Unfinished business

I'm still looking for the right picture.  I was going to use the one below but it comes out huge.  I'm sure there's a way to fix it but I haven't worked it out yet.  Plus I'm reconsidering.

I glimpsed the picture below on a wall in 'Desire to Inspire' and quite like it.  Though it is vaguely menacing somehow.  Perhaps because I know I'd have to crop out the 4th boat.

To other projects.  Ensemble on left motivated the hunt for the tan sandals.  Just got to get the denim jacket now.

I have to say I'm rather taken with the outfit on the right too, thought possibly not for work.
Remember I mentioned Otto, the little pup I walked along Semaphore with Pru and Colin?

Well this is not a photo of him but one I found in the Australian Winery Dogs Volume 2.  They are of similar age but this photo doesn't capture Otto's fluffy spikiness.  Of course, since I found this photo, Georgia's dog has come to steal my heart away.
On a totally different note, this blog http://thehairhalloffame.blogspot.com.au
always has something on it to amuse.  I have to thank Tamasin for telling me about it.  It also makes me think of the Jolie Madarm hair salon in Launceston which we could never drive pass without me going into hysterics.

The wall

I've had this post in mind for a while.  People seem to love our front wall but I'd prefer a freestone one myself. 

However I love having a wall and it was a selling point for me because it reminded me of the one at my Grandma and Grandpa's place in St Davids.

Here's Mum in 2010 outside what was their cottage.  It was white when I was a child and Grandma festooned the steps and pathways with shells which we used to play with on the wall.  Georgia knows this story and it was rather emotional for me to arrive at our house in April to find that she had placed shells and driftwood along our wall.

Georgia obviously has a thing for walls too.  She sent us this photo of Oscar back in the 1990s and was at the Berlin Wall when it fell in 1989(?).

I have maintained the practice and was a little miffed the other day to come home to find the driftwood bowl and some shells nicked.  I have recovered and accept that someone's need was greater than mine...  And of course I can easily gather some more.
Walls are often built to keep people out or separate.  They always make me think of Pyramus and Thisbe, which makes me think of Bottom and the other rude mechanicals in Midsummer Night's Dream.  Wikipedia says:
'In the play-within-a-play, Tom Snout plays the wall which separates Pyramus' and Thisbe's gardens. In Pyramus and Thisbe, the two lovers whisper to each other through Snout's fingers (representing a chink in the wall). Snout has eight lines under the name of Tom Snout, and two lines as The Wall. He is the Wall for Act V-Scene 1.
Tom Snout was originally set to play Pyramus's father, but the need for a wall was greater, so he discharged The Wall. Snout is often portrayed as a reluctant actor and very frightened, but the other mechanicals (except Bottom and Quince) are usually much more frightened than Tom Snout.'
For some reason I find this screamingly funny and would love to play The Wall.
There is a fence between our garden and our neighbours and it has a gate in it.  I have (I think) previously mentioned Wilma's lovely garden

seen here earlier in Spring.  Today she invited Sis and me to view her new irises.

Wilma and Roger are very excited because we have flowers in our fledgling garden.  The previous owner used to pull the flowers off and dispose of them!

Tripping and new shoes

I have just returned from Adelaide and Corinne's funeral.  It was wonderfully done and I want to hold it in my head for a while.  So I thought I'd share my Portland trip with you, which I have so far neglected to blog.  I will share, though, that Lady Jayne gave me 2 pairs of fabulous shoes, one of which totally negated the need to purchase the ones I bought the week before...  Consequently Mum gave me a big bag with wheels to accommodate the shoe boxes and extra weight.  To be honest, the weight came from books  which fell into my hands, as they do.

March 8th is a very important date for Lady Jayne, my Mum and Dad, and women in general.  It was the day we auctioned River Bank this year, and the day I snuk off to Portland cos I'm too much a coward to attend an auction.  Southern Belle assuaged me with good food,

good drink and great company.

I was allowed to feed the horse

and could have stayed until the cows came home.

For reasons unknown I looked like a cross between my Dad and Fu Manchu.

At the end of Jill's road I stopped to take a photo of Treloars' Roses (remember Jill sent me a Gold Bunny from there recently)

and on the way home I passed through Warracknabeal, now home to the lovely Sashi Babe.

On my way to Triabunna today, I finally remembered to take this photo for Georgia.  Many years ago, Georgia sketched the ironwork on Wirksworth House for an event there held by the Bellerive Historical Society - we used it to publicise the event.  Interesting that the Education Department has had the same idea.

Garden news

A lot of this is not new, but let's start at the very beginning...

Here's the slab for the studio and workshop - which are now fully built and much used.  Note the adjacent highway going through the centre of our garden.

One day we had the bright idea of softening its impact a bit by removing some of the pavers.  Steve set to.

 We were both somewhat stunned by the weight of them.  While Steve is having a rest, note view down side of house to street

and in particular the japonica in the corner.

These blossoms have been a great joy to me.  I've always wanted a japonica.

Looking at the same bush from the front gate.

Those conifer things are going to go - I have a plan.  They look cute and Christmassy but tear your hands to pieces if touch them.  Very welcoming!  That's the ambulance station over the road.

For now, we've done the big works in the garden so Steve can relax for a while.  Note the borrowed landscape, Wilma's lovely garden nextdoor.

A startlingly sunny day and a barbie with Jake and Sarah.

You can always tell when Sarah has been to the house.

Lovely energies linger.

Calm waters

My friend Corinne has died.  These have been turbulent weeks.
Corinne was an Anglophile and a Francophile.  She loved language and was curious about the world.  We have had such good times together.
I picture her richly dressed and stately, floating down a peaceful river.