Remembering Jane – Thoughts on 9/11

Remembering Jane – Thoughts on 9/11 Please read how I came to know about Jane….. Remembering the remembering in 2014 a dear friend who now lives in NYC visited the 9/11 memorial and took these photographs for me, mid summer 2015 Jane S Beatty did not die alone. As you see she her name is amongst many many others. There isn’t much to say. I have said it all before. Every year, as I crawl through a Southern Hemisphere winter, I begin to think of Jane. Her Legacy book is...

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Pearls in all seasons

a list is being made…the interviews are taking place and when winter arrives* the relaunch will begin. I really like the television program Grand Designs. I also enjoy Grand Designs revisited, where the very erudite Kevin returns to see how things have worked out. This is most interesting to see the home, now well established and to hear how the occupants have settled in. How is the reality compared to the dream? I blame my father for this fascination. He was an architect. Mainly of hospitals, however in my young childhood he was a mad keen DIY man. (well...

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Summer storms and revitalization

This December has bought a combination of summer storms and revitalization. Sliding, as we are,  rapidly into the Christmas season, winding up school and business, looking forward to summer, down here, or to winter up there, I find myself already thinking about next year. This was my goal and theme for 2014. Ha! I am currently looking back in order to plan forward and to make a new theme for 2015, which must, be better than this year. Actually I started dreaming forward and then recalled I needed to look back….thus I am in the midst of  summer storms...

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Remembering the remembering: 9/11

No longer weighed down with heavy grief I find I do not want to forget. Thus today I am remembering the remembering. I always think of Jane S Beatty as we come into September. I watch the documentaries about what we now call 9/11. I remember it, on each anniversary. Yet the events seem kind of distant now. I don’t want them to be. During one doco I watched an interview with a woman named Edie, she is the sister of the man who heads up ‘Cantor Fitzgerald‘ This is  the financial services business based on the 101 –...

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The Final Act: caring for my mother.

I’d flown in for her second last Christmas. Mum had told her friends she wanted Christmas Day just with me and they had helped her arrange things so it could be that way. I was deeply moved. I arrived prepared for a long hot day but the weather played its tricks and it was to be a cold gusty wet day. Regardless, it was a special day.I flew home a few days later, before New Year’s Eve.A month later on a strong prompting I flew back.That was to be the end. The Final Act: caring for my mother.Let me tell...

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Wednesday Women: It’s All In Your Head

Today’s feature is  It’s All In Your Head written by Alycia Neighbours  ‘We see someone with a bandage or cast and we have to ask “What happened? How bad does it hurt?” Family or friends go down with an illness and we are ready with crockpots of homemade (or just opened cans) chicken soup. Someone going to have surgery and we have the florist on the line before they are even admitted to their room. We are community and that’s what we do when we see someone hurting’. This is a series of articles written by real women, about real...

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3am: sometimes I sleep sometimes I think.

In the middle of the night, a few nights back, I couldn’t seem to sleep so I decided to put the time to good use and do some thinking. 3am: sometimes I sleep sometimes I think. I though about several things and then my mental meanderings led me to a new thought. Which busybeezchickadeez has captured so beautifully in the locket above…You can order this delightful treasure from the Etsy store. Here is the image on Pinterest I pulled out my 2014 goals from behind my iPad which is on a prop-up frame (I watch TV through various channel Apps) and...

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Looking forward by looking back

Yes, I am now a convert of the Looking forward by looking back process to plan for a new year. These are not resolutions though I did make 3 of those this year. To me resolutions are made to break not-so-good habits. They are the bucket of cold water in your face to shock you into better habits….Goals come fresh to the list. Here then is the result of the 2013/2014 review and planning session. It is good to make a list of what you achieved last year. Then you can see more clearly what you need to focus upon...

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Christmas, the Jane Austen way

How lovely it is to be part of the worldwide  VIRTUAL ADVENT TOUR  this year. It is not too late to join…. I chose today 16th December so that I could take this moment to celebrate Jane Austen’s Birthday. Born 1775 she nonetheless is contemporary to us…. We often think of Christmas as commencing with the influence of Prince Albert, beloved husband of Britain’s Queen Victoria…but of course Christmas, the reason and the celebrations existed long before then. How did Jane Austen acknowledge Christmas in her accounts of the daily lives of her characters? Let’s look at a few… First up, Emma,...

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A Designing Woman: Gemma Bricknell

Today we are visiting Western Australia to meet with the very creative designer Gemma Bricknall.  Gemma hails from South Africa but has bought her considerable talents all the way to Australia  Gemma congratulations on your new mini range – what has inspired this?  Thank you! I have been working with private clients for a few years and have always wanted to create ranges that are completely my own in design and style, so I felt motivated to start by doing a manageable mini collection of a few pieces. The inspiration behind it is the ever timeless black and white...

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