getting misty

lovely to be back in foghornLand again

even if good coffee is hard to find

but what's alum doing on the seasoning shelf?

and who eats this?

or this?

tequila mockingbird?

scribbles might be a little sporadic over the next 5 weeks

as your scribe heads east over the Big Blue Pond

thought i'd leave you with this gem...

still [metaphorically] splashing about in the sea

The Leafy Sea Dragon Festival to be held in autumn of next year has announced a project for the event

for which they have very kindly appointed me as Artist in Residence

I'll be working together with members of the community

to create a series of plant-dyed silk flags with which we shall enliven the streets

best of all

we'll be holding a week of dyeing, followed by a lovely big sewing circle

that will fill a whole weekend

to make a big stitched cloth that will [we hope] have a little something from each person's garden bringing colour to it

more information to be had here

what happens when...

in case you wanted to know, but perhaps never thought to try

this is what happens

when one wraps a piece of damp kelp

in a piece of silk

and then

forgets to unpack it from the compost at the bottom of the suitcase

on returning home from far away

i found this fragment last night

when scraping out the depths of the Green Monster

in preparation for onward wandering on Friday

it hasn't been boiled or steamed

just quietly sulking for a month

in my very cold room

slow dyed but not at all mindfully

in fact

out of sight and out of mind entirely

[there goes that theory!]

i did wash and dry it before i made the photo

cos it was a tad slimy

but the silk doesn't seem to have been damaged at all

even though the kelp was fresh from the sea

[originally]

now i think a silk dress

wrapped in kelp

and left to rest a while

might be a very beautiful thing indeed

time is your friend...

face-off

my on-off flirtation with facebook

[revived as a means of participating in a group there]

is being put on ice again

at least for for the time being

i find facebook completely overwhelming

so apologies to those kind folks

who wanted to be friends

i'm still friendly

just sticking to a slightly smaller neck of the woods

where the only twittering is that of the feathered kind

cos i don't think i'll be signing up with the twits any time soon either

hear a leaf [or two] fall

here's your answer, Sweetpea

wrapped it around a 6 inch piece of pipe

you can see how the leaves have changed colour

red ones are now gold

deep greens now green-ish

if i had let it sit for longer

there would have been more patterns

dots begin to appear with time

here you can see the colour

and string lines

that were on the outside of the bundle

i'll be wrapping up a few

and putting them aside in the studio

so there'll be presents to open

when i return from the continent across the Big Blue Puddle

autumn leaves

here's what i was doing today

with a pocketful of windfalls

Acer palmatum

to be precise

the folks at Shakerag will be able to hold the results in their hands soon

but for the rest of you

i'll post the unravelled boiled bundle

tomorrow

oh, and Zen Habits had something really sensible to say today

[well, he does most times]

go here to have a look

the air finds it hard to breathe

it's been an odd week.

some bizarre correspondence has wandered in

one in particular which accused me of having jumped ship and joined what the writer saw as 'the opposition'

an unfounded accusation

as it happened

happily there's been some nice stuff too

but

i'm mystified by the battle that seems to be raging

over ownership of philosophies

i didn't know that they could be 'owned'

the current fashion for 'slow', for example

seems to have a few people fired up

there are times that i don't want to be slow at all.

i like to walk, but i also like to drive

and let's be honest, if the conditions are appropriate

i like to drive fast.

what i think is really important is paying attention

making the most of the moment

being mindful, and doing things thoroughly to the best of my ability

whether i am walking

driving

or stitching with care and attention into a piece of cloth

or bundling a cloth around a pocketful of windfalls

today i visited the Light Square Gallery

and snapped the image above *

photography is all about capturing the moment

not slow at all

unless you're tracking stars

like Ed Douglas

i also went to see Candid Camera

at the Art Gallery of South Australia

tis a remarkable exhibition

images of people doing people things

i scribbled a few notes

quite quickly

but mindfully

*'the air finds it hard to breathe' Heidi Kenyon

shakerag vacancy

it transpires there is a surprise vacancy in my first class at Shakerag

short notice

as it's in a couple of weeks time

but just in case somebody wants to go

here's the link to their site

just press button "B" [class says 'full' on their website but they tell me it's not so...]

oh, and if you're wondering where that lovely image up top is from?

new exhibition opening at the Art Gallery of South Australia this week

called

'Candid Camera'