WELCOME TO 2023

 

Hello Dear Readers..

2023 has arrived, a baby New Year as full of promise as the tiny pink buds on my favourite rose bush.

At the Red Cardinal nest, we no longer stay up until midnight to welcome the new year, but had a very pleasant roast chicken dinner with champagne accompaniment.  It was followed by an assortment of unusual chocolates kindly bestowed on us by our children for Christmas.

As other bloggers have commented, I too cherish the week after Christmas as a special quiet time, a time to regroup and recover.

Our Christmas was very special, a beautiful lunch at the home of one of our sons, enjoying the company of our three youngest grandchildren and our other son and his family.  The twins, who are two, really enjoyed the whole Christmas period, with a visit to Santa Claus,  decorating a Christmas tree, and the placing of a Nativity scene.  They loved all their gifts and had a generally fabulous time.

Due to a lot of heavy lifting during Christmas prep, we both acquired sore joints and knees after Christmas Day, and have had a very quiet time recovering.

After a few days, we starting on the Garden of Neglect, and a lot of weeding and pruning, and planting of herbs has been going on.

Every year I report on my efforts to keep my pansies flowering from our mid-year Winter (best time to plant Spring flowers), until my birthday in November, or better still, Christmas.

Well this year, I have triumphed!  For the first time I reached the New Year, and still have a pot of blooms:

Will they survive another heatwave?

Tomorrow is predicted to be a 37 c. 'scorcher'.

Come on little flowers, you can do it...

I have been walking as much as possible.

Sometimes I take the road past these beautiful horses:

They are so friendly to a passer-by...

This week we have been not once, but twice, to the movies.

This is noteworthy as since the global pandemic began we have only been once to a movie theatre.  We went in the morning to a small local theatre with a very small audience.  And wore masks.

We love history, and loved 'The Lost King'.

Perhaps you might remember this true story: the movie is about the discovery in 2012 of the remains of English King Richard III by Philippa Langley, a British writer and researcher.  I was fascinated at how she became interested in the fact that Britain's last warrior king, defeated and killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, had no known final resting place.  Using her astonishing research skills she came to a reasonable conclusion that a certain area in the City of Leicester was worth investigating, and she was right.

I came home, downloaded Philippa's book on my Kindle and am engrossed in finding out more details than the film could cover.

Our film festival continued a few days later with this one:

'The Banshees of Inisherin' is set on a remote island off the coast of Ireland in the early 20th century.  Both comical and tragic, the story of the breakdown of a friendship is told against the background of the Civil War.  The photography is magnificent and I think this one could be Oscar material for 2023.

Trillium, the floral emblem of Ontario, Canada

Our big plan for 2023 is a trip to Canada to visit our daughter and her family in Ontario.  We have made our reservations and in a few months will be flying across the Pacific, the first time since 2019.  I can't wait to see a beautiful Canadian Spring once again.

Happy New Year everybody!

XXXX

Canadian Lilacs

SOME SPARKLE ON A BLEAK DAY

We had some welcome rain today -

 the flowers will be happy but it was quite a bleak Sunday for us...

Ai Weiwei (China 1957-) Boomerang 2006 

This week I visited the Queensland Art Gallery, where I have worked as a guide for the last ten years.  Of course, it has been in lock down for months and it was wonderful to see it open a few days ago.

Joyous and imposing, this oversized, intensely lit, waterfall-style chandelier is suspended over the Water Mall.

It is an example of internationally renowned artist Ai Weiwei's playful strategy of working across cultural contexts.  

For China's increasingly affluent middle class, bigger is better.

There are approximately 267,000 crystal drops on 5,085 strands.  The artwork is 10 metres high and at the widest point 8.6 metres wide.

There are 802 LED lights.

A spectacular monument to consumerism, it is shaped into the motif of a Boomerang, an object associated with exotic conceptions of Australia.

'Boomerang' was the centrepiece in the Fifth Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in 2006-07, and Ai Weiwei gifted the work to the gallery's collection.

I loved it then, and I love it now on its reappearance - especially in a time of tension and difficulty in our community.

I felt very safe walking around the Gallery.

There is ticketed (free) entry, so numbers can be controlled.

A system of one directional visiting is designed to reduce clusters of people meeting up in small doorways or spaces.  Within a room, however, you can walk back and forth between art works as you wish.  Social distancing is mandatory, which I find very reassuring.

I do not know yet when guided tours will recommence.

Our snow peas are having flowers!

Life is quiet and we have been exercising and walking a lot.  

Once again, we spent Saturday walking pathways beside the Brisbane River in the morning sunshine.

I liked these bird feeders, something you don't usually see in a public park.

Perhaps the neighbours put them there...

Pansies are beginning to bloom..

A few more thoughts on the pandemic:

All my life I have attended church on Sundays, except during serious ill health, and for most of those years I have participated in church music.

From the age of about 12 I was playing an old pump organ to accompany the school choir, and in later life spent several decades playing a contemporary electronic piano in church.  As well as this I have sung in church choirs my entire life.  

Therefore the imposed sanctions on meeting for church services has been quite a shock to my system!  I have been watching online services but it is hardly the same.  The sense of community and making music is very strong for some of us, and many choristers are feeling saddened to be unable to sing - whether in church or anywhere else.

Apparently when we sing, we expel far more tiny droplets than when we speak, and right now, singing near others is dangerous.

Churches here are reopening in the next few weeks, with ticketed entry and social distancing.  For this I am grateful.  Despite our State now being 22 days without a new Covid19 case, I feel better if I can keep my distance.  

More is being learned about this virus all the time.  It seems so long ago, but back in March it was all about hand-washing - important, but not the whole story.

I am watching with alarm as the state of Victoria is suffering a new wave of infections, stats going higher every day.  It can happen anywhere.

I hope everyone is keeping safe, wherever you are...

With love from the Red Cardinal

XXXX

RAIN AND SUNDRIES

"The Artist's Wife", 1934-35, Melville Haysom, 1900-1967 

It rained last Friday!  

One storm, and about three more hours of moderate rain, enough to at least give a drink to the poor parched Garden of Neglect...

The above painting is by a Brisbane artist, Melville Haysom.

This is his wife, Yvonne, who was of French descent (and I think that shows in her style).

Don't you love the way the curve of the struts of the umbrella take your eye back up to her elegant face - I think he admired his wife very much.

For local readers, they lived on Gregory Terrace, and the background is Victoria park and the hills of Mt Coot-tha, where they later purchased a dairy farm.

After the war, Haysom set up a private art school on the farm, and later became Senior Instructor in Painting and Drawing at the Central Technical College in Brisbane.  He was also Art Critic for the Brisbane Telegraph newspaper.

The Cardinals enjoyed lunch at the home of my dear friends J and P ...

J, chef extraordinaire, made the world's most perfect hamburger and fries -

following the recipe of Heston Blumenthal...

It was amazing!  

I had no idea the humble burger and fries could be elevated to such a mouth-watering art form.

Then there was the trio of desserts -

the little chocolate tart combined passionfruit with the best chocolate -

a match made in heaven.

After finishing the pink linen dress, I needed a quick sew

and made dress using the same pattern, just eliminating the front seams.

The unusual fabric was sourced from Emerald Fabric Boutique,

the super shop discovered on our trip to Central Queensland back in July..

and while we are in the sewing room, here is the little pile of bits I bought at the Craft Show - the pink with navy spots is a metre of frilling, to do something on a top I plan from the left over pink linen.

I could not go past a panel of Star Wars fabric..

A certain Young Man in Canada loves the Star Wars characters with all the passion only a pre-schooler can muster for superheros..

Here he is catching the yellow bus to French School -

he has started Kindergarten, and it is all in French!

By the end of the year, he will be fluent in French conversation -

would I lie to you?

Meanwhile, his brother the Little Bebe has learnt to walk -

at barely eleven months - cheeky tot!

Have a great week

xxxx

NATURE IN THE CITY AND OLD COUNTRY HOMES

The other day I was visited by two beautiful, shy, Eastern Pale-headed Rosellas.

The photo doesn't do the left one justice as they are the most gorgeous shade of delicate mauve-blue, with yellow heads and a red triangle beneath.

They are very hard to photograph as they fly away at the slightest sound or movement. 

 I had to hide behind the curtains and slowly move the camera into a good viewpoint. 

 One click and they were gone.

Here is another image of one, found on Wikipaedia.

Perhaps they live near this creek, where I like to go walking.

Ducks are marching about;

Make Way for Ducklings .... Spring is coming.

Country House Rescue is on tonight. 

Fearless Ruth Watson, attempting to convince reluctant owners of beautiful but crumbling British stately homes that ruin can be avoided by making astute business decisions, and marketing their assets.

I love this show - Go Ruth!!