Come on, big mouth, get it out!!
Well, first up, our names are Bronwyn and Lex. We live in Melbourne, Australia.
Lex started to read the Mma Ramotswe novels as part of his interest in crime fiction. Bronwyn, who rarely reads fiction, was interested in what Lex said about the gentleness of the novels, combined with Mma Ramotswe's philosophy of life. As Sandy McCall Smith constantly repeats, these are not really crime novels. They are more character studies. Bronwyn has family in South Africa, and has visited them there, and has a great liking for rooibos tea, or red tea, or redbush tea (it's all the same thing, the wonderful |
tea Mma Ramotswe, but not Mma Makutsi, really likes).
Sandy's wonderful descriptions of fantastic people, countryside, plants, and animals brings back many happy memories for her. We all know Africa is a continent full of all sorts of problems. Bronwyn and I keep up with all of that ... But what a wonderful thing it is to have a counter-balance, showing Africans can run a very successful country, and are, on the whole, like people everywhere, wonderfully kind and generous people. Sandy has been criticised for this aspect of his novels, but he makes the point there are many great authors writing about the troublesome Africa. He is simply attempting to show a greater depth to Africa and its people than constant disaster stories can tell. |
Above are cousins Vicki, Ricki, and Ticki, with their new babies. Even though bears and us are completely different species, we get on well. We've adopted this lot below into our koala family. Now there's been a bit of intermarriage since they came to Australia. Good thing, too. It makes for much more interesting dinner table conversations! |
Some photies of a few adopted
bear rellies |
More about us. (Lucky you!)
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Darn tootin'. We're not going to let this opportunity to bore the britches off people without getting our quid's worth out of it. Besides, humans look so funny without their britches!
We have two moggie cats (in 2016) in addition to our cubs. One fluffy grey 9 year old, Smokey Bear, who has lived his life inside, so he doesn't kill native birds. Smokey was mistreated as a tiny kitten, and no amount of love has rid him of his extremely shy and tense character. The other cat is now a former cat (2017, sob, sob). Her name was Greebo, and Terry Pratchett fans may pick up why she was given that moniker, even though his Greebo is a different gender. She was black, and definitely not fluffy. She was very elderly when she condescended to live with us, and had a huge, huge, huge, sore on her back which turned out to be skin cancer which had started to go nutso through her system. She was incredibly vicious at first, tearing our flesh and hissing. She'd spent a life surviving, although she was someone's pet once as she'd been spayed. We ended up spending about $10,000 on her medical conditions over the 12 months she was with us, but there's no doubt she gave us far more than we gave her. There goes our pension! But we both firmly believe when an animal adopts you, you owe it as good a life as you can manage. As time went on she became a loving addition to our family, although we had to keep her separate from Smokey Bear. Towards the end she even spent the nights sleeping up our end of the bed, between us. In the middle of the night we would sometimes wake up to this |
incredibly loud diesel truck driving off, but it was just Greebo purring for no discernible reason other than she was very happy.
But while she managed three major operations standing on her head, after all, she was a great survivor, the last one took it out of her. The vets pointed out that when, not if, the cancer came back they could operate but her chances of survival would be slim, it would cost a bomb, and she would be left very ill afterwards, and the cancer would come back again anyway. So we did what we can't do for our best human friends, we enabled her to leave life painlessly and stress free, purring to the end. It's been several months now (November, 2016), but we think of her every day, and we miss her every day. And that's still so in April, 2017. Now, what else? Lex plays the saxophone. Which sax? The tenor, of course. All music is improved with a tenor sax! He's also trying to learn the didgeridoo, but he seems to be the only member of the family who can't blurt with his lips. Bronwyn and Lex both knit. Lex in particular finds it meditational. Lex took knitting up again when he was ill after having to give up teaching. He was taught to knit by his mum when he was four. He's still got a scarf he knitted, and the teddies he knitted it for. Brownwyn loves photography, and has recently bought a very nice camera, but sadly her job and the tasks she still does at home limit the time she can give to a hobby. Oh, Lex says he doesn't want it thought he does nothing at home. He ... ummm ... well, ... ummm ... Oh, I know, he ... eats! Yes, that's it, he eats at home. Ensuring the fridge doesn't get too full! |
And fairtrade organic Rooibos tea, like the wonderful
Dragonfly organic AND fair trade Rooibos tea.
Dragonfly organic AND fair trade Rooibos tea.
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