Purple Haze

Tides out at Bradley's

Welcome to 2008!  What's been happening since my last post?  Lots, so where to start...  The jacaranda trees were in flower in November covering the island in a glorious purple haze; even the roads were littered with little purple trumpet flowers. I love this time of year as we head into summer, everything's flourishing, especially since we've had good rain recently. 

The romance of purple soon gave way to bright pink crepe myrtles ("Pride of India" my mum calls them and I can see why!) and I am so inspired to quilt....something, anything in these wonderful colours!  Too bad however, as there's still too much to do in the house with the ongoing renovations.  Also my garden has gone to weeds in the space of a week or two of neglect and the lawn needs mowing. Again! 

Jacaranda Blue

I've finally set up and moved into our (my) study, a converted sunroom overlooking the garden. Now I can really watch the weeds grow (through my new timber venetians, yes!).  The family room is also close to finished as is one of the downstairs bedrooms.  I've done all my painting tasks for our second bedroom (yellow walls - what possessed me?) and so begins the laborious task of  stripping, sanding and staining the old bed.  This will be the room where I store and display my quilts and other textile goodies gathered on my travels.  Reason enough to keep motivated wouldn't you say!

Of course nothing's simple and sometimes I feel that I am living in a life-sized rubik's cube as we move boxes and still more boxes of belongings about the house.  I'm starting work on my garden shed too, soon to be painted & fitted with blinds and the odd sewing machine or two (or three) to be my work space, shared with the old salt who is also handy with a machine - for canvas work for the boat mind, none of this girly, quilting stuff!!  

River Pirates?

The highlight of summer on the island was the children's Christmas Parade. Those clever mums & kids filled the shed on our public jetty with all manner of things using a theme of  "Twelve days of Christmas" over, your guessed it, twelve days. 

On Christmas eve we all gathered at the jetty and followed a happy, noisy procession of children carrying their artworks down to the beach for a "street party" for all islanders. I had thought the parade was going to be invaded by pint-sized pirates who arrived in a very small dingy but it later turned out to be a Chinese goddess and her "minders".  She was there to bring us prosperity and good fortune (not to hold us for ransom)! 

So, in the words of the Island children, I hope you all have a.....

jelly fish-mas!   

River Baptists et al

The River Baptists by Belinda Castles is my latest read; unfortunately despite being a winner of the Australian /Vogel Literary Award, it's not up on Amazon yet, so no cover for you to see.  Not a bad story and of course it's set locally - hence my interest.  I believe there are a few other novels about the Hawkesbury River area so I am looking forward to seeing what makes the area so interesting to authors?? 

A recommended movie treat, the "Oyster Farmer" also sets a somewhat interesting angle on our "locals".  The river, it seems, harbours its fair share of quirky people with dark histories (Wow!! How long have I been in the neighbourhood and not really noticed??) but it is really nice to see a departure from the usual depiction of Aussies as laconic dudes from the outback (Priscilla, Queen of the Desert), weird city boys (like Mad Max or Romper Stomper)  or indeed, comedic dancing queens (Murial's Wedding and Cosi). So, wind up the DVD and watch some of Aus's best. 

(Ed. An update: finally found a cover copy of the River Baptists......)

Out the door again

The house is a hive of activity today. We are off again!  This time down memory lane; first to KL and then on to Viet Nam for more than 3 weeks.  Not enough time to get to everything before we leave but at least the camera was repaired in time - just!  So I have great expectations.

I am not expecting to have too much time to email whilst we are away. Better to be doing it, that is, travelling, rather than sitting at a computer in a cafe or hotel room, wouldn't you say?  Learnt that lesson flying over Everest.  Too busy taking photos, which in the end turned out rather badly, and then didn't have any time left to take "the experience" all in.  Also some things, unless you are an expert photographer, can never be duplicated on simple 5x7's. Especially when they're taken through an aeroplane window.....

My poor Khan has also packed his bags today to go and live with his new family.  He deserves to have a full-time family and I can't always take him with me whenever we go away.  Besides, animal quarantine is never a guaranteed solution.  The places we travel and the experience of being separated for long periods would take its toll on both of us.  I should have taught him how to send emails!!

I'm going to attempt to limit myself to six reports - six of the best so they say - on any particular area/country/town  visited. This challenge should encourage brevity and better photo inclusions. Please do not use my photos or words. 

(Five years later and I'm still working on the brevity bit. Ha....  Ed)