Home Again, Home Again............

Ahh...... A day off. Time to take a breath.
Well I can't complain that life is ever dull. Last week's adventure was a trek to Sydney. I worked at the Quilt and Craft Convention, helping my sister, Nikki on her stall.
In the days leading up, it appeared that the planets were misaligned, and the forces that be just didn't want us to go. They even sent a volcanic ash cloud to stop us flying up there. What they didn't reckon on was our genetic pre-disposition to sheer bloody-mindedness and blind optimism.
We trained and bused it up there. Amongst our hiccups were lost credit cards, and all means of communication being cut off. Poor Nikki had to set up the whole thing by herself. Back in Melbourne I waded through queues at the airport, railway station and eventually bus depot, working through every possible way of getting to Sydney.
All's well that ends well, and end well it did. When you are selling a fabulous product, you don't have to work too hard at it. It was such a joy to be able to introduce Nicole Mallalieu Designs to a whole new audience. The stock sold like crazy, we had to courier more up, and call on the help of some fantastic Sydney girls, Cass and Peta.


They jumped straight in and worked like troopers.
By Friday, when I left them, the ash cloud had cleared, (phew). It was a nice smooth flight home.
The kids coped admirably well without me. The house is still standing, the pets are all alive...
And look what popped up while I was gone, brand new baby broad beans, awwwwwwww.

Sweet Bird Of Youth.

While a nice snappy modern novel is fabulous, revisiting the classics something I love to do. And what could be better than catching up with Tennessee Williams now and again.
Sweet Bird Of Youth is the tragic tale of Chance Wayne, a talented, good looking young man, with his eye on stardom. He finds work as a gigilo to aging starlets, hoping to kick start his own career. His taste for flamboyance and excess soon take their toll.
With his latest employer, the wealthy Princess Kosmonopolis, he secretly returns to St Cloud, his home town in the south. Here we uncover the scandal and heartbreak and that sent Chance on the path to self destruction.
Desperate to win back his youth and his first love, Heavenly Finley, he realises that it is all too late. Just like the aging princess, he is past his prime.
A short, sharp play that skewers so much, in just 111 pages.

Awwww........ baby turnips, delicious as they are cute.

My back yard is a turnip farm.

In the excitement of Autumn plantings, I put in two packets of turnip seeds, early purple and swedes. That resulted in about 600 seedlings in the two seed trays.

It surprized me to find that not everyone shares my enthusiasm for turnips. I managed to find homes for about seventeen of them.

Being of a frugal nature, I just couldn't throw them away. As there are so many of them, we have made an early start on eating them. Fabulous, roasted, in stir fries, mashed in with the potatoes......
These are the early purples, the swedes are not quite ready yet.

Blogging again.

It seems like forever since I last wrote on this blog. Struggling with a very slow and unco-operative computer has made it quite difficult.
The garden has undergone a complete make-over. The front yard is looking very bad-haircut at the moment, but will soon be a spectacular mass of flowers.

In the maddness of it all, I forgot to take photos. Fortunately, I have an old photo of another such venture. The wee girl in the background is now a leggy nineteen year old.

The back yard is now a turnip farm. Yes I planted two packets of seeds, and got about 600 seedlings! I managed to find homes for about 17 of them. Being of a frugal nature I had to plow up the back yard and plant them all. There are also broccoli, cabbage, boc-choy, and some left overs from other plantings, silverbeet, rhubarb, rocket, parsley. Even some of my hardy eggplants are hanging in there.

The pumkins are all gone now, when I pulled the last of them out, there were nineteen of these babies left. We've eaten our way through a lot, and given heaps away. We are down to the last three.
We've also eaten our way through several large buckets of artichokes, carrots, eggplants, tomatoes, capsicum, chilli............
So that's the end of the summer stuff, and its onward and upward to the winter fare.

Kamishibai Boo-boo.

A while ago I completed a set of story cards for Jackie Kerin, for her Kamishibai box, made by Ted Smith, master craftsman. It was the story of the Princess and the Pea.
The project was finished, cards are out in the world now. I had patted them on the head and called them a success. Jackie has been telling the tale to young and old, from various kindergartens to the Williamstown Literature Festival. I was feeling a bit too clever by half.
That was until this morning. Jackie had a gig at Everlasting Books, Yarraville. She was showing the cards to Dharma, the lovely proprietress...............










Was Dharma the first one to notice? Were people just being polite? Did anyone else notice that the prince has six fingers?

You would think I would have noticed while I was drawing it!

Not sure what to do, do I;
a) re-draw the whole thing?
b) leave it as a 'spot the boo-boo' thing?
c) claim it was a statement about the Royal Family?

Any suggestions?

Happy Mother's Day!

A big Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful women in my life. Thanks for all your support in good times and bad. Thanks for all the laughs, hugs and slaps over the head when I've needed them. (Metaphorical slaps of course).
And a huge thank you to my own gorgeous Mum. Mother of eight, grandmother of thirteen, and now a great-grandmother. On a miniscule budget she fed and clothed us all. This pint sized lady was a tower of strength.
A fabulous cook, years ahead of her time she could cater for any crowd. Skilled in drawing the best from the farm, garden, chooks and the shops. Any windfall gain, like the lovely fish she is holding in the photo, would have been cooked up into something really special.
An op-shopper before it was fashionable, she fitted us all out in the very best. She encouraged us all individually with what we were good at. That often included having a kitchen full of kids making candles, scones or whatever. She refereed our fights and praised our efforts. My kids share these memories. Going to Granny's was always a treat.
Mum is still with us, but now in the advanced stages of dementia. It has been devastating for all of us. I miss her so much every day. But I am so lucky to have had her in my life. In conversations with my siblings, it seems to be a common theme that we hear her voice, say things that she would say etc. I see her face when I look in the mirror.
What an amazing life!

Canberra National Folk Festival.

Arrrgh!!! This computer is so slow, and it keeps freezing and eating my writing!!! This posting was for over a week ago. It seems like forever now. And its refusing to load most of the photos. Anyway, I've written it now so I hope you all enjoy it out there in blogland. I will try to upload more pics when possible.

What a week! Fun and festivities coming at you from every angle!
A simple walk to the shops could involve dodging Morris Dancers all a-jingle, leaping about through the crowd, hankies flapping in the breeze. Or you could be led Pied Piper style into a nearby tent by some fabulous tune.

Workshops galore! Ever wanted to learn Appalacian Clogging? How about Broom Building? Choir, Percussion, Dance, Yoga, all manner of Arts and Crafts from Blacksmithing to Oragami. Brush up on your Fiddle Skills, learn some Swing Guitar, improve on the Bits Between your Songs or maybe Stage Craft is your thing.

Buskers, busking at every turn. Acrobats performing deadly acts, street performers, giant seagulls pinching your chips, little kids trying out their newly learned skills, groups of teenagers having a sing-along with their favourite tunes, an assortment of choirs, dance troups, poets and musos. Even the Newport Bush Orchestra strutted their stuff and drew a crowd.

And speaking of NBO, you could catch us everyday at 2pm at the Stockman's Camp. It was a fantastic gig.

There was plenty of eye candy at the instrument makers exhibition . We got to drool over some beautiful, hand made instruments. You could chat to the makers themselves about the finer points of constructing their wares. They even let us play them.

A huge circus tent dominated centre arena. This hosted a variety of shows, including a late night Not For Kids Kid's Show. We were treated to some acts of absurdity by balloon blowers, contortionists and the like. Plenty of ooohs and ahhhhs and ouches coming from the audience.
The session bar was just a bit too much fun. A huge human soup of all kinds of people, sporting every concievable instrument. Dancers leaping about, singers singing. Too many of us made the tragic error of going for one last quick stroll through on the way to bed. You would be dragged into the maddness, and before you knew it, you would be performing solos to an appreciative, but slightly sozzled audience, dancing on tables etc. until they threw you out at the crack of dawn. And then you had to find your way through a sea of tents, tripping over guy ropes, making lots of apologies, (sometimes to the people that you woke up, sometimes to lamp posts).
Then you had to chip the icicles off your tent, quickly put on every piece of clothing that you own and get into bed. Those Camberra nights are freezing.

It was all great fun. The best bit of all for me was the comeradie. There were plenty of Newport Folkies at the festival, and in true NFFC style we soon constructed a small community. Some of my favourite moments were sitting around the camp site, sharing food, a cuppa, a bottle of wine, a conversation and some music. I had so many belly laughs that my ribs were aching.

We Cut the Giant Pumkin!

A while ago at work, a giant pumkin was harvested. We, as they say, Here 'tis! Looks a bit like a brontesaurus steak, doesn't itI took home just one slither, even though there is still a pumkin plague in my back yard. (Never could knock back a freebie). That slither has made three meals so far, and there is still a bit left.

Kamishibai Story Cards.

We're all very excited in this part of the world. I have just completed my part in a shared project. My friend, Jackie Kerin, storyteller, had this beautiful Kamishibai box made by our mutual friend, Ted, master-craftsman. Kamishibai is a Japanese word for Paper Theatre. Traditionally sweet sellers would travel from town to town on bicycles, with these boxes attached. They would throw sweets on to the streets and call out to the children to tell stories. They would usually finish the story on a 'cliff-hanger' so that the children would look forward to their next visit. The box opens out to make a miniature theatre. A series of story cards are placed inside. They are pulled out and placed at the back as the story progresses. And my part in the project? I got to illustrate the wonderful Hans Andersen story of The Princess And The Pea. We've tested them on various kids, and also various big kids. We have been given the thumbs-up by all. Here are some of the cards.

Jackie has also illustrated some cards herself. These are of her own stories, the tall Aussie tales of Split-Dog. I think she has a few other artists cooking up some goodies, too. Stay tuned.........

Some Exciting New Workshops and Classes.

Nicole Mallaieu has just released her new catalogue of all her latest courses and workshops. There really are some fabulous offers, so be sure to check them out. But Wait......... There's More.......... I'm running one of them.

Read all about it here.

It is a six week, comprehensive course that will have you drawing like a pro in no time.