Little Fish Creations

In my last post I mentioned that I had an itch to do some embroidery.  So, in my usual fashion, I tossed the zig zag quilit aside and started putting a simple embroidery design together.

I’m sort of itching to get into a bit of embroidery after this quilt.  I’ve been reading Sheila Paine’s book Embroidered Textiles : a world guide to traditional patterns and I’m feeling very inspired.  

Another book I read this week was Francis Bacon’s Studio by Margarita Cappock, which I got out of the library.  I didn’t know a lot about the artist, but I’m glad I read it as I found it really interesting to see how he manipulated photos to distort figures and how he used sources over and over again.

Reuben is going to be ok.  I spoke to the vet this morning and apparently Reuben is very alert and the symptoms of his gastrointestinal infection have disappeared.  He’s going to get some bland food today to test the plumbing out and if all goes well we can pick him up tommorow or the day after.  Whew!

The house seems very empty without him!

I’ve been meaning to take the camera out into our new yard to document the different things that are growing here.  We have a little grove of bannana palms and a few paw paw trees.  Two mature frangipani trees, and an enormous tree with parasite vines which nearly totally dominates the front yard. 

There are some interesting smaller plants too, a few I can name are canna lillies, bird of paradise (lots of these), passionflower, bouganvillia and mother-in-laws tounge. 

I’m sure most are introduced species which shouldn’t be here within Kakadu National Park.  But I see most yards have a similar selection.  I don’t think people are allowed to bring plants into the area now but given the maturity of most of the plantings I suppose there were laxer rules in the past.

I was keen to get this quilt finished before I lost interest, so I took a few shortcuts. 

The first one being that I quilted it with a large stipple.  I’d sketched out lots of ideas which would have involved very tight, intricate quilting with some sort of negative space left in the white squares. I would have been still quilting well into next week (if not abandoned), so I decided to go with the no fuss, all over stipple.  I found it suprisingly theraputic.

The second shortcut was to not make bias binding strips.  Marking bias binding is not my favorite activity… I’ve been known to leave a quilt unbound for years to avoid this task.  So today I cut the binding on grain.  And now the quilt is finished 🙂

We’re off to Darwin again tommorow.  We have lots of things to buy.  Things like a lawn mower and a freezer and a billion other expensive dodads.

The scale of the situation in Victoria is difficult to comprehend.  So many lives lost in the worst imaginable circumstances (108 people it says in the news this morning)

News is starting to come through about friends in Gippsland.  One sustained burns as he evacuated in his car (10 people in his tiny community have been confirmed dead).  A number of people I know have lost their homes and their animals.

From news reports, it is strongly suspected that the Churchill fire complex was lit by an arsonist.   This fire has claimed the lives of 19 people.

Today I’m thinking of those volunteers who are fighting fires and who are probably now fighting total exhaustion.  And, I’m thinking of my old workmates who would be part of the huge logistical effort which is required in situations such as this.

Much to our suprise the move into our permanent house has already happened.  I was fully prepared for another 2-3 weeks in transit acommodation.  It is SO nice to have our own stuff around, now we’ve just got to make it work in the house which is huge compared to our little flat in Nhulunbuy.

Chris is settling into his new job and I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed with the inevitable mess from unpacking and setting up the house.  Thankfully its Friday and Chris will be home for the next two days so we can take care of the remaining work. 

Today I took a break from the main living areas and decided to set up my workroom.  This is what it looked like this morning:

Don’t ask me what the deal is with the funny shaped bump, its been like that from the start.

We fly out of Gove tonight and will have a day for shopping in Darwin before we drive out to Jabiru for Chris to start work on Tuesday.

Our year (+2mths) in Gove has been fabulous. It is an easy place to meet people as everyone in town is from elsewhere.  North East Arnhemland is a beautiful, unique and remote location which most people in Australia will never have the chance to visit.  It has also been a real privilage to learn about Yolngu culture first hand

For many years, Chris and I had been talking about combining travel with work, and though it felt like a risk to leave our jobs and home in Gippsland and enter a new industry, it has been an amazing experience so far!

So, goodbye Gove, the adventure continues.

Somebody torched our dad’s house.  The house I grew up in, the house our single dad built when my sister, Meg, and I were little.

Here is the article from the local paper.  I cried this morning when I saw the first photo.  There really is nothing left and the house will be demolished this week.

Thankfully my dad, little sister, Zippy, and stepmother are safe.  They were away at a church camp at the time.  My dad’s dog, Ruby, was home and apparently she ran into the house when the firemen got there and they rescued her.   She is safe with dad now.

Unfortunately it looks like it was deliberately and maliciously lit.  We will wait to see what the police come up with.

I’m a long way from home and family.  But they are constantly in my thoughts. Thanks to Meg who has kept me in touch and who showed real strength yesterday.

First of all, I’m posting a pic of the apple slice I made a week ago.  It was yummy, but very fiddly to make, next time I’ll use a smaller tin than specified as I had to spread out three very, very thin layers which hard to do without making mush.