Kangaroos at last

Posted on May 17, 2013 by spinweaverbarbara

Even though we kept a sharp lookout when driving through the countryside, we have been unable to see any kangaroos or other wildlife in the wild.  After a reminder from the Grand-kids that they want to see “real kangaroos – not just statues” we decided to visit the Caversham Wildlife Park.  It was so much fun, and we saw lots of different kinds of animals and birds.

Tiny wallabies hiding in the bushes

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Larger wallabies in the fields

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And lovely soft kangaroos. These kangaroos were very tame and used to people.  We were aable to approach them and pet them, and offer them nibbles of kangaroo food.  They are so soft to touch and very gentle.  Some were white and some were tan coloured.

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We also saw Koalas, colourful birds,

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And sheep being sheared

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Now that’s a haircut!

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Western Australia Alpaca Show

Posted on May 8, 2013 by spinweaverbarbara
Preparing to enter the show

Preparing to enter the show

The Western Australia Alpaca Show, held at Whiteman Park about 30 minutes outside of Perth, was a marvelous way to see lots of Alpacas of many colours and learn more about this lovely animal.  I believe alpacas are elegant looking animals with their long necks matching the length of their legs, and with their heads held high while their alert eyes watch the world around them.

I entered the white tent-like barns and met most of the over 200 alpacas inside.  The most common in Western Australia are the Huacaya (pronounced wua’ki’ya).  Huacaya have crimped fleece which grows at right angles to the body and give them a well-rounded appearance.  They are so soft to touch, and the animals come in many different colours from white to black, ranging through fawn, brown, roan and grey.

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Suri (pronounced soo’ree) alpacas are less commonly found.  Suri look like they are covered in dreadlocks with their wavy and silky feeling locks. Just beautiful to look at and touch.

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After viewing the animals and watching some of the judging I visited the vendors tables to look at all the items made from alpaca fleece.  This included beautiful jumpers, blankets and scarves with a beautiful hand and drape.  I purchased some alpaca fibre for spinning in black, brown, fawn and white.  I look forward to spinning and weaving some warm, beautiful scarves.

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Spinning with the Western Australia Guild

Posted on May 6, 2013 by spinweaverbarbara

April Spinning Day with the Western Australia Spinners Weavers and Dyers Guild was lots of fun with a turnout of about 25 people.  The day was warm and sunny, but not too hot.  The group set up their spinning wheels in the hall, and we had fun spinning and visiting with each other.

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A good variety of wheels were seen in the room, but I was particularly taken with this unusual spinning wheel, owned by Janet.  It was made in Tasmania, with local wood, very compact but still weaving at a comfortable height.  Janet says it is great for camping in her compact caravan because it takes up very little space.  It is called a wind wheel, because it makes no sound but the wind whistling through the holes in the wheel. It is one of the quietest wheels I have ever seen.

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A shopping frenzy broke out when the new supplies for purchase were set out by the yarn cupboard.

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My own spinning has resulted in some lovely yarn.

The yarn is a merino(50%)-bamboo(25%)-tussah silk(25%) combination from Sweet Georgia Yarns in the colour “tavern” with greened browns, rosy fuchsias and gold.  100 gms spun up to yield 602 yards, 20 wpi and 7 tpi.

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Fremantle

Posted on April 26, 2013 by spinweaverbarbara

We took a day trip to the city of Fremantle, more affectionately known as Freo, which is the port city about 30 minutes out of Perth.  Fremantle is a quirky little city with a great  blend of old and new, with a bustling street life.  Freo has preserved and restored some of the older Victorian buildings, including churches and schools.

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Freo has a wonderful market area with goods ranging from spectacular jewelry, art and foods to the really,really tacky.

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After we left Fremantle we drove north along the beaches to Scarborough Beach where we had a wonderful seafood dinner.  We also found a petting zoo – these baby goats were too much to resist and I would have loved to adopt one of them.

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It was also fun watching all the little kids interacting with the animals, who took it all in stride.

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Anzac Day

Posted on April 26, 2013 by spinweaverbarbara

Anzac day is set aside to honor the Australians who lost their lives in wars and conflicts around the world, including those young men and boys, aged from 15 – 45 who fought in World War I. In Perth, over 50,000 residents gathered for the dawn services at Kings Park, waiting motionless in the darkness to remember their fallen countrymen and women as they marked the anniversary of the landing on Gallipoli in 1915.  Later, thousands lined the streets to watch with respect as hundreds of veterans marched in the Anzac day parade.  Lest we forget.

I give a silent prayer for peace and an end to conflict in the world.

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Creative Ebb and Flow

Posted on April 19, 2013 by spinweaverbarbara

Feeling at a low ebb creatively, like I am not making progress today.  I am trying to put a hand-dyed silk warp on the loom.  The warp is a mixture of several small lots of silk threads left over from various other projects and includes silk boucle, silk cords of several weights, smooth silks, rough silks, shiny silks and dull silks, all originally white or natural coloured.  A six yard warp was wound in three sections and then dip dyed in red, yellow and blue.  Overlapping areas became green and purple.  Additional sections were dyed in red and blue to serve as borders and weft.  The colours were set by steaming.  Moving to the loom, the yarns are super tangling and one of the threads is also pilling, causing the yarns to stick together in spots.  It is taking forever to put it on the loom – eight hours of my life I will not get back.  I’m at the point where I am wondering if I should just cut it up, throw it out and move on to the next thing.  The problem is, I really love the colours in bright primaries and secondaries – the blues and the greens are particularly gorgeous.

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So I am pressing on.  How come no one told me that even when I am doing the thing in the world that I absolutely love, that there would still be moments when I don’t love it so much?  I remind myself that weaving is the making of slow cloth, making an article that will last beyond today and that my deadlines are, for the most part, self-imposed and arbitrary.  And so, I will return to this later, but for now . . . .

I am rewarding myself with lunch out.  I have been totally alone for the last five days and wanted to get out and be with people, even strangers.  I am sitting in the café with my notebook and sipping a “flat white” coffee.  Overhearing snippets of conversation from other tables helps me feel connected to the larger world.

After lunch I strolled through the park and along the river.  Huge tents have sprouted at the end of the field in front of the apartment – Cirque de Solei is in town.  Enjoying the afternoon sun and the view of downtown from the river bank.

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Crackle Completed

Posted on April 13, 2013 by spinweaverbarbara

Over the last two weeks, both in Australia, and in Coquitlam, I challenged myself to complete some projects in Crackle Weave.  These needed to be ready for a photo shoot to advertise the workshop that I will be teaching in the Fall.  These projects have been woven, finished, packed up and delivered to Place des Arts.  I’m pretty happy with the way these turned out.

I made two small pillows:

Four Colour Crackle - no tabby

Four Colour Crackle – no tabby

Traditional Crackle

Traditional Crackle

Four Tea Towels

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And one pretty awesome scarf:
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One Week in British Columbia

Posted on April 12, 2013 by spinweaverbarbara

I’m back in BC for one week – reconnecting with family and friends.  This is an important week for me, with my daughter’s birthday, and my birthday coming at the start and end of the week.  The weather here is a balmy 12 degrees Celsius, and the sun peeked out today.  I had a pleasant walk around Como Lake, enjoying nature, watching the birds and fishers on the lake.  Fruit trees lift their abundant blossoms to the sky, a lone duck floats across the water, flowers poke their heads out of the ground and burst into colour.  This is an urban lake, and quite popular, but I still managed to find solitude and time to think about life and love, and where it’s taking me.

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Although I am disappointed that the colour workshop with Judith MacKenzie was postponed until August, I have been able to complete all my weaving and financial obligations and have had time to spend with family.

The grandchildren are growing like weeds, which is exactly what they should be doing.  We enjoyed a snuggly Saturday morning cartoon watching, and delicious brunch, cooked by my son Michael, and daughter Sarah.  I also enjoyed a home-made hamburger barbeque with Jeff and Al, and the kids.  The grandchildren, all three, are so precious and adorable.  I love watching them grow and develop, and to see the world, fresh again, through their eyes.  Wet kisses, generous hugs, bright shinny eyes, fierce independence, genuine laughter.  These are gifts given to their grandparents on an ordinary Saturday morning.

 

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East of Perth

Posted on March 30, 2013 by spinweaverbarbara

After some debate we bought a car – a serviceable 2001 Toyota Avalon.  We can resell the car at the end of our term, and still spend less than renting a car every other weekend.

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Today we took a road trip driving in an Easterly direction from Perth to the small towns of York, Northam and Toodyay.  It really was a drive through the countryside – big expanses of fields, with the hay mown and neatly stacked up, drying out.  The fields and trees are green – a more faded and bleached yellow-green from spending so much time under the hot, bright sun.  The sun beaming down on my body also felt hot and dry and healing in the 28⁰C afternoon.

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The trees remind me of broccoli, with long stems and bushy tops.  We saw many flocks of sheep, fields with horses grazing, and one small herd of alpaca, but no kangaroos, even though we did see kangaroo crossing signs.  Maybe the signs are just to get the tourists excited.

York is a small town with buildings in the early Victorian and Federation style.  We poked around in the antiques and collectibles market and small shops and came away with an old, small framed French advertising poster.  Near York we stopped at a small Avon Valley winery for some wine tasting and bought a couple of bottles of wine and a small jar of locally grown and processed olives.

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Moving on to Northam we lunched in an old hotel pub.  Lunch was light and crispy Barrundai (fish) and chips with a cool pint of beer.  Delicious and refreshing.

After lunch we resumed driving through the country to Toodyay, set on the banks of the Avon river, and originally the site of the Convict Hiring Depot, and then back to Perth.  The round trip drive took just under 6 hours and provided us with our first glimpse of the Eastern Shires.  Just saying Shires makes me think of Hobbits – but we didn’t see any of them either.

 

 

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Getting Around in Perth

Posted on March 27, 2013 by spinweaverbarbara

Perth is a very pretty city.  Located on the Swan River, Perth is the capital of Western Australia, and has a population of about 2 million.  Our apartment is within the Central Business District of Perth, where so much is accessible within a 20 minutes walking radius.  Two large pedestrian malls run along Hay Street and Murray Street, and are lined with large and small shops.  Getting around the city is pretty easy, from train to bus to walking.  All the buses in the downtown core are free, regardless of route.  In addition there are “special buses  called the Red Cat, Blue Cat, Yellow Cat, and soon to be Green Cat, that make continuous circuits around the Central Business District (CBD) in various directions – so I have been busy exploring the city on foot and by free bus.

In the CBD street sculptures are found along the walkways –

IMG_0047  This one, in front of St. George’s Cathedral, looks like it is about to blow away.

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This Kangaroo family is resting in front of Government House

And the scene outside my window keep changing.  A huge bike rally took place on Sunday with thousands of cyclists about to take off to raise funds for cancer research and awareness.

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Perth is sunny in style and sunny in nature.  I love the continuously sunny days. With the exception of rain yesterday morning, I wake up every day to warm sunny skies.

And I am really struck by the warm and wonderful reception of the Australian people.  I am meeting lots of new friends, from Ted and Mary Pat inviting us to dinner in their lovely old home filled with art and antiques, to a yummy barbecue lunch at Katrina and Brandon’s       home, to a very warm and welcoming Weavers Guild, Australians are sharing their abundance with us.

I am settling in and feeling very at home here.

 

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