Autumn Days

It's been a quiet and reflective time here at Littlecote, as the summer eases into autumn. I love it when we turn the clocks back for the end of daylight saving - the afternoons seem so mellow and soft. It feels like the day wind down into night.

Zoe was not successful with her audition for role with the Kiev Ballet. Although she was very good she was too short. Several of her friends from ballet have gone onto another round of auditions, but they are taller than her by about 15 cm. It was disappointing, but Zoe has been philosophical about it.

My Uncle Jack died on Thursday. He was my father's brother. Dad's siblings are much older than him; Uncle Jack was 15 years older and Aunty Dorothy is 13 years older. Dad was too young to have any recollection of Jack when he went off to the Second World War but he remembers a day when a strange man walked up the driveway. Dad ran in to tell his mother, and it was only then that he discovered that the strange man was his brother. From that moment, Dad followed Jack around everywhere. I remember my brothers doing the same when we were younger and we would go to Ballarat to visit him. Uncle Jack was 87. He had been hoping to outlive his legendary aunt who had lived to be 87 and about 2 months. If he had lived for another week, he would have done so. He didn't quite make it. We are all going to the funeral in Ballarat on Tuesday.

There hasn't been a lot of creating here in the last couple of weeks. Zoe came up with the design of this apron, and I sewed it together. We found the fabric at the Stitches and Craft Show. It 's cute isn't it?

The autumn weather has been just right for the quiet, peaceful, slow time we have had. Cheers!

Pointes and Presents

More excitement at Littlecote! Zoe's ballet teacher wants her, along with two other girls, to go "en pointe" so that they can prepare for an audition with the Kiev Ballet. Zoe is naturally delighted as it takes a lot of training to go en pointe and this indicates that the ballet teacher thinks she is progressing very well.

So, most of Saturday was spent driving around Melbourne trying to find a shop that sold pointe shoes in her size, and where the shop assistant knew how to fit her properly. Not just anyone would do, according to the ballet teacher! After several hours, visits to three shops, and over $100 later we have the shoes!

Since getting them, Zoe has hardly been off them. Luckily she is still on cloud nine, so the pain has not set in yet!


Zoe also went to her friend, Jaz's, birthday party on Sunday. As a gift, she made a really cute sit-upon, and another for her friend, Bella, who celebrates her birthday next week.


She's a bit of a star all round, really.

Beautiful Art

I just wanted to include some images of the beautiful art we saw at the Gallery of New South Wales. The one above is huge - it hangs in one room in such a way that you can see it through the arched doorways of two other rooms. It is titled "Vive L'Empereur" 1891 and the artist is Eduard Detaille. The colours are gorgeous and the subject is magnificent.

This one is by Edward Poynter; "The visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon" 1890. It is also huge. Beautiful, isn't it?

This last one is a stunning sculpture from the Chinese collection. Zoe is studying China in her class this semester, so we wandered through the Chinese section of the gallery. So many beautiful things to see, and dating so far back. This sculpture was particularly impressive.

We also looked through the Archibald exhibition. We were impressed by a number of the portraits.

It's a lovely thing to have time to wander through an art gallery, isn't it?

Sydney sojourn and other treats

I have just finished reading a wonderful book - Geraldine Brooks' "Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women". It's a fascinating account of the stories of Islamic women encountered by Brooks during her six years as a foreign correspondent in the Middle East. It's told with compassion and intelligence, frustration and clarity. Brooks' overwhelming desire to understand the women of the Islamic world and to tell the stories of their lives has given me an understanding of their beliefs and the effect of a beliefs system that extends to governance and power over every aspect of their lives. Prior to reading this book, I had almost no knowledge of the Islamic world, now I feel that I know a little at least and would like to learn more. This book is a window onto another culture. Brooks makes effective use of her access to both powerful and powerless women; the result is informative and challenging. I highly recommend it.

The impact of this book is such that I had to begin this blog with a note about it, even though we have also had a very exciting and enjoyable long weekend in Sydney. We flew into Sydney on Thursday to celebrate Zoe's 11th birthday. We stayed at the Sir Stamford, where Zoe was given a special welcome gift of chocolates and we had complimentary cocktails. Luxury! We tripped around the city for three days, delighting in visits to the Art Gallery of NSW, the National Maritime Museum, Woollahra, Chinatown, the gardens, Circular Quay and Kirribilli. We also walked across the Harbour Bridge and climbed a pylon for a wonderful view of the harbour. Each afternoon we swam in the rooftop pool. The weather was as beautiful as Sydney. You can see a photo journal of our holiday in the link.

I did manage to complete something for Project Spectrum: Fire - a ski hat for Zoe that was almost complete and just needed some tassels. Quirky but cute, hey?

We have had wild winds this afternoon - one of the pots at our front door was knocked over and smashed and one of our fences fell down. Poor Greg had quite a task to prop it back up. Across the city, trees were uprooted, bringing down powerlines and brick walls, and smashing onto cars. We got a little bit of rain and there is supposed to be more but it has not eventuated yet. It's the rain we need - the wind raised dust storms across the state and made the sky a dirty, dusty colour this evening.

I am learning more about how to blog - hopefully The Littlecote Times will improve as I gain more skills.

Cheers!

Easter Excitement

Exciting news! Greg has been offered a position as an English teacher at one of Melbourne's top boys' schools. He will be retiring from the government school in late June and then he can take up the new position straight after the school holidays in July. It's a well deserved move to something new and invigorating for him - and hopefully not so demanding or stressful as his current role. The whole family is delighted for him.

Zoe and I have been creating:

Zoe made this fantastic "sit-upon" from "The Daring Book for Girls". It's made from newspapers and a plastic bag, but we added wadding and made an appliqued cover for it. The cute panel is from fabric we bought at the Stitches and Craft Show last weekend.


The hat is made from Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, and is for a colleague of mine who finished work on Thursday. The baby is due in early May. The picture makes the hat look blue but it is really a pretty lilac - I thought it would be good for either a boy or a girl. The hand holding it is my colleague Susan, in our office at school.

Through one of my favourite blogs (A Friend to Knit With), I found Project Spectrum and think I will just have to participate! But can I get anything "Fire" finished before the end of March? That will be a challenge. Anyway, as a start I am including a picture of sunset from our balcony.

Hope you had a lovely Easter. We spent it catching up with each of my brothers and their families. With four birthdays to celebrate in two weeks, it was a great opportunity to see everyone.

We're off to Sydney later this week. Can't wait!

On a hot weekend in March

The Labour Day holiday was less of a holiday for the three of us, and more of a day of labour - but what a great time we had!

A good portion of the weekend was spent by the three of us getting Zoe's room into good working order. This involved throwing out, bagging for the op-shop, rearranging, boxing and creating new displays. We felt both virtuous and successful! Just look at it now:





Zoe and I also helped my uncle and his family on the stall at a couple of farmers' markets. Great fun, and an opportunity to sample the wares of other stalls. It's lovely to talk with the producers of the food, who are all really passionate about what they grow or make. The peaches and nectarines that we were selling were delicious, so they sold out very quickly. We brought home a couple of buckets of fruit, and because it was such a hot weekend some of the fruit just had to be made into something. Greg also picked green tomatoes from our vines, so now we have more peach jam, green tomato chutney and peach and white chocolate muffins. Yum!











Also made were a couple of padded coathangers, as there was nothing good enough to hang Zoe's new knitted coat on.
I have finally finished Virginia Woolf's "Mrs Dalloway" - and I say "finally" because it is not an easy read. It can be hard going to read a book without chapters, that moves seamlessly from the thoughts of one character to another, and particularly when conversations are composed of both the thoughts of the participants and their words. The themes and the plot are wonderfully thought-provoking and timeless, and the characters are beautifully established and developed. It is a jewel of a book but challenging.

Year 8 camp was fantastic - surfing, canoeing, snorkelling, exploring our wonderful Port Philip Bay, seeing dolphins, seals, puffer-fish, cuttlefish and other sea-creatures. The girls were delightful, and even slept well in the enormous dormitories in which they spent the four nights. Movie night watching "She's the Man" was fun (the girls are such romantics). The view over the Heads into the bay from Cottage by the Sea was stunning. But the most fantastic thing about camp was Samry, our Ethiopian refugee scholarship girl, who was never been fully-immersed in water, surfing! Amazing!

Tick, tick, tick!

Not the ticking of a bomb but the ticking of a pen, the ticking off of a list, or the ticking of a clock. That's what's been happening at Littlecote this week.

Tick - Zoe has finished "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". She was reading at all hours, engrossed in the story, and we rented the DVD to compare the novel and the film. Now she's onto another of the Royal Diaries - this one is about Anastasia of Russia.

Tick - Zoe has bought herself an 8Gb iPod Nano. She has been saving her pocket money, gift money and the money she has earnt helping at the market, and has finally saved enough! She has bought a lovely green one, and named it Minty. She is very proud of herself. Now that we finally have a replacement for Greg's faulty one (no thanks to Dick Smith Electronics, but thanks to Jedda at Streetwise), we spent a couple of hours today getting them both up to speed with iTunes and iPod management.

Tick - tick, tick and more ticks. Greg has spent the day marking English essays. He's pleased with how his Year 12 class is progressing.

Tick - I have finished the cardigan/jacket for Zoe. I am delighted with how it has turned out. Zoe loves it although she says it feels heavy, but then we are still experiencing very warm weather so we're not used to the heavy layers of winter. The cardigan is so soft and looks lovely on her. I think I want one for myself!

Tick - I am all packed for the Year 8 camp. I've prepared my lessons, telephoned parents who needed to be contacted about their daughters' progress, arranged conferences and breakfasts, organised the week for Greg and Zoe. But I haven't contacted friends and family as I had intended this weekend. I must prioritise!

Well, that must be a ticking off!