Just above freezing nights, but clear, sunny and in the 60’s during the days – glorious! Due to its location,the city has four distinct seasons. And due to its being a planned city, it has a healthy mix of deciduous non-native trees amongst its indigenous ones. That is rather nice, too!
I am ensconced in a visiting professor flat within the fiber workshop which is part of the Art Department and have full access to the dye studio – yippee! Had a pot already cooking within 15 hours of arriving. Here are some of my initial results from the surrounding plant life:
Loving those gentle colors!
More downed leaves collected – off to the studio for today’s pot!
Have to fill you in on a detail from our drive back to Perth.
When we first drove to Lake Grace we used a route that took us through the town of Wagin (long ‘a’, soft ‘g’). Stopped in a park to use the public facilities with the great paper towels – very nice park, BTW, and ate a quick lunch. Bit of historical area to drive through and then out of town and down the road.
The return trip used the same route but in reverse, of course. This time … There was this sudden vision of a HUGE white ram’s head looming over the trees – the same trees where we had sheltered under for our lunch four days earlier! Had to stop again, but this time to check out the Big Ram that Wagin is proudly displaying. Sheep country, of course. EVERYTHING on the ram is HUGE!
Can’t believe we missed it the first time through!
Had a great day yesterday (Wednesday) introducing Perthians/Perthites? to the fun of working with sausage casing. Some really nice items were developed – will post a block of pics on my flickr page at some point, but not today.
Today was spent chillin’ at home, catching up on emails and finances, gathering more olives off the ground, giving Martien a hard time, walking around the block, bundling more op shop clothes. Here are pics of the olives, currajong and lemon gum that I used:
And here are the lovely things ripening on the back yard:
If I wait any longer to write in the hopes of getting pics up first, you might never hear from me! Multiple pics seem to undo me, so…
Perth is quite lovely, weather, location and people. Martien and Geri have fully welcomed me into their home, along with the ever present Clementine.
We’ve been full swing into the Easter holidays here since my arrival last Thursday. Friday was the annual Pétanque tournament – didn’t win but also did not come in dead last! The best part of the tourney held along the Swan River, besides the great group of friends that I became part of for the day, was the numerous stoppings for tea and lunch and more tea. (Tea here means a whole lot more than just something to drink!)
A good part of Saturday was spent op shopping (think Goodwill and St Vincent shops) for items to be used in natural dyeing and/or mudcloth.
Sunday saw us enjoying Kings Park as well as a park further east on the Swan River where we also did our bit to keep fires to a minimum by gathering up various leaves and plant material.
Monday Martien got the fire going under a large stainless steel roaster and, after some rolling and tying of cloth/plant material/sticks, we gave the whole bit a go in hot rusty nail water for several hours. Patient waiting overnight before checking on the outcomes.
This morning held a bit of crisp chill in the air; it has warmed up very nicely. Our bundles have been unwrapped and magic has happened
We will do more dyeing next Monday when Wendy comes over. ITMT, casing calls as we prep for the class tomorrow.
Posting pics will happen, just not promising when!
Yesterday was a most deloghtful day in that it was sunny – for the most part – and full of good things.
Started the morning wih poached eggs on rye accompanied by the sauteed saffron caps (mushrooms) from the other night – yum! Played with the resident dogs (Ooshi does like to catch balls!), experimented a bit more with the mushrooms that Kath and I collected the other day, hiked down the trails – including the 500 Ferber Steps – into the Katoomba Falls area, rode the railroad up the steepest incline in the world and ended the day (after many lovely conversations with Kath) with a lovely meal of prawns, rice and stir fried veggies.
Today was a drizzly day – perfect for repacking all my stuff. Jude scooped me up – after a scrumptious tea of cheeses, hummus and smoked salmon – and delivered me to the vacation home in Leura that I am sharing with three other tutors. Quite spacious and right in the midst of a gum forest. Took time for a bit a walk into the town center hoping for an internet connection, but ended up just drinking a smooth iced chocolate.
