My First Day of School

Well - do you remember yours?

I wish every day was Harry Potter Day

Pyewacket, if I've told you once I've told you a hundred times.

It's Wingardium Levi-o-sa!

A boy and his car...

When you wish upon a star

When you wish upon a star,
makes no difference who you are

Anything your heart desires
will come to you

If your heart is in your dreams,
no request is too extreme

When you wish upon a star,
your dreams come true...

Last September...

Alessandro and I went to Venice.
And I can honestly say:



Heart of Gold and Versailles kits are by Irene Alexeeva

It's Love Your Pets Day

I remember when...

Have you lost your cat?

- Apparently posted by International students around Sydney University Campus.

Sleeping beauties...

I'm very proud

Alessandro is about to represent his state for the fouth year in a row in pool.

He only just turned seventeen!

My grandparents

This was taken in Texas, in 1915.

National Harry Potter Day

I last declared it National Harry Potter Day a few months ago - but, I just feel like doing it again.

So, guess what I'm reading? "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

Actually, I'm up to Book 5 again - love it! Can you see little Rita Skeeter anywhere?

The little red wagon

Using a Digital Scrapbook Place blog prompt, Girasoli and I have been reminiscing about our childhood toys. We had many the same. I'm wondering if she had a little red wagon? It was a favorite of mine. Here I am with my mother Marcelle with my white cat at Beale Air Force Base in California.

The Lighthouse Keeper

From 1922 to 1925 my grandfather, Charles Pollington, was one of the two lighthouse keepers at Double Island Point, off the Queensland coast.

Aged two, my mother Marcelle climbed up the spiral staircase outside the lighthouse and a crowd collected underneath with a blanket to catch her while her mother stood crying. She was throwing her bonnet, shoes and socks through the railings. Grandfather crept up behind her and grabbed her before she could squeeze through the railings. He said that these were the worst moments of his life - including his time in World War One.

Vintage Ephemera is by Irene Alexeeva

The Digital Scrapbook Place

Blog Prompt: Today is Pay a Compliment Day. Who would you compliment today and why?

Goodness me - that's an easy one. The Digital Scrapbook Place design team of course. They have my vote. What a talented group of women! I am so impressed with their skills.

Now, a few of you from the Slow Travel website have asked me now, where am I getting the frames for my photographs?

I have registered with the website company The Digital Scrapbook Place. After looking at a student's scrapbook project last year, I sought out a way to do that for myself on the computer, as I'm not into crafts. I found this website which is very user friendly and has incredibly talented designers who sell their kits on line.

If you go to my gallery, you will see each of the pictures I have made and underneath them is the name of the kit and the name of the designer.

There are a few different ways to present your picture in a frame. You can start with a background, then place your picture over it. You can add an overlay layer - which may look like a pale piece of gauze floating around the edges. You can add in an actual frame, then you might like to add some elements like ribbons, bows, dragonflies or flowers.

An easy way to start is to register with The Digital Scrapbook Place, then download the many "freebies" they offer you. You can start with "ploppers" where you just plop the photo into the picture, then you use a photographic program like Adobe Photoshop Elements to put the photograph behind the frame.

You can buy a kit, which you then download to your computer. It will contain background pages, and lots of fun things like frames and fun little elements.

I have joined some forums and am working on heritage style photographs. I enter challenges, and look at different styles and ways to present your photograph. Some pictures can take ten minutes, others take me a couple of hours. I am starting off my students on medieval studies and three of them did pictures this morning. Two used a photo and a plopper - one came and opened up my new azure blue kit I used to make my Marysville baby picture of me, and used that to enhance her photo before using the Knights of old plopper. So hers looks similar to my Dragon Slaying one.

I can slay my own dragons

Alessandro - off to Nationals again

This is Alessandro from last year when he represented his state in his age level. He got to play in Perth in 2007. It was a five hour flight with a sprained ankle from his basketball game just before the flight.

In 2005 and 2006 it was just a short flight down to Melbourne to play. This year, in fact next month, he's off to Adelaide. He even qualified for under 21s this year - but was too young to go. He was just sixteen at the time and you have to be over 18.



I'm very proud of my young pool shark.

Wistful Thinking

Sometime, I think, there's got to be

A night that glitters just for me:

A gorgeous, swishing, low-cut gown

For wining, dining on the town.

Exotic perfume on my breast,

A fancy hair-style, all the rest...

With all that's shining in the skies

Reflected in my dazzled eyes.

Before I grow too old to wear

The dress...

The perfume...

Fancy hair...

By Marcelle Pollington

Groundhog Day

Blog Prompt: February 2 is Groundhog Day. Do you remember that Bill Murray movie where he wakes up to the same day over and over? If it was you, describe the day you would want to repeat over and over.

Well this is fun!

How about the last day I had in Venice with my son Alessandro? I could relive that over, and over. Especially the part where we had cappuccino at Lavena Cafe in Piazza San Marco.

Beau and Fleur

The topic for today was red - so this is my red house I lived in when I was two, in Marysville, California. It was about fourteen miles from Beale Air Force Base where we moved to next.

These are our poodles, Beau and Fleur.

P.S. Poodles may be cute - but if you want to see something really interesting head over to Shave Ice & Gelato to see the snow on Hawaii.

Who we were,

And where we came from,

Contributes to who we are...