beneath a tree

A Casuarina. Love how they look both dry & watery,
& sigh in the wind.

Looks like there's a series of buddhas, appearing.
This one was against a wonderful old brick wall at Ayutthaya,
have transposed him to a stone wall from Sydney with
a similar shape, a time shadow.

A gorgeous little handmade house.

wattle

The wattles (acacias) are out, I thought that was meant to be
in spring? Computer was being fixed for a day, the fans died.
Debated whether to change to a mac,
but I'm happy with a pc, why bother?

I've seen one grain of rice engraved, but this is new

embroidery

Bought the Virgin of Guadalupe piece in Chiapas, southern Mexico,
(the vendor was selling those embroidery hoops, & made this while
he waited) & the larger piece in Guatemala. The crafts in both
countries are spectacularly colourful & varied, cant find any sites
that show a good range, you'll just have to go there !

A few days ago I mentioned a sculptor/artist friend
in Mexico who designs wonderful buildings of all kinds.
Isn't this small chapel just perfect? They sent me this photo
last year. The residences also have a wonderfully organic form,
with such sympathetic proportions & materials.
Write a comment if you want more details.

patterns

Patterns at the beach.
Woke this morning with some old patterns/habits running
full blast. Once again. Entertained them for a grumpy breakfast,
luckily saw something of how those ones work.. then had the day
making a slide show for my new digital photo frame.

other extravagances I'd like: any/all these Bibliodyssey books

like summer

It was like a summers day, went to the beach with friends &
their dog. Lots of dunes & their trees have been washed away.
Walking through the reserve, there are vines & grasses
& mostly native species like Banksias. The ball of dry sea grass
is a natural process, I think, a little like when spinifex grass
is blown in the wind, only underwater. The calligraphic grass
isn't thriving in my garden ~ looks good dry, too.

No longer being updated, still good Pingmag

pagodas

In 1982 I took a boat down the Yangtze from Chungking
to Shanghai, through the fabled gorges. Really marvellous.
Much of the built-up areas were oppressively industrial & ugly,
the air heavy with pollution, dripping with humidity ~
these pagodas meant more than a glimpse through time.
My plan had been to go to Urumchi, so I could get to the caves
of the thousand Buddhas, but almost immediately revised it,
it was just so difficult as a single traveller without the language,
on a budget. Besides, I really wanted to visit at the
time of Sir Aurel Stein. Read many of his accounts of the different
explorations, with incredibly detailed maps.

One of the great chinese classics in a brilliant translation

colour of time

More of colourful Mexico. There are new modern buildings
of course, though I'm always drawn to textured surfaces that
show the passage of time.

Needless to say I love these works by Valerie Hegarty