Textilosophy Oz

2012-01-26T19:54:00.002+10:30

Today, January 26th we have a holiday in this country to celebrate Australia Day. I don't know if a "click for enlargement" will show the Australian flag on the pole in the background . I love this photo. Happy Australia Day.

2012-01-25T22:34:00.002+10:30

Like many of you, one of life's little pleasures for me is to check out the garden first thing in the morning. It's important at this time of year because the heat has been unrelenting here and the plants appreciate all the TLC they can get.
The shy pansies still peep out after being battered by the sun...
...the silver beet is not as scorched as I thought it might be from yesterdays fierce rays...
In Australia now, gardeners who have any conscience for their plants have to get out pretty much upon rising to try and beat the heat and give their plants some strength for the next unrelenting onslaught of heat.
I took the photos below because it captures the closeness and stickiness of what will be an oppressive day - you can feel it already at 7 a.m.
Also to give everyone in the Northern Hemishere a reminder of sun, heat, and barefeet outside, where temperatures most of the time here hover around 39 degrees, making going shirtless outside more comfortable....relax, husband I mean, not me...and he'll kill me for featuring these...

hahahahah!! Yes, 7.a.m. and you can tell the day is going to be a scorcher.
Back yard done, now the front. We used to have big gardens wherever we lived, which I always tended well but they were a lot of work. This is manageable.

2012-01-22T20:57:00.006+10:30

My mother-in-law bought around a friend of hers to show her "the sort of thing I do". I was quite chuffed. So....this sort of covers it...

...cave paintings, archeology....

compost, complete with worms...

A rich composted soil is one of my favourite things in life - the visitor understood completely - some can't understand the attraction at all.

Irish ancestry - from 1800's Dromcolloher, Limerick, sailing from Dublin to Adelaide, -please note 4 leaf clover shamrock-thing and red Australian soil...

other bits and pieces...

and now I'd like to do more pencil drawing this year. This was from a recent visit to the Art Gallery of South Australia, where I just sat down a sketched a wonderful sculpture.

I had fun yesterday with my visitors. We had a lovely afternoon tea - husband even joined us. I thanked them for their interest, and thank-you too for yours.

2012-01-20T20:52:00.003+10:30

Theme Thursday for Jan. 19th is PRODUCE. You'll never find me belting out a song on karaoke night but daughter felt so inclined many many years ago at a pub we happened upon in Brisbane, and believe me there were a few in that city!
I thought she was putting in a hell of a lot of effort to produce a reasonable sound, -er sorry Caitie, fantastic representation of what the song was supposed to be. Made me laugh.

Next post -textiles - promise. It's been a while. With hand sewing - it all takes a while to PRODUCE a finished product!

2012-01-16T08:15:00.006+10:30

The Illustration Friday topic http://illustrationfriday.com/ is 'Prepare' suggested by Susan Sorrell Hill. Remember the old-fashioned term to draw a bath? Doubt anyone under the age of 40 has heard of it. What a strange term for preparing a bath. Anyway, here's my take on the subject, with a bit of artistic photo manipulation.
I've lived in 20 different addresses, from one bedroom flats to farmhouses, since I left home at 18. That's a lot of packing preparation!! In that time, there have been many bathtubs I've known and loved, and some not so much.
I remember preparing baths in the Riverland where the water was without fail, the colour of milky tea or coffee because it was water straight from the River Murray.
It was all we had,no choice, and baths in Adelaide were a luxury of pristine clarity in comparison.
Over the years, my sister-in-law and myself had a series of Christmas Day photos taken in the bath-tub, don't know why, probably because we'd had a few too many drinks. The tradition continued over the years, until we found it increasingly difficult to prepare to both get into the bathtub and out of it.
Christmas 2011 found us admitting defeat - all too hard. Brittle bones and joints.
I suppose we could have managed to sit sedately (us?) on the side, but somehow -just not the same really.

All good things must come to an end. Preparing now for 60+. She's ventured into it, and I'm heading for it in 2013. When this photo was taken a relative nearly did his back trying to haul us out! Here's to the sedate years. Well not too sedate.

2012-01-07T22:04:00.002+10:30

I can actually see you , you know.

Especially from here.

" Wot?? Surely not. I shall retreat."

"I shall lay very very quiet."

"Mission accomplished.

Completely and utterly not visible. I be the hiding genius, me -hehehe - she is soooo fooled..think like a beet leaf, BE the beet leaf . I cannot be seen. "

We are all, including the cat, recovering from recent 40 degree days of heat, and rains today are helping to quell bushfires at the top of Spencer Gulf around Wilmington, Nectar Brook, and Spear Creek areas in which I lived worked and played in my mid-twenties. The volunteer firefighters are doing a fantastic job, with the help of arial sprays and now the rain.

2012-01-01T00:11:00.002+10:30

Fireworks going off everywhere at the moment - young teenagers running around with sparklers in the park opposite - you can hear the explosions, whistles and screams from miles around. Happy New Year everyone.

May it be a happy and healthy 2012 for us all.

Photos courtesy of http://www.graphicdesignblog.org.

2011-12-24T13:58:00.002+10:30

Merry Christmas everyone - especially to Catie in Berlin who misses the hot sunny Australian beaches at this time of year, but is looking forward to her first chilly German Christmas.
To you and yours, enjoy your Christmas no matter where you are, and have a safe and happy holiday season.

2011-12-18T09:11:00.001+10:30

The Illustration Friday topic for this week is "Sink". http://illustrationfriday.com

I've interpreted the theme from a maritime perspective with figureheads displayed on the walls at the Maritime museum in Port Adelaide.

"Basically my wife was immature. I'd be at home in the bath and she'd come in and sink my boats" - Woody Allen.

2011-12-06T20:35:00.006+10:30

Yay! I found this tiny little teapot at a garage sale - perfect for what I want...

...a strainer to put small amounts of fabric in for steaming and a just-right spout for the process of releasing the steam used for setting the dyes seeping through from seed pods, flowers, leaves. The gum leaves can bubble away in the base while the steaming takes place in the basket!

...and I just happen to have small pieces of fabric already mordanting in soymilk.

Out to the garden for inspiration. These pansies will be great for what I want.

...some yellow from the marigolds (well spotted Moskie. Excellent scout!)

One of these lurking in the shade....

...and this is what's left of the rose after we've harvested the petals...

Steamed and dyed, the little tripod bakes in the sun. The heat brings out the colours.

Lemon juice brings out the colours more. Unfortunately they won't be this vibrant when they dry.

The rose petals have certainly done their work.

Success!

2011-11-30T18:30:00.003+10:30

You'd have to ask yourself why, wouldn't you, when you have the whole room, in fact the whole house, and outside.

Cat thinks: "Mmm, tight fit here... maybe if I just...

...try to pull out the sides a bit....

*sigh*...not appearing to give much...

...perhaps another try....no? No doubt it looks good on me though...so seriously, does my bum look big in this?

What do you mean - understatement - not impressed with your answer. Not nice.

2011-11-25T16:47:00.002+10:30

Have just scraped in with my interpretation (fiddling round with the coloured pencil tool) of "Vanity" for the week that was, for Illustration Friday. The next subject will be announced some time today.
I found this tribal necklace fascinating and I guess adornment feeds into our vanity.

We will always find something to adorn ourselves with, and check out how it looks in the mirror.
I'm sure vanity is as old as humanity - poet and don't know it.

This is a very early necklace I saw in a display case in the Polynesian and Micronesian section of the Adelaide museum.

Goes nicely with the bone through the nose.

Not a throw-away statement that. There were plenty of early photos of such adornment, right near the section of shrunken head displays.

Not kidding about that either.

Don't know the New Guinea dialect for "Oooooo - that turned out rather nicely!" as one admires one's headshrinking handiwork, but sure something similar must have been muttered more than a few times in the Highlands.

Or how about imagining a lovely 17th century New Guinea/Micronesion lass who "not only turned heads but shrunk them too".

A bit disconcerting visiting the museum sometimes.

Makes me think twice about using the term "my lips are sealed".

2011-11-22T19:20:00.001+10:30

Just beautiful. I love these Eco-houses, always have, and yes I know it's no-flush composting toilet territory but I'd deal with it.... Embrace the ethos, the concept, the ...oh, will you look at that!....

I can imagine my 100% natural cotton granny nickers drying gently in the morning sun here while I look out the window for blackbirds- though I've not succumbed to big fat granny bloomers -yet - perish the thought. I come from a long line of high waisted granny- huge bloomers women and I think we baby-boomers have decided to break the pattern don't you? - along with those white singlets, always flapping on the clotheslines of our childhood.

I think there's even a few funny family photos where my mother-in-law is chortling along with the family in the back yard, huge bloomers flapping gaily on the clothesline in the background.

Oh my....*sigh*

Photos from "A Low Impact Woodland House" .

In Wales. Another big sigh. They say the grass is greener etc., but surely more so if its actually growing on the roof.

2011-11-13T17:39:00.004+10:30

Of turnips and tears...

It is important to acknowledge and remember our ancestors.

I have a soft spot for Ireland, both my great great grandmother and great great grandfather emigrated from Limerick to arrive at Port Adelaide in 1840, their first child Mary having been born on the journey out. It is said that the young couple had some gold sovereigns stitched into the hem of Margaret's petticoat to start them off, and they also bought with them two bags of turnips so they would not starve in their new country.

In two years, 15,000 immigrants arrived in Australia, with or without turnips I'm not sure!

Many many years ago, when I sailed away on the ferry from Ireland on a trip overseas, I cried to see the shoreline recede in the distance thinking of so many who witnessed that haunting and emotive sight in the 1800's.

Only recently my husband came home from work to see me in tears.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

I pointed to the television."Look at the scenery. Ireland!" (aerial views and emotive music not helping) "It makes me cry!-( sob! sob!)

Beautiful too, are these Celtic harps .

O.K.,it may be my imagination but does this, in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens remind you of an Irish harp? With the Irish ancestors on my mind at the time, it almost seemed uncanny to come across this. You know what they say, an Irishman's imagination never leaves him alone.

Made me do a double-take!!

2011-11-09T09:38:00.002+10:30

More than 1000 homes throughout the Riverland and north of the state are without power following overnight thunderstorms, captured so well here by photographer David Ellem.

93,000 lightening strikes have been recorded as thunderstorms swept across the state. How dramatic, and well...electrifying!!

2011-11-06T13:54:00.003+10:30

Back again! I've been absent for a while due to "receiving the call" ie. busy on the psychic realms. Exhausting. My other life. I've needed some sort of sanctuary lately. This is the one in my garden, but I would not be averse either, to kicking off my shoes and swigging out of a bottle with ancient crones who cackle in the moonlight circle "here dearie, go for it - there's every sort of potion and pill here to chill you right out, we here for ya, and don't that moon look great tonight - drink sweetie??!"

For those who are interested in such things riding the night skies is exhausting work. You travel to places over which you have no control - in these latest instances to mining sites at night in our vast land (these places are scarey with night lights and gigantic machinery operating 24 hours a day, where I feel so intensely small and psychically vulnerable ...no-one can see me!!) to Celtic lands where my soul aches to leave, places like the Hill of Tara (more of THAT later!)... and the dreams I hate- the damn abattoir dreams where I pay witness to places where creatures souls finally leave this earth in terror, often as far back as the 1800's (strange!) - country slaughterhouses where even camels, goats, donkeys, sheep,from these times meet their fate. Knacker yards. A menagerie of the voiceless with no escape, and of course there I am again in dreams in places in the present day where it is still happening.

I would do anything but be there. So would they.

I will join again, those who lobby our Government to continue to keep up the pressure for humane slaughtering for our live exports.

It is real for me. It is terrifyingly sad, and while people would rather hear, talk and experience happy family gatherings and compare pretty tinkly purchases, (I mean I do too)this is the world of the psychic and hidden from others lest we be burnt at the new stake of ridicule and misunderstanding

No wonder we keep quiet and rock up at our day jobs, keeping well hidden the sheer unbelievable and indescribable otherworldly beauty and the darkest of terrors.

No predicting winners of the Melbourne Cup Race recently. Just bearing witness in strange places, hoping against hope to get back by dawn.

That pressure in itself is quite daunting!

The newest insight and travel has been to stand and acknowledge that offshore gas mining in Western Australia will interfere with ancient song lines sung across country but beginning off shore..a precious heritage from the most ancient of times. These huge mining constructions seem almost "other-worldly" to those operating in the overlay and underlay of Spirit.

So. I haven't posted. Eventually I needed to take myself off to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens for the healing recuperative powers of Nature.

Come lighten up now (at last) until the next dream revelations,and relax with me.

We leave the car near this very old tree root.

Walk past this....

...and come to this.The Bicentennial Conservatory is the largest single span conservatory in the southern hemisphere and one of the largest in the world.

It was opened in November 1989 and was built to celebrate Australia's Bicentenary in 1988. It features plants, some threatened from the rain forests of Northern Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and the nearby Pacific Islands.

Great eh?? Look at the walkway.

More tree roots....

Get the idea of the size?

Spent a lot of time in the gardens. On the way back to the car I saw this - our Australian bottlebrush. It has many healing qualities . I loved to study it in more depth in the recent Level 2 Australian Bush Flower Essence course .

...and you can tell the bees love it too!

2011-10-16T19:18:00.002+10:30

Back to work tomorrow after school holidays.

These holidays for husband and myself meant catching up on things that are usually difficult to do time-wise during the term. Dentist, tax, updating wills, clearing out files, as much as we wanted to stretch our wings and fly.

It has been good however, to have my brother home for a few weeks from overseas, and daughter's dear little cat has settled in nicely, and would not have felt like shifting her off to a boarding environment so soon.

I have not had much desire to do textile work, or art in the last weeks. The dye pot lies empty, a withered curled and blackened gum leaf stuck to the base.

I have, however almost come to the end of an Australian Bush Flower Essence course over the last 6 weeks which has kept me feeling both intrigued and wanting to know so much more.

I will be enrolling in Level 2 shortly, and eventually Level 3.

As I mentally prepare for work tomorrow, I think of vocations where after turning up, a person is faced with a day or night that races along mercilessly, requiring decisions where any mistakes have either critical outcomes or the potential for some sort of blow-out, for example doctors, nurses, ambos, police - to do and say the right thing every time. To be under scrutiny and not be found wanting.

As a teacher of course we are under scrutiny by students, parents, peers, but for us preparation is everything, as is thinking one step ahead, as well as adaptability to students, timetables, class size,intellect, curriculum demands, and circumstances that can change at a moments notice from the unavailability of a certain pre booked classroom to a full-scale lock down if needs be. It is no small thing to have parents trust - to place their children in your safe keeping, both emotionally and physically.

However, I still cannot imagine waking up to start preparing for work that may involve overlooking something that can't be overlooked, the consequences onerous, with a hundred individual choices throughout the working day, and limited time in which to carry them out, often still thinking about the ones you made yesterday, last week, last year.

"I'll check with my superior" usually covers it, but what if you ARE the superior!

There are good doctors and bad doctors, good nurses and bad nurses, good teachers and bad teachers - but the good ones - they work damn hard. Most of us never forget them. Others move on (perhaps after a cursory thank-you) without a backward glance, mumbling about how they would have done things in a much better way.

Husband and I can see retirement in the dim distance. The sight of it is encouraging.

My wish is for young ones to continue, once they start these professions.

We tell them for most of their lives that "you learn by your mistakes", then they are told they can't afford, under any circumstances, to make them.
Litigation is never far away.

Yes, I think I'll stick to the work I have thanks.

Let's face it, medicine was NEVER an option, and I prefer a surgeon who doesn't make mistakes myself!

Nursing? I only have two hands, two arms and two legs and a back without a a cast-iron hinge. My nursing experience is limited to grudges, and then not particularly successfully.

This holiday was like a glimpse of retirement. It felt oh so good.

The alarm will go off at 6a.m. tomorrow. I'll be ready.

2011-10-12T21:27:00.003+10:30

Willow from Willow Manor has invited us to stretch our imaginations in wonderful ways and enter the world where anything can happen.

Her purpose is to celebrate something at the Manor in its fourth year now.

Details will become more obvious as we begin... so here we go...

.I'd travelled from Australia to eventually wind up in Altoona Pennsylvania. Just wanted to find somewhere for a coffee and was intrigued by a VW big bus outside. Inside there was much excitement. Who should be inside but the Fab Four, yes the Beatles. I was star-struck, but really, this woman went overboard with the black marker she'd nabbed from under the menu board. A bit over the top I thought...she really was quite hysterical.The boys eventually left asking where they might purchase shoes and ties. I had no idea, telling them I wasn't local, but from Australia. After telling me negotiations were underway to perform in Australia, they asked if I'd like to join them on the bus journey to The Willow Manor Ball and attend with them. How could I refuse...but what to wear!

I had after all heard all about this ball - hasn't everybody. I rushed into the nearest boutique to find something...John very patiently waited for me outside the shop...

Although beside myself with excitement,very practically I chose something that would travel well, not crease, and be easy to manage...just pop it on - zip it up - no time to look for shoes though, will just have to dance in my bare feet. George, Ringo, Paul and John hurried me on, explaining that due to mechanical problems with the bus they thought they'd be too late to play. After spending all that money on the dress, I wanted to wear it!

We arrived in time. In fact early. Willow greeted us wearing the most divine creation I'd ever seen and showed us to the ballroom where everything would soon be happening...

The boys were stunned and amazed- with Willow, the venue, everything - as the guest of the Beatles, I too, was treated like royalty....

Wow. To find out more about the night visit Willow at http://willowmanor.blogspot.com. This is the fourth Annual Willow Manor Ball - the food is divine, the dancing outrageously sublime, and the guests head-swivelling. See you there? Please pay the Manor a visit, where you will find the photos of her wonderful dress, her ballroom above, and so very much more!!

2011-10-11T09:48:00.003+10:30

My take on this week's theme of "Contraption" for Illustration Friday.

My Dad's shed was always full of contraptions. I remember attending a machine embroidery workshhop where the tutor's husband had made a contraption for feeding in different threads for her sewing machine.

There are various contraptions where I work to help the students manage various physical disabilities, though I guess this would be classed more as equipment.

What differentiates equipment and contraptions. Probably the curiousity factor. There's always a sense of puzzlement in "what's this contraption?".

What's the first thing that comes to mind for 'contraption' in your house? Mine would be the cat door. After initial reluctance to use it after fierce door swing back, it is now permanently open and the grand-cat's quality of life and freedom have escalated to the independence that felines love - with those lovely soft blinks of appreciation and offers of "I'll wash you too".

That funny little rough tongue on your hand or cheek. It's been a while since we owned a cat and I'd forgotten such lovely offers of gentle appreciation.

2011-10-05T22:45:00.002+10:30

...Bunkering down...R& R day, recover and recoup.

Our daughter, a couple of years back, when a visit home is all that was needed at the time, and simple comfort food requested. Amongst other nursing duties and responsibilities she was involved with palliative care and physically and emotionally it really did take its toll.

My contribution for the theme of "Hibernation" for the Illustration Friday week.

Total immersion language school started for her yesterday in Germany . I wonder how she went.

Do you have a favourite comfort food?

When I was ill as a child, my mother would always make me a tomato sandwich with the freshest of thick crusty white bread, and a glass of almost-flat lemonade. It still appeals, although, like my daughter, I am partial to a hard or soft-boiled egg and toast and cup of tea sometimes on a hibernating day.

2011-09-23T18:08:00.004+09:30

So pleased to see that when I woke up this morning, the Spring weather was glorious. These two magpies wait each morning, and occasional evenings to tease the cat. They were there this morning.

I went into the workroom and the sun was streaming in...

and who should be waiting by the window to give those birds a run for their money?

"Mmmm" thinks Moskie, "perhaps I shall frighten them this morning instead of the other way round..."

She returns defeated as usual, because anyone who has had experience with the Australian Magpie during the Spring nesting season know that they can be fierce, swooping and pecking, and Moskie has to admit that indoors, even on the sunniest of mornings, is the best place to retreat when faced with double trouble. There's always tomorrow to try and look like something a magpie might be frightened of. C'mon Moskie even though I'm all ready to go to work, let's take some photos to send "your mum" in Germany. She's missing you. I think I desperately need to update my profile photo too. D'ya think this will do?

After all I've earned every one of those grey hairs. Sorry Moskie, not that I've got anything against grey..or white...you know...it looks good on you.

Bet you wish there was just the tiniest taste of Magpie on that paw. So pleased there's not. Couldn't live with that.

2011-09-17T16:46:00.003+09:30

The Illustration Friday topic for this week is "Mesmerising". I've yet to do some form of illustration but the topic led me to think about the last time I was mesmerised by something. It happened after a christening I and some workmates had been invited to attend.

The service was captivating and beautiful, but mesmerising came afterwards.

The mother and most of the guests were families from the Phillipines and the copious amounts of food provided after the service was wonderful...but...we were seated around the room, workmates and I, with a big fat roasted pig staring me right in the face .... and I mean BIG...

...with an apple in it's mouth. I was originally sitting where the friend in the grey scarf is, up close and personal with Piggy. Now for a vegetarian that's a bit disconcerting....and mesmerising, unfortunately. Try as I might my eyes kept coming back to that piggy's roasted face! I swapped places with Heather to mingle with others a bit.

For those who enjoy pork, I do believe it was succulant.

For those who asked recently, my daughter is finding her way gradually around Berlin. Her recent mesmerizing experience was a very unattractive middle-aged man in his white saggy underwear, sunbathing in a public park, happily scratching his arse oblivious to the looks of repulsion around him.

I guess as long as he thinks he's gorgeous, but it would really put you off your brattwurst sandwiches ya?

2011-09-10T20:22:00.001+09:30

Many of you know, that as well as teaching in the mainstream, I teach in the disability area also. Yesterday in a class of teenagers, we were one number short for our wheelchair sports team so I decided there was nothing for it, but to grab a team vest and climb into a wheelchair myself.

Normally such a sassy action by a middle-aged woman would send teenagers into a heightened sense of furious embarrassment and a wish to be anywhere else but there. Not this lot. Cheers and laughter all round!

By the end of the game I had the high-powered wheeling down to a fine art, the sudden stops and starts required, a few tricky manouvres mastered, and had developed a very healthy "glow".

The fact that I'd scored a manual wheelchair instead of electric made for hard work! I was too involved in the game to realize that , wait a minute, I'm a couple of years off 60, have osteoporosis, and an hour earlier had felt the desperate need for a 'nanna-nap' around lunchtime, which I'd mercifully snapped out of.

At the end of the game (I didn't score any goals, but certainly blocked a few!) I was feeling rejuvinated, accomplished and happily tired in a different way to pre-lunch!

Staff said, "You wait, you don't feel anything now, but tomorrow your arms will be killing you!!!!"

So far so good. Maybe it will kick in Sunday.

Many months ago I was wandering around an area close to where I now live, wanting to photograph some of the historic old buildings on a hospital site, before the buildings were demolished . The hospital opened in 1932 and was designed to care for and accomodate patients with infectious diseases such as polio and tuberculosis (rife at the time) scarlet fever, measles and a diphtheria epidemic that hit this State in 1936.

The buildings were twenty years old by the time I entered the world, returning to live in a war-service home near this hospital, but numerous tales abounded of iron lungs, and strict regimes where even radios were not allowed on wards.

Later, of course, immunisation programs were introduced and these diseases all but eradicated from the Western world.

To gain a sense of how far we have come, and the struggles endured in places like the Northfield Infectious Diseases Hospital please visit the remarkable history of Richard Llewellyn at

http://history.dircsa.org.au/pioneers/richard-llewelyn/

I found much broken and discarded equipment on the pre-demolition site, which made for a few interesting photos, and while I am sad to see the old buildings and equipment go, I'm happy that outmoded attitudes have been thrown out also. Richard's story proves the progress was slow.

He did so much for people with disabilities in this State and overseas.

2011-09-04T21:00:00.002+09:30

Great to see some sunshine at last, casting shadows, outside...and inside...
(family catch-up at my cousins).

2011-08-30T20:03:00.001+09:30

The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size - Gertrude S. Wisler.

Hand-written sign on a small board outside my local florist shop. Perceptive and beautiful for this time of year here in the Southern hemisphere.

2011-08-08T20:41:00.001+09:30

"Come and visit me sometime. My flowers would like to meet you" Annon.

Recently I "met the flowers " at a school I worked in. I had been so rushed for time that I wandered at the end of the day, out into the far reaches of the landscaped grounds. (Believe me, many of the schools I work in have much more asphalt than flowers.)

I was due to visit my mother-in-law in hospital after I'd finished teaching.

There was so much lavender and it cheered my heart. I thought it would cheer hers too. I picked a big bunch of it, breathing in the refreshing and soothing fragrance. I tied it with a pretty bow and when I placed it in a small vase of water on her bedside table, I forgot about the water displacement theory and water spilt everywhere over the top! I hastily mopped up around the magazines, get well cards, reading glasses and chocolates. You can tell I'm not a science teacher. My mother-in-law when she thinks of it, puts a small dish or bowl by her front door with fresh flowers to greet everyone. If I remember correctly lavender often featured. Camelias are also a favourite of hers.

Get well soon dear Val and happy and fast healing.

2011-07-31T16:16:00.005+09:30

Husband and I saw dear daughter off at the airport this morning to live in Germany, and as truly happy and excited as we are for her, we did feel sad as we left the Adelaide airport.

Everyone has their coping mechanisms for sadness. I remember going through a particularly blue time once, and getting a referral to a psychologist. However in the weeks that it took to get an appointment I watched copious episodes of Father Ted, and managed to feel much better. Cancelled the appointment. Thanks Ted...and the others in that "feckin' cast".

Now, mean as this may seem, one of the things that's keeping me sane today, fresh from the airport, is a visit to the Museum of Bad Art. http://www.museumofbadart.org/.

As you know (last posting) I've been feeling like the painting below recently from The Museum ..... this effort that somebody discarded in disgust and resignation. It's titled "Till I was Blue in The Face". I think the painting may have taken some time to execute, while the title, what about 5 minutes you think? If that??? Hope the artist didn't agonize over the title too much. Yes,I can even relate to the jowels and the misery....or this..."Blue Lady with ipod" - putting a brave face on things listening to music....been doing heaps of that...with the "what a great opportunity for my daughter" smile? Yep, that too.

Ah, those emotional demons, as someone called Gina so aptly expressed in her painting below of "Gina's Demons". In case you think I'm being cruel with these paintings here, I am actually a huge fan of art therapy,(seriously), but also tempered with the ability to laugh at oneself too, when necessary and able to. Gina's Demons was purchased at a flea market near Northampton, MA, and rescued to become much loved at the Museum of Bad Art. A "rescue" painting saved from the bin of obscurity or unloved indignity and neglect at the flea market. I think Gina had therapized (?) and moved on, which I guess is the outcome we all wish for.

Gina realizes, in that self-illuminating moment captured so well in the painting, that it is indeed time to move on, and get a grip, even if tentatively. Go Gina! Actually, go me!!

So thankyou all for your recent kind comments and much needed warmth and understanding recently. Thanks go to the Museum of Bad Art for enabling me to now phone friends and relatives to let them know I am back on track today. Thank you for your patience, though I am sure there will be days.

What an adventure....and daughter had a great farewell at the German Club venue here in Adelaide last Friday to say goodbye - so lovely to see people of all ages there who love her dearly. It was a fun night.

I am teaching for the next week and a bit. Keeping busy.

Hope you all had a good weekend andI wish you well for the coming week .Let me know in the comments section what you have planned or hope for this week.

2011-07-16T20:53:00.003+09:30

There are phrases which have resonated in my life a lot lately ...
"when I open myself to..."
"impermanent... change..."
"loss..grief...."
None of it encompasses being afraid. I've always seen myself as brave., but the heart chakra is open, vulnerable and so very active, when for most of my life it has been guarded and safe.
I find this in common with a lot of people I know both in my day to day interactions with people my age, and reading some insightful blogs, heartfelt revelations by many of you.
We are taken by suprise, a little, we who have always been in control, able to rationalize our every thought and feeling, strengthening our emotional fibre to be the safety net for others, so that they can be resilient and bounce back. I figure we protectors of family, and I'm talking about men here too of course,had to conquer fear, because whatever guise it came in, we gathered the chicks close, or bared the claws, circled the wagons, all those cliches, just to enable the ones we love to move on safely, and we hoped wisely, and let's face it those without family or dependents per se, needed to do it for themselves for their own emotional survival in some demanding decades of their lives.
Now, while I stand victorious with fear defeated underfoot, who should come and introduce itself but grief, tied in so closely with this increased vulnerability of an exposed heart.
My daughter is now almost ready to leave us to live in Germany with her new love.
At the same time, I find I continue to live in the epicentre of much loved elderly relatives facing up to the reality of big physical and mental challenges of living from 85 years old on. Some days for them are good. Others definitely not.
The photo below is of my daughter and my mothers sister...I love these two dearly...changes in their lives affect me, as they both question "Do you think it will be alright - our lives?" There are no guarantees . One has her life ahead of her, the other is trying to come to terms with closing chapters neatly while things unravel at the edges regardless.I can try to lead by example on how not to be afraid. Change and impermanence has taught me that - but this increased capacity to care thing is overwhelming at times.
"When you open yourself to the continually changing, impermanent, dying nature of your own being and of reality, you increase your capacity to love and care about other people and your capacity not to be afraid." Pema Chodron.
I have not found any other quote which so beautifully and clearly sets out what it is like to be so brave, so 'not afraid' at my age, while tears and good wishes flow. Optimism and grief, what strange bedfellows!

2011-07-15T14:21:00.004+09:30

See the pin in the middle?

It's my take on the Illustration Friday topic which was "Stay". I always scrape in just before the new week's topic is announced, and although its Friday here today, the new topic doesn't surface until tomorrow in the Illustration Friday topic part of the world. The ever-trusty pin is something I rely on in my textile work.

Stay is also a good subject for a post. I dyed some silk material using rust and eucalytus a while back, and wore it as a scarf for a while. It eventually became tucked away in a drawer and there it stayed.

I decided it looked much better on the wall, and I think it will stay in the art room as its beautiful features are highlighted there, rather than hidden in the subtlety of a scarf.

Much as we immerse ourselves in a landscape appreciating what is close at hand, we are, particularly in Australia, often blown away by an arial view. It seems to be a theme of mine in artwork lately.

Remember all the costumes students and I dyed for the high school play written and produced by my husband? Way back in April, right?

Well, now that its school holidays, guess what, the ordorous package of costumes came home to be washed, courtesty of husband.

"Dont you just have to throw them in the machine?" he asked. So I did, not concerning myself about any lost colour, bacterial costume festering, or a soupy mix of vegetative dye slushing around - it could only add to 'the patina'?

Now a visit to my back yard looks like we have a medieval village staying with us...

The butcher, the baker, the disinfected candlestick maker are all doing fine thanks ... and no doubt some of these garments will reappear in some other fabric form of artistic or fashion representation.

Hope you all have a happy weekend ahead.

Checked the washine machine. It's ready for the next load of 'normal' washing which will no doubt accumulate as part of the weekend's activities.

Off to make some gruel, er, minestrone.

2011-07-12T19:16:00.009+09:30

Hand stitching.
While I am busy working on the bottom right-hand corner...
Someone is very busy working away at the top left-hand corner......with equal enthusiasm.

2011-07-06T22:36:00.002+09:30

The theme for this week for the Illustration Friday challenge is "Remedy". Finally got around to doing the challenge.
Found these wonderful old bottles in a shop...traditional take on the theme...
Contemporary

A cheerful heart is good medicine...
Proverbs 17:22

2011-07-03T18:53:00.006+09:30

It's been full-on handstitching today. Busy, busy , busy - enjoyably so. It's how I relax. I love the feeling of securing loose fabrics into a tight and compact form...layering colours...losing myself in the concentration required...

This piece I am working on represents the colours and unique qualities of our Australian landscape and those who dwell in it... hoping to catch the very essence of far north. It takes a quiet energy, perserverance, and steady hand-eye co-ordination, so I work on and on, stitch by tiny stitch, knowing the rest of the family is equally busy in their own pursuits of what constitutes a good weekend...thought so!

Hope your weekend was relaxing too! What were you up to?

2011-06-22T07:46:00.006+09:30

Topic of conversation at this card table? "How much is a haircut these days"...and therein lies a tale...

Dear daughter has given notice at the aged care facility where she has worked for many years , in preparation for leaving for living in Germany.

She will miss many of the residents to whom she has become very close, sharing their joys and heartbreaks and as a registered nurse managing their health issues, of which dementia features frequently. There is lots of laughter where she works, and by the very nature of her work, tears too.

However, I am sure you will like this story that she told me recently involving cards and lots of love!

Part of her duties involve making sure that the residents get to appointments, and one dear soul was fretting about her appointment at the hairdressing salon, part of the aged care facility. My daughter, noticing her fidgeting and distress enquired about the resident's agitation, which she was sure was tied in with her dementia.

"Oh thank you for asking dear" the resident replied "but I only have this much to pay the hairdresser and I don't think it's enough!"

Daughter quickly summed up the situation and said, taking the cards, "leave it with me" and proceeded to take the currency to the hairdresser, who was most obliging. Daughter was happy to return to the resident with good news.

"Look!" daughter said happily "You even got some change!"

That's the sort of thing you want to keep a bit quiet though, because once the elderly gentlemen hear of it, they'll be wanting their own "pounds, shillings and pence"!

Now we just have to save enough to help contribute to Germany...

After all every little bit helps!

2011-06-09T19:28:00.005+09:30

Blogger and I have just not been getting on, which explains the long absence. Being recalcitrant and not allowing me to publish, and even now, if I try to reposition a photo into a different sequence, the photo flies off into god knows where. Lots of grrrrr noises from me, and eventual help from a trouble-shooting husband, so we'll see what happens from here.

Anyway, the delay gave me time to construct and eventually unwrap these little naturally-dyed parcels which have been out in the elements for the past couple of weeks, rusting away - worth the wait.

Will turn this into something interesting eventually.

Now I'm off to visit you all - long overdue!

2011-05-26T14:55:00.006+09:30

The theme this week for Illustration Friday http://www.illustrationfriday.com/ is 'Soaked'.Couldn't resist sketching these two lads from the photo below from the latest edition of 'the Advertiser Adelaide*magazine- Youth Issue.' I would have been two years old at this time. It was taken at the Adelaide Oval in 1955, young ones queuing for the grand final football match between Port Adelaide and Norwood.
Yes, they are soaked but keen, and it makes me smile to think most of them now would be in their late 60's and early 70's - and probably still enjoying their footy!
The cat (see previous post), after hobbling around on 3 legs, is fine now. Xrays showed no breaks or fractures, but there was a hidden deep puncture wound between her toes on that hind leg which explained her reluctance for weight-bearing, and skittishness about being touched, and reluctance to leave her basket. Antiobiotics and rest. ..wow, now who's lookin' good!

2011-05-23T07:22:00.002+09:30

The grandcat (now residing with us on what seems may be a permanent basis )appears to have broken its hind leg and seems most apologetic about it. All being newbies to the area, we are off to introduce ourselves today to the local vet.

2011-05-14T07:17:00.009+09:30

We did get to the aviation museum after all , and I was busy taking photos (in-between guiding Dad around objects) to play with and turn into my interpretation of the place. Borrowing shamelessly from Indiginous art, I've called this piece of mine "Aviation Dreaming" - part of my Dad's memory and story. Another piece I created is representative of being inside a war plane with a city lit from below. Not that the cities in those air raid times of WW2 were lit up like Christmas trees, quite the opposite. Dad's area was the Pacific, flying out from Darwin, helping to repel the invading Japanese, who actually bombed Darwin harbour in WW2.
Terrible times, and yet some great memories were forged along with the fear and uncertaintly. My father and his sister still see themselves as airforce people, and his sister in particular has travelled the world post-war with fellow WAAF members having a wonderful time, and lives for the WAAF and war widows functions.
Not really interested in much else, Dad's personal library, for as long as I can remember, consisted entirely of war time stories and airforce books
With all this in mind, I thought it would be good to get him to the Aviation museum, a private collection of memorabilia, at Greenock in country South Australia
Initially he was a bit grumpy about it all, because it meant an early start to the day (he doesn't usually wake until 11a.m. and the bus passengers were to assemble at 9a.m.) and also unfortunately it fell on the day of the "Men's Shed" a weekly group gathering of elderly retirees who feel they've lost their sheds, their way, their minds and their lives!!! A support group basically, and one vital to Dad's well-being and happiness.
Mum and I eventually got him on the bus, and we all set off to what proved to be an enjoyable day with fine company and great lunch thrown in.Dad goes down the list of planes, oh so slowly...and eventually finds his WW 2 Liberator. Being a little chap, Dad was the Rear Gunner stuck out on the gun turret at the back and very vulnerable to attack.
Dad's summary of the day "Mmm- quite good really".
Which is more than can be said for the war.
The Department of Veteran Affairs is looking after him very well now though, helping both he and Mum to live comfortably, helping with medical expenses, and providing much needed support and encouragement to continue to live in their own home.

2011-05-09T11:10:00.004+09:30

Yesterday my daughter and I decorated the house for Mother's Day and prepared a "mother-type" afternoon tea with floral serviettes and china cups and lots of pink balloons for my Mum. Dad and Mum were due to arrive around 3p.m. , Dad very much the reluctant passenger to Mum's careful slow driving. However, I received a call as the time approached "Now there's no need to worry, but..."
Which of course means I worry about what's to come. Mum's "no need to worry", has included news of Dad having a big heart attack and admitted to hospital in the past!
"Dad's had a quite nasty fall" Mum informed us " and is quite shaken. He found his other foot hard to lift after he'd stepped up on the outside step . He fell flat on his face on those hard tiles.Would you mind coming over instead?" Which of course we did, very concerned, and taking the balloons with us.
However, we found Dad outside, unsteady at the best of times, bending down sweeping up leaves, and after my daughter with her aged care nursing experience checked him out, we had to lure him in with cake and biscuits.
I wish Dad would use a walking stick but he won't. He wouldn't give up his driving licence despite my best efforts, until doctors tried to explain about his heart attack and dementia making it unsafe, and he continues to be angry even knowing those circumstances. He insists on walking around the area they live unaccompanied, but Mum says his stubborn insistence and anger leaves her little choice, and besides he needs the exercise. I wish he'd 'exercise' (read 'shuffle') with a frame or stick. He won't.
He will however eat heaps of Mother's Day cake - and it was a lovely one.
After we left I'm sure he went back to the garden.
Before all this happened I'd booked us into a retirees day trip on a small bus for tomorrow, which included an aviation museum Dad has not seen before. I thought it might satisfy his need to get out a bit.
Hope all will be O.K.

2011-05-03T16:02:00.015+09:30

This is a photo I took that I had intended to work in pencil for the Illustration Friday topic this week of "Lesson". (Just imagine that I have pencilled it -I'm too busy - daughter is moving at the end of the week, need I say more?) Lesson: Cooking Lesson..." Outwitting the Blessed": or....The Fall From Grace of Sandra Crawford (name changed to protect the not so innocent) - and therein lies a tale...all involving "lesson".
When I was growing up I was surrounded by boys, hateful, spiteful little slug-gun wielding boys, including my brother,who waved dead birds in my face to make me cry, "because you're a stupid girl and it's only a bird"
"...but it's somebody's mother!", I'd sob,thinking of its stifled throaty song, but they were already off to poison my carefully-nurtured tadpoles with sump oil. (My daughter calls this Mum's Museum of Pain - we laugh about these stories at Christmas and other family events where everyone contributes from their own archives of maudlin self-pity)
There were only two other girls of my age , of absolutely no imagination, in the immediate area where I lived. Neither liked art, poetry or reading. One was from a Bible -crazy strict Christian Fundamentalist family, lets call her Patty Elijah ,no fun there- the other two houses down, was younger, Sandra Crawford who preferred to worship at the altar of domesticity from an alarmingly early age.
Side-splittingly funny any of this so far? No? My point exactly.
My escape then was reading books.the only humour around then was British twee though the boys contended themselves with fart jokes ad infinitum.
The sound of "Why can't you be more like Sandra Crawford" echoed constantly down the years of my life as I turned page after page of books lost in worlds such as those of Narnia in"The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Meanwhile, it was Sandra Crawford who managed to pluck most of the clothes pegs off the line into one hand in record time at a bridal shower (mercifully not me winning the 1st prize of preserves there!) and to this day I think it was her years of training involved, while I was lost in Narnia.
My mother pleaded with me to spend time in the kitchen learning to cook because"after all, Sandra Crawford...." or cutting out dressmaking patterns because,"after all, Sandra Crawford...". Luckily,Sandra Crawford never had time to give me the time of day, always too busy admiring the woman across the road's cake-icing lattice work and sugared roses (yawn, sorry Beryl).
So imagine my delight when Sandra Crawford grew up to be a self-serving, egotistic mother- bullying, three-timing , man-eating (MUCH better than marzipan) piece of work!
In the week preceding Patty Elijah's 9th birthday, I was busy reading up on the Bible (laugh a minute there!) as a ten year old, because I'd had inside information that Patty's parents were preparing bible knowledge quizzes for their daughter's party games (???)so we'd all look stupid and heathen, and Patty would win everything.
'Help me hang out the washing, then maybe we could do some cooking" Mum shouted out.
"Get Kim to help! Too busy reading about Jesus cursing a fig tree Mum"
"Fig Jam! You could learn to make FIG JAMMMMM sometime...(mumbles loud enough to hear,"Dad loves fig jam")..."
(If she mentions a certain person two doors down I thought she knows where a certain person can shove the figs).
In time, ignoring Revelation (whew..what????!) wading and speed-reading and skipping through locust plagues, beatitudes, gospels, and people laying with people and begetting, paid off! I won all of the biblical birthday quizzes, to the accompanying shrugs and confused looks of "Go for it!" from bored 9 and 10 year old guests, looking furtively around for pass the parcel and party hats which never eventuated, and indeed a quick exit.
I'd never do that to a birthday kid under normal circumstances,particularly one without a party hat and a few sad balloons.
Perhaps you're thinking "Awww, you could have let the kid win"., but by this stage I was so tired of ..what...I don't know... I thought I'd try tasting victory, to try 'smug 'on my 10 year old self for size, just once.
The looks on the Fundamentalist family's face were priceless in their shocked disbelief. "Out of left field" I believe the term is. Their birthday kid didn't know half the questions anyway.Along with the loaves and fishes there were some Old Testament red herrings in there let me tell you, and it was a hollow victory anyway because after all I should've been out in the sunshine all that time having fun.
Down the track of time,all grown up,Sandra Crawford will have broken in her third husband but would leave him shattered with her adulterous ways, while squeezing her teenage daughter into something the size of a broom cupboard so the new man's boys could have the choicest bedrooms of gargantuan proportions. It was only then, my mother thought perhaps Sandra (Crawford that was) wasn't all she was cracked up to be. Well really.
"I guess it's a bit of a lesson " Mum conceded.
My brother turned out to be a State rifle and pistol shooting champion. We try and avoid the subject when the duck-shooting season is on at Bool Lagoon - being on opposing sides , not physically but ethically-, we meet on middle-ground with his shooting feral goats in Australia, but I guess the lesson there is that you agree to disagree on some things.
Mum and I agree more these days as we watch honey-eaters fly free of the dull crack of slug guns, while we have our coffee and cake. I make the coffee; praise Mum's cake, (I know there'll be even more this coming Mother's Day)... and am thankful she is still around in her mid-eighties..
"You can have the recipe if you like" she offers..."it's very easy, a bit dry...maybe one day we'll..." Haha! Still trying for that Domestic Goddess Mum! Aint happenin'.
You might have the last laugh though. Long after you're gone, I might just turn into the Domestic Crone.

2011-05-01T06:48:00.003+09:30

Sunday. Today I hold the people suffering adversity due to intense weather conditions in the United States, in my prayers. We have seen such devastating reports here in Australia on our news broadcasts, particularly in the South of the States. I cannot imagine the fear experienced with the wild and unpredictable tornadoes that rip through communities. The loss of life and home and the resulting trauma must be truly heartbreaking and devastating.

2011-04-27T08:19:00.006+09:30

Yes I do...but unlike the late beautiful Princess Diana, I don't want to admit to having a brain the size of one..Not much room for a lot happening there in that little green roundness.
So this morning, I mumbled to my husband, "Why is it so pitch-black this morning!".
"This might help" he said, as he removed duna and pillows from around my head, revealing in fact, a quite beautiful morning.
My excuse? Sleep befuddlement and lack of oxygen to the brain.( the size of, ...yes we won't go there), but even the 5th international congress of sleep research in Denmark thought the humble little pea had its place in the somnolent scheme of things. Who knows what strange and bizarre circuitous route bought the pea and sleep together in Denmark rather than the suburb of Northgate, South Australia.My daughter , university graduate that she is, has also had a few pea-brained triumphs in her time.
"Eeeeeuuuwwwww " she squealed as a teenager, opening the foiled packet in which the roast chicken was contained. "This chicken has ...NO BREAST!!!!!!!"
"Turn it over" said husband calmly without even bothering to look up.
And ...Ta DA!!!!! Well how about that!
Not content with my gaff about the dark morning, I hurried about opening up the house to the streaming Autumn sunshine.
"Isn't it wonderful" I trilled to husband "that I haven't been called in to work this morning for teaching - you'd think after the Easter break, someone would call in sick".
"Might be... because its the school holidays" said husband.
Yep. I'll be better after my morning coffee.
I think.

2011-04-26T07:56:00.010+09:30

It's Ruby Tuesday time again. I'm always browsing in bric-a-brac shops, camera at hand, to rearrange bits and pieces which I think will make an interesting combination for either a still life (which one day I'll get around to painting)or a creative endeavour begging to be started.
I love the bird on this piece of pottery....and often material in these places offers up beautiful patterns that I'd wished I'd thought of myself.
Usually a quick " do you mind if I rearrange and photograph this for an art project?" meets with a nod of approval. My camera and I have never been refused yet.
Some places are more interesting than others however.The Goodwill shops and Salvation Army are now more sanitized and up-market bordering on pristine and boring. Rearranged within an inch of their life. Next time you visit the rearrangement has been rearranged!
My favourites still are the little old church ladies all too ready to give you a bargain in the dusty litttle shop tucked at the back of the church, or the good-hearted Animal Welfare shops where mercifully things are in good- natured disarray.
Artistic inspiration peeking out from behind the ladies as they sip on a cup of tea, wondering why "Jean didn't show up today".
I like the way they ask "...and what are you going to do with this?". When you explain, it's "Well who would have thought!".
...Or the post summary that follows after a recent purchaser has newly-exited from the bell-tinkling door.
Once a young alternative lifestyle type had the ladies enthralled about her purchase of a property in rural Tasmania and her enthusiasm in shifting her young family to this place,which she'd not fully seen or inspected, in a state of Australia she'd not been to before, but which met her budget. "Just bought it off the internet! You don't say!" the ladies gasped, as they placed her purchase of warm woolies necessary for the cold climate, in a Bunnings bag. "Wonderful!" they continued. "How brave!" "What an adventure!".After the bell tinkled, they looked at each other.
"Madness". "You'd have to be mad". "Internet eh? Who would have thought!".

2011-04-21T21:12:00.002+09:30

Theme Thursday: Girls.

Daughter's friends in her first car, many years ago. Honda Prelude. Automatic. The mechanic tried to convince her the older models were expensive to fix, but she would not be swayed.The sun roof was something else - a load of fun , reminiscent of good times with the girls. I drove it to work a couple of times - so funny - and those days with her mates!
http://themethursday.wordpress.com/

2011-04-18T17:37:00.003+09:30

Woodside is one of our sleepy small country towns in the Adelaide Hills. I like to go there to poke around in the musty dusty rustic shops - old baskets and books, the kind of things you'd expect.....even the unexpected surprises staring down from the old meat safe....

...looking into dark and dingy corners...

...in fact, things start to take on an almost haunted feel.... and then...THIS!!!!!!! Spooooookkyyyyy ...yes???

Time to hit the more funky colourful sunny side of Woodside...

Must. Not. Look. Back.

2011-04-03T19:25:00.025+09:30

Eco dyeing. Using locally sourced plants for the dyeing process.

Many thanks (for the students and my adventures in this) must ultimately go to the wonderful India Flint , who shares her expertise around the globe, and originally instructed me in these processes at a workshop years ago.

While the attempts of our little group have proved interesting and fun, India takes it to quite another level. I have provided links to India and the enormous variety of her work, at the end of this post.

You will see what I mean about her expertise and knowledge and how much fun it was to learn from her. So....using that knowledge,here is what the students and I have been up to.... Having India's book for reference was invaluable.Costumes....for one section of the cast... ...all different natural shades...and from this originally...

to this...much better ! Yum!At rehearsals today... and checking final results. I look forward one day to attending another of India's workshops, and learning more. Her processes have given me much joy and inspiration - and the students were fascinated with the variety and colours that natural dyes can produce.

For more information on her work please visit:

india9na's photostream at flickr.

India's blog, Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost http: prophet-of-bloom.blogspot.com/

http://www.indiaflint.com/

2011-03-31T21:45:00.003+10:30

It is an absolute puzzle to me where March went. The days went by so quickly, with many teaching days all over the place, dyeing costumes ( a long process!) and my brother home for a visit, from overseas. As I hurried to work this morning, driving along the Esplanade, I looked at the sparkling water and thought "I wish I could stop and paddle my feet in the ocean!". No chance to stop on the way home either, with important items to post, shopping to do, and costumes waiting at home to be unwrapped and left to "set" in the last of the afternoon sun. The subject for Theme Thursday for the week was orange. By the time I'd completed the task of interpreting orange... ( hope dear daughter doesn't mind sharing the page with an illustrious wardrobe handle!)

...it was time for the new theme of "puzzle" http://themethursday.wordpress.com/

So I've come full circle really!

Tomorrow, if I don't get an early morning call for substitute teaching, I intend to join in the throng around 1p.m. at St. George's Anglican Church rummage sale, though you take your life in your hands when the doors open.

It's a chance to catch up with a group of close friends I don't get to see as often as I'd like, and compare "You beauty!! finds over a cup of tea and scones with big dollops of cream, after the crowds have thinned out.

Here's hoping the phone doesn't ring, 'cause when (polite)push comes to (Anglican)shove, I need some R&R!

2011-03-12T11:17:00.002+10:30

I'm always late for Illustration Friday. A while back the theme was "Swarm", so have taken the opportunity to finish this creation and to express the fact that I am taking a short break while life's become busy-beeish again. Back whenever. Have fun and will try to look in on your posts when I can.

2011-03-09T16:49:00.012+10:30

In his hands
The mechanic has the keys

So
I will walk today

The paths and roads of home.

Crisscross the traffic islands
RoundaboutsPress the clacking button

On traffic lights.

Wait

To activate colours

To stop the main road frantic flow.

It takes time.

I will see where seven minutes,

ten, twenty takes me.
Watch distance stretch,

Diminish.

Nod to neighbours

Acknowledge somewhere children whine

Or scream indignation.

See grey branches

A respite from flight

For a Northgate magpie. A siren

East,

rises, falls, recedes.

In suburbia I will note that

There is nothing wrong with life.

Or everything.What I am doing ,

Where I am going

will not get noticed.

Or very well might!

I walk

Intent on scanning faces

I don't recognize.

Past perfect parks

Remembering a growing boy

Looking on such parks

Through stuck-sashed windows

Seeing mighty tigered jungles

Where none existed.
In nights

Where crickets chirped.

2011-03-08T14:00:00.008+10:30

Welcome to the procastinators happy place. This does not happen often. When finally every little niggling job, doubt, worry, looming deadline, pressure is eased, dispersed, does it look like being dispensed with???? Could it possibly be??? DONE???

Last October's tax. Finished. Lodged.

Costumes for husband's school drama production...under control and one workshop already under my belt. Yes!Daughter has taken out private health insurance???? Wow.Doing the Happy Dance. Forms for teaching this year. Approved. Done, dusted, police checks, first aid and registration all up to date and three teaching days in the system now awaiting pay.

Oh yeah!

As of this morning, the big social obligations and dates on the diary, all held here....? Done now! ...and wait for it....house this morning, from top to bottom, squeaky clean!!!
Poor little neglected car finally booked in for service - tomorrow no less! Daughter appears happy in her present relationship.Oh yeah.An hour ago,World Vision told me they'll send me another birthday card that I misplaced so my sponsored child WILL get her card on time after all.(Can't tell you what a relief that one is.)
Freezer full.

Dinner done.

Oh these days are gold.

Pure gold.

2011-03-04T10:01:00.003+10:30

Today is the day that this dear young man I wrote about in my last post, will be laid to rest on Kangaroo Island.Geographically, KI is not far from where I write this in Adelaide. Jamie came from a beautiful part of the State of South Australia.As a funeral celebrates the life of someone, so I think it fitting to also celebrate the beauty of a land that creates us, forms us, and gives us a final resting place, surrounded by the familiar and loved, and so please share here, on a poignant occassion, the beauty and peace of Kangaroo Island.... ...so very different from far away war-torn Afghanistan...There can be nothing quite like the shores of home.Rest in eternal peace Jamie. Back where you belong.

2011-02-24T12:00:00.008+10:30

A sombre and respectful post today friends.

Please join me to take time and send a prayer to Christchurch New Zealand where there is widespread devastation due to a 6.3 magnitude earthquake a couple of days ago in the middle of a working day.

These desperate rescuers search for survivors in a collapsed building in Manchester Street, Christchurch, where the risk of after shocks still threaten.

The emotional and physical safety and well-being of these rescuers, and those who bear witness in counselling and crises management sessions are foremost in my thoughts today as they continue their work with a firm and resolved sense of duty and compassion .

It is indeed a crisis in Christchurch where families suffer injuries and loss.

Always in these circumstances there is someone who is providing the strong shoulder to lean on, the strength to draw on emotional and physical reserves to help others in their pain. ...and when the media has been satiated and moved on, the aftermath continues to extract extraordinary demands on the populations tested.

While most of my posts continue on with everyday jottings, always in my mind, as I am sure in yours, is the awareness of those who are doing it tough elsewhere, and we remember and acknowledge them. There those who continue to struggle in Haiti, in New Orleans, Brazil...

"There must be those among whom we can sit and weep and still be considered warriors." - Adrienne Rich.

Case in point. This photo below says it all.

Comrades of fallen Kangaroo Island soldier Jamie Larcombe say their final farewells from the army base in Afghanistan recently... ...the resolve, the pain, and respect is palpable.... to send, with grieving hearts, this Aussie on his
final journey home...This post today is resolutely about these warriors in our society, who carry their burdens stoically, who fight using every ounce of courage in their soul and spirit,to serve others, so that we may continue our "life as normal".

Ultimately there is always a price extracted from our heroes.

For some there is an urgent need for healing, making whole, replacing pieces of damaged psyche. What a calling for the chosen few. These who take on the heavy emotional weight of others need all the help and strength they can get, particularly the chaplains, with their vocation grappling with the realities and gruesome horrors of war, or the sudden shock of natural disasters.

To all who find themselves involved in tragedy, go my respect, thoughts and prayers on this very ordinary Thursday in my part of the world.

I humbly acknowledge so many could do with a blessing of Ordinary today.

2011-02-22T12:17:00.007+10:30

Earthy. Natural. "Like you've emerged from the earth. A sense of the past".That's what husband wants for costumes for the upcoming drama production with his high school students. So I'm busy with the earthy layers of dyes from nature,bark and leaves and rust...experimenting....The Illustration Friday topic this week happens to be "Layers".

Time to work with colour and rummage through the fabric stash. From these found bits.......to some relaxing layering and handstitching to get this. Same colour palette but in coloured pencil.

Textilosophy courtesy of Illustration Friday http://illustrationfriday.com/ :- "Man-despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication and his many accomplishments - owes his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains." Author unknown.

2011-02-17T09:27:00.002+10:30

February birthdays. A photo from years ago in what was Mum and Dad's place.
My mother and her sister (bottom left) have always insisted that it's all about the food. Can't you tell? Though my cousin's husband standing behind me, is putting in a good word for the wine as well. So it was time to do it all again last night at our place.Cake lit up - everyone about to sing Happy Birthday to us, the February/Aquarian mix, with a tiny little ring-in who wants to be part of the action.
I'm 58 now. Gawd!

2011-02-12T07:00:00.006+10:30

There was something vaguely famililar about this art gallery figure on Felisol's blog recently at http://felisol.blogspot.com/ Reminded me of an earlier collage of mine. Eventually found it, and and yes! Thanks Felisol.. Have a good weekend everyone.

February is full of birthdays here. Mum's today. 84!
Here she is ticking over quite nicely at a previous function with the help of daughter (l) and niece (r), and believe me, she'll be up for it again.Wicked encouragement can't you tell?

2011-02-04T16:02:00.002+10:30

Theme Thursday this week is family. I thought this family photo lent itself well to sepia....the oldies on the park bench, the little one distracted . Theme Thursday can be found at http://themethursday.wordpress.com/
"Hold those you love with open arms" - Japanese proverb.

2011-02-03T09:59:00.003+10:30

Well. I'm sure many woke up in coastal Queensland feeling like this, this morning. North Queensland's small coastal communities, particularly a devastated town of Tully, bore the brunt of Cyclone Yasi's fury while the regions major cities of Cairns and Townsville have escaped relatively unscathed.

Now there's the peeking out from under the covers to assess. Except no peeking out for the media. So full-on, like dogs straining at the leash. "Let me at it...let me at it!".
I often feel when they shove a microphone in someone's face asking again "how do you feel?" that Queeslanders really want to say "I have a giant physical and emotional hangover -so really softly does it- please."

2011-02-02T16:35:00.010+10:30

Oh my.I have no idea what Cyclone Yasi is about to do to Queensland. I share that with the rest of the country, though Cyclone Tracy, a category 4 that hit Darwin gave us some idea.(For some reason to enlarge this it's necessary to click on the next map below). I even find it hard to believe the scale that we are shown if the present cyclonic weather pattern was over the U.S.instead of approaching Queensland.
I, like others,particularly Queenslanders themselves, don't even like to think what's coming for that State with this category 5 cyclone. Feeling a bit like David facing Goliath I'd say.
We just await an outcome.
On top of the floods,we shake our heads in quiet disbelief. We watch the news, and follow satellite weather patterns, which show the cyclone heavy rains have now hit the coast. I guess by tomorrow morning, we will all know more. It is the waiting. The not knowing.
...and again, recognizing bravery in others, and admiring the organizational contingencies and action plans put in place with great efficiency, wary pragmatism compassion and patience, particularly evacuating the ill and infirm and vulnerable, with the logistics involved.

2011-01-27T18:53:00.006+10:30

I had a quiet affair.

I mean, a quiet get together with a close few, for our recent 30th wedding anniversary.

Even our wedding ceremony on January 25th, 1981,was quiet and understated which suited me just fine. I am shy by nature, and don't like being in the limelight, even on this big day.

Husband looks stunned in this photo,by the future ahead of him, as well he would have at 24, marrying a divorcee who was wondering why on earth they were doing this instead of living together, out of the frying pan with fingers burnt and all that.

That's a pure raw silk shirt by the way, not a cotton v-neck t-shirt as a doddery aged great aunt with failing eyesight reported to all and sundry who weren't there at the time!When we first met. ...and two years later,in December 1983...seems like yesterday. Theme Thursday is a bit of experimenting with the given theme of'Black and Red'. You can participate at http://themethursday.wordpress.com/

Oh, and yes it was a pearl anniversary and he gave me pearl earings and a pearl droplet necklace. His request, Beenleigh Traditional Rum and please no fuss, but we can do fuss if you want. (...and no I don't want). Too easy. Suits me. Yes he does.

2011-01-22T23:08:00.002+10:30

This post is all about a Fairweather folly. My folly. I am sure the late Australian artist Ian Fairweather (1891-1974) would turn in his grave if he knew how much fun I was having using a piece of his art for inspiration. So much fun I thought.
This is his Mother and Child, painted in 1954, featured in an edition of Asian Art News magazine a couple of years ago. I think its wonderful. With such fabulous lines, my fingers were itching to pay tribute to his talent in stitch, while at the same time giving credit and to his talent with boldly "taking the line for a walk".I used cotton I'd dyed earlier with plants. Pinning, blissfully stitching away....Then I went twig, stick and twine crazy - don't know why....Removed it all but it didn't look right...the deliberate deviation of twine for the border( so as to not create a boxed in look) just looked like I'd lost my way (which I had....) Even a daisy to lighten it up failed miserably and took Fairweather"s avant garde piece to a new Spotlight /Lindcraft- looking low. It was relegated for days to the too hard basket literally,where it sat sad and neglected, pleading 'get that daisy off me, it's so not Ian'. Dragged out again to see the light of day - minus the daisy.

Sorry Ian.

Ian Fairweather was born in Scotland but travelled through Bali eventually arriving in Melbourne in 1934. He later moved to the Phillipines where much of his work was done, but his travels took him many places, including China.
Tong Twigg writes in Asian Art News (Volume 19 Number 1),"In 1952 his life of restless travel reached a crescendo when he made an epic journey that divided his itinerant life from his sedentary life. It began as a raft journey across the Timor Sea that ended at Roti Island. The Indonesian authorities deported him to Singapore, where he was repatriated to England and he returned to Australia permanently in 1953".

It looks like he was delegated to the Indonesian too- hard basket there for a while.
Glad he came back to Australia. Obviously I think he is inspiring.
It's a sort of textile tribute Ian. A tribute, and I'm sorry about the daisy. It won't happen again, but the dye pot? Can't promise.

2011-01-18T12:06:00.003+10:30

Some dear people in my close circle of family and friends have medical conditions that are the absolute pits.
Put on a happy face. Yeah we all do that, but I found a photo that I love, and a quote.
".Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant, filled with odd waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like" - Lemony Snicket.
...and you know what happened when I entered that restaurant as a guest at their table? ...ahhhhh....that felt GOOD!

2011-01-15T19:50:00.009+10:30

Everyone is pitching in up in Queensland... they are in our thoughts, as are those in Brazil.

So...Sunshine,optimism, and a textile or two...

The sun always rises over the big gum tree at this time of year...to eventually reveal something you can't see yet, a little garden thats thriving. I love to lift my face to the sun and feel its warmth.I really do love to watch the sun brighten our home. When its higher in the sky, you can eventually see things more clearly. It reveals the garden, just bare earth when we moved in.

("Oh we use that area for the trampoline" the vendor explained. Not something that was going to appeal to my bones!)

Now the area is a source of delight. The sun touches the leaves of the sunflowers encouraging them to grow much taller and produce flowers to greet the warm rays. You can see the tomato plants more clearly here,with the basil all along the front row. The plants love the gurgly water feature. I go around in the morning dead-heading plants, checking out how everything is doing. It's not lost on me that others up North are grieving for their gardens.This little one looks happier now though. See the hydrangeas by the red brick wall?So pretty.The very first tomato! Although its my idea of heaven to have a garden with chickens in it, I've previously had many gardens that have, and have known all sorts of personalities of roosters, from polite gentlemen to low-life idiots always spoiling for a fight. Time to draw a colourful rooster character I think!...and make him into a colourful textile...

Nice tail ya got there buddy- something to crow about! Working on a piece with the theme of "Prehistoric" for Illustration Friday. Trouble with hand-sewing though is that it takes so long and the theme has moved on. I can never keep up. Prehistoric was weeks ago.I hand-dyed all the fabric using natural plant dyes and rust. Still a lot of work to do on it,but something I love to do while listening to the radio, sometimes long into the night.

Husband doesn't mind. Tomorrow, he's cycling on a charity ride raising money for cancer research .Later in the day he'll join the crowds for the Adelaide Classic ride , the criterium that kicks off the Tour Down Under Week, where Lance Armstrong is riding his last professional ride outside "Continental USA". Those who exercise so furiously leave me a bit shame-faced, but I actually went cycling a few days ago, and my tail is so sore - almost have to stand up to embroider, and what's the point of that!

2011-01-12T19:56:00.012+10:30

Well, still it continues. Parts of the Brisbane CBD are now flooded. The photos( in the flood situation leading UP to the Brisbane CBD area now being affected), speak for themselves. It seemed somehow inevitable that the waters, if they weren't receding, but joining forces and gathering momentum, would eventually affect Brisbane... I think the seriousness of the scale of this is only just beginning to really sink in.
It is tragic when one considers the amount of homes ,people and livelihoods affected. Where do you start...you must start somewhere. One piece, one day, at a time.
Floods are unusual in South Australia. We had a big one in 1957. Our family has old black and white photos of my grandparents rowing their boat from rooftop to rooftop in the Riverland.

I only have the photos, not the memories, I was too young.

I can't remember floods in Queensland in 1974, (busy getting divorced and I don't think I had a telly) but I will certainly remember this.

What were you doing in 1974 by the way? Travelling?...and I don't mean from the ovary to the uterus to be fertilized, we've all been there - even if for some it was bordering on decades previous to that!

2011-01-11T18:57:00.005+10:30

Folks, flooding in our Australian state of Queensland has now become very serious indeed, being declared a National State of Emergency, with three-quarters of the state under water.Lives are being lost and with 9,000 homes prediced to go under water, 79 people are presently missing. With such vast areas of the state affected, Red Cross is being tested and stretched .Government leaders and emergency services try to bring reassurance to the vast number of people affected. Dams are at capacity and overflowing, and the towns of Grantham, Toowoomba and Postman's Ridge are the latest to be evacuated, with raging torrents ripping some homes from their very foundations, and sweeping cars, and tragically some unfortunate victims in its wake. It is past a flood they say. It is being likened more to an inland tsunami. The latest report is that Queensland's capital city Brisbane is experiencing rising water and could be affected, and that the Brisbane airport is now closed.
80 suburbs of Brisbane are now being evacuated and the Brisbane River has burst its banks.When I wrote my earlier unrelated post this morning , I had no idea how quickly this situation would escalate. Below is a photo of Rockhampton a week ago.Queensland was cautious and as optimistic as you can be in these situations,and preparing, as they have done before to start the massive clean up from this disaster.
Now however,more rain is on the way. Mother Nature at her most fierce.
37 years ago in Queensland, heavy flooding provided a benchmark, a point of comparison,but may very well be surpassed.
I so hope for Queenslanders, that this disaster of frightening proportions for many can be managed with the help of the Australian Army, and help from our neighbours New Zealand, and borne with the spirit that defines Australians and Kiwis as all too ready to lend a hand and heart in times of need.

2011-01-11T00:49:00.004+10:30

The topic for Illustration Friday was given out last week, and is Deja-vu. ..the pondering, the mystery of ..."I know what happens next... I know what is said". Deja-vu is not unfamiliar to me, and although we know experiences with deja-vu are usually immediate, my strangest experience with Deja-vu was when I was working at a radio station here in Adelaide when I was 17 or 18.
When new staff commenced work at the station, someone would always show them around various departments and introduce them.
One day I was startled to meet someone I had dreamt about the night before."I know you" I thought "yet I don't".
I knew how the introduction would go, what was said, how and when people would make their way back to work stations "So- and- so says this next", I thought, and they did.
I noticed he had long hair but in the dream he had very short hair and told me "Don't worry about me. I 'll be alright mate! It's something I feel I have to do!, and I remembered in the dream he bumped into the chief copywriter as he turned around.
It had me puzzled, because that bit of conversation didn't eventuate, his hair was long, and the chief copywriter was not around.
I didn't feel inclined to gasp "Hi -I dreamt about you last night" to someone at work that I'd just met, (crazy stuff!!) so as happened in the "this has played out before" scenario, I kept quiet. I shut up about it and didn't tell anyone, thinking maybe this new job was something he "had to do".
One day I heard he'd left. So much for the dream. It was all but forgotten.
However, not long after that, he was at the station again. He'd come to catch up with a few people. I looked around at his cheery "G'day everyone". He had VERY short hair.
He'd come to tell us all he'd joined the army.
So, I told him about my dream where he had short hair, never considering anyone I knew signing up for the Australian Army. I wished him well.
I think he was pleased to feature in anyone's dreams quite frankly, especially someone of the opposite sex (but that wasn't going anywhere - not my type, probably mutual).
He smiled and said, "Don't worry about me, I'll be alright mate -it's something I feel I have to do", turned around and nearly bumped into the chief copywriter.
He looked so different with his short hair, sort of vulnerable, and just like I'd seen him in the dream.
We didn't keep in touch, didn't even see much of each other when we were workmates,can't even remember his name.
I too, left the radio station eventually and moved on, but I still wonder what that connection was, and what happened to him. Hope he was O.K.
*photo typical of our young Aussie guys at the time - this photo couresty of the Australian Army Land Rovers in Vietnam site.
Do you have any deja-vu stories?

2011-01-07T12:39:00.015+10:30

Sometimes you think, "how to deal with this has really got me stumped".

We feel helpless in light of others anguish and almost insurmountable challenges.

I cry too readily with others pain. I'm harder on myself with my own. I always wish I were stronger.

"Life, "states one philosophy, "is simpler when you plough around the stump."

Some choose to expurgate their pain through art... or like me, think a cheery "ta-DA and to hell with it "might help...the 'laugh in the face of adversity' theory. Except the adversity does not go away, it is simply disguised in red....Some find comfort in the esoteric or New Age environments...For others it really is just too hard, and that beauteous landscape is hard to find...the land of despair is not a pretty one...Questions are asked "why is it so?"....Some seek pharmaceutical intervention for all sorts of medically related problems for mind, body or both.... .. ....others seek refuge in violence, never an option for me or those I know and love.Sometimes you'll find someone in residence who says "I KNOW this stump, I've been in it a long time. Let me tell you about it." But one size does not fit all, and try as you might it's a very tight squeeze at best.or there are those who simply choose to try and fit in....In the world of a mouse, dealing with an already immovable stump, this can look decidedly threatening....outnumbered!Then again, if you're not a mouse, you can always garden your way around a stump to help make things look better, the "surround yourself with beauty" theory, and take refuge in cuddly things that won't hurt you (you not being a mouse and all...)Those fears? Those that keep you company in the howling, terrifying darkness? If you finally take that deep breath, shaking mightily in your shoes, you may indeed be eventually faced with something the size of this....

or your worst fears of the size of the problem are confirmed, in which case you hope there's a flask of whisky around that neck....There's the "offer it up to God" theory...Where big fears can be tamed and bought to heel... ...or you just keep going...valiantly,courageously, eyes peeled.......to reap the benefit of better, brighter things.

To those I love, to those who struggle, and to brave souls who you would never know the struggle is there, I salute you, and may your fields always been green.

2011-01-05T18:05:00.006+10:30

It is suggested that you avoid black in artwork. Unless the intention is stark contrast, instead the darkest of browns, or blues and purples are often more effective... works well with this photograph too...transforming the humble irons I found in a store a while ago, into something much more interesting..... The mundane iron also offers up philosophy. A young male writing his thoughts on a blog once stated,
"The steam function on your iron is more than a battle cry to let the shirt know you're coming. Who knew?"

As we continue the theme of domestic minutia,(which will indeed offer up profound wisdom, patience dear reader) let it be known that I have finally finished soaking,de-staining, and laundering from Christmas (phew!), and have ironed the Christmas bits to be put away again for another year.

...last few items.Thank God for Napisan.

What would they do without it in Kuwait??.

(Kuwait stock exchange:photo by Andreas Gursky,2008.)

As I iron seams and press the right or wrong sides of cotton, the ins and outs of fabric constructions, know that there is indeed philosophy to be found...
"Really, the fundamental, ultimate mystery - the only thing you need to know to understand the deepest metaphysical secrets is this: that for every outside there is an inside and for every inside there is an outside, and though they are very different, they go together." Alan Watts.

Medicine/Nursing "Air goes in and out, blood goes round and round, any deviation is bad".

2011-01-03T09:01:00.004+10:30

"A garden is the way you write upon the earth"- Robert Dash (American artist). I agree with him. So does my camera. Wouldn't this look great done in pastels or coloured pencil.

...but needle and thread continue to beckon....!

2011-01-01T10:44:00.007+10:30

Happy New Year!!

Yes, it did look like this over where we live...the houses and park. I know, because I peered out the window to see it, never being big on New Year's Eve gatherings.
Meanwhile, in the city at Elder Park this was happening...Luckily the weather had cooled down by that stage. It was a day of intense fire danger in South Australia yesterday, 45.5 degrees in Port Augusta, but the cool change allowed fireworks to go ahead.Pretty as the fireworks are, I always feel for the birds."

"Thanks for putting up with this" I always think, as they fly screeching, protesting, and tweeting from the trees.
Cockatoos are never backward in coming forward. Bet it's on the tip of their beak to squark,

"You know what you can do with your damn firecracker!...Firecracker? I"ll give YOU firecracker AND I have a short fuse!"

Hope 2011 is a great year for you and yours. May it hold the potential for all you wish it to be with happy, healthy and prosperous times ahead.

2010-12-26T19:51:00.007+10:30

Welcome to Christmas in our new house.!!

Love you to visit. Come before the chaos starts. I've been peeking out the window waiting for you......checking through the front door now and then......no sign, so back to the kitchen. Wait, daughter thinks she hears someone at the front door...Helloooooooooooo...Where are you hiding? Come through, she'll show you down to the kitchen...Where I'm stuffing my face with watermelon...Yeah the table does look nice..

Before.....so calm isn't it!Now....look at in action and add lots of decibels...All tastes catered for, from those who reject meat outright to others who think Christmas would not be Christmas without the ham, poultry and pork...Plus the Aussie tradition of the family Xmas cricket match between the main meal and pudding.... some prefer just to observe...

..If your legs feel too frail for the home runs...There's always fine company... No this is not the Cullens and Twilight - note the lack of heavily wooded areas and morphing wolves. Sharing the brotherly love. Lovin' the grandad.That's what Christmas is about isn't it! Happy holidays and hope you can catch up with some holiday reading. I am sure we all give thanks for our freedom, circumstances and loved ones. At this age and stage in my life, I give thanks daily. We toast those who are no longer with us, and while Christmas brings it's challenges, let us always rejoice in the true spirit of the occasion, and make good use of the spirit of giving the things that really count...to creatures, countries, people and plants on this planet of ours. We all need care. We all like to be thought of, considered and spoilt occasionally. What an excellent time to do just that!

2010-12-22T08:27:00.005+10:30

Christmas with the family.

Why, when you gave Stephanie a gift, did she always have to sniff it! Strange. ...and Alison's habit of witholding people's gifts, in the name of suspense, for an interminable amount of time was wearing pretty thin...with everyone.
As was Liam's attempt to dress as Jesus to make a point...Peter wondered why Julie seemed to tire of his explanation of how many 5 cent pieces you could actually fit in the little parking meter purse. She was thinking it was not what she hand in mind when he said he was going to get her something from the handbag section as he knew how much she loved them.We all thought Alan's new girlfriend from New Zealand was a nice girl - she seemed amused by the Rudolf red nose , promising to" wear ut" when he gave it to her...Well. She certainly showed her true colours didn't she!!!
Terry's gift.Little Stevie thought he should never have told everyone he liked globes...because...oops, here comes another one....Meanwhile, Harriet explains that she's given Angie's present to Moira by mistake, could she please have it back...

...and Uncle George is hoping that Joannie won't do that head droopy shoulder thing...and...yep, there she goes!!!
"Couldn't resist.We all thought of you when we saw this" said the relatives from Bordertown.

Chris meanwhile was not having a good time of it. "Florianni Florists? Yeah... have you still got that Bonsai tree?"
Jed, has no idea how complicated and time-consuming this knitting pattern was for Grandma. He valiantly wore the sweater on Christmas day, hoping for a war game next."Did you just say ...mittens?"
Hope you have a very Happy Christmas and lovely holiday season, with family and friends.xx

2010-12-18T16:50:00.007+10:30

Instead of enthusiastically making and encouraging the Christmas pudding to simmer away, I've been busy with the dye pot, gathering leaves, boiling them, delicious eucalyptus smells wafting around the yard, and patterns slowly emerging....ha! doesn't that look like a hedgehog, facing left, sniffing a piece of glace orange ...(too much of the eucalyptus fumes).

mmmm...what a lovely brew....I really must do more to prepare for the 18 people coming on Christmas Day -lights are up, that's the fun part, preparations are halfway through (Mum's done the pudding already), but I find it hard to tear myself away from the textiles and the addiction of hand-stitching....and I am SUCH a cooking person (not!) It is right now that creative textile inspiration has hit, when I need it least.

I know everybody is coming soon. I know it's getting closer....
Me and Christmas.

Tomorrow we collect one more table, and I purchase more cutlery , balloons, check out vegetarian recipes, (four of we veggos this year)

and buy the last of the Christmas gifts.

Too early yet for fresh food purchases.

Keep looking behind me though, waiting for the roar.

Wonderful photo from the collection of Clutter-Thunk.

2010-12-17T16:51:00.003+10:30

Theme Thursday http://themethursday.blogspot.com/ is 'Map'.

This is one of my favourite photos which I took in Killen in Scotland in 2005 (click to enlarge) . It holds such good memories. We arrived in Inverness and took in as much of Scotland and Wales by car as we could, and returned to Australia from Manchester. It all happened in the two weeks of our October school holidays .We had such a great time and were so lucky with the weather!

2010-12-15T06:52:00.009+10:30

Body language says a lot. If this guy was ahead of you in the supermarket queue and asked to be forgiven for having to hurry back for a forgotten item, you'd know he wouldn't take long, right? You could tell. Hell, he might even be grateful for your patience!
People in a supermarket queue are generally reasonably patient and understanding. We've all been there.
You know the deal.
PRICE CHECK!!!!!!!!!!!!!So how has a bulb of garlic tipped me over the edge?'Coz Madame Bodylanguage, three ahead of me in the queue "I've been taking my own sweet time opening my wallet, schlepping around, and 'oh I've forgotten the garlic" saunters off to get it, knowing there is only one aisle open . The check-out girl, for some reason known only to herself, has decided not to put the purchases on hold, as she lets others through. "That's O.K.' she tells Madame BL "You'll be right".madame BL unforgivably partakes of the supermarket sin of 'taking her own sweet time about it". Not that this recent incident has got under my skin in any way.

We (as in we the queue) not the royal "We" are not happy, because after all of us observing her after an unusually long period of time, where the only other thing we had to do was wait for the second aisle to open, witnessed a complete disregard for supermarket etiquette.

"When one goes back for an item, leaving a long line of people, one does not continue to poke and prod other veggies and look longingly up the sweets aisle in a dreamy fashion.... and a sweet "sorry for holding you up" goes a long way too. But no.Our fume factor was collectively off the scale.
I am in garlic therapy as we speak.
"Now Mrs. T, we are heading for 7 minutes here, no blood pressure problems , and you're not even shaking! Well done you!!"
Last I heard others who were in that queue are at the dentists having dental work for ground-down molars. One has taken up on-line shopping.
But wait. There's more. Having escaped the ghastly experience, my next stop was the bakery next door.
You guessed it. She schlepped in just before me, and as is the way with bakeries, when all you want is a pasty with sauce, everyone else wants to buy out the shop. But... Before Madame Bodylanguage wants to do that, she gives a clue that she is in "browse mode" and hasn't decided yet. Is there a "just serve this lady first?" No.
Don't mind me. No really.

Madame Bodylanguage has her hand on her chin. "Ummmmmmmmm...does this custard tart have milk in it?"
Assistant: "I'll just get the book and look it up ...(long time passes)....yes"
Madame BL: "Uuummmm...does this cake have any sugar in it?"
Assistant:"I'll just get the book again (long time passes)...yes"
Madame BL:"These biscuits? Actually, no, THOSE biscuits, no not there, THERE.....Any ....ummm..........sugar?"
Assistant: (going to open book) "Yes, is there anything else you'd like me to look up while I'm here?"
Madame BL""Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

The only thing smiling at this stage were the gingerbread men."Actually...........................I'll ...I think........I'll leave it."

As she swanned past, I saw it happen in my mind's eye. What I really, really, REALLY wanted to do... "Sorry, don't know what came over me...and by the way,do you know that there are a helluva lot of pastry crumbs under that pie-warmer?"
Wonder what Madame BL is doing this morning...D'ya think? I'm betting on it.
Hope you are having an easier time of it out there.
I am trying to keep the "Christ" in "Christmas" and practice a good heart, and not doing well.
What keeps me sane is that in the Beatitudes of Jesus, nowhere is mentioned "Blessed are the forgetful, the fussy, the sugar-intolerant, and those who hold up the bathroom". Oh, and Leenie, http://bonkersycarax.blogspot.com/, nowhere is mentioned "Blessed are the Perky...:" either. That sure helps.

2010-12-03T10:41:00.021+10:30

Thank you so much everyone for your kind comments on my daughter's recovery.
Some just don't have a good time of it after 4 wisdom teeth and a molar have been extracted under general anaesthetic..... Many have experienced horrible dental recoveries also, judging by your comments, and while we are told to expect a certain amount of nausea, we did not foresee an allergy to Codeine with a specialist- prescribed painkiller/antibiotic mix being such a problem.
In this house we don't even want to HEAR the words wisdom teeth, or electrolyte replacement again. In the general scheme of things it's a common procedure, but oh my...

In the midst of all the vomiting, the pain, stitches, the feeling faint, lack of sleep and hunger, it was almost like we wanted to wake up from a bad dream...with a big smile...and say "Oh, is it the end of the week already?"instead it was not to be.

Lots of "I know sweetie, I know....She protesting. "I know I'm 26 and should be..oh god...Muuuuuuummmmm....where's the bucketttttt!!!!!!!""...."Muuuuum!!!!"oh god, oh god oh god......""No Mum I CANNOT see us waiting in emergency at 3 a.m. even though this is the third day of non-stop retching up the antibiotic that wassupposed to be stopping infection and why can't I keep anything down, and when I am well enough I will see the doctor...and no I can't eat anything...sorry...sorry"....and I yes I'm still faint but fingers crossed eventually I'll be able to keep something down...this sucks....""Your grandmother is coming around with some "beef invalid tea" which she's been delicately brewing and straining for hours...and I...""....Talk ..to...the...hand"...Eventually, so grateful that she didn't have to drive herself, we tried a vomitous trip to the doctor four days after surgery.

Henry David Thoreau wrote in the 1800's...

"I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines". Well. Henry, meaning no disrespect, we don't tramp in these snowless parts, but sped along in a Mitsubishi Mirage with my daughter's head in an ice cream bucket, to have an unscheduled appointment with an accommodating street tree along the way, quite indifferent to what was deposited at it's trunk with a guttural roar.

Arriving late at the surgery an injection provided much-needed relief.

Back home, we concentrated (again) on regaining appetite and even managed, like old times, to catch up with some Dr. Phil......my dear adult daughter, with humble apologies about how regressional and awful the whole thing was,(me being pleased to help), has returned home with her dear cat, who thought the whole bed and breakfast experience delightful. She assures me she will be again be o.k., responsibly back in her work in aged care, capably dealing with grannies who are familiar with the concept of invalid tea, but never get to see a drop of it, along with their fondly- remembered water bottles and vinegar compresses.
My dad,on the other hand,while unfamiliar with the world of seeped teas, crochet hooks and doilies, shows his grandpa-ness with the constant use of the word "wireless". Completely unrelated to wisdom teeth I know.

Convinced daughter was now back to normal, yesterday I put up the Christmas tree and finally ventured into the room I now class as my 'studio' for a bit of R and R. I love my threads......if only I could stay awake to enjoy them....and as I remind myself from time to time, this blog is called "Textilosophy" combing textiles and philosophy. So... the philosophy...

"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be" (Abraham Maslow)

So I am busy being what I must be.....demented but having fun.

2010-11-25T13:16:00.003+10:30

My daughter is having a hard time of it lately.
An impacted wisdom tooth is nasty.Four of them are not fun.
Add a fifth which is trying hard to be a wisdom tooth but not quite "cutting it", alias "the nub", and you can understand why the four bad boys and nub just had to go.

Ooooo...so not happy, and I wouldn't be either.

She has seen one too many general anaesthetics to be happy about submitting to the process, too much knowledge is not always a good thing, so while we applaud her bravery....
this is going to take quite some time.

Into the second post-operative day today with swelling worse than yesterday.

Those 'whizzies' as a friend called them - they be nasty.

2010-11-11T21:50:00.006+10:30

Busy looking after the ones I love. Mum was in hospital, home now after an unexpected operation.

Dad needed looking after, as did parent's neighbours elderly dog with the owner on holidays. So was dog-sitting and dad-sitting, and trying to work my way around so many house keys there for a while!

Things in Dad and dog time are certainly different from the day to day working world, though "Poochie",(the only name Dad can remember for the dog Tara) is much easier to motivate!

Tara also wins hands (paws) down on scoffing down breakfast. Scoff and choofing-down are not in Dad's vocabulary any more. Neither is straight away. Priorities fall by the wayside or are disregarded.

Dementia is sad. If you are going to have a quiet very private morning cry about it, make sure you don't try, as I did to take the eye puffiness away with anti-bruising, puffiness cream. The resulting burst of unexpected winter-green menthol fumes mean you can't open your eyes for the stinging. For a long time. But it makes you laugh.Try explaining that to your Dad. Actually try explaining anything.

The dog on the other hand may be deaf but it's not blind.

Dad, mercifully asleep to it all.

Mum, on the mend and doing well.

2010-10-18T21:06:00.002+10:30

Busy as a bee at the moment.Be back eventually when I'm not so busy going backwards and forwards from where we are moving from, to where we are moving to!

Settlement was today. Moving van comes tomorrow. Things are certainly abuzz!! Hope to catch up with you in a while.

2010-10-13T21:34:00.012+10:30

We bought the cutest little house!When I was in my twenties you might have heard me mutter "Mmmm - that one is for me - solid type, firm, won't collapse when pushed to the limit, reliable and so strong!... I intend to make that one MINE.!"
These days instead of the local talent, it's boxes I'm eyeing off when these thoughts race through my head.... .Wish that our rental unit looked this neat at the moment... as the settlement date gets closer for the house, so does the chaos, trying to make the unit look like 'organized' chaos as prospective tenants wander through for possible future tenancy. We have been renting for a number of years now and it really is time to purchase, as our lease is due for renewal, and as always, there was a hefty rental hike involved.
In previous house purchasing days we were much younger. The physicality of shifting is much more demanding now.
In our twenties and thirties, we'd greet new neighbours with a... "Hi!! How are ya!".. ........ Now, after the big move, they are more likely to get this...
All the photos from a search for "moving house" show bright young twenty-somethings looking thrilled to be shifting. In these photos new neighbours say "welcome to the neighbourhood, here, grab a beer"...
Now it's more likely to be as we attempt a handshake, "No, please, don't get up..." Old days..."Can't wait to put this bed somewhere!.."These days "Wheee-ew...You betcha!!!..."

Old days..."Come, sit, join us for a coffee..."Now..."I'm just going to collapse - grab yourself a coffee if you can find the mugs..."This couple look ecstatic with cartoned excitement, cardboard bliss...perhaps an extended mortgage hasn't quite sunk in yet...

When you've been together for thirty years the conversation now goes like this -

He (through gritted teeth)": "I TOLD you my DEAR, that you've got FAR too many books in this carton. I TRIED to explain that it would be too bloody heavy, not helped by you being here. Now get the F.. off. NOW!!

She: I would my LOVE, but my leg has cramped, and I cannot, stress, CANNOT move! The PAIIINNN - La la la, la laaaarrrrr....".

Over the many years, we've done far too many moves than I care to count.

We are however looking forward to this purchase and staying put for quite some time in the cottage, all being well.

We intend to keep busy, exercise lots, and one of the deciding factors in purchasing was that the home faces onto a beautiful big park, a good incentive to keep fit and flexible - great if we ever have grandkids to play ball with
..."Nanna's ready darlings...shall we begin???

Celtic Dreamscape

2010-10-10T19:24:00.009+10:30

Before my brother went to live overseas, he took me along on his orienteering exercises sometimes, map in hand, explaining the rise and fall of the South Australian landscapes.

At the time, I didn't know it, but I had a severe Vitamin D deficiency and the beginnings of osteoporosis, but I was determined to keep up.

There was a particularly steep hill that he once wisely advised me not to climb. Even his mates had found it difficult. "I'll show them" I thought, and though I had to stop and vomit half-way up with the effort, he was gob-smacked and mightily impressed.

"How did you DO that climb' he asked incredulously.

"After childbirth, and a ten-hour complicated labour that's nothing" I smirked, notching up one for the sisterhood..

Actually it didn't seem that bad in comparison!

I've never forgotten that hill, and if I've ever cried tears of exasperation , I perservere with the same effort it took for that damn hill..

Other times, I've done soft and gentle walks where the landscape is not so harsh, reminding me of other greener places on this Earth that I've walked, for example Donegal in Ireland is somewhere that readily comes to mind.

When I read this Irish Blessing featured by Mary at Celtic Dreamscape http://celticdreamscape/ it touched a chord.

It made me think of not only the gentle times, but also the exasperating times in life, where "great rains beat" upon our spirit.

I've thought while on some self-inflicted gruelling climbs lately, that if grief should ever knock upon my door again, as it does for us all,I would conquer steep climbs until tears would "wash me fair and clean". For the moment I am pleased that gentle walks suffice, and medication has seen me right for adventuring to my heart's content.

Nature heals. Always.

Dedicated to the memory of my Irish ancestors from county Limerick, my great, great grandparents Patrick and Margaret Purtle, and their courage in leaving their beloved land of birth (never to return) on an incredibly long sea voyage with fellow countrymen and women to the bottom of the globe and the great unknown adventure of life in Australia.From Celtic Dreamscape:

"May the blessing of the rain be on you—
the soft sweet rain.
May it fall upon your spirit
so that all the little flowers may spring up,
and shed their sweetness on the air.
May the blessing of the great rains be on you,
may they beat upon your spirit
and wash it fair and clean,
and leave there many a shining pool
where the blue of heaven shines, ...and sometimes a star."

May your star always shine you ancient and brave dear ones. I hope I have inherited your fortitude, and a touch of your stubborness to be sure. (to be sure).x

Thanks Mary.

2010-10-05T11:01:00.012+10:30

From the garden...Spring... ...but I need to escape further afield.

Come on another walk with me, experience the early morning beauty of Cobbler Creek, north of Adelaide... over the bridge...up the rise.... the beauty!...birdsong and presence is so evident this early in the morning... all different shades of green...this....this......and on past Teakle's ruin...on to the delight of rock and stones....more about that next post.

2010-10-03T13:36:00.004+10:30

There's only so much lazing around you can do during the holidays... (image from http://www.topoftherange.designs.com/

Husband and I decided to do some bushwalking at Ansteys Hill yesterday...we had no idea we would actually be ambushed twice by bored kangaroos! We left Adelaide way behind (you can JUST see the tall buildings rising in the very centre of the horizon).....such a beautiful day, the wattle blooms out, blue skies......gasping as kangaroos crashed and thrashed through the undergrowth....They seemed to enjoy the entertainment of harrassing and suprising us... until the three bounded away looking just like this (not my photo, these are courtesy of Flickr). Whenever I fumbled for my camera they were too elusive, and when I finally took photos, the kangaroos were lost in foliage or distance. With this photo you get the idea.
Husband and I are recovering today from all the effort.. What took us ages, those kangaroos can cover in no time!

2010-10-01T20:52:00.003+09:30

The theme for Theme Thursday is Fence. http://themethursday.blogspot.com/
Variation on a theme...Taken when I was adding a bit more colour and shape and photographic stretch to the suburb of Norwood when I lived there.
Spent any time in the environment without fences lately? I'm craving my "out in the country" fix, but too many commitments in the city at present. Dreaming of a dry stone wall here and there, a few grazing sheep...perhaps a walk in the country is on the agenda. Very soon.

2010-09-30T15:58:00.010+09:30

She gets by with a little help from her friends. They were all there for each other, the laughter, the blood, sweat and tears...friends from within the course and without...We watched proudly and celebrated with a huge amount of happiness...Master of Arts (Creative Writing) from the The University of Adelaide......back to nursing and night duty she goes... 'cause she loves her Nannas and Poppas, and some of their life stories and courage leave her in awe.

Congratulations Caitlin - writer's block and constipation eh? Similar much???? Here's to many moving stories, novels, plays - seems you can pick and choose to me you shiny good thing!!!!xxx

2010-09-25T13:07:00.002+09:30

From talented textile artist Aubrey Longley-Cook at http://spoolspectrum.blogspot.com/

2010-09-18T08:48:00.002+09:30

Soooooooooo funny...." Lucy in the Field with Flowers" from the Museum of Bad Art http://www.museumofbadart.org/ It's a story in itself..
Along with Ronan the Pug... and so much more...SO very much more. My sides are still aching.
Do yourself a favour and pay a visit. Take a deep breath first. So many artists have taken a cold breath of reality, faced the truth, and contributed their work. Other works have been donated or rescued from the very depths of obscurity.
Oh my.

Whoooo - can't breathe.

2010-09-17T19:47:00.002+09:30

Listen up.
I am about to reveal why old men are dangerous.The theme for this week's Theme Thursday http://themethursday.blogspot.com/ is Reveal, chosen by Jayne, a very interesting and talented artisit at Break the Charm-Speak http://harnetthargrove.blogspot.com/

Old men are dangerous: it doesn't matter to them...what is going to happen in the world... Thanks to George Bernard Shaw for injecting the "philosophy" in Textilosophy today.

2010-09-13T07:44:00.012+09:30

I love dandelions, and delight in finding them in the garden. With recent rains, our usually dry South Australian gardens are no longer needy, but weedy. The dandelion is considered a weed, but its dear little puffball of seeds is always a welcome sight to me. Dandelion leaves and concoctions are considered very nutritional according to herbalists,if a person is blessed to have enough of them in their garden.

Up close and personal with a dandelion in the front garden yesterday...spending time with nature...sweet isn't it!Apart from harrassing dandelions with my camera yesterday, husband and myself were fighting for computer time. His priority seemed greater than mine, as it was school-based commitments , whereas mine was simply to catch up with others blogs. I did eventually manage to get a moment to peek into Reya's blog at 'According to the Cosmology of Reya' http://thegoldpuppy.blogspot.com/ and enjoyed her Saturday post "Earthly Delights" .

"What I missed, though by staying indoors so much" she wrote,"was the healing and rejuvinating experience of spending time in the company of the green world of gardens".

Reya provided more information and some photos of gardens around Capitol Hill in Washington, (she is such a talented photographer!) including the National Botantical Gardens, with its manicured beauty.

Reya's post on Saturday inspired me to talk husband into leaving the computer for a while and join me on a quick journey to the city on South Terrace... to walk around and appreciate the beauty of the city gardens at this time of the year. The word "manicured" encouraged me to go to Adelaide's Himeji Gardens... and it did in fact, soothe and relax with its beauty and calmness... A welcome break...thanks Reya!

2010-09-10T22:13:00.007+09:30

My daughter and I have second sight.

My husband doesn't, but he certainly respects it.

Second sight is the ability to see things before they happen. There is a theory that if you talk of the event you've seen, you will lose the ability.

I talk of an event before it has happened,to prove that this ability is not rubbish.

I find the ability more frightening than clairvoyance which can have a lot of pleasant aspects. This is something beyond my control. I can't "do" on-the-spot clairvoyance.

I can however dream and "ride the skies" I must have inherited this from my Irish ancestry.

A recent visit to At Celtic Dreamscape and her fascinating post on banshees has inpired me to write this post. http://celticdreamscapes.blogspot.com/ . I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject!

"The Banshee," it says "is a mythological Irish creature who is exclusive to the Celtic race. She usually wears a grey hooded rag or shroud and may appear in the disguise of a washerwoman and seem apparantly washing the blood-stained clothes of those about to die". In this form she is known as the (washerwoman) 'bean-nighe'

My great great grandmother I am told by my mother,would always dream of dirty washing water when there was an approaching death in the family. She came to dread the dream.(no doubt as did everyone in the family around in those days too). On one memorable occasion she was a pack of nerves as the water was deeply murky and cloudy in the vivid dream. Later the following day she received the dreaded telegram from the war office - she had lost her either her son, husband, brother, I can't remember....and my daughter...

I learnt of my daughters second sight ability when she was a pre-schooler. One night, quite late, she came up to our bedroom. "Uncle Dave is going to die isn't he" she said. Taken aback, not knowing what to say, I replied "Well we all have to die sometime sweetie, but no, I think Uncle Dave will be around for quite a while"

"No he won't" she said firmly. "And Auntie Joan will be so sad. I had a dream. It woke me up. She was crying so much, and she had a green dress on. Uncle Dave is going to die soon Mummy, and I don't want him to". Husband humphed and snorted, disgruntled and went back to sleep.

Within a week or two Mum's sister's husband died of a heart attack....and yes, Joan bought a green dress for the funeral. My young daughter's vision had come to pass. We didn't tell anyone.
There are a few other instances she doesn't remember, which is good.

Once when daughter( around ten to twelve years old ) and I were at the corner shop, I saw swirls of ominous grey around the shopkeeper, dark colours of foreboding. Walking back to our house, I said, because I thought I'd be proved wrong" Mr. So-and-So is not long for this world I reckon".

"Oh Mum" she laughed "Don't be ridiculous, how do you come up with THAT!" and told her father when we arrived home. Two days later, off to the great shop in the sky. Husband freaked.

That occurance made instances like this photo from Flickr, where a shopkeeper is genuinely snoozing, quite the traumatic experience in later years, if my husband,poor man, was window shopping and caught such a glimpse.I forget the things I've forseen, for the most part.

Lately, as a matter of politeness and routine, I ask husband how he's going, until recently, exasperated, he splurted out "WHY are you DOING that?"

"What?" I asked.

"Enquiring if I'm alright all the time!!"

"Just asking" I replied. "Things have been busy for you, what's wrong with How ya doin?"

"With your track record" he grumps "a man'd be nervous. Don't ask. Unless you know something I don't, in which case, don't tell ".

His colours are as clear and bright as a bell.

My husband's niece's little boy is proving quite the second-sighter as well, in a more fun way. Time will tell if he keeps the ability , or perhaps it will fade as he gets older. Ours we keep in the dark. It's almost like a curse, but what can you do!

*Banshee drawings from http://hubpages.com/

2010-09-06T20:12:00.001+09:30

Had fun with the Illustration Friday topic of "Desserts" http://www.illustrationfriday.com/

What's your favourite dessert?

2010-09-05T21:46:00.010+09:30

Edwardian wedding part 3...After the wedding had taken place and photographs completed, it was time for us all to reboard the train, suitably refreshed!

All seemed to be going along well. However, there is something quite ominous about the sound of a derailing train. Never having experienced it before, I equated it with bad aircraft turbulance and expected a loud-speaker announcement of 'experiencing some difficulty with the track but things are under control". The palour of those surrounding me should have alerted me to something. We lurched, shuddered, screeched, ground to a leaning halt. Off the tracks, ploughed up sleepers.This was the scene out of the window, pretty,except we were miles from anywhere, and there was some talk of having to walk out over the hills before dark.Eventually the skies did darken, but we were told help was on it's way. It would take 2 hours. No-one was hurt luckily.Everyone, including the bride and groom keeping calm and in good spirits.Nobody was allowed to leave the train to survey the damage. We had to stay put. When help did arrive all I could photograph was the surveying of the derailment from the rear carriage.
...which also went on into the night....

Eventually we were transfered to another train, which took us back to the town where the reception had now been delayed for quite some time...

We still felt very much part of a bygone era. This is what would have greeted us in days past....This is, in fact what greeted us at the reception...how exciting!We were very much the appreciate audience...

Isn't she just the most beautiful wedding guest?

2010-09-02T06:59:00.006+09:30

Edwardian wedding part 2.

Train trip down to Strathalbyn. Good to look opposite and see a dapper husband from another era- one who is usually asleep on the couch holding the remote!.Oh look, he gets to see me away from the computer screen...Waiting for the bridal party to arrive...Ah yes...there they are!...After the ceremony...

Bride and groom...These guests, husband and myself, and 100 other Edwardians, all relax in the sleepy town for shopping and drinks as photos were being taken.Next: Re-boarding the train, and derailment!

2010-08-31T20:08:00.004+09:30

Last weekend, husband and I attended a rather unique wedding that took much detailed planning over quite some time.

The invitations, venue, in fact everything was meticulously planned to be based around an Edwardian theme, including the train journey, and the weather, which made surroundings water-logged recently, behaved beautifully, showing it's respect by being bluster-free, for both the beautiful trees and flowers heralding the approaching season of Spring, just days away,and the wedding journey ahead.
It was quite the adventure let me tell you! A trip to the wedding destination in a sleepy country town on a slow-moving train , guests and wedding party dressed beautifully, the privately-booked train ambling through the countryside , booked to return back again after the ceremony to our original point of departure another country town, to fine food, wine and dancing in keeping with the theme in a richly panelled establishment, the musicians awaiting.

Waiting to board the train. Husband (l) and friends. "There's a lot of bees to my immediate right so hurry up and just take the photo!"......about to board the train...little did we know at this point that it would be derailed on the return journey, making the ABC2 news that night! Thankfully for all concerned there were no injuries!... "All aboard!!!"..Husband and other guests find our seating , settling in for the adventure...More later.

2010-08-25T19:12:00.002+09:30

Today's post, the letter F, an entry in ABC Wednesday, the meme initiated by Denise Nesbitt http://mrsnesbittsspace.blogspot.com. You can participate at the ABC site http://abcewednesdayround3.blogspot.com
F for Ferry. On the River Murray at Mannum South Australia last month... Taken on the ferry while waiting to depart from Darwin, Northern Territory a couple of years ago on holiday.

2010-08-22T19:11:00.007+09:30

A simple ladder right?Ah, but it can be so much more.

If I said it could be the source of pain, you'd think of falling and injury, right?.

Maybe emotional pain may not occur to you.

Thinking outside the square you might equate it with bad luck.

You have to walk UNDER a ladder for bad luck you think? Not necessarily.

While ladders can hide Easter eggs from giggling children, provide a platform to construct sparkling Christmas lights or colourful globes of bright delight for parties, these are all generous and loving motives.

Not all on the planet are loving. Not all on the planet are generous.

A person would not like to equate a ladder with the neighbour from hell. Not my neighbour, not my hell, someone's else's, but bad luck nevertheless, courtesy of a ladder, maliciously placed in the right place at the right time, but so terribly, terribly wrong for two dear old people.

Once upon a time, there was a tradesperson.

He used ladders throughout his career as a handyman, he kept his gutters pristine, installed lovely cupboards and built up a beautiful garden and also a carport for the much-loved caravan he and his elderly wife took on trips around Australia.

On one such trip on their retirement, a fence pre-agreed and approved with their neighbour was replaced on their property.

A nice fence.

By a nice neighbour.

Everyone agreed it looked good and added to the value of their homes. The nice neighbour sold up and moved away. The neighbour from hell moved in.

He disputed the placing of the new fence. It was out by a couple of inches. He demanded a new fence along the boundary and took it to court. The court ruled in the old people's favour, it was petty, their health was suffering.

In the end, the old couple needed to move into a retirement village, and needed to sell their home to do so.
Husband and I saw an ad for their beautiful home on the internet yesterday. We parked outside their home earlier in the day. Nothing untoward going on.

At the open inspection during the day, we thought something wasn't right. Most people, exiting their homes pre-inspection, look relieved, intending to do something to reward themselves for all the housework involved in presenting a pristine environment to others, and happily toodle off.

The oldies who were selling this property should have been doing something like this...

...going for a walk, enjoying the sun, thinking about their retirement home...

Instead they looked shaken, sad and shocked as they drove off. We thought it may have been simply the fact of the finality of putting their home on the market. At the real estate agents invitation, husband and I entered their beautiful home with the old handyman's touches everywhere, and a magnificent garden out the back.

I caught sight of someone scuttling up and down the tree next door. "Some people" I thought "will do anything to have a good squizz at what's happening next door," and had a bit of a giggle. "Probably pretending to prune".The ladder was moved again to another location along the fence line. But wait.. what were the hand-scrawled signs being placed to read?

"Purchasers BEWARE. Ongoing dispute. In court at present. Vendor to pay"....and he'd placed them in the street also. Everyone at the inspection was quizzing the young agent who was clearly distressed while trying to maintain a very calm and sensible persona.

The court, he explained, had moved in the old couple's favour, but the neighbour was perservering over a couple of inches of boundary.

Of course, everyone felt sorry for the vendor, the agent, and the cloud hanging over such a beautiful home. Most left quickly. While feeling sad, better to be warned we thought. In some ways, glad we were. Who would want to live next door to such a crazy, mean-spirited and vexatious person?. Maybe someone will take this on, but the real estate agent said the old man was shaking and quite ill when he left, the woman near tears. The agent was a bit shaken also.

What do you think? Was the mean neighbour fair to let everyone know? Better that he put up signs or not?
Understandably these old people will need to get out as quickly as possible for their health, but I still can't believe the meaness and sheer greed for a few bits of soil, and an obsession with something so trivial.

The native birds flew around, the creek gurgled nearby, the house looked full of love to me - but I can't take the crazy on. Would you?
Bottom line is, it's not my problem. Thankfully. Neither is it yours.

Reason for writing this?

My incredulousness at human nature, and the viciousness
of man's territorial nature to intrude on others lives.

Hope things work out well for the oldies. They had put so much work and love into their home. Photos from Flickr to protect the innocent (and those who should feel guilty but don't).

*Footnote addition. Didn't want this post to be too much of a downer, so instead have counter-balanced it with the exuberance of the young - something cheery to end with. My daughter (throwing popcorn at her housemate a few months ago), featured in an Adelaide publication. Don't think this age group or demographic gives a damn about a fence measurent, give or take an inch, and rightly so.

2010-08-18T21:42:00.015+09:30

My brother and I got on very well as children. However, this photo from Flickr makes me laugh...because I used to scare my brother half to death with ghost stories when I was around this age. I remember him running to our babysitter and saying "Mrs. Wilson, Mrs. Wilson make her stop!"
"So unlike you dear" Mrs. Wilson would castigate, while tucking my brother back in bed, before kissing the top of my head. "Nite-nite, and no more scarey stories".

When I found a photo from one of our Australian rural areas in the on-line real estate section tonight, the irresistable urge to indulge in the story telling again bubbled up, and with no Mrs. Wilson, now in her 80's around,I thought I'd gleefully turn my wicked powers of imagination on you instead....

So....

When he came back to the office, Andrew was white. Quite shaken in actual fact.

"You right?" asked Maureen. "You O.K?" she asked, glancing up briefly from behind her laptop in the confines of First National Real Estate.

"Must be overtired or something" Andrew rubbed his eyes slowly ."Or just plain spooked." He sat down heavily "I aint goin' out to that Hewett property again, believe me".He looked up. "Remember when we spoke to old man Hewitt's friend Hector Davey, before the old Hewitt house went on the market?"

Maureen, intruiged now, stopped her work, agreed and urged Andrew to continue.

"He told us all about the old place, the history, and filled in the gaps about the Hewitt family? Said the place had been in the family for generations, and he'd be sad to see the "For Sale" sign go up on the property? "

"Actually all that info was quite informative"added Maureen,"How he used to give old man Hewitt all the old clothes, jackets, shoes he no longer wanted. How he'd take some food and Drum tobacco out there. Evidently the old guy loved to roll his own cigs...are you sure you're o.k. Andrew? What's up?""

"I went all the way out there to put the sign up" said Andrew. "Takes forever. I'd just looked at the house quickly when I got out of the car,right?... thinking I'd attach the sign somehow to the old stone fence..nothing out of the ordinary ....

but then damn me...I saw something move. Something eerie kind of flutter close to the house"

"Where are you going with this" Maureen laughed."Ghost story? Could have been anything!"

"Arrrr no, oh no..."Andrew shook his head. "Get this..." Over in the left hand corner of the house where Mr. Davey said old man Hewitt would sit in his cast-offs rolling a cigarette, I actually saw Hewitt there, and how long has he been dead?"

"Whatdy'mean?". Maureen looked quizzically at her workmate.
"I tell ya Maureen" said Andrew emphatically "I saw the guy. I had the sign under my arm ready for placement, camera for the house shot, I'm walking towards the house and there he is, you kind of had to look twice, but scared the shit outta me, him sitt'n under the window in an old tweed jacket, rolling a cigarette. Dropped the sign, took a photo on the digital, much as I could,and you can SEE him in the photo, for SURE!"

Andrew sighed and reached around for the camera.

"I threw the sign back in the car and just gunned it straight back here. I feel sick.Here! Get this!"
Maureen came out quickly from behind her desk, held the offered camera and stared hard at the image. "Left hand corner Maur, under the window, I swear, you can just see him and then he faded out. Just like they say happens! Seriously! I need a drink. Someone else can go out to that property. I'm not touching it with a ten-foot pole! Wish I'd had the foresight to focus in a bit more, but my hands were shakin' that much. This, thing...thing...ghost thing mov'n around.Scared the living bejesus outta me!...then... f%#! FADES!".
Maureen peered closer into the image.
"Oh my God" gasped Maureen." When you look closer, there's no head Andrew!!!"

"Exactly" said Andrew. "Not to put too finer point on it..."

"...but the cigarette, the smoking, how..."

"Maureen, I just take real estate photos, make arrangements for the sign. I am freaked, I am tired, and quite frankly over it. It's all hot off the press. The rest is up to you".

Maureen told us the story. None of us can stop looking at the photo, and any other photos show both windows to be dark and blank.

Andrew said some nights, as he tries to sleep, the smell of rich tobacco permeates his room, and he feels he his being watched. Intently.

Two years on, the house remains on the market, and after a sudden illness Mr. Davey is preparing to join his friend some time very soon it seems. His pallour is deathly pale.Yellowing skin, paper thin.

Maureen knows the term "to settle a deceased estate" well and adjusts the property price accordingly.

She already has offers for the Davey property should it eventuate.

She has good negotiating skills, and a good head on her shoulders, which is more than can be said for Mr. Hewitt, god rest his poor soul, in the windy outreaches of country Victoria, where Wimmera winds moan mournful and low.

...and .......as I would have said to my poor quaking brother at this stage, what.. is... that... faint smell of tobacco?

Mrs. WIIIILLLSOOOONNNNN!!!!

2010-08-16T17:47:00.003+09:30

I have not much idea who Abu al-Aswad al-Duwali was, apart from the fact he had something to do with Arabic linguistics, and his words have helped me illustrate a photo I had fun taking at Woodside in the Adelaide Hills recently.
I remember occasionally that my blog is called "Textilosophy" the original intention being to combine my love of textiles with snippets of philosophy. Instead I go off on tangents, right, left and centre, and the textiles take a back seat to photos, and the philosophy - well, gets lost somehow.
So Abu, lets get going - he can supply a touch of philosophy and I'll do the photo...

"By wishes alone you cannot
A livelihood make.
Roll up your sleeves,'
Send your bucket down
With those
That others send.
Then behold
At times
It will come up full,
Full to the brim;
At times
Full with mud
And perhaps
A little water."

Have a good week whatever your bucket brings.

2010-08-15T09:11:00.007+09:30

Apart from phys ed lessons where a school team is formed for "Jump Rope for the Heart Foundation" do children actually skip anymore? Recreationally?

(painting by Charles Blackman, 1954)They used to. Painting:'Skipping Children' by Etienne Dinet, 1888.
We baby boomers used to skip in the schoolyard to such politically incorrect rhymes as:

"Over the garden wall,

I let my baby fall,

My mother came out

And gave me a clout,

...over the garden wall".

Mothers who come out now takes on a whole new meaning,

and clouting is no longer tolerated around garden walls, or anywhere for that matter.
Occasionally, depending on if my brother had finished his latest model aircraft construction, and if none of his mates were around, I could coerce him into a reasonably decent skipping session.(photo:LIFE Images)Unfortunately brothers were notoriously unpredictable, known for sneaking up and pinging the elastics on your legs......cutting skipping ropes...and in my case, poisoning my pet tadpoles just when they were sprouting legs... Although neither my brother or I grew up to drop babies on their heads...I am still partial to a good garden wall when I see one.This was at Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills a couple of days ago.

2010-08-14T22:09:00.002+09:30

Many an office worker toiling under artificial light for most of the day, has wished they had an outside job, but when the weather is bitterly cold, the novelty could soon wear off.Yesterday, these guys in Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills didn't seem to mind too much as they figured out a roofing problem. After all, they were no doubt in fine company and not stuck indoors, and the view all around wasn't too bad either... Wishing you a happy weekend.

2010-08-12T20:00:00.002+09:30

The theme for Theme Thursday http://themethursday.blogspot.com/ is 'Palm'.

While the retirement village around the corner , aptly named "Palm Gardens", and has gone wild with the theme... A house for sale this week in Croydon , South Australia has favoured the understated. As in very.

2010-08-09T06:19:00.006+09:30

Ah friends, Monday morning dawns and the news is good. (see previous post).Mirror Mirror on the wall

Shows no swelling,

Not at all.

I won't be ill,

No not today

I'll manage work

And earn some pay.

I feel like I could sleep for a week.

I want to tackle sensible traffic this morning.

I want teachers and nurses to have sensible class/patient ratios

...and I reallly REALLY want to find an iota of sense in the fact that a medical team of 8 foreigners and two Afghans, devoted to Afghanistan's needy have been shot needlessly in Badakhshan by the Taliban while devoting their lives to helping others.One Briton,one German, two from Afghanistan providing eye surgeries and medical help. I would like, this Monday morning, for a sensible world. Their families, once so proud of their altruism, must be truly devastated and utterly heartbroken.

I have given the swollen lips the boot (not literally) and you can see I have picked up a bad case of Mondayitis instead.

A blackbird sings outside my window this morning.

Heralding hope, and a tiny hint of Spring.He has a happy heart, and I too, will try.