in the air and on the ground

silkymerino rolls looking much like bread dough

 last week i followed an old marmalade stain on the map

and found myself back at lovely Glenmore House

it had been a long day so i was particularly happy to be lulled to sleep

by the scent of my favourite jasmine [polyanthemum]

thoughtfully placed in my room by Mickey, bless her

a sniff and a whiff of that particular flower and i am seventeen again

at least

on the inside

we had a glorious sunshiny bluesky day for our "heart and hand intensive" 

botanical alchemy workshop

during which i was so busy that i hardly managed to take pictures

fortunately Mickey [and Alex the kindly gardener]

took lots. you can find them here

i did manage a happy snap of the cumquat icecream and rhubarb compote

swoonworthy deliciousness. 

and of our cooking fire

had there been time we would have stitched the glowing morsels [below]

into tsunobukuro bags

but by 4pm everyone was worn out

the next morning i prised myself out of bed
and hit the road for Tamworth
where I had been invited to come and inspect the gallery
prior to my exhibition there in December
the plan was to arrive on Friday evening, in time for the opening
of the 2nd Tamworth Textile Triennial

unfortunately
the inadvertent slashing of a tyre
caused by avoiding a close encounter of the unpleasant kind
with another motor vehicle
delayed my arrival until well after ceremonies had concluded
it would have been cheaper and faster to fly
even without the added cost of a new tyre
but the four hour wait was good writing time
and the five hour + drive was good thinking time
even if i did have to drink an awful lot of coffee





wandering around Tamworth on Saturday morning
i found a lot of men in hats



a rock from which someone had chipped all the bits that did not look like snake



an old friend far from home
[California poppy in a dry creek bed]



some stones to play with



and some rather too friendly seeds
Bidens pilosa
which had to be individually removed
NOT something i want to take home to the farm
even if they do resemble tiny stitches

after i had picked my dress clean
and had some breakfast i betook myself to the gallery



my favourite among the works in the Triennial
was that of Ilka White



the work below, by Gillian Lavery
based on a simple premise
of timed daily sitching
10 minutes with a piece of thread that measured from her
mouth to her belly button and back
needle in, needle out
breath in and breath out



every day for one calendar year
remarkable in its dedication and execution

there were others too
that i would have liked to have shown here
[but did not want to embroil myself in Viscopy issues]
including Kate Campbell-Pope
whom i had last encountered when we were together in the 'Seven Sisters' exhibition curated by Kevin Murray in 2004

it is an exhibition well worth seeing...and as it is touring Australia for the next couple of years many red island readers stand a good chance of finding it not too far from home.

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...

unexpected paperwork

last night i absentmindedly used the Cleveland wandering map

[kindly provided by Christine]

as a coaster.

i didn't want the condensation running down the side of my glass

to mark the lovely floor in my treehouse

this morning i thought i might go for a wander

and went to dream over the map

which was thoroughly stuck together.

now when this kind of thing happens in the movies

[or when somebody goes to surreptitiously steam open correspondence not intended for their eyes]

they simply whip the offending item over the steaming kettle

and within seconds the problem is solved.

in this instance

the problem was DIS-solved

- clearly the producers of the map have designed it to decompose quickly in the event of irresponsible tourists dropping said item in the Cleveland landscape.

note to students in the up-coming paperdye class : if you were thinking of bringing a local map to include in your work, don't.

stick with undyed, unprinted papers please...

the wayfarers begin their wanderbook [in Goleta]

we are here in a private garden

and delightful studio

in Goleta, California

happily stitching on and boiling up

paper

 

everything we need is here

 windfallen on the pavements

drifting from the trees

unfolding from the pockets of the participants

los angeles to goleta by train

in quiet retreat

it is time for quiet retreat in the cool of the Deep South
a time for wordlessness and mindfulness in the season of mist and fog
preparing for summer days in various parts of the North

and of course for the Natural Dye Symposium taking place in Melbourne [AUS] in a little over a month's time [where i think a couple of places remain available in the classes i have been assigned]

the class planned for Santa Barbara [USA]
has filled, as have those in Cleveland [USA] in the Fall

the class in London seems to be getting some interest [despite a certain large sporting event vying for attention] and there's a possibility of two days in France early in September...pencilled but not permanently inked at this stage

so i have some things to think about
materials to gather
marks to make on paper
and marmalade stains to apply to maps

some time later

one of the side benefits of living at a teaching space is having playtime after hours. and Crockett Cottage Studio at Mansfield is a particularly pleasant place to play at