Kyle and Ordinary Happiness

I just found out that my cousin, Kyle, died yesterday. I've never lived near any of my relatives, so didn't see Kyle often. But Kyle always had the most warm and welcoming smile. I think she was someone who could find humor, joy, and love pretty much anywhere. And she bestowed it on others.

My Uncle Carl said that he and Marilyn believe Kyle "is running and jumping for joy in heaven with Jesus." I'm not sure this will make sense to anyone else, but that made me think of this moment of ordinary happiness and connection with Sylvia when she turned some concrete balls that prevent traffic from driving on the sidewalk into an occasion of joy. 

I see Kyle in Sylvia's smile at the end.

In The Garden This Morning

I have developed a fascination with the ferns unfurling. It happens so fast. You can come out a couple hours later, and they'll be six inches taller.

I think hibiscus are the definition of "bold."

The lime tree in our garden 

(I don't think they say "yard" here) has exactly two limes. They are both hard as rocks, so I suspect they needed to be picked awhile ago, but they make me happy when I look at them.

See that tiny bug on the petal? There's lots of insect life here. Whenever I wear thongs (that's British English for "flip flops") in the garden, my feet and ankles get chomped as if I suddenly presented the insects with a moveable Scandinavian smorgasbord.

And in the midst of all this flora. . .

a boozy almond knot and a flat white (decaf skim) - what's not to love?

[Okay, I know all you U.S. coffee drinkers want to know: a flat white is microfoam added to one or two shots of espresso. Microfoam is the steamed milk from the bottom of the pitcher. A skinny layer is then poured on top to give the drink a "flat white" appearance. A flat white has less milk than a latte and is twice as delicious.

So, I bet the visually astute among you are wondering, "why all the closeups?".

There's a reason, of course, beside the sheer gorgeousness of the plants. If I showed a more expanded view, you would see this: the washing machine that resides in the house's original privy (not hard to imagine, is it?),

the trash bins (I highly amused Sylvia's friend by calling them "garbage cans"),  and the. . .













hanging laundry. Our landlord's mum said that Aussies are "very wash and wear" and rarely use a dryer or iron. We're doing our best to fit in.


Back to some greenery:

Mint grows rampant in one section of the garden, and both Sylvia and I love nibbling on its leaves.

Refreshing!

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia

That's us! Looking at ourselves, reflected and refracted, in a stainless steel sculpture (Untitled 2012) by Anish Kapoor at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.

His work does not translate well to two-dimensional photos partly because it plays with subtle differences of color and light and partly because how his art looks depends so much upon where you are standing. Much of his sculpture seems very tactile and begs to be touched. And, in fact, people do. (Interestingly, it was the grown-ups who touched; not the kids). The many guards were very busy, and these signs were everywhere:

When I look at a picture book, one of the main questions I ask is "Does it change the reader/listeners/viewer's emotional temperature?" I think the same question could be asked about other visual art. The work in this exhibit definitely changed emotional temperatures. There were lots of animated, interesting conversations around us.

(Sylvia and Rick with Laboratory for a New Model of the Universe 2006, acrylic)

One of the guards gave Sylvia a pencil and pamphlet for answering questions and mostly drawing about Anish Kapoor's work. Sylvia was extremely engaged by this.

About half the works were created from stainless steel and played with illusion and perception. They were rather like a thoughtful, intellectual funhouse of mirrors.

In front of the museum is a stainless steel sculpture by Kapoor called Sky Mirror (2006).

Don't you think it's gorgeous? It's a concave mirror that reflects the sky, so what's visible is constantly changing. And believe me, the sky of Sydney never approaches stasis. The clouds are big, dramatic, and constantly shifting.

Here's the back of Sky Mirror. It reflects the museum, lawn, walkways, and the café. If you enlarge the picture, you'll see that Sylvia and I are reflected in it. (Sylvia is happily chatting away with her grandparents).

After experiencing the exhibit, we went up to the outdoor sculpture terrace (which has exactly one sculpture - the restaurant has taken over!). From there you can see harbor scenes like this one:

That's a cruise ship on steroids, the opera house, a flotilla of sail boats, and Fort Denison (the island).

We also looked down at the walkway and saw that a crowd had gathered, so I zoomed in to see what they were looking at. And fittingly enough, after an exhibit about space, perception, and illusion, we saw. . .

a street performer who had just squeezed herself into a small glass and metal box. (The bloke behind her in the striped shirt is an audience volunteer). How does one think of doing that? And then decide it's a good way to raise money? She had all the props - including a soundtrack. Sylvia wondered if maybe she was in circus school. 

Birds in Victoria Park

 Here's quartet of little corellas (a type of cockatoo). The top one is grooming its wing.
They congregate in what, I think, are fig trees.

All the corellas looked scruffier than the ones you see in zoos. They make a lot of noise. You can hear some of the screeching in the background of the clip below.

The funny thing about filming birds is that you have no idea if they are going to do anything "interesting." Apparently, many types of cockatoos chew on and even eat bark from trees to keep their beaks healthy and in the proper shape. However, this can cause damage to the tree if the flock of cockatoos is large enough.

This is a dusky moorhen or waterhen. The following clip is a little unfocused, but you can see what she looks like in action: (Hey, Penelope, I thought of you when I made these clips).

Australian white ibis are everywhere - even in Sylvia's schoolyard.

And this is a silver gull. Don't you love how it's tail feathers look polka-dotted?

These are a few of the birds I saw while walking through Victoria Park last Wednesday. Writing about them is a bit like writing about robins, sparrows, and blue jays in New England. All of them are very common here, but I find them all fascinating. I hope you do too.

Flower, Pool, & Tree

 Happy Valentine's Day! 

These are frangipani or plumeria. They are quite common here, but we had never seen them growing before.

 Frangipani grow in many of the yards here, including our own. They are a bit like rhododendron in New Haven - leggy or "architectural" (depending on your point of view). Then once in a while you see one and realize how stunning the entire plant can be. We saw the frangipani above on the way to Sylvia's swimming lesson yesterday.

Here she is with her swimming teacher. The pool is Olympic-sized. If you are swimming laps, you are supposed to sort yourself into the proper lane according to speed. We have discovered that people have widely variable interpretations of "slow" and "medium." 

The locker design is very functional and none of us had seen it before. It has shelves and room to hang up a shirt and jacket. To lock and unlock it, you key in whatever four numbers your want without using coins. Nifty.


Remember Aussies like abbreviations and diminutives? Well, even on their insignia above the pool, they abbreviate "university."

On the way home we stopped at a cemetery near our house where an enormous fig tree grows.
The tree was planted in 1848.

A

                                                                                                  


Right now we're reading The Enchanted Forest by Enid Blyton. Looking at this fig tree makes magic trees seem very realistic. Off the top of my head, I can think of Yggdrasil (the tree that held together the world in Norse mythology), The Magic Treehouse books, and The Swiss Family Robinson which didn't have a magic tree, but did have a magical-seeming treehouse. If you think of any other stories about enchanted, powerful trees, please let us know.

King Street Signs

I love King Street (the major business thoroughfare near us). Like most loves, this might be seen as irrational. King Street could be viewed as dirty, crowded, noisy, frenetic, and full of stores selling stuff, and who needs more stuff? But from my smitten perspective, King Street is colorful, lively, diverse, and vibrant.There are practically as many ethnic restaurants as there are countries.The small shops range from discount chemists (drugstores), to a button store (yep, it sells only buttons), to upscale clothing boutiques.  Plus it's even more fun to look at the people. I do not, however, have any photos worth sharing of people or buildings. Until then, take a look at some of the signs:

Every time I walk by this tattoo place, there is always somebody getting a tattoo.

Here you can see the awning that businesses hang their signs from. The awning is essential - either for shade or to get out of the rain.

How's that for a wide variety of businesses (and graphics)?

Clearly, someone was not happy about the fact that meat pies are sold here.

Sometimes juxtapositions are impossible to ignore.

We tried it. The verdict: delicious!

Bye!

The Opposite of Snow

Wow! We've been hearing about the snow in New Haven, and are thinking about all of you who are waiting for the roads and sidewalks to be cleared. It sounds like there's plenty of time to snuggle up with a good book or go outside and make a family of snow people - that's the romantic view, I know.

This bird is a noisy miner. They are everywhere and usually very focused on drinking nectar. Oh, one just landed on the branch outside my window right now! How's that for timing? Enjoy!

A Gargoyle Escaped

...from the University of Chicago, and ended up in...

Balmain!

See, there it is on the upper right-hand corner of the roof. Balmain is a part of Sydney where boat builders used to live and work. Now it is quite swanky.  None of the other buildings have gargoyles. 

A local told us that this cottage and others similar were built about 1850.

There are more of these types of row houses, built in the late 1800's.

Now, doesn't this bird look like it's wearing a mask? A bit like a bandit. And it acted like one too! When Rick got up from his chair at a  café   two common mynas flew over and eyed the crumbs of his muffin even though I was sitting right there.

Common mynas make an astounding variety of sounds - so many, and so unusual (to us) that Rick and I may expand our horizons to try audio recording.

We then took the ferry and train back to our neighborhood. (That's the Sydney Bridge).

And I picked up Sylvia from school. Her drama teacher had handed out packets of "chippies."

 If they're bright orange and fit around your finger they've got to be good, right?

Australians tend to shorten words and often use dimunutives. Hence, breakfast is "brekkie" and chips are "chippies."

Last Weekend

Hello, Everyone! Last weekend was a fun and busy one. On SATURDAY we started the day by going to the aquarium. Here's Rick looking at a spotted eagle ray.

We saw a mammal we'd never seen before: a dugong -- two of them, to be precise. Dugongs are related to elephants and are endangered. In the wild they eat sea grass, but check out their aquarium menu below.

Each dugong eats about 99 pounds of lettuce a day! While we were visiting, two staff people were constantly sending trays of lettuce down into the water for the dugongs.

How's that for a cute face? It's hard to believe that in the past sailors sometimes mistook dugongs for mermaids! You can read more about them here or here. 

After the aquarium we watched chess in Hyde Park. Every time we have walked by, a game has been in progress. There are always spectators, rain or shine.

At one end of Hyde Park is the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Memorial, an elegant art deco building built in the early 1930's to honor the dead from World War I. The beautiful design and interesting museum made me think about what things get remembered and honored culturally and what don't.  

The sculptor Rayner Hoff created statues for the exterior of the building that represented the branches of the armed services. The nurse on the right looks like she can handle any crisis (rather like the nurses we know, ahem, Linda, Anne, Ginny, Meryl).

Then on SUNDAY we took a train and a ferry and met friends at a restaurant right on Watson's Bay. The Sydney Harbor is made up of many bays and inlets. When you see the geography, you can really understand how isolated small settlements around what is now one large city would have been from one another. We had a delicious seafood lunch literally just steps away from the water. One of the kids even found a crab on the beach.

After lunch we walked to "The Gap."

 This picture does not do it justice . Maybe try this clip:

It's hard here to see how wild the Pacific is compared to the bay, but it gives you a sense of the terrain (and the wind!). Across the bay you can see the city center of Sydney.

We walked along the South Head Heritage Trail. The "South Head" is the name given to the southern coastline where the Pacific comes into the harbor. This was the first time any of us had seen flowers on a palm tree.

We thought the sand here was a gorgeous orange gold. This is at Camp Cove, a tiny beach.

Here's Sylvia in silhouette. This gives you a sense of the sweeping views form the South Head Heritage Trail. Again, that's the central business district of Sydney in the background.

And these are male Superb Fairy-Wrens. Don't you love that name? We have an Australian bird guide and are trying to figure out what the birds we see and hear are called.

We walked right by.

 Hornby Lighthouse no longer functions but used to prevent many shipwrecks. Manly is across the water.

On the way back to the ferry we walked down a street that had many parrots flying about. These are Blue Mountain Parrots or Rainbow Lorikeets. Flashy, aren't they?

Isn't this a cheeky-looking one?

"Cheeky" is one of the fun British English words they use here. (More on that later).

Phew! This has been a steep learning curve about blogging. We love getting your comments -- although we've been unable to comment back thus far. But hopefully we'll figure that out soon.