And so the year has bloomed and is ending. Thank you to everyone who's read this blog, commented, and led that ticker to list 99 countries from which visitors have come (wonder when it will crack the magic 100!).
To burgle a line from Philip Larkin's poem, "The Trees":
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.
Happy New Year. I wonder what it will hold, this fresh start?
(This photo was taken at the wonderful Cowra Rose Garden. It was such a windy day I was surprised how many photos were in focus. Bed after bed of colour and blooms. Just beautiful. Thanks be for how a digital camera and memory card allows you to be profligate with your photos.)
If you want a holiday film recommendation for tomorrow's public holiday, Enchanted was great fun as a meringue movie - kids would enjoy it, and adults would chuckle too.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Sort-your-house books
If you are spending some time doing house sorting/tidying/chucking, and would like some inspiration, here are a couple of books on the topic: two I've read, one I plan to read.
- Sorted by Lisanne Oliver
- It's All too Much by Peter Walsh
- The Not-So-Big Life: making room for what really matters by Sarah Susanka
Sometimes
With this being the end of the year, and summer holidays, it always feels like a time to regroup, reconsider, to keep some things and let others go, revive some things and throw others out, refine, rechoose, review.
Although it likely happens everywhere, I was talking with an American friend, who's spent half her life in each hemisphere. She thought perhaps it's more so here, as there is that sense of a breath taken with the summer season as well as Christmas, so it's more of a break in time than the shortstop of Christmas and a return to the busyness of life in winter. I know that the charity/op-shops are busy collecting the fruit of people's sorting and tidying efforts in January.
I found this book in Canberra, and it's introducing me to new friends and reminding me of old. I'm working one poem into an article I'm writing at the moment, as it seems to sum this time, the project, the idea behind it.
On googling, I find that Sheenagh Pugh is less than thrilled with the (considerable) response her poem has received. You can read her thoughts on her website here.
But then, that's the catch, whether you write a poem or play or article or story or novel or blog entry, whether you make a quilt or a softie or a bracelet or a doll, and then let your work be published. You can't hold onto your own version as the only one, and you have to expect that others may find ways and meanings you never thought of and didn't anticipate.
I've seen some versions of my quilt designs that take the ideas to entirely new places in colours and fabrics. Not always colours or fabrics I'd have chosen, but isn't that part of the choice, in publishing? To let others travel the ideas along new paths? I think so. It's a grace and gift that they liked what you did enough to be inspired to play with the idea for themselves, in their place, for their purposes, in their lives.
So it's a shame that Sheenagh Pugh isn't so happy with how her poem has been used (although it would get up my nose too if someone PC'd my prose, changing 'man' to 'human being' for example, damaging the work's scansion and put my name to it...).
In Cynthia Voigt's series - well, not exactly a series, but a group that belongs together - of teenlit books beginning with Homecoming, then Dicey's Song, there's one called Come a Stranger.
One of my favourite scenes from that is where the main character, a girl, engineers a meeting between a man she admires and respects, and the boy who was named after an uncle who died in Vietnam, an uncle who was a childhood friend of the man's. She does so as a gift - but finds that the gift she wrapped, so to speak, is not the gift he unwraps. What matters most about the meeting for that man is not the young boy who never knew the uncle whose name he bears, but meeting the boy's grandmother, his friend's mother, and their common ground in speaking of the son who was his friend. Their common ground, their common loss. We can wrap a present, or publish something, but we cannot control its subsequent journey. The world is too big, people are too varied.
On the link above, Pugh gives permission for her poem to be reproduced on personal blogs, so here it is. However she feels about it now, I'm glad she wrote it, glad it's in the world, and in this anthology, and that we can read it and find a meaning in it for ourselves and our lives.
SOMETIMES
Sheenagh Pugh
Sometimes, things don't go, after all,
from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don't fail,
sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.
A people sometimes will step back from war;
elect an honest man, decide they care
enough, that they can't leave a stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.
Sometimes our best efforts do not go
amiss; sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed hard frozen: may it happen for you.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Sydney Opera House
Sometimes it's fun to spend a day being a tourist in your own city. And what could be more pleasant, on a sunny summer Saturday, than wandering down Circular Quay, around to the Opera House, up through the Botanical Gardens (very nice vegetable and fetta pizza at the cafe for lunch) and then taking a quick squizz at the August Sander exhibition?
August Sander set out to make a photographic 'atlas' of the German people, photographing all sorts of types - farmers and women, workmen and children, families and the old - over several decades in the first half of the twentieth century. Much of his work is housed in the Getty, in Los Angeles - this exhibition is on at the AGNSW till 3 February.
Exhibition link: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/current/august_sander
August Sander set out to make a photographic 'atlas' of the German people, photographing all sorts of types - farmers and women, workmen and children, families and the old - over several decades in the first half of the twentieth century. Much of his work is housed in the Getty, in Los Angeles - this exhibition is on at the AGNSW till 3 February.
Exhibition link: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/current/august_sander
Scatterday Mosaic Letter Y
Third one for today and I'll be caught up on Scatterdays.
For the category Green, the colour is on the cover of You've Got Mail. Yellow is the colour of the dog in that film, and the colour of the cardboard, which is also part of Schooldays.
It's brief, but there you are.
This is today's, so I'm now up to date. Next week it's letter V and the categories are Car parts, Office items and In the kitchen.
Now to catch up on the last couple of weeks - if you haven't read this blog in a little while, or have wondered where the daily entries are, read down to find out....
For the category Green, the colour is on the cover of You've Got Mail. Yellow is the colour of the dog in that film, and the colour of the cardboard, which is also part of Schooldays.
It's brief, but there you are.
This is today's, so I'm now up to date. Next week it's letter V and the categories are Car parts, Office items and In the kitchen.
Now to catch up on the last couple of weeks - if you haven't read this blog in a little while, or have wondered where the daily entries are, read down to find out....
Scatterday Mosaic Letter S
A tad late, but here's another Scatterday (last week's one).
For Christmas, a sparkly Snowman, a Sparkly village of little houses and a Sign.
For Beverages, Sparkling mineral water.
For Medical, the Sparkling wine, also known in some of my circles as Fizzy Medicine.....
As to the DVDs, Sleepless in Seattle features Christmas and a Sneezy fiance due to his medical condition, Shadowlands has plenty of medical, also features Christmas and a brother rather fond of his beverages, while The Shawshank Redemption doesn't feature Christmas, that I remember, has a little medical due to violence, but at the beginning, it's overconsumption of a beverage in a car that causes some of the subsequent trouble.
Next Scatterday is letter Y with the categories Green, Schooldays and Animals.
Scatterday Mosaic Letter D (part 2)
...better late than.....
Devotion to Scatterday for Letter D led me to Dubbo, in central western NSW. Thus we have: for Touchy-feely, Double Delight roses (from the beautiful Cowra Rose Garden) and The Dish (radio telescope near Parkes), which is all about stuff in the air around. Or something. Besides, it was a special stop to get the photo, and it's a D, so it's here.
For Sewing, the Dubbo quilt shop, a Diamonds quilt in the Dubbo Museum and, also from there, the Dubbo Clairvoyant Fruiterer's embroidery. Is this the first clairvoyant fruiterer to feature in Scatterday?
For Vehicles, Dubbo's World Champion cyclist and three views of a Dray from Dubbo.
Done and dusted. Next Scatterday is letter S and the categories are Medical, Beverages and Christmas.
Devotion to Scatterday for Letter D led me to Dubbo, in central western NSW. Thus we have: for Touchy-feely, Double Delight roses (from the beautiful Cowra Rose Garden) and The Dish (radio telescope near Parkes), which is all about stuff in the air around. Or something. Besides, it was a special stop to get the photo, and it's a D, so it's here.
For Sewing, the Dubbo quilt shop, a Diamonds quilt in the Dubbo Museum and, also from there, the Dubbo Clairvoyant Fruiterer's embroidery. Is this the first clairvoyant fruiterer to feature in Scatterday?
For Vehicles, Dubbo's World Champion cyclist and three views of a Dray from Dubbo.
Done and dusted. Next Scatterday is letter S and the categories are Medical, Beverages and Christmas.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Apricots
Right now the fruit shops are full of summer fruit - apricots and nectarines, peaches of many varieties, mangos reaching their ridiculously low summer prices, rockmelons and pineapples that are sweetly enticing, and more. But you still need to check the strawberries with your nose to see if their smell hints at their taste (I don't like boardy white tasteless strawberries).
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
Propiniquity? (and the best gingerbread recipe)
Yup, a sign of the season.
Been away for a couple of days, have a bunch of photos to share (Cowra has a wonderful rose garden, and what happened with the birds' nest, for starters, not forgetting Scatterdays) but today's task is gingerbread (biscuits/ cookies/ stars/ people, not the cakey sort). Catch up soon!
Gingerbread
Ingredients
150g butter
3 level tablespoons golden syrup
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 cups plain flour and 1 cup self-raising flour
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1 level teaspoon each of ground cinnamon and ground ginger
1/2 level teaspoon ground cloves
pinch finely ground cardamom (optional)
1 egg and 1 egg yolk (save the left-over egg white for Royal Icing)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Method
Put butter, golden syrup and sugar into a saucepan, beat to dissolve, then cool to lukewarm. Sift plain flour, SR flour, soda and spices intoa mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle. Add egg, egg yolk, vanilla and warm syrup mixture. Mix thoroughly.
Take about 1/3 of the mixture at a time and knead lightly using a little flour (not too much flour) then roll out onto a lightly floured surface. Cut out with Christmas cutters - hearts, stars, angels, sheep).Place on greased baking trays lined with baking paper and bake in a moderate oven (180 to 190 degrees Celsius) for 8 to 10 minutes. Watch carefully, as they burn quickly after this time, and if overcooked the flavour will be spoilt. Remove from trays and cool.
Store in an airtight container. Serve them perfectly plain or decorate with Royal Icing. These biscuits keep for weeks and weeks in an airtight container. They're delicious with coffee or icecream and especially popular with young children. The recipe makes about 30 gingerbread people or 50 to 60 small hearts or stars.
And they'll make your kitchen smell like Christmas.
Been away for a couple of days, have a bunch of photos to share (Cowra has a wonderful rose garden, and what happened with the birds' nest, for starters, not forgetting Scatterdays) but today's task is gingerbread (biscuits/ cookies/ stars/ people, not the cakey sort). Catch up soon!
Gingerbread
Ingredients
150g butter
3 level tablespoons golden syrup
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 cups plain flour and 1 cup self-raising flour
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1 level teaspoon each of ground cinnamon and ground ginger
1/2 level teaspoon ground cloves
pinch finely ground cardamom (optional)
1 egg and 1 egg yolk (save the left-over egg white for Royal Icing)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Method
Put butter, golden syrup and sugar into a saucepan, beat to dissolve, then cool to lukewarm. Sift plain flour, SR flour, soda and spices intoa mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle. Add egg, egg yolk, vanilla and warm syrup mixture. Mix thoroughly.
Take about 1/3 of the mixture at a time and knead lightly using a little flour (not too much flour) then roll out onto a lightly floured surface. Cut out with Christmas cutters - hearts, stars, angels, sheep).Place on greased baking trays lined with baking paper and bake in a moderate oven (180 to 190 degrees Celsius) for 8 to 10 minutes. Watch carefully, as they burn quickly after this time, and if overcooked the flavour will be spoilt. Remove from trays and cool.
Store in an airtight container. Serve them perfectly plain or decorate with Royal Icing. These biscuits keep for weeks and weeks in an airtight container. They're delicious with coffee or icecream and especially popular with young children. The recipe makes about 30 gingerbread people or 50 to 60 small hearts or stars.
And they'll make your kitchen smell like Christmas.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Corrugated iron angel
In front of the Anglican church in Mudgee was this delightful corrugated iron angel. Love this sort of inventive folk sculpture.
There was also a sign advertising their Christmas photo opportunity - not Santa, but Nativity photos. In a rural area like this, it wouldn't be too hard to conjure a cow or two, and some sheep - I wonder what they had planned. It sounded like such a good idea.
There was also a sign advertising their Christmas photo opportunity - not Santa, but Nativity photos. In a rural area like this, it wouldn't be too hard to conjure a cow or two, and some sheep - I wonder what they had planned. It sounded like such a good idea.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
The Dish, Parkes
Although I'd seen the film, The Dish, and knew of the radio telescope's role in the lunar landings, this was the first time I'd seen it for real, looming among the paddocks beside the highway outside Parkes, NSW. It's still an international astronomical facility.
(It wasn't easy to get a good photo - not so much because of the haze, but because of the relentless flies. It's tricky to focus a camera and stay still when they're crawling on your hands and face - you wave them away and they come right back.)
Friday, December 21, 2007
End of the school year
21 December marks the end of the school year in NSW - it's a fresh year, everyone moves up a grade/year and the gloss and aroma of fresh stationery at the end of January. This would have to be one of the best, if not the best, school signs around marking the occasion. Happy holidays indeed!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Nest - final mosaic
And so what happened with the nest? One day, a basking nestling in the sun. A couple of mornings later, a dead nestling on the ground, already food for ants. At least two nestlings remained, but a couple more days later, the nest was empty and abandoned.
It was good to have caught this brief time - they grew so quickly from pink and helpless to the survivors gone, flown away into their own brief lives. I first took photos on 11 December and photographed the empty nest on 20 December, less than two weeks later.
I thought about whether to post the dead nestling picture, and then thought, well, it's part of what really happened. One day, a nestling basking in the sun in such a delightful way, and then the attrition which is also part of the cycle. If it had still been alive, I'd have tried to put it back in the nest, but it must have fallen at night and not survived till morning (it's been an unusually cool December).
That section of vines will get pruned carefully, leaving the nest in place. Maybe it will be used again next year.
It was good to have caught this brief time - they grew so quickly from pink and helpless to the survivors gone, flown away into their own brief lives. I first took photos on 11 December and photographed the empty nest on 20 December, less than two weeks later.
I thought about whether to post the dead nestling picture, and then thought, well, it's part of what really happened. One day, a nestling basking in the sun in such a delightful way, and then the attrition which is also part of the cycle. If it had still been alive, I'd have tried to put it back in the nest, but it must have fallen at night and not survived till morning (it's been an unusually cool December).
That section of vines will get pruned carefully, leaving the nest in place. Maybe it will be used again next year.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Bandstand and palm
In addition to a charming park with an iron-lace bandstand, Forbes has a lovely quilt shop. Karen's Cotton On Cottage, 52 Sherriff St, Forbes NSW 2871 is one I'd gladly revisit. Excellent range of fabrics and samples, such a helpful lady behind the counter, it was a pleasure to find. It can't be easy running a quilt shop in a small country town, but the palpable energy and enthusiasm were infectious.
(No, this is not a paid ad - just the commentary of an impressed first-time customer!)
(No, this is not a paid ad - just the commentary of an impressed first-time customer!)
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Mudgee streetscape
Of all the Central West country towns visited on this trip, Mudgee was the most charming and seemed among the most prosperous.
It is bewildering to find that the local council is considering building a suck-em-in shopping mall in the town. As a tourist, I'm utterly uninterested in shopping malls and their predictable contents. But streets like those of Mudgee, with wonderful old buildings and a lovely variety of shops and businesses, not to mention cobbled laneways with cafes - why would you destroy that for a cookie-cutter predictable mall? In an area where they are clearly interested in tourism?
These wedding-cake Victorian buildings are in one of the main streets.
It is bewildering to find that the local council is considering building a suck-em-in shopping mall in the town. As a tourist, I'm utterly uninterested in shopping malls and their predictable contents. But streets like those of Mudgee, with wonderful old buildings and a lovely variety of shops and businesses, not to mention cobbled laneways with cafes - why would you destroy that for a cookie-cutter predictable mall? In an area where they are clearly interested in tourism?
These wedding-cake Victorian buildings are in one of the main streets.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Dray
The majestic size and fascinating craft of construction of this dray in the foyer of the Dubbo Museum meant it got photographed more than once. It stood pretty much 6 feet high, to the flat top, and was long too. Must have needed quite a team to haul it.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Double Delight roses, Cowra
There's a spectacular rose garden at Cowra outside the visitors' centre, yards and yards and beds of blooms. I'm not normally such a fan of bicolour/edge-coloured roses like this Double Delight, but it was rather beautiful....
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Victory
At this very moment, the nine year old was about to claim victory - he had red, and I had black, and he had me trapped and beaten, whatever I did next. And was he pleased? Oh YES!!!!!
We had a family gathering today to celebrate Christmas, and it was a lovely day.
We had a family gathering today to celebrate Christmas, and it was a lovely day.
J.K. Rowling rare book on view at Amazon
JK Rowling wrote and illustrated (by hand, herself) a limited edition of seven copies of a book of Harry Potter-related fairy tales - all but one as presents for family/friends. The last one was auctioned at Sothebys, with the proceeds going to charity.
Amazon paid four million dollars (nearly two million pounds sterling) for it and is showing off this beautiful object (for such it is, with silver and moonstones and vellum and more) so the mug punters like you and I can see it too (maybe a lot more than if it had been bought by a private collector without commercial interests).
www.amazon.com/beedlebard is where you can see The Tales of Beedle the Bard.
Her charity is one addressing the needs of vulnerable children in Europe.
Back in a few days - didn't get in enough of that basking...
Amazon paid four million dollars (nearly two million pounds sterling) for it and is showing off this beautiful object (for such it is, with silver and moonstones and vellum and more) so the mug punters like you and I can see it too (maybe a lot more than if it had been bought by a private collector without commercial interests).
www.amazon.com/beedlebard is where you can see The Tales of Beedle the Bard.
Her charity is one addressing the needs of vulnerable children in Europe.
Back in a few days - didn't get in enough of that basking...
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