January 2109

Interesting date again: 19/1/19. It only comes once a year, so I feel the need to post. Fortunately, I have been working on something, so I have something to show.

I am working on a companion piece for the acorn work. This time, it is the grown tree. I took several photos at Warringal and have played with the filters in Photoshop to make the image a bit less real and give me some sort of abstract thing to work from. It is not very abstract but is enough to give me light and dark areas.

The trunk wasn't very noticeable. One of the elements of the current challenge, for the 3rd piece in a challenge of 4 pieces, was to have some 3D (or 2 1/2 D, whatever that is) in it. So I have made some little twisted pieces of fabric and then applied them to give some texture. Here's hoping that it will be enough. Not that we are very strict with our challenges and elements, it is just to make us think.

Time to stop now, let it sit overnight and have another look at it tomorrow. Still lots to do on the leaves.

Rejuvenation

May is a wonderful month here in Melbourne. The nights are getting cooler and you can tell winter is approaching but the days are usually magnificent.
The grass is green and things are looking lush! More like spring than the typical autumn images that come to mind. But I suppose we think of the autumn colours that are really more typical of the northern hemisphere and now I am seeing the wonderful greens of autumn in Melbourne.

You do tend to get the wonderful shadows in autumn that are not so obvious in summer, the sun being in a different part of the sky. (And summer doesn't have much green grass anyway, see the image below.)


I took Penny to Warrningal Park recently and was quite amazed to see a tree that looked to have been dying, covered in leaves.

Here it is in December 2014.

That bare white trunk and sawn up branches didn't look very hopeful. I did wonder why they hadn't just chopped it all down. 

Now I know why!

The grass is green and the bare trunk is covered in leaves! It seems that those council arborists do know what they are doing. 

What a time not to have the camera!

Well, my weekly posts haven't been happening. So here is a random lot of pictures.  It is all inspired by taking the dog for a walk late this afternoon.
We went to Warringal and the river flats had rising mist - or fog.  I'm not sure of the difference really. It was gorgeous.
The pictures aren't wonderful as I didn't take my camera and my old phone only takes simple, non-adjustable pictures. I couldn't resist trying to get the atmosphere anyway.

By the way, the greenery here seems to be a LOT of dandelions coming up.  I expect there will ample opportunity to dye fabric in the coming seasons. 

The best parts were on the footy ovals. One had obviously had a game played on it but I don't know if the players had had to contend with the limited visibility, we were a bit too late.
Another oval had a dad and his son practising, they emerged out of the gloom as we approached.

It was coming up to sunset and I got to see the colourful clouds, the moon and the mist - all at once. 

The unusual thing was that the mist didn't rise very far, the treetops stood out above the it.
Of course, it grew higher as it got later and colder. Not that it got very cold, it is still only autumn.

When I uploaded the photos from my phone, I discovered that I had several from past walks that I hadn't transferred to the computer. Here is a gorgeous pattern in the stump of a tree. I took it on another walk with the dog. Thank goodness we have her. She makes us go out and then we get to see the sights while she sniffs the smells. 

Changing Seasons

I got my first clue that Autumn is approaching on Monday. I was on the train and there was someone knitting - that used to always be a sign for me, more and more people knitting and crocheting on public transport. It is not such a common sight anymore but you do still see some people doing it.

Then I took the dog out today and saw a cricket match on the oval with football practice right beside it. It won't be long before the football training will be on the oval.

You will have to click on the picture to see the people, I was trying to get unrecognisable pictures of people and the phone doesn't take great shots.

I took photos of the patterns produced by the mowers there late last year.

Here is the link to a photo of Penny, last December, lying in the midst of the dandelions.  I was standing in much the same place to take the top photo.
Here she is, in the same spot.

The dandelions are among the few things that have survived the summer in that spot.  But they are still valiantly producing their seeds and seem to have avoided the mower. So maybe I'll be able to do more dyeing next year.