Snow on wattle

0808 snow on wattle 01
Originally uploaded by rooruu

OK, tomorrow will be something other than snow...but for right now, here's another glimpse. The country's floral emblem - brilliantly blooming along the road to Canberra - here with snow. The weather shifts are evident: snow's fallen, weighing down the yellow blossoms; the sun's melted it and then the air's cooled again so the melted snow refreezes as ice, with yellow centres caught within.

Snow light

0808 snow near Collector NSW 01
Originally uploaded by rooruu

A few minutes after yesterday's photo, the sun came out, the light shifting from grey to snow-clarity, an avenue of deciduous trees whitened with snow on their windward sides and the top of branches and twigs. Beautiful.

Snow in Australia! (and not in the mountains)

So you're just innocently pootling home from Canberra's quilt show, and it starts raining.  Um, is that rain?  It's kinda sorta drifting rather than falling.... it's SNOW! 

Sure, there are places in Australia where it snows in winter, but this isn't one of them.  From Lake George, to Collector and on to Goulburn, sometimes lighter, sometimes heavier, it snowed.

Naturally this car was as tragic as a number of others, stopping beside the road to take photos.

It's a long time since I've been where it's snowing.  I'd forgotten the taste of it on my tongue, the tiny thumpthud of it (don't think this car's even been snowed on before), melting crystals on the windscreen glass, the whirl of it in the air, the change it makes to the landscape - more than any other weather, it alters the landscape and the light. 

The distant hills were lightly whitened, and trees outlined with the windborne drift of it, like an artist had gone through to highlight light and shadow.  Roadside trees burnt black by summer bushfires, now monochrome charcoal drawings with white highlights.  The blazing sunshine yellow of the wattles blooming along the road lightly burdened with snow and, as the temperature shifted, ice, then more snow.  Tin roofs whitened.  Wind driving the snow so it seemed to focus on just this car, just this windscreen, the wipers pushing it away in steady heartbeats.

After Goulburn, it was gone.  But although the drivers had slowed down, the conditions needing more care, I'm sure the grins of delight were echoed in car after car at this rare gift. 

I know very well how snow can be an inconvenience or worse, but when it's something so rare, it is a gift and a joy.

Still busy...

...but that Breaking Dawn entry proves I'm still alive...

There are photos on the camera, so they'll make their way here shortly. It's the blog or a quilt tonight, and the quilt, a gift, is needed more urgently.

back soon!

Breaking Dawn: Twilight book 4

Gee, it's hard to know where to start.

Will two words do?

Train wreck.

Ye gods! - this book had me not knowing WHAT to think. I enjoyed the first three - blogged about them a little while ago, and was looking forward to seeing what she did with the fourth to resolve some of the intriguing loose ends from the earlier books.

Sheesh. If you still want to read it, borrow, don't buy...

SPOILERS FOLLOW....



The feathers thing???Broken pelvises that seem to mean little? A mutant baby whose name is a ghastly mashup of its sorta grandmas'? and recalls one of the world's most famous monsters? The hero offering his rival the opportunity to 'make puppies' with the heroine as it will be less dangerous to her health? What the?? A cottage in the woods that was so icky-twee I nearly had a hypo? A huge battle that wasn't? Andtheyalllivedhappilyeverafter, including a plan B for the rival which was squicky at best???

Ah well. It's a shame. What was Stephenie Meyer thinking?

The consolation?

Read this forum from Amazon.com, and this one. They're snort-Diet-Coke-up-your-nose hilarious.

I'm boggled as how they might, if they will, make a film of the more startling events in Breaking Dawn. I'm looking forward to seeing the first film (due in Australia in January 09 at present, Dec 08 in the US) and I'm sure they'll punt on more if it's a success. Maybe the fourth will get major rewriting to something more consistent and um, better?

Coming soon...

...more blog entries. It's just been a rather busy week.

New toy: Scrapblog

Just a first attempt to show you what this toy can do. Your online scrapblogs can be private or public - I left this one public so you can go take a squizz, if you wish (http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/viewer.aspx?sbid=464894). It's just a single page, but you can do multi-page ones too. There's a whole bunch of backgrounds, stickers, frames etc to choose from, and it's free to register/create scrapblogs. You can also fish photos from your Flickr account, and do other things, including put them on your blog. Worth a look - there's a short how-to video on the home page, or just play and work it out that way.

http://www.scrapblog.com/

Man on Wire documentary /Philippe Petit

One of the most crazy, astonishing stunts ever done is the subject of this new documentary:




http://youtube.com/watch?v=EIawNRm9NWM&feature=related

Can't see a release date yet for Australia.



If you haven't yet discovered this picture book about the same event, it's brilliant.




The man who walked between the towers, by Mordecai Gerstein.

Image from Amazon.com.

The New Classics in fiction

In a fairly US-centric list (not a surprise) Entertainment Weekly lists the 100 best reads 1983-2008.

I scored 15%:

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Rowling
• Cold Mountain - Frazier
• Into Thin Air - Krakauer
• The Handmaid’s Tale - Atwood
• Bridget Jones’ Diary - Fielding
• The Things They Carried – O’Brien
• The Joy Luck Club - Tan
• The Lovely Bones - Sebold
• Angela’s Ashes – McCourt
• His Dark Materials – Pullman
• The Giver – Lowry
• The Remains of the Day – Ishiguro
• Eat, Pray, Love – Gilbert
• Atonement – McEwan
• one I’m not prepared to name, because I disliked it intensely as meccano-fiction.

The four in purple are the ones I rate most highly. I may not have read them recently, but they stay with me.

What about you? Which have you read, which do you rate most highly?

Added later: my list above is only 15 of the 100 - the top link takes you to the full list. I appreciate that EW is hardly the New Yorker - but even then it's interesting to see the list (which is a tad curious, and as noted heavily weighted to American writers) and yay for books being discussed...). Thanks for the comments!

100 Word Stories: Would you just shut up?

Joe? JOEY? Why are your filthy soccer boots IN THE WASHING MACHINE?

I don’t care if Max said it was a great idea. Not on top of the load of clean towels, don’t you ever THINK??

AMY! Mrs Britches has another mouse. No, I’m busy in the laundry. She’s your cat, get rid of it NOW!

David? Honey? Are you still keeping an eye on dinner, I smell something burning…

All the things I have to say. No. All the things I think I have to say.

What I want to say? Love you, my dear ones. Love you lots.

Quiltlet: A for Adaminaby

Quiltlet: A for Adaminaby
Originally uploaded by rooruu

This is the first in a series of quiltlets I'm designing for Australian Patchwork & Quilting magazine. This one's in Vol 17 no 1, just out in Australia.

It's being a lot of fun working in this smaller scale and trying new ideas. I'm currently working on G (such is the lead time of magazine projects and publishing) so it's good to see one in print as I toddle on through the alphabet and a welter of ideas.

I've played with various miniature quilt, doll quilt, small quilt ideas before, over the years, and have taken inspiration from lots of places - books, blogs, magazines, exhibitions, images. I'm not necessarily aiming for complicated (nope, not me) but I hope it will be a varied and interesting journey from Adaminaby to Z...(nope, not telling which Australian town will provide the Z name!).

Quilt detail: Oriental

0807 quilt detail
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Detail from another quilt I finished during the break. It uses a combination of fabrics (including this one from Lakehouse) but has overall an Oriental feel to it. Due for publication in Australian Patchwork and Quilting Vol. 17 no. 6, due out late in 2008.

Peeps

0807 Peeps/Scott Westerfeld
Originally uploaded by rooruu

I thoroughly enjoyed this one!! Westerfeld's take on vampirism is that it's caused by a parasite - the protagonist has been 'infected' but only as a carrier, and is part of a secret government organisation in NY devoted to preventing outbreaks from the non-carrier vampires. He has some wondrously funny inventions, such as the effect of vampirism being to cause the new vampire to hate what they previously loved; so the protagonist begins trapping a rogue vampire by putting up Elvis posters near all the entrances to the building. The narrative chapters alternate with chapters describing in great , humorous detail various real parasites and what they do (erk...). This one was enormous fun to read!

Lifeline book fair loot

0807 Lifeline book fair loot
Originally uploaded by rooruu

I myself personally hadn't got to a Lifeline book fair before. This will need to change... I happened to be in the area for a quilt challenge revelation (wonderful inspiring quilts were shown) and stopped at this on the way home.

Not only a HUGE range of books, but much dross eliminated.  Among my selections:

• The Shifting Fog: I'd been meaning to read Kate Morton's book for a while, an Australian author who's finding an international market.  This was retitled The House at Riverton in overseas markets, I believe
• Third Book of Hundreds of Things a Girl Can Make: full of quirky ideas.  I'll probably blog some images separately...
• The Superior Person's Little Book of Words: I already have this erudite and entertaining work, but will no doubt find an erudite and entertaining friend to give it to
• City of Dreams: a novel about the early days of New York, by Beverley Swerling
• The Conjuror's Bird: didn't know anything about this Martin Davies novel, but took a punt on it
• How To Cook a Galah: celebrating Australia's culinary heritage by Laurel Evelyn Dyson.  Not that I intend cooking any galahs
• The Colony: this was a reality show on SBS TV in which several families lived as they would have done in colonial times - I'm interested in the historical detail (as with the book above)
• A couple of quilting magazines which include my work (always good to have a spare copy)
• A Nursery Companion: Iona and Peter Opie's compilation of all sorts of nursery rhymes, complete with vintage colour pictures
• Keeping Up with Keeping House: a practical guide for the Harried Housewife by the former White House Housekeeper.  What's not amusing about Mary Kaltman's work?  It's dated 1971 and is, with the brief browse I've done so far, a fascinating snapshot.
• Open Your Eyes: 1000 ways to bring beauty into your home and life each day (for $3, I'm sure Alexandra Stoddart can tell me something I haven't thought of)
• Lyn Le Grice's Art of Stencilling: her book The Stencilled House is a favourite stencilling source, although she goes far further than perhaps I would.  Still, beautiful designs and more and less subtle ways of using them.
• The Family Home: relaxed, informal living for all ages.  I liked a number of the photos in this one.

Total investment for these: just under $50.  Thus, I shall be attending to the dates/locations of further Lifeline charity book fairs...  I also bought some kids' books, of which they had good ones and plenty too.  And the volunteer staffers were charming and helpful.

Moon Called etc.

0807 Moon Called etc Mercy Thompson series
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Must be something about these hols and reading paranormal fiction...this series of three was a reread, and enjoyed just as much second time round. Mercy Thompson is a mechanic and a 'walker' who can shapeshift into the form of a coyote. When your neighbours include werewolves and your friends include a vampire and fae, well, stuff is likely to happen. And does. Patricia Briggs is starting another series with its first book out soon (Cry Wolf), and on the strength of these, I'll probably give that a whirl.

• Moon Called
• Blood Bound
• Iron Kissed

I've read various paranormal/vampire etc fiction this year (partly because it's a genre in which the kids are very interested), and have tossed more than I've enjoyed (tossed to good causes or charity or back to the library or whatever, not binned). This is one of the few keepers.  Not YA like Meyer or Westerfeld's work.

My ultimate vampire favourite is Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. Blogged it here.  Love that book.  Her next one, Chalice, is out later this year - yet another world, she doesn't do series (but it must be exhausting to constantly invent worlds...).

Ah James...

Trailer for Quantum of Solace, the 22nd James Bond film.

If YouTube has A Moment and says it's not available...here's the link:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mLPp8y-mEhw

Twilight series/saga

0807 Twilight series
Originally uploaded by rooruu

With the fourth book due out at the beginning of August, I've reread the first three. It's pageturning teenfic, riffing off Romeo and Juliet, various elements of vampire/werewolfery and yes, I'll be toddling off to see the film when it's released here in January. In twenty years, will anyone be reading Twilight? Dunno. But they're reading it now...

Puzzled & gobsmacked

0807 Telstar puzzle
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Had a happy day up the mountains. If you've got kids, www.selwoodscience.com.au at Hazelbrook is worth a visit - science made fun! Lots of examples out to play with and try, including puzzles like this one. I got it to have in my office to amuse visitors (and don't I wish now, hours later, I could remember how to do it?!) (and I'll be upfront, I got them to show me how it works - and STILL can't get it separated!).

Very nice lunch at Loaves and the Dishes in Leura (bacon and egg pie and salad), another visit to the cupcake shop and also beestings from the cake shop half way along Katoomba St for later. Many interesting shops browsed in in both Katoomba and Leura and afternoon tea at Leura Gourmet.

We all shared a $22 cheese plate for AT, and were a tad gobsmacked to discover (as we glanced at the deli cabinet on the way out) that one of the cheeses was over $100/kilo and another over $60! It was a very nicely presented cheese plate, too - water crackers, sliced strawberries, sliced pear, walnuts in honey, raisins, and four cheeses: a Beaufort (the expensive-est), a washed rind soft cheese, a camemberty one and a blue. We ate it instead of photographing it, but will probably burgle the presentation for future use...

(Still can't untangle that wretched puzzle!)

3-Film Tuesday: Unfinished Sky

0807 Unfinished Sky poster
Originally uploaded by rooruu

This one is the winner. It's brilliant. Best of the day by far and away, and the one I most wanted to see.

Given that it was cheap Tuesday, I lined up my choices so I could go to three in succession. This was the third, and I'm glad it was the last because I want to keep thinking it over in my mind.

This is probably the one you don't know. It's an Australian film, set in rural Queensland, where William McInnes' character is a lonely widowed farmer, just him and his blue cattle dog Elvis, for reasons that become clearer later on. Stumbling onto his property one day is an Afghani woman who has run away from enslavement in a brothel, and he chooses to hide her rather than give her up to the authorities or the men who come seeking her.

It's a thriller and a love story and although it's a reworking of a Dutch film (The Polish Bride) it feels very Australian in its landscape and light, its use of silences, its sensibility. If you've seen SeaChange, you know how William McInnes can convey character with little dialogue. The Dutch actress Monic Hendrikx is great, too.

Memo to Australia's filmmakers: if you make films like this, I WILL go and see them. So much 'Australian film' in the last few years has been dross or daft or dark or just not engaging. This is a story worth telling, well told, and it deserves to find an audience. (At the start, there are so many funding sources, it's a credit to the producers that they were able to gather all this support and finance and make it work.)

Wonderful stuff. If it's on at a cinema near you, don't miss it.

The other really good film I've seen recently was The Painted Veil, and I'd recommend it too. But Unfinished Sky is my best of the year so far.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Read a review and see the trailer and some clips here.

The film's official website is here.

Here's the trailer on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2sX4emqUq4

3-Film Tuesday: Prince Caspian

0807 Prince Caspian poster
Originally uploaded by rooruu

This was everything you'd expect it to be. After seeing the first film I did try to go back and reread the books, having enjoyed them so much as a child, but I found them heavy-handed and hard to enjoy again. So maybe I'll only be revisiting Narnia in fillums for now. (Although even in the films I keep wondering, within the context of the story, who's doing the catering, and washing of clothes and such for the kings and queens and characters, and doing such nice hairdos for the girls - you don't see this, and they always seem to have clean clothes, and in the last one there were always pretty tents up whenever they needed 'em. Maybe I'm getting old...! )

It was decently done, and perfectly satisfactory, and well done, and there you are. (I shouldn't be wondering what happens when the battle goes on and on and Susan never seems to have more than a dozen arrows although she's firing 'em off at a rate of knots).

I did enjoy this more than Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which I saw a couple of weeks ago. That felt tired, and as though it was trying too hard. This had a freshness and energy; I don't think I'd bother seeing Indiana again, but I'll find time for the next Narnia film.

3-Film Tuesday: Mamma Mia!

0807 Mamma Mia! poster
Originally uploaded by rooruu

After working hard on a bunch of quilt projects, today was a chance to catch up on some films (Tuesday's the cheap day at the cinemas). I went to a big multiplex in a suburb that is assumed to have some taste and discernment, and thus had the film I most wanted to see.

This one is an utter meringue movie. Light and fluffy. Laugh-out-loud amusing in parts, and cringeworthy-embarrassing in others (no, Pierce Brosnan, you can't sing, and the cameraperson should have been kinder than giving you a closeup while you were (allegedly) singing). It all looked like they were having a lovely time on a perpetually sunny Greek island. Looking past the dialogue/actors/etc, there were some rather nice textiles - some great prints and a sampler or two on a wall.

If you go see it, sit through the credits to catch a couple of numbers done with verve and lycra... Margaret Pomeranz on the ABC review show At The Movies bagged the choreography, and I could see what she meant. Odd, if one is being kind.

It was fine, but I was glad to have only paid the cheapday price. Although to be fair, there was a spattering of applause at the end, so lots of the folks there found it a hoot.

As I said, a meringue movie.

Doyle or Bodie?

Poll result: Doyle won, 80% to 20% Bodie.

Me, Doyle's my favourite in the series, but Bodie holds a corner of my heart because he reminds me of a late friend of mine.

Quilt detail : Christmas

0807 quilt detail
Originally uploaded by rooruu

This is one of the projects I've just finished, a Christmas table runner which will be in the Christmas issue of Australian Country Threads later this year. Used some rather nice Moda fabrics in it, mostly 3 Sisters, although it does seem as though they're repeating colourways and styles they've done before - this is from their Vienna/Wuthering/Chocolat/Peace on Earth strand... Maybe lots of people like 'samesongnextverse', but it's also good to see new ideas. Their Paris map fabric from Paris Flea Market is still one of my favourites (I only have a leetle leetle left....)

Magnolia

0807 Magnolia
Originally uploaded by rooruu

It may be cold weather, but it's clear and sunny too; wonderful blue skies, and the magnolias are budding and blossoming.

Frosty morning

0807 frosty grass
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Despite clear sunny winter days, it's been distinctly cold at night around here. Presented as evidence, this morning's frost. Hmmm. Should have taken the gloves for this morning's walk, maybe. Still, it's motivation to get moving...so we did.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changing....

Pruned
Originally uploaded by rooruu

After several years of longer hair, today was time for a change. My hairdresser enjoyed herself, and did a lovely job. My head feels lighter...

(And the last time I saw her I'd recommended Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books - and she's hooked now! Ha! Another convert!)

(btw, who says I never put photos of me on my blog - this is at least the ?second in ?three years?!) (I just find much more interesting things to photograph for you). (Maybe it's the third - I showed you a new thimble once...!!)

Box of cupcakes

0807 box of cupcakes
Originally uploaded by rooruu

In the parts of Sydney where I live and work, the cupcake phenomenon is slow to take off - the nelligant fancypants ones adorning US blogs and country magazines are harder to find here. Most cake shops have A Cupcake - sometimes with a kinda effort to decorate 'em a bit.

Well, mostly I make 'em when I want 'em (I have my version of Nigella cupcakes on this blog from a while ago).

But if you happen to be toddling up near enough as makes no difference to Katoomba, where Cupid's Cupcakes has their tiny shop, well...

You invest. These one are strawberry, double chocolate, orange, passionfruit. Closer to the US flights of fancy in presentation and taste.

But not too pretty to eat. Just not all at once.

They are scenting the kitchen all sugary-sweet, just sitting in their box.

Professional quilting (!)

0807 quilt
Originally uploaded by rooruu

It looks too sweetly pretty to be done while Doyle and Bodie are biffo-ing and smart-alecking their way through the nasties of England, circa late 1970s, doesn't it?

You never can tell.

This is a Christmas quilt that will be published later in 2008 in the Christmas issue of Patchwork and Stitching magazine. Dozens of different fabrics in it - nothing like a Christmas scrap quilt. For now, all I can give you is this glimpse...

The Professionals - dossier 1

0807 The Professionals
Originally uploaded by rooruu

In between other tasks, the watching continues...

Doves and Lemons

0807 Doves and Lemons
Originally uploaded by rooruu

I fossicked around the Sydney Quilt Show a year ago, hunting lemon and grey fabrics, as I had a yen to make a two-colour quilt with these. Not the easiest colours to find, but with the increasing number of retro fabric ranges, do-able (and the fabrics include vintage repros, Asian fabrics, modern retro, dots and more). Many were larger in scale, so I made something simple, with Kaffe Fassett fabric for the wider border. You can find this in Australian Country Craft and Decorating magazine vol. 19 no. 8, which is on sale now in Australia.

...the poll...

Sorry shequilts, I can't edit the Doyle/Bodie poll because people have voted and this removes the option of editing. Maybe you'll just have to wrench yourself to decide if one just tips out the other...?!!!

Tweed Valet Tray

0807 Tweed valet tray
Originally uploaded by rooruu

This is the second-last design in "Recycled Threads", a column I've been writing and designing for the last three years for Australian Country Threads magazine. This is in vol 8 no 8, so the final design and article will be in 8/9. The magazine publishers decided to redesign the magazine and vary its contents, and so "Recycled Threads" is going as part of those changes.

This is a valet tray (which I designed before knowing that's what they're called!) made from a vintage Harris tweed jacket - for a fellow to toss in his keys/wallet/loose change when emptying pockets at day's end. Very practical!

You'll find full instructions and article in the issue of the magazine referred to above - it's on sale now in Australia.

Comments and a poll...

I've just gone through the comments tick tick tick and so there's a bunch of new ones on the blog now.  Thank you very much to each one of you that has taken the time and trouble to admire flowers, appreciate quilts, snicker at Ikea and chuckle at a bookshop cat and so forth and so on - I have enjoyed reading them. (I have comments set to moderation due to problems with spamming).

Normal, more frequent blogging should resume this week.  Hurray!

And given that this house is about to embark on a marathon viewing (well, on and off) of the 1970s TV series, The Professionals, I've added an incredibly serious (cough) poll to the sidebar.  Do vote, whether or not you're a commenter - the more votes, the more fun to see how the balance falls (I won't reveal my preference till it closes).  Even though it's not especially politically correct at times, and there's all that biffo and such, there's some lovely clever dialogue and acting and general smart aleckery in it.

Sweet Baby

0807 Sweet Baby
Originally uploaded by rooruu

This very sweet baby, just two days old here, was born to friends just before the end of June. All well, all happy, all good. Her mama is a quilter, but has three quilts started - and none finished - for little Ms P. So although I'd said I wasn't giving the baby a quilt, not with her mother's plans... I did. Poor little munchkin can't be without a quilt, and her mama may well be rather too busy/tired to finish the other ones for a while.

The quilt was one I designed for Recycled Threads in Australian Country Threads, using vintage (well-washed) handkerchiefs. I named the design "Sweet Baby". Very appropriate.

All the luck and joy in the world to you, little Miss P.

Gerbera

0806 gerbera
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Nearly at holidays, nearly nearly...so much to do, so little time...back shortly.

Loved the strong colours and shapes of these gerberas.

(thought I'd better post something in case you thought this blog was an abandoned orphan child. Nope.)

Quilt (before)

0806 quilt to cut out
Originally uploaded by rooruu

When there's a lot to do at work, and so you're working late and come home rather weary and then you've the ordinary stuff of a household, plus a quilt to make for a magazine, and did I mention you're tired?

I did.

So then, of course, you decide that more is more, and the quilt (which would probably just as well work with fifty different fabrics in it) would look just SO good if you used 100 -

- at which point you've given yourself twice the pressing/cutting to do -

(and a photo a day on the blog has gone by the wayside for longer than ever has happened before, so that's there as a nudge too)

- so, as I said, you come home tired and sew what you can, but then sleep, beautiful sleeeeeeeep is what you want more than anything.

So you don't get around to blogging.

You sew what you can, then stop and head for the pillow.

And think, I'll keep going tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day (I do believe that's been said before?! - oh yes, she grins, it sure has).

But here's today's happy thought, of which the pink in this quilt reminded me. Although today was the funeral of Jane McGrath, who took such an amazing path in giving, and making a positive contribution, when illness might have made her do otherwise, or choose an easier way (Today's SMH coverage: also see their Andrew Denton's first and second (recapping first with extras) interviews with them on Enough Rope), it was also one of the first days back at work for a colleague who's also battled breast cancer. It was good to see her back. Hurrah to each of them.

Gee's Bend quilts in Australia!

The Quilt Indulgence Festival (which has moved venue this year from Mittagong to Canterbury racecourse in Sydney) will be featuring the Gee's Bend quilts, according to its website. (31 Oct - 2 Nov 2008, which is Fri-Sun).

FANTASTIC!

I have a couple of the books, and have pored over them, and been inspired by them, but it will be wonderful to SEE the quilts, since I haven't had the opportunity to get to the US to see them.

I wish an Australian gallery or museum would be savvy enough to put them on display for longer - this is just one weekend. Surely if they're coming this far, it's worth giving them more time, and people more opportunity.

Thanks for the heads-up, Brenda.

Brideshead Revisited (again)

There's a new film due out later this year of Evelyn Waugh's novel. I am a devotee of the wonderful BBC version, as evident here and here, but am looking forward to seeing this (even if there are murmurings of it departing from the book in places - it will certainly involve greater compression than the TV version).

Here's the official trailer:



and the YouTube link, in case the above has some sort of spasm, as occasionally happens.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=X0Xql3fDM44

Loot

0806 show loot
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Those familiar with this blog will know that loot usually signifies quilt fabric...

This is from the Sydney Quilt Show. 'Civil War Dressing Gown' fabrics by Judie Rothermel above, and fabrics from a range called 'Coccinelle', below. The precision and detail of these was particularly appealing. Not sure what they're going to become yet, but become they will. Particularly since a family member with an Important Birthday coming up next year has requested a quilt with reproduction fabrics. And that was after I'd purchased these...

The bookshop cat

0806 the bookshop cat
Originally uploaded by rooruu

A true story

Last week, the cat strolled into the bookshop via the back door. One of the bookshop people was taking a moment of fresh air. The cat neatly sidestepped and wandered in.

Clearly, he liked what he saw. The people who worked there were quite easy to find and supervise, the cat thought. He trained them within hours to install and fill a cat litter tray for him, and bring food.

They took him to the local vet: no collar, no microchip, no lead on where he might have come from, although he appeared to be possibly pedigree, Russian Blue.

The cat found the people in the shop to be good company. They didn't move around too much during the day, or leave, and so could be easily supervised by a cat climbing up a pile of boxes for a better view, or leaping onto a bench and getting a really gratifying reaction when a paw or two trod on a keyboard.

When he was sleepy, it offered (with its storage area out back) an ample number of locations in which to retire and sleep undisturbed. Books and boxes offered an agreeable variety of places to climb and explore, although he preferred to remain with the permanent people in the shop, at office or counter, rather than the customers.

Life as a bookshop cat seemed like an excellent choice. Even if that lovely lady who took him home for the weekend spent it sneezing, which didn't seem entirely polite, but could be overlooked since the rest of the weekend retreat was most pleasant.

On Monday, he was back in the shop. Today, he snoozed on the front counter, since one of the people was often to be found there, and he did like company. And supervising, when sleep wasn't a greater priority.

The shop people haven't given him a name. That can be dangerous... They did, however, ruefully agree with the axiom that while dogs have owners, cats have staff. As they absentmindedly scratched his head, before returning to their other work.

Later this week he'll be relocated to a new, permanent home, with a relative of one of the people he's trained. Is that his finest hour, finding himself a new home via the bookshop? (It's another of the things that makes this independent bookshop rather wonderful).

To the pure...

0806 Ikea's strange naming
Originally uploaded by rooruu

According to Wikipedia, the naming of manchester items in Ikea follows the following protocol:

Bedlinen, bed covers, pillows/cushions: flowers, plants, precious stones; words related to sleep, comfort, and cuddling.

O-kay. With you so far. But is it just me, or is this name just a tad -

um -

well, you know. Unsubtle????? Indelicate?

(Even with the y and the umlaut?)

Sydney Quilt Show: 100 Glimpses, detail

0806 Sydney Quilt Show
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Here's a detail shot of my quilt, 100 Glimpses: Fact and Fiction. As you can see, stories and photos alternate. The fabrics include the blue Floragraphix print, a cream/brown script print and a bunch of muted Japanese fabrics in browns.

Sydney Quilt Show: 100 Glimpses

0806 Sydney Quilt Show: 100 Glimpses
Originally uploaded by rooruu

This is the third quilt of mine which was on display at the Sydney Quilt Show. It includes fifty photographs (which have been on this blog) and fifty 100-word-stories (most of which, ditto) and is called, 100 Glimpses: Fact and Fiction (since you realise, of course, that these are less plainly divided than one might think, and so a photograph may not be true and a fiction may not be untrue....

I was happy with how this one worked out, and the game it was playing with fabric and text and images. Text on quilts does get people reading, and it was amusing to walk by and see people stopped and going from block to block.

It can also be rather fun eavesdropping, although you have to be prepared for whatever people may say. I chuckled today when I overheard a woman remark to the fellow with her, "Oh, she's just photocopied a bunch of stuff", in a dismissive tone. I left her to her delusions. But I do wonder why people thought I'd burgle other people's words or images without attribution...As you, dear reader, would know, the photos and stories are original, not burgled.

I was taking detail photos for the Guild's newsletter today, and so going around quilt by quilt. It was most amusing, as I took a photo of the quilt next to this, to have someone turn to me and say, this is your quilt, isn't it? Ahem, um, yes...

She recognised me because I happened to be wearing my red Converse gymboots, as blogged a couple of weeks ago! We had a lovely conversation. It was good to meet you, Lynda!

This one also received a Judges' Commendation, and that was rather nice. One or two items from the commercial area of the show came home with me, and I'll blog 'em later.

Quilt: Adaminaby

0806 Sydney Quilt Show 2008 Adaminaby
Originally uploaded by rooruu

I gave you a sidelong look at this one a little while ago, and here it is flat and fully visible. It will be published in Australian Patchwork & Quilting magazine vol 17 no 1, which will be out in a couple of months (I don't normally blog quilts ahead like this when they're going to be published, but this has just been on public display for several days to the many many people who come through the doors of the Sydney Quilt Show...). It's not a large quilt, but one for wall display. Love those blue repro fabrics - I bought some of them in Goulburn a while ago, at a sweet little quilt shop there, and had wanted to play with them for a while.

It may acquire some friends...

Quilt: The More Things Change: Family Tree

0806 Sydney Quilt Show: The more things change
Originally uploaded by rooruu

This is one of the three quilts I had on display at this year's Sydney Quilt Show. It's part of the Looking Forward, Looking Back challenge currently touring Australia for two years (The Quilters' Guild of NSW loans the challenge collection to various galleries and other places during that time, then you get your quilt back).

This one combines old blocks (recut to become squares) with new reproduction fabric in the sashings, and old green buttons on the cornerstones. On each block there is either the initial of one of the women in my family (my grandmothers at the top down to the generation following mine at the bottom) or a quality of our family, embroidered on the block. At the top, the pink square includes "The future is the past", while at the bottom, on the green square, "The past is the future".

I was pleased with this one - it looks rather random, perhaps, but it works for me. The fabrics all blended in well together, and there's a pleasure in having captured a family tree in cloth.

Rosette

0806 Sydney Quilt Show 2008 rosette
Originally uploaded by rooruu

One of my quilts, 100 Glimpses: Fact and Fiction won an award at the Sydney Quilt Show this year. Very exciting it was to receive a judges' commendation. Woohoo! I don't make quilts for prizes, and this particular one was a game I wanted to play, combining my photos and 100 word stories (so if you've read this blog much, you'd recognise what's on the quilt - I caught up with Bev at the show, who does read this blog, and she definitely experienced deja vu!). It was a good game to play, so the award is the unexpected cherry on the icing on the cake.

And yes, hunt around here not too far and you'll find a picture of the whole quilt. Try the entry for 15 June.

Returning soon...

0712 pale pink rose, Cowra
Originally uploaded by rooruu

...probably on the weekend. The feverish cold has become an irritating cough, work has been Very Busy and so forth and so on.

But here's a lovely rose from the rose gardens at Cowra to keep you going. Take a moment. Look at it. Remember a lovely moment from the past that you associate with roses, or flowers, or a special flower.

Aaaaaaah. I should do that more often.

Cough

coughcoughcough

sniff

sniffsniff



cough

coughcoughcoughcoughcough

in grip of feverish cold. back soon.

Kiva: the Cielo group

This is my most recent Kiva loan, to this Cielo group: a continent away, over the Pacific Ocean, in Bolivia, they're sewing too.

You can lend through Kiva, microfinance to the world's poor, from as little as $25US. The money is paid back, and then you can lend it again. What's not to like? Please consider participating too. There are so many different people and businesses, all worth supporting - reading about each business is a window to understanding how the world works in other places.



The main activity of the group "Sky" is making hand embroidered clothes, purses and folk disguises. They work with Pro-Mujer and take on much responsibility. They have already finalized the work that people have ordered, art work for stores, and folk disguises for fairs in the city of "La Paz."

The dream of the association is to export their products to the interior and exterior of the country. In order to do this, they need better credit to replenish their capital for work and be able to hire personnel to help them in the business. They already have orders that demand manual labor and much time and they will train these new employees in order to ensure the quality of their products. In this way, they will achieve better economic and personal status for the benefit of their homes.

Here are their names: Fernando Gutierrez (not pictured), Betty Flores, Gladys Yapu, Cintia Bravo, Filomena Rada, Norka Claure, Emilia Chabarria (not pictured), Ana Fernandez, Feliza Suares, America Garcia, Ivlin Alfaro, Patricia Guerrero, Blanca Chabarria.

I've added a Kiva banner over on the silver sidebar - take a look at the business there (it refreshes each time the blog page is reloaded) as a place to start...

Vale Sydney Pollack

Out of Africa remains one of my favourite films. And as I consider other favourites, the work of Sydney Pollack is represented as one of my favourite directors. His films earned deserved respect for his clear, intelligent approach to film-making. And I enjoyed the characters he brought to the screen in his acting roles.

Two favourite directors gone this year, Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack. I am sad to think I will not again have the opportunity to learn, imagine, be entertained and drawn into worlds by their work, and grateful for what they did make.

There are many lengthy, deserved, detailed obituaries on the net for both men. This is just a simple thank you from one cinemagoer.

Sydney Pollack, thank you.

100 Word Stories: You're wet, cold and hungry

The woollen socks worked for a while, but then gave up. I felt my feet chilling, and the gnaw of hunger as darkness fell. The rain kept gusting under the canopy, and I wished rather viciously that its designer was here too, shivering under a bus shelter that offered neither shelter nor bus.

A vehicle accident, said the radio. Road entirely blocked. Nothing to be done but wait.

Or walk.

I couldn’t stand the miserable seep of cold any more. Staying seemed increasingly pointless. Hoisting an optimistic umbrella, I started on the long walk home, rain stinging my face gleefully.

Chandelier spiderweb

0805 chandelier spiderweb
Originally uploaded by rooruu

All along the bush/woodland path we walked this morning, spiderwebs festooned the greenery. Although it wasn't sparrowfart (early early), it was still early enough for the dew to have beaded on them. Beautiful, like chandeliers, or grand necklaces strewn about carelessly.

If you can't quite see this so well, try clicking on the photo to see it larger in Flickr.

Cupcakes

0805 cupcakes
Originally uploaded by rooruu

These are white chocolate mud and raspberry cupcakes. They were cooked, iced and eaten, and more will be required next week. It's a while since I've done any baking, it was good to play. The trays are small-hole ones, the cakes a mouthful or two. While cupcakes have yet to tsunami their way here as they have in the US, it is a bit easier to find coloured paper cups for them, and little coloured paper cups, than it used to be.

Late afternoon

0805 late afternoon
Originally uploaded by rooruu

The end of another long, busy day at work. The only photo you seem to have had time to take is the trees in the near-empty car park silhouetted against a blushing sky. Still, that's something worth trying to catch.

Ladybird books

00805 Ladybird books
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Ladybird books were a much-read and much-loved part of my childhood. There were lots of them in the house, and they informed, and entertained us for many happy hours.

I noticed these sets in the bookshop this week. I'm perfectly happy for them to reissue vintage Ladybird books, but was ambivalent about the way they'd chosen to do it. One box is for boys, one for girls. (Won't take you long to guess which is which). And while this might accurately reflect the times of these books' original publication, I wonder about doing so now. Am I just being politically correct? But why do boys get to make a transistor radio, while girls shop and help at home (oh, and understand maps, which is the only one that doesn't have me bristling a tad)?

Was this the only way they could divide the books into sets? What about a set about making, another about careers, another about 'how things work'? I know that's more than a neat, gender-specific (complete with assumptions) pair like this. And I know that while these sets may suit children of the specified gender, the underlying sexism troubles me.

The shelf of Ladybird books with which I grew up wasn't divided into books for boys and girls. Even if the books did reflect their times - fifties, sixties, seventies (and they did and do), this marketing choice is a modern one that seems unfortunate or ill-thought-through, to me.

Focus

0805 brown autumn leaves
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Today was one of those days when you aim to focus, while things come at you from all angles. Not unmanageably so, but constant. Didn't achieve all I wanted to, but some of it happened, and more will tomorrow.

Ended the day with a great conversation with an independent bookseller. Ranged over lots of things, but one of the many things we agreed on was that, with a good book, you go on an engrossing journey that you can't experience any other way. Doesn't have to be the finest literature - we all have individual lists of page-turners, words that take you into worlds. Love that about books.

It's so good when you can share them, and find someone else getting the same delight. I've recently lent a bunch of Georgette Heyers to a friend who'd never read any, and she enjoyed them immensely, disappeared into them, set other things aside so she could stay in, travel in the world of each one. Love that about books.

On reflection, I'm fortunate to have had "The Time Traveler's Wife" as the first audiobook I'd listened to in a long time. And unabridged (William Hope and Laurel Lefkow, utterly brilliant readers). That rendering was of such quality and depth. It slowed me down to notice what I hadn't noticed before, it took me through my favourite sections with unalloyed delight. As I've said before, I've listened to it three times. It also sent me back to the printed book.

From the bunch I posted a couple of weeks ago, I'm now partway through "The Art of Mending", and believe that it's not just the reader's voice that isn't gelling for me, it's probably that the book isn't connecting either. I don't believe it, I'm not able to suspend disbelief. The central character is a 'quilt artist', but in a way that I've not known anyone to be so - switching between working with commissions involving loved clothing to other ones involving new fabric. Perhaps there are people doing this in the US, but it seemed unfocused to me, a tad implausible - the quilt artists with whom I'm familiar tend to have honed their attention to a specific body of work, rather than being jills-of-all-fabric. Somehow this woman was a commercial commission quilter, maybe, but not a quilt artist. Or not an art quilter, if that's a better way to put it.

It wasn't just that, though. I wasn't enjoying spending time with these people. I didn't care what happened to them - they were boring and self-involved and smug and tedious (whereas you can have self-involved characters that you dislike intensely, but want to keep reading about). They stayed as words, they didn't become real. The book hasn't held me - I've only experienced it as audio, I don't own a print copy (slight disadvantage, I can't just flip to the end and read the last couple of pages!) and I don't think I'd be interested to. It's got about four stars on amazon.com, so there are plenty of folks who disagree with me.

So now I've started on the unabridged audiobook of "Outlander "("Cross Stitch" was its publication title here and in the UK) by Diana Gabaldon. It's a book I've read and shared and read again. And again. And while the reader somehow isn't my favourite (I don't know enough to know, but it seems like her Scottish accents are a bit dodgy from time to time), it's a serviceable version and is again bringing the book a new dimension and sending me back to the printed book.

To focus my thoughts so far: a good audiobook can enhance the original print book; but I'm not sure that a decent one can do anything if the original words don't have what it takes to draw you in. (As was true with "The Last of the Mohicans" audiobook, despite the skill of William Hope). It's unreasonable to expect every book to be a winner , but I don't want to spend money on books that aren't, or at least not often. That was what I talked of with the bookseller, too. Nearly $30 is a lot to spend on a book you end up disliking or feeling indifferent about.

Tomorrow is another day. And will include books.

Blue window

1998 Canberra Blundell's Cottage
Originally uploaded by rooruu

This photo dates back ten years, to a visit to Blundell's Cottage on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin, in Canberra. The intense blue appealed to me, and the crazy-piecing of the stonework (OK, so even then I could see quilts in all sorts of non-quilty places).

Conversely, ...

0805 red shoes, green grass
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Tomorrow I will be wearing these to work. Not formal, but comfortable, and there's a big day all day on my feet coming up. So practical overrules stylish (not that I wear high heels anyway, too much running around on a normal day). With these, and thick socks, my feet will survive, even if I arrive home catatonic with fatigue. Luckily we only have these particular big days a few times in the year.

These are the red leather Project Red Converse boots which you can find around the traps - some of the proceeds go to Bono's charities. Last time I owned gymboots I was a teenager. These are great.

Tweaking

Yup, I'm playing with the blog header. We've gone from purty roses to vintage kitchen cupboards - not the ones in this house, but I liked the blue and white and little bit of red. And the wear on them. This one will be there for a week or two, then another one will appear. Why leave it the same all the time, I say (having left it the same all the time for months and months...).

Must get the photos off the digital camera. I should have had it at the trivia night last night, the table dressed up as Ghoulies had gone to a LOT of trouble, including cupcakes with maggots (that would be candy maggots, I hasten to add as you recoil) and icing in sinister purple and ominous green. They came equal first with our table, the good cause for which the trivia night was being held made a decent profit, and it was a cheerful evening all round. One of the most amusing questions/answers was a loquacious and circumlocutory quote which we attributed to Gough Whitlam, and which turned out to be the work of Kevin Rudd. Hmm. Not sure which of them would be more disturbed by our misattribution. (note for those overseas: you'll find 'em in Wikipedia, but the short version is EGW=Labor Party Prime Minister in the early 1970s, and KR=current Labor Party Prime Minister).

Petrol's now over $1.50/litre, some places with it over $1.60 litre. I needed some border fabric for a quilt yesterday and was very happy to find something just right at the shop 10km away rather than having to pursue an obscure fabric to a shop which is a 90km round trip. I'd used the obscure fabric elsewhere in the quilt and it was a range on which most shops had passed (but it's NICE you hear me whine; but it's not the common taste, you hear the shops reply. Story of my life).

Doesn't autumn last a long time?

0805 autumn leaves
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Seems to be so, on this blog, doesn't it? Well, there are plenty of eucalyptus trees about doing nothing in particular different now to what they do the rest of the year, so it's nice to notice the ones with a bit of variety - autumn colour now, blossom or jacaranda in spring.

I like the variation of colour in this, from green to dead brown. We walk past this tree each week, and it's getting closer and closer to no leaves at all.

Quite happy for autumn to last a long time. It's not as cold as winter. But winter's coming, you can tell. Even if it's the milder Sydney winter, no snow or ice. But yes to frost and fog and needing the heaters on and enjoying hot water bottles and hot chocolate and cinnamon toast.

Carnival

0805 white flowers
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Athletics carnival day today - but still time to photograph the lane marking (to several people asking, why? in bewilderment) because it amused me to see how the painting had made the grass almost seem like white flowers.

I have been accused of being, at times, easily amused...

It always interests me that, at athletics carnivals, when you're actually there, the contest that ends up drawing the largest crowd is always the high jump, when the good jumpers are getting towards the end of the competition. The tension, the wonder, the visible challenge, the way, in the end, it's person against bar. I hope the Olympics and Commonwealth Games broadcasters will someday realise the potential of this and broadcast more than brief highlights. Maybe someday.

The Writing Life

0805 The Writing Life
Originally uploaded by rooruu

I bought Annie Dillard's book in 1994. I did know of it, but had not found it in any bookshops here in Oz. And then stumbled over it being used (in multiple copies) as beige shelf-filler at a chain furniture store. I notice that Ikea uses non-English books as filler in its stores, so they are probably at minimal risk of being bailed up, as this other store (it wasn't Ikea) was.

Could I please buy a copy? I asked. Just one. I really want to buy this book.

It's just decor.

Please?

We don't have a price on it.

Can you make one up?

(Clearly I wasn't going to give up).

OK, they said, just one copy, $10.

Done, I said, handing over the cash.

Maybe it was around in some bookshops in Sydney, but it wasn't one likely to be stocked by many. Now, I'd hunt it up on the internet (you can buy over 100 used and new copies from amazon.com, for example, I just checked). But then, back then when the world was young and the closest I'd got to the internet was some Macworld caper a computerish pal was playing with (and I never got to see, since it wouldn't work when he tried to show me what it was like), back then, to find a copy of this was phone calls and guesses.

I reread it today. It's as wise and insightful and tough-minded as it was then, and has been on each rereading in the years since I bought it. If you're interested in writing, it's certainly worth reading. It may inspire you or make you despair, but that's your response. It's a fine book. Review, including quotes, here.

How the world has changed. It is so much easier to track down obscure books, and that's just one example among many. With the increments of days, months, years, it can be difficult to remember 'then'. 'Then', for instance, when there were maybe two antique dealers in Sydney where you could find antique samplers - now, the internet offers many, available from around the world, with a broader price range. Then, when buying vintage American quilts was virtually impossible (maybe one dealer in Sydney? - hoo-wow, now you can look at, and bid on/buy, from hundreds on the internet). Then, before digital cameras or blogs or Flickr or Skype or email, let alone the other possibilities of the internet.

Everything's changed, and yet not everything. I still buy books, read books, love books, browse bookshops in the real world as well as online. You can't get Kindle here, only another very very expensive reader, so the closest I've got to reading longer work on the computer is an ebook I still haven't finished. Nope, as far as I'm concerned the book is far from dead.

It's good to step back now and then, and reflect. Of course the kids say, that's what old people do...

I registered for my second webmail email address, at Yahoo!, towards the end of 1997, but my first one (from the long-defunct-swallowed-by-Yahoo! Rocketmail) was in existence for a year or so before that. A dozen years. Not so long.

100 Glimpses quilt

0805 100 Glimpses quilt
Originally uploaded by rooruu

This is one of my entries in the Sydney Quilt Show, the top almost finished but the quilting (which will be simple) still to be done.

When it's finished and hanging in the show in June, I'll post a flat full shot here. Truly. And one of my other show entry.

Berries, which become a rant

0805 autumn berries
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Still playing with the zoom and macro settings on my little camera. A brighter version of autumn than the browns I've been photographing - almost Christmassy, although the only Christmassy thing around now is the thinking for Christmas projects, as the deadlines for them are closing in....

There are now three films I'm looking forward to seeing, all of them either November or December release (sigh):

* Australia
* Twilight
* The Time Traveler's Wife

In the meantime, our screens will be too darn full of other sound and noise, signifying nothing, or movies targeted at 14yo boys (those of us who aren't 14yo boys don't go to the cinema when there's nothing we want to SEE, don't the film makers and distributors get it??? Films like The Jane Austen Book Club, or 27 Dresses are nowhere near as charming as Sleepless in Seattle, although I saw a recent article lump 'em together as 'chick flicks'. Maybe so, but on a long continuum.). I'm very happy for the 14yo boys, I guess, but why can't they make films I do want to see? Not just decent escapist chick flicks, but quality stuff that travels a good journey. I look up what's on at the local multiplex, and there's nothing I'm remotely interested in seeing. My local cinema does its best, but even though they have better taste, they're hamstrung by lack of good stuff to show. Seems like too long since I had a good evening at the cinema.

Now how on earth did I arrive at that rant, starting with some berries? Dunno.

Australia trailer

The next Baz Luhrmann film, Australia, with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, is due for release in November. This trailer has just been released....




Here's the YouTube link:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7gtKcr_W_fc
which does work, even if the embedded one seems to come up sometimes as unavailable. There are lots of posted links for this trailer on YouTube, anyway.

Offical Australiamovie.com site (which has the trailer too) and imdb page for Australia.

It was bugging me that the music sounded familiar, particularly the second half of the trailer. There seems to be a thing where they'll use music from another film, maybe because it does sound familiar (I remember noticing music from Little Women used for another film's trailer). I find myself with an odd disconnect, wanting to remember the original source...

Give me a moment......


Ah, got it. Kenneth Branagh's Henry V, music by Patrick Doyle, from memory. That's what it is. It's a favourite film, I should know that music.

Autumn colour

0805 yellow, brown, cream autumn leaves
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Actually, less favourite colour. This looked like the colour scheme a 'modern' fifties or sixties kitchen might have sported. Yellow, dark brown, white. Erk. The way the brown/white leaves colour is fascinating - dark brown one side, white the other, completely different either side.

DIY Matisse link

If the Matisse widget doesn't work on your blogreader etc, here's the link:

http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/MatisseArtist

DIY Matisse

A new widget from Widgetbox to play with. The Matisse widget lets you drag up Matisse-like shapes and arrange them - place, rotate, resize. If you come at a given shape from the left, it's a different colour to that if you come at it from the right.

It's rather fun. And you can print the results, should you wish to.

Je m'excuse humblement, Monsieur Matisse, et ne peut dire dans ma défense que votre travail est source d'inspiration. (Merci beaucoup Google Translate, this may be dicky, but it's kinda French...)

Audiobook loot / reviews

0805 audio book loot
Originally uploaded by rooruu

This lot arrived recently, and having finished (and thoroughly enjoyed) Skulduggery Pleasant in audiobook form (take a bow, Rupert Degas, your voice is a wonder and a delight, I was laughing like a drain!), I am now starting on these on my daily commute.

All but Outlander were among the bargain audio books at Barnes and Noble, so there's a goodly amount of bang (or voice) for your buck here (and that's even with postage costs: audiobooks here are usually pretty expensive. Outlander alone would have cost more, if I'd bought it here, than all seven in the photo. Thanks be there aren't audiobook regions such as you find with DVD regions).

Apart from Outlander (by Diana Gabaldon, published in Oz & the UK as Cross Stitch), the rest are not books I've read before. Some are abridged, some unabridged: for a fiction book in particular, that I had read in print, an abridged audiobook could feel a bit filleted, and I think I'd find myself waiting for a particular bit and being disappointed if it wasn't included. Maybe I'll disprove this theory somewhere down the line, but for now, if I know and love a book (eg The Time Traveler's Wife), it's unabridged only for me. Conversely, if I listen to one of the above and love it to bits, I may hunt out the novel. The ones above include three nonfiction, four fiction.

My audio book listening tally so far is:

The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger
unabridged: read by William Hope and Laurel Lefkow

Rating: utterly brilliant. I loved the novel anyway, but their voices have made me love it even more. It's 16 CDs, and I've listened to it all through, um three times? And lent it to friends. Keeper. This is the audiobook that was so good, it got me into audiobooks. And if you work through that thought, Audrey Niffenegger's book was so good, on the page, that I ventured into its unabridged audiobook. Thank you, Audrey.

The Last of the Mohicans
by James Fenimore Cooper
abridged, thanks be: read by William Hope

I blogged about this. I wasn't polite. William was the best thing about it, and he was wading neck-high in sludge-like prose, poor man, doing his best (and a bunch of accents). Realised that my version of this book (and my only version, you can fergeddaboudit regarding any actual printed text) is the Michael Mann/Daniel Day Lewis film. Aaaaah.
Rating: not remaining in my collection. Probably given away anonymously, so as not to embarrass myself by association.

Skulduggery Pleasant
by Derek Landy
unabridged: read by Rupert Degas

The book's hilarious, and the audio book's hilarious too - and with an audible Irish accent, instead of you remembering to put it in yourself. Rupert's characterisations are excellent - you never mistake Stephanie for Skulduggery - and it's all just heaps of fun, with a wonderful Irish sense of humour.
Rating: must lend this one to kids. And adults. Would be great on a car journey. Keeper.

From the group in the photo:

Middletown, America: one town's passage from trauma to hope
by Gail Sheehy
abridged: read by Gail Sheehy

Abridged here was good - I'm not saying that as a slam, but this was a book I hadn't read, and I think I've gained what I wish from the 6 hour narration. Sheehy's book is based on hundreds of interviews she undertook with people from Middletown, New Jersey, which lost proportionately more people in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre than almost anywhere else. The book is a lens to consider this event, refracted through the lives of a varying group of people. Some, angry in their grief, focus in on the why, and their energy drove an unwilling government towards accountability. For others, it was the loss of a father who'd never know the daughter his wife was carrying on 9/11, or the family who lost a firefighting son/brother, or the men who worked at Ground Zero. All sorts of stories showing how this one day reached into so many lives in so many ways, and how people responded (well and not so well, she doesn't sugarcoat). Sometimes, Gail Sheehy's voice has an odd halting quality, hitching or halting where you would have expected smoothness: but what she can bring, which no narrator in this case could, is her memory of just how the people she interviewed said what they said, tone, inflection, volume. Anger, despair, hope, grief, the gamut.
Rating: good. A keeper, but I won't be listening to it again for a while. Not only do I have loots (sic) more to listen to, it's a story to let sift and settle.

The car's CD stacker has been completely overtaken by whichever is the current audiobook - I listen in the car rather than at home - and every journey now, commute or whatever, is companioned by these stories. It's been one of the good things I've learned/discovered this year.

Which one's next? Either Outlander or The Art of Mending (which I accidentally bought as audiocassettes rather than CDs, but since the car's old enough to have a cassette player too, this isn't a problem - and it was a bargain priced audiobook).

I haven't yet investigated audible.com and suchlike sources of audio downloads - the car doesn't have an mp3 socket, and I'm not sure how these would work with my internet connection in terms of time/bandwidth and associated costs. One step at a time.

Oh, and for several good reasons I listen to the radio rather than audiobooks when I'm quilting or sewing, although I know that's audiobook time for others.