new journal page

While I was preparing for the craft fair, my journal was neglected!! This is my first 'getting back into playing' page. I started off by loosely painting some faces and then worked more into the ones that interested me. I'm reading a book of short stories set in India (the anger of aubergines by Bulbul Sharma), and I think the atmosphere of it has sneaked into this page.

I've been really struggling with writing (poetry), possibly sending out work has made me too worried about the finished thing, so I'm going back to basics, here's a couple of not quite haiku...

Hard as rock
round and green as peas
baby mangoes.

clattering
at the kitchen sink
indigo sky descending

That was the craft fair!

The last couple of months I've been very focused on getting work ready for the craft fair, it finally came around on Sunday. Here's a shot of my stall.


We made some cards and bookmarks from the kids prints, here's my daughter looking after them.
I really need to make some more of these...bird fridge magnets!

We had a nice day, I managed to sneak off a few times and look at some of the other stalls. Now I'm looking forward to a month or two of being a bit more experimental, doing open-ended work, following my nose just to see where I end up.

The hopeful gardener

I finished this painting about a week ago, it's called the hopeful gardener. She's dropping seeds into the soil and telling the bird not to eat them!
I feel a lot like her about my efforts in the garden! This is my first year of seriously attempting a veggie garden. I've planted things before and even had some success (mainly basil) but it's been a bit haphazard and disheartening when things don't grow because it's the wrong climate and I don't know what I'm doing...

bok choi seedlings
So now I'm using Leonie Norrington's book as my bible - if she says it's easy to grow here I might have half a chance! The garden has changed a bit since these photos as I've had to put a knee-high fence around it to keep the bush chooks (scrub fowl) out. The bush chooks are about the size of a chicken, black with orange feet and a wierd call that's a cross between a screech and a gobble. They must come scrabbling for bugs in the soil and throw the mulch around - they've got into my veggie patch about 5 times now - I started off with 5 capsicum seedlings but only 2 survived. The basil seedlings have been flattened 3 times and I've had to replant again... Sometimes I wonder why I'm trying to squeeze another thing into my life! but the first thing I do in the morning is check out the veggie patch!!

parsley and mint

eggplants

Kids and computers...

My home computer is on the blink again, shutting down and sending error messages, so I might not be around much until that's fixed. Funny that my partners computer (that only he uses) hardly ever breaks down, but mine (that is hammered by the kids) seems to crash every six months. In some ways it's a good thing, it's school holidays and the kids have been much more creative in using their time since it crashed. They all have to have their hour's turn - morning and afternoon if they're allowed, and tend to watch each others turn, which doesn't leave much time for anything else. Now they've been playing boardgames, making cards, and more trips to the park than ever!

Hope your holidays are going well, and hope to be back here soon!