heat playing tricks with my mind

sometimes it's nice to wander back through the calendar
to have a look at where i was
at this time last year
pix above reveal moments in Denmark
finding a lovely orange wall in Copenhagen
that beautifully matched an ecoprint wool dress
and of course
lovely blue cool shadows
shot in the park not far from that wall
i'm rummaging in cool climate photos
because
it's warm here in South Australia
about 47 C
those of you who work in F
can calculate just how hot that is using the following formula
where C is the temperature in Celsius and
[surprise] F the equivalent in Farenheit

F = ( 28 + {[347 x C] + 278} x 512 ) divided by 2

oh and of course add 32 to account for the different freezing point.

pour yourself a nice cold cup of gin
and enjoy

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

Mit luftpudefartøj er fyldt med ål

the artist house at Tranum is in a magical spot

with a view on a wonderful red barn

that constantly changes colour with the light

we take long walks by the frozen sea

pondering whether the waves were so cold that they might have had the consistency of honey at the moment they suddenly froze

and in case anyone is wondering what the Yeti wears under its coat

the answer is

a LOT more than a Scotsman wears under his kilt

and [close up] it looks like this

but even in the snowyness

there's treasure to be found for a wandering dyer

at this moment the Yeti

turns into a Bear

and begins to dig and scratch

revealing seaweed, rich in colour

old habits die hard

at the end of our week of walking and working we pack our things and begin the trek back to Copenhagen

a taxi collects us from Tranum Strand for the short trip to Brovst. the driver, a cheerful and gregarious chap, looks as if he could be a cousin of Viggo Mortensen, complete with gap-toothed and charming smile

he's pleased to hear that i live in the Hundred of Jutland on the fringe of the Barossa Valley

and tells me something i know already, that the best Shiraz in the whirled comes from there as well

we are in complete agreement

he's also very keen on Crocodile Dundee who has just been shown on TV, again.

i resist the momentary temptation to tell him that I'm Crocodile Dundee's sister.

at Brovst we board a bus to Aalborg

where

after consuming the mandatory railway station hot chocolate

something one has to do once in ten years

but not more frequently

we find our train back to Copenhagen

refreshed in spirit

and still a little light-headed

after a splendid week

full of plans for what we are now calling

'The Planeta Project'

which [after our two Planeta exhibitions, the one in Ararat, Australia

and the other here in Copenhagen]

is taking a tip from the landscape

and beginning to snowball...

ps the title of this post translates as

"my hovercraft is full of eels"

just

because i can

what were they thinking??

sometimes it's a tad embarrassing to be part German.

it's all very well that my grandparents left the country in 1936

when Pa was a babe in arms

one is still guilty by association

on the beach at Tranum there are two bunkers

built by the German armed forces

or

more probably

built by Danish farmers pressed firmly into service

by German armed forces

imagine Feldwebel Utting, aged 19, cowering in this dark and sinister hole

does he wonder what he's doing here?

why he's not at home brushing the cows

and raking the hay?

does he miss his mother?

viewed up close the walls are quite beautiful in their own way

calcium from the water has made marks

and visiting artists made a few others

and how many Viking arrowheads, flint pebbles and cowl stones are lost in the aggregate added to the concrete mix?

there's something odd, though

the bunkers appear to have been built using timber formwork

but at the back and on one other side

there are marks like runes

made from the attachment of some fibre object to the formwork

was it some enterprising Danish soul

adding a permanent message to the outside of this monstrous construction?

if it was a subversive act

did Obersturmbannführer Bielefeld order retaliation?

the only thing known for certain is that these bunkers were built to last

nothing short of blowing them up will remove them

and this violent act

is shunned by the Danes

a pretty awful thing to do to a country

take over by force

and then leave a lasting monument

like a big stinking pile of dog poo

on the beach

and yet, in an odd way, they have a strange beauty.

it's a curious whirled.

ps thanks for all your friendly visits and comments, they're much appreciated.

i'll drop in and visit when i'm back home and have more time

in the land of ice and snow

just quickly

cos i'm checking my emails in a gallery space

in Jutland

that is a re-purposed cow shed

but has no nice warm cows to cuddle up with

hanging Planeta at the Mostings Hus in Copenhagen

the Carlsberg brewery pavement

the Danes know how to do colour

park residents

and

the Yeti, spotted on the coast of Jutland

Planeta in Denmark

for those of you whose Danish is a little rusty,

Lars Pryds has expanded on the above here