I was somewhat boggled to find a new range of British smallgoods in a local deli's fridge. Is there a heavy and until now unmet demand for haggis around here? Really? OK, it's an elaborately specific sausage, but you know, it's got that erk factor. Check out the ingredients list: starring at number one (?with a bullet?!), the largest contributor to this foodstuff: Offal.
Now I'm OK with liver (liver and bacon has great gravy) and steak and kidney pies. But even if Clarissa Dixon-Wright is correct, and haggis developed as a quick method of converting entrails and offal into food on the hunting field...and even if lots of countries have versions of this (try the Wikipedia entry on haggis) - even so....tripe? sweetbreads? Not being eaten by this little black duck. They even had a 'slicing haggis' - tubular and easier to cut into even slices. No.
My choice of ethnic foodstuff aligned to my cultural heritage is, and will always remain, Irish soda bread. Now that's great and wonderful and an everlasting joy!
(Who's got a birthday coming up and needs a fun, refrigerated present? Hmmmm....)
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
greener (1)
Saw Al Gore's important documentary last night. Lucid, clear, thoughtfully argued. So OK, there are lots of things that we can do to try to change our impact on the world. Think globally, act locally, all that. Individual action can and will matter. What can this household do?You can learn more of the documentary and its canvassing of issues at the ClimateCrisis website. If you're in the US, you can get a more accurate reading on the carbon calculator than if you're in Oz - but you can get some idea (according to it, this household is currently below average in carbon impact - that's a start).
Here are a couple of Australian tools for calculating energy efficiency and constructing an energy plan (I apologise to those in Japan, Spain, Croatia, the UK, the US, Korea and everywhere else that isn't Australia, but most of my specific links to follow will be local/Oz ones - I'm sure you can try some of them, too, just like I tried the US carbon calculator).
As the credits rolled, interspersed were a bunch of actionable ideas, and there is a .pdf of ten ideas on the website - here's a summary:
- Change a light bulb
- Drive less
- Recycle more
- Check your tires
- Use less hot water
- Avoid products with a lot of packaging
- Adjust your thermostat
- Plant a tree
- Switch off electronic devices
- Spread the word about An Inconvenient Truth.
OK, so I've made progress on #10...
As the credits rolled, I thought about the electricity supply to this home. It just comes, as per the original connection on moving in years ago, the usual inertia of humanity, it's easier not to change than to change. So maybe one thing to do is to look into changing to green power. (There is no gas/oil/propane, this home's power is all-electric). Investing in solar panels would be a bigger change, so for now, I figured I'd see what I could find out about changing the supply coming in, rather than going solar).
There are several choices, I find, most influenced by the fact that: At present renewable energy costs more to produce than coal or gas fired power. However the more that customers specify Green Power the larger and more viable the industry will become making renewable energy cheaper (quote from Greenswitch):
- stay with the current electricity supplier, who offers 10% green energy @ no extra cost or 100% green energy at just under 5c/kWh - which for this household would be around $100 per year or under $25 per bill.
- move to another electricity supplier, Jackgreen, which only does green energy and whose material says you'd pay no more than your current bill (with a couple of asterisks next to that claim, so it needs more investigation). This then gets you into the morass of supplier change, contract change - more stuff to understand and work through. It's not the easiest minefield...(just so you know, the standard customer supply contract is a 23 page .pdf. Ye gods!)
- make this home climate neutral by buying carbon credits. For these, Climatefriendly wants $1/day or $365/year for Emerald/100% green, without enquiring what sort of house this is, or anything about usage (or $160 per year for 10% green, which the current supplier would do for nix). Greenswitch lets you buy back your carbon emissions - see info below. So you can stay with your current electricity supplier, but salve your conscience by acting through the purchase of carbon credits.
On the Greenswitch site, you choose residential, and enter address details and kWh usage per year (pause for a moment with a calculator and the last electricity bill, which shows nearly two years of usage, to average out usage per day and multiply it for the year) and it gives you a purty picture of a nice little weatherboard house with a nasty grey cloud of evil carbon overhead.
According to them, this household is contributing 3.67 tonnes of CO2 per year. Ooops. So then you can translate the 100% fossil fuel power creating this cloud by choosing percentages of available green power. The principle is that: Your money is used to buy clean renewable energy from sources such as sun, wind, water and waste. This energy is fed into the electricity grid to replace the power you take out. Normally this would be replaced with energy from fossil fuels.
It's interesting that it's quite specific - you can choose the greenpower mix from various suppliers, and/or particular types of power - wind, hydro, solar - in percentages you choose. The hydro option available to this address comes from Koombooloomba dam, for instance, and the wind option from Challicum Hills. The cost per MWh is around $33 - $34. Translated for this house, $123 will buy enough offsets to make that nasty grey cloud completely vanish.
Still with me? So here are this household's electricity choices for 100% green or 100% offset, in $/per year:
- Current supplier: $550 (approx current annual bill) plus 4.4c/kWh which works out at around + $160, total $710 per year
- Jackgreen: $550 per year (if it does cost no more)
- Climatefriendly: $550 plus $365 (that's being VERY friendly!), total $915 per year
- Greenswitch: $550 plus$123, total $673 per year.
Or if you'd rather read daily figures:
- Current supplier: $1.95/day
- Jackgreen: $1.50/day
- Climatefriendly: $2.50/day
- Greenswitch: $1.85/day
Or quarterly, which reflects the billing cycle:
- Current supplier: $180/quarter
- Jackgreen: $140/quarter
- Climatefriendly: $230/quarter
- Greenswitch: $170/quarter
Mr Gore (can I call you Al?) (could that work as a line for a song??) (or is it taken already by P. Simon?), it does take commitment! Calculator and time commitment, even before you sign or sign up for anything! And there is a significant range, up to $90 per quarter, between the options. Hmmmm.
(The irony has not escaped me that to work all this out and consult the internet, electronic devices have been on and running, including the computer, the fan (it's summer here and it's been hot today) and the lights, all adding to that nasty grey cloud. Ah well, you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.)
Might be worth a couple of phone calls this week, to check details. I'd be fairly sure, at this point, that Climatefriendly and I are at the end of a beautiful acquaintance - apart from anything else, I prefer how the others work from what your household is actually using, not some inflexible plucked from the air figure which may reflect some monster power-sucking air-conditioned McMansion rather than this small home.
More another time. But I hope this has given you some ideas and thoughts about what you're doing now. If you're in Oz (Australia) here are a few more links to local information sites:
- Smart Energy, Smart Home (NSW)
- Get an energy audit for $150 with a personalised energy plan for your home
- Greenpower - Aust federal govt site
- Greenpower - NSW state govt site (including the natty ability, courtesy of Google Earth, to put a green tick on your house to show your environmental commitment)
- Cool It - Aust federal govt information booklet on climate change and householder action
- Energy Labelling - Aust govt resource site on choosing energy efficient appliances
- Kyoto Protocol: why Australia (embarrassingly, as the US is the only other country to refuse as well) is refusing to ratify this (when every other country in the world is doing so).
- Greenhouse emission reduction tips and resources: Aust govt Greenhouse Office
- Renewable energy: NSW govt site (interestingly, the link from their main page is broken/with a typo, I only found this from an educated guess...).
If you've got any more brilliant links, please feel free to leave them in a comment.
More another time. (The blog description, top right, does allude to 'the odd rant'. I think this qualifies...)
Flowering gum
Maybe I should have saved this for Australia Day next week - but aren't they just beautiful? This was a bunch for sale, among dahlias and gerberas and lilies. Despite such competition, they had an exotic quality, with the exploding flowers, and stood out from the crowd. (At $22/bunch, I took a photo so they can be enjoyed for a long time).
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Many hands...
...making light work yesterday of packing the Quilters' Guild of NSW newsletter, The Template. I can recommend this issue - but you'll need to be a member to receive one!
Monday, January 15, 2007
City bookshop
Sometimes, the bush and the natural world is just what you need to feed your soul. But other times, 'Kansas' ain't enough, and the angularities and built environment and people-bustle of the city centre feed your soul too. The Kinokuniya bookshop in Sydney is HUGE and comprehensive (although weak on quilt history, but that's a fairly specialised area after all - I catch it out there, but find so much else that my brain spins) and a great place for an afternoon browse.
I like to read? True of me, my whole life. I love to read. I still believe the book is a magnificent piece of accessible technology for mind and heart and imagination.
I like to read? True of me, my whole life. I love to read. I still believe the book is a magnificent piece of accessible technology for mind and heart and imagination.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Gum leaves in the sun
Taken not far from home, in afternoon light. Another sort of imperfect perfection.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Daisies
From a family garden - I do like the strong contrast of white and yellow against the deep green.
(Can you tell I'm catching up on the blog, these are Rather Short entries...!) But they are pics I meant to blog anyhoo.
(Can you tell I'm catching up on the blog, these are Rather Short entries...!) But they are pics I meant to blog anyhoo.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Quilt landscape
This is a quilt made from the leftover pieces of many of my quilts - it's a wonderful memory of many ideas and explorations.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Imperfect perfection (a rose by any other name...)
Not classically perfect, yet perfect in its imperfection. I like roses this way, too - not just show-super, but real.
A guilty pleasure?
As I trotted through a shopping centre today, noticing that the girls with samples of perfume or makeup let their eyes flick over me and travel on for likelier prey (is that the invisibility of the not-twentyfive-anymore woman setting in?) it's a comfort to know that I can always console myself with Go Fug Yourself. Just love their writing style - I often laugh out loud (let's face it, who hasn't boggled at Celebrity 'Fashion' at one time or another?). Mind you, I don't necessarily want to get sprayed with the latest perfume anyway....
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Field of Queen Anne's lace
Saw lots of Queen Anne's lace in fields and verges on country drives last week, the white flower heads dancing in the wind. This hillside field was full of it, rolling over the slopes and shifts of the hill's topography towards the horizon.
The owners of the field have an application in to subdivide it for about 7 or 8 house lots.
I'm glad to have seen it this way.
The owners of the field have an application in to subdivide it for about 7 or 8 house lots.
I'm glad to have seen it this way.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Steak sandwich (deluxe)
My favourite steak sandwich: comes on good bread with bacon, salad, beetrot chutney and lime aioli. Yum!
Don't have it often (its cafe lives too far away) but it's always a pleasure. Enjoyed one last week (thus, this photo!).
(Aioli is a garlicky mayo, if you haven't met it before).
Words for 2007
Whether or not you're interested in deciding on a word (or two, or three) to be your watchword for 2007, the list prompted by Ali Edwards' challenge is inspiring and thought-provoking. Worth a look.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Vintage French doors/ Word of the year
A year ago I did a whole lot of sorting out of the garage, with the idea of turning it into a studio - partly prompted by the acquisition of a white vintage table, perfect for said studio. Then the working year revved its engine, and nothing more happened on the studio front. (The white table remains unmarked, stored in the garage, but the dining table in the house got yet more pin-marks from quilts being prepared for quilting).
Well, it's January again, and the universe has taken a hand. We only went to this demolition yard to just see what might be available, what possibilities for maybe? French doors to install where the garage door (a brown roll-a-dor) is now.
There before us, this wonderful set of French doors from a house in Kirribilli. Vintage 1930s-1940s, cedar and an excellent size (they'll need some fitting in, but that's fine - what you don't want to find is perfect doors the exact same size as the 'hole' - or larger). The horizontal lines will 'play happy' with the existing windows on the house.
They're now in storage with 'SOLD' on them. They're magic. It's impossible to let it go for another year, with these waiting for their time. There are a few things to do/get done first by tradespeople, but the time will come for the chippie (carpenter) to set to and these to be put in place. Once they're in, they'll need sanding and repainting, but one step at a time.
Ali Edwards (brilliant scrapbooker and life artist - I love her attention to the ordinary and everyday) has a challenge for this week, to think of a word for your year. I could think of several, (calm, organise, consider, breathe, create, imagine...) but they can be summed up in one as PEACE.
Reorganising things so the creative stuff is in a studio not through the house is about peace. Peace to create. Peace also to be in spaces not given over to the (good) mess of creating. Peace bringing calm. Peace therefore opening other possibilities. Already I know of several important things at work and home that will require time and energy and planning so they happen well and not with undue stress. It's a small-scale peace - I have no instant answers on the wars of the world. But peace here can travel outwards in unguessable ways. Change can begin here.
So while the picture is of vintage French doors, they stand for peace and represent hope and good change in 2007.
Well, it's January again, and the universe has taken a hand. We only went to this demolition yard to just see what might be available, what possibilities for maybe? French doors to install where the garage door (a brown roll-a-dor) is now.
There before us, this wonderful set of French doors from a house in Kirribilli. Vintage 1930s-1940s, cedar and an excellent size (they'll need some fitting in, but that's fine - what you don't want to find is perfect doors the exact same size as the 'hole' - or larger). The horizontal lines will 'play happy' with the existing windows on the house.
They're now in storage with 'SOLD' on them. They're magic. It's impossible to let it go for another year, with these waiting for their time. There are a few things to do/get done first by tradespeople, but the time will come for the chippie (carpenter) to set to and these to be put in place. Once they're in, they'll need sanding and repainting, but one step at a time.
Ali Edwards (brilliant scrapbooker and life artist - I love her attention to the ordinary and everyday) has a challenge for this week, to think of a word for your year. I could think of several, (calm, organise, consider, breathe, create, imagine...) but they can be summed up in one as PEACE.
Reorganising things so the creative stuff is in a studio not through the house is about peace. Peace to create. Peace also to be in spaces not given over to the (good) mess of creating. Peace bringing calm. Peace therefore opening other possibilities. Already I know of several important things at work and home that will require time and energy and planning so they happen well and not with undue stress. It's a small-scale peace - I have no instant answers on the wars of the world. But peace here can travel outwards in unguessable ways. Change can begin here.
So while the picture is of vintage French doors, they stand for peace and represent hope and good change in 2007.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Friday, January 05, 2007
Mad office chair
This was a corker, in a second hand shop! Chestnut red vinyl seat, wooden carvings and a bog-ordinary metal wheelie base. There were TWO! And they were ALREADY SOLD! (I wasn't tempted, just boggled!).
Was it, I wondered, 'as-from-the-factory'? Or a Frankestein piece? The headrest is definitely a home-made covering job, but as to the rest - I dunno. But it gave us a good chuckle.
Was it, I wondered, 'as-from-the-factory'? Or a Frankestein piece? The headrest is definitely a home-made covering job, but as to the rest - I dunno. But it gave us a good chuckle.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Tangerine op shop mosaic
One Flickr group I've particularly enjoyed over the last six months is A Year of Color. Amy/happythings' utterly simple idea was to provide a colour for each week from what must be the most enormous box. This week's colour is tangerine. I hadn't planned, while visiting the op shop, to start hunting tangerine - but somehow the game began and this mosaic is the result. Books, clothes, records, furnishings, homewares, toys, it was to be found everywhere!
This photograph isn't going to change the world. But it was a good game to play, a challenge like having to make a quilt from one set of fabrics and nothing else. Setting boundaries can, paradoxically, be so good for opening your eyes to new possibilities.
I didn't buy any of these tangerine things, but I wonder if I should have invested in the vase...
This photograph isn't going to change the world. But it was a good game to play, a challenge like having to make a quilt from one set of fabrics and nothing else. Setting boundaries can, paradoxically, be so good for opening your eyes to new possibilities.
I didn't buy any of these tangerine things, but I wonder if I should have invested in the vase...
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Mini albums
Spent a happy day today with two of my nieces, making little scrapbook albums. These two are by the younger one. I learned how to make them from a Chatterbox seminar in November - it was a most useful seminar. I like getting ideas I can purloin and wrangle and reuse and remake in my own ways. The nieces picked up the ideas pretty quickly, so they'll probably make more too (I left them plenty of papers).
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Wedding in Hyde Park, Sydney
We were sitting eating lunch (a selection of gourmet delights from the David Jones' Food Hall) when this tableau unfolded.
The bride is perched on the edge of the Archibald fountain - there were three photographers in attendance, and one other person. I'd like to think that somewhere else a party of celebrating family and friends was waiting...but wondered if this was one of the tourist white weddings. The church behind is St Mary's Cathedral.
In the city with some of Them Who May Not Be Photographed, Thanks, it was fortunate that this couple gave me a photo op for the day!
The bride is perched on the edge of the Archibald fountain - there were three photographers in attendance, and one other person. I'd like to think that somewhere else a party of celebrating family and friends was waiting...but wondered if this was one of the tourist white weddings. The church behind is St Mary's Cathedral.
In the city with some of Them Who May Not Be Photographed, Thanks, it was fortunate that this couple gave me a photo op for the day!
Sunday, December 31, 2006
The end of one year
A year ago, I set myself the challenge of blogging one photo a day, not knowing if I'd stick it out for the week/month/year. And here, a year later, it's done.
What I most value is the catching of the ordinary stuff. However trite the sentiment, life is like a box of chocolates and you don't know what you're going to get (Thanks, Forrest Gump). But now, to be able to look back at all sorts of things, the minutiae of daily life in the early 21st century in this particular corner of the world - well, my eyes and camera have paid so much more attention. It's enriching, to be catching the moment. Even though it's undoubtedly been a busy year, I will ever after know and be able to remember so much more about 2006 than 2005. I thought of doing a humdinger post repeating all the month mosaics from the year, but this will do in expressing what I want to express.
In looking around for an avatar, I remembered the gingerbread cutter I'd found in an op shop the year before - it's used and a bit rusted here and there, but there's a jaunty tilt to the head and arms, an asymmetry that somehow humanises it. We're not symmetrical either.
The chocolates came from an expedition at the end of the year, a day out with friends during which we visited a specialist chocolate shop in Auburn - it's fun to look over the stacks of luxury and make a modest selection (only trouble is you get home and can't remember which is which - we really didn't know which one we were getting when we ate them!).
Am I going to stop here? No - not when I've developed such an excellent useful inspiring habit! So more to come in 2007.
Thank you to everyone who has read or reads this blog. I write it first for me, but looking at that map over on the right, the world blobbed with red dots where people have been who've read this - well, that's just astonishing. Thank you. The blog's had over 7,800 visitors since mid-year while the photos on Flickr now number over 1000 and have had nearly 15,000 visits. All amazing.
May the new year bring you joy and peace, discovery in the everyday and unexpected delights.
rooruu
What I most value is the catching of the ordinary stuff. However trite the sentiment, life is like a box of chocolates and you don't know what you're going to get (Thanks, Forrest Gump). But now, to be able to look back at all sorts of things, the minutiae of daily life in the early 21st century in this particular corner of the world - well, my eyes and camera have paid so much more attention. It's enriching, to be catching the moment. Even though it's undoubtedly been a busy year, I will ever after know and be able to remember so much more about 2006 than 2005. I thought of doing a humdinger post repeating all the month mosaics from the year, but this will do in expressing what I want to express.
In looking around for an avatar, I remembered the gingerbread cutter I'd found in an op shop the year before - it's used and a bit rusted here and there, but there's a jaunty tilt to the head and arms, an asymmetry that somehow humanises it. We're not symmetrical either.
The chocolates came from an expedition at the end of the year, a day out with friends during which we visited a specialist chocolate shop in Auburn - it's fun to look over the stacks of luxury and make a modest selection (only trouble is you get home and can't remember which is which - we really didn't know which one we were getting when we ate them!).
Am I going to stop here? No - not when I've developed such an excellent useful inspiring habit! So more to come in 2007.
Thank you to everyone who has read or reads this blog. I write it first for me, but looking at that map over on the right, the world blobbed with red dots where people have been who've read this - well, that's just astonishing. Thank you. The blog's had over 7,800 visitors since mid-year while the photos on Flickr now number over 1000 and have had nearly 15,000 visits. All amazing.
May the new year bring you joy and peace, discovery in the everyday and unexpected delights.
rooruu
Film favourites of 2006
While I organise a humdinger (and posted late) post for New Year's Eve, here, in no particular order except no. 1, are my favourite films (movies) of 2006.
- United 93. The most astonishing, moving, sad, awful, grand, human, imagined recreation of the flight that ended in a Pennsylvania field on 9/11. Brilliant.
- Casino Royale: vigorous, invigorating, reinvigorating the genre. And as a sideline observation, I want to buy yardage of all the damasky backgrounds in the title sequence with which to quilt. Sometimes, your eye just notices...
- Brokeback Mountain: the restraint held more courage and sadness than more obvious choices would have done, while the delicate, evocative music from a South American did the same.
- 49Up: because this documentary series only gathers power each seven years, and I'm grateful for all the participants who had no say in their place in film history and whose lives illuminate our times and give reasons to reflect on our own lives.
- Ten Canoes: whoever was brave enough to fund a film entirely spoken in Aboriginal dialect is, I hope, basking in due praise. Rolf de Heer and his Aboriginal collaborators gave us a wonderfully entertaining and engaging film to enjoy.
- The Queen: begin with a clever script, engage a cast worth watching and then throw Helen Mirren a challenge she meets with resoundingly brilliant thought and grace.
- Gallipoli: I wonder how many war documentaries there are in which you can show both sides, as this one did the Turks and the Allies in World War I? The one heartbreaking visual story of photographs, archival footage and recreations was made with two narrations, one in Turkish, one in English, by a Turkish film-maker. The voices (many using words from original documents, letters, diaries) spoke from both sides of the war in the same way: fighting for country, for national goals and honour, longing for home and family, dreading the outcome. They faced, and respected, each other across the boundaries and barrier of patriotism, and more than anything the film shows the common humanity which makes us question why the crude and often ineffective tool of war is used at all.
I saw fluff and fun too, this year - the Meringue Movie has its time and place and is not to be sneezed at. But these are the films which will stay with me after 2006, because they gave me new ways of seeing or showed me a way into other worlds or perhaps because I cannot shake them from my memory, should I so wish (I don't).
Peace.
rooruu
Saturday, December 30, 2006
New glasses
Went to the optometrist today, and afterwards went in search of new frames. For those of you who have never worn glasses, you may have little or no idea of what a trial this can be. Forget what it's like to buy sunnies - you don't wear them all the time, and you've got few restrictions on them. And they're more forgiving than the frames that you wear all day every day that define your face and yourself. Imagine if you had to wear exactly the same clothes all day every day, weekday and weekend, not just a work uniform but a life uniform.
There seems to be little or no science to glasses frames. Fashion? Yes. Science? The game seems to be just try on this and this and that and this and that till something looks OK, with no real definition of OK except, "do you like it?" - that's all the optical dispensers seem to ask.
I've worn glasses since the age of 11, and over the years have had some horror frames. Some inflicted by my parents (the white cat's-eyes which were my first pair from the kids' range at OPSM just show how far kids' frames have come since those gruesome days) and some for which there is no excuse bar fashion or my own bad choices. And don't they date you in photos? Often to greater sniggering than hairstyles or clothes which time has consigned to ridicule. The large goggles of the 80s, for instance? There WAS no other choice then!
And now fashion has moved to narrow rectangles as THE fashion for spectacle frames. Hello? If you have to have multifocals, you need a certain distance from top to bottom of the frame, or the multifocal lens will have tiny useless fields. You don't need goggles, but you do need more than an inch. I guess it makes choosing frames easier, if 2/3 of the available frames are too narrow.
So you try on various personas with each frame - the Ikea designer (black, definitely a rectangle), the arty gal (Versace rectangles with blue/green colourings in the frame) and so on. Some make you actively recoil - that's not ME! while others make you wish it were you, maybe - but since these things sit on your face all day every day, you have to settle for a middle road. They're way too darn expensive to have a multiple pairs, like handbags or shoes. And you wonder quite why this small amount of plastic (and I'm only talking about the frame here, the lenses cost even more) will cost about the same as your first car did. And that's not paddling up the designer deep end.
Some pinch. Some tilt, and I always avoid those because they will never really sit flat and level, however often the dispenser heats and tweaks them. Dozens are just no and no and no until finally you find something that seems to work, won't scare the horses or give the spectacle makers more than one extremely fine holiday... and you know when they come back and you put them on your face, you're in for two to three weeks of sore ears while your head adjusts to wherever they hit to stay on.
This isn't a whinge so much as bemusement that all these years later, so little has changed, and it feels more like good luck than good management to find a reasonable frame. I went for a wire frame, dark in colour, with a slightly quirked rectangle. Maybe I'll photograph them when I get them back...
There seems to be little or no science to glasses frames. Fashion? Yes. Science? The game seems to be just try on this and this and that and this and that till something looks OK, with no real definition of OK except, "do you like it?" - that's all the optical dispensers seem to ask.
I've worn glasses since the age of 11, and over the years have had some horror frames. Some inflicted by my parents (the white cat's-eyes which were my first pair from the kids' range at OPSM just show how far kids' frames have come since those gruesome days) and some for which there is no excuse bar fashion or my own bad choices. And don't they date you in photos? Often to greater sniggering than hairstyles or clothes which time has consigned to ridicule. The large goggles of the 80s, for instance? There WAS no other choice then!
And now fashion has moved to narrow rectangles as THE fashion for spectacle frames. Hello? If you have to have multifocals, you need a certain distance from top to bottom of the frame, or the multifocal lens will have tiny useless fields. You don't need goggles, but you do need more than an inch. I guess it makes choosing frames easier, if 2/3 of the available frames are too narrow.
So you try on various personas with each frame - the Ikea designer (black, definitely a rectangle), the arty gal (Versace rectangles with blue/green colourings in the frame) and so on. Some make you actively recoil - that's not ME! while others make you wish it were you, maybe - but since these things sit on your face all day every day, you have to settle for a middle road. They're way too darn expensive to have a multiple pairs, like handbags or shoes. And you wonder quite why this small amount of plastic (and I'm only talking about the frame here, the lenses cost even more) will cost about the same as your first car did. And that's not paddling up the designer deep end.
Some pinch. Some tilt, and I always avoid those because they will never really sit flat and level, however often the dispenser heats and tweaks them. Dozens are just no and no and no until finally you find something that seems to work, won't scare the horses or give the spectacle makers more than one extremely fine holiday... and you know when they come back and you put them on your face, you're in for two to three weeks of sore ears while your head adjusts to wherever they hit to stay on.
This isn't a whinge so much as bemusement that all these years later, so little has changed, and it feels more like good luck than good management to find a reasonable frame. I went for a wire frame, dark in colour, with a slightly quirked rectangle. Maybe I'll photograph them when I get them back...
Friday, December 29, 2006
Aqua and brown quilt revisited
Don't even ask - the blue and brown quilt idea I had (and which is now at the quilter's, all 80 inches square of it) got gazumped. So here we all are, to quote the appalling mother in Strictly Ballroom, cutting out another blue and brown quilt that has to be finished, with instructions, by 2 January. That's 2 January 2007, aka Tuesday. Ain't life fun? I still like this colour scheme and am happy with the new, entirely different to the old, design (God bless the Around the Block books, which have so many inspirational block ideas in them). But having spent a large part of the day on it, we're going to run away to the cinema this afternoon and then I'll put my nose back on the grindstone this evening.
The editor was OK with version 1, but I thought they were too alike (and damn it was a great design idea - why did someone else have to have it at around the same time, entirely unbeknowst to me???!!!) so it's my call to start afresh so I can deliver a blue and brown quilt on Tuesday. So I am. I don't want to look like I'm copying someone else's work, even if I didn't (I do make exceptions for long-dead quilters, whose work is constantly inspirational - but this was a modern design idea that got gazumped, not a vintage one).
PS: all is not lost - version 1 always was, and remains, destined to be entered in the Sydney Quilt Show in 2007. And I can't wait to see Kim Bradley's brilliant quilting!
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Ring Walk, Sydney Olympic Park
As part of the Sydney Olympic Park, you can go on this Ring Walk on a walkway suspended over the former brick pit, habitat for the endangered green and gold bell frog. We didn't today, but it's on the list...
(Although from my memory of the size of the endangered green and gold bell frog, you're much more likely to hear it than see it, from that height.)
(Although from my memory of the size of the endangered green and gold bell frog, you're much more likely to hear it than see it, from that height.)
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
The Christmas Meat Contest
Every year my sisters talk about Christmas meat bargains - if you trot along to your local supermarket on Christmas Eve later in the day, the supermarket will be in a frenzy of selling off its meat because of the two-day-closure, and so astounding bargains can be had - eye fillet for tuppence nothing etc.
I've never especially bothered to do this (nor at Easter, when it happens too). This year, they talked of eye fillet for tuppence nothing etc, and I knew I wasn't even in the contest (cue Annie Oakley, anything you can do I can do better...). Well, at least till today.
At the local supermarket, they had a few frozen turkeys and turkey buffes (breast section, with bone, minus wings/drumsticks) left. A 4kg (just under 9lb) one was, according to the ticket, reduced from $43something to$17something. I do love turkey....
So I succumbed (boy that's going to be a lot of turkey for this household - but the family will help eat it all). At the register, it scanned at $43something. Aha! But the ticket said $17something. So with huffing and puffing and sending of minions in search of said ticket, this was established (after I explained what a buffe was several times, and said it Wasn't a breast roll, they don't get bigger than 2kg). OK. Established that it should have been $17something.
Only, under state consumer laws, if something scans at the wrong price, you get the first item free and then any others the same at the correct price. Supermarket folk reluctantly agree that This is So.
I got 4kg of turkey (currently defrosting in the fridge, it's apparently going to take 18 hours per kg, so it will be ready to cook this year, just!) for nix. Nuffin. Free.
Do you think I won the Christmas Meat Contest this year? !! anything you can do I can do better... eye fillet for the price of sausages? Meh.
I've never especially bothered to do this (nor at Easter, when it happens too). This year, they talked of eye fillet for tuppence nothing etc, and I knew I wasn't even in the contest (cue Annie Oakley, anything you can do I can do better...). Well, at least till today.
At the local supermarket, they had a few frozen turkeys and turkey buffes (breast section, with bone, minus wings/drumsticks) left. A 4kg (just under 9lb) one was, according to the ticket, reduced from $43something to$17something. I do love turkey....
So I succumbed (boy that's going to be a lot of turkey for this household - but the family will help eat it all). At the register, it scanned at $43something. Aha! But the ticket said $17something. So with huffing and puffing and sending of minions in search of said ticket, this was established (after I explained what a buffe was several times, and said it Wasn't a breast roll, they don't get bigger than 2kg). OK. Established that it should have been $17something.
Only, under state consumer laws, if something scans at the wrong price, you get the first item free and then any others the same at the correct price. Supermarket folk reluctantly agree that This is So.
I got 4kg of turkey (currently defrosting in the fridge, it's apparently going to take 18 hours per kg, so it will be ready to cook this year, just!) for nix. Nuffin. Free.
Do you think I won the Christmas Meat Contest this year? !! anything you can do I can do better... eye fillet for the price of sausages? Meh.
Gingerbread landscape
I could tell you that all 12 dozen gingerbread hearts, daisies and stars survived Christmas Day....but they didn't. Which is exactly as it should be. Just as well they were photographed as they were piled on the cooling rack.
The background is the door of a classic old Australian brand of stove, Early Kooka (I don't own a whole stove, just the door from one, which I found years ago, and which lives in the kitchen as a Decorative Object).
I chuckle as I post this - in reading some of my favourite blogs, there's a positive epidemic of Christmas baking landscapes like this - trays and trays of shortbread and sugar cookies and I don't know what all! Lots of people with home-made Christmas goodies. Who says it's the computer age and nobody does home-made any more?
The background is the door of a classic old Australian brand of stove, Early Kooka (I don't own a whole stove, just the door from one, which I found years ago, and which lives in the kitchen as a Decorative Object).
I chuckle as I post this - in reading some of my favourite blogs, there's a positive epidemic of Christmas baking landscapes like this - trays and trays of shortbread and sugar cookies and I don't know what all! Lots of people with home-made Christmas goodies. Who says it's the computer age and nobody does home-made any more?
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Noah's Ark
Grandad made the Noah's Ark; grandson took immense delight in it, sitting, oblivious to everything else amid the chatter and frenzy of Christmas Day presents. It stayed with him for the rest of the day (except when he was seeing if he could abscond with another four gingerbread bickies without his mother noticing).
Monday, December 25, 2006
Christmas Day
Blogging will NOT be a Christmas Day priority - too much else on! Conversations, people, family, music, food, presents, amusements.
Here's breakfast (although you may not have time to gather the ingredients for Christmas Day this year, try this for brunch anytime!)
CHRISTMAS CROISSANTS
For every four croissants:
Mix 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons of sour cream and 1/2 teaspoon of French mustard. Cut the croissants in half and spread with the mixture. Chop 2 bacon rashers and cook till crisp. Meanwhile, chop 2 shallots and 60g mushrooms. Place the bacon, shallots and mushrooms on the croissants, close them and cook in a moderate oven (160degC) for about 10 minutes. YUM!
Translations: shallot in Oz means the overgrown chives with long green leaves (?scallions?eschallots), not baby round onions. Chives would work, but not be as oniony. 60g mushrooms? Ah well, you can work out how many mushrooms you'd like to finely slice and bung on your croissants, can't you? As for the mayo mix, if you stay consistent with US/UK spoon measurements, you shouldn't go far wrong.
Christmas Greetings!
We celebrate Christmas here, so whether or not it's your end of year celebration, that's what we say, rather than the generic Happy Holidays. Meh to that. Happy Christmas!
Thank you to everyone who's read this blog during 2006 and those who've taken the time to comment. I've learned so much from reading your blogs, thank you for what you share.
Peace and goodwill to all for 2007. May it be a creative, happy year for you.
Blogging here may be a bit intermittent over the summer holidays, but it's not ending....
Here's breakfast (although you may not have time to gather the ingredients for Christmas Day this year, try this for brunch anytime!)
CHRISTMAS CROISSANTS
For every four croissants:
Mix 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons of sour cream and 1/2 teaspoon of French mustard. Cut the croissants in half and spread with the mixture. Chop 2 bacon rashers and cook till crisp. Meanwhile, chop 2 shallots and 60g mushrooms. Place the bacon, shallots and mushrooms on the croissants, close them and cook in a moderate oven (160degC) for about 10 minutes. YUM!
Translations: shallot in Oz means the overgrown chives with long green leaves (?scallions?eschallots), not baby round onions. Chives would work, but not be as oniony. 60g mushrooms? Ah well, you can work out how many mushrooms you'd like to finely slice and bung on your croissants, can't you? As for the mayo mix, if you stay consistent with US/UK spoon measurements, you shouldn't go far wrong.
Christmas Greetings!
We celebrate Christmas here, so whether or not it's your end of year celebration, that's what we say, rather than the generic Happy Holidays. Meh to that. Happy Christmas!
Thank you to everyone who's read this blog during 2006 and those who've taken the time to comment. I've learned so much from reading your blogs, thank you for what you share.
Peace and goodwill to all for 2007. May it be a creative, happy year for you.
Blogging here may be a bit intermittent over the summer holidays, but it's not ending....
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Rain
Rain on the violets - welcome, steady rain. Who cares if it's misty and rainy on Christmas Eve? The forecast for tomorrow is cool (mid twenties Celsius) and it probably won't be a day for waterpistol fights, unlike some other years.
Still doing final preparations (well, except when I'm photographing violets)...gingerbread isn't made yet. But it will be!
Still doing final preparations (well, except when I'm photographing violets)...gingerbread isn't made yet. But it will be!
Cowboy
Isn't it great to have someone to whom you can give the vintage item featuring this cowboy decal?
The other side of the item has a very politically incorrect sleeping Mexican with some rather nicely decorated pottery. The cowboy side prompted my purchase, however.
The other side of the item has a very politically incorrect sleeping Mexican with some rather nicely decorated pottery. The cowboy side prompted my purchase, however.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Martians at Christmas
Could it be true that the Martians have chosen Christmas-time to invade? Although they're not so happy with the strategist who told them that the disguise was perfect....
The presents are almost all bought and wrapped. Still a couple to make (note to self: decide to make such things earlier next year). And gingerbread. Seems like several people have made lime shortbread - lovely! The lime does cut the thick sweetness rather well.
Being under orders to learn to be ambidextrous on mousing/touchpad is an interesting experience. My left hand isn't doing badly, but it's a lot slower. Right hand and arm are enjoying the break, except when I forget and return to the former status quo.
The presents are almost all bought and wrapped. Still a couple to make (note to self: decide to make such things earlier next year). And gingerbread. Seems like several people have made lime shortbread - lovely! The lime does cut the thick sweetness rather well.
Being under orders to learn to be ambidextrous on mousing/touchpad is an interesting experience. My left hand isn't doing badly, but it's a lot slower. Right hand and arm are enjoying the break, except when I forget and return to the former status quo.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Nativity
Rather liked this stylised moderne nativity scene, even if the Holy Child looks like a melted chocolate...
Don't own a nativity scene - plan to make one one day. NOT this year!
Don't own a nativity scene - plan to make one one day. NOT this year!
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Christmas at the office
The office Christmas tree was front and centre today. We have an angel/mortal swap for the last five days leading up to Christmas, and so under the tree you have a wonderfully eclectic range of presents, one for each of the participants. It's like good will made manifest, seeing those presents under the tree.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Shortbread landscape
It looks home made, doesn't it? It is. I like that rustic home-made look. I have shortbread moulds, but don't use them very often - especially when time is pressing, as it was this morning.
This is lime shortbread, one of my Christmas specialities, and here is the recipe - a gift to you!
(all measurements are in metric, but any online converter will put them into imperial for you)
LIME SHORTBREAD
Ingredients
250g butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
finely grated zest of 1 lime and one tablespoon of lime juice
1 egg, beaten
500g plain flour, sifted (I usually take out 1/4 cup of this and replace it with 1/4 cup ground rice for that gritty shortbread texture which I prefer)
pinch salt
Method
Cream butter and sugar, add zest and juice, beat, add egg, beat, add flour, beat. Kneading the mixture (turn it out onto a lightly floured board) will improve the texture (or let the mixer bing it around a bit longer). Line a baking sheet with non-stick baking paper, or grease it lightly with butter. Roll out the mixture and use Christmas cutters - stars, hearts, sheep, angels - to cut out the biscuits. Bake in a 160 degrees (Celsius) oven for about 20 minutes. Cool on the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a cake rack to cool completely. You may decorate these with royal icing and silver cachou balls.
(Cheat's note: my landscape of shortbread is cooked in a lamington tin and cut into squares - the time-poor solution. You have to cook it for longer, of course...maybe 30-45 min? As you can see, I prick the top with a fork and slice it into small squares while it's still warm in the tin) (a lamington tin measures 11 x 8 x 1.5 inches).
I like the lime because it 'cuts' the thick richness of the shortbread. I'm not sure if purist shortbread recipes use an egg, but I find an egg enriches the flavour of biscuits (cookies if you're in the US) (or do we all meet on common linguistic ground with 'shortbread'?).
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Fairy light scribbling
Hmmm. How to take a photo of the fairy lights? I'm not expert in night photography - and not sure if my camera has the capacity anyway.....
So you aim your camera at your fairy lights, and press the shutter, and whizzle the camera about, keeping the viewfinder aimed at the lights.... and you get this sort of result. Sparklers are better for 'writing', but I rather like this. Cool!
So you aim your camera at your fairy lights, and press the shutter, and whizzle the camera about, keeping the viewfinder aimed at the lights.... and you get this sort of result. Sparklers are better for 'writing', but I rather like this. Cool!
Monday, December 18, 2006
Christmas angel
This year's new Christmas decoration. I rambled on yesterday, so this is your lot for the day...!
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Christmas cards
After lots of writing, the box full was ready to take to the post office, along with some parcels.
I know people who get positively incandescent about Christmas letters, but I'm not one of them. I don't care if your letter is photocopied. I don't care if every one of your children is a wonder-baby and the most brilliant child ever born. I'd rather read more than a Dear You love Me greeting on a card, learn more about your life during the year. And if you don't think your wonder-baby is a wonder-baby, then who will?
While there are friends you stay in touch with fairly constantly or intermittently through the year, there are other friends where a Christmas card exchanged is the main communication, and I'd rather learn your news through a Christmas letter than not at all. It's just not realistic to expect people to write pages the same to dozens of different recipients, when much of what they want to describe is the same.
The State Library of NSW has an archive of such letters (embargoed for research purposes for some decades, I'd guess, while the collection grows annually) from people who've been writing one for a long time. They will be fascinating for social historians of the future - illuminating the concerns and lives and achievements and thoughts of ordinary individuals. Linear lives of not the much-chronicled 'great and good', but the real people. Love that sort of social history. It would be marvellous if my grandmothers had written Christmas letters - but to my knowledge, they didn't.
I know people who get positively incandescent about Christmas letters, but I'm not one of them. I don't care if your letter is photocopied. I don't care if every one of your children is a wonder-baby and the most brilliant child ever born. I'd rather read more than a Dear You love Me greeting on a card, learn more about your life during the year. And if you don't think your wonder-baby is a wonder-baby, then who will?
While there are friends you stay in touch with fairly constantly or intermittently through the year, there are other friends where a Christmas card exchanged is the main communication, and I'd rather learn your news through a Christmas letter than not at all. It's just not realistic to expect people to write pages the same to dozens of different recipients, when much of what they want to describe is the same.
The State Library of NSW has an archive of such letters (embargoed for research purposes for some decades, I'd guess, while the collection grows annually) from people who've been writing one for a long time. They will be fascinating for social historians of the future - illuminating the concerns and lives and achievements and thoughts of ordinary individuals. Linear lives of not the much-chronicled 'great and good', but the real people. Love that sort of social history. It would be marvellous if my grandmothers had written Christmas letters - but to my knowledge, they didn't.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Black cockatoos
The one on the left was crunching away at banksia nuts, to a constant ark-ark commentary from the one on the right. Beneath the tree the ground was littered with falling pieces of banksia nut. I don't see black cockatoos so often - much more likely to see the white ones. These two weren't bothered by people being around, they just kept doing what they were doing.
Friday, December 15, 2006
2006
Oh, there are lots of other favourites, too, but in compiling a mosaic (did I say thank you to flickr toys? thank you thank you for your mosaic tool which is a wonder and joy) of the year, here is an edition of my favourites.
The rooruu gingerbread lady cutter - or is she an angel? - jaunty, simple. The smile on the face of a boy contemplating an enormous Australia Day lamington cake. The ATC I made for a magazine and felt worked as well as I had hoped it would. Quilt made from scraps for a calendar quilt challenge.
Proteas from a friend's garden, the pallets I would never have noticed but for the blog/camera I carry everywhere. The iPod bag - also from scraps - which is my most popular photo on Flickr and the old fence leaning in the light of an early, foggy morning.
Vegetables - always liked the focus/distance on this one. Magazine cover with a particularly beautiful cover on it. Children running and leaping, making a sunlit historic bridge into something new and good for them. A little girl's drawings that became Christmas decorations.
And old jumper, felted, became four Christmas stockings. The shape, turn and age of an old machine - look at the colour, the patina, the shapes. Frost. My favourite white cane chair with a quilt and autumn leaves.
Raspberry cakes, a birthday gift. The colours of a joyful quilt I had in the Sydney show this year. The dolls house I want to work on over summer. A quilt made from orphan blocks left from over forty other quilts I've designed (and made).
The angel on the verandah, a gift from a friend. The quilt in my office, and the balloons being given to a friend and colleague who went overseas. That white cane chair again, with a pile of Christmas quilts. Tropical happy modern quirky Christmas decorations.
A year in 24 photos.
Most, if not all, of these have been blogged at some stage in the year, but wasn't it fun to revisit them? If you want to see a bigger version of the mosaic, click on the pic to be taken over to it on Flickr.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Red hot
Red baubles (wow, there was a trad Christmas colour amid all the mod glam tropical/pastel/blue ones!) for a day predicted to reach over 37 degrees Celsius (or 99 Fahrenheit, for those still working with the old money). Yesterday? 24. Tomorrow? 23. It's a mad weather rollercoaster. For today, we'll be hurrying from shade to shade, hoping there will be airconditioning to make rooms bearable.
This must sound so odd if you're in the northern hemisphere winter and have never had a summer Christmas. The really down downside is the bushfires in Australia at the moment - no lives lost, afaik, but certainly homes and businesses burnt in Victoria and Tasmania. Long drought, dry country and a lightning strike or firebug, and then all you need is a hot, dry, windy day and then....
This must sound so odd if you're in the northern hemisphere winter and have never had a summer Christmas. The really down downside is the bushfires in Australia at the moment - no lives lost, afaik, but certainly homes and businesses burnt in Victoria and Tasmania. Long drought, dry country and a lightning strike or firebug, and then all you need is a hot, dry, windy day and then....
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Sweet baby quilt
Isn't this a sweet baby quilt? Can you tell what it was made from? The backing and binding are new fabric (they went with the top so well) but the fabrics in the top are well-washed, vintage, and not originally thought of as patchwork fabrics...
Baby quilts are so easy to whirl through the machine to quilt, after a fair number of my more recent quilts have been larger ones. Although I mostly quilt my own work on my domestic machine, one really large one is coming back from the quilter this weekend. I can't wait to see what she's done - it needed a freemotion genius (she's a freemotion genius) (I am not a freemotion genius).
Baby quilts are so easy to whirl through the machine to quilt, after a fair number of my more recent quilts have been larger ones. Although I mostly quilt my own work on my domestic machine, one really large one is coming back from the quilter this weekend. I can't wait to see what she's done - it needed a freemotion genius (she's a freemotion genius) (I am not a freemotion genius).
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Santa convention
A slightly confused-looking gaggle of Santas. You can just imagine the conversations - they do appear to be chatting with each other.
(It's not baubles, OK? All that happened today was washing on the line, breakfast, work, washing off the line, 40 degrees Celsius weather, dinner and relief at getting home. And none of that was photographed.)
(It's not baubles, OK? All that happened today was washing on the line, breakfast, work, washing off the line, 40 degrees Celsius weather, dinner and relief at getting home. And none of that was photographed.)
Monday, December 11, 2006
Another bauble
Clearly, I'm on a baublefest. But aren't they fun? Here are some more tropical ones. I will look for something else for tomorrow, I promise.....
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Baubles and more baubles!
A feast of Christmas colour (maybe it's because I've been too busy photographing baubles that the tree isn't yet up...).
Aren't the colours delightful? Enjoy.
If you click on the image you'll go to a larger version in Flickr.
Aren't the colours delightful? Enjoy.
If you click on the image you'll go to a larger version in Flickr.
Bond
This, my friends, is a corker. Wonderful escapist stuff - parkour chases, car chases, budgie smugglers, the lot! Head on down to your local cinema, buy yourself a choc-top and enjoy. Daniel Craig nails the role of Bond brilliantly.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Tropical Christmas
Maybe it's an Australian thing? There seem to be so many tropical-coloured Christmas baubles and decorations this year. Vastly outnumbering trad green and red. There's something joyful about the colours, though. I haven't bought any - yet...
Once
One of the great pleasures of Christmas is carols.
My ever-always favourite is Once in Royal David's City.
But only when sung at King's College, beginning with a single boy treble and building, building through every verse (no skipping) to the whole chapel-full, choir and congregation, the organ going like billy-oh -
When like stars, his children crowned
All in white, shall wait around.
That's a great Christmas moment.
I finally found a CD with this on it - every verse, the treble, the choir, the congregation, the lot. It's been on high rotation. Wonderful stuff. Strong, true, enduring, powerful.
It's how they always begin the annual broadcast of carols from King's, so if you haven't got it on CD, you can get your fix when they show it, as they always do, on the teev at Christmastime.
As to other Christmas planning...
My ever-always favourite is Once in Royal David's City.
But only when sung at King's College, beginning with a single boy treble and building, building through every verse (no skipping) to the whole chapel-full, choir and congregation, the organ going like billy-oh -
When like stars, his children crowned
All in white, shall wait around.
That's a great Christmas moment.
I finally found a CD with this on it - every verse, the treble, the choir, the congregation, the lot. It's been on high rotation. Wonderful stuff. Strong, true, enduring, powerful.
It's how they always begin the annual broadcast of carols from King's, so if you haven't got it on CD, you can get your fix when they show it, as they always do, on the teev at Christmastime.
As to other Christmas planning...
- cards? nope, not done yet
- tree? nope, still in the box
- decorating? 3 decorations on the mantelpiece is a start...isn't it?
- lights? this weekend, definitely
- presents? some...
- baking? not yet
- Christmas angel scheme at work? Yup, all organised and starts next week.
Friday, December 08, 2006
Sydney Town Hall Christmas lights
So there you are, pootling along the streets of Sydney, when suddenly the Town Hall transfixes you. In daylight, it's a wonderful sandstone wedding cake of a building, but for Christmas this year they've done some fabulous colourful projections onto the wedding cake at night. Each one lasts about a minute - it was so much fun to stand and watch each one.
My camera is a little one, so these aren't the clearest photos, but you get a little of the idea of how magical it was. It's on till Christmas Day.
If Sydney's a bit far for you to go, there's more info on the Sydney City Council website here (along with slightly clearer pix of each projection - maybe they've got a bigger camera...!).
Lovely imaginative stuff.
My camera is a little one, so these aren't the clearest photos, but you get a little of the idea of how magical it was. It's on till Christmas Day.
If Sydney's a bit far for you to go, there's more info on the Sydney City Council website here (along with slightly clearer pix of each projection - maybe they've got a bigger camera...!).
Lovely imaginative stuff.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Christmas kitsch, Australian style
Yes, I do own classy Australian Christmas decorations. I wasn't even slightly tempted by one of these Things. Blick. Erk. Don't tell Joern.
If you want a far more delightful reworking of Utzon's masterpiece, try An Opera House In Every Home by Eric Thake. Dead clever.
If you want a far more delightful reworking of Utzon's masterpiece, try An Opera House In Every Home by Eric Thake. Dead clever.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Drums
Took this one at the festival a few weeks ago.
Great intricate patterns on these drums! You could hear them being tested (with greater and lesser skill) all the way up and down the street, despite the bustle of many other festival stalls. Tight, sharp, rat-a-tat kind of beat.
Great intricate patterns on these drums! You could hear them being tested (with greater and lesser skill) all the way up and down the street, despite the bustle of many other festival stalls. Tight, sharp, rat-a-tat kind of beat.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Worth a comment
Today, for the first time as far as I remember, comments on my Flickr photos required two pages. Terribly modest, in comparison to so many of you, but here in my corner of the net, chuffed is the word of the day. I take these photos firstly for me, to catch things, try things, observe the world, record colour - any number of reasons. To know they're finding friends is an added, unexpected delight.
The iPod one is my most 'busy' image in terms of page views etc - and it gets funnier and funnier that I took it in artificial light on the evening when I'd finished making it - for all the trouble I've taken with other photos, this one, hardly elegant, has taken the cake. The photo's own qualities are secondary to the subject and its idea. That's a humbling thought for a photographer!
So thanks if you're one of those who comments either here on the blog or over at Flickr. It's appreciated.
The iPod one is my most 'busy' image in terms of page views etc - and it gets funnier and funnier that I took it in artificial light on the evening when I'd finished making it - for all the trouble I've taken with other photos, this one, hardly elegant, has taken the cake. The photo's own qualities are secondary to the subject and its idea. That's a humbling thought for a photographer!
So thanks if you're one of those who comments either here on the blog or over at Flickr. It's appreciated.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Blue sky
Driving to work this morning, I looked up at the sky. An ordinary enough thing to do. But today, for the first time in weeks, it was pale blue, beautiful, clear pale blue. The odd small white fluffy cloud scattered here and there, so you could admire the blue just that bit more. After days and days of the scent of smoke, the sight of smoke, haze and dirty ominous air, the morning sky was a gift - clear air, blue sky. Ordinary, valuable gifts.
(The fires are well-contained and nearly out).
(The fires are well-contained and nearly out).
Christmas snowflake light
Probably the closest we'll get to snow this Christmas, what with it being Australia, and summer. And we've had a few too many 40degree+ days with summer barely begun.
You know the whole digital photography thing is getting to you when you're hanging around in a department store Christmas section waiting for the snowflake light to shift colours to the one you want to photograph...
My favourite Christmas lights come from Ikea - a small string of fairy lights with a 3-battery box. So you can wear them - or give them to small children and watch their faces go aaaaaah!
It's time to replug in the house's fairy lights - it's after 1 December. Maybe tomorrow (it's a modest array, but nice). Today was a Rumpelstiltskin day on the computer, and my wrists are very tired and rather achy - particularly my right (mouse/touchpad) hand. The straw isn't gold yet, but it's on the way.
*C*h*e*e*r*s*
(with fairy lights).
You know the whole digital photography thing is getting to you when you're hanging around in a department store Christmas section waiting for the snowflake light to shift colours to the one you want to photograph...
My favourite Christmas lights come from Ikea - a small string of fairy lights with a 3-battery box. So you can wear them - or give them to small children and watch their faces go aaaaaah!
It's time to replug in the house's fairy lights - it's after 1 December. Maybe tomorrow (it's a modest array, but nice). Today was a Rumpelstiltskin day on the computer, and my wrists are very tired and rather achy - particularly my right (mouse/touchpad) hand. The straw isn't gold yet, but it's on the way.
*C*h*e*e*r*s*
(with fairy lights).
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Blogthoughts
As, in the midst of everything else claiming (demanding!) attention, I blogged today's photo, it occurred to me that I'm almost at the end of the first year. Back in January I challenged myself to find a photo a day (it didn't end up quite being TAKE, but close. Very close. Life's like that.). This blog was a place to put them with some sort of accompanying burble/rant/whatever.
And now I'm almost a year in, and have the most amazing collection of images. Not because I'm a brilliant photographer, but because I know I've caught this year for myself - the surprising, the mundane, things I might have seen but would never, otherwise, have remembered.
Writing the blog, and travelling through the blog community reading other people's blogs, has enriched the year - learning, laughing, thinking, dreaming.
Here are two recent posts about blogging which you too may be glad you've read.
Posie Gets Cozy
Creative Little Daisy
I wanted to go to a Handel's Messiah performance today, but it wasn't possible. So, instead, I've found my 3-CD box of the full work (including all the bits performances sometimes leave out) and that will provide a soundtrack to the day.
I sang in a Messiah choir for over a decade, every Christmas - that's another choice in my life that enriched it too, immersing yourself in that glorious music every year. In the highest note of all, in the soprano part of the final Amen, you feel, as the performance ends and you reach a note which you normally don't imagine you can reach, as though you are flying, filled with sound, surrounded by the harmony of many voices, facing an audience with joy in their faces.
And now I'm almost a year in, and have the most amazing collection of images. Not because I'm a brilliant photographer, but because I know I've caught this year for myself - the surprising, the mundane, things I might have seen but would never, otherwise, have remembered.
Writing the blog, and travelling through the blog community reading other people's blogs, has enriched the year - learning, laughing, thinking, dreaming.
Here are two recent posts about blogging which you too may be glad you've read.
Posie Gets Cozy
Creative Little Daisy
I wanted to go to a Handel's Messiah performance today, but it wasn't possible. So, instead, I've found my 3-CD box of the full work (including all the bits performances sometimes leave out) and that will provide a soundtrack to the day.
I sang in a Messiah choir for over a decade, every Christmas - that's another choice in my life that enriched it too, immersing yourself in that glorious music every year. In the highest note of all, in the soprano part of the final Amen, you feel, as the performance ends and you reach a note which you normally don't imagine you can reach, as though you are flying, filled with sound, surrounded by the harmony of many voices, facing an audience with joy in their faces.
Challenge quilt
This is my quilt entry in the Quilters' Guild of NSW 2008 calendar challenge (it's 12in square). I used only scraps and leftover pieces from other projects, including the backing and wadding as well as everything on the quilt top. Some are folded into prairie points, some sewn and the striped border pieces are used raw-edge and overlapped. (OK, so the threads are new!)
The centre is from a yellow fabric that I used in a magazine project quilt - I had SO many enquiries about it , but sadly the only stockist I knew had sold out by the time the magazine was published (I'd bought the fabric about six months before using it, and then of course a magazine's lead time can be up to another five). It's a great graphic, Picassoesque fabric!
All the calendar challenge quilts will be on display at the Quilt Show at Darling Harbour, Sydney, in June 2007, and the calendars (for 2008) will be on sale.
The centre is from a yellow fabric that I used in a magazine project quilt - I had SO many enquiries about it , but sadly the only stockist I knew had sold out by the time the magazine was published (I'd bought the fabric about six months before using it, and then of course a magazine's lead time can be up to another five). It's a great graphic, Picassoesque fabric!
All the calendar challenge quilts will be on display at the Quilt Show at Darling Harbour, Sydney, in June 2007, and the calendars (for 2008) will be on sale.
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Victorian house
When you're out of your local area, it' s fun to see the different architecture - costs nothing to admire beautiful old houses like this from the footpath! Very serene, with the balanced lines of the architecture and the green garden.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Daft Christmas ornament
Spotted this in a respectable department store that's gone all Christmas-quirky this year. It's the top nominee for Daft Christmas ornament, imho. (if you've photographed any contenders, by all means let me know).
You've got to wonder who sat there going, well, we can have a cow. That's Christmassy (?). And a scarf says winter (not that you need a scarf in the Australian summer). Hmmm. Add some Christmas tree elvish figures on the back, holding mittens and facing out: wearing aprons, of course, for what is a tree elf without its apron? When it's in a dancing circle on the back of a cow? And give them red shoes. Yeah. The cow should probably have shoes too - red stripey ones, there's a thought!
The most accurate bit is the cow's expression of almost total bewilderment. It's about 8in high from hoof to horn.
And gibe as I might, fact is that it IS on sale, and may just be someone's trulyy roollyy dream.
I think it's the shoes that disturb me most.....
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