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

Abstract

For the photography theme this month I chose Abstract as in 'simplified forms or forms with no basis in reality, such as geometric shapes or gestural marks'.

Metal sculpture

Marks in stone

Geometric pattern

Decaying fabric

An abstract painting in an exhibition

These photos may not totally fit that definition but hey! artistic licence.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Cutting It Up

Way back in August I told you about how I had written out my poem on calico using masking fluid.

I left it alone because I didn't like the piece and couldn't think of what I could do to it to be able to finish it.  Eventually after I got back from Australia in mid-October, I cut it up into strips.

Then I piece it back together with strips of undyed calico, making it landscape instead of portrait.

I left it again for a couple of weeks before bonding the words 'fettered' and 'unfettered onto it.

The 'unfettered' doesn't really show up until you get close to it.  I decided to running stitch round the letters.

I finished the letter outlines and then added musical notes.  I have been having a lot of problems lately with getting bondaweb to bond properly.  I love Mistyfuse but you can't draw on it because it doesn't have a backing sheet.  I tried ironing it onto freezer paper but it stuck to the paper.  Fortunately I found some HeatnBond in my stash and tried that.  It seems to be successful.

All that's left to do is add the binding.  However first, I need to decide whether the binding shows as an edge or not.  I'll let you know what I decide.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Things in Threes

Through September and October in our photography group we could choose from a selection of titles.  I chose 'Things in Threes'.

A house number

A piece of rubbish

3 things not usually seen together!

Boats in a tree

Boats under a tree

A sculpture in the Botanic Garden

The above was a bit of a cheat as there were actually 5 of the metal shapes.

And lastly not things, but granchildren!

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

Stanzas (verses)

The thread of a recent Write Poetry zoom workshop was the use of stanzas in a poem.

We first looked at the poem 'A Short Story of Falling' by Alice Oswald.  After which we were asked to write our own short story.  Here's mine:

A Short Story of Sewing 

Thoughts become words, inspired
by form and structure, required

to write a poem. A nonet,
a pantoum but not a sonnet. 

Words in order on the page
hoping the reader will engage

with thoughts and rhymes
and chains and crimes.

These same words written on calico,
cut up, reassembled, ready to sew.

Machined, hand stitched, and bound.
Words no longer clear or found

jumbled together, constrained by chains
The poet’s thoughts alone remain

I didn't do the second exercise which was to write a meditation using the sonnet form. We had looked at Carol Ann Duffy's poem 'Prayer'.

The third poem was 'Tail' by Sujata Bhatt.  I used the poem's two opening lines for my poem.

Marks on Paper 

Meaningless black marks
cover my page, they stretch and grow
                                                into words.

The words clamour for a sentence,
the sentence for another.

The marks become the punctuation
as sentence after sentence forms
until a paragraph is seen.

The black marks write their own story
forming and unforming
bringing ideas and thoughts together. 

Until another page is covered
before the last black mark’s
                                         full stop.

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

The last few days

The day we were orange picking the temperature was between 27-30 degrees C.  The next day it was around 12 degrees and wet.  We had planned on going for a walk but in the end we went to the Wollongong Art Gallery because I wanted to see the exhibition 'Dreams Nursed in Darkness'.  Do go to the website and read the description of the exhibition.

24K gold-plated razor blades as prison shackles by Abdullah M I Syed

The art work in one room was made by various contemporary artists around the theme of crime, convicts and colonial history.  The second room had work by current inmates of NSW prisons.

The shackles above were in the middle of an installation that used an image of a found Australian map progressively degenerated through repeated photocopying.

 

I'm not overly fond of contemporary art but I found the exhibition to be really interesting.  I don't know whether any of it will feed into my current theme of Captivity, Freedom and Identity.  Apart from one piece which I wasn't supposed to photograph so I'll not show it here. However I can show you the description!

 

If you go to the NSW Department of Corrective Services website and scroll down you will find it!

I am thinking about making a textile piece called I Am Not A Number using all the numbers by which I can prove my identiry eg passport number, NHS number etc.

The weather was a bit better the next day.  Still needed my vest on and a coat and waterproof!  We found that there was a free bus that we could get to where we wanted to walk.  We walked through a nature reserve and then along the coast path back into Wollongong.

 

 

We had a hot chocolate at a cafe right next to this beautiful Art Deco building.

These were the only people on the beach because it was so cold! 16 degrees C or so.  Back in England I'm pretty sure there would have been people in coats sat behind windbreaks!

We went back the next day when it was back to about 26 degrees  and there were loads of people in the sea and on the beach.

Anyway, back to the walk.  We finished the walk by the lighthouse, with its view over the city of Wollongong.

We used the free bus again to get to the Botanic Garden where we met up with the family.

And so to our penultimate day which I have already written about here.

Our last day involved a short visit to an art gallery.  Then off to the airport, lunch and the flight home.

I hope you have enjoyed the last few posts.   I have many, many more photos of the 3 weeks we were in Australia with only a very few posted here.  I hope it has given you a flavour of the places we visited.

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

A long weekend

We went away as a family, firstly to Cessnock and then on to Gwandalan.

Whilst we were staying in Cessnock we visited a small village called Wollombi.  It had some really interesting buildings and lots of rust.  Guess what you're going to see now!!

There are more photos of rusty chains but I'll spare you!

The next day on our way from Cessnock to Gwandalan we went to a Putt Putt (Pitch and Putt) place where all seven of us played.  It was harder than I thought!

The Airbnb in Gwandalan was amazing.  The garden backed onto a saltwater lake - it looked like a lake but there was a small inlet from the sea.

There was everything there for the kids to play with so we didn't go out except for one visit to Caves Beach.  I didn't climb down the rocks to the entrance to the cave so I have no photos of its interior.

On our way back to Wollongong we stopped off to pick oranges.  I didn't know oranges grew in Australia.

We were now into our last few days in Australia.  Come back on Tuesday to find out what we got up to.

Thanks for being here today
Bernice