The topic for this week's Illustration Friday is "Entanglement", so I've decided to illustrate the concept with my photography.Cleaning out my Dad's shed as my parents prepared to down-size,was a revelation.

So many things tangled together...

We picked through things, discarding this and that...Later we no longer "picked" but gathered, bundled and threw. It did have it's moments of inspring art though... something my brother failed to see...while I did take time to sit on my butt to photograph something, his butt was noticable by its abscence, having been worked right off!

Having then been inspired by what I like to call "shed art" I fossicked around different places for a bit more ...
It's not landscape, but I like it somehow.

Now for the philosophy..."The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak." - Hans Hofmann.

This is the place, along with many parts of Wales, where I feel my soul at ease...If I had a choice, I would live out my days here in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia - these ranges are ancient, fossilized and just beautiful. I have lived here pre- our marriage, and for a little while, after my husband joined me there, until the pull of the city and professional theatre called my husband (and therefore me reluctantly) back to Adelaide. In our nearly thirty years together, we have lived at various times in the country as a compromise to me.We return to the city as a compromise to him, and in later years, for my daughter's expanded educational opportunities, but when I return to the Flinders, tears of happiness well up.My first encounter with this beautiful place was in my early twenties, before I met my husband, when recovering from a first divorce, I joined a group of wonderful new friends I'd met through study. In an effort to help cure my broken heart, we all went camping, something I was entirely unfamiliar with, and loved. We climbed St. Mary's Peak in the Flinders Rangers. I was never what could be called a robust person,and what I lacked in robust I made up with enthusiasm, but along the saddle I froze and felt I could go no further. I was pretty much pushed up to the top, but at 22 years old, there was no shortage of male takers to push my butt. These days, well that would be another story. Onwards and upwards went my not-too-fit self, but youth and enthusiasm saw me through to the encouraging words from these friends, of "it will be worth it in the end"... Oh, and believe me it was! That is not me, but it's how I felt, trimphant and amazed. .(photos courtesty of http://www.yktravelphoto.com/

I later taught elementary school for many years in my beloved Flinders Ranges, living in an old farmhouse at a place called Nectar Brook. It was not unusal to see this from the farmhouse in the mornings and at dusk. (following photos courtesty of http://www.flindersoutbackdaytours.com.au/

I would walk for miles at the back of the farmhouse in the golden sunlight to the water holes where there would always be seas of raucous cheeping finches squabbling in the low-lying surrounding bushes...

and little creatures like this lizard.(photo:Flinders Outback website) A visiting child of friends pleaded with me to look after one he'd found and carefully placed at my feet, as my friends bustled him into their car. Sobbing "I want the lizard, I want the lizard" he waved tearfully at me, and mouthing the words "promise?" he turned around just in time to avoid seeing the lizard scuttle off and run under the front wheels of the departing car... damn!I'd often be late for school, because living away out into the Spencer Gulf countryside,I'd have to wait for trains like this one pictured at Yorky's Crossing to travel on through an eternity over the Stirling North crossing with carriages of all descriptions, too many to mention. ....and below,this photo,at the top of the Spencer Gulf, from Port Augusta where I taught. Beautiful as this countryside is to live in, today in the paper I read of a town in this area, "Tests at Hawker show water is only fit for flushing toilets. Hawker's water is about 4300EC (electrical conductivity) far exceeding the World Health Organization's acceptable level of salinity for safe drinking water of 800EC. The WHO states that water becomes increasingly unplatable over 1000mg/l." Our State Government has emergency plans in place to provide bottled water to some upper South East towns this summer where water supply from our state's source, The River Murray is about 1200EC. I've lived in many of those places. Bath and shower water, much to city visitor's disgust, is like cafe latte. So our next State plan is to investigate the validity of constructing groundwater desalination plants.
The country kids weren't easy to teach.Today I looked up the latest newsletter of the school where I was based in my first years of teaching, where I read...

"The new 'slushie' machine has been a fantastic success, with all students enjoying the cool treats in the warmer weather. To encourage students to make sure the paper cups did not contribute to the litter in the yard, the canteen manager introduced a clever policy of refunding 10 cents for each cup returned. Unfortunately we have had to suspend this practice as students are abusing it. They are taking cups that have already been cashed in from the bin and trying to claim them for a second time as well as bribing younger students for their cups to collect the refund".

Some things never change!

So many people have challenges lately..Don't be...

discouraged...
It is often... the last key in the bunch that opens the lock. (Unknown)

Ah! The joys of reading to children...

...experienced since time immemorial...These attentive children dare not MOVE for fear of being excommunicated!...Do you think, way back when, the neanderthal children grunted at their Dad.."One more cave painting narrative before sleep time Daddy...."Ugg...a quick one..., then it's fire out and time for sleep"...So , it brings us to the present time where we have progressed to this sort of thing in the classroomFamiliar?Civilised?Look at this young teacher bursting with enthusiasm! Fresh, vibrant, posed,...yes that's not a misprint, posed not poised.Or... how about this. "Children, children, put down your hands, your enthusiasm is simply overwhelming!!" Rather than the above,I've taught, frazzled and exhausted, in classes where it's like drawing teeth, where a loose carpet thread holds much more fascination than what's on the page, where a raised hand is on it's way to a nostril more often than not, and seriously, although I love the children very much, where getting them settled can be disrupted by one child getting up, rushing to the mouse cage and eating a fistful of rodent poop, even though there is an illustration on the cage of a hand, firmly in the stop position, with a line crossed through it that says "NO " .
It makes you think, "Um, did I choose the wrong book, that the attention spans are waning."I don't like eggs and ham Sam I am" may have had more relevance if it was "No poop today, the mouse has run away"...or "Chocolate sultanas it is NOT, it's rabbit waste, from rabbit's bot."

Until recently,I have spent most of my nearly thirty year teaching career in very "challenging" schools, through choice.To enjoy these challenges I've had to think outside the square.Cue- photo of teacher thinking outside of square... So that when I was reading to the Communication class one day, where speaking, even 'attending' to what is being taught is difficult for most of the students, I had a light bulb moment. Instead of being up high, on the chair, why didn't I swap places with one of the children. Let the child be the teacher. Get them to "tell" the story. "Read" the story to me, and praise and encourage the speech that would hopefully come out, me sitting there on the floor in front of this very special and different teacher. I loved playing schools when I was little. Here was the chance for a child to do it, with a real class!
So...no more of this teacher up here business! Let's swap! We may even get some language going!!!!

I am an adaptable teacher, I am creative, I think on my feet, or sitting down on the floor, amongst god-knows- what has been either wiped on the carpet,or supporting it's life-form. Anything to get speech happening. I can, and always will ...

And so the child was chosen. I sat down low, cajoling, encouraging. Nothing. I wriggled closer to point out illustrations. "What's this?" "Can you tell us all what's happening?" Nothing. "Shall we turn the page?" I can't quite reach the book open in the child's hands. I inch closer. The child stares at me. Maybe I am making a connection. It is nearly morning recess. I am starving hungry. It is the birthday of someone on the staff - the staffroom will have cake!.The child smiles. He likes being teacher I can tell. Look how happy he is. His smile broadens. He leans back slowly and relaxes. And farts. Enormously.... Right. In. My. Face.

Sulpheric. Nauseatingly putrid. Gaggingly effective.It would be an understatement to say it blew us all away. I felt greener than Sam's eggs and ham. (I can't stand Dr Seuss by the way, sorry all you Seuss fans). It was the kind of fart that would have wiped the smile right off the faces of those earlier posed-teacher photos. "I would not have done that" I can just hear them say.."and I shall just take my triple-layer gateaux that I whipped up at 5 a.m. to the staffroom shall I ?".
"Yes" I reply"I shall be following closely behind with the dip and bikkies from Coles".
There is a reason why this teacher is a reasonable distance away from her students.There is a reason I declined to feel hungry enough to front up for the staff morning tea......and the only thing after that incident that sat on the reading chair in such an unabashed manner, was harmless, and without a large intestine.

Credit Union Christmas Pageant - Adelaide, South Australia (SA)

Tomorrow will be a big day here in Adelaide.The following text is courtesy of Plan Book Travel http://www.planbooktravel.com.au/ "Every year, thousands of people line a 3.3 kilometre route in Adelaide's city centre to welcome the colour and excitement of the Credit Union Christmas Pageant - the traditional herald to the festive season.Families flock to the route early in the morning to join in the Christmas spirit, watch the amazing parade of storybook floats, listen to the marching bands, and to wave at Father Christmas.From humble beginnings of just eight horse drawn floats and four bands, the event has grown so much so that the Credit Union Christmas Pageant now comprises 75 sets including 57 floats, 14 bands, dancing groups, clowns and walking sets. More than 1,700 people will make up the characters, dancers, musicians and drivers in the actual pageant with some 200 other volunteers working behind the scenes and a further 200 police and emergency fire services on hand. The pageant was first first held in 1933.
Tomorrow the pageant will be challenging. Adelaide is in the middle of a six-day heatwave, the first of it's kind ever to happen in the month of November, since weather was first officially recorded in 1887. We are used to extreme weather in the months of January and February, the last of which, here in Adelaide, we experienced 9 days straight of searing temperatures from 35 to 40 degrees C. Actually six days of those nine were above 40 degrees. Tomorrow the forecast is 39 degrees, with families asked to bring lots of sunscreen, protective clothing and 2 litres of water per person. Most of the participating floats will have double the quantities of bottled water they usually carry. I'm hoping many will watch it on television instead this year, but as it starts early in the day perhaps excitement will overide discomfort. You can read and see more on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelaide_Christmas_Pageant and http://www.cupageant.com.au

Ah chummies, I am SO over the sensible shoes... and therein lies a textilosophy tale. When you have been diagnosed with a big osteoporosis reading, the doctor likes to put the fear of God into you about taking a fall, and gives you all sorts of literature about avoiding rugs,and tripping over coffee tables and cats or little dogs in the dark passageway ...and , the big one,wearing sensible shoes. Especially to work. Having silly back problems, I've been doomed to this sort of footwear for years anyway.Glamorous -not. So on Friday, I rebelled. I decided to wear some pretty shoes to work for a change- flats, to keep on the safe side,but pretty, glamorous, made a girl feel good. It was a good day. Cooking with the students, using brown rice, onion, and spring onions as ingredients. It even inspired a little textile piece! Doesn't that spring onion look good on that textile piece...

...but not on the floor. Ah yes, gentle reader, there laying in wait on the tile in the wet area of the classroom was an escaped fresh spring onion scrap...causing this teacher to skid on it with those pretty shoes, fly up in the air, and luckily, not land in a crash on her back, but rather a bizzare contortion of movements with a balletic rearrangement of the splayed left leg...

and in sheer shock, (and tai-chi fitness,)bounce right up again, thank God. Ha ha Spring Onion - no walking frame yet! Foiled!We even managed to laugh ourselves silly, all of us, after I had established that, no really, I was fine!!So, I am now working on this little textile piece, making it more...um..onionish... And the philosophy? Pride goes before a fall.... What do you do when you have to wear yuck footwear? Head north to the top of your head. Make yourself feel good with a brand new haircut.
...and hope nothing falls on your head.

The subject for Theme Thursday this week is "Castle'. http://www.themethursday.blogspot.com/ The theme for Illustration Friday for the week is 'Skinny'. So I've combined them. Please forgive my lack of textile offerings or paintings lately. I just haven't had the time. So keeping in mind the lack of art or fabric, please enjoy the Skinny and/or Castle offerings. The castle below is Carcassone in Southern France.(with skinny turrets) that husband and I visited in 1982.

It is located on a strategic site overlooking the main road between the city of Toulouse and the Mediterranean Sea.
The old city of Carcassone was built by the Romans, occupied by Visigoths and conquered by northern French forces.

These two intrepid Aussie backpackers conquered the climb up to Carcassone with newly-purchased packs on their backs, as part of their round the world adventures for that year. Just about everything is hefty in this photo except me and the fence railing. Those days I was skinny.Had buffed up a bit after carrying that pack around for a year, believe me. As we young twenty-somethings set off from Sydney for the big wide world, my husband's aunt telephoned husband's Mum in Adelaide and said I looked like I was about to topple backwards.
My how times change.

I think Carassone remains the same. Maybe a few more stones are crumbling. I know the feeling. Actually the Vitamin D and Calcium combined are doing the world of good, but am way past putting on one of those packs again. How did I do that!...but boy did we have fun!