On to the next thing!

I finished the binding on my Fettered/Unfettered hanging.  The binding doesn't show.

So, on to the next thing.  In a recent Theme Poetry workshop the theme was holes.  Halfway through Sara-Jane's presentation I was convinced I was going to write about caving and potholing and how I can't even cope with watching it on television because of the thought of getting stuck in a tiny hole!  However the following was what I wrote!

Hollow

Did I dig the hole myself?
Not an embarrassing hole
where my words put me
in the wrong. Where someone said
‘Put down the spade!’

Did I dig the hole myself?
Deep inside myself
Like a big black dog
scraping up the earth
to bury a flimsy bone.

Did I dig the hole myself?
A place to hide
Where darkness reigns
and melancholy rules.
An unkind space of desperation.

Did I dig the hole myself?
Perhaps. But circumstance
brings desolation and woefulness.
An encouraging word, a hand outstretched
bring a flicker of hope and light.

I started to think about how I might make this in a textile piece.  My initial thought was to make a very large logcabin style patchwork hanging. This version starts with the poem's first line on the outside.

But then I thought about how you spiral down into depression and the long route back. TIn this version the first line starts in the dark middle.

I've since been playing with different pens and media to see which will show up when the fabric is dyed.  This was using Posca pens.  The yellow pen doesn't show up when the Golden Yellow procion dye is added. The middle colour pen is actually copper but it doesn't show up correctly in the photo.

This series is using Copic pens

I tired writing with diluted fabric paint with a nozzle bottle which gave really poor results.  I also tried with a paintbrush.  Another experiment was using Acrylic Ink with the dropper that came with the bottle of ink and that gave an even worse result.

I was doing all these experiments at Littleheath Barn.  The main thing I was going to try was Gutta - but I left it at home.

Back home I tried the Gutta.  I could write fairly well with the tube which has a nozzle.  However the darkest procion dye I had was Ultramarine.  However the gold Gutta shows up on the Golden Yellow procion dye.

I also tried the Gutta on leftover fabric that was already dyed.

I think might use different pens for the different areas of the writing.  Something to ponder in the next few days.

Thanks for being here today.
Bernice

What to do?!?

At the beginning of the year I started with a new set up in my Happy Planner.

However during the anxiety time I used it a lot less.  Then I got back into it and then it fell off again.   In fact I stopped using it altogether.

Despite this, at the end of August I bought a new planner for 2025.

Then I read Valerie's blogpost: Changing the way I journal.  It made me think about how I might use my new planner.  It occurred to me that I could put the 2024 months of October, November and December into the new planner and make my year be 15 months.

I certainly put the pages into the planner but nothing happened.  Then I thought I would start again with November and that hasn't happened.

Since then Valerie has written more posts: A New Journaling Idea for 2025 and Set Up for my 2025 Journals.

I use the calendar on my phone to keep a track of what I'm doing so I don't need to duplicate this in the planner as I have done before.

I used to have to-do lists in the planner and I think I will go back to doing that, rather than the haphazard method of recent times which has been scraps of paper!

 

 

This was the penultimate time I decorated the page and actually filled it in.

If you look closely you can see that I used it to record what I had done.  I think this is the way to go with the new planner.  Use the weekly pages to journal rather than plan. And to record what I am thankful for each day.

Of course, whether this new plan starts in December or January really depends on the level of procrastination that comes into play!

And it still doesn't address the idea of a commonplace book.  I have wanted to do one for ages.  Looking back, it's over 10 years since I've wanted to do one motivated by Mary Brack's post: Commonplace.

I have to wonder whether if it's that long then the idea probably isn't for me.  Something to think about!

And lastly, do I want to pick a Word of the Year for 2025?  My word for this year was [Discover].  Here was my thinking in 2023: New Year, New Word.

You might be thinking 'so what has she discovered?'  Well that's another post!

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

Homecoming

Last year I started work looking at my Australian Connections.  Recently my eldest grandson was asking about my Dad, his great-grandfather, who was born in Brisbane and came to England in 1931.  I had sent him various bits of information I had gathered about my Dad and so it was uppermost in my mind as I attended this week's poetry zoom workshop.

I think the little boy hanging over the rail in the middle is my Dad on the SS Hobsons Bay as it was leaving Adelaide in 1931.  They had boarded the ship in Brisbane and already called in at Sydney on the way.

In the poetry workshop we were looking at Assonance.  This is the repetition of vowel sounds in words that are close to each other. It is usually the sound rather than the letter used that is important.

We were set this challenge: Write a poem exploring an aspect of history or an historical incident/event/activity - can be personal, local or global. Pay particular attention to your use of assonance to give appropriate ‘music’ and emotional tone as you shift focus, emotion and subject.

SO here it is:

Homecoming 

Boarding the ship
The queue unhurried,
One step, and then another
moving slowly, dragging cases
filled with all their worldly goods.
So much left behind.
Toys, books, school, friends. 

Thudding into life
the engines churned,
throbbing through the walls
and floors. The ropes
untied and drawn aboard.
The noise and clamour
of shouted goodbyes.

The three children jumped
up and down, excited
by their new adventure.
Leaving Brisbane behind. 

Brisbane to Sydney.
Sydney to Melbourne.
Each port leaving a fond farewell.
Melbourne to Adelaide.
Adelaide to Fremantle.
Australia left behind.

Somewhere in the Indian Ocean
with no more boarding
or fond farewells
boredom set in.
Games played over and over
until they no longer had meaning.
Adrift at sea, wave upon wave
Nothing between them
and the horizon. 

Fremantle to Colombo.
At last some land in sight.
The last leaving, or so they hoped.
No longer the warmth of southern sun
but cloudy grey and cold
As the engine thudded
and throbbed its way
to a land they’d never known. 

But first more landings
Colombo to Port Said.
Port Said to Malta
and the last leaving.

Day after day, week after week
The engines drummed their ears.
Until, at last, the terminal port.
And their final leaving.
A homecoming of sorts
in a land they’d never known.

Thanks for being here today
Bernice