It’s the holiday art sale season and I’ve been busy. Last weekend did a show in Clifton, this weekend is the Weavers Guild Fall Sale and next weekend is the Studio Collection’s Holiday Sale at Harmony Lodge. Would love to see you there! I’ve got some great silk scarves with lovely natural dyed designs on them!
In the news!
I’m thrilled with the article in today’s paper concerning the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen member exhibit at the Carnegie Art Center in Covington, KY.
Thanks, Jackie, for the great write-up and Liz, for the cool pictures!!
Excuses
I know I should be finishing the last three weeks of my trip to PNG and OZ – all the pics are up but they need words to make them understandable. I’ve lost the momentum at the moment as it has shifted to other more pressing things. Like…
…remembering all those who serve and have served in our country’s armed forces – this is Memorial Day weekend here in the US.
…cleaning up after our recent spate of storms. Nothing serious here, just lots of tree debris.
…making plans for a small papermaking gathering here in June.
…writing two articles with deadlines in the next two days.
…making sufficient samples for one of the articles.
…nailing down all the necessary aspects of a teen/river art project.
…working up plans for a community art project.
…hosting and attending various family functions and gatherings – all good fun ones. And setting up future ones.
…giving two presentations on my OZ/PNG trip.
…giving a mudcloth for quilters presentation – which got chased into the church basement due to a nearby tornado.
…quilting some of my mudcloth to use as samples at the above mentioned presentation – which I then forgot to take along!
…making plans for a couple possible trips.
…finalizing various teaching plans for the rest of the year.
…getting excited about the upcoming births of our first two grandchildren!
I promise, there WILL be final reporting on my two weeks in PNG plus the last week in Australia at the Orange Forum. Just not promising exactly when….
A day on the beach(es)
A lovely sunny Sunday to take a ride – and so we did. Started out only a half hour later than originally planned (8am) – we were finishing a bit a breakfast when neighbor Steve arrived ready to go. A bit of fruit and water packed and we were off.
Drove up along the east coast, stopping along the way to visit an old Anglican church with stained glass windows brought over from England very early on (don’t have exact dates in front of me) and an interesting cemetery – they’ve added a crematorium wall alongside all the old headstones to keep up with the times.
Stopped in Orford at the mouth of the Prosser River for a morning tea break. Also took in the continuously running garage sale in town – just to check things out. Continued on northward, catching sight of Maria Island and Freycinet Peninsula along the way. With the sun and sky so beautiful, the coves and bays were extraordinarily gorgeous – perfect aquamarines and deep blues against white beaches.
A short stop at Kate’s Berry Farm was a must – mostly for their homemade ice creams using their fresh berries! Blackberry ice cream and raspberry sorbet were the hits with our group.
We made a stop to see the Spiky Bridge along the road – made by convicts early in the state’s history, it is a wonderfully built stone structure – very wide with these big spiky ends of rocks sticking up along the railing – no known reason why!
The road leading to the Freycinet National Forest had a visitors info stop where we met a gal from MI who is now living in Tasmania. I didn’t recognize her accent at first – and when she heard me talk she switched back into her “american speak”! Steve was a great one throughout the day for finding out where folks were from.
A lunch stop was in order before going into the National Forest area, so we treated ourselves to big bowls of fish chowder at Madge Malloy’s in Coles Bay – too many fish in the pot to recall along with potatoes, carrots, and several other things I don’t remember – thick and hearty and filling!
The park service has a lovely visitors center where we met an American woman and her Japanese partner – she is a papermaker interested in natural dyes and he is a photogrpher/designer artist. We checked out a small dark purple berry suggested by one of the rangers and had a good chat about dyes and papermaking. They were already away from Japan when the earthquake hit and haven’t been able to find out about their home yet, continuing on with their travel plans until time to go home. We wished them well.
Wineglass Bay is apparently one of the top 10 things you are supposed to see before you die and it is on the easter shore of the Freycinet Peninsula within the park. Two ways to get to it – walk up through the gap between two mountains or take a boat tour around. It was hot by the time we got there and late in the afternoon, so we opted to see the lighthouse at Cape Tourville and Sleepy Bay – both short walks with fantastic views of the surrounding bays and ocean. Lots of pics that I’ll post later.
Went north a bit more to Bicheno where we encountered a gathering of teens in town for an outdoor concert. Take away pizza from the popular spot was eaten in the triangular park in the middle of the town.
That was when Chris realized he left his hat on the table back in Coles Bay. A quick call to Maggie assured us it was still there, so after disappointing the seagulls who were waiting for pizza crust handouts, we traveled back in the deepening twilight for the hat.
Three hours later in full darkness we landed back in Connely’s Marsh. Tired but extremely satisfied with the adventures and sights of the day.
Seems inconsequential …
… to be talking about what I did the last couple of days when Japan has been hit so hard with the earthquake and tsunami – and other countries are bracing, too.
I can’t do much to help the situation, though, so I might as well try to remember some activities…
Meant to comment that we met up with my hosts from Melbourne, Ann and Tony, at MONA on Wedesday – fun to share the museum and lunch with them.
Yesterday I did some errands in Hobart while Di took care of some business of her own. A bit of shopping, a bit of browsing, a nice smoked salmon quiche in the Antique shop Cafe and some answers to questions at the Visitors Center. I also was on hand when the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery started to dismantle their dinosaur to get ready for planned renovation work – watched while they unscrewed the head!
A trip to the west side of Hobart to pick plums and green beans at Brigit’s home – she has a fantastic hidden garden abundant with fruit/nut trees and flowers and veggies.
A bit of grocery shopping and then we were home to enjoy 2 dozen fresh oysters on the half shell plus a dinner of tuna steaks, mashed potatoes and veggies.
An early morning today resulted in an hours walk after breakfast. We did some time on the beach as well as up and down a couple nearby lanes.
The pluns from yesterday were divided into ready to eat, almost ready to eat, stewing and dyeing. I prepped the stewing and dyeing ones while we munched on the ready ones all day.
Di is getting ready for a workshop she will be giving in France at a dyeing conference so I helped cut up eucalyptus leaves for her to take. She’ll weigh and dry them to use with the class.
Chris trusted me with his older car – after a trip around the neighborhoods of Connelys Marsh and Dunalley he rated me a 10 out of 10. I was sure I saw a couple of white knuckles during the trip! The car is a little white one (that’s as much as I usually remember about cars!) with a manual shift. The shift is no problem since I learned on one years ago, but it is on the left side and all the typical things like turn signal and wipers are on opposite sides of what I’m used to. Going out again tomorrow for a bit of practice in prep for potentially a couple days of travel on my own.
Di and I will be doing some mudcloth and plum dyeing tomorrow – got the cloth ready this evening.
Heard that Papua New Guinea was hit with some of the tsunami waves. Will need to check out that all is okay before I head over in a week or so.