Elkan Moss Brady

Hooray hooray hooray.
We have a new Grand child!
Elkan Moss Brady.
In Dylan's words.....
"He is so beautiful, and Steph is a goddess.
We had a three hour labour, and gave birth at home, as planned in a beautiful warm room in the bathroom in a big pool.
He was born at 1.19am. He weighed 10 pounds 7 ounces ( or 4.73 kg)
Steph had no drugs until the end and then she crumbed and had a panadol.
A PANADOL!!!!!!!!!"

FOUR THINGS Meme

What the hell is a Meme?

Kelly you naughty puppy.

Here it is for all the world to see.

Introspection at its best? Or just looking up one's own arse?


FOUR THINGS

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1.Ice cream maker
2.Advisor to young female entrepreneurs
3.Cushion maker
4.Gourmet delicatessen operator

Four movies I have watched over and over:
1.Amelie
2.Les Enfants du paradis
3.Finding Nemo
4.The Castle

Four places I have lived:
1.St Kilda, Australia
2.East Harling, Norfolk UK
3.Warnambool, Vic, Australia
4.Mildura, Australia

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1.Seinfeld
2.Ready Steady cook
3.Wife swap
4.Sex in the city

Four places I have been on vacation:
1.Bali, Indonesia
2.New Caledonia
3.Paris
4.Barcelona

Four of my favorite foods:
1.Beef Rendang
2.Spinach Belachan
3.Belgian chocolate
4.Mangoes

Four places I would rather be right now:
1.Wilsons Promontory National Park in the Southern tip of Australia
2.Hot water beach in New Zealand
3.Holkam beach in North Norfolk UK
4.Womad world music festival when it goes to Adelaide in South Australia

Four people who will respond:
1.Suez
2.Amy
3.Cheekee Monkee
4.Roxi

Mystery vegetable of the week

Here is this week's mystery vegetable....can you guess what it is?

More on vegetables & fruit.........
When my sister & I were little we had most of the 'Little Golden books. One of my favourites was the "Colour Kittens", a beautiful book by Margaret Wise Brown.
Whenever I see purple plums, it reminds me of the story of Brush & Hush & their search for the colour green, for the purple page was truly the most luscious.

Home improvements..

Yes home improvements are coming thick & fast at the moment.
On the weekend, Richard made a bed for us & I made the bedhead.


It's wonderful. I don't think I've ever had a proper bed head except for the matching single Queen Anne ones my sister and I had as children in the 60's.
We used to perch atop them and squeal as we dived onto our beds. Shouting the words of a popular TV series at the time "Out of the clear blue of the western sky comes........Sky King!"
The bed is incredibly high so you can look out the window and spy on people as they go past.
better not do any diving off this one.

For Kelly.....Ode to the Tim Tam..

People ask me if I get homesick. Usually I say no not really, not for the place but for my family (except for Wilson's Prom)...but then there are things like Tim Tams.
Luckily we can get them at our local Tesco supermarket, but only 2 of the 7 different varieties.

However 'Operation Buns of Steel' doesn't leave much room for them at the moment, so I thought I'd blog about them instead.

There's a great site called toxic custard that tells you (amongst other essential Aussie wisdom), exactly how to effect the Tim Tam slam...

The steps:

1. Prepare a drink. It can be hot or cold, whatever your preference. Milk is my favourite, but coffee is good for those who like the stuff.
2. Take Tim Tam from the packet, and try to resist the temptation to just scarf it all down.
3. Take a small bite out of one corner. Let your tastebuds wallow in it for a moment, then take a small bite out of the opposite corner. Ditto.
4. Dip one end into your drink
5. Suck. Go on, SUCK!
6. Your drink will come slowly up into your mouth, along with little bits of Tim Tam. Mmmmm....
7. Keep going until the Tim Tam hull integrity is breached. You'll know this is happening when the whole thing starts to collapse in your hand. Gobble it up pronto, and allow your tastebuds to enjoy what is best described as a tastebud orgasm.
8. Find the packet and return to step 2.
   

The bells, the bells

On Saturday afternoon we went over to New Buckenham, a nearby village in Norfolk, UK. For a bell ringing outing.
New Buckenham has a beautiful ring of 8 bells that go perfectly.
We both did things we've never done before.
Richard donging the Tenor behind on Grandsire doubles and triples, and me...I think I did a touch of Bob doubles on the treble.
Is that right Jeremy?
Maybe there was a conflict of miracles there somewhere???

Operation buns of steel..

My next door neighbour Lisa & I have taken on the "Buns of steel" challenge.
It started out as me helping her get fit (ha ha, she works as a firewoman and is 10 years younger & is a size 10) for a full time job she wants to get with the fire service.
Now we are into it well & truly & do a full on aerobic work out 3 times a week for an hour.
We've been doing it for 10 days and so far........absolutely no difference, although Richard is being very vigilant in his testing procedures.

Too much fabric is barely enough

Wow. My sister alerted me to this fantastic fabric designer..Martha Negley.
I've always had a thing for vegetables in print.

Apple time

It's that beautiful time of year when the light is golden & there is abundance everywhere.... These apples are from Heather & Pete's tree.
They may turn into apple pie if we're lucky.
(picture inspired by Yarnstorm's blog)

New curtains

Looky looky.
Who managed to actually make some curtains for our house...
Lovely, lovely fabric from Romo's Kenzan collection, that I bought on ebay recently...now I just want more & more & more...here's a closer picture of the fabric, on the chair that we got from a skip nearby, that I need to make a loose cover for.
This fabric bumps up the costs of our lounge room/dining room furnishings so far to....(including computer, office chair, television, DVD, video player, sofa, oak dining table, 4 chairs, piano, oak book shelf and coffee table) to about £150.00 that's $282.35 American dollars Kelly or...$375.53 Australian Amy. Wowee kazowee.....what spend thrifts.

Helen Neylon, 5th May 1945 - 6th February 1973

Dearest Lashmi,
I went to Quidenham today to see your Mum's grave.
It was a beautiful sunny day.
You would have been pleased. They were cutting the grass & tidying everything up.

I went with a fork, (with which I thought I might pull out the weeds) a jar & some flowers.

In fact I didn't have to do anything except put the flowers in a vase.





Helen told me she was so proud of you.

That you'd turned into the kind of girl she hoped you might be. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Treasures

On the Monday of our long weekend in Derbyshire, we went to Chatsworth House.


One of the largest private houses in England.
The grandest of grand houses.

Home of the Duke & Duchess of Devonshire.
It's in country side that looks like it's been orchestrated by Disneyland.

It's supposedly the house that Jane Austin modeled Pemberly on, in Pride & prejudice.
Parts of the latest film with Kiera Knightly were filmed there. Specifically the sculpture gallery and staircase.



Crikey what a pile. It took us ages to traverse all the rooms, each one getting more & more grand as we went.














Some of the Passementerie was amazing & would have cost a fortune...



I started taking photos as soon as we got inside the door but soon realised there was never going to be enough room on the camera for all the amazing stuff.




I kept seeing paintings that looked familiar, & realised it was the real Gainsborough or Rembrandt or Veronese that you'd seen before only in a book.


This baby carriage (not so easy to see but...) decorated with snakes was something you would only dream about.










Imagine you had more money than you could ever spend....that's Chatsworth.




























They have an amazing collection of modern sculpture outside in the gardens with one of my favourite artists of all time Dale Chihuly.

























An incredible piece like a party in a boat, or captured fireworks. Can you believe it's made of glass?

Buxton number 2

Those high peaks were covered in heather....absolutely beautiful.
We went walking after a huge lunch at the Druid Inn.
I've never seen heather and I had no idea it was so very purple. It was cloudy & did rain a bit but it was amazing up there on top of the world. Lakshmi and Andy took us up to see a stone circle called the Nine Ladies built 3-4,000 years ago in the Bronze Age. It was a beautiful spot & because of the weather, we were the only people there. It was quite eerie, there were dangling offerings hanging from a nearby tree, white ribbons & tiny mirrors, an apple left at the foot of the tree & a startling snake that I found out was plastic only after I bumped into it & squeaked.
I want to come back on Midsummers night & dance sky clad.....

Buxton

This weekend, we went to visit our friend Di, in a fabulous part of England. Buxton is in what's called the Peak District.
Yes it was hilly. Here in Norfolk, we don't see many hills & it was quite a thrill having to change down gears in the car. It's the highest Market Town in Britain, at over 1000 feet above sea level.
We took the kids...and had a fantastic time.....we even got to sit & relax & read the papers.We never ever do that at home. I got lots of knitting done too.
Di has 8 kids and they are all beautiful & talented..some of them are in a quartet called Dirty Pretty strings, check them out.
Edie let us have her room...thanks Edie you are a star.
Buxton used to be a spa town and has its own opera house.
Here are some photos of the "Dome" which used to be the Duke of Devonshire's stables!!!!!Bigger than St Pauls in London. It had the most amazing sound in the very middle of the room. Your voice was magnified as if with a microphone but there was a clear echo that came as the sound bounced off the roof.
"In 1881 Robert Rippon Duke designed one of the architectural masterpieces of the town - a huge slate dome to cover the central courtyard. The dome weighs 560 tons and spans 145 feet. At the time it was the largest unsupported dome in the world, and to this day is still the largest of its kind in the country." (From www.visit buxton.co.uk)
It has a Foucaults pendulum. I had seen one in Barcelona but this one in it's setting of grandeur was amazing.

We went to Youlgreave which is a pretty village nearby and managed to meet the Tower Captain who took us up to the bellfry......spooky & steep with no handrail. They have a ring of 10 about to be augmented to a THIRTEEN. Wow.

Of course I had to check out the embroidery on the alter frontal. Beautiful work. They also have a window we think is by Burne-Jones, there's another one in Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts. Kelly.

(Yes Heather, we did see that beautiful little carving of an ancient man like someone from outer space but the light was bad , so I didn't get a photo...you'll have to send me one.) This she now did...........





Here it is courtesy of Heather D.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
As beautiful as her namesake.

There's more to blog but I have to get some work done, will fill you in some more tonight.
xxxxx Joey.