Alison's Adventures

A quick reminder!

2012-01-20T12:57:00.001Z

I just noticed that JoyJam is up on this blog and after my week decided that I needed to remind me, that there were some things that made me smile!

1. Receiving support from my beautiful daughter at just the moment when I was feeling completely overwhelmed. I am so proud of you and love you so much Ash!!

2. Spending time with my ever so gorgeous grandson!

3. Spending a day drawing while watching the tennis!

4. The kookaburras laughing in our garden (who wouldn't smile at just the sound of these wonderful birds) and we are blessed by them several times a day.

5. The evening 'debrief' with the love of my life!

What were the 3-5 things that gave you joy this week?

Creativity Abounds

2012-01-10T12:51:00.000Z

The New Year has seen me spending mountains of time nurturing my creativity. In the first few days of the month, I have looked at the first lesson of Tam's 'Ultimate World of Whimsy' and as a result created this:

Tam taught us how to draw whimsical people and cute little creatures - so much fun! The quote by Christine Castro Hughes, came from one of the books I was given for Christmas 'Desire to Inspire' by Christine Mason Miller. So far I have read the first few chapters and am in fact finding it incredibly inspirational - ah and there is my chosen word! I am also creating some cards to go with the first activity in that book, but will leave them for show and tell until I have finished a few more.

At the end of last year my gorgeous daughter gave me a book called 'One Sketch A Day'. It is a visual journal in which you can record a sketch each day. I decided to start it on January 1st, and so here are the sketches up until today:

They are only small and are very quick sketches, so far usually done in about 5 minutes or so!

Not done yet! I have also completed last week's lessons for Jane Davenport's 'I Heart Drawing' class where we were focussing on drawing walking figures:

and the torso with natural breasts and uplifted breasts!

Last Friday I was absolutely thrilled when I was able to go to the Matisse Exhibition at GOMA in Brisbane. The exhibition was brilliant and well worth the three and a half hour drive there and back! I had one of my very dear friends with me. It was Coralie I thought of as I toured galleries in Europe; all the time thinking that I wished she were with me as she would love it. Coralie is an art teacher and it was just amazing sharing this experience with her. I learnt so much about different art processes that I never really understood before. Finally I know for sure that I was right all those time I was thinking of her when I toured the other exhibitions! Just one small aspect of the exhibition was the 'drawing room'. It was set up with an area to eat and drink (yummy, yummy food!), a musician playing clasical music on the violin and then there were still lifes set up and drawing equipment so you could do as Matisse did and draw! The photo below shows lots of people doing just that! Such a beautiful atmosphere!

I bought a book filled with images of the Matisse works we saw on display and when I came home that night I sat and drew one of his drawing from the book and a quote from the exhibition into one of my art journals.

Today I managed to finish the piece for the first week of the free online course I am doing with Strathmore Online. It is called 'Doodles Unleashed' and is being taught by Traci Bautista and I have to say it is fabulous! The fact that it is free is amazing I think and I would honestly say that if you have time you should absolutely consider it! I did this piece on a 30 x 30cm canvas board and am so glad I did. I have only really done my work in journals and decided after a few prompts from a friend that I could indeed use canvasses!

I had poured some drawing ink into a container to use on the piece above and didn't like wasting it so decided to grab a journal and a book off my shelf and see what happened. I drew this and am quite pleased as a first attempt to draw with brush and ink - no pencil, just ink!

I was going to paint him with water colours, but was not sure that the drawing ink is waterproof so decided not to risk it until I have checked. He's not perfect, but he is cute I think!

Add to all this art that I have been at the gym four days a week, spending time with my grandson and keeping up with the chores around the house (well sort of!) and I have to say it has been a fabulous start to the new year!

Welcoming 2012

2012-01-01T03:02:00.001Z

The New Year 2012 has dawned and I have to say it is with some degree of nervousness and excitement that I am here! The past two years have been so jammed packed with adventure that my imagination is drawing blanks when I think about where to from here. We have travelled, made friends, and I know I have discovered many things about myself that have been some of life's most valuable lessons. I was asked before leaving London what my plans were when we arrived back in Australia and I have to say I felt rather stupid because I had no response. I had the plan to come home to Australia to live again and that was it! I didn't know where I was going to be working and I didn't know how I was going to keep myself moving forward in this life. All a bit daunting really. I am still really unsure about all of this.

In the next few weeks I will start a new job in a different school. I will be returning to teaching in a Special Education Program in a local mainstream high school, but have no idea how this program is operated! I am not sure what will be expected of me and am worried that it will all lack the excitement and interest of my London job. I am so worried that after two years of life feeling so, so brilliant that it will seem mundane. Not one to sit on my hands and let that happen, I have decided to take steps to ensure that I keep moving forwards!

I am currently enrolled in 5 on line art courses! I have another 4 weeks to go of Jane Davenport's 'I Heart Drawing Class' (absolutely brilliant!!!) and today I start a free course with Strathmore (4 weeks) being taught by Traci Bautista and then also today I start on the 'Lifebook' course with Willowing and with the Lifebook course came access to another two Willowing courses (for me 'The Wonderful World of Whimsy' and 'Awesome Art Journals'). So you can see I plan on being a busy girl!

Having said that I have also decided than rather than make a New Year's resolution that I would follow the lead from a few blogs I have read lately and choose a word to guide me for the year. After much to-ing and fro-ing I have chosen the word 'inspiration'. I have decided that I really want to keep reminding myself to be open to inspiration from all sorts of sources and that even when something is getting up my nose I can reframe and use it as a source of inspiration to move towards better things. I also know that I need to keep using my skills and talents to be an inspiration for others, it brings great joy into my heart. I keep reminding myself of all that has happened in the past few years and how wonderful it has all been. I want to use that as an inspiration for myself and others as to how wonderful life can be.

Here's the latest from my art desk.....still needs some work, but that's OK I thought I would share it with you anyway!

So maybe this year is one for me to regroup, seek inspiration and work out where the next big step in this adventure will be. Hey if you had asked me in March 2004 if I thought all this was possible I would have said 'no way'! Life's biggest turning point for me in this phase was on the 9th April 2004 when I literally fell in love at first sight!

Celebrations!

2011-12-21T13:18:00.001Z

Today is the longest day of the year here in the southern hemisphere. It has been the most glorious day in Hervey Bay! A breeze has blown all day and that has kept the humidity down. I have been busy most of today: going to the gym, doing a bit more Christmas shopping, doing some ironing, sewing and drawing. I also wandered my garden with my camera for ten minutes again. We have some beautiful flowers at the moment.

The hibiscus are stunning.

The frangipani are always a delight, but these ones don't have the perfume of some!

For the past few days these two have been regular visitors (they spent most of today day feeding in our back garden but did zip around the front for a dip in the pond!)

To me the day's most important celebration is that of the birth of this wonderful lady 89 years ago! I won the Mum lottery on the day she gave birth to me. She is one of those truly amazing women. Incredibly intelligent, strong and resourceful. I love you Em as do all of your children and grandchildren (happy birthday to you too Kylie!). We are all blessed to have you in our lives!

A Week of Smiles!

2011-12-16T11:07:00.003Z

Just had to do a 'Joyjam' entry today because it sure has been a week full of lots of things to make me smile! Tuesday was a brilliant day. Lunch with my two beautiful children which included sitting listening to the story of my daughter's last day of her first year of teaching (all the other teachers had one or two students from their calsses turn up for 'clean-up day' - Ashy had 15 of her Year 6 class! My son's story was no less inspirational as he told me how he had led a major project to help a mate in need. He co-ordinated an incredible effort to help out. Just makes a Mum's heart swell to hear the stories that her children are going ahead and making a real difference in this wonderful world of ours.

Major smile number two for the week came when one of my wonderful friend and I went to see 'Cold Chisel' on Tuesday night. The concert was fabulous, but I think the biggest smiles....well actually belly laughs, came as we ran to the car through torrential rain after the concert! We were both completely drenched and at times running through ankle deep water, splashing like two five year olds and laughing hysterically! It was topped off by the rain stopping just as we got to the car and then the two of us singing along to 'Cold Chisel' songs as we drove home. Sometimes it is absolutely the simple things in life which bring the greatest joy. Here's a 'long arm' shot taken of Jane and I before the concert....mmm it's a bit off centre .....I think I need to practice these more!

Next big smile was all day Wednesday when Jane and I visited an art store, had lunch in one of our old haunts from years ago and then found some bargains in 'Spotlight'! Just got to love this sort of shopping with a friend!

Thursday's smiles came when I had the chance to talk on Skype with some of the students I taught in London and a few of the wonderful staff members I was inspired by in my time there. I miss these people incredibly and to have the chance to chat was just brilliant!

.....and today I just had to think of some of the things I am grateful for to start smiling all over again!

the ability to go to the gym to keep fit
my art which continues to be one of life's true treasures

receiving things in the mail (60 new paints!...ooohhh can't wait to play with them!). 'Lots of colours' has always brought a smile to my face!

being blessed by loving and being loved by my darling

Who wouldn't be smiling I say!!!!

Gate Crashers and Visitors

2011-12-11T11:23:00.004Z

This week has been another very busy one. Today is our youngest's 20th Birthday. I can't believe that the little 12 year old boy I met when I started going out with Richard is 20 already! Sam I hope you have had a fabulous day!

I have joined the gym and have started to try to get myself fit again! I need to strengthen up and get my flexibility back! I was there four times last week.....let's see if I can keep that up! I also did a lot of creating throughout the week. Here's just some of what I made:

Do they say something about my moods this weeks...meditative and yet full of energy? Well the second one was done as a sketch initially the right way up as I drew. I then realised that my journal was upside down when I drew her so decided to try to make sense of her that way and this is what came along. It was a huge challenge to try to get the shading and the highlights in the right places when I was thinking of her being upside down. Let's just say an interesting challenge.

A couple of weeks ago we went to my friends' 10th Wedding Anniversary party in Maryborough. It was a lovely evening held in their carport. This little guy decided to gate crash.

That's my hand behind him to give you some sense of scale. I would say he had to be at least about 20 cm or 8 inches long! I had to get a photo of him because my friend in London has some he keeps as pets and I thought Simon would just love to see this one!

There were more interlopers in my week! On Friday I decided to do a little bit of gardening. There was a Eucalypt seedling in the front garden that I decided needed to go so I reached across it and got the nastiest sting on my upper arm from this little guy! I have no idea what sort of caterpillar he is but my goodness he packs a punch! He stopped me in my tracks. I needed to come in and put an icepack on the sting, take an antihistamine and sit down for a little while. This morning I decided the price he needed to pay was to be my model while I played with the macro lens on my camera!

While I was out there I also spotted this chrysalis and decided he could model for me too!

I think this next story though takes the cake for the week's excitement! I was laying in bed reading last night (a real book, not my Kindle) and Richard decided he wanted to go to sleep. I knew at one point I had a reading light on my bedside table so I decided to have a scout around for it. Well I nearly jumped out of my socks....except I wasn't wearing any! When I turned around there were two little eyes looking at me! This is who they belonged to:

She is an Eastern Dwarf Tree Frog and is about 2.5cm long (I can fairly confidently say 'she' because the males only grow to about 2 cm). She was sitting under my lamp I guess hoping to catch any bugs the light attracted. She is the third one we have had in our house since we have been home. I keep catching them when I can and popping them back outside. We have had so much rain lately (about 150 mm or 6 inches this month and we are only up to the 11th!) that I guess they think it is moist enough indoors for them! I can hear them right now out in our garden....they are noisy little devils too!

Another joy I had this week was to go to watch Harry perform at a local retirement village. His Kinda group were singing Christmas Carols there. It was delightful and best of all was his comment when I asked him if he had had a good time. His response.....'Oh yes Grandma! I just love being on the stage!' Oh he melts my heart!

Our Creative Side

2011-11-30T13:24:00.001Z

Our house has become a very creative one in the past few weeks! Richard has been busily working on his new model railway and finally received the track underlay from America late last week so he could start laying the track. He he was at the weekend:

It took him quite a long time to do and seemed to be very fiddly, but the part he has finished is looking good! There are three big sections to the model and the final one has a turntable.

This is what I have been up to at my brand new studio desk!!:

I have had my sewing machine out for the first time in definitely more than six years, and may be even eight or nine!! I can't tell you at the moment what I am making (Santa surprises!), but I have to say that I am loving doing it! I have a view out of that window directly into some Frangipanis and have to say that I have lovely chats with the butcher birds and kookaburras that come to sit in them! One of the great things is also that I have the iPod dock we had in London in the room and can have it playing as I create. I just love it! My storage unit it made from the old TV unit. I will be painting the walls and furniture and hopefully making a patchwork quilt for the bed that is behind my chair so that it becomes more like a daybed.

I have also done more work on my latest art course:

This is meant to be like a fashion mood board. The girls were traced from photos from a web site and then coloured to suit my theme. I really enjoyed this challenge.

Filled with Joy (One for Jane)

2011-11-25T04:54:00.002Z

I have been following this blog since it started a few weeks ago and decided that I would add to it today. The idea is to blog about the things you are grateful for or joyful about. So here goes:

I am so grateful to have friends in my life who encourage me, like my wonderful friend Jane this morning encouraging me to blog today!
I was so excited to complete the 'Supplies Me' online course with the wonderful Jane Davenport and as a result be able to produce artwork like these:

Fairy Dust

Grace

Gratitude

Escape

Just Relax

Thanksgiving

I have just started another online course with Jane Davenport called 'I Heart Drawing' and did this for my very first assignment:

and I have finally started to get Christmas organised!

So yes today I am filled with JOY!!!

Art and Rome!

2011-10-09T01:11:00.002+01:00

I returned to work at my old school last Tuesday and am surprised at how easily I have just slipped back in. Admittedly I have no preparation or planning to do, no assignments to mark, and so it is only really school hours without the normal extras! The up side is that it has not interrupted my work on my art course too much! The initial plan of me working there two weeks and then going to my new school has not come off, so I will be at my old school for four weeks and then we will see! I have to say it is lovely to see some of my old students again!

I thought I would share a couple of the pieces I have made for the course first and then some more photos from Rome finally!

This was drawn as an exercise in shading. The idea was to try different media and to build up the layers to provide the illusion of the sphere.

With this one I was trying to practice shading with blending of pencil and so I shaded the balls with the main colour, a darker colour and white. I then used what I had learnt to shade the girl's back! I am so excited about how much I am learning!

At the moment I am working on a page using markers. I have never really drawn with them before, but have to say that I am pleased with how it is progressing!

Ok so let's do a quick side trip to Rome...

We visited the Colosseum

...and of course Harvey had to jump in front of the camera!

We were amused by the games of 'Cat and Mouse' played by the Police (see the car on the opposite side)......

....and the illegal street vendors (see the guys running with their white sacks!)

We were in awe of the age and the beauty of Rome.....

.....inspired by beautiful and ancient artwork.

Just look at the beautiful folds in this robe!!!

We visited the archeaological site across from the Colosseum and were impressed by the fact that they are still excavating!

We made daily visits to our favourite (this trip anyway!) Gelateria.

...aahhh that 'pruna' or plum flavour was absolute heaven!!!

...and of course had to revisit the Trevi Fountain to throw in our three coins to make sure we would return to this beautiful city!

When we left Rome we did it in style! We flew business class so Harvey got to chill out in the comfy chairs in the lounge while we enjoyed food and drinks before our flight!

The food on the plane was fabulous and the space even better. We were on the top deck of the plane....something we both admitted we wanted to do when we were children!!

...and yes Harvey got to enjoy the experience too!

Got to love that husband of mine, he sure has a way of making dreams come true!!

At home and loving it!

2011-09-27T13:25:00.000+01:00

I know I left you somewhere in Rome last time, but honestly the two and a bit weeks we have been home have just flown! We have been to Melbourne to see one of the most wonderful people in the world...my Mum.... and I have been doing 'stuff' around the house. I have rediscovered a couple of garden beds (probably not even a tenth of the way there!), sorted a few cupboards and parts of the house ( I need to times what I have done there by 100) and most importantly, spent time with our beautiful daughters (love you Ash and Jade) and with our grandson Harry. Add to this list that I have been doing an online art course called 'Supplies Me' with the incredible Jane Davenport that is up there as one of life's treats! She is a brilliant teacher and in just three short weeks she has us all doing the most amazing journal pages!

Here are some of the things I have done with her:

Sketching with coloured pencil to learn about proportions and how to draw the parts of the the face

Starting to learn to blend coloured pencil for the face.

Drawing a bottom and back!

Blending and using watercolours

A journal page using a textured gesso background, coloured pencils and water colours

Same as above (I used feathers as my texture!)

I bought myself the portrait set of prismacolour pencils....I am so glad I did!

Anyhow as you can see I have been a little distracted...but so has my love! I got a glimpse of what retirement might look like for the two of us tonight.

Richard has started building a new model railway (it's not a trainset!). He was busy sorting out a locomotive and I was drawing and painting.... the kitchen bench is under there somewhere! Yep it is bliss! I will try to get back to Rome soon and then Thailand!

Our journey home - days 15 and 16, Rome

2011-09-07T16:47:00.002+01:00

OK time to try to remember all that happened over a week ago in Rome! As Richard reminded me this morning, I get to the end of our holidays and run out of blogging steam - well that and I have been reading all the posts on an online art course I am doing for the next 8 weeks or so with Jane Davenport from Byron Bay called 'Supplies Me'! Can't wait to get home to Australia in a few days to start the actual art work!

Anyway back to Rome! We arrived in Rome on the Saturday afternoon after driving down from Spoleto. The drive was a little less crazy than some of our other journeys - well at least it was until we hit Rome! We headed straight to our hotel and dropped our bags off and then went straight into the centre -yes the centre - of Rome to drop the car off! We had to stop and buy some fuel on the way. Boy, how we both wished we could speak Italian as the attendant was the rudest person ever! After many times around the block with Portia we finally found the place we needed to drop the car off - well we thought we did until the guy behind the counter tried to direct us back the wrong way up a one way street to the car park! I just kept playing dumb and eventually he said 'it's ok we will take it!' Yay, success as I think Richard had well and truly had enough of driving in Italy!

We went for a bit of a walk and bought a public transport pass for our stay. Good move as these cover trains, trams and buses. We had some lunch and headed back to our hotel for a bit of a siesta. Our hotel was fabulous! Only two train stops from the Colosseum and full of art works! Have a look at some of them:

These were in the carport at the entry to the hotel!

and these in the bar.

There were more dotted all over the hotel, but I took no other photos unfortunately! There was also some great graffiti art in the garage, but again no photos (the day I went to I had forgotten to put the memory card back in my camera!)

Anyway on Saturday night we just went out for a quick bite to eat and then went for a walk to get our bearings in Rome again. We did find a fabulous gelati place - but more of that later!

On Sunday we decided to do a general walking tour of Rome. Here's some of what we saw:

This building is not loved by the Romans. They think it is too white and have named it either the 'typewriter', or if they are being really picky about it 'the false teeth'. It has two eternal flames at the front as a memorial for service people.

Some of the details. To give you an idea of scale the moustache on the man in these first photos is apparently three metres across and you could drive a double decker bus under the horse's belly!

This was the balcony Mussolini made all his speeches to the Italian people during WWII. It overlooks the square in front of the false teeth.

We walked past the Pantheon:

We walked from the Pantheon to Piazza Navona where we sat and shared a half a bottle of wine and watched the world go by:

There are some massive fountains in this square but we took no photos this time, we have them from our last trip to Rome and the light was not ideal. We still however, checked out the work of the artists in the middle of the square and wandered from there towards the Tiber River.

In August there are markets every evening along the banks of the river, so we decided it might be worth checking out. The markets looked very pretty from a distance:

.....but there was nothing there that made me say 'ooh I need to take you home!'

We did however manage to find a restaurant under one of the bridges and had some pasta and half a litre of red! Very romantic!!

....and on the way home I found some graffiti quoting probably my favourite song of all time!

Got to love John Lennon.....so come dream with me!

There are still a couple of days of Rome and then we will be off to Bangkok where I am actually sitting while I write this! Ciao for now!

Our journey home - days 11 to 14, Spoleto and Spello

2011-08-28T14:40:00.001+01:00

Wow, those days since I last updated have gone quickly! Just two weeks today and we will be home in Australia; but we have a few things to do before then.

Our last few days in Spoleto were very lazy ones. We lounged about and relaxed a lot! Richard's shoulder was really giving him strife and the bed in Spoleto didn't help it, nor I must say did the driving a manual on very twisty windy roads when the gear changes had to be done with the right hand. He had to drive because my English license says I have only been driving for one year and the insurance for me to drive was ridiculous!

I will see how many days I can cover with this blog. The uploading is very slow so it may take a few goes for me to catch up!

On Tuesday we went for a drive up into the mountains (Monti Sibillini) around Umbria and the border of Le Marche. In the winter this area is a snowfield and there were chairlifts and ski lifts on various hillsides. It was incredibly beautiful but we did not take many photos because it was too hard to stop! Here is a typical view though:

On Wednesday we stayed in Spoleto and went for a walk to find the Roman Theatre. There is not much to see there other than a small stretch of the wall on the outside and the occasional glimpse inside through the broken boarding that is on all the windows.

We also visited our favourite gelateria - the pear with grappa and the chocolate orange were divine!!

One night, out the front of this shop, we were treated to the sight of a guy dressed up as a Roman Warrior with a boom box karaoke machine singing along to Robbie Williams 'Real Love'. It was hilarious! He then handed out little credit card size fliers to groups of young men. I think it was for a gay club because one of the young men very happily gave his to me when he heard me saying I wanted one for my journal!

On Wednesday night we visited the most fabulous little restaurant and I am so sorry that I didn't take my camera out to dinner that night! It was gorgeous and the food was fabulous too! We had a pasta that was done with bacon and green beans....ohhh!!!

On Thursday we visited a little town called Spello. It is an ancient village and the home of many artists. They had a gallery there devoted to Norberto. It has some of the coolest paintings of flying monks! Just loved it. The photo of the statue of St Francis on the horse in Assisi on my previous blog is one of his works too! Spello was lovely, but it was hard work making our way up the hill in the heat, so again first stop was a gelati! It was well worth the trip.

There was an embroidery display in this hall and the chariot and the mangonel that follow were the displays in the front foyer.

A sundial. It was a work done by a local artist as a memorial piece.

Porta dell'Arce (a gate from the Roman ages)

San Severino a 7th century church! When we went inside there was a nun and another young woman playing the guitar and singing. It was absolutely beautiful. Think Enya meeting with angels!

The wall and tower connected to the church.

Some of the fabulous roadways in Spello.

The main gate into the village.

Friday morning I started the day with coffee and a chocolate croissant in the artists' cafe near our apartment.

Again we had a lazy day, went for a walk and had a very late lunch in another restaurant just near our front door.

We were the only ones eating at this time, but we had walked past many times and seen it very busy. We had a pizza that was not the best we have had on this trip, but still better than many you would get in Australia!

On Friday night the lady who was our host invited us to join her, out at her family property for 'cake after dinner'! We drove out there (about 20 minutes out of Spoleto in a village called Poreta). She had guests from her two other apartments there as well as us. The other two couples were lovely people. One couple were from Milton Keynes (just out of London), but were both born in Halifax, 7 miles down the road from where Richard was born. The other couple were from Bavaria and were both special needs teachers! You can imagine that we all found a lot to chat about! The cake was delicious - zuppa inglese and an apple cake followed by watermelon! It was a great night.

I will leave this here and follow up with Rome soon! Bye for now (Richard says I have to add 'too busy admiring my new shoes!').

Our journey home - days 8 to 10, Spoleto and Assisi

2011-08-24T10:08:00.001+01:00

On Saturday we drove from the Amalfi Coast to Spoleto in Umbria. Once we were off the coast, the roads widened and straightened out considerably and we were able to make good time. We arrived about four, but had arranged to meet the owner of the apartment at five so we did a little bit of grocery shopping, had a cold drink and then waited for her. The apartment is right in the middle of Spoleto and so that means we have to park the car on the outskirts of town and then walk in! It’s OK until you consider we are moving half a house with us! So we did two trips to get most of it into the apartment!

Our three front doors!

Door 1

Door 2

..and Door 3 behind Door 2!

The first night by the time we had settled in we just went for a short walk in the immediate area and then had dinner at a restaurant that is almost at our front door!

On Sunday we stayed in town. Richard’s shoulder was hurting from all the driving around bends on Friday and we were both tired. We did boring things like some washing and just lazed around and read and snoozed! In the afternoon we went down to the piazza at our front door and had gelati. The best we have had so far on this trip! There was a lemon one that was just superb!

Later in the evening we went for quite a long walk and took some fabulous photos of the area:

Nearly every village we have been in has had a stage set up. This is the first performance we have seen though!

The clock on Piazza Mercato

One of the many lane ways!

The aquaduct

As you can see it is breathtakingly beautiful. After our walk we went out for dinner and both had rabbit casserole. Again it was fabulous and for desert I had pineapple and basil sorbet! We are getting an ice-cream maker when we get home so that I can experiment!

Today, Monday we went to Assisi. We started off at the Chiesa di San Maria sopra Minerva Tempio di Minerva. The paintings in there were breath taking. There were no photographing signs everywhere. We find it really strange that as atheists we respect that but a lot of the obviously catholic people were madly clicking away! There are signs also asking for silence, yet so many do not respect that either! Here is a photo of the outside:

Next we went down to the Chiesa Nuova. It was built in 1615 on the remains of the building believed to be the house of St Francis’ family. We were able to take a few photos in here and some just at the door.

St Clare and St Francis

The dome in the Chiesa Nuova

The Oratorio di San Francesco Piccolino is a tiny chapel where it is believed St Francis was born. Here is the doorway to the chapel, but again it was not appropriate to take photos inside.

Our next stop was the Basilica di Santa Chiara. It is an example of Italian gothic architecture built between 1257 and 1265. It has paintings from the 12^th-14^th Centuries and the body of St Clare is preserved in the crypt. Again no photos, but again people taking them! A bit macabre if you ask me! To top it off they make the sign of the cross as they leave. Do they need to then go to confession after that?

We had lunch and then trekked down to the Basilica di San Francesco. This was fabulous. I actually found it very moving and more so because in here people seemed to have more respect. Is that because there were quite a few nuns and priests around? I don’t know. The interiors of both the upper and lower churches were fabulous. The most glorious paintings and it all just felt so, so peaceful.

We went down to the tomb of St Francis and I have to say that I found it very moving. It was incredible seeing the reverence of the visitors compared with other places we had visited. They filed past the tomb and touched it. I saw two old ladies touch the tomb, and then turn to each other and hug with tears in their eyes. It brought the tears to my eyes. Visiting the tomb obviously meant a great deal to them and here the respectful silence was palpable. Walking away from the tomb I spotted a young couple with a baby with obvious disabilities sitting in the chapel saying their prayers. The mum had tears in her eyes, again I welled up. Although I don’t believe, I did have a thought for some of my dear friends who do and sent my wishes of well for them. I wonder if they count?

I have found a cafe very near where we are staying with wifi! It has a great atmoshpere and I have eaten breakfast and am sitting drinking and iced tea as I do this. Richard is or was still at home in bed. The music playing is fabulous. I will say bye for now and post this.

Our journey home - days 6 and 7, Positano and Ravello

2011-08-19T20:43:00.003+01:00

Yesterday and today have been two absolutely gorgeous days. Initially Plan A had us going to Naples yesterday, but as we did not want to drive into Naples and we had no internet access to plan our alternative route we decided to catch the bus down to Positano again and go to the tourist information centre to get some advice so that we could head into Naples today. On the bus trip down we got chatting to an English woman. She said she had been to Ravello on the previous day and that she would absolutely recommend it. We didn't really give it another thought at the time....well maybe we did, but we didn't discuss it with each other at the time. We went into Positano and the Information Centre and found we could drive or catch the bus to a town called Meta and then catch the train to Naples. Job done, off we went to find some lunch (well for the past few days it has been our one and only meal of the day!) We decided to walk around the headland a bit further than we had previously.

The harbour area of Positano.

The view from the harbour back up to town.

.....and this is the view back to Positano and the harbour as we walked further around the headland.

The place with the arches on the right in the centre is where we ended up eating lunch.

The view towards the west from that beach.

After lunch we wandered through town a bit more, in and out of galleries and then had yet another gelati and came home!

We woke this morning and Richard 'admitted' to me that he didn't really feel like going to Naples and wondered what I thought about going to Ravello instead. I breathed a big sigh of relief because I was going to put the same suggestion to him! So we lazed about this morning and then headed off for Ravello and I am so glad we made that decision. Ravello is just gorgeous! Where the pace everywhere else on the Amalfi Coast has been somewhat frantic, Ravello was incredibly relaxed and quiet. It is inland from Amalfi and is incredibly charming.

The view across from town as we arrived. I just love all the terraces that are filled with fruit trees and vegetables!

The view across the town square when we first climbed the stairs into town. I just went 'oohh!'

Today's restaurant view as I ate the most delicious tuna cooked in citrus honey and grilled vegetables and enjoyed 250ml of white wine!

Maybe this is why it is such a relaxed place!

Notice how quiet it is! That was one of the things that made it so lovely!

There were many of these pottery galleries and other art galleries in town!

... and some gorgeous towers!

I am so glad we went there today rather than Naples!

I may not be able to blog for the next week or so as I do not think we will have internet access, but I intend to 'journal' on my computer so that I can download it as a blog or two, or three from Rome! Tomorrow we head up to a little town called Spoleto in Umbria. Until next time keep safe and lots of love!

Our journey home - day 6 Marina del Cantone

2011-08-19T10:05:00.001+01:00

On Wednesday we had another slow start to the the day so I decided to sit out the front of our apartment and draw the plaque. I think many of the apartments have names and plaques. Our's is Minerva. The plaque is a painted tile...and yes her face does look that masculine!

In the late morning we decided to go for a drive to the west of where we are staying. We drove to the western most point of the peninsula and had a fabulous pizza for lunch. Here are the views from where we sat.

It was a very hot day, but the breezes here were beautiful. According to our guide book this is an area the people staying on Capri often do day trips to, so that they can have lunch. While we were there we watched launches pull up to restaurant piers and take boat loads of people to and from the bigger boats anchored further out. One way to live life I suppose!

The 'beach' didn't look very inviting at all to me. It's like Brighton beach, all pebbles! In some photos you can see people laying on just towels - that is the 'public' or free area of the beach. Here also the umbrellas don't match and are not in neat rows! Further down there are all the lined up umbrellas with deck chairs underneath. You pay to go into these areas of the beach and it can be as much as 18 Euros per day per person - that's about $25AU! Can you imagine trying to take a family to the beach and it costing that?

After lunch we went back to the car park to collect our car. Here is parking Italian style!

It was like a community car park with a 'valet' service of sorts. You parked your car and left them with the keys. Obviously they needed to shuffle to get others out while you were gone. There didn't seem to be any system as such....just chaos! It took about 10 minutes for them to find our car when we got back, but all was good and we were on our way again and the fee was relatively cheap!

We decided that we would drive into Sorrento to check out the railway station and parking around there as we were intending to go into Naples (we have now decided not to do that, but more about that in another blog). Portia took us on one of her 'short cuts' and we ended up down this lane way! There was about an inch to spare on either side and these photos were taken when I could get my arm out the window! Just before taking the last photo I was going to try to squeeze out to get one of the whole car, but noticed someone zooming along behind us! Luckily we were near the end of the lane and didn't hold him up for long!

Our journey home - day 5 Pompeii

2011-08-18T19:15:00.004+01:00

We have had no internet for a couple of nights so I have become a bit behind with my blogging! I wrote the following when we arrived home from Pompeii on Tuesday night:

Our day started with a drive from Nocelle to Pompeii. Once again it was madness on the roads with someone beeping at us at one stage for driving too slowly - we were 10 km/hr over the speed limit, but apparently that was not fast enough! We are constantly amazed by the cars and scooters that just pull out straight in front of you as if you did not exist. I think even more incredible is the number of pedestrians that step straight out in front of cars and then meander across the road as if they are strolling through a park! Today at one point as we were driving on the main highway, we were following an old lady walking down the road on one side and about 3 or 4 young people on the other with the footpath almost empty beside them and they seemed annoyed because we wanted to drive on the road. At another point two men stood in the middle of the road for a chat and at another a scooter rider road along holding hands with the driver of the car beside him! It is insane! Anyway enough of my rant about the drivers – I nearly said roads, but they are another matter. A lot of the roads would give the term ‘goat track’ a bad name!

Once we made it to Pompeii we were welcomed by the sound of the bells in the bell tower. Then we found a bar. We needed to go to the loo and the cheapest and easiest way in Italy is for me to have an espresso coffee standing at the bar for 80 or 90 euro cents and then we both use the loo! Other than that it can cost up to 1euro 50 cents each to use a toilet! So win/win I get a coffee and we get to go to the loo for less than a third of the cost!

The Bell Tower in Pompeii

Next we had a parking fine to pay…another story… and went to the post office to pay it. We were standing around trying to work out which ticket to take of the three options for the turn taking machines when a lovely man came up to help. At first he thought we should ignore the fine as we are from another country! We told him the car hire company would chase us and charges us fees on top of the fine so he then pushed up to a counter to get the form for us to fill out. He then filled out the form for us and then took a slip from two of the three options and then decided ‘no we wouldn’t wait!’ He pushed up to the counter again and apparently explained to the guy behind that we couldn’t speak Italian and we were called straight up. We paid the fine, he said ‘now you have a good picture of Italy and Italians’, shook our hands and sent us through the doors of the post office! We decided Italian people must have a behind the wheel persona and an everywhere else persona!

Then we headed off to do what we had really planned with our day and went to the archaeological ruins. My goodness they are amazing. We went to Athens earlier this year and were impressed by what we saw. Pompeii is astounding with the amount of stuff that is there. The site is over 66 hectares, 44 of which have been excavated and 12 are open to the public. There are casts of humans who were killed when Vesuvius blew and the buildings they have unearthed are amazing. There are frescoes on walls, statues and pottery all immaculately preserved. The road ways are all very obvious and from archaeological records they have replanted to give very clear representation of what it was before the destruction.

The site was incredibly hot, with few shady spots to find relief. There were stray dogs everywhere! Here’s some photos to give you an idea of some of what we saw:

The statue of Apollo in the Temple of Apollo

The altar in The Temple of Apollo

The statue of Dianna in the Temple of Apollo

Eumachia!

Mt Vesuvius as the backdrop to the archaeological site.

The frescoes that are still there are incredible!

These are in the bath house

These were in a home

...and these were the 'inspirational paintings in a brothel!

This is Priapus. He is from the brothel too and holds a phallus in each hand, he is a representation of male virility!

This was the bakery. The cylindrical structures were for grinding the grain and the oven looked like a massive pizza oven!

We left the site after about 4 hours of walking around and walked back into the centre of Pompeii. We grabbed the obligatory gelato on the way and then a cold drink and started the drive back home. We thought it was going to be a horrible trip, but it was relatively smooth sailing! We stopped at a restaurant in a 'village' (there's really only two restaurants there) before Nocelle on the way up the hill and had one of the best pastas we have had in Italy! It was homemade pasta with a tomato and clam sauce. We then got home about 8:00pm and had a quiet night!

I will add the next two days soon. Will probably type them up tonight and add them tomorrow providing we have internet access! Bye for now!

Our journey home - day 4

2011-08-15T21:10:00.000+01:00

Another gentle start to the day! Today we woke at about 9:00 and lazed for a while. By 10:00 I was showered and dressed and had decided that I should head out the door to see what was happening when the bells started to ring. Not necessarily an harmonious and melodious sound but they were a sound! I decided to take my sketch book, coffee and supplies out and to draw! This is the result of this morning's journalling:

I am quite pleased with this morning's effort which was drawn with pencil then coloured with inktense pencils. I then went back over the lines with a brown pitt pen and painted the cross with Shimmering H2O (that info is really for me!). I was quite pleased because it only took me about half an hour all up so I am getting faster with architectural things and getting a reasonable likeness down! Today was some sort of religious bank holiday in the area for the 'Assumption of Mary'. Hence the church bells, service and choir! I sat outside in the same spot as yesterday (once I had most of the drawing done) to do to most of the colouring and writing! Richard joined me this morning. It was lovely to have him beside me as I drew.

Just after midday we left and caught the bus down to Positano. It's a pretty village, but we decided that it was no place for the infirm or elderly as it is built into the side of a cliff and is either stairs or steep slopes! The bus trip takes about half an hour and is positively hair raising! The roads are very narrow, windy and steep. The driver beeps his horn the whole way down and I have to say at one point when Richard told me (I was facing backwards) that he was driving one handed while on his mobile phone I decided that it was too much information! Anyway we made it safely and went straight to a restaurant and had a fabulous lunch. The seafood here is brilliant!

After lunch we wandered around Positano. Mainly in and out of art galleries, clothes shops and tourist shops - all ridiculously expensive so nothing bought. We had a gelato and then decided to try to find a shop to buy some simple stuff for tonight's dinner before coming home. We walked past one place at the bottom of the hill up to near the bus stop. Had a look in the place near the bus stop and went back down the hill! Here are some photos from around Positano.

The main pathway down the hill

Stairs up to the first shop and the slope down!

The shop where we eventually bought tonight's dinner.

The church doorway!

Stairs near the church

After our walk back down the hill we had about fifteen minutes to make it back up the hill to the next bus. As we headed back up the hill however we came face to face with an Italian funeral coming down the hill towards us. The coffin was proceeded by one group including the priest saying prayers, then came the coffin carried by six or eight pall bearers and then the congregation of mourners. We obviously stopped to allow them to pass, bowing our heads respectfully. After some time, we looked at each other, and by that we I mean Richard and I and the surrounding others, and thought that's it and started to move on. We moved about 100 metres up the track and there was a 'pedestrian jam'. Streams of people were still moving down the hill obviously connected to the funeral and those of us heading up the hill were going nowhere fast! Well we eventually made our bus otherwise it would have been another hour's wait! The bus was packed and for the first 10 minutes or so I nursed a little 4 or 5 year old French girl on my lap. It was very hot in the bus and she was safer on the windy roads sitting on my knee. Richard decided I was getting back into practice for grandma mode! The things you do when you travel!

At home this afternoon we have taken it easy again. We went out into the courtyard for dinner. While we drank our wine and ate we watched what we presume was a helicopter from the local rescue service practice filling a bucket from the ocean and then dumping the water again. We listened to more Italians as they chatted while they sat in the Shrine opposite our gateway and most importantly we enjoyed the opportunity to just be together watching the world go by. I took these photos.

Our dinner. Great company, fresh bread, ham, sun ripened tomatoes and chianti. Life doesn't get much better!

Our view of the setting sun along the coast line from Positano to Capri.

Mostly I breathed long and deep as I reminded myself just how wonderful life is and how I got so lucky to be living it this way!

Our journey home - day 3

2011-08-15T08:11:00.003+01:00

Today we have done nothing but laze around our apartment and go for a short walk in the village we are staying in, Nocelle.

We woke up late this morning about 9:30 I think, and both browsed the internet in bed for a while. I had heard the church bells about 7:00 I think and then again about 9:00, but had dutifully ignored them! Last night we went out to the little trattoria called the 'Santa Croche' just 100m or so up from our place for dinner. We had pizza and it was delicious with buffalo mozzarella, the sweetest and most delicious cherry tomatoes, prosciutto and sweet tender young rocket leaves. I couldn't eat all of mine so we sat up in bed and ate cold left over pizza for breakfast this morning! After a very leisurely start I decided to sit out in the shade in the courtyard and catch up on some journalling.

The courtyard

My shady spot to sit and while away some time

The fig tree I sat under was planted too close to this fence I think!

The first of the pages I created.

I drew the one on the left yesterday in pencil, but painted the anchor with watercolours this morning and went over the writing in pen. The page on the right was a little lizard who spent his time staring at me! He is about 8 inches long and very cute! The background is a very clumsy attempt at the coast line in water colour - the first time I have ever tried to do this without doing a drawing first!

The background of this journal page was painted before leaving London. I have glued on labels from beer and wine Richard and I have had over the past couple of days and written about some of the events of the first two days. (Sorry for some reason the computer is insisting on turning the photo as it downloads into blogger!)

After I finished my journalling I sat and just soaked up the sounds of the village, a few men having a very heated discussion in Italian, a child playing with a dog, a man praying in the shrine opposite our gate:

This shrine is such a cool and peaceful place to sit!

There are shrines everywhere in Italy. Some of them seem to be in the most bizarre places, but are obviously visited regularly as there are generally fresh flowers in them. I also noticed the bees visiting this plant in our garden. There were about five different types of bees I think and the moth. I only managed to photograph two of the bees!

This one is huge, about an inch long and has the most beautiful iridescent blue wings one of his mates had a great big yellow patch on his back (I presume pollen), but he flew away before I got a photo!

This one is big and fluffy!

One of the moths.

In the afternoon we went for a walk and saw this view of the coast:

We also decided to wander down to look at the church (no photos of the whole church because it is behind a big tree!) But the plaque was beautiful!

The lower part of the building:

The whole village is built into the side of the cliff. If you want to walk to Positano this is how you go:

We decided to return home and rest some more because it was meant to be a very relaxing day!

We went back to the 'Santa Croche' for dinner last night and took a few photos of the view from there:

The view down to Positano

The lights coming on in Positano

It is all so incredibly beautiful!

Our journey home - day 2

2011-08-13T22:02:00.004+01:00

Today we travelled down to the Amalfi Coast and are now in our accommodation in a little village called Nocelle. It is absolutely stunning! We are high up on the hillside over looking Positano and the coast line up to Capri. The water is the most magnificent blue and very calm - just perfect for paddling!

Richard was saying that we have not done very very much today but I do not believe that for one minute! We have dealt with the traffic here in Italy ....and yes I mean we! He has driven and I have sucked lemons all the way! Aunty Rhoda eat your heart out! I am learning to understand the Italian drivers around Brunswick and Coburg (they must have wondered what the hell we 'skips' were doing!) Maybe writing this after a G&T, half a bottle of wine and a limoncello is not such a great idea! You will get lots of exclamation marks I am thinking and maybe not my clearest writing. I guess you will deal with it! Richard has just decided I am amusing myself and whether or not I am amusing anyone else is another question....yes I am giggling as I write!

OK serious hat on! (He thinks I am more likely to find that hat in the morning.) We left that astounding hotel late this morning and drove down to the coast. The trip was not without its moments as Portia was determined to take us via the most circuitous route possible! Her 'shortest routes' are positively adventurous and sometimes would be suicidal if we followed her every whim. 'Turn left now'....what you mean over this one hundred foot cliff and into the ocean? Anyway... we eventually made it down to the coast and after finding a car park walked a few hundred metres down the road to have risotto for lunch follow by the most wonderful Italian expresso....aaahhhh bliss!

Some of the coast line we drove along! It is breathtakingly beautiful.

There are lots of little tunnels to go through. Windy, windy, windy roads. Scooters going every which way, horns beeping and buses going both ways where only one car can fit, but somehow the traffic eventually moves! It is crazy and Richard has decided that if he comes home to Australia with white hair rather than his current 'salt and pepper' he will not be surprised. Can you tell that I am loving this!

After we ate, we, well he, drove further down the road to Amalfi. As we came into Amalfi I looked through a little archway where heaps of pedestrians were coming out and decided we needed to stop and have a look! Here's some of what we saw:

The archway!

A shop doorway!

The local church!

The fish and chip shop sign!

Bottles of limoncello!

More limoncello and lemon soaps!

The beach Italian style...you pay to go onto the beach, are packed in like sardines and have all these uniform umbrellas.....oh by the way it is pebbles you are on and not sand!

Just liked the way the pigeons topped off this statue which was covered in moss!

In Amalfi we ate gelati (not the greatest, but still gelati) and then jumped back in the car to head towards home for the next week. We made our way back to Positano to meet with the people to bring us to the villa apartment here in Nocelle. After a hair-raising fifteen minute trip up the hill we made it! Here is the ceramic sign on the gate:

Here is our front door:

...and next time I will show you some more......let's just say my breath has been taken away a thousand times today. Just wait till I show you the views!

Our journey home - day 1!

2011-08-12T21:53:00.000+01:00

Finally, finally, finally we are in Italy. The past few days have been crazy to say the least. We packed the luggage for our travels (so we could weigh it) and all our homeward bound belongings on Sunday and Monday. The stuff going to Australia filled eight boxes and we have sent them with a shipping company. The stuff in the boxes will take a two month journey aboard a ship and will be delivered to our door in Hervey Bay. On Tuesday we went up to visit Richard’s mum, Pat and said our farewells for now. We took her our TV and set her up on Skype so that we can talk to her now from the other side of the world.

Wednesday we didn’t do much. I am meant to be taking it easy and Richard has hurt his shoulder and so needs to rest it. Thursday (yesterday) was a really jam packed day. Richard’s second eldest son came to our house with a couple of friends and we packed up all the furniture, kitchen gear and household goods and he took them to his new two bedroom flat. I have to say his timing in renting a place with a mate was impeccable. We had to get rid of a two bedroom apartment’s worth of stuff and they needed to completely fit out a two bedroom flat – couldn’t have been better. Once they drove off the big clean then started and at 6:00pm our landlady came and we handed back the keys for our Highgate home.

We are travelling light as this photo shows:

So we caught a taxi to St Pancras Station so that we could limit the need to lug luggage up and down stairs or escalators on the London tube system. The train from there took us directly to Gatwick Airport and we stayed the night in the Sofitel North Terminal Hotel. We were too exhausted to do anything other than have a shower and collapse on the bed watching TV!

Our plane left Gatwick just after midday today. It was a two and a half hour flight and by the time we got out into the airport to collect our rental car it was close to 4:00 local time. Here’s Richard and Harvey waiting to collect our hire car at the desk:

Unfortunately shortly after I took this photo Richard turned to me and said ‘Ali, we have a problem!’ ‘What’s that?’ I asked.

‘The car is actually booked from tomorrow!’

‘Well what can we do? Can we get one at all today?’ I asked. The guy behind the counter said he could get us a car around 8:00pm tonight. So here we are now sitting in the bar outside the airport having a drink and I am writing this to pass the time.

So far I have spoken French, Italian, English and Spanish to the poor guy who served us! It takes me a few days to get that sense of place and sort my smattering of other languages out! I am sure you can tell that Harvey is quite relaxed about all of this!

Quite a few hours later and we have arrived at the hotel we are staying for the night. Let's just say Italian drivers haven't changed in the past few years and the roads are still absolute shockers! At least this time we have Portia , our Sat-nav and she was a blessing getting us here tonight. Richard is doing all the driving and he was a tad stressed by the time we got here. I think if I were driving, it would have been more than a tad! The hotel we are staying in is absolutely over the top! (click on the word hotel to have a look!). We are just here for the night and will move into our apartment in the villa tomorrow. I may not be able to post very much while we are here in Italy as we will not have full on internet access, but we will see how we go.

As we prepare to leave London

2011-08-05T19:22:00.001+01:00

The last couple of weeks have been both interesting and challenging. We have had to make a few last minute changes to our plans and will now leave here on August 12th, when we will fly to to Naples. We were originally driving to Italy, but it seems the universe had other plans for us and we have gone with that flow. Bruce, our ever reliable Volvo, will go to the scrap yard here in London and we will hire a car in Italy for our time there instead. We will spend a week on the Amalfi Coast staying in an apartment in a Villa and then will move to Spoleto in Umbria for a further week. Situations have made it necessary that we approach our time in Italy in rather a laid back manner.....not a bad thing at all I am thinking. After Spoleto we will have four days in Rome and then will fly to Bangkok for about eight days before flying back home to Australia arriving on September 10th.

Last weekend we had the opportunity to go to Illfracombe in Devon, for a lovely weekend with friends Gill and Deva. Richard went to Uni with Deva and it was through Richard's girlfriend at the time that Gill and Deva met! We had a lovely time going for walks, visiting delightful seaside villages and going out for meals and drinks. They have the cutest little Cocker Spaniel, Ren, who has made such an impact on me! I really am thinking that I am not sure that life will continue for too much longer in our household without the sound of little paws! Let's just say I have been doing a lot of browsing lately! Here are some of the sights we enjoyed around Illfracombe

...and this is Gill, Deva and Richard enjoying a drink in a lovely little bar called 'Eclectic'

We also visited a gorgeous little town called Clovelly (pronounced 'Clo' -like toe and 'Valley'). It clings onto a cliff side and the only access is walking in via a cobbled roadway. We were speculating that it was probably a smugglers den in years gone by! The cobbles are small and I guess you could very easily turn an ankle on them. It is incredibly steep. To get stuff in and out of town the locals have old plastic bread crates that they have attached wooden slides to (I wish I had taken a photo) and they drag these up and down the hill. The sleds are either pulled by humans or donkeys. There is a road to the bottom, but there is very limited access that way!

The back of Gill, Deva and Ren!

It was certainly a lovely weekend!

Check out this cool graffiti I found a few days ago just down the road from my house!

Finally for this post, on Tuesday I went out for dinner with some of my favourite Londoners. I will miss these people enormously!

Now back to some more packing and organising!

One thing I have done well is........

2011-07-24T22:32:00.003+01:00

Teaching at Kestrel House was the experience of a lifetime and one which I will never forget. I will miss my students and the staff so much but I am sure as one door closes another opens. There were some things from my classroom that I do really want to share and the most of the following is something I have been trying to work out how to write about for some time. On my last day at school I was really humbled by the words and actions of my class as a whole and in particular the words of one of my students and this prompted me to write it all down.

In my classroom we had a 'compliments tree'. This was started after long discussions with the educational psychologist, occupational therapist and speech and language therapist at the school about what I saw as one of the major barriers to my student's learning.....their self esteem. One particular day we had the supervising educational psychologist Ros, visiting us. We were talking about how we planned to ask the children daily about something they had done well in the day and to write it down in a book for them so that at the end of the year they would have tangible evidence that they did do things they were proud of and that they had had success in their school year. We discussed how a day is a long time for these children to focus on and maybe we should write down something for each session in the day. That way if they had a 'blow out' at one point in the day they would see that it did not mean their whole day was a disaster, and would hopefully start to see that they had just made a small step backwards for just a part of the day. Ros then came up with the wonderful idea of making those thoughts into leaves of a tree and from that idea this grew in my classroom!

Our 'Compliments Tree' started as a brown trunk and branches and daily each boy's favourite self compliment was added as a leaf. They were each given pages with the outline of the leaves and their names in the stem. They learnt to do a wash with watered down acrylic paint and these were then stored. At the end of each day their favourite compliment of the three they had given themselves was written on to one of their personalised leaves and added to the tree. Some days if they did not mention something we as adults thought was note worthy we gave them extra leaves from us. As you can see by the end of the year we had THE most beautiful piece of classroom art imaginable! It had to be one of my favourite parts of my classroom.

This wonderful tree never failed to draw comments from classroom visitors. I heard all three of my boys proudly telling their parents about it at some point and that certainly brought a smile to my face, particularly as they were not to sure about it to begin with!

At the end of the year I decided that along with the books I would have the boys make individual trees. We had them paint individual trunks and branches onto A1 paper and in the last week of school we removed all the leaves from our class tree and sorted them into the three separate piles for the boys. They then glued their leaves onto their own trees. It was a beautiful time as they pasted them on and reread some of the wonderful things they had done over the course of their school year.

On the last day of school we had an assembly and my class showed their individual trees to the rest of the school. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the individual trees, but believe me they were gorgeous! I was about to take my class to sit down and the head teacher said my class had something special for me. They, and a student I had taught in the previous school year, had made me a tree of my own. I am sure you will agree that it is stunning!

Each leaf has a note to me from one of the children or the teaching assistants I worked with and they are all very, very special. On the back of this is a poem written for me by one of my students. When I started at the school in January 2010 he could hardly read. He did not write anything down without a major, major fuss and a massive amount of support but this is what he wrote for me on the last day....

To Ali

If there was a storm that was going to destroy the

world

Alison would stop the storm,

because her power comes from her hugs.

The power from her hugs gives us life!

I will miss you.

From T.

This was read out first by the child and then as he was crying as he read it, and it was difficult to understand, it was read again by the Head Teacher. She cried as she read it and there was not a dry eye in the room. I have never felt so overwhelmed and humbled by the actions and words of one of my students. I was so proud of him and how far he has come in just over 18 months. I guess this just brings home one of the main reasons I teach!

.... and yes Ash, I will 'Smile because it happened!'

Creating books

2011-07-24T08:11:00.002+01:00

Friday was my last day of teaching at Kestrel House and what a sad day it was. I will miss my students and the staff so much. It was the experience of a lifetime and one which I will never forget. For months I have been promising the wonderful Renee Richetts that I would post some photos and info on the metal books my boys made so I decided that I should get to and do it!

Renee was one of the the teachers I had the pleasure of learning from when I visited Paris in the days leading into the New Year. She taught me to make a basic sewn journal and then to make some truly wonderful metal books. During the course of the three day art retreat I got talking to this wonderful lady and told her how I taught children with Asperger's here in London. Renee told me she also had Asperger's (no surprises there!!) and of course we continued until the end of the retreat to have lots and lots to talk about. She is one of those people you meet and know she is one of life's gifts. A lovely, lovely woman!

Across the three days I learnt some wonderful things from Renee, but more than anything she reminded me how wonderful humanity can really be. Our course ended and I came home with a suitcase full of goodies including the art I had created. At the end of it all Renee gave me all the tools and some of the resources I would need to bring the learning to my class. In my normal excitable form I had been saying how much my boys would love this as we worked through the different projects and this beautiful and generous lady made it very possible for me to bring my learning back to them.

I can't post photos of the boys actually doing the projects so that you can see the looks on their faces. You just have to believe me that it brought them a great amount of joy! Here are the sewn books they made and then used to write the spelling words they needed to practice in order to learn them. These books were an invaluable addition to my classroom and helped to bring end of year results that were absolutely outstanding. The boys all made brilliant progress with their English marks and their confidence in spelling grew every week!

Eventually we started to make the metal books Renee had taught me to make. The initial flattening of the cans was very well received. In fact they regularly asked if they could do it again! It is a great source of stress relief for anxious children to get out there with a hammer and a tin can to belt into! The cans they flattened were not actually usable as they had too many splits and sharp edges due to their over enthusiastic efforts, but they were happy to use cans that had been flattened by me and were still safe. I was away the day they flattened them, but by all reports they took to hammering the cans flat with great enthusiasm!

When it came to using the tool to punch the holes (and Renee they loved the concept that you can never have too many holes!) they thought the eye protection that made them 'look like mad scientists' was very cool! We used the keys from an old computer keyboard, beads, laminated photos and pictures and rivets and brads as decoration. Renee also gave me a cold laminator that they could wind the handle on and watch their favourite pictures of themselves or their favourite things come through the machine ready for use. They were deservedly so proud of the results and were so well behaved while we were working on the books. No medals for working out engagement in the learning activity leads to great behaviour!

Making holes in the cans!

One finished book. The pictures are from a series called 'Bakugan' one of the class favourites and something I had to learn about when I started working here. The lad who made this has some issues with his fine motor skills and using the tools was excellent therapy. Threading the beads took a great effort.

This is the second one. Note the pictures of chocolate cake in the middle. A major motivator for this guy! He has a fabulous sense of humour and had to use the 'end' button from the computer keyboard on the back of his book and kept on saying 'do you get it Ali?'

...and last but not least this one was made for his mum and he just had to have the diet coke can with the kisses on it as a base. He wanted to write 'mum' on it but there is only one 'm' on a keyboard.....his solution the 'w' upside down! Again the bakugan characters star. He spent ages lining the beads up in an order he liked.

The boys showed these books in assembly every week for about four or five weeks as they gradually made them. They were rightfully so proud of their efforts and couldn't wait to take them home. It was a very different classroom activity to anything I had ever done before and I loved it!

Believe it or not only having one set of tools with my small class of three became another aspect of their learning. They had to be patient, take turns and plan ahead. All great lifeskills.

There is more to come about my last day at the school. I just have to work out how to write it!

Happy Birthday Dardin!

2011-05-30T20:48:00.000+01:00

Well tomorrow my first born turns 27! I can't believe where those years have gone. He has gone from being a very gorgeous, very cheeky, very mischievious little boy - to being an incredibly intelligent and talented young man. I remember feeling the first twinges of his arrival while watching 'Every Which Way But Loose' in Townsville and that becoming proper labour at about 11:30 at night. When he finally arrived at 2:10 the next afternoon he was a very healthy 9lb 1oz and was so alert and incredibly interested in all that was going on around him in the labour ward. He was actually a bit of a sticky-beak! He was the easiest of babies. Slept well, ate well and was generally very, very relaxed.

As a toddler, Adrian introduced many new words to our family. Something that is too hot has for the last 25 years or so been 'a mit marm', we wear 'bedoongs' on our feet around the house. The words of 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' went 'up a bird the word so high, like a dimint in dis ky' and had the cutest actions especially when he wore the groucho marks glasses and the beret! (I wish I had that photo scanned in my computer so I could share it now!) When he was about five he loved the 'deenaged uh, uh dingered durdles' and went on to love all sorts of other things.

I loved it when Adrian used to follow me through the bush and absolutely soak up all he could about plants and animals. He was better at plant ID than most adults I knew and I remember very clearly when he was about 6 him explaining the difference between a eucalypt and a wattle to someone and even more tricky when he was about 8, him giving an adult (who was supposedly teaching the group of kids he was with) a lecture about why that plant was a paperbarkand not a bottlebrush....and he was right! He always has been a very bright fella!

His teenage years were 'interesting' to say the least, and we had many fabulous times along with the normal trials and tribulations. At this point in his life we discovered his talents as a musician. He plays the guitar beautifully! He started to learn to draw and my goodness does he have talent there! There was still always the fascination with the outdoors - fishing, bushwalking, scouts etc! He made some fabulous friends at this time in his life and still has them around him. Says a lot about him that the mates have stayed doesn't it!

Adrian joined the army a few years ago and has served in Iraq and may go to Afghanistan at some point. Mixed feelings there as a Mum, I really wish there was no need for him to do this but I am so proud that he is willing to step up and do his duty. I look at this young man who is a product of my upbringing and a lot of love and support from some really special people and the pride I feel just wells up. I watch the way he fathers his children and know that is a role he excels at. I have watched the way he has looked after his sisters and those he loves and know that he has a good soul and is a man with lots of love to give. I know that on its own would make one of his heros really proud...oh and he has inherited his ability to give those fabulous bear hugs too....big shoes to fill there my love!!

(Note to self! Scan some of those photos of Adrian when he was little when you get back to Australia!)

Happy Birthday sweetheart, I love you heaps! XXXXX

The end of another holiday.....

2011-05-22T22:26:00.000+01:00

We drove from Berlin to Ghent in Belgium on Good Friday. When we turned the motor on in Berlin there was a horrible ticking coming from Bruce's dash. It sounded like a time bomb! Being Good Friday, there would be nothing open so Richard checked it out and could not work out what was wrong. It seemed we had little choice but to drive and keep our fingers crossed that it was nothing serious if we wanted to get home. Basically it was a full day's drive with Bruce making funny noises and us playing the music loud to try to drown it out! ACDC seemed to be a good choice as the ticking melted into the drumbeat. About 5 kilometres out of Ghent there was a truck spewing fumes in front of us. Richard turned the vents to recycle rather than fresh and miraculously the ticking stopped! Those few kms were blissfully peaceful! It seems Bruce's last few months will mean no fresh air for us!!

We had decided at more or less the last minute to spend the last few days of the Spring half term break in Belgium and were pleased we did. We stayed in Ghent and did a day trip to Brugge. Belgium was lovely although I think by the time we got there we were both exhausted, so we did a lot of wandering and looking around rather than going into places to visit, but that seemed the right thing to do.

Ghent is a pretty little town with very old buildings (including a fairy tale castle), cobbled streets, trams and lots of canals. Our stay there was very pleasant.

The Castle

One of the canals...note the bikes they are everywhere!

A very eye-catching shop front!

Hams hung in the market hall. There was an exhibition of local artist's work in here while we were in town.

Many of the building had cute little guys like this one as decoration.

On Easter Sunday we decided to go for a train ride to Brugge. It was only half an hour away and was a pleasant day out. We wandered around, took some photos, ate Belgian Waffles for lunch, wandered some more and then returned to Ghent.

One of the many churches. The bells were ringing when we arrived in town and it was really beautiful!

Part of the main town square.

There were boatloads of tourists on the canals and huge line ups to match!

Look closely......Guido had been given a beer....and he had drunk it all!

Along with the canal boat trips were the rides on horse carts!

A very cute old organ grinder!

Obviously the place to be when all those pesky canal boats keep disturbing your peaceful afternoon on the water!

After our train ride back from Brugge to Ghent we had dinner and then spent our last night in Belgium. On Monday morning it was up early for the drive to the Eurostar and then back home to London. We left the train with Richard driving and us saying 'stay left, stay left' (we had spent the previous month saying 'stay right, stay right' every time one of us got behind the wheel) and hit the London traffic! A quick stop for supplies and we were home to prepare for our return to work the next day. It was to be a short week. I started it with a pupil free day, then two days of the students and then it was another four day weekend to celebrate the royal wedding and May Day. I will tell you about that soon.

Berlin

2011-05-15T10:47:00.008+01:00

Our visit to Berlin was extraordinary. Harvey started by making a new friend on one of the stations. He is one of the 'Berlin Bears'.

We visited some amazing places and I guess I was most impressed by the way the German community are holding their hands up about the whole WWII situation and saying never again! One of the first places we visited was the Jewish Memorial. The 'Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe'. It is really fascinating. It is a sea of cement blocks basically and from the edge it quite frankly, looks a bit boring. Just blocks that your eye tells you are not very exciting.

There are signs saying that you cannot jump from block to block. I assumed it was a respect thing until we started to walk along one side of the Memorial. Our plan was to walk along the side and head for the Brandenburg Gate, but that was not to be. It drew us in and made us think and talk about it ....a wonderful piece of art!

As we moved through the area we realised that the ground undulated and the blocks became taller and taller. We quickly realised jumping from block to block was a safety issue and not just respect! Some of these blocks would have been 6 metres or more in height. There were people wandering through it everywhere, but it was so easy to feel you were all on your own as they dissapeared in between the blocks. You caught glimpses and then they were gone. A powerful reminder of what happened to the people at that time. Richard's thoughts travelled to the representation of the volume of the structures and compared it with the 'volume of people lost'. I couldn't help but think of the mounds of shoes, hair, suitcases, glasses and clothes again! As you walked through there were occasional glimpses of the surrounding environment, but in amongst these towers of rock it was cold, quiet and lonely. The most amazing feeling and a brilliant memorial.

We continued our walk and visited the Brandenburg Gate next and started to get some ideas about how the wall affected life in Berlin. One side of this gate you were in the east and on the other side you were in the west!

From Brandenburg we decided to visit one of 'The Wall' sites. The part of the wall we first visited was the boundary between the East and what was the French Sector. The land was a Cemetary and was taken into the no mans land area between east and west.

Part of The Wall still in its original position.

A memorial to those who died trying to escape.

Some original Wall art!

...love it!

We wandered around town a little longer and then decided to take a train ride out to visit the Olympic Stadium. Plan A was to just see it from the outside, but the Plan B option was taken and we went in! I am so glad we did just for the photos we got!

The view from outside.

The gate

Harvey was relieved we went in because he got to make another friend!

The Stadium from inside.

Love this shot of the stadium.

..and this one from the opposite end!

The original gate post for the entry to the race track.

We saw through the gates, but couldn't go in.

We also visited the DDR museum, Checkpoint Charlie and lots of other places....all fascinating! But I thought to finish the post I would add a few photos we took for our son Sam. We saw this Bugatti in a shop window and thought Sam would be drooling so we went in and took a few photos! (I know Sam, we are embarrassing but we weren't the only ones!)

Will be back soon with Ghent and Brugge and that will be our Spring break done almost in time for the Summer half term break in two weeks time!

A wrap up of Vienna and Krakow!

2011-05-07T15:22:00.000+01:00

I know we have been home nearly two weeks now and I still haven't finished writing about our holiday in Europe and we have since had another 4 day day getaway! So much to tell so little time to do it in!

After visiting Hundertwasser I spent the next day in the Belevedere Gallery in Vienna. It was brilliant and I was lucky enough to spend the day in a stunning setting looking at amazing art. Richard decided that the previous day's saturation was enough for him and went off to look around Vienna on his own. In the process he found us a great place to eat that night so it was good all round!

The Upper Belevedere

I visited the Upper Belevedere first and what a pleasure that was. The building is an old palace and is a stunning piece of architecture, worth the visit in its own right. The main draw card for me was the work of Klimt. There were many pieces his work, but 'The Kiss' and 'Judith I' were the absolute draw cards. Both had me sitting in front of them mesmerised. The expression on the faces and the detail in both pieces of work was incredible. 'Judith I' was apparently the first piece he created in his gold phase and 'The Kiss' the last. Richard and I had seen posters of both the day before and had thought them a little boring in amongst Hundertwassers work. Seeing them in real life changed my mind considerably!

To get to the next part of the exhibition I walked down through these wonderful grounds to the Lower Belevedere (you can see Vienna in the backdrop!).

The lower Belevedere housed two special exhibitions. The first on the work of Egon Schiele. What a tortured soul that poor man was. He was one of the youngest artists taken into study art in the Vienna College and then had a disagreement with his professors and went off with some of his mates to start their own movement. The exhibition was of his portrait work and was fascinating! There were self portraits and portraits of others that were both commissioned and painted under his own direction. He did portraits of his lover and then later of his wife that were very poignant. He unfortunately died at the age of 28 during the Spanish Flu epidemic. The flu took his pregnant wife and the child she was carrying and then a few weeks later it also claimed his life. A tragic story really.

The Second exhibition was on the 'Dynamic' movement and was incredible. I never thought I liked modern art! That statemnt is now showing itself to me as pure ignorance. I think it is more accurate to say I didn't understand modern art. Now it is really starting to 'speak' to me in its brilliance (Oh I still have so much to learn!). On the wall of the exhibition I read a statement from the futurist painting technical manifesto of Turin that said 'Everything is in motion, is flowing, everything happens with the greatest rapidity. A form is never motionless before us, rather appears and disappears unceasingly' and then turned and saw a painting called 'The Dancer' created by Ludwig R. Reutterer in 1920 and almost jumped up and down with excitement because finally I got it! I understood why Cubists and Kinetiscists created the way they did. I saw the movement they were expressing and just loved it. I was in awe of the talent of these artists and then went from painting to painting saying 'wow' over and over again! The work of Erica Giovanna Klien, Giacomo Balla, Elisabeth Karlinsky and Franz Marc held me staring and studying. Look up their work if you don't know it. It is incredible! I think I was in that exhibition for about three hours and had no idea any time had passed (sorry darling, I will one day remember to check my phone when I am in an art gallery!).

I will leave our trip to Vienna here with an image of a bag in one of the tourist shops:

Apparently the Austrian/Australian confusion is as common for them too!

We drove from Vienna to Krakow and went to Auschwitz/Birkenau one day and did some sight seeing on the second day. We both really loved Krakow. The people there seemed somehow more at ease than Prague or Vienna. I have added just a few photos from our day in Auschwitz/Birkenau as a reminder.

There are many more but I will move on to Krakow! This is one of the first views when we went into Krakow on the first night for dinner. It is called the Barbican.

On this night we ate in a medieval restaurant. The food was ok and the atmosphere interesting!

The day after the camps we went into the town square. I shopped (new shoes! and a few skirts!) and Harvey hung out! He found art work he liked.....

...some pretty cool Easter decorations (no he decided he didn't want his photo taken here that deer was too big and scary!)

... but had to have it taken with his new friends they may have been big but they weren't scary!!

We saw some wonderful buildings....

.....with fabulous details!

.....and very romantic poses!

and wondered how long this little guy has been hanging out there!

...and Richard even managed to snap one photo of me that is OK! Believe me they are few and far between!

Oh one more thing.....we ate Georgian food while we were in Krakow.....yum!

Still to go.....Berlin!

The magic of Hundertwasser!

2011-04-26T18:20:00.001+01:00

We are home in London again and I started back at work today. We had an 'Inset' Day today...pupil free in Aussie language. Today we had some training on a reading programme called SRS 'Sound Reading System'. It is a phonetics based programme where they say the ONLY way to teach reading is phonetics - always wary of ONLY way programmes, but I will hold judgement for the moment. Anyway I promised I would get back to telling you all more about our holiday in Europe so back to Vienna we go!

As we were driving in to Vienna I spotted an amazing building with this tower.

I snapped the photo and felt a bit dissapointed because I had missed any images of the wonderful building it was attached to and our chances of finding our way back there and of finding out about the building had to be slim...right?

When we got to the hotel we were given a guide book and I flicked through it. I became very excited because there was an advertisement for the Hundertwasser Village. My friend in Australia, Coralie, teaches her Year 8 art classes about Hundertwasser and I have always really admired the work the students have produced in the school's art exhibitions. They have invariably been my favourite part of the exhibition time and time again. I never knew much about him, but our first day in Vienna was spent visiting the Hundertwasser House and Village and what a treat that was and what a learning experience for me!

Hundertwasser was an architect and artist. He was inspired by Gaudi (very obvious!) and was quite out there I guess for his time! I'll just add some images so you can make your own judgements!

Opposite the village was this housing block

Inside the village

This staircase was gorgeous - he didn't believe in straight lines in architecture - or even floor surfaces!

A view of the shop area - yes we bought a print to bring home to Australia for our home!

A close up of one of his prints (not the one we bought) they are incredibly colourful and stunning!

Yes, you did read that sign properly!

The entry way into the loos!

Another part of the same wall! It was a long narrow area and very hard to photograph.

...and now on to the house. I could only take limited photos here because they allow none to be taken inside! The outside is very striking painted in a black and white checkered pattern. No two windows are the same and the portico is supported by incredibly colourful columns! Big sigh!!... oh I loved it, but again very hard to photograph and we didn't have the wide angle lens with us that day!

Even the cafe was a work of art! All the tables were individual pieces and many of them artistically beautiful pieces in their own right!

He was a man after my own heart as he believed that plants should be an integral part of the human living environment!

The table beside ours.

...and our afternoon tea...yum! That's a rhubarb tart....mmmm!

Oh, and the tower we saw as we were driving into town was one of his works of art too! It was and still is an incinerator! He revamped and beautified the building! Check out the images on google images - I just typed in 'hundertwasser vienna incinerator'.

There is still my day in the Belvedere in Vienna and then many more days of our trip! I will add more soon!

A need to see

2011-04-18T08:30:00.000+01:00

I promised my next blog would talk about Vienna, but I will get back to that. We are have moved on to Krakow now and I need to write about our day yesterday. It was one of the most difficult days I have spent in a long, long time and I am very much processing all the things I saw and felt. We went to Auschwitz and Berchenau and my goodness how those places weigh on the soul.

We first visited Auschwitz and were told we needed to be part of an English speaking tour group. We found the place to buy the tickets and were told the next tour would start in 45 minutes and that we needed to collect our audio sets and then go to the movie theatre to watch a video which was starting in 15 minutes. After the video our guide would then collect us. We were told to put a little orange sticker on our jacket and they would then be able to recognise that we were part of the English speaking group.

After getting our tickets, dutifully putting our stickers on we then went from stall to stall trying to find the right place to collect our audio equipment. They all said 'English speaking, over there.' and waved vaguely in a direction to our left. After about four or five attempts we then found the right place. Next to find the theatre. We moved to towards the signs and were ushered in to a theatre. For the first ten minutes or so it was just us sitting there. We assumed the movie would be about the events of WWII, but had no idea exactly what the video would be about or why precisely it was being shown. At about 11:55 (the movie was to start at 12:00) more people started to arrive. Did we need the audio sets for the the movie? All around me people were fiddling with the sets to see if they could hear anything on it. Trying to work out what was going on.

At 12:00 the movie started and was in English. It was about the people who were found in these two places ar the time of liberation, both the living and the dead. It was incredibly moving. After the end the doors on the side of the theatre were opened, not a word was said and we all moved out to the sunshine in a paved area. We all stood there, not knowing where to look, what to do or how to feel. Big groups started to move off. The rest of us were playing with our audio equipment. I know I was wondering 'Am I in the right place? Did they make an annoucement over this thing that I missed? ' We looked at others in the group and they seemed equally confused.

At 12:30 a lady and a man appeared with a sign saying 'English'. A crowd of us moved towards them, expecting some more information. They spoke quietly to each other in another language, probably Polish, and said not a word to us for 2 or 3 minutes. We all looked on expectantly, feeling totally and utterly confused. Did they even speak English? No one dared to question them. After this time the woman spoke and said we would be broken into three smaller groups and assigned to a guide and that we should stand near those we were with so as not to be separated. This then happened, we had been sorted, as they were in the days these camps were being used for their horrific purposes. The big difference was we were still with those we love. Our guide then gave us a channel number for our audio unit and we were finally in the land of communication.

This first 45 minutes was a huge lesson for me. It was not hard to imagine how the people arriving at these camps felt. They too didn't speak the language, could get no information about what was next and were left standing and waiting expectantly relying on others to help them. The big, big difference was that it ended very quickly for us, but not always for them. For most (70 to 80%) this confusion would be their last life experience, for the rest there was worse yet to come.

We moved into the camp with our guide. She was excellent and provided us with very clear and concise explanations along the way. We saw the property stolen from the people when they arrived. Suitcases with names and birthdates on them, including those of little children and babies. We saw the piles of spectacles and an enormous pile of human hair, all grey now as any pigment has faded with time. For me, one of the hardest things was the enormous pile of shoes and knowing that for every two shoes in that pile it was one person's life represented. We saw the torture barracks where four or five people had to spend the night standing in a place one metre square and were then sent to work the next day and punished for not functioning. We saw the wall where they were shot, the gallows they were hung from and the square they stood for hours in. We saw the places where the horrible experiments were done in the name of science. We had little twin boys from Japan I suspect, in the group and I couldn't help looking at them and feeling my heart sink for all the twins abused by these sadists. We saw, and stood in, the chamber where thousands were murdered and then taken nextdoor to be burnt... I won't say cremated because for me that sounds too respectful for what happened to these people.

We heard how the camp started out for Polish political dissidents. It was a place where doctors, artists, scientists and academics were taken to be silenced (there is us both gone) and moved on to be part of the 'final solution' for the Jewish people. Being Jewish wasn't the only reason you were sent there: if you were a Gypsie, Jehovah's Witness, homosexual, had a disabilty or any number of other things you may have found yourself in one of these hell holes. The tears ran down my face as the horror of it all hit home.

At Berchenau we saw and walked on the platform where the people were brought into this god forsaken place. We took the left path and walked in the footsteps that millions walked their final steps to the gas chambers. The big difference was that I had Richard's hand to hold and all was safe now.

The gas chambers are no longer there as the nazis tried to destroy the evidence before the liberation day. The ruins are, and a memorial, and the feeling that there are the souls of people saying 'don't let this happen again'. The worst part is that you see it all and know that as so called intelligent beings we still haven't learnt. Atrocities too much like this still continue to this day.

Prague Part 2

2011-04-14T23:32:00.000+01:00

After our visit to the tower on Monday morning we went back into the old town area of Prague. The daylight allowed us to get a few more photos.

This stunning building is near the powder tower (see next photos) and was on our way between the train station and the old town square.

The powder tower. The detail on this tower is amazing!

In the old town square there is another tower that has the astronomical clocks on it. On the hour a trumpeter stands above the clocks at the top of the tower and announces the change to a new hour. He plays and then gives a wave on each of the four sides of the tower.

Directly below him this is what the rest of the tower looks like. Unfortunately, the two astrological clocks were not working when we were there.

As we wandered around the square we saw all sorts of wonderful crafts, including these two guys. The first guy was fascinating and so relaxing to watch as he worked the loom.

...and the blacksmith made bells and plaques...all sorts of wonderful stuff...

.... and other stalls had row upon row of handpainted eggs for easter

Then there was the food, including the ham roasting on the spit....

All sorts of wurst sizzling away on bar-be-ques

..pretzels

and these things which have a sugary, almondy, caramelly coating and are very similar to the damper we made wrapped around a stick with the scouts....yum! They are roasted on a rotisserie and smell heavenly as you walk around.

OK so that is basically Monday done! On Tuesday it was raining so we spent a large part of the the day in a Salvidore Dali Exhibition that was being held in the building with the twin towers (see Prague 1). It was a brilliant way to spend a rainy day. I had not seen a lot of Dali's work before and I found it absolutely fascinating. Richard and I had a long discussion about how interesting it would be to crawl around inside his head. Some ....well maybe most....of his work is just so out there. There was a series about hell, purgatory and paradise that was really interesting, as were some sketch type pieces he did based on Don Quixotes. There were also two paintings, 'Floridali 1' and 'Floridali 2' where he made characters out of flowers, fruits and leavesw. They all held me captivated for quite some time and made me wish I had done art at school...but then maybe I wouldn't be as enthralled as I am now!

That was basically it for us and Prague. On Wednesday, yesterday, we drove to Vienna where I am in bed writing this now, but you will need to wait for me to tell you about that..... and today's adventure .....ohh Hundertwasser!!!

Prague Part 1

2011-04-12T16:04:00.004+01:00

We arrived in Prague two nights ago. It is a beautiful city in many ways. The older part has cobbled streets, there are trams and there are lots and lots of fairy tale towers.

We arrived in Prague late on Sunday night after a resonably long drive from Cologne. It sounds ridiculous but one of the hightlights on the way here was the fancy loos at one of our roadside stops. The loos were in a service station and it cost 70 Euro cents! It seems you have to pay at most of the loos at the roadside service stations! When you got into the toilet the seat had a funny looking block on the back of the seat with a button beside...well what would you do? I pushed it and the seat started turning around passing under the block. It was a seat cleaner that meant the seat came out clean and dry. I had to have another go ...just to make sure, you understand! Anyway it turns out I didn't need to even do this in the first place because when I pushed the button when I had finished there was a repeat performance. Then when I had washed my hands the paper towel was delivered precisely measured I am sure, at the push of a button too! Richard wondered why I came out of the loo giggling! The benefits of being a girl!!

Our first night in town, we caught a tram into the centre of the city. We wandered around not really knowing where we were going or what we were doing. We found Wencelslas Square, but I have to say thought at first it was just a wide street! Then wandered a bit further and saw the following alley way.

We decided to walk down it and see where it led. The shop windows were all a glitter with the glass displays.

It led into the old town square which is really pretty. There is this tower with the astronomical clock (not working and more photos later)

and this fairy tale double tower...

This band were putting on a free concert in the square

..and then we went to this Jazz and Blues Club for dinner....

...and listened to these guys play a heap of Ray Charles' music. They were great and the guy on the saxophone could really, really play!

Yesterday we started the day by visiting a memorial to the victims of communism 'not only those who were jailed or executed but also those whose lives were ruined by totalitarian despotism'.

We then went up the funicular to Petrin Park

and while we were there we visited the Petrin Tower.

Harvey got this view from the top of the tower

.....and on the way to the funicular we saw this little guy...

We then went back down the funicular and caught a tram into the city. We decided to go back into the square and get some photos of the market area.

(I seem to be having problems downloading photos so I will publish this as is now and come back to add more later. I still have lots more to add for Prague!!)

Seven Years Ago!

2011-04-09T21:46:00.001+01:00

Seven years ago today I nervously walked into the the park at Southbank in Brisbane to meet the man who would become my darling husband just seventeen short months later. I have to say, it was one of the days that I now look back on, and know is a pivotal moment in my life. Never did I guess that day, how much my life could and would change!

This morning we set off from London, bright and sparky at 8:00am. We drove down to the Eurostar Train Tunnel at Folkstone. As we were driving down to the platform I looked up and saw this on the side of the hill....

There are a quite a few hillside decorations like this around the UK. Not sure what this one is about, but I did like him!

Anyway, off we went down on to Platform 4

...and eventually we all disappeared into the middle of the train!

...it's hard to take a photo when the car is moving and the light's not great....but I do think this looks cool anyway!

On the Eurostar you sit in your car for the whole journey. Nothing to see so I finished reading Elizabeth Gilbert's 'Committment'. I have to say I thought it was great. It was all about marriage and the history of marriage. It was really very thought provoking. I really want Richard to read it so we can talk about it.

Anyway the drive from the Eurostar to Cologne was all on motorways. We drove straight through and it only took us just over four hours to get here. We found our hotel very easily thanks to our sat nav, Portia. She coped well with the roads here as there were no tunnels once we left Calais, and no roundabouts.

Once we settled in our room we walked up the road a short way and jumped on a tram. Sorry forgot to get a photo, as a Melbourne girl it didn't even dawn on me until after it was too dark! We went into the middle of Cologne. It was quite busy and the shops were still open until about 8:00pm on a Saturday night. We didn't really look in too many (just a couple of shoe shops!). We walked around and saw this tower:

There was a heap of construction going on around it so I couldn't find out what it was, but I just loved the detail which doesn't show up brilliantly in this photo!

A bit further around we came upon the Cologne Cathedral. It is absolutely huge and stunningly intricate!
These first two photos are a parts of one side and still are not the whole thing! Check out the size of the people in front of it and it will give you some idea of the scale of it!

This next photo is the front of it and just one of the spires (your can see a small part of the second one on the left of the photo). I only had my little point and shoot camera with me and without the wide angle lens that was all I was able to get a decent photo of! This photo was in fact taken part of the way down the street opposite so that I could get the height of that spire in, but the other spire was then obscured by the buildings in the street.

We have been fortunate today with the weather. It has been a glorious Spring day, sun shining and high teens. I think tonight is going to get cold because there is no cloud cover. Tomorrow were are off to Prague where we are staying three nights. Here's hoping the weather stays as it is for a while. We may have a challenge on our hands finding our way around....Portia does not cover Prague, but Richard has worked out the route to the hotel with his phone. Keep your fingers crossed that we don't get too lost!!

Richard's new toy!

2011-03-20T21:36:00.001Z

It has been a busy weekend for me. I have had a few days off work at the end of last week, after catching another bug from my students. I have caught so many since being here! Not sure if it is different bugs in the UK or the fact that I am teaching younger children and they have a tendency to sneeze and cough all over you more than teenagers! Anyway the result was three days home in bed and then a decision to have a laid back weekend to give my body time to get over it all.

Yesterday Richard was out for the most of the day with his last game of the hockey season and then the dinner with the boys for the final night. I had a very peaceful day, firstly getting the housework and some washing done and then enjoying myself.

I spent about an hour and a half playing the saxophone yesterday. I bought the sheet music for Leonard Cohen's song 'Hallelujah'. I can play the first bit reasonably and will continue to work on it! The hard thing is getting back to the sax after having played the recorder daily for the past few months! I had to look up a couple of the notes because I was confusing them with playing the same notes on the recorder. Just a gentle reminder that I need to practice more!

After the sax I decided to spend some time drawing. I found an activity in Carla Sonheim's book 'Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists' and drew the following:

There is a photo of an eye in the book and the task is to draw it using four different media. The first one in pencil only, the second and subsequent drawings you do a basic outline in pencil and then use pen to finish one (the second one above). I used three different thicknesses of Pitt Pens.

The third drawing was finished with charcoal. I used Derwent charcoal pencils in light, medium and dark. I also used a drawing stub to help with the shading! The final drawing was finished off using Derwent watercolour pencils. I had so much fun doing these! I have continued to paint and draw for much of the weekend and have really enjoyed it. I have finally added a lot of the bits and pieces from Paris into journal pages. It is amazing what you find when you tidy your desk! Now there are just the ones from Greece to sort!

While I have been doing all my art lately, Richard has often found himself at a loose end. He decided a couple of months ago to get himself a 'project' to work on. Today he finally finished and we went to the woods across the road to take it for a spin!

So this is his new toy. He made it from a kit and it is a remote control 2WD buggy.

This is Richard making sure he knows what the controls do! I thought he was being overly cautious given that we were on a field and well how could it be a problem in such a big space! However once he got it going I fully understood his caution. It goes incredibly fast!

The blur of the ground in this photo may give you some idea of just how fast!

... and it can move quite some distance away from the operator! It tried to go off the 'course' and into those shrubs on the right at one point!

.... and quite a few local dogs thought they would try to catch it...no chance! The children were trying when I was driving it so no photos of them! One toddler stood beside me and kept saying 'it's gone, all gone now!'

Like all off road vehicles when they are pushed...it needed some running repairs. The tubing that holds the aerial wire came off and needed to be refitted!

So I guess for a quiet weekend we still packed quite a bit in. Only three weeks to go and I will be at the end of another school term. We are off on another European road trip and I can't wait. Australia really does need to look at the length of its school terms!!

Athens highlights

2011-03-13T22:36:00.001Z

I just thought I would do a quick catch up today as I really have not had a lot of time with the start of the new school half term. Athens was brilliant, even though there was an attempt made to pick my pocket on the metro! I caught the person before she was able to take anything. She obviously denied everything. I know what I felt and am sure that it was only because she failed that I was able to confront her. Thank heavens for all that 'useless' art gear at the top of my bag burying all the valuables like wallet, mobile phone, ebook and camera! I had my pencil case and water colour paints in easy reach for me...in the way for her! Some pickpockets just have no sense of what is really important in life! I on the other hand will remember which way to carry my bag in the future! The catch goes TOWARDS your body Ali!!!! A sickening but useful reminder!

Anyway, even though that happened we had a brilliant time! Here are a few of our images from Athens:

The view as we flew over the alps!

The flea markets at Monastiraki

My Birthday Cake!

Dogs sleeping on the glass in the square near the flea markets at Monastiraki!

'Mind the Gap' ....it's all Greek to me!!!

Sharing the day I turned 50 with the love of my life..... the Temple of Zeus in the background while we are at the Parthenon....life is brilliant!!!

I saw olives on a tree for the first time ever the same day I found out my new granddaughter's name is Olive....had to take a photo! Wow was that tree laden and were the pigeons ever feasting!

A view from the parthenon back across Athens.

The small temple along side the Parthenon

The Parthenon...lots of scaffolding around it....but WOW it is amazing and well worth the visit!

The Temple of Zeus - The original olympic stadium! It is over 2500 years old (so at 50 I am a real baby!)

As I said a quick catch up. We took nearly 400 photos in Athens so this is a very limited sample! We had the most wonderful time and really enjoyed our visit.

On a sadder note, our dog Jazz passed away yesterday morning in Australia. Rest in peace our beautiful Jazz-a-Belle, you will be sadly missed by the whole family and all those who had had the honour of meeting you. Such a beautiful girl!

Start of Spring Half Term Break

2011-02-24T02:00:00.001Z

I have had a fabulous start to my Spring Half Term Break! On Friday night we went to the theatre in the West End and saw a play called 'The Rivals'. It starred Penelope Keith and was fabulous. It is apparently a fairly old play and was very clever and very well done.

Saturday saw me doing more drawing, including an attempt to draw my Papa....not much of a likeness, but I guess I will need to keep practicing.

On Sunday we went to the football. It was a knockout match for two of the teams in the last 16 for the FA Cup final. We saw Fulham defeated by Bolton by one goal to nil. It was lots of fun, but feezing cold. It had been drizzling when we got there and even though our seats were supposed to be undercover we were getting wet. Thankfully it stopped fairly soon after we arrived, so we only had to contend with it being cold, not cold and wet! By the end of sitting for two hours my toes literally felt like ice blocks. I have to say I was pleased when the game was over. I managed to take some short video bites of the Bolton crowd (I tried to include the video but it wouldn't work!) as they reacted at different points throughout the game. Unfortunately there is not a huge amount of footage as I was running out of both memory and battery. I still say the most entertaining part of the soccer is the crowd reaction and participation.

On Monday I stayed home for most of the day and tried to draw a self portrait. Again it is not brilliant, but at least I can see some resemblance in this one!

It is really hard to get decent scans or photos of these pencil drawings so I played with this one a little in photoshop. It is a better representation than it was, but still not great.

Yesterday I went and did some shopping and today I went into the middle of London to go shopping. I bought myself a little set of pan water colours so that I can start playing with them too!

Tomorrow we are off to Athens for three nights. Hopefully there will be no more riots there!!! I willl be taking my computer and will blog from there if we have time and I have the energy!

Happy Birthday Dooks!!

2011-02-20T12:21:00.000Z

Well my 'baby' girl turns 24 today. I know we always say it but it really is very hard to believe that 24 years have gone since the day we welcomed that noisy little bundle into the world. We were in a hospital ward in Sydney with three mums and their baby boys. The boys had sweet gentle little cries. My little bundle of sugar and spice had I am sure, the loudest cry in the whole hospital. The nurses could hear her from the other end of the ward and at one point said she HAD to go into the nursery because she was disturbing the whole ward!

Well that noisy bundle managed to grow into one of the most delightful young women to bless this planet....and I do not believe that is just a biased Mum speaking! Happy Birthday my love, may you have the most wonderful year ahead. With all the joy you bring to those around you, you deserve every ounce of happiness that is possible!

Ben took this photo of Ash at I when they were visiting the UK last year. It is one of my favourites of the two of us together!

One of my best ever decisions!

2011-02-14T18:40:00.000Z

Was to marry this gorgeous man!

Happy Valentines Day. I love you sweetheart!

XXXX

Busy weekend!

2011-02-13T21:19:00.003Z

This weekend has been a busy one! Yesterday I went into Southbank here in London and met up with a group of women who have all done the online experimental art course I did last September. Amelia who runs the courses organised the get together and it was a great day. We met for coffee and then lunch and then we followed that up with an experimantal activity with our cameras. The idea was to walk for 5 minutes and then start taking photos. You are meant to take one photo every minute for 36 minutes.....mmm! Somehow I found it quite difficult to be so disciplined! I am sure I took more than 36 photos and the intervals between them were very varied. Not to worry I had a lot of fun doing it and got some interesting photos!

This is the group getting ready to go out and start shooting!

Loved this photo of the London Eye!

...and this one I caught of Donald Duck lighting up a smoke.....somehow ruined the image of what Donald should be!

I love how moody this shot is!

The Valentines display on one of the support structures for the Eye.

Part of the Queen's Walk along the Thames.

A section of a sculpture.

Part of a display of kids art work all about their brain. The display was really interesting and provided some food for thought for me with respect to my art classes at school!

A close up of some rose hips taken with the macro!

There is a story there. I meant to take the lens from Richard's camera for my good camera, but grabbed the macro instead! So most of the photos above were taken with the point and shoot! Not to worry it still worked out ok! I had lots of fun and really enjoyed meeting the others! After chatting to one of the other ladies I have been inspired to learn about Photoshop so have put it onto my computer today and will hopefully start doing something about learning how to use it it the near future!

Last night Sam left to come back to Australia. He has been over here since the end of November. Some of the time he has been travelling but quite a large chunk of the time he has been with us. The house will seem quiet and yes we will miss him, but it is also nice to have our little house back to ourselves again. The house is only a two bedroom place and so is crowded when we have extras here. We have loved having all of our visitors and would love to see even more of our friends and family!

Today we headed off out, not really knowing where we were going. En route I suggested we have a look around South Bank together so we went to Waterloo Station and walked down there. We wandered along the Queen's and then across the Westminster Bridge. We then wandered towards the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben (or as my darling aspie husband would say 'the tower that houses the bell called Big Ben') ....got to be accurate you know! We spotted Westminster Abbey and decided to see if it was open...no...but St Margaret's was so we had a look in there. It has gorgeous stained glass in some of the windows, but not so wonderful in others as they were destroyed in the bombing of London! Sorry no photos for two reasons....number one they ask you not to take them, and number two even if I could have, I had left my camera at home!

Anyway, after wandering through the church and seeing the memorial plaques for some famous people including Sir Walter Raleigh we headed off again with no particular idea of where we were going! London is so brilliant because there is so much to see! After a few minutes we wandered past the 'Cabinet War Museum' and decided to go in. It is the underground museum where Churchill and the war cabinet ran things during WW2. It was excellent and, in my view, well worth the visit. Just an interesting note ...I spotted that the clocks in there said the time was 4:59!

The centre also has the 'Churchill Museum' as part of it and this was a fascinating exhibition of the life of Winston Churchill. What an interesting character he was! I never realised that in his spare time he loved to paint and did so with a reasonable level of expertise! He also tried sculpting but did not keep it up because he apparently found it too messy! We sat and watched film of his funeral parade through London. Richard said he remembered it happening when he was a child. Even after all this time it was actually very moving to see. It reminded me of Diana's funeral in that the crowds were silent as the cortage moved along the road. Somehow I felt the same awe at how silent large crowds of people can be when they are moved by the gravity of the situation and the sense of community mourning.

Wandering back to the underground it was cold and raining lightly. We have had some warmer weather lately and have even been up into double figures, so I guess we were not as rugged up as we should have been. We are meant to be heading into some cooler days again! We decided to head home to the warmth and to cook dinner (well at least Richard cooked dinner) a bit earlier than normal. We had eaten and tidied up by 7:30 ...very early for us!

A beautiful day!

2011-01-31T22:09:00.000Z

We have had another cold snap here with night time temperatures below zero and days getting to the dizzy heights of only a few degrees. It was actually zero at midday on Saturday! Yesterday was a beautiful winter's day here in London. It was cold, but gloriously sunny. We headed off to Kew gardens for the final use of our 12 month passes. Initially we were going to visit the open day for the herbarium, but the tours finished at 2:30 and by the time we got there it was too late. Not to worry we still had a lovely time wandering around the gardens.

We came across this beautiful old Corsican Pine. It was planted in Kew Gardens in 1814 and is said to be the oldest tree of its type in the country! It has been struck by lightening several times and even hit by a small aircraft and is still standing...how's that for staying power! Most importantly, note the beautiful blue sky through the tree's canopy! Lovely, especially when Saturday would have won an award for the greyest of days!

In one of the glass houses we spotted this wonderful piece of art work. He is a model of a hummingbird moth and is made of wood:

.... gorgeous isn't he!

Another arty thing we came across was this:

... and this was hanging inside:

We also discovered this fabulous tree which, from this angle makes me think of one of Tolkien's Ents!:

...and honestly it had the most fabulous gnarly, overhanging, yet gracefully pendulous branches. ...and would you believe I can't remember what it was!

School's going well! Only three more weeks and we are on our half term holiday....then hi ho, hi ho it's off to Athens we go!! Have a great week everybody!

Playing!!

2011-01-22T18:12:00.001Z

Over the past week or so I have been playing around quite a bit in my art journal. I watched this video and then started following Diana Trout's process and ended up with this:

There are quite a few hours of work in this. but it is a lovely relaxing way to destress after a busy day. It was done over a few nights of the past week. I used a medium Pitt Pen, acrylic paint, water colour pencils, metallic water colour pencils and glimmering H2O paints. The colours in real life are much more vibrant....just don't know how to get it from a piece of artwork on to the computer and keep the intensity! I have done similar things previously, but it was fun to try a slightly new take on and old theme!

Today I have again been creating! A few weeks ago I bought Carla Sonheim's book 'Drawing Lab for mixed-media artists - 52 creative exercises to make drawing fun!' I have been working my way through some of the activities and today did Lab 8. The idea is to use water colours (I used watered down acrylic paints). You do random swirls of red, let it dry, swirls of blue, let it dry and then swirls of yellow and let it dry. You then look at the result and break out with the pens and in my case charcoal pencils and start creating little critters with your swirls of paint. If you need to you can come back with a little more paint to complete the image. I did these four this afternoon and really enjoyed the process. I think I will be trying these with my boys at school because they are nice and quick and the results can be lots of fun.

The great thing was that while I was waiting for the paint to dry I finally (after having been stopped by many months of coughing and spluttering), got my saxophone out again....I am very rusty, but had a great time getting back into it! It will not be so long between tunes again!!

After all that 'playing' I still need to do some prep for my classes next week! Can I find yet another distraction?

This and that!

2011-01-20T19:10:00.001Z

We are well into winter here now. The days are slightly warmer than they were a few weeks ago and getting longer again although I have been told it may get colder again. I catch two buses to get to work each day, and have to walk around a roundabout and down a bit of a hill between the first and the second bus. About a week ago I was on my way to work and this is the sight I was greeted with as I started down the hill.

The sunrise was simply stunning and I had to stop and take a quick photo. I am sure when the Londoners are rushing past me stopping to take photos, they wonder what on earth I am on! The morning was cold, but still. The colours were a lot more intense than they appear here, but even at this level they are beautiful.

Richard has been growing us a little bit of spring recently. We are just starting to reap the rewards of his efforts with these beautiful hyacinths and amaryllis. There is one more amaryllis planted but it hasn't done much so far. I guess there is still hope though because the bulb still looks reasonably healthy.

When Richard saw my last post he said I had missed the Rodin he had liked most.....so here she is now:

Her name is Rose Beuret in Straw Hat and she is very beautiful! I had a lot of problems reducing to just a few images. I took many photos of the faces he sculpted so that I could try to draw them later. So as I do not have too much to add, I will add a few more photos to finish this entry!

Sorry about the first photo. He was in a glass case and impossible to get a good photo of with the light and his position in the room! I decided to add him here anyway because it shows you Rodin's early work:

...followed by the final piece based on that work!

...stunning isn't he! Now look at him closer! So beautiful!

This piece, out in the grounds was stunning!

Two wonderful days in Paris!!

2011-01-17T22:29:00.000Z

Our final two days were New Year's Day and January 2nd. We slept in on New Year's Day as we had not been able to get back to our hotel room after welcoming the New Year, until about 3:30am. When we woke we went to Montmartre and had something to eat and a bit of a wander around. It is an absolutely beautiful area of Paris with lots of galleries and quirky shops. But alas, the only things open were the cemetery and the cafes and restaurants! We ate in one of the cafes and had a chat to a young Aussie guy on the table beside us. We seemed to be meeting a lot of Aussies as we moved around Paris.
After eating we went for a short stroll around the cemetery - I had it in my head that it was where Jim Morrison's grave was .....wrong! Anyway we both reaffirmed that we find cemeteries horrid places and the massive headstones and memorials are disgusting! Some of the bigger structures looked like old country dunnies to me! Anyway we were quite tired and didn't stay out too late. We went back to our hotel for a while had a rest and then went out to dinner at the restaurant I had drawn and eaten in previously.

On the 2nd we went to the Musee Rodin in Paris and I have to say it was wonderful! I was astounded by the beuaty of some his work and enthralled by the idea that he uses some of his images time and again. For example the are several versions of 'The Thinker' in a range of sizes, including the massive one in the garden of the museum. The figure is also part of his 'Gates of Hell' below (he is in the centre of the the top section).

'The Burghers of Calais' was another favourite.....I love all the different poses and expressions and the Museum had a room where quite a few of Rodin's working figures were on display. It was fascinating to see the way his work progressed from an idea to the final product. It would be great for kids to see that even these masters had to work hard to achieve the levels of brilliance they did in their lifetimes.

I also love the sculpture called 'Sleep'. This the the first form. He did a final I think in marble, but for me this was the one I preferred! I just love her face.

The other theme I really liked were the sculptures of hands. There was the simplicity of this one called 'The Cathedral':......

...the beauty of 'The Lovers' Hands'.......

........and I guess the divinity of this one.....I didn't get its name...though it was something to do with creation I think!

The lovers, 'Paolo and Francesca' were breathtaking!

There were so many others that were wonderful. I think I have discovered sculpture now! What will the theme of my life here in Europe have been.....learning, learning, learning about art!

Rodin will have to wait!

2011-01-13T20:58:00.000Z

The view from Montville, 2006

My last few evenings have been filled with watching news stories from home in Australia and catching up with my family and friends in some of the flooded areas. I am so grateful that they are all safe and well. I hear that in many circumstances the post flood challenges of moving about their towns and neighbourhoods and being able to buy food and fuel are enormous. It is hard to explain the range of feelings I have felt watching from this distance. I guess that even if I were right there I would still feel completely overwhelmed in the face of a disaster of such huge proportions.

I guess as time moves forward the emotion that is shining through is pride! I am proud to be an Aussie when I watch the way we move forward under such dire circumstances. I am proud to be an Aussie to see a friend of my daughter (a young mum in her early 20's) organising collections of goods for flood relief! I am proud to be an Aussie when I hear the great stories of mateship coming out all the time in the film and news articles we are seeing from here on the other side of the world! I am proud to be an Aussie when there is a wonderful family stepping right up to help and support my children as they move forward in their lives (not flood connected)! I hope you realise how much your love and support means to them and me!

My cousin recently put the second verse of this poem on her facebook page and it reduced me to tears! I guess this poem really talks to me and, I have to say, always has done. So I just had to add it here:

My Country

by Dorothea McKellar

(1885–1968)

The love of field and coppice,

Of green and shaded lanes,

Of ordered woods and gardens

Is running in your veins.

Strong love of grey-blue distance,

Brown streams and soft, dim skies -

I know but cannot share it,

My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror –

The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,

All tragic to the moon,

The sapphire-misted mountains,

The hot gold hush of noon,

Green tangle of the brushes

Where lithe lianas coil,

And orchids deck the tree-tops,

And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!

Her pitiless blue sky,

When, sick at heart, around us

We see the cattle die –

But then the grey clouds gather,

And we can bless again

The drumming of an army,

The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!

Land of the rainbow gold,

For flood and fire and famine

She pays us back threefold.

Over the thirsty paddocks,

Watch, after many days,

The filmy veil of greenness

That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,

A wilful, lavish land –

All you who have not loved her,

You will not understand –

Though earth holds many splendours,

Wherever I may die,

I know to what brown country

My homing thoughts will fly.

Tasmania 2004

Kakadu, 2008

Wave Rock, Western Australia, 2006

Barrington Tops, 2007

Being Aussies, like this little guy we will just keep on moving forward, across the hurdles to something even greater!

Stay safe!

Oh and this morning one of the great characters I work with said:
'Bruce, I know why the floods are receding in Aus!'
My answer 'Why's that?'
'Well mate, they have finally stopped crying about losing the Ashes!'
My answer after stopping laughing 'I love your sense of humour!'
'Well mate I need it. I am British!'

New Year in Paris

2011-01-09T19:20:00.002Z

We have had some issues with our internet here over the past week or so. It has meant we have been without internet and more importantly phone, several times since getting back from Paris and when we have had service it has been extremely slow. It is working at the moment, fingers crossed it will continue to do so!

My last couple of days in Paris were as delightful as the first few. Richard arrived there on New Year's Eve, so by the time I got back to the hotel from the last day of my art retreat he was waiting for me. After settling in he ducked out to get a bottle of Champagne for us to welcome the New Year in with. He returned it to our room and put it in the 'fridge' to chill!

......yes our 'fridge' was the window sill!

We relaxed in our room for a while and then at about 8:00pm went to the area we had stayed in when we went to Paris together in 2007. We decided to go there to have dinner as we had loved it on that visit. It was lovely to return to the Ternes area and have a look around again. At about 11:00 we then made our way with with many, many other people to the Trocadero to welcome the New Year with a back drop of the Eiffel Tower. We were not sure whether or not to expect fireworks because we had seen some webs sites saying there would be and others saying there would not! We were hopeful when we arrived as there must have been hundreds of thousands of people gathered. But alas, there were none. It seems they all gathered for the comraderie and the lights twinkling on the Tower.

We did pop our Champagne, which was well chilled and toasted in 2011!

Our first attempt at a 'long arm' shot......oops it was zoomed in, but I love it anyway!

Our next attampt......that's a bit better. You can see the champagne glass (well plastic cup) and those lights on the top of the photo just left of centre are the lights twinkling on the Eiffel Tower. (Note my knitted hat and scarf....hand made by moi!)

We finished our champange and waited for the crowd to clear a little and walked from the Trocadero down to the tower. On the lower level of the Trocadero we stopped to take some more photos.

By 1:00am we had made it down to near the base of the Tower and it all started again! New Year Greenwich Mean Time!

After we had walked under the tower we started to try to find a train home. We crossed the Seine only for Richard to see a very drunk girl fall down some stairs and me being me, had to check she was OK. She was not, so then the problem of language and getting help! Some dramas and some time later we got a paramedic and left him to it! OK we continued to walk to discover that the Metro being open all night did not mean all stations were open all night! There was nothing so sensible as a sign at the closed stations saying the nearest open station is at..... Oh no! We walked and walked. Saw many VERY drunk people. Saw fights! Saw many people vomiting, but still enjoyed our walking and chatting through Paris! We eventually made it back to our hotel room at about 3:00am! Poor Richard, not a night person, was snoring before his head hit the pillow. I then had a chat to Ash online!

New Year's Day was wonderful, but I might post this now and will try to get a post up about the Rodin gallery tomorrow! See you all later.....dinner time here and it smells delicious!

The cup is very full!

2010-12-30T22:39:00.001Z

Some days are absolute diamonds and for me today was one of those! I can't believe that I am living this life at the moment. This evening I sat in a cafe in Paris and drew! Not I only did I draw but I am pretty pleased with it. I can't believe that it was me sitting there sipping my wine and drawing a portrait (not of anyone in particular) with crayon and having two young Australian girls on the table beside me going 'Wow, this is so French! Here we are in a cafe in France with somebody right beside us drawing!' I almost cried. Not from anything other than gratitiude that I was part of that scene.

I did get chatting to them later and apologised for ruining their romantic vision, but they decided I had actually built on it because if someone from Australia could be in Paris doing an art retreat and drawing in a cafe then they could always believe they could do it! How cool is that!

The art retreat has been inspirational to say the least. Day one we started the day under the tuition of Renee Richetts and made travel journals out of an envelope, some paper and some embroidery thread! That's it other than the needle to put it together and some trinkets for embellishment if you want, but it is very, very cool. The journal has an inbuilt pocket and the potential to easily make other pockets for stashing treasures! I will make them for some of our future travels. I haven't used the one I made yet, because Sam bought me another journal for Christmas especially for this trip and I really want to use it for that. I have been scribbling all sorts of things in it, but think I will probably use it as an art journal to record the processes of things I try artisically. Not sure yet, those are just my thoughts at the moment.

After the journal we did a couple of different paint over techniques with Lisa Bebi. These were interesting and taught me a couple of new things that I will use in my journalling. I mucked up the colour on the legs a bit on mine, but I was OK with it as a first attempt in this technique! It is the first time I have ever used a canvas for a background and the man was a photocopy that I then painted on. The whole thing is done using only three colours. The whole canvas was painted red first and then when it was dry over painted with the blue. Some of the wet blue paint was then removed with a dot stamp. An attempt was used to make a rock wall effect behind his legs but we had no clingwrap and tried plastic which did not work very well! The man's face was coloured with a skintoned marking pen (waterproof) and his clothes were then panted. Pants and tie the same colour, shirt painted yellow and then given blue dots to fit with the background. He was then glued on using matt medium. He is actually sitting on a red blanket which works well with him!

Next was a similar technique but all done on paper. Here she is:

Finally on day one again with Renee, we did some lino printing. We made one print block with this stuff called 'Speedy Cut'. It is very, very cool. I remember doing lino printing at school and trying to carve the lino and being at great risk of carving me! This stuff is like firm butter and carves beautifully, but the blocks apparently only last for 50 or so prints. Not sure of the price of it, but you can carve into both sides of the block so I guess it is not to bad! Here is my first print.

At the end of an exhausting Day 1 I took this on the way home. It is the stairs in the Rue de al Fontaine in Montmartre:

Day two, today, was again brilliant. We started the day with Pam Carricker learning to draw portraits. Pam's work is stunning. I have loved it when I have seen it on her blog, but believe me the photos do not do it justice. She taught us a technique using conte crayons and a pliable rubber. You lay on the crayon, blend it and then erase it using the rubber. This process is repeated again and again to but the layers of light and dark and the form of the face. Here is my first attempt, completed at the workshop today:

Sorry he looks a bit dark, but it was very hard to photograph in my hotel room tonight!

After the portraits we made metal books. Here is some of the stuff I used, but I don't have a photo of it yet, because it is still a work in progress and is at the studio.

...and here is the one I drew tonight, she is not perfect, but oh how I love her as one of my new 'children' on paper!

So yes, I am enjoying myself!!! What a way to see 2010 out and what a year it has been for us! Happy New Year and much love to you all! XXXXX

A Mum's thoughts

2010-12-29T20:07:00.000Z

I just read the following piece on one of my favourite blogs http://kellyraeroberts.blogspot.com/. It is written as part of a guest post by her friend Katherine Center and is about parting with the baby gear as your baby is growing up. It really hit home with me at the moment!

".... Here is a little piece of us. The baby boy who gazed up with the deepest amber eyes, and the mama who was absolutely besieged by sleep deprivation and worry and joy and love. There were times I was so tired, or frightened, or frustrated, I didn’t think I’d make it to the next hour. And, of course, you can’t even imagine the magnitude of love you’ll feel before your baby comes to you. It absolutely flattens you. It humbles, and destroys, and rips you into a million pieces.

That’s why baby things become so precious. They know who we were in our tenderest moments. When you finally put yourself back together, your baby won’t be a baby anymore. And you won’t be the person you remember. You will have become someone else—someone greater than yourself. Someone wiser, nobler, and infinitely more brave.

And after that happens, even as good as it is, every now and then you will wish like anything that you could bundle up the little person who started it all, and whisper over and over words that won’t mean anything to him until some distant future when he himself arrives in your same shoes: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

Given that my beautiful boy, now a man is having a bit of a tough time at the moment, I just need to tell you and him that this is what he means to me. Adrian, a Mum could never be more proud or love you more. XXXX

White Christmas in London

2010-12-25T21:27:00.000Z

Well we have had no more snow today, but the ground is still white and the day was still decidedly chilly! Our Christmas Tree, lights and decorations were from Homebase and were a £10 'Christmas in a bag'. Quite the buy we thought and not bad for a tenner! We have had a lovely day sharing the Christmas joy with Sam and his two mates Brad (second from the right) and Luke (on the far right).

We started our day with Christmas Carols playing, drinking a glass of buck's fizz (champagne and orange juice) and croissants, jam and cream to eat for breakfast. The yummy, yummy devon clotted cream! So the the same start to the the day (with the twist of devon clotted cream) we have in Australia. We opened our presents, the first and most important being the Santa hat for my love from Sam. Sam was a bit dissappointed that he did not remember to bring the 'real' Santa hat from Australia, but Santa had to settle for one that Sam searched high and low to find in London.

After opening our gifts we sat around for a while and all made some phone calls to Australia. It was great to talk to my beautiful Mum! Richard cooked lunch, with a little bit of help from me - well all I did was make the cointreau butter to go with the pudding, but it was delicious! I also was able to speak to both Adrian and Ash absolute bonus! They were with Cheryl's girls, so life for our kids was back to their early years in some little way! I added the next photo so you can see my darling husband busily cooking in our tiny kitchen, the turkey on the bench and the snow in the woods across the road!

A few minutes later and our lunch is on the table, but poor Richard is looking a bit stressed! He was worried it would get cold, but I have to tell you that it was THE most delicious meal! The first time I have ever had homemade cranberry sauce - how good was that - extremely!

This afternoon has been spent with full bellies watching Terry Pratchett movies on TV. First 'The Colour of Magic' and now in the evening 'Going Postal'. Have to love Pratchett!

Anyway, I will skedaddle off again. I hope your Christmas day was wonderful. I certainly enjoyed my first ever white Christmas. Love and best wishes to you all. XXXX