Matching Pegs

I have been writing and rewriting this post all week…

Andrew Denton’s interview show “Enough Rope” has a slogan, “Everyone has a story”.

Last week he touched on my story, my family’s story.

Among the stories of celebrities, Andrew shows us stories that do not get much coverage. Last Monday his show was called “Angels and Demons” and was about living with mental illness. I have a close family member who has schizophrenia, and other members of the extended family who have this nasty illness as well.

Andrew treated the people that he spoke to with dignity, and let them tell their stories in their own words. Together with the people he spoke to, he shone some light on to what living with “Angels and Demons” can be like. The more people that talk about this, the better. We need to break down some of the stigma that gets heaped upon people that already have enough to deal with.

I am profoundly grateful that Andrew and the Enough Rope team have made this show.

I don’t really want to say more here on this blog, as this blog is really a place for me to show my creations, but wanted to publicly acknowledge Andrews contribution, and my gratitude.

The Matching Pegs family spent the Easter Break with the extended family, up in Luke’s small hometown in the vicinity of Bendigo. For Easter Lunch there were 12 adults and 9 kids, and lots of good food and chocolate (Many thanks to Luke’s Mum and Dad for hosting us all). It was a lovely way to spend Easter; watching all of our children run around together, playing backyard cricket and playing in the dirt/dust. It is a very dry part of the world at the moment, but oh the serenity! These photos were taken on the front lawn one evening while the sun was setting.

We spent Easter Monday watching the Bendigo Easter Festival Gala Parade which is now in it’s 138th year. Bendigo is a gold mining town, with a rich cultural heritage, particularly from the Chinese immigrants during it’s gold rush. The Parade first featured a Chinese section in 1893, and has ever since.

It features the worlds longest imperial dragon, Sun Loong, (clearly I could not fit him into even two photos) who was made in to replace the old dragon, Loong. Loong, (the oldest imperial dragon in the world) got too old and frail to be used, but remains in the collection of the Golden Dragon Museum in Bendigo.

During the 1880′s as a result of the Gold Rush, Bendigo was considered the wealthiest city in the world, and the evidence of this is still there to see, in the grand nature of the historical buildings. It is a magnificent city to visit, and I have links there through my Grandmother (whose father was the Mayor) as well as my husband.

Anyway, enough history, here are some more parade photos….

These ladies were Amelia’s favorite part of the parade, while Rory loved Sun Loong and Michaela loved “The Daddy Dragon”. This is one final sunset photo, because I couldn’t resist.

What did you do for Easter?

This is the lovely bouquet that I carried on Saturday. I am amazed that it is still alive after the temperatures that we have been experiencing (considering it is officially Autumn). This morning it is already 33 degrees C ( 91.4 degrees F) with a forecast of 39 C (102.2 F), much like yesterday and quite a bit of last week. Adelaide has experienced a record number of days above 35 degrees C (95 F), and Melbourne, while not quite as bad, is feeling it as well (for readers elsewhere, it is dry heat, not humid).

On Saturday, it was 35 degrees C during the wedding, but the church was surely hotter, (no air-con) and we spent a few hours out in the heat having photos. The bouquet doesn’t even have any brown petals and it was out of water all day.

Anyway, enough boring facts…

This is Alison returning from the hairdressers on Saturday morning with her flowers and veil in place. I did her make-up, and all she was missing at this point was the lipstick and matching dress! I think she looks amazing in both her before and after (yesterday’s post).

Michaela was adorable, and this shot is in the church just after the ceremony, can you tell that she is hot?

Just indulge me a little now, this last photo is of my Hollywood hair (big) after I took out the very large handfull of hairpins (my hair was up in a low curly sort of bun, each curl individually pinned in place). It is as close as I ever get to curly hair (apart from a perm back at the start of the 90′s which we won’t go into).

Alison and Scott have had their big day. This is Alison with Hailey (Scott’s niece), Michaela and Amelia before the ceremony.

Here I am with the girls who had just been given a teddy bear each as a thank-you from the bride and groom.

This is my only shot of Rory, who was busy being a photographer on the day. The following shots were taken by him (with his unique perspective and composition).

The Happy couple after the service, joined by the brides attendants, Eng Seng, Manelle, the girls and I, (sorry Eng Seng, a tree got in the way).

Colin, Father of the Bride (and of course my father).

Unfortunately, as I was not in charge of the camera, and Luke had his hands full with the kids, I do not have any photos of the rest of the family or the rest of the bridal party (sorry Mum, you looked amazing). However, thanks to Rory, I do have this lovely shot of my wonderful husband, who posed for the same photos, in the same spot with me, almost 10 years ago. I love you Luke.

…In Our Front Garden Bed*.

These are just beginning to come out, in the garden bed against the house. I think that they are Salvias, but I am not sure, they were grown from a cutting I was given.

I just love the colour of them up against our Terracotta bricks.

They are coming in to bloom to replace the Hydrangeas which occupy the same bed, that have browned off in the heat of summer and been pruned back.

The last time they looked any good was New Years Eve, when I cut most of the blooms off before the mercury hit 42 degrees C (107.6 degrees F). The hydrangeas get the first lot of water from the shower, (that cold stuff that comes out while you wait for the water to warm up) almost every morning, except when it rains.

* Purple patch seems to mean different things in different countries. I have always understood it to mean a period of excellent performance, where nearly everything seems to go right, work properly, and contrasting with a more general lower level of performance, but to some it means period of ostentatiously erratic or bad behaviour.

……Sorry.

Finally a very important day has arrived. The New Prime Minister has apologised to the Stolen Generations* for the government policy that removed so many aboriginal children from their families, purely on the basis of their race.

Today I feel so much better about calling myself an Australian.

Here are some details on myths about the Stolen Generations and information that busts those myths courtesy of Get Up. The following is taken from that same document.

*Who are the stolen generations? The term ‘Stolen Generations’ refers to Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Australians who were forcibly removed from their families and
communities by policies of government, welfare and church authorities as children and
placed into institutional care or with non-Indigenous foster families. The forced removal of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children began as early as the mid 1800s and
continued until the 1970s.

The apology? A central recommendation of the 1997 ‘Bringing Them Home’ report was the
need for a national apology to those individuals and their families and communities affected
by past policies of removal. Members of the Stolen Generations have indicated that
recognition by the Government that the policies were wrong would help in addressing the
trauma and suffering that they have experienced. The need for a national apology is also
regarded as an important component of the broader reconciliation process between
Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

This evening is one of those evenings where the light is a very strange colour, making eveything look otherworldly. The air is humid and still, and the sky is all different colours, some parts of it look almost green. It was impossible to catch on camera.

This photo looks like I have messed with the colour balance, but it is pretty true to life.

Yesterday found me in the lovely little town of Loch for their annual Quilt Hanging. It was a very warm humid day, so it was extremely pleasant to wander around slowly without my offspring. I was so caught up in the now, that I barely took any photos to capture the event (not necessarily a bad thing, but leaves this post looking a little bereft). Here is one shot that I quickly snapped of the Post Office.

The town really rises to the occasion, there were quilts on almost all of the shops and public buildings, and many eateries to refuel in. My mother, her friend Kaye and I had a lovely lunch is the colourfully named “Hard Loch Cafe”.

There was quite a good display of historic quilts in one of the halls, which was really interesting, but my best photo was of the ceiling decorations, which I thought were just beautiful.

Here is a detail of a quilt I was particularly taken with. According to the notes (that I no longer have) this was a first quilt by the maker, who confessed to having had a little help from her mother. My apologies to this quilter that I do not have her details to record here.

I really loved the colour combinations, such a delicate green.