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Last week was a week of anniversaries - some good, some bad but still they happened in our lives & need to be faced/realised. Thursday 11 Sept. - last Thursday is always a day that will be remembered for as long as the world exists, I truly believe, 9/11 as many know it as & everyone you talk to, in the world will be able to tell you exactly what they were doing at the time they first heard it announced ... Me... I was recovering from live-saving major surgery when I first saw it on the TV - the wardsman asked me to have a look at the day's news & then asked what did I see ... 'Ohh it's just an add. for some horrible movie that must be coming' - he then asked me to explain what I had seen ... & that was the plane going into the second tower... he said leave it on Love, cause it is true... this is what has happened this day - you will never forget when you had your op'. The day the world changed forever ...
So here we are seven years later - I'm well but I know there are some people in the world that will never be the same again who were affected by such tragedy... still I must celebrate my wellness to stay positive. Also this date came into my life again as an important date the next year, 2002 - that was the day we left our home of 32+years for the last time - where we had brought up our children & they were now out in the world doing their own memory making. It was time for us to move on, a decision that we have embraced & love our new home.
It makes me sad that when you do move like that that sometimes things change that you don't expect & I think for me that was, I found who my friends were ... you know the ones that you don't have to see each & every week but when you do it was just like yesterday that you were sitting on the back veranda sharing your thoughts/dreams - you will always stay in contact with even if it's only Christmas-time. I've come to realise that I had a big network of acquaintances who I had mistaken for good friends & I think this has been the biggest learning curve for me & as Christmas approaches I've decided as this will be our 6th Christmas here in our new/retirement home that I'll only be sending Christmas cards to my 'friends' - yes this makes me a bit sad as I do love catching up on what's happening in everybodies lives but there comes a time when it's not reciprocated - it's time to move on - gosh, it's not like we are, any of us, too old yet... it's like the email that gets sent around from time to time about being friends for a reason, a season or a lifetime ... just a matter of course I suppose. September must be a time of reflection ... I wonder...
I got to go down memory lane again this week - I was out doing my walk & look what I found??? Do you grow these where you live? Mulberries lovely big fat juicy ones, at that ... you can see I've had a taste test too by my fingers. Ohhh I can hear Mum now rousing at me for getting the juice all over my clothes [mulberries aren't something that comes out in the wash...] I can also hear her saying 'You haven't been eating those mulberries have you? you won't want to eat your tea tonight?' Of course you say 'No Mum' but then she asks how did you get that stain in & out of your mouth ... Sprung... ha ha
For those that read this that might not know, Mulberries are a fruit that you eat when they are that dark black sortta colour & can be eaten raw or cooked in water with some sugar to have as a sweet/dessert. We used to have it with creamed rice, baked custard, junket [ha ha remember the old junket tablets?] or with ice cream - the juice could be thickened with arrowroot [flour] cause it kept the liquid clear or was it cornflour? ha ha now I've got you guessing ...
P.S. I remember when we were first married, my sister had a tree that I used to pick from every few days ... they preserve well mulberries but I used to cook them up but I got lazy & hated cutting the little stalks off each berry - must remember Mum had the special old pair of scissors that did this job so well - so I cooked them stalk & all ... no problem really but when DH ate them he would line all the stalks up around the edge of the plate - do you think he was trying to tell me something? ... well I wasn't using the only pair of scissors I had they were my dressmaking scissors & definitely not for cutting stalks off ... lol