A Mystery Challenge

A Mystery Challenge was announced. I signed up, posted my envelope away, and waited in anticipation for the mail. The days wound by. No mail! Mail arrives from New Zealand quicker than from 'the other side' of Australia!

My daughter arrived from the southern city. As My Man has had several visits to the regional hospital, finally being admitted [again] today for an undefined period] he collected the mail before making one of his 'wasted' trips to hospital, thus my envelope with details of the mystery challenge didn't arrive until late.

This evening I carefully read the instructions. I could visualise how the article should look upon completion, but, not wishing to waste the lovely fabric included with the pattern and instructions, I have begun a 'trial article'. It is an interesting exercise making something one has no idea of how it should finally look ... though my visualisation is usually reasonably correct. And no, I am not going to post a photo of this mystery article, nor divulge what it is! Some things are best kept secret!

So ... as I haven't sewn for a few days, but instead have gone galavanting to the northern city; almost doing the 'tourist thing'. My usual visit to the city entails grocery shopping [essential to maintain life], or shopping at my favourite fabric shop [essential to maintain mental health ... boredom is boring, and doing nothing creative is boring], this trip allowed us to make a close encounter with a spectacular memorial that is extremely relevant to Geraldton.

We visited the Memorial to the men on board the HMAS Sydney who, on 19th November 1941, lost their lives when the Sydney was involved in an encounter with the HSK Kormoran. On 16th March 2008 the ship was found 112 nautical miles off Steep Point, WA. A memorial was erected commemorating the sixty years on 19th November 2001.

The memorial is situated high on a Geraldton hill, and consists of a dome that has a seabird for each of the 645 crew lost. A sculpture of a wife looking out to sea searching for any sign of her man is a poignant work of art; one cannot help but feel completely engaged with her obvious signs of anxiety ... a furrowed brow, her eyes are clearly pained, she wears around her neck a chain with an anchor and has a wedding ring on her finger ... her clothing is reminiscent of the 1940's. This memorial brings home the agony, and the utter futility of war.