Another crazy doodle.

It has been a rainy Sunday.
A good excuse for staying indoors,
snuggling up on the sofa with my book.
Our first Bookclub book has arrived for 2010.
Margaret Forster's
DIARY OF AN ORDINARY WOMAN.
I am really enjoying this book.

Our Bookclub has been going for over 25 years.
It is a treasure.

Art? One doodle only.

Zentangles

For as long as I can remember
I have been a doodler.
Now I have discovered zentangles
on the web.
I am not alone.
There are other doodlers in the world.

I have always known there is a
contemplative side to doodling.



I think I have an addiction to ink pens and
beautiful paper.

How's this for art.

Steve and Ann made a cake today for friend Mark's
birthday.
Jeanine made the chocolate cake.
Anne made the icing.
Steve cut it into a fish - a snapper, and iced it.

Fantastic fish Steve! Keep up the art.
Explore the right side of your brain!

Happy birthday Mark!

A visit from some favourite cousins.

Dianne, Catherine, Brittany and Sienna, Debbie, Joseph and Catherine,
Nik, Blake and Holly.




Once upon a time there was this delightful young girl called Dianne.
She was a Hayley Mills look alike!
Now look. All these beautiful young people - all because there was
someone called Dianne. We love you all.

Learning from little children.

Just look at these faces.
I love little babies.
I think I understand why Jesus said
"be like little children".
Looking without words at the wondrous world.
Living in the moment.

Something about these faces makes me want to simplify my life.
The little one in pink is in my knitting pattern book and I often find myself looking at her.

Whenever there's trouble - make a cup of tea!

No art today so I snapped a pic
of one of my earlier collages.
It is called Home Truths
or
Lifting The Lid.

Here is a pic of the smiley face in the sky.
Story below.

Beautiful Universe

At 4.44am this morning I woke and made a little journey to the bathroom.
Before hopping back into my bed I looked out the window
and there in the East, with a flick of his tail
was SCORPIO .
Do you remember Marie, so many
years ago in Northcote, two young nuns lying on their
backs on the tennis court in the dark, with
astronomy charts and torches, gazing at the stars?
And you said "There's Scorpio!" and there he was.
I've never forgotten the thrill.

I'll never forget too, the night in San Francisco
when Larry got out his telescope and I saw
jupiter and her moons, looking like a sparkling
engagement ring. One big diamond and a sprinkle of small diamonds on either side.
Exquisite. Thank you Larry!
There was magic in the air in San Francisco then.
Jupiter and Venus and the crescent moon
had made a smiley face in the evening sky!

The scent of life.

Dear friend A came to my place yesterday after
her treatment at the hospital. She brought me
gardenia.. when it should be me bringing her flowers.
There is a radiance about her and a passion for life.
I put the gardenia in the downstairs
bathroom and this morning the scent
was all-pervading.
Thank you A for who you are.

Lefthand drawing.

"To be alive in this beautiful, self organising universe -
to participate in the dance of life,
with senses to perceive it,
lungs to breathe it,
organs that draw nourishment from it -
is a wonder beyond words!"

Joanna Macy

Some earlier doodles.

The words were taught to me by a
Dutch boyfriend when I was young.
My pretty girl.

Doodling with my pen.

When I let my pen loose on the paper,

strange women appear.
Who are they?
Where do they come from?
I know.
Just a figment of my mind.
Mmm.

Those little cats turned up again.
Not very happy with the pic but liked the idea.
Might try again one day.

Passers-by have commented on my baskets.
Lovely colours make people happy.

A sad story.

I was sharing this story with someone the other day
and so this little doodle arrived in my journal this morning.

When Mo was young, he and a friend took on the challenge of
felling a hillside of manuka trees for a farmer.
They worked all day and when evening came they felt very proud.
There was only a small copse of trees still standing in the middle of the hillside.
As they prepared to go home for a well earned meal,
they became aware that the remaining copse was absolutely full of small birds.
Their homes gone.

The Buddha Tree.

Isn't this a magnificent tree! I had finished my walk around the lake
and sat to look at this tree, without words. Trees have a wonderful stillness.
As I looked I saw the tree had a face. A branch had fallen down making a long nose.
There are two eyes and a sad mouth. This photo does not really show the face but if you click to enlarge it you may see it. I call it The Buddha tree. Today the sad face made me think of the people of Haiti.

You will also note how words come so easily!!

Back to doodles.

Tonight Steve cooked Ann and I venison BBQ dinner
with new potatoes and green salad followed by fresh fruit salad and
Lucy's homemade icecream. All delicious.
Afterwards we went to the Corrin St garden
and Nicky and Richard joined us around Mo's old campfire
to toast marshmallows around the fire. Nicky introduced us to toasted
marshmallows between two chocolate wheaten biscuits.
Very decadent and delicious.

Shabby Chic is Venice : City of Dreams.

Venice is my best loved city in the world.
She is shabby and enchanting, a magical old Lady.
She leads you to mystery and romantic dreams.

Shabby Chic is the stool from our original bedroom suite.

There is a story to this little stool.
When Mo died and the time came for the farm to be sold and me to move
to this house I now live in, it was time to say goodbye also to the contents of
the house that had been our home for thirty years.
Looking back it is all a bit hazy really, as it is when one is in a state of grieving.
I sold two items only. Steve had his own furniture and he and Ann were off on their Big OE,
so extra furniture was of no use to them.
The big rimu dresser that Mo so loved was bought by Felicity and Dennis.
And the almost new leather Danske Mobler lounge suite that Mo also loved
was bought by nephew Mathhew. Both gone to special people in our lives and Mo would have liked that.
Our bedroom suite was, like our marriage, thrty years old.
Time for it to go too I thought. I asked Matt would he like it. A bit of borer, a bit worn, it wasn't worth much
So along with our old dining room suite, away it went. I gave it away.

Now time goes by and things change
and as they do, children's belongings sometimes get left at parent's homes for storage purposes,
and our old bedroom suite ended up at my sister's house.
We all gathered there for Christmas Day 2009.
A poignant day . For now it was my sister who had nursed and farewelled a loved husband and her children, their father.

There in the lounge, as we celebrated christmas was the little stool from my old bedroom suite,
adding another seat at the table of a much extended family.
For some reason, and maybe it was the season, the more I looked at the little stool with the tatty pale green cover I had loved,
the more emotional memories flooded my mind.
The bedroom suite - that had witnessed the love, the babies, little boys snuggling in, lots of laughter and the tears of loss.
The more the memories came the more I wanted to take the little stool home.

Take it home said my sister, and I did.
And here it is in my lovely new bedroom.
A relic. A touchstone. Something tangible. A little sacrament from the past.

So, if the old bedroom suite survives Matt. I'm sorry it no longer has a shabby little stool to go with the dressing table.
But one day, when you farewell a rather whacky aunt, you can have it back again!

(and now that I have written this - I laugh at myself. I am aware of that egoic voice...living in the past!
Such a slow learner I am!)

So Who Is This Beautiful Baby?

Little Helena. You are so beautiful!

Shabby chic is my treasured rug from Marrakesh.

This antique Berber rug was given to me by Adriano and Essen
in Marrakesh. I will treasure it forever.
And yes .. those two beautiful people will be forever in my heart!

Shabby Chic Interiors . Rachel Ashwell.

Robert gave me a book token for Christmas
and I found this lovely book.. Shabby Chic..
Shabby chic is what I loved at Adriano's beautiful riad in Marrakech.
Shabby chic is the apartment I love in the movie HUNTING AND GATHERING.
Shabby chic is welcoming and lived in.
Annie Gee - by the time this little house is yours again
shabby chic is what it will be..
worn by love.