Coffee in Canberra

In a Kingston Cafe.

A Canberra plus

One thing that Canberra has going for it is the new National Portrait Gallery. The building itself is elegant and fits well into the landscape, and the internal structures work very well ... except they need more exit signs so you can find your way out.

There are arguments about whether portraits are really art. I think that the paintings in the Australian National Portrait Gallery are interesting and vibrant and strongly support the argument that portraits can indeed be art.

The National Portrait Gallery is definitely worth a visit.

Canberra

I've just been to Canberra for 2 days.

The people I met were unfailingly friendly when I asked directions, the trees are lovely and traffic is almost non existent. Despite these obvious advantages I find Canberra an odd place. It feels like an American small town and I suppose that is because it was designed by an American. The streets are far too wide for pedestrians to negotiate and the hanging baskets full of flowers are invisible as they hang in the middle of the main boulevard between rows of Eucalyptus trees that completely obscure them.

Canberra cafes there are full of well fed civil servants having little meetings. They all look so well washed, with shiny foreheads and freshly combed hair. Here and there you see a bright yellow tie with discrete little triangles and I got the feeling this might be the only little bit of individuality allowed in Canberra.

Taking a break

At a Rockdale Cafe.

Coffee in Rockdale

I didn't have much room for many summer clothes in my luggage after packing my prints, my painting kit, my lightweight easel and some winter clothes for Hamburg where I am headed in April, so I have been buying T-shirts at the sales in nearby Rockdale.

I am growing to like Rockdale. In the walking street there are a row of coffee shops. None of them is trendy but all of them serve good coffee. I sit and paint the patrons. In the mornings they are mostly elderly men and I feel for all the world as if I am in Serbia, or Armenia or Italy - somewhere where the older folk sit around the town square and solve the world's problems.

Aldeburgh in May

On 15-17th May I am having an exhibition in Aldeburgh in Suffolk, UK. I will be showing my 'Wagner Inspired' etchings as part of the 3 day event organised by the London Wagner Society.

I have never been to Aldeburgh, birthplace of Benjamin Britten, but judging by online photos it is a very picturesque place.

Exciting or what?

Rockdale

Banksia is, I have discovered, just a 10 minutes walk from Rockdale. If Australia is a melting pot then Rockdale is close to the center of the melt. It is very multicultural. As I walked to Rockdale today I heard Chinese opera coming from a unit which was right next door to a large white building called The Macedonian Cultural Center. Groups of Indian youths walked past and a man in an Arab sweet shop sold me a slice of ricotta cheese with syrup. In the shops you feel as if you are in Asia one minute and Armenia the next.

Our new temperature regimes

The fires in Victoria are dreadful and hard to imagine in Sydney as it is raining here. Unfortunately it is our new reality. Perhaps now the Australian Government will start taking global warming seriously?

Uprooted

The roots are pulled, chattels in storage and I have decamped.

I am staying in Banksia, a Sydney suburb only 15 car minutes south of my familiar stamping grounds of Newtown/Erskineville, yet I feel as if I am in a different city.

Taihape view from cemetary hill

 

Taihape is a pretty place. I took my easel when I was there over Christmas. Taihape paintings.

Understanding spaghetti

The nice man who installed my audio equipment put in cables so the TV can be switched thorough the amp and I can control everything with one remote control. But now I am moving, and the nice man wont be there to install a second time so I am taking photos and making diagrams to make sure I can recreate his work in my new home.

Rubber ducky gone to duck heaven ...

Rubber ducky (sadly deteriorated) has gone to watch the stars from close range and ...
the tulip paintings are packed which means the removalists must be just about on their way.

Full bath = 1/2 full washer

I wonder if I am the only person in Dunedin that uses my bath water for the washing machine? I discovered last year that the old and very inefficient washing machine in this apartment takes as much water per cycle as a FULL bath, and that is the middle setting. What is more, it sloshes the water about for about 3 minutes, then pumps it all out again.

Instead of getting upset about my inefficient washer I decided to make the most of it. On cold evenings I have wonderful hot baths then bucket the water into the washer. So I can bathe without being concerned about the energy bill. My double use strategy has an additional benefit apart from saving energy and promoting conscience free bathing. I like very hot baths which can make you giddy, but by the time I bucket the water through my (often very cold) hall I am cool again.

I must say I do look forward to using a machine that actually cleans clothes again, but in the meantime I am enjoying hot baths.

(check out this water efficient machine.)

Hotter than we are used to.

Phew it is hot in Dunedin. 30C yesterday, 30C today and tomorrow is going to be hot as well.

Although it is nearly 10pm it is still 28C inside. This apartment has two doors, back and front, and for the first time in the two years I have lived here I have both of them wide open to draw the breeze. I have just been for my evening walk and there are a lot of houses with windows and doors open. We are unaccustomed to such weather.

Tulip paintings

The boxes are filling, most paintings are packed, but not these tulip paintings. I am going to leave them hanging until just before I leave so it feels like home.

Dunedin had 30C today and at 9:15 pm the thermometer still reads 28C. Phew!

View to Ourangi

Why is it that the countryside of ones childhood retains a special place in ones heart regardless of how long one has been away? These are the hills where I grew up. The flat hill in the distance is called Ourangi and to its right is Pukeokahu (Hill of the Hawk).

Below is my aquarelle version, painted over Christmas.

Mellow yellow

Well not so mellow perhaps, but certainly yellow. I have just sewn a bag to put my painting backpack in so it can be sent in the hold of an airplane without loosing any of its straps. I hope the colour will stick out enough so I remember to collect it from the baggage roundabout. That was my last sewing job before packing up the machine.

Packing again... erks ...

I am back in Dunedin and it is wonderful to be here. But I am packing again.

Every shop has a sale on but I am discarding rather than acquiring. I am hopeless at discarding and I don't like packing but the task is made much easier with one of these fancy tape dispensers, which I bought, yes, at the sales.

I wonder to myself, as I tape the boxes shut, where and when I shall be opening them again.

Dun-Chch-Palmy... then Taihape

Flap, flap, flap .... vroom. I am off to Taihape for Christmas. Bags are packed, shuttle pick-up is at 7am tomorrow morning.

Tick tock

My clock, made in the ceramics class earlier in the year.

tick .... tock.... tick.... tock.... it measures the seconds as I write.