Looking back at my felting course.

Oh,boy. I've been pretty busy lately and I haven't even told you anything about my week away. The classes were held at the studios of Raewyn Penrose, a well known felting artist in New Zealand. The little place of Te Aroha was a surprise for me; very quaint and as if time had stood still for a few decades .

Above is the domain, right in front of the studio. It has some old colonial buildings and thermal pools. A natural geyser was spouting up above the smaller building in the background, so now and then. Guess who forgot her swimsuit?

Do click on the picture, it will show far more detail.

These are the upstairs studios, where we spend 5 creative days. Raewyn is a very lucky woman to have so many rooms available. It's at the top of a supermarket.

But how does she get any work done..? All the windows look out on this ever changing bush scene ; sometimes sunny, sometimes wet and wild, then all misty and spooky.

I took a lot of photos, the zoom is great on my camera. I saw woodpigeons and tuis swooping and diving amongst the trees. We also heard moreporks calling in between the rain storms at night.
Some of the students on one of the last days, called away from their work to listen to our teacher. Some of the more noteable ladies there (for me) were ; 2nd left Jill Gun, an amazing needle felting artist who constructs huge fantasy creatures. 1st by the window is Raewyn Penrose, who had organized this week, and her husband in the doorway, who made us wonderful food ;everyday a new exotic soup with homebaked bread. And scones, and cakes. And woodsmoked mussels. Gourmet pizzas... Yum!

Next to Raewyn my friend Heather (who will be celebrating her 70th birthday this year) and friend Rita, we 3 shared a camping flat for the week. Cheap and cheerful.
And of course the star of the week; our tutor Anita Larkin on the far right. She turned out to be a very patient and skillful teacher. It was amazing how she was able to switch between each persons' project, which were all complicated projects, involving much 3-d and inside-out and back to front thinking. Very impressive.

This was a colour exercize, drawing objects on the table with wool sliver, then cutting it up and re-arranging, to get abstract shapes.

Still dry before the felting process...
This is the finished result. The people at home were not really impressed, but I liked the process and the results too. I also made jewellery, and a little tree and a very large hollow sculpture, which I will show another time.

It was a marvelous week, very inspiring indeed.

Presents and Pearly webs.

I hope you had a nice mother's day, mum's out there? I did; with pancakes and lots of visiting. Although most of the day I felt a sadness inside, because I can't ring or visit my Mums anymore and I really missed them on this day. It felt kind of lonely.

Here is a little forget-me-not mum and baby I made recently. She goes with my feeling.

These bat boys look like they are about to burst into song!

Luckily I did not get music from the 3 tenors or other music mums are supposed to like. No offense to any of you if you do like it, but why should mums be hanging out for a classical music c.d. or the collected works of Celine .

Nope , instead I got 2 new magazines; the last and final issue of World-sweet-world (Sad news that! But they keep on with their blog. ) and the latest Peppermint. I had never seen the last Australian magazine, it is not easily available in little Hastings and I must say I like it. Thanks Wellington daughter!!

What's this : ripe strawberries? In May!... But it is well and true-ly Autumn, we have had a couple of morning frosts. The fire is on at night....

Yup! And more green ones and new flowers even.

Crazy!!
My father-in-law was staying with us for a few days after mother's day, to help us celebrate our daughter's 16th birthday. Also to be with us while the birthday of Mum passed by. It was a lovely relaxed stay. One morning it was very misty and the spider webs outside sparkled. So him, husband and I all took our camera's and had a photo shoot. I think this one of mine came out quite well. I love my macro ability on "my" camera.

Strings of pearls, so gorgeous.

Here some more jewellery I have made quite a while ago. Textile bracelets.

I used vintage embroidered doilies and handkerchiefs and damask serviettes. I added glass beads and an old glass button is used as a fastener. All those old embroideries are so pretty and beautifully done, they deserve to be on display; not stuck in a drawer and unused. This way you can wear them and show them off.

They will go up for sale in my little shop soon, but first I will be going away for a week . I am going to be felting at a course near Hamilton. The tutor is Anita Larkin, an artist from Australia, she will be teaching 3-d felt, and that is an opportunity not to be missed for me. 2 Of my felting friends are coming too. I am so looking forward to it!!

My foot is feeling much better and I can walk slowly on it now , without a moonboot. I do a lot of physiotherapy and exercizes. But at night it still swells up and feels sore and stiff. Slowly does it.

Tiny tasks.

A little family of "Bushbabies". 2 Toddlers and their big sister, or is it their mummy?

I have very nice angora mohair at the moment, with a tight little curl at the end, just right for my Bushbabies' hair.

These will be going up for sale in my wee shop .

This is my lovage herb (levisticum officinale) , also known in Europe as maggi plant. I got it as a root from my old neighbour years ago.

I planted it in a pot and put it on the half circle of bricks out on the porch. It started growing, stuff happened and I forgot to plant it in the garden. After a year it broke it's plastic pot and bored it's roots in between the bricks. That's where it lives now, every autumn it dies down and gets bigger again in the spring.

Yes, we could uproot it, but it seems happy and it isn't in our way.

I like to use it in soups. But we eat more soup in the winter, when all the lovage leaves have gone.

So I have found a way of drying it in the microwave. This goes very fast, it has no time to wilt, and it retains more flavour and colour.

I give the lovage a quick rinse and pat it dry. Then I put a good handful between 4 layers of kitchen paper and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Check to feel if it is dry enough to crumble. If not turn the package over and microwave for another 30sec. or so, until it is crunchy.

Crunchy but not burned...!

Then crumble roughly into a glass jar, seal and store in a dark place.

Roll on winter soup-and-bread nights!

My whole house smelled of lovage when I did this, and it brought my memory straight back to my Oma's (grandmother's) kitchen. She always used it in her soups and had it growing in her garden. I spend many holidays there, when I was a schoolchild.We were allowed to do just about anything there: feed the chooks, pick red currants, build a tent in the garden with old blankets and the washing rack, go for walks in the forest and play with the kids in the neighbourhood. And read all the old comic books,which were in a cupboard upstairs, and she'd take me on the back of her bicycle to do some groceries or to a church fair to buy old junk.

Here is a photo of them and me, from 20 years ago. That was the last time I saw them.

How did we manage to have such large gatherings of people in that little room for dinner.....!

What to Do when you are Sitting Down a lot.....

On Monday I had an appointment at the hospital. New x-rays, and a (gentle) examination. They took the plaster cast off and this is what my foot looked like after 2 weeks. Puffy and swollen with deep bruising on all sides, and my ankle bone had disappeared from view entirely. It looked kind of reddish-brown. Very nice to feel the fresh air.

I was given a "moon-boot" and told to start putting a bit more weight on it over the next few weeks, and then start some physio. Hurray, I can take showers again!

It feels so much better now on Friday; I have put my whole weight on it a few times today, but only with the boot on. Without it hurts a lot. But I shall be so pleased when I can walk without crutches again, very frustrating not being able to carry stuff....

Autumn colours. One of the last peachy roses, a dahlia like a flame, and a knobbly orange pumpkin. So exuberant!! The pumpkin will be used soon to make pumpkin-curry soup.
I have been reading this book lately, by Rice Freeman-Zachery. It's written to help you find the time and head space to find your creativity, and fit it into your life. I really like it, and the book has beautiful art work on all pages by lots of different artists, there is loads of different advice from real artists in it, which is very comforting. None of them have perfect lives.

It has a lot of talk about what I call "creative flow", when you are "in the zone".When time disappears. It's really a wonderful feeling, one I like to keep going.

Until you get a phone call from school and your daughter asks if you are going to pick her up at all.....

This has happened a few times over the years (blush) At least they were safe!..
The book gets you to do these exercises, lots of writing things down. So I decided to make a journal to do that in, so I keep the "flow" going. I used an old cook book, this one had bound pages and was a good size. I pulled out half the pages and glued the left over pages together in pairs. Then gesso-ed everything, and started decorating with old papers and water soluble crayons etc.
So here 4 of my favourite pages. I actually finished the whole journal before I have started using it this time.

Strangely enough it turned into a weird little story about a girl being lost in the woods and then realizing she actually lived there and knew the way after all. I used text cut from a children's encyclopeadia from the 50's. The original had a different storyline, but you just put words together to make a new story.

Leaving lots of room to write with flowing ink pens in different colours.

I go over some of the glossy pictures with coloured gesso, otherwise the writing inks won't show up or wipe off again. The gesso gives it a bit of roughness.

Of course I had to make a bookmark for it as well, with the words "keeping it simple" and an elmtree on the back. A length of antique lace, a red vintage button and a pretty white feather from my brothers' pigeons sets it off nicely.

And what are the odds of finding a monogrammed dressing-table coverlet, with my own initials on it??!!.... (I believe 1 in 676)

Family fruit.

Continued from the past Easter Weekend;

Enough cutting wood already! Time to visit some family in Napier. We all went to see my brother and sis-i-l and their wee boy.

There was some harvesting going on in their garden. My brother was in the avocado tree with an ingenious little gadget ; a little net with blades attached to an expandable pole. That way you can get to cut off fruit that is out of reach.

Here are some of the avocados, the tree has been having a hard time in the last year. We have had a few dry summers in a row, but this year was much better and it has brightened up a bit.

Our eldest looking down into the sloping garden, and watching her uncle with amusement.

And some of the lemons are ready too. Always funny to see lemons in all different stages on the one tree, even flowers still.
The big old walnut tree is throwing down it's treasures as well.

And even some ripening tamarillos with their tigerstripes .

My man is getting a check-up on his knee by our nephew, just like his mummy does on her patients. "All better!" And off he runs again.

It is nice to have family close by, just 15 minutes driving.

Homelife.

Our Easter weekend was spent in some work and a bit of pleasure all combined. Like a lot of people, we rely on fire wood to keep our house warm in winter. One of the only perks my husband still gets is free fire wood, through working for the local council. But you have to get it in your own time with your own tools.

A lot of people don't take advantage of this perk, but we always do. It saves us a lot of money, especially because our woodburner also heats the water for showers etc. And it is a sustainable fuel, this way.

This time there was a dry cut down willow at the river. Already in large pieces. A good wood to burn first to start the heat spreading fast.

The girls had a walk in the river and explored the opposite bank.
The temperature is cooling down now, but still nice and refreshing on a hot autumn day.

Not only does he cook and knows how the washing machine works, he also does all this macho stuff..... I am so lucky!! Thank you for looking after us, it makes things so much easier when I can't do things with one good leg.
And he's got another nice hobby; making beer and whiskey. My dad showed him how to a few years ago and now he has taught other people in turn. They share tips and recipes, and have taste testings....
Left contains whiskey and right is beer , ready for bottling. And no that is not illegal in NZ, there are special shops where you can buy all you require for it.

Of course you just have to monitor your alcohol consumption , it's too easy to get in trouble.

This is what my eldest daughter likes to do when she is home ; bake biscuits and cakes and make fudge. Very dangerous too, especially at the moment with me being a bit immobile and on the couch a lot...

Autumn walks and autumn fairs.

It really is autumn now. The fire has been on a lot already. The wind is coming from the south and the trees are colouring up. And lots of toadstools this year, due to a wet summer. Our youngest has taken a liking for finding unusual toadstools and mushrooms. Like this one.
And these cute shiny ones. So we all went for a walk up Te Mata Peak by the redwood trees.

We took quite a few photos crouched in between the leaf litter and bushes.
These looked amazing, feeding on a dead tree, all blue green and as big as your hand.

We were nearly back at the car, when I mis-stepped and twisted my right ankle. I felt a nasty crunch . And nearly fainted...Ouch!!

The rest of our Sunday afternoon was spent in the emergency department of our hospital, getting x-rays and a half-cast plaster on. My ankle had gotten a swelling the size of an easter-egg while I was still on the ground, and I was told that I had torn a ligament, which had ripped a fleck of bone off as well. No wonder I felt a bit funny...
Still a week of the easter school holidays to go... I am not allowed to put any weight on it. Walking with crutches is fun for the first 5 minutes. But it is 5 days later now and I am frustrated and sore. My left leg has muscle ache, my shoulders ache, my hands are bruised from the handles and I managed to get a blister on my hand as well. I thought I might get stronger, but I seem to be moving around slower now. The worst is I can't carry anything. Like a cup of tea. But I am so lucky to have my Love popping in from work and my youngest getting me things and doing some of the housework.

Today we went to the doctor, I'll be off work for a wee while. We got some other crutches from the hospital, I'll put some extra padding on them. Hopefully I will get a new plaster-cast in the next week , one that will allow me to put weight on it, (if my foot is up to it), or a waterproof one, so I can have a shower.
So I guess I'll be updating this blog a bit more often.

Here a picture of me at an autumn craft fair at Hohepa Homes .That's a residential community for people with intellectual disabilities, with protected work places and schooling. They have an anthropological philosophy and are closely connected to our local Rudolph Steiner school. There is a working farm, they produce organic cheeses and vegetables. My Mum-i.l. used to work there in the weaving workshops, when they still lived in Hawke's Bay. And every year they have a large fair with art and craft stalls, food and entertainment. So here my own stall. It didn't go as well as I had hoped, but I'll go back next year again. My youngest daughter helped me that day, the oldest was just visiting us on the photo.

I did 2 fairs in March. I quite like it. Even though we got rained out on the other one.

In February my daughter asked me if I would make her a new schoolbag. Crocheted please. I was amazed. She wanted me to make her something everyone would see? Sure thing.

I showed her some of her Oma's hand-spun and dyed yarns. She loved it. She drew a picture of how the bag should look and how big (big!), with a zip. So I made one and lined it with a sturdy rib, because I didn't want the crochet to stretch. I added a few big inside pockets as well.
It closes with a chunky zip , "made with love".
She uses it every day and all her friends think it is very cool. Here she is in her school uniform ready for her day. Now she has a bit of Oma-L. with her to keep her company.

She has been doing so much better the last few months. It's like we have the original girl back with us. It is a real relief. It is amazing how both our girls have coped with so much sadness in our family the last 3 years. And it has been very difficult .

Grief lasts so long, it will never quite go away. It just softens at the edges.