Synchronicity

A comment about the beautiful bowl in my previous post reminded me of this. I bought the bowl in Hong Kong in a lacquer goods shop and carefully brought it home packed in my clothes in the middle of my suitcase. I just loved the vibrant primary colours and the fantasy feel to the design. Then - on my recent trip to Canberra, in the National Gallery giftshop, I discovered Hundertwasser. I bought a 2008 calendar just to enjoy his amazing art, which I now realised was "ripped off" for the lacquered bowl! On googling the artist to learn more about him, I find that he was also a sculptor and architect who designed buildings that look pretty much like his art. He even encouraged the tenants to reach out of their windows and paint their own little patch. Love it!

Happy Birthday to me.............

Thank you, everyone who cleverly remembered! Proving that he is a romantic soul, these beautiful flowers arrived at work today.

I'm looking forward to reading "See Naples and Die", the follow-up to "When In Rome" - thanks, Helen & Alan.

Off to our local Thai tonight with Eliza and some gal-pals, then something a little more up-market on Friday night with the romantic soul.

One of those week long birthdays - even after all these years, I still love birthdays!

A few of my favourite things.....

I love looking at the beautiful rooms on this site, but I've decided I still love my own humble abode! At the risk of sounding like a demented member of the Von Trapp family, above are a few of my favourite things. To my mind, home should be a place that you return to after a holiday or a hard day at work and have that "Yes!! I'm home!" feeling. Oh and yes, I have a thing for odd chairs. I have three or four in the garage awaiting TLC. Two of them I couldn't part with when I moved here 8 years ago. There is nowhere to put them in this house, so I'm thinking of doing one up to take to work- my own special "teacher's" chair?!?

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Had I the heaven's embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

William Butler Yeats

Why this poem? Because I have just had to study it with a class of ten and eleven year old childen. I was quite unsure about how this would go, but once again, the kids blew me away with their insight. The general consensus was that it was a poor young man who had fallen in love with a rich young woman. He knows that she will not be able to marry him (because in the "olden days" you had to marry within your class) but he offers her all he has - his dreams. He asks her not to make fun of him. Works for me! Today we are making a cloth of dreams - I've visited the scrapbooking shelves at Big W and stocked up on glitter, sparkles, coloured paper, stickers and alfoil. Can't wait to see their creations..........

Long Live the Queen

On holidays last week meant that I spent some time in the city. No matter what reason I have for going I always seem to end up having coffee and window shopping in the Queen Victoria Building. This beautifully restored four level arcade was once earmarked for demolition - and I for one am so glad that didn't happen! If you click to enlarge the photo you can just see the Queen herself in a glass case at the top of the escalator.

Back to school this week, so the days have flown by. After a sluggish start (and that was just the teachers) we are all right back into it. I've started another art course on Thursday evenings - mixed media - with the same great teacher, Gina. I love it so much I don't even feel tired at 10pm when I get home - 6am Friday morning was a different story however! Roll on the weekend.

Things you find in Canberra

Driving through suburban Yarralumla looking for the Prime Minister's residence, we happened upon a park near the lake with some really cute inhabitants. They were not the least bit scared and in fact, posed nicely for this snap. Canberra really is a mix of country and city, set around a beautiful lake, parklands, avenues and public buildings. Well worth a visit......

National Art Gallery, Canberra

I was mesmerised by this shimmering, surreal sphere. Inside I was inspired and awed by Sidney Nolan's entire Ned Kelly series, Jackson Pollack's Blue Poles, Toulouse Lautrec's Jockey, contemporary Aboriginal art, Arthur Boyd, Degas, - sensory overload.

A Powerful Memorial

We had a wonderful two days in Canberra, the National Capital. In spite of all the monuments, galleries and museums we visited, this simple memorial on the banks of Lake Burley Griffin stood out the most to me. Another unfortunate chapter in Australia's human rights record. These refugees, packed on to a leaking boat, were ordered to "turn around" and refused landing rights. Of course, the overcrowded boat sank. Every time I sing that line in our National Anthem "For those who come across the seas, we've boundless space to share" I think of these people.

Creativity

Calling all creative types..........University of Melbourne (Aust) researcher Dr Karen Hendricks has found that creative people are more disposed to mental illness (!) She says the psychosis process is a driving force for creativity and there is a healthy rebellion aspect - such as questioning social conventions and being open to new and radical ideas. Hmmmmmm.....
writers are apparently the worst (best?), scoring highly on personality disorder scales; performance artists scored highest on narcissism personality scale. (I can just hear my writer/actor friend Malcolm saying -"You think?"
This all seems to let visual artists off the hook - until you look at art history, of course.....
I like the sound of healthy rebellion though!

I took the picture of the Rainbow Lorikeet while enjoying one of the simple pleasures of school holidays - breakfast outside over the papers ( and of course the teapot, Annie). They are very hard to catch in all their glory as they always have their head down eating Grevillea seeds and startle easily. Doesn't stop me from trying!

Spring is Sprung

I just googled this little ditty to see if my recollection that Spike Milligan wrote it was correct. Some say Ogden Nash, some say it was Spike, but I always remember our Dad saying it like this:

"Spring is sprung

the grass is riz,

I wonder where the boidies is?

Some say the boid is on the wing

but that's absurd;

the wing is on the boid!"

Abundance

Spring in Sydney - school holidays, lunch at the Fish markets and stocking up on fruit, veg and flowers. How lucky we are to have such a range of cheap, healthy food. The drought along the Murray River is causing farmers to rethink their crops, or leave their farms, but in the north of Australia we have increased rainfall. Looks like we might be in for structural change to established patterns of farming. Although in the long run this will allow the once mighty Murray to reestablish itself, there will be an emotional and monetary cost to farmers. Meanwhile, I won't take our fruit and vegetable supplies for granted. Three punnets of large, sweet strawberries for $5? Yummy!