Walking in the Gardens again

Bill and I finaally had time to go for a walk in the Regional Forests area of the Gardens today. A new path has been laid made from recycled plastic material, very pleasant to walk on and is not supposed to be affected by roots growing under it, or get washed away in the heavy downpours (which is what happened to the decomposed granite pathways previously there). We will watch with interest to see if this stuff really lives up to its reputation - a more natural colour would have been nicer, but this is the only colour available.

The regional forest area of the Gardens was one of the first to be planted and represents the flora from the dry hinterland behind Mackay. There is no irrigation in the area, just the little creek and pond, so the plants have really suffered in the drought years - but that is what would happen in real life I guess. They looked fantastic earlier in the year, but are drying out fast now.

Many of the pathways around the Gardens have had added interest built into them with palm fronds, ferns, seed pods and various other things pressed into the concrete as it was drying. Small children have lots of fun trying to identify what is there.

This is a very peaceful area of the Gardens - there should be water in the ponds - no doubt it will be back in the next wet season.

Lastly here is a photo of the old fashioned eranthemum flowering in my front garden now. The flowers are really a deeper blue than that, but I can't get the colour right. Like many of the plants in my garden, this came from a cutting from a friend and I waited many years before I could identify it properly.

I should have some photos of 'The Book' to show soon. The pages are cut out and are clamped together for the night before I measure across the back of them tomorrow to determine the width of the spine, then I can cut out the cover and start creating. I am looking forward to doing a bit more than testing little pieces - and my halo will fall off soon. I am normally a boots and all person, going straight in and somehow making it work, but I was too nervous to do that this time. Time will tell.

Experimenting and gardening

I am still procrastinating, having more or less finished the practice book - now I have too many ideas floating around and am not sure of being able to put any of them into practice! I would prefer not to be working in black and silver and white - I think that is the main bother.

I have been experimenting with a few paper casts and different paints and sprays to see what I like, also sewing some fascinating spirals I learnt with Carole Wilkes at the Textile Convention in Brisbane earlier this year. They don't show up too well here, but can look very good.

Then, just because the day was so gorgeous, I decamped into the garden for some overdue pruning and potting up seedlings.

This is our Congea vine which has been a cloud of dusky pink flowers for about a month now. Our boys loved pulling off the petals and dropping them from a height when they were children - they really twist and twirl all the way to the ground. I think the vine is related to the lovely blue Petrea, but Congeas will only grow in the tropics.

This is the last of the zygocactus flowers - should have been over weeks ago, but still a lovely splash of colour.

I alsays love the flowers on the crotons - often think they lend themselves to textiles.

We had such a wonderful wet season I shouldn't complain, but I would LOVE some rain for our garden - we haven't had a drop since the beginning of June and all my plants are looking very thirsty. I try not to water too much, but in this weather it has become a necessity.

Now it is bedtime, so I can sleep on the thoughts of the book and try again tomorrow!

What Bill unwrapped

Well, I have managed to load these in completely the wrong order, but never mind.

this is a work in progress and is a practice run for THE book which I foolishly said I would make for the kids' wedding - never having made a book in my life before. I have pored over Beryl Taylor's brillian book 'Mixed Media explorations', also 'Cover to Cover' by Shereen La Plantz, a book about making beautiful books.

I had some silk fusion (paper) in my stash so used that as the colour scheme for the practice doesn't matter, and made some paper casts - I love those. I have some wonderful Indian printing blocks which I was lucky enough to pick up dirt cheap from a shop which was closing down.

the colours on the signatures are deeper than in reality, but I couldn't make them look any lighter. I want to do a very pale wash over the signatures in the real book so was experimenting with paints. I have sewn the signatures to the end paper and have learnt some things NOT to do next time, but I think I am game enought to try the proper book anyway. I have cut out my boards for the covers and will have to paste the cover to those tomorrow..............more of that later.

It was Bill's birthday yesterday and the bottom photo should have been first - the family gathered some photos of jack and had this frame made up! Hamish was fascinated, but Hannah and Alexander were having their own conversation. I had almost forgotten about Jack's crazy habit of climbing up the spiral staircase - that photo was taken through my kitchen window. He would sit there and occasionally yip till somebody heard him and came to the rescue - going backwards down a spiral staircase is a bit difficult!! We would open the gate at the top of the stairs to let him in upstairs - took him several years to learn not to do it.

A very happy day for us all, having all the grandkids and the parents of four of them for dinner capped it off.

Vale Jack

We said goodbye to Jack today - he is gone but will not be forgotten. His pawprints have been immortalised in concrete at the Botanic Gardens in the geology/archeology walk, done a couple of years ago.

Waiting for one last throw of the ball before we took him to the vet. He was alert and cheerful to the end, but could not breathe or eat properly and a large number of tumours were growing all over his body. Not fair to make him keep going like that.

the products of procrastination

Here is a collection of souvenirs which I made a few days ago to replace some which I retrieved from the Gardens shop to take away with me as gifts when I went to Sydney. I should have been photocopying documents, but I was still procrastinating - this was much more interesting. I had also read Weaver's blog where she used up lots of scraps - I can't work out how to link to a particular blog day, but if you follow the link to her home you will be able to scroll and find it!
I used strips of Sari silk and plenty of stitching, then cut up an old Playways sample using a teabag to make the highlight on the front! I have used a painted and ironed tyvek sample from years ago on the front of the other notebook, and I apologise for my photo, I didn't realise I had managed to leave a stray scrap of fibre on it while I was taking the photo.

You will be pleased (maybe) to know that I have at last started on the tedious photocopying!

I was babysitting Hamish yesterday and today and we went for a walk in the Botanic Gardens this morning. I managed to take a photo of this drongo sitting in a tree there. They are fascinating birds, wonderfully acrobatic and with a huge array of different calls.

This small area of the coal garden looked so peaceful.

Now I am off to cook dinner before I sit down to watch a repeat of Foyle's War while I start knitting a shawl to wear over my dress for Stuart's wedding in early October. I have just realised how little time I have left to make the book for them as well as do all these other things.

Inspiration Meme

Weaver has suggested we all make a list of what inspires us today - so here goes - in a very haphazard way!

My mother, who always had time for us and also for the rest of the community. She was still an active member of the Red Cross until she was 90, by which time she was in a nursing home and could no longer walk or see very well. I hope I can be as well thought of by my community.

Lyndal Swan, who was my English and geography teacher in my subjunior year (grade 9 today I think). She inspired my love of Shakespeare, making his poetry come completely alive, so different from my husband's experience. he hated Shakespeare till we were fortunate to go to a couple of plays at Stratford-on-Avon, when he then agreed with me. When we had geography lessons Miss Swan simply closed the book and talked to us, she had visited many of the places we were learning about and over fifty years later I can still remember lots of what she said - much more than I remember about boring maths.

Jean Kent was an inspiration and very persuasive TAFE teacher who really started me on the whole textile experience. She persuaded me I could try to fit in a part time Certificate and Apparel Making course, which also contained a segment on applique and free machine embroidery - I never looked back, so I am so grateful for that.

Gabriella Verstraaten, with whom I was lucky enough to do a couple of workshops, creating bags and other wondrous things. She was so much fun and made everything seem so easy and persuaded us all that we were very creative.

Dale Rollerson, who has stretched me much more over the last ten or twelve years. I signed up for Playways and had no idea of the wonderful divergent directions it would lead me into.

Maggie Grey - I think I have all her books and I love going back to read them over and over and find new things to try. She publishes Workshop on the Web which I also find very inspirational.

Lynda Monk and Carol McPhee who have made me look at colour and texture in a whole new way.

All my blogging friends from whom I learn so much as they are kind enough to publish tutorials on their blogs

And of course my husband, Bill, who always encourages and admires the work I am creating.

This is probably a bit long winded and I know there are so many other sources of inspiration which I have not listed. I shall look forward to reading everyone else's lists tomorrow.