Friday Five: Cross-Stitch on a Theme

Sometimes everything gets 'a bit much' and, in these times, I have found that working designs from Really Cross Stitch: For when You Just Want To Stab Something a Lot helps. Of course, I am not advocating violence, but I am hoping for progress, and there is a theme in my latest five patterns about who or what I would like to change. As previously, all the words are from Rayna Fahey, and all the complete lack of ironing is my own.

"Politicians and toddlers have a lot in common. They are both prone to tantrums and act unreasonably, especially when they don't get their own way. Every now and then - just like a toddler - you have to give them a good talking-to!"

"Contending for the misogynist comment of the millennium, a presidential candidate's suggestion that he was at liberty to grab female genitalia due to his privilege was dismissed as 'locker room talk'. Whilst this overheard vulgarity wasn't enough to kill an election campaign, it certainly put feminists on a war footing well before Trump took office.

This pattern attests to the fact that kitty has claws. The only pricks we will tolerate come from our cross stitch needle."

"Now it's really not nice to attack someone you don't like politically based on their appearance. But this time the temptation was too strong.

"For someone who is world-record-breakingly quick to insult someone, Trump's skin does appear to be diaphanously thin when it comes to people discussing the size of his hands. But in the scale of things, this is the guy that reinstated the Global Gag Rule and wants to ban the world's 1.6 billion Muslim people from America. So there's plenty of actual policy to organise around while you're doing this cross stitch."

"Cunts are deep, warm, and delightful; indeed the place from which the majority of us astoundingly enter this fragile world. Yet no single word creates as much division and carries as much power as this little number.

"One thing activists are super-good at is dissecting the meaning of language, until letters break down into pixels. Give us another decade and everyone will know that vagina is 16th century slang for a place to keep your sword. Ouch."

"Language can be used to persuade, amuse, insult, and mobilise action. Few formats can accomplish these goals as ably or succinctly as the protest sign.

"Of course, sometimes the words just won't come. Or there are too many of them to fit on one sign. Or you're just so tired of being angry and upset that you just want to go UGH; which is fine. 'Just, Ugh' conveys all the despair, rage and hopelessness in just seven easy letters, and of course, can be used for virtually any occasion as it works for anything. Plus, it's nice and easy to stitch."

My Newest Favourite Thing: Cook Park

One weekend in Orange, about a year ago, I had a day to myself, so I went to an art gallery and a museum, as you do, and then I went to the local park to read my book and smell the flowers. I thought it was a beautiful park and it was bursting with the sights of early autumn. Australia is beautiful, but the eucalpyts can sometimes be a little monochrome, so I revelled in the bright hues and varied colours.

The 4.5 hectare parkland is named after Captain James Cook and was originally laid out in a traditional Victorian design in 1873, with straight paths and rows of trees. Much of the original design is still in place, and the trees include elms, oaks, lindens, poplars, redwoods, cypress and ash.

There are bats or flying foxes in the trees, and apparently they aren't popular with everybody. 

The 1908 Bandstand

The cast iron James Dalton fountain was donated in 1981 by a prominent Orange townsman (as in, a townsman from Orange; not Donald Trump) and wealthy merchant. It features three storks, a fern frond decoration and four boys with urns standing on a plinth embossed with acanthus.

The James Dalton Fountain

There's an 'ornamental lake' (duck pond) complete with tortoises, and picnic tables and play areas.

I've always liked a glass house, probably because they remind me of when my mum used to take me to Kew Gardens to look at the tropical plants. The Blowes Conservatory in Cook Park features lots of bright and beautiful begonias. Signs tell me they are highly regarded and award winning. I think they're pretty.

The Blowes Conservatory

The Bastick Cottage is named after father and son who served the park as curators and lived in the Victorian-style heritage building until 1970. It is now used as a craft shop where visitors can buy handcrafted goods including pottery, knitting, woodwork and homemade jams. 

Bastick Cottage

Times change, obviously, and it is unlikely that anyone would be fined five pounds for riding or driving a motor cycle or a bicycle in this park today. Since I visited about a year ago, there is probably a petition to have it renamed, as the reverence for things considered colonial has come up for heated debate. As it stood, however, the name on the gateposts was proudly picked out in fresh paint. Who knows how long this relic will remain.