Monday, May 29, 2006

Storm Clouds





On Sunday afternoon a brief storm passed through my area. The cloud above was a swirling mass of various shades of grey. It was stunning to watch. I ran around outside taking photographs, the thunder rumbled and lightning flashed across the sky. To the south of the house rain was falling in dark grey, solid sheets I expected the heavens to open at any moment and pour rain down on my head. As the storm passed over the roof of the house a brief shower fell but not enough to add anything substantial to my rain water tank. My partner was at Woodford , north of Brisbane, he texted me and said they had hail fall and towards the coast at Ormeau , were a girlfriend lives, they also had some hail.

Sunday, May 28, 2006



This morning I decided to play with the super macro function on my digital camera. I have always wanted to be able to do close up studies of flowers. I had wanted to get a macro lens for my SLR but due to the price have put it off waiting for the day I go overseas so I can get it at duty free prices. The macro on the digital allows me to get within 1cm of the subject. Kathy ahd given me a lovely bunch of flowers so what better opportunity to play.
I placed the vase of flowers on a chair in the sunlight shining through the family room window and after attaching the camera to my tripod started to take some photos. The only thing I find annoying about the compact digital camera is the way light makes the viewing screen difficult to see. With my SLR you are looking through the viewfinder your eye close to it sheilding out the extra light. I tried tossing a sheet over my head but found that annoying so after a few shots I headed off to my computer and downloaded what I had taken. Hmm not bad back to try out a few more pictures.
Most of the images worked well some I just quickly deleted never to be seen again. Playing with the macro function is definetly something I will do more often. now were is the nearest florist?

Friday 26th May
This evening Claire, Kathy and I gathered together to exchange our friendship books for the first time. We were without Lesley who ,due to work commitments ,was unable to attend. The others amazed me with what they had written in their books. They were so creative and I am sure as the exchange progresses we will all get better with our entries. One of the last entries I put in my own book was a spread on what I would do if I had 5 minutes to myself. I went through a magazine looking for pictures to glue on the page and then wrote about the things I could do in the 5 minute time span. We all think 5 minutes isn't very long but it is surpising the things you can accomplish, a quick read of a magazine, walk out side at night and admire the night sky, sunset, sunrise, listen to a song on a cd. Before the dinner I made a group of small tags up with headings on them as prompts to include on a page to write about. I told the girls they could decorate them as they wished. Kathy arrived at the dinner with a small bag of cut outs and mesh for us to use as well. I came away from the dinner brimming with ideas to put in Lesley book which is 'mine' now until the next exchange.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006



Before I gave the books to Claire, Kathy and Lesley I decided I needed to write something in each of the books to let know what I had in store for them and to give them some idea of what I hoped the books would achieve. I began by writing out a page of thoughts on what friendship meant to me and things I liked. I then photocopied the page several times and painted them different colours with water colour paints. When the pages were dry I cut them into vertical and horizontal lines and squares. The pieces of now disjointed writing were then glued haphazardly onto the first page of the books. The reassembled lines of writing still made a semblence of sense much to my suprise.
On the next page of the book I set out a page to add photos. One page to be of the owner of the book and opposite page to have small photo of the other book exchange participants.
It wasn't difficult to pick the photo I wanted to use for my booklet. I had not long ago organised a 'Belly Dance Dinner' for the four of us and had got my partner to take a photo of me beside the table set for the dinner. It would be a great reminder of our times together.
I do lots of writing and knew I would have no problems with what to write about but the others aren't writers so on the next few pages I set out some ideas for writing in the book.
As the exchange of the books progress the ideas for what to write will grow and the things we add to each book will only get better as we all explore what our friendship means to each other and as we discover more about ourselves through the expression of our thoughts on the pages.

Monday, May 22, 2006


The one thing I love about geting up early is watching the sunrise. This morning there was a sky worth seeing. I was up a bit later than usual and missed the early part of the sunrise but the bit I did see was dazzling. It looked as if someone had sprinkled marshmallows across the sky.I grabbed my camera and took several shots and have included one here for you to see.

Sunday, May 21, 2006


This is my first post, a big step into the online world.Recently three other friends and I began an exchange of friendship books and I have decided to share some of my musings with the rest of the world and as an incentive to keep the creative ideas flowing. It was my idea to create the friendship books after reading of other people doing similar things. The four of us share, quilting and bellydancing as hobbies and have shared some wonderful times away on delightful weekends at the Gold Coast.
I decided to create the books so we would all have something to keep as a reminder of our times together and as a way to get to know one another even better. I bought four small visual art diarys and set about decorating the cover and wrote a prologue in each of the books. I gathered together pens, glue, water colour pencils, photo splits and put all the bits and pieces and book into a small fabric bag for each of my friends. I then set about organising a dinner at home to exchange the books and thus begin the journey of discovery. This is the cover I made for my book, [the other books I made had similar covers] a mixture of torn hand made papers and paints.
So we all get to write in each others books we are going to exchange them on a regular basis.At the end of this week we are meeting for dinner at my place and have our first book exchange. My book will be passed onto one of the other girls and I will have one of theirs to write in over the next six weeks or so.