BURNS NIGHT

Happy Birthday today to Robbie Burns The Bard of Ayrshire.  One of the things on my list is to be in Scotland for Burns Night and go to an official Burns Supper.....but until then I intend to drink several large whiskies to his blessed memory.  He was a man who lived his relatively short life to overflowing....lots of hard work, lots of shagging, lots and lots of drink, creativity, pain and sadness, some fame, but he has lived on far beyond his relatively sequestered life in Scotland in the late 18th century.  He was a pagan in a very restrictive repressive society, who created some very beautiful poetry.

My love is like a red, red rose

That’s newly sprung in June :

My love is like the melody

That’s sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,

So deep in love am I :

And I will love thee still, my dear,

Till a’ the seas gang dry.

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi’ the sun :

And I will love thee still, my dear,

While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only love,

And fare thee weel a while !

And I will come again, my love,

Thou’ it were ten thousand mile.   I would recommend to anyone to read some of his poems....or better yet download them onto your iPod, and have a Scotsman read them to you with a beautiful Scottish bur.  I have a collection by Alex Norton of Taggart fame.

Wipocalypse - January

Well here we have a new year and hopefully....on my part.....a newly envigorated blog.  Got a bit sidetracked at the end of last year with all the Christmas stuff and just got tired...as if the year was taking its toll....Anyway few days off....and a lovely family Christmas and the warm weather returning to Sydney after weeks of rain.....I am ready for another year.  And Wipocalypse.  I have not made a list but I have it in my head....so here is my first post for the year.  I have made progress on Golden Wood (the reason for this blog) and that is going to be my first entry in Wipocalypse.

Have also finished a couple of quilts.  One for my stepdaughter Tina and one for me which had been around for years as a top.  The  Flying Geese started life as a jelly roll which my daughter Bee bought at a quilt show.  Rather surprisingly she offered to take me to the show and she got sucked in by the lovely jelly roll.  She used to stitch when she was little and I have hopes that her craft side will spring back to life (she is now nearly 20 and it does not seem to be cool to stitch) but I have faith that it will rise to the surface again at some stage....it is in her blood, my mother and grandmother and I are (and were) addicted to craft -- so I say "Blood will out".  When Bee bought the jelly roll she said she would make something for Tina and I swore that I would not do it for her.....well you know how that went.  After the jelly roll sat in my sewing room for nearly 18 months I capitulated and made this quilt...just got it finished in time for Christmas...........

The trouble with making a quilt as a present, by the end of the process you want to keep it for yourself....I particularly loved this selection of fabric.....oh well!


So to all who happen upon this blog and read, may we all have a positive and creative New Year and may we all be able to throw off the sorrows and difficulties of last year (if we had them) and start afresh.