5.30am

Softly padding dog

searches, finds her, sits and sighs.

Dawn light beckons both.

GOANNA

SNAIL PREDATOR SUPREME

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PROGRESS

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Out there, under the trees, something is evolving.

Footings concreted into earth. Floor frame welded to footings.

Reeded Jarrah screwed down for deck and thick boards for interior floor.

Windows and door measured. Wall frames cut and bolted together.

Old windows bought from a salvage yard are now waiting to be lifted into place.

Corrugated iron sheets lie on the ground ready to become a roof.

To say I am excited would be an understatement.

SIT AND FOCUS

A VERY LATE SUNDAY SCRIBBLING

I am sitting in the local Bush park and Dog is panting next to me after some spectacular frisby catches. Down by the creek, a young man with a push-chair, two little girls and a toddler are watching their dog splash through the water. Behind me, at the top of the slope, the sound of a bicycle. Whizzing past on a bike too big for her is a girl of about ten years old. Blond with ratty pigtails, she is wearing pale blue wide leg trousers and a white crumpled t-shirt. Her feet are bare

Down the slope she goes, fast. Her eyes focused on the group at the creek. In profile I see that she has a nose that tips up at the end. Is it her family she is going to see? She reaches them and then spins away, laughing, back over the grass, standing on the pedals and then turning at the top of the slope, she free wheels down and stops at the creek.

I get up and with Dog move to sit under the trees. Laughter from the road above us filters through the Eucalypts. She is there with the toddler who is sitting on the bike in front of her.

Two minutes later the man with the children asks, 'Where's Lizzy?'. The other children murmur something to him and he seems reassured. Calling his dog he leans over the pushchair and with the girls leaves the park along the red earth trackway.

Sitting there under the trees, I begin to write a story in my head...............................

Let Lizzy be the girl on the bicycle going to meet her family in the park after school.
She gets off the school bus and wanders home, remembering as she kicks the gum nuts out of her path that she now has the bike.

Rushing indoors, she flings her school uniform onto the bedroom floor. Finding old cut-off trousers and a shirt ( also on the floor), she searches for her flip-flops. There seems to be only one under the bed, she throws it back. Grabbing a biscuit and cramming it into her mouth, she leaves the house by the back door, the fly screen creaking shut behind her.

Now let Lizzy smile as she sees the old bike and remembers that her Dad said they would be at the creek and she could meet them there. Picking up the bike ( from where she had left it lying against a verandah post), she hops along side it and swings onto the saddle. Off through the back gate she rides down to the park.

Now she turns off the road and the bike tyres crunch through gravel at the top of the slope. She sees her family in the valley and at the last minute sees me and my dog sitting below her on the grass. Steering away from me she races past and I can feel the breeze the wheels make, she is so close.

Let her reach her family and swing away from them back up the slope and down again. Her Father asks her to take the youngest child home. Riding along the top road her brother in front of her on the bike, she laughs as he says, 'Look doggy.' pointing at me and Dog sitting under the trees........

POSSUM

Night

and silence after rain.

Then

footsteps through the garden.

A door opens

and the dog barks.

'Grab a torch and take my hand.'

Shoes on, torch found,

hand held.

Over gravel,

through the trees

and down the fence line.

'Look up.'

Torch light glitters on wet leaves.

Round eyes

under translucent ears,

look down.

'I think he's been living in the Secret Garden'.

Secret no more,

the Possum

stares.

ELEGANT FOOTWEAR

Elegant moi?

This is what happens when you think summer has arrived and you throw away your old, wornout, comfortable and warm slippers.

You know that Australians love to wear their thongs (I am talking of flip-flops not undergarments!)

My pair of thongs have lasted well and been worn in the garden, supermarket, cafes, beach, vet, doctors surgery, mosaic classes and family gatherings.

This morning it was cold, so thongs and socks of subtle hue had to keep me warm.

Elegant is just too much work at 5.30am.

( ps Jorth I was wearing track pants too!)

'RASPBERRY' Felt and Textiles

There is a remarkable artist, who's Blog Raspberry I read regularly. She is a textile and felt-maker with wonderful skills. Her felt pieces look so very tactile and her brooches and pin cushions look good enough to eat.

I was fortunate enough to make the 100th comment on her blog and I won this perfect little number. As you can see in the above images, it is now adorning my summer hat.

Thankyou Raspberry Lady.

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'SMALL BLUE THING..........'

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Sunshine with high white clouds and a zephyr of breeze playing around my shoulders. In a garden seat I am drinking pale green peppermint tea. Dog is under my chair and a resident Blue tongue Goanna ambles across a flower bed. Dog wriggles out and is off to investigate. I follow and encourage him to leave the Goanna alone. Peace returns and I pick up my tea glass.

Out of the sky something falls and bounces with sharp clicks onto the floor at my feet.

Reaching down I pick up a small blue glass marble. It has streakes of yellow, green and brown running through the blue. Astonished, I realise it is similar to the marbles I use in Mosaic work. Could a bird have found it, picked it up and then dropped it? Odd that it should land next to me.

The words of a song by Suzanne Vega suddenly come to mind:-

Today I am a small blue thing
Like a marble or an eye
With my knees against my mouth I am perfectly round
I am watching you

I am cold against your skin
You are perfectly reflected
I am lost inside your pocket
I am lost against your fingers

I am falling down the stairs
I am skipping down the sidewalk
I am thrown against the sky
I am raining down in pieces

I am scattering like light
Scattering like light
Scattering like light

Today I am a small blue thing
Made of china made of glass
I am cool and smooth and curious
I never blink

I am turning in your hand
Turning in your hand
Small blue thing


I drift back to another time. Sitting on a Greek beach at dusk, I watch as a fire is being lit. I am drinking warm ouzo and pushing my feet into cool sand. My fingers are playing with pebbles in the sand and I find a seemingly perfect sphere of sea washed stone.

Tiny and cold the stone sits in the palm of my hand. I close my fingers over it and out loud say, "I am cool and smooth and curious". The fire-lighter turns and looks at me, an eyebrow raised, he smiles and then turns back to the flickering fire.

I put the sphere in my pocket.

WEATHER CHANGEABLE

Showers followed by light cloud and blue skies.

Wet earth and Gum nuts await Dog seeking 'wee-mail'.

Human walking with Dog will have to wait at every tree, bush and rocky outcrop, as Dog catches up with all messages left by other canines.

Human carefully negotiating her way through the gum nuts to avoid broken neck.

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