Just back.

G'Day,
Yep we have been to the south coast again. These next few pictures were all taken this morning of Foxglove Spires garden at Tilba Tilba, south of Bateman's bay. I have been here before, years ago when the kids were small, but as is commonplace at that life stage, we didn't have the spare pennies to pay the entry price to go into the gardens to look around. Today we did. Oh they are so beautiful. Even in winter time. The owners sure have pulled off a coup showing their beauty and potential at this time of year. I must try to go back in a few months when everything is in bloom for spring. They would be wonderful then. I couldn't take many photos today because I think the memory card in my camera is going to die soon because it kept saying that the memory was full and even when I deleted some of the pics it wouldn't change and let me take more so...I really will have to go back, won't I.
Ok pic above is of Arum lilies at the gardens.
This is an iris. I have the same plant again at home in a large pot. My beautiful potting friend Kath Breed gave me a piece of it years ago. Here in Canberra it is colder, so mine is no where near flowering yet.
The gardens there are so lovely, down each pathway and around every corner are secret places to discover, to sit and soak up the view and contemplate. There was a for sale sign out the front, so If you have the money I am sure you could buy it for me,,, nah on second thoughts the present owners work would be too hard to live up to. I do so want a garden of my own again but not 3.2 hectares of it to look after. Hehehe.
Meadows of bulbs, scented with daphne and violets. Flower buds just beginning to swell with their promise of perfect spring colors to come.


Pathways that draw you down and around the next corner to discover a new vista.

And many woven archways and corridors , now bare branches but soon to be covered in flower, then cool green swathed tunnels in summer.
One of the things so nice about living here in Canberra is the access we have to wonderful places to see. We are close to the beaches, close to the bush, close to the snow and also close to the big smoke, Sydney. All within a few short hours drive. We drove down the King's highway, east to the coast at Bateman's bay, then turned south along the coast. We usually turn north from there, but this time we had a change. I have over the years been along all these roads before, but it is nice to recount old places and we have not been that way for years.
I may be biased but I still think that north of Bateman's bay is my favorite. But south of there is nice too, just rockier and smaller beaches mostly.
Anyway we visited some of the little towns in the area. Tuross Heads district; beautiful lakes there. Mirror surfaced and filled with tiny fishes seen from the boathouse wharf where we lunched on fish and chips, of course, what else would you eat in such a place.
Stayed overnight in a small motel at Narooma. We parked my little car right at the door of the suite and Rufus (our Jack Russell doggie) slept in the car. Had dinner at O'Brien's pub just down the road. Rufus enjoyed his doggie bag, lamb shank bones. Was funny though the bones were gone this morning, I guess a wandering doggie or a crow or some such, found them and cleaned them away for us. Sunday morning dawned damp but the rain soon disappeared.
This pic above is of a tangle of bushes at the bottom of the cliff face at Narooma. They looked like a great hiding place for kids to hide and play, they are most likely hollowed out underneath, as a pathway for animals to make their way down onto the beach below.
These two pictures are of a weathered rock formation on the beach at Narooma. It is called Australia rock, the reason for this, on viewing is obvious.
As my camera wasn't doing what it should so that is all of the pics I was able to share.
We also had a dawdle around Tilba village and visited the cheese factory and lolly shop there and of course, who could resist those, We didn't. The village is heritage listed and full of little craft and gift shops. We drove down further through Cobargo, and Bega down to Tathra where we stopped in a park beside the beach and cooked a BBQ lunch. Then had a bit of walk along the beach and a coffee on the footpath at the local bakery. We have been very naughty all weekend with our eating habits. Lollies, fried foods etc.
I will be good again tomorrow. ....I will!
Traveled home via Cooma. The traffic was substantial, with strings of cars heading home wards from the snow. Oh My God what do some of them think they are doing driving that way they do. I know they want to get home quickly but it would be nice if they got home in one piece, which was doubtful considering the risks some of them were taking. Bloody idiots. I saw some overtaking in very dangerous places with other cars coming towards them, tailgaters, even a semi tailgating a learner rider on a small motorbike, who nervously kept looking behind him but wouldn't pull over and let the truck pass. Temporary Australians, shame they might take someone else with them though.
Anyway. Must get myself a new memory card for my camera.
Bye.
Love Linda.

Change of direction.

G'Day,
Just thought I would pop in here and add a post to record what I have been doing this week. I have had a bit of a change in direction during the week. A compulsion to pick up a paint brush and take my scribblings one step further than bits and scraps of paper scribbled on.
So...what led me here?
On Thursday afternoon I went with a group of Potter's society members to the National Gallery here in Canberra for a guided tour of the indigenous art galleries and a talk and display in their study room of some ceramics held by the gallery of work by indigenous artists.
The first few pics added here are of a large ball placed near the entrance of the gallery done by an artist I have long loved and whom has inspired me with her works. In the study room we were given a talk which was mostly centered on her. We got to see and discuss about 5 of her pots not on display at the moment plus some other works.
She died earlier this year and as is custom after an aboriginal person's death, we should not say her tribal name. I don't know is that applies to writing it, as I do here. The plaque actually says she is called Thapich, which translated in her language is "that person". I always knew her by her other name, Thancoupie, which I have also seen spelt as Thanakupi. Her Mission name is Gloria Fletcher. The tour guide at the gallery gave 2 explanations of the reason for this. First one was that it would disturb her soul from concentrating on it's rest and the second possible reason was given as, If we don't say that person's name, we have to concentrate on not doing that, so we are thinking of them.
She began her study at east Sydney tech in the very early 70"s, so she was in Sydney the same time as me. She came to Sydney from the far north of Australia to study arts and came to love clay work, though that was not her original intention in studying arts. The custom of her people was that women did not work with clay, it was only men who were meant to do that, it was something done by men in their ceremonial practices and therefore sacred. So she had to go home to Weipa and talk to the elders and get their permission to work in clay, which, as reported, was quite a feat for a woman to achieve. It must have taken a lot of persuasion on her part to get them to bypass their traditional taboo and allow her to do that. Anyway she got her permission, and went back to study in Sydney with no other than Peter Rushforth (also recently deceased) and Shiga Shigeo, two people at the pinnacle of pottery here in this country. Wow, I wish I could have done that.
Gloria used her pottery pieces to tell her traditional stories, using the animals and symbols of her area. As aboriginal art does, of course, but Gloria did it in 3d, something that was pioneering work in indigenous art circles.
I walked around the sphere at the front of the gallery to show the different sides of the huge work. The ball is made from aluminium, a material she also chose to work with because, she said that where she comes from, Weipa is a bauxite mining area so she felt that working in aluminium made her closer to the country she came from.



Below is the plaque for the large sphere sculpture. I was not allowed to photograph the works inside the study room to share.
So on Saturday morning I went back to the gallery to purchase a book she had written and had another look at the indigenous galleries. Fantastic. Love that style of art. I was looking at some lino prints there and was thinking that the style of those was akin to some of my paper scribblings. Which, I think have been developing more lately and I have been spending more time playing with pens, textas and paper so I thought I would give it a try. Not to copy them, but to develop my stuff along that style. I have been playing a lot with sgraffito on my pots and the patterns I have done on some of them have been transferred from my scribblings, so I tried it with brushes in 3d. The next 3 photos are what has come from this over the last 3 days.
This one is called "Jump, Fly" It is sort of about getting out of a situation by flying over it. See the figure's feet are being hurt, so it grew wings to go above that. I did this today, it took me about 4 hours.
The scribble above is sort of about tree growing in rocky ground but surviving and what lies below that.
And... this one is called Pods. I find kurrajong seed pods keep popping up in my scribblings a lot. I did this one yesterday and last night.
I bought an a4 size pad of nice paper and some acrylic inks and acrylic paints to play with. Maybe they would look nice mounted between sheets of clear perspex? I dunno. I like them though. They are a bit weird, like me. Double click on the pics to enlarge.
Other than that....
I am still here, under difficulty but hoping for better. Idiot that I am.
Bye.
Love Linda.