high up in the trees

Towards Southern Russia and the Black Sea coast.

My hands have explored the Japanese coastline. From fingertip to palm to the inside of the wrist, I have spent my afternoon assembling newly collaged worlds. I have found antiquities of Southern Russia and the Black Sea coast (several clay vessels from Ol'viia (Olbia, extinct city, Ukraine), and from Ochakov, Simferople, and Kherson came iron and lead objects). All these treasures found in the form of a book with 69 colour plates (from which colour copies were made).

From here I have explored the Nordenskjord Glacier and Fortuna Bay thanks to a blue hardback picked up for less than a song. Niall Rankin’s Antarctic Isle: Wild Life in South Georgia took me to the Main street in Boom Town, before showing me a nestling Wilson’s petrel and a hillside rookery of Gentoos. Plate 63 in black and white of a lone penguin coming ashore and finding itself face to face with a Sea-leopard came a close second to one of a Grey-headed albatross standing at its egg-cup nest.

I’ve not walked along the coast, nor lakeside either, for the longest time, but it seems my hands have. They have been to the Hakone Lake and found it hidden underneath old Japanese gold and silver coins. They have been to Bund, Yokohama and found it partially obscured. They have been to Fujiyama (“Fujiyama was exactly as I had seen it on fans and lacquer boxes; I would not have sold my sight of it for the crest of Kinchinjunga flushed with the morning.” From Sea to Sea, March - September, 1889, No. XVII, Rudyard Kipling) and found Egyptian markings, and to Mount Aso, too.

{To the ground below.}

{You mirrored me completely.}

{Where your tears cannot reach me.}

{In neat formation, falling one by one.}

Treasure of a different kind, and a little closer to home, I have two blue rabbits scaling a vase to show you. A gift from my parents this year for my birthday, the vase currently bears a fistful of bright poppies.

And finally, Arthur’s Circus in Queensbury Street, North Melbourne where you’ll find a new batch Thelma’s stuffies and felt pins (see two of them in the photograph below, sitting on the glass counter in the window) nestled alongside paper ray guns from the 50s and Aunty Cookie softies. With a most fetching Donald Duck in the window Arthur's Circus is a cave worthy of Aladdin.

{A pair of blue rabbits, and two Thelma's stuffies in the window.}

October is in the wings... here's to a super and productive month. Happy week!

(Be sure to check out an elderly bunny (from 1998) here and a aurora of rather glum polar bears here.)

A plan destined not to get off the ground.

{This isn't going to work, is it?}

I want a dog. Oh yes. I want a retired from the race track greyhound and I want to call him Charlie or Otto or Olaf or Carlos, or should she be a girl, Ruby or Pearl or perhaps Essie. How about Dot? Perhaps I’ll wait until we meet face to snout to settle upon a name. Wait to see if they were fond of the smell of cheese or a real lounge lizard (the latter I suspect most ex-racing greyhounds to be). We have friends who plan to call their future dog Rhubarb, and I suspect my Mum would like another dog called Bob. Bob is such a rewarding name to call and say, and would suit a greyhound to the letter T. But before I set about acquiring a dog I ought to clear it with the cats and Omar and Olive do not approve. Omar with an artfully placed back claw has inserted

line breaks

in my typed text where there ought not be

and he has also managed (as he so often does) to turn the letters

from English to Japanese characters.

太陽の下で

たいようのもとで

貝殻
かいがら

げざんする

No, I don’t think I’ll be getting a dog.

What I have got is several more postcard collages, and if I’m correct, these are the very last ones. There were so many of them created, assembled and pasted that it’s hard to keep up. That said here are six you have yet to see. And to play whilst looking, I give you Alik Kopyt singing Grey Suit (Old Prison Song).

{Not my usual locale.}

{This ain't as easy as it seems.}

{Tell me all your secrets.}

{A feast fit for a swamp otter and friend.}

{We'll be quite safe up here if we just keep still.}

Before I flee, snail mail of the unexpected and delicious variety arrived late last week from Eunice (thank you so very much, Eunice xo). Four American Song Birds came by post. A sweet voiced Wood Thrush, an Orchard Oriole (known to “shun the open fields”), a Meadow Lark (who cannot “imitate human speech like a starling”) and a Scarlet Tanger (with its “listless air characteristics”) to be exact… four cards distributed by the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Several postcards and a Plant Me! Card embedded with seeds of basil and chives from Round Robin Press.

{Songbirds from NC.}

Well that’s all for now. I’m getting jam on my keyboard and that’s never a good thing to see. My greying Return key has a pinkish glow. Think I best drag a cloth over it, finish troublesome slice of jam toast and get on with my day. Next time I shall have a collaborative zine project that I’d like for you all to take part in if it takes your fancy… I just need to polish it up a little before I present it to you.

(And thank you Modish and tas-ka for writing about our new cards… most honoured.)

Many new and shiny things to share, but for now they shall have to wait.
Wishing you well for the week ahead.

("Under the sun", "a seashell, a sea shell" and "go down the mountain" are, for those of you curious, what is written above in Japanese... I think. Please, correct me if wrong.)

Forgotten post (so happy to have found you)

{So happy to have found you.}

How remiss of me. Wandering through file upon file on my computer, wading through scanned image upon scanned image, I came across a host of postcard collages I had yet to show you. They have been the archaeological find of the annual computer spring clean though not worth a pretty penny in comparison to an Egyptian mummified cat nor a Roman goblet either for that matter. Several postcards, as exhibited as part of A trapdoor in every room in the now moth-eaten month of May... found. So here at the tail end of September as the south pole of the earth begins to tilt towards the sun and the bluebells begin to burst forth, I give you six postcards, present and correct.

Truth be told, I found fourteen postcards in total, but I’ll save the remaining eight rather than bombard you with all those things found deep within my dusty archives. I hope you enjoy this slice of postcard love.

{Not from around these parts.}

{It was easy, if you didn’t look down.}

{We needed nothing else.}

{If you’ll now sow the fields you’ll make me very happy.}

{A chance meeting at the Café et Vins.}

Must dash, for I’ve just won a double pass to see Joe Strummer - The Future Is Unwritten. I missed its screening at the recent film festival so I’m super keen to have not one but two tickets put aside under my name.

I have many things to share with you all shortly… cerulean blue ceramic rabbits and pale green bird bookends (who’ve already made their flickr debut), new collages with found papers from Lisa S and Paula, new projects on the boil (and one which I'll be enquiring if you want to take part in) and by the time I sit down to nut out another posting, many, many more things will have attached themselves like barnacles to a ships hull.

Enjoy what remains of your Wednesday...

{On a Wednesday} plus one

{From Gent to Melbourne.}

Today I am appreciating surprise snail mail all the way from Gent, Belgium. From Frips in an envelope covered with various owl, Tintin and pink orchid postage stamps, came some Birthday cheer on paper. (Thank you, Frips xo)

{A simple and handsome soul.}

{Omar nuzzles my new wooden companion.}

I am also {On a Wednesday} still besotted with a wooden pika from an African store near to the Victoria Market. I found this little pika with three of his rotund mates in the window of a rarely open, cash only store brimming with plastic animals fashioned from recycled packaging, porcupine quills by the jar and colourful buffalo made of wire to serve as coat hooks. I’ve yet to strike it open again and I’m keen to acquire a wooden mate for my pika. He has such a pleasing form, doesn’t he? And he fits so snugly into ones palm… even Omar likes him.

{red+yellow+white}

{Many blushing brides.}

Today finds me also happy that spring has does what it does each and every year… it has sprung without a seeming care in the world. The house is filled with red, white and yellow ranunculus and foxgloves and a small bouquet of Blushing brides (who have for their seed dispersal to thank the ants).

This Wednesday I am also enjoying watching The Good Life on dvd with home-made veggie soup and crusty bead before I hop back to the wrapping of card orders.

Find a little more Wednesday love here, and thank you so very much for all your interest in our new cards. What a thrill, you’ve made me blush. (To those of you who’ve placed an order recently… we posted them yesterday afternoon. They should, depending upon how near or far away you live, make it to you shortly. Thanks, again. I’m so happy you like them! I'm really happy.)

"Pikas are small relatives of rabbits. They do not have tails, and their rounded bodies are covered in soft red and grey fur. Unlike those of a rabbit, a pika’s hind legs are about the same length as its forelegs." (from The Complete Book of Animals - A world encyclopaedia of amphibians, reptiles and mammals by Tom Jackson... a favourite resource of mine.)

*** I have just realised since posting this that it is actually THURSDAY. Somehow I am still thinking it is Wednesday and rather than tweak this post accordingly I think I'll just roll with my error. This post all about Wednesday loves was penned, captured and typed on a Thursday. I'm losing all track of time. Apologies for any confusion. Perhaps in some parts of the world it is still a glorious Wednesday. ***

Return

{A beaked visitor on my balcony. Noosa, Queensland. (Please click to enlarge.)}

I’ve returned from both a small blog break and from Noosa, Queensland. Two and half odd hours by plane from Melbourne to Brisbane, three hours from Brisbane airport to Noosa via two mini buses, and back again. It’s been a busy week and a bit. I’ve spoken with Louise at a symposium all about the book, or to be more precise, the artsts’ book; I have also, with Louise by my side, yakked at length on the nature of collaboration, and held a two-day workshop focusing on the square knot journal with an exposed spine in what was once a butter factory in Cooroy; I have sat by the river that only a week before my departure was heavily flooded, and talked with bookbinders, letterpress masters and printmakers; I have enjoyed a taste of warmer weather, but now, right now, I am happy to be home.

I saw the beach behind Hastings street for a brief spell… 4.30 in the afternoon found us at the beach until the sun no longer warmed the sand. Most of the time, other than this, was spent in the council chambers where the symposium was held or in the butter factory gluing, splicing, folding and cutting paper to make a journal. In between time was thin on the ground though I did mange to squeeze in my first coffee of the day, lying on my belly, watching two ducks on the balcony. As soon as I’d effectively drained my coffee cup dry, I took numerous photos of this fetching pair with their webbed feet and black beaks. They’d waddle into frame, happy to pose… they really were the most obliging models. The White-faced Heron with his guttural croak less so (you can just see him in the second photo below, walking along the rocky edge of the pond that backed up onto the balcony). Yes, many kilometres from home, I missed my Omar, Olive and Misha. It’s odd to sit about in the evening in an apartment free of pets. I realise how very much I love their quiet company.

{With webbed feet. Noosa, Queensland. (Please click to enlarge.)}

So, home we are, and the suitcases, two of them, still sit unpacked on the floor. I’ve little desire to open them save for getting out bottles of shampoo and conditioner and like travel companions. Since returning home, after a week away, I have turned 32. On a sunny Thursday I ceased being 31 (thanks for all the birthday cheer you have sent my way via flickr, this blog, snail mail and email… it means so much to me).

We came home to a parcel most generous from Paula. All the way from Portugal, buttons of many sizes and colours on their original and crinkled cards. Also include in this envelope well travelled were maps from the 1900s, a packet of colourful Chinese paper cuts, collected day to day paraphernalia, and bookmarks too (....many things you are sure to see a little later on in a collage). (Thank you so much, Paula. Such a wonderful array of delights you sent to LJ and myself. I can’t wait to see some of these buttons on owl pinnies and Thelma’s stuffies. I have them, at present, arranged so I can look at them… so beautiful are the colours and shapes and textures.)

In lieu of many photos from up North, I have photos of buttons…

{Beautiful buttons from Paula. Sure to appear on a springtime cardie (if only I had your skills, Kylie), a stuffie, an owl and who knows what else. (Best large)}

And photos of balloons strung up in the tree…

{In my parent's back garden I turned 32. (You get the idea, best viewed a little larger... please click.)}

As I slowly ease myself back to it all, I have one more thing to share. Cards completed finally and ready for you to see!

You’ll find them in both our etsy (soon… I’m working on it late this evening) and hammer & daisy store in happy (and hopefully appealing) bundles of 12, 5, 4 and singularly too. Hope you like them. They’ve been a long while in the making.

{Bundles of cards, rows of foxes... it's been busy over here.}

Ah, yes, it's good to be back in this space.