Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for December, 2014

041231NewYearsEvePSYCOemail

“In 2015, my wish is that you hold your family close and tell them you love them often. Never miss an opportunity to share their lives no matter how tired or busy you may be. These are moments you won’t get back and they are the moments that will fulfill you the most. Happy New Year everyone.”

Wonderful wordage from a friend, Kris Williams who runs the ‘Footpath Library’ at All Saints College here in Perth – couldn’t have said it better myself!

I wish the world “Peace, Man” in 2015 !

 

@FrancesMForde  #Peace2015  #FrancesMacForde  #Happy2015  #StaySafe2015

Read Full Post »

399589_388590734546872_502791345_n

You Know It’s Hot In Australia When!

1) The best parking spot is determined by shade not distance

2) Hot water comes out of both taps

3) You learn that a seat belt buckle makes a pretty good branding iron

4) The temperature drops below 32c and you feel chilly

5) You discover that in January and February it only takes two fingers to steer a car

6) You discover you can get sunburnt through your windscreen

7) You develop a fear of metal door handles

8) You break a sweat the instance you step outside at 7am

9) Your biggest bicycle accident fear is “What if i get knocked out and end up lying on the road and getting cooked”

10) You realize asphalt has a liquid state

11) Farmers are feeding there chickens crushed ice to prevent them from laying hard boiled eggs

12) The trees are whistling for dogs

13) While walking back barefoot to your car from any event, you do a tightrope act on the white lines in the carpark

14) You catch a cold from having the air-con on full blast all night long

15) You learn that Westfield Shopping Centre’s aren’t just Shopping Centre’s, they are temples to worship Air-Conditioning

16) Sticking your head in the freezer and taking deep breaths is considered normal

17) A cup full of ice is considered a great snack

18) A black out is life threatening because your air-con and your fans no longer work.

19) No one cares if you walk around with no shoes on

20) You keep anything in the fridge, including potatoes, bread and clothing

21) People have enough left over beer cans to make a boat and compete in a regatta. (S.A joke)

22) The effort of toweling yourself off after a shower means you need another shower right away.

23) You will wait patiently until the day it starts raining to go on a run.

24) You worry your ceiling fan is spinning so fast it will fly off and Kill You

25) You Laugh because this list is so accurate

26) Share with ya mates so they can laugh too

2014 ©  Meanwhile In Australia.

Read Full Post »

141227Anniversary 006W

My handsome hubby and I are celebrating our anniversary today ~ 11 years since we finally said ‘I do’; almost 2 years after he found my name on the net;  28 years after first meeting in 1974.

Thank you for finding me again… I love you more now, than I ever did.

Play Me…

I am so hungry.

My lips crave the taste

of your skin ~ your lips.

My body wants to spend

days ~ years forever

wrapped in your strength,

safe and warm, held by

familiar arms, touched

by tender hands, played

by musical fingers ~ let

me be your piano!

Play me…

 

Frances Macaulay Forde © 2003

 

@FrancesMForde  #FrancesMacForde  #Romance  #POEM:PlayMe   #Poems

#Poetry  #Love

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

I’ve just read this Christmas story on Facebook posted by Cathy Buckle who keeps the world up to date on the state of Zimbabwe – from her P.O.V.

It came from ‘Brunette on a Bicycle – Inspired tales from Zimbabwe’ and brought a lump to my throat so I am compelled to share the whole story with you and hope you understand the good people (those I remember) of Zimbabwe a little better.

141225Soul

QUOTE:  It’s Christmas Eve and today’s story from Zimbabwe is a message about levels of gratitude and the questions we should really be asking ourselves……

Driving home yesterday after a last minute Christmas run on the dreaded shopping mall with my two daughters I was wondering how to stretch the last remaining cash among the things that still needed to be purchased and planned for. Then we saw this man (in the picture) on the road.
Dear people of the world let me introduce you to Sole. Or is it Soul? I never asked him how to spell his name. We know him, this vagrant-looking man. He has been working on our road for the past week. This is a typical road in Zimbabwe during the rainy season when the torrential rains open up craters in the tarmac which are intermittently and un-enthusiastically repaired by the City Councils. Enter Sole and many men like him. They forage for bricks and stones, use broken buckets or torn boxes to bring sand and soil to their road of choice, prop up their sign and then work begins. The sign is always hand written and varies from “Voluntary work PLZ help” to “I am not a thief I am a worker plz support me”
They chip and fill and scratch in the dirt, they pack pieces of brick into the pothole like a jigsaw puzzle and then add stone and sand and finally pack it all down with rich red earth and begin work on the next hole. In the photo you can see the fruits of Sole’s labour in the filled pothole next to him, his pile of work material, his sustenance for the day in the Mazoe orange bottle (tap water) and the state of the road with many more holes to fill. When he first came to our road last week I stopped to chat to him, to thank him for his help and to pledge him $1 per day that I found him working there. A typical scenario for a man like this is that he might earn $5 in a day which will feed him for a week so he stops work for the week, until the money runs out. I thought my promise of $1 a day might keep him out there a little longer, in the limelight and hopefully the target of other grateful drivers charity and generosity.
After the second day he recognizes us and waves as we go past. This was Day 4. And as Sole painstakingly rebuilds my road I am grateful that each day my car can roll easy over a little bit more of it.
Yesterday as Sole came into view I slowed the car down for the usual $1 and typical Shona greeting “Maskati Sole maswera se?”
“Maskati Madam taswera” (or something like that!!!)
By now, on this Facebook page, I must come across as a “bleeding heart” woman destined to distribute her hard earned money $1 at a time but that is not the case.
The point I want to make is the wonderful positive unshakeable outlook of my country’s people. Like the post about the vendors, here we have a whole voluntary workforce of impoverished destitute people yet are they begging? No. Are they thieving? No. Are they having a nervous breakdown while their family rushes around them in support? No. They do not have the luxury of a support network and the very nature of Zimbabwean people has been hailed as their biggest downfall. We do not have an aggressive people who rise up in rebellion like the Mau Mau, Hutus or Tutsis, we don’t even have a people who are comfortable to protest their living conditions or human rights but we do have a very brave people who stand up for each other but have been left cowering under a tyrant’s regime so alien to this same nature. They have been criticized and castigated as not warlike enough, not motivated enough, yet Zimbabwe is one of the lowest crime country’s in the world. I have a friend who was robbed at gun point once a few years ago. The thief apologized to her for any trauma , explained that his children were starving and when she asked for her Grandmothers ring back for sentimental reasons he sympathetically sifted through the pile of jewelry to find it for her. This is the nature of crime here unless politically motivated.
Another common sight on our streets are the dustbin foragers. Starving people who have no other option but to sift through our trash to try to find food or usable or salvable items. They are wonderful recyclers these dustbin people. They take the plastic bottles and glass jars to refill with wares and resell them. And on the occasion that I might have handed over my $1 to one of these their humble gratitude and unfailing “God bless you madam” is absolutely illuminating in graciousness. If I was foraging in a dustbin and someone arrived in a car to hand me a paltry $1 would I be so magnanimous in gratitude? I’m not sure I would have that grace….
Yes life here is hard. But when I start to feel sorry for myself or my kids because I can’t take them on a skiing holiday or even to the beach then I just have to drive past Sole and his brethren and acknowledge the immense and humbling gratitude with which he receives his daily dollar. The girls and I left Sole yesterday and then Cami piped up “Mum I have a really big T shirt that I think would fit him, should I give it to him?”
We arrived home on our newly leveled road and the girls dived into their cupboards while I raided the food pantry. The bag Sole is holding in the picture is the offering from a household of women including shirts, socks, a towel, blanket and food for a good Christmas meal and a few days more. Who am I to worry about whether I have the right dress for Christmas Day or if I have enough stuffing to fill the turkey? At the end of the day Sole is no different to me, he shows up for work in the best clothes he has and does the best with what he has at that time. And at some point in that day the Universe blesses him with a drive past from a harried mum who takes a moment to try and make his life a little better for a day or two.
Isn’t that what life is all about? Yes there are so many different levels of it but if one just gets up and goes out to work with the tools and ability one has then the Universe cannot help but respond, whoever you may be.
This then is my Christmas Eve message. It is a Zimbabwean story and a proudly Zimbabwean message. We may be governed by tyrants, victims of the highest unemployment records in the world but we take our responsibility for this. This is or country and I’m proud to say that these are our countrymen and women. From Sole through to the business moguls who have built empires here. We have an entire older generation of men and women who couldn’t leave when the many crunches came, many of our pensioners live frugal lives far removed from their earlier years. Life is hard for them too. But across this diverse Zimbabwean people neither the unemployed nor the businessman nor the pensioner look for unearned assistance. We don’t whine and blame and wait to be saved by the World Bank or the U.N or the human rights agencies. (Well I might whine a bit…!) Whoever we are we get up and go out, we do our very best with what we have and at the end of the day that’s enough. Whether it’s enough to feed us for that day or take our dream holiday, it’s enough. But it is the people like Sole (or is it Soul?!) and the dustbin people who show me this. I don’t look at them as vagrants and potential thieves, I see them as people just like me, making the very best of a very bad circumstance and I am uplifted. If they can do it, so can I. And if I can make a difference, no matter how small, in a single life with my single dollar then this is what I must do. It is not charity, it’s simply recognition for the sweat and labour of that person who is trying to make my life better too…..This is what it means to be human. And critically, this is what it means to be Zimbabwean.
This is my message. Send it global. And have a very special, very Happy Christmas.
Linda xx   :UNQUOTE

 

@FrancesMacForde  #CathyBuckle  #InspiredTalesFromZimbabwe  #BrunetteOnABicycle #ChristmasStory

Read Full Post »

23 Minutes to go…

04XmasDuck04Email

It will be Christmas Day in Australia in 23 minutes…

We’re busy making stuffing and preparing the turkey to cook at 8am, getting veggies ready as much as I can before cooking in the morning and still wrapping pressies!

The trifle has it’s first layer of sponge finger biscuits, fruit and orange jelly, lime jelly tomorrow topped with custard and freshly whipped cream covered in chocolate Flakes and cherries.

May you have a lovely festive time with family and friends and all the very best for 2015.

 

#Merry Christmas   #Happy New Year!

Read Full Post »

This is such a tender idea…

SOCIAL BRIDGE ~ Jean Tubridy connecting with you from Ireland

In 2003, when my father was 84 and in good health,  I decided to give him the gift of  a ‘thank you’  letter for Christmas.  Interestingly, I can’t remember if I gave him anything else to supplement it but I know for sure that the letter meant the world to him then and means a huge amount to me now.

It was a five page letter, written by hand with a fountain pen, and started like this:

DearDad,

This may seem like an odd Christmas present but I want to remind you of all the really ‘fatherly’ things you have done for me since I was born.

It covered happy times growing up and moved on to his involvement in my education:

Another aspect of life was the academic; your willingness to pay for me all those years in Trinity. The PhD was the outcome for me –  …

View original post 319 more words

Read Full Post »

??????????

The party’s over… and

judging by the sound levels

as everyone arrived at once,

they were all in the mood

to catch up on family news

since last year and indulge.

??????????

My grandies sang carols,

waved sparklers as the sun set

and sat at a special kids table

for all the littlest guests.

??????????

I tried to freeze-frame certain

moments between cousins,

brothers and sisters and dads,

for future reference.  Noted

changed shapes and faces, hair

colours and sparkly shoes.

??????????

Loved every moment, surrounded

by those I hug as often as I can,

now the party’s over, I can sew…

finish those last minute pressies.

And the tree survived little hands!

Only 4 sleeps before Christmas Day.

 

@FrancesMForde  #FrancesMacForde  #4Sleeps’tilChristmas  #Christmas

 

Read Full Post »

13XmasCard

 

A friend shared

some food art, so

we incorporated

built enthusiasm

for the family BBQ.

 

Until the carols

I was too busy

feeding guests

to notice them

not here to share

~ to sing with joy.

 

Then I saw

the faces of Ryder

and Tais light up

watching their Dad

play guitar and sing.

 

And I smiled.

 

#FrancesMacForde  @FrancesMForde  #5Sleeps’tilChristmas

Read Full Post »

141221XmasBBQ20a

Last year’s tree

looked so forlorn,

standing neatly,

a few pressies,

lights off.

No mess with

the stress, less

because grand-kids

away in another country.

 

No reason for Santa…

 

#FrancesMacForde  @FrancesMForde  #6SleepsBeforeXmas

 

Read Full Post »

Jessica McCallum © 2010

Jessica McCallum © 2010  ‘All the pretty ones are…’

Orchid

With a Naturists eye

Infinite care, such

considered placement

A fern fond here

A gum leaf there

 

Pink & yellow

Dried petals

Delicate veins

Like a wedding veil

Placed in the center

of our two-tiered cake

an orchid appears

A most exotic,

rare orchid

like me.

 

Frances Macaulay Forde © 2007

@FrancesMForde  #ARTIST:JessicaMcCallum #CreativeConnections  #ArtIsTheSpark   #Romance  #POEM:Orchid

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »

Short Stories Unlimited

Your creative writing hub!

Lou Treleaven

Children's author and writing coach - official site

Anita Heiss

Author, Poet, Satirist, Social Commentator

Stephen Page

Psithurism - the sound of wind in the trees and rustling of leaves. Stephen Page is the author of 4 books.

Norah Colvin

Live Love Laugh Learn . . . Create the possibilities

Sarika, Pure Reflections

Poems, Pure Reflections

Elizabeth Gauffreau

Fiction Writer in Poet's Clothing

Short Prose

Poetry and Prose by Gabriela Marie Milton #1 Amazon Bestselling Poet & Editor, Award Winning Author, Pushcart Prize Nominee

thepoetryquestion.wordpress.com/

HOW WILL YOU POETRY TODAY?

FREOVIEW - Fremantle's only daily

A passion for all things Fremantle

The Curious Magpie

Live life more Curiously!

Mug Full of Books

Books, tea and great reads

The Inquiring Mind

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.” Thomas Paine - "Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited." ~ Lord Acton - Commentary on what interests me, reflecting my personal take on the world

Mike Finn's Fiction

Book Reviews and Short Stories

Whispering Gums

Books, reading and more ... with an Australian focus ... written on Ngunnawal Country

Thoughts Become Words

Miscellaneous Collection by Gretchen

earthstonestation

For the beauty of the Earth

Rochford Street Review

A Journal of Australian & International Cultural Reviews, News and Criticism.

words and music and stories

Let's recollect our emotions in tranquillity

Night Owl Poetry - Dorinda Duclos

"The silence of the night awakens my soul"

Jade M. Wong

Writer at Heart | Fangirl by DNA | Struggling Human Until Further Notice

Graham Sherwood’s

wise words on wine and fresh thoughts on food blog.

The Lighthouse

Poems by Tom Alexander

I've started so...........

poetry, words, visions on life

Linda's Book Bag

Loving books and reading

Waringwords

Poetry by Paul Waring

Helen Hagemann's Studio

Novelist & Poet, Fiction & Poetry Reviewer

Lee Muir-Haman Watercolor Painting

watercolor paintings, instruction and inspiration

Autoimmune Warrior Queen

My journey with Rheumatoid Arthritis and the GAPS Diet

Snake removal and relocation

Based in the southern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia.

MAUREEN EPPEN -- WRITER

WRITING, READING -- AND WRITING ABOUT READING

Screenwriting from Iowa

...and Other Unlikely Places

Linda Smith Inspiration

By Flying With Eagles I Learnt To Soar

knitting with heart

. . . luv 'n stitches for our tired old world

Dambusters Blog

The Dams Raid (Operation Chastise) and after

Gabriel Evans

Picture Book Author and Illustrator

africmcglincheyreviews

Reviews of chapbooks, poetry collections, short stories and fiction

LOUISE ALLAN

writer & author

Little Pink Dog Books

Publishers of Children's Picture Books and Illustrated Story Books

Poeteer

The Heart Deceives what the Soul Believes, Which Side will You Choose?