an unexpected event

this is not the sort of thing you want to see

when you are flying over your home patch

the Eden Valley fire ignited about 11am on January 17

[about the same time as i arrived at Adelaide airport]

by the time my flight was in the air

it had grown to a substantial blaze

thing is, when 13 people are relying on you to show up wearing you best set of bunny ears

there's really no option of pulling the plug and heading back home into the smoke

i have my fingers crossed that my family will be sensible

and for now at least the wind has changed

[which just means that it's a completely crap situation for somebody else]

after a sleepless night in Wellington

and a quick totter down Taranaki street to Te Papa

for some calming Colin McCahon therapy

 i hopped the straits to Nelson

to be wrapped in a huge warm welcome 

which made me feel a whole lot better

[on the way at the airport i taught a woman how to make string

because she was fascinated by what i was up to -

she hopped on her flight with a handful of wet silk shreds

and much enthusiasm, bless her]

anyway the fire is not the unexpected event. 

in Australia it's not a question of "if" the country will burn

but "when".

that's how it is.

the unexpected event

[title deliberately purloined from Tolkien]

was this

a parcel

addressed to me

from kowtow

a clothing company based in Wellington

there was a sweet note

and beautifully packed

between deliciously rustling tissue paper

two gorgeously soft timeless fabulous pieces

made from Fairtrade Organic cotton

and in a very comfy size.

thank you kowtow

i know where i will be shopping for simple

soft but sturdy things to wear

under winter layers

or for soft spring afternoons

[in summer i do a complete cover up]

i think our work goes very well together!

loose ends

even though i keep a calendar things do get lost
so today

[after a quick pootle to the seaside to meet and exchange dye stories with Latvian master weaver Maris Manins who is visiting the annual summer school at Dzintari , a place i've long thought would make a fine retreat location]

i came home and made a list for this year
and added it to my website

that way, if i fall out of the sky at some point
at least someone in my family has access to the people that will need to be contacted
so it's an insurance policy
as much as a running sheet

it's a surprisingly long list.
but idle hands are the devil's playground.

it's hot and there is smoke on the horizon

and a bit closer, a funny shape

no, not a Pushmi-pulyu
just two friends having a scratch

 while Kelpie gives an excellent impression of a Stubbs painting

there is packing to do for a hop across the ditch and this year i do hope to travel a bit lighter than in recent months

 it mightn't be quite as light as this, but i'm working on it.
my back isn't what it used to be since the stair-tumble in Portland.

i'm also working on this dress
loving the way the shapes are forming
pondering which trees i'll be asking for donations
and wandering over the surface with needle and thread
drawing lines and making marks

and am thrilled to bits that people have begun to send me images of their stuffed, steeped and stored jars
to add to the virtual pantry

this jar holds the remnants of the bunch of roses Ma gave me for my birthday in December
together with a handful of copper nails i found on Granville Island
when i was visiting Maiwa last September

poor fellow my country

i'm using the title of Xavier Herbert's significant contribution for good reason. 

"This book is the decisive story of how in those vital years, Australia threw away her chance of becoming a true commonwealth. The dream of Australia Felix, The Happy South Land.The book will long remain in the memory and is undoubtedly Herbert's supreme contribution to Australian literature."

Australia has now been handed to a party of  environmental destructivists.

the Liberal Party, led by someone whose avowed mission it is to cut down the last of the tall trees we have left, is going to be in charge of our sinking ship.

Australia is in deep environmental trouble. each bushfire that burns thousands of acres of forest contributes to reductions in rainfall. reduced leaves, reduced transpiration, reduced clouds, reduced rainfall

and when rainfall reduces, then regeneration does too. or we get massive crops of woody weeds instead of trees. so with the countryside already under threat [and remember we are the driest continent]

and with all the raving about reducing carbon emissions - wouldn't it make sense to leave the last tall trees [which are basically carbon + water + a few other things] standing to get on with the business of converting carbon dioxide to oxygen

rather than being pulped to provide newsprint and toilet paper. 

poor fellow, my country. 

the wrap [and what happened to a dress that was in the river]

yesterday i left New Orleans

it was a wonderful four weeks "in residence"

during which i found new excitement in my work

and gained a bit of an understanding 

 of some of the local flora

but it also went a good deal deeper. 

i first visited New Orleans in 1983

in the year of the Ash Wednesday fires

our family home had been one of the casualties

and the option of travelling to North America to help my grandparents pack their belongings for a return to Australia after some 24 years residence in Canada seemed a very good escape from a life that had become a merry-go-round of working at my job with the Arts Council during the week and then helping with the rebuild on the weekends when i wasn't on tour

in this month, hearing stories about what my friends and others went through after 'the storm' i've learned to be grateful

in comparison to flooding, fire is relatively clean. things are burned instead of being distributed across the region

and while there were some toxic things to be dealt with [ie piles of arsenic+copper ash from "green" pine posts] the earth and the remains were not soaked with chemicals and oil and sewage and ghastliness.

we didn't have to deal with refrigerators full of rotting food

or be evacuated hundreds of miles away from where we belonged
there were a few looters
but by and large people behaved in a civilized fashion
 

within a few days of the rain that followed the fires

lilies were pushing their way up through the blackened earth

and almost as soon as the ashes had cooled

the telephone company laid a line across them

so my parents had a phone amongst the debris

i'm telling you all this to give you an idea of [some of] what i was thinking while this new body of work was brewing.

 Chris Rose's book, "One dead in Attic" puts life very sharply into perspective.

and now on a much lighter note

here are a few details of the work in the Riverside gallery

the two below aren't in the show

as they were opened after it was hung

and the last bundle i opened

was a dress that had been to the river

i gave it a thorough wash test

in Schiro's laundromat

and am delighted to say

it "came up a treat"

i think i am beginning to get the hang of dyeing cotton

the Day of the Phoenix

today is a kind of birthday for me
29 years ago i emerged somewhat sooty but otherwise unharmed
along with a shell-shocked German Shepherd [the canine variety, not the other sort]
from the 1983 bushfires

and while i certainly don't need to find excuses to celebrate being alive
[nor am i fishing for any sympathy, believe me!]
i do subscribe to the German saying "Man muss die Feste feiern, wie sie fallen"
which more or less translates as
"you have to celebrate the festivals as they come"
or more plainly
"any excuse for a party"


so it was a lovely "birthday" present to find myself mentioned on Donna Watson's lovely blog

thank you.

in turn i will give a kind of present...

my erstwhile student and now friend Trace Willans has plans to travel to Europe in May/June. i had vaguely thought i might pootle over in July but as she's going first and is very keen to put together a teaching tour
i thought i'd mention it here

swing over to her blog [where she rightly labels herself as a Self-Reliant Artist]
to see what she does
and leave her a message in the comments to set things in motion

honey[s], i'm home...well nearly...

i've been away a while and now have the luxury of blobbing in the Q lounge and catching up on a veritable avalanche of mail

the interpixies weren't available to play in Mansfield [or Healesville]

so i had the luxury of catching up on writing and stitching

without the de'il's tempting me astray

i dawdled my way to Healesville

gathering fragments from railway lines

and pockets full of windfalls

[birds-eye view above]

the venue they'd organised was delightful

with a lovely deck overlooking the Maroondah Dam

and distant hills

here's proof

in a reflection

one of the students brought her dog

and

since everyone was happy to have pet therapy

we encouraged her to bring the dog in

when said hound realised that sticks were needed for the wrapping of bundles

she brought in LOTS

but was so busy and fast that all my shots are but a blur

after each day's work

i walked in the beautiful forest

ferns and small blue flowers

flourished amidst tall blackened trees

this koru

reminded me of my soul home across the water

Aotearoa

whereas the one below brings back another one

San Francisco

and the purple-leaved plum trees

up by Grace Cathedral

on Nob Hill

thoughts at dawn

while there's nothing we can do to ease the pain of those who have lost family and friends and homes in the terrible fires ... we can offer support.

donating through the Red Cross helps with the basics and i know of folks who are giving their caravans for housing; but there'll be other things that are missing that are not so easily replaced such as the stash of threads, yarns and fabrics that those of us who work with textiles always have about the place. not to mention those favourite books.

seems trivial but i recall even 10 years after Ash Wednesday thinking i'd just rummage in the cupboard for some treasure or other to make something with and then recalling that it now formed part of the foundations of the rebuilt house

so here's the thought...

we're not such a big country in terms of "knowing somebody who knows somebody"... if we take the trouble to find that friend of a friend who could use some help and make up a care parcel designed specifically for that person it will do a little bit of good towards rebuilding a life.

i've sent one off already and if you know of someone else who could use a little something from India Flint i'd be happy to hear from you. email me via the contact page on my website with a mailing address for the person and a brief outline of their textile interests and i'll see what i can do.