high up in the trees

A golden wolf to protect your ear from bad news

{GeloBar fancies in East Brunswick.}

As one thing closes, a new thing prepares to begin. LJ & I took down our show, in record time, at Mailbox 141 over the weekend. Fifty odd postcards and small watercolour drawings, which took a fair deal of time to arrange, stack and set up in their mailbox accommodation in February, took all of several minutes, if that, to dismantle in April. Title sheet peeled off the wall, and placed in a plastic folder with the work, and we were out of there before the ten minutes on the parking meter even came close to expiring. And now it’s on to the next, a new exhibition, and this time we have whole walls to play with in place of small compartments.

If you want to help set up, Amisha, Lisa S, Veronica TM, Risa, Crust Station, Fanja, Wendy, and friends, there’s a choc-vanilla cannoli or a slice of panna fragola with your name on it. Or perhaps you'd prefer a hazelnut wheel or a chocolate-custard bigné? Any take your fancy? I’m having a hazelnut star and tiramisu biscuit with my café latte while I wait for you. Shari, what would you like? It’s the least Louise and I can offer since receiving your package of fantastical goods from Durham.

{Thank you, thank you, thank you, Shari. ♥}

Included as part of this wonderful haul seen here, were several postcards, six standard and three giant. Your timing was impeccable, Shari. Just as I was running low on postcards and collage suitable surfaces, yours arrived by post, and I couldn’t be more thrilled at your generous and apt selection... a gibbon and baby at the New York Zoological Park, high up in the trees of their enclosure, the Tempio di Castore e Polluce (Temple of Castor and Pollux), in Roma... why, a Jack rabbit even makes a novel appearance in Texas! There's even one of the legendary Petrified Forest of Arizona printed in candy-coloured brilliance (you’ll get to see them all here, embellished a little, soon). All this as well as an edition of A Public Space book marked to an interview by Roland Kelts with Haruki Murakami, three beautiful polaroids, Me magazine and That Girl Eleven, as well as various other magazine and newspaper clippings of interest. Oh, my! LJ and I are bowled over. We are also grinning like loons. I think you’ll need more than a GeloBar Rum-Baba (sponge soaked in run essence) for $2.80, as a thank you.

(More photos to come, just as soon as I put a lucky golden owl, or should it be the wolf, the pig or the peacock, on a gold sleeper to protect my ear from bad news.)

Now I must away, and bury my nose in rose blooms from SQ & GJ, before their heady fragrance fades. I’ll leave you with a handful of new collages, and see you all in several days time, with the spirit level and a packet of small pins in hand, to set up at Imp. You all did such a marvellous job last time, Paula, Maditi, Marieke, Bugheart (laden down with “macaroons and an arsenal of bugs in separate bags”), Julie, and Lottie too, that I feel sure we’ll be done in no time. I’ll open the trapdoor in readiness… didn’t you know it doubles as a portal from one country to another?

{All was no longer in fog.}

{No cause for alarm, I'm just passing through.}

{A charm in your hand for a coin in the pocket.}

Here’s to a prosperous Friday, one and all.
See you soon...

a trapdoor in every room

Where, oh! Where do I live? Where, oh! Where did the week go? Like a shepherd without my mob of sheep, I’ve lost all track of the past week and, unlike my paper animals, I have no reason for my recent hiatus from life high up in the trees. I have not stood in the morning light with two ladies from Turčiansky in the Žilina Region of northern Slovakia…

{I had lain a present at your feet.}

And I have not been to Stockholm either, like this harp seal, reclining.

{She pays me no attention, none whatsoever.}

(A little note: Whilst he remains unseen by those keen on smelling the roses, he is thankful not to be in Canada… Carnage on the ice? - Please, be warned, this is not an uplifting link and contains graphic images.)

With a sorrowful shake of the head, I can tell you that I have not stumbled across this “most charming place” in Tellskapelle, Switzerland, with a yellow mud turtle as my guide. Mrs W.P.Smith was fortunate enough to on the 1st of September, and she told S.Giles Hill all about it for the cost of a stamp. Nor have I been to the London Zoological Gardens in recent days to meet this odd couple behind bars... a polar bear and a fossa from Madagascar.

{The yellow mud turtle arrived on the Wednesday.}

{This is not the home of the lace maker.}

(A second small note: Did you know that yellow mud turtles have been known to spend the cooler months, amongst other places, in the den of muskrats? Should you ever come across one in your travels, they are usually very shy and are not known to bite. I can't say the same for the muskrats though.)

It will come as no surprise to you then, to learn that I have not been idle in Russia nor Budapest either.

{The lock was broken but the door still worked.}

{They formed a circle and I knew not what to do.}

What have I been doing? Well, I’ve been drawing and collaging, and noticing that the spider on the passenger side of the car has her work cut out for her with autumn. Her web on the side mirror is littered with leaf debris, poor soul. No tasty insect morsels just a host of leaf matter to contend with. And when you can’t find me here, I’ll more than likely be kitted out in my finest Green Crusader cloak over at Sew Green.

And now, friends, I’d like to invite you all officially to -
A TRAPDOOR IN EVERY ROOM
Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison

2nd of May - 27th of May, 2007

Opening celebrations
Saturday 5th of May
2-4pm

At
IMP
above Greville St Bookstore
145 Greville St, Prahran
Wed/Sun 12noon-5pm

Now, I am off to see When the Road Bends: Tales of a Gypsy Caravan, for "You cannot walk straight when the road bends..." - Romani proverb. (See a little more here.)

Wishing you all a brilliant or relaxing weekend (or both, if you choose), you pick, it's up to you.

(Before I forget, thank you, Cally, for alerting me to Nikolai Sutyagin's 13 storey dacha... will you "look at that view"! LJ & I are planning to make a collaborative drawing based on this very structure. Thanks, again ♥)

Easter in Corfu

{It had to be said, it reminded them of home.}

I have spent my Easter break with the young Gerald Durrell on the Greek island of Corfu, with his family and many, many animals. We have passed through “France rain-washed and sorrowful, Switzerland like a Christmas cake, Italy exuberant, noisy and smelly… and entered the bright, looking-glass world of Greece” (The Migration, p.18). Having never been to Corfu before, or indeed Greece, it seemed like an idyllic spot to spend the days leading up to and following Easter. An island best explored through the eyes of a ten year old budding naturalist and conservationist in 1935. I have sped along white roads “lined with prickly pears like a fence of green plates each cleverly balanced on another’s edges, and splashed with knobs of scarlet fruit…” past hills and valleys like “an eiderdown of olive-groves that shone with a fish-like gleam where the breeze touched the leaves”… and past cypress-trees seemingly “painting the sky a still brighter blue” (The Unsuspected Isle, p.29) as they undulate gently, and reached the Strawberry-pink Villa with my new travelling companions, Larry, Leslie, Margo, the aforementioned, Gerald, their Mother, and Roger the dog. Soon I’ll be knocking on the door of the Daffodil-Yellow Villa and later settling into the Snow-White Villa.

Having watched My Family and Other Animals on the telly only recently, the book of the same name seemed the perfect next novel to read. Zoli and her skirts with pebbles and stones sewn into there hems, is preparing to take Louise on a journey just as soon as Judith Hermann and her short stories (Nothing But Ghosts) have put her back down.

{A new den better than the last.}

{Mount Iwakiyama was hard to say but the American badger knew he'd adjust.}

{A leopard seal was not normally encountered on such walks but then nothing felt normal about today.}

Speaking of books, several BookCrossing numbers have been picked up in various places and are being read with the promise of release. Last of the Templars has already breakfasted at Ici, and the Last Kabbalist of Lisbon no longer sits twiddling his thumbs, watching the locals wash their laundry at the Posh Wash. I am still tempted to release many more books. Sometime next week, expect to find The Lord of the Flies beside you as you tuck into a scone at a favourite local café or an, as yet to be decided, book beside you at your usual tram stop. Louise has perfected the inviting angle, claiming it’s all in the placement of the book that leads to it being ‘found’. The angle, be it tilted to the left or right, beams “pick me, pick me!” to any keen-eyed folk who happen to be nearby. And thus far it has worked.

When not exploring the island, planning future book releases or reacquainting myself with the absolute basics of knitting, Easter was spent, like many, feasting on too, too much. A double cinnamon sponge cake with jam and cream was baked and savoured, and a delicious fish curry with jasmine rice was prepared and enjoyed before we reached the sweet portion of the day, all with a white plastic rabbit (part of an optical illusion toy from the bookstore) as our pagan centrepiece. We dined outdoors in the garden at two tables pushed together to form one, and covered in floral tablecloths, and it could only have been more idyllic had the sea been lapping gently at our bare heels. I have always wanted to eat at a table placed on the waters edge with my feet in the shallow salty water and my back resting against a chair. It seems something so ridiculous and marvellous all at the one time.

Yes, Easter has left me full and contented, and with much to do this week. And whilst it is already Tuesday, you ought to swing by Handmaid and catch colour week. After a turquoise Monday followed by a green Tuesday, tomorrow is pink. It’s not too late to join in.

And we're also having a sale over at our hammer & daisy store. Until the 6th of May, postage is FREE, to any destination regardless of size, be it tiny or slightly larger.

Before I flee, Alyssa of Moving Garden forwarded me another YouTube gem… enjoy! Une Nuit Sur Le Mont Chauve (Night on Bald Mountain), Alexandre Alexeieff & Claire Parker, 1933. (Thanks, Alyssa ♥)

for the bookworms...

{Jumping not just puddles but whole rivers too.}

{No one seemed to mind so I proceeded to help myself.}

A quick post what with Easter around the corner and eggs to be found. Before I slide into the Easter holiday, hot cross bun in hand ("Hot cross buns, Hot cross buns, Everybody loves hot cross buns. If you have no daughters, give them to your sons, one ha' penny, two a penny, Hot Cross Buns"), collage works have to be finished in order to be transformed into four colour prints by Bernie’s lithographic offset press, and novels have to be left at tram stops and other like destinations. The usual race against the clock, which I love, is in full swing.

When not tinkering on a collage, I have been dropping off novels around the city, at tram stops, favourite cafés and Post Offices. I am a recent convert to BookCrossing, ever since my Mum discovered a book, By Blood & Fire, at the Journal café. By Blood & Fire had led a rather tame existence, high up on the hanging shelf at Journal. With a white sticker adhered to its cover it had been left by a bookworm over a year ago, and labelled “I'm a travelling book. I'm not lost - I'm on a journey. Pick me up, read, and release me!”… which is exactly what my Mum did.

{A handful of books set free on a journey.}

Bookcrossing, a somewhat global phenomenon, is where you can log in to report any found books (using their BCID number penned inside the front cover). After chancing upon a found book, leafing through its pages and registering it online, the idea is to set it free for some other soul to discover en route to work or the supermarket or local pub. I’ve already set up an account and have released several books into the wild, as has Louise and my Mum.

A copy of Second Honeymoon passed on to me by Frances several months ago is now “in the wild” and awaiting someone to pick it up and read. Have the Men Had Enough? has already disappeared from the tram stop by the footy oval and the local Bowling Club, Daughters of Britannia: The Lives and Times of Diplomatic Wives, too, has already set off on a journey (though neither have been registered yet… perhaps they never will be?). George Eliot’s Middlemarch has already found its way into the hands of an avid reader, “I must have picked this book up not long after it was released. After a hard day at work, l realised l did not have a book on me... and when l found this l was pleasantly surprised” and it is now sure to end up living a very full and well travelled life. And it's no surprise that Baumgartner's Bombay has already been snaffled given its first welcoming sentence... "Although she had fled the blood-splattered scene and fled the collected crowd of identical individuals - one-legged, nose-picking, vigilant-eyed - and hurried down the street at a speed uncommon for her, a speed no one would have thought possible on those high red heels that were no longer firm but wobbled drunkenly under the weight of her thick, purple-veined legs Lotte slowed down as she neared her door." Not quite, If on a winter's night a traveler but who could go past an opening line that includes so many hyphens... "purple-veined legs", "nose-picking", "vigilant-eyed", "blood-splattered", and "one-legged" too.

So, if you are hankering to spring clean your bookshelf or in the midst of moving home, you may wish to think of releasing a few books into the wild and see how they go. Or, like some, you may have a favourite book you wish to share with the world at large (me, I prefer to keep my dog-eared favourites… at this stage). Or you may be lucky enough to find one, perhaps whilst on an Easter egg hunt or strolling about your local area. (Find books, complete with essential though sometimes vague, directions, here. Books have been set free in Israel, Luxembourg, Greece, France, Finland etc. etc. There's even two registered in Slovakia and one in Vietnam. Happy hunting! Happy registering!)

One book I am not setting free at this very moment is Rouen, a book of postcards in B&W that I have collaged over. You may remember it from a little while back… plenty of kingfishers and Blue-eared barbets taking over the city and giant eggs on the horizon (that’s birds eggs I’m afraid, not those of the chocolate variety). Well, I’m pleased to say it’s finished (almost). No, I’m pretty sure it’s finished. Here’s a little peek:

{Outside and in, a few page details.}

And Louise's polar bears have left the confines of the page and have branched out into catering. Finger food specialists – hmm, yes, I bet they are. It wouldn't surprise me if next time those bears branched out into poetry.

{A suitable tee for the driver of the van perhaps... found here.}

Happy Easter to many (…though I should pop up here again before Easter).
Happy week to all.