A Letter From Grandma

In case you can't read Grandma's writing, this is what it says,

This is a funny story - Grandad was reading his paper and minding Peter,
and Peter climbed up on the end of the banana-bed. Grandad put his foot on
the top to stop it tipping up, then he had to put his other foot on the table to
stop him from tipping up, then he had to call for someone to grab
Peter.

How much do I care if this might be embarrassing to some of my 'lations?

P.S. Peter is my cousin. He is also now famous (well, maybe not internationally famous, but certainly around the regions wherer he's worked). I'm still claiming I have a famous cousin.

A Beautiful Rainy Day

There is something so relaxing on your day off about waking to the sound of rain on the roof. It's been raining on and off all day and it is just lovely. I love rain. Anyway it comes.

The little watercourse that I can see from the back of our house is showing water beyond the line of the reeds where it is most likely to be wet.

Our rainwater tank is overflowing and creating a small lake where the water waits to pass into the neighbour's yard or soak in.

Our newly prepared vegie patch (my Beloved was busy last week and topsoiled, fertilised and mulched it ready for some new plants) is looking wet, and our sticks are continuing to put up fresh leaves.

And in celebration of a rainy lazy day I offer you another letter from my Grandma...


When Judy and John play tennis Grandad and Grandma watch them from the window.

And the chance that I'm not feeling lazy and sleepy on such a beautiful day?

A Letter From Grandma

I have no inspiration today, so:-

This picture is for Jenny - drawn by Uncle John (Not Auntie!). This is Grandma and Grandad playing tennis at Sherwood.

See, my Grandma used to cheat, too.

The liklihood of having both inspiration and time enough to blog on the one day?

... Approximately None

A Letter From Grandma

Another busy couple of weeks shaping up this end. I'm involved in Easter Services and then our family are going to Malaysia for our much-anticipated holiday. We fly out on Easter Monday, but why I'd say Easter Monday when the plane leaves at 0:50hrs, and we need to be at the airport two hours before, I don't know. Sounds terribly like we're leaving Easter Sunday to me...

Madly trying to get stuff ready to go, and get all the bits together for special Good Friday and Easter Sunday services, so please find attached letter from Grandma.

This is my fish. The big one is a comet and the little one a guppy.

The chance that my Grandma was as fish-i-cidal as me?

... Approximately None!

A Letter From Grandma

I can't think of anything today and the next couple of days are going to be busy, so here's the next installment...

This was our camp at the Bunya Mountains. Lots of pretty birds came to eat seed that the men put on the sand in the front. We slept in the tents on the left side of the picture, and travelled in the bus behind them.

And the chance that I can come up with a clever way to segue to my tag line today?

... Approximately None!

Dating Evidence

Last year I did some posts which had pictures my Grandma sent to me when I was a good deal littler than I am now. There are plenty more to come, it's just that I needed to scan and crop a new batch and I haven't had time. But it's my day off today, so I decided that I should use some of it to add to my collection.

After this week's post about Chair Grandma, you would know that it was Cuckoo Grandma who sent me these picture letters.

You would also know that she was not mentally unbalanced. She just had a Cuckoo Clock. Mind you, in my opinion people who have noisy, chiming clocks of any description have got to be either good sleepers or a little bit nuts.

Sometimes when things were busy, or when there was other interesting stuff that she could send, she wouldn't have to draw at all:




In my last post I was attempting to date the letters. This one has a newspaper clipping with the date on it! We're in May 1976, people! I was 2 years old and my little brother was 2 1/2 months (which explains why he wasn't getting letters yet).

And the chance that I'm not enjoying having to find inspiration for a post today?

... Approximately None!

A Letter From Grandma (The Archaeological Edition)

A little slow this week, so here's another letter from my Grandma.

Because she died when I was only in grade 6 it is interesting to use these letters to get to know her - who was she?

Well, one thing I know is that a very busy lady used to write individual picture-letters to 6 of her grandchildren who didn't happen to live very close to them. Although when this first started there were probably only 2 or 3 of us. It worked up from there as new grandkids came on the scene and were old enough to say "why don't I get a letter from Grandma?" So grandchildren were special, and she didn't want us to forget her.

We can also see from today's letter that sometimes she used to cheat -


No, she did not draw this image. It's a printed one. Clever lady.

The written part says

For Jenny,
I hope you can see our Church at Graceville soon.
Love from Grandad and Grandma. XXX

I don't know precisely when these letters started, but I presume they were a weekly inclusion into the family goings on letter that Grandma used to write to all her kids. I know we lived in Barcaldine from 1976 to 1980.

But this letter may have some specific dating evidence and I feel like I should be on Time Team, because I'm getting all excited.

You see, the Methodist Church joined with other churches to become the Uniting Church in July 1977. So this must have been printed before then. Unless, of course, they were trying to get rid of all the old printed material that was now out of date. Hmmm.

However, the fact that we hadn't seen the church must also put this early in our stay in Barky, because we would have visited them from time to time. In fact, my aunt was married there, but I can't remember when that was.

The chance that we'll ever know a date for certain?

... Approximately None!

Official Teeth Day

So I'm off having my wisdom teeth removed - I thought I'd schedule a post for you all - more of Grandma's letters.

I'm going to ask Mum to comment below when she knows anything. Unless she's decided to stay in Toowoomba overnight, in which case I guess she won't.


This is Aunty Judy going off to College.

She steps over the front fence of the Church.

She has her music in the bag.


The chance that you can't guess what my Aunt has been doing for a career for the last hmmmpf mumble years?

... Approximately None (particularly all the family).

Mice of a Different Sort...

Another picture-letter from my Grandma - after having been slack about blogging for a few weeks, aren't I glad I thought of doing this?

By the way we now seem to have approximately no mouse problem in our house anymore. No terrible smells either. I fully recant my lack of support for my Beloved's Mouse Elimination Strategy. It worked.

Can you guess what this is?

Uncle John's fish pond leaked, so he bought two (male) white mice.

They love the tread-mill, sometimes both get on it together, and spin it so fast you can't see their legs, the wheel goes - "Squeak, squeak". We hear it at night going fast.

The round marg. container has two holes cut in it and they play in it. In the daytime they sleep in the little house John made of cardboard, but they like the floor so much they have eaten it.

Their names and 'Tom' and 'Gerry'. John helped me draw them.

How big a round of applause does 'Uncle' John deserve for helping his Mum draw mice for his nephews and neices?

... A great big one!

And what was the chance I'd end my post there?

... Approximately None!

Another Letter from Grandma...

I'm aiming to include a couple of these a week when I have nothing to say for myself. I just thought I'd do a couple to get us up and started.
The chance that my whole blog will be filled with these?

...Hopefully...

... Approximately None

Uncle John is riding his bike to school.

He is just going up Thallon St, hall fence behind him, and Grandma is waving from the front door.

Thankyou for the picture of the horse. There are 2 horses in the yard beside the Church now. I'll have to draw them. (Why don't you like pussy cats???)

Love G'ma.

Letters from my Grandma

My Mum's Mum was a pretty special lady. When I was very tiny (like 2 years old) we moved to Barcaldine. This meant that we were way away from the wider family, and the phone wasn't then what it is now - it was something only really used for emergencies, or for a three minute "are you extending?" quick message. In fact, Mum has since said that there was a while we didn't have the phone on at the house - I guess they must have just relied on their mobiles!

Anyway, Grandma didn't want to lose contact with any of her grandkids, and so in the weekly carbon-copied typed letter to all her children who lived away she started to include a picture letter for the grandkids. Looking at them now, I see evidence of tracing and carbon being used, or she would send a post card or colouring-in page (at one time there were six of us receiving them - how did a minister's wife find time without a little bit of cheating?).

They lasted from whenever she started doing them, up until we moved to Brisbane and were able to be in personal contact again. Sometimes she would include a story (often on the back) so my Mum would write it out on the page beside where she stuck it down.

I'm very glad that my Mum had the forethought to stick them into an exercise book, so that I have almost all of them. I don't think any of my cousins still have theirs, and this becomes a good way to share the riches around. My books became more special in December 1985 when my Grandma died suddenly with bleeding in her brain.

In some ways when I read them it's almost like reading a prehistoric blog.

The chance that they wouldn't be among the things I would grab in the event of house fire?

... Approximately None!

I should perhaps mention that their house had a railway line across the back fence and whenever we visited it was exciting to watch the trains go past (I believe she actually memorised the timetable so that she could get us in the right place at the right time to see them). I'm presuming this is why Grandma would have sent a photo of a sheep train to her horse-mad grandaughter.