Happy Friday Thirteenth

Spurned by guilt over actually forgetting I had a blog over Easter, I am posting two days in a row! Unprecedented! And I am wearing out my exclamation mark key!!!

Actually, I just needed to share this. It starts slowly…

It’s by Laura Veirs, from her ‘July Flame’ album. Gorgeous.

There is a little swallow stuck in the arcade where my office is. It’s swooping round and round, unable to find it’s way out through the large open door on the lower level. I am finding its relentless circling distracting and upsetting. The poor silly thing must be exhausted. If anyone has a large net, let me know…

Dumb bird.

Hope today is luckier for you guys. x

Update: the swallow was gone when I left the office. Phew. I feel better.

How did I miss Easter?

Four days off, and I didn’t post? How did that happen? Er, hope you all had a good Easter and all that…

It’s a beautiful time of year, isn’t it? I’ve been in the garden a fair bit. It’s perfect weather for it. Except for that cold snap we had for a couple of days. We even put a fire on.

But I came home yesterday and the house was as hot as an oven, so we let it go out. And now the weather is back to heavenly.

The second learner driver of the house, Max, is keen to make some driving time, so that little bit of time between work and dinner often finds me in the car, clutching the passenger side door handle, preparing to leap out before impact.

Nah, not really, he’s actually pretty good.

Will have to update you on garden developments more fully in a future post. But for now it’s back to the world to prepare dinner… actually, to drive to dinner, if I am being completely accurate, as we are heading out to The Fitz tonight.

It’s a hard knock life, I know.

Visiting the garden show

We did; we girded our loins and braved the crowds and sallied forth to the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show at the exhibition centre. In the excitement of leaving, I forgot my camera, so you’ll have to forgive the less than wonderful shots taken using my phone.

The weird and wonderful floral displays in the hall are always worth a gander.

This lady looks rather pleased with her horrible outfit, doesn’t she?

This one looks like she was attacked by a florist. She probably was.

Whereas, this lady looks distinctly unimpressed with her pretty hydrangea skirt.

This was my favourite display, with the little paper cranes in rainbow colours. It looked different- and lovely- from every angle.

Then it was time to venture out to the garden displays. The last time I visited the show was in the middle of the drought. Hard landscaping punctuated with pots of succulents were all the go then. So I was most excited to see actual plants used in some of the garden displays. I know. I am easily excited.

A little garden using all recycled materials was very cute.

And the other garden that really attracted me also used recycled materials, but on a much larger, grander scale.

Downsides to the show? You need to avoid masses of dodgy stalls, not including the specialist plant stalls, which are interesting. And you know that most of the display gardens could not be reproduced without a massive sack of moolah; but still, there were plenty of ideas there to provoke some thought on design.

I came away with the thought that I need a clearer vision for my garden; while patchy can work, it requires more effort to make it do so. Inspiration enough.

Autumn dreaming

Late March; and as the days grow shorter and the nights cooler and deeper, I am feeling rather dreamy and distracted. Are you feeling it too?

I am loving this at the moment. Can’t stop listening to the whole album. Repeatedly. I think I am slightly obsessive sometimes. It’s not new, but still, it’s so good.

The sunlight is the colour of honey, and the lower angle of the sun in the sky makes for the most distracting shadows.

I am reading ‘Wuthering Heights’, which is so weird and uncomfortable, isn’t it? Every character in it is creepy. Or awful. Or both.

But words seem superfluous right now, in this dreamy Autumn weather, so we’ll listen to the music and look at the garden for a bit, shall we?

More later. x

This is for you, Sherlock fans

I had no idea how much dear Benedict resembles an otter. But here it is, unarguably presented to us by the wonderful Red Scharlach.

Click and enjoy.

Can you tell them apart?

In other internet time-wasting news, I have discovered the Chateau to which I shall one day retire and spend my days wafting around the rooms in a floor length ball gown (“tell the servants to bring more scented candles, someone’s been wafting in here again…”); posing dramatically on a love seat to bat my eyelids and pen a poem, or perchance I’ll take up the harpsichord. When I’m not out hunting unicorns, of course.

Click here to share the dream.

Now back to my office. Damn you, reality. But at least there is coffee.

Another year, another art show

As I mentioned in the previous post, for nine years now, I have been involved in a school fundraiser; an art show that runs for a weekend at the school. Which was last weekend. It’s taken me all week to recover from it. I think I have. Maybe. Even though I did fall asleep on the couch at 9.30 last night. And forgot it was bin night. Sigh.

So here’s how it works. The art show team has a bit of a system for setting up, one that we have worked out over the years, and although we were in a new space, everything still went fairly smoothly. Except that it took us longer. Much longer.

All the work is delivered Thursday afternoon. It’s laid out on the floor and we try to gauge how it will all work together. Our aim is always for a lovely flow to the work. With 225 entries from different artists- up to 3 each- you can imagine the challenge.

Once all the work has been delivered, we go and have dinner. Then we come back and the hanging begins.

As you see, it’s getting pretty late. Actually, we didn’t finish until 5.30am the next morning. That’s about 4 hours longer than it usually takes us.

The next day is spent labelling the work, adding flowers, candles and coloured silks where needed, and making everything perfect for the opening that evening.

It was really nice to have additional rooms in the new space, in contrast to the old venue, which was the school gymnasium. It added another dimension, exploring the show.

Doesn’t it look good? The opening night was a great success, lots of people, food, wine and talk. Although some of us were too tired to make much sense, of course.

And then, on the weekend, the cafe was open, with cakes, coffee, biscuits and even soup. In this new building, we can open the cafe to the outdoors, and have people sitting outside in the sunshine with their drinks. Fancy!

It was a wonderful weekend. Then all too soon, Sunday 4pm came, and it was time to pack it all away, returning works to the artists, or handing it over to the lucky owners of some new art. Then the building is cleaned and the furniture returned to its rightful places from the storeroom. And there you go… another year done. All that work; all the organisation, the paperwork, the working bee to refurbish and repair the display screens, the signage to be made up and hung up, the pleasure of seeing it all come together, the mad flurry of opening night, the cakes delivered and eaten and coffee drunk, the artists and people come to see it all, all done and dusted for another year. Thanks team!

A drawing at last

It’s taken me a month to post it, but never mind. I get there eventually.

This is based on one of the old photos that Mum gave me. Nostalgic.

I’m not keeping up with stuff very well right now, but once the art show is done, I have hopes of a normal life.

ArtShow2012

While I don’t exhibit at the show, I am on the organising committee. We’ve been doing this show for nine years now. Nine years! This year seems a bit more chaotic than usual, because of a change in venue. But a beautiful new building will make a lovely home to our show, which is always full of the most amazing pieces. It’s this weekend; I would love to see you there…

My soul is restored and my faith in shopping also

Shopping in the city of Melbourne. A small flame of hope in a desolate dark of consumer night. Or something.

Maria’s Beads

Buttonmania

l’uccello

Harold & Maude

These were taken on a CAE walking tour of craft and independent artist outlets in Melbourne; some of the many, of course. It was fun. Look here if you want to try it.

Then we had to go and repair display screens for the upcoming art show, so I am exhausted now. Goodnight, sleep tight.

In which I visit Ikea and lose my soul

Okay, here’s how it happened. We bought an old cane sofa on e-Bay to put on the deck. But it needed cushions. Where to buy lots of big squishy cushions without breaking the bank? Ikea, of course. So Pete and I made the trek to the new and massive outlet at Springvale on Sunday. Mission: cushion purchase. It was too hot to do anything productive anyway.

So there we were, a part of a huge crowd trundling through the endless displays of ‘Ektorps’ and ‘Rationales’ and ‘Faktums’. And it was there I fully realised that I had to drop any pretence of individuality. I am just a generic consumer, targeted by the massive monolith that is Ikea and damn it, they know how to get me too. Oh God, I’m not unique at all. I’m just one of the herd. A sheep.

How many existential crises has Ikea triggered, I wonder?

So I got my cushions. And some coathangers. And a string of lights. Damn you, Ikea, you’ve crushed my soul. Also, baaaa.

Postscript: WordPress has put in my recommended links for this post both ‘cushions’ and ‘existential crisis’. You know, I bet those two are paired more often than you would think.

Late summer

A peaceful time of the year (when there are no bushfires, of course). Sunlight makes beautiful patterns on the walls in the afternoon and I am full of ideas for paintings, but no time to make them happen.

Paintings need time to germinate and bear fruit, but who has that luxury? No one I know. Still, I feel the need to make some creative stuff happen, and maybe I’ll insist on a day off next week.