The Alien’s Egg is Ready to Hatch

 

An Alien’s Egg.  That is exactly what Geelong’s new Library and Heritage Centre looks like.  And it is due to hatch on November 21.    Every day the workers are swarming around and cossetting it in preparation for the big delivery day.

An earlier postcard of Johnstone Park at the State Library of Victoria : http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/66156

 

This impressive  building overlooking Johnstone Park and its bandstand  had the Town Hall, some Council Offices and the Art Gallery.  Victoria’s oldest surviving municipal building was built in 1855 and further extensions blended in tastefully until now.  The old Library and Heritage Centre was tucked in the back right hand corner.

Adding the roof, January 2015 From http://www.tcl.net.au/news/work-in-progress

But the old Library and Heritage Centre  needed expanding and have now been replaced with this golf ball. a bulbous  appendage soaring over the back of the building.

Don’t misunderstand me.  It is  a nice building with an interior which promises to be very useful with all its high tech appliances.  Strange though that when I read reports about it  I rarely see the word book.

http://geelong-visual-diary.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/library-going-up.html

This is to be our central Lending Library. Wouldn’t it have looked lovely if it were were nestled into parkland  or rolled onto a point overlooking the bay – think Sydney’s Opera House.  Or how about floating on Corio Bay – now that would be something.  There is also the golf course on Belmont Common.  This  shape could look quite cute sitting on the river bank.  It is not the building which is offensive,  it is the positioning  of it.

 

 

Blithe Spirit

Ghosts or Double Exposures ?

Nothing similar in the family albums but  in this family theatre program are some ghosts of a different kind on the stage of the Comedy  Theatre in Melbourne in 1945.  The  ghost  in question is the spirit of a man’s first wife who turns up after a seance.  She can be seen  (and heard)  by the husband but not by the second wife or anyone else.

And of course the play is Blithe Spirit by the witty and cheeky Noel Coward.  Wikipedia reminds  us that ” the play concerns the socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant, Madame Arcati, to his house to conduct a séance, hoping to gather material for his next book.

The scheme backfires when he is haunted by the ghost of his annoying and temperamental first wife, Elvira, after the séance.    Elvira makes continual attempts to disrupt Charles’s marriage to his second wife, Ruth, who cannot see or hear the ghost.”

But there are many more twist and turns before the end.

Perhaps they should have staged the show a block away in The Princess Theatre which has its own resident ghost, that of a baritone playing in Faust who died just off stage in 1888.

In May 1945 Australia was still at war with Japan and the Military Hospital in the suburb of Heidelberg was very busy. The hospital had a theatre and with a replica Blithe Spirit set constructed the whole cast was able to pile into a bus and go to Heidelberg to put on the show one afternoon.

With patients, bed cases  and staff there was no standing room left, with some patients needing to sit in the orchestra pit.  A most appreciative audience.

Meanwhile just across the road from the Comedy Theatre was His Majesty’s Theatre which that same year staged  The Desert Song with Max Oldaker  and his interpretation of The Red Shadow which I wrote about in a previous post

Also in 1945 a film was made of Blithe Spirit with Rex Harrison as the male lead and the wonderful Margaret Rutherford as Madame Arcati who conducts the seance.

Australian TV viewers might see a slight overlapping of the theme with the recent ABC production of “Glitch”  where the fortunate/unfortunate husband has both his living and his dead wife in his life at the same time.

Whereas Noel Coward was strictly for the laughs, Glitch is a serious look at the “what if” situation.  It has been described as an Australian Gothic and much of the shooting was done on summer evenings in my old home towm, the old gold town of Castlemaine in Central Victoria.

Further connections to ghosts and double exposures can be found in this week’ Sepia Saturday post.

 

 

 

 

Halloween in Caldecote

Halloween.   October 31st.  There are some families in Australia  who have good reason to pass on their ancestral Halloween traditions to their children while the Christian community celebrates October 31st  it in its own way as All Hallows Eve.

Usually it is a most unremarkable day in Australia.

But in other parts of the world  it is a time for  black cats, bats and spiders,  ghosts, skeletons, witches and wizards;  or pumpkins,  cobwebs, haunted houses  and graveyards

So this Halloween let us glide over to the  graveyard at The Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Caldecote, Huntingdonshire, a few miles south of Peterborough.

The church has now been converted into a private residence after having been de-consecrated in the mid 1970s  and the headstones  have been stacked against the church wall the last time I heard.

Photo from Michael Trolove

Perhaps the ghosts rise up on the night  of October 31st to protest at having been disturbed.  There might even be some Tanseys and some Lawsons among them.  A perfect setting for all things supernatural.

This lonely church  is where my  grandfather’s grandparents, Thomas Tansey and Rebecca Lawson, were  married in 1834  Later they were buried  there  after all twelve of their children were christened there and five of their children  buried there.

There are three different spellings for the same person’s surname.  Thomas signs Tanser, the Curate writes Tansor and the headstone says Tansey.

But when Thomas was born in 1813 in Whittlesey to the east of Peterborough he was christened as Tansey.  That was the year that Richard Wagner was born, Napoleon invaded Russia and the USA declared war on the UK, a war which lasted 2 years

Further links to the colourful Halloween card can be seen at this week’s Sepia Saturday post

`

 

H…A…R…P…S

The starting point for this week’s Sepia Saturday will send participants running for all the harp and angel related  photos in their family albums

 

H………A………..R………..P………..S

 

 

 

is for hair which sometimes supports a circlet of flowers such as in the ring of roses worn by the bride and bridesmaid in this 1948 family wedding at Scots  Church, Melbourne,

is for angel – it is believed that angels play harps but in this case my angelic granddaughter clasps a recorder.

is for repeat because I have another angel to show you,  a knitted knitting angel.

is for playing a musical instrument, not a harp this time but another stringed instrument, the piano, played by the young angel above, practising during her brief venture into piano lessons.

is for St John of God Hospital in Geelong where for over twenty years harpist  Peter Roberts has offered music on a one-to-one basis to fragile and vulnerable people in a medical setting,  compassionate care through music.

Peter Roberts music Thanatologist at St John of God Hospital

(From Australian Story ABC TV 14-6-2010 Transcript here)

PETER ROBERTS, THANATOLOGIST: The instrument itself doesn’t have the power. It sits there on its own and it doesn’t do anything until it’s touched. It’s about the person who’s playing it. Honestly, it is. When I take the harp out of the car and roll it into the hospital, usually there’s curiosity and surprise. A funny thing usually happens when I get into an elevator with people and there’s that silence that happens when the door closes. And I always say, “You’re in big trouble now.” And then they’ll laugh and they’ll say, “Well where are your wings?” I always say that well the music is not that good.

Each time a baby is born at St John of God they play a short recording of Peter playing  Brahms Lullaby on his harp over the loud speaker system  to announce the birth.  And when you are lying in bed sick and hear this soft, slow and sweet  melody it is very comforting to know that life is just starting somewhere else in the building.

This is the segment but played by John Kovac.   Do close your eyes and listen and let your thoughts roam free.

You can see more people connecting to this weeks theme image on Sepia Saturday

Clocks – for more than just telling the time

A long time ago it was not necessary to open your iPhone to find out the time because you would have a watch on your wrist or, if indoors,  you would have a handsome clock on your mantelpiece, just as in the background of this group posed to have everyone looking in the same direction.  No posing was done in the next photo – someone off-stage is creating mirth.

It’s Christmas time about twenty years ago.  The house is my daughter’s, the man my son, the children his niece and nephew, and the clock had been part of my husband’s collection.  For clocks  and clock books were one of his hobbies. He collected a few, he studied their workings and took them to bits and then re-assembled them, he read about them and a couple of times constructed a new clock from pieces of old clocks.  Unfortunately no-one told me that one day in the future I would find a group called Sepia Saturday where photos play an important role and so few photos were taken.  (BTW, Jo, I knitted the cotton Father Xmas jumper.)

Here are some books and papers from his collection.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Back in the early 1980s there was this photo of my daughter with his home-made  wall clock.  It began with a re-cycled clock face, then there was a brand new pendulum with a brass weight.  My husband designed the wooden case and out of sight at the top of the clock was a square battery which was organized so that something clicked around and every 30 seconds made a connection which gave a nudge to the pendulum.  Just don’t ask me how that worked but it helped the clock to keep good time instead of slowing down.

Earlier still, in October of 1948, another clock in the background when  the Adelaide College of Music Drum and Fife Band performed   “My Grandfather’s Clock” at the Tivoli Theatre. in Adelaide.  Thanks to friends P and G Flynn for this image.

My grandfather’s clock was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopped short never to go again,
When the old man died.

CHORUS:
Ninety years without slumbering, tick, tock, tick, tock,
His life seconds numbering, tick, tock, tick, tock,
It stopped short never to go again,
When the old man died.

Have a look at other blogs inspired by this week’s Sepia Saturday image.

Unnamed, Anonymous: Who Are You ?

This week Sepia Saturday , for their 300th birthday, provided us with this image of some unidentified people from The Age of Uncertainty blog here and  here.  It has long been one of my favourite blogs to visit, enjoying the topics he chooses and the way he writes.

And for my 101st post to this group I have chosen this unidentified photo from our extended family collection.  It was taken by photographer Charlie Farr  in High Street,  Maryborough,  in Central Victoria,  between 1893 and 1906.  It possibly has connections with nearby Carisbrook, and a link to the  names  Fricke, Aston or  Peet and their many connections.

To see  what other people saw in this week’s theme photo visit this week’s Sepia Saturday.

 

The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland

Sepia Saturday provided us with a most unusual image this week.  I definitely needed those few words at the bottom,  those words/themes/suggestions to help us feel some empathy for the image and to help us connect to an image or an experience of our own.

It was the word cut-outs which resonated with me. But it took several searches, high and low,  before I found something which I had last sighted more than twenty years ago.  Fortunately I did find it as often I don’t find things until it is  too late for them to be of use for a post.

But find this one I did.  And this one is a book which is full of images which also happen to be cut-outs which can be stood up in place on the page to illustrate part of a story.  This book which very briefly tells the story of Alice in Wonderland  was given to me as a prize for attending Castlemaine’s Christ Cburch Sunday School on 30 Sundays in one year. I don’t know what happened on the other twenty-two Sundays.  I think Canon Vanston may have been Vicar at the time.

 

Down the Rabbit Hole

This book of stand-ups was published in 1934 by the Saalfield Publishing Company of Akron, Ohio with the design by Sidney Sage, who did many books in this style.   My copy has been well used and is in poor condition. Each cut-out is still connected to the book by its base and has a small wing at each side to fold back and hold up the character.  But may of these wings are now missing and  I had to prop up some of the cut-outs with other objects to be able to photograph them. The tale for each tableau is told inside the back and front covers.

In the Duchess’ Kitchen

The King and Queen of Hearts

The Lobster Quadrille

The is the original illustration by John Tenniel in the 1865 edition

Though out of Copyright I can find no courtesy reference to the author Lewis Carroll or the illustrator John Tenniel in this 1934 Stand-Up version of the  book though Saalfield claim to have copyright of this version.

All Saalfield’s tableaux are copies of the original illustrations then coloured.

Who Stole the Tarts

I think my favorite is the Lobster Quadrille.

” The Mock Turtle sighed deeply, and drew the back of one flapper across his eyes. He looked at Alice and tried to speak, but, for a minute or two, sobs choked his voice. “Same as if he had a bone in his throat,” said the Gryphon; and it set to work shaking him and punching him in the back. At last the Mock Turtle recovered his voice, and, with tears running down his cheeks, he went on again:

“You may not have lived much under the sea—” (“I haven’t,” said Alice)—”and perhaps you were never even introduced to a lobster—” (Alice began to say, “I once tasted—” but checked herself hastily, and said, “No, never”) “—so you can have no idea what a delightful thing a Lobster-Quadrille is!”

“No, indeed,” said Alice. “What sort of a dance is it?”

“Why,” said the Gryphon, “you first form into a line along the sea-shore—……………………………..”

You can re-read this story of the Lobster Quadrille at http://www.authorama.com/alice-in-wonderland-10.html

Or you can see how other members have responded to this week’s Sepia Saturday image.

 

Sisters – Vera and Hilda Tansey

Sepia Saturday  has suggested that we explore Sisters this week and so my photo of my mother Vera Tansey (on the left) with her younger sister Hilda.

Vera was born in Geelong  in 1899 and Hilda  fifteen  months later. But being so close in age Vera was held back so that the sisters would start school together.

But this lovely photo was taken in 1915 when they were living in Traralgon, in Gippsland. The photo was in postcard form and had been sent to a friend.  So how did it come back into Vera’s possession ?

Vera has later added 1915 and Traralgon.  I believe Hilda had written the original inscription.  Who would they have sent it to, someone who Vera would see later in life for it to be returned.  Before coming to Traralgon they had been living in Murtoa  where they were friendly with Jack Findlay. He had come with them from Geelong to Murtoa but remained behind in Murtoa when they shifted to Traralgon.  However he kept in close touch with the Tanseys and later he shifted to Traralgon and married a local girl, Fordyce Brereton.

Vera kept in touch with Fordie (Fordyce) for most of her life and I think it highly likely that was how the photo was returned to Vera.

A younger Vera (on the left) and Hilda had also been photographed while living in Murtoa, on this occasion dressed in fancy dress.  Murtoa was also the place where Vera suffered from Scarlet Fever and was given daily twenty minute  cold baths containing ice, as part of the treatment.   Murtoa had recently acquired an Ice Works.

And we can follow the sisters further back  to 1902 in Geelong where we have another photo of the two sisters together, this time in a family group.

Vera became a traditional housewife,  caring for her husband and children.  Hilda married three times, was a bookkeeper and was involved with brass bands as player, conductor and teacher.

Further examples related to this week’ s Sepia Saturday image can be found on their blog.

Life in the Back Yard

Sepia Saturday suggested clothes lines and all things related for this week’s topic.  I think we all have samples of washing photo-bombing our photos taken in the back yard.

And this one is no exception – a frame from a home movie taken in Melbourne c1960.

The back yard is closely related to the clothes line and its display of washing , whether it be a wire propped up with a pole or an Australian Hills Hoist.  And the back yard of  a spec house bought in the 1950s was just that – a  backyard free of landscaping and usually without a garage.  A garage  was a later addition and was usually built apart from the house.

So in my washing photo you can’t see that the garage has been added to the back yard.  First buy the car and then build the garage around it. The house next door is also getting its garage at the same time.   It must be the weekend as the garages were home built. The clothes line is there but no washing that day.

Back yards were also where many of the family photos were taken, this one in 1962,  and you can see the corner of the garage and imagine the washing to the right.

And where is this lass today.  She is on the final day of an eight day trek of the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea.  She has gone as an adult role model/mentor  on the annual trek run by the Geelong Police for some troubled youths and the party consists of police, twelve youths and some adults. There are  local porters to help too.  This is a video of the 2013 trek. The Kokoda  Trail is important to Australians as it is where our Militia repelled the Japanese forces advancing on Australia.

But whatever you are doing or wherever you go the washing goes with you, whether its rinsing out your smalls  while trekking  Kokoda or having a holiday at Kennett River c1960 as below.

More displays of washing can be seen at this weeks Sepia Saturday site.

Theatre Props

This week Sepia Saturday has suggested all things wine related as our theme.  What to do?

Have a look at the photo in the header.

Is that two bottles of wine on the table ?  Or is it one bottle of wine and one bottle of something else ?  I don’t think they are bottles of  tomato sauce   After all it is Paris.

And this is a picture of my mother, Vera Fricke, taken on her 90th birthday in 1989.  Little did she know that one day this photo of her would go soaring around the world for many people to see.

So what is the connection between  my mother and the bottle of wine in the header image ?

I copied the header image from the front cover of a theatre program for a production of La Boheme in  1987, a performance my mother had attended.  Geelong was one of eight Victorian country towns where the show was presented by the Victoria State Opera.. It was early in the professional careers of a Girl from Geelong and a Boy from Ballarat, Cheryl Barker and David Hobson who played Mimi and Rodolfo

It was a pleasure to see Cheryl Barker performing again in her home town  as I had first seen her as a teenager in the lead role of the Belmont  High School production of The Pajama Game, more than ten years earlier

Later in the early 1990s  the same pair  played the same roles in Sydney but this time the production was in the hands of Australian film director Baz Luhrmann  (The Great Gatsby, Moulin  Rouge, etc) with the design in the hands of his wife Oscar Winning designer  Catherine Martin. The opera  was  set in 1957 for this production and is now on video.

Here is an excerpt from Act i where Mimi and Rodolfo have just met and exchange information about themselves.  Enjoy. I know I do.

La Boheme was the first opera I saw on a stage in the late 1950s and has remained my favorite. That was in Melbourne long before the Victoria State Opera existed.  But Mr Google hasn’t been able to help me trace the performance. Among my many memories of that night is the entrance of Musetta in Act Two.  The result of her shopping is on the floor beside her.  An oval-shaped hat box is accidentally knocked over as a result of which it rolled towards the front of the stage ker-lunk…ker-lunk…ker-lunk… and bounced off one of the musicians in the orchestra pit while the singers sang on without missing a beat.  I’m sure there would have been some wine bottles among the theatre props on that night too.

See more wine related stories on this week’s Sepia Saturday.