Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Lately . . .

The year is speeding by. It's a cliche but "Where has the year gone?" I've been asked to design Christmas stuff at work . . .

I have another exhibition coming up. Called 'Views, it will be held at the Rosemount Estate Cellar Door in McLaren Vale - locals will be more familiar with it's old name - Seaview. The exhibition is an opportunity to hang works from the past two years and give them another airing. You're sure to see something new though - I don't think anyone has been to all my exhibitions (Oh, except David and he's even missed one opening!).

Click on the pictures to see them at a larger size.


The exhibition poster.

Something new! We're both doing yoga. Our friend Effy Kleanthi, who opened my 'Detours' and 'Detours Revisited' exhibitions invited us along to a couple of sessions. David went first and I then went along with him. It's Bikram yoga which is practiced in 40 degree heat (or up to that temperature). The heat means you sweat a lot but it also protects you from injuries. I reckon the sessions are as hard to do as a half triathlon - and they take longer, one and a half hours! It's amazing stuff. I've been inspired by it.


Some people are just unteachable and just never do the right thing . . .

We recently went on a car run through the Adelaide Hills. What was special about this run was that we were privileged to do it in our friend Malcolm's 1948 Wolseley. A beautiful car, David and I had each had a turn in the front and back seats. It's spacious up the back, enough room to cross your legs! Up the front its a bit squishier but great fun to be in. And its very quiet!

Activities for the day included a trip to Melba's chocolate factory, Udder Delights cheeses, the Birdwood wine and cheese shop and a lunch at the Blumberg Hotel. The pub does a good steak.


The Wolseley lost some water but only because it was parked on a slope.


The view from the back seat. In sepia - as everything was in 1948 I'm reliably told . . .

I was in two exhibitions for the South Australian Living Artist Festival. I had two pictures up at the Hahndorf Academy. both were originally show at the Tin Cat Cafe earlier this year. I had another picture in an exhibition at the Austral Hotel in the SA Central Flickr group's show.


The show at the Hahndorf Academy for the South Australian Living Artist Festival


The picture I put in for the exhibition at the Austral Hotel, Rundle Street in the city.

As usual David has been busy in the kitchen. His most recent enthusiasm has been Japanese cooking. The source for this enthusiasm was a trip to a wonderful Japanese restaurant when we were in Broome and a new Japanese cookbook which I brought home from work.


Involtini of eggplant (aubergine) filled with ricotta and green olive and served with a tomato and roast capsicum sauce.


The occasional tea towel gets incinerated too.

After about three weeks of physiotherapy, Ned the guy I went to see, fixed up my initial complaint, the knee ache I felt when riding my bike. With that gone I thought I was home free. Wrong. I then went for a run. After a kilometre or so I felt great shin pain and then had to hobble to a stop. It passed and I could run for a while longer but then the same thing would happen. Now, with three months more physio I think I have the problem sort of under control. All I need to do is stretch my legs before I run and if I feel like the pain is coming on again I stop and stretch again. The stretches have to be extreme and prolonged to be of any effect though. I suspect, when triathlon season starts again, I'll be the only one who stops to stretch mid-way though the run leg of a competition! I'm hoping the yoga will help too!


My running gear - can't run without music, mobile phone and money for emergencies and the house keys.

We have a self storage locked at Norwood and recently we decided to clean it out as we couldn't fit anything more into it and it was needed to safely store my unsold artwork. The locker was piled up a metre high right from the front door. It took two Saturday afternoons to sort it out. Oxfam will be receiving 20 boxes of books, mostly novels. At the same time we went through our clothing - we removed what I though must have been close to 1 and a half cubic metres of clothes - it went to the Salvos. I swear our wardrobe sighed with relief.


One of our friends said 'books breed when you're not looking'. I think he must be right. Above, some of the boxes of books awaiting a new home.