DECEMBER DOINGS

 Celebrations continue at the Red Cardinal nest, as we sail through the 'Most Wonderful Time of the Year', to quote the old song.

Yesterday was our Wedding Anniversary, and Mr. C surprised me with a potted Poinsettia plant, perfect for Christmas theming.

We went out for dinner and celebrated 53 years together... it seems an astonishing length of time, but we still feel young at heart and have lots of living to look forward to...

including a trip to Europe in 2025.

I had a birthday, not a milestone one, but happily enjoyed lunch with family or friends on not one, but three consecutive days.

Mr. C gave me this fun hand-held printer for instant photo prints to use in journaling.  I have always written travel diaries, often including sketches or small watercolours.  Now I can try something different, including a little photo with each day's diary notes.

Our son and his Irish wife recently took our small grandchildren to Ireland to meet their kinfolk.  They brought me these beautiful hand-crafted shamrock earrings, and sweet linen handkerchief.  Thank you so much...

Our lunch together was somewhat interrupted by a very heavy tropical storm, and to our amazement a flash flood occurred right outside the restaurant:

The water rose about knee deep in 20 minutes, such was the intensity of the rainfall.  The drains could not cope with the flow.  Several cars had to be quickly driven to higher ground.

Unsurprising, the two four-year-olds, wanted to go play in the water, bless them.  They had never seen a flood before.

This however, is out of the question.  The motto in Queensland is 'If it's flooded, forget it'... 

The rain stopped after about 40 minutes, and we were able to leave by the back entrance and walk back to our cars.

The staff were amazing, keeping everyone safe as the water surged into the restaurant whenever a car tried to drive past. 

I thanked them for the most exciting lunch I had had for quite some time...

Today I went into the city and the beautiful Brisbane Arcade, for lunch with my Sewing Sisters.  We have been meeting monthly for nearly 20 years to stitch and chat, seen each other through good times and bad, weddings, grandchildren, and loss of parents.

Old and good friends are so important.

Our dear friend D. brings a sweet tree and tiny Nativity to our Christmas lunch.  Always remember, the Reason for the Season...

There were Secret Santa gifts, cards, and special treats..

D. gave me the sweetest and most charming pink and bejewelled Fairy Christmas Owl.  Thank you so much, I love it!

Every year we remember our dear friend R. who made and gifted me the golden Angel hanging in our window.  She left us to join the Angels in Heaven just after Christmas seven years ago.  Never forgotten..

(Edited to add:  As requested by Kay G. below, here are two closeups of the golden Angel.  R. was a talented artist and enjoyed paper crafts.  The angel is collaged onto heavy card, and there are two fine wire wings over the paper lace ones.)

  Last year's Christmas Journal on the coffee table...

I have started another this year..

Le Giang, Vietnam. 'Majestic Mountains and Expansive Rivers'. Gemstone on acrylic.

 This work draws attention to illegal gem mining which ravages the landscape by open extraction mining.

The 11th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art has opened this month at GoMA (Gallery of Modern Art) in Brisbane.

I work as a volunteer guide here every two weeks.

These are two highlights.  The exhibition continues until April 2025.

Kawita Vatanajyankur, Thailand. 'Shuttle' from 'Performing Textiles'

Interested in labour exploitation and infringements on human rights, Kawita presents videos of herself performing as part of the act of labour of women in the textile and agricultural industries.  She passes back and forth as a shuttle, a spinning wheel, and as a knitting needle.  The bright pretty colours are disarming .. and then you realise what is going on...

 I think we have now finished all our end-of-year Christmas gatherings for our various clubs and organisations.
It is time for the Summer holidays, which go until the end of January.
And I really do need to finish the Christmas shopping for the family...

Hope you are all well, and that your preparations are more advanced than mine...

XXXXX

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

 

Happy International Women's Day:  I know, I have been Missing in Action again.

Oops....

Let's just catch up on things at the International Headquarters of the Red Cardinal Blog:

Summer flowers blooming...

Fabulous Bird cushion from No. 2 son and his wife...

More Summer flowers...

I made these for my tiny granddaughter, from a small piece of vintage fabric from my stash.   Never throw good fabric away...

We went to the Queensland Symphony concert to see Beethoven's Choral Symphony 'Ode to Joy' - wonderful, inspiring, as always...

I have been busy at the art gallery - GoMA has a great new exhibition entitled 'Air'.

How do you make an artwork about something that is invisible?

Many artists have done just that, and it is a very imaginative show.

Here's a glimpse:

Carlos Amorales 'Black Cloud' 2007-2018
Amorales draws our attention to the escalating devastation of invertebrate populations due to climate change.  The butterflies blackened wings are a dire portent of things to come.

Thomas Saraceno 'Drift: A cosmic web of thermodynamic rhythms' 2022.

Artist and environmentalist Saraceno's sculptures are experimental models, charting a path towards sustainable human flight technologies.

The mirrored section would reflect the sun's radiation providing solar energy.  That is little me reflected in the centre.

Mona Hatoum 'Hot Spot' 2006.  The earth shown burning in orange/red neon.

Jemima Wyman 'Plume 20' 2022.  A giant collage of hundreds of separate clouds of smoke, cut from images of uprisings, civil protests and wars.

Jamie North 'Portal' 2022.  Columns composed of cast concrete with aggregates including industrial remains, alongside nature's regeneration process.  The plants are indigenous to Brisbane, including rusty fig and elkhorn fern and are growing throughout the exhibition.  Our air depends on plant life: they take in carbon dioxide, and put out life-giving oxygen, a reciprocal exchange of gases.

Take care of the planet.

XXXXX

SPRINGTIME CARNIVALE AND TWIN UPDATE

 

Who loves the Carnival of Flowers?
Held annually in the regional city of Toowoomba, the Carnival this year is different - just like everything else in this strangest of strange years!




We enjoyed the Public Garden displays at three venues, as well as a special exhibition at St. Luke's Church.

Sadly, there is no home garden competition, let alone the opportunity to view the beautiful private gardens.

Of course, this was due to Covid19 restrictions, but in fact, the crowds were so dense at the public places, not to mention the difficulty of finding a parking spot, I could only think it might be safer to have the thousands of visitors dispersed across the city in smaller numbers as per usual.
Surely a requirement could be simply a one-way path marked around the garden, as is required everywhere we go these days.

At Picnic Point, we enjoyed a special Carnival treat:

a Violet and Wattle seed ice cream sundae:

Yes, there really is violet ice cream under that fluffy cream!

This is fun...seen in a kids' playground...

Last week I returned to my volunteer guiding role at our GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art).   It was a real joy to be back, meeting my guide friends again, catching up on the news and the exhibitions.

The gallery was closed for months during lockdown, and of course, everything is very different.  Social distancing is absolutely essential.

Our tours are reduced to a maximum of six people, and for only 30 minutes.

Brian Dunlop, Australia, 1938-2009 'Room With a Visitor' 1979

Prominently displayed as you enter Goma is Brian Dunlop's 'Room With a Visitor', 1979.  Doesn't it look like our new 'social distancing' world?

Dunlop studied in Europe as a young artist, and was inspired by Renaissance art.

He himself commented that when he finished this work, he thought it looked like an Annunciation painting, and indeed it does.  

Dunlop was known for his interiors, usually bathed in beautiful light, and offers no explanation for the mysterious scenario.  We make of it what we will, and what a good example of how interpretation of a good art work can change over the years.

It is school holiday time in Queensland, and as the border to the Northern Territory is now open, lucky Little Aussie (our eldest grandson) has been on a trip to Uluru - what fun..

And our beautiful new twin grandsons are doing wonderfully well.

They learnt to breathe unaided in the first week, and have moved from ICU to Special care, visited daily by their parents.

They have regained their birth weights, and moved on to other goals: learning to suckle, enjoying a bath or massage, and the maintenance of body warmth.  

Also, wearing clothes :)

At the moment, I really don't have any photos suitable for publication - but eventually we will.  

Taking photos is difficult because of infection control, and their phones have to be zip-locked when they enter the hospital.  We have seen a few tiny videos taken by kindly staff.  It was wonderful to hear a little voice murmuring....

Be safe and take care

XXXXX