Sigh

"Leaving San Francisco is like saying goodbye to an old sweetheart. You want to linger as long as possible."

- Walter Cronkite

once again I'm faced with leaving this beloved place, though I only landed here yesterday lunchtime and feel that I've hardly arrived

cherry blossoms abound

dogwoods

and roses. 

Though it is peony season I've only found them at second hand

I've roamed my traditional 490 acre territory (I'll explain that when I'm not typing with on finger on the batfone) 

Reading telegraph pole poetry with my fingers

it's written in Braille after all

Checked that things are as they should be

The tailors dummy is still in the window on Columbus 

the only addition at some point in the last 38 years has been this 

a British style guide dated 1987

A favourite tree doing very nicely thank you

and in Sterling park on Russian Hill, the heart I left there last year

still in place on the tree

The gorgeous gardens on the Filbert steps are still buzzing with bumblebees

Up on T hill

the store that I daydream about occupying as a studio for a while

is changing hands yet again. It has fabulous views of the Bay and Coit tower and across to Russian Hill

I pick up some saxophone reeds at Union Music

and some carving tools at the Japanese hardware store

and then follow my nose into Susan Vanasco-Howell's tiny but luscious bead store at 1900A Fillmore, emerging twenty minutes later with a string of blue beads, a red rose (given to me by said Susan) and the discovery that Susan and I have birthdays on consecutive days and agree on a lot of things

and that was only the tip of the iceberg of what I did in San Francisco.

I even bumped into my auntie. Well, not her physical self as we lost her two years ago, but evidence that she is around. I was thinking about her and how she loved this city too and then I glanced at my feet and saw this sign

it was her stock response whenever any one of us told her we loved her (our standard sign off on the telephone).

There she was. Large as life. 

now it's pumpkin time and I have to be at the airport early tomorrow 

so I shall consign myself to bed and the lullaby of the foghorns

leaving y'all in the hands of one of the local saints

See...there is truly a saint for every occasion. And I'm gonna be missing Saint Frank. 

what's in the bag, indeed

having very publicly condemned the transport of bio-hazards around the whirled i thought i would share with you, for your amusement, the pre-flight clearing of the lovely Whipping+Post tote that carries the bits and bobs i seem to need each day

what the picture doesn't show [because i took them out already]

a journal [stuffed to the gills with scraps]

my passport

stones from Baker Beach, Lopez Island and Willunga Beach 

a seashell from Port Elliot

my SilkyMerino infinity scarf

my batfone

a lot of pencils and a small watercolour set

my trusty raybans

a couple of tsunobukuro shopping bags 

a rusty nail from New Orleans

and also a fan from the above

the bombay sapphire bottle i carry water in

several messy notes on the backs of envelopes

and the dress i was finishing while waiting somewhere

there's a reason this tote is called the Swiss Army Knife of bags!

and what got tipped onto the blanket

moo cards

a star-spangled baci wrapper

a lone gingin [thankyou Christine]

Aesop deliciousness

several buttons from a thrift store coat

random coinage from several countries

ticket stub from the fabulous Mr Laurie's concert

an empty Altoid box [in which i put water for painting]

a marquisite pin from St Thomas' thrift store

a pod from a gleditsia tree at Flinders University

lovely black felt pens for drawing

an Ikea pencil and others

the stub from a plane ticket

a drinking straw in a paper wrapper

several rubber bands

some string

and rather a lot of dry crumbled eucalyptus leaves

+  +  +

it's all clean and tidy now

lots of space for stocking up on Altoids

in San Francisco later this week.

and i think i might allow myself a new journal.

even though i should probably just make one.

May or may not.

i have work to do

and packing to contemplate

things like this to send in parcels

and weed lists to find for the Pacific North West.

i haven't blown my sax in days.

instead i have been infested by tigers.

very 

little ones

well,

one tiny one and one slightly bigger one. 

the missing page

there was one more page i wanted to include in the recently published book of student work
but
for some reason i had filed it as 'z.doc', i suppose because i intended it to be the last page
and then
it got lost in the electronic filing system.

but as they say in the old country
"wer suchet, der findet"
and today i found the page so here is the text it would have contained.

I have on many occasions also been a student and would like to acknowledge and thank those who taught me. I wish I could remember all of your names but alas, age hath wearied and the years condemned...and some of the detail has become fuzzy with time.

But here’s a spirited attempt to list at least some of you :

Mrs Pownall [Nature Studies, Shelford CEGGS, Melbourne]

Mrs Williams [English and History, PLC, Melbourne]

Michael Peake [Art, Heathfield High School]

Nalda Searles [string theory]

Karen Diadick Casselman [lichenologist and dyer]

Dorothy Caldwell [textiles]

Christopher Orchard [storyteller and magician of charcoal]

Helen Carnac [enamellist]

Robin Best [ceramicist]

Julian Roberts [fashion]

Roz Hawker (metal magic)

Velma Bolyard (shifu)
Sandra Brownlee (notebooks that beg to be held)

John Kelley (my sax teacher)

Naomi Shihab Nye [poet]

John Schenk [Architect]

David Thomson [nurseryman]

Karoly Szabo [nurseryman]

Bob Blows  [nurseryman]

Tex [whose “real” name is lost but who was a stylish and erudite Professor in the Architecture Department at the University of Adelaide in the 70s]

Victor MacFarlane [Professor of Anatomy, University of Adelaide]

Brian Grigg [human encyclopaedia of sheep]

Arthur Phillips [watercolourist]
Joyce Schulz (milliner, cocktail appreciator and philanthropist)

Nikki Jackson [the miracle of the trashcan kiln]

Nancy Harford (interior designer, collector and passionate "liver of life")

...and of course my entire family, that goes without saying

+  +  +  +  +

i feel much happier now that's done.

in fact, i look a lot like i do in this picture, shot by the fabulous Haley Renee

flight patterns

one of the pieces i worked on while in residence in Portland last year

is now showing in Flight Patterns at Hartsfield Jackson Airport in Atlanta, USA

it's a little hard to see the detail of my work in the photo below

but it gives you an idea

L-R:
India Flint, Night Flight
Mary Ruth Smith, Flowers in the Clouds
Bounxou Daohaeung, Bird Kingdom
Michael James, The Long Flight: Sanctuary

image by Dot Moye

+   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   + 

this is what i wrote at the time about the making of 'nightflight'

-->

in memory of Dr Peter Schwerdtfeger
Professor Emeritus
Meteorologist, Glaciologist and Pilot
23 December 1935 - 20 August 2013

the making of 'NightFlight' was generously supported by the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans through a two week artist residency, co-facilitated by the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and also by the Oregon College of Art + Craft through a subsequent six-week residency. 

Silk for the project was donated by Beautiful Silks in Melbourne, Australia

'NightFlight' was dyed firstly wrapped around a piece of driftwood, using windfallen leaves as the initial colourant. The nocturnal shades were added by grace of an organically fermented indigo vat.

those of you with a copy of 'fieldnotes' may already be familiar with another piece of related text which also appears 

here

woooooot!!

it's done!
now 2.41 am in the wee small hours of the morning
but
i am off to bed
because
the student celebration book is done.

if i've messed anything up, please forgive me
but i've done my best
with the materials supplied

and because it weighs in at 216 pages
which makes it rather pricey in the paper version

i've also made it into an ebook
- the only drawback being that some of the image sizes had to be reduced
for better viewing on "retina displays"

so thank you, those of you who sent in pictures and words.
i hope you like it!

fingerfood

ha.

i bet when you read "fingerfood"
you thought of the wedding reception in "Love Actually"
or
if you are my age
of prunes wrapped in bacon
strange stripy sandwiches cut on the diagonal
and those funny lurid coloured cocktail onions

that's not what this is about.
i'm talking the fingerfood that is the soft caress of SilkyMerino
fresh from the cauldron

it's just too delicious.
and i can't stop running my fingers over the surface.

the fabulous thing about SilkyMerino, aside from magical properties in the dyebath
and that it is delivered as an extremely useful tube
is that the merino part is pure new Australian wool sourced from fine wool producers in NSW
mixed with a little silk
and then transformed into this superb fabric.
this dress was made for my agent, Jen Loew
who trusts me that it's going to be perfect for summer in New York
as well as any other climate anywhere else.
she specified comfy.
comfy is winging its way to her.

and of course it has a little camouflaged pocket.
of which there will be stories in the 'shapeshifter' book
[which is the next one in line once i finish the student celebration book]
and did i mention that it smells really nice?

home sweet home

it's good to be home for a bit

sleeping in my own bed

window open, Martha-cat draped across my arm

mingled scent of lemon flowers and roses

drifting in across my pillow

while the dreaming ducks mutter outside

that last image is what happens when you mix them up

using the Diana app

wandering locally

marvelling at indigenous flora

reading tracks in the sand

as well as some very kind words

written about me 

here

and of course

minding the baby

dyeing a few things

and catching up on some sewing

only because you asked so nicely

i've had at least half a dozen workshop enquiries from Queensland in the past ten days
and so when i was booking my flights for the US next month
it seemed that fate was poking me
when the possibility for coming home through Brisbane emerged

my friend Roz kindly agreed that i could swing in for a visit on my way home
and share a stitch-and-bundle day around the firepit in her beautiful garden

[the end of May is usually gorgeous in Queensland but if it DOES rain we have a plan]

we will be working with my favourite ever cloth and thread
to make a versatile and gorgeous "snug-as-a-bug in SilkyMerino"
that folds into its own pocket

i'm envisioning the day as intensive and soul-nourishing

and i'm going to post all the materials we need to her ahead of time
so that all you need to bring will be your scissors and thread

Roz and i are planning a lovely lunch for you
[vegetarian, gluten free, keeping dairyfoods on the side]
with a glass or two of wine [or juice or that nectar from the gods, water]
while the bundles bubble in the cauldron
rest assured there WILL also be chocolate [possibly even from San Francisco seeing as i'm coming home that way] so it will be body-nourishing as well

after lunch i'll demonstrate some nifty cutting tricks while the bundles cool
before we have the glorious reveal

please drop a line to Roz if you're keen

rozhawker09[at] gmail[dot] com

or email me via the contact page on my website
and i'll forward more details