Strange Peculiar

The inhabitants of the trees around here are noisy this morning. Noisy in a restless, something's up kind of way. The Kaka are screeching and squawking as they swoop dramatically from tree top to tree top. Way up above large seagulls are circling and crying out to each other. The blackbirds keep making startled exits from their morning foraging grounds. Calling out their distinctive warning signals as they take flight, as if danger was lurking nearby.

There’s no sunshine, but no rain either. There’s hardly a breath of wind. The temperature has risen to a mild 15C. All the windows are open and a subtle ocean scent has risen from the harbour, drawing me to pause and stare down at her unmoving waters. A ship sits, neither leaving or arriving, in the silky grey expanse. A bumble bee is determined to fly in the window, knocking on the glass as I type.

Its one of those days where you cant quite put your finger on it, but all and all, something is a little peculiar.


Its been a week of progress and procrastination for me. Progress: working on pieces for the art show. Procrastination: suddenly deciding I must have an ‘art’ website and spending hours tinkering on designs and deciphering HTML.



My trust in myself knows no limits, thank you. I patiently listen for the answers and I hear them, thank you. I am grateful for every little blessing in my life, thank you. I keep on going, thank you.

Hotties and Woollies

Winter arrived last week right on cue. I celebrated the new season by buying a fabulous new Fashy hot water bottle. I love my new hottie! I pulled out my thick woolly jumpers and I started wearing these great fingerless mittens to type in (better than fingerless gloves). Plus, I colour coordinated my woolen blankets. Makes me feel cozy just looking at them.




I am grateful for blue skies in winter, thank you. I keep up to date with my To Do list with ease, s0 happy for this, thank you. I am surrounded by lovely, supportive people and I am so, so grateful for the strength I gain from them , thank you.

Winter Weekend

Walking North into the late morning sun.

My weekend was all big blue skies, sunshine, an endless beach and the chill of winter. Very nice.

We drove home early this Monday morning. The landscape blanketed in frost and mist. Spindly branches of the leaf-lost trees scratched the pinky lavender haze of sky. The full moon hovered in front of our path, just above the horizon. The sun rose behind us as we drove away from our weekend holiday.



Lemon and Honey works miracles, thank you. I work efficiently and enjoyably, thank you. I am grateful for new adventures on the horizon, thank you. All is well, thank you.

Things on my desk

An old doily, a stamp, a couple of beans and a Kowhai seed pod stuck to a paper bag. Why? Why not?

Ive been doing little bits here and there on my creative projects but with not much to show for my once a week creative self check in. This weekend we are off to the bach and I will take some materials to play with. So hopefully more progress to show next week.

A random selection of stuff piled on my desk.


A little nest, found by Jamie last weekend, some pink seaweed from the sack loads I gathered for my garden recently, and a lichen covered twig blown off a tree a few days ago.

An page torn from and old House and Garden magazine (click big to read details). I love the combination of European and Maori influences. Especially love that fork.


Ive always used paper for my paint palette, usually newspaper.


Some mysterious words to spark the imagination.

Happy Friday! Send me some blue skies for my weekend at the beach.


Moving, jumping and twirling to music fills me with laughter, thank you for all my opportunities to dance.

Birds

My home perches on the edge of a hill, sandwiched in a narrow valley. Somewhere down below this view a creek rambles towards the sea. I cannot see it though the wild tangle of green, but I hear it. The hill opposite rises up sharply, and thankfully it would seem, it is too steep to build upon. I'm glad of that and so are the birds.

Not long after moving here I heard an unfamiliar bird call. I learned it was a Kaka. A recent returnee to this neck of the woods, thanks to the Karori Wildlife Santurary. Ive been trying to catch a photo ever since.

8:16 Am. The sun glances through the trees as it begins its daily journey west. Jamie calls me out to see the spectacle. A bold Tui is defending its territory. The Kaka doesn't seem too concerned, jumping about from branch to branch with the aid of its beak as it finds its breakfast in the banana passionfuit vine.



The Kaka seems an easy going type, not willing to fight. He (or she) takes flight only to settle again on a nearby tree moments later. The Tui retreats to plan its next ambush, reappearing with a swoop moments later, and so the routine continued.





Grateful for my sanctuary in the trees, always, thank you.

Submitted

I've got blog posts building up in my mind. If I blogged more often maybe I could tell you about seaweed, dancing, old halls, more wild apple trees, Bobby the dog, sunshine skies, Kaka and my plans for the Queens birthday (we're doing lunch at Windsor) but you'll just have to imagine my week from that. Feel free to add in any other details if you think they'll help the narrative along.



I said to myself I'd post some art related thing once a week, and Id hate to miss my own first deadline. When I created this piece I was thinking about the collision of cultures. This is one of the images I submitted to the upcoming art show I am going to be in.

I feel like I've been on this kind of aesthetic theme forever. I know its because I hardly allow myself anytime to work on images for myself. I always have work to do for other people and because the dollar pay off in the work for other people is more immediate and guaranteed it somehow seems more valuable. More legitimate. If I spend time enjoying practicing my art then I some how feel as if I am wasting time/money and exerting energy into something that is not going to 'pay off' This kind of thinking is flawed, its easy for me to see that, but to actually correct the thought process and allow myself more freedom to be creative for my sake (and not others) is a lot harder.

Practice, practice, practice.

I am gentle to myself and grateful to be so, thank you. I forgive myself for my fears and take the next step, thank you for this faith and courage. Thank you for a long weekend.

Bleak and Bright.

Its raining, bleak and bright. A soft veil obscures my vision. Clouds fill the spaces beyond my window. Somehow sunlight seeps through the mesh of wet. It spills down onto the silver harbour. The harbour now a mirror of hope in a great sea of gloom. Light and lovileness reflecting up and out of the waves. The clouds, once the oppressors, now spread the golden glow further. Reflecting and diffusing honeyed hope across the landsape.




I make decisions easily knowing my choices always bring me to where I need to be, thank you. I work with focus and clarity, allowing myself the freedom of rest and reflection, thank you. I see sunshine, thank you.