Forwards and backwards

The computer has been back in hospital....doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it, they said.....I'm not convinced.  Anyway, it's back home for now.

How has everyone been?  It's been a busy couple of weeks; we're in the hottest part of the year and as usual the heat is quite unpleasant but it, too, will eventually pass.  The country music festival has come and gone, we had a new musical friend staying (I don't know where he gets his stamina from; his time was spent running from one gig to another and he had some very late nights, although he never disturbed us no matter how late he came home) and we enjoyed going to a few concerts.

No trees were made last week but the binding has been machined down on Autumn Rhapsody, and it's now being hand-sewn down on the back.  My bad hand doesn't enjoy long marathon sewing sessions, but so far it's behaving.  The panic over the too-short binding turned out to be misplaced in the end, as that extra strip wasn't needed after all.

Never waste a good panic.  You don't know when it may be needed for something really important.

If we were to hop in the trusty chariot and drive an hour or so south, we would be in sunflower territory.

A sunflower tree for the farmers who grow the sunflowers, and for tourists who love taking selfies in a field of big golden blooms.  Some farmers are now planting a field of flowers just for that purpose as it keeps the aforementioned tourists from trampling their precious crop, and the 'selfie fee' still raises some welcome money for their coffers or for charity.

Not sure what sort of tree this one is, but it's very colourful!

Don't they look good together?  

A reminder that one day this enervating heat will come to an end, and autumn will be with us once more.

To answer the comment from 'Anonymous' on my last post about a purple tree:  my least favourite colour in the whole spectrum is pink.  My second least favourite is purple, therefore a purple tree may continue to be missing.  There will, however, be more green and yellow trees to come.

Yesterday was Australia Day.  We spent the morning at home and the afternoon at a concert enjoying our musical guest's talents, before saying 'farewell' to the performers until next year.  As usual many words have been read and spoken on the subject of "should we celebrate Australia Day when it commemorates the arrival of European settlers to the detriment of the First Peoples" but I don't think the answer is simple, as any alternative date put forward is also problematic for some reason or another.  The date also marks the date of 26th January, 1949, when the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 was enacted.  That meant that we all became Australian citizens; prior to that date we were considered British subjects and even had to travel on British passports....and that, to me, is something worth celebrating.

My Posh Melbourne Grandmother, Florence, was one of five girls and two boys born in Sydney to Phoebe and Arthur Nelson.  (She and her new hubby moved to Melbourne after their marriage and spent the rest of their lives there.)  For several years from the mid-1890s Arthur, an engineer with his own business, was a member of the N.S.W. Legislative Assembly, and according to information found on Trove he attended Federation conferences in both Melbourne and Adelaide, prior to Federation in 1901.  In those days the prospect of Federation - all Australian states and territories combining to form one country - was obviously on Arthur and Phoebe's mind, so much so that a daughter born in 1887 was named 'Australia'.

She seems to have gone by her middle name of Mae.  Can't say I blame her, really.

Words have been read.  Notes have been plinked.  Stitches have been sewn, by hand and by machine.  We managed to avoid the festival crowds (not always an easy exercise when there are over 50,000 of them to avoid) in order to hunt and gather because the food supply was getting a bit low, but we are stocked up again now.  We keep out of the heat as much as possible, although it's a struggle to stay cool sometimes.

Further to our last point of etiquette:

"It shows a great lack of proper manners to see two ladies, or a lady and gentleman, occupy a seat in front of them and fill it with their wraps and bundles, retaining it in spite of the entreating or remonstrating looks of fellow-passengers.  In such case any person who desires a seat is justified in removing the baggage and taking possession of the unused seat."

It's even worse when people put their feet on the opposite seat.  Who would want to pick up someone else's feetsies and place them on the floor?  Not me.  Not even I.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

Yee har!

Yep, the country music has come to town......however it is fun, and some of the sights - oh, my goodness.  We know it's been hot (very hot indeed, actually; the severe heatwave conditions this week have been making life difficult) but perhaps not so much bare flesh hanging out would have been nice.

We have attended a couple of concerts and spent quite a bit of time sitting chatting with our musical guest, putting the world to rights.  He leaves tomorrow, and he has presented us with some tasty Stuff for drinking - Baileys for me, Irish whiskey for Kevin - to remember him by.

Our Tuesday night gig went off better than we hoped, but I still don't like playing outdoors.  Over the years I have had my share of music stands blowing over in the wind, music blowing off stands, insects buzzing around, rain storms forcing the event to be cancelled even while performing, the one and only electrical plug for all the sound gear being accidentally pulled out of the socket, freezing cold winds, you name it, I have played in it.  It was windy on Tuesday so I suppose we were lucky that our stands didn't blow over, I managed to grab mine a few times just before it fell.  Oh well, the audience liked us.  If we sign up for that gig again I will be investing in a heavy duty music stand; I have folding stands one of which is heavier than the others, I nearly took it.....of course 20 minutes out of town it was breezier than here at home so I should have done so.....we'll know better next time.

Very few stitches have been taken this week, and most of them were on Tuesday during my regular volunteer shift at a gallery.  It's always interesting at the gallery during country music time because we gat a lot of visitors from other parts of Australia (and occasionally even overseas), and this week there has been music.  I was lucky enough to be able to listen to a wonderful gallery concert by some local performers I hadn't heard before, although I had heard of them.

With nothing to show for the week, let's see what we can find in the picture vaults.

On Friday we celebrated Australia Day.  While many people like the idea of having a national day there are also people who feel that it marks a day when the land now called Australia was invaded by Europeans to the detriment of the indigenous population, so there is a growing cry every year to "change the date".  Well......yes, and no; changing to another date will not erase the fact that invasion and its consequences happened, which seems to be the thinking of many people.  "If we celebrate on another date it won't be celebrating an invasion" they seem to think.  Ah....no, I don't think it works like that.....

Regardless of which date is celebrated, Australia is the best country in the world - because we have wombats!  This little feller was the first in my collection, over 25 years ago.

I was visiting my mother here in the Small Smoke a couple of years before she died (25 years this August, which is how I know the wombat's age) when we stopped for a cuppa at a long-gone café/gift shop/plant nursery, and this wombat called to me.  I succumbed to the call, and so began an interesting - still ongoing - collection.

Taken on an autumn day when we were paused for roadworks, while travelling the Mid Western Highway between Cowra and Bathurst.  We were on our way home from Canberra.

So peaceful......

Very few stitches were made, but plinking and singing was done.  Words were read.  Many words were spoken and listened to, many cuppas consumed, with our musical friend.  Out we go for the hunting and gathering, and so passes another week.

However, I do have hopes to achieve something - anything! - this coming week.

Continuing with Etiquette of Public Places, Conduct in Church.  We will combine two, as both are short.

"It is courteous to see that visitors are provided with books, and if the service is strange to them, the places for the day's reading should be indicated.

It is perfectly proper to offer to share the prayer-book or hymn-book with a stranger if there is no separate book for his use."

Yes, indeed.  It is easy to lose one's place during the service when one is unfamiliar with its form.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

Australia Day

The annual celebration of all things Aussie!  It's also Robert Burns' birthday, for those of you who - like myself - have Scottish blood flowing through your veins.

Each year the "we should change the date of Australia Day" voices grow louder.  On 26th January 1788 the First Fleet dropped anchor in what is now Sydney, and modern Australia has grown from that event.  The native aboriginal people didn't always come off well in encounters with the new settlers and vice versa.  There is documented evidence of Dutch visits to Australia's shores in the early 1600s, even an attempt at settlement from shipwrecks, but until 1788 it remained the land of those born here.

Some parts of Australia think of Australia Day as being a celebration for the east coast only and for Sydney in particular, but I think that's a bit simplistic.  That early rag-tag settlement of convicts, guards, marines/soldiers and a few settlers grew and in time spread over as much of the inhabitable land as it could, for good or ill.  Many people now look on 26th January as "invasion day" but European settlement in this land was inevitable; a French ship landed only two days after the First Fleet, so who knows......we may have all been parlez-vousing instead of speaking English!

Incidentally, here's a snippet of historical trivia for you:  That French expedition was captained by Jean François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, who was shipwrecked and didn't make it back to Europe.  A promising young cadet, a skilled navigator, was to have sailed with him but decided to go into the army instead of the navy, and stayed in France.  His name was Napoleon Bonaparte.....the course of European history would have been very different, had he sailed.

We will have carpet next week!  The carpet-laying blokes are coming on Monday morning and my sewing stash room is still not yet packed.   A new cupboard was bought to replace the one in my machine sewing room but it's smaller than the old one (which was pretty old, let me tell you; it came up from Sydney with us, as did the two in the other room) and shelves are shallower.  Consequently some of the baskets holding my stash won't fit, they are now too deep.  The new way of thinking is obviously "we won't raise the price, we'll just make the cupboard smaller".  Because of the harsh Aussie sun fading fabrics left uncovered I prefer to have my stash behind closed doors, so there will need to be some re-jigging of shelves to help that happen.

News from the slowly-coming-together sewing room, the second hexie rosette is done.

 All that red makes you feel hot, doesn't it?  From here the pin cushion is assembled by machine, and I haven't sat at a machine for months.  Let's hope I still remember how to use one.

Three units of four tumblers each.  In order to mix up the fabrics as much as possible I thought to join them in pairs then in fours, light-dark-light-dark.  I think I'm going to like this even though it's very different to my usual taste.....or, perhaps, because it is different.  Been a bit slack on the tumbler-cutting front lately because of the heat, but that is supposed to ease during the coming week.....it can't come soon enough for me.

Our summers have usually been fairly warm, a period of warm to hot days followed by a cooling down period, perhaps some rain, then it heats up again and the cycle continues.  This summer, however, started hot and hasn't cooled much at all; nights have been a bit too warm for restful sleep which makes it hard to spring into life each morning.  By the time I start springing it's well into the day......clouds are building up as we speak, and showers/thunderstorms are forecast.  Rain would be very welcome, everywhere is dry and brown.  You can tell which people water their lawns.....

Our gospel ukulele gigs went off well!  Sundays breakfast at a small church was very well received, and earlier in the week we had also been asked to play at the gospel tent which is part of the annual huge big country music festival.  We did so, but geez......it's difficult playing an outdoor gig with not enough microphones and dust billowing around.  Never give a bloke a leaf blower......one of the people connected with the tent took it upon himself to clean the "floor" while we were setting up and he blew all the dust our way.  With one voice we all yelled "hey!"  Oh sorry, he said, but by then he had stirred up quite a lot of fine dust which was very slow to settle.  Never mind, we soldiered on womanfully but were glad to finish.

"Receptions at Government House.
Stated receptions are given at Government House by the Governor, and all are at liberty to attend them.  Sometimes these are morning, and sometimes evening, receptions.  Upon entering the reception-room, the caller gives his name to the attendant, who announces it, and upon approaching the Governor, is introduced, by some official to whom the duty is assigned, both to the Governor and to the members of his family who receive with him.  The callers pass on, after being introduced, mingle in social intercourse and view the various rooms until ready to depart.  A caller must leave his card."

No doubt these receptions were accompanied by soft tasteful music......don't you think a ukulele ensemble would liven them up a bit?

Enjoy your days!

Best wishes for Australia Day

Whether you are an Aussie, or not, have an enjoyable day.

Australia is the best country in the world - because we have wombats!

Crafty WOW

Wombat stencils, and wombat stamps.....I like the tubby one on the right....and a wombat paper punch, all posing nicely on some Aussie fabric because tomorrow is Australia Day.

Each year there is discussion, sometimes amiable and sometimes heated, about changing Australia Day because of what it represents - a group of convicts arriving in Sydney, accompanied by some military men - but like it or not that happened, and the continent of Australia was changed forever. For better or worse, who knows? Although none of my convict ancestors arrived on the First Fleet, some arrived just a few years later.....so my roots here go back to at least 1794.

Our local council puts on a big hooley in a riverside park with a couple of Australian rock bands, and with local teenagers doing their best to sound as though they should be competing on Australian Idol. What happens if you don't willingly listen to rock music and never watch Idol-style programs? Does that mean you have no place at the celebrations? That's how it seems to me, or perhaps I am getting touchy in my old age. I can remember when local bands played the music for Australia Day, and local organisations manned food stalls, and we all enjoyed ourselves. I will be playing music in a park a little further away with members of my folk club in the morning, then having our son and his girlfriend over to dinner later in the day. But I won't be playing guitar, because when I try it is still a lot of pain for very little result. But that will come.

My goodness it was hectic at the supermarket this morning! People shopping for Australia Day parties tomorrow, and mummies trailing along their reluctant children shopping for school supplies, the summer school holiday is nearly over as the little darlings go back to school from Wednesday and they suddenly realise what they need.

My hand has been very good at doing its exercises and has progressed from the 400g tin of tomatoes to a 1kg weight, held very carefully. The nice young physio bloke has said we can now space out the appointments, so we are having a two week break between treatments. He is pleased with my progress although my fingers are still stiff, that's a combination of arthritis and stiffness from disuse while spending six weeks in plaster. First thing out of bed in the morning I can barely use my hand because of stiffness, but it improves after a warm shower. And it's still too stiff to clench my fist, but that's getting nearer.....when I can do that I will try driving the car again, if I can remember how; it's been a few months.

"Women Should Cultivate a Spirit of Independence.
In a young country like Australia women should, to some extent, cultivate a spirit of independence. They should acquire a knowledge of how business is transacted, of the relation between capital and labor, and of the value of labor, skilled and unskilled. As housekeeper, they would then be saved from many annoyances and mistakes. If they chance to be left alone, widows, or orphans possessing means, they would be saved from many losses and vexatious experiences by knowing how to transact their own business. And those women who are obliged to take care of themselves, who have no means, how necessary it is that they should have a thorough knowledge of some occupation or business by which they can maintain themselves and others dependent on them."

As true today as when it was written in 1885.

Now I shall have a coffee, then start sewing on a belated Christmas gift which I have been unable to start - cutting through six layers with my rotary cutter, even though it sharp, was quite difficult last night as my left hand applied enough pressure to hold the ruler steady. But it's now all cut and ready to be assembled, pics will follow in due course.

Have a lovely week, may your cutter always be sharp and your seams neat.

Jennifer

Australia Day WOW

This wombat is appliqued on a pyjama top, when I made the pyjamas in a dark grey-blue knit I decided they needed brightening up, hence the applique. I even bravely free-motioned the features - eye and nose - and the grass in two shades of green. I never iron pyjamas (I don't iron many clothes at all) but perhaps this wombat could have been pressed before being immortalised on the interwebs. Too late now!

Today is Australia Day, it's the anniversary of the day when the first fleet of convicts and soldiers set up camp in what was to become Sydney in 1788. While I don't have ancestors in that fleet I know of two who came in 1794 and two more in 1800. That's a long time ago by Australian standards as we are a young country, in terms of European settlement. The indigenous Australians would have us not celebrate as to them it is a day when they were invaded, but no one can turn their back on history. The French were hot on the trail of the British, if the French had arrived first we would all be parlez vous-ing...and who knows if the indigenous folk would have better or worse off under French colonisation? We will never know.

Jennifer