Art and Abart

My ticket for Donizetti's opera Anna Bolena was accidental, a swap for one earlier in the year that I couldn't attend. I had no expe...

My new home space is slowly becoming more orderly. The music equipment was the first thing that was set up and now most of the big boxes hav...

I am not a saleswoman by inclination, so when I was forced to become one while selling my house, I had to have a stress mitigation strategy....

I've moved, moved in a whirl from the NSW Central Coast back to Sydney. Perhaps that explains the lack of blog posts recently. I was t...

It is surprising how many people don't like trees. They find them a nuisance,  cut them down in their own gardens and complain about tho...

Warm. Wool. Walkable. Wonderful. Wearable. Wacky. Winter fashion statement

Gladioli from the garden, orange as orange can be. The very last of the orange, very orange, Gladioli are in a vase and Sydney is sudden...

Mother's Day dawned clear, bright and chilly and the sulphur-crested Cockatoos were out in force. This group of 15 had a black crow badg...

Gladioli are hard to captute in photos as they are so long The  orange Gladioli in my garden started appearing several years after I mov...

Sunrise in May 2019 Some sunrises are so stunning the photos look fake. Would you think this was a true representation of a sunrise if...

Is it possible to buy cakes from yesteryear anywhere? The type that are exquisitely delicious but not too sweet? The entire cake industry in...

Lilies are white, Roses are pink, Both lilies and roses, Fade in a blink Watercolour paintings that didn't make the cut land in my ...

Reading two books at once, like these two which are as different as chalk and cheese, is very rewarding. Each if them is a bit overwhelmi...

Sort out, give away, throw away, modify. Does Marie Kondo do 'modify' I wonder?  I had too much bed linen and not enough bedwear, so...

The window sills on the western side of this house need painting every couple of years as the harsh Australian sunlight destroys the paint. ...

Having a visitor this weekend had two benefits: firstly the company, very appreciated after so long alone, and secondly the need to be a bit...

Puzzles seem the ultimate time waster don't they?  You work and work and when you have completed your puzzle you take it apart again. It...

Over the past week I have been completely entranced by George Eliot's Middlemarch . It is so well written I have been reading very slowl...

Convalescence project: A multicoloured woollen poncho, intended for a 9 year old violin player who complains of the cold on autumn mornings,...

It has been five days since the Christchurch terror attack. It feels like a month. The previously much vilified Muslim community has been ...