May 2020 Part 2

 Early February, after much angst about whether to fly to New Zealand or be forced to stay home due to drought or other medical reasons, we actually boarded the flight and arrived in Queenstown NZ . The weather was rainy leaving Brisbane.

 Flying into Queenstown we were pleased to see ice on the mountain tops and no rain.

 One of the lakes around Queenstown.

 The Alps as we sped around the South Island in our tiny hire car.

 This was the best steak place we could find in Queenstown. They recycle bicycles over there.

 Lake TeAnu is on the way to Milford Sound. We had not planned on visiting Milford Sound , just as well , as some days before we went, a bridge was washed away in torrential rain.

 This is the southern shore of the South Island, a bit windswept.

 I just loved these trees. They are permanently twisted and bent from the gales.

 Bluff is the town at the southern most tip of the South Island. There is a small 3rd Island off the coast which is quite popular with hikers.

 From the southern edge we drove up to Dunedin and up to the Albatross centre in the Otago area. We were lucky to see the changeover between Mum and Dad, sitting with their chick. A fascinating journey to learn about them.

 In Dunedin, we wandered through the Botanic Gardens, the trees seemed to grow better over there. This is an old Bunya Pine, of cultural significance to us as we had some growing at our previous farm.

 Further up the East Coast we found these boulders at Moeraki.

 Then we changed direction and headed west to Wanaka across the centre of the Island.This was a hydro electricity dam .

 We spent a night at Wanaka before driving up to Franz Josef Glacier. We went for a valley hike and also managed a flight up to land on the glacier, before the weather closed in and all flights were stopped.

 An action shot of crossing the freezing water, even though the air temperature was warm. The colour of the valley was grey but in a good way.

 The tourist strip of Franz Josef.

 From there we went to the beach on the West Coast.

 Back into Franz Josef for our afternoon flight in the helicopter to the glacier. This is down on the town landing area. A stroll from the tourist strip.

 From there we drove up to Greymouth for the night, and visited Shantytown, an old historical mining village display. They had a very good rocks and minerals collection in amongst their buildings. The place  was starting to feel the effects of the coronavirus on tourism as they usually have busloads of Chinese tourists and we were welcomed with the words " we HAVE some customers this Sunday morning " indicating they were struggling then. I would hate to see how they are surviving now as it is mostly run by volunteers I think.

 From there we headed into Christchurch, and detoured into Hanmer Springs. We drove over this old wooden/metal bridge. Jet boats operate in the river below. We had seen  the famous Shotover one near Queenstown on our first day in NZ too. We both decided if we get a chance to go back, we would spend more time at Hanmer Springs.

 Along the road to Christchurch we drove past these rocks, I think they are limestone but could be wrong.

 Christchurch is still rebuilding after the earthquake some years back now. I doubt if all of the buildings will be retained. There are plenty of car parking areas where buildings have been demolished and decisions no doubt to be made as to what is built there next.

 This was the peaceful scene in the Botanic Gardens in Christchurch.

 This was the view as we prepared to take off on the homeward bound flight. The only rain we saw the entire trip was overnight at Greymouth after our helicopter flight. We would like to visit again, we were hoping to hop across for a weekend in mid winter to Queenstown just so we could experience the cold. Now because of the current virus restrictions it may never happen. It might also then be too costly. I think some of us will be doing more lengthy and detailed cost/benefits analysis in future about spending.

Back home, we settled in to find we had more good rain while we were away to ease the drought pressures.. My father in law was moved into nursing care while we were away, so changes happened there too.  Our furry grand dog moved in for a planned 4 week stay while his Mum took off in early March for a trip to Sri Lanka and India. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit us. I might continue with that story into Part 3. Till then, take care.

May 2020 Part 1

 It has been awhile since I decided to do battle with technology and download photos from iPad to Laptop to visit blogger again. I will start with October 2019. This lovely granddaughter arrived right on schedule and has been a delight for us all. She is now nearly 7 months old, and  in these coronovirus times we have not seen much of her lately to see her and the other grandchildren growing.

 At the same time as we were welcoming her to the family, I had some massive work changes happening. We had been promised by the Qld Govt for a new laboratory after the dental clinic moved off campus in 2015, well it became a reality in 2019. The above photo is part of the new area before more equipment moved in.

 This was the view back into the existing section which was then remodelled to become more of our new space. We had to endure 3 months of walking between the 2 ends of the building, which was sometimes inconvenient at 3 o'clock in the morning as the first floor corridor was blocked off. It kept us fit I suppose. We finally moved us all back together in January 2020. A few problems since, eg.  a deluge from the ceiling in a heavy downpour was when we discovered a few issues with the roof. It certainly has made social distancing at work much easier as we are not as cramped as we were.

 I still have been doing some sewing, I was supposed to be working on artwork for 3 exhibitions this year. One has been postponed already, not sure about the other 2, wait and see I suppose.

 In November, I was lucky to spend a weekend on Hamilton Island with my youngest daughter who attended a wedding there. I went off on a tour to Whitehaven while she attended the wedding.

 We stayed in one of those tall buildings, I think it was the 2nd from the left. My bridesmaid from 35 years ago, a dear Uni friend jetted down from the North to catch up with us.  It was so good to see her as a road trip takes a few days.

Little missy was about 7 weeks old when this was taken.

 All has not been doom and gloom though, I have been slowly persisting with the doors. This was the start on number 9 out of 10. I have since puttied in the missing window pane, the door has been stained, and just needing more coats of varnish after the putty hardens a bit more.

 The drought in November/December and January hit us a bit. I discovered that wallabies do not like eating lime trees. Most other citrus had their leaves eaten. You can see in the background how bare the earth got.

 This is the view of home from the front gate. Even the weaners we had around the house were depressed. They just seem to mope around, finding bits to eat. Lucky we had enough water though we were digging in the sand in one paddock. We ended up sacrificing some though as we managed to get the spring fed dam desilted about a week before some lovely rain started.

 This was the piece I started working on in a previous photo. I am glad to say it is now finished except for a hanging sleeve. I wanted to make it for the November exhibition so no rush as they say. I ended up changing a fabric out of this test arrangement.

 I used some offcuts from the previous quilt and made an overlay out of this piece. I hope to get a move on and take some photos of the finished pieces soon and hopefully can upload some of them.

 Back to the work renovations. In January we move Microbiology into its new home. I spent 2 extra days at work helping them shift. I managed a photo of the old after all of the incubators ( 6 of them) and various other bulky items were gone. Over the last 34 years I have spent a considerable amount of time in that corner, it was a bit sad to say goodbye but it is progress as they say.

Back to the house renovations, this is one of my finished doors. I think this is number 6. So hopefully soon I will have 10 of these done.
 February saw us, trying to decide whether we should fly off to New Zealand as planned for 9 days. The drought, the  developing coronavirus situation and the health of a parent were considerable angst for us. We decided to go, and we got safely home again, mid February. I will continue with Part 2 as soon as possible. Till then, take care in this Covid-19 world.

Batik and Beyond

 Hello again! Surprised to be back. I spent most of July suffering from the rampant winter colds and flu. A flu A strain has  mutated this season and a lot of people including myself caught it. The authorities said the vaccine helped to make you suffer not too much, well I would have hated to not have had the vaccine. I seemed to spend most of winter feeling terrible.
I did have another Java Batik trip to look forward to in September.
Monday Sept 10 saw a group of us waiting at the airport ( you guessed it Virgin delayed the flight again 6 hours this time!) for our flight into Bali. Finally got there close to midnight.

 My school friend Georgina was on the trip too, she is also an avid swimmer, so we swam  in the rooftop pool the next morning before our flight into Java with Garuda Airlines.

 Arriving at Yogyakarta airport for our trip to Solo Baru.

 Along the way we visited Borobudor and Prambanam temples for a history lesson and sightseeing.

 Solo Baru (Surakarta) is one centre of batik making in Indonesia. We went to a different factory from the one I was at on my last visit. This one was more modernised and run very efficiently by very nice people. This, was to me, the most important bench in the place. The dyemaster and his apprentice work here, calculating the dyes and weights for 5 metre lengths for the colours we selected. There are seven dyes used to make all of the combinations possible. I haven't included photos of the process as I do not want to breach any copyright rules from that factory.

 We visited a different factory where a different process is used, being a combination of stamping, painting, tjanting and over dying. This is more traditional than what we know in our commercial fabric we purchase here in Aus.

 This is the overdying pieces " cooking in the sun" and the finished pieces drying on the poles.

 My bundle of 50 metres of fabric. We started with white fabric. Selected a colour/colours to go under the wax stamp, this was the first dye, treated with waterglass, dried, stamped with the tjap (waxed), discharged to remove the unwaxed dye, dyed with the second colour/colours, treated with waterglass, boiled to remove the wax and finally dried. Commercial fabrics also are treated with a sizing conditioner and folded and pressed onto a bolt for sale. So it is a lengthy process but so worth the colours. We did wander around the street where the factory was and we found one screenprinting about 60 metres fabric in minutes. So we saw many different ways of batik making. I also purchased one more art piece to add to my collection. A visit to a Tjap maker and the markets where I purchased a couple of old tjaps, and the Batik Museum of the royal family were also highlights of the trip.

 After the 4 days we became tourists and went up to mountains to Lake Telarga Serangan. We went on a 3 km hike to find the waterfall we heard about on our last visit.

 3 of our group made it to the top,was very steep and very interesting.

 Along the way were small huts and farms like this. It is a very popular tourist attraction, with pathside stalls selling bottles of water and Pocari Sweat. They were most welcome as it was a very hot day.

 This was one of two enterprising Javanes men. He offered to take a photo of the 3 of us at the top. We declined as we thought how could he deliver them. When we rejoined our group lower down the hill, here he was offering to take a photo of us again. He has ridden past us on his scooter ( the path is about 1 metre wide) and waited for us with the rest of the group. So we parted with $1 each and watched our photos being printed from this Canon printer. The other guy sold bamboo walking sticks on the way up and collected them on the way down.

 Georgina and I left the group 2 days early and jetted into Darwin for a friend's 60th birthday. This is about the only photo I took.

 Virgin now has internet access on some flights, so I could post a copy of my trip progress to my husband waiting at the airport so he could estimate our arrival time better.

 Back home, feet firmly planted on the ground, survived the trip with no ill effects ( not like last time), the house was waiting. After a few days of sorting things out and unpacking, I thought I would start with small jobs as I had to be back at work in a few days as well. I had finally finished one set of doors with varnishing after sanding and staining and metal painting the knob plate.

 They look really good I think and am hoping they stand up to the weather for awhile. Now for the transom window above. I am thinking of painting in white on the inside, staining on the outside. From the inside you see the white aluminium screen doors. Still mulling but not quite sure yet. Will have to decide soon though.

I get back to work and we are about to move into our new renovated work space. The thing most concerning me was the lottery for our new lockers. Not the fact that now on a single operator shift we will be walking a LOT MORE due to the space, I really did not want to get a locker close to the floor as my knees would not have coped. I was so happy to see I got the 4th one along to the right on the Top Row!. I think it was rigged but have been told No, most of the people that got ones on the top are all tall with me probably the shortest. The only problem is my teacup now has further to fall so I envisage a few more broken ones. We move in by October 11th. I will then have worked in 3 different laboratories at the same site over 39 years, definitely time I retired.
I have received a reminder from the Wondai Art Gallery that I am having an Exhibition in Gallery 3 in November 2020, so the planning must start now. Bit scary I feel, there is a weaver booked for Gallery 1 and Elaine Madill ( the art gallery co-ordinator )thinks my quilts will "add to" their work and vice versa so I hope I can rise to the challenge of all that work ahead of me. Wait and see, hopefully I can plot some progress on here.