Free Rice - Bryson on Australia

Apparently this project has been going on for a while. I've heard about it a couple or three times but only a couple days ago was surfing the Artful Quilter's Webring when I came upon the button in blog, clicked it and immediately got into the "game" of defining words. For every word defined correctly the organization donates 10 grains of rice. It took not very long to get to 1100 grains at which time I began to get definition fatigue. But I was delighted to discover I know words I didn't know I knew. I recommend going to their website and checking them out ... also it probably is a tiny hedge against Alzheimer's as well as adding up to a decent sized donation to fight world hunger. [The screen tells how much rice was donated that day ... and it's A LOT]

To change gears abruptly. I've just finished reading Bill Bryson's DOWN UNDER, which is his travel book about Australia, a continent he loves. He has a knack for humor as readers of A WALK IN THE WOODS know. This is not laugh-until-you-cry funny as that was a few times. But the humor is there plus he's done plenty of research that is never dry or onerous to read -- and there are MANY, MANY amazing things about Australia At many points I thought, I should just pull up all roots and move there. Unlike most Americans who, as Bryson points out frequently are 99% unaware that Australia exists, I am aware of it a lot because there are so many Aussie quilters, and Kiwis, [i.e., New Zealanders} too and an hour of random surfing of the above mentioned webring takes me Down Under frequently, where the quilting movement, both in traditional/contemporary and art quilts is very much alive and well. It is a place I feel, and felt before reading Bryson, but more so now, I really want to go .. for a decent amount of time because it's so varied and sounds terrifically more interesting than I had thought. Bryson is a great travel writer to read because he's curious about all kinds of things and has a great knack for enjoying learning, seeing, doing, talking, discovering. The kind of person anyone would like to travel with.