New author to discover

It may look now as if people educated to use our newest technologies efficiently are the world's elite, but in the long run I believe that people educated to have, as well, that point of view that used to be described as humanistic - the long-term, over-all, contemplative point of view - will turn out to be more influential. Simply because they understand more of what is going on in the world...
To my mind the whole push and thrust and development of the world is towards the more complex, the flexible, the open-minded, the ability to entertain many ideas, sometimes contradictory ones, in one's mind at the same time.
Doris Lessing Prisons we choose to live inside.
--
I finished reading this tiny book by Doris Lessing and looking forward to reading her other works. She sounds like fascinating wise woman.

Discovering the world: the joy of having a backyard

Specialy when we keep on waking up before 5am


P.S. If anyone wants a postcard from Melbourne send me email with your postal address to fioleta at gmail dot com

In Melbourne

I haven't been back to Australia for almost four years. It is incredible how much can be forgotten in the few years and even more incredible how many memories can be triggered by simply opening a car window and breathing in the fresh evening MEBLBOURNE air.

Fabrics

Craft Central is going to have another Fabric & Trimming Sale on the 4th and 5th of December. I can't find any info on their website at the moment, but the flier I got via their mailing list says:

Amazing two day sale of high quality FABRICS, LACES, TRIMMINGS, LEATHERS, BEADS & BUTTONS: Gorgeous silks and wools £3-£5 metre, pure cotton from £1 metre, designer lace fabric from £4 metre, stunning vintage flowers, new & vintage beads and lots, lots more!
Thursday 4th - Friday 5th December 11am - 6.30pm
Showcase, Craft Central, 33 - 35 St. Johns Square, EC1M 4DS

They also going to have Jewellery Sample Sale at the same time. Of course I'm already going to be in Australia and won't be able to go myself. Last time I got two pieces of fabric for the projects I wanted to make - I probably would've gotten more if I had time to think, but over-tired grumpy toddler wasn't conductive to thinking or buying. And I already used one to make a cape for the Little Girl. She is too young for proper dress-up role-playing, but I couldn't resist as the material was exactly the right colour I always imagined a perfect cape to be.

I used this hooded cape pattern. Despite finishing it a week ago I keep on forgetting to take a better photo of it.

Discovering the world: baking

In New York

We went to the Central Park Zoo three times and I lost count of how many times we walked past it to listen to and look at the Delacorte Clock, which supposed to chime on the hour and half an hour, but actually does so at 5 minutes past an hour and at 35 minutes.

The Little Girl loved feeding alpacas, who successfully kicked the sheep away from the feeding hands; thought polar bears were hilarious (don't ask me why, she just kept on laughing every time she saw them), was totally fascinated by frogs; but most of all she enjoyed this activity:

Together, we also went to the American Museum of Natural History; Museum of Modern Art, which is too big to explore with a toddler and I only managed the top two floors where I was surprised to be able to recognizer most of the painters work by their style (maybe I know more about art than I think); American Folk Art Museum, which is trying to represent too many varied themes/works in a tiny space.

With Papa, who only got one day off, we went to the New York Historical Society, which I thought was perfect size and had good mixture of everyday objects, historical information and art. We also showed him a wonderful Heckscher playground at Central Park.

Actually Cat and I spent a lot of time exploring the Park and I'm totally in love with it and the bright fall colours, which shows in the photos from New York.

Pirozhki in English

If anyone wanted to trying making Pirozhki, Rachael now has the English translation of the recipe on her blog.