The Chill continues

Adelaide is still in the middle of cold, cold, cold and I suppose before long we will be lamenting about the awful heat! Today was car service day so Larry and I caught the bus to town for an Art Gallery visit. We shivered at the bus stop for 30 minutes and then heard it was still only 9 degrees at 10am! 

Our main reason was to revisit the Treasure Ships: Art in the Age of Spices exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia. I took Beau and Maisie last week but there were not enough pirates to keep Beau entertained!  It was difficult to capture good photos because of the light and several textiles were not able to be photographed. The display was full of ancient treasures from times long before Australia was even discovered and included 16th - 19th century art treasures traded between Europe and Asia.  Old maps are always intriguing with this one from the Netherlands dated 1617………..

 There were many beautiful 'pirate' ship paintings with this one from Cornelis Pietersz De Moody of the Netherlands, 1689…………..

 Of course the textiles were one of the reasons for my return visit and I was disappointed that I was unable to photograph one in particular - a stunning 17th century Indian Palampore Tree of Life design. Instead I captured a little of this……...

 A 17th century Indian cabinet of wood, ivory and bronze……...

 This 17th century silver cross was reputed to contain a thorn from Christ's crown……...

 The silver filagree on this jewellery box was incredible and belonged to Queen Adelaide (1792-1849) after whom my home town is named……..

 Many items belong to our gallery's wonderful collection but some were on loan from countries as far as the US, Portugal, India and Singapore. This wonderful 18th century textile is in fact a tea ceremony mat on loan from the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra……..

 A  Japanese coffer made of mother of pearl, bronze and black and gold lacquer and dated 1590……..

 I was able to photograph this 18th century Palampore……..

I had to be so careful not to photograph two very large and spectacular Tree of Life designs on the right of this shot!……

  This Japanese silk dressing gown was a part of King George IV's wardrobe (1762-1830)……...

 Another map with some intricate Mariner's compass designs for those of you who make these intricately pieced quilts……….

These 18th century bureaus were amazing and I can see a quilt in the making!………...

A map from 1658 long before Australia appeared………..

 An Indian cotton wall hanging embroidered in silk from 1750……...

Emily brought the little ones into the city to meet us for lunch and kindly delivered us to our serviced car afterwards. They are growing up so fast and it is always so nice to share their company (and Beau loves a trip to the city - full of natter and so observant!)……

I'm usually on the other side of the camera so it was lovely to get Emily's daily journal image of the day…….

Hope all is well in your part of the world x

Winter Blues

At the moment Larry and I are feeling a tad 'blue' with the ongoing cold weather and wondering why we are both feeling so very tired. We are not quite used to temperatures below zero but in our state we have had snow where we never have snow and the temperature has hovered between 2-13C for the past week…..

Photo source

Over the weekend (and Friday), we had three wonderful but very busy days at the Stitching show and yesterday I caught up with my Monday sewing friends for some morning stitching and then lunch. But by 3pm I was lying down and was then in bed without tea by 7.30pm! So maybe our bodies are telling us we just can't do the things we thought we could or maybe we just need some sunshine! My heartfelt thanks to everyone who dropped by over the 3 days of the show…..I sold out of those William Morris mugs and sold many books and patterns so Larry is pretty happy with the contribution to the printing debt! We also had a very big event over the weekend that sadly we couldn't attend. It was Miss Maisie's 1st birthday party on Sunday afternoon so instead Brett offered to cook us dinner on Saturday night. Brett loves cooking and we are all very lucky - especially Emily (and this is a typical 'Brett look' when the camera is out)………

Over dinner Saturday night Brett's mobile phone rang and we knew instantly it was bad news. A mate who is also a father of a 3 year old boy and 1 year old girl was tragically killed while riding his motorbike. The news left them both numb and they wondered how they would get through Maisie's party the next day but they managed well………

The theme was ladybirds and Emily made a gorgeous ladybird outfit for Maisie (and note once again Brett is at the oven!)……..

 I loaned my camera to Emily and Brett and this has to be the photo of the day……….the most precious little girl with a delightful disposition enjoying her first taste of chocolate cake……...

I only met Brett's friend Ashleigh on one occasion but the pride in his face when he introduced his little boy is what makes his loss so hard to comprehend. A son, a husband and most of all a Daddy to two little ones so tragically taken away. Brett's plea that night was to hug those you love - life is precious and so very fragile so hug the ones you can and have loving memories of those that you can't x