A New Citizen!

Yesterday, the Great Dane became an Australian citizen. What a momentous occasion! This man who grew up in the land of clogs, Vikings and little mermaids has just pledged his allegiance to the land of sunshine, thongs and lamingtons.

The Great Dane's journey was a choice born of freedom and opportunity. After all, he has come from Denmark, reportedly the happiest country in the world! 
He came to Australia for adventure and sunshine. I'm sure he would have come for the  party pies, too, if he'd known about them at the time. 
He stayed because of me. Aaaw, nice!

The journey to citizenship, however, has not been a smooth one. The first 30 years were a breeze, but the brief lead-up to yesterday's Big Event was a tad traumatic ...

It started with the lamingtons. I made them for our celebratory afternoon tea ... from scratch ... WITH MY OWN BARE HANDS. For a laid back people, we sure have chosen a complicated recipe for our national cake. What should have been a simple, 35 minute process (according to the dirty, rotten, stinking, lying recipe) slipped into hours of drama. At the end of it all, I did have a small collection of slightly decent looking lamingtons. I also had a large collection of misshapen brown blobs. Who knew that a lamington could have an identity crisis? When the Great Dane arrived home from work, I was standing knee-deep in desiccated coconut, crying my third litre of tears into a sink filled with dirty dishes and brown sludge. 

HOWEVER, we are brave and resilient, even the most enormous piles of dishes can be washed and tomorrow was a new day. In fact, tomorrow was THE day. 

We awoke, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready for The Big Event. I buzzed the hair-clippers over the Great Dane's head, filled plates with lamb sandwiches and almost managed to convince our son that ironing his shirt did not need to be a traumatic, drawn-out event. (He wasn't making lamingtons, for goodness sake!) Friends around town were baking bickies, sticking pickled onions into orange halves, gathering Iced Vo-vos. Things were going just swimmingly.

But then, the Great Dane  started to practise the National Anthem. Somewhere along the way, he got stuck on one phrase - and the words weren't even right. He wandered around the house, singing what must have started as the line, 'Our land abounds in nature's gifts of beauty rich and rare,' but had turned into a phrase about Australians rich and rare! This normally-quiet man sang in the shower, he sang in the hallway, he sang over his lunchtime sangas, he sang in the car as we drove into the Town Hall ... and not once did he deviate from the single botched-up line! Oh deary, deary me!

We made it to Town Hall where we were greeted by the lovely Mayor of Bendigo and ushered inside. We were on the home stretch, and I was just starting to relax when an official-looking man escorted the Great Dane from the hall. 

'This is it!' I thought. They've heard him singing the National Anthem and they've changed their mind. They're not going to let him take the Pledge of Citizenship! (I don't know who I thought 'they' were!) 

But, as luck would have it, they - journalists, as it turns out - let him back in and the ceremony proceeded as planned. 

And it was wonderful. 

The fears and tears of the past two days melted away and my eyes were filled with a fresh set of tears. Good tears. Happy, grateful tears. It really is a beautiful thing to see people from all over the world choose our country as their new home. It's a privilege to be a part of the group that gives the official welcoming. 

But most of all, it's a blessing to be able to say to my own special person, 'Welcome, Great Dane. You are now one of us, an Australian rich and rare!'

From the Kingdom of Denmark

The Great Dane sitting in the garden, smoking his pipe, contemplating his clogs, after a satisfying lunch of rye bread, pickled herring and snaps.

To the Commonwealth of Australia

 The Great Dane becomes a new citizen.

I welcome the Great Dane into the fold. He now belongs to us, the People of the Lamington.

A true blue Aussie gift to mark the occasion. Friends Keith and Leanne present the Great Dane with a leg of lamb from the paddocks of their own farm.

My new Australian rich and rare.

Take a squiz at this:
AUSTRALIAN LAMINGTON OFFICIAL WEBSITE
It is interesting to note that the lamington began life as a disaster which was turned into something beautiful. My lamingtons began life as a beautiful cake which was turned into something disastrous.

But look! Some of mine did turn out ... sort of ... if you ignore the wobbles.

Country Dreaming

So, we’ve bought ourselves a block of land. We call it, rather grandiosely, the farm.

Did I mention that we’re excited?

The Great Dane with the summer-golden grass
blowing against his knees.

We spent an evening out on the farm this week, wandering around the hills, wading through wind-rippled grass, hopping across rocks, watching kangaroos graze in the bottom paddock. I’m sure there’s a jab in there somewhere about roos loose in the top paddock, but let’s not do it just yet.  By the time we’re in the middle of building a new house, selling an old house and packing up eighteen years’ worth of family trash and treasure, there’ll be plenty of roos loose in the proverbial paddock.

But for now, we’re walking on air. We're daydreaming. We're skipping around with satisfied grins on our faces, already living the rural life in our hearts. 

I suspect, however, that my daydreamings are a tad different to those of the Great Dane. 

My  daydreaming involves a lot of slow-motion running through flower-filled meadows. 

I let my hair grow long and adopt a timeless country wardrobe of white muslin shifts (summer) and taupe linen tunics (winter), teamed with khaki gumboots. And I look lovely - think Scarlet Johansen meets Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman. I spend great chunks of time sitting in a wicker chair on the veranda, a crocheted granny rug on my knee, a pot of tea at my side, a book in my hand. And yet, despite the many hours I spend in leisure, my house and garden look like something straight from the pages of Australian Country Style. There is even a freshly-baked sponge cake, 30 cm tall, sitting in the pantry - although goodness knows how it got there when I have never baked one higher than a pancake. (Again, it's the daydreaming thing.) 

The Great Dane has a simpler vision. He sees a big shed. Really big. In fact, every time he mentions it, it has grown five metres longer. Perhaps he's forgotten that, in Australia, we don't bring our animals inside for the winter. But who am I to point the finger? I'm running across flower-filled meadows in a white muslin frock with a goat called Feta at my side. (Did I mention the goat ... and the goat cote?)

Of course, we both know that reality must temper the dream. There will be hiccups along the way. Like this tree that suddenly plopped across the road three weeks ago:

The sun will be hotter, the wind stronger and the frost harsher than we expect. The thistles and blackberries will run rampant. The goat will turn out to be a pea-brained whippet. And I will not look effortlessly stylish but will stumble around looking like this ...

Effortlessly frumpy.

But we don't  care! We're excited and happy and enjoying the long and wobbly road from dreams to reality. And we can always turn our blackberries into jam!  

  

Where are your dreams leading you?

HAVE A SQUIZ AT THIS!

I take you for a giggle down Memory lane with a snippet from Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman. Note to self: Remember to wear a corset when horse-riding through the flower-filled meadows on the farm. 

NEXT WEEK:

Dust off your lamingtons. The Great Dane is becoming an Australian citizen! 

New Beginnings

Happy New Year!

And happy new blog site to me!

It's a long time since I last blogged. Nine months. Enough time to grow a baby! Which I haven't. But many women have. Over four and a half million babies born already this year.

I think I'll call the lull in my blog The Gestation Period. I like that. It sounds like I was deliberately withdrawing from blogging while I developed my musings into something beautiful and full of life. It's a lie, of course, but a lovely one. And it sounds a whole heap better than The Great Disorganisation of 2016.

I haven't been idle, though. I've been doing stuff all over the place. Here's a quick fill-in:

ONE

I did a road trip, The Telling Tales Tour. I travelled to Melbourne, Bendigo, Sydney and Brisbane with a marvellous group of fellow authors. I spoke to school children, teachers and librarians - anyone who'd listen, really - alongside the amazing authors Judith Rossell, Tiffany Hall and C M Gray.

 

With Tiffany Hall

With Judith Rossell and CM Gray

TWO

I met with a range of lovely friends for lunch, dinner, craft sessions, life-changing chats and wildly competitive games nights. Yes. You read that correctly. GAMES NIGHTS. I have a friend who fancies herself as Grant Denyer and likes to host Deal or No Deal nights. It's a hoot.

THREE

I ushered two new books into the world - Olive of Groves and the Great Slurp of Time  and Olive of Groves and the Right Royal Romp. Both true stories, of course.

FOUR

I continued to garden like a maniac. Episodes of frost, flood, scorching heat, earwigs and thistles have made this a challenge, but I still truly believe that I can make my one and a half acres of earth look like Versailles.

FIVE

I crocheted a dashing new coat for Olive, my precious little whippet. It keeps the winter chills at bay and she’s terribly proud of her herself when wearing it. 

 

I know! She looks a little sheepish here, but when she
heads out into the lane, she trots with pride. Truly!
The Great Dane slinks behind, blushing with
embarrassment.

SIX

I hit the road again for Book Week, visiting wonderful schools in Wagga Wagga, Jugiong and Canberra. And I did my all-time favourite Canberra thing, which is eating cake with my mother.

SEVEN

I fed my already raging Scandimania by travelling to Sweden, Norway and Denmark. My love affair with all things Scandinavian began 30 years ago when I first met the Great Dane and it was wonderful to expand my horizons. (Actually, I’m not sure that you really can expand your horizons within the confines of an obsession, but I gave it a good shot!)

Boat houses on the harbour at Smogen, Sweden.

Reflections on a lake near Sognefjord, Norway.

On the Pulpit Rock with the Great Dane, 605m above
Lysefjord, Norway.

EIGHT

I spent lots of time daydreaming, reading, writing, drawing, taking photographs, arranging treasures in little trays, baking, experimenting with computer graphics, splashing ink about  - wandering wherever the creative spirit led me.

NINE

I harnessed some of that loopy-la-la creativity and wrote a new children’s story. The manuscript reached my publisher just five days before Christmas. There’s action, adventure, mystery, romance, travel,  ravioli and gelati. Sounds like I’ve written an Italian soap opera. Maybe I have!

TEN

We bought a block of land - our own little slice of hill and granite and grass. Stay tuned for more details and dreams and schemes. 

The Great Dane pretending to be an Aussie farmer.
That's our hill in the background!

Have a squiz at this!

For a mind-boggling glimpse at the rising tally of births this year, 

CLICK HERE.

I'll be blogging every Friday, so feel to drop on by or sign up for blogs by email. (Look up to the right!)