Great Grandma's crochet

Florence Olive Moore nee Holt was my Great Grandma and she was born in Aston, Warwickshire in 1879.  She immigrated to Australia in about 1911 and lived in Melbourne with her brother for a year or so before marrying my Great Grandfather Thomas Moore in Fremantle, Western Australia in 1913.  

Tom and Olive on their wedding day.

Before coming to Australia, Florence or as she like to be called Olive, worked as a domestic servant, a cook and a parlour maid.  The English Census records make for fascinating reading.  Life in Australia after she was married was very challenging for her and the Western Australian countryside with it's flies, heat, dry and harsh climate vastly different to that of her country of birth.

Here she is a photo of her with my Grandma in her arms.

Those whites look very white to me which would have been no mean feat to keep clean with all the dust and dirt around.

Great Grandma was a keen crocheter and from what I've seen, she mainly concentrated on fine crochet work, edging doilies and the like.  My Mum lived with Tom and Olive during the 2nd World War together with her Mother and Sister while my Grandfather was away overseas in New Guinea.  After the morning chores were done and lunch over, Olive would settle  down to spend some time crocheting.  

Years later when Olive found out that her Grandaughter (my Mum) was pregnant with her first child, she crocheted some little fine booties.  I can only imagine the blue touch was added after she found out the baby was a boy.

 

You can see the detail of the button hole in the bottom of the photo.  The booties were closed with a little pearl button but has since been lost from this booty.  The pair to this booty has been lost over time too.

The underside of the booty.

A little piece of fabric was sewn in the inside of the booty so the baby's toes wouldn't get caught in the fine work of the crochet.

You may have noticed the very interesting object I photographed the booty on.  It's one of Olive's shoe trees which she brought with her when she came out from England all those years ago.  I thought it was a lovely piece to use as a backdrop to her crochet work.

 

Here is a photo of Olive in her older age.

Mum tells stories how Olive would fall asleep and have a little doze while she was crocheting.  She would wake up and continue crocheting intricate lace work without missing a stitch.  My Grandfather or my Great Grandfather would tease her that she had been asleep which she hotly denied.

I'd loved to have known this amazing lady but unfortunately she died before I was born.  I feel privileged to have some of her work and personal items.  I have more of her crochet work to show you but I'll save that for another post.

Anne  xx

:: 52 weeks of happy, 8/52 ::

Here are four of many happy moments from this week.

1.  Being home again and spending time with my hubby and daughters.

2.  Enjoying the green/blue Hydrangea flowers off the same bush that produces blue and pink blossoms.

 3.  Eating home grown tomatoes, part of a healthy lunch.

4.  Trying my hand at a new crochet pattern, African flower hexagons.

Wishing you many happy moments,

Anne  xx

Snakes

As children growing up on a farm in Western Australia, we were always told to be on the look out for snakes in spring, summer and autumn.  There were and are many places for snakes to hang out, in long grass or under old pieces of corrugated iron lying around the sheds.  I thought you might like to see some of the snakes local to our area of Western Australia.  The following words and photos courtesy of my big brother.

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"Whenever I can I enjoy getting up close to snakes when they are crossing the road. I drive very close to them hoping to stop them in their tracks for a photo session. The species which cooperates the best is our Western Brown Snake or Gwardar. The interesting thing about these snakes is their diversity of colours and markings. I must point out that these are very venomous, but also very shy and quick to escape danger so I don’t get out of the vehicle nor turn it off, just wind down the window and reach out with my phone camera. Enjoy.

Large pale brown Gwardar seen crossing the studio track.

 

Dark brown example crossing the south road.

Tail end of a big boldly marked Gwardar down a mouse hole. One tap on his tail and he shot down further and disappeared.

  Another boldly striped Gwardar hiding in some cut hay. His black head poking out to survey what’s going on."

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I hope you enjoyed these photos and information about the Gwardar.  From time to time my brother emails family and friends about different events and photos on farm life and wildlife in the area.  He is kindly allowing me to blog about the things you might find interesting. 

 Anne  xx

:: 52 weeks of happy, 7/52 ::

I'm a little late with week 7 and two of my happy moments don't have photos.  Nevertheless I'm going to list them.

1.  Sitting next to my Dad on the couch having a snuggle.

2.  Making apple pie for Dad, his absolute favourite dessert and him having the appetite to enjoy it.

3.  Assembling these trolleys from Ikea for Mum to help organise her kitchen a little better.

4.  Enjoying this Aussie scene, Bougainvillea and an old rain water tank.  On the farm in Western Australia.

Wishing you many happy moments this week.

Anne  xx

Spotted Harrier rescue

Last week my brother rescued a juvenile Spotted Harrier from a paddock while shifting sheep.  The bird was unable to maintain flight and he assumed it was either underfed or a bit injured as the right wing didn't hang quite right when folded.

After a few days of feeding it seemed to have gained strength when approached and flapped around the cage fairly easily.

Photos courtesy of big brother.

I saw this bird myself (beautiful) and took a couple of photos but my brother's photos were of much better quality.

 The bird has since been released back into the wild.  Now I'd call that a success story.  Go big brother!!  

Anne  xx