Friday

G'Day,
I just watched a movie set in Ireland in the 1960's I think, about girls who were disowned by their good catholic families because of teen pregnancies. They were taken into asylums where they ran laundries and their babies were sold without their consent. The girls were emotionally, physically and sexually abused while imprisoned there. A very emotional and confronting movie. We all know of horrible things happening , I just hope that we as a society have become more kind and compassionate as the years have gone along. There are, I know, still horrific things happening today i.e. the way females are treated in Muslim extremist cultures. I used to work with a woman [now in her 60's] who was in a girls home in 1960's Australia, just the next town across from here, Cootamundra. A very infamous place, also run by catholic nuns. She had a baby girl while in there who was taken from her for forced adoption, many years later, she was able to trace and reunite with her as an adult and met her grandchildren. Everything worked out well for them, I know it is not so successful for everyone.
The home at Cootamundra is also infamous because it was where a lot of aboriginal children were sent to live. A govt. policy of integration [part of the white Australia policy] was in place at the time where aboriginal children were taken away from their parents to teach them how to be useful members of our white society. They also learned that Australian aboriginal blood can be bred out very quickly so they did that too. They were trained as domestic servants and manual laborers in the case of the boys. They were not allowed to see their family and all traces of their culture was discouraged and removed. They became known as the Stolen Generation.They were treated cruelly and you still hear many sad stories of the pain and emotional suffering caused to them and their families. It happened all over Australia. A giant ink blot in our history pages. A movie was made about one story a few years ago called The Dingo Fence. I think at the time the govt thought they were doing the right thing but a lot of bad things have happened in our past by the govt doing the right thing and in the name of religion. You have only got to look at the attitudes and beliefs of some of our older and indeed our own generation to see that damage continued. O.K. I had better get off my soap box.
I am sitting here tonight very slowly and painfully typing my post via the on screen keyboard as the wireless keyboard on this computer has decided not to work. The batteries are different size to the other rechargeable ones have. I am hoping that a faulty battery is the cause of the breakdown because even I know how to fix that. Apart from that, Peter and Mum love football on the tele and I hate it so they can have the tele tonight, I would rather do this.
Nothing happening on the pottery front for the last week. I have ideas, I just have not made the time to action them.
Out in the back yard all is green. The deciduous trees have lost most but not quite all of their leaves and the only flowers left are my intrepid geraniums and the large single yellow flowers of the mermaid rose in the old almond tree. I climbed up the ladder to tie it back a few days ago and got stuck because the long springy autumn canes grabbed onto my knitted jumper and I got all tangled up in it. I got away with scratched and prickled hands but my old favorite cuddly jumper is intact. We have had fog most mornings lately but still no more than a sprinkling of rain. Day time temperatures have been around 10 to 15 degrees celcius and yesterday morning the minimum temp was -3. Brrrr. There have been good falls of snow in the alps, just a few hours drive from here.
Work was o.k today, all ran easily. I guess that depends on who is there at the time and how busy the place is.