Hubris

I have been wanting to use that word for yonks, not necessarily applying it to myself though...sigh. Just when I thought I had this etegami gig under control, this happens. Like a true poor tradesman I am now going to blame my tools! The postcards seem to eat up my sumi ink and make it  wishy washy and the water colours are bleagh!
The zucchini one gives the nod to my favourite illustrator Gay Mckinnon at Silvergum Studio. Check out her zucchini wearing a teeny weeny bikini :D. See link at right).

Gay, hope you don't mind  my etegami 'homage'?

The good thing is I am now the proud possessor of some gansai paints. I hope they will do the trick. Trouble is they are too perfect to use. Typical Japanese presentation, a symphony of colours, a Mondrian of rectangles, in short  a feast for the eyes. (have I waxed lyrical enough?)

I have recently linked up with a Japanese lady at etegaminikki (see blog links)and tried to write to her using Google translate with the usual hilarious consequences, sadly I think in the future I am  going to be like one of those readers of Playboy who 'only look at the pictures' from now on.
The neatest thing that has happened lately is that through Facebook (still not sure about FB) I have reconnected with one of the Japanese girls who lived with me in the 1990's when she was on a working holiday. I had many girls stay over 10 years but lost all of their contact details in a flood. Viva la Internet is all I can say.

To Bee or not to Bee...

A bit of excitement this morning. Awoke to find a beeswarm right near my front gate.
Nor bee-ing of a nervous disposition this didn't worry me too much but the thought of them taking up residence in the walls of my house was not an attractive one. The sound of buzzing would probably send me over the top as readers of this blog will know there is already a plague of locust singing in my head (tinnitus).
Quick, onto the internet and find Mr bee swarm expert! Result!. Wow, he was here within the hour and shook the majority of them and the queen into a hive box with honey in it which the bees found very attractive. Not only that but he gave me a jar of honey as well! He will return after they go to bed to take them to his apiary. A man who obviously loves and cares for bees (he kept calling them 'girls', the girls are the workers...so what's new lol), he is a very successful local businessman who runs an apiary as a hobby/business, thanks so much Steve.

 Apparently they are 'caucasian' bees a darker (?) variety, good producers and quite gentle (as bees go)
Another not so happy thing to happen this last weekend was that I gave away my old flood damaged dollhouse that I had built as a Bicentennial project in 1988.
I could have refurbished it I suppose but I just did not have the psychic energy to do it. The flood destroyed a good many of the things I had valued in life , every drawing I had ever done as well as all of my art supplies and a few canvases. Three years later after much disruption and sadness I just do not want to go there again.

I listed the dollhouse on Freecycle and within a couple of hours a lovely lady and her husband had arranged to pick it up. They were thrilled and I was so happy to see it go to such enthusiasts.....Letting go of possessions is so cathartic.....I may become a trappist monk yet. lol.

A bit of this and....

Vegetable gardens are a"Good thing" but keeping one productive is easier said than done.
I have battled variously sandy soil,fruit fly, humidity and laziness to try to establish a garden that would give me that visceral connection to the earth that growing your own food provides.
Because my garden is now so massively overplanted, finding a sunny spot for a garden was impossible. I do have little plot in a neighbours yard (sharecropping) but the soil is so poor it is a real effort to keep things growing,one day without water and the plants die, A big problem when I go into hospital for a 'tune up' . My neighbour is not at all interested in gardening but she is happy to be kept in parsley and basil, anything else is a bonus.
So, I  am unveiling  the latest attempt to grow the most expensive veges on the planet....the above ground garden bed, ( one of two purchased at great expense) look forward to updates and a feast of goodies (or not)!

 The cherry tomato which overwintered here has grown enormously, climbing the trellis to about 10 feet and spilling over to produce lovely early trusses.

While on a garden theme, here is one for my friends in the succulent world, a lovely aeonium, this photo is a few weeks old and it is even more lush now.

Halloween anybody?

Opinions are very divided on Halloween here in Oz. A lot of folk say it is just more American cultural imperialism...we're a bit sensitive about that (not as much as the French though).
I was struck by one correspondent to the newspaper whining (we do that a lot though we call it whingeing  lol ) about the  "stupid American custom", just an excuse for merchandising yaddah yaddah (isn't that a Seinfeld export? well wash my mouth out with soap honeychild..oops! there I go again)who (you still with me here?) signed off with 'As if', an Americanism if I ever heard one. I rest my case.

All this leads me to the fact that while we don't take it too seriously Halloween can be fun and I spent a delightful afternoon with my 12 year old granddaughter yesterday making two Halloween cakes for a family gathering in the park this evening..just a few friends and neighbours, a chance for the kids to dress up and eat too many lollies (Sweets, candy).
Here is one of them hibernating in our refrigerator waiting for it to get dark.
BTW do not be concerned about the amount of margarine in the frig! Seriously, we don't eat that much, it was for baking!
In the truly creepy spirit of Halloween, I will leave you with a picture of this dessicated fruit bat I found in the park yesterday...coincidence or not...you be the judge. Creepy.

Autumn etegami (or not?)

Finally plucked up the courage this afternoon to sully the surface of one of the etegami postcards I ordered from Japan.
I have been struggling to find a subject which would relate to Autumn even though it is Spring here.
The reason for this is a challenge on the Etegami Fun Club http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48598270572 on Facebook  run by the inimitable Debbie (of Dosanko Debbie's Etegami blog).
Well, I came up with this image because..drumroll...the Ibis, those once majestic birds return to the parks and gardens near us in the Autumn scavenging for food and generally making a nuisance of themselves, pooing and tossing rubbish out of bins. Not only that but their white feathers are frequently dirty and disheveled, presenting a very sorry sight. A long way from their depiction in ancient Egyptian art.
Having done it the Prof has planted a worm of doubt in my brain, "A bit lateral don't you think?"(a callous almost cruel remark I thought given my artistic temperament lol)
So that is why the postcard is here and not on Facebook dear friends.
Still looking for a subject...something to do with the tv remote and football season maybe?

Edit: Okay it's now on Facebook!

Things that amused me today #2

All quiet here at 'casa chaos'. so quiet in fact that I had to take my pulse to see if I was still alive.
                                           

         

          

It was while I was pondering my life and looking at my shoes (don't you do that? much easier than navel gazing, you don't have to disrobe lol) that I noticed my green socks,"How very Halloween", I thought, that combination of green and black (Do you use quotation marks if it is just a thought?.. just a thought). So, (begins sentence with a preposition)...damn who is doing this commentary ooops it's me (sigh)I just thought that you might, dear reader, think it was a minty, halloweeny, ghouly kind of colour combination as well.TaDaah! (sorry about the unpolished shoes but they are my favourite Rockports that I wear every day).   
Oh, and Just to make you envy my lifestyle a little more...Here is a photo of what I had for lunch today,Cheese slice,nut and fruit mix,cherry tomatoes watermelon and red bean mochi. (I think I covered all of the food groups there, I'll just waddle off now Toodeloo!

Learning to Photoshop Grrr!

Sounds harmless, learning to Photoshop, just like shopping right? You stroll down the aisles picking up what you want, putting it in your cart? Wrong, it is mind blindingly frustrating and tearmaking when you have never used computers much in the past. Who knew that you had to "RASTERIZE" a layer before you can overlay another one????What is rasterize anyway? It's all Greek to me.
I did finally muddle through the process of making a banner for my Etsy shop (which remains empty, I still have to tackle the problem of postal charges). My shop is at http://www.etsy.com/shop/OrigameOrigame  if you are interested. Suggestions as to layout, legibility etc welcome.
To add insult to injury I wasn't able to upload the banner on my Macbook Air something to do with conflicting IP addresses with the other computers we had in the house, took all day to figure that one out with prompting from computer literate son in Singapore.
At the rate I am going hell may freeze over before I get my stuff on the net. 

To return to more pleasant things, remember my good neighbour Jan who bakes and plants her sweetpeas on St Patrick's Day? Well, Here is a bunch of said sweetpeas to be going on with. Thanks Jan.

My new obsession.

You guessed it! Cicadas!
A few pics of my wall to show the hanging vases I got last week. They are copies made with moulds from the south of France where the vases are positioned near the front door and filled with lavender as a welcoming sign. A very crafty lady here in the Hunter Valley of NSW  makes them.
I have one large green one and two small white ones (I couldn't make up my mind!).
Some of my friends don't get it. I guess my relationship with cicadas is a bit love/hate really as I suffer from very bad (Medication induced) tinnitus which sounds like cicadas, so in one way for me it is Summer all year! Ya gotta laugh.

Here is the large one (with fresh picked lavender) in the little 'tokonoma' (?) beside my door.

These are the smaller ones. I think they have a lovely Deco feel, but some of my friends just say"ALIEN" and run away screaming.

My first attempt at etegami

My first try, using ersatz materials, sorry Debbie, it probably makes the purists cringe, just couldn't wait for the real thing to arrive.

'Catnap' in situ.

As a special Birthday gift to myself I ordered an original etegami from Dosankodebbie over on Etsy and it arrived with a bonus. The  work I ordered was 'catnap' and she included a print of another work 'snapping tortoise' as a bonus because it was my birthday...so sweet.

I promised Debbie I would post a picture of her work 'in situ', the photo does not do them justice, but here they are in my 'animal corner'. Tortoise will eventually hang under cat when I can get a suitable hook!

And just another picture to remind me of why I love Spring so much. The funny looking things on the ground are from our now defunct passionfruit vine, ruthlessly cut down over the weekend, never fear we have a baby vine ready to go.