Hit the ground …

… running as soon as I got to NZ. Mark L showed me around downtown Christchurch which is still feeling the effects of the earthquake from several years ago. It really destroyed a lot of the area and much of it is still being cleared and rebuilt. Hard decisions about what historical pieces to keep or take down. Still a long way to go for full recovery. Reminds me of New Orleans …

Mark is a patient teacher and is schooling me in his methods of papermaking. Everything from cutting up cotton towels and sheets for their color and making flowers from the resulting pulp, to harvesting NZ flax properly including the prayer to the plant first, to breaking/cutting the flax leaves, to cooking flax in bathtubs, to hydropulping, rinsing and spinning pulp. We will be puling sheets soon, weather permitting.

The weather started out beautifully sunny (very chilly nights) and has morphed into cloudy and damp with rain predicted for the next week. More bothersome is the wind that typically comes with the rains as they will pick up any drying papers and toss them around.

Starting to put up some pics on my Flickr site, so you can see a bit of what we have been doing.

Playing around …

… in Melbourne with Anne N and her hubby Tony this past week has been great fun: making books, stitching, planning mudcloth clothing, checking out constuction sites, visiting other basketmakers, having teas, trading stories with neighbors and friends, traveling to the countryside, doing laundry, moving bricks, eating and drinking and watching more TV than I have in a long time. Way too busy to post any blog reports, sorry!

Ann and I motored east to Traralgon today tomspend a couple days with Glenys M before teaching mudcloth thus weekend in Meeniyan. Along the way we stopped in the village of Darnum for a coffee/hot chocolate and delicious piece of honeycomb caramel cake with cream at the local Tearoom. We also drove by the Musical Village just down the road from the Tearoom. Lovely vistas of the valley paddocks. (See pics 1, 2.)

20140528-205933-75573739.jpg

20140528-205934-75574953.jpg

Glenys toured us around the hillsides to view a brown coal mine and the results of the Churchill Fire that went through about 4 years ago. Blackened tree trunks amid the small blue gums that have been planted to help reforestation. Eleven lives and many homes lost. (See pics 3-5.)

20140528-210030-75630538.jpg

20140528-210335-75815303.jpg

20140528-210414-75854803.jpg

I was just introduced tonigt to the Australian author and illustrator Shaun Tan – really cool work!

Interesting things I’ve learned from Aussies…

… in no particular order of importance:

1. If you are having some slice, you are eating a piece of cake or even a bar-type cookie that was baked in a rectangular pan. Cake is higher.

2. Fairy pee is a very light misting of rain. I’m guessing that heavy rain might be classified as ogre pee…

3. The lupin bean is very similar to the soy bean.

4. Vegemite and Marmite are not the same and each has its own disciples.

5. Emus are able to eat a large seed that has a very poisonous covering without being effected; the actual seed eventually shows up again (minus it’s covering) and is harmless.

And from observation: most toilets seem to have enough water sprayers around the bowl that the water goes straight down and doesn’t have a chance to swirl, but when it does swirl there is a definite counterclockwise motion.

The Dye gods…

… have been good to me! Lovely color, amazing results! My Australian series this year will definitely be a must see!

20140511-075739.jpg

20140511-075756.jpg

20140511-075805.jpg

20140511-075814.jpg

20140511-075820.jpg

20140511-075831.jpg

20140511-075840.jpg

20140511-075848.jpg

The RAM!

Have to fill you in on a detail from our drive back to Perth.

When we first drove to Lake Grace we used a route that took us through the town of Wagin (long ‘a’, soft ‘g’). Stopped in a park to use the public facilities with the great paper towels – very nice park, BTW, and ate a quick lunch. Bit of historical area to drive through and then out of town and down the road.

The return trip used the same route but in reverse, of course. This time … There was this sudden vision of a HUGE white ram’s head looming over the trees – the same trees where we had sheltered under for our lunch four days earlier! Had to stop again, but this time to check out the Big Ram that Wagin is proudly displaying. Sheep country, of course. EVERYTHING on the ram is HUGE!

Can’t believe we missed it the first time through!

20140507-165856.jpg

20140507-165910.jpg

20140507-165919.jpg