a week of weakness

Greetings all,

Love it or hate it when a blogger skips a few days of posting then professes illness & how tough life has been while passively begging for sympathy??  Hmmm . . . that's my weakness this week, i've been half dead on the lounge with a head cold, cough & neat crescendo of vomiting.  Ick!!  I'd love some sympathy.  

When i woke up this morning . . . i asked if handsome soldier was going to be late for work, then opened my eyes, flicked on the television news & couldn't find Sunrise??  Disorientated & wondering why no one was going to school - i have lost a week of my life, poof, it was suddenly Saturday again.  I had the sore-belly-nose-eyes-throat-deaf-ears thing so reading & relaxing weren't happening, i was home alone staring at the ceiling.  I dragged myself out to see the new Summer fashions one afternoon on the way to school, my eyes were blinded by the colour & patterns, i know, me - the colour lover!!

So let me distract us all with some of the lovelier things as i gather my croaky throat, runny nose & aching empty belly . . . like some pretty jonquils which made the living area smell beautiful, until my hyper-nose-sensitive husband requested they be tossed to the chickens.

 Last Saturday i was sewing with Jan-Maree of Aussie Hero Quilts & was lucky enough to have lunch with her on Thursday & Friday as well.  She generously baked up a load of chewy delicious chocolate cookies for my husband . . . 

 & remembered how much i love pears, so presented me with this lovely addition to my collection.  Thank you Jan-Maree, i have gazed at this sweet burst of colour frequently from the lounge during my recouperation.

 An Italian chocolate vanilla layer cake was baked (very much the consistency of scones, so it went down nicely with gelato, so the family tell me.)

 I did manage to struggle a road-side-find into the car & convert it into a day house for the chickens.  I'm a tad concerned that our beloved first chick Viola is rooster??  My husband calls her 'Violo', sigh.  This side profile doesn't help her 'hen' case but she's incredibly nurturing, non aggressive & silent in the cockadoodledo department for 5 months.  

I actually feel like i've been on a juice fast - at least the chickens, ducks & i have been shovelling all these fresh fruits & vegetables into ourselves each day.

 I honestly believe i would have been sicker sooner & for longer if i hadn't been drinking home juiced goodness with garlic all Winter.  Use your juicers folks, it's not that much effort to wash up the parts.  See how i save on washing up a glass by putting a straw straight into the jug. 

Wishing you all lovely weekends.  I scored an enormous box of lettuce & cabbage leaves from the Farmer's Market, i was so happy until the bottom of the box collapsed in the car park!!  Thank you to the lovely Rotary volunteer who helped put all the leaves back in the box & loaded them into my car!!  Stay well everyone, love Posie

Posie Limp Bits Challenge - Week 2: craft & winners announced!!

Greetings all,

First up, some giveaway winners to announce . . .

my 600th post $200 crafty giveaway goes to random pick entry 99 Rachel from Blossom Possum &

the copy of Birth Stories by Leonie MacDonald goes to Mother Down Under who discussed hypnobirthing!!  Congratulations ladies, please email me a delivery address!!

Welcome to Week 2: Craft of the Posie Limp Bits Challenge.  Play the anthem!!

Link up your post of something you have challenged yourself to . . .

knit, sew, applique, stitch, crochet, macrame, spin, create . . . over the next 7 days.

My background is pharmacology & psychology, however, i often wonder if i should have done architecture or engineering at University.  Now our beloved Khaki Campbell ducks, Bugle, Calliope & Bongo have been muddy-ing-up the chicken run with their love for  spraying water everywhere, it's smelly, so i had to get creative to dry things up.  I guessed a fenced in water feeder might do the trick & it worked immediately.  The ducks now fill their bills & swallow here, rather than saturate everything in water.  They still have a large pot of water to wash themselves & i'll take a 'portable pond' in for them to swim every other day too.  Everyone is happy.

It's at the 'German Shepherd' end of the coop, so some crates protect them from each other, as unattractive as it is.  As an added bonus, the little fence (left over from last year's pumpkin patch,) lattice from an industrial site, wire from coop construction, a branch & old garden stakes - cost me nothing!!  It also acts as a neat wind break - there are 4 hens nesting on the other side - they love nooks & crannies!! 

Now i had promised myself i'd master crochet for my Limp Bits Craft Challenge, however, i've only done a little sewing for Aussie Hero Quilts when Jan-Maree came to Canberra last week, then i've spent the rest of the week blowing my nose.  Also had my final hand surgeon check up on Monday, thrilled with the results, yet still getting my hands back to their nimble best.  

Thank you to last week's Limp Bits Cooking Challenge participants, we have 

Becky from Becky et al's cheesecake winning GOLD; 

Rachel from Blossom Possum's porcini with SILVER & 

Shelley from Jelly Shane's pea & ham soup taking BRONZE.  

Special mention to Becky who managed to dirty every kitchen appliance & mixing bowl to create her cheesecake, Rachel is a sweet teenager who cooked the porcini for her family & Shelley used a recipe from a dear elderly gentleman.  Congratulations, cooking with heart & soul!!  

Grab the badge & have fun.  Week 3/ Closing Ceremony: Photography - challenge yourself to photograph something with a different lens, off auto, at night, on water, flying . . . a skill you haven't tried before.  Thanks for joining in, cyber medals will be awarded!!  Love Posie

social commentary Sunday . . . 'silver is the new gold'

Greetings all,

Olympic Poster of the Day: Rome Italy 1960.

Olympic History in Italy: Rome was awarded the 1908 games, however, after Mt Vesuvius erupted in 1906, the honour was passed to London (who also hosted in 1948 & 2012!!)  Italy is my favourite country in the world, i just realised my husband & i were there 2 years ago today, ahhhh . . . reliving our honeymoon.

Olympic Story of Australia: Australia's Herb Elliot, Dawn Fraser & Murray Rose helped our country finish 5th on the medal tally with 8 golds, 8 silver & 6 bronze, behind the power house countries of the USSR, USA, Italy & United Germany in 1960.    

So Australia, we're not winning as many Olympic gold medals as we expected.  I'm a competitive person, yet i think this serves us right, we have a pretty large sports ego & sense of glory entitlement!!  Have you noticed that most of our athletes are jumping up & down with excitement just because they are Olympians, regardless of medals??!!

Sure world champions like swimmer James Magnussen were primed for gold, things haven't gone his way & he's leaving with one bronze medal . . . he was initially disappointed yet still a good sport about it, blaming no one - here's a shocker for the media - instead of saying something he might regret, he said nothing, the media had no where to go, so aimed all sorts of negativity at him, swimming & sports funding.  Even pool-side-commentator & former Olympian Giaan Rooney asked him immediately "what went wrong??"  Pretty confronting for someone who just spent 4 years training for THAT RACE.  He's amazing & swimming against Michael Phelps (18 Olympic gold medals, hello) he'll never get tougher competitor. 

Did you see ever graceful swimmer Leisel Jones in her 4th Olympics (can you believe she was only 14 winning medals in Sydney 2000??)  Anyway, she has been picked on by the media showing unflattering images of her carrying extra weight, to which she said "i don't care what people say" & that it spurs her on.  Then after losing her crown as the Queen of Butterfly, she said "it's a changing of the guard, it used to be me."  Just gorgeous, now that is a truly inspirational girl, mind, body & soul.     

I'm a huge believer that children should have role models who are attainable, like parents, teachers, siblings, local sports stars they have a chance of meeting . . . not a deep, undistracted obsession with a super star, often highly paid & clueless about regular lifestyles.  We love sports, however, no one here obsesses over a particular sports star, so we've avoided children being disappointed in their sports 'heroes' when they don't win or disgrace themselves outside sport.  Personally i loathe people getting paid a fortune just to play sports & being referred to as 'heroes', they're not saving or protecting lives!!  

Of course, i can't wait to watch world champion hurdler Sally Pearson go for gold & the children are excited for her too, but i think winning all these silver medals is a wonderful chance for Australian families to tell their children that competition is fierce, it's extremely rare & special to win an Olympic medal of any colour (it's not a right of passage) & the true meaning of the Olympics is fair participation.  I'm completely over the news coverage & our obsession with the medal tally.  I'm remember the 1984 Los Angeles games (we were holidaying in LA at the time!!) when Australia, still a TINY population, won a handful of medals full stop & it was amazing!!  

Finally, how about the media interview all the volunteers, not the "remember to smile" British guides at the venues, the Australian medical staff who pay their own way to get to London, to volunteer for OTHER countries who can't afford to bring their own??!!  That is a far more exciting story than repeat footage of rower Drew Ginn not winning his 4th gold medal in a row, but silver, which is still, absolutely wonderful!!  Love Posie  

snap it 'night time' & Olympic flash back to Berlin 1936

Greetings all,

Blogland is very quiet, no surprises . . . many of us are watching the London Olympics (for Australia, that's night time viewing!!)  I hope you've been enjoying my Olympic Poster of the Day series + the Scandal history lessons.  Surely, of all the modern Olympics, Berlin has to be one of the most controversial, with Chancellor Adolf Hitler in power.

Olympic Poster of the Day: Berlin Germany in 1936.

Olympic Scandal: where do you begin when Hitler is at the helm, desperate to out do the friendly 1932 Los Angeles USA effort & sieg heil white supremacy to the world from a 100 000 capacity stadium??  They promoted 'sports' to harden the German Spirit & "weed out the weak, Jewish & other undesirables" . . . during the games they removed all the antisemitic paraphernalia, so the world didn't see.  Fortunately for the likes of USA's Jessie Owens, Hitler considered black athletes more tolerable than Jewish & allowed them to compete.  Did you know Owens & fellow African American Ralph Metcalfe replaced Jewish runners Marty Glickman & Sam Stoller in the Men's 4x100m relay, or the US team would be suspended??

Triumphs: Jessie Owens won 4 gold medals from 4 events & the 100 000 strong mostly Aryan crowd were excitedly chanting 'Oh-vens' - take that Hitler.  Also, Owens nearly fouled out of the Broad Jump (long jump) until German Luz Long advised him to jump before the line.  Owens did, he won gold, Long won silver & they walked around the stadium arm in arm.  Hitler refused to shake Owen's hand at any of the medal ceremonies, the world noted the snub.  Then WWII started, the Olympics were not held again until 1948, Owens was never able to repeat his Olympic success.  

Note: Germany is one of my favourite countries in the world.  I remind my children that these things all happened in their grandfather's lifetime, it's not ancient history & should never be repeated.  Can you imagine, super star Owens, travelling with his college track team around America, NOT being allowed in the same cafes & buildings as his white team mates??  After the celebratory ticker tape parade for the 1936 US Olympic team, the Owens family weren't welcome at any hotels in New York.  Eventually one accepted them, if they used the back entrance.  Unimaginable!!  The whole world has come a long way!!
Extra Credit: So the Nazi's mastered branding & PR, there wasn't a venue/ street/ stadium/ uniform/ spectator without a swastika, you have to give it to them for Olympic hype & national pride . . .  they wanted the whole world to know THEY were hosting the Olympics Games & express their superiority . . . so they created the Torch Relay.  Now it unites the world, thank goodness.        

Now to Snap It with Faith Love & a Whole Lotta Love . . . 'night time' my family watching the Olympic Games for all their history, good & bad.  

Now, let me never use Hitler's name or refer to Nazis ever again on my blog.  Love Posie   

Posie Limp Bits Challenge - Week 1: cooking

Greetings all,

Welcome to Week 1: Cooking of the Posie Limp Bits Challenge.  Sound the trumpets!!  

Link up your post of something you have challenged yourself to . . . 

bake, cook, roast, sauté, BBQ, grill, smoke, poach . . . over the next 7 days.

My lame confession . . . after 15 years of marriage & spending literally years home alone preparing dinner for my children while my handsome soldier takes all his culinary skills to war zones, i had never cooked a roast.  Oh the shame.  So last night, i made this, mmmm, Roast Pork.  I kept the vegetables simple (carrots, potato, broccoli) as my eldest daughter had a volleyball match at 6p.m. so i had to whip this in & out of the oven in under 2 hours.  Nothing says success like crispy crunchy crackling!!  My children gobbled it down (like they do at Christmas) & came back for thirds!!

My awesome tip . . . pour boiling water over the uncooked pork, pat dry with paper towel then dry thoroughly with a hair dryer.  Rub liberally with vegetable oil & salt for crackling heaven.  

 I cooked it over a foil tray, no washing up (i actually couldn't find the rack for the roasting pan so had to improvise & use an old cake cooler, worked just as well!!)

 Please include what your willing taste testers thought too!!  My children gave me the thumbs up & asked if we could have pigs on the farm, mmmm, homegrown bacon, ribs & roast pork, hell yeah.  

Grab the badge & have fun.  Week 2: Craft - challenge yourself to a new skill or pick up an old favourite you haven't utilised for a while.  I've had 3 crochet lessons & i still struggle, yet continue to try.  Thanks for joining in, medals will be awarded!!  Love Posie

Olympic fever & a flash back to Mexico 1968

Greetings all, 
Feeling groovy with Olympic fever??  My primary schoolers took my Olympic Relay Torch to school & now students keep asking me which events i was in at the Olympics.  I wish!!   

Olympic poster of the day: Mexico City Mexico 1968.  
Olympic Scandal: the 'Black Power Salute' at the medal ceremony for the Men's 200m where Tommie Smith & John Carlos (both USA, gold & bronze medalists respectively) each raised a black gloved fist as a "human rights salute."  Australian Peter Norman won the silver & wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge.  All 3 were suspended from the games by IOC President Avery Brundage.  Sorry, where were then US Olympic Committee President Brundage's 'apolitical salute standards' during the 1936 Berlin Olympics??  He made no objections to the Nazi salute on the dais 'as it was a national salute' - disgusting!!  Brundage, a Nazi sympathiser - double disgusting!!  Hitler, Germany's Chancellor - triple disgusting!!  Anyway, both Smith & Carlos kept in touch with Norman & were pallbearers at his funeral in 2006.   
Found this sweet photo of our twins from their Mt Kosciuszko hike on the notice board at school (girl on right in borrowed track pants!!)  My third girl received an A+++ for her Olympic project, with thanks to some free TinyMe printables linked off Tania McCartney's blog (so my daughter wrote her a thank you note & handmade a felt heart, too cute!!)  We have the Medal Tally on the fridge for Australia & one for Spain (son's homework assignment.)  Did you hear Usain Bolt learnt Spanish as most of the 'hot athletes' only speak Spanish??  What a charmer.  

Because i'm an over sharer & gasp when i see colourful things i adore, i whipped out my copy of Mollie Makes magazine to show the manager at Seed, the friendship bracelets on the front cover . . . they have similar ones in store!!  I went back the following day to get a dozen more as they make great gifts (we're going into the birthday months remember) i spent many a Christmas pregnant, not making babies!!   

A gold medal for my number 1 son!!  His 'bracelet' in the image above is from Afghanistan, he likes to join in.  Yes, he maintains his supreme olive skin colouring all through Winter, the Italian genes run deep.

 The chocolate gold medal didn't last long, bless his heart, she shared it with his 3 sisters.

 Don't forget the Limp Bits challenge starts tomorrow - get ready to link up your cooking entry - bake, cook, roast, sauté, BBQ, grill, smoke, poach . . . something you've never tried before or haven't for a while.  Details here. 

Love Posie

a week of Olympic proportions & flash back to Seoul 1988

Greetings all,

I often use 'Olympic' as a huge-prolific-amazeballs adjective . . . we had one of those Olympic weeks: children thrilled to be back at school with their friends; successful parent/ teacher interviews; my eldest is in a new Volleyball team in a higher grade; dinner out; my husband started work locally; even the chickens are laying more eggs since the Winter Solstice!!  I wrapped up the week with a clean house; read a few magazines; wrote thank you notes; lots of exercise; cooking new recipes; tending to animals; somehow became the marketing manager for our school fete + consulting with Jan-Maree of Aussie Hero Quilts about her trip to Canberra next week (including a sewing Saturday at Duntroon) 415 patchwork quilts have been sent to our troops overseas already!!   

Olympic Poster of the Day: Seoul South Korea in 1988.  

Olympic Scandal: attention London Olympic organisers, there are two very different Koreas,   perhaps you might like to check the flags (at the North Korean Women's soccer) as they are separate countries.  'Peace & good will' at Olympics = don't upset the North Koreans!! 

 Then a Friday treat - brunch with Tania McCartney.  While we gobbled down panini, exchanged 'just because' gifts & chattered a million miles a minute, we hit our favourite haunts - Typo, Seed, Pepe's Paperie, Laura Ashley - then Tania dashed to meet some authors for lunch (socialite) i had time to kill at Kikki-K, Fossil & Witchery.  Lots of sales, the sequin & tulle skirts cost me less than $40 (total value $150) for my eldest to wear to discos, socials, parties - baby steps, she's not a girlie girl - so the sequins were met with a screwed up nose, however, amazing what you're teenagers will do when you pay the entry fee &/ or drive them to said discos, socials & parties!!  Plus i met her after a volleyball clinic with sushi, she loves me!!  Actually Tania sighed her daughter wasn't frilly either, would live in jodhpurs if she could, alas, i have two extra frill-sparkle-sequin loving daughters to dress & hand these down to.  

Tattoos & London cup cake wrappers (thanks Tania) i baked my English Mummy's fairy cakes for my little athletes today.  Adorable stationery - Squirrels with acorn push pins, Oh Deer stamp, dotty tissue paper, quirky clips, note cards & book (bunting, hello!!)  A bunch of little things that pulled at my heart strings.  I saw the Amanda Paino fabric on Kate from Foxs Lane blog.  Just realised that is not the current issue of Mollie Makes magazine, ooppss, i flick through them constantly. 

I was up at 5.30a.m. to catch the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics, thrilled to find two of my girls already up watching, had to wake the rest.  The athletes parade - Italians, chic as ever; Australian team uniforms matched the French, only with bottle green jackets - we looked very smart (for once!!)  Very excited to see Patty Mills (a Canberra born & bred Basketball player) out there.  Then the Americans came out, oh Ralph Lauren, berets off to your classic style!!  We particularly enjoyed the Pacific Island & African nations with their glorious national uniforms.  Actually, i would have put the French in cravats or scarves (the ties were a bit bland) like my new red, white & blue Witchery birdie scarf!!  How i'd love to dress an Olympic team.

Now i don't have pay television & am suffering Eddie McGuire.  We picked up various faults in Eddie's opening commentary, including . . . this was the first Olympics where every team has both male & female participants (not quite) . . . & how ANZACs fell alongside British troops during the first few days of the battle of the Somme, France in WWI (no Eddie, they hadn't arrived yet!!)  Who researches this stuff & worse . . . who lets Eddie on television??  Just let Andrew Gaze do all the talking please (5 x Olympics, Sydney Olympic flag bearer, son of Olympian) as he actually knows how it feels unlike over paid, non athletic, television executives!!  What did you think of the Opening Ceremony??  I loved Daniel Craig with the Queen (corny but forever-hunky-in-a-suit); David Beckham looked pretty pleased with himself captaining that boat; the music was ace, although Paul McCartney was a bit off key; the cauldron was AMAZING!!  I didn't realise the British were such fans of the National Health System??  All my English relatives complain about it!! 

  Want to join in a blogging challenge during the Olympic Games??  My Limp Bits of cooking/  crafting/ photography improvement here, starts Wednesday 1st August with cooking.  Love Posie