Artist Books- a new beginning

Suddenly there may be a need to do something different, to create something other than garments, something which can be held in the hand, like a book....
So what is an Artist book you may well ask....
Who knows...some one suggested it is a book made by an artist but a better description may be that it is a creative expression of a person intent on amusing themselves using the skills acquired over  a lifetime of attending art/craft workshops......

There is a huge amount of yarn collected over the years so it was decided to do a tuckstitch cover in a mixture of fine yarns. This presented a technical problem because how many stitches and rows were needed so as the knitted piece would fit without having to cut and sew it.
It worked well in the end and fitted when stretched, a quality knitted fabrics have in abundance...

The signatures, as the pages of the book are called, were done by transferring the painted Bondaweb to Vilene old sheeting and then embroidering , stitching, writing and finishing them by backing them with recycled jean material to give a neat finish and hide all the knots and threads created by sewing and embroidery.
They were then all bound together between the covers and held in place by a stick with lichen on it.Remember to click on the photos to get a close up look
The next book is on the go.......

Karoonda and the Mallee

We were heading for Loxton a week or so ago and our preferred route is to go via the back roads and miss out on the freeway traffic on the way to Murray Bridge. We go through this town, which seems to be growing more and more each time we have gone through it, and turn off to go to Karoonda which is on the way to Loxton.
We generally stop there as the town's people have made a very pleasant area for tourists to pull into and have a break. You can go across the road for food or you can take a walk in the 

 centenary park they have created with indigenous plants along lovely paths.
It was great to see an old windmill head mounted
 to remind us of how they used to squeak and grown in the wind whilst pumping up the underground water into tanks for to water their stock or for the homesteads gardens or even household use. As the base says...No wind...No water....No life....

 Being in the Mallee too, there are these wide open skies with fabulous cloud formations.
And they also, have had a good winter for rainfall so far with the crops looking very hale and hearty and the native shrubs looking wonderful. There were quite a few eremophilas
starting to flower and one plant we were unsure of what it was but it had the most interesting clump of what looked like bottle brushes but weren't .

The Mallee of course was eminently suited to the Merino sheep which grew dense wool, so the community have erected this statue as a tribute to the sheep industry of a magnificent stud Merino ram.
I remember helping to get a number of these magnificent stud Rams on Anlaby, where they were kept in a special ram shed,  ready for the Adelaide Show in the mid fifties. The wool was of amazingly soft handle and very very dense.
Those were the days.........

Willunga Artisan Market & more Heteropoda Adventures

Yesterday started out very cold. It was 2 *C when I climbed into my Subaru at 7.30 am  and backed out of the shed. The monitor pinged and proceeded to ask me to drive safely and slowly as the roads may be icy....well, that is not likely to happen in Willunga but still, it was a nice thought.
I always like to get to the Agricultural Hall early to get a good parking spot as Our Artisan Market is on the same day as the Farmers Market across the road and the Quarry Market as well and the streets get fairly busy and parking can be tricky.

Our young market coordinator Emily was already opening up the hall for us to set up. She is an inveterate collector of other people's shopping lists and she found one that had "Black wool Holiday on it. So she adopted it and made it the name for her business. You can see her site at
www.blackwoolholiday.com and see all the intriguing art and film work she does.
On the right she is talking with Mary who is a print maker and specializes in whimsical animal
prints.

On the left is Emma's stall with the amazing mandala hanging her late mother sewed, as the backdrop. She makes wooden beads and creates amazing necklaces and bead hangings.
You can go to her stall and gather up and choose the beads that appeal to you, for a very modest price. Children adore her stall as there is nothing breakable there and they can rummage around in the bead basket to their hearts content.
There are six other stalls as well, with two pottery people, one who does individual glass beads, one who does exquisite calligraphy and also slumped glass wear

one who makes skirts out of retro materials and a jeweler who makes finely wrought metal jewelry out of anodised saucepan lids.
And then there is me.....
We were filmed by a group of people doing a promo on the Fleurieu peninsula and perhaps we may have a flash of two seconds fame in some future TV add....
The most interesting part of the morning was
 after we closed, one of Emily's friends gave a talk on how to present our Market to the general public and how we as individual stall holders might improve our presentation and induce customers to linger longer and perhaps even buy something.....my stall could do with de-cluttering I think.....

Now further to our little Huntsman, Heteropoda which I had tossed out of the tube Friday morning.....
This morning I went to measure the rain we had on Friday night as I had not done so yesterday'
When I took the funnel off, there it was again,not in the measuring tube but on the rim under where the funnel fits......so I went back and got my little Nikon coolpix  and took yet more photos and gently put the funnel back making sure it didn't squash its little feet. Is it trying to tell me something?.....

Intrepid Heteropoda.....

We have had some very wet weather of late, winter has arrived at last after a very sunny and dry autumn.
So I have great pleasure in the morning donning my Bluntstones and rain jacket, to go out and measure the rain we may have had yesterday and overnight. Our rain gauge is well away from trees in the front of the house in an area which was once garden but now is a weedy wilderness.
For the past week or so, we had a Huntsman spider, not a big one, take up residence in the actual tube where the rain collects to be measured. I marvelled at how the creature managed to squeeze in through the small hole of the funnel but thought , he will never be able to get out again...
So I tipped him out onto the surrounding weeds along with the sometimes (Oh Joy Oh bliss) 8 or 9 mls of rain.
However, the next day the Heteropoda would be back again, always on the side facing the wind and well and truly where
 it could not be rained on......
So it climbed all the way from the weedy patch back out and up the post and into the tube...it would be like us climbing up the tallest building in the city. I left it there for a couple of days but I felt it would starve to a mere shell so I finally photographed it in the tube before tossing it in the weeds once more and hoping it would find a better home. Remember to click on the photos for a clearer view.

I have just finished a red jacket based on the pattern I had made for the pink jacket,with gores and knit-woven in wool, wool boucle and mohair.
The pink batwing has woven- in contrast yarns to give it some textural interest
They will be on display at the Willunga Artisan Market tomorrow....I hope it is a better day weatherwise tomorrow as well.....

The Tawny Frogmouths have re appeared in the last few days and spend their day resting on the vine stumps under the gutter so as to stay dry. They are such lovely birds to have on the patio as they give out this Zen like air of calmness, nothing seems to disturb them even if you get quite close. If you do get too close they point their beaks in the air and flatten themselves out and close their eyes pretending that they are not there and so we are not able to see them..... bless their hearts....

Winter Days

Today is Monday 23rd June and winter seems to have arrived at long last with wild winds and lashing rains.The weather has been so mild  so far and everything in the garden seems to think it is spring. I saw the crows tearing the soft bark off the paperbark trees and flying away with beakfulls of the stuff. Then I noticed a magpie collecting the dry mulch of grasses and stems from the front garden, so they too are building nests.....and the thrush is singing its beautiful song in the morning....

Our last Willunga Artisan Market was on a cold day also and our numbers were down. So the young  coordinator suggested a different way of setting up our stalls.

It made no difference to our sales sadly, but the economic climate ( don't you just love that phrase....) is against people seeing value in specially handcrafted pieces.

Speaking of handcrafted pieces, the anamatromic creature on the right, was made out of an old teddybear and bits and pieces by a young friend 

 who is showing prodigious artistic talents. The goat moved and opened its jaw and had flashing eyes as well. It is amazing what the young are now encouraged to explore and so create. She is also a budding sculptor and musician as well.
The rocking horse, appropriately called Bucephalus belongs to her mother who is also an artist and an avid collector of ancient fabrics.
It is always a pleasure to visit them in their lovely old cottage filled with interesting art works.....

 The jonquils have started to flower and that is early too. The little white snails which have suddenly appeared ( where do these pests come from when you haven't seen a one for years?)
I have had to put out snail bait and more snail bait and more snail bait.... at least we have managed to save the kale and leek seedlings from total decimation. Our daffodils are being chewed by slugs and so we have baited them as well. (Not an organic gardener then....?)


Our lemon tree is a delight as we have tried so often to grow one and at last we have succeeded by growing on in a tub. I love their golden fruit and have filled a few jars with their preserves......

More Bird Visitors & Strange Fungi

Our pond seems to attract a lot of different birds at times. At the beginning of last week we were delighted by the sudden arrival of three Kookaburras. They were busy under the olive tree but I am not sure if they were eating olives or finding crickets. Probably crickets, as Kookaburras are carnivores the experts tell us, while Magpies are omnivores. I have seen the Magpies eating the olives which had fallen off the trees.

The Kookaburras stayed for about three days and left, we think, because our trees are too young to have hollows in them for them to nest in. I think the Willy Wagtail was pleased to see them go as the Kookaburras are a threat to young Wagtail chicks...
When I came into the kitchen a couple of days after the Kookaburras left, there was a Chicken hawk sitting on the statue by the pond.I tried to leave without the Hawk seeing me but of course their eyesight is so acute, it would have seen me

back out to get the camera. It had flown into the figtree and I managed to take a photo of it through the kitchen window. Not a very good photo but still a record that it was here for a brief moment looking for prey in the Holm oak. I must say there have not been any more sparrows around the tree for which I am very thankful. Spoggies are my least favorite bird. They shriek and have absolutely no music in their soul at all.

It is interesting to see too, that the Rosellas have found the few apples I threw on the path and are happily eating away at them. They too, will eat the olives in the front of the garden but they are difficult to photograph there as the moment they see you they are off with the speed of jet fighters.

There have been no mushrooms in the garden this year despite the fact we had rains while the ground was still warm.
When we went to Mt Lofty Botanic Park a few weeks ago I found all these orange fungi under

the trees but I have no idea what they are. I noticed in a friend's garden in Willunga that there were these same orange fungi and they were growing on the woodchip mulch.
Then on Sunday at d'Arry's, we noticed this amazing fungi ,like an old fashioned big shower rose, growing high up in the tree on the trunk.
A lot of the time Nature has this wonderful way of surprising and delighting us.....
Don't forget to click on the photos if you want to see the subject matter closer up

An Epicurean Weekend

 How empty the house is
    after the departure of a favored guest......

We had a lovely weekend following Epicurus' principles of eating moderately but well, drinking the local wines, sampling local, handcrafted beers and having interesting conversations.
On Friday night we dined at the Altar Bistro. The food there is always freshly prepared and we sampled the new winter menue. The duck was superb and the slow-cooked beef equally delicious I believe.
On Saturday morning we started at the Shingleback winery as the sparkling shiraz which was tasted the night before, held great appeal.From there, we went to Kays Brothers winery which has stunning views across the hills to Kangarilla almost. They were firing up an outside oven to slow cook pork for the dinner being held there that evening.

In the afternoon we went and investigated a micro-brewery near Middlebrook. It was interesting to see the owners were growing hop plants in wine tubs and we must go back in summer to see what they look like growing up the trellis over the outside tasting area.
In the evening we went to the Barn, that dear old place which was about the first restaurant in the area back in the 70ies.The tasting platter we had was very good but unfortunately we all chose kangaroo and that was not very hot when it arrived.

Sunday we arrived at d'Arenberg to join in with the Bohemian Oasis fantasy which was organized by d'Arry's Verandah restaurant and promised to be full of Persian delights.
The Marquees they have these days are simply amazing, so big and well set up inside with heaters and movable curtains to keep out the wind which can be pretty chilly on that ridge.
The red sash of course was very prominent.
For nibbles we had Sumac pita chips with marinated olives
(nearly as good as mine only much smaller) and Hummus.
They were very good indeed and we were happy nibbling these while waiting for the rest of the guests to arrive.
When mostly everyone was there, the Temple dancing girls started weaving their way slowly around amongst the tables, intending to create a somewhat exotic atmosphere.
The Entree was Harissa prawns with Date &preserved Lemon Cous Cous cake which was delicious.

Everything was served to our table and arrived hot and beautifully presented. The Main course  was Bamieh of d'Arry's Dorper lamb with Spiced yogurt & Eggplant Pickle and a variety of roasted vegetables. The lamb was delicious and cooked to perfection.We had a Footbolt shiraz with this which complimented it very nicely.
Meanwhile the Temple dancers had inveigled some of the diners to join in the dancing and everyone was having a great time. We just watched.... Dessert was nougat Kataifi with Halva and Turkish delight and was a great way to finish the meal.......

To bring us down to earth after this Epicurean
weekend, I have inserted a photo of our miserly pumpkin harvest. Each season for the past five years I have had this wonderful fantasy of Queensland Blue pumpkin vines covering our half acre front garden (well, it used to be a garden till the water restrictions killed most of it)
with dozens of pumpkins of great size ripening in the sun, but ,no, they will not oblige me at all.
They refuse to grow vigorously nor allow themselves to be fertilized by bees ,so I have to go out with a paintbrush and hope there is a female flower amongst the dozens of male flowers, it is all too much......