Evolution of the Christmas tree

We put the Christmas tree up in late November.
Originally, my idea was to do what I termed 'colour banding', where we sorted the decoration into colours and put, for example, all the silver ones around the bottom, then the red ones on the band above, etc. But then I decided I really did have more of a life than that, and anyway, the idea was over-ruled by a pair of bossy midgets who had obviously been discussing the aesthetic shortcomings of the result between them.
Our tree is about 8ft I think? This is it in it's natural, unspoilt, green plastic state.

We already had the decorations divided into their colours, so we added each pile progressively. First the pinky dinks.

Then the sterling silvers.

Then we added the gold.

Then the rest.

For a good tree, I steer clear of tinsel. Tinsels for amateurs. You'll be the laughing stock of the street if you use tinsel.

As beautiful as Theodore Buttons is, he's a sandwich short of a picnic, I think. He seems to think the tree is real and loves nothing more than to laze under it for hours on end, occasionally whacking a dangling decoration off for fun.

Over the past couple of weeks we've been woken up a few nights by the frantic squeaks of a terrified mouse Ted has dragged in and thrown under the tree. The poor little things sit there shaking, eyes wide and chewing their nails until my husband 'rescues them' (a.k.a. throws them out the window).
And at night we spark her up, and she lights up just like a ....you know what.

New York Part II - The Guggenheim

I planned to spend most of my time in New York people watching, eating out and doing everyday things to see what life was really like there. I was adamant that I didn't want to spend all day in museums looking at art that was irrelevant to the city itself.
However, after we walked through Central Park we crossed Fifth Avenue and went to the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum.
For an $18 entry fee I was dazzled, by the exhibition inside as well as the building itself.
Solomon Guggenheim is Peggy's uncle. We all know Peggy, if you don't, get googling. No one rocks a pair of specs like Peggy.

Solomon commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design the art gallery. After only 15 years, 700 sketches and six sets of working drawings, he nailed it.

The Guggenheim was opened in 1959 and houses a magnificent collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Early Modern & Contemporary Art.
It's distinctive curves have been used in squillions of movies, I saw it myself earlier in the year when I took the girls to see Mr Poppa's Penguins.
As luck would have it, the exhibition that was on at the time was Maurizio Catalan. I happened to know him because my husband and I accidentally watched a documentary on him one rainy Sunday afternoon, and we were fascinated.
He is Italian but lives in New York. He's never shown a collection of his work like this before and apparently it took some convincing. The only way he'd do it is if his pieces were suspended from the ceiling.
It worked well since the inside of the gallery has an ascending, circular ramp.

Catalan is big on taxidermy. This horse is one of his most famous works.

Everyone needs a massive Picasso.

This is the artist himself, but I didn't see this piece in the exhibition.

He has a very dark sense of humour. I think he polarizes the masses. This little squirrel below is slumped over the kitchen table, the gun lays on the floor. He'd obviously had enough for one reason or another.
Some of Catalan's work is just too dark, like the hanging children, which I photographed but haven't included here. Apparently when they were exhibited in Italy, hanging from a tree, one poor many finally had to climb up and cut them down.

The ku klux klan elephant was hanging from the ceiling at the Guggenheim.

There was also an exhibition of Kandinsky in one of the smaller galleries at the Guggenheim, plus I saw this Picasso called Lobster and Cat. I want it.

And I didn't make it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Jewish Museum, the Museum of Natural History........
I'll do them next time.

Christmas Lights

May I just interrupt my New York three part story to give you the hot tip on some OTT Christmas lights you may like to check out.
It's such a phenomenon, the whole Christmas Lights thing. What motivates people to cover their house with illuminated Christmas paraphenalia? I'm not sure, but I'm glad they do.
The first one is at Cougar Street, Indooroopilly. This is the last year they will be participating in the Christmas Lights competition and everything is for sale. The man who puts it together, Noel (no I'm not kidding), is an engineering genius and he's made dozens of little motorised displays, like a Zipper ride with Barbie dolls.
Every night there's entertainment from 7pm to boot.

If you like Las Vegas, you'll love the house on Dorrington Drive, Ashgrove. She really draws a crowd.

I'd love to know what their neighbours thought of the whole thing?
On the way, you can also swing past Amarina Avenue. There's a house opposite the Ashgrove Library that is worth a look too.
If you've got any Christmas Light tips, do share!

New York Part I - A tourist's picture book

I'm back from New York!

New York is big, I knew that before I went, but I wasn't prepared for how beautiful it is. It's an old city with magnificent architecture.

One of the most famous buildings is the Empire State Building and for good reason. It was built in 1931 and is magnificent in every sense, from the art deco detailing inside to the gargantuan size of it.
We rode up in the old lift to the 80th floor, where we then entered another lift and went up to the 86th floor to the viewing platform.

This is the view from up top, from the 86th floor.

I'm afraid the guard rail round the outside wasn't high enough, or the rails close together, enough for my liking, but I did my best to control any creeping anxiety.

It's the original concrete jungle, from up above anyway.

Notice the Flat Iron building in the centre below. It's the triangular shaped one - like an iron.

It may not look so beautiful from the 86th floor, but at ground level it's spectacular. Manhattan is the wealthiest area on the planet, and Park Avenue, part of which runs along Central Park, is the top-end of the top-end of town. If you happen to stumble upon a spare US$20 000 000 or so, you too can have your own Park Avenue pad. These are the doorways to some of the buildings.

I'm stealing this planter idea. They're just downright handsome.

Some of the buildings have these beautiful gardens at the entry. I snapped some of the more colourful entry gardens below. They are ridiculously perfect.

We saw Central Park when the leaves had turned autumnal colours and the ice skating rink was in action.

I think this is a squirrel - or is it a chipmunk? We're viewing him from the tail end.

I spotted this spectacular building from Central Park, it's directly opposite. Speaking of which, in this same vacinity is The Pierre, remember Little Edie made her debut there. Getting back the building below, this is called The Dakota. It's magnificent. This is the building where John Lennon and Yoko Ono had their bed-in.

Yoko still lives here, her windows are some of the top ones on the left hand side, where the roof is pitched.

It was at the front door of The Dakota where John Lennon was shot on December 8, 1980. We were there not long after the anniversary.  Some many trinkets and tributes were left at the front door of The Dakota that the other residents started to get a bit annoyed (I know, sounds a bit harsh doesn't it), and it was decided that a permanent memorial would be created for John Lennon over the road in Central Park.

Hence, the creation of Strawberry Fields, which I have to say oddly smelt like strawberries.

This plaque says IMAGINE in the middle and people leave little bits and pieces here. New Yorkers just walk straight over the top of it though I noticed.

This was the view outside our hotel window, it's the service entry of The Marriott. Out the other side of us was the Waldorf Astoria, alas, our hotel was nothing like either of them. Michelle Williams was staying at the Waldorf at the same time. She was in town publicising her movie, 'My Week with Marilyn'.

This is Times Square. It's a bit grotesque but you have to see it. If New York had a bullseye, this would be it. FYI, if you take smaller children with you, tie them to you, I'm not kidding.

Illuminated trees. These ones are at the Rockefeller Centre.

Above and below is around Little Italy where we hung out a lot. I saw the sign below as we were on our way to a vintage clothing shop, Screaming Mimi's. We'd done a lot of shopping. I found this sign reassuring.

Below is the New York Public Library. It's magnificent. It was in one of the Sex and the City movies. This is where Big and Carrie had their pre wwedding dinner.

They had a special exhibition one with things from the archives including; Bob Dylan's handwritten notes, a handwritten score by Beethoven, the Declaration of Independence, Virginia Woolf's walking stick which was found floating in the lake after she'd drowned herself.

We weren't supposed to take photos, but I rebelled when I saw this below. These are the toys which belonged to A A Milne's son. He used them as the characters in his first children's book published 1926. That's Tigger, Kanga, Eeyore, Piglet, Winnie of course, Roo got lost.

Peaches has made me read her Winnie the Pooh every night for the last four months. I hate Winnie the Pooh. He will single handedly be responsible when I end up in the nuthouse.

The famous ice skating rink at Rockefeller Centre. It features in every movie set in New York in Winter. It's tiny.

This is how New York puts out its 'trash'. It gets collected every night.

We saw a Broadway play, Noel Coward's Private Lives starring Kim Cattrall. She's beautiful. Very beautiful and she's 55. While I was waiting near the theatre door to go in Cynthia Nixon walked past. It was opening night and the papparazzi were outside. How's that for an authentic Sex and the City experience?

A new life for an old bathtub

A few weeks ago, after much harping by myself about my (lack of) vegetable gardens, my husband moved the old bath tub from the house into the garden, where we had talked about putting the raised beds.
This idea was good for me because it gave me the opportunity to see if this was the best place for growing vegetables without too much commitment. For my husband, no doubt, it worked for him too, thinking that the vegetables would fail to grow, thus, I'd end up losing interest and move onto something else.
To everyone's surprise, the vegetables we planted have really taken off. The soil is some we had left over, it's turf underlay and apparently it's quite sandy with water absorbing crystals and lots of chicken poo.
We've planted different lettuce, spinach, beetroot and some herbs; coriander, basil, mint and parsley. It's going gang busters!
The seedlings were tiny when we put them in. These photos were taken at the beginning of the week and already they are noticeably bigger.

Must rush, I'm madly trying to finish Jonathan Franzen's Freedom in the next week. The Corrections is one of, if not my favourite book, but I'm not loving Freedom as much. Has anyone else read it?
Seven days!