From Spring in Denmark to Winter in NZ

 

I'm back

 

 

Man made colours

 

 

 

 

and Nature's palette

 

 

 

a year has gone by

Who would think a year (almost) has been and gone.  What has happened? 

My grandson now has two new bottom teeth and a gap, waiting.  My granddaughter sat transfixed on my knee during the Steiner school dragon play.  I have a puppy, Miss Pip (Pippi Longstocking) - she's just over 3 months and a wonderful footwarmer as autumn days draw in.

My daughter is part way through her university studies and will have her first solo art exhibition in June - a combination of photos, prints, ecoprinted pieces....

My son is engaged and he and his fiancee will slip away to a tropical island "somewhen" for a private ceremony.

I am off to Denmark in June to visit friends - 7 weeks and 1 day.  It will be worth the 19 hours to Singapore and the 6 hour layover and then the last 6 hour leg into Copenhagen.  It's been 9 years since I was last there.

And here are a couple of pieces that have happened over the last little while.  In between trying to finish masses of bookwork to gain my Adult Literacy tutoring qualification......

she's a Schnoodle - that terrier hunting instinct is already alive and well

 I'm starting to learn patience - merino around copper pipes - dried for a whole week.....that's the secret

who would think ladder ferns could make such a lovely green

and today is my younger sister's birthday

Happy Birthday

a moment of perfection

My bucket list for the winter

As I watched the weather report the other night, I was struck by the powerful line of arrows showing winds, rain and storms heading inland in sweeping unison from the western ocean.

I am in a direct line for any battering the winter may send. 

Already I'm hunkering down, sorting my workspace and my office and thinking about unfinished Things.

One is a quilt I have pieced and stashed in my blanket cupboard.  I made it for my partner - it has been in the making 4 years and all I have left to do is the binding.

He particularly asked for post and rail.  A strong uncomplicated pattern.  All the fabric I had at the time was in red, gold and purple - so we agreed that was a reasonable compromise

some of the pieces I had handmarbled at a long ago class. 

he chose the backing which was a stretchy deep rich brown/maroon fleece fabric.  At the time I knew very little about quilting and this fabric was a challenging choice.  The joins of each patch were tied by hand in the corners with a soft muted maroon Shetland wool - the fabric wriggles too much to join the top to the bottom any other way.  There is no wadding - it weighs a ton as it is.  The nude was painted by my daughter when she was 16.

I can't say my sewing room is now as orderly as when I began the project.  The table is covered with collage and half finished ecoprint ideas.....my aim this morning is to clear it, put everything I'm not using NOW away, and then have fresh snapper and avocado on toast for lunch.......

the world is full of a number of things.....

After an enormous NE blow, there were monsters on Hudson's beach with ropey fingers

 and puffball humps

stretching from one end of the beach

to the other

four planets - Mars, Jupiter, Mercury and Venus aligned outside my back door in the early morning dark

my 90 year old Dad, who takes no medications at all, landed in hospital for the 2nd time in his life.  The first time he was 8 and he fell off the horse he was riding 4 up to school with his siblings.  He's now home and recovering well.

and a couple of pretty things flew up on the clothes line.



Getting a grip......

Recently I've been working with a combination of collage and journaling to move myself past my own cliches. 

It's a technique from an e-study course offered by Shelley Klammer http://collageforself-discovery.com/
It takes maybe an hour each morning to rip up some images, assemble and own them and write. 


It's not a thoughtful process - it's an instant identification of my current state of mind. 
I've learned in the past week that whatever images "land" on my page are me. 


So this morning, having struggled to put words or feelings into any order at all since the Christchurch earthquake and now the Japanese quake and tsunami, this is what is on my page.

I am Anger

I am the scream of the buried

the drowned

the burnt

the displaced

I am the snarl of the lost

the broken

the hobbled

the Dead and Undead

I am the hope against impossibility

of an olive twig on a bare branch



good morning cows

 the milking herd has arrived for breakfast in the predawn mist outside my study window

last year's heifers are often last into the shed and last out into the paddock

they arrive at a trot - strip feeding means first up best fed

it's serious stuff this eating