#BlessedAreTheCrazy - Please join in this synchroblog

For TradPadders who blog, please consider this synchroblog which is happening NOW!  Details below >>>

There is a synchroblog coming up. This is the facebook site which references it >>> http://goo.gl/xMzYBH The details below are copied from the site:

To commemorate the launch of Sarah Griffith Lund‘s new book — Blessed Are The Crazy: Breaking the Silence About Mental Illness, Family, and Church — and to participate in National Mental Illness Awareness Week (Oct. 5-11), we invite you to join in a Synchroblog on mental illness, family, and church.

Break the silence by sharing your personal story of how you’ve been impacted by mental illness in your family and/or in your faith community.

NOTE: We are joining with another synchroblog for this event, so the posting date and instructions are a bit different. This is also coming up quickly!

First, publish your post by midnight on MONDAY, October 6th. Post the links in the comment section here as normal. We at the synchroblog will post all your links over at the Facebook event for the other group.

If you want, you may also use the hashtag ‪#‎BlessedAreTheCrazy‬ when you post your links to your blog posts on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Follow the hashtag:https://twitter.com/search?q=%23BlessedAreTheCrazy

Second, we will put up the full link list on Tuesday, October 7th for you to publish at the end on your blog post.

We hope you will participate and break the silence by sharing YOUR story!

Here is the Synchroblog post for this event:

http://synchroblog.wordpress.com/2014/09/25/october-synchroblog-announcement-mental-illness-awareness/

One crafty gal in Bendigo: she's hooked n crochet

Helen Coughlan : Crafter

Bendigo

Helen Coughlan uses craft to bring people together. She says her skills are “actually really basic” but that’s ok. 

She says, “I get joy from seeing others becoming a part of something and feeling welcome. I love seeing that happen, no matter the skills people have.“

Helen runs a weekly community craft table at Bendigo Library and a ‘crochet club' for primary school kids. She's a founding member of a group of yarn bombers that keep the trees, and occasionally trams, of Bendigo warm and colourful each winter

Read more about Helen on the ABC Open site.

Book launch: "Some shorter than others" - Ballarat Library, Sunday 7 September.

The Ballarat Library, 178 Doveton Street, Ballarat 

is playing host to a book launch next Sunday 7 September, at 2pm.

Neville Hiatt (writer) and Sylvia Hollis (illustrator) 

are launching a collection of short stories for the young and young at heart.

Sylvia's illustrations are currently on display at the library until September 11.

There's a limited edition copy of the book to be won.   

Go to Facebook to check it out. 

The book is also available as an Ebook and an Audio book.

Neville is on Facebook
Sylvia's Portfolio
Sylvia's website

Wonderful libraries from around the world - and how to join one!

As you can see, Trad Padders, I love libraries and so have to share this with you.

I have tried to pick a favourite but I love them all.

They are different but are all doing their best and brightest

to serve their specific clientele.

And then there's this.

How to join a library.

The kitchen counter at the end of Winter

The kitchen counter this morning at The Trad Pad
All these items - bar one - are recycled.  Guess which?

The Coca-Cola glasses came from Fusspots at Inglewood.

Can't recall where I got these -
The metal sweets/nuts container
The white bowl (chipped but who'd notice?)
The glass jug holding the Silver Beet (chipped but I don't care!)

The Silver Beet is recycled too -
this plant has been the gift that keeps on giving.
I cut and cut and it keeps producing.

The one thing that is not recycled is the 'Fresh Cream' pail.
It is was once new but is well worn now.
I have a pair of them.
One holds scraps of a vegetable nature for the wonderful Worm Farm.
The other holds the stuff that the worms can't eat.
That stuff is composted.

Teaching our children .......

Bookmarking literature of poetry and war

This blog has a motto: Blogging the Beautiful ~ Searching the Sustainable ~ Reaching out in Friendship.  In short, I keep any political sound-offs for a particular blog of mine, The Network.  You are welcome to drop by and experience its quirky mix of social and political commentary.  I have chosen to share this report, though political, on this site because it is about librarians and books and, as a former librarian, I am a Library Lover (as you will see from the sidebar) and I share a librarian's attitude to the power of words, ideas, books, poetry, plays.

So it is with quite a thrill, I read about this political protest involving the promotion of Palestinian literature. While there is grave conflict in Israel and Palestine, commemorations have begun for the centenary of The First World War.  Because of this I am including a very interesting site, The War Poetry Website, which contains an archive of poems and poets of to-day and The First World War.

Home Sweet Home amid the Heritage Overlay

It has been a long time between drinks. A long period of ill health + a substantial period regaining my stamina + landlord sold the house and we had to move on + three months of getting new home and garden in order. Life has its own special way of happening!

The new home is something of an anomaly in its setting - the thorn among the roses.

My neighbour on one side says that she has no idea how a house like the one I am in was ever allowed to be erected. You see most of the houses in my street are Ballarat historic. Those that aren't tend to very nice from the 1950s. And mine ... it's a moveable home, possibly circa 70s or 80s.

Mrs Neighbour says that she grew up in her house. She and husband moved away for some years, returned and purchased the house from her parents. While she had been gone, this house appeared. She thinks it must have been prior to the heritage overlay, now operating, being put in place.

The bay windows are the only thing about this house that remotely puts it in touch with the past.

 The interior, although compact, provides everything I need.  Carpet in good condition, masses of cupboard space (particularly in the kitchen), and an electrician must have lived here once because there are masses of power points!

There is a small front garden of the cottage garden variety.  It needs some pulling together but the fine bones are there - roses, azaleas, camellias, lavender.

The back garden has been neglected in one area and nothing happening in the rest.  However, as a renter who takes her potted garden with her, I am making plans.  This has been the coldest winter for sixteen years - and a very wet one at that - so gardening days have been scarce.  However, the sunny days are getting a bit more frequent and I have done a whack of pruning in the neglected area and mowed the rest of the back garden.  Now, I can start to envisage and plan.

Trad Pads ancient and modern in the limelight of The Courier's peek into Ballarat homes

Brigitte Chitryk-Gross calls the Old Curiosity Shop home. PICTURES: LACHLAN BENCE

From a story in The Courier, Ballarat's daily newspaper 

This is one of a series of stories in The Courier about Ballarat homes. 

The Curiosity Shop fascinates the curious.  It sits behind a high fence.  Even the tallest have to stand on tippy-toes to gain the full import of house and garden.  The Courier's article is wonderful if you love looking at houses.  In The Courier's stories you will see some wonderful renovations - and a couple of very thoughtful modern builds (including one of my neighbours).  

Sit back with a cuppa.

Don't forget to click the slanting arrow to go to the full-screen view.

Enjoy!

Light the candles

Last Sunday, Christian faith communities int he Western Tradition (the Eastern tradition operates on the Julian calendar, the Western on the Gregorian calendar) celebrated Candlemas.

Below is the beautiful music of the great Arvo Part  celebrating the presentation of Jesus in The Temple. The words of the prayer 'Nunc dimittis' are uttered each day in The Prayer of The Church otherwise known as The Liturgy of The Hours.


Picture above is from here

Now, Master, you let your servant go in peace.

  You have fulfilled your promise.

My own eyes have seen your salvation,

  which you have prepared in the sight of all peoples.

A light to bring the Gentiles from darkness;

  the glory of your people Israel.

The Song of Simeon

The Gospel of Luke : Chapter 2 Verses 29-32

Over at Interrupting the Silence, Father Mike Marsh has included in his post for this feast, 

Arvo Part's wonderful Nunc Dimittis performed by The Tallis Scholars.