Firebird Flamework - Sew Much to do & Meltin' Glass too

The Weekend

2012-01-21T23:59:00.000+13:00

May yours be as bright & cheery as a bunch of daisies!

I had a somewhat humorous blog post planned for last night - but I couldn't find the images I had intended to use...again! It appears that my computer tidy skills are not quite in line with what I 'think' my memory retention is - need I say more?

Today has been pretty much the same around the house....put something down, forget where I put it, 30 minutes later I'm either still searching or hopelessly side tracked.

Lets just say that I'm eternally grateful for the peace the garden gives me, the enjoyment I get from checking on what has come into flower every day - so I thought that this wee group of Gazanias that are busy flowering while waiting to be planted out amongst the boring old grey stones out the front might be just what you need too.

My Other Boyfriend

2012-01-19T23:59:00.000+13:00

As he lays snoring, like a....well, like a man really, at my feet I can't help but try & recollect what life was like before he came into it. In short I can't imagine it without the naughty wee rotter stealing things when I'm not looking or rearranging the vege garden (& vegetables!!) so he can bury one of his bones.

Perhaps it is just as well that I haven't gardened for years so can't really recall how much faster things got done without having to run after a dog to retrieve my tools every few minutes, because he's decided the secateurs or trowel is a toy...

or what it's like to have lavender bushes that aren't broken in some places because someone has been chasing the bees & put a paw in them!!

Every once in a while he stands still & manages to even look a little majestic....enough so for me to get a decent shot.

When I'm in the garden - there he is right beside me (unless he's taken off with something).... or he's prancing around the back yard chasing bees. Belive me when I say that is hilarious to see!! He's a nut most of the time - doing the most ridiculous things & rarely staying still.

But then there are the times that he is either laying at my feet if I'm at the computer - or curled up like a tiny puppy on his bean bag. He's my constant companion - & I don't even want to imagine life without him. I wonder how he's going to like Australia. (haven't told him yet that bees are tame compared to some of the critters over there & he might have to pull his head in as far as chasing them goes!!)

Anzac Square - Brisbane

2012-01-16T23:59:00.000+13:00

I think of all the green spaces within the Brisbane Central Business District the one that captivated me most was probably Anzac Square. My first glimpse of it was caught on our way to catch the train home after our first trip into the CBD & Botanic Gardens.

A pretty green space viewed from a balcony on the way to the train station - I didn't realise the name or significance of the area. The next day we ventured into the city again & approached the space from another direction. Reading the signage I realised that it was an area dedicated as a memorial to the Queensland men and women who participated in overseas armed service, named in honour of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

The Greek Classic Revival columned structure in the middle distance is "The Shrine of Remembrance", the 18 columns of the Shrine represent the year of peace after World War 1 - 1918. The steps leading up to it also represent the year 1918 with 19 stairs in the first row and 18 stairs in the second row.

Tucked away behind the wall & under the Shrine of Remembrance is the The Shrine of Memories. While the external wall is dedicated to those who served in WWI, the inside of the shrine is dedicated to those who served in WWII. Walking through here one can't help notice the many lives sacrificed to protect a commonwealth country.

Within The Shrine of Memories is the Eternal Flame of Remembrance held within this Bronze Urn. Carved in the coping around the top of the shrine are the battles that those from the ANZAC units figured predominantly in - Cocos Islands, Romani, Jerusalem, Damascus, Pozieres, Bullecourt, Messines, Ypres, Amiens, Villers-Bretonneaux, Mont St Quentin & Hindenburg Line.

Building started in 1928, taking two years to complete before it was dedicated on Armistice Day in 1930. I couldn't help but feel that this city has grown around it - yet the square was not out of place.

The structure itself is made of beautiful Helidon sandstone with stairs in Queensland granite, mellow, gentle & extremely peaceful - quite the opposite to what it is memorialising I imagine that a Dawn Service in this setting would be quite something.

Everything about this area has been so thoughtfully planned & has such significance that I couldn't help but wish that both of my boys were there with me to see it - so this post is for them.

ANZAC Square - Circa late 1920's.

Oh, My - A BIG Load for a Little Guy!

2012-01-13T23:59:00.000+13:00

This is a bit how I feel right now! Not carrying a burden - but the load is quite huge. I've been trying (& failing!!) to minimise things.
On Monday I have a man coming to give me a quote on shipping my "stuff" to Australia. I'm not making any firm descisions on what will be kept & what will go until I have the cubic meterage worked out on what is here. No use in pondering what there will be room for beforehand. I know what I'm prepared to get rid of (pretty much every bit of furniture that remains from my marriage!!lol! - that was surprisingly easy) & what I really want to keep.

After that there will be a whole lot to think about..... & a whole heap to do. Strangely enough this little guy popped into focus a few days back when I was asked a question by a friend. More about that later though - strangely enough he fits into the tale of minimising quite nicely!!

Tramping Mouse

In turn the wee tramping mouse reminded me of my son & his bloody great big Army packs...packs that they carry around quite a bit of the time...especially when they go away on exercise. This isn't even the full kit - there is also a bedroll & whatever professional equipment they carry as well.

When this photo was taken (almost a year ago today) he was checking out how he'd fit everything into his pack to go on one of New Zealands biggest military exercises in years - due to start the next month. (That exercise never eventuated - we had an earthquake that changed things somewhat & Army, Navy & Airforce were all needed here in Christchurch.) I tried on his pack this night & was staggered at the weight of it....ok, so I might have had help getting it on & off....

But one thing I do know, looking at this photo, is that we do what we have to do & carry what we need to carry in order to fulfill our dreams & desires.

Baby Boy - stand up straight, shoulders back

(& suck that tummy in....)

Femme Fatale

2012-01-12T23:59:00.000+13:00

A few weeks ago I was in the general vacinity of one of my favourite plant nurseres - so decided to take the slight detour to have a quick look around & perhaps buy a succulent to fill a gap in a big bowl I have. Hey, 23 kilometers is only a slight detour.....

I didn't end up buying a small succulents. Oh no, stayed focussed & resist temptation is NOT in my current garden vocabulary.

I was lured, nay seduced, by the mysterious charms of a plant I have long dreamed of growing. A plant that I have been unsuccessful in striking from seed I was sent...one that I know darn well doesn't particularly like cold or frosts & will sulk when moved from it's accustomed climate (in this case a huge sheltered tunnel house). But I bought it anyway.

She is sulking in as much as her lower leaves are turning yellow & dropping, as I was warned they may do. I'm not too perturbed & have a feeling that will stop soon as there are signs of improvement.

She is also gradually putting on a display of flowers that blow my mind.

From a rich cream when they first start to open in the morning...

Through to a deep salmon pink as they open further the on the same day...

To a wonderful combination of the two when she fully opens to exude her astounding scent in the evening.

I so wasn't prepared for that perfume. It's subtle, alluring & I can only wonder at what it would be like on a warm balmy evening (ours are somewhat crisp for this time of year!). But still it is there & so begins my love affair with this femme fatale.

I just hope I can find somewhere in Brisbane that isn't asking the same price as I paid for this 1 meter tall beauty for a small cutting!!

Off for a final sniff before bed ;)

Rose Tinted Glasses

2012-01-11T23:59:00.000+13:00

Love that expression!! To be honest I'd far rather view the world that way than the alternative. But really this isn't about viewing the world through rose tinted glass, rather it's about viewing things with fresh eye's.

When we are young everything is brand new & life is full if firsts. As we get older we begin to take those things for granted or at least relegate them to ordinary or normal, unless we stop & look closer. If we go on holiday to a new location everything is new & different. Trees & animals are exotic, architecture & culture can be vastly different & it is all very exciting. It has the potential to make a life long impression (& often a desire to return to that place).

This is how it was for me with Brisbane in Australia. I'd traveled there twice before for holidays had loved everything about it from the heat through to the wildlife. Alas there is more to life than heat & widlife, & with the mailleman working over there for the last 5 1/2 months, I was also well aware that as a tourist taking time out to have break you aren't looking at the things that really matter should you decide to move there to live. Hence the last trip.

I needed to look at things with fresh eyes - from a different perspective. I did & although the descision has been made to move there in my heart the jury is still out.

My new glasses - see, no rose tinting at all, but they too have made a huge difference to how I see things!

Disclaimer: I didn't take my rose tinted glasses with me ....heck I don't even have rose tinted glasses unless you count my Didymiums. My sunglasses are orange &that is about the last colour lens you need to wear in Brisbane!

It Took a Spider

2012-01-10T23:59:00.000+13:00

To do what earthquakes can't!! Are you wondering what a (no doubt very small) spider could do that an earthquake couldn't? Probably not - but I am going to tell you anyway.

Poor spidey managed to scare a certain 14 year old enough for her to ask "Mummy - can I sleep in your bed tonight?".lol! Well I was led to believe that (s)he was a scary spider - because in truth I could find no evidence upon being summoned to liberate said spider from her wall & into the critter wilderness outside. And therein lay the problem.

What once was had disappeared to who knows where....probably more scared of her than she was of him. It seems that a disappearing spider is of more concern that a visible one as "it could be anywhere...and crawl into my mouth in the night"...you get the picture.

Somehow the old stock standard childhood answer "of who is bigger...you or the spider" didn't wash.... or put rest to her fears. In my bed she slept peacefully & undisturbed. Her Mother, on the other hand will say no more than "Thank goodness the earthquakes don't trigger bed sharing requests".

I guess the fear of spiders both of my girls seem to have is a somewhat valid one - I just can''t understand how/when/why they have it. It's certainly not inherited from me & I'm pretty sure their father, although he didn't actually 'embrace' spiders as far as critters go, never showed a distaste or jumpiness around them in front of the girls.

Where is all this going? Nowhere really - it just amuses me how different we all are in our tolerance of things. I don't fear the earthquakes (well not until one starts & the old heart starts pounding all over again), but they'd be more likely to be the cause of me not wanting to sleep alone than any critter big or small, hairy or slithery.

No spider photo I'm afraid - you'll just have to make do with this. Obviously someone isn't worried about Kangaroos - even though they give her more bang for buck if it came to it than our local harmless spiders ;)

Antonias Garden

2012-01-09T23:59:00.000+13:00

There is something about gardening & gardeners that makes it amazingly simple to connect with others similarly inclined no matter where you go in the world.Gardeners are also chatty people by nature, so no special arrangements need to be made to meet up - it just happens somehow. I guess one could say that depends on where you hang out, plant nurseries, garden centres & botanical gardens are, of course, going to increase the chance of you meeting someone of a similar mind. Complete strangers connecting on a more than passing level.

In dropping the mailleman to the train station in the early hours of Brisbane's balmy mornings I had noticed a garden that stood out in my still half asleep state. Admittedly it took a while to register (probably about 4 trips past it in all truth) that here was a real garden - one planted with an eye to design & lavished with care & attention.

Instead of the usual few tropical trees & a bit of struggling lawn this garden looked full & lush with a house somehow blending seamlessly into it. I started to look closer each time I passed in the car & finally decided to take a walk, camera in hand, to explore some of the plants that bordered the street more closely.

When it comes to private gardens & peoples property I am a somewhat reluctant photographer not wanting to intrude on their privacy so I stuck to a shot from along the street & a couple of close ups of individual flowers.

Caesalpinia pulcherrima - Pride of Barbados ( a member of the pea family!)

While I was busy trying to capture the true beauty & deep almost indigo blue of the above flower I became aware of someone watching me. I look up to see a figure at an open upstairs window, so I waved out & asked in hand motions if it was ok to take some photo's. I took the smile & nod I got in response as a "yes".

Shortly afterwards I met Antonia, the lovely owner of this garden & I was invited in to photograph to my hearts content. I had loads of questions about specific plants so I asked them & I guess that Antoinia realized I was not merely interested in taking a few good photos, but rather genuinely interested in plants & gardening. I was invited to stay for a coffee which Antoina suggested she'd make while I explored & photographed....& explore I did.

A sloping section interlaced with rock edged gravel & grass pathways & steps it was a wonderland to me. So much so that I didn't take the usual amount of photos as I was so absorbed in the magic, the beauty...the utter peacefulness of it all.

I knew that there were many critters & a resident snake or two inhabiting the garden so I trod carefully for fear of disturbing them. Butterflies were busy fluttering around in the cool lush tropical rainforest area that Antonia had lovingly recreated out the back of her property.

It turns out that it has taken Antonia 20 years to turn what was a bare sloping section than ran with small rivers of water into what you see here. Quite obviously she is woman of determination, knowledge & respect for the indigenous flora & fauna of her adopted country.

She has planted thoughtfully, knowing what will grow in this hot climate carefully interspersing the abundance of vividly coloured plants with plants that display the greener/cooler palettes or bloom at different times to create a environment that looks as though it has just happened naturally.

Just the right amount of man made structures to add interest, & focal points but not overwhelm the plantings.

Meandering pathways that separate only to merge again later after leading you through to a new area, each of which in turn would make me stop & hold my breath for fear of disturbing the lush beauty that lay before me.

Later, sitting on Antonia's balcony, sipping coffee & chatting (it turned out that we had more in common than just plants, both sharing a love of reading with similar tastes in authors), overlooking the tranquility of the rainforest garden she commented "Why would I ever need to go on holiday when I get to wake up to this every morning?". Why indeed!!

Rajasthan - an Impulse Buy

2012-01-08T23:49:00.000+13:00

or "Where Do You Get Your Inspiration" (there really should be a space for subtitles on blogger!!).

On a somewhat frantic & rushed Christmas Eve, in an attempt to avoid the larger malls by visiting more out of the way places, I happened upon a book store that I hadn't been into before. Oh dear!!

In my defense I was looking for a particular item that they would have normally stocked - so I wasn't just killing time browsing ;)

A book caught my eye as I entered the store & the thought went briefly through my head that I should buy it for myself, but it looked as though it would be a rather expensive volume, so the thought was quickly dismissed. Searching for the gift tags that I'd gone in to look for I came across the book again & discovered that it was surprisingly reasonable price wise. When I further discovered that there was 30% off store wide it suddenly became a done deal - I bought a Christmas gift to myself ......

For quite some time I took the volume to bed with me each night & lost myself in the panoramic images of a place & culture so very different & so very much older than mine. Conjuring images from a Thousand and One Nights I read the descriptions of each city, of the history, the people, of Maharajas & Moguls - their festivals, their traditions. This kind of thing spins my wheels - I can't help it & I really don't ever want to!!

When I look at the gorgeous panoramic images I cant help but notice the exotic contrasts in both landscape & buildings from the warm earth tones of some through to the refreshing white of others.The shape & style of the architecture is amazing & the hugely decorative detail inside & outside buildings is something else - especially when you stop to consider how long ago many of them were built.

There is art & colour everywhere in "The Land of Kings"....& it seems I have managed to add another destination to my bucket list.

I find books such as this hugely inspirational, as I find myself tracing certain shapes on images with my fingers, or admiring the way a colour has aged I realise that I am trying to figure how I could include that element in a bead or a painting & before I know it I'm reaching for my sketch book!

What sort of images inspire you?

The Goddess In My Garden

2012-01-07T23:59:00.000+13:00

Sitting outside on an overcast but warm day it was hard to ignore unmistakeable buzz of the bee's as they busily flew from bloom to bloom gathering pollen. The breeze gently moved the plants & grasses while I was planning what had to be tied back or deadheaded before what looked like the threat of rain became a reality.

Rather than stick with the job at hand my thoughts drifted to melting glass (isn't that always the way?!) then, in turn, to a gift I had received some time ago. Bear with me here.....

I've never had much by way of statuary in my gardens, but was rather taken with some of the Indonesian garden statues I had seen in Brisbane. They'd lent an air of calm grace & peacefulness to what were otherwise hot & vibrant gardens. I'd decided that "one day" I would have one.

The gift, which normally graces my windowsill in the kitchen where she sits framed against a backdrop of greenery & catches the light play all day long, that my mind went to was one of the lovely & super talented Angela Greer Garren's glass sculptures "Pillar of the Sun". I realised that I already had a beautiful piece of garden art - even if only while I was out there during the day.

So out she came to watch over me & enjoy some filtered sunlight.

Pillar of the Sun

Ang - if you read this I'd just like to say "Thank You" again - you've no idea how much pleasure this particular piece of glass has given me.

Earth Laughs in Flowers....

2012-01-06T23:59:00.000+13:00

Quite frankly the scent & sight of flowers in the house is pretty hard to beat......something else I had forgotten. Ideally I'd be cutting my own flowers from my garden as I used to do but since at this this time of year buying fresh cut flowers becomes relatively reasonably priced I've decided that every so often I'm going to fill a vase & bring earths laughter inside.

These lightly scented asiatic hybrids have hit the post perfectly. Next I think I might just see if I can find some martagons.....

The Big City

2012-01-05T23:59:00.000+13:00

Brisbane Central Business District is beautiful. The approaches into it - meh, not so much, but the actual hub of business & city stores interspersed with parks & green areas is actually quite lovely.

That came as a surprise to me as it was pretty much contrary to everything I've been told. I'd been told that it was packed with commercial buildings & thronging with people....& it was, but it was also very much more. Then again I guess it depends what you are looking for ;)

Thankfully a like minded friend had also told me of the Botanic Gardens & my desire to visit them was enough that I was easily lured into the thronging mass of tall buildings & people that is the Brisbane CBD.

Bordered on two sides by the Brisbane River the actual land area isn't that huge. What it lacks in space it certainly makes up for in height.

If you need a breathing space away from those tall buildings the City Botanic Gardens is the right place to put everything into perspective.

The gardens are also bordered by the Brisbane River & it was refreshing to note that the buildings on the other side were considerably shorter in stature.

The city itself is a mix of old & new buildings - some with interesting names.

Shops to suit all tastes (& wallets!!!) - except perhaps the maillemans since I didn't get a chance to go in this one.

Interesting Bronze Sculptures

King Edward Park - one of a number of wonderful green spaces right in the middle of the city.

Transport to suit all tastes - we stuck with the train ;)

All within the space you see in the middle of this photo taken from the Mount Coot-Tha look out.

And The Cat Came Back!!

2012-01-04T23:59:00.000+13:00

About an hour ago a certain feline walked through the door after his longest absence yet. Never have I been so happy to see him. He's a lot thinner than he was & his very distinctive & usually quite loud "meow" was more of a kittens mewl at the front door - so much so that I wondered if I was hearing things & didn't think it was Hercules!

No one is quite sure how long he's been gone, whether it was during last Saturdays 4.8 (he usually takes off & hides but doesn't stay away if it's under a 5 mag) or before that. I know that this Mondays 5.5 mag wouldn't have helped. At any rate it's been at least 5 days & he seems a little weak so I'm hoping that things stay quiet so he'll hang around long enough to build up his reserves again.

Welcome Home Hercules.

Life - it's for the Birds

2012-01-03T01:42:00.000+13:00

Dance as if no one is watching

Sing as if no one is listening

Live each day as if it were your last

I have some great photo's of my trip to Brisbane in December, some of which I have put on Facebook. It seems that now, with the timeline format, later additions to your albums don't appear on it when you upload them (either that or there is yet another bug with it) so I thought I'd post some of them here over the next few weeks.

Once again the birds captivated me & held me spellbound. They are far more raucous than the birds we have here for sure but also a lot more colourful &, even in the wild, unafraid of humans. Of course not all of them are as bold & bright as the parrots but each & every one was inspirational in it's own way.

They certainly know how to have fun, living their wee bird lives to the fullest, that's for sure.

Attention to Detail

2012-01-02T00:03:00.000+13:00

or stop & take a closer look.

Something I have learned relatively recently is that planning & planting a garden doesn't always work out quite how you had envisioned it. It can also be a whole new level of anticlimax when you are gardening in pots & the city is put on water restrictions for the summer.

Terracotta & clay pots become a nightmare as they dry out particularly quickly compared to plastic pots ....which I loathe - so I'm betting you can guess which kind of pots I have. So pots & water restrictions just don't play nice together...unless you have planted cactus....which I hadn't.

Years ago, in my gardening hey day, I learned how to zoom in from a less than ideal large garden grouping (often a grouping that looked a little too formal for my taste or simply an error in the choice of a certain plant) & focus on the individual plants, look closer & take them for what they had to offer rather than as how they fitted within the bigger picture of a group.To focus on the each plants unique features you can't help but view them in a positive light.

It's not something I consciously learned to do it just happened - perhaps to avoid disappointment or, more likely, the constant disturbance of plants as I felt the need to move them to somewhere they might fit in better ;)

Somewhere along the way it gave it me a good grounding for life in general. Again it wasn't a conscious effort - it just evolved somehow. I've realised that recently I've applied the zooming in process in light of what is happening here. The ability to zoom in, shut out the bigger picture, & take a closer look at things & see if I can find positives - and I always do.

Taking a 'macro' look at one thing in particular forces the brain to shut out the rest in order to be able to absorb the detail. This is not a bad thing. I've realised that no matter what, there is always beauty somewhere & often all we have to do to find it is look a little closer....pay attention to detail.

You just never know what you might find!!

A Blank Canvas

2012-01-01T23:59:00.000+13:00

A New Year brings with it the opportunity to start afresh,nothing more, nothing less. For many it’s a time to reflect on the year thathas just passed & look forward to the New Year with renewed hope &faith.

Never has this been truer than in this city. What a Year!!A year that will be remembered as theone that our city came tumbling down, it has truly left it’s mark on both thecity & on many, many of lives of those living in it.

If we Cantabrians thought that in saying goodbye to 2010 it would be the endof a tough year, nothing prepared us for what 2011 was about to bring. Itsimply paled into insignificance.

On a city level many have spent the year mourning the lossof loved ones & friends, the loss of homes, jobs, incomes, schools &security. Many have left because they’ve had to & many because they feltthey couldn’t go on living here.

The face of the city has changed almost beyond recognition.Once known for some of the best heritage buildings in the country - themajority have now gone, as have so many of the amenities we often took forgranted. Everywhere you look people seem to be running out of the resilience weCantabrians are said to have.

On a personal level the changes have been pretty profound aswell. Job loss, health issues, upheaval & the loss of more family members & family friends in the last10 months than in the preceding 5 years. One almost has to wonder if the stresshastened them.

All of that said, it has also brought out the best in people.From the volunteers & groups that continue to help out through to thethousands of complete strangers showing each other a kindness, helpingneighbours to clean up the silt resulting from liquefaction (yet again!) to afriendly pat on the arm, an “are you ok? “ or a hug. New connections have beenmade and a deeper understanding of what it is like for others going throughthis has been formed.

Even though we are all completely & utterly “over it” (a nice 5.1 mag rolled through a few minutes ago as I was typing this & I’venow lost my train of thought…again!) we’re still here, stronger, wiser, morecompassionate people because of it &right now I wouldn’t change that for anything.

If nothing else thelast year has made me realise that no matter what is happening in your life, nomatter how bad it may seem – you are not the only one going through it.

The New Year may not make a difference in the physical sense– but with the right attitude, & a whole heap of positive outlook it is atime to look forward & plan toward new hopes, new joys & newbeginnings. A clean slate, a blank canvas full of wonderful unlimitedpotential….

This sunflower has reached it’s full potential simply because no one told it that it was meant to be adwarf sunflower ;)

Just Wanted To Say

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000+13:00

Nothing more needs to be added :)

This Time Of Year

2011-12-29T23:55:00.000+13:00

I love it! Here in New Zealand the holidays start at Christmas, continue on through Boxing Day with a statutory holiday thrown in if either of those days fall on a Sunday often making for a short week the following week at the end of which the whole process starts again for the New Year celebration.

It's a time to sit back, relax & reflect. Many businesses close between Christmas & New year so the streets are somehow quieter - the pace of everything slowed down. There is no school for weeks. It's summer, it's holiday time & the atmosphere is somehow different even though many things just continue on as normal.

So why then, when I never ever naturally wake at 5.00am - even when I have to, even if a herd of rhinoceros were to stampede through my bedroom yelling out "Shoe Sale 70% off beginning in 1 hour" did I wake just before 5.00am the other morning? I read for a bit, had a wee panic when just before 5.30am there was a nice wobbly jerk & rattle, & upon leaping out of bed ready to take cover it finally occurred to me that the sky was glowing a rather nice shade of pink.

I never said I was alert - just awake. Kinda...sorta.

By the time I threw on some clothes, grabbed some gear & headed in the car to the beach I'd missed the most colourful part of the sunrise.

But still it was nice to catch what I did - & it was so quiet & peaceful.

Impressions

2011-12-28T23:51:00.000+13:00

I wonder, if we realised what all of those impressions we absorb as young children would mean to us later, whether we would take more notice at the time. Regardless of whether we did or not, somewhere in our sub consciousness while we are blithely playing our way through childhood many things imprint on our brain & later surface again. A sight, a scent, a sound & we are transported back.

Unsurprisingly some things make more of an impression than others.... there are some that we are not even aware of, or at least later on in life we can't pin point when that memory was imprinted. Christmas brought all of this home to me this year.

I'd bought a few stems of Lilium Regal - the Christmas Lily, here in New Zealand. It's scent is absolutely amazing. I have some growing in the garden for the first time ever but didn't want to cut the few I had so purchased some instead.

For one reason or another over recent years I haven't had Christmas lilies in the house. I'm not sure why as I always used to have them - even if I did have to pinch the stamens out because my ex-husband complained they gave him hayfever. Unfortunately removing the stamens also removed the delicious scent, but since he was often away I'd leave pinching out the stamens until I absolutely had too.

The second I got those beauties into the house I was transported back in time & realised that, to me, this was the one thing that said "Christmas" more than anything else. A fragrance. In that moment the amazing spicy, heady, intoxicating scent of those Christmas lilies was the most wonderful thing on earth.

Because of my trip to Brisbane there was no tree this year, no other decorations - just those beautiful white lilies & they spoke "Christmas" more than anything else ever has in recent years & I suspect ever could. I can't recall whether Mum had them at Christmas time when I was really young, although I remember my Uncle & Aunt had them planted right along the side of his house for many years & that there was always a vase full inside at their place.

I was more than a little pleased when my oldest son commented on the scent of the lilies on Boxing Day - it seems that the imprint was made when he was younger too.

Absolutely Positively Christmas.

Growing in my garden.

An Almost Perfect Christmas

2011-12-27T11:00:00.000+13:00

The lead up to Christmas this year was slightly different to our normal Christmas build up. A couple of decent earthquakes, a 5.8 & 6 magnitude accompanied by a swarm of aftershocks 2 days beforehand closed down malls & shops....right as I was about to head for them.

Sometimes procrastination is good - & believe me I had procrastinated all morning about heading to the Mall & doing all those last minute things, such as....well, pretty much everything really! Gifts, food, you name it. I hadn't bought anything apart from my nieces & nephews presents when I was in Australia.

My intention had been to get up early Friday morning & get the last of my gift shopping done before heading to the supermarket. But I faffed around answering emails, reading a tutorial & just putting it off in general & I wasn't even sure why. I'm so pleased I did!

Just as well I came to the conclusion that Christmas will come regardless of whether I am ready or not a few years back, that it's not dependent on the trimmings & trappings or buying into the dreadful commercialism that it seems to have become.

Still, that doesn't stop me wanting to have the house looking a little like Christmas so this year, the first in many, I had splurged on a huge bunch of Christmas lilies & long stemmed red roses. Of course that was before I remembered that all of my vases had been broken in the February quakes - so then I had to splurge on a new vase (sorry honey, if you are reading this - I forgot to mention that part & the lilies didn't really look that great sitting in a blue plastic juice jug....).

More than anything I would have loved to have brought a really nice nativity set - but the only one I could find that fitted the image in my head had a price tag of $300.00+, so was somewhat prohibitive.

I did have plans of further table decorations, a lightly gold sprayed mossy branch hung with some small antique looking cream & gold angels that I have was to accompanied by a bird cage I had picked up in Australia that I had started decorating. Having to delay my shopping until the stores re-opened on Christmas Eve saw me run out of time to complete the mossy branch one.

Christmas Day came & it was wonderful. It was spent surrounded by family & I only say almost perfect as there were two key members of the cast missing. The Mailleman, who is of course in Australia & Baby Boy who is deployed to parts that don't observe this particular celebration. I missed both of them dreadfully as well as missing the company of my daughter in law, Kerry, as she spent the day with her family.

It's more than a little strange to think that this is potentially my last Christmas in New Zealand.

That said, more than ever this made me realise what Christmas truly means to me. It's not about the trimmings & trappings or the decor. It's not about the food, the drink or the gifts - especially whether you get or give the latest techno gadget. It is certainly not about the mass commercialism that seems to increase with every year.

Quite simply it is about being surrounded by those you care about & remembering what the day is truly celebrating; Christ's Mass. I hope that yours was as blessed as mine was.

My Christmas Wish for You

2011-12-25T23:55:00.000+13:00

May your blessings be many

May love & laughter fill the air

May you anticipate the New Year with peace in your heart

The Grass Is Greenest Where It Is Watered.

2011-11-27T12:46:00.000+13:00

A few months ago I read a book that had one specific passage containing a brilliant simple truth which has stuck fast in my mind;

The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence.
No, not at all. Fences have nothing to do with it.
The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass where ever you may be. ~ Robert Fulghum (from "It Was On Fire When I lay Down On It")

With the mailleman away working in another country, and the rest of us here still, at times I feel as if I'm in limbo. The sense of impermanence was often bordering on the overwhelming - so there was only one thing to do and that was to start watering the "grass".

I know that the passage above is intended as a metaphor for making the most of what you have, focusing on nourishing and nurturing what surrounds you rather than wishing for more or different. However, as anyone who knows me will attest to, in my case the way to ease that sense of impermanence was, among other things, to create a garden of some sort and to attend to those things that the property agents/landlord choose not to see to.

Of course my first stop was putting some colour into the garden - which means REAL plants, not grasses or flax, species that have something by way of colour or scent to recommend them. Of course I got cracking with all of this rule breaking before I realised that Christchurch has water restrictions this year resulting from damage done to our systems during the earthquakes.

It seems that, despite water restrictions, not only the grass is thriving.......

Ahh yes a dandelion.

Wassup Buttercup

Now this I wasn't expecting to find in the lawn - which is exactly what happens when you take the time to look closer.

Stay tuned - for this mini side trip back into gardening...at least for this season ;)

Hey, Dad - Happy Birthday Again!

2011-10-27T23:30:00.000+13:00

Ten days ago I got a Birthday Reminder from Birthday Alarms.com telling me you would have been 83 today ...as if I could ever forget. But what really blew me away was the fact that it's heading on for 5 years since you left us so suddenly & I still haven't cancelled that alarm. I don't think I can bring myself to do it.

To be honest you haven't missed much this year & in many ways I am relieved that you're not having to see the massive changes to this city. I far prefer the images of the Christchurch that 'was', the city portrayed in the photos & tales of your childhood & youth here, to what is going on around us.

That isn't to say that we haven't missed you... we have, especially Mum who has had so very much to deal with alone. She's had to handle a whole lot of things that she never expected to handle & make some pretty hard decisions, but it's Mum & it will come as no surprise to you that she has come through this admirably! I expect that hearing echoes of your calm accepting voice telling us not to sweat the small stuff & that everything will work out as it should has a lot to do with that.

Remember last year I told you that Kieran & Kerry were getting married in December? It was an amazing day, beautiful & perfect in every way. The entire family was there from Mum down to the twins that you never quite got to meet. The only thing missing was you. If you could have heard the speeches Dad, you'd know just how much you were missed & the influence & impact you had on your two eldest grandsons.

Jeremy made a wonderful speech, full of both compassion & humour that I know would have had you chortling away....especially the part where he referred to Kieran as a hobbit! I hope that Jeremy was right & that you were looking down on us all - he said that you would be proud of Kieran, but I know you would have been equally proud of them both, & the rest of all your beautiful grandchildren including the two that you never quite got to meet.

Kieran is away on deployment now & I know you'd enjoy hearing all about things where he is. Kerry is working towards a degree in early childhood education & enjoys learning about the scientific side of human development - you'd be in your element hearing some of the things she's been learning.

They say this gets easier with time & in some ways it does....except on certain days, such as today. I've been thinking about you all day while I was in plodding away the garden. I didn't plan it that I'd be putting up the string to support the scarlet runner beans today (I know, it should have been done a week ago!!) - but that's the way it turned out. I even planted the beans, descendants of your scarlet runner beans at Estuary Road, after dinner tonight. I know you would approve!!

The girls still miss you heaps & both acknowledged your birthday on FaceBook today. I'm not sure you'd like FaceBook so much - but I'd bet you would use it just to catch up on all the latest family photo's, knowing how much you used to enjoy looking at them. Michaela found a beautiful poem & posted it....it made us all teary.

So Dad, that's another year that has gone by all too quickly. Happy Birthday to the worlds best - miss you heaps.

Love always,

Deb

P.S - Just thought you might like to see your two youngest grandchildren - these were taken at Kieran & Kerry's wedding. I wish I could put up the video, but it's far too long - besides I'm pretty sure that Kieran would harm me if I did ;)

Sasha

Finn

One Year On

2011-09-04T00:02:00.002+12:00

No one in Christchurch is going to forget being woken in the early hours of September 4^th 2010. 4.35am & 45 seconds of violent shaking that signified the time that the lives of everyone in this city were to start changing forever . Nothing could mentally prepare us for what was to come.

What everyone had thought was Mother Nature’s wake up call was in fact just her opening act.

One year on there isn’t a single person left in this city unaffected in one way or another. It isn’t something that can be imagined or understood unless you have been through it & continue to live it on a daily basis….even if you think you can imagine what it must be like, you can’t.

At the beginning of 2010 I was shocked & felt so completely helpless as a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. I watched with horror as events there unfolded & then followed Haiti’s story well after the media had left it behind in its never ending chase for a new headline. I mistakenly thought I could imagine what those people were going through. I was to learn how wrong I was.

In September when we had our first 7.1 magnitude earthquake more or less the same as Haiti's, I knew how blessed we had been as a city to escape with a bit of building damage & no loss of lives. I grieved for the buildings, but could be grateful for all that we had left.

I took this photo at 7.00am on the 29th December 2010, having no idea why I chose the buildings & subjects I photographed at the time. Later I was to be very pleased I had.

In February that all changed. People learned what real fear was – the fear of having no control whatsoever over a situation. An earthquake is unlike anything else you can imagine. There is no warning, no subtle hint that something isn’t quite right & it might be about to occur.

An earthquake is not something that can be tested, diagnosed or treated – it is completely beyond any human control. It’s not like going through any other event you can imagine.

Having the earth shake around you, systems failing or becoming overloaded & not knowing what has happened ‘this time‘ beyond your immediate space is almost paralysing. The tightness in your chest, when you realise that your children are not where you are & that you need to get to them – or that you can’t get in touch with family members because networks are overloaded with others trying to do the same, is a very real physical pain.

Apparently we’ve had over 8000 aftershocks. But really, in our day to day existence, they are the least of most people’s worries and to me it seems that those that have suffered the most personal damage or loss are the people that are also the least concerned about every little aftershock. Perhaps having something bigger to concern themselves with puts things into perspective.

Many have fled the city some by choice simply because they are over it & others through necessity. 45,000 have moved within the wider Canterbury region & 26,000 have left it completely , all since February.26,000 private sector job losses in the region will have a lot to do with what seems to be a mass exodus.

The infrastructure of this city is still severely compromised. There are still many that don’t know what is going to happen with their homes, & others that are having to face the sad reality that they may never own their own home again.

Sometimes it is hard to see the progress. But progress there most assuredly is – even if it is in the form of demolition. The roads are still a mess in many area’s & flooding has become an issue so the previously beautiful Avon River has been sand banked & isn’t quite as picturesque as it once was in many areas. But it’s not just those things that have changed.

It’s in the smaller things – the subtle differences that impact on every facet of your life one way or another.

Such as how if has affected our interior décor style…

After the September quake a visitor would arrive & you’d greet them with “Come in – but please excuse the mess” & with a wave of your hand usher them inside. Everyone had a similar mess so it was no big deal.

As the aftershocks continued more & more got relegated to either the rubbish bin or staying safely on the floor where it couldn’t fall any further in the case of things that survived undamaged. Now when visitors arrive you don’t even bother to justify why artwork is on the floor leaning face in against walls …or why there are brown cardboard cartons holding the china that once was on display either side of it.

The upside to this is that “Dirty is the new Clean”

A combination of a mild winter, silt resulting from the bigger quakes & countless trucks travelling roads they wouldn’t normally use while transporting rubble from the red zone demolitions out to the land fill means we have a wonderful excess of dust. This dust gets everywhere, coating plants, windows & every surface you can imagine inside. It’s not selective – if you keep your windows & doors shut it will come in via the heat pump or air conditioning.

It also loves cars, managing to turn even the shiniest sports car into something that looks as if it has just done a cross country off road trip within minutes of being outside. Just as well my heap isn’t a shiny sports car.

I realised when it snowed last month that it was the first time my car had looked clean in months!!

“Fabulous”, I thought “What an effective car cleaner snow is!” It lasted 24 hours…..only because I didn’t take the car out & the trucks weren’t dumping that day.

Small things, yes. Easy enough to make light of & to bear for those of us that aren’t dealing daily with some of the bigger stuff. But it is those that are dealing with the bigger stuff that I worry about, these smaller things that are easy for many of us to bear can be like the last building block on the stack that causes the pile to tumble down for those that are dealing with trying to piece broken homes & lives back together somehow.

So one year & 8000 aftershocks on I look back at all that has happened since the initial quake, the mailleman’s heart attack, a few hospital trips for Mum, the passing on of two Aunts, my favourite Uncle having a stroke & I wonder whether the physiological effects of this will ever be truly understood.

The ripples are many, not always obvious, & will last for some years to come.

Kenton Chambers post February 22nd.

Comparisons

2011-07-29T00:44:00.001+12:00

My mind has been churning over making comparisons lately, so many huge decisions & choices to be made. Once again I find myself not knowing where to start & with no hand here to guide me it could become almost overwhelming .....if I'd let it. Revisiting the same thoughts & concerns repeatedly & making those same comparisons time & again serves no purpose & becomes all too consuming.

When those thoughts start creeping in I think of the three things you can't recover in life:

The moment after it's missed

The word after it's said

The time after it's wasted

So quite simply I'm not letting anything overwhelm me - I don't the time to waste on that!

I'm putting it down on paper, making lists 'pros' one side 'cons' the other - you know the routine. More often than not I find myself seriously torn...really seriously, & it surprises me. Perhaps it would help if both sides weren't quite so even!

While I'm on the subject of comparisons two images taken just a few days apart.

This was looking towards the sun rising on the morning the mailleman left for Australia.

Looking in the same direction 5 days later.

By this time the snow was well on it's way to melting so there wasn't much left - but for me it was certainly a first seeing what was left of the snow on the beach. The mountains in the background have never looked so clear or so close. I wouldn't have missed this for the warmest of tropical locations on offer!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

2011-07-26T14:26:00.000+12:00

Oh yeah! "Time may change me - but I can't trace time" (thanks David!)

And boy have there been some changes around here! I certainly can't trace the time because everything seems to happen so fast. I think it was possibly the week before my birthday, on a laid back Sunday afternoon, that I suggested to the mailleman that if there was work available in Australia that would benefit our situation - then it might be worth looking at.

Within 3 days we'd gone from suggestion to reality & by the Wednesday evening that week he'd been given a date to be there - 3 weeks later on the 21st July. I'm still not sure what happened to talking about it, making fixed plans & weighing the pro's & con's - there simply wasn't time.

I pretty sure that my head was spinning from the speed of it all over the next 3 weeks, although the mailleman seemed to be his usual chilled out self about the whole thing - on the surface anyway ;)

I'm not entirely sure what I was worried about, it certainly wasn't being alone here, so perhaps it was the potential for the huge change this could mean for my entire family. I dithered, I went hot & cold about the idea, which was in fact already reality & I couldn't settle or focus on anything much....again.

In the meantime I watched as people still obsessed about every little aftershock & wondered what had given me the ability to chill out about & become objective about all the earthquake related stuff that is still going on. The answer that came to me was quite simple - creating, primarily with glass & in between times pounding metal. I realised that since I had started thinking about glass again my focus had shifted. Later when I was cautiously trying to pick up where I'd left off it was the sole time that my absolute immersion in something was so intense that I thought of nothing else.....well, apart from the times we've had a decent aftershock when I've been mid way through some scrollwork.

That in itself has been educational. Initially as I'd feel a mid size one start coming, the fight or flight response would kick in - my body would tense, heart pounding in my chest & I'd be halfway out of my chair stringer in one hand & bead in the other ready to move. Very quickly I learned to read those pesky aftershocks a bit better though (hey, I hate wasting glass!!!) while sitting as still as one tends do at the torch. The heart still thuds - but the body doesn't tense up until those nasty suckers feel like they are going to keep building, before which I've had time to take the stringer out of the flame, pass it into my bead hand & reach down to turn off the propane.

As my focus has slowly shifted back to glass, first sorting it & reorganizing it, then later sitting there melting the wonderful mesmerising stuff for brief periods of time I have realised how utterly absorbing & cathartic it was.

So when I felt myself getting a little stressed about the mailleman leaving, & starting to get uptight about all that seemed to need sorting & doing before he left I made myself a visual reminder..

So far it has worked...

You can go here if you want to generate your own Keep Calm poster. Try it - it's fun! This was just a quick effort a few weeks back, but they can be fully customised to include your own logo on the website.

If you want the full sized version of the one I created - go to the site & use the search image function - the key words are Flameworkers Mantra ;)

Snow Day!!

2011-07-25T23:55:00.030+12:00

Or rather it would be if the kids were at school instead of home because it is the School Holidays.

The anticipated dump of snow eventuated & this morning I awoke to the wonderful still, muffled silence that only a good layer of snow blanketing the city can bring. Utter peace! I well recall the feeling of stillness & silence that only a decent layer of snow can bring & knew before I even looked out of the window that the snow had given us a something quite special to wake up to. I wasn't disappointed.

Today was quite magical - although I'm not so sure I will feel that way when it melts.

Levi had a blast - the dog who doesn't like to go out in the rain & get wet became the unstoppable snow dog. Cavorting around the back garden & racing circuits that quickly spoiled the pristine white covering.....racing too fast for me to capture on camera!

There were a few still moments though.

Hesitant at first!

Figures that it's safe to play & explore.

What's that? You say I need longer legs??

Gabriela took her Dad up on the offer of a ride up to Waipara & took my old small point & shoot camera with her. I would have loved to have been on that wee trip!

Snow - The Icing on the Quake

2011-07-24T22:10:00.015+12:00

It's started snowing. Not something that happens that often here in Christchurch. After a brilliantly mild winter so far I'm not really surprised at this. Even the frosts have been lighter than they usually are at this time of year..... it hasn't even been cold enough for really hard frosts.

It's been trying to snow on & off all afternoon.....dull moody skies, the odd flakes of snow which couldn't really decided whether they wanted to be snow, sleet or rain. We've had that often enough - but it never seems to settle.

As of now it's officially snowing though, & what is more - it's settling!! This is quite exciting for a city that really doesn't get snow on any sort of regular basis. One decent dumping over a couple of inches that I can recall in the last 10 years doesn't tend to indicate snow being factored into our daily lives.

It will be interesting to see what happens if this continues & we get a good cover. I clearly remember the last time, in 1992, the power going out city wide & the most of the city pretty much grinding to a halt.

While this is a most welcome distraction to me - I can't help but wonder whether, with this city's compromised infrastructure, we are any better prepared power supply wise than we were back in 1992.

Watch this Space!! I'll update this post if anything spectacular happens within the next couple of hours :)

As it was a few minutes ago at 10.03pm

Edited to update: 11.30pm - It looks like it's settling :)

Levi discovers SNOWWWWWW!

Parents These Days

2011-07-02T23:57:00.000+12:00

What do mens boxer briefs, women's white singlet tops, socks & bandana's have in common?

Give up?

Are you sure that you can't guess? Perhaps you can guess, but I'd put money on the fact that you'd be wrong - so I'm going to tell you ;)

Apparently, worn together as a complete ensemble, they are suitable attire to wear to a school dance.

I kid you not.

Picture this, if you will. Three teenage girls on a chilly Friday night getting ready for a school dance. One in particular had made a huge fuss of having to have her hair trimmed & straightened that day....in time for the dance, because one must look good right?

I can't pretend total ignorance of what was being worn, after all I had provided money for the shopping trip. I just expected the ensemble to be worn with something - preferably over it or, at the worst, over opaque tights. Yes, that fashion blunder that see's shorts being worn over tights. That at least I'm getting used to!! It's mid winter here after all - tights would offer a bit of warmth....as would thermal underwear under the singlet tops.

Back to the preparations;

Giggling & girlish chatter filter through to the family area from up the hall. One of the girls Mum & I go up to explore. Both of us are a tad incredulous at what we see - but our exclamations of "you can't possibly just be wearing that" are greeted with more giggles & firms assurances that is exactly what they plan on wearing.

Time to leave for the dance & the three gigglers all come out dressed in their finery. Singlet tops showing lily white arms covered in goosebumps, funky striped mens boxer briefs showing long expanses of winter white legs & folded bandana's wrapped around & tied in front. I'd have been speechless if it wasn't for the fact that all three just had socks on - no shoes!!

Having positively squeaked out "where on earth are your shoes" I was informed that they wouldn't be wearing shoes because they are required to take them off at the school hall door. I think I may have made a couple of other mild noises about the foolishness of no footwear before hopping into the car to transport them to the dance - but really it's all a fog.

I could have made a fuss, I could have said all of the things that were going through my head - or refused to let them leave the house like that. But really the bits that mattered were covered - they weren't plastered in make up & looking older than their years, they didn't look cheap or tarty - they simply looked a little, dare I say it, silly.

I'm so pleased I kept my mouth shut!!

As I was leaving after I dropped them off another car pulled up discharging a group of girls into the bitter winter night.

Three girls wearing men's boxer briefs, singlet tops, bandana's & socks.

Then another car....

You get the picture ;)

This parent is obviously out of touch. Hopelessly & completely. She was also chuckling to herself the entire trip home.

Can't say I'm particularly fussed with this fashion 'uniform' - but then again I expect my Mum felt the same about platform shoes & flared pants & some of the hideous things I wore back in the 70's.

That Was Easy & Sensible Knickers

2011-06-30T22:23:00.001+12:00

I woke up yesterday morning totally confused - sometime during the night I'd officially become 50 & I'd missed it! How rude. Shouldn't I feel different somehow - after all 50 is supposedly such a milestone (not to be confused with Millstone - which is something altogether different!!)

What to do? Should I start wearing sensible knickers? Trade in my fun boots & shoes for something more sedate? Perhaps today's equivalent of twin-sets - the boiled wool jackets would be the thing to help me feel 50! Maybe I should start dreaming of practical compact cars instead of doing up an old Ford truck.

I could always start dying my hair to hide the greys - only I don't have enough greys to bother dying my hair for that reason alone.

Surely I should do something to mark this momentous occasion appropriately for someone of advancing years - but what??

Then it occured to me that I didn't feel a single bit different to what I had the day before. If the truth be told the approach to turning 50 hasn't bothered me in the slightest - unlike turning 40!

That was a crock to be sure. I spent a whole beforehand year dreading turning 40 - it sounded so old. What a waste of perfectly good 'dread' that was - poor misguided girl! I seem to recall waking that particular morning to the realisation that I didn't feel any different too.

Age is just a number - minutes, days, months gradually pass & become a year. We don't count the minutes or hours & at 10.00pm think "oh I feel an hour older than I did at 9.00pm" so why would we think we were going to feel any different at the end of a year?

No - this girl is not buying into the number apprehension game, nor is she buying into age appropriate behaviour.

Of course it helps when you have a man that innocently mutters "your kidding me, is she really younger than you - I thought she was older!" & a wonderful studio partner that is genuinely surprised that you are 50 ;)

I did however figure what I could do to mark this occasion in an age appropriate manner - & subtly aged this photo of the wonderful flowers that my brother & his wife sent me.

So Much For "Later This Week"......

2011-06-21T23:01:00.001+12:00

As anyone who checks in on this blog once in a blue moon can see, publishing my "49 Things to do before I turn 50" list simply didn't happen......and , oh look, we are almost there at the big 5-0!!

One thing led to another, then yet another in this funny old life, mostly significant aftershocks, & I never even got around to revising the list. Having one very inquisitive puppy can be limiting too - boy, had I forgotten just how full on puppies can be. Puppies with 'character' are even worse - throw intelligent & teething into the mix, add a dash of attitude & you have one explosive little cocktail!

Only he isn't so little now.

He also knows how to head butt. A lack of attention on my part, when he thinks he should be getting it will earn me a head butt in the back of the knee's.

Did I mention he chews? He will chew anything, with the contents of my handbag being a particular favourite & chew toys running a close second. Of course it isn't much fun chewing the things that you are allowed - there is far more pleasure to be gained from sourcing a handbag, no matter how safely the human thinks she has it stashed & choosing from the treasure trove of contents which juicy morsel you'd like to chew.

Fortunately for a certain puppy he somehow managed to empty my wallet & chew the contents. I was a little annoyed, but would have been bordering on anger had he chewed the wallet.

Frankly I find it difficult to stay upset or angry at him for very long. Two seconds is too long - because it takes less than that for him to look up at me with those big brown eye's & those darn wrinkles that somehow have managed to furrow his brow giving him a look of worried concern which in turn gives the impression that he is sorry that he has angered his human.

This impression is false. The beseeching "I'm sorry, please forgive me" look is a cover. What it really means is "I know if I look at you like this you won't get really angry at me.... then in 5 minutes when you've forgotten what I did I can go off & find something else equally as naughty to do".

The little rotter has not only stolen the contents of my wallet, but my heart as well.
And, he's perfected "the look" down to a fine art.

Retrospect

2011-04-14T02:13:00.000+12:00

A little over a year ago we'd just moved into this house just in time for Autumn & Winter. I have great memories of the warm Autumn mornings sitting out on the patio with my coffee & admiring the clear blue sky & relative silence of this place.

I'm still not entirely sure how the anniversary of that one slipped past me, given that we'd received the forms to renew our tenancy the day before the earthed moved on February 22nd.

Just over 6 months ago we were looking forward to enjoying a relaxing Spring & Summer in this quiet suburb & anticipating two weddings with no small degree of excitement.

3 months ago I was looking forward to the February Artistic Challenge that Mallory & I had planned. I had even started on it in advance...for a change!

A little over 7 weeks ago I'd put a rather nice bicycle on Lay-By with the intention of getting some exercise that wouldn't put too much strain, impact wise, on an aching hip in my attempts to get fit. In an attempt to challenge myself by setting a financial goal to reach over a set period I knew it would provide the impetus I needed to start making & selling beads again.

I wanted that bike before the colder weather set in so that a daily habit could be formed before cold rainy days arrived making for an easy cop out.

I also planned on starting to swim again...just to try & exercise the area's that cycling wouldn't, & I'd almost built up the courage to get into a swimming costume to do so. A friend & I had planned on going along to Aqua jogging to see what that was like.

However now Christchurch has no swimming pools....so really, swimming isn't an option. My bike is still sitting in the shop & I feel as if life is on 'hold'. It's an odd feeling & extremely difficult to describe or attempt to explain.

Right now I am wondering what on earth happened to the last year or at least the last 7 months of it!! The idiom "Time flies when you're having fun" tends to indicate that time drags when you aren't.....that is definitely not so. I'm still trying to figure where the last 7 weeks have gone.

Trying to get back into the swing of things when life constantly shifts around you seems difficult & many of us here are still trying to get used to the fact a lot of what we did & the places we went automatically just don't exist any more. When you realise that you also realise all the changes it means to plans made & goals set pre Earthquake.

This year I had made plans & set goals to do with selling my lampwork & some jewelry locally. Believe me I'm not that great at putting things down on paper - but this time I actually did it. I'm having to re-evaluate in a big way.

The other thing I started on was a list "49 Things to do before I turn 50". Most of them were fun things, nothing big or unattainable & it was easily 'doable'. That was to be the first part of my February Artistic Challenge - making that list into something a little more than just a written list on the first page of my Art Journal. The February Artistic Challenge got postponed because of time constraints - so as it stands it's just a list. A number of the things on it can't be done now & others will have to go on hold for a while...which is probably a good thing since I only have 3 months left to reach the "before 50 deadline".

I've decided that I am still going to go ahead with what I can on my list & later this week I will publish it here.

One of the things that definitely wasn't on my "49 Things"list was getting a puppy. But there you go - we have & we love him to bit's.

Idea's Anyone?

2011-03-30T23:55:00.000+13:00

I was blessed in on February 22nd, no doubt about it. However I have a problem that I need help in solving.

All of my 104 COE Glass survived in tact - my Gaffer Glass not so much. The reason that my 104 glass defiantly survived is because of the fact that, when I set up my storage shelves in the garage, I ran a wooden wedge underneath the bottom front of the shelves so that they leant back towards the wall. Thank goodness that I did.

The reason I did this was really just to counter balance the weight of the glass where it overhangs the front edges of the shelves being aware from past experience with any laden shelves that it can cause them to easily tip forward. I pretty much have every large piece of furniture wedged in this place, primarily because I have always found that carpet edges don't provide an even surface for furniture that is against walls to sit on & because we rent we aren't allowed to put holes in the walls....& therein lies my problem. The easy answer would be to use brackets & screws to secure shelve & cabinets making them as earthquake proof as possible.

Now that I'm as ready as I'll ever be to tackle the job of assessing the damage to the rest of my supplies in my studio area & set things up again I'm also trying to figure out how to secure the taller shelving.

Unfortunately one my taller shelves that housed my supplies of pretty much everything else glass related didn't survive the same treatment of wedging & fell over breaking & damaging a whole raft of things. I've lost frit, enamels, chemicals & bead release, the majority of which can't be replaced locally, & even though I imagine insurance will cover most of it I'm a little reluctant to restock my shelves unless I can make things a lot more secure.

I've drawn a blank - the "no holes in the walls"policy is creating a mind blank that I can't get past as quite simply I know what I'd do if this were my house.

Does anyone have any idea's?

Something Good

2011-03-28T00:42:00.000+13:00

Meet Levi. After much deliberation our little earthquake refugee has a name.

He's not the German Shepherd bitch I had decided would be our next dog if we ever got one & he's not the Siberian Husky that Gabriela had her heart set on when & if we ever owned a home again....which is when I told her we would be able to get a dog.

But he is ours, we love him & he rules us - well, he rules our hearts anyway. Levi is a mastiff/staffy/labrador cross - I guess that makes him a Mastador. I wouldn't mind betting that's what the pet shops would name his mix when they are justifying charging people an arm & a leg for the next in vogue accidental cross breeding anyway.

Marketing is everything ;)

In the two weeks that we've had him we have all learned how to smile again. We've also learned to put things away & out of reach. Well some of us have...

There have been casualties.

I'd forgotten how much puppies like to chew, & chew & then, for a change of pace, chew some more.

We have also learned that you could spend a small fortune on puppy chew toys - only to discover that just because it's chewable doesn't necessarily mean that puppy will like it. Nyla Bones come into this category - the maillemans trainers being far preferable. No doubt mine would be too - if I didn't put them away ;)

Plants are another favourite, especially the ornamental grasses in the garden. I'm picking that Levi doesn't like them any more than I do & just wants to help with some selective thinning.

Fortunately Levi is a bright wee boy & learning rather quickly. We've watched him blossom in many ways. He's gone from a puppy that was scared of the car & would lie flat on the ground as we approached it - to one who will willingly jump in the back seat & curl up there every time the door is open. He'll stay in the back while I'm driving & will happily wait when I pop into a shop...without chewing the seat belts. This earns him brownie points as it means that I take him everywhere, except when I go to dancing...see, I told you he was clever!!

I know by getting him I have complicated our lives somewhat & that in doing so I have broken rules. But he needed a home & in exchange for that he's helping us heal.

I'd say that was a win/win situation.

The cats, on the other hand (paw?), would beg to differ!

Predictions & Fear

2011-03-21T01:16:00.001+13:00

In this era of amazing technology we all have a voice. A voice that can be heard around the world if you put in the right key words, labels or tags & the right people happen to be searching for what you are talking about. Some people have an even bigger voice when they have media attention &, in my opinion, they also have a responsibility to act in an appropriate manner.

One such person resides in New Zealand, a man by the name of Ken Ring, or as he has become known “The Moon Man”. No, I’m not going to post links or add tags as the man has had far too much publicity already.... befriend google if you want to know more! In fact I don’t even know why I am writing about him other than the fact he has annoyed me so much & I need to vent.

You see this particular person is a weatherman so to speak. He predicts the weather based on the moon, moon cycles, lunar science & astronomical techniques.....well, at least that’s what he says.

He also predicted that Christchurch would have another huge (one for the history books) earthquake on March the 20th, 2011 just before mid day, right after the September 4th 2010, 7.1 earthquake. Not too surprisingly some people who had obviously been quiet terrified by the experience took notice & listened to what he was saying. Then we get the killer earthquake in February & many, many more took notice of what he was saying. Up until a couple of weeks ago I only had a vague awareness of the man & his prediction.

The build up to yesterday was quite phenomenal to watch. TV & Radio as well as social networking sites & forums within New Zealand were buzzing about it. It seemed that a lot of people were preparing to leave Christchurch for the weekend because of Mr Rings prediction. I was aware of it when we went out on Saturday – but it didn’t even occur to me until a lot later that it was the reason that everywhere was so busy. Cars queued at Petrol Stations, heavy traffic on the roads & supermarkets full of people. Call me obtuse!

Personally I think it’s a load of codswallop. I don’t dismiss the fact that the moon cycle dictates our tides or affects people’s behaviour & so on. Neither am I that clued up on geology – heck I can hardly even recall any of the geology I did at school (& I got some pretty high grades for it!). I’m not going to even pretend to be an expert or extremely well informed on any aspect of this. I don’t need to be.

The bottom line, for me, is surely if there were some tie in with the moon causing earthquakes wouldn’t scientists or astronomers have noticed this link many many years ago? Come on, people have been studying the night skies since time began – you can’t tell me that no one would have drawn the parallels between moon cycles & earthquakes in all of that time .....if one existed!

I’m saddened that the media gave this man undeserved attention which in turn caused so much fear with his scaremongering in a city where people already have so many issues to deal with. People that are already vulnerable & trying to sort out their futures in this post February 22nd world of ours.

Murchison Magic

2011-03-19T17:29:00.002+13:00

Time for sharing something with a bit more positive in the mix. I've put together a photo essay of our time up in Murchison. The montage at the top are just photo's that give an idea of the area. & what it has to offer .The individual photo's below are of some pretty special memories I have of my time there.....with the associated descriptions & stories of course!

A moment that really made my heart happy was watching Gabriela coming back from her first horse ride of any real duration, on Dash, with a huge smile on her face.

Meeting Indie whom I promptly fell in love with. A wonderfully well behaved girl of mixed parentage (Mastiff/Staffy cross) only a year old & so intelligent & loving.

The next photo is really special. Driving into the horse paddocks my cousin, Mike, spotted a bird in the distance. Initially we thought it might have been a native parrot - Kakapo or Kea perhaps, but as we got closer we saw that it was a raptor as it had prey in it's claws. Mike drove slowly & I took some photo's...wishing more than any other time that I had a decent zoom lens!! I eventually got out of the vehicle to see if I could get in a bit closer still - but this was as close as I could get. (Click on the photo to view at full size)

A bit of an internet search when we got home revealed that this was almost certainly a New Zealand Falcon -Karearea ( Falco novaeseelandiae)..... a rare & threatened species on the verge of extinction. Mike submitted the photo's to the websites "Wingspan"& "New Zealand Falcon" & both confirmed that it was indeed a young Karearea & asked for the geographical co-ordinates of where it was spotted. We were so privileged to be in the right place at the right time!!

Meet the non-spitty Alpaca. Some time back I mentioned to Mike that I'd love an Alpaca. He promptly assured me they were nasty, smelly things that spat at people. After watching a grown man try to provoke this particular alpaca into spitting by making spitty noises, saying some things that I'm sure would have hurt the alpacas feelings & just behave like a mischievous kid in general - I'm not so sure that I believe him. All the alpaca deigned to do was give him "the look"!

Follyfoot Farm (that's what the neighbours call Mike & his wife's menagerie of animals) & that is just what they looked like following me in after I'd opened the gate to one of the upper paddocks! I love this photo!

Horses are amazing animals. These three knew that their dinner was on the way, they were waiting for us at the gate when arrived & had started following the car to the back paddock knowing that Kris comes in around this time with their feed. I was on gate duty & had told Kris to go ahead & I'd walk up after shutting the gate. When I turned around & looked up I was absolutely delighted to see these 3, Dash, Starlight & Abby just standing there looking at me as if to say "well hurry up , are you coming or not" instead of having trotted off quickly after the car as they usually do!

Gabriela enjoying Gidget & Jazz. One very contented kiddo & two very happy dogs! Yep - that made my heart happy too.

My last sight of the horses just before I left to come home. I'd offered to go up & take their covers off & let them into the big paddock while Kris was at work. What a perfect scene.

It was so difficult to leave... I procrastinated for as long as I could & left mid afternoon to drive home. By way of compensation on the way home I found a place to stop & take photo's of the magnificant West Coast bush.

Not Without Guilt

2011-03-16T09:34:00.002+13:00

Last week I did what I thought I would never do & left town for a few days. As it turns out it was the best thing I could have done as it gave me time to think without being surrounded by constant scenes of damage, devastation & sadness.
Time to try & sort out the various emotions that seem part of this mess was something that was desperately needed although at the time of making the hasty arrangements to go, after an impromptu comment posted by my cousin to my facebook page, I wasn't consciously aware that I needed time to sort my feelings - all I knew was that I had to get myself & Gabriela away for a while.

As I drove out of the city & felt the utter relief at leaving I also realised that I felt a little guilty – as if I was deserting a sinking ship. That was the first time that the word 'guilt' had come to mind.

The next few days went by all too quickly. We spent time with my cousin & his family just relaxing & exploring the countryside surrounding Murchison. We enjoyed being around the dogs & horses while breathing in the fresh air & scents of the country. I spent time outside at nights star gazing in a place where there is very little light pollution & the many more stars that were visible shone brighter than they do when viewed from the city. In the mornings we'd awake to low mist clouding the surrounding mountains & watch as it lifted to reveal their splendour bathed in sunlight.

As I cleaned my teeth or grabbed a glass of water I thought how nice it was just to be able to run water straight from the tap without boiling it first. As I showered I realised that for the first time in over a week I didn't feel guilty for actually being able to have a shower...or for having the power available to heat the water in the first place. And therein lays the problem.

Ever since the February 22nd earthquake struck I'd known how blessed we were to be just outside the area that was hit so badly. I'd known how fortunate we were to get our power back on the same day & our water restored within 36 hours - & for the life of me I couldn't figure why, yet again, we were spared most of the damage. It didn't feel right that this little area I live in was relatively unaffected while there were varying degrees of damage so very close to it on every side. I felt bad that we had what we did, when others had lost their homes. It felt selfish to be so grateful that my family were all safe when others had lost their loved ones.

After the initial stunned disbelief at what had happened started to wear off & the new reality slowly settled in it still didn't feel right to worry about small issues. I thought about filling out insurance claims – & a little voice suggested how dare I be thinking of replacing 'things'!! The thought of my 13 year old now having to attend a different venue for school which involves her travelling home by bus from the other side of town in the dark (when daylight savings finishes soon) didn't exactly thrill me, but again it felt selfish to be worrying about that.

Feelings of guilt & selfishness are bad things when they start undermining what, at any other time, are quite normal emotions & reactions when presented with a problem or concern. They colour your every thought & move, they inhibit your ability to heal, to move forward or even be able to see a future that is better than the present.

Part of the problem is that we don't see those feelings as guilt until we can distance ourselves from the situation, take stock of what we have been going through & think about those feelings we have been experiencing. After I got back & started talking to others about what was happening in their lives I've realised that I wasn't alone in the way I was feeling. I've heard people say "I feel quite guilty at how lightly I have gotten off" many times now....amazingly enough in some cases by people that have suffered through hugely traumatic experiences in the city on the day of the quake & have only just managed to get away with their lives.

The trauma counsellors that are available for people to talk to suggest that one of the best things you can do is get together with the social groups that you are involved in, carry on doing the things you have always enjoyed & talk with others sharing your experiences. As it turned out that was extremely good advice. I'm pleased that a strong desire to do something normal over ruled the feelings of guilt that arose from going out & doing something as frivolous as dancing a week after such a destructive event!

Once again I find myself working through a whole heap of feelings & emotions. Knowing that some of them are normal doesn't help a whole heap at times.

What does help is knowing that a bit of time away can give insight & in turn heal....& believe me there is no place better to do it than in a small country town surrounded by magnificent scenery, open fields, lots of animals & great human company.

When it puts a smile on your child's face that is just a huge bonus!!

Copper Verdigris

2011-03-03T23:30:00.006+13:00

You'll remember the February Artistic Challenge that Mallory & I blogged about - "Colo(u)r Me Copper" that we announced (late) a couple of weeks ago. Well this one was most surely a case of life getting in the way of art.

The end of the month came & went & there was no reveal from me, not because I hadn't done anything but because my mind & life was in a different space. It still is - but I have decided to show you how far I got before the earth started wreaking havoc on land & lives here. I need some 'normal'.

Mallory had discovered this fabulous free downloadable tutorial on colouring copper (or brass & bronze) with ammonia & salt using a fuming method. There are other solutions such as vinegar, lemon juice, potassium (found in a lot of garden fertilisers) that can be used to obtain different colours. Another option is, dare I say it, urine - although I'm not in any real hurry to play with that one!! Ammonia just by itself will do the job also. There are as many methods of applying the patina as there are substances to use to create a patina. For now

Being particularly drawn to the bright turquoise verdigris finish that appears naturally on copper, brass & bronze when exposed to air or seawater over time I began my play with the ammonia & salt fuming method. It was so quick & simple to do!

As I watched the patina develop I recalled how some years ago I used lemon juice & salt mixed to a paste to clean a large brass coal bucket. After rubbing the solution on all over with a damp cloth to remove the tarnish I had to rinse it off well before buffing the brass up to a shine. A few days later, in the areas where the handle joined onto the body of the bucket, verdigris developed. It was obvious that I hadn't rinsed off the lemon & salt solution well enough where it had seeped in under the riveted plates that held the handle on.

The next experiments are going to be with lemon juice & salt ....& since as there is a wealth of information out there on the internet I expect I'll find a way to speed up the process along with other methods of applying it.

Day Whatever

2011-02-28T23:59:00.000+13:00

It's difficult to believe that it was only just over a week ago I finally got back to the torch for a couple of hours after such a long hiatus. It seems so much longer ago than that. Last Sunday morning I unloaded the kiln with little expectation, knowing that essentially I'd played with scrap glass just getting a feel for things again & was pleasantly surprised that my uglies weren't quite as ugly as I imagined they would be.

The mailleman watched my surprise as I examined the beads & commented "You'll have to get torching again this afternoon" & I replied with "No, but I'll be back into it head on on Wednesday". I recall him asking why I was waiting until Wednesday & explaining that I had a few things I wanted to do on Monday, along with dancing (which makes every Monday something to look forward too!) & on Tuesday I was going out with my sister in law in the morning & had some loose ends to tie up in the afternoon.

The 'few things' were getting the house ship shape, thereby eliminating any excuses about not being able to focus on work when everything around me was untidy, & to tidy up the vege garden. Tuesdays 'loose ends' were to finish off a couple of small projects I had been working on & rearrange my workspace. The house got tidied, I know that much. I recall that on Tuesday morning being so pleased with how the kitchen looked as I headed out the door with my sister in law, knowing I could come home after our outing & put another coat of sealer on my new workbench top, run a couple of errands & then finish off my copper patina experiments all before Gabriela got home.

We all know how that turned out. The house doesn't look so tidy any more either. But none of this is very important.

What I had planned on doing on Wednesday was the important thing. The wonderful girls at Ris'tretto had sold the last of the Haiti Hearts & I'd promised them I was going to make more. That was to be Wednesday task.

Amazingly enough the Haiti Hearts had continued selling locally even after our 7.1 mag Earthquake back in September. I'm thinking that our wee shake back then most likely raised awareness & a deeper understanding for what the Haitians had been through. It certainly added further dimension for me even though the plight of Haiti had been on my mind & heart from that day back in January 2010 when it happened.

How strange it was yesterday to hear Helen Clark, our ex Prime Minister & now based in the USA as the Administrator of the United Nations Development Program, say that the devastation here was on a par with Haiti. She'd visited Haiti right after their earthquake last year & now Christchurch. It's somehow added yet another layer to what already feels surreal.

It's also had a palliative effect. Perhaps it was a reminder that I needed at a time when it is so easy to get consumed by all that surrounds us.

When I start to feel a bit low & hopeless about everything that is unfolding around me or worry what to do about my girls whom I cant afford to send away out of it all, & really don't know whether I would want to be apart from them even if I could afford to send them to school else where in the country, I can't help but think that we have so many more options than Haiti did. We had so many options available to begin with than Haiti did.

I can't help but think of the systems already in place that allowed quick response times by emergency services locally & the speed in which international teams were able to arrive & get to work unhindered by red tape & politics.

Then it is not so difficult to see hope amidst this destruction.

Two Degrees of Seperation

2011-02-27T23:27:00.002+13:00

As a city we've spent almost 6 months pulling ourselves, our lives & our city back together only to see it all destroyed in a matter of seconds.

5 3/4 months ago I called the first earthquake, not a tragedy, but an inconvenience. I got annoyed at friends that bemoaned breakages & damage. I told them that we were fortunate & so incredibly blessed because no lives had been lost. I wish beyond anything I could ever have imagined that I could say the same this time.

To go out among it is heartbreaking enough on it's own. It's a strange & heartbreaking sight, but then this city known for it's old Gothic revival buildings, beautiful parks, rivers & English beauty is now full of unimaginable sights.

Last time, after a short while of mourning the forever changed landscape, I could find the positive in what was left & be grateful for the old buildings & churches that have survived with little or no damage. Now I am struggling to do that.

How can you do that with a death toll that stands at 147 with 200 still missing?

On the afternoon of the 22nd February this city & the lives of everyone in it changed, irrevocably, for the worse. I knew without one iota of doubt when that sucker hit that this was going to be bad. I was shocked when I finally made contact with the outside world 30 minutes later to discover that it was only 6.3 magnitude as it had felt in every way so much bigger & more violent that the first one & I'd been sure in my mind that it was an 8-9 magnitude.

I can't really describe the hours that followed as just small bit's of information trickled in while I was out searching for a daughter that I knew had left school early only 20 minutes before the quake hit, then later trying to get to my Mothers over broken bridges & roads because I couldn't contact her. But later on that night when the power came on down at my Aunts place & we turned on TV the full shock & horror of just how bad it was hit home.

As I've said in many emails & messages over the past couple of days in a country that only has around two degree's of separation, instead of the usual six degree's, it was only a matter of time before we would be affected by the loss of someone we knew or knew of. The same will go for most in this city.

But this isn't just Christchurch's tragedy - it's international. Japan has 26 students missing, China 20, the Phillipines 14, 2 South Koreans & 6 from Thailand. It's thought that there are deceased & missing from over 20 countries. How on earth do you deal with that? Not just the people you know - but visitors that came to New Zealand, to Christchurch, by choice to study English perhaps or work in a country that was safer or the pay better. There are parents, children & families all around the world that are holding out hope that fades daily or already grieving. This all just breaks my heart.

I can find some tiny bit's of consolation in the stories that are coming to light, some extremely close to me, of near misses. A missed appointment in one of the buildings that collapsed or a detour that meant someone was late getting back to work in another, but they don't make the losses any less significant or heartbreaking.

To others the damage & loss of homes is a very real & immediate problem. Areas that escaped very lightly in the first Earthquake got hit hard this time & area's that got hit hard the first time have been hit again with even more velocity & damage.

With the September earthquake, because of where the fault line was, the hill suburbs avoided damage & most of the impact was felt by those to the South of the city, in the city & the Eastern suburbs.

Five & 3/4 months of cleaning, making do, waiting & dealing with the EQC & insurance companies ensued, people got tired. Rules changed - so did what people had originally been told. The elderly especially wanted to know what was happening & how long it would take. Lets face it, some won't be around by the time their homes are replaced or repaired.

Now the suburbs that were hit the hardest last time have been hit hard again, roads damaged beyond belief & more homes damaged beyond repair. The hill suburbs have taken a huge hit with houses extensively damaged or destroyed by rock falls. Five days in & a lot of them still have neither power or water. This also means that many of them have no real idea of the utter disaster in the Central Business District. They may have heard bits & pieces but that is completely different to actually seeing the devastation.

I have 49 years invested in this city, it may not be where I'd like to live the rest of my life, but it is as much a part of me as the blood that runs through my veins. The images I've seen stun me, each time it is like a physical blow to the chest - I can only imagine what they will do to the elderly that are perhaps ill prepared to deal with it.

I live in a little pocket that is seemingly untouched - yet I only have to walk as far as the end of my street to see the signs of liquefaction, a 5 minute walk up the road & around a corner & it is like a different planet, another 500 meters away in the opposite direction & the power is still out...in another subdivision around the age of this one that has suffered structural damage to many of it's homes. It beggars belief.

My family are all safe & well & I live in a small subdivision that is appears to be untouched.I've seen this referred to as luck - but do I feel lucky? No, I feel blessed, but also very conflicted.

I see the hurt & the loss of others & feel so useless, it feels selfish to be happy about what I have got. Part of me wants to get in the car & drive as fast & far as I can away from here - but would I leave now if I could? No!! I want to reach out & help everyone that's hurting in some way, but all I can do is offer to share the safe haven & facilities we have here with whoever needs them or be supportive to people who need support in any way I can. But somehow it isn't enough. I want to do more & don't know what more to do.

It eases the heart a little to see the overwhelming International support. Teams of experts in all fields have flown in from 7 countries to do a job that few of us would want do, putting their lives at risk in the process. The 55 strong British search & rescue team, last deployed in Haiti, brought with them 11 tonnes of specialist equipment - mind boggling! Australia, the USA, China, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore have sent teams & support people to work alongside our NZ Police & Search & Rescue teams.

The NZ Military is putting every man it can on the job over & above the 1000 strong contingent that were already in the area from all around the country preparing to leave on a Military exercise when the earthquake hit. It's humbling.

It's also reassuring to know that we have the best the world has to offer here at this time. Thank you world.

Please understand that the people of this city are bewildered & in some part scared. There are so many questions about the future that right now simply can't be answered. We have to get through the 'now'.Nothing in this city makes much sense any more. Soon enough the world will have other problems & media will move on & focus on the next news worthy issue. For those of us who live here, those that call Christchurch home, this is a luxury we don't have.

Broken lives, broken hearts, broken roads & broken homes - but not ever broken spirits.

Kia Kaha - Forever Strong. That is Canterbury!

The UC Student Volunteer Army, organised by a University of Canterbury student to go out to the suburbs & help with cleaning up the silt & whatever needs doing.

Words Fail Me

2011-02-25T23:59:00.001+13:00

I had a blog post planned in my head for tonight in order to try & describe what is happening here, but find now that I just can't pull up the right words.

For some reason this song has been on my mind so I'm posting this instead.

February Artistic Challenge - Well, Colo(u)r Me Copper!!

2011-02-15T01:33:00.000+13:00

Valentines Day has now ended here in New Zealand & this months artistic challenge is already upon us....

Truth be told - we're late in announcing what we are up to.But oh my - didn't this month sneak up from behind & catch us both unaware!! We are both a little pushed for time, with Mallory preparing for a show & me never knowing what the each day will bring energy & concentration wise, so we have decided to simplify things for February's Artistic Challenge.

You'll remember that Mallory, of For the Love of Beads fame, & I said at the start that we would push ourselves to play with media that we hadn't before, or experiment with familiar media in new ways. This month we will be doing just that. We are going to explore copper further - this time in the form of using various patina's - hence "Well, colo(u)r me copper".

This one should certainly feed my artistic soul - as I adore colour!! Pop on over to Mallory's blog & check out her side of the story....

I don't have an image to use with this post - so am borrowing one from a local artist that works in recycled copper.

John Dory - by CopperWorkx

Check out Christchurch's CopperWorkx in particular their Marlin, it's amazing!! In fact have a browse all around their website & you can get a feel for just how many looks copper is capable of. I've been in love with their work for years & am blessed to own a couple of their pieces - a Gecko & a Piranha.

Thanks Jeremy - you know what your Mumma likes ;)

Life is too Short to be Conformist

2011-02-06T23:55:00.004+13:00

to do what is standard or expected of me. Just because I have a perfectly good large, comfortable bed inside it doesn't mean that I have to sleep in it!

As kid's we'd set up a tent & sleep out in the garden, with the vast darkness of the golf course just over the fence....ok, maybe we'd last until it got really dark & quiet enough to hear the snuffling of hedgehogs & whatever else used to shuffle around under the pine tree's that edged the property before we crept back inside to where Mum & Dad were & the safety of our beds....

But the thought was there, the excitement of doing something out of the norm.... the sense of adventure. It was warmer here then too - the summers were hotter, the nights were balmy....a lot like this summer, which is the best we have had in many years. When do we lose that sense of adventure that such simple things can offer?

As I write this just before midnight it is still 28°c (82.4°f) with a balmy breeze & twinkling stars - with a chance of rain before morning. I'll take that chance! Two hours ago I decided that I was going to sleep under the stars one way or another.I'm going to just lie there & enjoy them with only the company of cats as they wander in & out & perhaps the odd spider.

Not quite the desert with the sound of camels making whatever noise camels make in the background - but an adventure none the less!

HaPpy New Year

2011-02-03T23:43:00.008+13:00

No, I'm not a month late in saying that - I'm referring to the Chinese New Year.
Today, 3rd February, is the first day of the Chinese New Year; the year of the Rabbit.
A rabbit year is quiet, giving respite after the year of the tiger & that was certainly the feeling as I tagged along today with some of the Ladies from Line Dance Christchurch to the Buddhist Temple where our group were doing a couple of line dances as part of the multi cultural segment of the celebrations.

Before our group was scheduled to dance the Lion Dance troupe performed the cai ching.

Afterwards we were able to watch a demonstration of Aikido - a non aggressive Japanese martial art. It might not have been aggressive but it was effective & mightily impressive. I'd love to learn more about this.

In the blink of an eye you can disarm an opponent with just some pressure in the right places!

In less than a second you can go from this......

... through to this....

....ending like this!

Somehow I don't think my back or shoulder would handle it <---- that is the voice of one who a couple of nights ago ended up flat on her back in the garden in about the same amount of time as the above sequence took ;)

The Holidays are Over too Quickly

2011-02-02T22:38:00.000+13:00

I'm not so sure that I'm looking forward to my baby girl starting High School tomorrow as it represents the end of an era for all of us. That said it is exciting & I know that, regardless of age, Gabriela will always be my baby girl!

I wonder what the future holds for her over these next few years that will gently shape her into the adult she was always meant to become.
I pray that I'll have the vision to see what she needs even when she thinks she doesn't need it, the wisdom to keep my thoughts to myself when she doesn't want to hear them & the strength to set her free to fly unhindered along her own path when the time comes.

Hello February !!

2011-02-01T23:59:00.000+13:00

I have to admit that I am rather pleased to see this month. I have a feeling that good things are about to start happening around here & that there is much to look forward to.

One thing that I know I am absolutely looking forward to is the release of Teresa Laliberte of Lavender Creek Glass's new Mask tutorial in a few days. You have no idea how long I have been waiting for this & to say that I'm excited would be the understatement of the year (so far!).

For those not familiar with Teresa's work let me say this - it's distinctive, unique & absolutely stunning. Everything Teresa does from her Goddesses through to her Water Bearers, & everything in between, has an understated elegance & sense of timelessness about it. Take a look at her album on Facebook - you'll see what I mean.

Teresa's Introduction into Sculpting with Glass ~ Goddess tutorial was one of the very first tutorials I purchased. I wasn't even particularly good at just basic beads at that point, but the way the tutorial was written & the steps explained was so clear & concise that my first attempt resulted in a very recognisable Goddess. It helped me learn a lot about heat control & choosing the right glass for the type of piece you are working on. I learned a lot & added new skills to the few I already had. In short it was invaluable & I have no reason to expect that this upcoming tutorial will be any different.

Keep your eye's open over the next few days for the release of this one. I certainly will be!!

In the meantime Teresa's existing tutorials in the Sculpting in Glass series, along with her luscious beads & jewelry, can be purchased in her Etsy Store.

Saying Goodbye to the First Month of a New Decade

2011-01-31T00:00:00.000+13:00

As I type this it is almost midnight on 31st of January.
Where the heck did the rest of the month go? All I know is that it seems to have gone by super fast!!

Right now I'm pretty much feeling that I've slept most of it away - or have been to tired to get out & enjoy it the way it should have been enjoyed. I had so much planned for the 5 1/2 weeks of summer holidays that follow after Christmas & yet here I am with the new school year starting in 2 more days & I've done none of what I intended to do beforehand.

What I have done though is pay a lot of attention to the sky & in particular the sunsets. So here, to bid farewell to January, is a montage of both the subtle & the spectacular sunsets it has provided me with.

The best things in life truly are free :)

Just click on the image to see the full size version.

To Reveal or Not to Reveal - that is the question...

2011-01-30T23:54:00.000+13:00

As you can guess from the title my Artistic Challenge ~ Kumihimo project is still not completed. It's almost there - but not quite to the point of how I pictured the end result when I was working on the Kumihimo braid.

Best I back up a bit & explain. When I started this I was a little ambitious for someone who had only done one 8 strand braid in her life before - I decided I wanted 16 strands & that the braid needed to have some sort of design to it. Then there were the beads.....
I don't have any seed beads that are a regular size & within an inch of braiding knew that this wasn't going to work for me - so I undid the lot & started again without beads. It seemed such a pity as the beads that I did have worked well with the colours of silk I'd used.

As I braided an idea formed in my mind... & then a plan. Of course I blithely overlooked the fact that the plan would involve yet another skill to learn - that of stitched beading. Braid finished I set about the task of learning some basic seed bead stitching.

I eventually settled on ladder stitch all in the same style beads as it seemed to compliment the Kumihimo braid without competing with it too much. It also allowed me to add different size beads every now & then for a bit of texture - without the need for me to try & figure how to make bridges around those beads. This step took me almost as long as the braid to complete... & I had bigger plans yet!!!

This is where I was up to on the 27th January - the intended reveal date. All was going well until I discovered that I'd used all of my 16 gauge copper wire to make the "Love Me Knots" for mine & Mallory's first Artistic Challenge. So off I went out in search of some 16 gauge copper wire to pull it all together into a completed piece.
Perhaps you can imagine my disgust at finding that a 10' length of 16 gauge copper wire was going to cost me $18.00 locally. I decided that I wasn't that desperate & left the shop without it..... & then spent the rest of the day quietly fuming at how much we pay here for what few craft supplies we can actually get. In fact I was so wrapped up in my fuming that I forgot I was meant to be posting the results that night.

The next day things went marginally better & I did manage to get one other component I needed I also managed to source a short length of copper wire from a friend, which should be arriving any day now.

So there you have it - a semi-reveal, the completed braid & beading but not a finished piece. That you are going to have to wait for - but hopefully not for very much longer.

Unrevealing Reveal

2011-01-26T23:04:00.000+13:00

Today was supposed to be the day that I revealed my Kumihimo project done as this months Artistic Challenge between Mallory aka Rosebud101 & myself.
This one has nurtured my somewhat battered creative soul & I have been enjoying the repetitive actions associated with doing Kumihimo finding that I don't need to concentrate too hard on them & because of that it is quite calming.

So how the heck could I forget from only this morning, when I went in search of some copper wire as part of the project, that tonight was meant to be the reveal. Apparently quite easily!! Such is life at the moment - I know it will improve soon though.

I've left myself a note for tomorrow so I don't forget to finish my project off!

For now all I have to show is this -

~~ImpressArt Metal Stamp Set Giveaway Alert~~

2011-01-25T20:09:00.001+13:00

Lori Anderson of Lori Anderson {Pretty Things} fame (as well as a whole heap of talent in the jewelry design & making department & creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party) has a fabulous ImpressArt Metal Stamp give away on, on her blog.

Now these are the coolest set of stamps & what is really fun is that not even a couple of days before this Giveaway came to light, a friend & I were talking on Skype while drooling & dreaming over the stamps sets on the PJ Tool & Supply website.

Check out Lori's Blog to see what you have to do to get in the draw for a chance to win this fabulous set of Stamps.

Almost There - A Teaser for this Months Artistic Challenge

2011-01-22T22:40:00.000+13:00

Sneak peek of what is in store....
I'm just hoping I get it all together in time for the reveal...

Fun with Fabric a la Microwaved Mesh

2011-01-20T23:50:00.000+13:00

Sewing before the wedding appears to have reawakened my fabric fetish.....

While shopping for fabric for Gabriela's dress I discovered that one could purchase plain old cheap as chips stretch mesh & crinkle, wrinkle or crush it themselves at home so that it would hold it's crinkles pretty much permanantly. This appealed to my experimental nature.

That I discovered a pattern that I rather liked at the time which would work well with a crinkled mesh fabric seemed to me to be further indication that I should start doing a little sewing again.

Last week I got to play with step one of the process.

Essentially there are a couple of options for getting the çrinkle/wrinkle/crush look depending on how you want the finished look.

Either you pull the dampened fabric up into little bunches & put rubber bands around them - or you gather each end in, pull it into a long taut length & twist it until it twists back onto itself ....then you put your bundle in the microwave with a cup of water for 20 minutes, checking at 5 minute intervals.

I went for the little bunches in rubber bands method, figuring it would give me a random creased look that I quite like. It was certainly time intensive putting al those rubber bands on a 2 meter length of fabric.

After removing from the microwave you have to let the fabric remain bunched up over night. This wasn't the easiest part for me as I was dying to see what the effect looked like. Somehow I managed to resist though & waited until the next day to unfold it. I loved the overall effect, but unfortunately I had been a little too 'exact' in the banding up of my bunches making sure the fabric was all tucked in & it had caused peaks in the fabric where the centre of each bunch had been.

I couldn't see me wanting little pointy bit's sticking out all over the top I intend making, especially if any of them ended up over the bust area, so it was back to the drawing board.

Not being to thrilled at the prospect of spending an hour or so putting rubber bands in again I just dampened the fabric & went for the twist method....& was far happier with the results. Next step is to sew it up into something wearable.

A Rebel in the Vege Garden

2011-01-18T02:26:00.000+13:00

Way back at the end of October I planted my vege garden. It's not a huge patch, quite small in fact when you consider that I was trying to plant around the well established artichoke plant, but I made room for some flower plants so I had a bit of colour since there is nowhere else in the garden to plant flowers. By the 31st of October all the seeds planted had germinated & everything was coming along nicely.

Not even 6 weeks later on the 12th December it was looking pretty darn established. We were already picking lettuces & the 'miniature' cabbages .

By the 27th December we'd had a good feed of lettuce & were ready to plant the second crop. The cabbages weren't so miniature any more & nor was a small variety of something else I had planted...

A Rebel in the midst & this is it!!

In front of the beans I had planted some Moulin Rouge Sunflowers. Call me fanciful but I liked the idea of something flowering in front of the beans that would stay a bit lower. The packet said they grew from 75-90cm (30-35") tall. The packet lied!

The fence is 1.8m (6') high & as of a week ago the culprits were a good foot above the top if the fence. Currently they are providing support for the wayward beans ;)

Resuscitating Old Skills - Part 2

2011-01-16T23:50:00.001+13:00

Remember this post "Resuscitating Old Skills" way back at the end of November last year?

It was an adventure that was for sure! Sewing is not like riding a bike after years of not having done so. Or perhaps it is in as much as you remember how to push the pedals but when it comes to the finer details such as changing gears on hills you have to stop & think about it.

All of the things that used to come naturally I had to stop & try to drag up through the fuzzy memory of time. The machine was the easy part, but all of those little tricks for a nice finish that once came so naturally eluded me. Shoot - a couple of times I even had to look at the pattern construction instructions & the last time did any garment sewing that was unheard of! Of course the instructions weren't a lot of help because some person had bought a pattern that was just the basic shape she needed & then gone & changed almost everything about it willy nilly, without a care in the world....and we'd bought chiffon. Slippery, slidey, super fine chiffon.

Very clever.

Still, Gabriela's dress turned out fine in the end, even if I was hemming it in between everything else on the morning of the wedding. Unlike the pattern it was age appropriate & with a wee short sleeved bolero over it she looked super sweet.

I don't have any decent photo's of her wearing the dress yet, none that show the dress well anyway, but no doubt some will turn up at some point though. So for now here is one I snapped quickly.

This was the pattern I used as a base for the under dress. You can see why it was somewhat changed - she's 13, not 23!!. It seems there is a distinct lack of young teen patterns around & once girls start getting a bit of 'shape' you have to go straight for the adult patterns. I can see more pattern tampering in my future ;)

Silk - a teaser for this months Challenge

2011-01-14T23:39:00.002+13:00

Beautiful raw 100% silk fibre. So much potential!

It's been sitting in my stash for some time so my mind went to it immediately when Mallory & I talked about fibre being used in the form of Kumihimo braiding for this months challenge.

My intention was to dye it - but you will have to wait & see whether I did...or not.

I Can Read His Mind....

2011-01-12T23:59:00.000+13:00

Hercules rushed into the laundry thinking I was putting more food down only to discover that his 'sister' Bizkit had beaten him to the bowl. Hercules is a funny cat, so chilled out that he almost borders on stoopid at times....

"If I sit nonchalantly & pretend disinterest she'll hurry up & finish.... "

"OK, so that didn't work - I'll give her "the look" & maybe she will get the message..."

"ohhh look there's another handsome cat waiting too, Hello!"

Around the garden in January

2011-01-09T23:51:00.009+13:00

High temperatures, long hours of sunshine & plentiful watering has resulted in what flowers I have planted putting on a continuing show for me. The first thing I do every morning is take a wander around the garden & check on what is happening....it was with a huge whoop of joy that I saw the first runner beans were ready to harvest.

Guess what I had for dinner ;)

First Monthly Challenge of 2011 - Ms M & Deb Conspire

2011-01-05T23:59:00.003+13:00

It's that time again & by gosh this one snuck up on me. Where on earth did December go? Was there a December? I seem to vaguely recall it & speaking with Mallory Hoffman ~Rosebud101 of what we were going to challenge ourselves with this month, but then this jolly New Year went & got all hot on me & fried my brain.....

Well that's my excuse & I am sticking to it!

In our mission to nurture our creative souls we are pushing ourselves to work outside of that with which we are most comfortable with ~ melting glass (quite frankly I think I have probably forgotten how to melt glass, & this just sounds better but don't tell Mallory that!!).

Seriously though, when a predominantly right brained (creative thinker) person tries a different technique or process to what they are used to it often stimulates the thought process into new ideas. Do you ever find yourself working on a project & while you are doing it your mind is racing ahead of you filling up with ideas for something totally unrelated to the task at hand? It happens to me all the time - but my biggest problem is that I don't stop what I am doing & write those idea's down (that can be a bit difficult at the torch) & I often lose them by the time I finish what I'm doing.

This months media should make it a little easier for me to stop & capture those technicolor images that play in my head! Mallory & I are going to work with fibre in the form of Kumihimo. This should be interesting - considering I have only played briefly with this once before & the unfinished result is,as you can see, still on the loom!

The reveal will be on 26th January. Be sure to check back in then & perhaps check in once or twice beforehand as this month I will finally have some time to post 'teasers'.

You can check out Mallorys twist on this challenge over on her blog here.

Summer Daze....

2011-01-04T04:10:00.000+13:00

Time to just relax & enjoy the post Christmas winding down & think about the potential the year ahead brings.
Some days are ripe for going out & exploring around the city

Others for observing things closer to home

At yet others for just staying indoors & trying to keep cool, when it's been that hot during the day that at 7.30pm you find this a perfect temperature for it to have cooled down to....

Oh - oops!

2011-01-03T03:56:00.008+13:00

After effects of after shocks saw the washing machine hose shake loose of the outlet pipe & a little after midnight on the 28th December we found ourselves with a substantial amount of water running into the house....

72 hours later, with the aid of two huge nosey industrial fans it was all dried out!
May I mention now that the white noise of fans running day & night for that long is enough to drive a person to distraction!

The First Day of 2011

2011-01-02T23:38:00.001+13:00

My morning wander around the small patch that constitutes my garden revealed a lone bloom on one of the vines that germinated from seed sent to me by a friend. How apt!

On the second day of the new decade, today, two more buds bloomed.

There are many more buds waiting to follow suit & if the lovely Ipomea "Grandpa Ott" is indicative of the year 2011 it is going to be one to look forward to with great anticipation!

In With The New!!

2011-01-01T00:01:00.004+13:00

Here's to a bright & brilliant New Year!

Welcome 2011 - I'm so very pleased to see you!

Wishing all my family & friends a prosperous year filled with blessings.

The Last Days of 2010

2010-12-31T23:54:00.001+13:00

As I walked around the city the other morning, after the recent spate of aftershocks, I noticed that the feeling of this places has changed. Look up & you can see the damage...

Look ahead & you see the future, a new chapter in this city's rapidly changing 'history'.....

It is a future filled with the typical Cantabrian attitude - "Hope"

Trans Pacific Christmas Contrasts - Reveal!

2010-12-27T23:49:00.000+13:00

Finally the time has come for the reveal in this the second of Mallory Hoffman's & my Artistic Challenges.

After our initial Artistic Challenge, Crush on Copper, we decided because of the time constraints that December brings (especially when you have a very important wedding taking place just 7 days before Christmas!!) we'd keep this months challenge simple.

The plan was that we'd highlight the extreme seasonal differences that our localities half a world apart afford us at Christmas time. You'd be surprised at the things you don't think of when you take the climate where you live for granted - the seemingly small differences that aren't due to any customs as such at all, but rather dictated by the weather as to what is available.

This summer, so far we have been blessed with incredible weather - so knowing that Christmas day was likely to be sunny & hot I focussed planning for our family Christmas to be primarily outdoors....& for the food to be kept simple in order that everyone could relax & enjoy themselves.

The weather came to the party providing us with a bright blue sky & fluffy white cotton balls...until about 9.30am when they had all but disappeared & leaving us with bright hot sun.

Just as well I had planned to borrow my brothers portable gazebo so the kids, big, small & 4 legged, had somewhere to play safely away from the harmful rays!

Those that had prepared the salads & desserts were quite happy to sit back & relax for a bit while others attended to the BBQ.

I truly do expect that this was the first time my wonderful sister in law Jackie had really sat down for longer than 5 minutes in the last month!

The array of salads - with a noodle salad on the far end (with a dressing that is to die for!!). Next to that was the most delicious Potato Salad prepared by the former 'terrible teen'& budding chef, Michaela! Mum's stuffing which is an absolute must, & the pièce de résistance of any event that I can manage to get her to make it for resides firmly at the centre of attention, even with BBQ'd meats! A fresh lettuce salad & a lovely Pasta salad finished off the array.

It was kind of cool that the lettuces & cabbage were picked fresh out of our garden that morning.

The meat maestro's at work - my beautiful new daughter in law Kerry, & my eldest son Jeremy.

Offering refreshment to the vege garden!!

Jackie's wonderful Pavlova with fresh berries on top...

Fresh fruit salad

For us the Christmas celebration runs over two days. December 26th, Boxing Day, is also my Mum's Birthday. This year she turned a sprightly 73 years young. While the family were together again on Boxing Day a few of us took the chance to go to the beach together. It was an overcast day & a little cooler than the day before - but the beach was calm & wonderful. Even if we did take a 10 kilometre round walk through Bottle Lake Plantation.....

The grandpuppies enjoyed it too....

I cheated & finally decorated the tree on Christmas eve, mainly because I wanted it to feel like Christmas for my nieces & nephew. May I add right here that around 11pm on Christmas eve is a darn bad time to discover that the light set you chose out of the three available & which you didn't check before you put them on the tree, aren't working.....

More in keeping with this Christmas theme would have been this, a Feijoa in flower.

Maybe that is an idea for next year :)

As I mentioned in my previous post, this was a blessed Christmas. Surrounded by all those that I love meant more to me than anything - it also offered up a wonderful surprise. But more about that later!!

A Blessed Christmas

2010-12-26T23:56:00.001+13:00

No material gift could be better than the gift of spending Christmas day surrounded by the people in your life whom you love. Not a single thing.

The spirit of Christmas simply can not be bought in a store. Yesterday as I watched older cousins interact with the younger ones, a brother & a sister in law work together at the BBQ, fathers & sons setting up a gazebo, an Aunt & her niece figuring out a new cell phone & everyone scurrying around in between preparing food I counted my blessings - all 16 of them, family & extended family.

We kept the food & preparation simple & the shared workload light. It allowed us all time to enjoy one another.

Gabriela made me some beautiful candles as a Christmas present & Christmas night we watched TV by candle light.It was a perfect end to a beautiful day.

Time Heals

2010-12-15T07:47:00.000+13:00

I was kind of hoping that yesterday would slip past in the rush of getting ready for the wedding this weekend. It didn't though. With Dad's passing so close to Christmas & happening on the day in between his brothers & oldest grandsons birthdays it's not likely that it will ever truly 'slip by'.
Instead yesterday, more than ever, I missed my Dad's presence in this world & mourned the fact that he isn't here to see his younger grandson Kieran get married this weekend to the lovely Kerry, or to see my oldest son celebrate his 33rd Birthday today. I wish he was here to see so many things in this wonderful expanding family of mine.

As I looked at the star sprinkled sky last night & marvelled once again how incredibly beautiful it was I knew that Dad, who always had such a great appreciation for the simple things in life (along with a decent red wine!), wouldn't want me to be sad. ... & that was why I chose to read Mary Frye's "Do Not Stand at my Grave and Weep" at his funeral. Sometimes we just need to remind ourselves.

I guess that trying to compose my speech for the wedding is bringing back memories of four years ago too. Then again Dad would have been the one that I asked to speak.
Oh yeah - I can see the twinkle in his eye so clearly now, as his mind would have progressed through all the possible tales he could have told about Kieran to a captive audience. He would have had such fun with that!!

I'm absolutely loving this song, so I thought I'd share.

This Month in the Garden

2010-12-13T23:18:00.003+13:00

Mother nature has decided that oranges & yellows are the 'ín' colour! Thank you Mother Nature :)

Last Month in the Garden

2010-12-12T23:04:00.001+13:00

Pink was my favourite colour - who knew ;)

Trans Pacific Christmas Contrasts

2010-12-09T02:08:00.001+13:00

In these days of almost instant everything, including contact with people half a world away, it's easy to forget that a wee pond called the Pacfic Ocean separates New Zealand & the USA by 9600km (6000 miles).

Two Western countries, culturally very similar & alike in many ways - but so very different in others. Not least of all the fact that we are seasonal opposites.

Never are the seasonal differences more obvious than at Christmas time. The early settlers to New Zealand brought all of their European traditions with them but over the years they adapted & evolved. I guess the lack of snow in Summer may have forced that issue somewhat ;)

For this months artistic growth challenge Mallory Hoffman (Rosebud101) & I have decided to compile photo journals of those Christmas contrasts.

I've never experienced a white Christmas although I grew up knowing of them as that was the stuff of my Mum's childhood. I well remember the very traditional English Christmas dinners - roast turkey, roast ham, roast potatoes, green beans, corn, carrots, stuffing, cranberry sauce & gravy - Christmas pudding, fruit mince pies, trifle, brandy sauce, cream & ice cream. Everyone used to fall alseep mid afternoon after that lot....well, the adults did & the kids had FUN!

Then somehow new potatoes & kumara (sweet potatoes) snuck in, someone decided they didn't like turkey that much & it got replaced with chicken, the hams became cold hams..how about a salad with that, it's too hot for all those roast veges. Before you knew it fresh fruit salad & Pavlova started replacing the trifle & then; "Oh the heck with it lets have a BBQ & make things easy". You get the picture...

Of course food isn't the only difference - but you'll have to wait until the reveal on the 27th December, 2010 to see the rest of the differences between the way Christchurch New Zealand & Minnesota, USA ( a mere 13,221km or 8216 miles apart) celebrate the holiday season.

Lets see what Mallory has to say about this challenge by visiting her blog!

Ok - I lied, here's another sneak peek.....

Resuscitating Old Skills

2010-11-29T23:59:00.000+13:00

You know what this means don't you? It means I am going to do some sewing. This is kind of scary in it's own way as I haven't made a garment in years. Oh I've done repairs & a little patchwork & appliqué work but as far as constructing a complete garment goes - I think the last dress pattern I bought was probably about a size 4 year old.....for Gabriela, who is now 13.

What it also means is that somewhere along the way I have become blissfully unaware of the price of dress patterns, so much so in fact that when Gabriela was trying on prospective dresses to wear to her brothers wedding & suggested that she really would like me to make something for her I blithely said 'yes'. Admittedly the dress she liked didn't have a lot to it & we could both see area's where we would improve on both the style & design, but I may not have been so amenable if I'd known a pattern to get the basic shape was going to cost me $20.00!

Then there was the fabric, & the fact that I couldn't find where my tape measures were & needed new machine needles. Yep, it would have been half the price to actually buy the dress we saw. But then again she wouldn't have a unique dress, tailored completely to her tastes & made especially for her by her Mum. And that last part was the key point, she wanted me to make something for her in an age where kids are increasingly all about labels & what stores their peers shop at this little sweety wanted me to make her a dress.

I'm flattered & honoured. Lets hope that I live up to expectations!!

Workwomen & Their Tools

2010-11-26T19:46:00.005+13:00

It is said that only a bad workman blames their tools. To that I say 'bah humbug'.

For as many tasks that can be adequately completed with basic or cheap tools, there are as many again that can't. Besides often 'adequate' just isn't good enough to do the job to the standard required...or with any great deal of ease.

I've always believed that you get what you pay for, but at the same time will freely admit that certain items will get such limited use (or wear) that it isn't worth paying top dollar for them. Shoes & tools do not come into that category.

After struggling with a cheap disk cutter I was blessed when an unexpected opportunity to buy a better disk cutter came up.

Suffice to say that I jumped at the chance. It had it's inaugural run today & I found myself muttering such things as 'oh, yes!', 'man this is brilliant' & 'how easy was that!'...amongst sighs of satisfaction & calling it's predecessor a whole heap unflattering names in memory of the frustration it caused me, not to mention the etched copper sheets I destroyed while trying to use it.

There is absolutely no comparison between the Swanstrom Disk Cutter & it's cheap & not very cheerful predecessor. If pushed the closest I could probably come would be to compare a Rolls Royce with a Fiat...or better still a Harley with a push bike....a very cheap & nasty push bike.

This piece of equipment is an absolute dream to use. I did stop short of singing "Swanee - how I love ya, how I love ya, My dear old swanee..." but only just!!

Truth be told I love it, in fact I think I want to sleep with it!!

REVEAL - Crush on Copper

2010-11-25T00:33:00.003+13:00

Today is the date that Mallory Hoffman of For the Love of Beads & I chose to reveal what we have been creating for our Crush on Copper, the first of our monthly challenges. The only guideline in this challenge was that our copper wire had to be used in the form of a "Love-me Knot" & after that pretty much anything was allowed.

Since I am nowhere near as organised as Mallory I haven't shown a teaser, but I feel the urge to do so now & prolong the suspense :)

Somewhere in the chats we had about this particular challenge we decided that we'd deviate from making a jewelry item. Easier said than done as the second I finished those Love-me -Knots I had a load of ideas for using them in bracelets or as an earring component & then, for the life of me drew a blank as to what else I could make using them that wasn't jewelry.

I found the Love-me- Knots challenging to use in their own way as they are very structured & I tend to favour more relaxed shapes & styles. The temptation to make earrings or a bracelet in a nice symmetrical, repetitive design with them was almost too much....I did say 'almost'!

And just because teasing is so much fun, I'm going to do it again.

In the end I managed to resist temptation. I looked closely at the piece of copper that I showed in the announcement of this challenge & decided to go with something that was already etched onto that sheet.....if only I could find a way to cut it out.

One of my stumbling blocks has been that the copper sheet I have been able to source locally is a rather substantial .7mm thick (it would work out at around a 21 gauge - if that gauge existed), & even after etching is a little on the thick side to cut with shears or use in the cheap disk cutter that were the only tools I had available at the time. In the end I purchased some jewelers saw blades & I was away laughing.

Tease number three about to appear, of course at this stage you could just scroll down & see the end result & spoil all my fun .....

I promise not to keep you in suspense (or suspenders as I used to be fond of saying) for too much longer.

I decided that my components could be put to good use as a key ring, blithely ignoring the fact that I didn't have the required 'ring' part on which to hang keys. I figured I could make one easily enough.

Yeah - right! Last night while hammering my nicely coiled ring flat so that keys could be slid onto it, I also managed to hammer the edge of my index finger. Hello to a nice big blood blister,ouch!! That put the kibosh on any further hammering. Subsequently my coiled ring became just a ring as I had to trim it back.

Without further ado I'll show you my effort in this challenge..

Meet the "I Need Kelp" key ring

I've learned a lot from this first challenge. First & foremost - keep your fingers well away from hammers. Secondly, even though only a bad workwoman blames her tools, the lack of decent ones & a scarcity of supplies can be somewhat limiting.

Just as well my new disk cutter arrived today then isn't it?!

Check out Mallory's blog to see her Reveal for the Crush on Copper Challenge.

Still Standing on Shaky Ground

2010-11-14T22:19:00.000+13:00

I want to talk about earthquakes. Yeah, I know - so last month, or was it the month before?

Actually, in all truth, the last thing I want to talk about is earthquakes, because right now in this city it is a subject that pretty much comes up in every conversation you have with anyone no matter where you go. Everyone has been affected in one way or another & many continue to be so with every aftershock.

I don't want to sound as if I am droning on & complaining - I'm not.

Believe it or not I used to get a kick out of earthquakes. Christchurch has always felt the effects of bigger quakes centred way down the bottom of the South Island. They'd probably register here at around a 3 magnitude & they never bothered me apart from giving me a bit of a thrill.

But, as of 3 hours ago, we're at aftershock #2934 since September 4th &, although I haven't actually felt 2/3 of those, like many, many others I am over it. To be honest I don't know what I feel any more....apart from confused about how I feel ;)

What I do know though is that we have been so incredibly blessed on so very many levels & I will be eternally grateful for that. These pesky aftershocks aren't stopping me living as I normally would, I still go out & do the things I have always done, go into the same huge stores & old buildings I have always gone into without thought of what would happen if there were another big one & I'm not losing sleep at night from worrying about what might be.

I'm not living in fear of them & I'm certainly not waiting around for the 'next' aftershock to happen. As far as I'm concerned every one I feel is the last one. It doesn't even cross my mind that there will be another one.... until it happens. Then for a few seconds or sometimes a few minutes, depending on the circumstances, absolutely everything goes to custard.lol!

The last one was a rather decent 4.9 magnitude, that once again had me grabbing my desk to hold on as the serious shaking started. As I did that I wondered why I was doing it. Was I afraid? No, not really. So why then?

I'm going to attempt to explain.

We often hear the aftershocks coming. A deep rumble or roar is quickly followed by a sharp whip like crack as the house starts to move. Then the rattling starts - doors, blinds & such. My mind deals with this in the "s**t another freakin aftershock" manner & if it's only been a smaller (as in short sharp type) aftershock I don't have much time to think more than that before it's over & everything can go back to it's regularly scheduled program.

It's when they go on for a bit longer than the split second it takes for you to realise one is happening & have the "s.a.f.a" reaction that things come unstuck. All of a sudden you realise that your body has tensed up in anticipation that this one might be building up into something big & your mind is quickly following suit. Grabbing onto something is the precursor to stabilising yourself in order to get up & head for the nearest door frame to take refuge under.

And then, just as you make that call to take cover, the shaking slows & you know it isn't going to be another big one.... even though your body feels as if the ground is still moving when you know it has stopped. It messes with your equilibrium & for some reason has the ability to spoil everything that has gone before. That few seconds can cruelly strip the shine off of the surface of an otherwise perfect day.

Whatever you were focussed on those few seconds earlier is instantly forgotten, as if someone has stirred up the silt on the bottom of a pond & what you know was there before isn't visible any more. You find yourself unable to settle & refocus, or only able to focus on things for a short time in between pacing up & down like a caged animal, in the hour or so afterwards. It's annoying - annoying & unsettling.

When everyone is at home it isn't so bad. But when partners are at work or kids are at school or in daycare it adds the element of worry to pot. Are they safe? Is the building they are in ok?

Even though you know that the buildings were all inspected & given clearance (or not) after the 'big one' there is no denying that these aftershocks have caused both fresh damage & further damage. Then there is the concern over family members still living in homes that have been damaged or on land that has subsided, while they wait to hear the verdict from EQC. You don't rest easy until you have made contact & hear that everyone is safe.

Life in many ways is normal.... or rather the new normal.And in many ways it's not at all normal.

I'm not alone in the fact that I haven't picked up things that fell or moved during the first earthquake. Everything large & breakable is still sitting on the floor where they can't fall any further. Although I expect every aftershock to be the last aftershock right back at the beginning I decided that they wouldn't go back up until we'd had no more for at least a fortnight. I don't see the point in adding to the list of breakages if it can be avoided. Fortunately this isn't the 'new' normal, it's just normal for now.

In the bigger scheme of things, city wide, it's not that normal either. But perhaps that is for another post. This one has already become quite long & I still have things I want to say.

I completely understand what this is doing to people, what it does to ones psyche - I feel that too. I don't want to trivialise feelings or what people are going through...yet on the other hand I want to say 'get over it & count your blessings, this is life - for now at least & aren't we so fortunate that it is this great?!"

With Haiti still as fresh as it ever was on my mind it would be difficult not to feel that way.... & Haiti is what I compare everything back to. Not only the incredible loss that people of Haiti suffered on January 12th, but what they continue to suffer with Cholera now taking it's toll amidst tropical storms & everything else that is still happening.... & much that hasn't happened that should have.

A word I used to describe what I was feeling in the week immediately after the earthquake was conflicted. I still feel that way. So if you see the occasional status update on FaceBook referring to an aftershock, please forgive me - it just means that an aftershock temporarily rattled my brain ;)

The image above? That was my shoe cabinet the morning of the earthquake. It still looks that way - only a few more have gone over. The other cabinet is the same. Yes, there are breakages - but I'm not concerned. They're just things after all :)

It's Not Even Summer Yet....

2010-11-12T00:53:00.000+13:00

and yesterday morning I picked the first of the strawberries & savoured their sun warmed, sweet, juicy goodness. There is nothing quite like the taste of strawberries grown in the home garden, for some reason they are always sweeter than when you buy them at the supermarket.

I doubt that my wee pot will ever produce the amount required to give the family a decent bowl full each all at the same time, but I guess we can take turns picking & eating them as they ripen.

A side note;

There may be a very valid reason for home grown strawberries always tasting sweeter. Commercially grown strawberries are often picked for their keeping qualities. Strawberries don't last well so pickers will pick under conditions that help them keep through the sorting, packing & shipping process ensuring that they arrive at the market in peak conditions. This often involves picking early in the morning or on a cool cloudy day.

When sun is on fruit it causes the natural fruit sugars to rise & aid with the ripening process. When the weather is cooler or cloudy fruit takes longer to ripen. So it makes sense that when you are picking home grown strawberries on a sunny day they are always going to taste sweeter.

Crush on Copper

2010-11-10T23:10:00.000+13:00

It's that time again! No, not heading in a rush & a whirl towards Christmas, although it is that time as well!

It's time to get some creative juices flowing, time for some Artistic Growth & Nurturing of the Creative Spirit. Mallory & I have chatting on Skype about how to challenge our creativity by thinking outside the square.
Do you remember the Freaky Friday Challenges that my lovely friend Mallory of Rosebuds Lampwork Beads & For The Love of Beads Blog & I used to do? If you don't, or you are new to my blog you can find mine here & Mallory's here.

The great news is that we are at it again!! Always so wonderful at encouraging others Mallory has come up with the idea of doing something similar to the Freaky Friday Challenges. This time we aren't going to restrict it to lampwork beads alone - we are going to explore new mediums & new ways of using the mediums we work in.

Looking back at those blog posts I couldn't believe how much we have both changed & grown in our lampworking since then. This time we are going to focus on other mediums, but will bring our beads into it in "new to us" ways at a later date.

At this point we are going to make it a Monthly Challenge as we feel this way we give ourselves permission & time to fully explore each medium we decide on. Quite possibly ideas will develop as we experiment & play with our chosen mediums & further mini challenges will result.

Since both of us have started working with copper & developed quite a crush on it our first challenge is going to be using copper wire & copper shapes. The only guideline is that the wire is to be in the form of a Love me Knot, but after that anything goes.
This should be fun!!

The reveal will be posted on our blogs on November 24th - so check back then. Of course if you ask nicely, we may just be tempted to show a teaser ;-)

Check out Mallorys "Crush on Copper" blog post for her side of the story.

If You Can't Have One

2010-11-08T22:38:00.000+13:00

You just gotta make the most of other peoples. Sunday was visiting day. I think there were humans involved but I was rather too focussed on the canine family members to really notice ;)

Odessa - a puppy belonging to a friend of Gabriela's

Missy - my Grandpuppy.

Jill and the Beanstalks

2010-11-07T23:02:00.000+13:00

I'm pretty sure I have discovered the reason that whoever originally thought up the tale that was later to become Jack and the Beanstalk picked beans as the means of transport to a higher level. Seriously!

My beans are pretty average heirloom beans with nothing so special about them, except perhaps the story behind how they got here to New Zealand. In fact the bean seeds were rather plain, almost homely, in comparison to the scarlet runner seeds. Bob's Beans certainly displayed not outward sign of magical qualities...

At least not until they germinated.

One minute they were breaking the breaking through the soil

A mere 26 hours later they'd doubled in size.

Just imagine if they had been truly magic beans!

They do hold a little magic for me. Not only do I enjoy watching seeds germinate & grow but "Bob's beans" have a rather nice story behind them. They were originally brought to New Zealand by a returning Prisoner of War after the second World War, hidden in his socks. The soldier had been hiding in the hills in Italy after having escaped from a Prisoner of War camp and decided he couldn't return home without these beans that had become a much loved part of his diet.

In the USA they are known as Valena Italian or Kahnawake Mohawk beans with varying tales as to how they originally got there.

Drafts

2010-11-06T23:16:00.003+13:00

Going back through my blog posts under the edit tab, I was surprised to find a few in draft mode that had never been published.

This one in particular made me smile & although it is 'old' now I still want to at least show the photo, as it is what I was working on to publish on September 4th.

My baby boy (who will no doubt thank me profusely for this) on Anzac Day when he was in Timor-Leste.

Incredible to think that he has now been back 6 months, bought a home & in 6 weeks time will be getting married to the wonderful Kerry!

That's The Attitude

2010-11-04T05:00:00.001+13:00

Not so long ago, in the spot where this raw new concrete pad now resides, was a quaint old corner store.

It was the home of a bespoke & fine furniture makers showroom & workshop, & if you bothered to venture inside the door you could happily be transported back in time to a gentler era by the scents of beeswax & french polish.

The visual feast of softly radiant timber completed the feel.

The business name is Ambrose Heal & it has been there for almost as long as I have lived in the At Albans area. A small business using time honoured methods of crafting & resorting beautiful furniture. The store itself was badly damaged in the September 4th Earthquake, & like all bar one in the immediate vicinity was demolished.

Not to be daunted the owner kept trading out of an old house adjoining the property while plans for a new building were made. He even had a Sale but now it's back to business as usual, well almost as usual.....

Looking Closely...

2010-11-02T23:55:00.000+13:00

Being a gardener without any real garden to speak of forces one to become reliant on gardening in pots.

Dare I say it? Yes, why not...hey, it's my blog after all!

I loathe being restricted to pots.

Don't get me wrong, I love pots as feature elements in a garden. I just prefer to put most plants in the ground & let them do their own thing as nature intended sometimes gently guiding them to work in with what I want & sometimes not. Besides, gardening in pots is far more work intensive & so very limiting in very many ways.

In other ways it is a good thing. When you are running around on a daily basis hand watering all those 'darn pots' you seem to develop more of a personal interest in the individual plants rather than a planting as a whole. Small things that often get overlooked in a larger planting often bear closer examination.

Before you know it those work intensive pots & their inhabitants have you in their grasp, bending close to look for the small stuff the wonderful details so often missed when they are just part of the crowd.

The beautiful claret veining on the leaves of Heuchera - "Green Spice"

The remnants of a morning dew on Alchemilla mollis.

Ok, so I had to kneel on the ground for this shot!

Fabulous Fungi

2010-11-01T12:13:00.001+13:00

Stunning, aren't they?

Perhaps it's just as well I don't travel much as I'd want to bring home all sorts of strange & wonderful things. Of course the majority of them would be either plants or animals & I don't expect customs or MAF would be too happy about that....nor would the neighbours ;)

These beauties were spotted in the Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve, which is one of the best examples of sub tropical rainforests left on the Sunshine Coast Hinterland in Queensland Australia.

I desperately wanted to touch them, & easily could have, but didn't out of respect of the delicate ecological structure for this wondrous place.

Instead I just took photo's & marvelled at how nature gets it so very right every time. Fungi that appear as vessels turned of a wonderfully grained timber growing on dead or decaying wood. Perfect.

Perspective

2010-10-31T22:36:00.001+13:00

Some weeks just ought to be skipped. Yep, we should have a fast forward button & be able to forward ourselves right past them without the merest hint of acknowledgement. Or perhaps not.

As humans we hopefully grow from all that we encounter on our path through life & more importantly we learn from them.

I've always told my kids to try & find a career that they love. Find something that ignites that spark & inspires a passion within you & just follow it. I can imagine few greater joys in life than to get paid for something that you really love doing, that you wake up & can't wait to get to every day. In fact I don't have to imagine it as I had such a job once. I actually got paid to be surrounded by wonderful original art & get to know some hugely talented artists during my 'work' day....imagine that!

I well know how blessed I was as it seems that so very few people that work for an employer feel that way & simply go to work in order to make a living enjoying some aspects of their job but not ever truly passionate about it as a whole. And that is where I am now...or rather was!

A week ago I was laid off, or as they term it here "my position was made redundant", from my small part time job . I wasn't surprised, it is so quiet at work, but I was a little concerned & upset as to what the change in finances would mean.

Prior to this I had just learned that I need glasses. Don't get me wrong, I've always loved glasses & have no problem with having wear them. I own 4 pairs of sunglasses & 3 pairs of hobby glasses, & dare I say it, but there have been more than just a few times in the past that I have thought I'd like to get some trendy frames & just have clear glass put in them to wear because they look so cool! I just didn't need the added expense right now & that was before being laid off.

To add insult to injury I went & sat at the torch for the first time since the earthquake & discovered that my kiln isn't heating up. Half way through my first bead I was already having ideas of what I wanted to do next....until I opened the kiln to put the bead in & realised that it hadn't ramped up. Somehow realising that my kiln wasn't going put everything else into perspective.

Although I haven't really been called to torch since that little shake up & it's incessant aftershocks (read: a bit afraid), there is nothing quite like wanting to do something & not being able to do it that reignites that initial spark of passion.

Quite simply I realised what I am passionate about; creating & the process of creating. Whether it is melting glass, etching & bashing metal into shape, planning or planting a garden, knitting, needlework, painting, doodling with intent (more on that later!!) - I need to be creating.

The truth of it was that I hadn't enjoyed going to work for some time. I didn't like working at the job just on a Saturday as there was no continuity & each week it was as if you had to start anew. I was uninspired by the job itself as there were no challenges. The worst part was that because I wasn't given the opportunity to utilise my unique skill set learned in my original gallery job, I was bored to distraction.

And I loathe the word bored! But there you have it. Passion certainly isn't found in being bored &, if I think about it, who on earth wants to get paid for being bored? It's just not worth what it does to your psyche.

So what have I learned from this?

If I live to create, then I can create to live.

While waiting to find out what is wrong with my kiln I've bought some air dry clay to play with.

Now all that remains is which spectacle frames I should choose - what do you think?

The Grass Is Always Greener....

2010-10-29T00:44:00.003+13:00

I don't even need to finish that particular idiom. It's one I have heard many times during my life - usually by people that have mistakenly taken my expression of interest in something to be a desire to have it.

My answer, if I ever hear that again is going to be "No, it's just a different shade of green".

I loved this visit to Australia. I adored almost everything about the country from flora & fauna through to food & shopping. Without doubt the contrasts within the areas we visited had me spellbound & I didn't want to come home (much less back to shaky ground!!). Heck, I was even enthralled with the rain!! But the point is that I was there as a visitor.

So is the grass greener on the other side of the 'ditch'? No, it's just a different shade of green, but right now I'm still quite enamoured with that particular shade!

Kiwi Green

Aussie Green

Hey Dad

2010-10-27T23:30:00.022+13:00

You would have been 82 years old today.

Imagine that, 82! Some how I can't, so you will always be 78 when I think of you.

Bet you couldn't imagine having a daughter that is closer to 50, than 40 either!

I think of you often.

Your serenity & peacefulness while you sat quietly or read a book,

or that positively wicked chuckle when you heard something that amused you.

The quiet but dry sense of humour, often slightly risqué, that enabled you to deliver a one-liner that would have whoever was supposed to hear it trying to suppress laughter.Those that weren't supposed to hear, alerted by the laughter, would be begging you to share.

The ability to see the inner beauty that others had to offer.

Your enjoyment of all the grand kids & your infinite patience with them. Not to mention all the Japanese students that stayed with you & Mum!

The way you willingly went about helping out others, doing whatever had been asked of you & enjoying the process.

You were such a great role model to my boys & they were so blessed to have had you as a Papa for as long as they did.

Jeremy reminds me so much of you, that same dry sense of humour, the brilliant one-liners & the way he goes about things quietly with an attention to detail. He's a hard worker & puts his all into any task set before him, as you did. You & he always had such a lot of time for each other. I know he misses you so much.

If I could change one thing it would be that you had been around to see Kieran after his Basic Training in the Army. He thoroughly enjoys the life & I've never seen anyone so suited to his choice of career as he is - it was the perfect choice for him. He'd enjoy talking your ear off all about it too.

He & Kerry have just brought their first home & are getting married in December. Dad, you'd be so proud of him! I can just imagine the smile on your face.

Michaela is busy being a teenager, trying to find her way through the tumultuous teenage years, much like her Mother before her ;)

Hopefully she will emerge relatively unscathed & a lot wiser. Sooner, rather than later would be good.

I know if you were still here that you'd just be there for her though, non-judgemental & your love unconditional as it always was for me. Wish you'd left some notes on how you achieved that! :)

Gabriela is doing well at school & starts High School next year! Bet that surprises you, because it does me.

She's a great kid & really hasn't changed that much in her countenance from when she was that happy toddler just cruising about with a constant smile on her face. Well, maybe sometimes she isn't quite as easy going & smiley - but hey, she is 13 now.

Mum is fine. She's been through a lot in the last 4 years, but that woman is stronger than I ever could have imagined ..especially for a little chick! She has a wonderful attitude, which has always served her well & it continues to do so. She amazes me sometimes, especially recently with this earthquake fiasco. Even when facing uncertainty as to what will happen with the house she remains positive. But still ,without you walking alongside her it's like seeing only half of the whole.

Life has gone on, but we all still miss you....heaps. I know that my heart isn't the only one that has a big old chunk of it set aside for you.

So, Happy Birthday to the Worlds Best Dad & Papa - Daddy Cool (remember that?). I couldn't have chosen better & I was so very blessed when you chose me.

Love always,

Deb

John Gardner Batten

Oh, To Be A Cat!!

2010-10-25T11:55:00.002+13:00

A wonderful Monday spent pottering around in the garden. It was such a lovely day, no breeze, a clear blue sky & warm, so wonderfully warm! I got out a deck chair & took a few minutes just to lay back & feel those rays on my face.

No sooner had I got up out of it & turned my back, than a certain Ginger Ninja made himself quite comfortable in it, thank you very much.....

A few minutes later & the heat had obviously gotten too much for him, & he took refuge in the shrubbery.

Soon he was joined by Bizkit, who positioned herself precisely in place for a Yin & Yang cat formation.

Polar opposites these two - so quite appropriate I thought!

Later when the sun started to dip & the patio got some shade, a certain lad thought the chair looked good for a spot of personal grooming after such a busy afternoon spent watching me garden!

Need Inspiration?

2010-10-24T23:44:00.000+13:00

Or perhaps you are just after your daily art fix. Either way you need look no further than DAM - DailyArtMuse

I stumbled across this website for the first time a couple of days ago & I was blown away immediately upon landing on the homepage. Of course I am most likely late to the party on this one & perhaps everyone already knows about it. But just in case there is someone who doesn't know I feel I must give it a mention!

Established in 2006 by Susan Lomuto, the website is an absolute treasure trove of talent, ideas & resources.

Images such as this paper and mixed media sculpture by Carol Cole met my eager eye within the first couple of scrolls of my mouse button.

A bit further down the page & I arrived at these breathtaking figurative gourd sculptures by Patricia Boyd

These are just the more recent articles; click on the artist names to go directly to the posts & see more of their work & read about them. With almost 3000 archived posts covering every craft imaginable, I'm sure that there will be something to delight or inspire everyone. Go, look, discover, enjoy!

If you are on Facebook you can join there as well DailyArtMuse on Facebook

Always Take The Weather With You....

2010-10-23T23:55:00.002+13:00

or not! This was one impressive experience - but all I can say is that I am pleased it wasn't me behind the steering wheel!

4.36pm: I've just said "wow would you look at that impressive sky, I wonder what that yellow glow is...."

4.37pm: I can't repeat what I had just said here - but down it came & I had my answer! The wipers couldn't keep up!

4.41pm: It started easing off & had stopped by the time we got home.

4.54pm: We turn into the street we were staying in.... I'd say that sky was worth a bit of rain.
Of course I would say that since I wasn't the one driving ;)

Art Promoting Art

2010-10-22T23:59:00.000+13:00

A very nicely re-purposed VW!

In Complete Contrast

2010-10-21T11:33:00.000+13:00

There is something about the contrasts found in nature that strikes a chord deep within me. Whether it's textures, colours or environment it matters not as it always causes an intake of breath & puts a smile on my face.

Sometimes it's a matter of looking beyond what one was originally focussed on in order to see those contrasts, or perhaps just look a little deeper to realise that they are there.

Photographs, no matter how well they are taken (& mine aren't great on the best of days) always fall short of the reality. Perhaps it's just me, but they lack the dimension & depth that was enough to cause that first intake of breath. They do, however, serve as a great way to remind me of those moments.

These two Rhinoceros Iguanas at Australia Zoo captured my attention while they were enjoying an afternoon spent basking in the (incredibly bright & warm) sun on a rock.

Their skin had the appearance of dry, thin parchment & they seemed to belong in an arid environment.

To look further & see the wonderful contrasts of sub tropical plants, in particular the stunning green rounded softness of the Elkhorn Fern directly above them, struck that chord within me.

Info on these beauties: The Rhinoceros Iguana is native to the island of Hispaniola (Haiti and The Dominican Republic) and several surrounding West Indian Islands. These iguanas live in areas of open scrub, among rocks and cactus thickets. They can also be found in dry forests to subtropical moist forests. This species is primarily found near coastlines.

Firebird Flamework - Sew Much to do & Meltin' Glass too

The Weekend

My Other Boyfriend

Anzac Square - Brisbane

Oh, My - A BIG Load for a Little Guy!

Femme Fatale

Rose Tinted Glasses

It Took a Spider

Antonias Garden

Rajasthan - an Impulse Buy

The Goddess In My Garden

Earth Laughs in Flowers....

The Big City

And The Cat Came Back!!

Life - it's for the Birds

Attention to Detail

A Blank Canvas

Just Wanted To Say

This Time Of Year

Impressions

An Almost Perfect Christmas

My Christmas Wish for You

The Grass Is Greenest Where It Is Watered.

Hey, Dad - Happy Birthday Again!

One Year On

Comparisons

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Snow Day!!

Snow - The Icing on the Quake

Parents These Days

That Was Easy & Sensible Knickers

So Much For "Later This Week"......

Retrospect

Idea's Anyone?

Something Good

Predictions & Fear

Murchison Magic

Not Without Guilt

Copper Verdigris

Day Whatever

Two Degrees of Seperation

Words Fail Me

February Artistic Challenge - Well, Colo(u)r Me Copper!!

Life is too Short to be Conformist

HaPpy New Year

The Holidays are Over too Quickly

Hello February !!

Saying Goodbye to the First Month of a New Decade

To Reveal or Not to Reveal - that is the question...

Unrevealing Reveal

~*~ImpressArt Metal Stamp Set Giveaway Alert~*~

Almost There - A Teaser for this Months Artistic Challenge

Fun with Fabric a la Microwaved Mesh

A Rebel in the Vege Garden

Resuscitating Old Skills - Part 2

Silk - a teaser for this months Challenge

I Can Read His Mind....

Around the garden in January

First Monthly Challenge of 2011 - Ms M & Deb Conspire

Summer Daze....

Oh - oops!

The First Day of 2011

In With The New!!

The Last Days of 2010

Trans Pacific Christmas Contrasts - Reveal!

A Blessed Christmas

Time Heals

This Month in the Garden

Last Month in the Garden

Trans Pacific Christmas Contrasts

Resuscitating Old Skills

Workwomen & Their Tools

REVEAL - Crush on Copper

Still Standing on Shaky Ground

It's Not Even Summer Yet....

Crush on Copper

If You Can't Have One

Jill and the Beanstalks

Drafts

That's The Attitude

~~ImpressArt Metal Stamp Set Giveaway Alert~~