We were all eating lunch. Well all of us except Callum, he was at work, but Dad was home.

"I wish we had a cat," said someone. I don't remember who.

"I saw a sign outside the pet shop in town saying they are selling Abyssinian cats," said Imogen.

The next thing I knew we were going out the door to see the cats, and maybe buy one.

"Don't get your hopes up too high.We might not get a cat," said Dad. We could not help but be excited though.

All of us girls hopped into the van. Duncan was staying home. I think he was as excited as we were, but he had things to do.

All the way to the pet shop I could hardly sit still. I bounced around. I had never owned a cat. I had always wanted one though.

"I'm sorry we have sold all the Abyssinian cats," a lady told us as we entered the pet shop. My heart sank. It seemed we would not get to take a kitten home with us. "We do have a Himalayan-Persian  kitten," she added.

"We will see her then," Dad said. He had not driven all that way for nothing. My heart rose again.

The lady went over to a cage and brought out a cute little kitten. She had big brown eyes, a bit like an owl's. We all fell in love with her.

Everyone took it in turns to hold the cat. We all sighed over her nice soft fur and loud purr.

"Does she have a name?" we asked.

"Oh no! We leave that for the owners to do," The pet shop lady said.

It was soon decided that we would take the cat home.

The next job was to chose our cat a collar. It took a lot of thought, but in the end we bought her a nice purple one, the collar I had wanted the cat to have.

It was a long and exciting trip home. It was not long in distance, but for Dad it must have seemed like miles and miles.

The cat was scared stiff and tried to climb everywhere. Imogen got a lot of scratches from trying to hold her down.

At last our van turned into the driveway and we all hopped out with all the cat's stuff and the cat herself.

Our cat went straight to the job of exploring. I could not help but wonder if she was a little scared to be in a new place with a lot of strange people staring at her.

"She needs a name," Mum said. She went over to the computer and went to a cat name site.

After a lot of thought and shouts of no and yes we got ourselves down to two names, Poppy and Princess.

"Why don't we call her Princess Poppy?" Mum asked. We all agreed. I am glad we did not call her Pumpkin as that was one of the names we found.

"Poppy for short," Mum said.

Poppy did not seem to notice that she had just been given a name. She just continued looking around. I have to wonder how a cat can miss such an important event in their lives. I guess I didn't really notice when I was named either though.

"Let's not tell Callum. Imagine how surprised he will be to come home tonight and find we have a cat," Imogen said. We all giggled.

When Callum rang to say he was on his way home we all hoped he couldn't hear the big purrs coming from someone's lap.

Mum didn't tell Callum about Poppy. She just told him there was a surprise waiting at home. He had no idea what it was. He was very surprised when he saw her.

"A cat!" Callum said and picked Poppy up. I still could not believe she was really ours.

I love Poppy. We have had her for a few years now, but she is as cute as ever. Do you own a cat?

Jaguars are wonderful cats! They are so big and powerful looking. I don't know much about about them, but I always wished that I could see a real one.

Jaguars have wonderful fur. All orange and black. I wish I could have a coat like that, but it might be hot in summer, now I come to think of it, it would be very hot indeed.

What always amazed me about the big cats, is that the women are the hunters, while the men sleep and laze about. What a life. I think it is unfair for the women as they have to do all the work.

I can imagine running through the trees as a jaguar. It would be very exciting. I would be one of the fastest things around and everyone would know it and know to get out of my way.

The only problem if I was a jaguar is that I would have to do all the work because I am a girl, and that does not sound fun at all!

Would you like to be a jaguar?

Imogen is wonderful! She cooks dinners most nights. She is a wonderful cook. She never complains that someone else should have a go at cooking the dinner.

Imogen is always watching movies with Gemma-Rose and me, even when she wants to do something else, like write. She will leave what she is doing and sit down with us.

Even though Imogen is doing uni work, she still finds time to read Shakespeare plays with us, go running down the bush tracks and basically have fun.

Every time I need help with something or other, I can always go to Imogen for help. She is always willing to help me work out a maths question or sort out a problem in my knitting.

She is always playing board games with me and Gemma-Rose. She is a very fun person to play with, but so hard to beat. I don't think even Dad can beat her.

For the past few years Imogen has been teaching me to play the piano. She is always very patient and kind. Even now that I have a professional teacher she still helps me out between my lessons. I don't know another person who would do that.

Imogen is the best second oldest sister I can think of. I am glad I chose her as my confirmation sponsor!

I was a hat baby! I had nearly no hair and so in summer I had to wear a hat otherwise I would have got sunburnt on the top of my head, and in winter I had to wear a hat to keep my head warm.



Unlike most babies, I liked hats. I didn't take them off or anything like that. I would sit there happily under my hat.

I still do like hats. Gemma-Rose and I have a big collection of hats, though I think I like hats better than she does.



I have heaps of beanies for winter and sun hats for summer. I love them all.

Whenever Charlotte has a hat she does not want, I will always take it in and add it to my collection. I can never have too many hats.






I don't think I have changed much from when I was a baby, except, now I have quite a bit of hair. My hair is not as thick as the big girls' or Gemma-Rose's though.



Do you like hats?

My little sister, Gemma-Rose's nickname is Gebbles. We all call her that.

It was Charlotte who came up with the name.

Gemma-Rose has never liked being called Gemma as it left out half her name and so Charlotte mixed  Gemma-Rose and the word gerbil together and got Gebbles. Gemma-Rose liked it.

At first only Charlotte and Dad called her Gebbles, and then it caught on and I started to called my youngest sister Gebbles instead of Gemma-Rose.

After a little while, everyone in the family was calling her Gebbles. We sometimes still call her Gemma-Rose, but never Gemma.

After a little while a lot of our friends stopped calling her Gemma and started on Gebbles.

When Charlotte first came up with the name, I never thought I would use it all the time, but it is much easier than calling, "Gemma-Rose", whenever I want her.

I think Gebbles suits Gemma-Rose. It is a very catchy name.

I love Gebbles!

The cold weather is back, and winter will soon be here.

We are all cold and in jumpers and jackets. I see Gemma-Rose rush out of the room.

"Where are you going, Gemma-Rose?" I call after her.

"To get my fingerless gloves," she answers. As I think about it I decide she is right. It is time to bring out the fingerless gloves and warm my poor hands up.

Last year I made myself and Gemma-Rose fingerless gloves when I was tired of having cold fingers, especially when playing the piano.

This Easter I made another pair of fingerless gloves, this time for Imogen. I gave them to her on Easter Sunday as a gift. She was very surprised.

I was also surprised, but for different reasons. The main reason was that I had made three pairs of fingerless gloves out of the same three balls of wool. It was hard to believe that the balls of wool stretched so far. Another reason was that I had made Imogen's glove pattern up when I lost the piece of paper with the instructions for the gloves I made myself, not that I would have been able to make her another pair like mine. Mine took a lot of wool as they were very long!

Charlotte also has fingerless gloves, but she made hers herself out of other balls of wool. She did not knit hers, but took the quicker option of crocheting them. If I could crochet I would have done that rather than spent hours knitting!

I love fingerless gloves and they are very useful! I am going to have to put my gloves on.

I love Easter! We go to the Easter Vigil Mass, then come home and have a feast of hot cross buns and chocolate.

We all talk about Easter as we eat them and then Gemma-Rose and I wander off to bed,and leave everyone to do a bit more talking and the dishes.

Easter Sunday is just as special. I get up and Imogen, Charlotte, Callum and Dad have gone out again to sing at another Mass with the choir.

This year Gemma-Rose and I had breakfast and got into our nice white dresses and then did all our own jobs and the big girls' jobs so we would not have to wait around when they got back for the Easter egg hunt and presents. This was the first year we had presents.


We had soon finished the jobs and so I laid the table for dinner. I did not want to have to do it later.

I read a book until everyone else got home and then I heated up more hot cross buns and put them on the family room table and we all sat down to eat them.

When we had eaten ourselves to a standstill, Mum gave us each a big Easter egg. We each got to choose the flavour we wanted. I chose dark chocolate!


Then Gemma-Rose gave everyone the presents Mum had bought us. I got a big pencil case, sharpies, a stopwatch, hair flowers, a cream egg and two shirts. I felt special.

Next Duncan gave everyone another big egg. I got another dark chocolate one! Mum's egg was massive!!!

After Imogen and Charlotte had given Mum and Dad a few presents each, I gave everyone a present. I gave the boys and Dad a chocolate bar each. Everyone else's presents I made myself. I gave Mum a needle case, Imogen fingerless gloves, Charlotte a small bag and Gemma-Rose a toy rabbit sock creature.


Then we had the Easter egg hunt. We ran all over the house trying to find Easter eggs. I came about fourth, which is good and we only lost three eggs! We always lose some eggs.

I then took out my sharpies and doodled until dinner. The sharpies are wonderful and picture was nice and bright.

Next came the big lamb dinner, and after dinner came trifle made by Imogen!

Then everyone went to have a bit of a rest. I played a card game on my own while Gemma-Rose played Pollys.

Imogen, Charlotte, Gemma-Rose and I watched a movie. It was a lot of fun, especially as we gave movies up for Lent.


Then we had the biggest Easter cake ever and then I played Pollys with Gemma-Rose!

It was a wonderful Easter Sunday. I love Easter, don't you?