Pete's latest wheeze

For Christmas I received a couple of unexpected but delightful presents. woosang gave me a matched pair of wonderful blank books, their covers made of exotic wood, their pages made of richly textured hand-made paper. And Heather sent me a present of two gorgeous Indian puppets, a man and a woman, both exquisite in their rich clothing.

Oh Lord, I wondered, what on earth am i to do with these?

But the solution presented itself when I thought about it, and I registered both journals, one for Heather, one for Bruce. Who? Yes, I named the puppets after Heather and her partner.

Here's Heather's book. And Bruce's book.

What adventures will they have together and apart? Stay tuned and we'll see!

OK, this made me smile.

I gave in. It was SirRoy who dropped the bale of straw on my camel's back, and I jumped aboard the memewagon at http://books.guardian.co.uk/games/moodmatcher/0,5917,88087,00.html


Sometimes you just feel like getting away from it all - to some pure, solitary mountain top where you can wander, free as a bird... but if you're stuck behind a desktop instead, take some solace in this.


I wandered lonely as a cloud

I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
The stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee;
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company;
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth to me the show had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)

Pete, wistfully dreaming of distant places

Peggysmum

Peggysmum,
originally uploaded by skyring.

I was so pleased to see Peggysmum in her new BookCrossing t-shirt. She's a lot of woman to fit in, and the previous large sizes weren't big enough. So, many thanks to Heather for stocking the larger sizes.

Maybe there's only a few who need XXXXL sizes, but I'm hoping that the wave of gratitude from those who do is worth whatever overhead it takes.

I'm not joking when I say she is one of Canberra's treasures. I, for one, treasure every moment in her company.

She also handles the bulk orders for our group, and she handed me over a new supply of bags and stickers and bookplates. Heheheheh - I'm set for Dunedin, now!

Kangaroos at Australian War Memorial

Kangaroos at Australian War Memorial,
originally uploaded by skyring.

Coming back from Dickson this evening, I noticed a few roos grazing on the oval at my teenage son's high school. As it happened, I had my camera with me, and pulled over to take a few shots. These two are males, as may be visible to those with an interest, but I took some photographs of a mother and joey, and these can be seen on my Flickr page.