Let yourself go

At the moment there is a lovely, whimsical ad showing the virtues of Kangaroo Island on the telly. My disclaimer is that I am entirely biased, and I had the fortune to visit there twice in 2011. My very wonderful friend Kass lives there, and there is not much about the Island that she does not know. These are my December photos. The approach to the island on the ferry from Cape Jervis - a delightful approach, and the photos do not need any enhancing.


The ferry docks in Penneshaw. Pretty little town.

Kass lives in Kingscote, the largest town. It has a fabulous setting overlooking the water, the fine art gallery is my most favourite gallery ever, and some interesting buildings. I love the steps on this one.

Food and wine are a big feature. The wineries are producing some seriously good wine. Although I am still trying to get my hands on a bottle of The Islander Sangiovese. Seems they are no longer producing it (sob). Luckily, I can get their free range eggs here in Crows Nest, their yoghurt too. But it was Tracey's honeycomb icecream that left me wanting more. Sadly only sold there. Made with the famous Island honey from the only remaining pure ligurian bees in the world. Italy has to come to the Island to experience that.

Kass and I on New Years Eve. Looking awfully orange...

Some of the New Years Eve spread. Including the King George whiting caught that day. Sublime. No other way to describe it.

It was a quick trip, back to the mainland on the first day of 2012. I love the rock for a whole lot of reasons, Kass mostly, but as a destination, I just love it. South Australia at its best.

KI, love you xx

Shelf Life

This blog is unashamedly drawn from Phillip Adams piece in the Weekend Austtalian Magazine. I'm sure if I credit him, I can reproduce his words.

"And yet I cling to my library, filling many a room, shelves buckling beneath the weight of 40,000 books, the accumulation of almost 70 years of reading".

40,000 books sounds a little exaggerated to me. Maybe I'm just envious...

"I've got 'em all, pretty much every book I've ever read... Once upon a time a library that large would have been worth a fortune. Now it's little more than landfill. Even local libraries don't want the books I can't house as gifts."

He goes on to decry the Kindle, which I won't include since I am not only using one, but also considering buying Amazon shares since they have the genius of my son-in-law working for them which should auger well for the share price.

His piece finishes with these lovely words:

"And if you have books, keep them. If you die, have them buried with you just as a Chinese emporer entombed his wives and eunuchs. For books are the sleepers on the railway of life, the pickets in the fence of your history, the bricks with which you've built your brain."

Sigh. Wish I could write words like this.

I love books. xx

And my Kindle :-)

Thanks Phillip.

The changing face of books

I've managed to "read" a few books over the Christmas break. Well, I'm not sure if it the right way to say it. Do you read a CD or is it listen to a book?. Perhaps it depends on the book.
The Kite Runner on CD was actually read by the author. That had some advantages, such as some accurate pronounciation of names and places in Afghanistan. But he had a deadpan voice. Whether describing the joy of flying a kite, or the cruelty of some of the events, his tone did not change. Maybe that was so he did not put his interpretation on the events, leaving it to me. I found this very similar to A Thousand Splendid Suns - an interesting story, and obviously dealing with issues which are quite confronting. But his writing does not get me involved.

March, by Geraldine Brooks on the other hand was read by a man who used quite a lot more expression, and changed his voice for various characters. I have read all of Geraldine's books (at least the ones I know of), and this is my least favourite. Think I just couldn't grasp the invention of a fictional character based on a fictional book. It reminded me a little of the True Story of the Three Little Pigs in that regard. Having said that, I still liked it. Her way with words is just fabulous. Most movies deal with the issue from the slaves point of view (very well too), but those who risked much to help the slaves, and the running of the underground are probably unsung heroes. Mind you, he was a bit of a dill.

Interestingly, I am also "reading" Calebs Crossing" at the moment, on my brand new Kindle (thanks Rosie & Matt). No photo, they all look the same! I know Geraldine does huge amounts of research to ensure accuracy of the events. The only thing that is bugging me about this one is the "olde American" words. If I had a 200 year old Websters, it might help, but the Kindle dictionary is not useful with this one.

The Kindle will be well used and loved, alongside those gorgeous paper books which can be read, held, contemplated and above all, shared. Talking of which - Rosie - any ideas where my copy of Nine Parts of Desire is??

Maz

Note to Geraldine - I know there was a tiny bit of Australia in People of the Book, but since you are an Aussie, it would be great if you could write one set here...

A quilt - finally

Finally, I have finished a quilt! It's been so long (too long). But that's just life. This is a special quilt, and had its origins from this book that Juni gave me in January 2010 for a "significant" birthday.

So, I figured I would take the inspiration. No plan, just meandered my way through it. Bought fabric that I liked, chose blocks that gave me some variety. Some hand piecing, some machined. Slowly accumulated blocks - how were they going to come together? The border fabric did it, along with its reverse as some blocks. Thanks to the gorgeous Japanese shop in Melbourne (thanks Heather).

A bit of off-centre placement, a splash of red, and it was ready.

Add both walking foot and free motion quilting, and a backing fabric which actually worked really well.

And the best bit of all, the finished product was given to Juni, from where the inspiration started. She has been a valued member of our team for nearly 4 years. I now wish her well on the next adventure that she embarks on. First, reuniting with family in Indonesia, a holiday in Vietnam, a grand tour of Europe, then hopefully passing that rotten IELTS test ( a con) to be able to be a part of Australian society if that is what she chooses. Good luck Juni, it has been a delight making this for you, hope you enjoy it. x

Musical Moonta Bay

It was fabulous to be welcome at Matt's family Christmas at Moonta Bay. The garage and back yard of the holiday home turned into a makeshift studio for the excellent, but largely impromptu muso's. "The Music Book" may have been a guide, but improvisation was the key to success.

There were a few "karaoke" attempts to sing from this book. Not pretty. Either because we singers had no musical talent, or the wine that had been consumed, or because the musos didn't stick to the script. Mysteriously, no video of this survives...

4 iconic images. Swings. Shed. Sandman. And Kim xx

Rosie with a budding drummer. And what a drum set it was. I think the young man just liked having Rosie enveloping him!

The mosh pit. You can see the keen interest Buddy is showing. Not true, the music was brilliant!!!
The drum kit was built out of buckets, tins and whatever else they found in the shed. The drum solo/duo was fabulous. I tried to upload it, but gave up after an hour. Maybe I'll try and put it on Youtube. Sigh, another challenge.

Moonta Bay was a gorgeous place to spend Christmas, loved the company, the relaxed setting, the beach, the walks, the golf at Wallaroo (well, not as much as I would have liked), the garfish (sigh) and the lobster. Just missed Kate. Thanks to the in-laws. xx

Birds

Meet my friends who visit me fairly regularly. They are a little noisy, but usually that is only to let me know they are there. And that they are hungry! Not knowing a lot about rainbow lorikeets, I am assuming they are a couple - they certainly only come as a pair. So what do they eat? I started with some crackers. Nope, they didn't even look at that. Nuts? I put some pine nuts out. What a waste. Maybe they are like possums and enjoy fruit? So I sliced some apple chunks. What I saw was a sight to behold. Synchronised eating.

Thought both photos were fabulous. The birds were happy to be the stars. They are always welcome here.

Christmas Eve

Sadly, there are no photos to supplement this story, bucause some fool (that would be me) had left the camera memory card in the PC, so there was no card in the camera. The pictures would have been terrific, capturing the fabulous garden at my brothers' house int he Adelaide Hills. All my siblings, 8 great granddaughers, 3 great grandsons, and Dad. Show and Tell gave a glimpse of something that had happened in our lives in 2011, and covered house moves (2 upcoming international ones), a gorgeous new baby (welcome Rafa), a new marriage, career success, dealing with some health issues, a couple of fabulous quilts, and a new Passat (my news..). Think Dad scooped the pool at 94 by having all of us as his show and tell. Well, fair enough, he started it all!

Hopefully, the blog is back on track now. I shall try and keep it chronological, except for the bits that delve back into the past.