United We Stand

Like so many others, I've been deeply affected seeing the devastation & loss the horrendous floods have brought to my fellow Aussies north in Queensland.
The response by Brisbanites to their brothers in great need has been awesome. An army of 16,000 volunteers turned up on Saturday & 10,000 answered the call yesterday. I am so proud of these ordinary people who stand in a queue with their gumboots, brooms, mops, hoses & buckets. Ready to be bussed out to the houses & businesses of complete strangers in faraway suburbs. They just want to do their bit - you are legends each & every one of you.

My 3 weeks vacation has gone in a flash. We had a house full of guests for 12 days & it was bedlam. The bookings spreadsheet I had done pre-Christmas never left my hands & was an organizational God-send. I cooked, cleaned, shopped, stripped beds, washed linen, remade beds & then started the cycle all over again. I haven't opened any of my Chrissie books, seen a movie or spent an arvo on the sofa. Although I did get my priorities right & managed to hit the New Year sales for some compulsory retail therapy.

We had a lovely Christmas Day at Son #5 & his gorgeous girl Miss A's house. I was so proud of them both, they did a spectacular job with lunch. With 4 out of 5 sons home, it was inevitable that a large amount of post-prandial clowning around occurred. I have the perfect caption for the above image, but MOTH would sue!

Over the Christmas period, things got out of hand amongst the reunited brothers on occasion & I was forced to read the Riot Act to a number of the sons. You know who you are & are pictured below.

Enough said!

A much more civilized shot of the Little Darlings & MOTH for The Hedge's Christmas Album. At 6'5" MOTH looks to be the quite short in this pic, either that or Son # 2 is still growing at 31. Each Christmas I put out a request that they make an effort & dress up for lunch & every year they do - NOT!

There was another birthday for moi. The numbers 55 suddenly appeared on my speedometer last Sunday, but there's no way I'll be sticking to my speed limit this year!

MOTH's famous Christmas Lillies displayed a great deal of confusion due our cold, miserable, inclement December weather. For the first time ever, the yellow Asiatics bloomed first & were a riot of colour for weeks.

Then their White siblings made an unfashionably late appearance last week & have filled the house with their breathtaking perfume.

Lastly, I want to thank everyone for the beautiful & very generous comments left on the Our New Bathroom post. Your words have left MOTH & I positively buoyed & we are so grateful that you all managed to go the distance with us. In all the flurry of activity around here I really hadn't a chance to stop & revel in the joy of it all. However, we had a group of friends over for dinner on Saturday night & during the course of the evening I did what everyone else was doing. I wandered up to the new 'facility' instead of dashing into the grotty ensuite as normal. As I watched the nifty self-closing lid gently descend to meet the loo seat (only a mother of 5 sons can get teary-eyed over that remarkable innovation) I suddenly became quite overcome with emotion.

For the first time it really, really hit me that the Bathoom-From-Hell was no more, & in it's place was the fabulous room I've been dreaming about for so long. Back to work for me tomorrow, but it's lovely to be back here with you all. I have a big year planned, so I'd better get to it.

Images 1 & 2: Courier Mail 4: Amazon 7: Treehugger