THAT WARM AND FUZZY FEELING

Last week Sue from Elephant's Child featured me on her blog tour.  I must admit I was amazed at being chosen and felt she was perhaps being  kind to an 'oldie' whose blog is so simple compared with so many other wonderful blogs.   Thank EC for choosing me and now I will try and do justice to your choice.  I can still feel the warm and fuzzy feeling that came over me when I saw my name there.  I am still pinching myself and checking back to make sure I wasn't mistaken.

As Sue said the blog tour comes with conditions such as introducing ourselves (with photos) and answering a few questions.  The final step is to feature three blogs we love, and to invite the featured people to follow suit in a week.  I believe one is supposed to request permission to do so and I have asked one person her permission which she has given me.  The other two I hope will accept their nominations.  I don't have a lot of followers so it is possible most of you will already know of the blogs I chose as they are all very popular and have numerous followers.

Sue said the questions didn't suit her or her lifestyle and she ignored them.  I will answer them but you will see they don't really relate to me either.

Q.  What am I working on?   A. In my case mainly on staying alive a wee bit longer.  Perhaps this related to the blog...at present I am working on telling my life story beginning in 1932.  Episodes on here each Tuesday when possible.
Q.  How does my work differ from others of its genre?  A. In one word....no genre....just simplicity.
Q.  Why do I write/create what I do?  A.  I don't create but I write to keep my brain active.
Q.  How does my writing process work?  A.  I tend to write whatever pops into my head whenever.

Now about me.  If you have visited my blog you will have found details about me, but in case you are a stranger to it I live in a suburb of Perth in Western Australia and am 82 and consider that only a number more than an age.  We are as old as we feel.  My body feels to be 110 but in my mind I am still somewhere between 25 and 45.  I refuse to grow up completely if I can possibly help it.

I was a random event born into a chaotic world.  I probably wasn't meant to be and my poor mother had to give me up for adoption as my father denied I was his and her father refused to allow his daughter to keep me.  I was the fortunate one as I was adopted as a wee baby by an English (London) couple who had emigrated to Western Australia and for my first 6 years I lived on a farm near our south coast.  Mum's ill health forced us to come to the big smoke (Perth) where I still live, although I'd prefer to live in a rural setting and have always loved the countryside. 

I am married and second time around has really worked for me (we celebrate our 47th wedding anniversary this September).  My hubby emigrated from the old country (England) in 1960 and I am so glad he did as otherwise we would not have met of course.

I am a mother of a pigeon pair (a wonderful daughter and a son I don't see) and have six grandchildren and 3 beautiful great-granddaughters all of whom I have much love for.  I don't see my family nearly enough these days but in these modern times they are all so very busy.  I do keep up to date with the doings of some of them through Facebook as I fear otherwise I may lose touch altogether.

What do I like?  Life itself is good and I've never been an ambitious person so life is simple. We even live in a simple cottage style house with a garden that is getting away from us as I can no longer get out there and do what I once did and I can't expect my hubby to cope with it all.  It has become somewhat of a wilderness now and with out strict watering restrictions during summer we battle to keep it green (the front lawn really suffered last summer as we were five months without a drop of rain at our place).  Apart from all the trees and shrubs I planted when we moved here in 1974 we now try to choose hardy plants that don't need too much water.  Welcome to our front garden:

I was once quite an industrious seamstress, cross stitcher, knitter and crocheter.  My hands are now crippled with osteo arthritis and the only craft I have managed to continue with is crocheting, albeit very slowly.  I make rugs for Vinnys as my way of making a small contribution to help them raise money for the needy.  No, I am not a catholic, but I consider they are a wonderful organisation that does terrific work and the ladies there are always so kind to Phil when he delivers odds and ends plus the rugs.

Genealogy has been my hobby for about 10 years and I have investigated all four families (natural and adoptive) and found quite a few skeletons in some family closets, many of which have made me smile, although those events were probably not quite so funny for the people at the time they happened.

I am a lover of animals and in particular cats.  We have had three wonderful canine friends as well but we are now too old to care for a dog with daily walking, bathing etc.  Our cat Precious is nearly 13 years old and has been with us since she was a tiny kitten.  She rules our lives and we, of course let her as, after all, she is a cat and that is her right.  This is her wearing her winter coat which she sheds in spring ready for our hot Perth summers.  Nearly all the dust in our home consists of very fine cat hair and when my hubby empties our little upright vacuum cleaner he says "There's enough cat hair in there to make another cat!"

I also love nature and you could say Mother Nature is my god with all her beauty, surprises and sometimes even her terror, which I am fortunate never to have felt in extreme, although we did have a cyclone back in the 1970s that swept down our west coast causing much damage as it went.  Normally our cyclones stay in the north of our state but Cyclone Alby decided to venture southwards that year.

I enjoy looking at the stars at night and I feel the sheer wonderment at all that is out there which makes me realise what an insignificant wee speck I am in the general scheme of things.

As far as computesr go I am somewhat still illiterate.  I only began using a computer about 10 years ago when in my seventies.   My wonderful son-in-law had built me one out of bits and pieces.  I now have an iMac.   I find it keeps me in contact with the outside world through Facebook and now, of course, through my blog.  I play Scrabble on Facebook to keep my brain alert and currently have 50 games in progress some of which are a real challenge although I seem to hold my own quite well.  One plays one's turn and then waits for the others to play theirs and so on. 

I often wish I could do all the fancy things others do on their blogs but I have nobody to call on to show me how to do it so I keep mine simple because I have to.  I only recently fathomed out how to make type BOLD, italic or underlined, and have just now discovered how people cross words out like this and yesterday I discovered COLOUR.   Clever me!!  Of course it has taken a few years but I am slowly getting there.

Now I've noticed that most paragraphs above seem to begin with "I" and I remember being told many years ago that one should not do that.  I guess there's a way to avoid doing so but I'm not sure how so please forgive me if it sounds a bit "I amish."

As far as blogging goes I enjoy doing what I do but my greatest enjoyment is reading the blogs of others.  I laugh with them and sometimes shed a tear.  I sometimes forget to comment which is rude of me but I tend to forget when trying to read too many at a time.  I feel that everyone that blogs does so much more brilliantly than I do but there are three blogs in particular (apart from that of EC) that I tend to gravitate toward and they are (not in any particular order):

River from Drifting Through Life.   River lives in South Australia with Angel, a cat she acquired several months ago and who keeps her well and truly on her toes.   We often wonder how she managed before Angel came into her life.  These days it is never dull.  River is a mother and grandmother but finds, as I do, that family are far too busy these days to be constantly in touch. Her loves (apart from Angel) are reading, gardening and photography.  We always enjoy it when she shares photos she has taken during her wandering around various parts of her city.  She is brilliant in her use of words and I am often amazed at the stories she writes.  I feel that one day she will publish either a book of short stories or a novel.  She is also an excellent cook.

Buttons from Button's Thoughts.  Buttons is a lady farmer in Canada and wouldn't have it any other way.   She lives with her wonderful husband and has a family with whom she is in constant touch as well as with her mum who she adores.  Buttons likes to knit, especially hats and one will even occasionally see one of her cows modelling one of her latest creations.   Buttons has health issues but generally manages to keep going remarkably well and I take my hat off to her for her wonderful blog and her photographs.

Delores from Under The Porch Light.  Delores also lives in Canada with her other half.   She has a wonderful way with words on top of which she weekly supplies us with a list of words, and sometimes a phrase as well, which we are asked to include in a story.   At times they truly are a challenge but many people make light work of them using prose or poetry to encompass each week's words.  Even when Delores is taking a break from her blog she never fails to provide her list of words which we all await each Wednesday.  We always appreciate her doing so.  She will also come up with some very interesting topics which provide much food for thought.  She is a very generous person at times sending gifts to blogger friends after choosing their names from a hat  (I was delighted to be the recipient of a gift last year).

There are other blogs which I find interesting and informative and I have to be honest and admit I feel mean making a choice but to all others' blogs whom I follow....I love them all and would choose all of you if I was allowed to.  I try to visit as often as time allows and will continue to do as long as I am able.  Thank you.