Friday, October 30, 2009

mirandaaaaaa

 

Let's go to Hanging Rock again soon, before it gets too deliriously hot to walk around.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

little battler





Cats and blogs don't work, unless you're Jessica Lucas. But my cat's diabetes is getting worse, her arthritis is making her front legs shake, there is a possibility that she has dementia and the vet had me fearing the worst this week so I'm celebrating her fighting spirit - our crazy-making, co-dependent, dysfunctional life together continues. Which is a good thing.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Drašnice



From Brac I went to Makarska where my relatives had arranged for a taxi driver they knew to take me to Drašnice to see where my grandfather had lived. His house is in old Drašnice up in the foothills of the mountain. After the earthquake in 1962 everyone moved down to the water. My grandfather was long gone by then, growing grapes in Middle Swan in Perth.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Pucisca stone














































A couple of years ago I went to Brac in Croatia. I wanted to see my great grandmother's house in Pucisca. The first photo is the view from the path behind my distant cousins house. He introduced me to a local artist who was building his house in the hillside just below this. It was almost Gaudi-like, the walls curving around organically. I was then taken to the stonemasons school. Brac stone is a dazzling white, it was like being in a room full of never-melting snow. It has softened and darkened in the photos. The students here leave regular high school to learn the centuries old trade of stonemasonry. Later that evening my relative told me that he ran into the man he introduced me to who was sitting with some old ladies in the town square. The artist asked who I was and when told I was a relative and my age the old ladies said emphatically "God has sent her to you!". There was talk of my being his future wife but unfortunately for the old ladies God had arranged for me to leave the next day.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Peanuts



I started collecting old postcards in primary school and used to have hundreds. I'll scan them in when I get the time. She's my first, a sad little Peanuts character.

windowsill plants



home



Nathan Gray and Olivia on the mantlepiece
Sedmikrásky on the windowsill
Guitar playing bottle opener on the speaker
Ieuan Weinman in the kitchen

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Not THAT Nick Cave


  
 


Shake it.

Images courtesy of various blogs...
http://theartblog.org/
http://todojustthis.blogspot.com/

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Nana




My grandmother at her father's grave wearing mourning dress


On the vineyard in Perth


 





















Dressed as a man in Croatian national dress

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Visiting Kitty


  
Kitty's kitchen in her dark cocoon like 70s house

Rob & I visited Kitty and she told us stories of living in Papua New Guinea where she and her husband had a peanut farm in the days before independence. Her house is an oasis, very dark and earthy, and you sit surrounded by tribal masks and shields.

Friday, October 2, 2009

From the city of shadows






















Saw this book yesterday, a follow up to City of Shadows. This one tells the stories behind those amazing photographs of thieves, pickpockets, prostitutes and runaways. City of Shadows had some crime scene photos that were tough going and I always balked at buying it. I get nervous sometimes about books like that being in my house - as if the violence will seep out of the pages and invade my dreams. But this book I can happily live with.