The great Prawn Race is on.

"Madam, I'll thank you not to insult the hot blood of Irish prawns" ~ the Spy who came in from the Cold.

The prawns are running.  They are arriving in my house by the bucketload & being fried up in a garlicky marinade.  Totally & utterly gross.  There is something quite sadistic about  tearing the head of something & peeling away it's skin before you eat it. So I don't.  Uh~uh, not me. 

Life as we know it has been turned upside down with both boys back in the house.  Even with all our busyness the girls remain serene but man~like the boys thump & bellow & make messes they fail to clean up & quite simply forget there are other people who also live in this house & do not necessarily appreciate their fishy endeavours though they are having some luck with the cats ~ if the prawns are cooked, scaled, de~headed & cut up into bite sized portions.

Then there are the things that go missing; like the egg flip & all my serrated knives.  So I approached Dino as the most likely culprit.  After all, the girls have been home on their own for years & my knives remained intact & the egg flip sat in it's pot. I was very polite.

"Have you seen my egg flip anywhere?" I enquired as nicely as I knew how because it is a well known fact round here the boys have thin skins & are easy to huff up.

"Why would I have seen your egg flip?  Why would you even think I had your egg flip?  You always say I've taken your stuff but why would I need your egg flip?"

"You didn't borrow it for camping?"

"I haven't been camping in weeks....Oh!" Yep, still at the bottom of his kit bag!  I didn't enquire what else was still at the bottom of his kit bag but I got  back a mug, a set of cutlery & one large plate.

A walk round the yard turned up most of the steak knives; don't ask ~ & Theo brought me my paring knife, found floating round the bottom of the boat.  It's not that they don't have their own stuff.  They do; they just can never find it.  Me, I put stuff back where I can find it,  [Yes, mother, there is a system to my chaos.] so the boys borrow mine because it is easily accessible rather than go look for their own.

I had quite a fellow feeling for Star when she enquired plaintively, "When is Theo going back?" working, I assume, on the assumption one is easier to deal with than two & Dino is far more susceptible to *The Look*.  Theo just declares war.  After all she is younger than he is, female, the baby of the family & this is his house too,  he is on holiday & entitled to the status of *House Guest*.  Hmmm.

At which point Dino arrives to take over the cooking before I charcoal it because he likes his practically still saying, Moo ~ a habit that does not endear him to Star ~ & Theo pauses on his way out the door to thank me for doing all his washing, bringing it in & putting it away.  In a century or two they may just have evolved into quite decent men.  What do you think?  Room for improvement but lots to hope for?

Ladies don't sweat, they glisten...anon

Today is a day of cloud & shadow.  It stormed last night & rained this morning.  Now the humidity is steadily climbing.

Liddy & Dino are down with a flu; the rest of us are treating them as the leperous unclean that they are!

Autumn, but not feeling much like it just yet except for first thing in the morning, before the sun bursts through the clouds, steaming us gently, like dumplings.  There we sit in our little island pot, glistening... Soon Star & I are going to go glisten elswhere.

Glisten, glisten little Star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above us plebs so high,
Giddy, giddy, oh my, my!

That's it from us, folks! The heat's fried the old brain.

Here we go round the prickly pear

At five o’clock in the morning. T.S. Eliot


You wake up some mornings & the day just feels so right, you know: kids still sleeping peacefully in their beds; cats sprawled in dappled patches of early morning light; the splashy sound of water hitting the beach & the air, mmm, the air delicately laced with golden light & crisply clean like fresh sheets strung on the line.

I like living where we do.  Each morning I am reminded that God's mercies are new each day because each day I see it played out before my eyes.  When God made Adam He planted him in a garden not in an urban sprawl.  Whatever troubles the day may bring, & some days bring plenty, this early morning hangs suspended "between the idea & the reality/Between the motion & the act"[t.s.eliot ~ The Hollow Men] without any shadow.  There's a reason that man's my all time favourite poet!

First thing the day is so quiet ~ yet not quiet at all.  Marlow's rumbling purr as he greets me echos like thunder. Kirby's chirruping sounds over loud & along the verandah rail the butcher birds serenade the new day with joyous carolling.  I like the twilight zones.  They are full of possibilities.  Perhaps today Star can do math? ☺

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble & the earth will shake from it's foundations at the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, on the day of His burning anger. Isaiah 13:13

Have you seen the news recently?  The whole world is in turmoil.    Nowhere is untouched by tragedy.  Where are the leaders of God's people crying out for repentance?  Who is raising up a Holy People?  When will there be an end to the compromise that has plagued God's church & made us a stench in the nostrils of the worldly because they see our hypocrisy?


It is time, & past time, for God's people to come out of the world as the cleansed & set apart vessels they were meant to be. for what use is salt that has lost it's savour?

Ten or so years ago I used to penfriend with a lady in N.S.W  who had 7 children.  The number of children we had was the common denominator because we didn't have much else in common despite the fact we were both  believers & we both homeschooled.  My friend, Dee, was affiliated with a Mennonite church in America & she was quite rigid in the application of her beliefs.  Despite the fact we didn't see eye to eye on a number of issues we maintained a friendship for more than 10 years until in the process of moving we lost contact with each other.

For most of my life I have been a chronic reader.  I'll read jam jar labels, the adds on buses, discarded newspapers ~ in fact anything at all that has the printed word on it & I have not been overly discriminating.  I also travel a lot.  Hours I wait on windy jetties for boats before the half hour boat ride home & I find it just about impossible to sustain a conversation over the heavy thrum of a diesel motor labouring through the channels although Star invariably tries to engage me in conversation.   It is a combination that had me picking up whatever stray magazine I could get my hands on so I had something to read & it didn't matter if it got crumpled in my bag or rained on or spattered with spray.  As the price of magazines skyrocketed & the information between the covers deteriorated God bore it upon my mind that this was not a Godly solution to a perennial problem & the renewing of my mind included cleaning up my reading material.  Which left one huge vacuum.

Now this was a problem I was sure would have an easy solution.  Surely Christians put out quality magazines full of sage & godly advice, meaty articles, stories that would uplift & encourage holiness. I tried Christian Woman.  The older ones were fine but then they changed publishers & modernized & I've decided I'm not a very modern Christian.  I'm not a very liberal Christian either.  The magazines had nothing to say to me. I don't believe women need to juggle family & work.  I don't feel the need to rampantly support women's ministry ~ I know, but Quakers have always supported women's ministry & it is never right for a Christian to demand their own way.  That is not the way of Christ. I tried Above Rubies. Better but...And I felt awful because I know lots & lots of lovely Christian women read, enjoy & get great benefit from these magazines but they drove me crazy.  They skimmed the surface so much. I couldn't believe how limited my choices were & I was really reluctant to tuck my expensive books into a tote bag when the weather was wild'n'wet.

And then Dee, in one of her cleaning frenzies sent An Encouraging Word my way. Now I was askance at first.  After all the publishers, all women, all covered!  Yikes.  I thought I'd been sent something from a cult ~ the Exclusive Brethren, maybe ~  but I decided to overlook the fact they all wore pinafore dresses [or jumpers if you're from the States] & bits of cloth on their heads & stated loudly men were the heads of their families & had a read anyway. 

I liked what I was reading. Firstly, & this is so important, even though I didn't always agree with their point of view they expressed their opinion with great gentleness & respect & they referred me to the original language & funnily enough I can cope with that.  Secondly they were very pro children.  When you have five & you've heard enough comments like: Haven't you discovered what causes that?[well yes, but do I really have to explain it to you?]; The number of children equals your I.Q [Then that makes me smarter than you, I guess]; or No~one needs that many children [so which one are you suggesting we dispose with?] then anyone who thinks having lots is a blessing rather than a curse is someone your likely to breathe a sigh of relief with.  Thirdly, at a time when I was already drifting slightly left of centre & out of the mainstream Christian thinking I found encouragement from others who were also questioning the direction today's Christianity has taken & were choosing a different path, a return to older roots, grass roots Christianity: homeschooling. home churching, home businesses.

Then disaster struck. The lady who distributed AEW in Australia ceased operations.  I tried, unsuccessfully, to renew my subscription.   I tried for 12 months.  It was like breaking into Fort Knox & my computer skills weren't equal to the task.  I mourned but accepted defeat.  Then Liddy, who was secretly reading my subversive mags, noticed they were no longer regularly arriving in the mail & went in to bat on my behalf.  A backlog, 2 years worth, suddenly arrived in a great swag.  I devoured them ~ but eventually I was back where I had started.  However both AEW & I had modernised & after a few little hiccuphs thanks to our common language I managed to renew my subscription on~line & I waited....& I waited....& I waited.  Today the first of this year's magazines arrived. 

Now I will tell you something else about AEW.  Their magazines are always a *pay what you can afford* offer.  They will give away subscriptions if you genuinely cannot afford the money but want their magazines & if you subscribe they offer a *get one, get one free* deal so you can get one for a deserving friend as well. I don't know anyone else who makes these sorts of offers ~ & abides by them.  I know they do.  At times I have not paid for my subscription yet the magazines arrived faithfully every quarter.

Now I just have to figure out how to back order so I can get the mags I've missed.

When we talk to God, we're praying.  When God talks to us, we're schizophrenic. ~ Jane Wagner

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dearie, dearie me. We are so quiet here on our little island, toddling along in our little Puddleduck puddle while the world spins by but it was brought home to me last night, forcebly, that we are more than a little odd ~ & we scare people.

Have you been following along?    If not, in brief, my darling oldest daughter applied for the mission field last year & was accepted only there was a hiccup so she is still waiting on clearance.  Meanwhile she has been getting involved in other things & one of those other things has been the OM prayer meeting once a month on Thursdays.  Here you can read about OM.  Here you can read about the sort of opportunities they offer.

The OM prayer meeting is not the sort of place you would generally find me.  Now don't get me wrong; I believe in prayer. I believe in corporate prayer. I will even admit there is a time & a place for prayer to be verbalised but .... I am a Quaker.  I go about things a little differently.  I am a big picture thinker; I rarely, if ever, pay attention to the details.  That being the case I rarely inflict myself on more traditional congregations & when it happens I try to fade into the background because I dislike making people uncomfortable & it is hard to discombobulate me unless you really attack me ~ & most people are far too polite to do that at a prayer meeting.

Now you have the picture I was surprised when Liddy said I'd been specifically invited to attend last night's prayer meeting.  Ooookaaay..... No kameeze 'cause I don't know these people.  Conservative pants & top & a discreet covering, a nice little blue & white tie~dye bandanna that shouldn't alarm anyone.  Liddy did pre~warn me that I wouldn't be allowed to fade gently into the background because people were constantly broken up into prayer partnerships.  Mmmmhuh. And that was the first problem. Would I pray first?  Not a problem ~ only I found people expected me to say something straight away before I'd even managed to gather my scattered wits; I was constantly being nudged to get a move along.  Yikes!  All around me people were galloping along at a great rate of knots exhorting the Lord loudly & clearly for very specific needs while I was meandering along chatting amiably about the Big Picture ~ raising up workers, ripe harvests, salt & light, as I do but struggling because just when I was thinking I might about centre & do deeper into prayer there was a loud AMEN, indicating we were all to change partners & the whole process started again for another worker in another country.  How do people pray like this?  It was exhausting!  But you know, this is part of Liddy's prayer team & it's important so I tried to stay with the boat you know, & not drift sideways. 

So after two hours of this I was headachy & queasy so when one of the ladies who'd done the rounds with me asked about Liddy I was past being tactful.  As I used to tell the obstreperous boys who thought asking me embarrassing questions would disconcert me, "Are you sure you want to know because if you do I will tell you?"  So I told her about it being 10 years in the growing & about God having first dibs on Liddy & about the strange places He's led her wondering why she was starting to look a little wild around the eyes & as though I'd grown a set of horns & carried a little pitchfork ~ only to have Liddy inform me later this was the *church missions* lady & she had doubts about sending Liddy. *sigh* 

You know, it would be so helpful if, before offering an opinion & telling Lid what she should or should not be doing, people actually spent some time asking the Lord so we could all get on the same page.  Ever so helpful ~ & I could take my feet out of my mouth!

As I have repeatedly written in one form or other, blogging is not about writing posts. Heck, that’s the least of your challenges. No, blogging is about cultivating a mutually beneficial relationships with an ever-growing online readership, and that’s hard work.” ~Alistair Cameron

Life is messier than we expect & full of surprises.  When I began blogging I really wasn't all that surprised when I crashed my first blog.  I'm technologically incompetant.  I was devestated but not surprised.  I was not surprised when I crashed a 2nd blog ~ though less devestated.  I'd learnt a thing or two by then & figured on putting it all back together.  What I didn't expect was the friendships ~ though when Ruby first agreed to meet with me on one of her trips to Brisbane I admit to metaphorically kicking myself for letting me in for who knows what?!  What if she didn't like me in the real?  What if we had nothing to talk about & our time was full of those long awkward silences?  What if our differences were a problem?  I stewed myself into a lather & then added the lethal combination of trying to find my way round Brisbane to the mix.

So silly, because Ruby is lovely.  If she finds me a little strange she has been kind enough to never say so.  So naturally, when she found herself in Brissie again she got in contact.  Could we meet up?  Panic stations at this end.  I have 3 adults living in this house at present all of whom use my mainland car more than I do & have commitments.    We juggled times & locations.  I had a meltdown all over Liddy & she felt sorry enough for me that she agreed to drive me.  Ruby was subjected to the full impact of the Ganeida Women in whirly~gig mode.  Last time there was just Ruby & I & Star plugged in to her i~pod ~ & we were all a little shy.  This time there was Ruby & Ruby's young gentlemen [who looked askance at Star for some time before deciding she was harmless & safe to talk to lol], Liddy & Star in outrageous mode & me.  I talk too much when I get nervous.  Poor Ruby.  Star 's dad had just paid her allowance so she went & bought sugar.  Trust me, that child does not need a sugar fix, ever.  Liddy is no shy shanks & no slouch in the verbosity department either.

This time we met up as friends who have been apart too long & were delighted to see each other again.  So much of life happens off screen  & there are things you just don't put up there on a blog for all the world to read about.  Well I don't & Ruby doesn't.  We had a chance to chat about those things, to share a little more deeply & I know there are things added to my prayer list because that is what friends do for each other; they pray for each other's needs.  We were still chatting as Ruby's car pulled up & she got in & drove away, on her way back to her other life, a plane ride away in a township I once visited in the long ago.  She will be back & I hope we will do this again.

So while Ruby was negotiating her way into the airport I was dropping Liddy back at the boat & taking Star to lunch...which reminds me.  Star has the oddest eating habits & she thinks sugar is a food group so deciding on a meal the child will actually eat is something of a marathon effort.  Chinese is usually good but to my surprise she opted for a kebab.  A kebab is usually something Liddy or I will opt for & we add all the trimmings: tabouli, humus etc.  Star stuck to chicken, lettuce & carrot but as Star handed me the change the young man serving her noticed me & a delighted smile lit up his face. He touched a hand to his head indicating my covering & gave me a thumbs up. Oh dear.  I think he thought I was muslim.  And no, I wasn't wearing my kameeze.

It was just one of those days.  On to choir & the child on crutches informed us all she's just learnt there was a difference between crutch & crotch.  Apparently she's been telling everyone about her crotches.  What a howler.  Then Star pushed her in her wheelchair out to the car ~ only it wasn't her car & it was raining & in the process Star bogged the wheelchair.  While the rest of us fell about laughing Alison videoed it for prosperity.  Reckon it's doing the round of the choirs this week!

I got home & the cats fell all over me because I'd been gone too long & they'd missed me ~ & I was exhausted.  Now you all probably are as well.

 "Oh," cried Chicken Little, "the sky is falling. I must go tell the king." ~Bulrovian fairy tale

 It stormed last night.  This morning the wind began to blow.  It blew & it blew until  this little old house rattled & shook & things thumped on the roof, rolled down the gutters & crashed through the shrubbery.  It has been very exciting.  We have no idea what will fly past next. Oh, & if you're not sure why this particular pic, the dark patches are the wind passing over the water. The darker the water, the stronger the gust.  The wind is from the south & has churned up the sea bed to a most gloriously icky shade of yuk.

 I hung out the washing.  I had a line full of demented dervishes billowing wildly in the breeze.

Even the wildlife is taking shelter on the lee side.  I found this tiny little caterpillar scuttling frantically up a stick insect that was attached to the nor'western side of this lantern. Yep, it's been a wild'n'wooly day on the islands today.  Tomorrow I am off to catch up with Ruby before she returns to wet'n'wild Rocky.  And after Ruby, choir rehearsal.  I think I may be just a little tired when I get home ~ though nowhere near as tired as Ruby who has to get on a jet plane.

 The Havard Law states: Under controlled conditions of light, temperature, humidity & nutrition, the organism will do as it damn well pleases.
~Larry Wall.

Unlike my northern neighbours we are not suffering from agonies of cold.  Rather the opposite.  The temperatures have hit the 30sC with humidity at 90%.  I hate when the weather does that.  We all flopped round under the fans & were miserable.

Marlow was so distressed he took himself outside where he quivered under the Poinciana waiting for the Bogey Man to get him.  Marlow does not go outside.  For one thing is too far away from his people.  For another there are too many unknowns:  strange screeches, little movements amongst the mulch, leaves skittering over the bricks.  He turns into a nervous ball of furr that jumps at his own shadow.

It stormed last night.  This morning is better.

 I want you to sing with rapture and dance like a dervish. ~  William Parrish

There are a few professions where you are starting your day at four o'clock in the afternoon:  ambulance driver, airline pilot, Woolies shelf stocker ~ & the Arts! 

I can't say I'm at my best heading off into unknown regions so late in my day & we had to detour & detours always confuse me, because, if you've been following along, somewhere in the wet, soggy, chaos that was travelling in & out to the Gothic Star's hanging bag acquired a rip & her performance pants fell out the bottom.  Drama, drama, drama.

Naturally the refedex was in the car so we began without me having looked at a map ~ always such a good way to start ~ & Star was in Ditz mode.  I asked her to look at the map & count of my turns.  When I checked she was staring intently out the window counting each intersection we went through!!!  Glory Be!  What good she thought that would be I have no idea! 

Picking up the new pants was not a drama.  The right size had been left out for us in an easy to grab them spot & for a wonder Star had remembered the correct size so they did actually fit when she put them on.  I had left us plenty of time ~ & a good thing too given Star was not on the ball when it came to reading the map but even so we were early. So, thankfully, was Luke.  I do not know where Alison found Luke ~ or if he found her ~ but he is terribly sweet though being in the Jekyll & Hyde production is in the midst of growing a beard & arrived in black suite & dark sunnies looking like the local Mafioso.  Cracked me up.  Like us he has no sense of direction [partly why, like us, he was so early] but informed me Google phones have the best GPS.  Now how do I get my hands on one of those?

Anyway Star was singing here ~ which has changed hands since this review was written but is huge with plenty of parking for a change.  Why can nurseries get their parking together but theatre venues can not? This was for a local councillor's opening campaign for mayor & I have nothing but good things to say about this woman, which is something given mentioning our council to any islander is like waving a red flag at a bull.  Long, sad & complicated story covering several centuries & the general feeling that anyone who chooses to live on an island deserves what they get!  Karen is responsible for us knowing Alison & for the whole AVAE shebang.  Several years back she made a concerted effort to get the island children involved in the Arts, with a capital A.  Star was all she netted.  However she was wonderful to us, compensating our travel costs & even picking us up & running us round personally so Star could get a taste of the wider theatre world ~ & got hooked, but that is Star for you & not Karen's fault.  Her girls trained under Alison too so she knows what AVAE is capable of.  Just as well as there were just 5 of them but as I keep saying 5 AVAE kids can produce a big, BIG sound ~ & they did.

We got home again quite late.  It is not the performing so much as all the travelling wears us out ~ & naturally travelling plus performance ran right over the top of dinner time so we had yet another pick ~me~up meal on the run.  We are so tired of take~aways!