Today’s Adventure:Mums are pretty special. Mine passed away a few years ago at the very good UNYOUNG age of 93. I boldly adventure on, so that I can surpass that age number.
Jam Fact: I am like my Mum in so many ways!
Yesterday was my “Bake Off” day, which on reflection I have every Tuesday – hmm – does that make me my Mother’s daughter? Methinks it does.
I baked my favourite biscuits – Cinnamon Sultana Rock Cakes – recipe courtesy of www.heartfoundation.org.au/recipes/category/baking. They are my go to when I have a daily cup of coffee –not my favourite “sweet” from the selection available – Chocolate Berry Slice is but I didn’t have any berries, not until my online shop comes on Thursday. It’s definitely on next week’s bake off list, though.
I tend to reminisce about my Mum and Dad when I bake – happy memories evoked from the family Saturday baking days when we lived in the bush, back when I was YOUNG, YOUNG. I think of Mum more so at this time of the year and yesterday was no exception, as she passed away on a Good Friday a few years ago.
My earliest memories of My Mum are at Baldivis and of her cutting flowers;wild Geraldton Wax and freesias that grew prolifically out the front of the old school house and displaying them all around the house. Good thing none of us suffered from hay fever back then because freesias can emit some pretty potent hay fever triggers. I now know this because they flourish in what I call my “Mum’s Garden” up here at HG and they give me a solid dose of hay fever every year.
I’ve never been one for regularly having flowers on show inside but I am discovering that I quite like it …so maybe I am a chip off the old Mum block… because my latest adventure has seen me scrounging around in cupboards to locate a selection of vases which have been sort of hidden away over the years. I didn’t realise just how many I had.
I then proceeded to go for a leisurely wander around the garden to find some specimens to deposit in those rediscovered, dusted off and now spotlessly clean vases- cleaning them up and remembering how I got them all took up a good amount of time too; they tested this little UNYOUNG’S memory I can assure you. I even found one that my brother and I bought in Fremantle for one of my Mum’s birthdays when we lived at Baldivis. I know this because Mum wrote that on the bottom of it. Note to self here – why the heck have you kept it UNYOUNG JAM when it has a big crack in it and it definitely can’t hold any water or flowers? Memories –that’s why UNYOUNG JAM – you are a sucker for them just like your mother was! [Memories, despite who you are, are precious. Some of you will have heard this story from me before. A long time ago-dinosaur era, I had the good fortune,well I thought it so at the time, to be selected to have lunch with the Queen. After my initial tongue tied self got her act together I asked HM what did she treasure the most? Her reply was “Memories because no one can take them away from you” and it is so true. So as I my Mum’s anniversary of her passing comes and goes for another year – like you I treasure all my memories, those with family and those with friends that I have made in my life so far and with the hope and belief that I will make many more memories in the years to come.]
I managed to find some pretty OK looking roses and some greenery in amongst the potted plants and subsequently “arranged” said flora into the vases. I used the word arrange loosely here because when I stepped back to admire my creations it appeared that arranging flowers is probably not my forte.
Still there are flowers in the house, there’s even a vase of them in the bathroom– change of pace because they have never graced our sinks before and I know I will have made my Mum happy wherever she is. She has left her love of flowers as a legacy with me and here I am now tapping into and having to admit – appreciating it.
Mum, who only ever did volunteer work her whole married life, happily filled her days at home with repetitive daily/weekly activities e.g. wash Monday, iron Tuesday, flowers Thursdays etc. I am not going to that degree of being my mother’s daughter exactly but I do concede that I have a weekly Tuesday “Bake Off” and as I now plan to be picking flowers for the house here at HG every week [another activity added to my list of things to do during a lockdown] maybe I have to now finally give in to the fact that I am indeed a little carbon copy of my Mum after all but as I loved her dearly, I’m pretty Ok with that.
Until tomorrow – don’t forget to stop and smell the roses wherever you are.
Photo above is of Mum and little UNYOUNGJAM in Forrest Place in Perth.
Photo below is Dad and me; me atop our first family vehicle. We were living in Wundowie at the time-just across from where we live now!
