Controversial crafts and feminist foibles

Miss Eagle has the glisten of a tear or two on her cheek. You see, I have just been reading Jane Brocket's latest post over at yarnstorm.

If there was only one blog I was allowed to read out of the whole blogosphere, it would be yarnstorm. Apologies to friends and fellow bloggers but that is how it is. I admire Jane's layout, her beautiful photographs, her interests, and her writing. Over the last twelve months, Jane's readers have lived with her the writing of her first book, The Gentle Art of Domesticity. The book has only recently been released and Jane has had to embark on the usual media round to talk about herself and the book. You can listen to Jane being interviewed on October 9, 2007, on BBC4 here.

Jane's post, linked above, brings a tear because there has been so much comment that has been questionable and invasive to the extent that Jane has had to go beyond her usual privacy boundaries to clarify a few things. For those of us who admire Jane, this was wonderful to enhance and round out our view of her. But those of us who admire Jane have also felt her pain - and we think why the h#ll should she feel compelled to do this if she does not want to.

Clearly, fulfilling one's creative instincts by knitting, quilting and making rock buns is controversial stuff.

• It clearly is not enough to have come from limited financial circumstances and earned a first class education by using one's intellectual capacity to win scholarships and grants.
• It is clearly not enough to have become a Master of Wine.
• It is not enough to be able to capably review both wine and fine English lit.
• It is not enough to have the tenacity to have won through difficult personal circumstances to build a secure and enjoyable family life - and to use your income to invest in the materials of your creativity.
• It is not enough to have one of the most popular blogs of its genre on the net and to have spun it into a published book.

Miss Eagle has earned long ago her stripes as a feminist but some of the thought processes of those who claim feminist instincts and leanings is stunning.

Some of us remember when girls were advised not to learn to type in high school. The 'wisdom' was that if you could type you would only ever be treated as a secretary and never make your way to management.

Well, didn't they get that wrong.

We now have droves of women in their middle years who wish they had first rate keyboard skills for the computer age - like being able to touch type.

Fortunately, Miss E's mother, Phyll, who spent years in the workforce as a secretary believed that office skills are something a woman could always fall back on - so not only can Miss E touch type at pretty phenomenal speeds she can also do Pitman's Shorthand at such a level that she can do verbatim minutes of meetings. Miss Eagle left school at 15 with these skills. Later came the degree. Later came management experience.

These days I see women like Jane and Di over at Clementine's Shoes and Suse over at Pea Soup - who are professional and academically qualified women - taking the traditional domestic crafts to new and imaginative levels. They combine careeers and professional demands with family life and personal creativity.

Duh! What is wrong with that! What sort of female oppression is that!

None of these women are forcing others into their mold - but plenty of women are queuing up to join in their conversation!

And isn't that what we feminists are about first and foremost - choice: choice in our personal lives, choice in our working lives, choice in our family lives; choice in the public sphere, choice in the private sphere.

Happiness is......on your face?

When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him; and you are torn by the thought of the unhappiness . - Albert Camus

Are you happy? Do you show it? What does your face say? What does your body display? Clive James, Australia's ageing wunderkind, is discussing this phenomenon. Miss Eagle is conscious, as Clive James has been made conscious, of what is conveyed to others.

Some years ago in a certain place of employment, Miss E was engaged in conversation with the singular and quirky Margaret, the cleaning lady. Marg mentioned that she had seen me around before I came to work there and thought how hard-faced I was. Miss E tried not to look shocked as Marg went on to explain that she knew me better now and that was not a true indicator of my personality. Phew! Coz Miss E regards herself as a generally happy, cheerful and optimistic person. But it appears the face may be giving a different opinion.

This reminds me of the one justifiable case of botox injection that I have heard of. This was a woman who had always had frown furrows between her eyes. She had a responsible decision-making position and realised she had to do something when, after she had read a business document, she was queried about why she didn't approve. This was not her view - and she realised how this had been conveyed. The disapproving look of the frown furrows. So to botox she went.

Happiness is much under discussion these days - and so it should be. The happiness of individuals; the happiness of communities and nations; the economics of happiness or the happiness of economics. Academic studies abound. Check here and here. And there is The Happiness Institute. Over here, they say their purpose is formed with the mutual mission to give your mind a peaceful break with a smile on your face. A positive mind is the first step to happiness. This site helps you get on board.

Over at yarnstorm, Jane Brocket often tells us about her happiness guru - and probably everyone elses's - Alain de Boiton.

And...just to get you in the happiness mood here are some quotes. And to put a smile on your dial, pop over to cheezburger!

Tulips

A fortnight ago, Miss Eagle resigned her job. Ill health and continued employment were not compatible. She returned to her place of employment on Thursday for a farewell morning tea. Miss E was presented with tulips. Now Miss E is a girl from the tropics. She knows precious little about tulips and has had precious little to do with them.

Not like that Jane Brocket over at yarnstorm. Jane grows tulips, brings them inside, photographs them - gloriously. So, dear Reader, can you please indulge your Miss E. Miss Eagle took lots of tulip photographs and she wants to post quite a few of them. Miss E discovered what Jane sees in photographing tulips. The light shines through their waxy petals to beautiful effect. In fact, ignorant though Miss E might be, she feels that can safely say that photographing tulips is not like photographing any other flower. Here are the results:

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Announcement: Jane Brocket revealed

Miss Eagle has, like all of us, her favourite blogs. Some of these are simple blogger blogs. Others have wonderful titles and fonts and layouts. Miss E's FeedDemon has umpteen categories - but the really beautiful ones are put in two categories: Charmers and Charmers - Aussies.

The two Charmer categories are totally inhabited by women: women who love beauty, women who are creative. And to keep and be categorised here, only the best will do.

And the very, very, very best in Miss Eagle's view (apologies to all my blogging friends) is yarnstorm. The person behind yarnstorm is Jane Brocket.

The layout of yarnstorm is simple and elegant. Jane writes about books, the family baking, the family crafts and creativity, and - needless to say - knitting. We know that Jane is well-educated and it is clear from the way she writes and what she chooses to write about. And she does write well - so well, in fact, that this year she has a book contract with Hodder & Stoughton.

But it not just Jane's writing that makes the blog, it is her wonderful photos. They are brilliant. They cover flowers - we all know how dotty she is about tulips; the biscuits and rock buns and cake decoration of family baking; and, of course, the knitting - and the patchwork and quilting. All done with superb style. Miss Eagle thinks that it is highly probable that Style is Jane's middle name.

Through all this, we have had no idea of what Jane looked like. We have seen her nail varnished toes and, perhaps, other bits and pieces of her. But never HER - not enough to see what she might really look like. Until to-day!

Today, Jane Brocket is revealed. The big reveal. We can see the woman behind the blog and the yet to be published book. And the blogosphere is thrilled, Miss Eagle can report!