six months review

a half year review in pictures, with three words each, for a dare...

family: the three bears

communication: words to spare

therapy: being out there

creativity: paint and share

community: being out there

leisure: playing in there

friendship: saying I care

home: open to share

emotional growth: hanging in there

environment: seeing what's there

health: taking more care

frugality: being more aware

spirituality: looking beyond there

with images to spare!

more later

a perfect day, almost

Oranges, winter sunshine and lavender

Lavender farm, Kooroomba

On a rare winter's day with no cycling, no football matches, and no plans, S and I drove to Lake Moogerah, 18 kilometres West of Boonah, to see the difference the summer deluge made to the capacity of the dam. It was so full, over six months later, the edges were still flooded. 

flood marker, Lake Moogerah

We then drove back to Boonah via Mount Alford, and stopped at Kooroomba vineyards, which had a lavender farm and restaurant attached. We tried some wine, being either too early or too late for lunch, and bought a case, then moved on to another vineyard down the road, Bunjurgen, and bought another. We also bought a bucket of oranges for $5, totalling 51 oranges!

The next stop was the Doogandan hotel, beside the Mount French turnoff, just outside Boonah. The toilet wall has to be seen to be believed:

painted wall, Doogandan Hotel

Pub lunches may not be so creative or as tasty as vineyard restaurants, but at least they are readily available until 5pm. We then drove up Mount French, and walked to the 'magic carpet' lookout, which reminded us of many previous visits, especially whilst training at the nearby Outlook, an outdoor adventure training facility in Boonah.

'magic carpet': the view from Mt French

It was a very relaxing day, with no stress, no bored teenagers, no agenda except to get out of the city. As Lou Reed said: 'such a perfect day, I'm glad I spent it with you...' or something along those lines.

'what I value: eggs (and other good things) in nest' - polymer clay, pipe cleaner and glitter

I don't want to claim any special powers, but since I made this two weeks ago, in my girl's group, my chooks have started laying eggs for the first time this year...

Saw The Trip on Saturday night, with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. Kind of like Hairy Bikers touring in the epic scenery of the Lake District, whilst competitively doing impressions of Michael Caine and Hugh Grant. Is it my imagination, or were we laughing more than anyone else in the cinema? (always embarassing...) Now I want to see a feminist Australian version, with Judith Lucy as Steve Coogan, and Wendy Harmer as Rob Brydon.

more later.

no control planet

looking at planet earth with curiosity - pastel and watercolour

I have forgone a week of blogging due to a wonderful family visit: it was worth it, but I have missed this space! 

The image is one I made earlier - about two years ago - when I was doing an Artella-land e-course in self-portraits called 'me-flections'. [Artella e-courses are full of bad puns]. 

The image, of me looking at the planet with curiosity and concern, is relevant right now, because Australia is (possibly, teeteringly,) on the verge of introducing a price on carbon, as announced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard last Sunday. 

Coincidentally, my sister, who is a climate scientist, was visiting Australia, and she gave a talk at UQ last week, which I managed to get the gist of, about the inherent difficulties of making accurate predictions of the consequences of future climate change, such as sea level rise, based on scientific analysis of past data. Too many gaps in the data, too many variables, to get a totally firm answer. Hard science, it turns out, is also subject to uncertainties, just like 'soft' science such as 'does art therapy work and how/why?' One other (obvious) point I managed to grasp, is that there is 'no control planet' - we only have this one, so we need to look after it...basically the industrialised age has been a huge uncontrolled experiment, and the results are emergent: they will only become clearer over the next century or two.

Human beings don't like uncertainty. So we create our own narratives to avoid this (to fill the void?): the Australian media (mainly owned by Rupert Murdoch, who is, coincidentally, teetering on the verge of being totally discredited) have been kindly telling their version of the climate story, which is that a carbon tax is unaffordable, unwarranted, unfair and no doubt also totally un-Australian. 

Yes its been an interesting couple of weeks. 

Timely as ever, my friend Amanda, who inspired me to write this blog, asks 'why do you blog?' in her latest post. Part of the answer is here: great-advice-for-creatives - its about having a space for creating, writing and thinking practice - just doing it, despite its imperfections and the anxiety and the thoughts that its self-indulgent nonsense...however it has helped me to have a theme, which is to continue 'doing what matters', to keep focusing on my behavioural goals, which I outlined at the end of December. [Interestingly this is the post that gets the most 'hits', according to the stats, (which I confess, I am slightly addicted to reading).] 

After six months, I am ready to review some of my goals, but that is going to have to wait. 

Funnily enough I never seem to be short of material...in fact I would like to write more often, but time seems to disappear like sand through the hour glass...or is it just easier to slump in front of the tv at night when I am tired...?

On another matter. Yesterday I made an almost vegan* chocolate pie, which didn't taste of tofu. Yum.

Its good to be back. 

more later.

* the chocolate had dairy in it

hellos and goodbyes - but no Tiger in our tanks!

 honeycomb swirl - pastels and watercolour

More travelling - this time I am in Melbourne catching up with my family. Yesterday - briefly - saw my son, brother, sister and step mum, in Federation Square for lunch! It was a whirlwind, but in a good way...

The Vienna Art and Design exhibition at NGV is superb. Paintings by Klimt and Shiele, beautiful chairs, elegant silverware, posters, from the Secession movement in early 20th century Vienna.

Melbourne dawn

Unfortunately some of our family travel plans have been disrupted by the sudden withdrawal of Tiger airlines for 7 days, which is a major pain.

In Brisbane on Friday at Open Leaves (no, not an online bookstore!), I bought Sonja Lyubomirsky's The How of Happiness. Interesting as it is all empirically based and includes practical strategies - but possibly not entirely helpful in this instance.

more later...