A day out at Kryal Castle - near Ballarat - on 25 September

 At the entrance

The Dragon

 

 

A twin selfie

Baby dragons in their eggs

 

 

 

 

 

The Wizard's Office

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friends come to visit

I have had a visit to The Trad Pad this morning from my not-very-far away neighbour Bernadette and her family member, Danny Boy. As you can see Danny Boy does a lot of snuggling. What you can't do is hear him whistling, piping to Bernadetter. He is 57 years young - so he has been a part of Bernadette's life for a very long time

Friendship - good ones hold across time and geography

Dear Trad Padders, you will note the picture in the post below of Gray. His son is Josh who has just become my Facebook friend and sent me a beautiful newsy letter to bring me up to date with the doings of his own family.  Browsing through an old post I found this poem and I thought how apt - so here it is for Graham and Pauline; for Josh and Helaina and family and for Gemma.

The Best of Friends

© Jill Wolf

When friendships undergo a test

It's often found old friends are best;

The sampler on the parlour wall

Has these few lines which say it all;

The best of friends can change a frown

Into a smile when you feel down.

The best of friends will understand

Your little trials and lend a hand.

The best of friends will always share

Your secret dreams because they care.

The best of friends, worth more than gold,

Give all the love a heart can hold.

A bikie/biker friend - well, just call him a speed hog!

I had to record this on the blog.  This is my old mate from Tennant Creek days, Graham Buxton.  The story that goes with it is here.  Please note that Gray is no teenager himself!

...and are the tables set for Tea?

A week ago I was thinking of the morrow, Saturday 28 June 2008. Can you please mark the date? Major achievements must be recorded with the time (the invitation said to be there at 1.30pm) at the Zetland Hall in Kyneton. Three of us were taking the trip to Kyneton: Gina of Patra's Other Place, Helen of Helen's Haven and Miss Eagle. Our blogging friend, Leeanne of Pear tree cottage! was organising a Ladies Afternoon High Tea to raise money for the Starlight Children's Foundation.

Here are the tables all set up waiting for the guests.

But I think we should begin at the beginning - or working from the bottom up.

Leeanne has long been a collector but in the year leading up to the High Tea she excelled herself at collecting. Above is detail of some of the cloths that graced the tables of the Zetland Hall.

And then there were the trios - cups, saucers, plates

Bone china galore!

Some were retro, some were vintage, and some were ancient treasures.

Beside each setting were exquisite napkins. Detail above.

Placemarkers!

And then there was the food - and the teapots

And then there were the people.
Leeanne's mother - she of the 250 scones - top left and bottom right.

Leanne, the wonder woman, second from top left and bottom left.

Miss Eagle is on left second row from bottom;

Gina is in the middle in a pink top; and next to her in elegant black is Helen.


The men of the Zetland Lodge waited on us and modelled the auction items.

And Master of Ceremonies and Auctioneer was Rob, Leeanne's Dearly Beloved.

It was a magnificent afternoon. Such an achievement! The Mount Everest of feminine hospitality. For most of us if we had organised an event in such detail for six of our friends we would have considered it well done. Leeanne did this for 104 women. Can you imagine - the trios, the cloths, the napkins, the tea and coffee pots, the cake stands! And each place had a novelty and a gift and a place marker. And then there was the wit and whimsy! Gina is a great collector of embroidery - and a great favourite is the crinoline lady. We were seated at a table with the most exquisite crinoline lady cloth. I noticed the beautiful plate on which our scones were placed. But as we ate our way through the scones, a crinoline lady appeared. Matching cloth and plate!

Thank you Leeanne - and to Rob and the men of Zetland Lodge - for an absolutely amazing afternoon. Extraordinary! It will live long in the memory. Blessings and bliss!

Brighton, gossip and the Willy Wagtail

Photo: Canberra Ornithologists Group

The Willy Wagtail (pictured above) is an Australian bird with a bad reputation among Aboriginal people. You see, he is seen as a gossip. He listens in on conversations and flies off and spreads what he has heard. Not nice. Miss Eagle thought of the Willy Wagtail yesterday when she was walking down the shopping strip at the Middle Brighton shops.

I love to see people stopping to chat while shopping. As communities become large and impersonal such individual signs of community diminish. So I noticed when I saw two middle-aged women in conversation in the middle of the footpath. One woman spoke as the other looked at her intently with mouth agape. As I walked past I heard only the words "and he..."

From the aghast look on the listener's face, I could only imagine what horrible news might have been imparted:

...and he sent the family company to the wall because he gambled everything away in the Mahogany Room at Crown Casino and now the children have had to be pulled out of Brighton Grammar because there's no money for the school fees.

...and he cleared out with the nanny. They are now living in France and his wife has been left with STD - sexually transmitted debt.

...and he......(you can complete this one, dear Reader)

Bewitched in the bleak midwinter at the winter solstice

Yesterday, was a trip ten minutes up the wind-y windy road to Sassafras and the beautiful blue Dandenongs to some lovely jollities. Well, the beautiful blue Dandenongs were not blue. It was the bleak midwinter Dandenongs, the coldest place in Melbourne, at the time of the winter solstice. At the bottom of the hill, Upper Gully was overcast and cloudy but clear. Sassafras was in a shroud of thick pea soup fog. With village shops and Miss Marple's presence in the main street, it could have provided the atmosphere for an Agatha Christie novel.

However, back to the jollities. Miss Eagle was there to meet Brownie of Bwca Dysthymia - who has been sojourning for a few weeks at Kalorama - and that well known amateur thinker, JahTeh of CopperWitch at The House of Coffee who had visited from the Inner East to survey the mountain tops. The conversation was wide ranging, the laughs were plentiful and the getting to know two fellow bloggers a warm and joyful experience. Luvved ya, gals!

And the clever CopperWitch had brought a gift of her own making. This delightful work of art, embroidered in the teeniest, tinyiest stitches mounted on velvet. Note the mounted deep blue gemstones on either side. And all mounted on a beautiful, beribboned cushion.

What a delight!

And, next door to the House of Coffee, at Antiques at Sassafras, Miss Eagle made a purchase. You will recall, dear Reader, Miss E's recent visit to Sassafras. She remarked - and photographed - at the time on the Paris rubber stamps. She resolved on this visit to bring them home with her if they were still available. They were there. Now they are here at the Trad Pad. Herself thinks they are wonderful. Gift wrapping and carding will have a Parisian flavour for quite a while, methinks.

Bloggers bash at the Bazaar

Life has been rather full this week. There sometimes seems to be just two parts to life: real life and blogging life. Real life demands and interests have to be kept up for all the best and usual reasons. But one has to keep up with real life demands also to prove to oneself and Herself that one is not an addict, that one can move away from the computer - and give Herself ago to visit Her/Miss Eagle's latest addiction, I Can Has Cheezburger?.

So Miss E hasn't been back to tell you about The Melbourne Weblogger Meetup. Now, Miss E can't go into every jot and tittle of the evening but wants to hone in on just a few highlights to make you, dear Reader, wish you were there. If you do wish you had been there, join up here.

Firstly, we were all gathered at Horse Bazaar because of mine host Darren Rowse, he of ProBlogger fame. Here's Darren's post on the night. So it was great to meet him and exchange a word or two. Then there was John, not a blogger in his own right but webmaster for Craig Harper. That's John in his Craig t-shirt in the foreground of the photograph on Darren's post. Great talking to him - and it turned out that his parents, Tony and Bernadette, live just around the corner from Miss E - and she has promised to drop in and say hello.

Then there was that marvellous fashonista, Gala, in her pink hoodie (but no sign of the striped kini). Gala was accompanied by the team from Fashionising. Enough to rejuvenate Miss E's superannuated spirit! So, dear Reader, if you think Australia's fashion capital is elsewhere, Melbourne's credentials were on show at the Meetup.

Martin told me how his experience and tricks of the trade were being put to use in his new blog. All success to him - because as well as who you know, as we were putting into practice at the Horse Bazaar, one has to have a foundation of what you know.

Now, don't ask me how Miss E didn't get into a conversation with Ed. Must have been that wonderfully erudite conversation with Jon criss-crossing a geography of locales and ideas. Ed, we'll have to talk some more over at Oz Tucker about a food bloggers' gathering, don't you think?

There were a few in the yet-to-start-about-to-start-my-blog category so, needless to say, we wished them well with words of encouragement. And if you want to mind your p's, q's and posts in the blogosphere pop over to Kirrily's blog - she who claims to be the Emily Post for the digital generation.

It was great to meet up with Karen from Miscellaneous Adventures of an Aussie Mum who had been tossing up whether to come - particularly since illness had invaded the household earlier in the week. It is always a joy to put faces to blogs - especially such an enjoyable blog by such a talented writer as Karen.

Never mind the weather...a sunshine-y opp shop day

What a lovely day was Sunday. The weather was overcast and rainy making for very damp conditions. But Gina of Patra's Other Place and associated blogs and Sharon of Beyond the Blank Page and Miss Eagle met in Upper Gully for a day together and everything was sunshine-y bright. Lee-Ann from Pear Tree Cottage! had hoped to join us, but this was not possible.

The day started with a visit to Craft Fair on Burwood Highway at Ferntree Gully. They have a lovely coffee shop so after a long and thoughtful browse we indulged and refreshed ourselves as this photo of Sharon and Miss Eagle taken by Gina shows.

So after that, it was off to the Market at Upper Gully.

Stalls were somewhat depleted because of the weather but we saw what there was to see.
It was then only a hop, step, and a little jump to walk across to the PWP Opp Shop down behind the Royal Hotel. Miss Eagle has posted previously on the wonderful art on the facade of this opp shop. See here, here, and here.

So we followed the Paws into the shop.

Miss Eagle discovered that the art work does not stop at the front door. The dressing room is a delight with this wonderful work on one corrugated iron wall.

Gina left no item unturned...
...while Sharon searched the racks.

We looked at the ties to make a selection for Woof Nanny. Miss Eagle tried to convince Gina that you need an AFL tie, Barb. Miss E knew you wouldn't have one of these from the Australain Football League. But do you think Miss E could convince Gina....!

So here, Barb, is the selection!
Here is some of Miss Eagle's treasure. This was $3 worth including a facewasher (unpictured).

A stencil set for $3 was also purchased.