Hilda VIII: Church

Well Hilda has languished a little this past week.

As you know I write on the train on my way to and from work. Well this week I have been thinking more about my other WIP Veil of Iron than writing on either.  I say thinking because I have a plot problem I want to sort out and it has me stumped.

The net result is not much writing at all. Although I have done little with Hilda, as I said last week I am somewhat ahead of tonight’s extract.

Anyway, the extract this week follows on immediately from last week. Hilda is still anxiously awaiting her parents’ verdict on whether she can take the scholarship Miss Wilson has arranged for her to go to High School.

1911

‘There’s Miss Wilson,’ Hilda turned to her mother, ‘can I sit with her?’

‘Of course dear.’

Hilda almost skipped toward her teacher, ‘Good morning Miss Wilson.’

Miss Wilson turned at her voice, a warm smile lit her face, ‘Good morning Hilda.’

‘Can I sit with you in church today?’

‘Yes, you may sit with me.’ Just a hint of emphasis on the word “may”.

‘Oh, I’m sorry. May I sit with you today.’

‘Of course.’

Hilda walked beside Miss Wilson into the church. Reverend Jarret, the vicar smiled and nodded, ‘Good morning Miss Wilson, good morning Hilda.’

Hilda liked old Jarret, his sermons always seemed to focus on the nicer parts of the bible. There was never much “Hell fire and damnation” from the old man.

As they settled on the wooden pew Miss Wilson passed Hilda a prayer book. ‘I’d have thought you had enough of me at school?’

‘Miss Wilson, you shouldn’t say that. I love every moment of school!’

‘Even trying to teach Bess Tomlinson her seven time’s table?’

‘Even that!’

‘Well I must say you are more dedicated than I.’ Her teacher paused, ‘Have your parents said anything to you?’

‘Not yet, Mum says they are still talking about it.’

‘We must take it as a good sign, they haven’t given you an outright “no”. We should say a prayer that they’ll make the right decision.’

Now as I say Goodnight a piccie of the day:

 Melbourne at Sunset

Rhinos on our Streets?

Well in a slightly odd move I posted this image for my WIIW on Wednesday. 

 

It was cropped from a larger poster that is part of a public safety campaign that has been running in Melbourne over recent months.

 

So is Melbourne really over run by skateboarding rhinos?

Not quite.

But it is full of these things.

 

Trams are very much a part of the Melbourne street-scape.

Unfortunately a distressing number of jaywalkers have ended up underneath trams.

And unusually in pedestrian fatalities the biggest group was 18-35 year olds.

The problem people was focused on phones and texting walking out in front of the lumbering chunks of steel.

To the credit of Yarra Trams they realised the younger audience needed something other than an authoritarian “be careful crossing roads” message.

They came up with an attention grabbing campaign which was this beasty 

 

and it appeared on tram stops everywhere.

 

The multilingual approach is the latest iteration.  

 

Now that is definitely enough of being serious.

Now to points!

John D said “Its a sign in a special geriatric animal zoo in Belgrade. It warns: Oprez U godinama beo novac koji se kreće na temelju skateboards. It means, in English: Caution - Aged white rhinos moving on skateboards.

John you have me convinced! I will pay that one 85%!

Linda G was a bit literal to qualify as quirky (unusually) with:  “Well, the rhino obviously represents danger. So I'm guessing it means "Beware of Skateboarders." Which is something we all should do. I got mowed down by a skateboarder once, and it was painful.”

I have been mown down by a skateboarder too! Not fun! Sympathy points of 50%!

Jennifer, (AKA Old Kitty) said “Area Reserved for Skateboarding Rhinos.”

Which is clearly nonsense! And therefore exactly the sort of answer I was looking for. That rates 85% as well!

Jai is in the literal camp as well with “I'm wondering if it's maybe a description of skateboarding techniques. The first has the skateboard level and the second has the front wheels slightly lifted. Maybe?”

Alas not 50%.

Christine had a bet either way with: "Beware of something heavy and slow-moving on wheels; it might pick up speed and cause you injury."

Which is pretty close to what the campaign is actually saying so I guess that is worth a good 60%.

Then the icing was Christine’s quirky “On the other hand, it might mean 'love your rhinocerous and take him to the skate park as you will be richly rewarded.' Has WIIW become OTWW (off the wall Wednesday)?”

Yes it has Christine for this week at least, that deserves a bonus 85% which means  Christine’s total score is 145%!!!

Is that even possible? I guess in an OTWW post it is!

Marcy wondered: “Beware skating rhinos? Surely not...”

As your answer is strictly true I guess you get 50%. Alas it is unfortunately not skating rhinos, it is something even more dangerous.

A failed clue

Well my clue of last night.

Jai updated her guess from a car to a bus.  

Well you are getting closer it is public transport 50%

Carolyn gave up on police lights and admitted she was stumped.

I can see that so 30%

Susan switched from front lights on a vehicle to “dashboard indicators”

Well Susan I guess your first score is 50% but that falls to 20% for the second one!

Jennifer (AKA Old Kitty)

Went from “ a truck” to “an automobile” to surrendering!

20%

John G said “a sedan”

20%

And John D said “A Toyota Celica front end grill!”

I remember those Celicas and the piccie looked very like one! I’ll award special points of 40% for that!

Well Jai is the closest, but

 The clue from yesterday showed it was a vehicle that can travel in either direction.

Trains do that, but they don’t need indicators. So what is it?

Well when Aussies think of Melbourne their first thought is usually “cold wet and miserable”

And to be fair Melbourne has lived up to that reputation this past winter.

Then the next thing they think is “Trams”

And that is the solution to our problem. A Melbourne Tram.

This one is turning out of Spring Street in front of the Victorian Parliament House, into the top end of Burke Street.

To be fair to John D who is also an Aussie the mental image trams usually conjure is an old fashioned “W Class” not an ugly 1980’s vintage machine like this one

Like trains they travel happily in either direction so they have headlights at both ends.

Unlike trains they share the roads with other vehicles so they need brake lights at both ends and indicators as well.

A "W Class"

More grey skies, and reflection

I took this photo this afternoon under a winter sky. It suited my mood really.

But by the time I was taking the images off my camera this evening I felt much better.

Beauty is uplifting,

Light, stone, shadow and water combining into a visual poetry.

Malmsby viaduct opened in 1860 to carry a railway line from Melbourne to the Bendigo Gold-fields

The Old Treasury, Melbourne and a clue.

The Old Treasury Building was constructed during the Victorian Gold Rush to house the (then) colony's gold vaults.

The building once housed the Treasury Department Victorian Government, but is now a museum focussed on Melbourne history

Built between 1858-62 the building was designed by an architect called J. J. Clark who was just 19 years of age!

I will post an answer to yesterday's What is it Wednesday tomorrow. A clue, Kitty and Linda G are half right.

What is it Wednesday?

Melbourne CBD about to be lashed by a storm

No the piccie above is not my WIIW piccie.

After a long day at work I began looking through my personal archive to find a WIIW post.
Sometimes I find a piccie with minimal effort, others it take an age.

This time it was somewhere in between. However, one thing I did decide was that I have now shared an awful lot of piccies on this blog and have 1,000s and 1,000s more. 
Most of the piccies I have shared because I like them and it seems a shame to let my piccies languish unloved on a hard-drive somewhere.

So I thought I would make an effort to post a piccie most days even if I didn't have time (or energy) to do much else.

So my question is what do you all think of that as a concept?

Now down to the business of the day.
I promise that because I have already asked you to think, I will not be at all tricky with his weeks WIIW.

 So - What on Earth do you think this is?

On Waterfalls (or not)

First things first, yesterday I did a guest post over on Misha’s blog My First Book.

Now down to business.
While this:Does indeed look superficially like this:(this is one branch of the Triplet Falls here in Victoria)

Or could be mistaken for something like this:(these are the Russell Falls in Tasmania, I posted about them some time ago)

Kitty is right - this is not a waterfall.

Although, I will freely admit it does involve large amounts of water rushing rapidly. I am not quite as devious as you think (not this time anyway).
So Kitty, I guess you deserve 50%.

Wendy (as kitty) assumed it was not the obvious, so you too deserve a 50% score.

Linda, you have sided with kitty in assuming the worst of me. How mean ;-)

Sorry Angela,
I will agree it is beautiful but it is no waterfall.

Corolyn,
Indeed Yay for my break!
Ah you have looked closely. The white you have picked is not snow but I’m happy to award 60% for your powers of observation!

Susan,
Fancy siding with those who think I am devious and sneaky!
Perhaps that streak is not a mile wide (quite)

Hi Mom to 8
Not a waterfall or food. But that is certainly a creative guess.

Here it is.Not a waterfall but waves pouring through a hole in this limestone stack.

This stack is just west of the famous Twelve Apostles about 270 km (170miles) west of Melbourne.You could just about see the Apostles in the distance of this shot except there was so much spray in the air from the near gale force wind that was blowing.

The really nice thing is I am heading back to that stretch of coast tomorrow as part of our holiday (we tend to say holiday rather than vacation here in Oz).
I hope to post while I am out that way, but that will depend on internet connectivity where we will be staying.

In which Al admits he has no idea

Well the title of this post says it all.

More often than not when I think I have posted an easy WIIW nobody gets it. But when I post one that I think is tricky a number of people score a bulls-eye.

With this image I thought I would misdirect people.To be fair to myself a few people did take the bait (welcome back Anne) and guess a drain of a shower or bathroom.

Others like Carolyn V and John D came pretty close by guessing a ceiling.

Two people got close enough for me to award a good 90%. Jai (who also guessed shower but came back with her second guess) and Kristen M guessed a bus ceiling and an airplane ceiling. Well you both picked it as a speaker and a ceiling but it is neither a bus nor an aircraft.

Here is the image I cropped fromIt is the inside of a “W class” tram from the 1950s.This is what they look like from the outside. They still run them in Melbourne and they are very popular with tourists. Commuters generally prefer 21st century ones like this.

Hiding in the Carlton Gardens.

If you walk from the centre of Melbourne into the Carlton Gardens you can wander through graceful avenues of elm trees. Then at the end of the avenue you notice there is a massive fountain. Your eye is drawn further and you realise there is a grand building in the Gardens. The Royal Exhibition Building. Like the Eiffel Tower in Paris this structure was built as a temporary affair for an International Exhibition. To be precise the 1880 Exhibition when Melbourne was the richest city in the world (thanks to 30 years of gold-rushes) and wanted to show off. Well they demolished half of the structure at the end of the exhibition but a last minute change of heart saved the rest.

The Royal Exhibition Building had a brief break from its normal duties in the early part of the 20^th Century when it acted as the first home of the Federal Parliament of Australia (our second and third Parliament buildings are in our Federal Capital Canberra). Since then it has returned to its normal duties as an exhibition building, It is said to be the only grand 19^th Century exhibition building still fulfilling its original function. When I was there between Christmas and New Year it was temporarily closed so they can lay a new floor. I had a peek inside, to give you an idea of the size those are trucks and forklifts down the other end. Not a bad landmark to have tucked away in a garden!

A Date

If we haven’t got anything planned come the weekend Deb loves to sleep in.

This morning I had her up relatively early.

Then after getting ready in a lazy way and a leisurely breakfast we caught the 12:00 –All the way in to –Because at the –The –
Exhibition is on for just a few more weeks.

And Deb is a mad keen fan of Gustav Klimt

So while the exhibition is still in town we just had to make sure Deb got there.

Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take piccies in the exhibition.

But as we came out I took a few of the inside of the NGV.
The Great hall

And the front wall of the foyer which is glass covered with a wall of water.Then as we crossed the Yarra River to walk back to the station I had to catch the afternoon light.

The new parts of the skyline.

The old, St Pauls Cathedral

And in some spots where the new dominatesIf you look closer you can see that the old has also been preserved.

A Near Disater in the Continuity Stakes

I had a worried moment last night as I was working on my WIP.

As I have said I’ve been writing one POV at a time with the plan of assembling the units into a whole later.

I thought I had made a massive continuity error. Those of you who were reading my extracts featuring Valentina may remember Stepan. Stepan is a (possibly former)friend of Valentina’s who has been recruited into the Soviet NKVD. Like Valentina he provides ‘the voice’ for a number of sections of my narrative.

As I was tidying up a section of Stepan’s narrative on my way home on the train I had this sudden dread that I had Stepan at Murmansk in the Arctic and on the Don River in southern Russia at the exactly the same time. The two locations are literally thousands of kilometres apart!

I have a plot device to have him move from one place to the other but that requires months. Teleport devices are not in general use today, let alone in the 1940’s Soviet Union!

I got home late again last night and literally did not have the courage to look at my potential problem until today. With relief I found my panic of last night was exactly that, a panic! I have a time frame of nearly six months to work with. Last night I was thinking with a tired brain and my brain is not good when tired.

Now a few piccies from my night time excursions on the weekend.

My new camera gives me so much more control for night time shots.

A short exposure of mysterious lights.In a long exposure they become a brightly lit crane unloading an enormous container ship at Port of Melbourne.Further away these giant port cranes remind me of the ‘walker’ transport out of Star Wars.On the subject of mistakes. A real doozy was made in Melbourne’s Docklands.

Turning my camera in the general direction of the city you can see the ‘Southern Star’ observation wheel being rebuilt against the night skyline. Rebuilt because the original design was flawed and the whole thing began warping in the heat of an Aussie summer,

‘Psst guys let me tell you a secret. It gets hot in Oz!’

I thought I had made an error with my writing as big as that of the engineers who designed the Southern Star. Luckily my mistake was thinking I had made a mistake. Phew!
Have you ever made a terrible mistake with your writing (or otherwise)?

Two (small) Mysteries Revealed

A quick post tonight because my long days are continuing. I am beginning my new job next Monday, so as you can imagine I have plenty of work to tie up loose ends where I am now.

As I said last post, on Friday night I was in town very late. Well I was asked by a friend for a favour. She was organising a Débutante Ball and needed someone to record the event for her.

Here is a sample of the 1300 (that is right, one thousand three hundred) piccies I took on Friday night.Not the best by any means but I don’t want to use any photos that could identify anyone without their permission.

And another as you can see the young folk were really getting into it (one face blanked out).I also posted this piccie I took on Saturday night and challenged you to guess what it was. Well Rosie C was bang on the money.

Rosie said “It looks like you're capturing a late night city and its lights, but the camera jiggled.”

I was high up on Mount Dandenong on Saturday night. I used a tripod to capture some night shots of southern Melbourne. Shots like these need a long exposure (some as long as 10 seconds) and it got so windy the camera moved several times during the exposure.

One final note, you should check out Rosie’s blog post from Monday, she posted a great review of my book Veiled in Shadows .

Have Camera Will Wander

You’ll have to forgive me if this post doesn’t make much sense. I only had just over 3 hours sleep last night, and I don’t handle all-nighters like I did in my twenties.

This must be the first time in ages I have only managed two posts in a week.

Work is as crazy as ever. Then, I had my job interview on Wednesday. It seemed to go well. Not the best interview I have ever done, but I think I present well. Now it is just a matter of wait and see.

I went to post on Friday, only to find I couldn’t get on to Blogger at all. Seemed to be read only until after I went to bed.

Anyway so much for that.

Yesterday, we picked up one of our dear, dear friends from the airport. Merilyn was in Melbourne for the weekend. We went in to Melbourne for lunch and then Deb and Merilyn went shopping had some quality girl time together.

While they did that I shot off to Yarra Bend park and took my camera for a walk. I found a spot I haven’t seen before.

I walked down into the park and pointed my camera at anything that caught my interest. I am still feeling my way around the settings of my camera and enjoying exploring its capabilities.

A sample of the things I snapped.

The Yarra itself. Looking at stretches of the river like this it is hard to believe you are surrounded by the second largest metropolis in Oz.

And crossing the river here. The Fairfield Pipe Bridge. The bridge was built in 1934 to carry a pipe from the Yan Yean Reservoir to Melbourne. It replaced a similar bridge that was destroyed in disastrous floods that year.
Looking along the walkway on the bridge.All through this patch of bush various eucalyptus species are flowering. Some white.And one red.Rainbow lorikeets were darting around the bush sipping nectar. None of them cooperated with my photo taking endeavours. This guy was about ten metres up in a tree.

On the river black ducks were much more friendly.I found these delicate little fungi; the grass blades give an indication of their size.

Finally as I was leaving the moon was poking its face out above the trees.I drove back into the city to pick up Deb and Merilyn. We went to a restaurant for dinner before heading home.

The three of us sat up talking until nearly 3:00 am then I had to get up at 6:30 to run Merilyn back to the airport.

So that is it for this afternoon, because I am going to have a nap so I can make it to dinner time!