Soon after, the sky reddened and reddened, the smoke from the bushfires in the Blue Mountains making the sun a blood-glowing ball of sinking fire.
Wasn't that just so poetically poetic? It reminded me of years ago when the Mt Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines belched so much smoke the sunsets here in Oz, an ocean away, were just as red.
Monday, November 20, 2006
Busy weekend!
Very busy weekend, between family and quilting, so no posts. Maybe later today. The air is smoky, the bushfires in the Blue Mountains covering them in an ominous pall (I'd much rather their usual fog or clouds than this dirty brown sky). Backburning continues, but the forecast of hot dry weather for the next couple of days will not make the firefighters happy.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Orange vine
Every spring it's back (campsis, I think it's called), climbing cheerfully over fences and hedges, flowering freely until it's claimed by the cooler weather of winter - but it always returns.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Glass jewellery
Another one from the weekend's festival - pendants made from glass. Love the colours and designs within the glass.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Fire
There are two serious fires in the upper Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, today. It isn't boiling hot, but it has been windy. This RFS T-shirt and its owner may well be there. Without rain, it's another summer where the dry conditions could prove dangerous. Time to make sure the gutters are clear of debris.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Summer colour
Are these the colours of summer 2006?
This is one of the photos from the weekend festival - I like the repetition (I often like repetition of images - a quilter's weakness, maybe? or perhaps a quilter's strength?).
Monday, November 13, 2006
A Year of Color/Colour: Red
A favourite colour!
The images are: a white star and red carpet from a now demolished theatre; an old Union Jack; strawberries; a red door in the inner city.
The images are: a white star and red carpet from a now demolished theatre; an old Union Jack; strawberries; a red door in the inner city.
..it is the cause...
..it is the cause, it is the cause my soul...
As I've been sewing the aqua/chocolate quilt this weekend, I've been listening to DVDs (well, I can't watch or I'd sew over my finger or something icky like that! - and besides, they're usually films I've seen before, so I can replay them on my mind's widescreen). I revisited Stage Beauty, Richard Eyre's film about Restoration theatre, with Billy Crudup and Claire Danes. Excellent film: Billy plays Ned Kynaston, one of the last of the men licensed to play women on stage, before Charles II decreed that women could play women. It oscillates around Othello, particularly Desdemona's death scene.
The "it is the cause" line does get an airing - I remember it from studying Othello, at school. So the weekend's photo of 'cause' badges from the festival co-ordinated with the film. Well, that's my version of events (it's my blog and I'll draw a long bow if I want to, or something like that!).
I studied Othello, as my final year Shakespeare (the syllabus rotated through the tragedies, I still wish I'd landed on a Hamlet year - but then I did get to also do Romeo and Juliet in the advanced class, and that was great fun).
We were shown some films to enhance our understanding of the play, but the one that has stuck in my mind starred Sergei Bondarchuk in somewhat erratic blackface. The scene that made the greatest impact happened to be Desdemona's death - mostly because he had dark hair when he tottered behind the filmy draperies to smother her, and it had gone completely white by the time he emerged. I also remember a lot of highly coloured chocolate-box sunset scenes, although I'm fuzzy on what they had to do with Shakespeare's play. Ain't the internet wonderful? It's listed on imdb, including a review by someone who probably isn't a high school brat, and therefore may have more appreciation of Art circa 1955.
As I've been sewing the aqua/chocolate quilt this weekend, I've been listening to DVDs (well, I can't watch or I'd sew over my finger or something icky like that! - and besides, they're usually films I've seen before, so I can replay them on my mind's widescreen). I revisited Stage Beauty, Richard Eyre's film about Restoration theatre, with Billy Crudup and Claire Danes. Excellent film: Billy plays Ned Kynaston, one of the last of the men licensed to play women on stage, before Charles II decreed that women could play women. It oscillates around Othello, particularly Desdemona's death scene.
The "it is the cause" line does get an airing - I remember it from studying Othello, at school. So the weekend's photo of 'cause' badges from the festival co-ordinated with the film. Well, that's my version of events (it's my blog and I'll draw a long bow if I want to, or something like that!).
I studied Othello, as my final year Shakespeare (the syllabus rotated through the tragedies, I still wish I'd landed on a Hamlet year - but then I did get to also do Romeo and Juliet in the advanced class, and that was great fun).
We were shown some films to enhance our understanding of the play, but the one that has stuck in my mind starred Sergei Bondarchuk in somewhat erratic blackface. The scene that made the greatest impact happened to be Desdemona's death - mostly because he had dark hair when he tottered behind the filmy draperies to smother her, and it had gone completely white by the time he emerged. I also remember a lot of highly coloured chocolate-box sunset scenes, although I'm fuzzy on what they had to do with Shakespeare's play. Ain't the internet wonderful? It's listed on imdb, including a review by someone who probably isn't a high school brat, and therefore may have more appreciation of Art circa 1955.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Next!
The makings of a new quilt - aqua and chocolate. Do you think it will work? I'm liking the mix of it all, everything from Amy Butler to Jane Austen, spots and dots and stripes and scales from small to large - all the fun of the fair! The deadline's looming, so I'm sewing like mad to get it done.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Juggling
Juggling seems to be the daily pattern right now - juggling deadlines, commitments, attending to friendships and relationships, keeping work on track as far as possible...feeding the hungry blog...
Village festival
Yet more eye candy colours. The soundtrack to the festival? The babble of voices, the boom zipzap of the hiphop music played for the dancing school dancers in lurid lurex, announcements about charity sausage sizzles, thanks to sponsors, the rapid heartbeat of bongo drums. You could decorate your house or yourself, be political in a multitude of ways, buy charity raffle tickets, join railway societies or plant growing societies, consider breastfeeding or fire service volunteering or joining a brass band or just eat (Australian) macadamia nuts while juggling colourful balls and going with the flow. Your choice!
Original photo is here. Set of photos from the festival is here.
Blogger and Flickr aren't talking right now (why do they do that when I have two photos/entries to upload?) so I'll fix this properly when THEY let me.
Village festival
Juggling balls and clothes, Caramello bears and campaign buttons, jewellery and beads and buddhas, baskets and macadamia nuts and toy cars, Christmas baubles and sunglasses and singlets, petitions and kits and critters, woodturning and laughing clowns and leadlight - whatever you might want you might find at the festival.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Mohemian Rhapsody
It's MOVEMBER! When men grow moustaches and it's an opportunity to talk about men's health issues such as prostate cancer and depression. The photographers at Express Publications are entering into the spirit of it by reproducing classic album covers - this one, Queen's Bohemian, er, Mohemian Rhapsody - featuring them with their mo's.
For more information, see the Australian Country Threads blog here.
To sponsor the guys go to http://www.movember.com/au/sponsor enter their Rego number which is 20247 and your credit card details. All donations of $2 and over are tax deductible.The money raised by Movember will be used to change the face of men’s health by creating awareness and funding research into prostate cancer and male depression. For more information visit http://www.movember.com/ . Spread the word!
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Little shop
It may be a little shop, but it's working hard to catch a local clientele with the offerings on this window.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Life is like...
If cherries are abundant, it must be coming into summer. The last few days have been grey and thinking hard about rain, although they haven't done much about it (and so the catchment levels fall and fall and the government discovers that Water Is An Issue).
There's something very fresh and cheerful and, well, reddish about cherries. They seem to be one of the fewer fruits that remain resolutely seasonal (barring imports) - enjoy 'em whle they're there.
You never know what you're going to get.
There's something very fresh and cheerful and, well, reddish about cherries. They seem to be one of the fewer fruits that remain resolutely seasonal (barring imports) - enjoy 'em whle they're there.
You never know what you're going to get.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Mini album ornament
A little while ago I signed up for this (closed) swap and while I've been doing all sorts of work and other commitments, it's been simmering. I need to make ten mailable ornaments, and at the moment this is my plan, an adaptation of the accordion mini album Carrie Utley of Chatterbox Inc taught on the weekend.
The scrapbooking shop didn't have any Chatterbox Christmas papers (sorry, Carrie!), but these deeee-licious Basic Grey ones were growing legs and running out the door (you think I'm joking? They had 1/3 less of them than they did on the weekend). They're from two lines called Dasher and Fruitcake.
So while I can sew or quilt or do any one of a number of things, I like the idea of this little album with pages pretty enough to leave as they are - or else you can paste in pictures of your best beloveds. It would be rather nice each Christmas to pull out the album as you're decorating and see those special faces.
It was so much fun to just be able to get off the deadline treadmill for an evening and fiddle around with papers and adhesives and make this prototype. I was almost whistling a happy tune.
PS. for those who know today was Melbourne Cup day, my nags in the office sweep were as usual called Glue Factory and Dogfood, and performed accordingly.
The scrapbooking shop didn't have any Chatterbox Christmas papers (sorry, Carrie!), but these deeee-licious Basic Grey ones were growing legs and running out the door (you think I'm joking? They had 1/3 less of them than they did on the weekend). They're from two lines called Dasher and Fruitcake.
So while I can sew or quilt or do any one of a number of things, I like the idea of this little album with pages pretty enough to leave as they are - or else you can paste in pictures of your best beloveds. It would be rather nice each Christmas to pull out the album as you're decorating and see those special faces.
It was so much fun to just be able to get off the deadline treadmill for an evening and fiddle around with papers and adhesives and make this prototype. I was almost whistling a happy tune.
PS. for those who know today was Melbourne Cup day, my nags in the office sweep were as usual called Glue Factory and Dogfood, and performed accordingly.
Monday, November 06, 2006
A Year of Color: Green-Yellow (Chartreuse?)
A patriotic lamington (iced sponge), leaves in the light, cooking mangoes and washing baskets. Unity in diversity!
Mini scrapbooking albums
The fruit of the other scrapbooking class I did on the weekend, with Carrie Utley of Chatterbox Inc. Clever ideas, plenty of product to play with in class and later (so you didn't worry about goofs) and Carrie was great. These are ideas I can use again - I got a lot from this class.
The pink one is three sheets of scrapbooking paper folded to create pages/pockets, the blue one is an accordion and the paisley, chipboard covered with papers.
None are embellished yet - there was only time to make the basic albums. So there is more fun to come.
The pink one is three sheets of scrapbooking paper folded to create pages/pockets, the blue one is an accordion and the paisley, chipboard covered with papers.
None are embellished yet - there was only time to make the basic albums. So there is more fun to come.
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