After the Winter Solstice, harbingers of Spring

Herself brought these in from the garden.

Yes, dear Trad Padders, I know there are no snowdrops here and it clearly relates to a northern hemisphere spring  - but I think this poem fits my mood.

THE hardy little snowdrop

Delicate... yet so strong

The ground's still frozen hard

When they come along

It's one of nature's mysteries

How they choose a brand-new site

Suddenly they pop up

It seems like overnight

They were never planted there

But oh! Such delight

White heads nestled in the green

It's such a lovely sight

They bow their heads like little bells

Against February's savage winds

Yet welcome in the springtime

As this brand-new year begins.

RAY JOHNSON, Chapel House, Newcastle.

Julia Gilliard, Prime Minister of Australia - where she lives

Picture from here.

Dear Trad Padders, I hesitate to bring politics over here.  I keep that to The Network.  But I ask your indulgence because Australia has just elected its first woman Prime Minister, Julia Gillard ,and you will find quite a bit of rejoicing  over at The Network about this.  

There is a little post at The Network - written before the sudden events which have thrust Julia into this most senior position in national affairs  - which suggests a place for Julia in a revised factional order of things.  Please go and have a look.

But over here at the The Trad Pad where we are interested in houses and gardens and the domestic,  I am so pleased that The Age has decided to keep us updated on the Prime Minister's domestic arrangements.  

But Julia is not Everywoman - except perhaps in terms of a certain generation, a certain demographic.  She has a male partner but is not married.  She has chosen not to have children - and, if a woman wishes to dedicate herself to a political life, this may not be a negative choice.  And Julia has announced that she will not move to The Lodge until she has been elected to office by the Australian people.  Five stars for this, Julia.  She says she is quite happy with her house In Altona and her flat in Canberra, our national capital.  The Age has given us some insight into the domestic arrangements of our new Prime Minister. 

Related reading:

Georgian Revival Architecture: Oval Office, the Lodge, Quadrangle Club, Albert Hall, Canberra, All Souls Church, Unitarian (Washington, D.c.) 

The Prime Minister's Lodge: Canberra's Unfinished Business

Official Residences in Australia: Government House, Canberra, Old Government House, Queensland, Admiralty House, Sydney, the Lodge

By popular Facebook and Twitter demand: Stephen Fry is coming to Melbourne

Don't know if Trad Padders have caught up with this story

of the power of Facebook.

The wonderful Mr Fry was headed for Sydney,

merely Sydney!!

Up sprung a Facebook Cause

(which Miss Eagle duly joined)

Dear Stephen Fry please come to Melbourne in July, not just Sydney.

to bring Stephen to the cultural capital of Australia,

namely Melbourne!!

Many thx to one Ronan McEwan.

Anyway tickets go on sale

this Thursday 24 June

for the 31 July event at the Regent.

The inimitable Mr Fry's conversation

will range across

  travel, art, TV, the internet and Twitter over 90 minutes.

Miss Eagle would suggest an additional topic:

Alan Davies.

Related Reading and Viewing:

Stephen Fry in America: Fifty States and the Man Who Set Out to See Them All

Jeeves & Wooster: Complete Series (8pc)

QI: Advanced Banter

Making History

Transfiguration - a festive re-creation

To-day is the Feast of the Transfiguration. Three years ago, the fruit tree beside my home office window was covered in blossom (the picture is from 2005) but my fruit trees have very few blossoms at this time and my magnolia seems to have blossom as a permanent condition since they have been there so long without flowering.
In the Northern Hemisphere, Easter coincides with new life in nature. In the Southern Hemisphere, Easter happens in Autumn when the leaves are falling and nature prepares for Winter.
I love the Feasts but, on those occasions when we observe those that are not Easter and Christmas, I think we talk about them in a way which does not give any depth to the experience. I think that, in the main, this is how the Transfiguration is treated.
The Transfiguration was a supernatural event intervening in the natural order of things. It was transforming and predictive of the new life to come. Just like the Southern Hemisphere is experiencing at this time. How wonderful then if people in the south of the globe could take this great season of the soul and transform it to mirror the wonder of regeneration that is happening in the environment. We could then experience both the transfiguration of our environment and of our spirits.

The Transfiguration Lyrics

The song is on this YouTube videa at approx 42mins

Wikipedia entry on the album, Seven Swans

Books at The Trad Pad

Over at I op therefore I am, I have reported on Herself's recent book purchases.
I thought I would continue the story here
by showing you, dear Reader,

what she does with these beautiful books.

...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!

The Blessing of The Curse

Thanks to the repeats of Foxtel I am about to line up for my third viewing of The Curse of the Golden Flower. How can I not? This time Foxtel has preceded the viewing with The Making of... Apparently, the crowd scenes which look like a cast of millions to me are only a cast of thousands. But the costumes, the colour, the lights, the sets, the action!

This is the most expensive Chinese movie ever - and I think they get more bang for their buck in Beijing than in Los Angeles. The promo has just said that if you love House of Flying Daggers, you will love this. How tantalising! But I loved House of Flying Daggers. I came out of the theatre after that movie thinking that I didn't really need to see another movie ever again - because it had everything.

The director of both movies is Zhang Yimou. I have not seen all of Zhang's work - but who can forget that beautiful and poignant movie, Raise the Red Lantern with the magnificent and beautiful Gong Li who stars again in Golden Flower. And who can forget his production of Turandot at the Forbidden City? And as if all this wonderment was not enough, Zhang has been selected to produce the Opening and Closing Ceremonies at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Quote above from here

The time of universal peace is near:

Prove this a prosperous day.

William Shakespeare

The Week-end: Part 2 - Falling among Storytellers

The Boyhood of Raleigh by John Everett Millais

A seafarer tells the young Sir Walter Raleigh and his brother the story of what happened out at sea.

On Saturday afternoon, there was a gathering at the new home of Cindy-Lee. And there I met, among others, story-tellers Cora and Doug. What interesting and stimulating conversation! And the excitement was to continue when Cora and I, the next evening, went to a performance by the Playback Theatre Company.

But before we get to that, there was a lovely, lively Sunday lunch at Kiss the Sky Cafe with Cindy-Lee, Tara and Cherie and assorted kids. Kiss the Sky was quaint and cosy - after all, this is the Dandenongs and it was a misty, cold, cloudy, rainy day

This was another adventure into story. Selected audience members are interviewed by the 'conductor' and the bare bones of a personal story emerges which the company's actors transform or playback before the eyes of the audience. The improvised performance is not only entertaining but can provide insight to the owner of the story. The performance can be moving, funny, or laden with meaning. The company only performs twice each season. Last weekend's Saturday and Sunday performances were the Winter Season. Playback theatres are an international phenomenon so there may be one near you.

The Week-end: Part 1 - The winter garden

Broad Bean - picture from Top Veg

Gardening in winter has NEVER been my thing - not even with the promise of the most beautiful and colourful spring annuals. But the habit - or lack of habit - of a lifetime has been broken. I have worked on the garden patch/es from last summer's rampaging, sexy pumpkins. The leaves from late autumn raked into big piles and rained and rained and rained upon by Melbourne's winter rain have turned into lovely mulchy humus. So this has been distributed. Soil disturbance revealed a worm or three which encouraged and reassured me no end.

Then on Friday afternoon I stepped into the plain old fashioned gardening wonderland that is Presti's Nursery on Ferntree Gully Road, Ferntree Gully and picked up some seedlings. I had already consulted Belinda's calendars (that girl is just so darn organised - and she has it all on a calendar on the kitchen wall, too!). So here is what I planted on Saturday morning:

Broad Beans

Snow Peas

Schallots

Leeks

Beetroot

Borage

The rain has seemed never ending in the last week or so with scarcely a sign of the sun so there has been some great after the planting rain. Now if the sun would put in an appearance, I am sure that would be a big help.

So, please Creator of the Universe, help this landmark Winter Garden to grow as you intend and give us in the coming spring a bumper crop.

BY THE WAY, last summer I planted rocket behind the tool shed. In typical rocket fashion, I got some harvests in but, far too soon for me, it bolted and went to seed. Now I have a lovely crop of baby rocket coming up behind said tool shed. Young, early greens.

The Light in Mid-Winter: a story for the winter solstice

To-day I go to Cindy-Lee's at Cockatoo in the Dandenong Ranges (I live in Upper Gully in the foothills) for an afternoon barbecue and story-telling and lantern-making session. Then we go to Belgrave in the evening for the Lantern Parade. For the occasion, I have written this story:

THE LIGHT IN MID-WINTER
A story for the Winter Solstice

The Earth is in winter once again. The Sun gets out of bed later to find the Day and tucks itself away earlier to bring Night.

But there is a place that we can’t touch or feel. We scarcely notice it when it is come and it is gone. It is Mid-Winter. The Winter Solstice. This is a very special time. Before this time the hours of The Sun are getting shorter and shorter. After this time, the hours of The Sun are getting longer and longer. Or we can think of it another way. Before Mid-Winter the hours of Great Darkness are getting longer and longer. After Mid-Winter the hours of Great Darkness are getting shorter and shorter.

The Sun is s-o-o important to us. It is the bringer of Life and Light. When we put our plants in the ground to grow our food, to produce beautiful flowers, and start big shady trees on their journey of life – our effort will be wasted if there is not Light. We need Light to live. And while plants and animals and human beings have adjusted and adapted to living with cold in most places on The Earth, we do need Warmth. The Sun gives us Warmth. Our life is in Light and Warmth – not in Dark and Cold.

Our bodies love to be warm. They do not like to be shivery cold.

But it is not just our bodies. We human beings are not just our bodies. We are spirit too. And sometimes, in our spirit, we do not feel warm. Sometimes, in our spirit, we do not feel full of Life and filled with Light. We feel the Dark and the Cold coming inside of us and this does not make us feel happy. Instead, we feel s-o-o sad. We don’t want to get out of bed. We don’t want to talk to people. We want to huddle into ourselves because the sunny parts of our lives feel as if they have gone away never to come again.

So what do we do when we feel dark in our spirit?

It helps to look around at the world created for us. When we make a garden we have to think of all that a plant needs. This includes thinking about the Light. If the garden is too shady because of big trees, we have to prune and shape the trees. The plants in our garden will receive more Light to grow.

We look at our spirit in the same way. We do this by sitting quietly. We sit quietly so that the spirit inside us can listen. We sit quietly so that the spirit inside us can be still and not disturbed. As we still our spirit inside us, it is like pruning and shaping that big shady tree. As we are sitting, as we are still, as we are quiet we find the Light comes to our spirit just as the Light comes to our growing plants.

A long time ago a man called George Fox learned about the Light. He said then – and his words have come down to us to this very day – I saw an ocean of darkness and death BUT – and this is a great, lovely, big BUT – and infinite ocean of light and love which flowed over the ocean of darkness.

Amberley - place of retreat

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Last year, Gina and I walked along the path beside the Yarra River in Westerfolds Park between Templestowe and Eltham. As we stood talking, we looked across the river at a steep cliff and on top of the cliff was what I thought was a rich man's mansion. Well, last weekend - the Queen's Birthday weekend - I spent three beautiful days at the "rich man's mansion".

Once upon a time it was the mansion of a rich man.

It is Amberley and I was one of 65 adults and children, Quakers, who were having a Mid-Winter Gathering. We were so comfortable. It really was a pleasant weekend. You can find more, including recipes from Amberley, at Oz Tucker.

Opp Shopping in Upper Gully

I was up at my favouritest Parents Without Partners Opp Shop in Upper Gully to-day.

To-day, Friday 13 June, and to-morrow, Saturday 14 June, they are having a Dollar Day.

They are stocked to the hilt and they want all their regulars to benefit from the sale.

As well, they want to welcome lots of newcomers too.

So, time to hotfoot it to Rose Street, Upper Ferntree Gully.

Directions:

Head east to the Dandenong Ranges,

turn right from Burwood Highway into Dawson Street, Upper Ferntree Gully

(Ferntree Gully Plaza Shopping Centre on one side of Dawson Street

and the Royal Hotel on the other side)

Take first turn to the left - along Rose Street.

Rose Street bends to the left.

On the bend look right and there it is!

Your money is well spent

because PWP at Upper Gully contributes to the support of Emergency Housing in the south-east and, in addition, pays the wages of a Social Worker to assist those in need of the housing.

The Opp Shop Fringe Festival: somebody was listening

Almost two years ago I wrote the post below. I republish it below because it looks like my Fringe Festival idea might have come true if you pop over to I Op Therefore I am. I am indebted to Gina for the tip off.


Miss Eagle is gobsmacked. Who ever heard the like - a shopping festival!

Miss Eagle realises that there are many temples distributed around Australian cities dedicated to the gods and icons of Consumerism - but a festival! What does this mean? Does it mean that Consumerism, as a free-standing religion, will now establish its own religious calendar instead of converting the feasts of the Christian calendar for its own ends? Will the Melbourne Shopping Festival become the Hajj of Consumerism with Melbourne its Mecca? Will Melbourne business offer indulgences of huge percentages off in the same way that indulgences were sold once upon a time?

Miss Eagle thinks that one of the attractions for the powers-that-be in Melbourne is that a shopping festival could be run concurrently with at least one other major event on the Melbourne calendar. Perhaps there can even be more than one shopping festival fitted into the calendar. Shopping Festival and Grand Prix! Shopping Festival and AFL Grand Final! Shopping Festival and Melbourne Cup! You see juggling the circuses of Melbourne has become a game of increasing difficulty. This year the Grand Prix and the Commonwealth Games were jostling one another in a packed calendar.

Talk about Bread and Circuses!

Now Miss Eagle cannot say how many bakeries Melbourne has but this city - which boasts that it is the sporting capital of Australia - is well set up for circuses. There are more sporting arenas within walking distance of the CBD than in any other city in the country: the MCG, Olympic Park, Rod Laver and Vodaphone Arena, Telstra Dome, Albert Park with Flemington Racetrack being only a short cab or train ride away. And we won't go into the subject of theatres and public places and spaces like Federation Square.

One thing, though, that Miss Eagle wants to know. If there is to be a Melbourne Shopping Festival how will the Opp Shop clientele such as Miss Eagle and Gina be catered for? Or will we have to establish our own Fringe Festival?

Teaching a child to pray

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