Hello welcome to my Blog

Mezze is widely served in the Greek and Middle eastern world. An assortment of little dishes and tasters which accompany a nice ouzo or a glass of wine. So when you read mezze moments you will have tasty snippets of life as I live it, India for four years and now Brisbane Australia, all served up with some Greek fervour and passion.

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Friday 28 June 2019

Combining my favourites.

History, Art and Nature are favourites. Combined they make winners every time. 


This is the first of the Art Beacons which has been installed in the Cameron Rocks Reserve and which we had the pleasure of exploring last weekend. The artist who was selected to produce his "Magnificent Flying Machines" is Kenji Uranishi. His work is inspired by two locals, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith after whom the road was named, and Maude "Lores" Bonney. Charles Edward Kingsford Smith was a fearless aviator who had visions of what aviation could mean to the world. He made many daring flights and "Smithy" as he was known has rightly earned his place in the history books. 


From the Australian Aviation, Hall of Fame 

Maude Rose "Lores" Bonney, AM, MBE was an Australian aviator and the first woman to fly solo from Australia to England.


Lores Bonney and her aircraft, My Little Ship, at Archerfield Aerodrome in 1932 before her round-Australia flight. Collection: Powerhouse Museum

This is an extract from her biography which I thought was lovely : 
"Aiming to be the first woman to fly from Australia to England, Bonney learned how to overhaul engines and had her aircraft modified for the journey. On 10 April 1933 she left Brisbane. Caught in a tropical storm on the twentieth, she attempted to land on the coast of an island off Thailand, near the border with Burma (Myanmar). As she approached a beach, a herd of water buffalo walked into her path, forcing her to land too close to the sea. Her plane overturned and came to rest in the water. Remaining unperturbed, she managed to free herself from her harness and get to shore. She had the plane salvaged and shipped to Calcutta (Kolkata), India, for repairs. On 25 May she resumed her flight and on 21 June landed at Croydon, England. If you want to read more go to http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bonney-maude-rose-lores-27042"
The artist said that he took inspiration from these two courageous aviators' pioneering spirit and passion for adventure, with the determined journey of an orchard swallowtail butterfly, the largest butterfly common to Brisbane, to produce the concept which has gone into the Art Beacons. 



The first two of Kenji’s 10 Art Beacons were installed at Cameron Rocks Reserve in mid-April 2019. The remaining eight Art Beacons will be located at key locations along Kingsford Smith Drive, as shown on the map below.
Click map to enlarge 













Sunday 23 June 2019

The Perfect Day in the company of Gloria

The Perfect day was spent in the company of Gloria who we are told will soon be joined by Gerard. Gloria is a 2 metre ewe, the work of artist Mark Andrews, standing on the shore front in Teneriffe a suburb in Brisbane, famous for its wool stores. Her partner, in life and in steel, Gerard will finally come to join her in accordance with the initial plan shortly so watch this space. 



Gloria Grant and Gerard Benjamin collaborated on a book called Reflections on New Farm. She passed away but Gerard is still very much involved in the area and its history. We were told this news when we attended the 25th Birthday party of the New Farm and district Historical Society.
Matt Condon, local author and journalist, was the guest speaker and he held the audience's attention with stories on the area's criminal past, not least a sting in New Farm Park that led to the arrest of a well known bent copper and the infamous Whiskey A Go Go fire which resulted in the death of 15 people from smoke inhalation. If you want more details go to Matt Condon's new Book called "Night Dragon."





Then a ride on the ferry to Northshore and a walk back to New Farm, some 10.2 kms stopping to say hi to a shimmering golden Gloria along the way as the sun was dipping - A beer at the Brisbane Powerhouse was a welcome thirst quencher. Gorgeous day, sunny and warm, the river a source of discovery as always, a new riverside walk opening up soon. 

Thursday 20 June 2019

Margaret Olley, Adrienne Gale and I

I have been writing about legacies recently and this blog is a testament to a remarkable woman who left a vibrant legacy for the whole of Australia - and that woman is Margaret Olley. I had the pleasure and the privilege, (this is a Free Exhibition) to attend the opening of "A Generous Life - Margaret Olley" at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane. Dont miss it. Margaret's early years in northern Queensland and later in Brisbane, which she regarded as home, imbued colour and light in her work like no other. She is famous for her still life paintings - though I really don't know why they should be termed so, there is such light, movement, joy and warmth in those paintings - and like her life, which was never still, she saw the beauty and uniqueness in every stem and bud, every artefact she collected from her overseas travels and every precious item stacked in her marvellous crazy chaotic studio. 
Here are some of my favourite ones : 





I found out about Margaret Olley from a good friend Lucy Bolton who went to Tweed Galleries to visit the permanent exhibition that is on there - They have actually recreated her studio in the Gallery painstakingly and accurately, recording the thousand of items they found there after her death in 2011. 
Margaret practically died with a paint brush in her hand and I am sure she could not have thought or planned a better ending. She was instrumental from a very young age in encouraging emerging talent, and she bought paintings which she then asked big galleries to exhibit, giving prominence to the young artist. No one could really say no to Margaret, she was forthright and fun and always told people exactly what she thought and why. She was generous throughout her life and with her art. 

Her style and art is there for other artists to emulate and I would like to believe that when Adrienne Gale started painting Margaret's work went some way to helping her develop her own style. Adrienne was a talented painter, a mother to three and devoted to Bill, her husband. Sadly she is no longer with us. When Bill and her daughter organised a retrospective of all of her art in March of 2019, I was lucky enough to review it and as soon as I walked in I fell in love with a painting which had it all. It had Margaret in its still life genre, Adrienne in the scene she chose, Queenslanders in the background to ensure that this could be nowhere else but here, open doors and sunlight filtering in the Queensland way, agapanthus in a vase, the favourite flowers of Dr Henry Foy and his wife Athena, (one of the first enduring friendships we made in Kenya,) and blue - lots and lots of blue - my favourite colour. Margaret and Adrienne are now above my writing desk bringing that life, light and love straight through that open door. Here it is :


Friday 7 June 2019

Legacies

Did you read yesterday's blog on Diamantina? I am testing you now, so be prepared ....
New experiences have a habit of leading you as if by a magical hand to more, opening avenues and paths less travelled. I was talking about this remarkable woman and her legacy just yesterday. 
Today, I chose a completely different route to go to the radio station. I walked most of the way and in amongst the lovely tulipwood trees laden with fanciful and alluring berries, I come across this sign. She knew what she needed to do and here is pure proof that her work still lives on. 




What will your preferred legacy be ? 

Thursday 6 June 2019

Diamantina di Roma


Women often find themselves in supporting roles, mothers supporting their kids, wives their husbands, the examples are everywhere around us. Yet that has never stopped them, diminished their energy, commitment and fervour or their empathy. It is just that we don't hear so much about them. They are often in the shadows or not courting attention or simply too busy to be cultivating their public image.  Lady Diamantina di Roma - wife of the first Governor of Brisbane was one such doer. I spent about two hours in her company today though she was born in 1832  and I am here today. 
I was transported through the good offices of Natalie Cowling in her marvellous outfit and researched stories to relive her life, her arrival by steamship to Brisbane, feeling seasick, and three days late, in blistering 35 C heat on a December day in 1859. I walked up the steps she did all those years ago to her new home of Brisbane.  
Lady Diamantina was of Venetian heritage. She was born and raised on the island of Zakynthos in the Ionian Islands where she met her husband George Bowen. She was from aristocratic stock, a contessa and she married Bowen who was a colonial administrator and their first posting was Brisbane in Queensland which had just separated from NSW.

They built Old Government House and moved there with her family. It's a splendid building with some greek columns to remind her of her heritage and then, extensive open spaces, which she busied herself organising into market gardens, flower gardens and small orchards, introducing, with the help of Walter Hill, (the architect and founder of the Botanic Gardens,) exotic fruits such as mango and papaya and even macadamia trees.They planted the wonderful bunya pine which is still there. 




More importantly however she bonded with the people of Queensland and looked after the poorest and less fortunate, so in her eight years here, while her husband was attending to matters of state and poetry (he had the reputation of being rather short tempered and pompous) she was finding ways to raise money to build a lying-in maternity hospital for young women, giving young women skills as they arrived in the colony and funding and building a home for orphans, even sewing their clothes. In short she was remarkable, warm and generous, an organiser and giver, a supporter of women and children and a persuasive advocate for the training and independence of young women. 

I was the only Greek apart from Diamantina there today and I know she would have wanted me to write about her. She was a very special woman and her bonds with Queensland are still very much in evidence. What she began with such foresight and compassion others carry on today. 

The event was organised by https://blhn.org

Sunday 2 June 2019

Vivid

How to get people out on the streets when the nights are drawing in? Create a winter event call it VIVID and you have the winning formula. We were among hundreds of others wandering the streets of central Sydney and Circular Quay to gape, gasp, laugh and love what the city has put on show for us.



It is the first day of winter and I could not think of a better way to start the season but in the best company of gorgeous friends and family - Ellen and Charlie, Nick and Ant. We strolled and stopped, photographed and just admired the beautiful sails of the Opera house done by an LA based Artist Andrew Thomas Huang who drew on nature, Australian foliage in particular, and mixed it with dance sequences and sea life to produce the most amazing evolving scenes on the Sails.

We walked by the Museum of Contemporary Art with big displays of song titles and heartfelt messages to the Samsung Park with light columns which changed colour and coloured balls that descended and ascended to the delight of children passing through them or adults lying under them.

The words " Lost without you written" on the wall of the Museum as they were literally sung by an artist in the street. 


The Rocks were rocking with pop up shops and restaurants and music concerts on every corner.
We took it all in - kept an eye not to lose each other in the crowd - and settled for a crisp Australian white wine at the Charming Squire while looking out to the bay.