Now and a head.

{Three heads are better than one. Please, click to enlarge.}

Saturday finds me admiring the random pattern of little wet paw prints on the veranda and listening contentedly to the sound of rain falling on the tin roof above.

It finds me unsurprised that yoga poses I saw the Hawthorn Football Club players performing with seeming ease and grace yesterday afternoon at Waverley, were a challenge to perform in class this morning. I have neither their balance nor strength, though, as mentioned, I am unsurprised by this.

{Stumbling in your absence. Postcard collage.}

December has been marked by the pleasant arrival of Christmas cards and parcels from overseas to wrap and give to dear ones (thank you, the good machinery, especially... xo). It has found me rediscovering the Leningrad Cowboys Go America and watching, in addition, their Total Balalaika Show at Helsinki’s Senate Square on the 12th of June 1993 featuring the Alexandrov Red Army Choir and Ballet. It has found me in sleepy though high, on the whole, spirits, bottling preservatives and making apricot jam with the fruit from the tree in my parent’s back garden. Jar upon jar has been filled and I am looking forward to berry season. This January I expect to be making mixed berry jam, to be sorting out the ripe loganberries from the too mushy. I am looking forward. Looking forward to all things that make glad my heart. Looking forward to a new year and to the giddily appetising Christmas day which falls before it.

I am looking forward to a sleep in, a day to do nothing, to reading more, to bright days, to small treats. Looking forward, this weekend, to an Indian feast with dear chums, to continuing my Aki Kaurismäki dvd festival with Lenigrad Cowboys Meet Moses and Lights in the Dusk… I am diving headfirst into that glowing palette and I may never return! Looking forward to making new collages, new work, and all in general.

{There are too many of you to accomodate. Postcard collage.}

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4. links for you, and a Thelma's Stuffie in small magazine.

More soon. I am missing my time in this space... I hope you are keeping well and that December is proving kind to you and your loves.

Comments

[shari]

so many good things to look forward to. jam making and rain on a tin roof sound so so wonderful to me. love the new collages. xox

[wendy]

love that top piece with the coins & masks.
hope december is treating you well...

[kate]

I love coming here and realising that it is summer for you. Loganberries, yum. Jam, yum.

My favourite thing is do-nothing days. Nightgown all day long - grazing, writing, sitting, reading, yawning and lounging.

Your pictures are wonderful as always ... you amaze me with your imagination.

[louise]

Love 'Three heads are better than one', it's so true too.

[d.]

i'm so glad you've liked it all.grazie!
the last picture here is amazing..

[karin]

This "old" brown tone in your collages is so lovely,Gracia!

[andrea]

all day i will be thinking of the ant-eater who now resides in the palazzo vecchio. (marvelous!) love the new collages, my dear, and i hope you get all the rest (and logannberry jam) you wish for.

xoxo

[lisa s]

i too am longing for sleep ins and a day to do nothing and the wherewithall to hold a yoga pose... xo

[comfies]

yoga is challenging. i lack the strength to hold many of the poses for sure...your collages look beautiful as always!

[karen]

Wonderful things to look forward to.

[elaine haby]

"Three heads are better than one".....so true, so true. I've often longed for such a magical skill....e xo

[gracia]

Thanks, Shari. Jam making with fruit you've collected tastes, looks and feels as wonderful from start to finish as it sounds, including the laborious task of constant stirring. I'm looking forward to a January of making various home-made tomato relishes and chutneys on bright days.

Thanks, Wendy... and, yep, December has been kind to me. I only wish it would slow down just a little.

"Nightgown all day long - grazing, writing, sitting, reading, yawning and lounging."... sounds beyond idyllic, Kate. Here's to more such days.

Oh, yes, so true, lj.

Thanks, D, for including this wonderful print with my order... it, like all your work I have seen, is wonderful. Come January it shall be framed and I'll send you a photograph. Thanks once again. I really do love it.

Sepia and all shades of that familiar brown tone are particularly swoon worthy, aren't they, Karin? Thank you.

Best to look in all the dark corners in the Palazzo Vecchio when next in Florence, Andrea... and keep a trick up our sleeve when doing so. That and an eagle eye on your nearest exit for they are not the most social of creatures if caught unawares.

Sleep-ins and all manner of lolling about the house, I can't wait for the lazy days of January either, Lisa. Blue sky above and bright light, this January I am looking forward to time spent collaging and drawing.

The plank, the dolphin and some of those balancing warrior poses are so challenging to master, aren't they, Comfies? I long to be able to stay in them with seeming ease, moving with fluidity from one pose to the other. Our class on a Monday is often peppered with remarks from students signalling to my Mum (who is also my yoga teacher) that perhaps she had neglected to tell us to move out of a pose... "Elaine, I think you have forgotten to tell us to move out of this pose, no?"... this always makes me smile.

Yep, wonderful things lie ahead, Karen. Here's hoping this is true for both of us, eh?

Fingers and toes crossed tightly until then, Mum...

take care, g xo

[amisha]

summertime goodness... apricot jam sounds so lovely. beautiful new collages too. xox