Citizenship Ceremony

It became official - we attended a ceremony to make us fair dinkum Aussie citizens. I couldn't decide which brooch to wear so I pinned them both to my jacket and asked a friend to decide. (I went with the cat.) Later, it fell off my jacket and, after hunting for it everywhere, I thought it was lost, but it was returned to me by the local pub, where we went to celebrate after the ceremony.

The cat came back

The citizenship ceremony was a special one to mark seventy years since it was first introduced. Our ceremony, for reasons I couldn't quite fathom, was an event held with selected individuals at Floriade, the weird floral festival of Canberra, in a marquee. 

Placed around the edge of the marquee were a number of outfits created by flower arrangements - wearable art, if you will. Some had signage explaining their rationale: others didn't. 

National Eucalyptus Day by Genel Jordan is inspired by the tree which 'is synonymous with the Australian landscape. In the spirit of National Eucalyptus Day, this dress celebrates, in a small way, the majesty and beauty of these iconic trees. The form of the dress takes its inspiration from the structure of the tall eucalypts of Australia's native forests, the hues of their bark and the patterns often found on their trunks. The decoration of the dress is inspired by the vast palate [sic] of colours and shapes of the eucalypts [sic] foliage, its flowers and the fauna which make these trees their home.' 

National Eucalyptus Day by Genel Jordan

Save the Great Barrier Reef by Nada Anderson 'seeks to focus people's attention on the current state of the Great Barrier Reef and the impact of coral bleaching. This is illustrated by the transitioning of jewel coral colours to the whiteness of the bleached dead coral. Climate change is having a devastating effect on the reef by increasing ocean water temperatures, which in turn leads to coral bleaching. Two consecutive years of coral bleaching in 2016 and 2017 caused extensive damage to more than two-thirds of the reef. We need to act now before it is too late.'

Save the Great Barrier Reef by Nada Anderson

'In Australia 1 woman a week is killed by domestic violence. Physical or sexual violence affects further 1 in 3 women and many more women experience the disenfranchised grief and trauma caused by financial, emotional and psychological abuse. Attitudes need to change.

White Ribbon Day is a bystander campaign that aims to prevent men's violence against women by raising awareness and dedicating revenue from fund raising towards education and support.

The white leaves in the dress bodice represent the 1 woman a week killed by domestic violence. The tatami window work on the skirt symbolizes the new growth that women experiencing domestic violence can achieve when provided with adequate support and resources. Colour has been used symbolically with white symbolizing protection and possibility, and green symbolizing renewal , growth and harmony. The gold leaf represents the courage it takes for women to leave an abusive partner.'

White Ribbon Day Australia by Tracy Dodt

'National Organic Week is a week that creates awareness of the benefits of organic methods and farming production systems. I have conveyed this in my dress by using organic products. These are products that have not been sprayed with chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or any other artificial chemicals.

I have also used organic lines, shapes, and natural colours and represented organic in the bottom of the dress where it flares out, it is light and very full. This symbolizes what an impact filling your life with organic products can have on you and your health.'

National Organic Week by Esmae Barry

'Each day in Australia 50 women are diagnosed with breast or gynaecological cancer. The Cancer Council's Pink Ribbon Day aims to raise awareness about these cancers and also help raise funds for research, support, services and prevention programs.

My botanical garment was created to honour all of those who have been diagnosed with breast or gynaecological cancers. Having a beautiful Aunty of mine go through the struggles of breast cancer has made Pink Ribbon Day an organisation that is truly close to my heart, and that's why I have created a very pink and feminine piece to represent strong, beautiful women who are affected by this disease each and every day.'

Pink Ribbon Day by Anna Carbone

I didn't see the rationale behind the following pieces (although obviously there is an allusion to the Aboriginal flag in the last one), but I think they are all stunning.

Surrounded by these beautiful, living pieces, full of thoughts and memories, we became nationalised citizens of Australia. We then had a drink with friends and rode on the Ferris Wheel above the gardens. 

Him Outdoors with brewing chums

General Philosophy flying the flag

All smiles from Gindelle

Newest Aussies

You can take the boy out of Burnley...

Views from the top:

Calamity Sue, Emma Cake, and their shadows

This is the image on the diary page this week. I am so lucky and grateful to be a citizen of three wonderful countries. 

At the weekend our weekend walk around The Pinnacles took us past some beautiful scenery and a bearded dragon. He/she was merely trying to sun himself/herself (they can be either depending on the temperature) and wasn't entirely appreciative of being photographed. 

In the Midst of Death; There is Life

I've been doing a sort of beer and book matching thing of late. This is Galaxy Juicy by 3 Ravens paired with The Sun King by Nancy Mitford: fruity, juicy, and obscure with a dash of the tropical and and hint of bitterness.  It works.

Beer and book matching

Now I have begun at a new place of work, I need to find eating establishments nearby. This one seemed to feature the green. 

We are also meant to take a photo to put with our office details so that when staff members receive an internal email, they can check what the sender looks like and hopefully recognise them in future. I'm not particularly good at this selfie malarkey and equally unsure as to whether I would even want anyone to recognise me from this photo.

On one lunchtime walk, I took myself to Woden Cemetery, which is near my place of work. A very good friend died a few years ago; had he lived it would have been his 48th birthday. I like the peace of the graveyard and the blossom indicating new life and fresh hope.

Woden Cemetery

Everything's coming up cake

And so I have begun a new job. In this job there is cake. I think this a good thing. (The person who made the cake knows me and she knows that Liverpool Red is my favourite colour.)

New job cake

New (insider) job cake

And after a long, cold winter, the first shoots of spring are beginning to show in the garden.  

Leucojum or Summer Snowflake

I used to think these were snowdrops but, according to P. Allen Smith of Garden Home, they are not. 

"This plant is often confused with galanthus or snowdrops. But you can distinguish the two by the little green dot. Also the petals of the leucojum are an even length while galanthus has three long petals and three short petals."

So, now I know.

Some kind of daffodil

Purple flowers (Dendrobium orchids?)

Probably a Camellia

Garden growth

While at The National Gallery of Australia Bookshop, I came across this little gem: Schottenfreude by Ben Schott. You know how it seems like the Germans have a word for everything? Well, they really do. This book provides them along with meanings and pronunciation advice. Many of them are portmanteau words (yes, I am aware of the irony of using a French word to describe a German phenomenon), which are hilarious in literal as well as metaphoric translation. 

Picture Perfect

This is a week of pictures of things - how they 'should be' and how they actually are. First up is a cutting that Howdy Neighbour sent me from Queenstown. My first house has been sold. Him Outdoors and I bought it in 2000 after we had been made homeless due to the flooding and landslides of the previous year. A lot of filming was going on in the region (TLOTR and Vertical Limit) and landlords realised that due to short-term demand, they could send the rents sky high. They never came back down. 

We had contents insurance that covered us for the six months of moving ourselves, our two cats and all our belongings from friends' spare room to flat to apartment to caravan to holiday home while the Earthquake Commission checked all the details of our situation. I performed in a charity gig to raise funds for flood and landslide victims (I sang Slip Slidin Away). The bankers and the landlords made money. Lots of money. 

A friend was selling his house and moving - he said we could rent it until he could find a buyer. It was out of our price range, but we knew we had to make a move as the housing market wasn't getting any easier to get into, rents were rising rapidly, available housing was in very short supply, and we had to live somewhere. We bought it. We received some very kind and gratefully appreciated assistance from my parents. It took everything we had financially. It was called Mühlstein when we bought it, which means millstone in German, and (as the home loan required to buy it was my first ever mortgage) we kept the name. 

It was a cute little property - the show-home for the region and the first house built on the peninsula that was Kelvin Heights. It was a wooden A-frame with cracks between the planks that let the winter chill inside, and no heating apart from a temperamental old wood burner. The first houses in the area had to be built along alpine chalet lines (until that development craze took over whereby, if the builder had the cash, they could erect whatever monstrosity they liked). It was on a street called Four Views Avenue, which is what was originally on offer before it was 'One View from the Upstairs Balcony and Next-Doors' Bathrooms' Avenue. From beautiful but humble (and cold) beginnings, Kelvin Heights became the first million-dollar suburb in New Zealand.

We spent five very happy years in our little cabin-like abode, with many visitors and guests both short and longer-term, and we had the most wonderful neighbours with whom we made life-long friendships. We sold it to move to Arrowtown (the second million-dollar suburb in New Zealand as it turns out - damn, we have expensive tastes). That was over ten years ago, and it has changed hands and ownership several times since. This article shows its latest incarnation; the second image down on the left-hand side is how it looked when it was ours. 

This old house

Here, by popular request, are a couple more of my 'Nailed It' photos from recipes I have attempted. The first is reasonably successful; the second not so much. But they were both very tasty!

Cauliflower, Gorgonzola and walnut tart; their version

My version

Both together

Roast Butternut Pumpkin - their version

My effort

Him Outdoors made us cafe-style breakfast