Thomasina’s last waltz

’Twas on a Friday morning…

…the electrician came.

Actually, it was Friday afternoon and the fuse attached to the elderly wiring for my ceiling lights had blown. We established via scientific method that I still had functioning lights in my sunroom, kitchen, lounge room and office; the problem was somewhere in the cable for the bedroom and bathroom. What happened next I’m not sure, but I believe it involved a circuit breaker and more scientific method. I now have no lights anywhere until Tuesday, possibly Thursday.

As someone reminded me, all this sounded rather like the Flanders and Swann classic, The Gasman Cometh, which I give you here in a charming Lego animation by Rick:

 

It's time

I have a November ritual, now approaching seven years old. I write off to an architectural bookshop in Seattle, Peter Miller, and order Pentagram Classic Typographic calendars: a small one for the office, a huge one for my hallway at home.

These are beautiful. No pictures, just a single typeface per month, with a small paragraph about the typographer and the origins and heritage of the face. (This month it's Skia, developed for Apple in 1994).

The Pentagram blog points out that the used months make very nice wrapping paper. It scares me to think that I was doing this long before they mentioned it.

Creation Envy

Something I wish I had made...

I saw this gorgeous yellow and black wool mantle at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. It's by a French designer, Paul Poiret (1879–1944). I bought a postcard, thinking that one day I might try to copy its deconstructed kimono styling. But I never did. Or at least I haven't yet! More detail about the mantle can be found on the V&A website at this link. And the Metropolitan Museum of Art offers more background about Poiret here and here. (The Met has included some fascinating video animations showing how Poiret manipulated linear fabric into incredible draped and spiralled designs on the mannequins themselves, eschewing the traditional method of shaping garments from cut pattern pieces.)

Issey Miyake springs to mind as a contemporary manifestation of the technique. And in fact there is an Issey Miyake for Vogue jacket (the one at the bottom on the left), which I've also yet to make, that is in much the same spirit!

Frock

This month I discovered American lexicographer Erin McKean via an entertaining presentation that she did for TED. You can see in the video that she's wearing a fantastic frock, and it so turns out that she's also a dressmaker and the author of A Dress a Day.

The upshot? I've been motivated to buy a dress pattern: this one (it's called a "duro"). Haven't made anything for years, but why not start with something simply gorgeous? Think I'll make it my project for late March/April.

Miserabubble

It's silly to feel affection for plants, I know, but today I mourn the loss of a feisty lavender bush that was striving to grow in my front garden. The landlord sent around a mower man. Well and good. But clearly being able to mow lawns doesn't necessarily make one capable of identifying plants (as opposed to grass, for example, or weeds). And so my little lavender bush fell victim to the whipper snipper and is no more.

(It's true that the roots, some growth close to the ground and three leaves survived. But it's high summer and I fear it won't recover to grow again.)

December Blooms

One of the fun things about renting is seeing what emerges in the garden during the first year.

Operation Undine

Mission accomplished! I have finally acquired a six-month pass for the local pool. I only have to swim once every four or five days to make it worth the investment, and, of course, I plan to swim quite a bit more often than that!

What I really need is an adult stroke-correction course. But in the meantime, I'll brush up on the fantastic tips that I found a while back at this (Swiss) website, featuring photos and footage from some great (Aussie) swimmers! There's a lot of interesting stuff about front quadrant swimming and efficient freestyle technique. And some simple but alarmingly effective strategies such as 'swimming downhill'.

And while on matters Swiss...

I've also recently come across a nice set of podcasts containing Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lessons that have been developed specifically for musicians — those of us who make a sound using the breath or even just have to sit and stand in awkward positions for hours at a time. The practitioner is an American trombonist, John Tarr, living in Basel. You can visit the Dynamic Musician Series website or pick up the podcasts from iTunes (search Feldenkrais) or directly here. Do listen to the short introductory podcast if you've not done Feldenkrais before.

SBB CFF FFS: Swiss Rail in German, French and Italian respectively. If you go to their site, there are some deliciously nerdy screensavers, as well as a Mac widget, all featuring the classic (and infallible) Swiss railway clock.

Amaryllis

This amaryllis is already blooming. The spear-like stem is the best part of 80cm tall, and all the wind on the weekend has meant that it can't quite cope with the weight of the flowers. I've tied it up to the fence for some support.

Ikebana attempt

It's spring in Sydney and time to try my hand at Ikebana using the beautiful vase I was given last year.

In my garden I have inherited a lopsided white rose in a pot, a stand of parsley plants, furiously flowering, an African daisy that brings me out in a rash, a kind of tiger lily, an unknown blossoming shrub, a curious spreading succulent, an aloe plant, masses of clivia and an impressive array of amaryllis (or hippeastra), which looked exceedingly phallic until recently when they began to flower. Courtesy of the neighbours I enjoy an old frangipani tree, an umbrella tree, and a climber with a yellow flower, possibly carolina jessamine.

To suit my own tastes I've installed two lavender bushes (one front and one back), some lamb's ear or stacchys (so gorgeous to touch!) and a NSW native flannel flower. And I've added a climber of my own on a bare bit of fence: a potato vine.