Book Meme - Day 13

Day 13 - Favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA book (or both!)


I've already written a bit about favorite childhood books, and some other YA/children's books that I have read more recently, so I thought I would pick a couple of ones I haven't mentioned before.


The Tomorrow series, by John Marsden.  Baby Bear got me onto this a couple of years ago and I read them pretty much all the way through in one go.   There are seven books in the original series, published between 1993-1999, and then a short series of three more novels published 2003-2006, which finish the story off.  Basically it's about a group of teenagers in a non-specified Australian country town and their attempts to survive after Australia is suddenly invaded by non-specified foreign forces.  It;s exciting, with bangs and things, but what made it really important to me was the wonderfully crafted development of the characters throughout the various troubles they face.  They were all on the edge of adulthood when it happened, and they are all tipped various ways with the stressors that face them.  The final three books, known as The Ellie Chronicles after the main character, deal with their attempts to rebuild their lives after the invasion is defeated.


The first book starts with the kids going camping in a secluded gorge, and being woken at night by fighter planes going overhead, and bombs exploding.  Not long after Baby Bear and I had read this first book, I was out shopping with George and Wombat and fighter planes started going overhead.  Baby Bear was at home on her own.  None of us were aware of any air shows or parades in Melbourne that might have justified this.  It creeped me out a but but I assumed there was a good reason for it, but she phoned me quite upset and was genuinely fearful.  I tried to dismiss it but realised that she actually needed her fears to be taken seriously, so I told her to check out the Internet for news of anything and then, if she really still felt scared, to go and hide under her bed.  I know that wouldn;t have done much actual good in a crisis, but it seemed to help her -  having a task to do, a contingency plan, and the fact that I was taking her fears seriously.  We never did find out why the planes were there, but it was an enduring reminder of how powerful the books were, and how fragile the status quo can be.


I also want to mention The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.  When this first came out I looked at it in a bookshop and wanted to cry, it was so close to home.  After a couple of years I steeled myself to read it, and thought it was excellent.  Anyone who wants to know more about Aspergers Syndrome/High Functioning Autism should read it and learn from it.  (Though apparently in 2009 Haddon declared that it was not specifically about Aspergers, which I think is probably right as the character was mixture of the characteristics of various types of autism). I was delighted that it won the Whitbread Prize in 2003.  Apparently he wrote it for an adult audience but his publishers wanted it marketed to young adults, which is how it was shelved when I bought it, and I know a lot of schools include it in their curriculum.  


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Real life - we have all pretty much recovered from our colds, thank goodness.  I hope that last night's garlic and chicken casserole killed off the last of the bugs!  (Chicken, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and a WHOLE LOT OF GARLIC, like kill off every vampire in teen fiction for the next ten years amounts of garlic).  I am reheating the leftovers with extra chicken stock and pureeing it to make chicken soup for me for lunches for the rest of the week.


Valuing books left to Baby Bear by my father must be started.  A large hiatus occurred with sorting out all the stuff, owing to sicknesses of various sorts.  But now work must recommence.  Might even be fun, sort of!

Book Meme - Day 12

Day 12 - A book or series of books you’ve read more than five times


Hmm... I expect I have read the Narnia books at least five times.


I know I've read Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre at least five times (in the case of P&P, I think it's about 13 times).


I've read Testament of Youth quite a few times, probably at least 5.


I once went through a stage (quite lengthy) of rereading A Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve - that went on for more than 5 years.


And, for frivolity,  Where's My teddy, by Jez Aldborough, was such a huge favorite of my childrens' that I used to be able to recite it.  Likewise with Mr Bear Says A Spoonful for You by Debi Gliori and The Monster Bed by Jeanne Willis.


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Real life gets in the way of things!  We spent the weekend with George's mum while the children were at a church camp nearby.  They got muddy and did scary adventure things, we sat around and chatted and enjoyed ourselves.  The weather was perfect, sunny and crisp with very cold nights. On Saturday afternoon George and I wandered around the countryside, meandering to Mirboo North and having a wonderful lunch at the Grand Ridge Brewery.  Apart from the great staff and the wonderful food, the dining room was full of amazing dining tables made from rough hewn slabs of timber that seated lots of people (we were on a more modest table as there was just the two of us) that epitomise what I would love to have as a dining table one day.


Since returning we all have colds.  Today is the first day this week that everyone is at school and work, and although I should be using the quiet time to do something useful I feel too awful to do anything except pootle around on the computer and, later, slump in front of the TV.  At least I have done LOTS of washing recently, at great cost to the electricity bill as it has been wet ever since our return and everything has had to go through the tumble dryer.


There were storms yesterday and last night throughout Victoria.  We escaped with just lots of rain, which is still sorely needed after years of drought.  But other parts of Melbourne and the state have suffered damage and at least one person has died in a car accident directly related to the weather.  We are fortunately located in a sheltered spot and rarely suffer more than the occasional fallen limb from a tree in storms, though we are sensible and secure things, put the glass-topped outside table under shelter, etc, to minimize possible damage.

Book Meme - Day 11

Day 11 - A book that disappointed you


I thought I would have to think really hard about this one.  Then I remembered the one and only time since reaching an approximation of adulthood that I had thrown a book across the room.


That book?  The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution by Shulamith Firestone.  I;ve read lots of feminist books, some of them good, some of them not so good, some downright hard to understand, some that made me cringe, and some that made me cheer.  This one was so awful it made me throw the book across the room.


I can't even remember why I hated it so much.  Oh, maybe it was her incredible dismissiveness of the value of mothering, plus her total lack of logic and her general annoyingness.  That's not a very incisive analysis, I realise that, but I;m not going to find the book to check it out any further.  Actually, I couldn't.  I gave it away to charity as soon as I had thrown it across the room (which was after reading all of it, I wouldn;t be THAT rude about a book unless I had finished it).


Other books that ought to be on this sort of list - Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (What did I expect of Ayn Rand?  Certainly nothing quite as ludicrous as this huge pile of rubbish) and  Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington (which was made into a good film but I am afraid I found to be totally unreadable).

Book Meme - Day 10

Day 10 - A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving


I've been thinking hard about this for the last couple of hours.


The most recent book to fit this description is, I think, Carpentaria by Alexis Wright.  I need to phrase this carefully to avoid what sounds like prejudice but is, quite honestly, a statement of fact and my own, personal taste.  I have not enjoyed the little I have read of Indigenous Australian writing.  I was rather dubious about this.  But the reviews did sound intriguing, and I had a book voucher from a nice bookshop.  So instead of buying crime or fantasy or craft books, I bought Carpentaria.  It took me another six months to get around to reading it.  I remained dubious for the first few pages.


Then I fell in love.


It is a huge, sprawling novel (literally as well as figuratively) and I loved every word of it.  IT was funny, creepy, tragic, magic, and so damn well written.


I take back everything I ever thought about 'Indigenous Australian writing' and realise, humbly, that it is like any other writing - some of it is not going to be to my taste, but that is no reason to dismiss it like I had done.


One day I will reread it.  (This is the greatest honour I can bestow upon a book).  Not right now, though, because I have so many other things to read and reread.  But I will never dispose of this book.  I love it.

Book Meme - Day 9

Day 09 - Best scene ever


That would change regularly, of course, like all of these answers.


But the one I am going to nominate is the one in Northern Lights, the first book of the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman.  (The book is known in the US as The Golden Compass).  In the alternative universe of these books, people do not have 'souls' but they have 'daemons', which are external, animal-shaped manifestations of 'souls'.  The scene where experiements are being carried out to surgically separate children from their daemons is one of the most powerful and devastating I have ever read.  I cried for an hour after reading that scene.  I felt as though I had had my own heart cut out.


Fantastic trilogy, one of the best fantasy series ever written.  One of the most memorable scenes ever written.


But ask me tomorrow and I might have another answer.

Book Meme - Day 8

Day 08 - A book everyone should read at least once


The instruction book that came with your latest electronic gadget...


A decent plain cookbook (I get annoyed with people who say they can't cook - if you can read, you can cook. If you can't read, I'll help you)...


Grimm's Fairy Tales - to teach you never to rely on anyone except yourself ...


Ancient myths and legends of any or all civilisations, to learn universal themes of existence ...

Book Meme - Day 7

Day 07 - Least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise


Not sure about this one.  Something that immediately springs to mind is how Jodie Picoult always seems to have a list of 'buttons' which must be pressed to evoke specific emotions in the mind of the reader.  I actually enjoy her books; I find her characters engaging and her writing quite fluent, but whenever I read one (and I haven't read all of them by any means) I feel that she has a little list and marking off things that will make me react in certain ways.  Not quite writing by formula, otherwise I wouldn't bother with them, but transparent enough to make me annoyed that I am allowing myself to be maniuplated.


Otherwise - IDENTICAL TWINS.  Please don't use identical twins!  I just watched 'The Prestige', which is taken from a book by an author I quite enjoy, Christopher Priest.   I haven't read the book but I believe the same plot device is used.  It is cheap and cheating.  OF course the point in that story is that it IS cheating and leads to unforeseen consequences, but it still annoyed me.  When I was a child half the children's books seemed to include twins.  Especially the really far-fetched ones where whole families consisted of sets of IDENTICAL TWINS.   


And the murder stories where you can guarantee that if the detective (professional or amateur) fancies someone, that someone is the murderer, or at least is lying so much about something important that it can never be.  By all means have your protagonist occasionally shag a murder suspect, but not so predictably!

Book Meme - Day 6

Day 06 - Favorite book of your favorite series OR your favorite book of all time


AAHH!!! Not an answerable question.  My favorite book of all time changes from day to day, week to week, year to year.


All right, one I do always go back to - The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende.  It blew me away when I first read it, and it still does (I have read it another couple of times, at least).  Unfortunately I have managed to lose my copy and must replace it.  The sheer wonderfulness of the imagination - I suppose it's 'magic realism' - haunted and excited me.  It made me laugh and cry and hug myself and want to write like her.  Complete fail at that last one, incidentally!


Ask me next week and I will have another favorite book.  Oh, in recent years I have been hugely impressed by The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, and for the last twenty years or so, anything by Peter Carey and Angela Carter.  And in the last couple of years, Neverwhere and The Graveyard Book and Mirrormask by Neil Gaiman.

Book Meme - Day 5

Day 05 - A book or series you hate




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bless_the_Beasts_and_Children_(novel)




'Bless the Beasts and Children is a 1970 novel by Glendon Swarthout that tells the story of several emotionally disturbed boys away at summer camp who unite to stop a buffalo hunt. The 151-page book concerns many social issues of the 1960s and 1970s'.




I had to study this book for Year 12 English. This is not necessarily a reason for hating a book - I still enjoy Pride and Prejudice, Shakespeare in various forms, and other stuff I studied at school. I LOATHED this book with a passion. The fact that I can still remember how much I hated it may hint at just how loathsome I found it.




I thought it was boring, badly written and just not worthy of studying. I suppose it does consist of many 'issues' which is what tends to make a book worthy of study. But the best of those are at least interesting. I would personally like to see every copy of this book consigned to a bonfire. No, wait, that contributes to global warming. Maybe they should all be pulped and turned into interesting books. If any copies still exist.




My apologies in advance to anyone who loves this book.




Thinking about it, a more recent loathed read was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_God,_This_Is_Anna. Mr God, This is Anna by Sydney Hopkins, AKA 'Fynn'. I believe it is a much-loved and much raved about book that is supposedly of extreme spirituality. I thought it was kiddie porn thinly disguised as Christian propaganda. It made me feel sick. And I consider myself to be a (rather lukewarm) Christian, so it wasn't that aspect which upset me.

Book Meme - Day 4

Day 04 - Your favorite book or series ever


This is not an answerable question!!!


The first series I remember reading and rereading was The Chronicles of Narnia, starting when I was five.  Also, around the same time, The Swallows and Amazons books.  Both occupied my imagination to a very large degree for a very long time.  They were a welcome escape from a not necessarily happy childhood, and I was able to take the main characters and run with them in my mind, making up countless adventures inspired by the books and living heroically in my imagination very satisfactorily!


Countless other books have filled a similar niche since then.  My 'favorite' book is often one that I have read recently and thought was wonderful.  My favorite series right now is the Kurt Wallender series by Henning Mankell, a Swedish detective series.  I am about halfway through it and love the darkness and complexity of it.


Edited to add:  How could I have forgotten the incomparable Terry Pratchett!  The man who can write no wrong.  OF course I love Discworld with a passion :)


On the non-reading front - we have been beset with sickness of various sorts here and I have spent more time than I care ti think about sitting around emergency departments while Wombat (twice) and George (once) have been tested and examined and poked and prodded by a series of doctors and nurses that have started to blur into one amorphous mass.  I decided the other day that doctors should not look like they have strayed off the set of ER, as did the registrar dealing with George.  He was an excellent and competent doctor, but those blue eyes!  Mildly distracting :)  What with that, and two hospital appointments for Wombat to check up on him, I have had enough of Monash Medical Centre to last me for a while.


When not sitting around hospitals reading old detective fiction (Agatha Christie, another favorite since I was about 10, is rather good for hospital reading) I have been sorting out my father's books.  As he left them all to Baby bear, and she doesn't want 99% of them, I have taken up the task of sorting them into sundry categories. Keep (books that are of interest to any one of the four of us); Charity; Value (ones that I think I may be able to sell online - I estimate, before starting to value them, that about 50% of these will go to charity also; for the rest I will probably set up a shop on Ebay - I have always wanted to try my hand at second hand book selling!); and Weirdo Stuff for Me (books of no obvious monetary value that I can use for mixed media works). The profits, if any, from selling the books will be going into a trust fund for Baby Bear along with the modest amount of  money her grandfather left her.


I have been struggling with trying to retain a shred of charity for my father.  I have tried hanging onto the good memories, as recommended by a number of wise people :)  Sometimes it works.  Not when I have spent hours sifting through books and remembering rather forcefully that he left his money and valuable possesions to other people, but quite obviously expected me to sort everything out.  Yes, I am feeling a little bitter.  I am glad that Baby Bear will benefit financially (and he left a bit of money to Wombat too), and I am grateful to have the family archival material that he left me.  But I also resent being left with all the ****work and nothing to show for it.

Book Meme - Day 3

Day 03 - The best book you've read in the last 12 months

Always a hard one, just like all the other questions!  But I think my stand-out book for the last 12 months has been The Trout Opera by Matthew Condon.  This is the blurb from his publisher:

THE TROUT OPERA is a stunning epic novel that encompasses twentieth-century Australia. Opening with a Christmas pageant on the banks of the Snowy River in 1906 and ending with the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, it is the story of simple rabbiter and farmhand Wilfred Lampe who, at the end of his long life, is unwittingly swept up into an international spectacle. On the way he discovers a great-niece, the wild and troubled young Aurora, whom he never knew existed, and together they take an unlikely road trip that changes their lives. Wilfred, who has only ever left Dalgety once in almost a hundred years, comes face to face with contemporary Australia, and Aurora, enmeshed in the complex social problems of a modern nation, is taught how to repair her damaged life.

This dazzling story - marvellously broad in its telling and superbly crafted - is about the changing nature of the Australian character, finding the source of human decency in a mad world, history, war, romance, murder, bushfires, drugs, the fragile and resilient nature of the environment and the art of fly fishing. It's the story of a man who has experienced the tumultuous reverberations of Australi an history while never moving from his birthplace on the Snowy, and it asks, what constitutes a meaningful life?

I loved it for a number of reasons: it is a thoroughly surreal romp through 100 years of Australian history, a beautiful love story, a satirical attack on bureaucracy and 'progress', a lyrical tribute to a lovely part of Australia, and is full of beautifully realised eccentric characters.

Book Meme - Day 2

Day 02 - A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about


This is a hard one.


I am going to settle for authors.


Two of my all-time favorite authors are Iris Murdoch and Robertson Davies.  Of course many people have read their books and they have won prizes and things, so they are hardly obscure.  But I don't personally know, either in 'real life' or online, who ever mention them.


I have read most of Iris Murdoch's books more than once, many of them more than that.  I will continue to read them until the day I die.  One day George was reading out a literary quiz to me and one of the questions was 'what is this the first line to'  and he was only halfway through it and I had picked the Iris Murdoch novel it came from - and it was an early one, written about 20 years before the time we were doing the quiz.  I dream of her characters.  I cannot last more than a couple of months without rereading her.  There is only one of her novels that I dislike, The Red and The Green, which is a historical novel set around the events leading up toe Easter Rebellion in Ireland during WW1.  But I have a first edition of it that I am hanging onto anyway!


I haven't actually read all of Robertson Davies, and not any for a long time.  But now I have written this I probably will reread what I have and obtain what I have not.  He is wonderful.  Imagine Garrison Keillor with lots of magic realism.


As an extra, I am going to nominate Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising.  I know lots of people have read it and loved it but I think even more people should, and should.

Book Meme - Day 1

Day 01 - A book series you wish had gone on longer OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already (or both!)


Gone on longer - I guess I would have liked another Harry Potter book or two, about what they did when they left school.  But that's so NOT an original idea! 


 Series I wish would end - The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.  Not that I haven't loved it, but it has taken FAR TOO LONG and some of the books could have been condensed a little.  I have often wondered if he realised that he was onto a money spinner and decided to extend the series.  As for a definition of too long - he went and died before writing the last book; a new writer is hired to write the last book from his extensive notes - that 'last book' is now going to be three last books - I started reading this series before my 17 year old daughter was born, for goodness sake, and she will have a driving licence before it is finished!!!

Book Meme

I got this from

http://bestaudienceaward.blogspot.com/ -

'a discussion-starter or prompt for blog posts - I copied this from tansyrr.com; she sourced it from Anna Louise Genoese at alg.livejournal.com.'

Many of my answers will be qualified because I can rarely pick one 'greatest' thing about books (or films, or TV).

I will try to do these one a day!

Day 01 - A book series you wish had gone on longer OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already (or both!)

Day 02 - A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about
Day 03 - The best book you've read in the last 12 months
Day 04 - Your favorite book or series ever
Day 05 - A book or series you hate
Day 06 - Favorite book of your favorite series OR your favorite book of all time
Day 07 - Least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise
Day 08 - A book everyone should read at least once
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A book that disappointed you
Day 12 - A book or series of books you’ve watched more than five times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA book (or both!)
Day 14 - Favorite character in a book (of any sex or gender)
Day 15 - Your "comfort" book
Day 16 - Favorite poem or collection of poetry
Day 17 - Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelettes, etc.)
Day 18 - Favorite beginning scene in a book
Day 19 - Favorite book cover (bonus points for posting an image!)
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite romantic/sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 22 - Favorite non-sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 23 - Most annoying character ever
Day 24 - Best quote from a novel
Day 25 - Any five books from your "to be read" stack
Day 26 - OMG WTF? OR most irritating/awful/annoying book ending
Day 27 - If a book contains ______, you will always read it (and a book or books that contain it)!
Day 28 - First favorite book or series obsession
Day 29 - Saddest character death OR best/most satisfying character death (or both!)
Day 30 - What book are you reading right now?

Loot

I went to the Stitches and Craft Show in Melbourne yesterday, and generally had a good time.  There was lots of interesting stuff to see, and to wonder over, and some of it followed me home...

There was some cool textile art, like this from Prudence Mapstone, which was as amazing as everything she does (and it was nice to say hello to her again too).

The Quilt Show was obviously very popular though I admit that to my tastes there are never enough 'art quilts'.  I really do admire the work and the patience and the artistry of the more conventional quilts that are there - I would never in a million years be able to sit down and do them - but I seem to gravitate towards the more weird and demented types of art quilt these days.

All in all a fun (and expensive!) day out.

Wordless Wednesday

The Adventures of Bobby the Ram, Part 1

Our trip to Canberra was pretty awful. Not that Canberra isn't a good place to visit, but it isn't when you are spending most of your time freezing your **** off in a dingy dive in Queanbeyan packing the multitude of **** your long-estranged father has left behind him for you to deal with. Our gloomy week was enlivened by some visits with friends, a small amount of sight-seeing, the best of Canberra's winter weather (very cold but sunny and crisp and beautiful), and the arrival into our lives of a certain little ruminant.

Bobby the Ram has had a bit of a sad life. He ran away to live with Jejeune in Canberra because her naughty little lamb Lulu broke his heart. Jejeune tried to cheer him up and improve his education, but to no avail. So when I was visiting her he decided to run away with me. The children took to him immediately and introduced to him to some of their friends.

Baby Bear helped him to make friends with Max, who has lived with us since her second birthday. His real name is Gluteus Maximus, which is the English (or rather Latin) translation of the name he was given by IKEA, which was Bums. He is a very caring and wise bear and we hope that Bobby has learnt some serenity from him.

Wombat introduced him to Momo the Lemur, who is a magical air-bending, fire-bending, other element-bending bundle of fun. They had some good times together. Here they are up the top of Black Mountain Tower.

Bobby got a good look through the telescope on Black Mountain Tower. Although not very fond of heights he clung on to his new friends and agreed that the view was mighty fine.

He also got to go up to the top of Mount Ainslie to watch the sun set. We cut it rather fine there - got there just as the sunset was happening.

It has taken me two weeks just to write this first installment of Bobby's adventures, owing to minor distractions like unpacking boxes (of which there are TOO MANY MORE to go!!!) and Wombat being sick for over a week, including two trips to the ER (all in all he probably has a virus. Thank god for the Australian health system, so far we have paid for one out of three doctor's visits and nothing at the hospital). A CT scan has proved that he has a brain, and even better, that there is nothing in it other than brain.

More pictures of Bobby to come...

Beady and Wooly Bits

Animals

Gratuitous Sirius Photos

Madeiran textiles

Wordless Wednesday

Creative Tuesday

I blogged briefly about these pictures when I did them on my Diploma course, almost exactly two years ago. At the time I had intended doing more using the same techniques, but of course I didn't.

I have periodically taken photos of old buildings in my travels, still with that intention. Yesterday in Ballarat I took some more. And, thinking about it, it is still a good idea, to do more of these. So maybe I will.

They are very easy, even for someone who is as completely a duffer at drawing as I am. Take a photo (if you are going to sell them, onviously a copyright free photo!). Copy it in black and white, or greyscale, or whatever, aiming for enough contrast to be able to see major features through tracing paper. Trace said major features. Scribble all over the back, heavily, with a soft graphite pencil. Transfer to watercolour paper using a pencil or whatever you wish, but try not to press too hard as it is best not to have the scored lines on the page. When the bones of the picture are transferred, use the photocopy as a guide to go over the transferred lines, and add as many extra details as you wish, with a WATERPROOF fine line pen.

When you are happy with the sketch, and it has all the details you want in it, choose two colours of watercolour paint - complementary, analagous, warm, cold, whatever takes your fancy. We used a slightly different technique in each of the above pictures. In either case, wet the paper with clean water. (See why you need to use a waterproof fine liner!) Then either apply gentle blobs of colour and let them spread as they wish; or do the same and hold it vertically while they drip and dribble.

OF course you could use more than two colours. Or find other ways of colour washing the pictures. Whatever. I like these pictures. And of course you don't have to use old buildings, you could use the same technique with anything at all.

Scarves, beads and political cartoons

I have fitted in three exhibitions in the last few days. (It helped that two of them were at the same place!)

The first was Reflections Scarf Festival 2010 at the Geelong Wool Museum. This is run in conjunction with Craft Victoria. Every year I mean to enter some scarves. Do I ever? No of course not. I will try to be firm with myself next year! It was an interesting collection of artworks and there are various categories to win prizes in. Invariably I did not necessarily agree with the prize winners in every case - who ever does? It is always so subjective. But everyone had worked extremely hard and there was some amazing stuff there. Nuno felting was obviously flavour of the month, and very nice it was too. That is something that I know how to do but cannot be bothered doing, so it is nice to see the work of other people. There were also knitted, crocheted, woven and fabric scarves of various sorts. I deliberately wore one of my own creations, made for my Diploma course. Personally I think it was at least as good as the best that were there! Maybe I will enter it next year. I can't post any pictures of the scarves there as I don't think photography was allowed and even if it was, I wouldn't post someone else's creations without their permission. I left with lots and lots of inspiration for future creations so it was a very worthwhile visit. This was immediately after a pleasant lunch with my mum and brother instead of a 'wake' for my father.

The other two exhibitions were at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. Brilliant Beads was an exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Embroiderers' Guild of Victoria, and this is what the blurb said : Tiny brooches, flamboyant necklaces, framed pictures, tables, bottles, vases and small toys are included in a unique exhibition where diverse objects have been embellished with millions of beads to transform them into something new.

Brilliant Beads is presented by the Ballarat Branch of the Embroiderers Guild of Victoria as part of its 50th Anniversary. It brings together pieces as diverse as a beautifully beaded wedding dress to craft and an antique fire screen lovingly restored by renowned textile artist Alison Cole.

The beaded articles on display have been sourced from various places, including the archives of the Embroiderers Guild, the Art Gallery of Ballarat as well as pieces from individual Members' collections and their own work.

This exhibition is one of a series around the state hosted by branches of the Embroiderers Guild of Victoria.

It was really fascinating. I did take lots of pictures, which was permitted, but as I said above, I don't post pictures of other people's work. I took them for my own interest and reference, for display methods as much as anything else. In fact a great many of them were made from books and magazine designs, I think, whereas I design my own stuff, as I was going to point out if anyone accused me of taking the photos so that I could copy them! There was a lot of wonderful, precise work there, probably of a much higher technical standard than I could do, but I had the usual problem I find with the Guild work, in that technique tends to be more important than originality. Which is fine for lots of people, and it isn't really a criticism of people who prefer to work that way. It does, however, explain why I am reluctant to join the Guild! Again, there was lots of inspiration.

The final exhibition I went to see, at the same Gallery, was In Your Face! Cartoons about politics and society 1760 - 2010 :

This exhibition celebrates the tradition of making social and political comment in the form of the cartoon and caricature about current affairs, a tradition that goes back many centuries but has been at its most vibrant since mass circulation printing became commonplace in the late 18th century.

Visitors to the exhibition may be surprised to discover that the things which amuse, annoy, terrify and bamboozle us are in many cases the same as those which exercised the minds of our ancestors 200 years ago - sex, politics, religion, fashion, doctors and lawyers, and, of course, the Royal Family.

In this journey through two centuries of cartooning visitors will look back to Australia's British roots, with the work of satirists such as William Hogarth and James Gillray, with insights into contemporary society and politics from such household names as Nicholson, Tandberg, Leunig and Spooner.

The cartoons cover a range of themes, including John Spooner's personal selection of his favourite cartoons by the great 18th century artist James Gillray. It also gives insights into the things that have tickled Ballarat funny bones from the goldfields era to today.

This special paid-entry exhibition is drawn largely from the Art Gallery of Ballarat's own extraordinary collection of cartoons and caricatures, which is one of the best in the country.

Again, really fascinating. Wonderfully, I had the rooms to myself at that point, so I was able to linger as long as I liked and really read everything. I knew a lot of the cartoons, both the oolder British ones and the Australian ones, but there was still plenty there I did now know and it was wonderful to catch up with old favorites too. I bought the catalogue and there will be plenty of interesting reading there.

Next week we are going back to Canberra to finalise my father's stuff. This time we are taking the kids and staying for a week. Although there will be a lot of hard work, we are determined to include some galleries along the way.

Blogging Changes

I have decided to give up on my five-days-a-week blogging for the moment. Things are possibly about to change dramatically at Sheeprustling headquarters in the near future - good changes, but disruptive ones if they do come off. So I will continue to blog about stuff, and include pictures of stuff, but not to a regular timetable.

Of course, maybe nothing will happen, and then things will return to what I laughingly refer to as 'normal'.

Since starting writing this post, developments have occurred, but in the backwards sense. Our house is dissolving around us and we either need to rebuild or move. After a lengthy period of looking around, we finally got into negotiations with a building firm recently, but had our third meeting with them yesterday at which the costings came out at way over our budget. If they had come within budget, there may have been a flurry of moving and rebuilding almost immediately, as we have to fit in things around Baby Bear doing Year 12 next year. While we still have to find an alternative, it looks like nothing with be happening quickly now. I was pulling back on the blogging because I thought I might have to do a lot of immediate packing and organising. But I have decided to keep to random musings for a while rather than the previous organised structure, which was fun for a while.

I went to the Bead and Gems Show at the Melbourne Showgrounds last week. I was looking for some specific stuff and won't post pictures. Lacey's Stiff Stuff is brilliant stuff for bead embroidery, and hard to get in Australia, but makes for very boring pictures when it has not yet been embroidered upon - for those who don't know, imagine a heavy white interfacing. I was also looking for cabochons that made me think of certain things, and I got quite a lot, but a pile of cabochons in various colours isn't necessarily very interesting either. Otherwise I don't think I would go to that particular show again just to browse - I went for the first time last year and it was interesting, I went this year because I was looking for these specific types of stuff, but for general browsing it wasn't really my sort of thing - nice to look at all the sparklies but most of what I do is in seed beads and, although they were on sale there, I tend to buy a themed selection online for a specific project when I want them, rather than wanting to right through crowds and then not find everything I want.

I may have a plan for a series of bead embroideries. Well, rather, I DO have a plan, but I;m not sure now exactly how it will pan out. It may also include small art quilts and be a long time in the making. But it is an idea that will not go away in my mind and it will still be there when I actually want to do something about it.

I have been knitting mindless stuff, even more mindless than socks. I am using up some of my novelty yarn collection (bought in single balls for things like scrumbling) to make mini ponchoette type things. They are good for keeping the shoulders warm and adding colour.

. I am not quite sure why I think it would be more efficient to store these yarns in made-up items in my overfull wardrobe, rather than as balls in my overfull yarn collection, but it made sense at the time.

Cooking has occurred. Well, living in a family of four, plenty of cooking has occurred, but only one recipe from the 'test the cookbooks' thing. I seem to have a million little pamphlet-type cookbooks, many of which come free with magazines and things. This one came from one of them: Easy One-Pot chicken Bake from Australian Good Food Italian Favorites. It's so good we have had twice! Of course I can never cook a recipe without tweaking it, no matter how much I swear I won't (except for baking, where I leave the general proportions strictly alone and only ever alter flavours). I used chicken breast fillets instead of thigh fillets, rosemary instead of thyme (it's the only herb I've got growing at the moment and it is wicked with chicken and potatoes), and this time I only had green olives, though the first time I made it with the black olives stated in the recipe.

This post has been in the making for two or three weeks, interrupted by the events related in the last post. I am going to post it now otherwise it will never happen.

Explanation of sorts

I had a blog post in draft all ready to go, just waiting to take some pictures. It was explaining why I had decided to stop using the blogging format that I had been using for a few months and just post stuff when I felt like it. Even the circumstances of what I was doing changed during the week I took to write that post, and I added extra notes here and there. It was turning into a novella, with footnotes.

Then life royally screwed me over and that post is still in draft form. I will still post it, possibly in its current form but with extra footnotes! and photos.

I have been estranged from my father for many years - the last ten years this time round, with many other intervals of estrangement in particular. Although a highly intelligent and interesting man, he was also very obsessive and cruel to those closest to him. The latest parting of the ways came after he said unutterably cruel things to me about my young son, and I decided that my children had to come first.

He died last week. And I had to deal with the arrangements. It involved a sudden dash to Canberra, finding the body (no-one knew where it was, for a while), finding the will, etc. He was an obsessive hoarder. Not just books and pictures and things, but empty cardboard boxes and plastic bags. Queanbeyan recycling won't know what's hitting them right now! We spent two days sorting things out, and will be going back in a fortnight to sort the actual objects properly so that they can be distributed according to his will (which he had placed in a safe place two years ago, then during a reorganising spree placed it on a chair and piled stuff on top of it and never retrieved it from there. It took a long time to find it).

I promise the next post, during the next few days, will have pictures!

8 Things Thursday

8 Things I Have Done Since Last Thursday

1. Attended a Catholic Requiem Mass for the first time in my life (for an old family friend).

2. Finished watching the first season of True Blood.

3. Entertained friends for dinner on Saturday night and served seared kangaroo fillets and sweet chilli prawns.

4. Finished reading Australian gothic : a life of Albert Tucker / Janine Burke.

5. Had lunch with an old friend I haven't seen for years.

6. Visited Craft Victoria's latest exhibitions.

7. Spent three hours at the State Library of Victoria researching stuff.

8. Attended the Eastern Metropolitan Region 2010 Schools Concert at Hamer Hall.

Wordless Wednesday

Creative Tuesday

This was a piece made for my Diploma of Studio Stitch Textiles in First Year. The labels are pretty self-explanatory. The sketch was vaguely based around a photo of a Gaudi building, with the idea of abstracting it. It was fun to do the little collage. The knitted wire was meant to look like roof tiles, I think!

Monday Quote

"Australian history is the story of man in opposition to the landscape. Our explorers were driven - as we all are - by the need to survive, by ambition and vanity, by greed desire and curiosity."

Albert Tucker 1914-1999

8 Things Thursday

8 Things I can See in the Study Right Now

1. Several boxes of very old Mars Staedler Lumograph tins containing untouched H lead pencils date stamped 21 April 1952

2. A New Yorker calendar with one cartoon per day

3. An old battery radio that is probably about as old as the pencil tins and still works perfectly well

4. A battered yellow croquet ball

5. A pencil box my husband made in school woodwork classes a long time ago - not as old as the other two old objects, but during the second half of last century

6. A nice, modern wireless modem (just to prove that technology has advanced)

7. Part of Saturday's paper

8. One and a half dog biscuits

Wordless Wednesday