September 7 2014

This past week was kind of boring. We only taught two classes. We met with several different people, but overall, it was a slow week because our boss was out of town setting up the Self Reliance program in Melbourne. 

The classes were at our downtown center, not at the center in Carlingford where we usually are. We had a break between our two classes so we walked a few blocks from the center to the library. Dave wanted to check out some family history at the research center in the library. He found a branch of his Gordon line out of Scotland that came to Australia when the other members of the family went to the US. He has spent spare time this week tracking down who they were and where they went when they left Scotland (Adelaide) and where they died, of course. While he was researching in the library, I took advantage of the time to join one of the free tours of the library they give each week. Below are pictures of my favorite parts of the Sydney library.

I love the outside of the building.

My favorite part of the library is the Shakespeare room. Because Australia is so closely tied to Britain, they have copies of some of Shakespeare's original folios of his major works, well actually only three, but still... I like that this library, although very big, is not as overwhelmingly big as places in London are. This Shakespeare room was full of time period pieces and architecture, but didn't contain so many things that it was overwhelming.

Beautiful woodwork and stained glass on the doors.

Since I only brought my little camera, I can't adjust for the low light, but this window seat was beautifully hand-carved and had gorgeous stained glass windows.

This chair was supposedly carved from wood taken from a tree that grew outside of Shakespeare's house. This type chair was used for men to sit in when they removed their boots.

Hand carved box that contained one of Shakespeare's plays. The carving is the Shakespeare family crest. 

A bust of the bard.

All the wood in this room is hand carved in the Tudor style. Supposedly this room was pattered after Cardinal Woolsey's closet. Queen Elizabeth's crest is over the door.

The ceiling is full of Tudor symbols. It is made of plaster and was built during World War II mostly by women, as all able-bodied men were off fighting in the war.  

The stained glass windows are one of my favorite parts of this library. There are many areas in the library with stained glass, but this set of 3 windows in the Shakespeare room were my favorite, mostly because I could get up close so it was easier to appreciate the workmanship. The windows were done by Arthur Benflor. He made all his windows with a flaw in them because nothing, except Christ, is perfect. If you look, you can see the little different-colored piece of glass (the flaw) worked into the middle row on the right-hand side. I think it's interesting to note that the Amish do this same thing with their quilts, they always work a small flaw into each quilt they make for the same reason, so it won't be perfect.

Another interesting attraction on display in the library right now is a World War I memorial. The Australian's very much honor their WWI soldiers, the ANZAC forces. It seems like in America we mostly honor those who fought in WWII , but in Australia, the WWI vets and WWI history are much more valued. This is a visiting display and will be gone at the end of the month.

This wall is a portion of the diaries that have been donated to the display. All diaries are originals from Australian soldiers from WWI. Many of these diaries are quoted from in the displays.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but the ANZAC soldiers serving in Egypt were as likely to ride a camel as to ride a horse! The ANZAC soldiers, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, lost the majority of their soldiers in Gallipoli. This upcoming year, 2015, will be the 100 year anniversary celebrating the ANZAC soldiers and their service inWWI. We will get to see some things in the next few months that will be above and beyond the usual celebration of the ANZAC troops.

GRANDKIDS:

These birds are called Lorkeets and they are all over the place around here! I love them because they are so bright and happy looking. These birds are eating birdseed off the front porch of the Mission President's home. We have some Lorkeets who come and sit in the tree outside our window at the office. They make me happy when they come every morning!

Any ideas what this fruit is called? We saw it at the market and I bought it just so I could try it out. It's called a creamy apple. It's from somewhere in Asia, but I'm not sure what country it originates from.

Here's what the inside looks like. The man at the market told me the fruit is really sweet and that I would love it, but I didn't think it was all that great. It was ok, but didn't have a lot of flavor. I think apples taste better. I can see why the creamy apple has never become a popular fruit!