Season Greetings

I would like to wish You and Yours a Very Merry Christmas and an Extremely Safe and Happy New Year... May 2010 be all that you wish it to be.... See you all in 2010!!!!

Saturday - Warrandyte

P and I went to Warrandyte on Saturday... We walked beside the river enjoying the sunshine and the silence... I took these photos on my phone so the picture quality isn't great but I guess you will get the general feeling...

If you look closely at picture three you will see a dog's head above the water line - its human companion was throwing a stick into the water and the dog was chasing and fetching it - apparently a daily game...

Working in retail through the week - especially at this time of year - it is nice to go somewhere which is relatively quiet... As I get older I am finding I yearn to be somewhere peaceful and slower...

Where are you...

...I am looking high...

...and low for you...

...ah, there you are...

...you know I will always find you...

and just for that I will give you a 'kiss'...


Our cat Matilda has for reasons best know to herself has taken a liking to these two small bears - she will hunt them out if we move them and carries them off like a mother cat carries her kittens.. We will come home to find these two in all sorts of places...

She also has a little striped mouse which regularly gets a beating - we often find it on our bed - perhaps as an offering... P says he can only imagine what she would bring home to us if she was an outside cat...

Storm Damage...

We had a storm in Melbourne last Thursday... It created havoc and damage in a number of suburbs including ours...We sustained a minor inconvenience when our kitchen began 'raining' on the inside but it was nothing that couldn't be swept up or dried out - most of my cook books got some sort of water damage as they were directly under 'the shower'. P laid them all out across the floor and most since have dried out... We also had some guttering which came away from the roof on the other side of the house - we think a combination of the wind and the sheer volume and weight of water was enough for it - the guttering - to give way... Nothing which can't be fixed...

However we live directly across the road from a pocket handkerchief park which as you can see from the photos felt the fury of the elements - some of these trees are quite big and thankfully there was no one in the park at the time as at its centre there is a children's play area... I have chosen a few to show you but really the photos don't do the size of the branches justice...

The third and fourth photo shows how fickle fate can be and in this case for the better - this tree is very close to a main road which from about the time of the storm would have been very busy traffic wise from a number of local schools - if the wind had of taken these branches out across the road there would have been traffic problems - at the very least... If you look closely you can see some SEC tape around it which means it had been attended to as best as possible during the storm...

I am sure some of these trees will have to be cut down as they lost major branches which would make them more vulnerable to future wind and torrential rain... Such a shame as they are beautiful and I never tire watching them as the light dances across their leaves as they move in the breeze...

Dragon in a Wagon

This is one of E's latest - I don't know whose face I love most....

2012 & a spider's web...

2012 Official Movie trailer
Uploaded by pannuzzio. - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.

We went to see the movie 2012 today. For those of you who don't know about it, the premise is based around the Mayan calendar which suggests that life on this planet is about to change come 21/12/2012 . Basically it predicts the end of the world as we know it - in the movie's tell it is in the worst possible way. There is the usual plot line - discovery of a catastrophe, estranged family, political conspiracies, a race against time, the chosen few (mainly those with billions of euros) who are going to be saved in luxury type 'Arks' and the human moral conscience. Lots of special effects and some little predictable bits - watch closely where the crack travels on the painting of God's finger touching Man - P and I picked up a few little 'mistakes' - that I guess if you are making a film about the end of the world you can afford to be liberal here and there...

I am not sure how I felt when the movie finished. Do I believe it - about the end of the world - not sure to be honest... I would like to think that it is all mythology but I do have this niggling doubt - for too long we have been too complacent about the damage we are doing to this planet - while it is suggested that this time around the Earth's destruction is based on a planetary aliment rather than man made tampering I am still not convinced. The human race as a whole does a lot more 'taking' than 'giving' and as I write this I am less sure - we - the human race - are invincible - that is truly a myth. What do we do now? I guess the trick is to keep going - if it is going to happen whether it be 2012 or tomorrow - we have to keep moving forward with perhaps a little more stillness at times and an appreciation for the 'finer' things in life - hence my very bad photo of this morning's find in the garden...

An Echo in the Bone...

We had a surprise visitor into the shop today - Diana Gabaldon. She would be one of my favorite authors and I have followed her characters - Claire and Jamie - throughout their adventures over the last 17 years or so...

Cross Stitch was the first book in Diana's Outlander series, it was followed by Dragonfly In Amber, Voyager, The Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross, A Breath of Snow and Ashes and lastly - but I believe NOT the last - An Echo in the Bone...

From the first page in Cross Stitch I was transported into the lives of Claire and Jamie - theirs is an unlikely love story, set against a backdrop of Jacobite Scotland.

I remember standing in a bookshop around about 1992 reading these opening lines from Cross Stitch...

" People disappear all the time. Ask any policeman. Better yet, ask a journalist. Disappearances are bread and butter to journalists.
Young girls run away from home. Young children stray from their parents and are never seen again. Housewives reach the end of their tether and take the grocery money and a taxi to the station. International financiers change their names and vanish into the smoke of imported cigars.
Many of the lost will be found, eventually, dead or alive. Disapperances, after all have explanations.
Usually."

... and from that moment been hooked. Little did I know then that I would be reading the seventh book in 2009...

I must admit that I was excited at meeting the woman whose writing has kept me entertained all of those years. Diana was both charming and patient, posing for photos and signing copies of her series in the short time she was with us. And guess what? I have my own personally signed copy!!!!!!

Oh no... Not more books!!!!!!!

...yep, of course there is... What does a retail book seller do on their day off??? Go to the Oxfam second hand book sale of course... Met G there she was also looking to extend her library... Did I buy any? Of course I did...

But for once I bought less than P - he bought way more....

G..

...this one for you... *Back story* for those interested - about a month ago my great niece R who is a volunteer rescuer for a wild life organization was coming for dinner when she responded to a call for assistance. When she arrived at our house she had this tiny ring tail possum which had got separated from its Mum... In actual fact the woman who rang R said to her that it was found clinging to their cat who was looking very nonplussed about the whole thing... R took it to the vet to see if it was ok and once she got the all clear was to take it to a woman who rears orphans and then releases them back into the wild... However this night the woman couldn't help and asked R could she keep it overnight until other arrangements could be made... R looked forward to a night of broken sleep as the little one had to be kept warm and fed... This was taken just as R was about to feed it... The esimated age of the wee thing was about three weeks... E named her 'Flo'... Just as well R works as a vet assistant as she took 'Flo' to work with her next day...UPDATE (when last we heard) - Flo has thrived under care and will be released back to the wild when she is old enough..

It's all too much...

I saw this today in Lincraft - too, too b***dy soon... Daylight savings and Christmas paraphernalia - it's doing my head in...

My escape route...

has been through reading these books - The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. They are absorbing -not only my time - but capturing and exciting my imagination... They are the first books in a very long time which I feel passionate about... Working in a book store I tend to see books come and go - I am not suggesting for a minute that there are not piles and piles of wonderful books both classics and new - however my reading had waned a little and I kept thinking to myself that I wanted a book or series of books I could escape in - my thoughts were heard apparently and these are they... The first one - The Alchemyst - has been out for a couple of years it seems - the next one - The Magician - came out last year and then - The Sorceress - was released just recently... I have read the three of them in about three weeks - one night with my book light flickering in the darkness until about 2am... What do I like about them? Michael Scott - the author - has creatively used world events, characters created from people who lived, plus he has drawn on myths and legends to weave a age old story of good versus evil, a quest,a coming of age, a getting of wisdom, and perhaps even an love story...

People have asked me what I would liken it to - while it deals with some alchemy and magic - it isn't Harry Potter, and while there is a vampire or two - it is a very long way from the Twilight series... "Oh," you say "it is written for young people then." Yes it is but please don't let that deter you - it is well constructed, well written, action packed with the occasionally twist thrown in for good measure plus a host of wonderful characters - both good and bad... A good book - in my opinion - is like a good meal - delicious - and these books in my opinion are top of the 'menu'...

The only downside is that there is another three in the series each to be released in the next three years... I will probably re read the first three again in anticipation for the fourth book - The Necromancer- later in the year...

Go on I dare you - read The Alchemyst - I know you want to :) !!!!

** There is a suggestion on one of the sites that there is a film coming - not sure how I feel about that - I just hope they do it well...

Personal Year Nine

Today is the first day of my personal nine year... Looking back on past 'nine years' they have always been interesting... The Hermit in tarot is the card that reflects the passage of the nine year best...

Just to say...

.. I am going to take a break - between my back condition and the house been burgled late last week - blogging is the last thing on my mind...

Until my peace of mind returns...

Sharon xxx

Easter Monday...

Today when the sun was high in the sky P and I decided that a drive was in order - we pointed the car south and away we went. About half an hours drive from our front door- was Mordialloc - a bayside suburb of Melbourne... We had some lunch at one of the local cafes and then went for a walk to the beach and along the pier - it was lovely in the autumn sun and there were a lot of people taking advantage of the last day of the Easter break...

Here are some reflections of the afternoon from through the lens...



The sun sparkling on the waters edge...

...made me want to paddle.

While others set their course for open water...

... some simply strolled in the afternoon sun...

...or walked along the pier...

Others bravely thought about one last swim for the season...

... and there were those whose mind turned to a fresh fish dinner.

One took a break from cycling...

and a kite sailed against a watercolour sky...

Meanwhile a man 'builds' a boat from his palette...

... its image 'moored' on his canvas...

And this man brought the World Wide Web to his own corner of the universe...


....while we make our way home - the afternoon sun makes patterns - across the floor...

~

Our Matilda...

On the weekend P & I could hear lots of thumping and bumping around in the next room... P went to have a look and he came back grinning and I followed him out into the hall and looked in the direction he was pointing... There she was - playing in the hand basin in the bathroom - she breaks all the house rules... Our Matilda is a bit of free spirit...

Beyond belief...

... the weekend has been one of heartbreak here in Victoria - with our hottest day recorded since records began - and one of devastation caused by bushfires...

Words fail me as I write this - I have spent the day trying to get my head around such a truly awful tragedy - again as I write the current death toll is 65 76 people with a rise in in the number expected... There has been approximately 600 640 houses burnt to the ground and one historic town - Marysville - completely destroyed...

I think what gets to me is that some of these places are within an hour or two drive from here - a nice little drive on a Sunday - in fact we were due to go out to lunch today to a pub which as it turned out was not far from one of the fire fronts - of course we didn't go and I doubt very much whether it stayed open for very long...

I cannot begin to imagine what it was like for people who woke up yesterday morning probably starting out their weekend as they normally did knowing that the day was going to be an 'over the top scorcher' - they would have been mindful of a bushfire threat - most people who choose to live in these semi rural communities have fire plans... Ironically I was speaking to a customer on Wednesday who lives out St Andrews way about her bushfire plan - today I wondered if she was one of the ones who needed to put it into action... But by the end of yesterday some of those people had died and many, many more would be homeless...

The day was hot from the word go 30C by nine in the morning and steadily rising throughout the day peaking at 46.7 at about 4pm before a cool change in the early evening... The problem was that yesterday was a dry heat which was accompanied by a very strong wind... While the firefighters were expecting some outbreaks - things had been under control to this point -they possibly weren't expecting - or perhaps were praying that the firebugs wouldn't be out today... But their prayers weren't answered and someone(s) set about lighting fires which aided by the heat and wind quickly turned into an fast moving inferno - impossible to catch let alone contain...

Unfortunately there were not enough fire fighters or units to be everywhere and people in the more isolated areas had to fend for themselves - they had to decide whether to stay and try and save their homes or flee - unfortunately for some it was already too late no matter what plan they had in place...

As I hear the updates there is more disturbing news... One of Melbourne best known news readers is missing - feared dead - his wife's body has been found and one can only presume he has died too...

I can't write any more - it is too distressing... I sit here and wonder if there is something I could do to help - even in a small way...

'NEIGHBOURS' in the neighbourhood...

If you have never heard or not a fan of 'Neighbours' this post will be of no interest to you... But if you have't ever heard of 'Neighbours' I will have to wonder where you have been for the couple of decades...

A couple of weeks ago we received a letter from FremantleMedia informing us that one of our neighbours had agreed to their property being used as a location shoot for the popular TV soap 'Neighbours'... This - it said - would be Tuesday 27th Jan - the day after the Australia Day weekend. At that point the exact property was not disclosed...I guess we were all a little intrigued to who owned the 'Neighbours" house - even Matilda - our new kitten- kept watch for clues...

We all tried to guess which house was the likely candidate and had agreed that there was a possibility of two - one - two doors down and the other - more or less directly opposite us - our street isn't a neighbourly sort of street so we just had to wait and see which neighbour was a Neighbour...

Love it or hate it most people would agree that 'Neighbours' has been an iconic Australian series that has opened us up to an overseas viewing market - I won't go in to its history but rather provide a link to its homepage here .

But back to our street 'invasion'... Tuesday morning dawned with the promise of an extremely hot day - the first of nearly a week of 40+ Celsius days (113 degrees in the old measure) ...Initially the street was as quiet as it usual is at that time but about 7am it became a hive of activity- there were people in fluro vests 'directing traffic' so to speak - trucks and cars rolled up furniture was unloaded - and there many and various people wearing headsets, carrying clipboards and lugging all sorts of things down the street passed our place...




The house in question was the one nearly opposite - so we had a ringside seat to the proceedings... But as they say one picture tells a thousand words so here are a few my daughter shot literally from our front gate...

The three actor/characters filming that day were Scott Major/Lucas Fitzgerald -Stefan Dennis /Paul Robinson -Pippa Black/Elle Robinson & not to forget the extras - a group of children who played a group of children at a mockup school crossing...

We rang a family member who is a fan and she sat on the front fence enthralled that the action was happening right in front of her - I later realised that this series had begun a couple of years before she was born.

I remember the very early days of it and how the critics bagged it suggesting it wouldn't last... So here it is in its 24th year -numerous awards - many celebrated actors breaking into 'the business' via 'Neighbours'... Kylie Mignoe and Jason Donavon - two of the most celebrated... I often giggle when I see re-runs of their wedding - it was the church I had been married in 13 years prior...

Even with the soaring heating E said they went through the same scene again and again until it was perfected - the not so glamorous side to acting... At a guess, for all the footage which was shot, only a few minutes, if that, will be seen by the time it has been edited... We rarely watch Neighbours but I am sure that we will tune in to see 'our street' when the episodes go to air...

Of course there were lots of fans who came to do what we were doing - watch the action - E said that everyone without exception amongst the cast and crew were extremely patient and posed for photos and signed autographs...

I missed most of the excitement as I was at work - but as I was leaving home the location manager was walking passed and we had a bit of a chat - he seemed a nice guy who was genuinely concerned about disruption to our privacy...

E commented that once again she met our neighbours - the last time being five years ago when we had a 'one in a 100 year' storm which 'drowned' the park opposite us - turning it into a lake, submerged cars and flooded homes and surrounding roads - we were all out in the street about 3am inspecting the damage... As you can tell we aren't too neighbourly - a direct contrast to the series - where everyone knows everyone...

Around about 1pm filming finished and within a short time the street returned back to a quiet backstreet... But... they are to return at a later date to do some more filming - so once again we will become 'Neighbours'...