Spelling with Flickr

G'day.
I came across a website called "Spell with Flickr"
You type in a word and it gives you the letters, each a photograph from Flickr.
If you don't like the random letter it throw up, you can click to replace with another photo.
I tried it with Banana Orange Apple, and here's the result








I could have lots of fun playing with these letters! I am not sure if I like the colour combination though.

This reminded me of one of my favourite websites for introducing practically any topic: Tag Galaxy.

Tag Galaxy pulls Flickr photographs relevant to any topic you type in.
Of course, it only goes by the tags.

But try searching "Romeo and Juliet", Science Fiction, Horror movies - you name it and all the pictures will come up.

I put in U2 as an example for you. Here's the result:

You can see U2 is the main topic, and all the other subtopics float around in orbit, like some kind of spacey mind map. The size of the planet represents the amount of photos available.


Let's go click on "music" and see what comes up.

Oh look! Another planetary mind map! I love this way of representing ideas. How about we click on the blazing sun at the centre.

23072 photos are available. Of course, you can't see all of them at once, the globe displays 234 at a time, and you can rotate the globe, zoom in, click on the interesting ones to go through to Flickr etc.


A photo of a road caught my eye - it was titled "Where the streets have no name" and when I clicked it showed me the original photo on Flickr which had a link to a youtube clip of the band performing at halftime at the first Superbowl after September 11. Here it is if you have seven minutes to spare.

So you can see how it is fun to get sidetracked sometimes!


Caution - not all images uploaded to Flickr are suitable for children, exercise caution please. And there can be mistagging - the program has no way to tell if a photo tagged with U2 is actually the Irish band or just someone's backyard.

Give it a try with a topic you are interested in. You never know what you might discover!
And please let me know what you find...

The Sapphires

On the weekend I went with my mother, my sister and my recently turned eleven year old daughter to see The Sapphires.




The Sapphires is an Australian film about three Aboriginal sisters and a cousin who team up with an Irish manager and go to Vietnam to entertain the troops.
It is set in the 1960s, amidst a background of racism and the civil rights movement, the forcible removal of Aboriginal children from their families, soul music, go go dancing and of course, the Vietnam war.



The sisters live at Cummeragunja Mission on the Murray River which divides New South Wales and Victoria. Mum says it must be on the NSW side since they don't drink Resch's beer in Victoria! They are from the Yorta Yorta people. They start out as the Cummeragunja Songbirds, singing country and western tunes in talent contest at the local pub. They are not welcome at the pub since they are Aboriginal, and the first prize is given to a talentless white woman. The MC of the talent contest is a drunkard named Dave, and the girls persuade him to take them to Melbourne to audition for a job entertaining American troops in Vietnam. Dave realises that they can be a big success, especially with the youngest sister Julie (played by Jess Mauboy of Australian Idol fame).One of my favourite parts of the film is when Dave has to go out to the mission with the girls to ask their parents' permission to take them to Vietnam. The whole extended family comes out onto the verandah to consider his "application". Their parents are not very happy about the idea, but Dad suggests they take their cousin Kay along and makes Dave promise to look after the girls.

Of course, the girls wow them at the audition in Melbourne, change their name to the Sapphires and sing their way into the hearts of the Americans. Plenty of action and romance follow, but the girls always remember their family and the land where they belong. It was one of those movies where I laughed and cried. The scenes at the mission by the river were sunlit and hazy, the family were shown as content with their surroundings and their life in community, although the girls were ambitious and not content to be ignored. In Vietnam we saw the green fields but mostly it was dark and a bit scary.

I loved the way the girls were determined to follow their dreams, but did not forget their family and where they came from.

It is inspired by a true story, and you get to see the real Sapphires at the end.
You can find out more about this movie on the distributor's website, and I have filled out the parent's advisory on IMDB. It is rated PG for  "mild violence, themes, coarse language and sexual references".


Here is a treasury I made from vintage and vintage inspired items on Etsy.

'The Sapphires' by bananaorangeapple

Just saw an amazing Australian movie today. Highly recommended!

Light in the Dark ddisillusion $24.95	paisley gogo dress bluesvilleusa $32.00	Modern Silver Hoop Earrings,... marygracejewel... $21.00	Vintage Map of Asia and Adja... HobartCollecta... $5.23
Vintage 60s MOD SILVER Metal... fabulousmessvi... $195.00	Beautiful Vintage /retro Pri... dart153 $50.00	Vintage 80s Huge Black Sequi... RATBAGRAGS $29.00	Vintage retro dress, small -... sesslebvintage... $38.00
Glitter nail polish - "... EmilydeMolly $10.00	Sunshine yellow bohemian mex... GypsyTongueBaz... $30.00	River lilies (A3 11 x 16 inc... gregorybishop $25.00	she likes to roam far - prin... FleurRendell $400.00
Sunshine Clouds Print, Seasc... Colourscape $15.00	Vintage 90s Mod Ribbed Sweat... RATBAGRAGS $19.00	I Have a Dream - Martin Luth... no9images $30.00	Amazing kelly green sequined... wornstitches $98.00

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

Alpine Adventures

I had a little adventure last week, taking some students away for a Geography field trip.

We set off at dawn with the "The Settlers Sing Songs of the Snowy Mountains" blasting away on the bus stereo. That was my idea.
First stop was the Golden Arches in Cooma for breakfast. Unfortunately I did not have time to visit the Vinnies, which is really well stocked. I was only there a few weeks ago, so I managed not to go in. I needed some new fingerless gloves to wear so I went looking for those instead. Gloves from Vinnies are a bit risky, especially if you need to wear them the same day. A lovely lady told us all about the flags and the mosaics at Centennial Park in the main street.

I bought a CD from the information centre - more music to play on the bus. I had heard this country artist called Jay Podger on Australia All Over ( a radio show) singing "Fishing in Eucumbene" so I thought that would  be appropriate for the occasion. Did not realise the other tracks included "I to sing and yodel" and "I'm married to a beer bottle". oops.  The students seemed to like it though, and later on I heard Jay singing from the back of the bus and got all confused until I worked out someone had recorded the music from the stereo to play to her boyfriend later. Haha.

Next stop was Jindabyne. The kids watched "The Man from Snowy River" on the way. Jindabyne turned out to be quite a long stop for me, since I had to take a young lady to the medical centre for an x-ray. Meanwhile the rest of the students went off to Dalgety to have a closer look at the Snowy River. I did not mind missing out on this since I had been to visit this lovely town last year. Here's a lovely picture of this beautiful river. And another.  And here's what it looked like last time I was there.

Back in Jindabyne, we had a coffee and a pastry and looked through the shops. It was a bit pongy, I found out by overhearing a shopkeeper talking loudly on her phone there had been a sewerage incident and the place had literally lived up to its name of "Nuggets Crossing".

I bought a funny hat for the Pickle, who never wears beanies. I wanted her to be snug and warm for her Cubs camp coming up this weekend. It will be minus 3 overnight and she'll be in a tent. Gulp. So I had a brainwave - buy her a funny hat and she will love to wear it! It is polar fleece (she hates itchy wool), bright pink with a long dragon tail complete with fuzzy purple spikes running all the way down to the tassel. It also has ear flaps. Mission was successful, she has worn it to bed every night this week so I am hopeful she'll wear it out in the cold on the camp.

Note skis on wall _ these were inside and out!

Our accommodation was at the rustic Carinya Alpine lodge, basically a school campsite. It has skis screwed to the walls for decoration.
I was lovely and warm in my cabin, and when I woke up in the morning someone was serenading me with "Oh what a beautiful morning" Here's the view from my cabin door, looking down to the river.

reminds me I need to plant some poplars along my bottom fence. Taken sitting on the bed (small cabin!)

The rest of the day was taken up with Geography field trip type stuff. I can't show you too many photos because most of them have students in them, but here's me trying to keep warm at Smiggin's Holes and at Charlottes Pass. My sister helpfully pointed out that I am a little teapot. I am rather round due to wearing all the clothes I brought with me at once 
Here is a beautiful snow gum, the only tree that grows about a certain altitude in this part of the world.

We visited Miss Heidi's Austrian Tea House on the way home, it is well worth a visit if you are ever passing through Cooma (it's on the way out towards Berridale). I had a delicious homemade apple strudel and a coffee so think you could stand your spoon up in it. Here's the view from Miss Heidi's. There used to be a funpark for kiddies there with statues of fairy tale characters, but sadly vandals destroyed it all one day, I found these sad ladies around the back  I have a lot more to say, but I am having trouble getting my photos to load. I will just leave you with the latest item in my shop, a size 4 pinafore which is fully reversible and made out of grey cord and an old Sheridan doona.