Hats, cats, storms and fungi

I know winter is on the horizon when I get the urge to knit. I only knit one thing - hats for seafarers. Our local Mission to Seafarers in the capital likes to give away warm woollen hats to seamen who sail the southern oceans. The ladies of the N. Island like to knit for this purpose. I beg for good quality wool and make up what I have into hats (hints to anyone with doubleknit wool excess to requirements). Here are the first half dozen.

The cats have been out of sight for the storms we have endured for the last two days. In a lull between the paparazzi lightning (every 11 seconds - I counted) and house-rocking thunder (no exaggeration here - the house moved like in an earthquake), they came out to view the estate. Phantom Tabby was being Phantomy, and didn't show up until midnight when he snuck under the covers soaking wet!

This evening I was retrieving branches on the driveway that had succombed to the storm. This twig (thinner than my index finger) had the most exquisite fungi on it. Seems a shame to burn it.

Taking a chance to sit down

We've had a few guests through in the last week. It has involved quite a bit of cooking / feeding / generally being busy. In that kind of whirlwind, the cookery books don't get used, I default to "old faithfuls". So this morning's luxury was sitting with the French doors flung open onto a warm autumnal garden. I sat down with my latest cook book, purchased in Melbourne and written about the "Cairo Kitchen". Happy sigh. Next time someone will get experimented on from this book, as it contains so many nostalgic recipes for me.

Frida Kahlo and Danish Alligators

Yesterday was a bit surreal. It comprised some very uncomfortable medical tests (mine), a visit to a surreal photographic exhibition (Frida Kahlo) and a delicious and naughty Danish pastry called a Danish alligator. It was not made by a Dane, nor did it involve eating an alligator. It was nuts and icing and sweet gooeyness. I felt a bit queer after eating it. It's a while since I ate so much sugar!

If you live in NZ, the exhibition of photos taken by Frida Kahlo and her father is well worth seeing. Quite a coup for the Palmerston North museum Te Manawa. Well done Manawatu!

My dearly beloved drove me so, I was able to take photos from the car window on the way home.

Other delights of being "oot 'nd aboot"

Views from Adelaide. Love that city!

A little bit of German

One of the highlights of our trip to Australia was a drive out to the Barossa town of Hahndorf, a German settlement. A friend who is German background took us there - a fix of European culture for her as much for us. I will let the photos speak for themselves.

Signs and wonders

The joy of a new place is often the novelty of perspective or the ways things are done. Here are a few favourites from Melbourne and Adelaide.

200 years of Australian Fashion

We recently returned from a trip to Australia. It was a long overdue holiday and our expectations of it were quite low as both of us had been sick leading up to it. However, it excelled above and beyond and now I can't wait to return.

Our main intent in Melbourne was to attend the Andy Warhol exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. But we arrived in its final few days and the queues were so long we decided reluctantly to give it a miss. Instead we focussed on other travelling and permanent exhibits in Melbourne and Adelaide. We weren't disappointed. I had no idea the breadth of talent in the Australian art community, and have fallen heavily for Fredrick McCubbin, Alfred Stretton, etc. We even managed to visit The Cedars, the home of artist Hans Heysens.

So I will begin with the National Gallery of Victoria's "200 years of Australian Fashion" exhibition. I was allowed to take photos, but without flash, and the room was dark, so there may be obvious camera shake on some photos. I don't like to admit it, but I enjoyed this better than the Yves St Laurent retrospective I saw last year at the Bowes Museum. Different in every way in terms of curation, but somehow there was a spirit with the Australian exhibition which was not there in the YSL one. I suppose it was the sheer breadth of the history projected out from a pioneer nation. Sometimes it positively sang out from the ribbons and bows

I'll let you judge for yourselves.