high up in the trees

from cover to cover

{Please, take me with you... I don't come empty handed.}

I managed to catch, pick up, come down with, succumb to a cold of late, acquiring it just in the nick of time. Not normally one to have the need of a tissue in my pocket, I have been in the firm grip of a persistent cold. A very timely cold for it afforded me the happy chance to curl up on the couch and read Harry Potter virtually uninterrupted save for the repeated blowing of the nose and the need to consume hot honey, lemon and ginger drinks in numerous quantities. Louise also managed to be rounded up by the very same cold, and together we both read our copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, pausing every once in a while to look up and gasp at various points of discovery.

I feel as though I virtually laid a trap for my cold (which I have since managed to shake off upon reaching page 607). A weekend cold enabled me to bury my nose even further in the pages of a book and to feel no need to do little else but explore Godric's Hollow and catch sight of a doe-shaped Patronus. I’m thankful to my timely snatching of a cold from a friend. I rather loved every minute of it, aside from the soggy tissues.

{Who knew he was actually a muskrat?}

{Do you think anyone will notice?}

Here is a little something I had wanted to share with you last week… from a recent visit to the State Library of Victoria, Louise and my smallest artists’ book to date as housed in the library. Behold the ingenious foam path they have cut for the beaded strand and tiny magnifying lens. Such a safe, archival, bookish home for our fourth artists’ book, I could not resist the urge to take these photos.

{An edition of The Kingdom of the Blue Poppy - As made for Sinclare, 2001, as housed in the collection at the SLV.}

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Two more important things before I go...

{Happy 64th Dad! Hooray! ♥}

AND

{ For One in ten, for Eireann, for her Mother.}

|| One in ten ||

Cold & grey outside... best stay indoors.

Lately I’ve been feeling in some sort of rut… a little ho hum, a tad dispirited, and all wintry and lethargic. I’ve wanted to do little else but read and then read some more. As I explore underground with Colum McCann as my guide (This Side of Brightness), and thus far, the Soviet Union (Dancer, a fictional biography of the Rudolf Nureyev), it seems it is all I want to do. Reading on the old couch parked underneath the window (surely the only spot for a couch, affording you a view of the grey sky outside whilst you remain cosily tucked up, warm and snug, under a rug by the heater) is a cherished winter pastime. With a rug wrapped around me, a big woolly hand knitted shroud covering my entire form from my toes to my neck, with only arms and hands free to both hold the book and turn the pages.

{150 or so scribblers stacked in many small towers.}

In the full grip of winter much time has been spent in the nest even though I have a full army of woolly scarves and the odd pair of mittens at my disposal. Design jobs for others (one a lingerie web site, the other for Imp… see a little taste here) and the oft mentioned huge and fantastical scribbler order has kept me busy but it has not managed to banish the winter ho hums entirely. Feeling as though standing at the foot of a mountain I’ve no means of climbing, I have embarked upon a rigourous banish-the-winter-ho-hums campaign.

I have spent one day exploring Guggenheim Collection: 1940s to Now at the NGV… wandering from room to room past great works I have never seen in person before, eyes suitably wide. I have also been planning an escape to the Melbourne International Film Festival and I have a mini pass with my name on it… 13 films in 19 days, happiness! On my line up, thus far… Alexandra (Alexander Sokurov), The Boss of it All, Lights in the Dusk (Aki Kaurismäki), and… if I can fit it in… Half Moon, DOL: The Valley of Tambourines… and so many more. All these things to squeeze in, session times permitting, and I’ve yet to reach the documentaries. All things guaranteed, wouldn’t you say, to get one out of a rut?

{There's always underground, i (Le Médecin malgré lui)... a small peek.}

{There's always underground, ii (Le Bourgeois gentilhomme)... a small peek.}

And now for those in Melbourne, LJ & I have two collaborative drawings included in a group show at the VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery, the space in between - book project. There's always underground, i (Le Médecin malgré lui) and There's always underground, ii (Le Bourgeois gentilhomme) can be seen alongside several other book related works until the 4th of August.

*** With a bit of luck I shall have an update for you on those cards by the end of the week. The ideal paper for them has been found, and all is looking one step closer to completion. Thanks again for all your help.***

Many loves, all in a row.

{Happy in my new home.}

Right now I am loving...

Cats curled up in warm nooks, dotted about the house.

Wearing woolly layers.

Chuckling as I leaf through It's WrongBoy's History of the Earth - An Inaccurate History of Evolution by William Bishop-Stephens. Did you know that mice once ruled the earth? Or that Mouse-like Mammals were the inventors of many fine electrical goods? Neither did I.

Catching up with blog chums. Marsha and her friend, Sara, are in Melbourne for the briefest of spells, and Louise and I have been lucky enough to catch up with them at Arcadia on Gertrude Street for coffees and teas. Marsha came with two novels from Shari tucked under her wing; The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax and A palm for Mrs Pollifax (think Agatha Christie's Miss Marple... paperback tales of espionage, red herrings, I presume, and secrets to be sniffed out. Thanks, Shari ♥, pity there was no room for you in that suitcase too). Marsha also gave us each one of her beautiful glass creations... a ring for Louise and a necklace for me (yippee!), some Mexican Day of the Dead ornaments to hang with our growing collection by the kitchen doorframe, candy treats and postcard delights (Thanks, Marsha ♥). It was, needless to say, a thrill to catch up with someone I have only meet via email and blogging. See you soon, perhaps?

Setting up Inside with Pencils at Imp gallery. An exhibition of thirteen of my Mum's recent drawings in the small and front galleries above the Greville Street Bookstore. Marsha and Sara have already been able to sneak a peek today... here is a little of what they saw en route to Fed Square and the galleries of Flinders lane.

Want to come along? Please do.

INSIDE WITH PENCILS - ELAINE HABY
7th July - 29th July, 2007
Opening, Saturday 7th July, 2-4pm

Gallery hours Wed-Sun 12noon-5pm

IMP
above Greville St Bookstore
145 Greville Street, Prahran

{Inside with Pencils. Please click to enlarge.}

I'm also loving...

Late nights, and late starts.

Hot bowls of veggie soup... with a ripe, homegrown butternut pumpkin from C & R. There's still another two thirds of the pumpkin on the kitchen counter waiting to be made into another soup, or perhaps it desires to be roasted in the oven?

{Sweet eats consumed... two for you, two for me. (With a frangipani tart in a maroon box behind.)}

{With the moon up above, we head to the airport.}

Picking up dear friends from the airport on their way home from adventures in Venice, London and Singapore. Through them I was able to see this, this and this... travelling vicariously through others seems to have been the theme of the week.

A full moon at night.

Eating a slice of frangipani tart.

Reading wintry tales... A Winter Book - Selected Stories by Tove Jansson (yes, she of Moomins fame). Newly translated from Finnish, a collection of stories all to do with winter... warm and charming, and full of friendly advice. Did you know that "you should never keep a single inessential object in your boat" (The Boat and Me)? Well, now you do.

The smell of fresh jonquils in the hallway.

The joy of hanging something new on the wall.

Folding away clean clothes that have dried by the heater.

{All the fishermen in Riga had missed what I had found.}

{Milano two step.}

Happy end to the week all.