Tove100

Moomin comic book cover by Tove Jansson

Are you a Tove Jansson fan? Perhaps you have fond childhood memories of her Moomin books or maybe you know her memoirs and fiction? I must admit to being a latecomer to Jansson's work and then only through her remarkable Moomin books. While I vaguely remember them from childhood it was not until I started reading them to my children last year that I fell under her spell. How could I not when she wrote passages such as this:

Now the dictionary was curling up more and more. The pages began to look like withered leaves, and between them the Outlandish Words came out and began crawling around on the floor.

'Goodness gracious me,' said Moomintroll.

 

Finn Family Moomintroll (1948)

 

Goodness gracious indeed! Crawling words aside, there is something very comforting about the philosophical, nature-loving world in Moominvalley where seasons are embraced for their difference and for the way they mark the passing of time:

The quiet transition from autumn to winter is not a bad time at all. It's a time for protecting and securing things and for making sure you've got in as many supplies as you can. It's nice to gather together everything you possess as close to you as possible, to store up your warmth and your thoughts and burrow yourself into a deep hole inside, a core of safety where you can defend what is important and precious and your very own. Then the cold and the storms and the darkness can do their worst.

Moominvalley In November (1971)

This year would have been Tove's 100th birthday so celebrations are in full swing around the globe to honour her work not only as a writer but as a artist. If I was anywhere near Finland I'd be hot-footing it to this remarkable retrospective exhibition at the Finnish National Gallery in Helsinki (thanks for the tip Tuula) which includes her surrealist and modernist paintings from the 1930 -1950s, her graphic work during the 1940s and her later paintings which move towards abstraction. If you can't make it there the website is certainly worth a look and if you'd like more information on Tove Jansson related events nearer to you you may find some on the Tove100 website.

Birthday season...

October marks the beginning of festivities in our house with two birthdays in October followed by two in November. Birthday celebrations are of a very elastic in nature around here and can last from one day to a week- throw in Halloween and before you know it it's Christmas.

Last weekend it was my turn and as always I was showered with lovely thoughtful gifts starting with this gorgeous orchid. Next came the books, oh so many books...

As you can see I have a fondness for Wodehouse. The other two books I've been coveting for some time. The glorious big magic book is full of wonderful illustrations and photographs of magicians from the 1400s to the 1950s. I'm not sure I've ever shared my obsession with early twentieth century magic with you before but that's a post for another day!

The other book is a cookbook from the famous Parisian confectioners, A La Mere de Famille. As an Australian, the thought that this corner store has been in continuous operation since 1761, well before white Australia is almost unfathomable. The recipes throughout the book reflect the different eras covering everything from cakes and biscuits to chocolates, candied fruits, syrups and ice-creams. Most intriguing of all, however, are the stories surrounding how the shop has found new owners often by serendipity rather than through family connection. The right people just seem to appear at the right time including a number of people who were initially enamoured customers.

So as much as I would have liked to just blink my eyes and find myself in Paris, birthday lunch was a little closer to home at our closest Italian equivalent, Brunetti's where we had homemade gnocchi with tomato, basil and buffalo mozzarella, pizza and salade caprese. We also took home one of their profiteroles towers filled with zabaglione cream for afternoon tea and lounged around reading books and dozing for the rest of the day. Bliss!

 

Patience is a virtue...

 

 

I was so excited to hear that Eleanor Catton's book, The Luminaries had won the Man Booker Prize today. I've had it sitting by my bedside waiting patiently for me to find the time to dive in and lose myself in this rollicking 19th century, astrologically-inspired thriller. It's one of three BIG books that I've been waiting patiently to see released this year. While Catton wrote her 832 page prize-winner in just two years, it's been seven years since Marisha Pessl released her clever, crazy debut novel, Special Topics In Calamity Physics, while true to her word that she would only ever write one book every ten years, Donna Tartt's, The Goldfinch is her first book since 2002 (you might have read her wonderful debut novel The Secret History way back in 1992).

Big books are a big commitment and mixed reviews are almost a given when ambition and size collide but advanced reviews for 'The Goldfinch' here and here have me counting the days until its release.  Marisha Pessl's 'Night Film' might be a bit more of a gamble given her propensity for melodrama and structural experimentation but as this reviewer noted, 'Just because you know you’re on a rickety ghost train doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the ride.'

Looking Back on The Year of Reading Backwards...

I know it's a cliche but can you believe it's March already! Before the year runs away with me completely I thought I might do a bit of a year-in-review to round up last year's Year of Reading Backwards . Some of you may remember that my aim was to:

- read more of the books already on the shelves
- catch up on some modern classics
- have a go at re-reading some favourites

So how did I fare? Well, I'd say it's a bit of a mixed score-card. I read 26 books in total (not including about a million kids books!) of which 14 fitted into the 'Year of Reading Backwards' category. Of those I'm particularly glad I finally caught up with The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins, 1984 by George Orwell and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. After reading such gems of course I wondered why it had taken me so long to get around to them!

As for the re-reading well I'm afraid to say the year just served to confirm my suspicions (or so I thought...). For much of the year I just couldn't bring myself to pick up a book I'd already read. It just seemed like such a waste of time. For the sake of the experiment I did re-read, A Room With A View by E.M. Forster and The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera but I must say that as much as I enjoyed them I didn't enjoy them as much as I had on first reading (perhaps that's because I was in Paris just having visited Florence when I read the former and read the latter when it was a much anticipated and acclaimed new release). Perhaps my pleasure in reading, like many people's, is tied up with time and place? Having said that, my year in reading ended somewhat surprisingly when I found myself so engrossed in Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus that having finished it I immediately flicked back to the first page and read it through again!

I'm still intrigued as to why people choose to re-read (or not). In her article, The Pleasures and Perils of Rereading , Lisa Levy discusses quite of few of those reasons chief among which seems to be the pleasure and security derived from returning to a book as an 'old friend'. For others it is the satisfaction that comes from pulling apart a text to really get behind the authors craft and intent. The perils include the very real possibility that you may return to the 'old friend' only to find that it no longer 'speaks to you' bringing to an abrupt halt a life-long love affair (perhaps this is my secret fear?).

So this year I'm challenging myself in a completely different way and have signed up to the War Through The Generations Reading Challenge. The theme for this year is World War I so I'm giving myself another chance to finally read Pat Barker's Ghost Road trilogy which was on last year's list. I'm also planning to read Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, Vera Brittain's Testament Of Youth and Max Egremont's biography of Seigfried Sassoon. Perhaps you might like to join in too? You can read as little as one book if you like and there is a great reading list to help get you started.


P.S: I mentioned in a previous post that I am now 'tweeting' as well so if you would like to follow me you can find me @Birdwiththegold.

EDIT: I've just discovered the Australian Women Writers 2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge and signed up for that too. More details soon...

Books vs apps...

You may (or may not) have noticed that things have been a bit quiet here in Golden Seed Land. That's because I've been busy teaching one family member to read and spending seemingly endless hours setting up iPods and Kindles for the other two. It's been an interesting time caught between an old-fashioned school reader and navigating the e-reader world (which has so far failed to excite much enthusiasm!).

Do you remember a time when you couldn't read? I must say I really don't and I can't imagine looking at a page of English words and not being able to interpret their meaning. Ours is a reading family. We live in a house with books in every room and spend many hours a week reading, visiting bookshops and thinking and talking about books so you can imagine my excitement when the jumbled letters on the page suddenly started to make sense and Henry started reading.

Henry's favourite book to read is Book 1 of the Victorian School Reader (pictured above) which was used by all Victorian children from 1928 to 1950. It's not like we don't have any other books to read but there is something about the way the story builds with a mixture of familiar and new words that both Henry and Isabella have found irrestistable.

Sure you can teach your kids to read with any number of apps on an iPad but for me it just wouldn't be the same (KJ Dellantonia seems to get what I mean here and I wonder if the Silicon Valley moguls sending their kids to no-computer Waldorf schools do too). I love books as things as much as for what they contain and I want my kids to know about dust-covers, endpapers and fontispieces. That's why I love the idea of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. Imagine getting a free book in the mail (personally addressed to you not your mum or dad) every month from birth until you turn 5 - bliss!

Obviously, we're aiming for the best of both worlds here. Isabella loves her new iPod Touch (which she saved for two years to buy) but even though she knows she can download books onto it she hasn't shown any interest in doing so and far from taking up reading time she has read more books in the past couple of weeks than ever before (thank you Roald Dahl , Jeff Kinney and Megan MacDonald.) Tom's Kindle, however, lies idle and yesterday we bought 6 new books between us so we're not there yet!

How about you? Book, e-reader, both or neither?

Hungry for more...

Do you ever feel busy, sick and hungry all at the same time? That's how I feel at the moment - dizzy, nauseous and trying to ignore a very loud ringing sound in my ears. I had to take a couple of days off work last week which I hate doing both because I love my job and because I know I'm behind on a few projects. Somehow I've also managed to embark upon a kitchen renovation and while I was feeling very sorry for myself in bed on Friday the designer called to say that she had mis-measured the kitchen and it all had to be re-designed (mainly by me - more about this later...)

When I finally did manage to put myself to bed I took along two very beautiful new books for company. The first was Melbourne, a gorgeous little book by editor/ publisher Sophie Cunningham whose idiosyncratic view of Melbourne bought back many memories of my younger years in Melbourne (there's a nice review here). The book opens with the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires and ends with the freak hail storm we experienced in 2010. While I'm not likely to ever forget either event I'm glad I have Sophie's version of events on the shelf to give to the kids when they're older.

The other book was Hungry: Food From The Heart by Guy Mirabella. I must admit I'm a bit in love with this book. Not only is it beautifully designed with luscious colour photos by Earl Carter throughout by it is full of delicious-looking Sicilian inspired salads, pastas, risottos, soups and desserts. Salads are a bit of a bete-noire for me so I'm always looking for inspiration. If you'd like to try Guy's 'Red Salad' featuring radicchio, red cabbage, peaches and pomegrante among other delights you'll find a recipe here.

Now is I can just get the nausea under control...

National Bookshop Day...

The Paperback Bookshop, Bourke Street, Melbourne by Diego DeNicola via Flickr.

Today is inaugural National Bookshop Day in Australia. It's been a tough year for bricks and mortar bookshops this year so today is a great day to get out there and treat yourself to a book (or two, or three). Here are a few of my favourite haunts...

I love the Paperback Bookshop because it has a great selection of titles (particularly fiction) and because its open until 11pm most nights which makes it a great place to rendezvous with friends especially if you're on your own. The only problem is not buying too many books that then become a burden for the night!


Readings, Lygon Street, Carlton by Snipergirl via Flickr. Ah, Readings...my home away from home. I also love the store in Hawthorn. Amazing range and palpable love of books radiating from the walls...

Hill of Content, Bourke Street, Melbourne by Michael Coghlan via Flickr.

This little gem has had a number of new closures in past years but has somehow managed to hold on. I remember my Dad telling me about the Hill of Content when I was little. The first shop on the site opened in 1922 and was known form its 'quality antiquarian, second-hand and fine new books'. There are no second-hand books there now but its still a great place for high quality hardcovers of the 'coffee-table' variety especially in art and design, gardening and travel.

Image via

These days if I come over all antiquarian there is only one destination for me and that's Kay Craddocks Antiquarian Bookseller in Collins Street. Time Out Melbourne has described it as 'the sort of proper ye olde shop you expect to find magical ammulets...a fantastical place full of the finest, rarest books and probably a gateway to Narnia if you look hard enough.' See how exciting bookshops can be?!

A Bit Of A Circus...

Well the bathroom is almost complete and I have lots of photos to show you but I can't find the photo cable to upload the images! Life's a bit like that at the moment - it's a bit of a circus here. Things are not where they should be. Books have gone missing as have shoes and vital paperwork but by next week things should be returning to a more manageable kind of domestic chaos. In the meantime I thought I'd up date you one what else I've been up to...

Marvelling at what the human body can do. You know how they say we only ever use about 10% of our brains? Well, after seeing the awe-inspiring Nederlands Dans Theater and Circus Olympia recently I'm convinced I'm only using .0001% of my physical capabilities!

Reading two great books about Australia in the 1930. The first one 'The Lost Mother: A Story of Art & Love' by Anne Summers is a memoir centred around a portrait her mother sat for as a child. The book explores the life of the artist who painted the work, Constance Stokes and the collector who held onto it for many years, a mysterious Russian emigre, Lydia Mortill.

If fiction is more your style and you're looking for some quirky local colour you might like 'A Few Right Thinking Men' by Sulari Gentill, the first in a planned series of mystery novels set in Sydney during the 1930s and starring gentlemen artist and amateur sleuth Rowland Sinclair. Very snappy dialogue and a colourful cast of characters. Sulari has a pretty nifty website over here.

Listening to Debussy. Many years ago I bought a CD called 'Debussy for Daydreaming'. I usually play music to the kids as they go to sleep and this CD is the current favourite.

Coverting this gorgeous glass Babushka drinking jug and glass.

Waiting patiently for the bathroom to be finished and the midnight treks to the outside portable bathroom to be over!

What have you been up to?

Food, family and fun...

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One of the things I love most about Easter is the tradition and symbolism surrounding the food we share - hot cross buns and fish on Good Friday, lamb on Sunday and, of course, all those chocolate eggs. There is something so comforting about preparing and eating the same food at the same time of year, year in, year out. It gives the year a certain rhythm, allows us to look back and compare with other Easters and gives us the chance to pass family traditions on to the next generation. This week I discovered three beautiful new Australian cookbooks, that in their own individual ways, gave me a privileged insight into the way in which food traditions have shaped other people's family lives.

When I first saw Keepsakes, Recipes, Momentos, Miscellany by Frances Hansen it was love at first sight. This exquisite book is so much more than a cookbook. Nestled among beautiful drawings, painting, photographs and collages are handwritten and typed recipes collected by Hansen and her family. The original book was made by Hansen for her sister's wedding and although it is an intensely personal book in one way, its evocation of food and family in 1970s Australia and New Zealand really struck a chord with me.

Similarly, while Teresa Oates and Angela Villella wrote Mangia! Mangia!: Authentic Italian Food Rituals and Family Recipes to honour and preserve the food traditions of their Italian parents and grandparents, there is so much in this book for the rest of us to enjoy. The book is teeming with stories, personal photographs and family recipes and lovingly descibes important annual rituals such as preparing and bottling the passata, preserving the olives and making your own proscuitto and salami.

And then there is the delightful, My Grandma's Kitchen by Louise Fulton Keats. This gorgeous children's book features bright illustrations, a sweet story about cooking with Grandma and a selection of never-fail recipes to inspire the little ones. As if that wasn't enough, the Grandma in question is none other than Australia's original domestic goddess, Margaret Fulton (the author is her grand-daughter) so you can be sure that the recipes are tried and true!

May you and your family enjoy many happy hours around the table this Easter...

The Year of Reading Backwards - Book 2: 'The Woman In White', 1860

Image via Yowser! What can I say about Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White except that it's a cracking good read? If you like a bit of 19th century mystery, madness and mistaken identity then this is the book for you. The story was first published in weekly installments in Charles Dicken's, All The Year Round before its publication as a novel in three volumes in 1860. As you would expect from a story that originated as a serial there are plenty of twists and turns and cliff-hanger moments both large and small. The book also features the redoubtable Marion Halcombe (the very antithesis of all those silly, simpering 19th century heroines) and the wonderfully vainglorious villian, Count Fosco. I'd read the book again just to feel Marion's righteous indignation and to re-acquaint myself with the charmingly manipulative Fosco and his pet canaries and white mice. Intrigued? If you haven't already had the pleasure (or should I say thrill?) maybe this is one to put on your list... Next books in The Year of Reading Backwards take me firmly back into the 20th century as I tackle George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' and 'Nineteen Eighty Four'. Sorry about the lack of paragraphs - can't seem to change the spacing!

Link love...

Image via Etsy

Autumn is here, there's a chill in the air and Henry has decided that 5am is an appropriate time to get up every morning. To say I'm a bit sleep deprived would be an understatement. I'm seriously thinking about just getting up and dressed at 5 and being done with it rather than pleading, begging and coaxing Henry back to sleep (with very little success). Maybe I could use the time to find some more gems like these ones...

• Alexandra Nea's lovely blog The Art Of Afternoon Tea presents fabulous weekly recipes for cakes, biscuits and sweet treats with a twist. The twist is her amazing hand-drawn illustrations of the recipes laid out on her own seemingly limitless collection of china. I love the sound of this Chocolate Garam Masala Cake


• Romance is not dead! Check out this literary proposal.


• Some people are so clever. Check out Debs's gorgeous, hand-knitted couch cover. No pattern, just intuition!


• Wouldn't you love a pair of embroidered stockings like these ones ?


• Love these great 1950s illustrations on wood blocks and this new project at Bricolagelife.

The Year of Reading Backwards - Book 1: 'The House of Mirth', 1905

You may remember that I've decided to make this The Year of Reading Backwards. For my first book I chose Edith Wharton's heart-breaking story of socialite Lily Bart, The House of Mirth. Set in New York during the 1890s poor Lily just can't take a trick - in fact you'd be hard-pressed to find a greater self-sabotager in the whole of English literature. Although she arguably meets her perfect match in the very first chapter her inability to choose between marrying for love or money leads her to make a string of unfortunate choices that lead her further and further from her goal of security and happiness. I wanted to throttle Lily much of the time but Wharton's insightful and sympathetic prose kept me reading long into the night.

No sooner had I finished the sad tale of Lily Bart, however, than I found myself backsliding into the world of new releases with Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage by Hazel Rowley - and I'm so glad I did. Eleanor Roosevelt was everything the fictional Lily is not. Like Lily, Eleanor was a member of the New York 400 and was bought up to make a 'good marriage'. Unlike Lily, however, she married for both love and money making a formidable match with her distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

What an extraordinary couple they were! Both as a couple and as individuals they continually challenged themselves and each other to fulfil their individual destinies. Imagine becoming the president of the United States without anyone realising that you couldn't walk (Franklin was struck down by polio in his 30s and his minders ensured that he was never photographed being carried anywhere - how times have changed!). Eleanor herself was a remarkable woman championing civil rights, helping to draft the Universal Declaration of Independence and transforming herself from a shy young woman to an inspirational national figure. Sadly Australian biographer Hazel Rowley died just months after her book was released to critical acclaim. She was 59.

Next book in 'The Year of Reading Backwards' is 'The Woman In White' by Wilkie Collins. Have you read it?

Supporting The Shop Around The Corner...

Storytime at the delightful 'Shop Around the Corner' featured in You've Got Mail (1998)
Image via

Tomorrow is World Book Day but many book-loving Australians may not feel that much like celebrating. Last week Angus & Robertson, one of Australia's oldest bookstore chains (first opened in 1884) went into receivership following a disastrous marriage with megabook empire Borders. While it would be easy to just blame growing internet sales and the rise of the ebook for the group's demise the truth, as always, is more complex. Angus & Robertson should never have joined forces with an already ailing Borders as explained here and here and while the demise of Borders may seem like a victory for the little guy, the people who'll suffer most are those who live in the suburbs and regional areas of Australia where most of the A&R stores are located.

I remember when Borders first breezed into town in 2003 with their superstores and price discounts. We all watched in amazement as they opened an enormous store right across the road from Melbourne's favourite indie bookstore, Readings. Things looked pretty grim for the little bookstore but it fought back and today the Readings stores are bigger and better than ever. So how did they do it? They did it by employing staff who live and breathe books, by supporting important community projects and by stocking the best damn selection of books in the city. They have no loyalty program and offer no discounts at the till but they are still my favourite place to shop.

Don't get me wrong I've certainly bought the odd book at Borders over the years (and A&R and Dymocks and lots of other places) and I've even bought a few books online but there is something so wonderful about shopping in an independent bookstore where you can 'feel the love' that it's a ritual I refuse to give up (even if it does costs me a few dollars more). Imagine a world where you can't just nip into a bookshop, soak up the ambience, browse the shelves, check out the new releases and find and fall in love with a new author/book. Makes me shiver just thinking about it! So go on - celebrate World Book Day by going out and supporting your local independent bookshop. I'm sure there's someone working there who's dying to recommend a great book...

Busy, busy, busy...

School holidays have been over for nearly two weeks and I still can't seem to get back into the daily routine. The days just seem to whizz by. Here's how I've been spending them..

Reading the Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson. I'm a bit late on the bandwagon but they've been worth the wait.

Listening to lots of classical music. Henry has discovered classical music in a big way. He listens to it when he's going to sleep, in the car and anywhere else there's a player. He's especially in love with anything by Bach but also likes Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.5 and Mozart's 'Jupiter' symphony. He said to me the other day, 'Mum, I've gone crazy for this music, I can't stop listening to it and it won't get out of my head!'. Bless (keep in my he's only 4).

Making this Lucy's Tomato, Walnut and Pomegranate Molasses Salad (with our own tomatoes and the pomegranate syrup Deb sent me - thanks Deb!) and this Lucy's Apricot Almond Chews. Delicious...

Re-organising my kitchen cupboards. Over the past fortnight I've broken two glasses, two mugs and a vase. My cupboards are so crowded that every time I open them something jumps out at me. I've been meaning to do it for a while but these recent losses spurred me into action. As a result I now have three lovely new fying pans (replacing six dreadful ones that can now be found in the local daycare centre sandpit) and room for all my many, many, many baking trays and tins.

Researching bathrooms - we need a new one.

Looking forward to the launch of two of the websites I've been working on for the past 18 months - not long to go now...

Marvelling at the Google Art Project. Have you seen this yet? Check out this post first and then go and have a play yourself - you won't be disappointed.

What have you been up to lately?

Am I reading too much into it?

Images courtesy of the ever-inspiring Maybe Next Week

School holidays are finally over so last week we spent some time ticking a few things off our 'oh, we should do that on the holidays' list. On Saturday we braved the heat and made for the cool confines of the truly amazing State Library of Victoria. It's hard to remember a time when I didn't know and love the Library. When I was small the building was shared by the Museum of Victoria and the Planetarium two of the most wonderful places on earth to a small child fascinated by history and the natural world. When I was a uni student I spent countless hours in the Library's magnificent Reading Room devouring books on everything from Etruscan archaeology to World War II in Melbourne.

I've been waiting until my own children were old enough to experience the 'wow' factor provided by the Library and the Look! The Art of Australian Picture Books Today exhibition gave me just the pretext I needed (here are just some of the 100 or so lovely images in the show). Once the kids had finished admiring the illustrations from their favourite books we strolled across the foyer for a quick browse in the Readings bookshop before indulging in a delicious brunch at Mr Tulk, the Library's very cool cafe.

Now the Reading Room was beckoning... As so often happens in life the Room was not at all as I had remembered it. It was a bright, hot day so the Room was flooded with natural light bouncing off the pristine white walls. It was spectacular in its own way, of course, but for some reason it seemed so much more clinical than I'd remembered it. When I got back home I 'googled' the Library and was reminded that before the recent renovations the dome was actually covered with copper sheets. That explained it all! The Room used to be quite dark with the green reading lights glowing softly throughout the Room. It was always crowded and you always felt a sense of history sitting at those amazing 1850s desks.

Sadly, on that bright, sunny day there were only three people there while in the Information Centre below (with no natural light and lots of computers) the place was jumping. Maybe things are different during the week and, of course, all the uni students are still on holiday but I had that strange melancholy feeling you get when you feel you may well be witnessing the end of an era...

Do You Remember Bruce?

Traveller, bon vivant, writer, collector, fantasist - Bruce Chatwin was my literary idol in the late 80s/early 90s. I was at university at the time studying archaeology and art history dreaming of becoming a curator (perhaps after I'd travelled the world and written a book or two) so you can see why Bruce was my man.

Chatwin was a bit of a literary rock star at the time, 'feted for his looks as much as his books'. A true renaissance man he worked at Sotheby's as a porter as a young man and quickly earned a reputation for having 'the eye'. He became one of the youngest ever directors of the venerable auction house before leaving to study archaeology and pursue a career in writing. When he resigned from his job at the Sunday Times he reputedly sent a telegram simply stating, 'Gone to Patagonia for six months'. Knowing Chatwin this is probably an apocryphal tale - he was never the most reliable of narrators.

His first book, 'In Patagonia', ostensibly a travel book, is a slippery beast (as much fantasy as fact) and although the bookstores are now groaning with books of 'faction', Chatwin was one of the first writers to really push those boundaries. He took this to new heights in 'Songlines', the book he wrote in 1987 about his travels in Australia and his theories on nomadism. After that I remember waiting with bated breath for the release of his subsequent books and I felt the same way when I heard about the recent release of 'Under the Sun: Letters of Bruce Chatwin'.

It's been 20 years since Chatwin died from complications associated with HIV/AIDS. He was only 48. Unlike his contemporaries Iain McEwan, Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie who have been able to cement their reputations and ensure their legacies Chatwin was really only at the beginning of his career. Perhaps his early death and the fact that his books are devilishly difficult to categorise (his novels are punctuated with arcane facts and his travel/ autobiography/ history works often reads like fiction) helps explain why he has slipped into relative obscurity? I haven't read any Bruce for many years and I hope they really do stand up to the test of time. I think it's time I found out - perhaps you'd like to join me? Do you remember Bruce?

Let the book wrangling begin...

Look at my lovely new bookcase. Tom made it a few weeks ago as part of our book wrangling project. Books have always been a bit of an issue in our house(s). With over 3,000 books between us we have so many 6 ft bookcases scattered throughout the house that we've basically run out of wall-space. That means limited opportunities to hang any kind of artwork, mirror, photos or whatever else it is that 'normal' people put on their walls. It also makes the place a bit dark.

This new floor-to-ceiling bookcase takes books from almost 3 of our standard IKEA bookcases so we now have a bit of breathing space in the house especially in the entry hall. Now we just need to re-paint the room and the bookcase the same colour (so that the bookcase recedes into the wall) then build 3 or 4 more. Once we've got this lot under control I'm planning on adopting the one in/one out principle to make sure we don't end up back where we started. How hard could that be??

Spoilt rotten...

Originally uploaded to Flickr by Theresa Thompson

Yesterday was my birthday and I had a lovely quiet day at home playing lego with Henry, reading and having a little nanna nap. Not that exciting for a birthday but as we tend to celebrate birthdays over a few days rather than just on the big day I felt free to do whatever I wanted. I think it's a lovely way to do things and as we all have October/ November birthdays it pretty much guarantees days full of happy celebrations from now until Christmas!

Birthday celebrations started Friday night when I got home from work to find two lovely cumquat trees in half-barrel tubs on the verandah. Saturday we had dinner at a great local restaurant (they are few and far between in out neck of the wood). We had Red Snapper with celeriac remoulade and grilled asparagus; chicken roasted with fresh thyme and served with a quinoa salad; slow cooked lamb meatballs and homemade dips and breads. For dessert we had caramelised popcorn sticks with chocolate amaretti dipping sauce and an amazing creation called a 'Ginger Wagon Wheel' which consisted of two pieces of chocolate-edged gingerbread sandwiched with fluffy marshmellow and a shock of glace ginger paste in the centre - sensational. No kids menu, starched white napkins and great coffee. When we got home I was given this book:

On Monday my friends at work took me out for afternoon tea with homemade banana cake and last night we celebrated again with chocolate ripple cake and more books. I've been coverting these for a while now...

You can have a bit of a look inside 'Recipes From An Italian Summer' here and Tessa Kiros' new book here. Talk about spoilt rotten...

Pin-up Girls

I recently finished reading 'Our Girls: Aussie Pin-ups of the 40s and 50s' by Madeleine Hamilton, a fascinating account of the women who posed for pin-up photos both during and after World War II. The book looks at the changing motivations of these women and is full of wonderful details of the era gleaned from first-hand accounts, fan letters, photographs, newspapers and magazines.

What comes through most strongly during the Second World War section is that many girls posed for photographs out of a sense of 'patriotic duty'. These girls were not models but ordinary girls who were seen as representing 'the flower of our young womanhood' - fit, tanned, simple and direct. These were different, pre-feminist times. Names and addresses were published alongside photographs of pin-up girls and many girls recieved mail from servicemen both in Australia and overseas. Some were 'adopted' as company mascots and entered into routine correspondence with soldiers. They also received lots of local fan-mail which some girls found amusing -others found it intrusive.

After the War things changed somewhat. Some girls decided to pursue fashion and photographic modelling professionally although for most girls the beauty and beach contests sponsored by local newspapers during the 1950s merely represented a moment in time between 'girlhood and marriage'. Addresses continued to be published and girls continued to recieve fan-mail. Looking through some family photos yesterday I came across just such a letter! It was dated 6 May 1963 and was addressed to my 22 year old mother (before she met Dad). It was from a boy called 'Les' and starts:

'I hope that you will forgive me for writing this letter to you but I saw your photograph in 'The Herald' last week and as I will be in Melbourne next week I am taking the liberty of inviting you to come to the pictures with me on Thursday evening.'

The letter goes on with Les explaining a little about himself and suggesting that they meet in front of the Myer department store in Bourke Street at 7.30pm (I'm not sure whether or not the newspaper mentioned that Mum worked at Myer or whether it was just a convenient central meeting place). I'm pretty sure Mum would not have turned up for the date and I wonder what my grandparents would have made of it.

Ah, the secret life of parents!

In Praise of Nannies

Images sourced from:

1 the Angry Pre-Med Student 2. tvtropes. org 3. gerlily

As a child I often wondered what it would be like to have a nanny. Not just any nanny mind you - not like those absent-minded nannies in 'Peter Pan' who leave their charges behind in Kensington Gardens - I mean a magical nanny like Mary Poppins, Phoebe Figalily or Nanny McPhee.

From a child's point of view the greatest drawback of parents is surely that they are always so busy - not now darling, in a minute sweetie - whereas a nanny's sole reason for being is to pay attention to you! Imagine if that nanny could also clean up your bedroom with the click of her fingers, take you on outings through chalk drawings or make your pet donkey dance - bliss.

My first nanny-crush was undoubtedly Mary Poppins (of the Julie Andrews variety). Her bottomless carpet-bag, magical umbrella and extremely turned out feet fascinated me. Next came Phoebe Figalily (Juliet Mills) in the the 1970s television show, 'Nanny and the Professor'. Do you remember her? Unlike Mary Poppins, Phoebe Figalily's magic was less showy - no magic umbrella or stick just an uncanny ability to foretell the future.

Nanny McPhee is a recent but very welcome acquaintance. Like Mary and Phoebe she has that wonderfully British ability to remain calm in a crisis and turn seemingly impossible situations to her advantage. I also love the way they empower their charges to come to their own conclusions. All three have an air of mystery about them - where did they come from and how long have they been around? Of course we will never know and perhaps it's not that important anyway. I just can't wait until the wind changes again bringing Mary Poppins back to Melbourne.