Wildlife (sanctuaried) in Australia

What an amazing three weeks away in New Zealand and Australia. This post will highlight just a few of the animals that I saw in Australia at the Healesville Sanctuary, under the auspices of the Australian National Zoo.

Healesville Sanctuary is one of Australia’s most recognised attractions, showcasing more than 200 species of Australian wildlife, only one hour from Melbourne.

The pictures, top to bottom, are of the Brogla crane, a wallaby, a sleeping koala bear, a kangaroo, and an emu. These photos were taken Jan. 30, 2009, in the heat of the Australian summer. Most of the animals we saw (including a platypus, whose picture did not turn out due to underexposure in his habitat) were suffering from the hottest summer on record there.

In fact, the Australian Open was being played in Melbourne last week on one of the record high heat days in that area, with temperatures recorded on the court at 140 degrees Fahrenheit. The daytime temperatures hit 115 degrees Fahrenheit when we were walking around the city!

More about the sights Down Under to come later this week.

Travelling to New Zealand

We interrupt this blog to bring you a notice that I will not be posting for about three weeks due to exciting developments on the National Scrabble front.

Thirty Scrabble players and our 27 companions will be traveling on a Scrabble cruise (Jan. 16-Feb. 1, 2009) with esteemed travel guides Barbara Van Alen and Larry Rand from Phoenix, AZ. Both are Scrabble directors and have overseen hundreds of tournaments and local club games. Barbara and Larry are excellent tour guides and an all-around wonderful couple who also run a travel agency named "Van Rand Travel". They were highlighted in the Phoenix Magazine in 2008 in a very complimentary article. You can read about their game passion and directing abilities at Word Play in Phoenix Magazine.

You might also check out their Phoenix Scrabble Club information at Phoenix Scrabble Club News.

We (30 Scrabble players and 27 companions of the players) will be leaving from Los Angeles and arriving in Auckland, New Zealand on January 19, 2009.

We will be travelling on the Celebrity Cruise Line around New Zealand, ending our journey in Sydney, Australia on February 1.

Travel itinerary includes:
Auckland, New Zealand Day 1
The "City of Sails," known for its sparkling waters, bustling harbor and cosmopolitan flair, and an ideal spot for water sports and sailing.

Tauranga, New Zealand Day 2
Located at the entrance to one of the largest natural harbors in New Zealand and nestled beside magnificent Mount Maunganui.

Napier, New Zealand Day 4
Arguably one of the prettiest cities in New Zealand, with elegant art deco architecture,captivating beaches and award-wining vineyards.

Wellington, New Zealand Day 5
The cultural, commercial, cosmopolitan capital of New Zealand and home to one of the largest wooden buildings in the world.

Christchurch, New Zealand Day 6
New Zealand's "Garden City," featuring numerous parks and gardens as well as Victorian architecture, avenues and squares.

Dunedin, New Zealand Day 7
Dramatic scenery and some of the finest historic buildings in New Zealand, including remarkable architecture that reflects the city's Scottish roots.

Dusky Sound Day 8
One of three amazing sounds featured on most itineraries. The largest and most complex of the many fjords along this coast, with steep-sided cliffs and hundreds of cascading waterfalls.

Milford Sound, New Zealand Day 8
One of three amazing sounds featured on most itineraries. Situated within Fiordland National Park, part of the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Site and surrounded by sheer rocks and lush forests.

Doubtful Sound Day 8
One of three amazing sounds featured on most itineraries. An unusual sound with two distinct layers of water: fresh mountain water atop cold,heavy, saline water teeming with remarkable deep-sea species.

Melbourne, Australia Day 11 Day 12
The capital of Victoria and Australia's second largest city. A cultural melting pot of Greek,Chinese, Italian, Vietnamese and Lebanese and host to major international events.

Sydney, Australia Day 14 Day 15
Among the world's most exciting cities with dazzling beaches and the Sydney Opera House, an architectural marvel and arguably the most recognizable performing arts venue.

This will be a tremendous opportunity to learn about another country, to play the addictive game of Scrabble, and to enjoy the summer weather of New Zealand and Australia. I am really looking forward to this trip. Hubby is staying home with the pups and keeping the home fires burning (his choice :o)

See you in a few weeks!

Mending with Vintage Fabrics; Mending Hearts

Susan Cooke Kittredge, senior minister at the Old Meeting House, Vermont (daughter of Alistair Cook, whose “LETTER FROM AMERICA” was the longest-running commentary series in history.) Excerpted from “We ALL NEED MENDING” on THIS I BELIEVE, aired on National Public Radio in February, 2008, I would like to copy her writing here because I believe it to be valuable.

After reading through Kittredge's thoughts, I am posting a picture of my favorite work shirt which has been mended over many times with old linens. Each vintage piece incorporates beautiful embroidery work done many years ago by women whom I will never having the privilege of knowing.

by Susan Kittredge, taken from National Public Radio:

Like most women of her generation, my grandmother, whom I called Nonie, was an excellent seamstress. Born in 1879 in Galveston, Texas, she made most of her own clothes. Widowed at 43 and forced to count every penny, she sewed her three daughters' clothes and some of their children's, as well. I can knit but I cannot sew new creations from tissue-paper patterns. Whenever I try, I break out in a sweat and tear the paper. It clearly requires more patience, more math, more exactitude than I seem willing or capable of giving.

Recently, though, I have come to relish the moments when I sit down and, somewhat clumsily, repair a torn shirt, hem a skirt, patch a pair of jeans, and I realize that I believe in mending. The solace and comfort I feel when I pick up my needle and thread clearly exceeds the mere rescue of a piece of clothing. It is a time to stop, a time to quit running around trying to make figurative ends meet; it is a chance to sew actual rips together. I can't stop the war in Iraq,

I can't reverse global warming, I can't solve the problems of my community or the world, but I can mend things at hand. I can darn a pair of socks. Accomplishing small tasks, in this case saving something that might otherwise have been thrown away, is satisfying and, perhaps, even inspiring.

Mending something is different from fixing it. Fixing it suggests that evidence of the problem will disappear. I see mending as a preservation of history and a proclamation of hope. When we mend broken relationships, we realize that we're better together than apart, and perhaps even stronger for the rip and the repair.

When Nonie was 78 and living alone in a small apartment in New Jersey, a man smashed the window of her bedroom where she lay sleeping and raped her. It was so horrific, as any rape is, that even in our pretty open, highly verbal family, no one mentioned it. I didn't learn about it for almost five years. What I did notice, though, was that Nonie stopped sewing new clothes. All she did was to mend anything she could get her hands on as though she could somehow soothe the wound, piece back together her broken heart, soul and body by making sure that nothing appeared unraveled or undone as she had been.

Mending doesn't say, "This never happened." It says instead, as I believe the Christian cross does, "Something or someone was surely broken here, but with God's grace it will rise to new life." So too my old pajamas, the fence around the garden, the friendship torn by misunderstanding, a country being ripped apart by economic and social inequity and a global divide of enormous proportions — they all need mending.

I'm starting with the pajamas.

Each time I mend, I think of Susan Cooke Kittredge and her thoughtful commentary.

This is my work shirt that is in a constant state of "mending", because each time the shirt is washed, some of the vintage embroidery work frays. Those torn pieces are covered over with newer pieces of linens, be it hankies, pieces of antique tablecloths or napkins or even old table runners.

Just like the repairing of this shirt, I believe we are in a continual state of mending over wounds, be it in the loss of expectations or ways in which we have disappointed others and ourselves.

It is something to think about.