My retirement hair

Jelly left a comment on my last post concerning one of my photos: Val, have you gone blonde?! Or is it just the lighting? Whatever the case, you are looking gorgeous, too!).

For a while I've been thinking about posting about my hair (boy, what a vanity topic). Since I retired - oh wonderful state of being - I thought it would be a good time to see what my hair really looks like, after having had it tinted or colored since the 70s. The last time I had it tinted was just before we went to San Francisco in October last year. So what you see is my natural hair color and I have been getting all sorts of comments, such as Have you had tips/highlights put in?. Even my son gave me an unsolicited compliment. I'm laughing: saving time and money, and getting compliments too.

The only downside is that I don't get to sit at the hairdressers, reading magazines and copying down recipes, and more importantly, enjoying the vibe of a very convivial salon run by a husband and wife. They don't have music playing, and there are always interesting conversations to listen to and/or participate in. I don't know about you, but I have always loved being at the hairdressers.

As for looking gorgeous, well, I might put that down to being so damned happy and relaxed, that my happiness vibes are blinding people. Can you believe that I finished working in June and the joy STILL hasn't worn off? Has anyone ever taken such glee in retirement before?

Craft room

Hey Techie Son! Look at your room! Look at your desk!





Oh, and that's NOT a box of Red Tulip chocolates on the desk - it's filled with MIL's embroidery threads that she gave me - every color of the rainbow, great for sewing books together.






Look who's sitting in your oh so comfy armchair!














I've been making more books in my craft room.

Coptic stitching with slip case
















Two accordion books

Once there were six

...and now there's only one tree fern left. These have always struggled against their giant neighbors (silver birch and elm trees), and now it seems the drought has delivered the final blow.













Fortunately the birds nest ferns, ginger and hibiscus are still doing well, just adjacent to the remaining tree fern.









Recently in a guest post on Stu's Gardening Tips 'n Ideas blog I had photos of some of the water harvesting things we've installed in the garden. One we've had to replace already, it just wasn't robust enough, and for $7.50, what did we expect. So here's the replacement, which takes water from our washing machine out to the garden. We have switched to an enviro-friendly eucalyptus based washing powder (makes the laundry smell great!), and move the hose around to different plants.

Today is, aesthetically speaking, a beautiful autumnal day in Melbourne, but we would all give anything for it to be bucketing down with rain now.

Oh what a weekend!

Saturday morning I met up with Barb and we went to the State Library to attend some talks on the new exhibition of artists books. Some of Barb's papermaker friends were there too and we had lunch at the Mr Tulk cafe, where Alice and I were last week. I also got to meet another blogger buddy, Ampersand Duck, who was in Melbourne in conjunction with the exhibition.

Afterwards I had some time to kill before a very important evening event (more of that later), so went across the street to the revamped Melbourne Central shopping centre. This used to have a very elegant Japanese department store (Daimaru) and small interesting shops. Now it is very much geared to young people into fashion and who obviously enjoy being in a busy, noisy place. I'm outta there!

Besides, it was a lovely late autumnal afternoon - why spend it indoors? So I headed down La Trobe Street to Telstra Dome, the site of the evening's event: the preseason Grand Final in which my beloved Blues were playing. They played well and they won - things are looking up for 2007!

This evening we attended an event of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival*. It took place in the Botanical Gardens at Cranbourne, specifically in the new Australian Garden. It was absolutely stunning but sorry, folks: I left my bag at home and that's where my camera was! But we will go back for a longer visit and take some photos. Here is an aerial view of the gardens, but really, it has to be seen to be believed.

Meanwhile, the wonderful food and wine was vying for our attention along with the visual delights. As we walked around the gardens which were explained to us by a knowledgeable ranger, we got to sample local food and wines. There was salmon, quail and kangaroo. Delicious! Throughout the garden we could also hear someone playing the didgeridoo. A memorable evening!

*Melbourne is rather a foodie city and for a couple of weeks of the festival there are events galore to wine and dine. The festival "brochure" is as large as a weekend newspaper magazine supplement. On Tuesday we are going to an event that is devoted to the martini. We will be taking public transportation home...

Now and then

Last weekend we went to our bush block near Castlemaine. This is our empty dam, the distant figure in it, me.















This was the dam in the early 90s. It took 10 years to fill to this level, but has never filled again. 1,000,000 litres...
P.S. In answer to Sue's question about if the dam has partially filled since the early 90s: yes it has, and given the size of the dam, even partially full is quite enough water to swim around in. Over the years the dam has emptied and then half filled, quarter filled, large puddle - you get the idea.

Long weekend coming up

We're leaving for the country late this afternoon, with a stop in Kyneton for dinner. Then on to our place near Castlemaine. The only downside is we have to be very careful driving after dark because the kangaroos choose that time to come out and play tag with any passing cars.

It's a long weekend so we won't be coming back until Monday. What is Monday? It's Labour Day here in Victoria, which almost everyone has off. Not so, however, some workplaces, such as universities. There it's business as usual, or rather, busier than usual, when I would have been flat out giving tours, lectures, teaching students to use reputable online resources (NOT wikipedia!), and barely have time to turn around. I however will not be there, because.....
well, you know the answer!

Tomorrow, if all goes to plan, I will be appearing as guest blogger on Stu's Gardening Tips 'n Ideas. So do pay his blog a visit!

Blogger Buddy!

Today the State Library of Victoria would have been activating its "shush" machines when Frances and I met there and had a 3 hour marathon chin wag. I don't think we stopped talking except briefly when having afternoon tea at Mr Tulk's, the library's conveniently located cafe.

Talking may have also accounted for us having a temporary delay in the lift when we went to view the domed reading room from the upper levels - I think we were too busy talking to notice that the lift doors had opened and closed behind us. And there we were wondering why the doors weren't opening and we were going nowhere.

Eventually we were thrown out of the exhibition area (well, it was closing at 5 p.m. and we were asked politely), so we went back downstairs and sat down in some comfy chairs and talked some more. How much fun that was, and we're looking forward to meeting up again, next time in Canberra.

Here is a photo that shows us sitting "like schoolgirls" (Frances' words) in the library.

Japanese Garden in San Francisco

Today I thought I'd see if I would run into the same difficulties as Alice has been having uploading and keeping photos on her blog.

So I've just selected a few photos from our trip to San Francisco last year, and thought I'd use Blog This from Picasa. Much to my delight I've found that it now uploads more than one at a time! The format isn't the greatest, they're all rather scrunched together, but I think this is better than using the "Hello" system which is a bit fiddly. (Don't ask!).

This photo was taken after the Man Who Cooks had dropped the camera on that very hard surface. He is looking suitably abashed.














Here we are on speaking terms again.












And below is us having tea in the tea house overlooking the gardens. Ah, I just noticed that 2 photos have been "lost"... Now for the Publish button!! Had to add the last two photos in via Blogger. Is there a 4 photo limit when you blog photos from Picasa?



One hour later...Hey guess what! The first 4 photos I uploaded via Picasa have disappeared, and only the ones I uploaded manually via Blogger are there. So now I have to upload them manually... Sheesh!

Google Reader

Google Reader (link in title) is an alternative to Bloglines, and I've found it works very well, maybe because Blogger is also part of the Google empire. It's an easy way to log into your list of favorite blogs and and you see only a list of those who have posted something since the last time you visited. So there's none of this clicking on a link to see if so-and-so has finally got around to posting something, waiting until the page loads, then...nah, nothing new yet again!!! (Yes, I too have been guilty of having the blogging blahs, and am still recuperating)

Of my list of just over 20, only a couple do not work under this system, even though they're using Blogger. So I'll just have to remember to manually check their blogs.

Great weekend!

Saturday night my beloved Carlton Blues football team won - great way to start the pre-season, and there was a real excitement amongst the fans.

Today I attended a workshop learning how to do lino prints so I can decorate some of my books. I am mightily pleased with myself because I actually created something that looks like what I meant it to. Ever since primary school (a long time ago, folks,) I regarded myself as having not one bit of skill in producing any kind of art or craft. I can still remember my art teacher in Year 7, the last year I was required to do art, looking at my work and sadly shaking his head. Since starting on bookbinding, I've developed a little confidence in being able to make nice looking books. Today I was required to come up with a small design for a first practice piece. Help! But I thought I'd do something really simple and fun (remember my motto), and I did this:

On the left is the inked up piece of lino, which I drew myself (I said the design had to be simple). And on the right is the print, with a bit of color added. Hopefully I don't have to tell you what it is.




This is my second, larger print, the original is beneath.


For the final piece, the tram was traced onto a piece of foam, but this is not very robust and may not be worth doing again. Although the Man Who Cooks (and also Has Good Ideas) said I could glue it onto a piece of wood to make it last longer.




















The next great thing was meeting a blogger buddy Sharon at the workshop; this was the first time I've met a blogger buddy face to face. We're going to get together for coffee near a local craft shop. We've had our blogs through which we have communicated, now we've attended a workshop together and can share ideas on that. I've seen and admired Sharon's seahorse on her blog, a theme she used today in class. It turned out beautifully. Hopefully she'll post a photo of it too.

Finally, tomorrow is the first day of the academic year, with hundreds of new students pouring through the library, and guess who is NOT going to be there: me! because...














I...










am...













retired!