Finally the kids have left the pool...

Our darling Roxi sent us a great quote from Richard Ackland's article in the Justinian.

The Justinian is (and I quote) "Australia’s most revered and disturbing law journal. For over 26 years, with loving attention to detail, it has chronicled the exquisite finery and the dirty linen of the legal profession. We report notorious instances of flair and fumbling at the bar, failures in judicial rectitude, secret correspondence from lofty sources and who is acting for whom and for how much".

Ackland's talks about the now EX Australian Prime minister John Howard....

".......humourless, witless, unprepossessing and leaden. Devoid of any literature, theatre and suspicious of creativity. A small-minded, cackling dwarf ......... Howard's entire view of the country is that it is simply "an economy". Not once has he exposed a bigger vision of what we could be as a people. ....... One of Paul Keating's earthy metaphors is that it's impossible to be rid of Howard because he's like the "nasty turd in the toilet" that refuses to be flushed. "You keep flushing and flushing and still he bobs up every time." "Come on now Australia. One more gigantic flush.

And we did and here I present to you Australia's new Prime minister. Kevin Rudd.

Picture courtesy of ABC news

Cushions of the week

In the blink of an eye (well in Blogland anyway) I made these cushions. One (the red one) for our lovely friend Kate's birthday and the purple one for our lovely sister-in-law Mary for Christmas....(she doesn't read the blog so if you see her don't tell her). I can't bring myself to cut up the gorgeous silk kimono fabric yet but I'm working up to it.....maybe a bolster so I don't have to cut it too much.
Meanwhile we are getting mighty excited about going to Oz for Christmas. Only 2 weeks and 4 days to go. We stop off in Singapore and Jono (our cousin twice removed that we're staying with) says it's 36 degrees (that's 96.8 for you non celsius gang) every day. Crikey I haven't been 36 degrees for years now. What am I going to wear????? It's been so grey & miserable here that I've got scurvy.....oh no that's the one from not enough vegetables......I've got a vitamin D deficiency then.

You Beauty

Today some fabrics arrived that I had bid for and won on Ebay. You know how it is....Will I??? Wont I ????? Going to Australia, can't afford to spend any money.....need to make some cushions before I go.......they look pretty good but are they as good as they look.
Well all I can say is I wept when I opened up the parcel. Not only were they individually wrapped in white tissue paper, with pretty lucky kitten stickers....they were absolute beauties. This one that looks 100 times better in the flesh. It has tiny Shibori in stripes like a subtle rainbow with cranes flying through the colours. I can't work out how they are done....so much work in them they must be hand painted. You would need a very steady hand, there are such tiny tiny lines of silver through it all. How on Earth am I going to cut into them???
These ones are rich and bold and will be fabulous for cushions. A red one and a Purple one. Half an Obi in each.We went to the Sudbury silk shop on Wednesday too and I bought some truly gorgeous Tie silks to match the purple fabrics that I knew were coming

Keep your eye on the blog for what gets made from these and more......

THE COLD

My reason/excuse for not blogging is that I've had "The Cold.
What a bloody pain in the arse it is. I've had sore teeth too and so haven't even had the consolation of eating yummy things. I can't be bothered doing anything, even looking at the washing basket makes me feel exhausted. I just hope it's gone by the 8th December when we fly off to Singapore & Oz, I couldn't stand coughing on all those orchids. So boring.
There was some consolation last night as I got up in the wee hours (turned out it was actually only 11.30 pm) to cough unrestrainedly. There was a marvelous programme on Television with that complete Dish Ewan Mcgregor on it, called "Long way down". He and a fellow rider, Charley Boorman riding motor bikes on a 15000 mile journey from John O'Groats to Cape town. Amazing stuff. It made me glad to have a comfortable house & a warm bed to go back to when the coughing stopped.

Job done...

Today on a cold & miserable November day, after much heartache & cost. We picked up "The Motor" for the boat....it's the colour of sunny skies. Now we just have to get it in....(so to speak). Richard's face lifted about an inch on the drive home. He even let me get Macdonalds fries!!!!!

Blakeney

Look at this amazing house built of tiny flints in the old fishing village of Blakeney in North Norfolk. Every house in the street was of a different kind.
We went there on the weekend for Ricardo to look at a job at a friends beach house.

Poppy

Just a brief bloggeroonie to let you know we're still here.....Here's a photo of our absolutely gorgeous neighbour Poppy on Halloween afternoon, getting ready for the festivities. Watch this space because in years to come I'm sure she'll be famous.