MANNERS AND OTHER MATTERS

'My little prince' and me...July 2015 I have had a night of reflection following an extraordinary one and a half hours in which I shared 32 year old Super 8mm film reels with my daughter. There is no soundtrack;  the only audible comments are those we made while watching them together so many years later.  She is now a mother of a 17 month old son, and awaiting the arrival of another child in December. The reels, filmed mainly by her father, commenced with minutes of her, before she could walk, staggering for a few steps before falling onto her bottom, only to straddle forward for another few steps. They concluded with her, at about 5 years of age, riding a small tricycle with a back tray in which she carried her younger brother. In between they documented the life which was hers for those 4 or so years.  Our family traversing Europe while I was pregnant with her brother, returning to Australia and showing, even at such an early age, her enduring s...

The Moore River, Guilderton...it flows into the Indian Ocean Ruby exploring among the vines Last weekend was spent with my son at my beach house at Guilderton.  The late autumn is a wonderful time of the year;  the countryside is slowly turning from burnished beige to tentative green;  the vine leaves are dropping;  the  summer wind has gone somewhere else to wreak it’s fury;  the sun is gentle but persistent after about mid morning;  and the chilly awakenings are conducive to enveloping clothes and warming cups of tea and coffee.   The part of me which almost continually thinks about things culinary turns to slow cooked meals, dredging up recipes from past and also recent European adventures . St Luke's Anglican Church, Gingin, 1860 We went exploring in the region of Gingin.  There is a wonderful old church in the town, or at least old by Australian standards! We took the dogs for a walk through the ...

A gift from my son, published 1971 My son recently returned from a brief holiday in Italy.  He is now in his mid 20’s. With his sister and me he first visited in 1997 when  the three of us travelled through the UK and Europe for six weeks so that I could show the children the wider world.  As their father is an Italian-Australian it was important to me that they knew of their heritage…my French/English background and their Italian background.  Needless to say it was a wonderful  and very bonding trip.  My son also visited Italy in 2005 when he attended a language school in Florence with his father for two months.  So he was not unfamiliar with the language and the culture, and so a great help to his travelling “mate”. I never expect gifts from my children when they are travelling, or at any other time, actually.  But my son bought me the most thoughtful of gifts which he found in a little bookshop in Rome and as he said:  “Mumma I just had...