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Beach Holidays, An Unexpected Workshop & Snippets of Melbourne

30/4/2019

 
Waihi Beach
Torquay Beach
Portsea Beach
Long summer days, warm ocean temperatures & beach retreats are a perfect end to my favourite season of the year.
Today as I'm writing this it is most decidedly autumn, it's grey, it's windy & it's raining on & off. 
Fortunately it's not cold.
Our days are shorter, now that daylight saving has ended.
It's a cyclical thing & let's face it, not unexpected.

March to April went like this:
Beach Retreat >> recovery at home >> 5 days filled with family >> recovery at home >> Holiday with family & friends in Australia >> recovery at home

woah ! that didn't leave much time for anything else really did it.

Nevertheless at the end of March I was able to attend a workshop which covered hand printing techniques you can do at home.
​I was going to write a post about it but actually can't be bothered ! Not because I didn't enjoy it nor that I didn't learn anything new, nor that it didn't spark a few ideas of things I want to try because it did do all of those things however I was kinda hoping it would draw a few things together & until that happens I have to let it simmer.

Instead, let me give you some snippets of Australia:

  • it's an easy & interesting drive from Melbourne airport to Bendigo
  • we saw amazing outcrops of granite around the Harcourt area
  • Harcourt is, these days, better known for growing apples
  • we also saw more dead kangaroos, presumably victims of roadkill, on the drive to & from Bendigo than I have ever seen before travelling around other parts of Australia - apparently this is usual 
  • ‘history’ of  Bendigo & surrounds ‘begins’ at the arrival of Europeans !
  • there are many old, elaborate buildings which speak of there having been lots & lots of money in the area - in the past anyway 
  • there is a 'high grade, low cost' underground gold mine located 20km from the city of Bendigo 
Sandhurst Gaol
Castlemaine Gaol

  • there are also many jails/gaols; some very old & some very new  
  • Castlemaine Gaol was opened in 1860 & closed in 1990 !
  • Sandhurst Gaol, in Bendigo, was built in approximately 1851, records suggest it was working in 1857, & closed in 2006 !
  • Sandhurst gaol has been converted into a theatre called Ulumbarra & there are 2 scar trees sited at the main entrance
  • Old Castlemaine Jail is sited up on a hill & probably has the best view of the entire town 
  • we were introduced to ‘prison eggs’
  • I didn’t cook at all ! & at my cousin's place I didn’t even think about doing anything - nor did I do anything even vaguely houseworky - it was AMAZING  ​
sunset view from our cabin
Surfside Cabin #1
Torquay Beach
  • it cost more to stay 1 night in a cabin in a caravan park in Torquay than for 1 night in the hotel in Melbourne
  • it was beautiful cabin in a beautiful caravan park beside a beautiful ocean & i would happily stay there again
  • Great Ocean Road starts, or ends depending on which direction you're travelling, at Torquay 
Victoria Bight
View from Queenscliff Ferry Terminal
Queenscliff to Sorrento Ferry
  • we were the youngest people in Queenscliff by at least 20 years - maybe 30 even
  • the car ferry ride from Queenscliff to Sorrento was superb, loading & unloading the car was seamless & skilfully managed & the views picturesque
  • Portsea is so flat we walked 4.3km, 6,223 steps, 0 floors 
  • the ocean temp, at 18 degrees C, in Torquay & Portsea was colder than at home
view looking from one window (Albert Park)
it's a city
view from the other window lol
  • we walked an average of 4.4 kilometres each day we were away (5.6 km/day in April)
  • we stayed beside the botanic gardens so easy to get to anywhere we wanted to be
  • eating out in Melbourne is great & easily accessible with superb quality produce & excellent flavours
  • i now look old enough that people offer me a seat on the trams 
  • people make eye contact & smile  
  • i love Australia

Botanicals: Basketry, Macro Photography & Leaf Litter: February 2017

4/3/2017

 
I spent February dog & house sitting for friends in Melbourne so I knew that whatever I did for my #52weeksofbotanicals project most likely would use plant material which I would have to leave in Australia.
This put an interesting spin on the challenge & I enjoyed having this parameter to work within.
I enrolled for a one day ancient basketry course through Ceres & assumed that it would likely be the direction February would take.
Turned out, that though I learnt what I went there to learn, it had, & is still having, the exact opposite effect & I really didn't want to do any basketry.
As a related aside, I did take the opportunity to go to the 'who's afraid of colour' exhibition at the Ian Potter centre in the NGV. Please go if you are in Melbourne before 18th April 2017, it's simply amazing.
I played with macro photography for a couple of weeks which was so much fun & so interesting I've dedicated a blog post to it.
I was a bit lost for ideas after the awe & amazement of the macro photography but while I was practising some calligraphy I got to wondering if it would be possible to use the calligraphy nib & ink to write tiny messages on to the dried eucalyptus leaves.
It absolutely is possible but totally detrimental to the nibs so I switched to a staedtler pigment liner instead.
Partly as a reaction to all those 'quotes' from somebody else, that some people love to litter their lives & minds with instead of taking the time to come up with their own, I decided to write my own messages to people & draw my own motifs & chose to write them on leaf litter I collected on my daily walk with the dogs.
This I titled the leaf litter project & used the hashtag #leaflitterproject on Instagram
On my last evening in Melbourne I took the dogs for a walk in the park & let the leaves fly off in the wind.
I doubt that anyone will find them & I don't really care.
It was such a fun project, equal parts cathartic & meditative. Also it's a novel idea & I'd like to revisit it in the future I think.
twining technique for basketry
scale insect on eucalyptus leaf x14mag
vacant home of scale insect on eucalyptus leaf x14mag
messages & motifs drawn on eucalyptus leaf litter with staedtler pigment liner
I have only the photographs of my 4 projects to remind me of #our52weekproject in Melbourne … but I'm happy with that.

Playing with Macro Photography, Melbourne, Australia Feb 2017

13/2/2017

 
On our 1st day in Melbourne we watched the birds in feeding frenzy mode in the eucalypts & discovered that they seem to be feasting on scale insects.
Nature & especially nature at different scales, has always fascinated me & macro photography is something I've thought about trying for ages.
I was given an ōlloclip to play with while I was dog sitting in Melbourne.
An amazing world exists on these leaves & they make quite an interesting subject at normal scale (no pun intended) but magnified … a.m.a.z.i.n.g.
1st I found these scale insects . . . 
& then I found these critters . . . 
& then I found these galls . . . . which of course I had to cut open !
& then I stopped looking heeheehee
Australia, you never cease to amaze ! 
    About
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    Hi, I'm Sally
    I'm a fibre artist who loves botanicals - especially NZ native plants
    you can find me on 
    ​instagram & ravelry 

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