Fun up North

Rocks at Josephine Falls – Cambell is the photographer – nice shot I think.
I spent the past week or so in a cleaning frenzy… visitors were on their way… not just ANY visitors either.
A very special friend and her family were to spend a couple of days with us on their way to Port Douglas. Luckily for me Lyn phoned to see if I needed anything before she arrived and guess what – I had my dates wrong – they were a matter of hours away not days. Aaaaagggghhhh. So instead of the day in Cairns I had planned my sister gave me a hand to finish the last of the scrubbing – yes where I live needs that kind of attention – living in a shed on a dirt road with lots of dust and bugs. Anyway we made it in time and met them up the highway at Mirriwinni Servo so we could take them on a tour of Josephine Falls and lunch at Flying Fish Point Cafe.

The falls are magnificent and the kids had a ball climbing all over the rocks. Lunch at Flying Fish Point was great, Lindsay the new owner there has brought the cafe back to a fine standard. Great to see, there is nothing worse than taking someone to lunch and getting bad service or food – thanks Lindsay lunch was fabulous.

Our horse kept the kids entertained mornings as she gets out of her paddock and thinks she is a dog. Our dog thinks it is a kid and spends most of its time jumping on our trampoline, the horse is never far away and I am sure if it were possible the horse would be on the trampoline too.

I think the Potts Family had a good visit they got to do just about everything one does in North Queensland in winter, eat, drink, drink and be merry. Cassowaries finished off the visit with a trip to Etty Bay for coffee before a meal at the Currajah Hotel watching the cane trains rumble past.

The kids had a mix of swimming, exploring in the creek and through the paddocks up hill and over dale, they took heaps of photographs of bugs, played a little Playstation but mostly were on the trampoline with the dog and horse. Isn’t it great when a group of kids of various ages all enjoy each others company and no matter what they were doing, inside or out they were all smiling having a great time – and being very polite (important stuff) I love school holidays and I loved the Potts Family visit.

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Australia has a female Prime Minister

Wow, who would have thought Australians would wake up this morning with one Prime Minister and have another by smoko. I really don’t like Kevin Rudd as PM but I feel very sorry for him today. Captain Crudd as I dubbed him reminded me off the Wile E Coyote… always comming up with super duper plans that come unstuck and bite him in the arse.

Julia Gillard was the lady in waiting until about an hour ago. Now Australia has its first female Prime Minister – one for the record books. I was suprised to find myself a little emotional when the news was released on one hand I was sad for Captain Crudd, but on the other I was proud of Julia Gillard and could only imagine how her family must feel right now. Would they be aprehensive as to her new role, how much time will she get to spend with them, will they get to down G&Ts on the lawn at Kirrabilly House or infact will they even get to see the inside at all.
I hope Julia does the right thing and throws a party (using tax payers money of course) at Kirrabilly for all the rellies – actually I am friends with a very distant one maybe she’ll be able to bring a friend…

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What have I been doing?

I found a wasp nest on Sunday while I mowed… I am still swollen and sore. Luckily for me they only stung me on one arm and leg, so now I am just lop sided. One of my fingers is so big I can’t bend it to hold a pen… lucky again I don’t rely on using chopsticks to eat.

Enough moaning. I am busy with yet another project. The difference with this one is it doesn’t involve writing or painting. I am in the process of making a mosaic for the new house. In the old house we had one on the floor of the dining area – everyone (friends) were more upset about the loss of the mosaic than they were about the loss of our entire house when it blew away in the cyclone. Anyway, not that I am really into them because a badly done mosaic is … can’t think of what.
In the photograph above you will see piles of small glass tiles and a black and white plan of what I am creating in monotone. The house design is industrial, so this mosaic of cogs meshing (very industrial don’t you think) will go on a wall in my ensuite which is seen from the back deck – so a waterproof piece of artwork I guess. Not counting the time spent creating my plan and then the WEEK (more like ten days)counting the different coloured tiles so I could order them … I have spent two whole days making squares, I have finished the entire A row, B row and am half way through the C row. They are numbered A1 – G11, yes 77 squares … each square has 15 x 15 tiles = 225 tiles. It might take a while.

Wish me luck it looks good when it is finished – I may have to leave town, sell the house if anyone would buy it with an ugly mosiac…

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Love my Workshops

Well it’s nearly the end of our Queen’s Birthday long weekend, bummer… I’m yet to take Lachlan to his piano lesson, that’s in another hour or so. He has exams soon so at the moment he is practising, practising… I wish he would do that with his school work.

Yesterday I spent the day in Townsville (300kms away) the WITS group held a writing workshop with Author Nikesh Murali. The workshop started at 10am and finished up just after 4pm. He had us working hard for nearly all of the time, we had 1/2 hour for lunch and 10 minutes for both coffee breaks – slave driver. I’m not complaining though it was great. I learnt so much about one of the story structures for novels as well as for short stories. He is energetic, interesting, fun and knows his business. I would certainly attend any workshop he held in the future, even the travel to and from Townsville didn’t take the shine off. The motel I stayed in on Saturday night… was something else… I think it must be hired by the hour. When I was looking for accomodation there was nothing available – anywhere. Well I guess staying somewhere like that just gives me another ingredient for my story writing.

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Meteoric Metaphoric Workshop

Yey…. today I had 13 people over to my place to have a wokshop on writing. Dr John was the tutor and environment the muse.

Above is my ‘Scarlet Ladies Slipper ‘ vine at night… it is a beautiful vine and grows prolifically, I think it has its roots in the septic.
Back to the workshop… it went really well with great attendance and participation. John read his short stories and then pulled them apart showing us how and why, talking about word useage and flow. It was very interesting and I think we all learned a lot, I know I am still inspired and now can see where some of my work lays.

Speaking of work… my cow drawings are coming along, I have them doing weird things like climbing trees etc. My novel is still at a stand still, BUT, I am giving it quite a lot of thought and am determined to have my first draft finished by 31/12/2010 YES New Years Eve. Along with the novel first draft I will also have at least one picture book finished and off at a publishing house (hopefully being looked at).

Today I finished a painting – a photo of which I will put in my next post – this painting is to be donated to an auction raising money for the Cairns Childrens’ Hospital Special Care Unit. My eldest son Cambell spent a week in that Unit after he was born so I am more than happy to give away a painting I hope will raise about $1000, even if I had no tie with the hospital I would be happy to donate as I feel up here in the North we get a little forgotten by the State and Federal Governments. We are still waiting for the Federal Government decision on the new library grant application… waiting… waiting… waiting…

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Inspiration

Sometimes an image can inspire magical stories. The above image came to me in an email … along with several others. They are of the volcano in Iceland that has managed to cause trouble for people around the world. Anyway wouldn’t this mountain be the perfect home for the most wicked of witches? I can see her now, elegantly enveloped in furs to keep out the Icelandic cold whipping up the fire and brimstone beacuse she is throwing a tantrum.

The past couple of days I have been drawing cows. I am working on one of my 1/2 finished childrens’ picture books – 11 more to go. That is my goal this year… get some picture books to a suitable stage to send a dummy to a publishing house. Just think of the hard work to come.

This Sunday John – the new member of our writing group I have told you about – is holding a workshop for us … we are going to learn about metaphors…. Oooohhh. I am so excited… this is perfect, his writing is beautiful and we are going to learn, learn, learn, I want to get as good as I possibly can with my writing… and I am sure John is exactly what I/we need at this point.

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