Clivias and pockets

My patience and neglect was well worth the ten year wait. 

This clivia is the only healthy thing in my dry, dry garden at the moment.

Something else that has been neglected of late has been my sewing - but that's all a-changing.

Here's some organised chaos as I create new iphone::go-card pockets. I shall post progress shots once I fire up the Bernina.

Sunny Sundays

I'm really enjoying these September week ends. The days are getting longer and the weather is more enjoyable for picnics in the park. My thoughts are also turning to my garden. I am looking forward to planting some new flowers and setting some of my pot-bounds 'free'. 

I love this time of the year when the plants surprise me with their flowers. One day they're just a regular-joe plant, the next the brighten up my balcony with their beautiful flowers. 

I came upon my surprise of the month when I was pushing my garden back onto, well, the garden, after the bush turkeys had spread it everywhere else ... my Clivia looks like it might treat me to a burst of orange this year. It's been there in the corner of my garden, hiding amongst the showy hippeastrums, ne'er a bloom to be seen. Whether it's the previous good rains or the latest dry spell, or maybe the planets have suitably aligned? It's not mine to question why. Maybe my run of neglect has paid off again?

To finish off the week end, we had a baby-shower-high-tea + frisbees + badminton. Best games *I've* ever played at a baby shower, hands down!

The winner was Syd-den-ney

I had a recent trip to Sydney to spend time with 2,300 of my closest dietitian friends. One of my most favourite parts of the conference, aside from attending lectures by clever people with whom I became familiar from looking at their names on the spines of our text books, was a plenary session on the final day by a Japanese presenter. We learnt about Shokuiku, the law where every school must have a dietitian (yay!) - not to cook the food (!), but to advise on nutritious school menus and incorporate nutrition education in to the children's days. Sorry for the poor quality of these photos, but they were snapped in the talk ... 

In this school (?all/?most) schools, the food comes from local, named families. 

These kids got a kick out eating their own handiwork. 

And local famers regularly spoke with kids to provide context and the background process to their school meal production. Do you know where *your* lunch leeks come from?

After the conference I spent a few days pottering around Sydney. I made tracks to the State Library of NSW. My beeline was to see the wonderful Patrick White exhibition. It contained some of his (believed to be burned) papers, plenty of photographs, early edited manuscripts, and even some of his old recipes.... You've got until the 28th October to see it. Do yourself a favour! 

Patrick and his cat, Tom Jones.

We also popped in to Aria for a spot of tea one night.

And took the ferry across to Milson's Point for another quick snack.

To fill in time before going out to the airport I explored the new wing of the Museum of Contemporary Art. I apologise in advance that I didn't take down any of the artists names, but if you like the look of any of these pieces, I'd recommend a trip to Circular Quay to check it out.

MCA entrance

Having bad cakes and coffee on the 4th floor cafe I was reminded how beautiful Sydney was (even with 'the Toaster' featuring so prominently).