The Alphabet Club_Saturday Detention for Z...

... and the end of our Alphabet Journey!

IS FOR

Click on the picture above to find out more about our wonderful Zoos - we are very lucky, here in Melbourne.

So, this is me, signing off on The Alphabet Posts - it has been a great journey which I have really enjoyed taking with you.  Click on any of the letters below to revisit A to Y.

A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y

but let me explain what The Alphabet Club is all about ....

  It is the brainchild of Chiara from The Grey Tail and Jo from Serendipitous Stitching and is loosely based on the premise of the movie "The Breakfast Club" - you can see the button for The Alphabet Club on my right sidebar.

On the first Saturday of each month, members of the club have "detention" and have to post about something that will enlighten others about their culture (as blogland is so diverse).  Of course, there should/could be something stitchy in there, if possible (although I seemed to have moved right away from that premise as the months have gone by, instead focusing on boring you all with quirky facts about Australia - lol!)

Each month will be a different letter of the alphabet - hence the club's name - and, of course, we started with "A" and now we are up to "Y",  the penultimate letter - almost the end of the alphabet but dear Jo tells me that she has a great idea for Life after Z - can't wait to find out what it is!

Thank you, Chiara and Jo for a wonderful journey.

Please visit Chiara's blog, The Grey Tail, for the link up post.

hugs,

 

The Alphabet Club_Saturday Detention for Y....

IS FOR

YARRA VALLEY 

This is the wine district about an hour's drive from our home (how good is that?)

Often, on a Sunday, TraderVic and I along with our dear friends, Marie and Tony, will go to the Yarra Valley to do some wine tasting and to have lunch at one of the many great restaurants in the area.  One of our favourites is De Bortoli's winery. On Sundays they have a set four course menu with matched wines - fantastic!

The Yarra Valley is so very pretty.

.... and, of course we have to stop at the Chocolate shop on the way home!

... and the Llama farm!

Anyway, that is all from me for the Letter Y but let me explain what The Alphabet Club is all about ....

  It is the brainchild of Chiara from The Grey Tail and Jo from Serendipitous Stitching and is loosely based on the premise of the movie "The Breakfast Club" - you can see the button for The Alphabet Club on my right sidebar.

On the first Saturday of each month, members of the club have "detention" and have to post about something that will enlighten others about their culture (as blogland is so diverse).  Of course, there should/could be something stitchy in there, if possible (although I seemed to have moved right away from that premise as the months have gone by, instead focusing on boring you all with quirky facts about Australia - lol!)

Each month will be a different letter of the alphabet - hence the club's name - and, of course, we started with "A" and now we are up to "Y",  the penultimate letter - almost the end of the alphabet but dear Jo tells me that she has a great idea for Life after Z - can't wait to find out what it is!

Please visit Chiara's blog, The Grey Tail, for the link up post.

hugs,

 

The Alphabet Club_Saturday Detention for X

IS FOR

Yep, Pauline Hanson!

To our eternal shame as Australians, Xenophobia does unfortunately exist in Australia and it is personified by the leader of the One Nation Party, Pauline Hanson - whose infamous catchphrase is "Please Explain."  Say no more!

However, there is also .....

An Australian Punk Rock Band

named 

... whom I have never heard of but are obviously legends (in their own minds????), according to their Facebook page!

Lastly, X also stands for the only town in Australia which starts with X - 

Xantippe in Western Australia!

Click on either of the two pics below to read more about this tiny town.

 Anyway, that is all from me for the Letter X but let me explain what The Alphabet Club is all about ....

  It is the brainchild of Chiara from The Grey Tail and Jo from Serendipitous Stitching and is loosely based on the premise of the movie "The Breakfast Club" - you can see the button for The Alphabet Club on my right sidebar.

On the first Saturday of each month, members of the club have "detention" and have to post about something that will enlighten others about their culture (as blogland is so diverse).  Of course, there should/could be something stitchy in there, if possible (although I seemed to have moved right away from that premise as the months have gone by, instead focusing on boring you all with quirky facts about Australia - lol!)

Each month will be a different letter of the alphabet - hence the club's name - and, of course, we started with "A" and now we are up to "X", nearly at the end of the alphabet but dear Jo tells me that she has a great idea for Life after Z - can't wait to find out what it is!

Please visit Chiara's blog, The Grey Tail, for the link up post.

.... and one last thing before I go, I have an UPDATE for my last Alphabet Club post, which was for W is for Waltzing Matilda.

Last evening, Trader Vic and I were lucky enough to hear Eric Bogle sing.  

Some friends of ours, who live locally, host regular House Music parties for troubadors from all around the world - we were lucky enough to get tickets to see Eric Bogle (they sold out in three hours!).

He was amazing, a great raconteur and such wonderful ballads.

Of course, I cried when he played "And the band played Waltzing Matilda".

It was a magical evening, so special.

Anyway, enough from me for now - my next post will be an update of my trip to Camperdown and the Western District of Victoria and after that, I absolutely promise that there will be a stitching update - I am actually stitching like mad, in between my very active social and work life - promise!

hugs,

 

The Alphabet Club_Saturday Detention for W

is for

Waltzing Matilda is one of Australia's unofficial anthems (much preferred by many to our official one - Advance Australia Fair) and is a most beloved bush ballad.  

The story of the song is as follows:

"The title is Australian slang for travelling on foot (waltzing, derived from the German auf der Walz) with one's belongings in a "matilda" (swag) slung over one's back. The song narrates the story of an itinerant worker, or "swagman", making a drink of billy tea at a bush camp and capturing a stray jumbuck (sheep) to eat. When the jumbuck's owner, a squatter (wealthy landowner), and three mounted policemen pursue the swagman for theft, he declares "You'll never take me alive!" and commits suicide by drowning himself in a nearby billabong (watering hole), after which his ghost haunts the site."

It was written in January, 1895 by one of Australia's greatest poets, Banjo Paterson, while  he was staying at Dagworth Station, a sheep and cattle station near Winton in Central West Queensland owned by the Macpherson family. The words were written to a tune played on a zither or autoharp by 31‑year‑old Christina Macpherson, one of the family members at the station.

It has now been widely accepted that "Waltzing Matilda" is probably based on the following story:

In Queensland in 1891 the Great Shearers' Strike brought the colony close to civil war and was broken only after the Premier of Queensland, Samuel Griffith, called in the military. In September 1894, some shearers at Dagworth Station were again on strike. The situation turned violent with the striking shearers firing their rifles and pistols in the air and setting fire to the woolshed at Dagworth, killing dozens of sheep. The owner of Dagworth Station and three policemen gave chase to a man named Samuel Hoffmeister – also known as "French(y)". Rather than be captured, Hoffmeister shot and killed himself at the Combo Waterhole.

Bob Macpherson (the brother of Christina) and Paterson are said to have taken rides together at Dagworth. Here they would probably have passed the Combo Waterhole, where Macpherson is purported to have told this story to Paterson. Although not remaining in close contact, Paterson and Christina Macpherson both maintained this version of events until their deaths. Amongst Macpherson's belongings, found after her death in 1936, was an unopened letter to a music researcher that read "... one day I played (from ear) a tune, which I had heard played by a band at the Races in Warrnambool ... he [Paterson] then said he thought he could write some words to it. He then and there wrote the first verse. We tried it and thought it went well, so he then wrote the other verses." Similarly, in the early 1930s on ABC radio Paterson said "The shearers staged a strike and Macpherson's woolshed at Dagworth was burnt down and a man was picked up dead ... Miss Macpherson used to play a little Scottish tune on a zither and I put words to it and called it Waltzing Matilda."

The song itself was first performed on 6 April 1895 by Sir Herbert Ramsay at the North Gregory Hotel in Winton, Queensland. The occasion was a banquet for the Premier of Queensland.

Another famous "Waltzing Matilda" song is "And the band played Walzting Matilda" written by Eric Bogle in 1971 to protest about the futility of war.

Anyway, that is all from me for the Letter W but let me explain what The Alphabet Club is all about ....

  It is the brainchild of Chiara from The Grey Tail and Jo from Serendipitous Stitching and is loosely based on the premise of the movie "The Breakfast Club" - you can see the button for The Alphabet Club on my right sidebar.

On the first Saturday of each month, members of the club have "detention" and have to post about something that will enlighten others about their culture (as blogland is so diverse).  Of course, there should/could be something stitchy in there, if possible (although I seemed to have moved right away from that premise as the months have gone by, instead focusing on boring you all with quirky facts about Australia - lol!)

Each month will be a different letter of the alphabet - hence the club's name - and, of course, we started with "A" and now we are up to "W", nearly at the end of the alphabet but dear Jo tells me that she has a great idea for Life after Z - can't wait to find out what it is!

Please visit Chiara's blog, The Grey Tail, for the link up post.

Oh, before I go, I have an UPDATE for my last Alphabet Club post, which was V is for Vegemite.  Dear Lesley, was so inspired by my post (at least that is how I am viewing it - lol!) that she bought some Vegemite for herself!

This is what she wrote to me:

"I bought a jar of Vegemite recently, ...it is delicious.I love Marmite,our beef based product and Vegemite is now my joint favourite on toast.Sooooo tasty.

So, give it a try if you haven't already!

hugs,

 

The Alphabet Club_Saturday Detention for V....

is for

Yes, the mainstay breakfast spread of every Aussie kid....

It is yummy, delicious and best spread on toast!

Yum! Yum!

However, if you are a novice Vegemite eater, it is suggested that you start slowly.

Believe it or not, a lot of research goes into how best to eat Vegemite.

... and, of course, Vegemite was immortalised in one of our de facto Australian Anthems ...

.... Downunder by Men at Work....

If you would like to read more about the history of Vegemite, check out this website.

Anyway, that is all from me for the Letter V but let me explain what The Alphabet Club is all about ....

  It is the brainchild of Chiara from The Grey Tail and Jo from Serendipitous Stitching and is loosely based on the premise of the movie "The Breakfast Club" - you can see the button for The Alphabet Club on my right sidebar.

On the first Saturday of each month, members of the club have "detention" and have to post about something that will enlighten others about their culture (as blogland is so diverse).  Of course, there should/could be something stitchy in there, if possible (although I seemed to have moved right away from that premise as the months have gone by, instead focusing on boring you all with quirky facts about Australia - lol!)

Each month will be a different letter of the alphabet - hence the club's name - and, of course, we started with "A" and now we are up to "V".

You can see everyone's Alphabet Club posts, here.

hugs,

 

P.S.  Lastly, I would like to invite you to join in the fun of my Merry Xmas in July exchange.  Just click on a present below to sign up.

The Alphabet Club_Saturday Detention for U

                        

                              

 

                     IS FOR 

                       ULURU

Yes, that great big rock in the middle of Australia!

 And as you can see from this rather fuzzy diagram below, it is HUGE!

I have been privilege enough to visit Uluru in September/October 2014 and it is absolutely amazing!  Here are some more pics to show you (not mine but from the internet).

Beautiful, isn't it?

But did you know that recently, Uluru was like a waterfall?

Quite amazing, isn't it?

Of course, Uluru is a sacred site to the original inhabitants of this land, the Anangu people and the National Park is jointly managed by the Anangu and Parks Australia.

If you want to read and see more about this amazing place, please follow this link to the Parks Australia site - it is well worth having a look at.

Anyway, that is all from me for the Letter U but let me explain what The Alphabet Club is all about ....

  It is the brainchild of Chiara from The Grey Tail and Jo from Serendipitous Stitching and is loosely based on the premise of the movie "The Breakfast Club" - you can see the button for The Alphabet Club on my right sidebar.

On the first Saturday of each month, members of the club have "detention" and have to post about something that will enlighten others about their culture (as blogland is so diverse).  Of course, there should/could be something stitchy in there, if possible (although I seemed to have moved right away from that premise as the months have gone by, instead focusing on boring you all with quirky facts about Australia - lol!)

Each month will be a different letter of the alphabet - hence the club's name - and, of course, we started with "A" and now we are up to "U".

You can see everyone's Alphabet Club posts, here.

hugs,