Sign The Guest Book!

William & Catherine's Big Day Out has finally arrived........

.......so please grab a pen & leave them a message on a piece of the virtual Royal Wedding Puzzle Guest Book here at The Hedge. But you'll need to sign it using your Royal name. Starting with Lord or Lady, your first name is one of your grandparent's names. Then your surname is the name of your first pet, double-barrelled with the name of the street you grow up on. Won't it be a hoot to see the results & great fun seeing everyone's messages to the Royal newlyweds. So please join me, Lady Edie Ginger-L'Estrange as we sign the Royal Guest Book, & go enjoy every minute of this very exciting day!

Images: Bella Puzzles

One Of Those Weeks

After a somewhat 'harrowing' week at work, my normal bouncy resilience has deserted me. So I'm off to try & find it & reinstall it on my hard drive. Normal programming will resume as soon as I do.

Image: etsy - Suzannaanna

Sorry Skipper!

Love Melbourne Landscape Designer Eugene Gilligan's work!

All images: Eugene Gilligan

Lest We Forget

Australian Army Nursing Service

Pledge of Service
I pledge myself loyally to serve my King and Country and to maintain the honour and efficiency of the Australian Army Nursing Service.

I will do all in my power to alleviate the suffering of the sick and wounded, sparing no effort to bring them comfort of body and peace of mind.

I will work in unity and comradeship with my fellow nurses.

I will be ready to give assistance to those in need of my help, and will abstain from any action which may bring sorrow and suffering to others.

At all times I will endeavour to uphold the highest traditions of Womanhood and of the Profession of which I am Part.

On the hospital ships off Gallipoli, Australian nurses came face to face for the first time with the reality of the wounded. It made some of them confront the limitations of their nursing skills and the notion of the glory of war. Working on the hospital ship Sicilia Sister Lydia King confided to her diary:

'I shall never forget the awful feeling of hopelessness on night duty. It was dreadful. I had two wards downstairs, each over 100 patients and then I had small wards upstairs — altogether about 250 patients to look after, and one orderly and one Indian sweeper. Shall not describe their wounds, they were too awful. One loses sight of all the honour and the glory in the work we are doing.'

LEST WE FORGET

Buona Pasqua

I've been feeling decidedly Italian this week. On the drive home from Melbourne, MOTH & I were reminiscing about the best food we've eaten together over the years. One stand out was a wedding anniversary celebration at the wonderful Gennaro's (R.I.P.) at Parkside. Gennaro presented us with Roast Capretto (Baby Goat) lovingly prepared by his Mamma the sous chef. It was one of those moments in life that you want time to stand still & never move on. I've managed to find a recipe that looks mighty good from chef Scott Conant - Moist Roasted Baby Goat (Capretto) with Peas, Fingerling Potatoes and Shallots here.

As Greek Orthodox Easter co-incides with the Christian calendar this year, goat has been plentiful in the market this week. So it's on the menu here at The Hedge this Easter weekend. I have the time & the enthusiasm - what a luxury.

So Buona Pasqua to you all dear Hedgies. It's the Easter break, so go enjoy.

Image: Not On The High Street

Shopping Genie

G'Day Carson, MOTH here - guess what mate? On Sunday arvo in Melbourne I let my style genie out of the bottle & WENT SHOPPING!! Yep I know that you'll find it hard to believe BUT I DID!!!

I know the place I shopped at isn't probably exactly where you'd have taken me but hey buddy, I went & that in itself is miracle enough. Good 'ol Brand Smart Outlet Mall in Nunawading laid out the red carpet & I spent up big.

First I went here.

And then here.

I went in here & bought Mills a belated Anniversary pressie - a beaut new frypan to cook my dinner in.

I was fading fast by this stage, so needed to refuel here.

It was all going rool good & Millie was rool happy, until we got here. Yep, I couldn't resist a dash into my favourite place. Mills embarassed me a bit by crying like a baby & screaming, 'Don't do it MOTH, don't do it!!', but I didn't care a bit. 10 minutes later I was outta there & guess what - I'd spent 80 bucks & got 2 hoodies, a shirt & a pair of jeans, yep hard to believe eh. I reckon it will be 2016 before this gear wears out & I need to go back again. I bet you're proud of me. High Five Mate!!!

Busy Signal

Yes that means you dear Hedgies! Excuse me while I run around in circles getting nowhere fast, but life's like that at the moment. Tomorrow we are heading off to Melbourne early as it's MOTH's younger brother's 60th birthday party there on Saturday. And 'cos MOTH is too tight to fly & hire a car for the occasion yes you guessed it, we have to drive 7.5 hours in the Millie-mobile to get there. A mad dash around on Sunday to catch up with the 3 Melbourne sons & elderly Aunts & then back in the car early Monday for the 7.5 hour drive home. It's Son #5's 28th birthday & I promised to be home in Adelaide in time for his birthday dinner that night. Then a massive week at work follows & Thursday night I can collapse in a heap!!

Wish me luck in the car with MOTH. Last time Mr. Grumpy & I travelled down the highway together, it was no speakies from the Stirling roundabout (where a huge brawl occurred about him not giving way to a poor elderly local who got the fright of his life as MOTH bored through!) to Ballarat (approx. 500kms). The silence was only broken when MOTH got hungry & needed to ask me for 5 bucks for a burger & fries at HJ's. See you all next week, with or without MOTH!

Oops!!

As you can see something's up with the appearance of The Hedge. Dear old Photobucket is having a major issue that's affecting a small number of their users. 'Cos my border image & auto signature are stored on PB, I'm in that group. So all I can do is ask for your patience, as they reckon they'll have the problem resolved by the end of the day. So in the meantime, pass the Champers, there's nothing like a few bubbles to deaden the pain!

Luscious Limoges

Deb Taylor, a Sydney ceramicist uses Limoges porcelain to create fabulous pieces for her company Little White Dish. Deb says this material is the finest & smoothest of all & allows her to create beautifully defined lines in her pieces, with a fabulous translucency.

Functional pieces like this cream dish.

And this customized bowl with a touch of the quirky.

A sugar & creamer with a paper-thin relief design.

Pass the butter please!

Drinking from the Cherished cup.

Fabulous, functional colanders.

Pendants with attitude.

Pendants for the one you love.

The surprise element!

And now Deb's making these simple & quite beautiful memorial urns. Inside each one is a handmade silk drawstring bag to hold the ashes & the client who commissions the piece, chooses the words or quotation for the inscription. All images are from Deb's site littlewhitedish .

A big Thank You to everyone who left a message on Friday's Anniversary post - you are all too gorgeous! MOTH & I had a fab night out at The Table in Stirling. We are at the beginning of a really busy cycle in our lives, so thanks to Callum & Michelle for providing the most amazing Chatter Platter for MOTH & I to do a lot of chattering & synchronizing of diaries over! The evening finished on a high note when MOTH leant over & told me I'm exactly the same today as the bride who walked down the stairs to meet him at Carrick Hill 16 years ago. Not one for expressions of romance my MOTH, it was quite something!

Sixteen

It's 16 years today that I walked down the stairs to plight my troth to MOTH. Those gorgeous young boys in the pic are now grown men of 27,29 & 31! We sure have packed a lot into those years, so Happy Anniversary to the long-suffering MOTH. He's planned dinner out on the town tonight (albeit quiet little Stirling). Any place where I don't have to share the same air with the Gangster Rappers is just fine with me! MOTH & I share the same wedding anniversary with the lovely Leigh over @ Brabourne Farm, so best wishes to you & Mr. Brabourne dear Leigh. It's the weekend, so go enjoy.

Millie & The Rappers

Well that sure was an interesting few days in Sydney! Our Sales Meeting was held in one of the city's most salubrious & prestigious 6 star Hotels & my room was divinely luxurious. All well & good you might say except for one small point - these boys (or their equivalent) were my next door neighbours!!! I believe these lads fall into a musical category known as Gangster Rappers, & after 3 days sharing a common wall with them, boy do I know how they got that name. Now I have a pretty broad mind & am not one to deny anyone the right to party, but these lads, their groupies & a posse of minders wearing more gold chains than Tutankhamun gave it more than just a nudge, they pushed the party machine right off the cliff! The noise I could have tolerated, but the crunch was that my room had a locked connecting door to their's & that's where the trouble started.

From the time I checked in, my room was full of smoke which came wafting up under the door from many of these 'herbal' cigarettes the chaps & their 'visitors' were indulging in. Considering that the entire Hotel is non-smoking, I was not happy. Numerous calls to Management resulted in the lads being told to desist & slapped with a $500 per day additional 'housekeeping' fee. But it seemed the more warnings they got from the Hotel's meek & mild bespectacled front office manager, the more they smoked. Sadly I couldn't move rooms as the Hotel management reckoned the place was at 110% occupancy - could someone please explain to me how that works?!

So boys, I hope you enjoyed your stay but honestly, when I was woken at 6.30a.m. from my slumbers this morning by more 'fragrant' smoke wafting from under our shared door, that was the last straw. Don't count on me to buy your next album, it won't be happening. And to that famous global Hotel conglomerate, you owe me BIG TIME!!!!!

Handing Back The Crown

Yes dear Hedgies, its that time of the year again - my dear Company's Annual Sales Meeting, whoopee! I've had a lovely year milking my Sales Specialist of the Year Award for all its worth, but on Wednesday night I need to hand over my crown to the next sucker lucky Winner at the big dinner. If you missed the goss on what happened this time last year, you can read all about it here. After a huge argy-bargy intelligent discussion with MOTH, I've finally cashed in my Travel Voucher prize from last year & booked Millie & MOTH's Grand Vacation - more of that soon. So with the crown jauntily perched on my head, it's off to Sydney for me for the rest of the week. As you can tell, my excitement is palpable. Image: Neobeatificvision