Reading (well, listening)

0808 A breath of snow and ashes (audiobook)
Originally uploaded by rooruu

This isn't on the Gabaldon shelf because it's in transit, the current car audiobook for commuting and other journeys. It's one of my favourite books in the series and I am enjoying experiencing the story again. Listening, I find, can draw my attention to sections I might have skidded through, reading.

It's a whopper, though, like the book - 48CDs. They're that kind of story, lots of threads, good characters, plot twists and turns. I'm not listening to the audiobooks in order, but it's not worrying me much - I'm just enjoying whichever one is the current one.

For some weird reason, I can only find the book before this, The Fiery Cross, direct from Recorded Books for over $100US. All the others (unabridged - I'm not interested in the abridged since I like the stories and want to hear EVERYTHING) are available from Amazon.com or Audible.com or both. Can't figure that one, but since they are so large and expensive, I'll wait for TFC to turn up at either of the above. If you do know of it being available, do let me know.

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The Gabaldon shelf

0808 The Gabaldon shelf.
Originally uploaded by rooruu

I've been going through a delightful revisiting of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series this year. It's partly reading/print, though I've still a couple of books to go (I read other things in between) and partly due to audiobooks. I now have most of the unabridged audiobooks as well, and am thoroughly happy with Davina Porter's excellent readings (I experienced a little disquiet at first, but now am perfectly content). The books, as you can see, are thick, and the audiobooks therefore long. Hearing the audio is sending me back to the books, rereading sections I've heard, reading ahead to upcoming sections.

Gabaldon's created such a rich and engaging world - twisting plots, wonderful characters. I know I've hooked several others onto her writing, and they've mostly gone on to have Gabaldon shelves of their own.

As you might see from the book on the left, I mainly have the paperbacks, as that's all that's available in Australian bookshops. The first of any new title in the series here is the large format paperback, followed by the standard size. So since I expect to be rereading these for many more years, I'm gradually acquiring the (more durable) hardbacks from the US.

If you haven't read them (the first book is Outlander, unless you're in the UK or Australia, in which case it's called Cross Stitch) then do.

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Stone wall

0808 rock wall
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Such good colours and textures and shapes - monochrome on monochrome, until tyou look and see all the shades of grey and pale browns, and the bright lime of the moss.

More time at the dentist today. I'd rather think about stone walls. Tell me if you feel this, she says, applying something icy cold to a tooth that is JUST FINE, judging by the height by which I spontaneously elevate from the dental chair. O-kay, she says. After an hour and a half of it all (my mouth aches hours later), there's another appointment made for a date a few weeks hence. Sigh. Spent a large part of the rest of the day with half my mouth numbed, surreptitiously checking that I wasn't drooling (I wasn't, but you can't tell). Dentristry and elegance. Worlds apart.

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Magnolia stellata

0808 Magnolia stellata
Originally uploaded by rooruu

The more usual magnolias are showier, grand. I like the delicacy of stellata, the way in which air and space are part of the flower's gracefulness.

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Early morning trees

0808 morning trees
Originally uploaded by rooruu

There's something very beautiful about the gently dappled sunlight, the pale blue sky, the tracery of twigs through to the strong verticals of the tree trunks. I'm glad I looked up.

Camellia

0808 camellia
Originally uploaded by rooruu

The structure of these never fails to amaze me. There's something almost origami about them, or maybe reminiscent of first class food carvers. Delicate strength and rhythm to them. Beautiful.

Jonquils

0808 jonquils
Originally uploaded by rooruu

(I keep typing jonquilts, my fingers know that quil- word so well they can't help themselves!)

Sign of spring. So cheerful! And their scent is a favourite.

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Water's edge

0808 water's edge
Originally uploaded by rooruu

The profile on the stone's surface seems to echo the transitory ripples on the water. Or so I thought.

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Chimneys and Olympic thoughts

0808 chimneys and sky
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Rosehill racecourse, where the Stitches and Craft Show is held, is near an industrial area including these refineries. There was a certain beauty in the way the chimneys rose above their surroundings, with colours reflecting those in the sky.

My favourite gold medallists are both Australians: Steve Hooker, with the pole vault, and Matthew Mitcham's diving from the 10m platform. Not just the grit, the skill and the many long hours of practice required, as with many other sports, but because of the sheer bloody courage required to leap into the air as they do. (And how about Matthew winning gold with the highest-scoring dive in Olympic history?)

My least favourite moment: why do Australians who get silver or bronze have to apologise to the country? Hello? Second or third best is pretty damn good... So is just getting selected for the team, putting them at the top of a huge pyramid of other sportspeople.

Chinese innovation: the widget in the flagpoles that makes the flags flutter when they get to the top. Much better than limp flags, as so often happens in stadia.

Memo to the television sponsors, whose ads are burned on my eyeballs: your ads are burned on my eyeballs. Cease and desist. Please. There's repetition and there's mental cruelty. Enough. Please.

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Saturday

0808 blossom and sky
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Another Saturday walk along the river - the weather was kind, sun and wind, where rain had been forecast. As usual, we were able to solve pretty much all the world's problems (as one of course does, on a long Saturday walk!) as well as checking in on this tree. The blossom's less dense than it has been, but still beautiful. It's not yet spring, but it's getting closer...jonquils are out, and the blossom trees, and when the days finally warm up, you know it's closer than it has been.

In the afternoon, I toddled off to the Stitches and Craft Show at Rosehill. I haven't been for a couple of years, and don't know that I will again. Beading and scrapbooking are less my thing, and they're bigger at this show, with many vendors. While there were plenty of people there, I saw everything I wanted to in a couple of hours (whereas the June show at Darling Harbour takes a day).

Upstairs this time was what appeared to be a concept allowing smaller businesses to have a table for their wares. It felt a trifle awkward, somehow, and I browsed from a distance rather than up close.

My eye was caught, however, by BKH Design. She sells bags, homewares, and fabrics. The fabrics reminded me of Florence Broadhurst - not as copies, but in that style of modern design, and on a midweight cotton, heavier than quilt fabric. You can see more of her work here: http://www.bkhdesignshop.blogspot.com/
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Kiva: the Volver a Empezar Group

Kiva is microfinance, an easy way to lend directly to the world's poor and help them improve their lives. Among the many choices, I'm biased towards textiles and women, so my latest loan is to this group in Bolivia. Their name seems to translate generally as "start again". I'm aware of all the basic services I take for granted and they do not. Reading the stories of Kiva's borrowers is such a fascinating window into other people's worlds and lives.

About the Volver a Empezar group:

The center of Alto Lima is located in the Ballivian zone in the city of El Alto which is where the "Volver a Empezar" Association is found. They work with great responsibility with their payments and internal activities. Within the group, many of the women lack basic services in their homes. For example, doña Verni cannot rely on potable water that should be supplied by public water basins. What's more, like many others, she cannot rely on gas services and must buy gas in tanks. Lamentably, she lives in a zone where distributors of these tanks do not pass very frequently which is why she has to go to busy streets in the hopes that one of these trucks will pass by. She longs to be able to rely on these services in her home. The main activity of this group is the weaving of sweaters, scarves, and other pieces of clothing, in Alpaca wool that they later sell in the "16 de julio" market in the city of El Alto. Currently, they want to be able to increase their production so that they can sell their products to handicraft shops. It is for this that they need more capital for the acquisition of raw materials to make their sweaters. They have the security of increasing their income, in this manner they will also be able to improve the quality of life for their families.

Who are they?

Bertha Blanco, Reyna Apaza, Karen Quispe, Reynaldo Sinka, Martha Arroba, Emiliana Ramirez, Julia Ronquilla (not pictured), Gregoria Cora, Feliza Capajaña, Tomasa Calle (not pictured), Julia Quispe (not pictured), Lucia Mayta, Feliza Tola, Veneranda Sinka, Hilaria Mamani, Cristina Mayta, Nelly Villca.

You can lend as little as $US25. And, when it's paid back, you can lend it again to another Kiva borrower - it's a loan, not a donation. This group still needs several thousand dollars, so why not support them?

Of my earlier loans:

• Moriya Nabieva has paid back 60%
• Shamshad Iqbal's group has paid back 42%
• Cielo Group has paid back 33%

There's a Kiva link over in the sidebar with another business if you'd like to support a different one.

A question or two

In trawling through Flickr, someone has come across one of my photos. They've written to ask if they can use it in a tourist guide, and if so what name they should write for the credit.

On the one hand, flattering. On the other, I wonder how many commercial organisations are using Flickr as a free source of stock photography, relying on the flattering effect of such requests to avoid any reimbursement (like they'd have to pay for stock photography). There would appear to be commercial gain for them in their guide. Nor have they specified print/online/other multiple use possibilities.

What do you think? Would you say yes, if someone approached you about an original photo of yours like this?

One piece left...

0808 one piece left...
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Who'd a thunk? After being the tearoom for a couple of months, the last ?third or so got done in less than a week.

I've decided perhaps there's an identifiable factor called "jigsaw ending frenzy" in which the forcefield of the jigsaw increases in inverse proportion to the number of pieces left. As the number of pieces decreases, the urge to find their place intensifies (you wouldn't believe how many people get interested when it's nearly finished....).

The self adhesive Contact plastic went on So Fast....

And now we're basking in our achievement (there were times when we thought we'd put a board over this one and start another - but now we're glad we persisted).

The next one is a photo of a whole lot of hot air balloons preparing to ascend. The general consensus is that it's easier. Surely. Except for that rather large green/brown farmland section....

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Quiltlet: B is for Bondi

0808 Quiltlet B is for Bondi
Originally uploaded by rooruu

This is the second in the series of little quilts I'm designing for Australian Patchwork & Quilting magazine and naming after Australian places. Maybe, after Sydney, Bondi is one of the most familiar Australian place names? Probably, what with its iconic beach.

The aqua with chartreuse circles fabric in this quilt is the one that set me off - and I can't count how many times I've used the Lonni Rossi chartreuse oriental lettering fabric. It's a design you could do in many colour combinations and fabric themes, though.

This one's in vol. 17 no. 2, which is out in patchwork shops now and in Australian newsagents any day now (they also included a quilter's profile of me in the issue, which was flattering).

G's with the magazine now, and I'm working on H, such is the lead time of magazines.

I'd love to hear from anyone who's making any of these designs, and see pictures of your versions!


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The scream...

0808 Simpsons jigsaw referencing Munch
Originally uploaded by rooruu

There's a collective jigsaw puzzle in the tea room at work - anyone's welcome to sit with it with their cuppa and switch brain spaces for a little while.

Turns out this particular one, though, is pretty tricky - it's taken some months to get this far. I don't do jigsaws at home, but fiddling about with them in odd breaktime moments at work has been pleasant (and at times, frustrating!).

When they're done, we put clear self-adhesive Contact plastic on them and bung 'em on the wall (trust me, nobody else wants to wrangle this Simpsons take on Munch again!!)

Current reading: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

0808 book: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Originally uploaded by rooruu

I'm not sure what sold this one to me. The quirky title? The fact that I did once visit the Channel Islands, as they were a place I'd always wanted to see (although Sark was the biggest drawcard, I must admit)? The letters-format of it? A review that compared it favourably to Helene Hanff's 84 Charing Cross Road which is one of my enduringly favourite books?

Can't say which. But I can say I read it in a sitting on the weekend, and found it engaging and delightful. It's fiction, set in 1946, when a London-based author, Juliet Ashton, learns of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and through this of the lives of those trapped on Guernsey through the Nazi Occupation. The epistolary form lets voices speak - funny, sad, descriptive, occasionally vituperative. It's got light and shade, and some lovely quirky funny moments. From an early letter of Juliet's:

PS. I am reading the collected correspondence of Mrs Montagu. Do you know what that dismal woman wrote to Jane Carlyle? 'My dear little Jane, everyone is born with a vocation and yours is to write charming little notes'. I hope Jane spat at her.

I chuckled. Juliet's character, in particular, comes off the page so clearly.

Mary Ann Shaffer, from what I can gather on the internet, was an American who had visited Guernsey in the 1970s and who became interested in the Occupation years there. She wrote this book under prompting from her literary club. Sadly, although she was able to know it was going to be published in thirteen countries, she died early this year, aged in her seventies, before it was published, and her niece, Annie Barrow, did the final tweaks (as Mary Ann had requested her to do).

Anyway, I'm delighted to recommend this book. Do read it.

Added later: both Candy and Isabelle have left comments saying they'll read it.  I chuckled.  You were certainly two I thought would like it!  (Pennie is another, and Erica, and...oh, quite a few people!).  My copy's already in the hands of one friend, and headed then for the hands of another.  And then I suspect I'll want it back so I can reread it.

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A well-received quilt

0808 well-received quilt
Originally uploaded by rooruu

This is the gift-quilt I wrote about last week. I didn't make it solo, but co-ordinated its creation (design, assemble, baste, partly quilt, partly bind and generally whipcrack the others so it got made on time!).

Isn't it lovely when someone who really needs a quilt receives one their friends have made, quite out of the blue? She likes watery pursuits, so the quilt's colours reflect that.

And even it's nicer when their first action is to wrap themselves in it.

Saturday lunch

0808 chicken pie
Originally uploaded by rooruu

There's a new bakery opened locally, so it seemed worthwhile to try them out. This is a chicken, leek and mushroom pie, garlanded by grape tomatoes. It was a nice pie, with breast chicken meat and baby mushrooms, although the gravy was a tad 'dried-herby'. The pastry is certainly presented elegantly, and 'ate good'. With a touch of spring warming the air and the Saturday Sydney Morning Herald to browse, it was a most pleasant Saturday lunch.

Wool yarn

08 handspun wool yarn mosaic
Originally uploaded by rooruu

It's hard to know, sometimes, when it's OK to photograph at markets and when it isn't. I'm neither spinner nor dyer, but I am an admirer of colour, and these were beautiful. I just wanted to catch them to remember and enjoy.

Conifer

0808 conifer
Originally uploaded by rooruu

A catch of the day (well, from last weekend, the climate's colder where we were). Can't tell you any more than that it's a conifer and its colours and shapes appealed, so out came the camera.

Ikea 2009 catalog

Yup, I can spell Australian English and English English.  But if you want a sneak peek at the new US Ikea catalog, here's a link.

We may not get all the same things, but it's an idea of what may be on offer.  There isn't a preview of the Australian Ikea catalogue on the ikea.com.au website.  The print version's due out in Oz in September.

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.