Art and Abart

Riveting. That is the word for Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva's performance in Sydney last week. Not showy, not flamboyant, but so pe...

My neighbour ordered some bulbs and this evening she came over to offer me some. It is just the right time to plant bulbs and I am delighted...

Concert sketch: Leppänen, Selby and Valve Kathryn Selby is a fine pianist who chooses excellent musicians with whom to play. On Sunday ...

A glass of fire before the concert ....

  Nicole Car: songs of suffering If you sing songs of desperation and despair, and so many opera arias are, you look like this eve...

'I learned on my trip to Turkey last year the ability of the Turks to create joy through the appreciation of simple things, even in the ...

The Hamilton Gardens in Hamilton, NZ, are remarkable. I visited for the first time in 2014, but they have expanded in the four years since ...

Yesterday I visited Hobbiton near Matamata, a pretty town in the Waikato region of New Zealand. Hobbiton probably needs no introduction be...

The most tranquil of water will turn into a torrent if you force it through a narrow enough channel and so it is with placid Lake Taupo whic...

Trees in Taihape There are some magnificent native trees in the North Island of New Zealand, those that survive. Most were cut down last...

Dwarf from Lord of the Rings I am travelling with a hobbit obsessed travel partner so we are going from one hobbity thing to another. ...

The Cambridge Hotel is an upmarket backpackers/hotel in Wellington with a nice vibe, lots of wood and a lift like those you see in 1930s fil...

It is autumn and the spiders are building huge webs to try to catch their local human. They are succeeding.

It is the time of plums, those little freestone sugar-plums, with their purple, white sheened skin and yellow flesh. They are perfect for pl...

Maxime Bibeau's bass was built in 1581 and glows from the stage Yesterday bassist Maxime Bibeau celebrated 20 Years with the Austral...

Sydney Opera House in colour(s) Before the advent of the Vivid Festival in Sydney it was unusual to see the Sydney opera house clothed i...

This blog has been neglected of late for several reasons. In early January I slipped (in Sydney) on an outdoor mat and fell heavily onto a...

#redeyeman: Texter, ink and watercolour pencils  A collaborative effort by my eight year old granddaughter and I.

Sunset with clouds Season's Greetings dear blog-readers and I wish you a pleasant passage into 2018. I will certainly have one as ...

SSO harpists Bluebeard's Castle is a one act opera by Béla Bartók and this Sydney Symphony production was the first time I had heard...