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

coaxing colour from country

the colours of central Australia

are quite different from those

of the northern hemisphere

it's been good to be back in red dirt country

i'm betting there'll be a new style of textiles

coming out of Papunya soon

Narlie says she's going home to teach the other women

how to bundle cloth and leaves

territory time

i had a wonderful day today
the usual class pace
[never fast enough for some of you over the Pacific]
was cranked back to territory time
V E R Y     VE R Y
S  L  O  W

we were allowed a fire
made bundles
talked about country
and about colour

and
at the end of the day
i was taken out
to where the red rocks
sing
over pools of still water

a very good day

a town like Alice

i've never been to Alice Springs before

all i had in my head was an image gleaned 

from Neville Shute's 1950s novel

so

i spent yesterday having a wander around

i pottered around in the Todd River

hoping to find useful bits

mostly i found glass

but of course 

an abundance of leaves

being Australia, it's easy to find eucalyptus

and i went to the museum

where is discovered the taxidermist

has a sense of humour

[if you're in a class of mine sometime, you may hear the taxidermist joke

too long to type now though]

and here's an amusing page from a book on display 

time to grab my bundle

and go

my now elliptical pot 

[thank you American Airlines baggage handlers]

still doing sterling service

although here it tends to bubble quite fiercely

as we have 240 volts in the system

in America [with only 110] there's 

less chance of setting off the fire alarm...

thank you Qantas

my journey to Alice Springs began well
for a start
there was leftover gumbo to be had
before attempting the journey to the airport
then
we made it to Adelaide in record time
meaning
the Youngest and I had time for a double-shot moccha
at Lucia's
- a South Australian institution for longer than i can remember,
setting an impossibly high standard for coffee

Lucia's is my number one coffee house [after home]
closely followed by Cafe Trieste in North Beach
and Kaffeehaus Einstein [Berlin - the original one, not the Einstein chain!]
but i digress

arriving at the airport
by a miracle there was hardly a queue
and
i got my boarding pass quite quickly
it wasn't until i was rummaging for the laptop
and going through security
that i realised the boarding pass said Business
and not
economy.
thank you Qantas. it was quite the nicest flight i have enjoyed all year
the view over Australia was marvellous and
even the refreshments were nice.
[and in case the management is reading this, Penny deserves a pat on the back
she goes out of her way to be nice to passengers!]

Alice Springs is a curious place. the water in the bath was blue
[i'm told it comes from deep under the earth]
i was instructed on arrival not to walk about after dark on any account
and
i picked up a "welcome flea" who was frankly not at all welcome.

there was a Hugh Grant moment at Vinnies
the scene where his character [as PM] is doorknocking in the dodgy end of Wandsworth and someone says to him
"hey, you're not who i think you are, are you?"
those very words were addressed to me
at least
they were better than some i spoken to me in Wisconsin
where a body, having observed me draw near over a period of five minutes
walked up to me and said
"you're not who i wanted you to be"
could be worse.
you could be waking up on a sunday morning after 40 years of marriage and being told that.

anyhoo, i'm here to teach a two-day class
that hasn't been advertised
and
was only confirmed about a fortnight ago
not even sure exactly what they're hoping for
as
despite questions
nobody has managed to put it into words.
so
tomorrow
i shall be winging it...with a bundle prepared, just in case

the manicurist's nightmare

Joy McCallister, participant of the St Louis workshop, kindly sent me some images from our week together
thought i might share
even though [like those of Lady Macbeth]
they'll ne'er be clean

more intimate secrets

yesterday i shared an image of my early morning
view-from-the-bed
today i'm offering a little more
this early morning picture of the little person who shares my comforts




















and this one
of something that keeps us both warm

a queen size blanket knitted by my mother
from English Leicester wool
harvested from some of the fluffy poppets who
potter about the farm that i live on

have been looking at the calendar 

[because i was doing housekeeping on my website]

finding a little space over the [southern] summer

open to suggestions as to where it might be useful

to offer a workshop...

the surefire way to deal with jet lag

the surefire way to deal with jet lag
is
not to admit to such a thing existing
don't let the idea get into your life

just

hop off the plane
and continue with the day that has been offered to you
walk*
smile
eat drink
sing
love
and be grateful that you have woken up breathing
wherever you may be

and
when the sun sets
find a comfy bed
[note to self : am glad i don't have to sleep in railway stations
or cowsheds so often anymore]
and enjoy your dreams

it was a wonderful journey [thank you everybody i met who contributed to my delightful stay in America]
but it's good to be home
and to be able to get out that saxophone again...

*and of course gather a few leaves

a day off

first day off since June 13th

[ie not travelling or teaching]

pootled around the Tower Grove Farmer's Market

bought blueberries for tomorrow's traintrip

there were lots of dogs

catching up on the week's news

some of them looked like bears

there are other bears in St Louis

later i went in search of the oldest skyscraper in the whirled

the Wainwright building

designed by Louis Sullivan

i nearly wrote "the first skyscraper"

but i understand the Tower of Babylon has that reputation

unfortunately it's no longer with us.

some of the detailing reminds me of Hiapo

St Louis has quite a collection of architectural artefacts

including of course The Arch

designed by Eero Saarinen

but i didn't expect to find a monument to Schiller

in the park children splashed in the fountain

and then there are other unexpected delights

i swing by Riverbend to try the other gumbo

even better than the first

retreating to my helltell just in time

to watch a splendid lightning show 

from my comfy nest on the sofa 

tomorrow i'll be taking the train

at

the

crack

of

dawn