Upper photo: Okonomiyaki cafe in Hiroshima……November 2008

Lower photo: Okonomiyaki at Redcliffe jetty Markets March 2009

Can it really be three months since I last blogged!

I remember how when I first started (blogging) back about 2003/4 I religiously added ’something’ daily………..but these last seven months I’ve slipped badly.

Perhaps now that Summer is officially over (but the weather gods haven’t taken notice of the calendar!)

Things may cool down weatherwise and once again I’ll get back to my fabrics and fibre creations.

As a Category 4 cyclone “Hamish” is cruising southwards from FNQ (far north Queensland) and it has been suggested we start preparing “just in case”‘

I went shopping for a few staples ,then ventured on to wander through the Jetty Markets at Redcliffe.

A lovely day to be by the waterside….the Markets are in the parkland just above the beach,in an area dotted with lovely shady Norfolk pines.

Picture it!

All the tents dotted among the pines and displaying their colourful and delightfully perfumed wares……clothes (Bali style clothing so suited to our hot and steamy Summers)

Crafty things from beading,crocheting,decoupage……….

Food: Jams,olives,olive oil,avocado oils,turkish breads,homemade sweets,fruit,vegetables…………

For the soul…..scented candles,incense,essential oils

Greenish-blue water lapping at the creamy sand; The wonderful sounds of three

didgeridoo’s throbbing in harmony as one artist kept us entralled with his skill…..

Happy people enjoying the musician’s skill…..he was really “on song ” today.

And then I found it!

“Japanese foods”http://www.ii-na.com/

run by Kristy & Daisuke Mori.

So this very happy little vegemite had Okonomiyaki for lunch…………..and loved every mouthful.

For some reason some reason the photos insist on remaining at the top of the blog………….and I’m so rusty in blogging skills these days I have forgotten how to reposition them.

By the way……the bright pink garnish on the Redcliffe version is pickled ginger.

And now it’s 2009!

To my online friends I wish you a fullfilling and happy New Year.

These postcards are a few of the ones I will be featuring in a display at one of our local libraries.

The librarian chose the theme “Quilted postcards from around the world”

I prefer     ” Postcards from……………”

 

Nothing really startling in these: The first card features a piece of fabric I received in a fabric swap on “southerncrosscrazies” back about 2000.

(Hold onto anything long enough,and you’ll find the right use for it)

In this case I added some international stamps under black tulle,and achieved  the look I wanted.

The second pic features bits and bobs I purchased as souvenirs when visiting Japan.I have combined fabric with paper figures for “memories of Nippon”.

Finally,there are some Australian  fabrics used in a CQ format.There are many ex-pat English and Europeans  living in this area,and I hope they might like my  OZcards as wee souvenirs for their families and friends back ‘home’

……and it feels as I though I have accomplished so little in the past year.

Granted,by myself and my daughter needed to re-organise our lives after losses…..and 2008 was a time for healing and rediscovery of self.

Along the way my passion for fabric arts: quilting,embroidery and other fabric and fibre adventures went very much on the back burner,as family matters, attempting to learn Japanese and some travel took precedence.

Who knows what 2009  will cast my way?

I give thanks for my family and friends who were always there for support……you know who you are,and how much I appreciate what you did.

Some disapproved and discarded me: their choice.

As a younger friend said to me…….”what others think of you is their business;what you think of yourself is YOUR business”  (Thanks Marie)

Christmas this year was just my daughter,myself and her four legged fur babies……….sometimes it is so good to be able to dis-associate from the frenetic world!

 

I do hope to be back blogging more regularly,but I have learned that the world will not go off balance if I don’t….too often we are tied to events/blogging when there is no need.

Next Saturday,the weather gods permitting I’m having a day at the gliding club and hopefully having a few flights of a decent length.

Another model ,replicating the original Yumedono of the Horyu temple in Nara.

This piece was created in 1993 in commemoration of the centennial anniversary of cultured pearls

The Mikimoto Pearl island is just offshore from the city of Toba in the Mie prefecture.

It is reached from Tokyo by a four hour train trip

From Osaka,Kyoto its approximately a two hour train trip,and it costs Y 1,200 to access the island itself.

The Kokichi Mikimoto staue,built in 1953
,shows the Pearl King of latter years holding the Imperial Award,and wearing his trademark Yamataka hat and cape.

Oh! that’s me with one of the women divers.

The sign explains the model castle below…..the Himeji castle (Castle of the White Crane)

The entire model was created from thousands of first grade pearls.The intricacy of his work has to be seen to be appreciated

Mikimoto Island…..(the pearl island ) is situated just off the coast at Toba in the Ise-Shima National Park.

Mikimoto pearls were cultured for the first time in history using a method developed by Kokichi Mikimoto.

The Kokichio Mikimoto Memorial Hall was built in 1993 in commemoration of the centennial anniversary of cultured pearls.

It introduces through photos,refined pieces and audio visuals the often turbulent life and interests of the “Pearl King”.A man deeply devoted to his hometown of Ise_ Shima.As well as the Memorial Hal,there is shopping and dining in the Pearl Plaza,
and the Pearl Museum.

The lower phto shows the women divers preapring to give a demonstration of the techniques used in the 1950s to recover the pearl shell.

THE FINAL STAGE……

“Kampai” (Bottoms up /Cheers!)
Sake is no good until you savour it.. ………..the one sample we had,had,in my humble and uneducated opinion,had the kick of a mule!

Whether it was because it was freshly brewed and hadn’t matured sufficiently, or because it was refrigerated rather than ‘warm”,I don’t know………….but I wouldn’t willingly imbibe it.

Stirring the small vats

Balancing on the large vats and stirring the mixture

Sealing the drums of sake

The historical museum of the White Crane Sake at Hakutsuru, Kobe.
Thanks to Teruko and her friend Chikako-san we were able to visit the museum and see how sake is traditionally made.
We didnt actually see the modern production……only the tableau of the historical method

And these photos show the life sized figures depicting the stages of brewing sake :

the adding of rice to the vats

washing of the rice

stirring the rice