No rain today

It has been a fine hot day today.  Very humid.  You only have to take two steps and you are a lather of perspiration.  On my walk to day I found the walkways crowded and the park still had lots of people at 6pm.  There was a hot party going on at the Watt bar .  In side the theatre at the 'Powerhouse' people were arriving for a show.

When my boys were young this was a derelict power station.  It was surrounded with barbed wire but that didn't stop young curious boys from getting in.  It was a known haunt of drug addicts and vagrants.  "don't go to the Powerhouse" was my constant cry. 

It is within walking distance from our home and I really look forward to the shows and going down to have dinner.  Brisbane is only a small city.  We live only 30 mins walk from the centre of town yet the river, the climate the liveability of it makes it an appealing place.  You can walk on water..

And you never know who you are going to meet out there.

Podcasts

I have started to put together some podcasts for my students.  The first attempts are mediocre.  I am a visual person, not auditory but I'm sure there is a place for this in my class room.  In my search for new material I came across a wonderful set of pod casts in the itunes store.  They are all free and are called TED Talk.  For me the video version it great.  You can see some really interesting people here.  My favourite I think is the presentation by Frans Lanting who is a photographer for National Geographic.  You can also find this at the ted website . The video runs for just over 16 mins so be prepared with that cup of tea.

Medical & otherTextiles

I was up far to early this morning.  I wanted to go down the coast to see if the surf was still running but found that there was too many dangerous rips to risk swimming.

I walked from Greenmount Beach around to Snapper Rocks and found a water dragon on the rocks.

Then walked back to watch the board riders waiting for that wave.

Xmas holidays wouldn't be the same without the beach.  This one has been very wet but as we have been in a drought for so long the beach will had to do as it is.

I came home to get started on lessons investigating how textiles are used in medicine today.  Wound, dressing, stitching and then I came across these wonderful machine embroidered pieces that are used in implants. I followed the link back to the developer  and  then started to look for other site where medical structures in the body had inspired embroidery. 

I have found great inspiration for embroidery in work that is being produced in the U.K. and it was there that I found some wonderful pieces on  stabbed, which has a great section on science inspired embroidery.

You might need a bit of time to sift through all the work that this site links to so grab a cup of tea before you begin.

Looking at this implant I got to thinking about the use of eyelets and how they look like stars.  I remembered seeing an image of what appear to be star structures in an article by Luis Figueroa who is a columnist for Prensa Libre.  Back to good old Google and I find that he has posted this same image on his blog.  The embroidery is from Magdalena Milpas Altas Guatemala.  Some people believe it is a chart of heavenly constellations. 

Now that is some way from my original search for medical textiles!

One of those days

It was just one of those days today.

I have been tied up doing work on Family History and not really getting down to work on my lesson prep. With the family history, through my Mother's family I have traced back to 1020AD and know that they arrived in England back in 900AD. They were Danish Vikings who supported William the Conqueror and then managed to hold onto all the lands they had plundered.

I have been working on the embroideries for Di using the Leto threads. The designs have to be really simple for what she wants so I have done the drawings and am stitching them out. I have looked at the manufacturers' site but there isn't much information there. I think that they would work really well with Indian and Middle Eastern designs. The thread is thick and there are some good colours. I have tried to strand the thread and it works well down to 2 stands. The fibre, being polyester is extruded and then brushed to make it soft. This process weakens it so when using one strand it must only be a fairly short length as continually pulling it through the fabric will break it. But, it will work with the one strand.

Here is a peek at what I've been doing.

Lesson Preparation

There hasn't been much on this blog about returning to work. In fact nothing. Thats because I'm on holidays but the arrival of two new books from Amazon has got the process started.

The first book was Textiles Today by Chloe Colchester. An amazing book. The illustrations are wonderful and the content up to date yet in language that my students will relate to. And what a source book for me.

The other book techno textiles 2 has a lot more information on the actual structure of the textile and how it is produced. I must say that I was impressed by how quickly the books arrived and how competitive the price I paid. I placed my order on the 30th December 07. I was especially impressed by the cost of the postage. It was only $20.00 Australian. I posted my conference precedings from the Textile Society Conference in London back at the beginning of October 07, that still hasn't arrived and it cost the equivalent of about $160.00 Australian!!

I have had time to look around me on my morning walks. (No stress, not much of anything really). And have now kept my eye out for old plants in gardens. (My suburb is close to the city and was one of the early parts to be built when Brisbane was opened to free settlers in 1868. (Before this it was a penal colony and closed to settlers.) There are quite a lot of old hybiscas trees. It is hard to say how old, I know the one at the front of my house was planted in the early 1900's. (I can tell this from looking at old photos, before & after.)

I love this flower. It looks like a leopard with it's yellow spots. I doesn't last as a picked flower, just wilts and dies after 1/2 a day. Both of the other flowers have their own beauty. I still like mine best.

Mangos

On my walk this morning I was looking at those mango trees again.

It used to be a tradition to have a mango tree in the back yard. I remember when my daughter was about 7 she and a friend were playing in the back yard and I heard all this screaming. The girls were in the Mango tree and I thought that they must have been bitten by a spider, which also love these trees. "No Mum", I was told. "We are just practicing for the rides at the Ekka" was the reply. (The Ekka is a State Fair) All the children have played in that tree. They have had tree houses, fought battles with the spiders and solved the problems of the world in that tree.

There are two main varieties. The big old ones are usually terpentine, not so good for eating but great for Chutney. When these one start to ripen I will be around to collect what the flying foxes leave. Here is on old recipe for the Chutney.

2 cups sugar
1 1/2 litres vinegar
3 - 4 onions
4 - 5 apples
2 - 3 tomatoes
6 small chillies
1 1/2 cups sultanas or raisins
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup preserved gingner
piece of green ginger
1 1/2 kg firm mango pulp
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 Tablespoon salt

1. Boil sugar with half the vinegar to make a syrup.
2. Peel and finely cut the onions, apples, tomatoes, chillies, sultanas, garlic & ginger
3. Add mango pulp
4. Place in syrup in preserving pan.
5. Add the pepper and salt.
6. Add remainder of vinegar as required.
&. Boil for about 2 hours or until mixture is of good consistency
8. Bottle and seal.

The other variety is the Bowen. You don't get as big a crop but they are soooo sweet. just slice them and eat them them as is or with icecream. If you cut off the cheeks they freeze really well, great in cooking
chicken.

Rain

We are having the most wonderful rain. In fact they say we could get 4 months supply. It will still take a lot more to fill our dams but it is wonderful to see the lawn turn green. The trees are severely stressed, especially some of the big old trees. This causes them to put out lots of flowers to ensure their survival. I actually have mangos on my tree that the flying foxes haven't eaten, then I saw some of the old mango trees, they are just overladen. All my plants just love this rain. It does have it's downside though. There will be lots of mosquitos and when then sun comes out we will melt. Thank God for the air con.

A visit to GoMA

I took myself to see the Andy Warhol exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art here in Brisbane.  I'm glad that I arrived early because by the time I left it was very crowded.

Even at the early hour I went there was still a wait to see some of the work.  I must say that I was really impressed.  Warhol art has been part of our lives for so long it has become commonplace.  But, to see this exhibition brought home just how important his art is.

The gallery always has an area for children and this exhibition was no different.  I didn't mean to take this photo I hadn't realised it was part of the childrens section I was actually aiming for something outside the building.

Children love this gallery.  They look out over the river at the city or are involved in the activities that are put on for them.  I never see bored or unhappy kids when I come here.

I took so many photos around gallery. I found that the windows are made to reflect a changing picture all the time. People walking by, the changing weather, the traffic.  The building itself is a work of art.

Some of my photos I plan to turn into fabric postcards.  This is  to be my first.

A discovery

I was surfing the net last night and came across a website concerning the Greathead family. a Family history site, it's huge. After surfing the pages I came across a photo of my Great,great,great grandmother, Sarah Dunstall who migrated with her husband and four youngest children to Australia in 1853. I think this photo must have been taken before this as she was 53 when they arrived here. What is strange is that I was looking at another version of myself. The same eyes, mouth, face shape, just the nose looks different. She was born over 200 years ago and yet there I am! It is a wonderful find. Now my daughter has seven and I have six generations of woman who we can put an image to.

Where did 2007 go?

The first day of the new year. The southern parts of Australia are sweltering under very hot skys. This year it is cool in South East Queensland. This is a big change! I usually have the air con cranked up and we all feel we are going to melt. There are high winds and some showers. I got soaked on my walk this morning. I just wish those showers were over the dams. It is level 6 water restrictions which means 4 min showers. It's really hard to wash your hair etc in 4 mins.

I have been working on that list I talked about the other day. In order of importance they are;

1. To talk control of my eating habits. ( I eat very little and this doesn't help my metabolism, it slows it even
further. I have a thyroid condition which means that I have a very slow metabolism anyway.)

2. Really get back to my job and perform even better than before. ( start lesson preparation)

3. Learn how to use my new Mac computer. (I'm just tinkering on the edges as yet)

4. Learn how to use my ipod. (I love music.)

5. Learn Spanish (Why? I want to go to Mexico in 2008)

I have decided to try Dr John Ticknell's book 'The great Australian diet the healthy alternative' as the basis of my life style change. I seems to have a balanced approach and even if I don't lose weight I will be healthier.

We had a visitor last night, a ring tail possum. There doesn't seem to be so many around at the moment, those snakes must be keeping the numbers down.