Why don't we all dance our way to peace and happy times?

Be Happy
Posted by HI Jwl on Thursday, 31 July 2014

Ramadan crafts and Ramadan knowledge

The text across the top of this blog says what it is all about.  I keep this blog free of sound offs and heavy stuff and put them on The Network.  I prefer The Trad Pad to be a place of sweetness, light and beautiful things.  However, we are living in a world/a nation which is increasingly multi-cultural, multi-faith, and interfaith.  And this is the month of Ramadan.  Across the world, Ramadan is huge as Christmas across the world is huge.  So I am seeking to explore with Trad Padders what Ramadan is all about.  With these thoughts in mind, I explored what might be in keeping with this place.  And so it is that I present you, dear Trad Padders, with Karima's Crafts.

In turn, the banner above led me to this site : The Wonderful Art Garden for Muslim Sisters

Karima's site has a Ramadan section.

Many of the crafts in this section can be adapted

for other reasons and seasons.

For a more precise knowledge of what Ramadan means in the Muslim faith, 

please explore the document embedded below.

Grandmothers Against the Detention of Refugee Children : World Refugee Day : The Billy-Lids Song

Last Sunday was World Refugee Day - celebrated in City Square in Melbourne.

Grandmothers Against the Detention of Refugee Children - Ballarat

trained to Melbourne for the event which concluded Refugee Week.

More pictures from the day can be seen here.

Here we are at City Square, Melbourne - before the huge crowds turned up!

Below are two links to the Billy-Lids song which comes to us from

Grandmothers ADRC - Melbourne Ports

Please take the opportunity to learn the song and spread its message.

Great song. See who you can recognise. To me, Margaret Roadnight's voice is instantly recognisable.Thanks to Brigid Walsh for introducing me to this group of Artists.
Posted by Denis Wilson on Tuesday, 23 June 2015

And there is another interesting site for the song here

Happy Mother's Day to all those mums in detenton - we are thinking of you on this day.

Please copy this post to 

your Facebook, your Google+, Twitter - 

everywhere you can - 

so that mothers cruelly detained will know 

that there are Australian mothers, parents, grandparents, 

thinking of them and their children on this day.

Calling artists, photographers and the like - come to Buangor on Sunday to help save the ancient and doomed trees

FROM THE WHAM FACEBOOK SITE:

Helen Lewers added photos to April 26, 2015.

26 April at 21:31

Say your goodbyes to these beautiful old redgums who've been living in the Middle Creek area long before it had that name - 200-400 years previously, at least. Say goodbye to the young trees too. There aren't too many growing on adjacent farmland. NONE of these trees are protected. 

Not by‪#‎VicRoadsVandals‬.

Not by the ‪#‎AndrewsGvt‬.

Not by anyone who has the power to protect them. 

Say goodbye.

AN INVITATION

Noticed any roads authorities vandalising ancient habitat trees

on the Western Highway lately? 

Come to Buangor on the 3 May - Sunday - 10am to 3pm 

and help record the treasures we are losing. 

Bring all your own materials, picnic, chair, etc. 

(NB - good toilets at Beaufort!) 

The enormous environmental damage being inflicted upon us all 

is to save a TOTAL OF 2 WHOLE MINUTES of travel time 

between Beaufort and Ararat! 

For more details contact as per poster or via WHAM on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/groups/867523523309131/

Numbers to phone for more information:

0408 545 229

0400 713 175

Could you also bring Yellow Ribbons
to tie around the trees
As a symbol of our care for them
Please know, we are being positive about saving these trees
for future generations

Encapsulation of a life!

Trad Pads don't come much more traditional than this.  It is a reflection of a life.  Please watch the video.  I was taken by the real estate man's instructions and intentions to leave the house as is.  Of course what happens now is up to "the investor" who purchased it.  I hope Fairfax ensures that it keeps this record.

How waste can miraculously become a place of beauty!

My compost bin is, at the moment, half full. I sometimes leave the lid off to catch a bit of rain.  On my last visit to the bin, this is what I found.

My friend Alida said:  They're very pretty, but I do suggest your compost needs more nitrogenous material so bacteria grow as well. This seems to have too much carbohydrate in it. Add manures if you can, or fresh green waste. And turn it.

I said no to the manure.  A couple of inches below these beautiful things is a couple of inches of horse manure.  I did say yes to the turning. Will see to that.

My friend, Denis, of The Nature of Robertson has identified the fungi for me.  The elegant black and white mushrooms are Coprinus calyptratus.  The small white hooded ones are the young of the species.

Upholstery classes at the #Creswick Neighbourhood Centre! Mmmm...

Look at what the Creswick Neighbourhood Centre is up to. 

Are any other TradPadders interested in going? 

I might be --- although I thought my doing up furniture days were over, this is a temptation! 

The CNC is a lovely place to do a course. Have done a couple of Larissa Romensky AbcOpen Ballarat courses there. After all, Creswick is only a suburb of Ballarat - just a bit of a hop, step and a jump!!  There has already been someone on the CSN Facebook site wanting to come up from Melbourne!

Creswick Neighbourhood Centre

Pssst... I'm talking out of hand but, I'm a bit excited about some workshops we are planning for the near future... UPHOLSTERY! Yes you heard it right! It's a DIY dream and it's coming true very soon. Let us know if you're interested. smile emoticon

Books, books, and more books. For those who never have enough...

As readers of this blog know, I am a lifelong bibliophile. I am sure other bibliophiles will like this post.

Why Real Books Will Never Die

As Summer sighs its last before the Autumnal spirit arrives, there are things to do...

Top 10 Things to Do in the Garden During February

#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!