Rheola continued....

A few more pics from the amazing Rheola show... all roads lead to the tiny town at easter and have been for the last 136 years.
Such an Australian phenomenon. I'd forgotten all about the good old Aussie wood chop and the tractor pull.

Easter at Rheola central Victoria (to turf)

When Mum was independant & 'Gung ho', she lived by herself in a mud brick, solar powered, self sufficient house on 40 acres of land up past Bendigo in Victoria, at a place called Rheola.
She planted an avenue of lemon scented gums up the driveway & almost broke her heart & her back trying to carve out a garden in that clay rich, dry as a bone 'gold country'.
My sister & I went with family this Easter for a visit to that dry, grey, soft australian bush. More scented with eucalyptus & lemon than any English rose garden. Relaxing time for Sally & Suez to knit next to the camp fire.

Easter at Airey's Inlet (from surf)

Easter was big.
First Airey's Inlet on Victoria's South Coast. For Mard's 40th.
What a rip snorter. Magreg made 40 flaming arrows & he & Mard shot them at dusk straight at the full moon. In tandem like shadows of each other. I have this one photo but it's really hard to see. The two points of light are the flaming arrows.
We all had a go and boy it was fantastic. I'm completely inspired to take up archery & hire myself out as Eros for weddings & other significant events.
After we'd shot all the arrows off into the ocean, MacGregor dipped the last bit of flame onto the sand and a flaming heart whooshed into being. (One he'd prepared earlier). He had also carved a heart out of sequoia wood that you can see at the beginning of this post.
Wow what a guy.... no wonder Mard looks so happy.

Wednesday...visiting buddies

What luxury it is to have a bit of time to visit my favourite friends in sunny Melbourne. Here are some pics of my buddies Mardi & Macgregor, then Nellie & Katerine (Lula the cat). Thanks Dad. Thanks Ricardo.
It's Mard's 40th coming up.
Question: What would a girl want for her birthday?
Answer: Flaming arrows made & shot by her man into the sea at Airies Inlet....
Here they are being made. Hopefully I'll get some shots of them being fired.
And let's hope another ash Wednesday is NOT forthcoming.

All over..............

And it's done.
James Frederick Thomas 6th February Kuchang Korea 1920 - 2nd April 2006 Reservoir Victoria Australia. (The dash is the most important bit.)
90 people turned up to say goodbye to our lovely dad at Montsalvat yesterday. Old bowling club honchoes, Diamond valley councellors, Matcham, Marcus & Sally, & Louisa Ludbrook as well. Really nice to be there but bloody hard. Why oh why do they make the family walk out first when you can hardly see the ground because you're crying so hard.
It was sunny & warm. I realised what a beautiful family I have & how lucky I am.

Airport 2006

Off to Oz for unfinished Thomas family business.
I'm at Singapore airport.... waiting for my connecting flight to Melbourne.
Knackered.
My eyes are stinging & wont focus. Sick of the smell of a million perfume counters.
Tried to find my cousin. I must have traversed the entire airport, arterial system.. thought i could do with the walk but cowboy boots in 27 degree heat weren't such a good idea.
Missing my buddy Richard already.... Miss you babe....lots.
An airoplane surrounded by strangers is a lonesome place.

Hope & friends

This beautiful basket of flowers came from my friend Vicky.
Seems easier to see hope in Spring time.

From great change and endings, come new beginnings and opportunities.

My Dad died... suddenly.... on the other side of the world... we think a massive heart attack...he was 86. It's left a kind of Dad shaped hole.
Even though he wasn't around much when my sister & I were little (through work and the expectations of the era) I eventually got to know him when I hit my forties and lashed out at the world & all who'd had an influence on my life... trying to find the fault somewhere. In fact the "lash out" was the best thing that could have happened. It meant I met with Dad beside the river about 5 years ago on a cold but sunny day & we sat and talked about things we'd never talked about before. He opened up so honestly & gracefully. I felt as if I'd finally seen & heard him.
He came over to the UK when we got married in 2003 and had a grand time despite being pissed off that he couldn't hire a car here at the age of 83 (he was still driving 12 hours or more each winter to go on holiday in sunny queensland).

Tess & Will's new house

Today we went to visit Rob & Robyn (except Robyns' in South Africa) for Ricardo to do some boat windscreen work. I took some photos of the house that Rob is building for Tess & Will. It's a straw bale house. It has a truth window (no picture yetI'm sorry) that shows you what it looks like inside the wall of straw. The photo of the stove is for Tess & Will because after today it will never be this pristine again.
The Man's house is pretty damn nice too, so here are some pics of it as well..

East Anglia Children's Hospice

Here's a photo of the humungous house Ricardo is working on. A balcony with French doors on top of a bay window. How good is that. Don't try this at home....


Here is a very very cute web site. Check out this wonderfully clever cat (although not a patch on the Squeaky cat)

I worked today as a volunteer at the East Anglia Children's Hospice not the actual hospice but their distribution centre where all the donations stuff comes in. I loved it, thanks to Shazza & Cazza. Sorting clothes in a big warehouse. Looking for lampshades. Laughing at each other trying on stupid green wigs. It's good to be out of the house & it works.... to do something for someone else.

Yesterday I went to Braintree (yes thats right Braintree) in Essex to meet a woman called Siripan Kidd with my new friend Heather P. Heather & I went to the museum to view an exhibition of fabulous Chinese textiles from Siripan's collection. They were like this Hmong embroidery only a million times better.

Hidden Southwold

Went to Southwold, Suffolk, UK. (This beautiful photo is not mine, it comes from a site here.) There was a lovely girl at Craftco who we had seen at the Insect Circus who worked there. We had some lunch at the Crown Hotel & went for a walk down the blustery streets of Southwold. She showed me the Sailor's reading room... a fabulous high ceilinged, wood panelled room with all sorts of faded artifacts about the sea & sailing.