Zachary

As I was sorting out one of my boxes of collections today, I located a copy of our local newspaper "The Examiner" that was printed the day after we collected our son Zachary at the local airport. Friday, April 18th, 1975 was a very emotional day for us when we were handed our tiny son by an air hostess (as they were known at that time). In the photograph, he is the second baby from the left. He was given the name Cyrus by the nurses in the orphanage in Vietnam. We retained Cyrus as part of his given names when we formally adopted him.

I am also posting a recent photo of Zachary.

Jill Ferrall - Deconstructing the Selvedge

Today we had a preview of a wonderful exhibition of recent work by Jill Ferrall. Jill has used tapa cloth as the basic material in each of the works.

To quote from the artist's statement :" In paying homage to women's traditional craft methodology, I have sought to evince a feeling of the meditative process and qualities on 'hand made' skills in deliberate contrast to the vast array of technological skills available to the artist today. The use of of Pacific Island tapa cloth, which was traditionally made by women, is predominately used in this body of work. I have used frayed and torn edges or selvedges to convey a poignant history and sense of cultural fragility."

Bob Brown's exhibition of photographs

This morning we visited 1842 which is a gallery located in St John Street, Launceston. We saw an exhibition of photographs by Bob Brown which we thoroughly enjoyed. There is a web site to visit where you can see thumb-nail images of the photographs - most of which were taken in Tasmania dating from the 1960s.

www.greenart.com.au/

Pink Martini - una notte a Napoli

There is a new Pink Martini CD out titled 'Hey Eugene' and our copy arrived in the mail yesterday. It's great! Here is a track from an earlier release. Pink Martini is based in Portland, Oregon

www.pinkmartini.com

Mingering Mike

A package arrived today from Amazon. It is a book about 'The amazing career of an imaginary soul superstar'. It is a very interesting story, profusely illustrated with the art work of Mingering Mike.

The notes on the back of the book give some idea of the story : ... "One cold December morning, Dori Hadar - DJ by night, criminal investigator by day - was digging through crates of records at a Washington,D.C., flea market. There he unknowingly stumbled on the world of Mingering Mike - a soul superstar of the 1960s and 1970s who released an astonishing fifty albums and at least as many singles in just ten years. But Hadar had never heard of him, and he realized why on closer inspection: every album in the crate - as well as the records themselves - were made of cardboard." ...

This is a real treasure of a book.

Sunsets

Recently we have seen some spectacular sunsets. Here are two photographs taken by Noel.
One is looking up the Tamar River valley from the city and the other is an image of a beautiful old wooden church just a few blocks away from our house.

Habitat Nursery

Habitat Plants nursery is owned and operated by Sally and Herbert Staubman.
www.habitatplants.com.au

Their nursery and home are nestled in native bushland beneath the scenic backdrop of Drys Bluff in the Great Western Tiers.

Hadie, John, Noel and I met Herbert when we first arrived and then we went for a walk down into the bushland adjacent to the nursery. There is a beautiful stream running through the bushland and many of the rocks and old logs are just covered in mosses and lichens. It was a perfect place for us to stroll and to say some prayers together.

When we returned to the nursery, Sally kindly organised a table and chairs in the sunshine where we enjoyed our Sunday picnic lunch. After lunch we purchased some plants to take home for our gardens.

"One must judge of search by the standard of the Majnun of Love. It is related that one day they came upon Majnun sifting the dust, and his tears flowing down. They said, "What doest thou?" He said, "I seek for Layli." They cried, "Alas for thee! Layli is of pure spirit, and thou seekest her in the dust!" He said, "I seek her everywhere; haply somewhere I shall find her." Yea, although to the wise it be shameful to seek the Lord of Lords in the dust, yet this betokeneth intense ardor in searching. "Whoso seeketh out a thing with zeal shall find it." (Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 6)

A visit to Bracknell and a nursery

Today we visited Hadie and John MacLeod at Bracknell. After enjoying a welcome coffee and a Tim Tam at their house, we set off to pay a visit to Habitat Nursery which is located on a side road between Bracknell and Liffey. On the way I photographed part of the Western Tiers. As I was taking the photographs, I also noticed some interesting lichens and mosses growing on some fence posts by the road.

Rufus Wainwright - Everybody Knows

Special chocolates from Hadie

As a 'thank you', Hadie very kindly presented us with a decorated box. As we undid the box and removed the lid, we discovered some beautiful chocolates inside - some were in the form of animals and birds. What a fabulous gift! I decided to take some photos before we began to taste them. They were delicious!

Hadie MacLeod visits

Our friend Hadie from Bracknell came to stay with us for a couple of days as she had to have eye surgery in Launceston. We enjoyed having her visit and she received lots of attention from our cat, Albert.

Zeb is 29 today.

Today is Zeb's 29th birthday. He is our youngest child (number 7). I am posting a recent colour photo as well as an historic black and white photo that was taken about 26 years ago. The other person starring in the black and white portrait is Caleb, our second child.

Christl Berg

Today we visited the Queen Victoria Art Gallery to see an exhibition of photographic pieces by a friend, Christl Berg. Included in the show are some dramatic photograms of plant life - many on a large scale. I also like Christl's digitally altered images of flowers that feature prominently in the exhibition.
Several years ago, Christl introduced Noel and I to some of the processes involved in manipulating digital imagery using Photoshop. It was an excellent course and it has had a long lasting impact on our art work.

Music promo for French singer song writer Seb Martel

I like the video as well as the music!

Baha'i Centre of Learning for Tasmania

Here is a video that was made during the raising of the Dome for the Baha'i Centre of Learning for Tasmania.

Baha'i Centre of Learning for Tasmania

The dome covering the main circular auditorium of the Bahá’í Centre of Learning building currently under construction in Hobart was lifted into place this morning. Noel and I went to Hobart to be present for this exciting and historic event. Although the weather was cool, it was perfect for lifting the dome into place, as there was no wind and no rain. We joined a large group of Baha'is and friends on the nearby Domain to watch the raising of the dome.

Edie meets Mike's elephant

When we spent a day with Mike from UKPaperArts during our brief visit to London in early May, he kindly presented us with one of his beautiful elephants. The elephant spent 6 weeks with us in Haifa, Israel then it came in our luggage all the way to Tasmania. Today, we drove to Hobart ( the capital city of our island state) where our eldest son and his family live. We duly presented our youngest grand child, Edie with the elephant. She was delighted with it and it has now joined the menagerie of soft toy type animals that inhabit her bed. Many thanks Mike, you have made our little grand daughter very happy.

A beautiful pot plant

Our dear friends, Ken and Juliet Partridge came to visit. They very kindly brought us a beautiful pot plant. It soon found a home in an old flowery jardinere on the dining table.