skin and bunny [possibly not what you might think]

it's been a week of highs and lows [thank you everybody who sent kind thoughts, tis wonderful indeed to know so many warm hearts read these pages]
now let me tell you about the high -
the formal confirmation letter from my lovely publisher
accepting the manuscript for second skin*


and then yesterday i pootled down to the Art Gallery of South Australia
to see the exhibition Rupert Bunny, artist in Paris


like me, Rupert was born in Melbourne [1864]. i think we have a couple of other things in common -
you can see by the way he paints them that he loved dogs

although i've a suspicion that his wife [above] may not have shared that passion. it looks to me as though she's thinking 'get this creature off my lap now' and the Jack Russell [clearly a perceptive hound] has a slight air of alert nervousness about him

and there's another portrait of her in which she looks, to be perfectly frank, utterly bored - a condition which her beloved has captured beautifully. he's also jolly good at painting cloth; lavishly and sumptuously detailing lace, silks, satins and velvets in his paintings 

 worth a visit...

* to be published 2011

oh and in case you wondering about the link below, i'm experimenting with a new feature offered by Blogger that finds stuff for you relating to what you're writing, while you're writing it

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• Reality Mom: Writing lessons (ballardnewstribune.com)

pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood

yesterday i buried my best friend

things may be a little quiet here for a while

new orleans

the mention of amulets, talismans and charms over at Art Propelled

put me in mind of New Orleans

and the voodoo that is never far from the surface

look carefully

a wee skull grins below

amidst the fripperies

i know i've shown one of these images in an earlier post

but sitting here with the dog

rummaging through pictures while she dozes

with her head in my lap

couldn't help but put a few more up

half the fun of travelling is reminiscing

after the suitcase schlepping is done with

variations on a theme

saturday night on the sofa [happily still with the dog]

well, you know what they say

the devil finds work for idle hands

been doing a bit of rummaging

[cos i've been having trouble threading needles in the dark]

just substitute SF for LA in the song...

and then there's this one

the Animals had their tuppence-worth too

for the secret romantic

or for some spectacular frocks

thanks Leslie

thanks to Leslie Avon Miller

i've discovered the highly entertaining John Medina

there are more reasons than one for taking Walks in the Woods...

what lies beneath

i'm back in the season where day comes late

and night falls early

keeping watch on the sofa in the wee small hours

with my now very frail best friend

between pats she sleeps

head on my knee, wrapped in an old padded kimono

and while she sleeps i wander virtually

found news of an exhibition worth sharing

Substrate, Structure, Surface - Leonie Andrews

click on the link to read the review written by Julie Ryder

wool gathering?

the stuff in the picture is wool from an English Leicester sheep [Leicester Longwool for UK readers]

despite being long stapled, strong and lustrous [or perhaps for those very reasons] it is worth nothing at the wool auctions in Australia.

it could however be of great value in dealing with the oil spewing up the the Gulf of Mexico

oil loves to adhere to felt and especially to felt made of strong wool [or human hair for that matter]

having a felt barrier on the inside of those floating walls they're putting about would be a way of collecting oil. my imagination hasn't run to how it might be dealt with after that [or with how it would be transported]

perhaps mass composting in old open-cut mines?

use for a piece of felt no #1001

use number #1001 for a piece of felt

= wrapping the gin bottle to keep it cool in the car...

things to remember

fireflies in Tennessee

catfish in Memphis

the Oregon Coast. all of it.

New Orleans. all of it.

SOMA chocolate from Toronto

the smell of that bakery in Quebec

the sounds of the bells on the buoys in each little bay

are all firmly imprinted

driving down Highway 1

has just taken 30 years off how old i feel

next week it's back to work

time to bring in the sheep

mow the hayfield that is my garden

and sweep the dust from the studio

so as to get cracking on work for Surface Design next year...