gardens of the heart

staying at home for the summer has made so much sense.

it's given me the space (and grace) to play :: to make new work and to dream new ideas.

in January I made the wee book 'bagstories' and was stunned to find the welcome it received, and then delighted to see how the 'bagstories' group (on Facebook) so quickly became such a lovely supportive gathering of like-minded spirits.

that foray has led to me deciding that I should make a February project every year. Also, at long last, I will offer distance learning for those who suffer physical, geographical and/or economic difficulty in getting to a class.  more on that very soon.

but for now, let me tell you about 'gardens of the heart'...a  project in poetry and cloth that will culminate in an exhibition for the 2019 Adelaide Festival Fringe, that I am coordinating with the h.ART group who have been the backbone behind the establishment of an Artspace in the old Onkaparinga Woollen Mills in Lobethal, South Australia. You can sign up via the Facebook group, or (if you aren't on fb) leave me a comment below (or email me) and I will assign you a 'line number'. Why line numbers?

it's because 'gardens of the heart' is based on the three-line poetry that I have been sharing with students in recent years...which results in collaborative aleatory poetry...beautiful words gathered by chance from groups of (three) people.

each person stitches their line along a piece of cloth (450mm x 150mm  :: 18" x 6") together with the number of dots they've been assigned.

then all the pieces will be stitched together by me (and some friendly volunteers) next February to form three-line poems, which will be installed at the Woollen Mill Artspace in Lobethal, South Australia together with a cloud of suspended flowers.

are you in?

'gardens of the heart' group

the fabulous book I am reading right now

a link to the person who suggested reading it

email me to join the project (if you aren't in Facebook)

last call for wandercards...for now

the wandercard project has brought me great joy

kind emails have flown in from all over the whirled

remembering workshops together and other connections made

93 sets have been spoken for

6 sets remain available

at midnight tonight i'll stop taking orders

so that i can concentrate on 

getting the cards wrapped and packed

for their journeys to adventures around the globe

they'll be going to Germany, Austria, France, Canada

the Netherlands, Denmark, the UK and the USA

as well as wandering around my big island home, Australia

thank you, friends. 

so grateful for your support.

:: both images tweaked with the grunge filter on Snapseed

argentina

image borrowed from : http://www.gondwana.geologia.ufrj.br/

the idea of Argentina has been on my mind for a while

every now and then an email drifts in across the oceans

asking if i will come. 

yesterday i decided to put a ring around some weeks in the calendar

thinking maybe the last week in November, first week of December 2016 

i would need to teach four lots of three day classes to make the trip work financially

(the fee for one class wouldn't even cover the airfare across the big puddle)

but it will be exciting to meet the flora on the other side

and to expore the Gondwana connections between our countries

and though there is interest in the basics of ecoprinting

i'd love to offer a 'being (t)here' class too

so

if you are in Argentina

(or would like to come from elsewhere to meet me there)

and if you are interested in taking a class

please either let me know in the comments below

or better still (because then i will have an email address to write back)

please drop me a line via my

contact page

and perhaps tell me what you would most like to learn?

 

 

home sweet home

it's good to be home for a bit

sleeping in my own bed

window open, Martha-cat draped across my arm

mingled scent of lemon flowers and roses

drifting in across my pillow

while the dreaming ducks mutter outside

that last image is what happens when you mix them up

using the Diana app

wandering locally

marvelling at indigenous flora

reading tracks in the sand

as well as some very kind words

written about me 

here

and of course

minding the baby

dyeing a few things

and catching up on some sewing

in which the Dogs Above have mercy

it rained today
and i was very grateful
we've had a record 13 days above 40 C this summer
[that translates as 104F and above]
the highest was 46 [114.8]
too warm for this bear

you may have noticed i was getting a bit crabby in recent posts

but today's puddles cheered me up enormously
despite the deceased rat that was discovered in a rainwater tank
- now thankfully removed, along with the sullied water

i took to the paddocks with a cauldron
and some silk
gathering material from the ground
and packing it in the pot
for stewing back in the house

also delighted that the Mansfield retreat is attracting commitments

and is 25% filled already, even though November is a ways off
details on my website near the bottom of the page


and in case you'd like to look at old stories from Mansfield

here are some
and some more
and then from 2010

riverwandering

i love tidal rivers

they have a magic all their own

things are hidden and revealed

muddied one day, squeaky clean the next

in + by the river

what is lost can be found

the whole become broken

+ the broken whole

troubles + sorrows washed away

messages entrusted to the mud + tides

faith replenished + spirits lifted

while the river mumbles + murmurs by

rising + falling

going in + drifting out

and just as it is with life

you can never step into the same river twice

ka kite ano

time moves strangely in this precious green valley

it felt like our few days were weeks

and yet

they passed so very quickly

am packing my bags once again

for the hop homeward

but

with a warm feeling in my heart.

yesterday i was handed this

which made me very happy

so

over delicious scrambled eggs this morning

Judy and i decided we should take the suggestion seriously.

and

i'll be back next summer, to lead a 'shapeshifter' class

in which

we will be re-constructing worn out favourites from the wardrobe

into a new and lovely garment

embellished with dyed silks and wools and lots of handstitching

to sew and dye

something beautiful to wear on special occasions

[standing up and breathing is special enough for me!]

and

of course we shall also make a gorgeous bag

in which to keep the dress when it isn't being worn

so for now it isn't goodbye, but

arohanui, ka kite ano

9

i've always been most fond of the number 9

which is one of the reasons i didn't fly straight home from Arizona

December 9 would have been eaten by the international date line

a shocking waste of a good day

so here i am in San Francisco instead. it's been my favourite city forever

[until New Orleans welcomed me with open arms last month]

now i have two favourite cities

[and a host of favourite wild places]

but i'm straying from the story.

i'm in San Francisco, in the slightly grotty Buena Vista Motor Inn.

the walls and floors vibrate and working girls go up and down the elevator

[and probably on a few other things too]
however

from my position on the sofa in my room

i can just see the red lights on the top of the Golden Gate Bridge

earlier this evening i called past an old friend

a Jasminum polyanthemum that lives near the top of Greenwich Street

whose fragrance both real and remembered has been a delight to me for over thirty years.

my most recent tattoo was [literally] drawn from my memory of this particular plant

some kind person has adorned it with twinkle lights

making the visit especially sweet

a thoroughly rotten apple...

yesterday was my one day at home
after Geelong and before heading Stateside for two and a half months
i filled it with as much as i could
laundering clothes
packing new sets of workshop materials
having a gin with my mother
and laptime with Martha

who is not best pleased by the sight of the suitcase
i even spent an hour blissfully weeding in the garden
creating a small patch of order in what otherwise resembles a hayfield

and was put in mind of my favourite scene in Michael Ondaatje's book
'The English Patient'
where the nurse, Hana, takes her nailscissors and cuts a perfect footsquare patch of lawn in the long grass around the monastery where she is caring for the burned man
[it's not in the movie version, which makes it easier to imagine somehow]

i took photos of the roses
the quince blossom
the rich chocolate earth
crab apples
and the horses

and then last thing at night
after cooking dinner and while doing the dishes
i foolishly downloaded a so-called update on my iPhone

and then
my phone no longer worked.
so i had no alarm to wake me for the 4am airport trek
and consequently stayed up all night so i wouldn't miss my flights

i've managed to restore some of the functions to my phone
but all the audiobooks have disappeared
as well as my lovely late afternoon photos.

i'm not at all happy with Apple at present.
on the bright side
i shouldn't have trouble sleeping on the plane
having now been wide-awake for 29 hours...

temporarily closed for maintenance

i'm having a computer free weekend
temporarily closed
for spiritual maintenance

and besides
there's work to be done
back next month

Any way you slice it, today’s world is going to ask for everything you can give.
Make your first priority your own well-being if only to serve the greater good.
--Martha Beck- Insight from Martha-A Resting Revolution

 

on solitude

a very good friend of mine
whom i treasure
and with whom i can share roadtrips
or
be quietly working, two people alone in shared space
alerted me to this TED talk by Susan Cain

i've watched it a couple of times now
and thought it was time to share

putting it in writing

the host of the Goolwa workshop [planned for early February 2012] and i have received some interesting mail lately.
it runs along the lines of "yes, we're interested in the riverstitch class but 2012 is pretty busy so we'll do it in 2013"
well, sorry to disillusion you folks, but just for the record
the riverstitch class will be my only South Australian workshop in 2012 [i won't be teaching in my home state at all in 2013]
and
i'll be scaling back the teaching whirlwind from the end of next year - looking for some space and time to develop and make new work

time is my friend

Agonis flexuosa

bundled January 5

unbundled November 29

posted for the especial benefit

of my recent Blue Mountains class

as

the samples we produced there

from the same species of plant

were quite a different colour

being more of a pinkish beige

transamerica

here are some pix of my transamerica dress

a story that began here on August 19th
with a baptism of sorts in the Pacific





bundled in a garden on the left coast [but not quite on the edge]

continued at Long Ridge Farm

with several immersions in cauldrons

[some merely to quell the growth of microfauna]

arrived at Haystack
and wandered down to the Atlantic



by way of a puddle or two



concluded with an unbundling
on the evening of August 31
and looks like this

and a detail, with a bit of an odd yellow glow due to dim light whilst taking the pic

up above the birdies

i like flying

in the absence of personal wings

a seat on a plane comes in handy

once you get through the deeply personal searches

at the airport

it all gets better

these days

i just take the apron off and dump it in the scanner tray

[as i was doing so in America recently

the chap on duty bleated

"are you decent?"

as i was beginning to divest myself of it]

you'd be amazed at how many people

despite having a window seat

would rather watch a movie

than look out at this

there are tracks out here

 those who lived here first

 the explorers who passed this way

meandering tracks that follow contours

and then

lots

and 

lots of straight lines

from people getting somewhere in a hurry

treading less lightly