Sunday Breakfast

Barb's brother Peter and his daughter Rachael rode in on their bikes for a breakfast moment that lasted all morning. There was even a passing shower to break up the otherwise intense sunshine that was bathing us. It was relaxing and enjoyable time and we talked about anything and everything.

Barb's cousin Judy arrived and we sort of started our breakfast again and with lots more talk.

Barb's mum surely has a fine community garden in her corner of the village. One could spend all day enjoying the variety of plants and flowers.

Orchids for BM

Visiting BM was a high priority. She has been on a course of chemo, and this was followed up by an operation to try to stabilise and reduce the pain in her back. Her body seems wasted, but she looks sharp. Her eyes glistened with understanding as she engaged with us and enjoyed our visit. Our time there at the hospital was very positive. BM is such a precious person in the life and history of Barb's family and we were blessed to spend some time with her. The yellow orchids are exquisite, but we can't take credit for them. BM's cousin brought them in just before we arrived.

This is the view of the Brisbane skyscrapers from BM's hospital window, but it is doubtful that she has had the chance to see them. We hope she can recover from this ordeal, and if so, be able to move from her unit to a 'hostel care' facility at her village.

Buddy

It is about time Buddy got a mention. He is a true friend for Barb's mum. She is allowed to have him at the village because he came with her, a special gift from her husband Brian a few years before he died.

Buddy has such a quirky personality. On our visit with Mum, Peter became convinced that Buddy understood a lot from our conversations in the unit. He would know by the way we spoke that soon we would be going out and leaving him. He hates those times. Even if Barb's mum says nothing to him, he can tell what she intends doing for the day by the clothes she pulls out of the wardrobe. His eyes, and body movement is full of expression that in turn conveys to us what he thinks of the situation. And in the minutes before we go out he will be found sitting quietly, out of sight, behind the divan.

The BT/s

On the afternoon before we left to return to freezing Melbourne, we enjoyed some time with Barb's brother Peter and Susan and family. And they have new family members, Shallotte and her mum. Shallotte loves Melody and Rachael and is beginning to let her personality come out. It is so nice to see that sort of thing happen. There are good stories in the wings that will come forth from Shallotte and her young mum because of the love, care and nurture of the BT/s. This is what church families should be doing more of.
Their place has a 66,000 litre rainwater tank (mostly submerged), large vegetable gardens, and numerous chooks. Peter took us on a tour. When he finishes fitting a filtration system for their house usage, they will be totally self-sufficient in their water needs. That is pretty amazing for a house in the central suburbs of Brisbane.

Archaeological Crystal

Peter was very chuffed when he received a thank you gift from the AIA for helping (mostly) as a volunteer painter. The Australian Institute of Archaeology is now based at Latrobe University, quite close by. The university gave the AIA rooms in an old building complex on land recently acquired from the Victorian Government. Much renovation and painting has been required to bring the rooms back to a reasonable presentation. The library and lecture hall are now functioning well. The artefacts, that many volunteers come to catalogue, are now in a stable and secure environment. The 'museum' part of the project still has a long way to go, so there is a lot of work remaining. Chris, the AIA director, ordered these laser etched crystal prisms from Sydney as mementos for those involved in the work leading up to the opening of the new premises in 2008.

The crystal prism features a three dimensional etching of a "cylinder seal" that is one of the Institute's artefacts. The design on the cylinder contains running animals, possible antelopes, with curved horns and long necks. They move to the left (in the wet clay impression left by the roll of the seal). Above the running animals are fish shapes travelling in the same direction. There is also a repeating eye motif between the animals. The cylinder is believed to be from the period around 2,900 B.C.

The new Institute logo and supporting typography is etched into the prism at its base. The logo has adopted the animal horns from the cylinder seal. These horns have been positioned to form the letter 'A' for both Australian and Archaeology. This logo feels like a good choice. It has its own mystique, and its shape stays in the mind long afterward.

Pegs of Oz

Peter has realised that simple dolly pegs can be dressed into any number of different characters, especially if the character is particular and is based on human form. So, he made up Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion Man and the Wicked Witch of the West from craft scraps and hot glue. There has been a resurgence of interest in the 1939 movie: The Wizard of Oz. Marketing companies might not be agreeing with that, but what can stop us if we have dolly pegs! There are still more characters to join the cast, like the good Witch of the North and the Wizard even. Dolly pegs from the Joseph narrative, blogged about earlier, can be commandeered to fill some of the other roles. They are all pretty simple and fun to make.

After observing children playing with the dressed up pegs, Peter has realised that children will play just as well with these "stick people" as with manufactured toys. The more rough and the simple the better. A by-product of this may be the realisation by children that they themselves can dress up their own dolly pegs for very satisfying play.

Prayer Blossom

At last Sunday's Children's Church we discovered that the prayer tree had been moved from the stage of the main hall to our end of the complex. One of our leaders, Lucille, found some pink card and cut a large number of flower shapes in quick time. During our prayer time that followed, the kids wrote or drew their prayers on these flower shapes and added them to the tree. There was enough Blu-tac to go around and the result was very encouraging for us all. Our prayer tree has blossomed at the start of our southern winter. How topsy-turvy is that. That's just the thing that God would do.