A month of celebrations.

February has been such a busy month for us.  We attended three celebration parties three weeks in a row, which is not something that happens a lot around here!  My friend Helen had her 70th birthday on the 11th Feb, Ken's Mum had her 99th the following week, and today we attended my oldest brother's 50th wedding anniversary party.  I had a lovely time catching up with the rellies.  Ken wasn't quite as excited because he doesn't know them as well as I do, so he just sat and watched me flitting around doing my hugs and photos thing.   My two brothers both live in Melbourne, but they have busy family lives with their children and grand children, so we don't get to see each other very often - weddings, funerals and the occasional anniversary, as I told someone today.

Ian and Wilma had kept all their engagement and wedding cards in an album, and they had it on display today.  It was like stepping back into the past seeing those cards from the early 1960's era - very different from the style of today's cards.  They also had their wedding album there, and some of the family photos brought back memories for me, especially the one of my parents with the bridal party.  Dad looked so young!  But of course I was only 13 at the time, and Dad in his late forties.
I trotted around lining people up into family groups for photos, which in retrospect was a good idea, as only one or two other people had cameras with them, so I think my brother will be happy with the result.  I created a temporary blog to send to the family members, but I doubt if it will be of any interest to anyone who reads this.  But if it is, you can find it here.
Tomorrow (actually today, because it is already Sunday morning as I type this) I have a drawing class workshop to attend.  The forecast was for 34 deg. C, not as hot as Saturday (37 deg.) but still uncomfortable, but I see on Google Weather it has been amended to 32 deg.  Hopefully it will continue to fall and we'll get a nice comfortable 28 deg. instead.  If my drawing of a Rainbow Lorikeet is any good, I'll be posting a photo on my new Art blog in due course.  All these blogs...my friends used to call me the eBay queen, but now they stir me up about having so many blogs!  Well, they all serve their purpose.

No more art on this blog.

If you had not read my post dated February 14, which was a rant about my first night at an art class I'm taking, you've missed out.  I have deleted it.  An artist friend of mine dropped by this morning to talk over my feelings about the course, and warned me that it was not a good idea to name artists, bad-mouth them, and reproduce their work on a blog!  So I figured I should get rid of it before I got into trouble.
I've started another blog just for my art dabbles, so if anyone reading this blog wants to see what I'm doing with acrylics, oils, watercolours, pastels, pencils, charcoal, and anything else that makes a mark on paper or canvas, you can see my efforts here.

Red Horse - our Native American Apache friend here in Oz.

Meeting Red Horse has been a life changing experience for Ken and I, as well as many of our family and friends. I have put links on the previous post to his website, and also to YouTube where Ken's nephew posted a video of Red Horse playing his flute to Ken's Mum on her 99th birthday. If you haven't read the post, but would like to know more, here are the links again:
Native American Productions

Red Horse on YouTube, Feb. 18th.

The second birthday party and a special guest.

As I wrote in the previous post, Ken's sister hosted a birthday party at her home today for their Mum, so the rest of the family could come and see her.  MIL's two children (Ken and SIL and spouses), SIL's three children and partners, and four of their children were there (four generations) as well as some cousins and other rellies.  The highlight of the afternoon was a visit from a friend of Ken's - Red Horse, who is a Native American married to an Aussie and living here.  He is an Apache Indian, and holds workshops and seminars to teach people about the Indian culture.  Ken and his Mum have both long been interested in American Indians, and when Ken told Red Horse recently she was 99 years old, he said he'd love to meet her, as the Indians have great respect for their elders, and not many of them get to that age.  Ken asked his sister if she'd mind, and she said not at all, she would be delighted to meet him, so Red Horse promised to arrive about 2.30 pm.
He arrived on time in traditional regalia - beaded deerhide jacket, pants and moccasins.  He was chuckling as he came in, because people driving past who saw him get out of his car, did a double take at the sight of him!   We hadn't told anyone he was coming, so it was a complete surprise, and everyone was excited about meeting him.  We introduced him to MIL, and she was entranced.  Her eyesight is not good, but she can still see well enough to make out peoples' faces and clothes, and her hearing is excellent.  He chatted to her for a while, then played three melodies on hand carved flutes, explaining what each song was about.  Cameras, I-phones and I-pads were whipped out and operating for the whole time he was there!   Everyone noticed MIL - she sat completely still, apart from tapping her fingers in time to his music, gazing at Red Horse with tears in her eyes.   There was such a strong connection that everyone in the room could feel it, and afterwards she said when he took her hand, she felt such a bond as if she had known him forever. I told her she probably has, in previous lives, and she agreed.
Ken's nephew has put his video on YouTube, so you can watch Red Horse there if you wish.

MIL's 99th birthday.

Ken's Mum turned 99 today, and the staff where she lives always give their residents a birthday cake and special afternoon tea for their birthdays.   Most of the family are at work during the week, but SIL left work early so she could join me to help Mum celebrate her birthday on 'the day' instead of just being with the other residents and staff.  I had found a very pretty embroidered cloth in the opshop this morning, so I took it along to put on our table.  Mum loved it, and some of the other residents came over to admire it too.
Tomorrow (Saturday) SIL is hosting a birthday party at her place for her Mum, and most of the family will be there, so I'll probably post some more photos afterwards.

A Patriotic Possum

We saw the funniest, cutest thing in our back yard today, and just had to take some pics!  A baby possum must have been sleeping in a shrub near ground level, and was possibly frightened by one of the cats, or us working in the yard.  Whatever it was, he scuttled up the flagpole and wrapped himself up in the Aussie flag which we hadn't taken down after Australia Day.