couldn't resist showing off my latest acquisition in vinyl from the Salvation Army op shop.... "The Banjo Barons- Thoroughly Modern Hits of Today" from 1966....
just because I love a good banjo.... the blurb on the back was quite charming as well. ...

..."always carry a diary with you-you never know what you'll stumble across that could feed your creative juices...." 
Those words came back to me today in full force, if not only for the fact that I had to write key words down on an old university Aroma Cafe loyalty card...Sitting opposite around me, at least 25 people on mobile phones. A young man sitting opposite secretly taking photos of us all sitting on the opposite wall, and casting sidelong glances our way (until he noticed me frowning and staring nastily at him...) A 20 something woman who did not look up from her phone in two full hours, and was constantly harangued by her about four year old, whose last drastic attempt to get her attention was to pick his nose and place his finger in his mouth, with "Mummy, Mummy, look at me - look at me...look at meeeee!!!" on loop.Two middle aged Bikies with bifocals - one reading Take 5 the other engrossed in Woman's Day. Noticing the slow deterioration of patience, person by person...the jittery movements, the occasional grumpy remark, the groans when people thought it was their turn ("we should be next...!) I likened it to three hours of a deeply fascinating kind of torture. Three hours fairly well spent, I'd say.

Here will be various processes, experiments, thoughts and ideas as well as upcoming projects...and general meanderings......and here be the first entry......
A time of collective breath-holding is currently occurring. I have realised that life in general can have many distinct forks in the road - and not all are related! ...and so - I push on in terms of my arts practice - finishing a commissioned basket, and starting work the last few days, on a portrait to commemorate a dear friends twenty first birthday this year...results of both shall be posted once complete.Meanwhile the garden has sprung into a (wet) spring - all the flower possibilities for natural dyeing! If only I had endless bolts of lovely silk which takes the colours up so well.....This week I shall be gathering flowers and freezing them, and sourcing recycled fabrics for experimentation. This cloth can then be used in my basketry, no matter how small the piece!