The Hopenfogels

My lil ol' blog is two years old today, and to celebrate, I have decided to create an award.

Every year on the 29th of May, we here at the Land of Meg will announce the winner of The Hopenfogel award. Hopenfogel means Hoopoe bird in German.

Hoopoes were considered sacred in Ancient Egypt, and symbols of virtue in Persia, but I have chosen them as the namesake for my annual award because Hopenfogel was my great grandmother Edith's maiden name, and it brings to mind all the impressive women in her lineage.

There are no criteria for the award. Some years there may be more than one winner, some years there may nominations in several categories, some years I may forget all together, but for this year's award, there is a single winner.

And it is Norrie.

From The Age, March 10, 2010:

This Mardi Gras, Norrie received a gift that no other androgynous person in NSW has had before.

The night before the parade, the postman brought a certificate from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages that contained neither the dreaded ''M'' nor its equally despised cousin, ''F''.

Instead, it said ''sex not specified'', making the 48-year-old Sydneysider, who identifies as neuter and uses only a first name, the first in the state to be neither man nor woman in the eyes of the NSW government.

(Norrie has since had zie non-specified gender status withdrawn by the government who said that it is not permitted in law to state anything other than male or female on legal documents.)

But to us you are a winner. Congratulations Norrie! This inaugural Hopenfogel belongs to you.

The Blog Baton 3

Last night I taught my final class for this semester's blogging course. I made my signature ginger cookies - the word BLOG for each student - which were heartily enjoyed by students and teacher, alike.

Here are some of the blogs that were created. Please join me in welcoming them to the wonderful wwworld that is the blogosphere:

www.ebden-small.blogspot.com

www.themorganology.blogspot.com

www.thelineforhome.blogspot.com

www.insidebaliguide.blogspot.com

Over the last few years I have celebrated many an event (and non-event) with these cookies. Here are some of the photos I have managed to take before the words were eagerly eaten.

And previously: The Blog Baton 1 & The Blog Baton 2.

Do Nothing

For the first time in a long time I have started to read a book that's on PJ's reading list and not mine: The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming by Masanobu Fukuoka.

I have loved each passage PJ has read out to me, and then when he blogged this quote yesterday I just knew that I had to read the whole book myself:

The more people do, the more society develops, the more problems arise. The increasing desolation of nature, the exhaustion of resources, the uneasiness and disintegration of the human spirit, all have been brought about by humanity's trying to accomplish something. Originally there was no reason to progress, and nothing that had to be done. We have come to the point at which there is no other way than to bring about a "movement" not to bring anything about.

Fukuoka's solution is called Do Nothing Farming. It's not entirely Do Nothing, but is more concerned with nature playing the starring role and not people, pesticides or machinery.

I live in the country because I love the lack of hustle and bustle, but feel that my desire to create, accomplish and be productive has gotten in the way of my ability to be quiet with myself. I have forgotten how to do nothing.

And so, I have decided to start Do Nothing Blogging, where I will blog according to the season of my mood, and not every single day as I have been doing with gusto for the last year and a half.

This has been a big decision that's been coming for a while. It feels good to actually make it.

So stay tuned, and thanks for visiting us here in the Land of Meg.

An Inheritance

I don't really consider myself overly sentimental, but I always thought I would inherit a sewing kit from a grandmother or from my mum. I felt a bit sad when I realised that if I wanted one I'd have to create my own.

But then something happened. As I mentioned last week, the lovely Steph very kindly made me one of her softies that I turned into a pin cushion.

And then something else happened. Leonie from Raglan Guld, read the post where I talked about starting my own sewing kit, then she very generously sent me a package stuffed full of sewing goodies and beautiful fabric to start me off on my way.

I have had to rethink my definition of inheritance. Because I have inherited my kit, just not in the way I thought it would come.

So thank you again, Steph and thank you Leonie. And thank you to you too, Chunky Chooky Cath, for my lovely bag that also arrived in today's post that I tore at in the post office like a pre-schooler on her birthday.

You Don't Say

I have disabled comments for this post.

Family Album

Big thanks goes to Jenny from Dosfamily who has included us in her album of family portraits.

We took our photo to use as the header for The Artist as Family blog, which we are going to update with the daily happenings of our artist in residency in Newcastle.

We leave today, which is all very exciting. I'm not sure if I will be updating this blog or not whilst we are away, so be sure to pop into The Artist as Family to see what we are up to.

Thanks for looking after our house, garden and chooks, L and D.

See you in 18 days!

Face/Replaced

From here.

The Pursuit of Happiness

I love bad blogs. The more inane and the more obscure, the more I like them. To me, bad blogs are the whole point of the Internet– a platform for the left of centre, a voice for the far right, a soapbox for the underdog and a visual megaphone for the otherwise marginalised.

But I love good blogs too. The ones that have something true to say. The ones that tickle all my fancies simultaneously. The ones that I thank all the computer nerds for inventing RSS for. Tap dancing at the top of that list for me is Maira Kalman's And the Pursuit of Happiness, which she updates on the last Friday of each month and which I look forward to with Ghostbuster's anticipation.

If you have the inclination, there's an interview with Ms Kalman over at The Bygone Bureau and a talk she gave at TED over here.

Well, that's it for today's post. Thanks for making the effort to come and share some time with me in the Land of Meg. I hope you found something to take away with you – you over there at your computer being alive.

Full Tank

Now that I have been blogging for over a year, it's a funny feeling to read back over old posts to see what Meg Before has been up to. How much has changed. How much hasn't.

A year ago today, our 5,000 gallon water tank arrived. It looked like an enormous techno snail shell on the back of the truck that delivered it. I never thought that it could rain enough in my lifetime to fill it.

But rain it did this winter and now our cup runneth over.

Next Blog

I just clicked Next Blog on my Blogger toolbar and this is the first post that came up:

Sleepy Pooh Bear

This is a sweet little clock. The pooh bear on top lights up as a night light and it has an alarm and radio as well. I bought this one at the Goodwill store in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan. It was stuck in the furthest corner of the store, upside down with a big hunk of clock on top of it. I couldn't just leave it there, so I took it home, cleaned it up, and added it to my collection. :)

From here.

Bed in the Bath

A couple of months ago I came across a post a blogger named Sian in South Wales had written about her kids sleeping in the bath. She posted this photo,

and wrote:

Now I tried to sleep in a bath once. It seemed like the thing to do at the time (and yes, it was at the end of a convivial evening) and despite being rather immune to discomfort, courtesy of Mr Smirnoff, I remember it as being deeply unsuccessful. So my knee jerk reaction was to say no...

...and then I thought - why not? Why on earth can't they sleep in the tub if they want to? It's not as if I am forcing them to sleep rough in the bathroom. So I agreed, on the premise that if they found out that they didn't like it, that they would get into their own beds without waking me at 3am to give me the low down on everything. 'Kay? 'Kay.

Yesterday when I received a lovely comment from Sian on my Tank Man Tango post I was reminded of the comment I left on her blog: "I am 35 and have never slept in a bathtub. This fabulous post makes me think I must add it to my list of things to do before I am 40."

And so last night I thought: Tonight's the night. I dragged some bedding into the bath where I lay for about an hour before PJ came in and took this photo.

I'm sorry to report to your kids, Sian, that I didn't last the night.

One Whole Year

Exactly a year ago when I started this blog, the first words I wrote were: "A few weeks ago I was employed to write a series of short bios of a dozen mid-century furniture designers." 

The woman who contracted me to write the bios for her website was a furniture manufacturer who gave me this couch in lieu of payment. We had not long before moved into our new house, so we were rapt with the trade – content for comfort.

A few years before, the Australian Federal police paid PJ a visit to question him about an artwork he had made, which they considered to be seditious. When our new couch arrived, he laughed that when the feds came to question him again, they would see this plush couch and walk away because there's no way an anarchist would own such a bourgeois couch.

This couch has changed the way we live. Its size means that the three of us can lie comfortably on it together, which we often do of an evening reading books.

"Welcome along on my experiment," is how I ended my very first post last year. 12 months on and I still feel as though I am experimenting, just with a bit more practice.

Thanks so much for your company.

Here's to another year together.

Blog Fail

More here.

Modern Proverbs

More here.

Sweet Smell of Success

My mum's friend Andrew, who has a book coming out this year called The Greatest Blogger in the World, has just launched his blog.

After a recent trip to the perfume counter of a department store to buy a gift, Andrew returned home with an abundance of fragrant sample cards that "smelt like girls". Perfect for DIY business cards and plant labels.

Definitions of Now

Today over on Brand DNA, Stan Lee posted this photo and wrote about his recent experience at a conference where dozens of people sat and typed on their laptops.

It seems live blogging and twittering are obviously now an accepted part of conferences. Which is probably the conference equivalent of people taking mobile phone photos at concerts... But I can't help thinking that these people are not getting the most out of their conference experience because they're too focused on commenting on or recording what they're seeing.

As a blogger and constant camera carrier who loves to photograph daily details, this is something I struggle with. I want to be present in the moment as Meg Now but I also want to capture what I'm experiencing and encountering for Meg Later. Can a person do both in equal measure? In this ever-evolving digital age do I need to loosen my definition of now? Maybe Marshall McLuhan was right when he wrote "We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future."

Photo Tag

I have just seen that I have been tagged by The Doily, which this time around means I am supposed to post the fourth photo in my fourth photo folder for all to share.

This is PJ and me on my parents' property in Tasmania in August 2007.

And so, in the spirit of the exercise, I hereby tag:

(Text)ure and (me)aning
Spender and
Adventures of a Pirate Tribe.

I Write This

I write this on my mum's computer while she packs her bag for Tasmania where she'll spend two weeks with my dad.

I write this after a productive day of working on the fifth storey of an office building in Melbourne, punctuated by nectarines, coffees and lunch with my lovely friend Chris.

I write this after meeting my sister E after work. We sat on a metal bench on the street and talked like only sisters can before I took a tram to my grandfather's house.

I write this after dinner with my mum at a busy vegetarian restaurant.

I write this wearing only a singlet. The door leading out to the balcony is open and the city sounds enter the living room like a mixtape.

I write this and you read it with a soundtrack and a Tuesday tale of your own.

Blank

To celebrate my 200th post, I would like to thank the 200 blank screens that have provided me with a space to call my own. For me to fill with my thoughts and photos, my titles, my longings, my troubles, my wonderings, my time, my recipes, my readings, my family, my best bits, my lumpy bits, my pleasures, my frustrations, my ideas, my love, my videos, my funnies and my self, that often only comes into view when I sit down to write, like I'm looking in the mirror.

And I would like to thank you of course, dear reader, for joining me in my Meg-shaped corner of the Internet.

I Heart Nadia

I heart Jake Bronstein. And I heart the Internet.

About three weeks ago, blogger-to-the-stars, Jake Bronstein, asked his readers: When was the last time you received a love letter? All you had to do was leave your address as a comment on his blog and a letter hand-written by one of his interns would be snailed to your heart.

Thank you, Nadia! Your love was successfully received.

Click for bigger.