A few weeks ago I went to see Van Gogh and the Seasons at the National Gallery of Victoria. It was a typical Winter day in Melbourne: sunny and clear but cold. There was a lot of excitement surrounding this exhibition, as it's the first time that many of the paintings have travelled outside Europe. I have to give credit to the NGV for securing ( Read more... )

Since the start of the year I have been following Jillian of One Pink Hippo as she makes a Temperature Blanket. I'm feeling inspired to try something similar! The weather in Melbourne is so changeable that I'm sure the result would be very interesting. A blanket is a bit too much of a commitment for me at the moment: I really can't see myself ( Read more... )

It's Spring here in the southern half of the world. The days are longer, the trees are waking up, and the cat spends his mornings lazing in the sun. It's taken a while for the weather to warm up -- even now there are just as many cold and rainy days as Spring-like ones. As inspiring as Spring is, I'm not one to love the Summer heat, so I'm enjoying ( Read more... )

Yesterday I went on a little outing to Castlemaine. Regional public transport is free of charge all of this week, an offering that was apparently made because of a recent series of issues in the transport network. Seeing as I have some free time on my hands at the moment, I decided to go on a little day trip to a country town. I chose Castlemaine ( Read more... )

Well, perhaps 'failure' is a bit harsh. I did write 4 pages, plus a few haiku. And a couple of blog posts, but I would have written those anyway. These days, not blogging seems as unthinkable as not eating ( Read more... )

I accidentally deleted the first version of this post, and didn't realise it for about 3 weeks. Thankfully that doesn't happen to me very often, though I found myself thinking, why this post in particular??! It was difficult trying to remember that far back; and the second version never seems as good as the first, but I'm going to persist ( Read more... )

I've just finished a book that inspired me very much, and I'd like to share it today. I was given The Pillow Book as a gift, a lot longer ago than I'd like to admit. I'd been looking forward to reading it for a long time, and I finally got to it this year.


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This is an impromptu post (hence the terrible photo taken on my ipod) about Pop for Poetry.


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This week I've been suddenly interested in writing haiku again. When I was at university, I came across haiku in my research on Japanese culture. They really resonated with me. I'd tried writing poetry in school, but it always felt clunky and forced. I never knew when to end a poem, or how many themes it should have. Haiku are deliberately short ( Read more... )

I was at the library last week to pick up a book, and on the display near the front door, I saw Wacky Baby Knits, by Alison Jenkins. Of course I had to grab it!


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