i like the way this guy reads

i'm off into the Wild on the land of the Long White Cloud

and shall be out of reach of the interpixies for a couple of weeks

so

shall leave you with Viggo Mortensen

who [among other things] is quite good at reading stories from books

i'll be back on the Ides of March [look behind you, Mr Caesar!]

leaf wandering in the fall...

i'm getting a few friendly enquiries about onward wandering after Shakerag and Toronto...i have to return to Oz [maybe i need magic red shoes] early in July

but

it occurred to me over a very nice cup of tea

and after a long conversation with the calendar

that if there were sufficient interest

to run two week long workshops

i could come back in the Fall.

specifically in the first two weeks of October

one workshop could be [thanks to a brave enquirer]

in south western Ontario

the other

in New York state

so here's the deal...if you think you might be interested in attending

please email me

mail[at]indiaflint[dot]com

tell me which location would suit you best

and then we can do the math and see if the numbers stack up...

slightly stunned

dear readers

Rachel McHenry - the brave soul who recently invited me to come to Canada in July

has asked me to post the following phrase

"As of February 22nd, this workshop has generated more inquiries than
can be accommodated. A waiting list for workshop spots and other
related programming will be accepted by email only"

i am, as ever, humbled and amazed by the kind interest the whirled has in my doings and aspire to live up to the expectations...

resilience

regular readers will know that the Dog is preparing to embark on her next big adventure

but not just yet

Border Collies have extraordinary resilience

as well as great love and loyalty

this one is still insisting on coming for a trundle across the paddocks

albeit somewhat slower than ten years ago

and the line of travel is straighter

than the spirited casting about that used to clock up 80km [about 5o miles] a day

yesterday she even managed a swim

in what's left of the dam

a moment in the sun

it's been a wild ride this week [but fun]

and i'm feeling a bit like my friend

JonniePyjamaSack [pictured above, doing what he does best]

not much to read here

but

Lotta

over at InLeaf

has written some very kind things

about your correspondent

and has lots of interesting reading

as well as lovely images

on her blog

i'm allowed to pass this on

There will be a 5-day workshop, “Mapping Country”, at the Contemporary Textile Studio Co-operative in Toronto, Canada from June 28^th to July 2, 2010. The workshop will take place at 401 Richmond St., in downtown Toronto from 10 am – 4 pm daily and will be open to no more than 12 participants. Please contact Rachel McHenry

rachel[dot]machenry[at]sheridanc[dot]on[dot]ca

enfoldments

today [on this side of the whirled] is February 16

another Phoenix day slides by

the 27th since 1983

and there is, i think, a new moon

a good day for announcing new beginnings

here are a few

firstly, Elaine Lipson of the Red Thread Studio

has launched a splendid new initiative

Slow Cloth

and

given that the two textile retreats planned for Mansfield [Victoria]

in November this year

seem to have filled themselves before i've even had a chance to mention them in a newsletter

[apologies to folks on the mailing list]

it seems timely to announce a special retreat in rural South Australia

'enfoldments - the traveller's notebook'

will run from September 5-10, 2010

on a lovely property near Strathalbyn

it will be live-in

in simple dormitories

we will be permitted a fire for our brews

and my favourite cook will be preparing delicious meals

to sustain us in our work

if this interests you, please drop me a line through my contact page

home run running home

on the home run now

there are places where being honey coloured

is an advantage

1960s Melbourne wasn't one of them

neither

truth be told

is Japan 2010

that i am large

up and down

as well as

side to side [sigh]

isn't terribly helpful either.

much as i like the country

gardens, architecture, food, textiles

and other treasures of Japan

the pointing and laughing

[my coat doesn't help]

does wear a little thin after a while

one man craned his head to watch me

a look of utter amazement on his face

he he

it was my turn to giggle

when he very nearly crashed his bicycle

into a lamp post

sadly schadenfreude doesn't fit well

with vaguely Buddhist aspirations

in Aotearoa no-one raises an eyebrow

they just assume i'm

"from the coast"

that said

if you have a chance to visit Tokyo

and see the Boro exhibition

stay at the

Ryokan Shigetsu

absolutely lovely

warm and friendly staff

who will help you with the language

and the Japanese breakfast [delicious and different each morning]

is not to be missed

sustains you for a whole day of walking

even from Hindode Pier to

Shinjuku

and the Ryokan is only

5 minutes delightful walk

from the Amuse Museum

[make sure you use their lovely bath on the 6th floor]

still walking

i tried, believe me i tried, to make those journal pages match up

they're all the same dimension across

but

i guess blogger makes up it's own mind

how the shopfront should look.

and yes, the last two lines of the last page have a few similarities

and need editing

ps i just noticed that Elis Vermeulen has kindly named me in her blog. it's a tag thing where one has to reveal seven things about oneself and recommend seven other bloggers.

i'm not really into the whole award thing

but it's very kind of Elis to have thought of me

so i'll just recommend all of the folks in my blogroll

[you'll have to scroll down a ways to find it]

more than seven

and as to revealing?

well the handwriting above probably gives away far too much as it is....

afterthought....i've written cherry blossom! they were plum blossoms....

walk this way, please

those of you who were brought up properly will remember this phrase

spoken by Igor

[played brilliantly by the late Marty Feldman]

in the film classic

'Young Frankenstein'

the Amuse Museum in Tokyo

does it with signage

and without the "thump, drag"

if that doesn't make sense to you go ask your mother

or

work your way through this post

elucidation as a reward

right at the bottom

today i went to the Amuse Museum

and followed the pointing fingers around

feasted my eyes on exquisitely the patched and mended

textiles in the Boro exhibition

a small part of Tanaka-san's wonderful collection

i was stunned that visitors were encouraged to touch these

precious fragments

but very grateful that photography was permitted

and now, for something completely different

shedding light on "thump, drag"

adrift in tokyo

sometimes life feels like a game of musical chairs

you know

where everybody skips and dances while the music plays

and you have to quickly find a chair when the music stops

or you're out of the game

this time when the music stops

i find myself in Tokyo

in the park behind the Senso-ji Shrine in Asakusa

a man quietly and thoughtfully tends a conifer

trimming back the foliage with slow but sure movements

bunches of needles fall into a cloth placed ready on the ground

he takes his time

that which is cut

can not be pasted on again

he realises i am watching

and gives a gentle smile

before turning his full attention

back to the tree

HandEye BLoG

that most delicious of magazines, HandEye

now has [in addition to all that lovely online content]

its very own Blog

suggest you get a cup of tea and settle in for a nice read...

more detail

when you step back a bit [taking care not to step into something]

you get a better idea of what it really looks like

as you can see

the nest of this bower bird

is impressively cluttered

the iPhone takes quite good snaps

but it's more fun with

Hipstamatic

not quite as good as a Box Brownie

but rather easier

to fit into a pocket

a bit of a scrub up

today a very nice photographer came to shoot pictures

for 'Home Beautiful' magazine

so a bit of a scrub up was necessary

just the encouragement that i needed

to sweep up the piles of leaves

and refold various pieces of material

lovely neighbours

who run Nunkarrie Cherry Farm

blessed me with an abundance of roses

so it smells even better than it looks

swept floor

beaten rugs

and lovely clear space to work in again

Kip the wonder dog

wandered in and out of frame

perhaps there'll be a photo of the two of us together

to add to the layers on the pinboard

well i'll be Buttered on Both Sides [again]

dropped into my blog this morning and discovered that the number of friendly readers has suddenly hit the 250 mark.

this is a big thought.

tried to imagine how that might look in bite-size lumps

10 groups of 25

5 groups of 50

50 sewing circles of five people around a table

or a tree full of twinkle lights like the one i saw in Copenhagen recently

so of course i went looking for the photo

and found a few other nice ones

here they are

my stuff in the Mostings Hus [apologies, the 'o' there should have a line through it]

the middle piece, called 'petroglyph' has found a home in Denmark

in the image above you can see how Anette Blaesberg Orom [again, insert stroke through first 'o'] provides the gentle order to my chaos

our work is in dialogue

yin and yang

give balance to the Planeta Project

and as you wander through the four rooms of the exhibition

stories and readings

change with perspective

we think it works

here's what the exhibition space looks like from outside at night

we were SO lucky that our dates were changed from autumn to winter

during daylight hours the reflections from the snow cast an ethereal glow in the space

and at night

wandering into colour from the frozen whirled outside

was simply splendid, if i say so myself

wondering where this brilliant pink came from?

not from me.

twas brought in as a lovely 'show and tell' by someone who had putting their copy of

Eco Colour

to good use

contact prints from begonia leaves

with a bit of help from all that calcium dissolved in the locally reticulated water

thanks folks, for your kind support

for swinging by and leaving a calling card

and for reading what i write