This is something that harks back to The Old Country of Broads, no matter our ethnicity or class. Don't kid yourself. A woman with an engagement ring so large it can only be looked at through a pinhole in a shoe box will, yes, register for a silicon dish-rack. Yes, she will. Don't laugh and don't ask what other silicon the dish-rack matches.…

"Louise," Thorny yelled from somewhere in the house. Probably his office, I thought, slamming the album of pictures shut. I was scrap booking, designing pages into works of art, adding photos almost as an afterthought. Low on paper cement I'd have to quit soon anyway. But, damn it to hell! What on earth did he want now?

I scooted my chair back from my desk in the dining room and walked into the hall. "Where are you?" I called. No answer. "Where are you, Thorny?" Louder this…

Thinking of my brother Patrick today, on the fourth anniversary of his death, I've posted "Just This. . .", a poem:

http://writingwithoutpaper.blogspot.com/2013/05/just-this-poem.html

My mother grew up in a charming, solid, Craftsman style home [1], a style influenced by the English Arts and Crafts movement as well as by Oriental wooden architecture, made popular from 1905- 1920.  This style would have suited her father, a serious Scottish student of architecture, and a draftsman, a man who was at ease with the rigidity of straight lines and angles. Upon immigrating to Canada, Grandfather William, would work with the City of Vancouver,…

I really do enjoy my role as, Fairy Grandmother!  The role of Fairy Grandmother is the universe’s gift of second chances, second comings (and goings), and an opportunity to gift love to a little piece of yourself.  It doesn’t get much better than that!  It’s such an easy “do;” teach what you know (like – how to make Rice Krispie Bars), gingerly retrieve the froglet that is belly up in the tank, calm and wipe away the tears of the child’s sadness and guilt (“I should have let him go!”),…

Today is Husby's and my anniversary.

Thirty-seven years with an amazing man.

Happy Anniversary, Honey!…

Our two youngest, with their families, have moved back in for a while.

I'm cherishing this moment in time . . .…

The Tolley's celebrate everything with pie.

My Dad is staying with us for a while.

It's so satisfying to complete a project and have it enjoyed and appreciated by others. The fourth story, Truly Free,  in my Turning the Tide  series of novels has now been released. This series is based on my family history in Australia, beginning with the first fleet of convicts who arrived on our shores in 1788. It's been a fascinating venture for me to research and then to write the stories of survival, courage, tragedy, overcoming, love and endurance. There's lots of facts in my…

Pure lunacy.  What is wrong with people today? Oh, scratch that, people have been this way for years I know.  Let me start again, what is going on?  Everywhere I turn to read, just about anything lately it seems to be just off the wall, lunacy.  I mean pure insanity.  Yesterday I wrote about mothers abandoning children because I was reading about three or four different articles on people just leaving kids wherever they felt like it and today, well some lady decides she wants to steal…

How long does the normal relationship go before losing it's "wow", the "honeymooner's stage" as my best girlfriend put it?  Sitting back in my big comfy, not so much anymore, office chair, back to the days of my marriage, can I even remember?  No really, did I have that?  Think Tamara, think.  Ohhhh, yup, here it comes, I will say for me the first year, plus before kids.  I call it B.C..  Now this is all depending upon the surroundings (in-laws, bff's, neighbors, lol), because we all know…