making tracks...or taking them

although i love driving

i also like trains

they give me a chance to

observe the local flora

and think my way into a place

+ there are some places it's hard for me to drive away from

so it's better if the control of the vehicle is out of my hands

 [fortunately for me i will be back very soon]

also

handsfree locomotion means i can play with the batfone

and with amusing photofilters

bear with me.

the 'City of New Orleans' runs to Chicago through 

fascinating country. we even spot alligators sunning themselves 

[no snaps, too busy gazing in wonderment]

after a brief legstretch in Chicago

[hoofing it from Union Station across to the lake

and up the shore a bit then back along the river to the station again]

we pick up the hire car

and head east

following our noses.

Dog willing and with a fair wind

we'll be in Cleveland tomorrow.

 

background work

 

 

usually i swing into the US through San Francisco

this time i came in via Dallas and pootled down to New Orleans

where i had a few errands to run

on the way to Cleveland

a splendid purple bicycle now awaits me

for when i return to take up the residency 

at the end of this month

i plan to cycle all over this town

and

up and down the banks of the Big Muddy

but today i simply walked around a lot.

 

the folk at Madeline Island School

have asked me to let you know that the class i am leading there next summer is half filled

so if you were considering that possibility it's probably worth making a decision soonish

please contact Madeline Island School of the Arts’ website for details

 

a thoroughly rotten apple...

yesterday was my one day at home
after Geelong and before heading Stateside for two and a half months
i filled it with as much as i could
laundering clothes
packing new sets of workshop materials
having a gin with my mother
and laptime with Martha

who is not best pleased by the sight of the suitcase
i even spent an hour blissfully weeding in the garden
creating a small patch of order in what otherwise resembles a hayfield

and was put in mind of my favourite scene in Michael Ondaatje's book
'The English Patient'
where the nurse, Hana, takes her nailscissors and cuts a perfect footsquare patch of lawn in the long grass around the monastery where she is caring for the burned man
[it's not in the movie version, which makes it easier to imagine somehow]

i took photos of the roses
the quince blossom
the rich chocolate earth
crab apples
and the horses

and then last thing at night
after cooking dinner and while doing the dishes
i foolishly downloaded a so-called update on my iPhone

and then
my phone no longer worked.
so i had no alarm to wake me for the 4am airport trek
and consequently stayed up all night so i wouldn't miss my flights

i've managed to restore some of the functions to my phone
but all the audiobooks have disappeared
as well as my lovely late afternoon photos.

i'm not at all happy with Apple at present.
on the bright side
i shouldn't have trouble sleeping on the plane
having now been wide-awake for 29 hours...

nine days later

it was a glorious week on the shores of Corio Bay

at the Geelong Textile Forum

[conceived, organised and brilliantly run by Janet de Boer and her fabulous team of dedicated volunteers]

where i taught as part of the "Design Focus" group

the weather threw everything at us 

from thunder and lightning and soaking downpours

to balmy blossom-filled spring sunshine

it was a wonderment to see how many people are including 

ecoprint items in their wardrobes these days

often as foil to bold pinks and purples

and it was a joy to be told by former students

[taking part in other classes]

that they had brought their plant-dyed samples

to incorporate in new work.

 

being at a Forum for a week

is a little like being encloistered

away from incoming news and most other media

so

in the quiet evenings i managed to work my way through some of the reading pile

including

'a Field Guide to Getting Lost' by Rebecca Solnit

which contains delicious and devourable text  [example below]

we all worked solidly, even on our one afternoon off

and there was much burning of midnight oil

as people dyed and stitched into the wee hours

on the last day

we sewed some rather lovely garments

and the students all wore theirs to the last supper

and now i'm dashing home for a day

to wash my socks and scanties

empty and refill my suitcase

ready to fly out to the United States

on Monday morning

Marking Time and Mapping the Spirit

this is the title of an exhibition i am in

together with Susan Gaylord

Christine Mauersberger has bravely been hanging the work

challenged by a compact gallery space

and by a somewhat erratic correspondent [me]

she has kindly sent a few pix of the bump-in

meanwhile i am at home in amongst the blossoms

marking time and mapping the spirit in another way

sewing a dress [and a nightie to replace the lost one]

fashioning a cardiganthingy from a woolly jumper [that's 'sweater' for Americans]

and wondering just what i will do in the last week of October

[too short a time to hop home and back]

there had been talk of visiting Alabama

but plans seem to be skittering about like fireflies on a warm June night

maybe

it's a sign

to take time out 

before heading to New Orleans on All Hallows Eve

ready to take up my residency on All Souls Day

east or west

flip a coin?

 +++++++++

Marking Time and Mapping the Spirit: Two Artists of the Natural World

will be on display at the Howson Gallery at Judson Park, Cleveland, OH, September 21, 2012 - October 28, 2012.

The Howson Gallery is located at Judson Park retirement community, 1801 Chestnut Hills Drive, Cleveland Heights, OH 44106. 

Call (216) 791-2885 for gallery hours.

the eye of the whirlywind

the calm days at the eye of the whirlywind have been a delight
yesterday in perfect weather
Roz and i pootled off to Reedy Creek

...after i took advantage of a Qantas special and booked my flight to New Zealand for the workshops there in January...which may quite possibly be the only Southern Hemisphere classes for me next year unless the pencilled plans for Queensland are inked soon - i'm locked in now so if NZ doesn't fill i'll be in the Land of the Long White playing somewhere anyways :o)

where [the story is back in Reedy Creek after that quick aside]
in the slightly sideways light of
JustAfterMiddayInSpring
i spotted a petroglyph i hadn't noticed before
quite possibly because i have usually followed a trail that passes directly beneath it
and
when following that trail had been keeping a firm eye on my family of mountain goats
not
looking up for signs in rocks

unfortunately the pocket pinhole camera doesn't have quite enough resolution
to clearly show the image from across the canyon

so i'll show you the tannin-rich water instead

there was just enough time
to build a calming rockstack
before the airport run

life

it's good to be home for a bit

and be involved in life

this weekend we celebrated a wedding

it took place a while back but didn't get the attention it deserved at the time

because there was deep sadness in the family

about a passing

and the dancing feet were limping

 the woolshed scrubbed up very well

especially as Roz swung in from Queensland

to lend a hand

draped the place with twinkle lights

and apple blossom

the feast comprised both Latvian and Maori yumminess

[including Hangi, Pīrāgi, potato salad, delicious cakes]

with a little southern US influence

[pulled pork] 

thrown in for good measure

and of course there was a bonfire

next day the coals called for a dyepot

 

 

and when i awoke this morning

and was looking at the stains here and there

i was put in mind of Stuart Kestenbaum's beautiful words

photographed at an exhibition on Deer Isle recently

the TSA had fun

 

the TSA certainly had fun this time

they left two notes in the leather hold-all that is my portable studio

took the gaffer tape off my jar of maple syrup

[guess who will be experimenting with maple syrup stains on cloth as pre-mordant]

and i can't work out whether they kept my nice silk nightgown

or whether i foolishly left it behind at the last helltell

but

at least my crown

[thank you Sally and Ben]

arrived home intact

tucked safely inside my North America 110 volt dyepot

[thank you Monika, the little sputnik is travelling well]

i know it's not fashionable to say so in Australia

i know it's not fashionable to say so in Australia

but 

i love America*

maybe it's cos i have some history here

but i think it's a bit more than that

i've had wonderful times here

many pleasant encounters

deeply quiet moments

amusing conversations

along with unfailing politeness and courtesy

i'm as familiar with the woods in New England
as i am with the sclerophyll forests in Oz
thanks to my mother who told me what was which
when i was little

this week past i took some days

flying solo

on a roadtrip north from Boston to Haystack

and then back down again

an excursion for which i didn't once need a map

...that says something, i think

waiting at Logan airport for my flight home

reflecting on the journey

and gazing happily at my new boots

[bought in New Hampshire cos 

the stitching finally gave out on my old trusties - 

which will now become the sloppy farm boots for home]

i am well content

especially with the thought

that i will be back

very

soon

*and that doesn't mean i am being a disloyal Australian,

just that i feel i have two [and quite possibly more] homes....

things that happen in childhood seem to have long-lasting effects