Postcards from Sydney

We've been Sydneysiders for a week!  It was to be a relaxing break away from the routine, but turned into a mad frenzy of seeing and doing all that Sydney has to offer.  We walked the coastal route from Bronte (above) to the world-famous Bondi Beach (below).

We saw a magic show at the Opera House (my youngest is a magician-in-the-making).

There was the *first to spot the Bridge* game whenever we were on a train, bus or ferry.

The Sydney Festival was on so we had the opportunity of going to a couple of shows, we went to the movies, markets and galleries.  It was a buzz of excitement and a fabulous way to end the school holidays.

It is always so inspiring to travel, to soak up new surroundings, to go to galleries and marvel at the artworks, to sample different food and then it's fabulous to flop in the pool at the end of each long, tiring but enjoyable day.

Now it's all systems *go* to prepare two girls for their school year ahead.

Enjoy your day.
Trudy

Vietnam

There has been a little jaunt to Vietnam in recent times.  A family wedding.  A fun holiday.  Adventures were had in this beautiful country filled with different sights and sounds and smells.  We took it all in and had a fabulous time.

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas filled with family, festivities and a little quiet time too.
Trudy

Tim Coulson's The Nursery

One of the main reasons for travelling to Canberra was to attend Tim Coulson's The Nursery - a photo course, given to me by my husband for my birthday last year.  I had stumbled over Tim's blog and was pulled in by his honesty and warmth, and amazingly beautiful photos.  His course is to teach people to take their camera setting off automatic and start playing with exposure, aperture and shutter speed.  Daunting?  Yes!  And take a look at my first attempt, trying to remember what I was suppose to do ... I let way too much light in and therefore totally overexposed the photo.  At this point there could only be improvement.

Tim's beautiful wife, Kesh, stood so patiently for us to photograph her, and this is the photo I took at the end of the photo shoot.  There were moments when I was completely bamboozled, and Tim was there with his patience, understanding and skill, and a reminder not to be too hard on yourself day one!!

But even more importantly was Tim's teaching of shooting with emotion.  How to make a connection with the person you are photographing, how to notice and anticipate the small, beautiful moments.  To feel the love of another person.

I have a lot of hours to put in and the only way I'll get there is if I keep my camera off the automatic setting.  So, I'm in for the long haul, but I know it will be worth it if I can create more meaningful photos.  It was a lovely day and I so enjoyed meeting all the other women on the course.  Thanks Tim!

Trudy

Welcome Twenty-Thirteen!

It's not too late to say Happy New Year is it?  Hope you are having a relaxed and happy start to the year.  We've had a few days away in our Nation's Capital, Canberra, in the sweltering heat where most days reached 38 degrees (100 fahrenheit).  And this little black duck wilts in the heat so we had to hop from one air-conditioned venue to the next!  Here is the very top of Parliament House, but it was that cloud in the blue sky that I thought was sensational and in need of photographing.

We ticked off most items from our list of things to do, leaving a couple for a return trip another time.

Royal Australian Mint

Parliament House

Old Parliament House

Rose Gardens

National Gallery of Australia

Toulouse-Lautrec Exhibition

National Museum Australia

National Portrait Gallery

Questacon

National Carillon

photography course (more on that later)

"Life of Pi" movie

eating out, yum

Love a few days away seeing new sights and learning new things and being inspired by All That Artwork, but it's always nice to arrive home, especially after a 7 hour drive.  Mind you, that 7 hour drive, both ways, was put to very good use as I was co-pilot and was able to crochet away to my heart's content.  Will show you some new squares soon.  Need to do all those ghastly post-holiday things like unpacking and washing!

Bye for now, Trudy
Oh, and Happy New Year!!!

Momentos

When you arrive home from a holiday it's nice to find a couple of little momentos have snuck into your bags, reminders of towns visited, moments spent.  You bring a little bit of your holiday home.

I like this occupation.  I like it very much!  On this particular holiday to Tasmania I was very restrained.  Just three momentos was all that came home with me.  The first is a very colourful postcard of houses, the original a watercolour by Steve Howells.  There's something about a row of houses, or even a single house that attracks me everytime.  Always will.

 

The next is a lovely linocut card by Joanne Wild.  I was particularly drawn to this image of the woman and her duck, and the stark contrast of orange on white.

 

 

And the final purchase, which I now realise was also bought in the same town as the cards, but on a different day, in Deloraine, is a dear rosy rabbit brooch.  She was pinned to my shirt today when I went out for lunch.  She requested lettuce leaves, but I quietly whispered that she would eat when we got home, I've already found her manners to be somewhat questionable.

 

 

Simple treasures.  Lovely reminders.

Do you like to bring home small momentos of a holiday?

 

Wishing you a lovely weekend.

Trudy

Slide Night at our House

I know that no-one else's holiday photos are interesting to anyone else.  I know this.  But please just humour me here for a moment longer, just a moment?  At least I'm not inviting you over for a slide night at our house to go through the 843 photos I took!!

One day we ventured out with "major walk" on our minds.  We were going to be sensible and decide to turn around and go back to the start if any one of us was tired or just didn't want to go on.  At that point - the starting point - I had no idea that I was going to be walking for the next five hours.  Walking under brilliant blue skies, through rainforests, up rock faces and even into the snow.  This was One Big Adventurous Day!!

Here is the starting point, cleverly disguised as a straight path, without a hint of steepness attached to it.  I suppose those mountains in the background should have warned me.

I was going to say we saw lots of native wildlife, but in fact we saw lots of evidence of native wildlife, but I think the cutest thing was seeing this wombat on his way to Wombat Pool.  Well, where else would a wombat be heading on a fine Spring day?

On we went.  This free-loader [a Currawong] was after our morning snacks.

It's good being the photographer.  You can stop any number of times on the pretext of taking photos, when what you're really doing is catching your breath.  Gorgeous views.  We had walked around these lakes on other days;  now we were seeing them from above.

This is the part where chain handrails made their entrance into what was fast becoming a very challenging hike to the top.  Have I ever mentioned I'm scared of heights?  Or that I have been known, under similar circumstances, to freeze up?  It was later described as the highlight of the trip for the girls - the climbing of the rock face.

A personal favourite.  My rehab man, probably doing it easier than me, truth be known.  By the way, there will be no photos of me, red-faced and puffing and panting.  I'm safely tucked away behind the camera.

Not too many more now.  Thanks for hanging in there!!  A view from the top, and then one from the base again.  Cradle Mountain, Tasmania.  Beautiful corner of the world.

 

Now the post-holiday reality has set in, and I'm off to do the piles of washing that are somewhat reminiscent of the above peaks!

 

Seeya tomorrow in Blogtoberfest-land.

Trudy

 

 

Home Again, Home Again

Did you just say "Jiggedy-Jigg" in your head?!!  You DID, didn't you?!!  We're home and have had a fabulously wonderful time away in Tasmania.  We stopped a night in Launceston, which is a really beautiful city filled-to-bursting with Victorian architecture. 

 

There is a part of me that is Tasmanian.  I can't deny it, it has my heart.  My ancestors settled in northern Tasmania from England and I feel a pull every time I go there.  There is a little town, just west of Launceston, called Westbury, which has a village green, where my maternal Grandmother was born.  And look what I spied, on the village green.  A house, for sale.  Truth be known, I had already found this house on the internet (just a tortured little hobby of mine - to find gorgeous real estate for sale in places I simply can't pack up and go to, let alone afford!!)

 

 

But what I didn't know is that it's right next door to the church where my great, great grandparents were married on Christmas Eve, 1860.

 

 

The post-holiday wearies are setting in.  I think I'm going to have to love you and leave you here, while I take my tired bod off to bed and dream about beautiful old houses on the village green in Westbury, where I could lay in bed listening to the bells of St. Andrews next door ...

 

'night.  Seeya tomorrow : -)

Trudy

 

 

Down Off the Mountain

No-one told me that I wouldn't be able to get internet connection from on top of the mountain (isn't that where telecommunication towers are planted?)!!  So, Blogtoberfesters, there are five days missing out of my October-middle.  But look where we've been ...



Cradle Mountain - Lake St. Clair National Park, Tasmania
Yet another reason why I love Tassie!!

Seeya from home tomorrow, with stories.

Trudy

Bags Packed

[Photo source unknown]

We're off on a holiday!  Chris has been given the all-clear to fly, he's champing at the bit to get back to work, so we're having a week away before that happens, to breathe in some lovely cool, fresh air, sit on top of a mountain, go for long walks.  We need this precious family time to be together and put the chapter of what has been the last couple of months behind us.

There'll be a simple photo-a-day while we're away because I'm putting us all on strict time limits on the laptop.  Wish me luck there!!

Seeya there tomorrow!
Trudy

Yarn Bombing Venus Bay

We've just had a couple of relaxing days tootling away to nearby Venus Bay.  The weather wasn't perfect, well it was perfect Winter weather ... cold and drizzly!  Umbrellas at the beach?  No, we rushed back to our little house and hunkered down.  We'd taken all the pre-requisite games, books*, pens, pencils, and craft bag so we were all set to play indoors.

When we first arrived we noticed that someone, who had come before us, had done some yarn bombing on a big tree in the front yard and we then started noticing yarn bombing in different places all over Venus Bay.

Before we left for home, Girl 2 decided she wanted to do her first bit of yarn bombing and to leave it on the tree outside the kitchen window.  Being new to knitting, a simple little square of knitting was created.

And joyfully stitched to the branch.

There was a big smile for that little piece of knitting.

Isn't it just the cutest little piece of yarn bombing from a soon-to-be ten year old knitter?

We almost didn't want to leave it behind, but now have thoughts of some yarn bombing in our own yard.  This yarn bombing from Germany is fantastical and inspiring!

Have you yarn bombed?
Have you secretly wished to yarn bomb?  Go ahead, it's fun!!

Trudy

* Read "A Reliable Wife" by Richard Goolrick - couldn't put it down!

On my Craft Table

The bell rang at 2.30 p.m. Friday and school is out for two weeks!  We're going into them with sneezles and wheezles which I'm hoping will be gone very, very soon so that we can start to play and relax.  We always make a long wish list of things we want to do on our holidays;  delightfully simple things like baking, crafting, picnics, staying in pyjamas all day, watching movies, playing board games.  The girls and I have already had a mini crafting session with shipping tags and washi tape, making bookmarks.  Aren't they fun?

Chris and I had the opportunity of an hour-long walk along the Great Southern Rail Trail near Meeniyan yesterday while the girls were busy singing and dancing at rehearsals for a local production.  We found some beautiful horses, who came over for a chat and some grass from the other side of the fence.

And wondered how much mail they received?  And who wrote to them?!

I'm also hoping I can nab a bit of time to work on a few things that are taking my attention at the moment.  Notice it's not one project, I'm actually all over the place with lots of different things!

Enjoy your day, the school holidays, the week, the month of July!
Trudy

Country Mice

The girls and I had a couple of days in Melbourne last week.  We Country Mice need to play at being City Mice every so often.  We went to see the Giant Theremin along the Yarra River.  If you are like me and have no idea of what I'm talking about, a Giant Theremin is a musical instrument controlled by movement.  For two young girls it was near-impossible to resist dancing, twirling, jumping and running past it to activate the movement symphony.  I liked it just because of it's gorgeous, rusty colour.

Sticky Institute is a favourite place of mine located in the Degraves Subway, also known as the Campbell Arcade, under Flinders Street.  Lined in pale pink 1950's tiles and iron signs, the Degraves Subway is now home to fringe artists and a jumbled collection of small businesses.  I love to walk down the stairs entering a world so different from the bustle of the train commuters up on Flinders Street Station.  Nothing seems to have changed in the last sixty years.

Back to the Sticky Institue, this is an artist-run initiative promoting the creation of handmade publications, or zines.  You can sit in the store to make your zine if you wish, there are old typewriters for use, or browse the hundreds of zines for purchase hanging in the window and on shelves along the walls. 

There was snacking in groovy cafes, hanging out in Smiggle for what seemed like forever, seeing the kids movie "Mirror Mirror", wandering through bookstores and climbing over all the pieces of sculpture dotted around the City, oh and noticing the reflection of St. Pauls Cathedral in a building along Swanston Street.

Apart from the disastrous moment when I realised my car keys weren't in my handbag when we were laden down with luggage at the car and ready to leave, it was a fabulous couple of days.

Hope you're all enjoying the holiday break.
And yes I found the keys, they had fallen into my crochet bag which was in the suitcase ...?!

Cheers, Trudy