Rawson retreat

This weekend I spent at Rawson in the Baw Baw Shire at the Rawson retreat. This was the site for the construction crew of the Thompson Dam. This time we were scrapbooking with Gerry Silk who is a Creative memories Consultant. There were 21 enthusiasts and it turned out a good weekend activity for what was a chilly and wet weekend.
I had the stitches on my nose removed on Friday at 1200 (no photo to be seen!)then drove up with Wendy in her new car (Toyota Corolla) to Rawson , 2 hours door to door.
It was a mild afternoon and a lovely morning on Saturday but that only lasted till about 11am then it was bitterly cold and raining Perfect weather for us!
We started scrapping by 4pm and spent the whole days busy at work. Gerry had some raffles with a fund raiser for Very Special Kids (a Creative Memories project for the month) and after no success in the first one, I had all my three tickets drawn (only bought 3 after my no luck first raffle!)in the second, but as she had many gifts (out of stock products) I gave up the last one! So I do not need any more CM pens! But one gift was a red eye removal pen haven't tried it yet!
I had taken an eclectic mix of photos to work with and they turned out to be just enough. I did a series of pages on older photos of things I had been doing with Maddy,(Camping trip to central Australia etc) and then one of the garden at Beaumaris They were very pleasing!
I then did one on My walk to work using the puzzle cutter which was good fun to fiddle with. I haven't mastered taking good photos so the pages so these are a bit over or under exposed.
I then did one of Celia that I am very pleased with!
The final picture is of one photo I did. It is me on the beach at Aireys with Spencer racing up on the sand (the black spot!) I really liked the colours, of it reminded me of a Mary Cassatt painting of girls on the beach. It is part of the pages on the House at Aireys.

The big move

Today was the big move of furniture from Beaumaris. I started the day with an appointment with the doctor to have my dressing taken down on my nose; stitches out Friday. It looks better than I'd anticipated, but the scar seems to run up to my eyebrow.

Celia and I are keeping 5 items of furniture, (9 counting the 4 chairs) but I have to move it all and then distribute / get rid of the rest.
We are having the dining room table and sideboard that was Mum and Dad's and the blouse chest that was Mum's. The chest is made from fruit crates and the frame wrapped in Twine.They have deep drawers so the blouses could be laid folded, without getting crushed.
We will use it for table linen.
I have had discussion with the local New Hope Centre, working with refugees newhope.asn.au and hopefully I can donate the unwanted furniture and the ones we are replacing, directly to families rather than to a service where they then have to buy it. The other piece is the final surviving chair of Mum and dad's lounge suite. It has be recovered in the same as the dining chairs. All this stuff 50+ years old. Maddy always looked after things so they look good still!

I arrived about 1000 and put the op shop stuff back in the car and added the blankets and doonas.Then sat down to wait, and the next door neighbour Sharon came in and offered me a coffee while I waited, so I went into her place, then we sat out on the wall in the sun till the van arrived -promptly at 1130.
They were really good, careful and quick and were happy to add any of the pots of plants I wanted. While I was waiting for them to finish I picked a final vase of flowers.
They took about 75 minutes to load the van, then we headed off to Footscray, about an hour's trip. Fortunately our narrow street was fairly empty of cars and they were unfazed by our winding garden path.I had created some space for where the pieces were to go (seeing I have 2 of many things at the moment.) there were finished by 230 and i took my car to the Salvos op shop and went to the loading bay and it was open and the guy there helped me off load stuff.
Then to Le Chien cafe for a late lunch and after called in at the New Hope Centre. Kara said she was about to ring me and asked if it was convenient to come tomorrow at 1000 as they had the van then! PERFECT!
I think only Celia and I realise how much work went into these before and after pictures!

Garden Sculpture

I was really taken by the work of a local (to Aireys) artist and his stone and metal installations, Darren Matthews. There was a trail of pieces around the venues of the Festival as well as several more at the local Eagles Nest Gallery.

Books rationale

One of the big hassles of clearing Maddy’s house has been getting rid of all the books. This has created a feeling that my shelves of many books (and the boxes in the bungalow) are not a good thing. It was opportune that I read in Good Reading magazine this week that the editor said she was having a book clean, and planned to asked herself as she picks up each book.
• Can I remember reading it? (That won’t work well for me as I remember the plot of every book I have read (Unlike Andrew who writes an A in the front so he knows he’s read it!)
• Did I love it?
• Does the book have a place in my reading time line? Not sure what this means.
• Do I want to reread it? I re-read most of the books I like. (was stunned to find many other people don’t) Might make this reread in the last 3 years.
• Does it serve a purpose? (Non-Fiction) This will thin the shelf!! How many out of date travel books can one use!
If the answer is yes to 3 of these, it stays.
If the books in the bungalow that I packed up before I went to Japan are still there in 12 months do I need them??
What about the ones I haven’t read yet. They will have to go on a separate shelf!
This may be a struggle, but I just have to remind myself of trying to fit the boxes of books in my car and carrying them back and forth.
But then maybe I could just buy a new shelf!

Books Books Books

What a great time we had at Aireys Festival of Words, or as the Councillor kept saying Festival of the Word. I had been reading my way through the Authors listed covering lots I had not read Since the blog a few weeks ago I have read Sophie Cunningham's Bird, Anna Davidoff, aka Bird, is a Russian immigrant, ’50s movie star and Buddhist nun. Ana-Sofia is her daughter, a lonely woman who cannot move forward with life until she comes to terms with her mother’s abandonment. Sounds bleak but it wasn't. A great read. The cover is the singer, dancer but I thought it was a picture of a black bird with a white tail!

Kate Legge The Marriage Club and All That happened at No. 26 by Denise Scott. were also great finds.

I had been trying to find The World Beneath by Cate Kennedy, turns out it hadn't been published but was released early for the Festival and will be available again in September. She was the Opening Speaker and she was so impressive we were really keen to buy the book. Cate has twice won The Age short story competition & her first book Dark Roots was shortlisted for the Steele Rudd Award in the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards and for the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal. Hope to get into it soon. The book is set in Tasmania and the main characters had been involved in the Gordan River Blockade and Campaign. History to some now adays!!

The main opening event was Denise Scott and Shane Moloney, comedy & crime. Denise was a great speaker had us all laughing uproariously. Moloney on the other hand doesn't speak as well as he writes! We were out to dinner at Shirley's on Sunday night and one guest said he had taught in Wycheproofe and we asked if he knew Denise and he said he was in her book, he had taught her to drive; we remember that chapter! Also Kate Legge is Molly Sinclair's daughter in law (Maddy's best friend) We also ran in to other people we knew, as well as Sue and Judy being teachers met all these parents of ex students! a Busy weekend.

We finished with lunch at A La Greque a really great restaurant that is not usually open in Winter, and a speaker Allan Campion talking about his books which are about food in season and when to buy what. Really interesting .

Definitely on the books for next year!

A big change

It seems hard to believe that the family home that dad built when I was about two, and we have called home for almost 60years has been sold. Many friends have moved house several times but we have always had Beaumaris. The friends at lunch on Sunday also only sold when their parents died.
The neighbourhood was settled in the late 40's and considered by some to be too far away. There was little public transport, some might say it's no better now! with just the train to Sandringham. We didn't have a car till the mid 60's so we had the school bus or shanks pony. Walking to Black rock was a normal event, but as in the previous blog we didn't need to go anywhere ,we just played in the local streets and the beach, 10minutes walk away.
Beaumaris is now a very expensive suburb, close to the beach, and reasonable distance to the city. Once renowned for its treed and leafy landscape, blocks have been bought, old houses torn down and trees cleared and edge to edge buildings erected, even 2 to the block. It seems someone else has to keep their trees for the view.
Ours will be torn down as well, and I don't think I will go back to see the change.

Lunch with childhood friends

It has been a busy weekend and one of the great times was the lunch we had with old neighbourhood children. We had met up after Maddy's funeral , not having seen many for over 10-15 years. We all met at the local pub initially and Cheryl (Chezz) form next door started doing a map of the neighbourhood , who lived where the names as well as those of the family dogs! Alan then printed this and sent it around.
We all met again on Sunday at Maggie Fooke's house (she has bought an old house in Fitzroy and established a bed and breakfast.) It was a fun filled 4 hours as we talked about what we all did then, in the meantime and now. Two of our friends had died young (21 and 45) and we talked of the freedom of that times and the worry placed on parents for their children now. At our peak there must have been at least 27 kids roaming the streets and park and the tea-tree scrub.
We all just hung out together and came home for dinner! usually to the sound of the Meehan bell or the Fooke whistle.
The highlight of the stories was Kate telling us how she was mad on horses (no one had one then!) and she had strapped horse shoes to her feet and galloped over the local oval, leaving ergonomically correct prints, created water jumps and had a full jumping course in her back yard!
We plan to meet again (with more contacted) in about 3 months.

Bennetts Lane

Once we have found the Bennett's Lane Jazz club we have been there again and I have seen Yvette Johansson for the third time. We had a great time on Friday night with some other friends of Celia from new York. Yvette was as great as usual including singing another Blossom Dearie song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPzt3A4Se_U

Blossom Dearie (previously unknown to me!) died this year February 7, 2009 at 85, was an American Jazz singer and pianist often performing in the bebop genre and known for her distinctive girlish voice. The songs Yvette chose to sing were very funny with rapid short line lyrics. The program for the coming months looks interestign , with suggestiosn form Sue (New York) on good artists, means I will be there again.

It is cheap ($20) and there is no compulsion to buy drinks, though they make their money from that so one glass can set you back $11.

I now have three regular music venues. Albert Park Yacht Club, Sorelli at Czech Club in North Melbourne, and Bennett's Lane, a whole new interest for me in my later years!!!

Mellow yellow

One thing about the Australian wattle is that there is always one variety blooming all year long. This one was in all its glory on my walk to work ands is still looking good 2 weeks later. It is in the middle of a reserve between 2 streets. I think they must have knocked down a street of houses years ago but the opposite side had this view while the other is the side of houses that front the adjacent streets.

I have a large wattle tree in the back yard that I planted in front of the bungalow It said it was 6 feet..... .what a misleading description, it towers over the building and drops litter all the time. Maybe it's just in a great spot.

As well, a family of Wattle birds (no relation !) have perched there and poop in too close proximity to the clothes line!! Wattles have a limited life span so I have decided to cut it down and place a screen fencing, and grow some creeping plant and smaller things in front.