It's Australia Day - a day set aside when we contemplate and celebrate all the things that make this country great. It's a lovely holiday.
I'd hoped that today would be extra special for me - that I'd actually become an Australian citizen today - but it was not to be. The shire I live in apparently is not having a citizenship ceremony today - and I have to wait until the shire schedules one.
A slight disappointment, but it's OK. I'm still so happy to be here, so happy knowing that my application for citizenship is approved and all we have to do is wait. Eventually I'll get that letter from the shire telling me when the ceremony is.
And in the meantime -
Aussie Aussie Aussie!
January 26, 2011
January 19, 2011
Quilts as Sound Absorbers
My beloved mother-in-law, Judith, passed away last November. My husband, her only child, has inherited her lovely Edwardian era home in downtown Melbourne. If we sold it, it would fetch a quite a price, but for many reasons we have opted not to do that. Instead we've decided to put some time, energy, and considerable money into fixing it up. We'll use it as a second residence.
When we go there for overnight stays, we take our companion birds with us: Blue (a red-factor male canary), George (a male eclectus), and Laka (a blue and gold macaw). We do this often enough to justify getting a couple of inexpensive cages to house them in. The cages are situated near the back of the house where there is an easy-to-clean polished brick floor and where a series of internal doors allow us to keep most of the noise contained.
The walls of this hallway are composed of brick, with windows high up and sky-lights above. It's quite bright, but all that brick tends to make the screeching reverberate - almost like an amplifier, really. It can be quite unbearable - deafening - to be in that hallway when either George or Laka cut loose (which they do frequently).
Amoung Judith's things is a lovely double-size quilt that my mother made for her some years ago. Rather than use that quilt on a bed, I've decided to hang it in the hallway next to the cages. It makes a huge difference, absorbing instead of reflecting and amplifying the sound. It works so well that I also hung a Christmas quilt (something I gave Judith a long time ago) on another wall.
I'm now considering the possibility of making some decorative hangings to go in that hallway - quilts, of course - to cover even more of the brick and dampen the volume. Yet another excuse for heading to the quilt shop!
When we go there for overnight stays, we take our companion birds with us: Blue (a red-factor male canary), George (a male eclectus), and Laka (a blue and gold macaw). We do this often enough to justify getting a couple of inexpensive cages to house them in. The cages are situated near the back of the house where there is an easy-to-clean polished brick floor and where a series of internal doors allow us to keep most of the noise contained.
The walls of this hallway are composed of brick, with windows high up and sky-lights above. It's quite bright, but all that brick tends to make the screeching reverberate - almost like an amplifier, really. It can be quite unbearable - deafening - to be in that hallway when either George or Laka cut loose (which they do frequently).
Amoung Judith's things is a lovely double-size quilt that my mother made for her some years ago. Rather than use that quilt on a bed, I've decided to hang it in the hallway next to the cages. It makes a huge difference, absorbing instead of reflecting and amplifying the sound. It works so well that I also hung a Christmas quilt (something I gave Judith a long time ago) on another wall.
I'm now considering the possibility of making some decorative hangings to go in that hallway - quilts, of course - to cover even more of the brick and dampen the volume. Yet another excuse for heading to the quilt shop!
January 12, 2011
A Break From Quilting
Ok. My New Year's Resolution (announced last week) is: "to quilt"
Maybe I should've explained that.
You see, I've actually not been doing any quilting since mid-December. Why not? Well, I don't know. It just somehow fell off my radar.
I was chatting with quilt-a-holic friend and mentor Pauline - and she tells me that she's not been doing any quilting either - and more or less in the same timeframe as me.
What is wrong with us?
Don't know. I think I'll blame climate change.
Maybe I should've explained that.
You see, I've actually not been doing any quilting since mid-December. Why not? Well, I don't know. It just somehow fell off my radar.
I was chatting with quilt-a-holic friend and mentor Pauline - and she tells me that she's not been doing any quilting either - and more or less in the same timeframe as me.
What is wrong with us?
Don't know. I think I'll blame climate change.
January 5, 2011
My New Year's Resolution
I hereby resolve to.....
QUILT!
Yah-haha!
(what were you expecting me to say? That I'd exercise some discipline in the quilt shops? Get real...)
QUILT!
Yah-haha!
(what were you expecting me to say? That I'd exercise some discipline in the quilt shops? Get real...)
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