The movie Julie & Julia is based on 'two true stories'. One story is of a young woman named Julie Powell (Amy Adams) who is working in an unfufilling job and feels lost with her life and ambitions (that has me written all over it). The other story is of a young Julia Child (Meryl Streep, who could be better?) who also felt unfulfilled in her role as a houswife to an American diplomat while living in Paris in the 1950's and is trying to find SOOOMEthing to do with her time. Throughout the movie it feels as though the two ladies are living parallel lives, however, Julie Powell's life converges with Julia Child's as she embarks on a year-long quest to cook all of the recipes in Julia's cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and writing about it in a blog. It was quirky and tender and so relatable for me as an aspiring writer who blogs. At one point in the movie Julie tells her adoring husband that Julia Child saved her because she was 'drowning' before her blog became a hit. I knew exactly what she meant.
I came home and promptly looked up Julie Powell's blog. Upon Googling her name it came up with her current blog called What Could Happen? Julie's original blog about her cooking quest was nowhere to be found and having been posted during 2002 it is probably lost somewhere in the vastness of the blogosphere by now. I read her current blog anyway. In the blog Julie writes about the triumphs of her book becoming a movie and the 'surreality' and glamour of the press surrounding the movie. She is charming, innocent, and refreshenly real... just like her character in the movie. She's just your average girl-next-door who has gotten really, really, lucky. If you are female GO SEE IT as soon as you can!
Dear Julie Powell,
I wish I were you.
Sincerely,
Kirsten Haydu
Kirsten Haydu
My other topic of today is springtime. My favorite season, but a very short-lived one here in Oz. I've been taking walks around the neighborhood and smelling the lovely flowers as their perfume drifts upon the afternoon breezes. I've never known a place with a more fragrent spring. Probably the best part about Perth in the spring is the smell of flowers everywhere, even driving down the highway with your windows down you smell flowers. It's amazing. It makes me want to stay in Perth... but then spring is gone as soon as it comes. Within a few weeks it seems like the weather has turned hot and sultry. Or it's cool and windy. The weather is fickle and can't make up it's mind what it wants to do. Should I leave the doona on the bed a few more weeks or put it away? I've taken a few photos of the flowers in my garden to try and savor spring a little longer. Everyone has roses in Perth so it was no surprise when we moved into this house that there are eight gorgeous rose bushes along the white picket fence at the front of our lawn. Here are a few of the roses:
And an illegally transplanted wild Kangaroo Paw flower that as you can see is evidence of how quickly the spring passes. It is already fading away. The colors when they first bloom are a magnificent ruby red and emerald green, now merely a washed out red and dingy green.
And in my blogging absence I have also been crafting a Mizzou scarf for my friend Gina's birthday.
