Today is Australia Day, the anniversary of Capt. Arthur Phillip arriving in Sydney Cove with the first fleet in 1788. As well as being such an Anglophile and a lover of all things Royal this post is to show I am also a proud Aussie. whose family first came here as convicts in 1806. I am proudly displaying my flag so it can be seen by any passing cruise liner, container ship or oil tanker---well I exaggerate a bit here, but maybe a canoe will drift past.
Here are my shoes, hat, bag to wear and flag to wave for the day. My elegant shoes state that I am a Purebred Australian.
And a traditional lunch of meat pie and tomato sauce. No self respecting sauce bottle should be seen without a crochet jacket, although difficult to see it does have the word 'sauce' crocheted along the middle so it won't be put on the wrong bottle by mistake. My hand embroidered cloth with koalas was bought at a fete a few years ago.
No, it's not Bondi. My local uncrowded beach that I like to walk along and paddle.
Here are my feet having a beauty treament, sand and salt water are so good for the feet and so relaxing. Though I love the beach I have not been for a swim in the surf since I was 16 and was caught in a rip (strong undercurrent) with my sister and we had to be rescued by lifesavers. Now I stay down the shallow end of pools.My 5xgreatgrandmother Mary was transported from England to Australia in 1806 for stealing fabric. She is buried in the pioneer cemetery at Liverpool N.S.W which is right outside the huge Westfield shopping Mall and only 10 min. walk from Spotlight with all that fabric, I think that is so sad. I wonder if she would like my collection of cat fabrics that I am going to do something clever with one day. My son now lives at Liverpool and I visit Mary's grave and sometimes leave flowers for her.
Mary met up and had a relationship with a convict from another ship, my 5xgreatgrandfather Enoch, transported for bigamy and forgery. They had 2 sons ,but Enoch soon died and Mary died aged in her 80's a respectable married woman, having married the superintendant of Liverpool jail.
Family history is also one of my passions and I am happy to have these 2 interesting convicts on my tree.
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Happy Australia Day! Looks like the party is a your place. What an interesting family story.
ReplyDeleteHow lucky you are to live by such a wonderful beach ~ and that it is uncrowded is an extra bonus I think!
ReplyDeleteThat is kind of sad about your 5xGreat Grandmother Mary being shipped from her home for stealing fabric and then being buried so close to a fabric store. Family trees can be very interesting indeed. I have a 3xGreat Uncle, Bill Miner, a.k.a. The Grey Fox that was Canada's first train robber and the first bandit to say "hands up". That's my families' great claim to fame...impressive isn't it?!! ha ha! I don't know ~ that's the story my dad always liked to tell anyways. :)
Happy Australian day ! I loved to read your story it is so interesting. I have read so many books about Australia and also some about convicts destinies. It proves that their children became honnest people. I have read an autobiography of a young woman who was sent to Australia with a whole orphanate by mistake because she was in there because her mother was in hospital. It took 30 years until mother and daughter found each other. The story was also in the Newspapers. Poor orphans had really a very hard life at the beginning !
ReplyDeleteHappy Australia Day, Sylvia! Love your Aussie gear, and the flag looks great! I have one in our front window, must photograph it tomorrow to post on my blog. We have an Australia Day party every year (have done this long before it became fashionable, lol) with a dozen friends. We were discussing the proposed change of flag today, and none of us are happy about it! What other country changes their national flag, for goodness sake??
ReplyDeleteGoodness, what a very dashing chap your GGGGG Enoch sounds! Not just a chap who pinched a loaf of bread.
ReplyDeleteI'm fascinated by your fascination with the Royals. I fear that here in Britain - or at least in Scotland - people aren't very interested at all.
Your cats are beautiful!