Click to enlarge and see the amazing detail in the fabric.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
A Baby Quilt finds a Home
Click to enlarge and see the amazing detail in the fabric.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
The Nearly-Weds

This is a review of The Nearly-Weds by Jane Costello. Yes, sorry guys, more Chick-Lit.

Zoe Moore is a kind, warm, down to earth, English girl from Liverpool. She works in a nursery.
She is utterly devastated when she is stood up at the church, by Jason (grrr) her long time partner who gets a serious case of cold feet.
She decides to make a clean break of it and signs up with a Nanny agency in the US. She is well qualified and they snap her up. Everything looks great, she is supposed to be going to work for a practically perfect family with light duties days off and to accompany them on an exotic holiday...
Then, as they say “The best laid plans...”
Poor Zoe actually gets to nanny in Boston for Ryan Miller and his two children, Ruby and Sam. Zoe feeling fragile looking after a family very hurt in their different ways by the death of Ryan's wife.
She is met at the airport by Ryan and the children, taken to their home and just left with the kids as he goes off to work.
The house is a trash heap and the yard is an overgrown jungle. When Zoe tries to put the kids to bed they practically morph into monsters. And she can't seem to get the wretched Jason out of her head.
She quickly realises Ryan is rude, inconsiderate, irascible, brittle, defensive, difficult, work obsessed, drinks more than he ought, and has been through a string of short relationships with beautiful women. Oh and he is hurt, handsome and in excellent physical shape.
Thank goodness for the a group of nannies in the area where she will find companionship and a new best friend. I shall say no more about the story.
I really enjoyed this novel. It has plenty of fun and romance. It made me smile and even laugh a couple of times. It made me feel good.
There is a wide cast of good characters and Zoe and Ryan are a real contrast, Austin fans might sense a half familiarity in them as they spar.
The end is satisfying, with one tiny criticism... If I had my way I would have liked it to have a few more pages, just to top and tail things ^_^
If you read and enjoy it half so much as I did then I figure it will time well spent.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Saturday Photo Hunt --- Protect(ion)

PROTECT(ION)
Slip-Slop-Slap is the name of a health campaign in Australia exhorting people to "slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, and slap on a hat" when they go out into the sun, in order to protect themselves against an increased risk of skin cancer.
My husband has had three operations for skin cancer, including a malignant melanoma and a squamous cell skin cancer and he has had many basal cell cancers removed as well, no doubt due to his surfer dude youth in Australia. So we both cover up when out in the sun.


and
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Sydney -- The Great Southern Gaol
This post is in a way an introduction to book I read this week for The Short Book Club and it fits in quite nicely with the fact that I was recently in Sydney, my home town. There I attended a lecture called Convict Sydney and most of the information is culled from my notes, with a little checking as well. Incidentally the book is The Secret River by Kate Grenville and a book review post will follow soon.
Everyone likes to tease Australians about their "convict background" since Sydney was of course founded as a penal colony and they assume that we are all descended from those who were transported to Australia as criminals and that Australia was the only place where convicts were sent.However transportation as a punishment was by no means a new thing for the British in 1788, since they had been transporting convicts to America since 1717 but that came to a halt in 1776 with the American Revolution. In all around 50,000 were transported to America.
When the prisons in Britain became full convicted felons were housed in overcrowded decaying old ships moored in coastal waters but conditions were appalling and transportation recommenced as the First Fleet sailed for Australia, eleven ships with (numbers vary depending on source) 573 male and 193 female convicts along with 247 marines, and with the ships' crews and some family members, making the first settlers around 1400 in number.
So who were these felons and what were the crimes they had committed? Many people had fled from the country to the cities where there was no work and crime was rife. But crimes warranting the death penalty (which could be commuted to transportation) included poaching, cutting down a tree, stealing goods worth 40 shillings or more. In fact there were hundreds of crimes for which the penalty was death, including a very strange one, namely being in the company of Gypsies for one month. Later the system of laws and punishments of the time became know as the Bloody Code, since so many crimes were punishable by execution.
Before setting sail many of the prisoners had already been on the ships for 7 to 8 months. They slept four to a berth, with the women segregated. At first they were chained but later they were freed and considering the voyage lasted for eight months and the crowded conditions it is amazing that only about four dozen people died and despite travelling 15,000 miles, not one ship was lost on the journey.
When the fleet arrived at Botany Bay Captain Arthur Phillip who became the first Governor of the new colony decided that it was not suitable as a settlement and after a preliminary exploration the fleet moved north to Port Jackson where he discovered a wonderful harbour which he described as
"the finest harbour in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line may ride in the most perfect security ...".
The fleet landed there on January 26th 1788 and Phillip named it Sydney Cove in honour of Lord Sydney, the Home Secretary.
But all did not go well in those first years as the soil was poor and sandy and, since there were few farmers there was a shortage of food which lead to rationing. The indiginenous people, the aborigines, were hostile and there was much conflict between the settlers and the aborigines. Despite the abundance of fish the settlers were not good fishermen and by the time the infamous Second Fleet straggled into port in 1790, in dribs and drabs, things were not going well. The Second Fleet had been "contracted out" to private businessman who kept the convicts in dreadful conditions, chained, beaten and starved so the survivors were hardly a help to the struggling colony.
But progress was being made despite these difficulties and the continuing conflict between settlers and aborigines who naturally resented being dispossed of their lands. In fact Governer Phillip himself was speared in the leg on Manly Beach. Phillip was a good governor on the whole, humane and sensible and he tried to utilize the convicts according to the skills they had acquired in Britain: brick makers, carpenters, shepherds, etc. Educated convicts were set to work as record keepers and the colony slowly began to be established.
But the formation and arrival in Australia of the New South Wales Corps, more colourfully described as the Rum Corps, for controlling the rum trade was ultimately their chosen profession in the new land, meant that the gaolers were not much better than the convicts, since the members tended to be troublemakers and parolees from military prisons who were looking for a new start in the fledgling colony. When Phillip returned to England in 1790 due to ill health, their commander Major Francis Grose took over and his rule was in no way as benevolent as had been Phillip's.
However the young colony slowly flourished, especially under Governor Macquarie (1821-1827), known as the great builder and by the time that the transportation of convicts to Australia came to a halt in the eighteen fifties, a mere eighty years later, the continent of Australia had been colonized in many other parts and the population stood at 1 million.
In all the total number of transported convicts was around 162,000 men and women and they were transported to Australia on 806 ships.
According to the lecturer, the fact that it began as a penal colony has given Australia or Australians the following series of characteristics which he called its convict legacy.
A belief in egalitarianism
Desire to shock
A dislike of wowsers
A hatred of whinging
Support the underdog
Gallows humour
Dislike of politicians
A strong belief in humanity
Irreverance
Wanting everyone to have a fair go
Taking the piss (not alone in this one as this expression comes from the Brits)
The Secret River tells the story of one man's experience as he was transported to the Great Southern Gaol, not long after it was established and I'll tell you more about next time.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Saturday Photo Hunt --- Purple

PURPLE
A random selection of purple photos from my archives


A bit of fun I had with a Christmas lights display, impossible to photograph
in the normal manner as we were moving on a miniature train. Yes there
is some purple in there somewhere.

A poster for my beloved Granville Island with touches of purple

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Tube Announcements

Well it struck me today just how inane some of their announcements really are. I was at a major Station today when they were telling us about the impact of engineering works on the service.
They said “Due to necessary engineering work”... I think they might have mentioned it was “planned” too.
I wondered. Did they tell us that it was necessary to distinguish it from the pointless and unnecessary sort of engineering work, that they (by implication) might be harassing us with from time to time? Like this time it was really necessary.
I mean why say it that way? If they hadn't used the word necessary I would have assumed any Engineering work they did was necessary. Not just done on a whim for a laugh.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Happy Easter --- Buona Pasqua --- Joyeuses Pâques
Friday, April 10, 2009
Saturday Photo Hunt --- Triangle

TRIANGLE


HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE
AND HAPPY EASTER TO THOSE
WHO CELEBRATE IT
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Perth -- City of lovely Trees and Green Parks


It is a city of the most beautiful trees as you can see above, in its 1000 acre Kings Park, where this beautiful avenue of Lemon scented gums make a splendid canopy for the main roadway. Situated on Mount Eliza the park is a beautiful mix of natural bushland, cultivated gardens and lawns and a botanical garden, all cultivated to endeavour to ensure the conservation of native biological diversity and cultural heritage icons, while providing for the diverse range of visitor interests.
Many of the trees in the park are dedicated to a soldier who died in the First or Second World War and there are over 1100 plaques at the bases of the various trees. In fact the park is filled with many memorials including an eternal flame of remembrance. One of the most moving is the Bali Memorial, dedicated to the 16 Western Australians who died in the Bali Bombing on October 12, 2002. The memorial is beautifully place looking out over the Swan River to the Darling Range but in addition it is carefully placed so that a ray of sun enters the memorial at sunrise on October 12th each year.





widening into a very large bay area

The fountain at the Pioneer Women's Memorial with its ever changing
display of jets of water

I think I could have settled quite happily in Perth, despite its isolation, if we had actually ever moved there, for as you can see it is a very beautiful city.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Saturday Photo Hunt --- Stripes
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
From the Sunshine to the Rain Again
Four very wonderful days were spent in the lovely city of Perth in Western Australia, but our return journey to Sydney was most unpleasant as we were caught in an Australia-wide baggage handlers' wildcat strike which at first delayed our flight by six and a half hours, but when it finally departed it was without the luggage and just made it into Sydney before the airport curfew at 11pm. Having arrived at Perth airport at 7.30 am and spending a good part of the day there we were glad to finally arrive in Sydney even if it was midnight. I have to commend the Qantas people who managed to keep their cool and their politeness that day and throughout the next days as they tried to sort out the luggage mess which was no fault of theirs.
At Sydney airport we spoke to the Qantas baggage service people before we booked into our Canadian flight two days later and they gave us little hope of it being with us on that plane since they had a room with 900 suitcases which they were still sorting out, but they said they would try to find it and rush it to Air Canada in time for our late morning flight. Lo and behold, there it was on the carousel when we arrived, much to our surprise and delight.
The joys of flying in the modern era! Not only did we have this to deal with but for some reason my hand luggage, a small rollerboard suitcase with basically my computer and a few other items fell foul of security people as they passed it through the x-ray machine at least six times finally pulling the whole thing apart and xraying the contents in half a dozen separate trays even after they inspected everything visually. Funnily enough it had all passed through Perth security two days earlier without a single query but those Sydney people are made of sterner stuff. One by one the items were cleared of potential terrorist threat in the case of my mouse and a rock I bought in New Zealand for my rock collection. But a lipstick and a tiny bottle of hand lotion had to be inspected and then bagged separately (they don't even worry about that any more in New York when I travel there) but they confiscated my $30 special sunscreen and shampoo since they were 110 ml containers, even though half empty, but over the 100 ml size limit. Yes they had travelled from Canada and New Zealand and to and from Perth with no trouble for those security people but three men (yes it took three of them) in Sydney decided that they had to be checked more thoroughly. Even my hat beeped for the first time and had to be x-rayed.
Home, sweet home! I think I shall stay put for a bit and pray for Spring to come along soon.