Yesterday, I was having more trouble than usual in making a decision. I decided not to paint as I did not believe the result would be any good.
Snatching a few moments after lunch and before going in the spa, I used green ink to sketch bubble chains with knife or claw like weapons plus eight and ten pronged star shapes ending with more prongs or spikes.
I imagine microscopic strings of metal snaking and undulating as they meander through the cosmos. The armament is used to defend, attack, and infiltrate asteroids, comets, and anything else that can assist its survival and reproduction.
The serpentine forms protect the dandelion clock like heads as they disperse and germinates more seeds of destruction.
Today, I have taken a bank day from work. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the day we moved into our new home.
bird of paradise flower
My husband, M. Took these photographs around the back garden, last week.
bromeliad
Living in a regional area has enabled us to tick off a number of requirements from our house wish list. This in turn has led to an improved standard of living for us and Stan:
escape from the nightmare of townhouse living
detached single storey house
enough space within
large covered outdoor area
garden large enough for Stan to run around
sunshine to grow herbs and tomatoes
Over the past year, we have lived frugally without a credit card. We have learned to notice and appreciate the activity of crows, magpies, lorikeets, and miner birds. Also, we understand the significance of severe weather warnings and the levels of flood alerts.
bromilead
Unfortunately, we are further away from friends. They know they are always welcome to visit and they do.
My ‘80s sister, Wimbledon day party, very heavy false lashes
This year my sister would have been sixty. As Mardi Gras is in the air, I authored the following poem in their memory, Gossamer consonance.
There is a photo of me from the same event at the end of this post.
Well my friends the time has come All night long fond memories Of us boogieing on down In Blackpool of ‘84 My wistful sister dreams as Lionel Ritchie serenades Confident dragon hearted A helping hand and support With impish sense of humour The eighties is our time to Raise the roof and have some fun Throw away the work to be done Curious invert spirits joined Relishing life’s offerings And let the music play on Play on play on Everybody sing everybody dance Lose yourself in wild romance Australia with my soul mate French lorry driver for Sis Our gossamer consonance stretched Ten thousand miles forty years I imagine them beyond the veil Forever young partying under Perpetual mirrorballs Yeah once you get started You can’t sit down Come join the fun It’s a merry-go-round Everyone’s dancing Their troubles away Come join our party See how we play
Yesterday at lunch time, I was completing my post machine use cleaning routine after preparing the last coffees of the day. Standing at the sink, my mind was goodness knows where whilst drying the group head with a pink cleaning sponge.
Hubby appeared at the screen door to my left. Something lightly shot across the top of my thong clad left foot. In a split second, I dropped the group head into the sink, shrieked as I leapt backwards, the sponge falling to the floor, at the sight of a four foot long eastern brown disappearing underneath the washing machine, at the same time my husband came in closing the screen door behind him.
I explained there was an asp like creature in the house. Our white fluffy dog, Stan lay on the floor watching our conniptions. Was it a look of complete disinterest he was giving us?
Hubby grabbed the floor pad handle and exclaimed upon seeing the viper in the window reveal. He attempted to open the screen door with the pole as the slithering reptile dropped into the sink. We guessed we all wanted the same thing; a speedy exit from this dramatic situation. My husband opened the screen door, joined me in the living room from where we could view the area as the snake jumped out of the sink onto the floor and out across the patio to the nearest garden border.
This is the first time in almost twenty six years of living here we have encountered a serpent. I was advised it was the second deadliest snake on Earth and one of the most venomous in Australia.
After reading up on our intruder, I was marginally relieved to learn they are generally timid only becoming aggressive when threatened.
Back in the eighties, I was gifted a set of Daley Rowney Georgian tubes of watercolour; I still have them. At the time, I was inspired to paint a hotel doorway in Whitby, UK and the view from riding pillion. I will post pictures of them when they resurface.
Over the decades that followed, I dabbled with watercolour painting. Lacking confidence because of my self doubt and fears of failure, of not being any good, and of looking stupid, I have hidden and stifled my art enthralled inner child.
Sixtieth birthday gifts included, Mont Marte A3 paper blocks and a compact Winsor and Newton Cotman watercolour set.
On the day of our thirtieth anniversary, on the way to lunch by ferry, we narrowly missed a heavy downpour on the Noosa River. The first picture is a representation of the malevolent view from our table at Lucio’s Mariner, Tewantin.
With a need to suspend my self disbelief, to allow my inner child to stretch their arms and reconnect with its creativity, I have opted to have a go at abstract painting.
The second painting is a section of my inner vision of the occasion, an abstract sky. Freed from the heavy constraints of assumption and expectation, it represents a lightness of hearts and a hope-filled future. My mind sees other shapes there too.
This conceptional style of painting allows me to experiment with the properties of the watercolour medium and normalises the reduced dexterity brought on by aging. It accommodates less than nimble and unintended jerky movements.
The third painting reflects a vegetation lined riverbank.
I don’t feel comfortable with the whole abstract image. My inner critic believes there is a disconnect between the ‘sky’ and the ‘earth’.
View through the bedroom shutters, Noosa River Retreat
Last Saturday evening we enjoyed a pleasant pre-dinner hour watching a cute dark haired, tattooed young bar person making cocktails. They appeared to be shy; glancing and rapidly snatching their deep blue eyes away from our vampiric gazes.
While seated at the bar, a waitperson wafted past asking if someone was wearing Égoïste. I threw myself on my sword, proclaiming, ‘tis I’.
They asked, ‘do you know what it means?’ ‘No’, I responded. ‘Selfish’ they said with a French accent. I looked into those dark harried les misérable eyes, unsure whether to take offence or not. My tendency to catastrophise had me questioning if I was being labelled a self centred person by association with a perfume.
‘It’s Chanel’, I mumbled. Then becoming defensive, I shared, it was the only fragrance I had managed to find that my skin did not cause to disappear or turn into something foul smelling.
Égoïste Platinum is the only eau de toilette I have worn since 1993. Considering it an extravagance, I seldom put it on and only to go out. A bottle lasts around ten years. As we were on a celebratory vacation marking thirty years together, I had atomised precisely three squirts from collarbone to collarbone.
Hazy pale blue emerges through layers of cloud. The sounds of the traffic builds as people go about their Saturday busy-ness. The area surrounding the pool looks invitingly clean after a heavy downpour. The orange-red blooms of the poinciana tree to the right of our suite reminds us Christmas is a tad over three weeks away.
My husband levels the pictures in the living, dining, kitchen; it is not yet seven a.m. We are on holiday in Noosaville for the third time this year. Preferring familiarity in these uncertain times, we are staying in the same apartment as when we were here for my birthday in October.
I’m looking forward to stretching and exercising away the tightness in my weary bones and muscles in the cleansing water and maybe some time for bubbles in the jacuzzi.
Our only commitments today are pre-dinner drinks at Apero followed by dinner at my favourite pizza place, 250 Grammi food and wine bar. We have an umbrella if more rain threatens, all set for the first full day en vacances.
My work colleague and friend introduced me to Malaysian laksa in a humble back street near the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Australia. Since that slurping lunch as the sun set on the twentieth century, I was was wearing more of my lunch than eating it.
After Thai food, Laksa has been my go to Asian meal of choice. I adore this soupy, noodle concoction of coconut milk, protein, fresh vegetables, and spices.
I had a line manager from New Zealand who had lived in Japan. They were surprised I was not so adept at using chopsticks. Well honey, all I need to be able to do is use them to extract the hunks of gorgeousness from the sauce and use a spoon, pleeeease!
This week these charming pink blooms popped up in the front garden.
Every day we are surrounded by life burgeoning around us. It is from this point of view I remember my youngest brother, Michael’s birthday. Yesterday, he would have been 51.
He was born six weeks’ premature at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, UK. I remember Michael as a happy, bonny lad with dark curly hair and olive skin.
The last time my mother left my stepfather, Michael chose to stay with his Dad. This was the point we began to grow separately.
Michael became a New Age Traveller. Mom was always thrilled to welcome him and his friends with a shower, clean clothes and a hot meal. Although, she found Michael’s anarchistic beliefs challenging.
At 23 years’, Michael died of a heroin overdose at a music festival in Prague.
I regret not spending more time with him as an adult. The last time I saw Michael, he was an inpatient at a mental health hospital, struggling with extreme paranoia. Micheal was convinced people were trying to kill him. I can’t help thinking, maybe he was correct.
The El Niño weather pattern is making itself felt in Queensland, Australia’s self proclaimed sunshine state. Long periods of dry weather have resulted in a crisp brown lawn juxtaposed with our backyard jacaranda tree in full Spring bloom.
We are experiencing the seasons of this first year in our new home through a garden lens. We are thrilled to see clumps of amaryllis.
One of the frangipanis is flowering before the leaves have emerged.
theINFP 