Look and Learn

I'm following up on the couple of colour studies I mentioned yesterday. I've pulled out the dyes for my primary colours and am busy dyeing small samples in a range of dilutions. Meanwhile I've been spinning my blue-green multimarle tops. It's cold and blustery in Melbourne this morning. My spinning chair faces out my front window. There's lots of time to think while my hands are busy, or to just stare out the window as the case may be. Sometimes I'm not sure which one I'm doing. My silver princess gum tree is right there in front of the window. Normally I think of this tree in terms of its spectacular flowers, interesting shape and lovely silver bark, but now I'm thinking about browns and looks what's there.

This is the older bark--revealed when the silver bark peels back on the lower parts of the trunk. There's so much there--browns, golds, greens, orange. I think I'll print out this picture and look more closely before I pick out some more dyes to play with. And I think I'll wear my warmest gear when I head out for my sewing class in a few minutes. It's seriously cold out there. Just as well it was the base of the trunk I wanted to photograph. The rest of the tree is whipping about in the wind. I would have snapped a blur of branches if I'd tried for anything higher up the tree. 

Good Things

I definitely needed cheering up after my long slow market day. As the morning went on I kept finding new sore muscles from my prolonged spinning efforts. That meant some quiet spinning at home was not a good option, even if I organised myself something more alluring than the plain white I'd worked on the previous day. The weather was perfect for a Melbourne winter's day and my friend M was available for lunch, so I drove out to Warrandyte to meet her. Sitting in the sun; watching and listening to a young classical guitarist; picking out a lovely leaf here and a bright berry there to catch with my camera--all good things to restore me. I did have a poke around a lovely gallery by the river and noticed some of their prices and display ideas to add to my store of knowledge for next time I contemplate a market stall, but mostly I focussed on other things.

I was home well before dark, thinking I'd done a good job of brightening my outlook and then I noticed this:It's a Silver Princess just starting to flower, but wait, that's my roofline you can see in the background. It's my Silver Princess gum tree and these are her first flowers. As you can see, I ran out with my camera. The flowers are quite high up, so this is as close as I could get without a ladder, but never fear, there are more fat buds full of coloured goodness lower in the tree. I have months of beauty waiting to develop in front of my window. As winter's just starting here, that's a very good thing.

Princess Promise

I was thrilled to find a few buds on the Silver Princess gum outside my studio last weekend. This morning I had a good look at the Princess tree in my front garden. It's covered in big fat juicy flower buds like these. I'm just chafing with anticipation. The huge gum blossoms are a large part of the attraction in these slender Western Australian natives and I've been waiting to have some of my very own. I'm guessing that the unusually wet summer has helped, since the tree at the front has been there at least twice as long as the little one at the back and this is the first time either has shown any sign of flowering. More pics coming soon!

Today?

Is today the day the permit for my shed-studio will finally be issued? Oh, I hope so!
It's been ten weeks or so since I got moving on this project, spurred on by the need to provide a home for a friend's daughter. As it turns out, she's likely to be able to stay with those she knows and loves best; but my longer term plans for foster-parenting are still alive.

As far as permit applications go, I gather mine has been relatively straightforward. Even so, it's been a stop-start process with no certainty about the real timeframe. I must admit, it's been difficult to stay on track with my other projects and routines, with this major change tantalisingly just on the horizon. I've been told to expect the permit today. My plans have been checked and approved; the letters to my neighbours have gone out, with no objections being received in the two-week time-frame allowed . . . it should be just a case of the administrative team doing its thing now.

As luck would have it, next week is one of the worst weeks in the year for getting things finalised in Melbourne. Tuesday is a public holiday--for a horse race, no less! And Monday becomes a de facto holiday in a lot of workplaces. After a four day weekend, the next few days don't tend to be all that productive, with lots of dressing up and partying still on the agenda. So I'll be waiting at least until the following week before I can expect anyone to actually turn up with tools and equipment. Then something like this should appear in the blank spot at the back of my yard: . . . oh drat, today's one of those days when blogger insists on turning my pic on it's side! You're going to have to twist your head to the right to get the idea . . .

To get the full extent of my anticipation, enlarge the picture in your mind until it's nearly as big as my kitchen-living space. 4.8 by 3.8 metres to be precise. Now transpose the two windows onto the side wall and substitute a panelled glass door in the front of the building. You can edit out the wheelbarrow and gumboots too. My one surviving silver princess gum tree will continue to grow just to the right of the glass door. I'm going to stop my imaginings now--adding the shelving and other furniture inside and transposing all my textile equipment is next . . . and that's going to be some task! Before that there will be painting and flooring to deal with. But that's all in the future. Maybe today I'll have a permit to go ahead.

Good Morning World

I woke late this morning. I have to be out the door in half an hour to get to my weaving class. So I was thinking of all the things I need to organise and pack as I opened the curtains. Then I stopped in my tracks. Here's why:

It's a moist misty grey Melbourne morning and my Silver Princess (Eucalyptus caesia) is covered in raindrops.

I grabbed the camera and went out in my bare feet to get the shot. Now I need to get my coffee and breakfast and pack for class before I head out the door, but so what! It's a beautiful world out there.

Silver Princess Blended Merino Skeins

Here's the kind of thing I have in mind when I say, "these are my Australian Colour selections for today":
These are Silver Princess colour blends I did last year. The Silver Princess is one of my favourite trees and I have a collection of photos I've taken of the tree itself and its flowers. I've made the photos up into a poster for my wall. Then I've used that as inspiration for some merino multi-marle colour blends. I choose a variety of related colours and mix the colours as I spin. This gives me a colour blend that is textured and vibrant. It's quite different from what I can achieve with my dyepot.