why is it that as i press 'publish post' that a smorgasbord of bons mots is laid out before me???

i am encumbered by a cold so don't expect sparkling repartee in this post :) the last week has been a blur to tack onto the blur of previous weeks: the federal election is tomorrow which fills me with despair as i do not think people vote unselfishly. although i have been wearing my ampersand duck chicks rule t shirt at every opportunity.... i just hope i'll be able to wear it after tomorrow

i spent the earlier part of the week in perth which is a gazillion miles west of melbourne - just over a 4 hour flight. my days were filled with meetings so i didn't get to see a lot of the city although on my travels between meetings and hotel i happened to fall into a very good bookshop.... i also did 3 radio interviews including a last ditch one as i was in the queue for the plane at the gate lounge.
in between all the work hurly burly the scrumpster and i took w for a drive on sunday - our first stop was a beach just past anglesea where the tide had washed up a wealth of cuttlefish much to w's joy. all the way down the great ocean road there were alternating rain showers and rainbows


we ended up at cape otway where the blusterousness was extreme and we took careful note of the warning signs.the scrumpster ascended the light house but w and i looked at the staircase judiciously and retreated. we were rained on and had our hair blasted into medusiad curls but it was great fun and i didn't think about work once :)

a favourite poem

Sonnet XVII: I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, topaz

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz, or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off. I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul. I love you as the plant that never blooms but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers; thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance, risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body. I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride; so I love you because I know no other way than this: where I does not exist, nor you, so close that your hand on my chest is my hand, so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep. Pablo Neruda

new toy

if you go here and feed it some text from your blog, latest essay, shopping list, whatever it does gizmo-type things and tells which famous writer your style most resembles...

after a controlled experiment using a range of blog posts apparently i write like mary shelley, kurt vonnegut and james joyce - how cool is that?

thanks to celia for leading me to this toy :)

friday notes to self

• announcing that you're going to be creative today immediately sets off an irresistible chain of events that lead to washing up and other forms of housework

• cossack dancing (however modified) across the kitchen causes undue perturbation in the cats and worrits the dog
• grrrr having decided i want to prime a canvas now find i don't have the right sort

interlude

i spent a happy time in the tarrawarra art gallery this afternoon - for the first half hour i was completely alone and could sit in the middle of the room and just look and look and look at the paintings.

I saw the landscape exhibition and although i was a bit surprised that there were only ten paintings on offer it meant i could sit in the middle and gaze and work out why i liked the paintings i liked and why i didn't like the ones i didn't.

on the like side of the ledger i discovered a new to me painter - philip wolfhagen - a tasmanian artists who paints darkly luminous landscapes using oils in beeswax.

there was also tony clark, fred williams and arthur boyd on the bright sunlit uplands of my like paintings.

on the Other Side - sidney nolan x 2 - a painter i have never warmed to. he always seems angry and cold. ben quilty - clever but a bit too clever and 2 other painters whose names i didn't even record so lukewarm was my response to their art.

none of this is a quarrel with their technique or expertise just my personal preference :)

and outside was plenty of scope for cunning photos
back to work tomorrow to keep fighting the good fight

back

i am returned from the conference - exhausted, be-virused and glad to be on this side. it was fantastic - i met so many people, learned so much and worked so hard - i feel like i need to lie quietly in a darkened burrow for a week to get over it.

i was so busy writing speaking notes and media releases i didn't take many photos - here are a few from our trip to the healing centre in Alice Springs last Tuesday nighti'm still processing a lot of last week - especially the trip around some of the town camps by the Tangentyere Council - but these signs are everywhere in the territory and a constant reminder of the apartheid this country practises but refuses to admit.

there was barely time for anything creative but i did go for a walk on Friday afternoon and took some rubbings of a piece of charred bark
and a rock.
and here is a photo of the full moon taken from my balcony
btw you may notice a new button at the top of the blog - click it and read about the Canadian First Nations' battle to try and win basic human rights for their children. Cindy Blackstock spoke at our conference and was an inspiration: we have a similar battle to fight here.