G'day, people.
Linda, I'm glad you got some good rest. I hope your planned family barbecue is not rained out. There's something about fresh air that gives you an appetite.
Sharon, I hope your tomatoes grow well. Don't forget to pinch out the terminall shoots in the basil well before it flowers. And keep the water up to it. A good pinch of potash is great for tomatoes; otherwise, treat 'em mean. If you fertilise tomatoes they just get leafy, without much fruit.
There's nothing like biting into a fully ripe tomato, still warm from the sun. I studied for my final high school exams on tomatoes - I would take a bowl to the garden and pick about a dozen tomatoes, then take the bowl to my room with a salt shaker, open my textbooks, and just read - while eating tomatoes!
Today was a classic Sydney winter's day. Yes, we even had rain - not much, but a constant misty drizzle. The sky was dark, like a day-long dusk. When we woke this morning difficult child 3 was working out with Wii Fit, he's really enthusiastic about it and I'm sure it will do him good.
husband & I decided to get mother in law to come and visit for one of our relaxing Sundays. I got difficult child 3 started on more schoolwork then followed husband down to mother in law's, where husband was helping move furniture to mop the last of the puddles from Thursday morning's super storm and minor flood.
On the way I wondered about our artist friend - today is the first Sunday of the month and Open Day for our village artists, his mural should be finished. It's been commissioned by the Malaysian government and is a history of Malaysia - a multicultural massive portrait of many people in one country. As I passed his studio I saw a sign - the mural is on display in the village hall (the only building around big enough to hold the entire assembled mural).
So we grabbed mother in law and drove down to see it. It was even more impressive than I expected. They have worked on this for the last year, the mural in a dozen pieces. His studio is not quite big enough to hold the whole assembled mural, so they needed one last session with it all in one piece, to get it all matching up properly and to add extra colour here and there, to make sure it looked like one mural and not 12 connected paintings. Because the hall gets used so much (including church on Sunday night) they only had a few days to do this final work. There are three artists altogether - our neighbour Jai Wei Shen, his wife Lan Wang and a friend of theirs Wang Xu (sp?). Today we at last saw their signatures. The mural is on display here on Tuesday, then it goes in to Sydney University for a week or so, then to its destination in Malaysia.
I was telling easy child 2/difficult child 2 about the mural. "It goes from here to Sydney Uni, then on to Malaysia."
She said, "Wow, that IS a big mural."
I have to tell the artists that one!
So on a cold, wintry Sydney day we have seen something rare and very special, as well as had a sense of the sunshine and colour of a tropical country.
They were supposed to take the mural down for the church service tonight, but as soon as the pastor saw it she asked the artist to leave it up and instead, to come along to the service and tell them all about it. "We'll just squeeze ourselves in on the other side of the hall," she said.
There is something really wonderful about living in a surprising place like our village. Behind every door there is the chance of finding rare and individual talent. But maybe that goes for everywhere?
Enjoy your Sunday, everyone.
Marg