Art and Abart

It's been so windy here in Sydney that the tops blew off a neighbourhood cactus. 

https://youtu.be/yAG0kPovQe8    Covid lockdown bears all sorts of fruits. Music by a talented young mate of mine Girl Platoon.

When I arrived in Germany in 1973 I had no idea I would spend the next couple of years collecting oral histories but that is what happened. ...

Can it be June already? It is!  The 4th June is almost over as I write, the 4th day of winter, although the past two weeks in Sydney have be...

On my way to Bayreuth (pre-Covid) to hear Wagner's operas Tristan and Isolde and Parsifal I stayed with friends in Hamburg. Sitting on ...

I hang my work around the house in an ever changing art show. Some paintings I never tire of, others are favourites for a while then take a ...

Is it April already? The self sown tomato plant in my garden (last post) produced lots of tiny tomatoes, many of which were green when I pul...

My skills at growing vegetables seems to be rather less than growing catnip and yellow lantana. I bught a tomato plant in spring and another...

We are told repeatedly that exercise is good for us but the problem with exercise is that it is so boring. Keeping up an exercise routine i...

I have lived here over a year now. When I arrived the garden was lawn and the patch of ground between fence and path was weeds.  Early very...

It is 28 December, a Monday but the streets hereabouts are quiet as it is a public holiday. At 8am it is already warm, over 25C but it is...

It's a couple of days until Christmas, but really, who would know? One of the effects of the pandemic is that it has messed with our int...

 I planted Sweetpeas last autumn so I had something to watch grow through the winter. They have been flowering since September and the more ...

Hard copies of my book arrived today and they are much brighter than I imagined. It is so exciting to see them in the flesh.   Yes, I agre...

A friend just texted to ask RUOK? reminding me that it is RUOK day in Australia, a day meant to promote mental health by asking people to re...

Stations in NSW have become the focus for high rise buildings in Sydney. Since regulations were loosened by our neoliberal NSW state governm...

I have acquired a rescue cat, third hand. Frankie was originally rescued from a cat rescue place in Melbourne. After several years her rescu...

The Art Gallery of NSW is helping their members stay sane in lockdown by organising art challenges. There are prizes to be won, like the box...

What you do in isolation. Make warm trousers from that drab (but woollen) material you've had for years but brighten them up with whatev...

On the Wings of an Albatross - an A-Z of Australian and New Zealand Birds Amazon is not sending books to Australia at the moment so I h...