. Not that he’d have paid any attention to that last part. Stubborn to the end.

The world feels a little smaller and paler. He was not the eldest, but he was the first of us, the now-senior generation, to go, and we are all feeling our mortality and reflecting on making good use of the time we have left. Or at least, I am, and I believe the other are too.

I can’t remember who said it, but “When the sun goes down, the stars come out“. His sun has set. He’s one with the stars.

Farewell, brother. I’ll see you up there.

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Totally worth it!

The pre-walk admin, that is.

We had a blast. 12 greyhounds, one whippet and one Italian greyhound (iggy), and one terrier fur sibling all walked together peaceably and gently. That’s three times as many as last year, a great result.

Lots of snackies, strokies, stopping to investigate interesting smells and make, er, deposits along the way. And of course we poop-scooped, we’re not savages. No-one snapped or growled or fought. And the dogs were pretty well behaved too!

Club bandannas were well received and worn with pride by the doggos. Plans are already being laid for the next coffee morning/Christmas party/GGGW2026. October’s is a pool party, and the doggos will be packing their towels and life jackets 😊

And of the two greyhounds who were looking for a post-career home, one is currently in progress, I’m delighted to say.

So I’d say that went off pretty well.

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Ovarian Cancer Quilt: TAOS Blocks 25 & 26

Two more, with bookends.

I’m quite pleased with these. I was lucky to find a fabric in the stash with marbling that looks like maps. They’re solid, heavy-looking, and I think they’ll look good bracketing a heavy row of books.

Two more blocks to go, and I might just make them as rows of big, upright, chunky books to ‘anchor’ the base of the bookcase. I have just under a month to finish the quilt and deliver it, since we’re going on holiday on 10th August for almost two weeks. Hence the need to get a wiggle on!  I can probably finalise the layout without actually receiving Margaret’s blocks, since I have photos of them, but ideally I’d prefer to have the real thing on the design wall for more accurate colour values.

I’ll get the last two done tomorrow. After that, I can start quilting.

 

 

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Ovarian Cancer: TAOS Block 21

I’m awaiting 4 more blocks in the mail.

Which left one still needed, so I got poking through my fabric scraps. I’ve always loved tiny teasets and wish I still had the blue and white teapot, cups and saucers I had as a child. Which is probably why I fell in love with a fabric that featured tiny teapots and coffee pots of all colours and designs, to the point where I wanted some of them in my ‘bookcase’! Another scrap provided the tiny picture of quilting books, so appropriate for the context.

I think next week I’ll probably need to start cutting out the backing fabric and batting squares I’ll need for assembly.  In a pinch, I can even start quilting before I finalise the layout.

Time to put away the teal scraps and clear the cutting table!