just quickly

needing a chip wrapper?

Home Beautiful [in Australia]

has a familiar story in their May 2010 edition

and now back to the grey walls

where i am seriously tempted

to add a little guerilla decoration...

still life lives

am spending time

wandering hospital corridors

truly depressing places

despite all the good they do

thank goodness for the batfone

something to play with

when one is sent out of the room

while they poke and prod

posting may be a little sporadic

over the coming weeks

Eyjafjallajokull....days or months?

when pootling about the whirled i have sometimes wondered

just what i might do

if the political situation changed

and it became difficult to get home again

but

i never considered volcanoes...

if the eruption in Iceland continues

then the consequences are likely to be

very interesting

these streaks across the sky might become treasured memories

instead of visible reminders of aircraft exhausts

in the cauldron

a happy day

playing in the cauldron

dyeing presents

for a friend

nine-patch

a random vertical nine-patch

of happy-snaps

in and around my studio

nerines blooming, paint peeling

the studio angel

wondering when the next candle will be lit

a pile of sticks

and a small splodge of red dirt

collected in Andamooka years ago

we're in autumn now

means i can light real fires

and gaze out through that window

with the rusted bicycle chain

and the glimmer in the distance

reflecting on possibilties

next year sees another big meeting

for plant dye enthusiasts

ISEND2011 will be taking place at La Rochelle

in France

in the last week of April

so i've been thinking about what i might be doing

around that time

and have decided on two things

one will be a five day workshop/retreat in the UK

[first week of May 2011]

the other will be a four day retreat in Belgium

[16-19 May]

revisiting the beautiful garden that i fell in love with last year

[yes, i know it's not the Netherlands

but it's much closer than Australia]

so those of you who have kindly enquired

when i might be teaching in Europe

have a year's notice to keep space in your diaries

in case you're still interested

details will be on my website in a month or so

time is short so i won't be able to stay much later

or travel much further

[except to catch up with friends and family

in Austria and Germany]

as i have commitments in the U.S.A.

in the following month

and need to go home for a fresh pair of socks

in between

saved again

just as i was pondering

how artists survived in the days before credit cards

[in general they didn't do well until they were dead]

and thinking how nice it would be

if institutions that issued invitations to teach overseas

would forward something to the bank balance

at the time one is buying one's ticket for long-distance travel

a small note arrived from my publisher

advising me that royalty payments had been added to the jam jar

[i'd forgotten that such things might be due]

which rather saved the day

so THANK YOU to all those kindly people

who have purchased a copy of Eco Colour

for that which i have received

i am TRULY grateful!

on another note

the pictures pasted together here

are all of one species of Eucalypt

Eucalyptus gillii

every part of this lovely tree

offers delight in the dyepot

as well as for the eyes

hope they delight you, too

take it as red

while playing with a bit of reddish dirt

from the back paddock at home just now

i remembered there was still another camera

to download from the Flinders wandering

here's a nice finger painting from the Dogs/Gods above

the image below is from the inside of a curious vessel

used to hoist mud from the bottom of a well

during the construction stage

the little holes are for the water to run out

while the mud and rocks are being hauled to the surface

orange hills in a jewel-like landscape

contemplation of 'labours' at the end of the week...

odds n eKs

here we are in the driest [and least fertile] season

in the driest state

on the driest continent

in the sunny South

and Easter

- the religious festival of re-awakening

built around the much older Northern ceremony of renewal

[Oestre] that took place annually around the vernal equinox

with the arrival of the spring and the first eggs -

is in full swing

everywhere folks are celebrating

some by attending horse races [where horses are thrashed over obstacles at full gallop]

many by consuming vast amount of chocolate

and some by attending church

where their numbers are swelled

by what a cousin of mine refers to as the

"taucher Christen" - the "diving" Christians who bob up in church at Christmas and Easter

the older i grow

the more confusing it all appears

whatever your beliefs [or not]

i wish you a pleasant weekend

moreNorthpix

there were

petroglyphs at Chambers Gorge

and way up high at the top of the cliff

swifts were nesting

and making a spectacular aerobatics display

i collected bits of bark

and odd stones

even managed a swim in a crystal clear rockpool

the fat tadpoles kindly moved over and made space

the last time i saw the North look so green

was in 1989

the year my son was born

but there's a price to pay for greenery

here are the flies on my friends hat...

last light in the red dust

with modern technology

any idiot can take a good photo....