A little visitor

I was loading rubbish into the skip we hired to clear away all the old building materials yesterday when I found this little bloke.
For the first time ever I find a lizard in my garden after spending my childhood in a place infested by skinks I find a gecko in Melbourne!!
Taking it as a good omen because Geckoes make appearances in my work
the first pic was taken just after I caught him, I kept him overnight to watch and sketch and he gradually changed pigmentation to a paler colour which makes me think he is a Marbled Gecko after doing a little research on the Museum of Vic Website

The fun part- getting some colour!

For the past ten years or so my house has been coloured Portland Stone but now that I am selling it I decided to add some colour to it- splashes only because all the new paintwork inside is nice and neutral to appeal to the maximum amount of prospective buyers.
The outside wall colour is called Dancing Moss and is a nice green with cool blue tones in it which balance the Rivergum guttering but the sparkle comes from the white architraves and door trims. My inspiration was the houses I saw on the Chesapeake years ago- I would have liked to go for a stronger colour but again the tastes of the prospective buyers had to be taken into account- AND my rather wild garden.

Despite rather sceptical comments from the chippy about my abilities to choose colours from paint chips- the cheek of him considering I chose the colours for his boat for him from chips LOL



Then there is the front door- which is somewhat pinker than I thought from the chip even after two coats- I think the guy used the wrong base colour when he mixed the pot for me but I kind of like it - even it M.O.T.H is a bit alarmed by it. When you hold the chip against it it is definitely NOT the same lol

but Miss Jazzy seems to like it!!

The 'Treehouse' is ours

waking up to this each morning is going to be so hard- NOT!!!

In all of the activity of the past couple of weeks I forgot to relate one important detail- the house in Queensland is now officially ours! What a ride that has been to say the least and even at the last minute there was a near disaster because the bank didnt have the right paperwork in place.
But as of the 3rd of December the house is ours and now all we have is a BIG FAT MORTGAGE to pay off until we can sell our house in Melbourne. Which was why all the hard work over the past two weeks with our wonderful friend.
The generosity of spirit of our friend has sustained us both through all of the ups and downs of the past six months or so. The debt we owe him is huge and we will be there for him when he needs us.
One little pussy of the household is totally bereft at his departure yesterday- when we came back from the airport last night she inspected the car and gave us such a dirty look and then stalked inside and spent the night on 'his' bed. This morning she is quite bemused by the lack of noise and activity (I'm puddling around and catching up on housework ye-uch instead of builder's labouring today) and has moved to the windowsill in this room in disgust.
Friends you make in life drift in and out but this friend is a constant for M.O.T.H. and I and will always be. I hope he knows how much we both love him and how much he means to us. Thank you Ken.

Recap of old pics but just a reminder of what I am moving towards. YAY

Home stretch- sort of

Miss Jazzy in her role as supervisor of works.


The reason she never goes terribly far from the work going on - she knows a sucker when she sees one.

The builder in chief has suggested we might have it all finished by Wednesday AM. Once the window goes in today I think they are stopping for a break- they better because I am decidedly fragile after a night out with the Community Centre mob- sort of my last blast because of the move north. I had a great time last night and will miss most of them quite badly.
Isa as my friend Mereani would say.

Pussy Blog- Jazzy speaks

Well it is tough at the moment at Eirene St, Mummy is busy being a builder's labourer for that slave driver builder. He keeps her working SO hard she barely has time to feed me which is JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
I could take a stand I suppose but he is such a nice man who gives me loves all the time when I fluff him with my tail. And he cuts all this stuff in the back yard that is such fun to get on my coat and drop all over the house!!

And he built this deck on the back of the house that is just PERFECT for me in the mornings to have a sunbathe and wash so I suppose I can forgive the fact that my Mum is not as scrupulous about feeding me as she usually is.
Daddy is working with him at weekends but Mummy is being the labourer although it is not all work and no play because they took a half day off yesterday and buzzed off to the Aquarium and left me out in the heat for the day the rats!! Although they did bring me some tuna so I can almost forgive them. Just wish they had brought me home something from the Aquarium tho' some might big fishies there.

wonder what he tastes like?
Well enough fluffing from me I have to chase my mum into the shower to get her out of the house for the night so I can have Daddy and and hunky builder all to myself!! MIAOW and purrs to everyone except maybe one...............
/Jazzy Jazz.

New skills

about 11 o'clock yesterday morning

about 11 o'clock today

and about 4.30pm this afternoon
and we had sundowners on it a bit later woo hoo!!!

Over the past couple of days I have learned about deck building. I was mainly the hold this, pass me this or fetch this gal for my darling builder who has come to rescue us from the south.
Some of you might recognise him as my mate the Sea King. Yes it is the same wonderful man- multi MULTI talented is that lad ;-)
Seriously without the generosity of spirit that Ken has shown us I doubt we would be making this move- even if of late there has been some little reconsideration in light of some other stuff going on. He is a special man to us both, to me in particular he has been an extremely good friend and confidant and there is little in the world I wouldn't do for him. Short of murder maybe? LOL

He was very patient with his novice labourer and he didnt have any trouble with her at all- AS IF lol
Tomorrow daytime is replacing damaged cladding boards and then off to a concert with my mate tomorrow evening- as a special thank you to him I am taking him to a Beethoven Concert with the MSO tomorrow night- Classical music is a love I have discovered under his tutelage. Hmnn I wonder what else he could teach me?
Anyway I learned a lot over the past few days and no doubt learn much much more from my mate- a bloke in a million even if some others dont fully appreciate that.

Hard Decisions

A lot of hard decisions will have to be made over the next few weeks. Divesting myself of my treasures is not an easy task- being a natural bower bird but unfortunately I am married to a freakin' squirrel- but getting M.O.T.H. to start doing his bit of that process has NOT been easy.
I thought I would have a fight on my hand over the books- got four double stacked 6' x3' bookshelves down to two single stacked was surprisingly painless although I think he is itching to retrieve his Solzhenitsyn's.
The problem being that no one is terribly interested in them as books- apparently the charity places are awash with books etc. and none of the dealers want old stuff anymore.

I wont be doing much creative work of my own for a few weeks, my lovely builder arrives on Tuesday and I am contracted to be his labourer/runner/tea lady etc. Between then and now I am hoping to paint the hallway- all cleared this morning and just waiting for the walls to dry after their wash down. Should knock that over pretty much by tomorrow night
Picked up my folio yesterday from VU and was very pleased with my results
yippppeeeeeeeeeee
Catch when I can

Woodsmoke

Made from the Discharge dyeing session I had a few weeks back
this is for one part of my four part printmaking contract.
Fairly pleased with it and will use is in the Autumn exhibition in March.
the side panels involve shibori folding techniques and the cental discharged panel has leaf shapes marked and was sprayed and splattered randomly with discharge mix
as this was cotton I did a 1:1 bleach and water mix
the leaves were then overprinted with the block with some Lumiere Holo Green Gold



As you may have gathered I havent been that enthused with the group theme for the next exhibition- a bit twee and far too narrow considering the group as a whole is so diverse but I am getting my head around it and this has led me off in other directions- leaves and nature have always been a part of my work but I dislike being constrained.
This is about some of the things I WILL miss when I move to the tropics next year, I do like the change of seasons and autumn in particular is one of my faves because after our scorching dry summers we get cool nights and warm days and then a little later you get the first hint of true cold and the scent of woodsmoke in the air.

last one for the day

time do something else
this is provisionally titled Reef Dreaming

cooking with gas!

for some reason despite everything I have turned into superwoman today
yee haa!!
the dyed silk samples
just waiting to pull the yardage from the dye bath now
woo hoo

Ah, that's better!

well a bit better- it will have to do for now
lol when in doubt
stitch!!!!

Block 4

Is a collection of 15 x 10cm ( for you non metric folk about 6 x 4) postcards that seem to be about what I am going to find in the future- I hope
lol still havent photographed Block 2 or 3 yet but I will


Intricacy- re thinking this after seeing the scan- needs 'more'


Nature


East.

What I was hoping to find and lose

but not so sure now
funny how life throws you a curly one
"Fasten your seatbelts . . . it's gonna be a bumpy ride"
Bette Davis
Still wet from rinsing away the soluble

Cactus flower

taken with M.OT.H.'s little dig cam because all my batteries are flat at the moment
it blooms every two years or so and is pretty stunning, this year we have two blooms
Work progressing and in the home straight yipppee
hope to have some pics soon

Procrastination

I should be working but need a break some who know me will just shrug and roll their eyes but hey good music is good music and these two guys are top of my list in their respective areas. Some good blues on the stereo to get me in the groove again seems to be the answer- either that or I join a Rasta church ;-)

Still toiling

Just a quick drop in, things have been tres busy at present, between dealing with bankers, solicitors, titles office, builders etc etc as well as trying to pull off a quilt and another assignment in two weeks for assessment things have been rather hectic to say the least.
But progress:
-House mortgate documents signed - YIKES GULP pick me up off the floor
-Paint purchased for reno's- I know it has been five years since I bought paint but it is DAMNED expensive now
-Floor in last room sanded and SEALED - only twelve years after the remainder of the house LOL
Now only to paint and paint and paint -inside and out and have my delightful building buddy sort out my messes - sounds pretty simple? Dont you believe it
there is Sh*tloads to do as M.O.T.H pointed out yesterday
but hoping to manage to get my cam batteries charged to take some progress pics of assignment pieces- soon I promise.
In the meantime it is head down and tail folk and dont get in my way or I might paint you ;-)
back ASAP

printing on silk

the test pieces turned out fine so I did the block/monoprinting technique on the silk over the weekend
this is a sample of the leaf prints- while the block is the same the leaves are all unique
going to
overdye the silk with a soft green washed effect

Discharge

discharged broad cloth

my block design





Getting ready for the run into assessment and I have to produce 4 major pieces of work over the next five weeks.
Ah what is life without a deadline?
I have contracted to do the silk yardage with the design of the croton leaf from my previous experiments for one - that should take me a couple of hours to produce once I set myself up for it
this is actually for the next piece which is about discharge dyeing of fabric and over printing with blocks- a little along the lines of what I have been exploring but that was far more fortuitous in design - ie I took what I got LOL
This time I am playing with masked shapes and pre cutting my block
What I need now it is decide what colour to print my leaf block in to make it really pop.... Any suggestions?

Comfort Books

One of the hardest things about moving house after such a long time is deciding what to keep and what to discard. In our case both M.O.T.H. and I come from families where books are rarely-if ever- discarded.
Last week I got all fired up and culled about a thousand books from our collection and boxed them up in readiness for the garage sale this weekend. (NO FOLKS NONE OF MY TEXTILE BOOKS ARE GOING *blush*) Consequent to that I have come down with a bug that has laid me low for a few days. Which reminded me of my special comfort - my books. Always when I have been sick in the past I have recovered by being able to read and transport myself from the misery into my books- mostly familiar tales when I am sick. ie books I have read before.
Probably the the longest lived comfort book is "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. It was set as a text for my class in the 70's and I have revisited the book at least yearly since then. In many ways I identified with Scout, being precocious as a child and a Daddy's Girl and the gentle humour of the observations of Miss Lee's family always touched a chord. At around the same age as Scout was in the book I caused something of a minor tremor in the Convent school I was educated in when I suggested innocently to an elderly Irish nun the maybe Jesus was a Communist. When called on to explain this by the principal of my school she saw my point and then suggested that perhaps it was kinder not to antagonise Sr Mary Michaeli with this point of view. To me at that age it smacked of hypocrisy in the same way the townsfolk do to Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird.
Coincidentally To Kill a Mockingbird also came into my life at around the same time I became politically aware. South Africa was hitting the headlines for firing on children who had decided they were not going to be taught in the language of their oppressors Afrikaans. To me as a student in Australia it resonated with an awfulness that made it personal and my interest in South Africa was born which leads me ultimately to my second Comfort Book
The Long Walk To Freedom by Nelson Mandela. What a man! After so long in jail he could have come out consumed with a desire for revenge and hatred but instead this most compassionate of men gave the world a long overdue lesson.
Then there is Rosalie Ham's "The Dressmaker" An Australian Gothic tale of revenge and small towns of which I understand quite well having been brought up in a smallish country town in Victoria. If any textilers are reading this I can wholly recommend this tale for laughs and interest.
I use my comfort books in different ways. When I am tired or stressed out I run a bath and select one and slide into the warm water and just let myself go.
'Mockingbird' is for days like that, that easy familiarity of family stories are enough to sustain me through the bath before it moves into the darker moments of the book and the trial of Tom Robinson. I usually dont completely read it but I refresh my memory of Scout and Atticus and Jem.
When I am appalled at the state of humanity it is Mandela I turn to, a voice of reason when the whole world seems insane- much read during the madness following September 11, 2001 and the disaster that has become the US adventure in Iraq.
And when I am mightily pissed off at someone or something and would ache to do revenge- something I dont do because basically I am a big chicken (grin) I turn to Tilly in the The Dressmaker and vicariously despatch summary justice.
so what Comfort books to you guys read?

Five Unique States

The self prescribed brief was the explore parts of printmaking and incorporate it into my work
Using the same lino cut block I had to create five unique states-just a quickie to show what I have been doing away from the computer
photography a bit shaky this morning- must be low blood sugar LOL
a variety to techniques incorporated with the single block inspired by a piece of Art Nouveau jewellery,

Work in progress

Some more of the leaf prints, thinking about this as a project for printing some yardage as well as completing part of my printmaking contract, could be interesting to print the fabric and then dye it later as well as just printing the fabric with the design using two printmaking methods. M.O.T.H and my buddy were both pretty keen on this idea.
Oh well we will see what develops

Work in Paradise?

I have been asked if I did any work in Paradise?

Well yes I did but havent done anything about recording it as yet
this is a just a quickie preview of what will be incorporated in the second part of my three part contract for school at this stage

a combination of monoprinting and block printing techniques

More adventures in Paradise

In one direction here comes the sun

In the other:
Moon over the hills behind Port Douglas


The first sight on rising

On the 28th there was a lunar eclipse and my dear mate suggested that we sail out to Low Isles and watch it without any light pollution and because most nights the clouds had closed in around the house. We checked the weather before we left and duly sailed out in the afternoon in quite a stiff breeze and with lots of cloud around and moored to spend the evening waiting. I offered foolishly to make up the berths while Ken organised dinner and came out of his cabin after making up his bed a slight (or maybe not so slight if his reaction was anything to go by) shade of green. The only time I have ever been seasick in my life was once when I was already feeling unwell with my dad. I denied being ill and sat and ate dinner which had lots of ginger in it and then just tried to calm myself and breathe in fresh air etc.
But the boat was rocking in all directions and even Ken was having difficulty moving around. He suggested we went back and I said I could ride it out but he observed we wouldnt sleep in this weather and that the clouds had closed in and we wouldnt see the eclipse anyway. So we cast off and set sail back to Port Douglas with a reefed main. Which will mean something to sailing afficionadoes but bugger all to me up until last Tuesday night.
What followed was some of the scariest moments of my life. Ken was brilliant, calm and assured while I was panicking like mad inside and battling to keep my dinner in my tummy. Waves would hit us and the boat rode them all pretty well and I was pretty much safe in the cabin albeit decidedly nauseous. Ken estimated it was blowing about 30 knots at least but his beautiful boat is built for such conditions.
I think the scariest moment was when he used "George" the auto pilot and disappeared from view (to have a pee) but I just couldnt see him and that scared me silly because I really am a novice at sailing. But he called back when I freaked and I calmed down when he came back into view. Fighting off the nausea was helped by a pack of extra strong peppermints - each time I felt it come on I would shove another one down my throat.
After a while the rocking seemed a little less wild (very little) but I needed desperately to be horizontal and laid down on the seat and closed my eyes and talked myself into calm state by sort of hypnotising myself that I was a kid again and in the back of my parent's car on the way home from the beach. Sometime later Ken called out that the cloud had blown apart and we could see the eclipse- the moon was orange red but I was just too sick and sorry for myself to dig out my camera and just laid there for a bit just watching it but it began to look like a drunken orange ping pong ball and I felt a bit queasy again so I just shut my eyes. I think I did managed to sleep for a bit because the next thing I knew was the sound of the diesel engine starting up and the sensation of calm water. I came up on deck to find us sailing between the leads at Port Douglas.
My poor mate was frozen because of the water splashing on him and the wind but he had got us home safe as promised. By this time the moon had fully emerged and was a glowing silver orb again as we motored up the creek to anchor up past the moorings because the tide was ripping out and I was not going to be any help to him at all in mooring and he was tired after that sail.
He was brilliant and after a hot drink we both decided to get some sleep and we woke up the next morning to the most beautiful calm morning with the moon setting in the west while the sun was rising in the east. Originally we were going to sail again that day but the strong winds had come in and hadnt let up by Friday when I left so we set off back up the hill and retreated to the comfort of the verandah and the joys of roast leg of goat - YUM.
My mate is my hero too now ;-) seriously I did try and stay calm and largely succeeded I hope because I was very scared especially when he was using 'George' and one of these days I am gonna buy George a drink!!!

A Perfect Day in Paradise

A blissful day of sun and sea and snorkelling and despite sunburn it remains a highlight of my stay

Junk under sail back from Low Isles


My mate the sea king ;-)

Sailing with my mate on a blue sky day

wildlife and wanderings in paradise

Resident wallaby eyeing off his chances of having a munch in the vegie patch.
They wander around the trees and do have a nibble but stick mostly to the grass thankfully for Ken's trees.

Curlews in the garden
there are actually three of them but the youngster was hidden well back

the 'Aunties' on tick patrol
this flock of three guinea fowl have made their home in the region of my friend's house and apparently they are the bee's knees when it comes to controlling ticks in the area but they must be slipping because Ken had one on his shoulder just before I got up there and Heidi- the neighbour's dog had one on her ear. But I got a lesson in tick searching which will be handy to have when I get my dog and for making sure Miss Jazzy stays tick free- although she seems to have turned into an inside pussy cat lately and up there I would prefer she remain indoors most of the time because of the wildlife.

paradise redux

tropical eucalypt bark patterns

another variation of the landscape

Cane Toad Cannibalism

Paradise always has serpents

Fluffy waterlillies





Sitting on the verandah one sunny morning enjoying smoko and I spy a serpent. Not my favourite form of life and sends me ever so slightly hysterical because all of the serpents in my part of the world are deadly little devils. Not this one however but my antics kept my mate giggling for ages because of my reaction. In between splutters of laughter he is telling me it wont hurt me- yeah right just giving me a heart attack.
A green tree snake

more pics of Paradise

More pics in Cairns Botanic Gardens
Gingers and an orchid