Shabby Vintage Junk Extravaganza ! 13 and 14 August 2010 - #2

Yesterday, dear Trad Padders, 

I told you about the Shabby Vintage Junk Extravaganza.  

Well, to-day was move-in day. 

Don't ask me if Tamara (who is organising all this) and her dearly beloved Matt slept last night.  I know that Herself was over there until well after midnight helping put up wonderful white tissue paper balls on the rafters of the Ashburton Scout Hut in High Street Road, Ashburton.  The Scout Hut is still a Scout Hut but now it is a Scout Hut with pizzaz and quite a large helping of swish.

To-day, I saw wonderful stuff being unpacked and displayed.

There are ten stalls but a cornucopia of variety.

Shabby is there in spades

with all that would gladden Rachel Ashwell's heart.

Vintage and retro is there in all shapes and colours.

Wonderful linens and handcrafted stuff -

that would delight not only the modern woman

but her mum and grandma - are all over.

And junk is there as its glorious self

and re-jigged in marvellously creative ways.

Talk about re-jig, re-use, recycle.

And for those of you who love your food,

I have singled out for special attention

Mrs Beeton's Cookbook

which comes complete with

handwritten recipes and etcetereas.

Just look...

So please come to-morrow and Saturday.

8am until 5pm Friday

8am until about 3pm or so on Saturday.

There are not many opportunities like this to purchase

from a multiplicy of specialist stall holders.

Please ecourage the efforts of 

Tamara, Alicia, Sam,

Shelley, Andrea, Robyn,

Callee, Jane & Kaz

See you when you are shabby shopping 

at the Shabby Vintage Junk Extravaganza

Shabby Vintage Junk Extravaganza ! 13 and 14 August 2010

I have been sporting a sidebar badge for the Shabby Vintage Junk Extravaganza for quite a while now, as you can see.  It is on this weekend and the redoubtable and indefatigable (don't you luv the way they trip off the tongue) Tamara is all talk about it over at Shabby Vintage Junk.

Things are on the go here as Herself has been organising since way back when.  And things are still on the go.  The handles and knobs above will be there. As will some of the stuff below.

One whole living room is jam packed with stuff and has been for quite a while.

But my guess is Herself will be coming down to the wire
with some things......

See you there Friday and Saturday!

MISS EAGLE CUDDLES A DINGO AT ELTHAM

Miss Eagle 

snuggling with Barrowless Boy

- one beautiful domesticated dingo

~~~~

Miss Eagle was over at Eltham on Saturday -
as Trad Padders will note from the wattle below.

Enjoying relaxed refreshment in Eltham Square

was Julie Fechner of Dingo Care Network

with Barrowless and Shiralee.

I had heard about these people and their dingoes over at Eltham and the controversies surrounding Australia's own native dog so I got into conversation with Julie.  I asked if I could take Julie's photograph and she agreed.  She then insisted that she take one of me.  I was most reluctant since the dog didn't know me.  I was a stranger.  But that was no problem as you can see.  Beautiful, beautiful animals.  And as you can see, Julie and friends do a lot of work to restore confidence in the the beauty and value of the dingo.  

Related Reading:

Montsalvat Guide: A Guide to the Place and Its Founder 

My story: tales from a pioneer of Montsalvat. 

(Montsalvat is a significant Eltham landmark)

Dingo: Australian Natural History series

 

SEASONS: THE WATTLE IN BLOOM

This tree was photographed in Eltham, Victoria on 31 July 2010

One of the things that annoys me is that we post-1788 settlers, don't pay sufficient attention to the seasons.  Decades ago, when I first visited, Kakadu in the Northern Territory and heard that the Aboriginal people of the area counted six seasons not four, I began to wonder about this.

I know that farmers and keen gardeners notice local differences.  I once listened to a group of old fellows from my church talking about gardening and the differences between planting and growing at Box Hill and Upper Ferntree Gully.  But do we rationalist, mechanistic modernists take this sort of knowledge seriously.

Spring, in the Southern Hemisphere, is listed for 1 September but how arbitrary that is.  The wattle is listed as a winter flowering plant.  And yet Australia has a special day, Wattle Day, on 1 September each year - past the flowering time for wattle but - surprise, surprise - marking the first day of spring.

So you see, I think we have things quite wrong.  Wattle Day would be better celebrated on 1 August - and Australia would be better placed to mark Australian Spring as commencing on that date too.

So let's give a thought to where we live.  We might have to centralise certain dates for the whole of the country - but lets acknowledge Mother Nature at work where we live and the different seasons and time zones of weather she has made for us.  It might just be the beginning of a whole new way of thinking about  Australian ecology.

New Gluten Free Bread at Sharon's place this coming Sunday

My friend Sharon has written to me as follows:

Could you please advertise by word of mouth or sending on this email as a Community Health announcement:

Coeliac disease is an autoimmune disease. It is a permanent intestinal intolerance to dietary gluten. The will be a free demonstration of a new Gluten Free Bread which is fructose friendly too this coming Sunday at my place.

This picture of gluten

free bread from here.

Now Trad Padders, I don't want to plaster Sharon's address and phone numbers publicly so...if you want to go to this could you please email me at misseaglesnetwork(at)
gmail(dot)com for the details.

This week I was in Turner and Lane and discovered an idea that was new - at least to me.  It was one of those "why didn't I think of that" moments.  The idea was in T&L's children's room but the idea, IMHO, could be adapted in other ways.  A "My Kitchen" version could be natty and cute.

These boards come in two sizes.  These are the large size and there is a smaller one.  The "boards" are painters' ready stretched canvases.  They could be painted over in a range of pastel colours to suit and still be as sweet.  Across the top are narrow gros-grain ribbons and some light two-ply string to which is attached those little clothes pegs usually used for hanging cards.

The bottom left has little nic-nax like covered buttons glued on.  Clearly, the choice is the decorator's.  Bottom right has the names.  Now, my only query is how does one cut out fabric letters sharp and neat?  Will someone please tell me how?  Because I think if I am to replicate these cute items, this is the one place where my efforts would fall down.

Grow your own heirlooms, organically and simply - with Belinda's help

That friend of mine Belinda from Belinda's Place is something.  This organised, organising, methodical woman  is in the category of Urban Homesteader.  She does it all from the Mud Palace at Ferny Creek in the beautiful Dandenong Ranges on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia.  You can follow her doings and don't-ings in the aforesaid blog.  So for all you need to know, the contact details are above.  For the rest follow her on her blog.

Meet Bert the Bloke - one beautiful puss.

An introduction is warranted!

This is Bert the Bloke - one beautiful cat.

Peppered through this blog are photos of

Rose the Spartacat

and

FootFoot the Miniature Fox Terrier.

In recent times our two beloved friends

left this world - just six weeks apart.

Rose went first, aged 6 years, due to kidney tumours.

FootFoot died of old age, aged 16 years.

Increasingly, in the months prior to his death,

I cuddled him to his end and so did Herself.

Finally, one night while sleeping with Herself,

he breathed his last and was gone from us.

Our decision was not to rush 

to replace either of these beloveds.

However, after a couple of months, 

Herself decided we would get a cat.

No ordinary kitten, mind you.

She was determined to go to the RSPCA

and get an older cat whom no one wanted.

There was such a cat - Bert.

He is about 5 years old 

and needed to go to a home

where he would be the only one.

He came to the RSPCA because

in his original home other cats picked on him.

We don't know why.

He had been ill and in the RSPCA clinic because of cat flu.

Otherwise he lived in a cage with three others.

He has settled in well here.

He is reserved but interested

in the household's peeps and doings.

He is so pretty and poses beautifully.

His fur is the silkiest I have ever touched.

He is well at home

and we love this man about our house.

Earth's loveliness

Michelangelo by Daniele da Volterra

Picture from here 

My soul  can find no staircase

to Heaven

unless it be through

Earth's loveliness.

.

The development Edna Walling designed

Dear Trad Padders,

If you scroll down the sidebar you will come cross my links which are categorised.  One whole category is dedicated (with many links) to one woman: Edna Walling.  By the time you work your way through those links you should have a good idea of who Edna Walling was and why she and her work are so admired.

In the long ago, Edna undertook some real estate development.  The development was named Bickleigh Vale and is situated in the the outer eastern Melbourne suburb of Mooroolbark.  In Edna's time, this area would have been rural or semi-rural.  To-day it is suburban and, unless you know where to look, it is easily missed.  The development is situated around Bickleigh Vale Road, off Pembroke Road in Mooroolbark.

The road is a dirt/gravel road.  I think it is likely to be a "local road" where the local residents take responsibility for their own road.  It wanders between tall trees which appear, remarkably, never to have seen a bushfire.  Many of the houses are timber so I think the residents are probably very fire conscious since the old timber homes would probably burn like paper.

Recently one of the houses came up for sale and it had a great promotion in real estate section of The Age, one of Melbourne's major dailies.  I include some of these for your interest and titillation.  BTW, one needs something more than bottletops to purchase n this neighbourhood.

Related reading:

 

The Vision of Edna Walling: Garden Plans 1920-1951 

The Unusual Life of Edna Walling 

 

Gardens in Australia: Their Design and Care 

A Gardener's Log 

THE GARDEN MAGIC OF EDNA WALLING 

The gardens of Edna Walling 

EDNA WALLING'S YEAR: Ideas and Images from All Seasons 
Australian Roadside 
Letters to garden lovers 
Happiest Days of My Life 
Cottage and garden in Australia 
Gardens in Time : In the footsteps of Edna Walling