….a couple of days ago we had the most violent storm…tragedy everywhere..venturing out of the house I noticed this…
while focusing on this I was distracted by a movement on the leaf above….
this little chap was giving me the beady eye….
on closer inspection….I just love the smiley face and the long lash on the second set of eyes….
this picture was taken a couple of years in Montague, Cape, South Africa…on holiday with the new love of my life who is now my husband….
….very fond memories….
….reading Jude’s post on space has got me thinking about home…an elusive space for me…
I think I was born a nomad..I was always on the move when I was young… even when I wasn't..in my youth I travelled in my mind, through books and documentary programs…my feet itched as my mind wandered to destinations beyond my reach…but life, as I chose it, kept me chained to a home…
…this is where my wanderlust began in 1968…the garden was expansive….. and….. we had a swimming pool…my imagination ran riot…I also learned to ride a bicycle in this garden (beyond the house we had half an acre of ground)…for the first time we had animals…two dogs…Lassie (an Alsatian) and Twinkle (a Pointer)….i watched this house grow from the ground…to me this was “our dream home”….how wrong could a family be…….my mother left this house….without so much as a goodbye…my life was turned upside-down…my father burned all my childhood memories on the “heap” at the far end of the garden…saving an envelope filled with guilt memories which he sent to my grandmother (my mother’s mother)….at least that’s what I think…because years later going through old photographs in my mothers new house with her new family…i came across this and other pictures…i took them and for a long time brooded over them….looking for “the dream home” that she shattered on the day she left….
…but looking at the house then and now (by courtesy of Google earth)…life moves on and looking at this has made me realise….it is about flipping time i did too….sometimes one needs to see it in pictures….I'm that kind of person….
this is not home…this is not my home space….
(mmm something just occurred to me…my father made security gates for the house and once they were erected i remember a conversation he had with a fellow neighbour in the local supermarket…the neighbour had commented that our house now looked like “Fort Knox”….i wonder what he would make of all the barbed wire on the gate and fence today)
Aberdeen is visible again…clean…sparkly…looking like a new pin….
just look at this day….one can hardly believe that yesterday it was so dark in my studio, I had to have the light on…the window is open today…the sound of the gardeners busy in the garden is bombarding my eardrums…they are cutting the grass. I always wait to smell the sweet smell of freshly cut grass….but am always disappointed because there is no smell at all…
this is a jasmine plant…plenty of flowers but no fragrance not even in the evening…just look how the gardener has hacked it with his machete…no matter how many times I tell them not to touch it this is what they do…defiance! The consolation is that in a month that will have grown back with interest so I don’t let it bother me….too much….anymore….!
…..view from the window of my “studio”….
It started to rain last night and has not stopped….Aberdeen is cloaked in a shroud of rain…those are burglar bars not prison bars…although sometimes…like today….I feel imprisoned….
….241 days to Beijing….
..is one way of using up scraps or “minestrone” as Kaite you can see more minestrone here…
Some weeks ago I finished crocheting a blanket using bamboo yarn….
I really enjoyed working with this yarn…sadly there was not much yarn left over….
….. but enough to inspire these little pots….
my pot collection is growing rapidly as I am on a “minestrone” clear out drive….we have recently heard that our next posting is Beijing ….so I have to reduce my stash before we leave in April next year…
…..at first glance I thought this was a single butterfly already consumed by the spider and what i was seeing was it remains….but further observation revealed….
that there were indeed two butterflies….I felt really sad….lovers caught in a web…..
Actually today it is a house as well as the window…I love everything about this house….I would have loved to visit the inside….but I imagine what it may be like…
I have spent many hours doodling squares in my life….
I remember …years ago….visiting the art gallery (have a meander…I really miss this space…) just up the road from where I lived in Durban…
….on exhibit was a piece about a metre squared….it comprised 2” squares joined together at each corner of the square..
(a very rough sketch but you get my meaning)..
I think the squares were ceramic if I’m not mistaken…..I was so taken with this piece….it has lived in my memory all these years….
I am thinking about creating the same sort of thing in cloth….
….at the moment things are very random…colours are everywhere….motives on the squares…are a bit meaningless right now….
….this…found in an “Aladdin's Cave” while in Turkey….brought the memory to the front of my brain diary…..
….another awakening to this memory…. was making stones for the Magic Feather Project…..
…got me thinking ….
…square!
…at the slave fort on Bunce island….
Some information about the island and the fort:
Bunce Island is located about 20miles upriver from Freetown and is the site of an 18th century British slave castle. Although a small island only about 1650 feet long and 350 feet wide, its strategic position at the limit of navigation in Africa's largest natural harbour made it an ideal base for European slave merchants and was the largest British slave castle on the Rice Coast. African farmers with rice-growing skills were kidnapped from inland areas were sold at the castle or at one of its many "outfactories" (trading posts) along the coast before being transported to North America. Several thousand slaves from Bunce Island were taken to the ports of Charleston (South Carolina) and Savannah (Georgia) during the second half of the 18th century.
Sadly the site of the old fort is in a very sad state and there is absolutely no visible evidence of the old town and new town shown as on the map above. The cemetery not shown on the map is just a sandy opening in the quite dense bush. One or two head stones have “survived” and lay in pieces scattered on what were once graves. We were able to make out on one of the head stones; a Governor at the fort had arrived when he was 35, he died aged 60…we wondered if he ever returned to England for a break…we came to the conclusion that perhaps he did not…
a collage of what remains…
We were meant to take a trip to the beach today but work got in the way for my dear husband so we have spent the day lazing on our veranda…bird watching…sewing and Sudoku (my husband is a fanatic)
this is the thrush having a wonderful time…we have become good friends…he never bats a feather when we are on the veranda just a few steps away from the bird bath…
I have been busy adding to my magic feather on canvas…
…the “killer Sudoku”..with so many options….
hope that you are having a good weekend where ever you are….
I seem to do a lot of this lately…sometimes the stumble ends in disaster and injury and sometimes it is pure pleasure….tranquillity…inspiration…colours…peace….
just look at that door in the background….
….ready for the mail bag…to read more about this project click on the logo in the side bar…
….the landscape is transformed over night from brown parched earth to lush greens and reds…..
…these beauties seem to just need to smell the rain and their heads pop out of the dry earth….
