An Art Treasure

While searching for a few pieces of artwork in my home (to take photographs for an assignment) I came across a carved emu egg that had been given to me quite a few years ago.
Carving emu eggs is not an easy thing to do in spite of the fact that the eggs are really very thick and strong. When the emu eggs are fresh they are a vivid emerald green but as time goes by they darken and we have an egg that is very old that is now gray. All the colour has gone from it.
This photo shows the two sides of my carved egg. It was carved by an aboriginal woman in 1980 and given to me as a gift by a young man that Colin and I took in as an orphaned 14 year old only days after we got married. The gift was given when he was 26, married and with two little girls!

The egg has already lost its green look, it has been placed on a green cloth deliberately to show this colour loss.  Click on the photo to enlarge it.
I hope you can see why I class it as an artwork.
AJ

Happy New Year

May this year bring you much happiness and lots of great memories!

AJ

Click on the face of the movie to see it in Youtube - part of the movie has been trimmed to fit in this blog!

After the rains

On a beautiful sunny day I persuaded the family that a trip up into the mountain would be an excellent idea. A picnic was created and packed into the car 'fridge - I pack all the ingredients for sandwiches and let everyone create their own once it is lunch time. Since the temperature was rising and the sun bright I reasoned that most people would either be heading to the beaches or to the theme parks. (This place is a holiday playground with several fun parks). I was right. There were plenty of parking bays free at Purlingbrook Falls and we were able to park right beside the track leading to the Lookout. Madi (short for Madison) is a 12 year old boy and was the only one of the party not to have a camera so I dug out the Samsung from my bottomless handbag and he had a wonderful time with it and was so thrilled to be able to take pictures that I told him were good. He was my shadow for much of the day! He learned how to take Macro shots and became quite excited when his attempts started to give good results.
We were slower than the rest of our party and were lucky enough to see some people aiming a camera into the undergrowth. We discovered the attraction to be a black skink or "land mullet" - a magnificent large one.

f/13  1/30   ISO200   55mm

This glossy black lizard was approximately 500mm from nose to tip of tail. Much bigger than any I had ever seen previously. Madi discovered the advantage to a zoom on a still camera and he managed to get some lovely shots of this lizard. I was using the 18-55mm lens so he was thrilled to be able to take closer shots than I could!

After viewing the falls from the front and seeing the wonderful long drop of water - so dramatic after all the rain we have had - we walked around to see the falls from the other side - not a big walk - and had to paddle over the footpath because the head of the falls was so full it had spilled over the track. I showed Madi how to get low to get a more interesting shot of the racing water.

f/5.0  1/30  ISO 200   18mm

After capturing many beautiful tiny creatures as well as dozens of lovely water and bush pictures we made our way to another lovely waterfall right at the end of the mountain road at a place we know as the "English Country Garden" because of a Tudor building beside the parking area for the falls with that name.

f/9.0  1/100  ISO 250  18mm

From the lookout besides these falls is a magnificent view right over the tree covered mountain tops.

f/20  1/100  ISO200 18mm

I always find that shadows from the clouds make the hillsides even more attractive. The sky looked beautiful today.
After our picnic I wandered around with my camera and although leaving the tracks in National Park is forbidden I broke the rules and stepped over the garden weeds and discovered this beautiful but hidden delight.

f/5.6 1/60 ISO 640 55mm

This amazing display would have gone unseen by anyone if I had not ventured into the undergrowth! All that could be seen from the track was a pale top on an old stump that could not be identified as anything special. I was careful not to crush anything precious and walked back to the track in my own indentations. But, as I mentioned, since the vegetation I stepped on was introduced from gardens I really did not feel guilty!!
AJ

Night works

My son is still showing off this area of Queensland to his girlfriend and when he offered to take me along with him when he took her up a nearby hill to see the lights of the Gold Coast I immediately said "yes", Not to worry, his plan was not to go "parking"! He really did want to show off the pretty vista! So with the entire family aboard his 4x4 and with every member carrying a camera of one kind or another and two tripods as well, we drove about five kilometres up "Monaro Drive". What a steep road! I have driven past this road so many times but have never driven up it - now I know not to!

f3.5  3 sec  ISO 200   18mm

This first image is of Surfers Paradise. I used two focal lengths since I was using the 18-55mm lens. To take the photos I put the camera into Live View which flips the mirror up - of course I was one of the two people using a tripod!

f/5.6 3sec ISO 200 55mm

And this second picture is using the other end of the lens. The very tall highrise building is right in the centre of Surfers Paradise and is known as the Q1 and is the tallest residential tower in the southern hemisphere.
I love having the opportunity to try something different with my camera!
Do click on each of the pictures if you would like to see them larger.
AJ

Splendour in the garden

Each morning before Christmas I would look out the window and urge my little tree to flower in time for December 25th - and it did! Mind you it was such terrible weather than no one, other than me, bothered to look out of the window to admire it!

As you can tell from the bleak looking sky this picture (taken this morning) was also taken on a non sunny day - but at least the rain had stopped!  I rolled up my trouser legs to the knees and donned my heavy sneakers to venture out onto the lawn to take a few photos to share.

I have possibly left deep impressions in the lawn where I walked! The ground is absolutely sodden and although I walked slowly and carefully the mud squelched up and I discovered splashes of mud on the knee and thigh of my pink pants!

My tree must be roughly the height of my big son by now so once it has reached its potential - which I think is 20 meters - it will be an amazing sight to see if it gets this proportion of blooms on it. They are so bright and showy. I was afraid that the torrential rain that has battered us over the last few days would have ruined the flowers so it was with much relief that I found the flowers intact.
Another young tree is also making a colourful show.

This tree is a Tibouchina Austenville and has been grown from a cutting - a gift from a friend who thought it was going to be a white flowering Tibouchina. We have another tree (this same purple) that is near the house and has been cut back many many times but it is not flowering or even close to flowering at the moment. Funny that we should have so many different Tibouchina trees and they all flower at different times. Incidentally, if you are curious about the tall spikes of pink and purple flowers near the flowering eucalyptus, they are one genus of the bromilliads. I forget the name of it. The leaves are quite dangerous when I do the weeding, I always come inside covered with blood from them - they have the most evil downward pointing spikes along the edges. Colin bought me some elbow length gardening gloves to wear when near them - but I never remember to put those ones on! I do wear gloves when gardening.
AJ

A new toy

It was a big surprise when I opened one of my gifts from Colin on Christmas morning. The gift he had given me was the size of my flip mobile phone and was a JVC camera for taking blog movies! He and my son Paul had been aware of me checking out the results of the different blog cameras on youtube and with Paul's help - because Colin doesn't even know how to turn a computer "on" - a camera was purchased "on-line". It is actually a superceded JVC camera and very cheap, ($135.00) but what the heck! It is so much fun to use! This is my first attempt with it - imagine taking video with your left hand as your right hand is doing the chores, that is what I did!

Click on the video to view in Youtube - some of it has been cropped in this blog.
The results are far from perfect and the quality is not really all that crash hot - but it is better than the quality from Steven's standard definition hard drive camera.
The camera model is GC-FM1 and takes an SDHC card . I simply push the card into the laptop, use Windows explorer to move the video files (MOV) to my hard drive and then edit them with Premiere Elements 9. The voice over is recorded with Cool Edit Pro 2 using a Skype headset microphone.
Obviously the video would have been much better if I had been doing more than just making sure the lens was pointing in the right direction. But I wanted to share my "number one" video with my blog camera!

We have had so much rain just lately that the lorikeets have spent almost every morning pooping on our chairs! Once they have been fed we have to get the hose and wash everything down! Because they are nectar eaters the bird poo is just wet - but sometimes they have found some purple fruit and their squirts are rather showy! Mulberry season is a good time for multiple verandah hosings!

Hmm! Should I have shared that with you? !!!!!!
AJ

Almost Christmas

With the days racing past and visitors arriving and departing by the minute it is difficult to fit everything into a day! This morning after collecting a car from the railway station and then taking a friend to the airport I was able to start on decorating the Christmas cake.
I first made some fondant (roll out) icing and made a sort of reasonable job of placing it over the cake - I certainly couldn't win prizes for my cake decorating skills!
Then it was into my collection of ornaments for something to put on the top.
Every year I manage to find a different one to add to the collection and when friends go overseas at Christmas I ask them to look out for something a little different for me.

I found a rather sweet "Santa" that was brought back from Europe for me a few years ago and dug out the little reindeer that must be over fifty years old by now! They have trotted over a few cakes! Then a strip of sequins suggested a different way of surrounding the cake.

Pieces of left over fondant icing was rolled into sausages to create the raised lettering.

A week ago I picked up a bag of gold bells thinking they were tree decorations - but they did not have loops for string so were packed away - I found a use for them! Incidentally the piece of paper that stuck to my shirt is a mystery! I didn't know it was there! It was a label on the wrapping of one of the (not used) cake decorations, how it managed to adhere to me I don't know!

The finished cake. See what I mean about not winning prizes for my cake decorating, the icing is not smooth! Ah well, the overall effect is what matters!

Now to give you a recipe. I was asked about the sponge I used in my slice, so for anyone who enjoys food I am going to give you this recipe. I make it with all different kinds of filling. Black cherries (canned) or mixed berries - strain the juice away - are quite delicious. A spread of black-currant jam or similar plus fruit that is not so sweet makes a good combination (such as apple or blueberries). Of course, when Christmas comes around I use fruit mince to which an equal quantity of sultanas cooked in orange juice and drained (one minute in the microwave) have been added.
The slice I illustrated was a double mixture with three eggs to bind it.
Here is the recipe as written in my well worn recipe book

BASE:    1 1/2 cups SR flour, pinch salt,  1/4 lb butter ,  1/2 cup sugar, 1 egg.

Put flour, salt and butter in basin, mix well, add sugar, then add well beaten egg and mix to a soft  paste.
Roll out half the mixture and line a swiss roll tin.
Spread fruit filling. 
Roll out the other half of the mixture and cover the fruit.
Here the book is really vague, it says "Bake in a moderate oven" I use a fan forced oven at 180 degrees for 25 minutes. I also gently press the middle to be sure it is cooked, if it feels firm it is cooked - if not give it a further five minutes.

A few little tips. Roll the sponge out on baking paper and lift the paper into the tin for the first layer then do the same with the second layer but this time inverting the sponge over the fruit - but flip it fairly quickly.
When the top layer has been patted to fit into the corners and all the fruit is covered, I wet my hand and pat the sponge gently then sprinkle granulated sugar (regular table sugar) over the top. The dampness gives the sugar something to grip onto!
When cooked put a sheet of baking paper over the top then a chopping board then turn the baking tray and board over so that the slice is now face down on the paper covered board and the tray can be lifted off. Put a wire rack over the slice and invert it again so it is now the right way up and the paper and chopping board can be removed. this makes sure that the sugar stays on the slice!
It all sounds a bit complicated but I assure you that it isn't!
I hope you try it!
AJ