A Nostalgic Trip Without Leaving Home

From the time I was about 4 years old until I was almost 11 we lived in a western suburb in Adelaide.

Our house didn't have a number because there were no other houses in the street and for a long time the road wasn't sealed.  We had market gardens opposite us and on one side.  

Behind us was a building supply depot, where my father worked and beyond that was the River Torrens.  It wasn't the beautiful Torrens Lake that you see on postcards of Adelaide.  This is the part of the river after it has meandered through the city and the lake, and is on it's way down to the sea.  No beautiful sculptured gardens here. Just steep, scrubby, banks leading down to the water, which at that point is a narrow muddy creek.  Young boys used to catch yabbies there.

Recently, feeling a bit nostalgic, (as I seem to do more and more often these days) I went for a tour around this old neighbourhood.  And, thanks to Google maps, I didn't even have to leave Brisbane.

Naturally, after so many years, things have changed and our street is no longer recognisable as the place in which I spent my formative years.  Our house is gone!  The market gardens have been replaced by commercial and industrial buildings, and the building supply depot has expanded, and appears to have taken over the entire block on our side (northern) of the street.

Luckily, about 10 years ago, I went to visit one of my sisters who still lived in Adelaide at that time, and we did a real tour of this neighbourhood.  Things had already changed dramatically, of course, but our house was still there and I was able to get some photographs of it. 

This is one of the pictures I took. Sadly, we could see that its days were numbered even then. 

But the thing that was really astonishing, was how small it looked. I had always thought of this house as huge. By the time we left there, my parents' family was complete - six daughters aged from 17 years to 3 years.  How on earth did we all fit?

Here is a picture of me and my younger sister taken at the side of this house, probably not long after we moved there.

Here is a picture of me taken in the driveway of that house.  I was probably about 5 years old at the time. Check out the car in the garage.  Also the clothes prop.  This was pre Hills Hoist time.

I have so many memories of living in that house and in that neighbourhood ...... but they'll have to be for another post.

Love,

A Birthday Card for a Special Friend

Years ago, eons ago in fact, I had a boyfriend with whose Mum I developed a special bond.

I went out with the boyfriend for about  3 years and was even a bridesmaid in his sister's wedding.  Eventually the boyfriend took off for adventures in far flung places, never to return. Sometime later I moved to Queensland and after a while I lost touch with his family altogether.

Recently, thanks to the wonders of the internet and social networking sites, I've re-established contact with the said boyfriend.  No..... no don't get excited dear reader, he's been married to the same woman for decades.

Anyway, he told me that he and his wife were coming to Oz for his Mum's 80th birthday. I remembered that her birthday is on 2nd April, so I decided to make her a card.

This is the front. (Click on pic to see an enlarged view).

I made it using Creative Memories papers and tools.  The ribbon is from a pack of 6 rolls from the Warehouse. 

This is the inside of the card. I should acknowledge that the quotation is by Adele Basheer.

I posted it off to his Mum last Saturday and enclosed pictures of Emma and the Grandies.  I received an email from the friend who said that the card had arrived at his Mum's the day before her birthday "and she's still crying". I hope she's not crying because she thinks the card is horrible. 

I like making cards, because you get almost instant gratification. You know what I mean ..... it's just a short time span between starting the card and having a finished product.