It's Autumn

And it's struck hard.  There's snow on the mountains hereabouts.  Quite beautiful.  I'm just glad my brother (who lives in Darwin) came down to visit last weekend and not this one, 'cos it's freezing.

The cats enjoyed his visit.  Here he is with Cilla. 

I don't know if Burmese are bred to have less dignity.  Whatever, they are dags.

Yesterday was fun.  I went to a meeting which was held in Campbell Town, a couple of hours South of here.  The great thing was to look at the landscape.  Lots of snow up North but none in the Midlands.  Interesting.  On the way back we got a spectacular sunset view of Ben Lomand.

It's interesting that the landscape in the Midlands of Tasmania is very similar to that around where I used to live in New South Wales.  Sheep everywhere!  Just like home.

To finish, I'll add a pic of a couple of my favourite objects.

They're made from orange plastic and wire and are great playthings.  I bought them in Wagga a couple of years ago.  I think they are from Africa.  It would be great to know where they came from.  They are wonderful creatures to play with as they both have fabulous expressions.  I hope the people who made them were paid properly.

I'll let them say the cheerio's.

Fun Fun

Last weekend was absolutely gorgeous.  A long weekend with  perfect weather.

On Saturday I went for a drive to Evandale to see the Glover Prize .  This is an extraordinary landscape painting prize.  Always beautiful work, but a apparently a little contentious this year as the winning piece featured Port Arthur and Martin Bryant . Apparently very disturbing to some, not surprisingly.  It was interesting that much of the painting was a photograph of Port Arthur.  The whole thing looked very much like a Romantic work.  Quite beautiful, but disturbing.  My favourite kind of art.

Yesterday I did a workshop on creating sea-birds out of clay.  So much fun!  And lots of lovely people.  Here's what I came away with:

One of the people running the workshop said it looked a little like a Leunig bird.  I was quite flattered and am really revved up to make more of them.

And to end, today I am working from home.  Here's what I have to contend with to get anything done:

She keeps attacking my hand and chewing the end of the pen while I take notes.  Not helpful, Dusty, but lovely company.  I keep having to move the keyboard out of the way when she leaps up on the desk.  I've already had to go wireless with both mouse and keyboard because Dusty's sister, Cilla, kept chewing through the cables of the old ones.  Now all I need is a force field to keep Dusty off the desk.

Life could be a lot worse.

Road Trips

Well.  In the last couple of weeks I've been to Zeehan (twice!) and to Hobart.  This makes about 2000 km in total, but it's been worth the trip.

I'll take a brief side trip here to say I am currently drying home grown tomatoes.  And here they are:

Happy little vegetables in the dehydrator.  There are about four trays of them and lots more on the bush out in the garden waiting to be eaten.

So, I went to Zeehan yesterday for an International Women's Day event and to 'launch' the Material Girl exhibition.  On the way we stopped at a spot near Tullah, and this is the shabby view we got:

There are mountains and mountains and masses of forests.  It's beautiful.

So when we got to the hotel, I waddled out on to the veranda  to have a fag (yes I'm a nicotine addict) and this is what I saw:

Frankly not too shabby.  That's only a fraction of the vista taken over the top of the hotel.  It went on for miles and miles each side.  Gorgeous.

So now I'm back at home with my furry  children.  the '2012 Bendigo Bank Material Girl Exhibition' has been launched at an IWD event, and I think I talked a few arty types into entering, the car worked going both there and back (phew!)  and all is well.

We're all getting on with it

Here's a little pic from my studio:

It's little arty pieces against shadows of the sheers up against the wall of my studio.  I love the shadows from the curtain.  The colours are really rich.

I'm still technically unemployed, but working most of the time on organizing the Material Girl exhibition.  It's a challenge as I don't really know anyone in Tasmania so I'm making new contacts and trying to be sensible.  It's a fantastic opportunity.

Doing new things is always a challenge.  One can't help but second guess oneself.  I'm always assuming that I'm not doing it right and that an anvil will soon drop from above.

All I can do is my best.  Hope it works out.