tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58497562024-03-08T05:47:48.905+11:00Dreaming all the timeOliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.comBlogger776125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-52518588018501970142021-12-01T11:17:00.000+11:002021-12-01T11:17:05.751+11:00Series of nightmares; pesky dream-traps<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;">When I'm really overtired, I often find myself falling into a series of intense dreams or nightmares as soon as I fall asleep. My uneducated guess (only semi-supported by a brief internet search) is that it may be more likely you'll fall almost immediately into REM (</span>rapid eye movement) sleep when very tired. Interestingly, dropping straight into REM is typical in narcolepsy. Which I'm pretty sure I don't have. Normal sleep patterns involve 1-2 hrs of non-REM sleep before going into the first REM stage. And non-REM sleep is thought to involve little or no dreaming, or perhaps less intense and less narratively based dreaming. It's still a pretty mysterious field of study.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;">When I realise it is happening, I am desperate to wake up and break the cycle. Sometimes it's hard to break out. Most recently I got to the last dream in the series and it was me lying in bed trying to turn the bedside light on but I couldn't make it work. Of course this wasn't real and after a struggle - probably just a moment in real time - I woke up properly and turned on the light. At this point I generally feel both scared and annoyed, because I know I'm overtired, I've probably made the effort to go to bed early, and now I'm losing the chance to catch up on my sleep and am not willing to slip back into sleep too soon. </span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgqGUBP3Cx0"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AgqGUBP3Cx0" width="320" youtube-src-id="AgqGUBP3Cx0"></iframe></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I recently watched season 3 of the addictive <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/program/mr-mercedes">Mr Mercedes</a>. For the new season there was a different theme song, Series of Dreams by Bob Dylan.</div><div><br /></div>
Like pretty much anyone spending enough time listening to western popular music, I'm familiar with plenty of Bob Dylan songs. But I've never really paid serious attention or listened to his albums - though it always seemed like I would one day.<div><br /></div><div>Because I'd been thinking about these nasty falling-asleep dream sequences, Series of Dreams immediately grabbed my attention. It was recorded in 1989 but didn't actually make the cut for that album, and came out a couple of years later on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3. </div><div><br /></div><div>The lyrics aren't about nightmares, necessarily, but the song does capture that trapped feeling, with lines like "nothing comes up to the top," and "there's no exit in any direction." And of course the whole feeling of moving from one dream to another, when perhaps you'd rather wake up or just move into restful dreamless sleep.</div><div><br /></div><div>It was not just the lyrics: I also instantly loved and recognised the sound, and was not surprised to learn it was produced by Daniel Lanois, who also collaborated on one of my favourite albums, Wrecking Ball with Emmylou Harris. I remember when the Boss gave one of his later albums the same name. I couldn't quite understand why he felt ok with that. Doesn't he know that's Emmylou's masterpiece?! </div><div><br /></div><div>And all this talk of dreams reminds me of one of my favourite songs of 2021, Canyon by Charm of Finches. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lG-1SZE72Vw" width="320" youtube-src-id="lG-1SZE72Vw"></iframe></div><br /><div>Not only do the lyrics talk explicitly about dreams, but in their '<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZNqogZDBEQ">Inside the Song</a>' video Mabel and Ivy talk about how they mined their own dream journals for ideas. It's such a beautiful song.</div><div> </div>Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-43371363087671546462021-08-29T12:24:00.001+10:002021-08-29T12:24:23.928+10:00Warrior shawl!<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/51378612272/in/dateposted/" title="20210806_180426 (2)"><img alt="20210806_180426 (2)" height="375" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51378612272_5baffea79f.jpg" width="500" /></a><div><br /></div><div>This is Beth's shawl from the 2019 Little Women movie. But we're calling it the Warrior Shawl! as those seem to be the vibes when she wears this way, like a sontag (or 'Danish tie shawl'). </div><div><br /></div><div><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/51380073049/in/dateposted/" title="P1015908 (3)"><img alt="P1015908 (3)" height="375" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51380073049_1e95ed76a8.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Sometimes a piece of knitwear from a film catches the eye of knitters, and one or more people will reverse engineer a pattern. In this case though, the woman who published the pattern (and donated the proceeds to <a href="https://www.barefootcollege.org/">a charity</a>) is the <a href="https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/jenn-monahan-knits-shawls-for-little-women-1496072">person who actually knit it for the movie</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>
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</div><div><br /></div><div>We decided the best colours for my sister would be pretty much the same colours as the original. The main purple is a delicious merino and linen blend: Isager Yarn Merilin. The brown and yellow stripes are some of a large batch of 4ply tweed yarns (Rowan and similar) which I had found not long before, a wonderful op shop find. </div><div><br /></div>
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/51381595276/in/photostream/" title="collage"><img alt="collage" height="260" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51381595276_e01c320982.jpg" width="500" /></a><div><br /></div><div>It was a delight to knit. I loved the yarn, especially the Merilin, and this was a good thing, as I ended up reknitting the whole thing after my icord edging came out way too tight, which you can see in the picture on the right above. It was one of those projects, where I sort of knew as I went along that it probably wasn't going to be ok, but just kept going and hoped it would block out enough. I should trust that instinct by now! </div><div><br /></div><div><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>
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<div><br /></div><div>It's actually not <i>exactly</i> the same as the one in the film. The skinny brown stripes are actually not as skinny as they should be (3 garter ridges instead of 2) as I missed the errata published for the pattern. But I think we can live with this. Just adds a little more length and warmth.</div><div><br /></div>
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/51379591518/in/photostream/" title="20210806_180403 (2)"><img alt="20210806_180403 (2)" height="500" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51379591518_bbb7b043b0.jpg" width="375" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>
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</div>Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-63866234405612096672021-07-26T22:23:00.000+10:002021-07-26T22:23:03.556+10:00Colourful cowhide<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/51335885151/in/dateposted/" title="2021-07-26_06-10-49"><img alt="2021-07-26_06-10-49" height="500" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51335885151_f6f8d25f8b.jpg" width="375" /></a><div><span style="font-size: x-small;">A black-bordered blanket in stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and darker red; with variously sized black patches all over it; spread out on a bed. </span></div><div><br /></div><div>After I made a <a href="https://olma.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-sketch-blanket.html">suprise blanket</a> for my eldest nephew for his thirteenth birthday, I started to think that this could be something I do for each of the niblings at the same age. Growing up, we had a couple of key milestone birthdays when we were given certain things: a bike; a bedside clock radio. I just liked the idea.</div><div><br /></div><div>There were two who were next in line (twins) and for various reasons I decided it would be best to consult rather than surprise this time. Mr almost-13 said he wasn't keen on a hand-knit and would rather have a weighted blanket/quilt instead. Easily done and has turned out to be very well loved. (I'm not ruling out making him one at a later date, but it was a relief not to have to make two adult-sized blankets by the same deadline.)</div><div><br /></div><div>His sister was keen, however, and jumped eagerly into a design conversation. We discussed various options and settled on this mashup concept: "cow print" on a rainbow background. She does really love that cow hide look! I did basically know what she meant and we made some drawings. But I couldn't really visualise it or be sure it would work. I just had to knit and hope for the best. </div><div><br /></div><div><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/51335156882/in/photostream/" title="2021-07-26_06-09-54"><img alt="2021-07-26_06-09-54" height="500" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51335156882_ed861151c0.jpg" width="375" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script> </div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;">A white West Highland Terrier dog with floppy ears helps me photograph the blanket.</span> </div><div><br /></div><div>See below, how some of the patches are raised and some are flat? That's because I didn't put enough black patches in at first. </div><div><br /></div><div>I knit it first with several intarsia patches. It wasn't too hard to just come up with random, organic shapes without a chart. But I should have done more drawing and planning before I started. I wasn't keen on the yarn-juggling that would be involved if I made more than one or two black splotches at a time. This meant I didn't do a lot of them overall. When I got toward the end and was able to look at it spread out, it was clear that the overall effect was not reading as "cow print" (even though, I guess, an actual cow could well have had only a few black patches) and was more like a rainbow ocean with a few scattered islands. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/51335881831/in/photostream/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="2021-07-26_06-08-53"><img alt="2021-07-26_06-08-53" height="375" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51335881831_c8b188e149.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;">A close up picture of blue and purple knitting fabric with some flat and some raised black patches.</span></div><div><br /></div>I thought about embroidering more patches with duplicate stich, but when I tried it I didn't like how it looked (nor how long it took). I switched to applique, knitting a whole lot of random shaped patches in large and small sizes and just sewing them on.</div><div><br /></div><div>On the wrong side, you can see the difference between the intarsia; a few small stranded patches I also threw in while doing the main knitting; and the later sewn-on patches. </div><div><br /></div><div><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/51335156832/in/photostream/" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="2021-07-26_06-09-11"><img alt="2021-07-26_06-09-11" height="375" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51335156832_0fa9a7b90b.jpg" width="500" /></a>The other problem was that fabric knitted mostly or all in stocking stitch ('stockingette') will always very much want to curl at the edges. I knew this well of course, and had included as I knit the blanket a decent garter stitch border all the way around, but I also wasn't really convinced this would be sufficient, and it became obvious almost straight away that it was still going to curl. In the end I had to knit on an additional border in black, and then this really was enough to make it sit properly. It wasn't really planned but now I like how the double border looks.</div><div> </div><div><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/51336887500/in/photostream/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="2021-07-26_06-10-24"><img alt="2021-07-26_06-10-24" height="500" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51336887500_aa8721fe86.jpg" width="375" /></a> <a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/51336887555/in/photostream/" title="2021-07-26_06-10-35"><img alt="2021-07-26_06-10-35" height="500" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51336887555_e00d68d6cd.jpg" width="375" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script> </div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;">Two images showing a garter stitch knitted border matching the colours of the blanket, and another garter stitch border beside it in black.</span> </div><div><br /></div><div>After making a few blankets in recent years that *mostly* came out pretty quickly and *mostly* to deadlines, I had to admit this time that I hadn't started the project early enough to allow for all these extra tweaks and problem solving. Annoyingly it became the neverending project that always needed "just another week". In the end it was about six weeks late! Longer, really. than I would have thought it should take to make all together. I did make her a cushion (a repeat of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CLQhNHthMT9/">this one</a>) to give to her on her actual birthday. And she was perfectly patient waiting for the blanket. </div><div><br /></div><div>I think she was really happy with it in the end. I was too, which was a relief since I hadn't felt totally confident along the way about the design coming together. </div><div><br /></div><div><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/51335884596/in/photostream/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="2021-07-26_06-10-10"><img alt="2021-07-26_06-10-10" height="500" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51335884596_edb6ec8a58.jpg" width="375" /></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">A black-bordered blanket in stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and darker red; with variously sized black patches all over it; spread out on a bed. </span></div>Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-29061551490583196002020-08-18T21:49:00.005+10:002020-08-18T22:03:39.700+10:00Pax * Joy * Love<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/50225196381/in/album-72157715482454691/" title="2020-08-14_08-58-18"><img alt="2020-08-14_08-58-18" height="640" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50225196381_21561906fb_z.jpg" width="480" /></a><div><br /></div><div>A few months ago I collected some craft books that I'd inherited from my grandmother, Denise. One of them was this beauty from 1990, <a href="http://www.jennykee.com/">Jenny Kee</a>'s Knits from Nature.</div><div><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/50236382641/in/dateposted/" title="Knits from Nature"><img alt="Knits from Nature" height="640" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50236382641_d0b6a34cd8_z.jpg" width="525" /></a></div><div>I'd been wanting to make a garment for my four-year-old niece and here was the inspiration!</div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, a little bit ambitious.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've done little bits of colourwork before but never a whole garment like this. The patterns in the book are all oversized adult jumpers and cardigans (plus the odd poncho, skirt or legwarmers). I hatched a plan to use some of the motifs from the pattern 'Pax Joy', but apply them to a plain child's jumper.</div><div><br /></div><div><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/50225435627/in/album-72157715482454691/" title="2020-08-14_09-01-32"><img alt="2020-08-14_09-01-32" height="480" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50225435627_4d18d49cbf_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><div><br /></div><div>It turned out that I had all the colours I needed in my magical stash of <a href="https://www.bendigowoollenmills.com.au/cotton-4-ply">Bendigo Woollen Mills four-ply cotton</a>. All except black: why don't they make black? I used a mercerised cotton which wasn't a great match but in small amounts that didn't matter. I thought that stranded four-ply would probably make a jumper of a practical, wearable weight for a little kid, one that might go across seasons. Many little kids don't spend a lot of time wearing really warm jumpers.</div><div><br /></div><div>For the pattern I used a <a href="https://fringeassociation.com/2016/08/14/improv-basic-pattern-for-a-top-down-seamless-sweater/">basic raglan recipe</a>, and I messed it up a bit by not planning ahead properly: don't look too closely at those increases as I had to squeeze them in a bit faster than is ideal. I had dreaded this first part, where I would need to maintain the pattern while increasing. I normally don't mind if I have to rip and re-knit but really didn't want to do that in this case. </div><div><br /></div><div><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/50231188728/in/album-72157715482454691/" title="P8105446"><img alt="P8105446" height="480" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50231188728_7933d0729c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><div><div><br /></div><div>Once I got to the right stitch count for the body and it was just knitting straight in the round it got easier but it was still slow going. Unlike most of my knitting projects - even blankets - this one didn't travel anywhere with me for casual knitting opportunities. I really had to schedule lots of home time to sit down and get this done. (Thank you, pandemic)</div><div><br /></div><div>From the small swatch I made first, I knew that any motifs with three colours to a row would be much slower going and also wouldn't look as neat. There were only a couple of three-colour ones in the chart, and I modified one of them. Those pink circles on a teal background were meant to be yin-yang symbols, but I thought big polka-dots would look just as good. But the other - the butterflies - well, I could have left them out but I decided it would be worth the pain to do them.</div><div><br /></div><div><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/50225192571/in/album-72157715482454691/" title="2020-08-14_08-56-22"><img alt="2020-08-14_08-56-22" height="480" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50225192571_483fff2f11_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>And they were a pain. Juggling three yarns while avoiding long floats and keeping even tension is harder. It seemed those particular rounds would never end. Once I eventually passed that point on the body it started to seem possible I might one day finish this garment. </div><div><br /></div><div><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/50231841896/in/album-72157715482454691/" title="P8105449"><img alt="P8105449" height="640" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50231841896_d57a795764_z.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;">Inside out</span></div><div><div>When I got to the first sleeve, it was quicker - only two butterflies, how hard can that be? Well. Mistakes were made.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Because it is annoying to juggle three balls of yarn (and Bendigo balls are really large too) I grabbed some bobbins from a previous project, which happened to have some four-ply cotton already wound on them. When I had finished those butterflies, I stopped and actually looked at the garment. I had used a different, brighter yellow! (A better yellow, really, but not available any more.) I briefly thought about leaving those bright butterflies on just one sleeve as a special feature... but it really didn't work. So those rows had to be ripped back and reknit.</div><div><br /></div><div><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/50224545753/in/album-72157715482454691/" title="2020-08-14_08-53-14"><img alt="2020-08-14_08-53-14" height="640" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50224545753_523246a466_z.jpg" width="480" /></a><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately, finishing up the first sleeve, it became apparent that the butterfly section, the only one with three colours, was pulling in a bit narrower than the rest of the sleeve. It wasn't til I had finished the second sleeve and started the long process of weaving in ends....</div><div><br /></div><div><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/50236699627/in/album-72157715482454691/" title="2020-08-17_09-39-20"><img alt="2020-08-17_09-39-20" height="640" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50236699627_ba5a65decc_z.jpg" width="544" /></a></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;">So. Many. Ends</span></div><div>...that I had to admit that first sleeve needed fixing. Mum pointed out how terrible it would be if my niece couldn't bend her arm comfortably!</div><div><br /></div><div><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/50236463036/in/album-72157715482454691/" title="2020-08-17_09-32-04"><img alt="2020-08-17_09-32-04" height="480" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50236463036_7f20d736a9_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;">Choppy choppy!</span></div><div>I managed to avoid ripping and reknitting most of the sleeve - just carefully cut a stitch, unravelled a row, and removed the butterfly section. Then reknit it with better tension. Then <a href="https://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer04/FEATtheresasum04.html">grafted</a> the rest of the sleeve back on.</div><div><br /></div><div><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/50225209691/in/album-72157715482454691/" title="2020-08-14_09-03-19"><img alt="2020-08-14_09-03-19" height="480" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50225209691_a30075159c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, a bit of ribbing and it was done. Well, quite a bit of ribbing: I did the whole neckline twice to try to fix an issue with floppy ribbing at the back. And even after I thought I was finished, I went back and added more length to the body, as this girl seems to be taller every week.</div><div><br /></div><div>So finally, finally, I packaged it up and sent it to my niece, and then just waited on the edge of my seat to hear if (a) it fit well and (b) she liked it. Great news! It did, and she does! I think her little voice on the phone saying "this jumper is so pretty!" in the middle of my work day was absolutely the highlight of my year.</div><div><br /></div>
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/50232057972/in/album-72157715482454691/" title="P8105450"><img alt="P8105450" height="640" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50232057972_88b6be4f1d_z.jpg" width="480" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script></div></div>Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-84213403080693973232020-06-18T21:20:00.002+10:002020-06-19T09:42:07.781+10:00now you're heading down to be somewhere<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/50018298753/in/dateposted/" title="2020-06-18_08-16-32"><img alt="2020-06-18_08-16-32" height="640" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50018298753_ba0c97f0a1_z.jpg" width="515" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script><br />
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I spotted these Mr Christian shoes a few months ago at <a href="http://www.thegreenshed.net.au/underground.html">The Green Shed Underground</a>. They were the wrong size, or I probably would have bought them, even though white shoes really aren't my thing.<br />
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I can find very little trace online of Sydney-based Mr Christian Shoes. A pair of high heels for sale on Gumtree. An old ebay listing. From this fascinating <a href="http://circavintageclothing.com.au/2009/07/21/the-house-of-merivale-and-a-dress-with-history/comment-page-3/">post and comments</a> about the House of Merivale, I gather Mr Christian was known in the 70s-80s for high heels and towering platforms. These look more like the era I remember, late-80s to early 90s (not sure when they disappeared).<br />
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<small>These aren't the shoes you're looking for.</small>
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When I was in high school Mum had a pair or two of really interesting leather shoes by Mr Christian. They always had a handcrafted look about them. I had been waiting for the day when my feet would be deemed to have stopped growing, which would mean owning more than the minimum number of pairs of shoes - school shoes, sneakers, sandals, something for church - would be justifiable. Clothes and shoes cost more back then.<br />
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It was 1990 and I was in year ten. There was a sale on at the Mr Christian shop in Civic, and Mum and I had decided together that I could go and buy a pair of shoes like hers. She had tan and I wanted black. They had pointy toes and flat heels (I would not have considered any heel height back then - I remember it was a big deal buying my first low heels when I was starting my office job in 1998). The top part was woven leather in multiple colours and they had a zipper running down the middle instead of laces.<br />
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I had the money from my parents in my wallet. I don't remember what else I was doing in civic. There's a strong chance I bought myself a cup of hot chips because I was always ready for a snack. And somehow I managed to lose my wallet. I think I left it sitting on a pay phone actually.<br />
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So, no shoe buying at Mr Christian. I didn't call my parents and I didn't go straight home. I got on the bus back to Belconnen and went straight to the CES (Commonwealth Employment Service). I must have already been thinking about getting a job and had probably loosely discussed it with my parents. Now I had lost this $60 and that was that. I knew you could look at the jobs pinned up on the boards there at the CES. The staff called Coles Jamison for me and arranged an interview for a casual weekend job on the checkouts.<br />
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By the time I got home, Mum already knew about my wallet. A good samaritan had handed it in to the police and they had already called my house. And the money was still there!<br />
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I still went ahead with the interview and got that job at Coles. While I was still at high school Mum and Dad only allowed me to work Friday night and weekends. The supermarket used to shut at 5pm on Saturdays and 4 on Sundays! I would work one or two 3-hour shifts and collect a small yellow envelope of cash, maybe $20-30. A few years later while I was at uni I earned much better money when the store went to 24 hour opening and I did the weekend overnight shifts.<br />
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And I did still get those fabulous shoes on sale. I wish I still had them, or at least a photo.Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-28718335810606051972019-05-16T21:57:00.000+10:002019-05-16T21:57:09.978+10:00Big pear!<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/46932031815/in/dateposted/" title="20190514_224020"><img alt="20190514_224020" height="640" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/46932031815_5c65ee4ced_z.jpg" width="480" /></a><br />
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I'd been wanting to make a big pear for ages, ever since I made a felted tree in 2015 <a href="http://olma.blogspot.com/2016/04/felted-tree.html">for the National Folk Festival</a>.<br />
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I like to visit my tree every year at the Festival. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bwi3QnABqia/">This year</a> I was thrilled to walk past while a toddler was spontaneously hugging it... so later I had to get a photo of me hugging it. (It's always been a particularly <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/1NI3u9KFcL/">huggable</a> tree.)<br />
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Way back in 2015 at the time I was making the tree for the festival's <a href="https://www.folkfestival.org.au/knit-the-national-bollard-creations-competition/">bollard cover competition</a>, things were not going well with our dog. Looking back, I think I finished and delivered the tree just a few days before we reached the decision to have her put down. So I was feeling sad, scared and stressed. I had a couple of very late nights finishing the tree. The night before it was to be delivered, I remember just sitting back in my chair holding it, trying to summon the energy to get up to go to bed. The tree was just the right size to be quite comforting to hug.<br />
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I really wasn't keen to say goodbye to it forever and wasn't entirely convinced that the festival would keep and use the bollard covers in future years, so I <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/0aN9FnKFXN/">sewed in a label</a> with my name and number and noted on my entry form that they could contact me if they were getting rid of it in future, or if it needed mending. As it turns out, they have continued to use them every year since - this year is the fifth so far.<br />
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And now I am ok with them keeping it! But the appeal of a big cuddly felted thing inspired me to make something on a similar scale. It just took a while to get around to it.<br />
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Of course this pear is not actually on the same scale at all - it's the opposite, a small fruit made big instead of a big tree made smaller. But the end result is a sort of similar-sized object. (Though I do consider this a prototype and want to try again and maybe make a bigger one).<br />
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I knitted and felted it months ago and was convinced it was a failure. Normally I like my felted fabric to hardly show the stitches at all. This was knitted with very bulky yarn and it just wasn't possible to 'disappear' the stitches. I also wasn't able to knit it in the round like I normally do, so it had a big seam up the side as well. It had to sit in time out for a long time before I decided that it might actually work and deserved to come out in public. So then I some time into the finishing work, improving the appearance of the seam, stuffing it with scrap fabric (as a result it is quite weighty) and making and sewing in a giant stalk.<br />
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Then I brought it along to the <a href="https://suitcaserummage.com.au/">Suitcase Rummage</a> with me last Sunday - not for sale, just to hang out with the other pears, and for hugging in the cold foggy weather.<br />
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Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-18661288987491679042019-04-07T22:03:00.002+10:002019-05-14T23:01:22.152+10:00God speed the vessel that carries me back<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/46824430374/in/photostream/" title="Christine & the Queens (2)"><img alt="Christine & the Queens (2)" height="480" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/7875/46824430374_b9defe90b0_z.jpg" width="640" /></a>
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It's not long til the <a href="https://www.folkfestival.org.au/">National Folk Festival</a> at Easter! But first, a run-down of <a href="https://www.womadelaide.com.au/">Womadelaide 2019</a>.<br />
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<b>FRIDAY</b><br />
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<b>Khruangbin - </b>I only stopped in for a little while to take some photos. One of the things that has changed with this festival in the past few years is the propotion of 'one-show-only' acts. There are so many that they are often programmed up against each other in the same time slots. I have a feeling this may be happening across the festival scene, perhaps in part because there are more festivals and more opportunities for touring acts to make the most of their time in Australia.<br />
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/32605481957/in/photostream/" title="Kaait"><img alt="Kaait" height="640" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/7866/32605481957_ff04b7e454_z.jpg" width="480" /></a><br />
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Kaait - </b>Only arrived for the end of her set and she was impressive. See, I am probably a bit too willing to stay for only a few songs of one act so I can catch a bit of another. I miss the days when attending for the full three (later four) days meant you would pretty much get to see every act - or you could fall in love with a new favourite and follow them around all weekend.<br />
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/47495230172/in/photostream/" title="Gwenno"><img alt="Gwenno" height="480" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/7824/47495230172_24a6a94ec2_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Gwenno </b>- I was curious and keen to see Gwenno. She sings in Welsh and Cornish - she grew up with a Cornish-speaking father and a Welsh-speaking mother - and has a background as pop singer. (Wikipedia also reveals she was trained in Irish dancing and was part of the Riverdance cast). The music was dreamy and a bit psychedelic.<br />
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<b>Christine & The Queens - </b>possibly the best show of the weekend, certainly up there in the top few. It was equally about the pop music and the dancers, who strutted and swaggered, hands in pockets, playing with how gender is performed, none more fluidly than "Chris" herself.<br />
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<b>SATURDAY</b><br />
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/46632571225/in/photostream/" title="Sona Jobarteh"><img alt="Sona Jobarteh" height="480" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/7916/46632571225_11c860c7d2_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Sona Jobarteh</b> - I also wasn't there for a whole set (and this isn't a great photo) and I think I meant to get to a full set later in the weekend but failed. I'm sad about that missed opportunity, as she and the band were really good, and I loved seeing a woman playing the kora. Allegedly she is the first woman to play kora <a href="https://sheshredsmag.com/sona-jobarteh/">professionally</a>.<br />
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/47495319582/in/photostream/" title="My Baby"><img alt="My Baby" height="640" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/7853/47495319582_ec97d4f7aa_z.jpg" width="480" /></a><br />
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<b>My Baby </b>- this electric violin sounded really good (they don't always).<br />
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<b>Liz Phair - </b>I was keen for this, I usually get into the 90's rock thing, although I had never really listened to Liz Phair specifically. Stayed for only a little while, as it wasn't really working for me.<br />
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/32605615327/in/photostream/" title="Amjad Ali Khan"><img alt="Amjad Ali Khan" height="480" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/7893/32605615327_445d57b156_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<b>Amjad Ali Khan </b>- playing with his two sons, all on sarod.<br />
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/46632643065/in/photostream/" title="Duoud"><img alt="Duoud" height="480" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/7841/46632643065_ca0af5cf3b_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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DuOuD </b>- one of my favourite acts this year. Two electric ouds (sometimes one acoustic) and lots of samples and loops.<br />
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/46824561724/in/photostream/" title="Yohai Cohen Quintet"><img alt="Yohai Cohen Quintet" height="480" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/7830/46824561724_47a8c02405_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Yohai Cohen Quintet </b>- this was an interesting transition straight from DuOud to another oud-based act but a much different style. A nice late night, sit down, chilled out set.<br />
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<b>SUNDAY</b><br />
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<b>5AngryMen -</b> <i>The Bells - </i>I thought there was going to be a more interesting angle to this but wasn't even inspired to take photos. The set was clever - a large circular frame with ropes that look like bell-pulls hanging from bungee cords. The men pull on the ropes in time with recorded bell music, and of course theatrical hijinks ensue. Fun for the kids sitting at the edge of the circle when they lean out hard on those ropes and almost run into people. But I think I am over the 'group of wacky men dressed in black and lots of eyeliner' style of theatre. Maybe I was rolling my eyes too hard to follow the storyline?<br />
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<b>Silkroad Ensemble - </b>No photos, but this was a really enjoyable show with a diverse group of musicians.<br />
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<b>Tara Tiba - </b>Perth-based Iranian singer with a diverse range and playing with Cuban musicians. She was marvellous.<br />
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Maalem Hamid El Kasri</b> - from Morocco and Master of the guembri, a three-stringed bass lute.<br />
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The Maes, with Monique Clare. </b>Not sure how I have missed ever seeing the Maes before, but I'm sure I will again. Monique is a <a href="https://www.stringmaniacamp.com/">Stringmania</a> tutor.<br />
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/47548157341/in/photostream/" title="Angelique Kidjo"><img alt="Angelique Kidjo" height="480" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/7892/47548157341_8062e87480_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Angelique Kidjo </b>- I wish I had gotten closer for photos but I would have had to plan ahead for that. Angelique is always brilliant. Total diva, great suit, very energetic. I was really curious about her Talking Heads material (she did an album which covers 'Remain in Light' in its entirety). Wasn't entirely convinced by those songs live but I do want to hear the album. For one or two songs she invited a whole lot of artists from backstage to come on stage and dance. It looked like a really fun party.<br />
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<b>MONDAY</b><br />
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/46824682834/in/photostream/" title="Susan O'Neill and Sharon Shannon"><img alt="Susan O'Neill and Sharon Shannon" height="480" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/7853/46824682834_2dac4ebf6c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script><br />
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/47495509972/in/photostream/" title="Sharon Shannon Band"><img alt="Sharon Shannon Band" height="480" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/7838/47495509972_1ca3b20abe_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Sharon Shannon Band - </b>I met up with quite a few friends at the festival but we tend to go our separate ways a lot of the time. This was one set that most of us went to together. It was so much fun! I had seen their show in Canberra a week or so before, but loved them that much more in the festival setting. Sharon is such great band leader. She works with a lot of different singers and musicians and seems so generous in putting others forward for recognition. She was touring with Susan O'Neill, a young Irish folk/blues singer with an incredible voice (and she plays trumpet too), who made a splash at the National last year.<br />
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The percussionist in the photo above is Greg Sheehan, who taught rhythm at <a href="https://www.stringmaniacamp.com/">Stringmania</a> last year and will be back this year too. The dancer is an artist from another band who was watching the show backstage.<br />
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<b>Maarja Nuut & Ruum</b><br />
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No photos but I really enjoyed this set from the Estonian duo, '<a href="http://topshelf.com.au/maarja-nuut-ruum-australian-tour-march-2019/">folk-tronica</a>' with more samples and fiddle with looping pedal and atmospheric vocals.<br />
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/47495630392/in/photostream/" title="Mojo Juju"><img alt="Mojo Juju" height="480" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/7804/47495630392_2476a84e68_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<b>Mojo Juju </b>- was fabulous in quite a small venue with a lot of people in the audience. I wish I had seen the whole set but I had arranged to meet friends to say goodbye for the weekend at the next set...<br />
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<b>The Correspondents - </b>English electro-swing duo. They had played once earlier in the weekend and then came back in place of another act cancelled due to illness. This was a really fun show to watch and to photograph. Mr Bruce is a super-energetic performer and dancer.<br />
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<br />Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-86398408023009541542019-03-28T21:06:00.002+11:002019-03-29T15:38:29.139+11:00I know that the clubs are weapons of war<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/47425197392/in/dateposted/" title="P9051410"><img alt="P9051410" height="480" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7835/47425197392_1b7e8fa1a3_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Perhaps it seems bizarre, but I am still working on a final couple of blog posts about our 2017 trip to (mainly) the UK. It's probably a good thing I don't go overseas too often! It's a shame it has taken me so long but it's still worth it to me - like putting together your photo albums in the old days.<br />
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All the photos in this post are from our first of a couple of days in Barcelona. But I think the real Barcelona post is to come. This is just some scattered thoughts about the risks we face travelling out in the world these days, or indeed, staying at home. Going to places of worship in Christchurch, or perhaps <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2017_Melbourne_car_attack">walking </a>in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/09/melbourne-bourke-street-attack-dead-injured-man-arrested-stabbings">Melbourne </a>CBD, to give a couple of recent examples.<br />
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<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>August 2017. As we arrived in London and were checking in to our hotel we heard about a shocking <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Barcelona_attacks">vehicle attack on pedestrians</a> on la Rambla in Barcelona. I guess we are both relatively non-anxious people, at least when it comes to travel. We did agree it was good that we still had about three weeks to go before we were planning to head to Barcelona. In fact we hadn't booked that leg of our journey yet but we had plans to briefly meet up with friends there and I don't think we considered dropping those plans or going elsewhere.<br />
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There were no issues during the 2.5 days we were in Catalonia. We rushed around and saw a lot. They weren't my favourite days of the trip - partly because I caught the cold Kam had finally shaken off. Even so, it was a good time.<br />
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Later, not too long after we left London the second time - I think it was just around the time we arrived home in Australia - a bomb exploded on a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsons_Green_train_bombing">District line train at Parsons Green</a>. This is very close to our home away from home in London, close to family, and it happened at a station we passed through many times during our time in London.<br />
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And then a little while later, on 1 October 2017, there was further violence in Barcelona with police suppression of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Catalan_independence_referendum">Catalan independence referendum</a>. When this happened, I just thought 'ok, we happened to time our Barcelona visit pretty well'. We managed to walk La Rambla many times without even encountering a pickpocket - just many incredible <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/street-performers-of-las-ramblas">statue performers</a> and plenty of sellers of tacky souvenirs, and beer stashed in mysterious places.<br />
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Different kinds of violent incidents can happen anywhere. Some are organised terrorism and others more like a lone copycat. And of course the police/protest violence is different again.<br />
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There are always risks. I know that London was a target of lots of attacks thanks to the Irish Troubles in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. But it does feel like things have really changed since my first trips overseas in the early 2000's. This was brought home to me on this trip when we had to wait with hordes of people lining up outside to have our bags checked before entering the British Museum. It just seemed so weird, but I should have known better, I guess. And of course I know very well that even with these small inconveniences, as an 'unthreatening' white woman I move easily and with tons of privilege through airports and other spaces that can be extremely difficult for others.<br />
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/40511939683/in/photostream/" title="P9041381"><img alt="P9041381" height="480" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7914/40511939683_3f1a20d092_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-36804663940552929572019-02-03T19:32:00.000+11:002020-06-19T09:40:01.000+10:00A place in the winter for dignity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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2-3 September 2017 - Finally! After our lovely day trip down <a href="http://olma.blogspot.com/2018/11/sew-no-silken-seam-on-fine-may-morning.html">south</a> we finally got to grips with Glasgow. First order of business was the <a href="https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/venues/riverside-museum">Riverside Museum</a>, as Uncle Tim was very keen to see it - he is a transport historian and this is a transport museum.<br />
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Lots to see here though I didn't take a lot of photos. A couple of the displays we came across first were about road safety, with a crashed motorcycle and also the smashed up car below.<br />
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Later we had some wandering time. Good for taking in a bit of everything that was going on.<br />
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This was outside Glasgow School of Art. I think the charring must be from the 2014 fire, as we were there in mid-2017, before the more recent June 2018 fire (sad).<br />
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More Buchanan street.<br />
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And on our last day we also spent some time in the small and lovely <a href="https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/venues/gallery-of-modern-art-goma">Gallery of Modern Art</a>. I was captivated by Beryl Cook.<br />
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/33061626338/in/photostream/" title="P9031373 (2)"><img alt="Painting "By the Clyde" by Beryl Cook, showing a woman in a leopard print coat and black hat, carrying a shopping bag and leading a small terrier which is sniffing a post." height="640" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7874/33061626338_3c5be2bbc9_z.jpg" title="P9031373 (2)" width="480" /></a><br />
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'By the Clyde'<br />
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These fish were in the window of a cafe where we had breakfast.Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-58125784682109381342018-12-22T22:58:00.004+11:002021-07-26T21:20:16.097+10:00The sketch blanket<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/32528989878/in/photostream/" title="2018-12-21_01-44-14"><img alt="2018-12-21_01-44-14" height="640" src="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4842/32528989878_7b91f28ac6_z.jpg" width="480" /></a><br />
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I might have a bit of a blanket thing going on. I've made three this year. First, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BlCRPvrlNKs/">a rainbow baby blanket</a> in a log cabin design from <a href="https://www.masondixonknitting.com/">Mason Dixon Knitting</a>, inspired by some limited edition Bendigo Woollen Mills colours in 4ply cotton. That same yarn first went towards two little <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BjdVrbpl2z7/">rainbow dresses</a> and later into a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BpdRr6nlpaY/">tunic</a> for my niece. Those big Bendigo balls go a long way.<br />
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More recently I made this black-cream-and-some-colours <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo0Q9SvFIDu/">chevron blanket</a> (pattern from <a href="https://espacetricot.wordpress.com/">Espace Tricot</a>) for a belated wedding present.<br />
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And during that project I honed the idea for this one.<br />
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This drawing, done by my nephew quite a few years ago, hangs framed in my sister's house. He has always had a great sense of colour and design, and I decided to use his stripe pattern as the basis for a blanket. As a surprise for his 13th birthday.<br />
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I think a lot of people, when I said I was making a blanket for my nephew, imagined a baby blanket. I guess it's not the first thing that springs to mind for a 13th birthday. But I'm not sure there is ever a bad time to receive a handknit blanket, is there?<br />
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And I did the whole thing in a month, meeting my deadline perfectly, even after the green I ordered online turned out to be quite wrong and I had to dash around town to find something better.<br />
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/32528982478/in/photostream/" title="2018-12-21_01-43-58"><img alt="2018-12-21_01-43-58" height="480" src="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4873/32528982478_c65a4f4842_z.jpg" width="640" /></a>Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-24024165133461800702018-11-19T17:51:00.000+11:002018-11-22T16:50:39.351+11:00There are some turns where I will spin<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/45949099151/in/album-72157696908537000/" title="20181005_120457"><img alt="20181005_120457" height="640" src="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4875/45949099151_613d9e1357_z.jpg" width="480" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script><br />
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In the first week of October, I did something I'd been waiting to do the whole two and a bit years I've been learning to play the fiddle. I went to a week-long <a href="https://www.stringmaniacamp.com/">fiddle camp</a>.<br />
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I was a very raw beginner when the inaugural <a href="https://www.stringmaniacamp.com/">Stringmania </a>was held in 2016. I'm not sure I'd even heard about it in time to register but I wouldn't have had the guts to do it at that point anyway. I did, however, time a trip to Melbourne to be able to go to a couple of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BK4p6PVDaRR/?taken-by=olma22">concerts</a> by the tutors.<br />
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Last year, the timing was a bit too close on the heels of our UK trip to take more time off work. To be honest I guess I also still really didn't feel ready yet for a full week of playing and cramming new tunes into my brain/fingers.<br />
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But I was determined to go this year and I registered and paid my deposit nice and early. As the time approached I got really anxious about it. Irrationally so. My inner voice was telling me that everyone there would be accomplished musicians, all the other campers would be friends already and clique-y. Also, I would sound bad and piss everyone off, would not be able to keep up, and on top of that, I would be overwhelmed by being with people all the time (including sleeping in a dorm/cabin).<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Tutors Alasdair Fraser, Natalie Haas, Nicholas Ng and Jingjing Lu</span><br />
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My rational side did think it would probably be ok. But the truth is, it turned out to be pretty much everything I could have hoped. The atmosphere was warm and inclusive. I struggled to keep up sometimes (and did sound bad sometimes) but I quickly found some comrades who were in the same boat, and we were able to get together outside of class and try to help each other with some super-slow sessions.<br />
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All the classes focus on learning by ear - we only received the sheet music some time after camp - and you place yourself in a level based on how fast you like to learn by ear. I enjoyed the challenge, but I wished I was more experienced and quicker to grasp the tunes. This is as much about my physical ability to play my instrument as it is my ability to remember a tune (this is where singing it first helps, enormously).<br />
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I'm so glad that I can read music, thanks to all the music lessons I had on piano. With my lovely regular teacher I learn some tunes by ear and some with the 'dots'. I'd already worked out that although I can play it through sooner with the music, if I do the hard work to learn a tune by ear (or even mostly by ear, fixing up a few notes later) I will learn it by heart much sooner and retain it better.<br />
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Which is all well and good, but for me it's a big ask to internalise several new tunes in six days, in time for the concert at the end of camp. (With or without sheet music). It was impressive to see lots of people who can do this fairly effortlessly. When it came to the rehearsal/arrangement session on the day of the concert, I quickly realised that even some of the tunes I had more-or-less learned were going to be played way too fast for me. So then I found myself at the last minute trying to listen in to the cellos and learn a couple of bassline phrases to use instead.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Lucy Wise and Holly Downes</span><br />
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When it comes to the music and musicians that I love, I've always been on the outside looking in. And that's pretty much still the case, but the camp experience broke down those barriers to some extent. I saw and heard incredible musicians doing cool things, sure, but also people who are more like me. People who maybe haven't been playing all their life. I feel like I got to see a bit of the magic where a lot of elements come together into something wonderful - sometimes quite quickly and without too much trialing or planning. I have to acknowledge the very skilled tutors and director did do some planning behind the scenes. But even so, many of the tutors come in relatively cold, and some of them may have never played with the others previously. I'm so impressed by their skill and openness, coming in to a group of 100+ people and teaching them at all levels, on a wide range of instruments, and pulling it all together into a credible performance.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">View from the back of the stage, rehearsal before the concert.</span><br />
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The other day I caught up with a friend from camp and we talked about attitudes to music-making. I said I felt I was still personally a bit stuck in the mindset that (theoretically, as I am not performing in any capacity!) I would need to practice a piece a lot, to get it to being performable. She likened this to a classical way of thinking, and we talked about the idea of community music which is primarily about the *experience* of playing together. Of course this is exactly what session music is and what the camp was really about. I still feel though that my lack of physical skill in playing my instrument is quite a barrier. It's a slow process but I have to stop at times and notice that it is improving.<br />
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I can't begin to analyse everything I learned or took in at camp - some things I probably haven't even acknowledged. I know I want to do it again.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Hanging out at the back of the stage and contemplating my chances of hitting one note in four.</span>Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-90631230619173242912018-11-05T23:21:00.001+11:002019-01-28T10:04:37.538+11:00sew no silken seam on a fine May morning1 September 2017. Our first full Glasgow day we... got the hell out of town. We wanted to do a day trip down to Port William and Monreith, and this day promised the best weather for it. My great-uncle Tim had taken the train up from London to stay with us in Glasgow for a few days. He was quite happy to join us for a day trip out of town.<br />
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We had a very short coffee stop in Ayr. It was a beautiful day.<br />
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We wanted to explore this area because it is where our good friend grew up - though he has lived in Australia since his late teens. We went first to subtly check out <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monreith_House">Monreith House</a>. His parents lived and worked on this property back in the day.<br />
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Then we moved on to Port William, a pretty charming town.<br />
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I will say, I had some amazing vegetarian meals, largely in pubs, in Scotland... but this day's pub lunch wasn't one of them. I think we were a bit off the most popular tourist trails, there weren't a lot of options... it happens.<br />
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We drove on to Monreith Beach. Tim decided to rest in the car while we took the steep stairs down to the beach.<br />
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The whole time we were there I was obsessing over my 'secret ambition' for the Scotland trip. We were days away from leaving Scotland and this seemed to be my last best opportunity for a skinny dip... nice weather, nice beach, not too many people around. If only I had remembered to bring a towel!<br />
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I remembered that on the track down from the road we had passed a little public toilet. I went back to check and it turned out to be amazingly well-stocked with paper towels. Jackpot!<br />
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I did it! So much fun. K did not play along, but guarded my clothes. I didn't stay in long as it was pretty cold. Yes there was a little boat out there but far enough away I didn't really care.<br />
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Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-27989201197231041762018-10-15T23:03:00.000+11:002019-01-28T10:04:37.110+11:00And sent him homeward tae think again<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/44564731932/in/album-72157698004625842/" title="P8311184"><img alt="P8311184" height="480" src="https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1897/44564731932_7366b5fee8_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Well. In this virtual re-living of our trip to Scotland, I've left us hanging in limbo a long time. Let's get moving again.<br />
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31 August 2017 - we left Edinburgh with a few hours to spend making our way to Glasgow. The main place I was keen to stop was the Helix Park in Falkirk, to see the amazing <a href="https://www.visitscotland.com/info/see-do/the-helix-home-of-the-kelpies-p889261">Kelpies</a>.<br />
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We loved them. And what a great spot. Really nice accessible park, boats on the canal, and then there's the huuuge horse art. This was something really different to everything else we saw in Scotland.<br />
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We were on a deadline, as we planned to get in to Glasgow to meet my uncle's train (he came up from London to spend a few days with us) in mid-afternoon. Just enough time for a very quick visit to Stirling Castle.<br />
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We didn't go inside, but I can never resist a look the gift shop. There's a bottle of <a href="http://cu-bocan.com/#new-page">whisky</a> I still wish I had bought there. The views outside were gorgeous. The drive up to the castle, winding through the town, was memorable too.<br />
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Robert the Bruce.<br />
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Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-8616193827686359862018-07-24T20:38:00.001+10:002019-01-28T10:04:37.416+11:00A full few days in Edinburgh<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/43194192941/in/album-72157692890636170/" title="P8301092 (2)"><img alt="P8301092 (2)" height="640" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/919/43194192941_508004192a_z.jpg" width="480" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script><br />
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Edinburgh was the one place in Scotland that I had actually visited before, way back in 2001 when I went to Poland and the UK with Grandma. On that trip, we took a train from London to Edinburgh and stayed two nights in a (not Air-) B'n'B. We hadn't booked accommodation, we just went from the train station straight to the tourist information booth, and they found something for us.<br />
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<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>One day we rode the red tourist bus, and the next day we rode the blue tourist bus. We didn't go up to the Castle because it was too much for Grandma, but we did visit the Art Gallery which I adored and was thrilled to return to on this trip.<br />
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28 August 2017: We pulled ourselves a bit reluctantly away from St Andrews in the early-mid afternoon. Time was a factor because our accommodation in Edinburgh was booked through Air B'n'B (I have now joined the 21st century), so we had to make it on time to meet our hosts. It's a trade-off when booking accommodation - staying at a hotel, you can usually rock up at almost any time. On some travel days, that flexibility is really handy. But on the other hand, in Edinburgh, we scored a really lovely two bedroom apartment in Leith for a very reasonable price.<br />
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After settling in, we wandered down to the centre of Leith to meet my aunt and uncle for dinner. They live in Queensland but happened to be in the UK for a holiday at the same time as us. Our time in Edinburgh coincided just for this night - they were leaving the next day, heading into the west and Highlands. (Which - yes - still gave me a pang or two - I must go back to the highlands and islands before too long.) We had such a nice time catching up with them in a sort of fancy pub/restaurant down by the water.<br />
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The next day we hopped on a bus and took the short ride into Edinburgh proper. We wandered from the new town into the old. We visited (K) and revisited (me) the slightly heartbreaking <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BYaj8qhhkRC/?taken-by=olma22">Greyfriars Bobby</a> statue. We also, without really trying to, went past The Elephant House where apparently J.K. Rowling used to write. We bypassed its enormous queue and went for a cuppa next door at the French place instead.<br />
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We wandered the Grassmarket, and then we took on Edinburgh Castle.<br />
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It's big. We joined a tour and managed to see some decent proportion of the place - less than half, I'm sure.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Great Hall</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">St Margaret's Chapel - the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Cemetary for soldiers' dogs</span><br />
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The next day we packed in lots more Edinburgh touristy experiences. We climbed the Scott Monument (the blackish tower in the right of this photo). The upper staircases were very narrow and a bit claustrophobic...but doable. It was totally worth it for the views and also for the gorgeous decorative elements like <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BYaj8qhhkRC/?taken-by=olma22">stone dogs</a> and other sculptures.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Seen from the Scott Monument: Edinburgh Castle, Scottish National Gallery</span><br />
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In the afternoon we wandered the new town and checked out the Oxford, Inspector Rebus' favourite bar. Walking in, the few people at the bar in the front room all turned around to see - it felt like maybe it was a locals place and they are sick of tourists? Anyway we settled in a back room happily enough. Later we went nearby for Mexican food, and then, the search for folk music sessions.<br />
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We managed to find sessions in three bars through. At the <a href="http://captainsedinburgh.webs.com/">Captain's Bar</a>, we found not a lot of people (it may have been a bit early) and only one musician, a man playing guitar. After a while we moved on to the <a href="http://www.royal-oak-folk.com/">Royal Oak</a>, a tiny bar full of people, about half of whom were jammed in the corner playing music. Not the trad folk I was really keen for but more singer-songwriter acoustic guitar-based songs. Pretty sure we heard American Pie here. Finally we went to <a href="https://www.sandybells.co.uk/">Sandy Bells</a>, a bigger and also very popular pub. The music here was excellent, with a large, very tight ensemble who seemed like they probably play together a lot, cranking out the trad tunes. The musicians were all jammed into an end room/space and with the bar quite crowded, it was hard to find a good spot to listen. But when you wanted to go to the toilet you had to squeeze right past them, trying not to bump anyone while playing! It didn't feel like a session where a newcomer could join in, but I don't really know session etiquette so I could be quite wrong about that.<br />
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We did go to a session back in Aberdeen as well. For some reason I didn't write about it in the earlier post. That one drew a group of 8-10 musicians, almost exclusively older men. They played a mixture of American songs (yes, American Pie!) and celtic tunes, the style and genre really depending on who started up each tune. We sat there for quite a while so it was good to observe a bit of the group dynamics. There was a younger man who arrived with a fiddle and played hesitantly along for just one tune. Then he went to sit with his friends again but let one of the old guys pick up his fiddle and show us all how it should be done.<br />
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Above - a very Edinburgh-specific photo, the floral clock in the Princes Street Gardens. I remembered this park well from my 2001 visit, as well as the very bold little grey squirrels.<br />
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On the other hand, this street scene really could have been taken in any big enough town/city in the UK. Ubiquitous USA Nailz. (Oh and Indian food.) It's so interesting to see 'USA' used as a selling point. I don't think that would play so well in Australia.Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-26263135740218485802018-07-04T20:51:00.001+10:002019-01-28T10:04:36.988+11:00One day in August<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/42468087144/in/photostream/" title="P8280919"><img alt="P8280919" height="640" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/844/42468087144_9a25b3ede9_z.jpg" width="480" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script><br />
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28 August 2017: we left Aberdeen to drive at a leisurely pace, to Edinburgh.<br />
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After a quick stop at Stonehaven, we soon stopped again at Dunottar Castle.<br />
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We didn't pay to go down to the site, but spent a while enjoying the views. The slopes were so steep I thought I was actually going to see someone fall off while taking a selfie.<br />
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We spent quite a while in beautiful St Andrews.<br />
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Neither of us has any interest in golf (as a non-driver, K does like driving the cart, that's about it). But once there we sort of wished for more time to look around.<br />
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We had a great lunch at a brewpub and then parked somewhere down near the harbour and wandered though the ruins of the cathedral and extensive cemetery.<br />
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The slightly older St Rule's tower seems to have been built to last, or maybe wasn't such a target like the massive cathedral, apparently the biggest church in Scotland, when Catholicism went massively out of favour.<br />
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<br />Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-81664400584652484332018-06-15T08:19:00.001+10:002018-06-15T08:23:00.262+10:00Salvation lets their wings unfold<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/26933233758/in/album-72157666835681838/" title="P3121133 (2)"><img alt="P3121133 (2)" height="480" src="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4777/26933233758_ebe5a5257b_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Nano Stern returned to Womadelaide (we loved him <a href="http://olma.blogspot.com/2012/03/accordions-lots-of-accordions.html">in 2012</a>) - as passionate and moving as Billy Bragg. Told us our country should treat its immigration detainees better. Couldn't agree more.<br />
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This woman in front of us was sketching Nano as he performed. I thought she was really good too.<br />
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Le Vent Du Nord from Quebec played heaps of toe-tapping tunes and even brought out a hurdy-gurdy. I love this kind of music.<br />
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Directly from my notes that night on Thundercat: "Way jazzy for me but good." OK then.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">I only saw part of Daymé Arocena's set but I thought she was a gem. Short, round and gorgeous.</span></span><br />
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I posted some photos and wrote a bit about Gratte Ciel's 'Place des Anges' nightly show on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BgIwJZJFG6T/?taken-by=olma22">instagram</a>.<br />
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On Friday evening we were taken by surprise when this show started after Anoushka Shankar's set finished on the main stage.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">It started with trapeze angels gently gliding way overhead, scattering a few feathers, all very pretty. Nice. A lot of looking up. But it progresses. The 'angels' chuck more and more feathers until eventually it's a very thorough bombing from both sky and from ground cannons full of feathers. So many feathers. It was beautiful but I really didn't love being surrounded by and dumped on by so many feathers. I admire birds but have an aversion to close contact.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Plenty of people adored this show. But on social media there was also a fair bit of anger about the feathers, from vegans, from the asthmatic, and just from people who didn't like the mess. (The show was repeated each evening so by the end of the festival there was dusty dirty feathers everywhere.)</span><br />
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Womadelaide is a festival that has long been known for its commitment to sustainability - they had all food containers and cutlery biodegradable long before I came across that anywhere else - so they must have been satisfied that all those feathers being introduced into to the local environment would not be a problem. A bit surprising. The company behind the show provided <a href="https://www.womadelaide.com.au/gratte-ciel-place-des-anges-faqs">information</a> assuring people that the feathers are clean, hypoallergenic, and ethically sourced.<br />
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I don't have a firm opinion on it. It was beautiful, surprising, fun to photograph, gross, overwhelming - a lot of things. We watched the show a second time on the Monday night but stayed at the fringes out of the main feather dumping zone. But I have to admit there was a magic in being surprised by it the first time.Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-23581377201925567072018-05-15T23:11:00.002+10:002018-05-16T10:32:47.410+10:00In throat, in palate, in tongue, in teeth, in lips<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/26978814147/in/album-72157666835681838/" title="P3111006 (3)"><img alt="P3111006 (3)" height="640" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/974/26978814147_98f086f2e6_z.jpg" width="480" /></a><br />
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So, day three of Womadelaide 11 March 2018. On Sunday we got ourselves organised and timed a visit to the Adelaide Zoo perfectly so we could not only <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bgc6wvSFT_1/?taken-by=olma22">see the pandas</a> but also hear the keeper's daily talk. Highly recommended. I wrote more about this on Instagram.<br />
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Hana and Jessie-Lee's Bad Habits - a country two-piece based in Adelaide and Melbourne, highly anticipated by locals in the know. They brought a collective of musicians and singers to make up a pretty full stage, majority women, and it was a kick-arse show. I wish I had gotten better photos and paid more attention to hats popping up in the front row - it was the hats (and boots) on stage that I really wanted to capture. Anyway I loved the song and bought the CD and even got it signed.<br />
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I don't want to forget that I also stopped and listened to Jessie Lloyd's <a href="http://missionsongsproject.com/">Mission Songs Project</a> (I just took crap photos, unfortunately). This show highlighted songs written in the missions and settlements that Indigenous Australians were moved onto. The songs are mostly from the early to mid-20 century, sung in English (sadly by then the only language for many people), one of those interesting complicated bits of history that show there's always much more to it than the headlines. I think the idea was these songs had been overlooked as, I guess, inauthentic in terms of Aboriginal culture, but of course they are brimming with contemporary accounts of living through the dispossession and Stolen Generation(s) - and still completely relevant.<br />
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On to one of my most anticipated acts for the weekend, Tinariwen. I think I first heard of this group of Tuareg musicians - former solders - when I got hold of the <a href="http://www.thefestivalinthedesert.com/festival.html">Festival in the Desert</a> CD many years ago. I hope one day the organisers will be able to bring the festival back (the last one was 2012, after which security in Mali really became too unstable for it to continue.)<br />
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I had actually seen Tinariwen at Womadelaide once before, in <a href="http://olma.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/accordions-lots-of-accordions.html">2012</a>. At that time they were missing two band members who were not able to leave Mali during the Tuareg rebellion.<br />
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And Victoria Hanna. A fascinating combination of rebellion, intellectualism, mysticism and incredible singing and music. The program notes say interesting things - she comes from an ultra Orthodox family in Israel, a woman certainly not raised to sing on stages around the world. Apparently getting into singing helped with a stammer. But I didn't really need to know these things to be drawn in immediately by her stage presence and voice, and her ability to share with the audience her fascination with words, language, the Hebrew alphabet, Jewish prayers. It felt like she was building on her heritage in a really interesting way. And I loved the chemistry she had with the band as well.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Manganiyar Seduction was an incredible show. <span style="background-color: white;">The Manganiyar are a folk musician caste from Rajasthan, India, and t</span><span style="background-color: white;">he music would have been enough, but the unusual staging and lighting really made this wonderful. </span><span style="background-color: white;">The picture above is from the finale. </span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">The show starts with the stage dark. Then the curtains on a single box open and the lights go on.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">The curtains covering each 'cell' only open as each musician or singer joins the piece, starting with just one stringed instrument player (I think this was kamaicha) and gradually building with more players and then singers and drummers joining in. </span><span style="background-color: white;">Because e</span><span style="background-color: white;">ach box is lit only when that person is playing, this lighting and staging combination echoes the intensity of the music and highlights the orchestration and all the different instruments.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span><br />
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(I have *lots* of photos of different configurations, but I'm sure you get the idea.)<br />
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<br />Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-55526861724739083212018-04-29T22:38:00.000+10:002018-10-18T07:53:24.869+11:00The unknown are begging to be known<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/41008049052/in/album-72157666835681838/" title="P3100378 (3)"><img alt="P3100378 (3)" height="480" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/784/41008049052_145eed62fb_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Way back in March, the tenth of March 2018 to be precise... it was day two of <a href="https://www.womadelaide.com.au/">Womadelaide</a>!<br />
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Due to a failed attempt to visit the pandas at the zoo (never fear, we succeeded the next day) we arrived bit early, and on impulse joined a group of Indigenous ladies from Ceduna to try basket weaving. Such a nice way to start the day. And now at least one of us has the basket-weaving bug.<br />
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I always love an opportunity to see Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier. Turned out they had taken a family road trip to Adelaide and their three girls were singing with them! Adorable.<br />
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I've already written about Elephant Sessions in my <a href="http://olma.blogspot.com.au/2018/04/i-hope-they-wake-with-smile-and-say.html">National Folk Festival post</a>. I have a feeling they were a big hit wherever they went on their Australian tour. Their night time show later on attracted a big dancing crowd.<br />
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Chico Trujillo is an enormously popular Chilean band.<br />
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I was amused by their fairly consistent uniform: hawaiian shirt, adidas pants or shorts. (No other brands need apply.) Yeah, I always notice the clothing.<br />
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Then Willy Zygier and the girls were back with YID! That exclamation mark is part of the name.<br />
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Dustyesky - a choir of blokes from Mullumbimby who don't necessarily speak Russian but like to sing Russian songs together. There were some corny jokes in between but on the whole it was done with a lot of enthusiasm and love.<br />
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My Bubba - Folk duo from Iceland and Sweden. I had come across them online before but still was surprised by how very spare the sound was. Very quirky.<br />
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Violons Barbares - loved this show very much. They are from France and combine Bulgarian gadulka (reminded me a bit of the Polish <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BSinNqxhZCM/?taken-by=olma22">suka</a>) and Mongolian horse head fiddle. Oh and throat singing. These things, and the drumming, and the normal singing, all worked together really well. Skilful.<br />
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/27199421868/in/album-72157666835681838/" title="P3100665"><img alt="P3100665" height="480" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/869/27199421868_02d701f017_z.jpg" width="640" /></a>Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-58983152882259752872018-04-12T08:36:00.004+10:002019-05-14T23:08:54.960+10:00I hope they wake with a smile and say words like 'totes, awes, and dude'<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/41296411372/in/dateposted/" title="P4021908 (2)"><img alt="P4021908 (2)" height="480" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/819/41296411372_350be40e44_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script><br />
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After missing the <a href="http://folkfestival.org.au/">National Folk Festival</a> last year (for a <a href="http://olma.blogspot.com.au/2017/04/put-my-clarinet-beneath-your-bed-til-i.html">pretty fun</a> reason), I decided to get myself a season pass at the earlybird price and really make the most of it.<br />
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On Friday I went to a workshop with the <a href="http://www.melbournescottishfiddlers.com/">Melbourne Scottish Fiddlers</a>. (The picture above is from one of their shows later in the weekend.) I've been learning fiddle for about a year and a half and I was determined to challenge myself by participating in a workshop during the festival. This one would have been my first pick, but by the time I spotted it on the program, I had just arrived at the site and had only about an hour to spare. I thought about rushing home to get my fiddle but I decided to just listen this time.<br />
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I ended up participating (at least, as far as I could) in an old time tunes workshop on Saturday with <a href="http://catandclint.com/">Cat and Clint</a>, and one on Sunday with <span style="color: #2f2e2e; font-family: "raleway" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="https://www.wearewor.com/about">WÖR</a> </span>teaching two of their rediscovered 18th century tunes. Altogether this was a pretty big <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg-K5tlHjU_/?taken-by=olma22">milestone</a>! The first time I've ever got the fiddle out in "public" and played with other people. (Aside from my teacher).<br />
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I can read music (thanks Mum and Dad for all those years of piano lessons!) and am much more comfortable learning tunes from sheet music, but I can also learn by ear. Sometimes I record my teacher playing a new tune and gradually learn it from listening to the recording. Learning two or three completely new tunes in the space of an hour though is pretty fast for me. I'm sure trying - and failing quite a bit - was good for me.<br />
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I didn't stay at the festival late on Friday but did also see <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pg/Seanchas.Sydney/about/?ref=page_internal">Seanchas</a> and old favourite, <a href="https://poltz.com/words/">Steve Poltz</a>, who never fails to make me laugh and cry, sometimes simultaneously.<br />
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On Easter Saturday I spent all day and evening at the festival with one of my best gig buddies and we had a fantastic time.<br />
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We checked in with the folk-singing diplomat, <a href="https://www.fredsmith.com.au/">Fred Smith</a>. His latest album is about America (hence the slide show) but he also did Afghanistan material from the Dust of Uruzgan album as well. I have seen a few of his shows now over the years and he's always thought provoking (with some funny too). I didn't get a good photo but Liz Frencham was playing in the band of course and sang some songs too.<br />
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The Good Lovelies, from Canada, were indeed lovely in their music and harmonies and very accomplished musicians, doing a lot of switching instruments. The core band is a group of three women who have been together and touring internationally for many years.<br />
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I feel like I see many more women musicians, particularly groups with multiple women, at this festival than I seem to anywhere else. I wonder why that is? Sadly I wonder if it may be partly because the National Folk Festival (and probably other folk festivals) offers space and stages of various types for a very large number of acts, right down to blackboard sessions and buskers - folk festivals have that inclusive vibe, don't they?<br />
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Of course there is still a severe gender disparity in "folk music," just like every other music scene, especially when it comes to more successful, international touring bands. When I see a group of four or five 30-ish blokes from Canada or Scotland playing exquisite folk music, of course I love it... but I can't help also thinking, how many of you have wives/significant others at home with the kids? Or are they touring with you rather than pursuing their own artistic/other dreams? No, I don't assume, and I don't think I know - I just wonder, because I have an idea how dominant the dominant paradigm is. So with all this in my mind it was nice to observe that at least one Good Lovely had her husband manning the merch table, with a small child on his shoulders. </div>
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<span style="color: #2f2e2e; font-family: "raleway" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">WÖR </span>was one of my favourite acts from the weekend. Their arrangements of tunes found in old Flemish manuscripts were great. Guitar, accordion, bagpipes, fiddle, baritone saxophone and occasionally soprano sax. There was something very appealing to me about these tunes. Hope the magic translates to the CD (we all know sometimes it doesn't) because it's on order.<br />
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Two years ago K texted me from the National (I happened not to be there that evening) with a heads up about <a href="http://www.bushgothic.com/">Bush Gothic</a>. Go to YouTube he said. I did, I watched everything, and immediately fell very hard for their 'darker, stranger Australia folk.' Most of the songs are from the convict era and early days of settlement but they also do an incredible, not-at-all-corny cover of John Williamson's (corny) 'True Blue.'<br />
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So I've been listening to the albums for the past couple of years, and I have actually seen Jenny perform (at the first <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BKwmsZpjDe2/?taken-by=olma22">Stringmania <span id="goog_1181090786"></span><span id="goog_1181090787"></span>concert</a>), but this was the first time I had seen the group live. I loved them of course and went back for another set the following night. I was delighted when they played a lot of different songs, including a clever new version of Slim Dusty's Pub with No Beer.<br />
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Back to Saturday night - we spent a while with Mick Thomas and the Roving Commission. I found out the huge Weddings Parties Anything hit 'Father's Day,' all these years later, still sounds over familiar and overexposed to me. The show was good, but as planned, we left to move next door to the Marquee for Steve Poltz - I was very happy to see him again and my buddy is a fan.<br />
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Late Saturday night I caught the second half of Breabach's set. Wonderful Scottish tunes, multiple bagpipes, all right up my alley. They actually played Womadelaide a few years ago. I made sure I heard their full set on Sunday.<br />
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On Sunday I also spent a bit of time at the instrument makers concert which is always interesting. Sometimes the makers themselves play but many instrument makers are not performers themselves. So often they just introduce the instruments and have other musicians showcase the instruments.<br />
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Hat Fitz and Cara were intriguing. I meant to see them at Womadelaide, but missed out. Turned out to be not what I expected. The music was a bit more blues than is really my thing, but I loved the arrangements, Cara on drums (and washboard for one song) front and centre and she has an incredible voice. Bit of sassy couple humour in there too.<br />
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I finished off Sunday night in the Trocadero, always a more genteel venue, with Fiona Ross and Ken Nicol. Fiona is a Scottish singer of the Scots language, now based in Australia; I've seen her before and like her stuff. During this show I cast off my knitted project, and cast on the next one, in the dark! (And it worked out fine).<br />
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By Monday I was pretty tired but determine to get the most out of this long weekend. I had great company, hanging out with my sister and her children for part of the day, and another excellent gig buddy for a lot of it. Early in the day I saw part of an Irish ensemble set called 'Companach - Music of Ireland in its place.' With a slide show of gorgeous Irish locations and other images relating to the tunes, the show moves through each of the 32 counties with a tune for each.<br />
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Faith i Branko, another couple act, play mostly Roma music from Serbia, with, I think, Faith's own songs. They have an interesting back story - she was an accordionist from the UK, working for a circus and sent to Serbia to find a fiddler for the circus.<br />
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Elephant Sessions was a big hit at Womadelaide and I enjoyed their set here too. Not exactly what I'm looking for in my Scottish music but definitely a party/dance band with some good tunes.<br />
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The farewell concert sometimes dragged a little but it was worth staying for a chance to hear some acts I had missed. I was especially keen to hear young Irish singer Susan O'Neill (known as SON) who has quite a Janis Joplin thing going on. And Ten Strings and a Goatskin, from Prince Edward Island, were a brilliant bonus. Gosh Eastern Canada must be swarming with incredible folk musicians!<br />
<br />Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-52006797063872690982018-03-21T23:58:00.000+11:002018-04-09T22:59:06.987+10:00Do the five-day grind once more<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/27026097568/in/dateposted/" title="P3100321 (2)"><img alt="P3100321 (2)" height="480" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/811/27026097568_861e506ed3_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Yes I've been to <a href="https://www.womadelaide.com.au/">Womadelaide </a>again (almost two weeks ago)!<br />
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Tank and the Bangas</b><br />
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After getting in to the festival on Friday afternoon, establishing camp and meeting up with friends, we wandered along to the stage part way through this set. Straight away I wished I had been there the whole time. Tank and the Bangas are from New Orleans. Lead singer Tank is a slam poet as well as a singer. She was an energetic bundle of feel-good charm and charisma. I'm not exaggerating.<br />
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<b>Anoushka Shankar</b><br />
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I didn't get up close for photos but I really enjoyed this set. I hadn't listened to Anoushka's music (Land of Gold is now on its way to me) but I do remember when she played <a href="http://olma.blogspot.com.au/2010/03/happy-ears-pleasantly-tickled-brain.html">Womadelaide in 2010</a> with her famous father Ravi Shankar. That was a quiet, meditative, classical show. I remember an incredible shared mood in the huge, quiet, seated crowd stretching way back from the main stage. This was quite different - with a lot more varied and modern/western influences. I was mesmerised by her fast playing and the rapid bouncing her thumb had to do, anchored on the top of the neck of the sitar while the rest of fingers were strumming. It looked like it would be hard on the thumb joint.<br />
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<b>Rodrigo y Gabriela</b><br />
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I had vaguely heard of this duo but don't think I'd really heard them before. (They've been big for a decade; I'm just slow.) They got their start in a metal band in Mexico, and went on to play as a duo in seaside resorts. I gather these jobs were about providing 'authentic Mexican atmosphere' but in an interview they said they didn't have a lot of suitable repertoire so they adapted a lot of metal and rock material to play in a Latin style. At some point they moved to Ireland, had to start out busking because Irish hotels tended to hire Irish folk musicians, but quickly gained a following as their own distinctive rock/metal/folk acoustic guitar style emerged.<br />
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I was interested in how they do all they do with nylon strings, and this article <a href="https://tonedeaf.com.au/gear-rodrigo-y-gabriela-couldnt-live-without/">about the guitars</a> was pretty interesting.<br />
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After a delay getting started (while a Tool track played - something you'd expect at a stadium gig but no one wastes that sort of time with a 1-hour festival set) the performance was absolutely worth waiting for. These two love to play and clearly love to play together. I was fascinated with Gabriela's style in particular - she's kind of a one-woman rhythm/bass section, with some kind of flicking strumming movement and plenty of knocking and tapping on the guitar body - and she really played to the crowd as well. I'll be listening to them more .<br />
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Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-18866121452496951362018-02-01T22:56:00.000+11:002019-01-28T10:04:36.804+11:00Feel like dancing in the rain - can I have a volunteer<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/26016936628/in/album-72157664936893408/" title="P8280870 (2)"><img alt="P8280870 (2)" height="640" src="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4757/26016936628_b9504fa4e1_z.jpg" width="480" /></a><br />
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I didn't know much about Aberdeen before we arrived. I knew it was the birthplace of Annie Lennox. That was about it.<br />
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Our visit had a mixed start. K had come down with a cold during that day. And we had reached dirty clothes desperation point and needed a laudromat urgently. Luckily there was one pretty close to the hotel. We were thrilled with our huge and incredibly reasonably priced hotel room. It was pretty great after the awful guest house in Inverness.<br />
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Beach Ballroom<br />
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In the morning K found us a nice place for breakfast at the beachfront. It was a reasonable walking distance away ...but worth it. I was pretty hungry/desperate for coffee by the time we got there and ordered. Breakfast was good, and it was nice to <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BYSz0hVBiDR/?taken-by=olma22">sit in the sun for a while</a>.<br />
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While we sat at the cafe, we watched as a half marathon ran right past us. We had learned before we left the hotel that morning that the inaugural <a href="http://www.greatrun.org/great-aberdeen-run">Great Aberdeen Run</a> was being held that day. I just had to check the website to see if entries on the day were possible (no) (probably for the best! But I might have given it a go! I think my sneakers had just finished drying out after a muddy walk/run on Skye). So I resigned myself to a tiny bit of run envy, and also a very enjoyable day exploring the city on foot while lots of roads were closed to traffic.<br />
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After we were done with breakfast and also finished drying out all the contents of my bag (yep, lid improperly closed on water bottle during that walk), we wandered along the beachfront for a while.<br />
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Seeing a line of ships waiting out on the horizon always reminds me of visiting Newcastle (NSW) back when my parents were living there.<br />
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It wasn't hot but it was a nice summer weekend day and I was surprised to see so few people at the beach. We couldn't work out if the traffic closures kept people away or if the beach just really isn't that popular. Probably there are nicer beaches not far away. But I have a soft spot for a semi-industrial city beach!<br />
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We enjoyed a bit of dog-spotting and also made sure to get our shoes off and stick our feet in the North Sea. On the way back along the promenade we came across this work of sand art, already being gradually eaten by the sea, and the artist himself sitting on a bench overlooking the beach and watching the waves come in. He said he does this often.<br />
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We walked back into town through Castlegate.<br />
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I got laughed at by a couple for taking photos of this seagull. Or maybe just for taking so many photos and looking like a clueless tourist? I forget each time until I go back, the gulls in the UK are much bigger than ours in Australia. Sneering people are much the same anywhere though.<br />
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The statue of Ceres on top of an old bank building (now a pub) seemed to have some extra decoration.<br />
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We spent a while sampling the options at the <a href="https://www.brewdog.com/bars/uk/castlegate">Brewdog pub</a>. They have many delicious beers which I have been buying back home whenever I find them. Apparently they are coming to Australia and I'm really looking forward to it.<br />
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It's easy to see why Aberdeen is called the Granite City or the Silver City.<br />
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And we were fascinated by the Triplekirks site with its sole surviving spire. We wondered if it was going to be enveloped by a shopping mall like the <a href="https://www.melbournecentral.com.au/our-heritage">Shot Tower</a> at Melbourne Central.<br />
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Turns out there have been various <a href="https://www.buildingsatrisk.org.uk/details/899723">development plans </a>for the site and church remains since at least the mid-90's, ranging from offices to an art centre, to flats (including demolition of the spire!). The latest, pictured below, seems to be fancy student/academic accomodation. Pics I've seen on instagram suggest construction might have actually started since we were there.<br />
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/39932789582/in/album-72157664936893408/" title="P8280900 (2)"><img alt="P8280900 (2)" height="480" src="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4672/39932789582_9e689d915a_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-89110463404688563242018-01-08T22:43:00.002+11:002019-01-28T10:04:37.477+11:00We learned fast to travel light<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/25702060848/in/dateposted/" title="P8260802 (2)"><img alt="P8260802 (2)" height="480" src="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4731/25702060848_3ee766ff15_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>
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On the day we left Inverness we had planned to stop, maybe for a short time, at Culloden. Visiting the battlefield, the site of the last battle fought on British soil, was a much bigger experience than I expected. I shared some thoughts about this on <a href="http://e%20took%20the%20tour%2C%20then%20walked%20even%20further%20around%20the%20site%20including%20along%20both%20of%20the%20front%20lines.%20the%20visitor%20centre%20is%20brilliant%2C%20actually%20a%20comprehensive%20museum%2C%20well%20laid%20out%2C%20and%20it%20doesn%27t%20over-simplify%20the%20story.%20still%20it%27s%20hard%20to%20understand%20how%20it%20comes%20about%3B%20army%20facing%20army%20across%20a%20field...but%20of%20course%20it%20%28war%29%20still%20does%2C%20if%20it%20looks%20a%20bit%20different%20these%20days.%20driving%20away%20i%20wondered%20just%20why%20the%20experience%20was%20so%20satisfying.%20obviously%20it%27s%20not%20a%20happy%20story%2C%20and%20that%27s%20so%20often%20the%20case%2C%20but%20i%20think%20it%27s%20about%20how%20exploring%20past%20events%20with%20their%20complexity%20and%20ambiguities%20always%20gives%20you%20further%20insight%20into%20how%20things%20work%20-%20how%20the%20world%20turns%20and%20things%20change%20so%20much%20but%20humans%20are%20still%20much%20the%20same./">Instagram</a>.<br />
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The battle at Culloden in April 1746 was the end of the Jabobite Rising of 1745, and the last battle fought on British soil.<br />
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The visitor centre/museum was really well set up and told the story with a good deal of complexity and a lot of information from different perspectives.<br />
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We also took a group tour of the battlefield. I'd never visited a battlefield before, and it was so strange to walk each front line (conveniently marked with footpaths and red and blue flags) and picture the two armies lining up to face each other across a field.<br />
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And although that idea is completely foreign to me, once you delve into the historical context and relate to some of the people involved, it's very easy to see that the more things change, the more they stay the same. War might look different but we humans are still tend to be territorial, angry, and scared, desperately defining our in-groups and out-groups to make sense of things and try to make ourselves feel safe. <br />
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I am so glad we took the time to visit the Culloden site. It was strange to learn even though the battle is relatively recent in historical terms, that the locations of many graves and other details about the site are unknown and can't be surveyed because of the use of the site for commercial forestry for a long time.<br />
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Below you can see the visitors centre. I like the way it fits modestly into the landscape.<br />
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After some lunch, we got on the road for Aberdeen. We stopped briefly in Nairn for a look at the beach. I wish I had known to visit the <a href="http://womenofscotland.org.uk/memorials/nairn-fishwife">Nairn Fishwife</a>. This is one of the disadvantages of doing your research post-trip!<br />
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We also stopped in Elgin. Here we were more focused on finding a pharmacy open on Saturday afternoon to buy some cold medicine, than sight-seeing. I did take some inadequate photos of this statue, which turns out to be the infamous <a href="https://www.scotsman.com/news/the-wolf-of-badenoch-scotland-s-vilest-man-1-4483886">Wolf of Badenoch</a>. He seems to have been a very angry man with too much power. The statue is in a weird spot, not really in a pedestrian thoroughfare - and we just happened to pass it because of where we parked.<br />
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<br />Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-20377827180378641312017-12-13T07:41:00.001+11:002019-01-28T10:04:36.927+11:00Climb way over that old mountain<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/37940949955/in/dateposted/" title="P8250687 (3)"><img alt="P8250687 (3)" height="360" src="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4546/37940949955_684d1751d0_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Having stretched out the journey to Inverness <a href="http://olma.blogspot.com.au/2017/12/why-dont-you-keep-few-more-cards-in.html">the previous day</a>, we got into town quite late at night. We checked into our underwhelming accomodation - I think we truly got the worst-shaped room in the guesthouse, maybe in all of Inverness - and then went out looking for a very late dinner. We had very nearly given in and turned back to MacDonalds, but turned a corner and found the street with some life in it yet and a decent Italian chain restaurant still packed with tourists. Just quietly, I think there might be a rule that there has to be one of these on every second corner in every UK city.<br />
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The next morning we got to see a bit of Inverness. Looking across the River Ness, on the left is the cathedral and on the right, Strathness House. Below, it's the view a little to the right of that with the Hotel Columba.<br />
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One of our goals for the day was to go back to Loch Ness, which we had drive past on the way into town. But we decided to make a couple of other stops first. I picked the nearby town of Beauly because it sounded interesting.<br />
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We spent a lot of time exploring the ruins of Beauly Priory. Super cool.<br />
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In the centuries after it was abandoned from its original purpose, it came to be used as part of a cemetery. It seemed like it was special to have a plot inside the bounds of the old building, even though it was partially ruined and open to the air. I found it fascinating that these very old church sites, long after they had fallen out of use and favour with the change to Protestantism, remained a desirable (holy?) place to be buried.<br />
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We also had a look around in the nearby old schoolhouse which housed a group of shops including a very nice bookshop at the back and a big range of Scottish music CDs.<br />
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Before this day I had thought that we might manage to explore further north-west from Inverness but it just didn't end up being feasible. (Next time) Actually, as soon as we arrived in Inverness we had considered blowing off the second night in the guesthouse and making a rushed trip up to the Orkneys. We quickly realised this was going to be just a bit too crazy for just one night, a decent drive and a couple of hrs on the ferry each way. Just before we left a friend had provided lots of ideas and tips and had really pushed for visiting Orkney - but this was after we had everything pretty much locked in.<br />
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Another day, another distillery! After Beauly we made a quick stop at Glen Ord. It had been raining lightly while we were in Beauly, but now it was a beautiful day.<br />
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Then it was back to Loch Ness. We stopped in Drumnadrochit, gave 'Nessieland' a miss, and had a cheap late lunch at the fish and and chips place there among the souvenir shops (also a tasty beer for the non-driver).<br />
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So this, though one of the weirder ones, is an example of the efforts to cater to vegetarians at every level. I just wouldn't expect a stall selling fish and chips to have a proper vegetarian option. But here the fish shop had this battered, deep fried felafel with chips. Tasty. Weird. Very very dense. I don't think I ate dinner that night at all.<br />
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After lunch, the search was on for somewhere to get closer to Loch Ness. We drove south, stopping briefly at <a href="https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/urquhart-castle/">Urquhart Castle</a>. We decided we didn't want to take the time to pay to go in and soon left when we realised there was no easy access to the loch here.<br />
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We made a loose plan to maybe drive right around the the other side of the loch and go back to Inverness that way. But on the way we stopped in Invermoriston, had a look at River Moriston Falls, and then walked quite a way along the side of the main road to finally find a spot where we could climb down and put our feet in the actual loch! Which was lovely. I considered a quick dip (yes, seriously) but I couldn't face it, not only because of the cold water but because my feet hurt standing on the stones for even a few seconds. It was really nice and peaceful sitting on the bank though.<br />
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Later we had a great night out at the <a href="http://www.hootanannyinverness.co.uk/">Hootananny</a> in Inverness, where <a href="http://www.northseagas.co.uk/">North Sea Gas</a> delighted a large, ever changing crowd of all ages, for several hours. It was brilliant.Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-26611513472157574492017-12-01T23:21:00.001+11:002019-01-28T10:04:37.049+11:00Why don't you keep a few more cards in your hand? <br />
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We wanted to make the most of this day on Skye, so we had a quick breakfast and started out early from Broadford, and made such good time we found ourselves in the carpark of Dunvegan Castle a bit before the 10am opening time. The people in the campervan parked next to us were cooking their breakfast on a little camp stove, right there in the carpark.<br />
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Although the <a href="https://www.dunvegancastle.com/your-visit/gardens/gardens/">gardens</a> are a major tourist attraction we decided just to spend our time in the castle itself, seat of the chief of Clan MacLeod.<br />
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Unfortunately we couldn't take photos inside. It was pretty cool, with public areas set up as a museum of MacLeod family history. There were lots of portraits of the various chiefs and their spouses - mostly wives but the clan was lead for 40 plus years last century by the formidable Flora MacLeod. Later I heard a few tales about her from my newly-met <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BYyZYKPheKo/?taken-by=olma22">relatives</a> - that she was born at 10 Downing Street, and apparently as clan chief she used to sit on a stone in front of the fire, instead of any kind of chair, to write letters.<br />
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There were also some mementos relating to Flora MacDonald and her passage to Skye with Bonnie Prince Charlie (theme of the Skye Boat Song).<br />
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And the <a href="https://www.dunvegancastle.com/your-visit/castle/fairy-flag/">Fairy Flag</a>! A fascinating and ancient textile, whether or not of actual fairy origins.<br />
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There was an area downstairs with some history and artefacts from St Kilda, the now uninhabited archipelago waaaay out in the North Atlantic Ocean, formally evacuated in 1930. There were some fascinating photos of groups of islanders in the late 1800's, like this famous one of the <a href="http://www.ambaile.org.uk/detail/en/38917/1/EN38917-the-st-kilda-parliament.htm">St Kilda Parliament</a> - note the bare feet, and groups of children with their very proper Victorian school teacher.<br />
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The MacDonald and MacLeod clans seem to have done a lot of fighting over St Kilda. What I've since learnt is a well-worn Gaelic myth (see Red Hand of Ulster) was lovingly retold here: a boat race between two clans, first to touch the land - in this case St Kilda - claims ownership. One boat is ahead, so a brave/foolish/berserk soul in the other boat cuts off his hand and throws it ahead, thus being the first to touch land. I can see why this is a popular story. Probably no way of knowing if it ever happened - anywhere!<br />
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After Dunvegan we moved on to Carbost, home of Talisker Distillery, on Loch Harport. Most of the distilleries had their own distinct malty smells, some stronger than others. This was a strong one! Such a strange smell. Very drinkable whiskey though! We just had a brief look in the visitor centre, bought some small bottles for the road, then moved on to the pub for what turned out to be the most amazing chick pea curry. I really had some very good quality vegetarian meals in Scottish pubs. At this one we sat out the back in the beer garden with lots of people and a few lovely big dogs, including one hanging out with his master who was putting in a new deck. I always think it's lovely when a dog can go to work with its person. <br />
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More driving and admiring the bare hills. I loved them so much.<br />
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Then a brief stop back in Broadford just before we took the bridge to the mainland, for me to spend a while in a lovely shop, <a href="http://handspinnerhavingfun.com/">The Handspinner Having Fun</a>. Along with commercial yarns they stock a lot of independent and local handspun and millspun Skye wool. When I asked if there was anything from Raasay, the lady I spoke to said they would love to stock some but had not found any supplier. I did buy some Skye wool (and wished I had tried harder to source something from Islay).<br />
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Once we reached the mainland, it was getting late in the afternoon but we were determined to squeeze in another castle before heading to Inverness for the night.<br />
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This is Eilean Donan. Also known as the one from the Highlander film. It is in an incredible location, the meeting point of three sea lochs.<br />
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Interestingly, it's actually a 20th century rebuild. The castle was destroyed by the English Government during the Jacobite risings, in 1719. It lay in ruins until 1911 when Lt Colonel John MacRae-Gilstrap bought the island and spent 20 years rebuilding it. Now it's a major tourist attraction<span style="background-color: white; color: #595957; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. </span><br />
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We arrived in just in time to pay our entry fee and have a look <a href="http://www.eileandonancastle.com/explore/">inside</a>. The public areas had a mixture of historical artefacts and MacRae family history. I did wonder how some of the family members feel about so many of their family snapshots from weddings and other events being displayed for random tourists.<br />
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As we drove off towards Inverness, I was still desperately trying to capture my Highlands feelings in photos. Desperate enough to take pictures like this. "Four white vehicles parked in front of a hill; owners in pub across the road". We got coffees for the road at that pub and they were kind enough to run my KeepCup through the dishwasher first. The server at the bar was from New Zealand.<br />
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/26943938679/in/dateposted/" title="P8250683 (2)"><img alt="P8250683 (2)" height="480" src="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4584/26943938679_4a0794a238_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849756.post-79868485615844803552017-11-02T21:09:00.001+11:002019-01-28T10:04:37.294+11:00When I bask in your light<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/olma/38009777831/in/album-72157688533687344/" title="P8240554"><img alt="P8240554" height="480" src="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4512/38009777831_88b79d4bbd_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Raasay</span><br />
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It had been a long day the previous day, travelling from Islay to Skye and then the concert that night. I enjoyed the show immensely, and the venue was lovely, at <a href="http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/en/">Sabhal M<span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #333333; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">ò</span>r Ostaig</a>. So we had a more relaxed start this day, took a while to find breakfast, and ended up at Sconser waiting for the next ferry to Raasay, a bit after noon.<br />
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Approaching Rassay on the ferry. The weather was amazing, one of the best days the whole time we were in Scotland. No cardigan required. We even broke out the sunscreen.<br />
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We just picked a direction and started driving.<br />
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Heather! (Heatherrrrrrrrr)<br />
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We pretty much spent the whole afternoon this way, driving around, stopping often, in this gorgeous, mostly empty landscape. We met some sheep, and very few other vehicles. We passed through a few little villages or groups of houses.<br />
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Ruins of Brochel Castle. A MacLeod one. Sadly you can't get too close - apparently it is quite unstable.<br />
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Back nearer to the port we found Rassay House set in a different, more genteel, sort of landscape. We also came across a new distillery which is still being built (which clearly suggests a plan of going back in 10 years or so for a taste).<br />
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And the return ferry to Skye offered this stunning view of the port town of Sconser with the hill Glamaig in the background. Apparently it's a corbett, not as high as a munro. It is also by all accounts a heck of a thing to <a href="https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/corbetts/glamaig">climb</a>. Seeing slopes like these give me a terrible urge to stop the car, jump out and sprint right up. It really feels like I could just do it! Funnily enough I didn't try that. Just went for a semi-successful <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BYJrSV7BFRM/?taken-by=olma22">jog</a> along the sea shore later, after we checked in to our rather <a href="https://canmore.org.uk/site/75421/skye-broadford-corry-lodge">lovely</a> BnB in Broadford. Later we went to a pub recommended by our host and had an amazing dinner - lobster for K and the most incredible macaroni cheese for me. I don't think any other macaroni cheese will ever match it. It was huge and we'd had a late lunch at Raasay House. I was so sad that I couldn't finish it. (I always clean my plate). I don't really understand the UK thing of serving garlic bread with mac'n'cheese but even that was good.<br />
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Oliviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004330801357642994noreply@blogger.com1