Pastel Drawing: Reflections

A golden ring of self containment and sufficiency

A fountain of life

Droplets rippling out, impacting on people in different ways

Calm, Serene

Water lilies reaching for light from the murky, muddy depths which nourish the roots.

A reminder that grief for one death can awaken past griefs for lost dreams, wounds, missed opportunities, disappointments, loss of others.

A reminder that our actions and words ripple out into the world we inhabit affecting others in ways observed and unobserved.

A reminder that our actions and words need to spring from a place of gratitude, compassion and love

And

If we can’t manage that,

At least a place of honesty and authenticity,

If we are to bring light and life to our world.

Thursday, 4th August 2011.

I drew this picture to honour Frances Folletta, the Volunteer Co-ordinator at Fernlea House, who died Wednesday, the 6th of July 2011.

Pastel Drawing: Orchids

The orchids on the window sill above  the sink make the task of washing up far more pleasurable.

I admire their waxy beauty, colours and forms.

The blooms last for weeks -

An eye magnet distracting me from those prosaic tasks which need doing,

……..tomorrow…………tomorrow……….

there is always tomorrow.

23rd of November 2011

Pastel Drawing: On The Road To Yoga

On the road to yoga, I pass

The art shop

The splashing, historic fountain

The towering cathedral – also historic.

On the road to yoga,

My heart quickens as I crest Big Hill to view familiar hills and trees stretching away before me,

And it gladens as I pass through the eucalypt  tunnels and arches.

On the road to yoga, distant  Mt. Franklin sits in the centre of the windscreen as I approach the turn off to Castlemaine and Harcourt.

On the road to yoga, I follow the curve of the poplars and pass the shrouded vines,

Lanes with evocative names mark my journey as I climb from the lowlands to the central highlands -

Havelook Street

Pepper Tree Track

Limestone Track

Strawthorn R0ad.

On the road to yoga, I turn right when I am within sight of the Chocolate Mill

Home of the most delicious, dark chocolate covered licorice bullets on the planet.

On the road to yoga,

I observe the apples ripening on the tree growing beside the lane

And watch out for snakes as I bump along the track leading to the yoga studio.

Destination reached.

19th March, 2013

I attend a weekly Dru Yoga class on a rural property near Mt. Franklin. It is an hour’s drive from where I am currently living in Bendigo.

Mt. Franklin is an extinct volcano which dominates the surrounding countryside. It is close to Hepburn and Daylesford in Victoria’s central highlands.

 

This is the last post I will be publishing in Bendigo. When I am writing my next post, I will be living in Castlemaine.

Charcoal drawing: Along The Spur Track

After the testing hot weather

The bush murmurs quietly in the grey, cool day.

Grey clouds float gently above

In no rush to go anywhere.

The belling of a White Throated Tree Creeper slices the silence.

The bush waits stoically for rain.

Maldon Historic Reserve, 18th March 2013

Maldon is a town near Castlemaine.

Survivor

The quince tree has outlived

the house which has decayed and disappeared,

It has outlived the people who once lived there,

Surviving years of neglect with no-one to tend or water it.

The diggings are long abandoned

reduced to lumpy ground

The bush regrown.

My aunt, Anne, and I used to come here early mornings

Armed with binoculars and morning tea to bird watch

Honeyeaters, shuffle wings, wood swallows.

One lucky day we observed rainbow bee eaters snatch bees from the air as they made their way to and from their hives,

The birds sat on a barbed wire fence to disarm their prey before swallowing them.

Unlucky bee keeper.

Muckleford, 2nd March 2013

Muckleford is a rural district near Castlemaine

Pastel Drawing – A Fresh Start

New life springs from the ash of the scorching fire

Hope and optimism bloom

The burnt out stump crackles and smoulders

The last flames flicker

Timber glowers red

The circle of life begins anew.

28th February 2013

Charcoal Drawing: River Activity

The River has been a hive of activity

Wind powered, muscle powered, motor powered craft

sailed, paddled and driven past my view.

The beach and water are now emptying

The breeze becoming brisker and cooler.

There are a few hardy souls

Wet suit clad in the river,

A child defies his grandmother who calls to him to come into shallower water,

The sea gulls watch bemused.

The  Barwon River, Barwon Heads, 16th January 2013 

Charcoal Drawing – Pennyweight Flat Cemetery, Castlemaine

Victims of the harsh conditions of the goldfields,

They gaze out across the valley

where their parents sought their fortunes in the muds of Forest Creek.

As the cicadas whirr, I recall coming here with my Aunt Anne at dusk,

The biting wind whipping across the small hill,

Kangaroos emerging from the bush to feed on the greenery on the slopes leading down to the creek,

Rabbits darting about in long grass,

Chilled, we turned for home in the gathering gloom.

Pennyweight Flat Cemetery was in use between 1852 – 1857.

It is a rare example of a surviving Gold Rush cemetery.

The site was chosen because the burials would not be disturbed by the search for gold.  

A high proportion of the burials are children and babies.

200 people are buried there.

Pastel Drawing – Emotional Tides – 7th February 2013

I am at the mercy of the tides of my emotions

Flowing forward, I am full of optimism and hope,

With the ebb tide, despair and anxiety reign.

Deep primal fears well to the surface

Bursting loudly from my body.

This period of change is testing me to the utmost.

Will the butterfly fulfil its destiny?

Or fall broken, its flight cut short?

The Oak Forest

I look up through the layers of leaves and branches to the clear blue dome overhead,

An interplay of sunlight and shadow bewitch the eye as the leaves flutter,

The sun is gently warm on my skin,

I listen to the breeze, buzzing insects and birdcalls,

A butterfly hovers over dry leaves,

Peace.

The Oak Forest, Mt Alexander, near Harcourt.

9th January 2013

The Oak Forest was planted in 1900 to provide tannin from acorns for local tanneries.