and life gives me just what it decides I need.

My posts won't have photos for awhile as I'm using Mum's laptop which doesn't have my camera program - it's in storage in brisbane with just about everything else I own in the world.

The day I flew out of mt Isa, mum was taken to hospital with pneumonia. She has never been hospitalised before - except to have five kids- and doesn't take well to being ill. It is good that I have the time to care for her while the need is there.

It was hard to leave Mt Isa after five great years. I decided to become a landlord and rented my house to a young colleague. Centacare care me a lovely lunch that so many attended - I was surprised. The packers were so efficient that all the paperwork etc I'd left out to bring with me is currently in storage. I have 186 boxes and yes- mostly books and fabric!

I had a surprise farewell at mt Isa airport - an indigenous family I've worked with drove 140km so the kids could see me get on the plane and then they'd know i had left and weren't just not coming anymore. They'd had a cake made for me - it looks like a wedding cake! heart shaped, pink, covered with roses and says "Farewell Jill". Such thoughtfulness and kindness.

but somethings don't change! Telstra! Over two weeks ago I went into the Telstra shop to get a mobile - I had to hand in the work one, and the car! I chose the mobile and plan I wanted, and because Telstra was upgrading their program, I couldn't get activated as I was a "migrating" customer. So I got a $10 pre-paid to see me through the next 5 days - and I still don't have a phone service despite being put on hold for many hours, hung up on and transfered back and forth. I've spoken to 27 telstra employees!

with the current economic climate semi-retirement isn't looking good, though i have enough books and fabric to outlast me. There seems to be plenty of work available and I've put in an expression of interest with four positions on the Gold Coast. I'm holding on to the belief that the right one will present it'self at the right time.

Living in the "city" is very different, the traffic hazzards are different, no-one sleeps on the roads here, and they whizz by so fast. Even buying a car is a daunting task that i will have to tackle sooner or later. Then again they do have a public transport system. I'm currently driving Mum's car - this too was scarey as she has always not allowed me to do this. Having shopping available at just about all days and endless variety is still unique.

I'm continuing to knit beanies for the homeless and searched Mum's garage for left over wool. I had an interesting find - a jumper in size 8 she had been knitting for Dan - size 8 would have been when he was around 6-7 years old and he's now 24. So I unravelled it and it makes good beanies.

Adels Grove and Lawn Hill July 2008

Mum came to visit - to see where I lived and to see some of the country that I covered. She flew from Townsville to Richmond. We stayed at Mary MacKillop House with lovely views of the lake. They have put in a native food garden interspersed with "moon rocks"- these can be collected on the side of the roads and often contain fossils.









We spent a morning at Kronasaurous Korner - an amazing, informative exhibition of world unique fossils.
We then travelled the 600km back to Mt Isa through Neilia, Julia Creek and Cloncurry. I work in each of these communities. Mt isa was impressive from the lookout.

Mum's visit co-insided with a team meeting we had organised at Adels Grove, as a team we cover over 1,000km and this is a central point for us to meet. Adels grove is unique and about 400km n-w of Mt Isa towards the Northern Territory border.

the journey getting there was interesting - and i got a speeding fine - my 3rd, all since i've been working out here, the first going out of Cloncurry on my 55th birthday, the second, about 3 months agao coming out of Julia Creek on the Dirt and Dust weekend and the third going into Cloncurry to pick up Milton, a co-worker in Cloncurry to go to Adels Grove. The policeman asked me if I'd been booked recently, yes! and said that was him, so what are the odds? 3 tickets and 2 by the same policeman! He said we'd have to stop meeting like this because I'll run out of points. I was VERY careful to stay within the speed limits on my last visit to the Curry.

Adels grove is so lovely and the facilities are fantastic - even the long drop toilets - they have great views! and the showers are wood heated, it's certainly an outback experiance in the most beautiful setting. Adels grove has a facinating, and sad, history.

Adels Grove and Lawn Hill July 2008

and change happens.

and change happens!

again it seems forever since I did this, but now I'm in semi-retirement I hope to catch up - along with major packing. My house went on the market on Tuesday, the removalists are booked for the 4th September, I resign on the 5th September and I'm on the 6pm flight out that evening.

change is scarey - I don't know what comes next, initially I'll stay with Mum at Ashmore ( on the Gold Coast) sort out some medical stuff, find somewhere to live and get a job.

The estate agents valued my little house at $329,000. That's a good profit in 18 months, and so far there's been lots of interest. Yesterday I went into the office to get the wireless broadband sorted on my new laptop - my old one crashed, and everything was lost, and when I got home the agents had been, as arranged, and they locked up so securely that I was locked out, a locksmith was called and I hunted for more keys - seems I was only ever given a key to one lock - and there's four!

Packing gets no better, I'm trying to take just what I'm sentimentally attached to, it seems I'm sentimentally attached to a great deal, how can I part with all the memories attached to so much that I own? I keep muttering " do I want to pay someone to move this?" usually the answer is yes! But I am creating a pile that will go to the homeless program- a fridge, my twin-tub, it was always intended for tank water, but I now have a front loader that does all the work. There's the bed ensemble from my guest room that was bought when Dan came to stay, and I'm managing to add other "stuff"- that I'm sure will be valued by families who have very little.

Then there's books and fabric - I'm looking at that as my retirement fun though the local secondhand book shop is doing well, and a couple of quilt making clients out on remote stations will get a box or two of fabric.

This is an example of Dan's work - his trip to Darwin was a great succes and they have been invited back to repeat the workshop and extend it into other communities. I'm not sure he should give up his day job just yet but it is a great oppertunity for him and for Dan who did the HipHop music side of it. Dan is currently acting in a team leader position and says he's coping with the challanges that involves.

Jess is also doing well and has just been given permancy in the Public Service. So they do eventually get their acts together, and I'm proud of them both.

and Happy Birthday my Jess for the 4th August, I was glad to hear that this year the guys got their act together and you managed to party for a week.

Where did June go?

and I can't think of what I've achieved this month.

Work wise, the client work continues, I've had a quiet week this week - after getting new tyres on the car, they were needed, the shuddering in the back wheel continued. It turned out to be a problem in the differential, but it took days, and a replacement vehicle seemed "too hard" to organise so I made a decision to just stay home this week. It's been an excellent time to catch up with case notes, following up, and generally catching up on paper work. I've also been trying to finish work sometime in the afternoon and taking time to relax, to read, to bake and to do some stitching.

I've been knitting scarves and beanies for the kids in Canberra - such cold it hard to imagine.
Dan, and a friend, also Dan, tells me they are planning on doing a workshop with disadvantaged kids in Darwin round street art (graffitti) and hip-hop music. I'm sure this will be a unique experiance for them all.

I guess the biggest thing for me is I've decided it's time for change! Scarey stuff - and though I'd ideally like round 12 acres on the Atherton Tablelands with rainforest, an orchard, and a magical garden, realism tells me that at my age and with my finances, this isn't going to happen! So I looked at what was most important to me - and it's family. The northern NSW coast is appealing and fits better with being closer to the kids and to Mum too. Looking at what I can realistically afford, I'm even exploring the idea of a retirement village. When did I get that old!

So I guess lots of change - time to see what the next part of my life holds?

Did I get this right?

when I was driving home on friday night, about 40km out of Isa, it was just dusk, not quite dull enough to be needing to put my lights on and I noticed an animal in the road ahead, it's smaller than a cow? not the right shape for a roo? I slowed ( I was doing about 110kph) and it just stayed in the road, I kept slowing, not a dog, not a fox..... it moved to the side of the road but kept turned towards me, I was just rolling as I passed it. And it sure looked like a dingo ( this is not my photo )

I've seen dingos in sanctuaries and on Fraser Island but never out here before. Discussing this with a friend he suggested it may be a dingo - there's lots of open land between here and Alice Springs and the lack of a wet season this year may have them extending their territory - or maybe I'd just never seen one here before.

I love the continual new experiances this area gives.

My daily stuff, work, travel, quilting and I'm creating family history albums with scrapbooking.



I took this photo as I was coming back into Mt Isa early Friday evening. I'm about 30km out and about to cross the Leichart River. It had been 30 deg for most of the day - I'd run out of t-shirts as I'd only packed 3, I'd packed more long sleeved t-shirts and jumpers, even a hot water bottle and I'd not really needed them at all. This is winter?

My quilting continues between knitting beanies for Ben, Jess and Dan. I'm up to hand-quilting Mum's quilt - for her birthday. She got a WIP - work in progress. and this is my last contribution to my internet swaps - tea cup and saucer. Today I've pieced more of Jess's Japanese quilt - but my machine is not well. I think old age is settling in- I think it's about 34 years old now. It sews well, with it's two stitches but it is clunking and grinding and making some very strange noises.

I've finally found someone to replace my front steps, so financially this isn't the best time for it to want to retire to a quieter life.



Spending even a short time with Annie is so inspirational, she is very involved with stamping and scrapbooking. I'll look up her website and add it later. I've added three examples of what I've been doing - there's a page for my maternal grandparents before they got married. When I was with Mum we went through the older photos and I had them copied. The second page is Christmas 1953 - I was about 4 years old, then one for Jess - her first dress up party she was about 10 weeks old. I have a variety of albums on the go - Family History, my history, and one for each of my kids based on their childhood. So many photos and so many memories. I try to complete about 3 pages each weekend, but I doubt I'll catch up.

It's been awhile.

I've been on leave - I took about 3 weeks to go down to Canberra, to catch up with the kids but also to join the family celebration for my Mum's 80th Birthday. The party just kept on going.

The actual celebration was attended by almost all the family and we've grown into quite a mob, as we go into the next generation.

We had a great "grazing" lunch at Pods in Pelligo. The food was great, the company was excellent, and everyone mixed and talked and tried to catch up.

This is the five of us with Mum, my brothers

John ( on the left) and Peter, my sisters - Linda (the baby of the family on the left) and Annie (on the right). It's not very often we manage to get together these days.

John and his family live in Melbourne, Pete and his partner live in Newcastle, Annie and Lin live in Canberra, Mum lives on the Gold Coast and I'm in Mt Isa. We cover almost the whole east coast of Australia.

The next photos cover the in-laws and Mum's sister Judy, and then there's the mob, which includes most of the 17 grandchildren, their partners and four great-grandchildren.

Mum had a second party last weekend for her

friends and family that couldn't come to Canberra.