high up in the trees

seen today (take III)

{Cathedrale facade and a Blue-banded kingfisher}

{Olive and the library books of many foreign sniffs}

Time once more for some late Friday afternoon sights, a little list of things 'seen today' on this pre Grand Final day (Go Swannies!).

I've been out stretching my legs once more in the scenic city of Rouen... I can't seem to escape the place. Whilst there I have seen a further continuance of the bird invasion. Today a near threatened male Paradise flycatcher from Japan has joined the winged and beaked ranks, last seen inside the Cathedral making like a statue.

I have also seen a Large Green-pigeon who looked every inch and every feather worthy of his name, happily nestled amidst the architectural finery of La Grosse Horloge. Find panoramic bird collages to whet your appetite for travel over this way...
Panorama, DES QUAIS (complete with the page crease)
Panorama, VU DE LA COTE SAINTE-CATHERINE 
Panorama, BOIELDIEU (be mindful of the woodpeckers...)
Panorama, VU DE BON-SECOURS

Feeling weary from your travels? Then perhaps you need Melon Jam from the Good Samaritan Centre, Coragulac, brought back as a memento from my parents for LJ and I to enjoy on seven seed bread, lightly toasted if you please. This, as yet unopened jar of jam sealed with wax, is one of the many things my eyes have seen fit to rest upon today - a $3 heavenly bargain made by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan of the Order of StBenedict.

Further things include...
The catalogue to Raymonda... featuring 50's style costumes that glitter under stage lights.
Red & White Swans fans in the city.
Our artists' book 101 ways to get to your favoured destination in a little cabinet at the rmit university library.
Heavy art books piled high like a mini paper city for the cats to sniff and rub against and for me to scan for images.
The first of the (still small) wolf spiders weaving her finely spun trap by the backdoor in readiness for the Summer.
Spent jasmine flowers littering the floor of the back garden.
Plastic bags, one green, the other white, full of used postage stamps.
Wilting lavender in a white jug and dust by the computer.
Scribbled thoughts on paper for a new zine with LJ & Gaby... a follow up to this one and this... (Hmm, something to do with Climate Change, we'll have to wait and see.)
&
A tapestry bag in need of repair lest the straps break.

{Cathedrale - Tombeau des Cardinaux D'Ambroise and a Japanese Paradise flycatcher}

{La Grosse Horloge and the Large Green-pigeon}

{Saint-Ouen and two saintly looking Blue-eared barbets and one Golden-throated barbet}

Happy weekend travels, be they actual or imagined!

lately...

{A Boobook owl - by day they roost in thick foliage or sometimes at Porte Guillaume Lion, Rouen.}

Lately I've been doing things in the reverse order... starting at the end.

Starting at the end of Picasso and Dora Maar's relationship instead of at the beginning, when they first met. On advice from L, we started Picasso: Love & War 1935 - 1945. Life with Dora Maar. at the end in order to soak in the paintings I've only ever seen reproduced on a page. Now I'm all a quiver to explore India ink. I had planned to see the exhibition a couple of times however now that it is in its closing weeks it seems unlikely that I shall return. I'll have to content myself with the weighty catalogue which includes many works not in the show.

I am still fascinated with the goings on in Rouen where sacred kingfisher in breeding plumage and bright eyed Bay owls continue to stake their claim, carving out their piece of the famous landscape.

Of late I am also receiving and posting snail mail. Music by Pergolesi Porpora and white chocolate black tea has arrived from Rue Nova 11 from Paula (thank-you ♥) just as a parcel addressed to Risa leaves our shores (a two dimensional St Lucy giant rice-rat and Martinique giant rice-rat inside a cardboard box... plus a little something extra). I have finally completed my postcards for Frips add and return and mailart projects too (join the postage trail here and here...).

{don't wrong human rights is an add and return call by frips... here is mine, front and back.}

{For Frips mailart, front and back... with tiny holes.}

Some Tuesday evening links to peruse...
Emperor Anushirvan hears owls remarking on the number of ruined villages in his kingdom - a miniature painting from a sixteenth century manuscript of Nizami's Khamsa (Five Poems).
Korean palace furniture - from a court manuscript showing furniture used at celebration of the 60th anniversary of the consummation in 1749 of the marriage of Lady Hyegyong, and Crown Prince Sado.
A Stork-billed Kingfisher with no adequate vision.
Common Kingfisher stamps from many destinations.
The Roosevelt Bears at the Circus - a bear in red and green costume, clings to the back of a giraffe.
"Now we shant be long" - a bear, a Russian Military Cap perched on his head and a sword at his side, marches along a road marked "To Berlin", circa 1915.
And of course, a trio of snowy polar bears by none other than Louise.

seen today (take II)

{A juvenile Common Kingfisher - Fontaine Sainte-Marie}

{A Kingfisher piercing a ball of light - Palais de Justice, La Cour D'Assises}

{Two Golden-throated Barbets - Plateau de Bon-Secours}

Seen today - the path to Rouen has no rakali nor little penguins
The streets of Rouen, France have been taken over by a realm of Kingfisher (a newly discovered, rather wonderful collective noun which can't help but sound magical as it trips off the tongue)... a descent of woodpeckers, a loft of pigeons and a stare of owls (but you can have a parliament of owl friends if you prefer). Yes, the historical capital city of Normandy, thanks to my trusty Officeworks gluestick and sharp pair of scissors, is now a bird and a bird lover's paradise. A small blue book with large silver lettering on the cover, proudly boasting the Rouen coat of arms in the bottom right, has been commandeered by myself. A suitable home for several new collages with a distinct feathery vibe. Twenty-four beautiful B&W postcard worthy photographs of Rouen's le Musée, fountaine Sainte-Marie, Cathedrales (including a certain Notre Dame) and Hotels, have now all been doctored... a Tahitian Kingfisher of giant proportions happily rests on top of la Croix de Pierre, unnoticed by several locals below. Three woodpeckers disturb an otherwise scenic view of the Pont Boieldieu... and over at the Plateau de Bon-Secours, two Barbets wreck merry havoc with the manicured garden beds. Four double page panoramic spreads also feature in this little book and they too have been overrun with birds let loose from the aviary.

Book details:
Rouen, France - Pittoresque & Monumentale
Héliotypie de E. LE DELEY
Imprimeur-Editeur
73, Rue Claude-Bernard, 73, Paris

{Seen: ocean blue}

{Seen: white parcels, for the glass doorknob}

{Seen: blue winged Kingfisher and Omar's tail}

I have also seen the waves at StKilda beach as we five attempted to walk upright on a windy, windy day. Louise and her Grandma, my parents and I, all walking the length of the pier in order to reach the kiosk at the other end... the promise of hot chips urging us to persist in our afternoon quest. Walking the length of the pier I mainly caught sight of my hair as it whipped me in the face repeatedly. Sand stuck to my lips and the wind blew my hair lank. Even now I can taste the salt on my lips and feel trace elements of sand on my face and in my ears. We saw no sign of rakali (about 20 odd Rakali, native water rats, are known to inhabit the St.Kilda Breakwater, feasting on mussels and tube worms...) nor little penguin either, they were no doubt still out hunting small fish and squid in the shallow waters.

These are but a few things I have seen today... how about you?

bumps, scratches & snail mail

{Snail mail and Passenger pigeons on top and inside a favourite book}

I have little injuries and bruises, marks and scars all over my person and not just from a morning spent for the better half trimming the white hibiscus over run with jasmine and cutting back the no longer flowering, rose coloured bottlebrush in readiness for hard rubbish collection. I have a host of tell tale marks and cuts, bumps and scratches which I have accumulated over my lifetime, some more visible than others. Faint pink scratches remain on my kneecaps, the result of many a run-in with that most unforgiving of all playground ground covers - tanbark. Small and hard pieces of tanbark to cushion your fall as you fell off the swing or flew too fast down the metal slide.

I also have a small, increasingly faint, series of pale splodges on several of my fingers which bear witness to accidentally electrocuting myself at around the age of eleven. Proudly showing a Primary School chum a power cable to a standard lamp which my black dwarf rabbit, Button, had seen fit to chew through, I zapped myself with electric current.

The following year I performed a rollerskating stunt which saw me careering down a concrete ramp only to bite into the wall at the other end, smashing my right front tooth in half. Thanks to my quick thinking friend who had the sense to pick up all the pieces of my tooth from the now bloody wall, my dentist was able to literally glue all the pieces back together again... (a little similar to a certain nursery rhyme, though with a happy outcome). A metal pin inserted up the middle of the tooth to anchor all the pieces in place, like beams in the ceiling or studs in the wall. A further spot of dental putty and it was almost as good as new. Today it is a browner shade than its neighbours and will one day need to be fixed again (though in order to do this the tooth will need to be sanded back and the infamous pin removed - something I am in no great hurry to endure).

So you see, I have many odd, distinguishing marks... not too many, but enough, and I know them all well.

{Dear Mister President, a letter and book by Marc Snyder}

I also have, in my hot little hands, wonderful snail mail from Marc Snyder of the Fiji Island Mermaid Press - Dear Mister President and Once upon a time, a homage to Martha the last Passenger pigeon who passed away at 1pm on the 1st of September in 1914 at the Cincinnati Zoological Garden. Leaf through the pages of a few like marvels... How To Draw Sigmund Freud... How To Be A Magician In Three Easy Steps... and a little Humpty Dumpty connected madness, The Day Before His Great Fall before dropping by to say "hello".

"'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.'"

Continue to discuss semantics and pragmatics with Alice and Humpty Dumpty here, in this chapter from Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.

After the fall
I wish I had a Dwarf rabbit
True Animal Facts

seen today

I've left myself with little time to compile a Five Senses Friday posting so perhaps I'll harness together a list of (some) things I have seen out and about today...

Things I have seen today (in no particular order... and between 7am and 7pm):

A view of the State Library of Victoria's domed roof, as spied from the opposite rooftop, building 2 at rmit.

The inside of the white domed roof, later observed from a comfy armchair on the fourth floor of the library during my lunch hour.

The page of John James Audubon's book of giant proportions The birds of America (1827-38) on display as part of a permanent exhibition, has been turned since my last visit. Where once there stood a giant bird of prey, there can now be found a host of common mockingbirds taunting a serpent as they defend their young.

The dust of Pomegranate scented dusting powder from Santa Maria Novella momentarily suspended in the air as I empty the contents of the talc into the floral canister.

A The Prince and the Pauper experience in my very own home. A spot of feline switcheroo takes place under my very nose. Misha, our adopted outdoor (once stray) cat undertakes the role of Tom Canty (though without the tyrannical father figure, "poor rags" and nights spent living in a hovel)... and Olive plays the part of the Young Prince Edward. Mishi having pawed at the back wire door, undetected by all, had elected to let herself in... leaving the door to the outside world ajar for Olive to later slip through. How long they explored each others kingdoms is yet to be known... if ever. I found Mishi underneath the table sniffing at the computer cables and Olive, also sniffing, out by the garden compost down the side of the house.

Many, many pixels as I erase little black specs one by one from a white background... zooming in and zooming out in order to catch each and every offending mark and squiggle before the file can be saved to disc.

The spine of a new Inspector Montalbano novel Rounding the Mark greets my eye every time I open my bag - it is waiting to be read.

A red and white missed parcel calling card in the letterbox.

The surprised look on the faces of the local Post Office staff when I tell them that it's not a dvd in that Amazon box buy a handful of cds... "Oh! Do people still but cds?! I thought everyone downloaded stuff these days?!"

Cds which now I must go and listen to... happy weekend to you.

Some weekend links to follow:
Northern Mockingbird eggs
A bird's-eye view of Florence
The Sea Birds' Home
Shooting Birds of Paradise
Some of the birds hurried off at once
Filming The Prince and the Pauper in 1937 with Errol Flynn

a silver bird for my finger

I have a small silver bird, made by local jeweller Emma Grace, which happily sits on my finger. He has finally arrived and has taken to perching on my right hand as I type, as I walk and as I potter about. Yet to meet my golden owl with the bright eyes, I am quietly confident that they'll get along... after all they both have feathers so they ought to rub along nicely. If they don't, then I'll have to wear them alternate days, though that wont be easy as I love them both too much.

Aside from now being the proud owner of a silver bird suspended in flight, I also have an owl pair who've been busily collecting eggs and jewels, assisted by some of Audubon's Eastern chipmonks.

I also have a small Thirteen-lined ground squirrel with an egg for a tail, to keep me company whilst a yellow figure on horseback in Bhutan orbits between two giant eggs.

May you also find a mysterious creature or bird in the woods, down the street or in the corner of your room, to sing in your ear and tell you tall tales.

(Psst... our new Footy Essentials zine has hit the news stands... find out a little more here and here... and snap one up here.)

5 senses with a 31 tilt

{My Mr Nutmeg and the original Dixie cat}

I think for most of my 31 years I can safely say that I have always had a cat. Sometimes two cats, sometimes two cats and several pet mice (in my Primary School years), at other times cats plus a dog... but always, always there is a cat in the equation. Perhaps the only time there wasn't a cat physically in the house with me was just after I was born. Dixie (I) went off to live in StArnaud with my Grandma as a sort of replacement for her Siamese cat Ming who had recently passed away. Since then though, there has always been a feline resident under the roof. Several "he's" were mistaken for "she's" by friends and family alike... one even had a penchant for asparagus. A Father's Day feast enjoyed outdoors in the sunshine last weekend reminded me of my Dixie (II)'s love of asparagus lightly cooked. As we sat underneath the trees eating black pepper and pumpkin pasta with asparagus on Saturday, I thought of Dixie, the lilac Siamese from my childhood, who all those years ago enjoyed a varied and very human diet.

This year we bumped Father's Day forward a day as Hawthorn were playing their last match of the Season on the actual day. We feasted on agnolotti filled with pinenuts and hunks of fresh bread, and later a serve of coconut vegetables on a mound (no other word could possibly do it justice) of rice... all the while Stella the British Blue, behaving in increasingly uncatlike ways. Stella grew up on a diet of octopus scraps as a kitten before my Mum adopted her at an early age. Stella to this day has a slightly manic disposition and does not take kindly to ringtail possums or other cats in 'her' garden.

{Celebration}

Other pets who you may not have yet met... my big old ginger tom, Nutmeg, who passed away Winter, 2003. He liked to sleep with his head propped up against the wheel of our neighbours parked car, on the passengers side... a constant source of anxiety. Luckily for all concerned, they always checked the tires before they drove off. Nutmeg was not so lucky the day he collided with a passing milk truck. Ever since that incident his breathing became more laboured and heavy... worthy of a prank caller or a constant smoker. He liked to sleep in the sun which didn't agree with his redheads complexion. He also liked to sit and watch you. Pet cats have been on my mind, no doubt since reading of Lisa S's Moe and Shari's Miles.

I fear I've left myself little room for my usual Friday Five Senses, I'll try to squeeze them in nonetheless.

to feel:
Happy Birthday emails and comments from you all - they made me smile!
Super soft towels (the kind you never buy for yourself, thanks CS & RB).
Elated - a new painted bird, made in Japan, flies into my collection, part of a birthday present from my parents.

to smell:
The smell of the candles as I blow them out, all 3 plus 1.
Kai perfume oil on my wrist.
And... after the recent Spring downpour, the fresh smell of the yellow roses in the front garden and wild, mind of its own jasmine blooming on the fence line.

{A Father's Day feast and a Japanese bird}

to hear:
Strains of "Happy Birthday" & "Hip, Hip, Hooray" on Wednesday.
The footsteps of our neighbour recently returned from several years overseas... our hallway butts up alongside hers, running parallel, separated only by bricks and mortar. The tenants she had rented to in her absence had a softer, barely audible shuffle. We now have a new series of sounds to adjust to.

to see:
Drawings of footy players, of footy scarves, of handheld radios adorned in Club colours and more, guillotined and ready to be assembled into a new zine imaginatively called FOOTY ESSENTIALS.
Water in a huge pothole on the road near our house which refuses to dry out. If ducks take up residence there few would be surprised... it's practically a lake, and a swampy, gravely one at that.
A row of yellow tea towels on the line which previously we'd used in place of table napkins.

to taste:
Top of the list, why it has to be a slice (or two) of Birthday cake, coffee chocolate mousse (a light mousse lined with a thin layer of sponge and strega liqueur)... which looked a little like this one here from Brunetti's, though more like this one, on LJ's blog.
Organic sandwiches from the The Green Grocer with humus and marinated eggplant and capsicum.
Licorice, also from The Green Grocer, from Green Grove Organics. It tastes unlike any other licorice I've had the pleasure of tasting.
An outdoor Father's Day feast spectacular, enjoyed post cooking the morning away, after yoga. Plenty of tasty leftovers all round... to see out the week.

Happy weekend all and thanks for all the birthday cheer!

just shy of 31

{they are not wearing a comfortable slip-on shoe that is worn indoors, they are wearing footy boots}

Mischievous scamps, footy boots and ballet slippers all go together this week.

I've been working (finally... and just in the nick of time before the Finals commence) on my long overdue contribution to a collaborative footy zine with both LJ and my Mum. The cover of a 1985 Footy Record from September 28 (Vol. 74, No. 27) Hawthorn vs. Essendon, serving as suitable collage material for my twelve images (find more on over here in due course...). The little legs wrapped in their stripy football socks and black studded boots every bit as dainty as the red slippered Indian miniatures once snipped with a pair of super sharp scissors.

{ambling around the gallery in neither slippers nor boots}

From sitting cross-legged on the floor, cutting out little paper legs of Lions, Demons, Hawks and Swans one evening... it was merely a hop, skip and shuffle over to the circle at the State Theatre last night to see the Royal New Zealand Ballet - Trinity... Esquisses, Les Noces and Banderillero (choreographed by Javier De Frutos, Banderillero, the name of the bullfighter who taunts the bull in the arena preparing it for the matador's kill... was easily my favourite of the three... with the dancers barefoot and contained within a central white square on the floor of an all black set...).

En route to Officeworks to stock up on stickers and other essential zine making equipment, we swing by IMP exhibition space (imp noun. 1. a small demon. 2. a mischievous: brat, demon, devil, rascal, rogue, scamp, troll, villain.) to take a few photos of the space and our work in Dervish for you to steal a glance at (find more of this over here as well...).

{IMP exhibition space & design store}

Further things bubbling on the stove? Hmm... tomorrow I turn 31, officially as the clock chimes 6.13 in the evening. I have more than an inkling that there will be a cake involved... a quick peek in the fridge confirming my suspicions. Nestled between the half empty jar of green curry paste and a bag of tomatoes sits a maroon cardboard box, Brunetti written across the top of it. Any more than this I do not know. Until tomorrow...

5 spring senses

The first day of Spring and the first day of the month of September, seems only fitting that I mark this occasion with a promised return to Friday Five Senses.

To see:
Bubbles, the cat who lives next door to one of the local mechanics, leaves a large drool patch on the toe of my chocolate puma speed cats. Several neat drops also fall onto his paw and chest as he rolls on the asphalt, belly rotated upward... they look like small glistening gems on his champagne coloured coat. He sniffs the backs of my legs for news from the local cats several blocks away. Walking home in the afternoon sun, pausing to pat the various cats and the odd dog sunning on the footpath is a treat.

Snail mail... an invite to The Greatest? - the 15th Annual Footy Art Show at the Artist's Garden (First bounce: Friday 8th of September. Final Siren: Monday 9th of October, 2006.) arrives in the post. My mum will have four footy inspired works hanging on the walls (Find last years footy icons here... and a few more icons over this way.). An Alice in Wonderland postcard also lands in the letterbox inviting me to a tea party with a white rabbit... sent from my Dad whilst exploring Charles Blackman.

The elaborate packing crates for New Romantic (Golden Hare) and friends, seen whilst helping to dismantle a small pocket of LW's recent exhibition.

Watching episodes of Inspector Rex, an Austrian canine detective series created in '94, which enjoys a loyal local following here. Daggy music and dog stunts... so very, very relaxing.

Catching sight of Harry on C & R's harrycam.

To taste:
A mini lemon tart quickly enjoyed in a sunny spot at Mr Tulk (named after Mr Augustus Henry Tulk, the Library's first Chief Librarian) before sliding on through to look up mammals and birds at the SLV in my lunch break. I now have a pile of B&W photocopies (and a few colour ones as well) of grass owls, masked owls and sooty owls, shown more often than not with a rodent caught in their claws. A page of nine dark forest green kingfishers all shown in profile turned to the left, look out of the book page... they were at the top of my list of pages to be photocopied.

To hear:
The sounds of Balkan Beat Box fills the house... (hear tracks here)... Jean-Pierre Bertrand, Real Boogie Woogie and Sasha Kolpakov, Rodava Tut (I look for you).

The muffled buzz of other peoples conversations in cafes.

The faint hum of several ipods in use at the library.

The happy click of 'add to shopping cart' on Amazon... Gogol Bordello, Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike is making its way to me.

To feel:
A wave of nausea, watching Omar clamber to the top of the kitchen cupboards, a black paw narrowly missing an incident with the fish bowl inhabitants, only to vomit the entire contents of his stomach over the edge. It hit the floor with a splatter, it dribbled down the sides of the cupboards, it dangled from his chin... and it made me feel nauseous, disgusted and amused all at the one time. The joys of pet ownership.

The imagined smooth feel of the eggs of the Common Murre and Great Auk (as seen here on LJ's blog last week), with their beautiful calligraphy like markings. Their pointed shape an ingenious design ensuring their precious eggs if toppled roll in a circle rather than heartbreakingly over a steep cliff ledge. The intricate individual scribbles on each egg acting as a marker for the parents.

The feel of the ladder as I climb up it to arrange the owls... and relief that the window all went to plan.

Enjoyment - playing along with Shari's Compound Word Project. It's not too late to miss all the fun over here.

To smell:
Spring in the air, of course.

The smell of brown rice simmering in the rice cooker.

The sea air in the early evening, leaving C & R's place

Hero Rats have an excellent sense of smell, found via Daphne of mezereem. Ever resourceful, ever adaptable, wonder rats trained to uncover landmines. Due to their light weight and their easy to tame, easy to train nature, the little guys, once fully trained detect landmines with their trainers. Swing by the 'making a hero' section to glean a little more... or their 'adopt a rat' programme.

{Three new collages for you}

Feel free to add your own sensory highs and lows in the comments section... and happy weekend!