family time

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I’ve been spending some time with my sister up in Darwin. It is the big build-up to the wet season at the moment, the time of year tourists normally stay away and locals go a bit crazy with the ever-increasing heat and humidity that will only break when the big rains arrive… not very good timing for this girl, who is happiest in the cold, rainy winters of the south but it was important to go up now as she has a couple of big things going on in her life and so I wanted to be close by for a little while…

The first (and very exciting) thing is the recent arrival of her partners four-year-old boy from Liberia- he is going to be a permanent part of the family, such a blessing for her after always wanting to be a mum!

So… meet George!

Cheeky ; )

Here he is after his first visit to the cinema- 3D no less!- which, like all the other new things he has faced since the move from remote village life, he took in his stride, the little star. After a lot of fending for himself within a large extended family, it has been a big transition to being at the core of a nuclear family.

The little family

In some ways older than his years, he is also just a little boy soaking up everything with (mostly) so much excitement and joy… and for the new parents, instant parenthood is proving amazingly rewarding, happy and startling, if somewhat relentless! I wish them so much joy together.

Learning what a loveheart is and how to draw one

Sarah especially needs her little family with her right now because she has a fight on her hands. There is a massive tumour growing in her belly and we are all very worried for her… treatment is gruelling and she is unwell a lot of the time but the daily routine that a small child demands is giving her a structure for her own self-care and, more importantly, a focus while things are really hard. Her world is small at the moment and that is as it should be- her energy is focused on the three of them and their life together. It was wonderful to see her and to spend time with her and her family but, more than that, I just wish I could be there more to help with the menial stuff like doing the dishes, emptying the compost and giving her breaks to sleep- but hopefully things will go well with her and she’ll be on the up soon… Big sis, I’m with you.

grampians wildflower season

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After (and perhaps as a result of) the massively destructive floods last summer and the fires in 2006, the Grampians are aflush with luxuriant growth this spring.

Gleichenia dicarpa; Pouched Coral Fern

Unfurling; Pouched Coral Fern

Carnivorous Drosera auriculata; digesting mosquitos in the early morning

Lichens on clifftop

Orange wood fungus

Mosses in "flower"

And, with over one thousand species of plants to be found in the park, the flush of flowers was an absolute joy to experience…

Comesperma volubile; Love Creeper- nice name ; )

Chamaescilla corymbosa; Blue Squill

Stypandra glauca; Nodding Blue Lily

Craspedia sp; Billy-Buttons

Platylobium obtusangulum; Common Flat-pea

Grevillea dimorpha; Flame Grevillea

Daviesia brevifolia; Leafless Bitter-pea

Isopogon ceratophyllus; Horny Cone-bush

Never seen anything like these small, succulent rosettes....

Epacris impressa; Common Heath

Leucopogon sp; Beard Heath

So much has changed in the park as a result of the natural events of the last few years; roads, paths and walking tracks, facilities and the very landforms that make up the landscape of the area. The plants, however, are as beautiful as ever, adapting more easily to these events by spreading their seeds and even re-rooting after being washed along in the floodwater. And wonderfully, I witnessed their ongoing celebration by plant-lovers from all over the world. Go out there if you can- you’ll be amazed.

grampians camping

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Some much-needed time in the bush for my honey and me…

Getting there is easy....

when the roads are this quiet....

Watching the trees whizz by

Cosy times in the tent

Fires to fiddle with

Vegies cooked on the fire

Damper and vegemite, my favourite ; )

Waterfalls spotted but sadly not swum in...

Peaks were gazed up at

and climbed!

Met a wallaby and her young joey,

a crazy yellow worm

and got eyed off by a wedge-tailed eagle

Found a birds nest made of skeletonised leaves

And, as it is wildflower season, lots of flower hunting- but more of that tomorrow!

Thanks for everything, Scotto!

sandalwood, logwood and fustic

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Oh, am I in trouble… one try and I am hooked.

Wood-dyed shetland

My first real session of dyeing with plants and it was pure magic! Some natural shetland yarn recycled from a jumper added into a dyebath made from soaked woodchips…

From back to front: logwood; logwood over sandalwod; sandalwood over fustic; sandalwood; logwood over fustic

Favourites- logwood over sandalwood; logwood

So I definitely want to be using materials found much closer to home- eucalypts, acacias and all our other wonderful Australian plants, as well as weeds and other exotics found around here- and investigating natural mordants like rhubarb and sorrel…. but, for a beginner, these woods were great to start on because they are so dramatic and the colour transfer happens pretty much instantly. Elizabethan colours. Wow.

For anyone interested, the Victorian Handweavers and Spinners Guild has a natural dying group that get together on the third Thursday of the month. You just need to be a member- they also have an awesome library and lots of other stuff going on if you need more incentives to join ; )

I’ll keep you updated on what these little balls are turned into! Now, off camping to the Grampians : )

knitting heaven

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Oooh la, now, who wouldn’t want to curl up and knit somewhere like this?

Knitting retreat, Fetlar, Shetland

When Amy and I were planning our trip to Shetland last year, I was super keen to see if we could sit and learn with a Shetland knitter, especially about colour but really about anything she had to offer. Jamieson and Smith was my first port of call; although they were going to be busy hosting the official group coming up from Knitcamp for a full week of classes and tours around the islands, I hoped that they might be able to give me a few names of local knitters who would be happy to give us a class or two… but no luck. And, when we were there, we met and heard of a couple of people- but then couldn’t organize anything. Especially in island communities, where populations are spread out, it can be difficult to access people willing to share skills and, no doubt, we were a bit of a cliche, turning up and hoping to learn, especially when so much of the community moved on from relying on knitting for income a long time ago. Still, if the tourism office and the (amazing) museum are anything to go by, lace and fairisle knitting is still a big draw for tourists coming to Shetland… and the Brough Lodge project seems like a great way to combine the history and traditions of the islands with a living, breathing experience where participants could learn not only skills and craft but more about the local community and current issues and challenges faced by the local wool industry. I so hope that, with the support of Jamieson and Smith and the wider community, this gets up and running… it seems like a wonderful new undertaking for community and visitors alike.

(sounds of piggybank being broken into… )