Peter found a series of old German Christmas songs in the computer. It was very rewarding to be able to listen to all these songs while celebrating the First of Advent.

A picture from the computer of the Vienna Boy’s Choir singing German Christmas songs.

We listened to a lot of Christmas songs by different groups and artists. They all sang the German texts that we are still quite familiar with, bringing back memories to what it was like when we were children. Here some names of the songs: O Tannenbaum, O du fröhliche, Ave Maria, Kling Glöckchen kling, Leise rieselt der Schnee, and so on.

We had tea and German ‘Oblaten Lebkuchen’.

Then I could not help myself taking a few more pictures!

Even though I spent a good chunk of time last week decorating the house for Christmas, I had not thought much about Advent. How often I leap ahead, instead of being present to what IS right now.

Now to be fair, what I know about myself is that I love to create settings, and often the setting is the first step for me as I enter a new season or a new task. The setting is now complete: the tree is in its cozy corner, the big blue cupboard is home to brush trees, all the Santa Al’s are stationed in the kitchen, and the Nativity Set is once again arranged on the white cupboard in the dining room.

I am ready to turn my heart to Advent.

One of my practices in recent years has been to select an Advent companion from the Advent Perspective cards illustrated by Tracy…

Today is the third Sunday of Advent.

Our tree is ready for Christmas!

We can still sort this out.

We played joyful American Christmas songs. I liked this very much.

In my Church four candles were lit for the fourth Sunday of Advent.

This is a window in the Catholic Church of Dapto.

After the Sunday Mass I took these pictures of the nativity.

Martin drove me to the 7.30 morning Mass. After Mass I was picked up by Martin, S and Peter and we did go straight away to Wollongong Beach.

Soon some life savers arrived.

We stayed for about an hour on the beach. Then we drove on to the swimming pool a bit further North. We all went for a swim. I love to have a swim in this salt water pool. All in all we had an excellent Sunday morning.

I am  off the Hook!

I do not need blood pressure tablets anymore!

Well, this is a long story. It actually started the day I had my Carpal Tunnel Release operation.  On that day at six o’clock in the morning I was allowed a cup of tea and a very light breakfast. Then I had to wait for more than twelve hours before I could have as much as a glass of water or a cup of tea. I was told ‘nil by mouth’ before the operation, which was to last for only a short time, maybe twenty minutes. Unfortunately I was the last one on the list. Which would have been all right, if everything had gone to plan. However there were some unforeseen delays during the day, which meant my operation was postponed for many hours. I sat in the hospital waiting room, waiting, waiting, waiting.

Finally, well into…

The rain has stopped. This morning I had another beautiful walk along Cambridge Road. I took the same walk yesterday morning too and also the day before that! That means I’ve been walking the same route for three days in a row.

Yesterday I did not take my camera along. But today I did. I’ve been taking pics on these morning walks so often! However, I always spy something else I want to capture. I hope I don’t make it too boring for you to show you some more of the pics I took.

The area along this fence is meant to be a public access to the creek.

This is what I see looking down from the bridge where the creek should be!

More and more stuff grows where supposedly some time ago a creek was happily flowing along.

When I reached Lakelands Park the sun had come out…

DIGITAL CAMERA

I took this picture this morning. It is the first picture I have taken in a long time. I think all through June I never took a picture because my camera did not work anymore. Then I started using an older, smaller camera. This must have been in May. I loved walking around with this smaller camera taking pictures. All of a sudden this did not work any more either. It just would not open up, even though the battery was still full. So I gave up and just did not take any more pictures.

This morning Peter checked the little camera. Surprise, surprise, it opened up for him! Peter said, it was all right, I could used it for taking picture. When I took the above trial picture, it actually worked all right. So wish me luck, that my next pictures are going to be all right…