A new top!

I saw this post over on Sippycups are for Chardonnay a few weeks ago and I fell in love with this top.

I had so much trouble deciding which colour to get, but eventually stuck to the aqua.

I ordered it on Etsy and it looks just as good in real life as it does in the photo....now if we could just have some warm Autumn weather so I can wear it out!

And, in a slightly ironic twist.... I went to the Pregnancy and Baby expo on the weekend - no not pregnant just wishful thinking - and one of the stalls was selling cot sets made out of the same material!

Also at the pregnancy expo...I was looking at all the couples and was thinking "I shouldn't be doing this on my own, DH should be here" - then I was like "Hang on Provincial Homemaker, you're not even pregnant!". And, as DH pointed out on the phone that evening, if he had been here we wouldn't have been THERE!

The T-shirt and the Felon

I decorated a skivy as part of the birthday present for my niece's upcoming third birthday. I successfully interfaced the fabric to the top and was quite happy with my puff-paint application - an earlier attempt having gone awry. Not over the top, just some added sparkle. The packaging said to allow 24 hours drying time, so I popped it on the spare bed to dry flat. 30 minutes later I am witness to a dog having a wow of a time rolling all over my puff paint work. She is very lucky to still be with us....I was not best pleased.

Here is the culprit. It hasn't really come out in the photo but she has hot pink glitter paint all through her hair. I hope she is looking foward to a long bath!

The Brontes Went to Woolworths

I have become somewhat of a Virago Modern Classics fiend of late. If I see any I nab them straight away - case in point a recent visit to the UNSW book fair. This title, however, I have been on the lookout for for some time; ever since reading about it in Jane Brocket's The Gentle Art of Domesticity. So, when I saw it at a secondhand bookshop in Newton I grabbed it and expedited it up my reading list.

Rachel Ferguson has created a wonderful mix between reality and fantasy in The Brontes Went to Woolworths. It took me until some way into the book to work out which characters the Carnes actually knew and which they knew only in their imagination.

Amongst the ecletic visitors are Ironface - a doll who converses in French, Pipson - a music hall comic and Judge Toddington, or Toddy as he is better known. Toddy had been studied by the Carne household for some years - ever since Mrs Carne was called to jury duty in his court. They know many of his habits and much about his daily routine. They even keep photos of him.

Things become complicated when Deirdre, the eldest Carne daughterand a journalist, is sent to cover the opening of a charity bazaar. There she meets Lady Mildred, Toddy's real life wife, and a friendship develops between the two families. I loved Shiel, the youngest Carne, who when speaking to Toddy would get very mixed up between what was fact and what had been imagined about him.

And where do the Brontes come into it? The Carnes manage to get in touch with them during a seance in the country, and it seems that the Brontes didn't quite get to day everything they wanted to. They come back to the Carnes city residence to pay their governess a visit.....and then they go to Woolworths.

Loved it! Particularly this line "however modern or sceptic or advanced one may be, there is something about a church more likely to make wishes come true than anywhere else".

____

And, in an update to my last post. DH has arrived safely in Baghdad - though I think the heat and dust are making him rather uncomfortable. When I got off the phone to him just over an hour ago they were in the middle of a dust storm. Just 5 months and 3 weeks left until he gets back!

All Alone Again

Well, my husband has now been in Iraq for a week. It seems quite a long time! But I still have 6 months ahead of me - or 25 weekends; not that we have a return date. The last time I heard from him - a one minute 32 sec phone call - he seemed to be doing ok, though the heat and dust was bothering him. He is based at an American Base in Baghdad. Anyone out there got relations serving there?

Lots of people have been asking me how I will cope with my husband being gone. My response is threefold - though I rarely get to outline all three:

1. I don't have a choice - there is nothing he or I can do to change the fact that he was chosen to go.

2. I got help. Me not coping would affect my husband's ability to concentrate on his job - potentially compromising his safety and that of his soldiers.

3. Lots and lots of prayer. We are members of a wonderful church and as a couple we have been put on the prayer points, as well as being prayed for by lots of marvelous Christians individually. I really believe this has made a big difference for me. I am still sad and miss my husband awfully, but I know I am never alone. Also, I know God has a plan for us, even if I don't always get the 'whys' of it.

Anyway, I have to run now...off to Bible Study.

Promise not to be so long between posts in future - work and my husband's leaving has just been draining my creative juices of late.

Anzac Day

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.

We got up at 4am this morning to attend the dawn service for Anzac Day at my husband's unit. The Anzac tradition is special, and celebrated, by most Australians. Anzac stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp and Anzac Day (April 25) marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. Anzac was even my grandfather's middlename - his Father had fought for the four years of the Boer war, and my Granddad later saw action in Borneo during WW2.

Anzac day is when we remember the sacrifice and courage of all our past and present serving military members. I have always found the dawn service, and subsequent march moving but perhaps means something extra to me this year with my husband deploying to Iraq next week.

You can read more about the Anzac tradition here.

Crossriggs

In a nod to the celebration of Virago Modern Classics Elaine is hosting on her blog...I have just finished the collaborative effort of Jane and Mary Findlater Crossriggs - a wonderfully witty novel about a young woman, Alexandra Hope, who lives with her 'fruiterian' and slightly loopy father - 'Old Hopeful', her widowed sister and five nieces and nephews in the Scottish village of Crossriggs.

In love with a married man, she chooses spinsterhood over marrying the local Reverend. She seeks work to support her poverty stricken family; in the process meeting an eligible young gentlemen, the grandson 'Van Cassilis' of the local retired Officer to whom she reads. Alex is such an alive character, as Mr Matiland describes it "you [Alex] have a genius for living! You just know how to do it....You're alive, and most of us, with our prudence and foresight and realisation of our duties, are as dead as stones".

This novel had overtones of Little Women. Both are full of young, idealistic women living in poverty! I loved the tone of the Findlaters' writing:

The close sitting room at the Reids did seem very dingy as they came in out of the brave summer world out-of-doors, for Miss Bessie Reid - good woman!- was skilled in all the little arts that make the home hideous. There was a specimen of her handiwork at every turn - a painted tambourine here, a stark water-colour there, whilst miniature animals in crockery seemed to crawl on every ledge. Framed photographs, of all kinds, were everywhere, and a vase in one corner (Alex blushed, as she noticed it, for the obtuseness of the kind heart that had put it there) held a quantity of artificial almond blossom, made out of pink tissue paper and stuck upon thorn branches. Taste I suppose, is only a constant delicate expression of opinion, and Miss Bessie Reid's opinions - poor dear! - must have been singularly confused.

Too Funny! You shall just have to read it...

Iraq...and many..many books

Well, it has been close to a month since I last posted here. Wow, time really flies. Life has been going on pretty much as usual. My husband has received his deployment order for Iraq and will leave here on May 6th. Consequently, I may not be around too much in the coming weeks, as I will be spending time with him! It looks like it will be a 6 month deployment. I shall miss him a lot, but I guess it will leave more time for reading!

I have leisurely perused a significant pile of books off my TBR shelf in recent weeks. We took an extended long weekend for Easter and didn't do much so I had plenty of time to read. Also, we have had train chaos on my commute this past week with trips taking an extra half hour - again, not half so bad if you have a good book with you - or as I always do...two.

So, what have I read.....

Quite a few mysteries...grouping loosely.....

• Devil's Food by Kerry Greenwood
• Heavenly Pleasures by Kerry Greenwood
• Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet by M.C. Beaton
• The Winter Garden Mystery by Carola Dunn
• Death at Wentwater Court by Carola Dunn
• Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon

I particularly enjoyed the two books by Carola Dunn. They are about the Hon. Daisy Dalrymple, a writer, and set in the 1920s. The standard plot seems to involve her going to a country house to write about its history and architecture and there being a murder which she then solves. I guess in truth they are just fluff, but fun fluff!

I read Doctor at Sea by Richard Gordon. I hadn't heard of him before but judging by the circulation claims on the back of my 1954 edition he was very popular! In this episode he escapes an undesirable engagement by going to sea as the doctor on a Merchant Navy ship. Of course, he has lots of unexpected adventures as the ship makes its way from Britain to South America, and back. Most enjoyable.

My Mum left me Further Tales from a Country Practice by Arthur Jackson last time she was over this side of the country. I was a little dubious to begin with, but this is a lovely book and I shall be keeping my eye out for other books Jackson has written. It is a semi-autobiographical story of a country doctor in the 1950s. As a young (ish) doctor, Jackson was married with four children when he bought a dilapidated manor house he couldn't afford. Not one to shirk from a challenge he later decided to buy the fruit farm next door - again, which he couldn't really afford. This purchase and his service as the country doctor give him the material for this book. It reminded me somewhat of the BBC program Born and Bred, which I loved. I highly recommend it.

I anyone still hanging around... this is a long post!

I also read The Bridges of Madison Country by Robert James Waller, recommended to me by my best friend. We have been good friends since we were 13 and usually our tastes in books are pretty well aligned. However, in this case while I would class this as readable, it was not that special. Has anyone seen the movie?

I love Margery Sharp's writing. I picked up a copy of Britannia Mews last year on a discard shelf at a second hand bookshelf, sadly a shelf located in the sun meaning my copy is quite damaged. Nonetheless I thoroughly enjoyed this, it reminds me somewhat of Monica Dicken's The Angel in the Corner - as in a young girl from well-to-do family makes unsuitable marriage, but (dare I say it) I thought this was better. From the cover.....

Britannia Mews describes quietly and competently the evolution of character and customs in England from Victoria to World War II. Its effect is comparable to the depth of a full orchestra contrasted to jive on the piano, and makes on think, wistfully and in turning-the-clock-back moode perhaps, thank heaven for the Victorians, for the George Eliots, the Austens and the Brontes, who had the leisure and the wit to write a fully rounded tales. And one more thing....in all its pages there is not a single dull or turgid moment.....Its them is a study of the victory of an individual, and the triumph of personality over curcumstance....It is written by an artist who knows the use of incident, of fine, flowing narrative and delightful exposition.... Miss Sharp had made all her gallery of character almost distrubingly alive.

High praise indeed.

Finally, and I'll need a tea break after this effort.... I read Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present by Annabel Venning. I think anyone who read the opening paragraph of this blog would know why this book jumped off the shelf at me. This is Venning's first book and it is excellent. I read it in 2 days over the Easter weekend. Quite an achievement for me as I am a slow reader of non-fiction and it speaks volumes of how well this is written (or perhaps my strong personal interest in its subject matter).

Basically, Venning follows the lives of British military wives from the 17th century to the present (2004). Originally, very few soldiers and officers were allowed to marry. My husband still wouldn't be married...at only 23 and an officer we would have had to wait another 7 years from now, as 30 was the decreed marrying age for officers.

Another interesting fact was that until the Crimean War women and, sometimes children, would go to war with their husband - termed being "on the strength". Women received half rations, and their children quarter rations. It was the cost of supporting these additional bodies when food resources were scarce that led to the Army setting limits on how many of its men could marry and bring their wives along. Ballots were held as the ship sailed to select which women could accompany their husbands. Those that were not selected would be supported by the parish - essentially sent to the workhouse. And, they often wouldn't hear from the husband's again until they got back to England...up to 7 years later.

Wow, it makes me grateful, despite the army's many foibles, to be a military wife in the 21st century and not the 19th!