peregrinations in Portugal

I've never been to this beautiful country before 

but

it's already on my returns list

and

next time 

I need to know more words than just

saudade & obrigada

there are stones to play with

i've hung my dresses in this castle

surrounded by Sally Stafford's beautiful paintings

   

a fierce guard dog keeps watch on the castle steps

   

the light is so clear you could cut and butter it

and tonight

our exhibition opens

see y'all there?

ai = love

i worked all day saturday
and then on sunday
i thought
i will just pop in and do a few stitches
and then i will go out and wander somewhere
take a look at Portland

the Dogs had other plans
when i looked outside
it looked like this

that window is my studio

i think it may be
that i am in love with blue
it is a colour that takes me to a quite specific place and time
James Tate wrote beautifully about it
[click on the audio icon to hear the poem being read aloud]
there's a good reason why the Japanese word for blue is the same as the Japanese word for love 

or so i have been told.

today i was thinking about our blue planet
and how the maps we have available are always too small
especially for someone has left footprints on four of the seven continents [gazing at Egypt from the deck of a boat on the Suez Canal as a toddler sadly doesn't count as stepping in Africa]; who keeps a bicycle in New Orleans, a cat in South Australia, her heart in San Francisco and "einen Koffer in Berlin"       ##
 
so
i played around in Photoshop
and made a map that is really useful for planning trips
because
it allows you to compare distance easily with a piece of string [well, except for the curly bits around the poles] and goodness me, what a lot of blue!!!!

got any good maps you'd care to share?



## i plant trees to make up for all this wanton wandering...

in the shadow of the wall

10 hours of Very Fast Train later
and we're in Berlin
after having to think carefully every time i open my mouth
in the Francophile regions
it's good to be in a country where the words come easily

tomorrow i have a special errand
taking photos for a Berliner back home
whose travelling days are behind her

england, america and possibly also australia

England and America are two countries separated by a common language.

George Bernard Shaw
Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 - 1950

there was a comment made in regard to the previous post
that set me thinking

the words were
"what if you did?"

here in Oz, it could suggest that the subject of the remark
was of little interest
on the other hand it may have indicated an enquiry
who knows
and it really doesn't matter

however it made me google the quote [above] and now
forces me to acknowledge that i have been erroneously ascribing this gem to Oscar Wilde
[and sometimes in a weak moment, Winston Churchill]

so that's sorted. good.
here's a Sunday harvest
bouquets all round on a glorious day

oh really?

[oder vielleicht auch nicht...] *spotted in a window on Market Street, San Francisco

i see that someone who had her first experience of eucalyptus dyes in a two day class with me last year is now teaching about them at a European Museum. Apparently she will " teach everything you need to know about how to dye with Eucalyptus"

wow.

that's a promise that i am not brave enough to make - i haven't even learned all of the botanical names of the 1000 plus species and sub-species of that miraculous genus yet

or experimented with them all individually

maybe i should sign up for the class...

or retire

die Verwandlung [or back through the looking glass]

i have departed the land of mountain rainbows

and swirling snowflakes

where at certain times of the year it is possible to walk on water

[irrespective of when your birthday is]

and returned to Oz

to shrug off my mantle of European-ness

and hide it in the loft like a selkie-skin

back

to daily life in my second language

Frankfurt airport dusted with icing sugar snow

felt like an exit from a faerietale

dansk

on packing up 'watermarks' yesterday i was given a surprise parcel which had been delivered to the space for me...i'll spare you the long story of where's and whyfore's, and cut to the chase. the bag contained several lovely Asian textile fragments (Japanese. Thai and Indonesian by the looks of them), a number of books on natural dyeing (among them Hetty Wickens' excellent 1986 book 'Natural Dyes for Spinners and Weavers ' that had so far eluded capture) and last but not least a large folder full of natural dye samples made in Denmark (Europe, not Western Australia) in 1974.

while many of the plant names (ahorn, birke, krap) can be deduced from a knowledge of German/English/Latvian it does seem that the universe is suggesting it is time to add Danish to the list of languages i can 'get into trouble' in...especially seeing as i will be exhibiting there with my friend Anette in the northern autumn next year.

ah well, i once heard a health expert propound the theory that for a long and healthy life one should drink red wine, eat dark chocolate, make love regularly, reject the elevator and learn something new every day...

a new day dawns