People... Friends... Family...

Hi there!

I've had several requests for family photos etc., so I thought I'd add some here of our family and our friends on Keswick Island as well. :-)

Let's start off with the kids first. ;-)



Here's my son Clayton on the day he got his ta moko. I was very proud of him having waited four years, but I wanted to make sure he had something spiritual that he could be proud of on his skin. It had to mean something - which it does. Spud is 21 now and a signalman in the army in Sydney.



Here's Brian's youngest two, Nathan 20 and Jessica 14. This was taken in Fiji, Christmas 2005. They'd both just had their hair braided.



Here's Brian's eldest, Melanie 23 with our granddaughter Louise 1. Hopefully they're coming up for Christmas this year.



Here's Nathan, Jessica, Myself and Brian's neice Bonnie from Dubbo around Christmas in Fiji 2005.

Now onto the Keswick Island contingent...



Here's Brian and Lyn Kinderman from the Keswick Island Guest House barbecuing redclaw on Christmas day 2006. Yum!



Here's a local home-owner Kerry Outerbridge, Clayton and Myself on Christmas day at the Guest House.



Here's my husband Brian taken one night on our verandah.



Here's our mate Ben from NZ who was holidaying with us after chrissy, with Brian Kinderman weaving a magic tale for all, with his wife Lyn and my husband Brian looking on.



Here's Brian and our local constabulary, ex. policeman, Mike - who's always good for a laugh. This was taken at our beach party on New Years Eve before the huge downpour that drenched us all!



Here's our local legend, Mingu Mingu, head of the lost coral tribe of many years gone by... I hear there's even a song being sung about him now...



Here's Brian up the mountain after a bit of a hike. Worth the view I'd say (if I had the energy to get up there -- which I definitely don't! lol!)

I hope you enjoyed these piccies. :-)

Warm regards,
Eva

Flies, Flies -- All Kinds Of Flies!

Hello again...

It's amazing when you're a 'city girl' and you move to the bush, just how different things are - yeah okay, it is the tropical 'bush' alright? ;-)

I know I'm lucky. I count my blessings every day...

But I DO lather on the Rid and Aerogard too!

I've had some nasty experiences with march flies and sand flies... They just love eating me and I scratch all night in the heat making them infected... Not good.

If it wasn't for Lyn Kinderman's kind advice and a tab of Zyrtek - I just wouldn't sleep at all! I'm not a table taker, but antihistamenes are a daily must here.

In fact, I've been up a few times at ungodly hours like 2.00am and 3.00am working on the computer so I don't keep Brian awake. At least when I'm concentrating on something else, I'm not thinking about the itchy bites!

But about six weeks ago, I was like a two year old when one night, I spied this little blinking light out in the garden and I called Brian over... "Brian what's this in the garden?"

You see, when you live on a rock in the middle of the ocean, you become all too aware of all the nature around you, believe me.

"Is it a firefly?" I asked in excitement...

It sure was! Then we spotted another and another and I was just spellbound and entranced.

I've never seen a firefly in my life. They're teeny weeny little things with bright fluro green flashers on their bottoms. We can't find their name in the insect book though... They don't have big bums like the ones in the US. They're teeny weeny miniscule moth-like creatures.

I was practically hanging over the verandah trying to see one when another one popped up right in front of our eyes, about 50 feet up in the air. It was like a little alien weaving around. Absolutely amazing.

The next night we had them everywhere when we turned the lights out in our bedroom and the lounge. We counted 8 on the roof and most of them were flashing. It was awesome. They're so tiny and gorgeous. You definitely don't feel alone when they're around and they're so mystical...

Now this week we've had another addition to the island... We knew they were coming, but I didn't realise just how many butterflies we'd see. They were absolutely everywhere.

Racing over from St Bees Island, it was like they were all on a mission!

Yes, a mission to bonk. It's like they're saying to each other, "I'm alive for 12 weeks - let's bonk!" lol.

So there are many, many more to come yet. We've been looking them up in the insect book and we have lace wings and tiger blues so far. Some bright yellow ones as well.

When I say they were everywhere, I mean everywhere.

They were even crossing the water when we were having our daily swim! lol

The next day, the sun was out and it was a glorious day - as usual, and they were swarmed all over a bush in flower out the back. Here are some photos I got Brian to snap... Keep in mind that they move really fast (because they're on a love mission right? lol):




Look closely to see how many are on this bush. They're pretty well camouphlaged but there's at least 18 on this one bush alone...

Beautiful aren't they? We truly are lucky here on Keswick Island.

Warm regards
Eva Browne-Paterson

What Can You Do With Indian Saris?

Hello there!

I recently had a question about the use of saris from one of my subscribers in India, Jerome D'souza...

He asked:"Why is it that people use saris for furnishings? My wife is interested to see just how you do that."

So I took some photos of what I did with the saris.

I love silk saris and couldn't help buying up big when I was in India - especially from the 'silicone city' of India, Bangalore (which also happens to be a terrific place to buy quality saris from!)It was a funny experience really because I was buying the saris with the explicit intention of hanging them across rooms and from windows -- without spoiling the lovely view from our home.

Look I've tried tying a sari around me and it's 50 times harder than tying a sarong and twice as funny! lol ;-)

Here are some photos of the beautiful saris in-situ.

See afterwards for a 'not so funny' story about bringing the saris back to Australia...

Our loungeroom with chiffon sari from Kolkata heavily encrusted with diamantes and fake jewellery. Notice the table cover, which has hundreds of hours of intricate workings on it. Absolutely beautiful -- I couldn't resist it...


Pure silk sari from Bangalore. I had to put several back that day becuase the bill was kind of ummm... huge! lol

Pure silk sari from Bangalore with beautiful detail in shiny gold. I love watching it blow in the breeze and sparkle in the sun.



Glorious sheer chiffon sari from Kolkata encrusted with very fine diamantes in all different colours. This one sways above our head in the breeze from the verandah at night.

This is a chiffon sari from Chennai brought back for me by Vijay, my old supervisor from Modular Mining. This is the one I had fun trying to wrap around my body without success. ;-) See the heavily worked piece on the bed. It's just beautiful.

The not so funny story? Well I'd had a rotten experience after getting out of Mumbai domestic aiport... Just trying to get to the international airport on my own with two heavy bags was difficult. I was given a bum steer by a guy who put me into an old taxi where the driver tried to rip me off of the very little cash I had left. (I was planning to use it to cover any excess baggage charges I might face...)

But after yelling, screaming and pleading in the dark with this guy that I had no money left whatsoever... he dropped me off in the rain a good kilometre from the airport. #@!$*!

Not happy Jan! I was running late!

Nevertheless, I persevered... After five weeks of working flat out, I was finally going home! So I had my luggage scanned and had to put up with a bitchy female police officer who wanted to check out all the jewellery and saris that I'd purchased... Just taking her time asking which shop I bought this and that from. Like I could remember? Jeez! lol

Then I went to good old Qantas to check my luggage in and found that I was 25kg overweight!

Ok I'll pay the difference. Oh you will ma'am @ $36/kg! Yes that's right --> $900 in excess baggage. $@#!%^**!

All I can say is Qantas sucks and thank goodness for coporate AmEx cards! Thanks Modular Mining. :-)

I actually got teary when I finally landed at Sydney airport... It'd been too long. Gimme a meat pie please! hahaha!

So, what do you think of the saris as window furnishings?

Warm regards
Eva Browne-Paterson