A new week begins......

I'm liking my open ended titles at the moment. I realised this when I went to post today and noted the theme with the dots after the last five post I think it's... it's like an emphasis that I have more to say. Which I do.
So today begins with happy children, a tired mum after a very restless baby through the night. (She has croup-baby laryngitis) so had a couple of coughing fits which woke her, me and MD.
I still haven't done anything creative that is worth posting but I finally took a photo of my silk painting which MD had framed for me years ago (thankfully he did cause I'm hopeless at chasing these sort of things up for myself) I felt I needed to show other sides of me other then constant stories and photo's of my family.



This is a corner of my lounge room. There are more detail photo's of the painting on my other blog 'lillisparrow'.

So my interests also include reading. I have just polished off two books. The first book was "The Secret River" by Kate Grenville.
I had to finish it, because I have joined a book club and that was the nominated book. As I persevered and got to know and understand the characters I polished off the book quickly. I had unfortunately listened to a friend of mine too soon who had said the descriptions of the bush imagery were too laborious and the book was just too slow.
Yet as I read I found the most interesting aspect of the book was the not only the description of the imagery but also in context of how these English settlers grew to appreciate, understand and observe just what this harsh landscape is all about. In a nut shell it's a story of a man called William Thornhill who is deported to Australia for menial crimes (as they all were) and how he and his family lived. The first part of the book is set in England and the reader is taken on their journey to Australia where they eventually settle on the Hawkesbury River.
This is truly the most fascinating part of the book as they try to work the land in very English methods and how they interact with the Aboriginal people and observe their customs. There are some truly terrifying characters and their abominable treatment of the Aboriginal people.. You read and feel 'How far have we come as a nation?' It's in hindsight beautifully written and very much a haunting reminder of where Australians have come from those first early settlers. Do yourself a favour and read it. It's well worth persevering.



Books for the children, we have definitely encouraged a love of reading in our household.



This a delightful 'chicklit' book, 'Alice in la la land'. Very cleverly written by Sophie Lee. I found myself laughing out loud and a good 'chaser' after the heaviness of 'The Secret River'