Goldilocks & the 4Bears

Hope Triumphant over Expectation

2010-01-03T19:45:00.000-08:00

2010

We made it - so far!

To help get us to 2050
here is:

THE FRACTAL REVOLUTION TO HELP SAVE OUR PLANET

Painting the Town with Light

I had a dream....

I had a dream that fractalists everywhere helped save our planet & cut pollution.

We replaced the use of wasteful dirty noisy polluting fireworks and often defacing & expensive-to-remove graffiti, with our intelligently used fractal images projected on buildings & night skies via lasers, holograms, whatever & accompanied by inspirational music.

So this image is my positive fractal affirmation goal for the coming year.

Imagine that all the fractals in it are animated and you can hear amazing music that evokes joy and laughter.

Imagine a New Year's celebration that went on for a whole night, where stress-free people wandered in a relaxed stroll to admire the beautiful play of lights, not forced to camp out to secure a place in a crowded packed venue to see an ephemeral polluting event that lasts a few minutes only and costs zillions in money that could be better spent on community health, safety & welfare.

Let's clean up our act & paint the town with beautiful light & sounds.

Already this is happening, Sydney, Melbourne and Holland have already seen such events. In the recent Brian Eno lightshow in the Sydney Vivid even t the Opera House sails lit up every evening in wonderful moving light art as part of his presentation

A call to all fractalists - join the revolution and help save our planet

Take your fractal art to your local event planners and see if you can inspire them to paint your town with non-polluting light.

Ginger Lime Spritzer

I raise my full glass to us all

STAY COOL

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

Cosmos

2009-08-06T16:52:00.000-07:00

Created by tao-armonia using a selection of my Apophysis and Incendia fractals combined with the music of Vangelis, his presentation takes you artfully on that primal spiritual journey that resonates in all our souls.

Follow this link http://www.tao-armonia.com/
for the free download
and view Cosmos for yourself.

Enjoy with love from Georges and Anu to all

BLUESKY

2009-07-31T16:30:00.000-07:00

BLUESKY OVER WALL STREET

Blue skies smilin' at me
Nothin' but blue skies do I see
Bluebirds singin' a song
Nothin' but bluebirds all day long

Irving Berlin lyrics

It seems the global financial crisis is turning the corner into better times ahead. Well here's hoping. My latest Apophysis Escher-esq piece above echoes that sentiment. Maybe the leaders are just talking it up, maybe the unemployed are still suffering and maybe things still don't look as rosy as they could, but hope feels good.

Here we've had one of the best winters. Not too cold, good rains, and now endless blue sky days as we go through our usual end of July - start of August calm sunny dry days I call our "champagne weather". Each breath feels like "soma", recharging and reinvigorating every cell & fiber of the being.

Spring is very close, it usually comes arrives here in next couple of weeks. Already the Jasmine and Peach blossom are in abundance, heralding the warm days to come.

My life is Apophysis, as it has been for 2 years now. The complexities and intricacies of chaos tamed into meaningful art is so all-absorbing, so hypnotic. I am an addict now. How I love this addiction. The rewards for slavery to this machine, ephemeral tho they may be and only available thru it, fill my waking hours with delight and obsess my dreams as well.

PC addiction is often looked on as a problem. I can certainly see the problems of computer, IT & gaming addiction if the associated behaviors affect our survival. But at my age I don't think those concerns apply, as long as I maintain my health & safety. If I am hurting no-one, staying happy and producing a minimal ecological footprint with it, I do not see the harm. You can check out my work by following the links on side-bar and make your own judgments, remembering that I am a lame old woman and cannot function as that riparian botanist I once was. It is a rewarding way to pass the days of my dotage.

Swine flu is spreading exponentially throughout Australia. People are dying every day from it. The news today is that it has been found in pigs in a NSW piggery. Bellingen hospital staff & beds have been reduced by one-third by it after a swine flu patient was treated there and they are sending new patients to other hospitals. Yet still people are saying it is just the normal winter flu toll. OK, no panic, but surely it is better to face reality and embrace what is really happening, rather than live in delusions of what we would prefer to think.

The Grey shrike thrush has just landed in studio in front of me as I type this. It hops across to mirror and lets forth with its excruciatingly delicious piping melodious harmonic call. Go to the link to hear its' call. How can anything feel bad when the day is so magnificent and my visitor brings such rich gifts. What is happening on our planet is disturbing, but here all is peace and I am in bliss.

TATHATA

Waterlog

2009-04-05T19:17:00.000-07:00

WATERLOGGED!

Endless weeks of rain. Coastal areas north & south of here just had 1 in 500 year events. 26 inches in 5 hours up on Sunshine Coast & Coffs Harbor declared a Natural Disaster Area! Many lost everything in the walls of water that swept thru, taking all in the unprecedented surging waves. We had our share, but nothing so devastating. It has been an endless wet season. Good rains here tho, not damaging, just persistent.

It's been nearly 6 months since I blogged - so much has happened.

I've been Apophysing endlessly mainly. Follow the links on sidebar to see my latest output on deviantART. But been keeping my eye on global events. We live in interesting times.

The race to keep the tail up with the head is getting tense, but at least we have People of Peace (well, some!) trying to put the ravages of the past to rights. But with the latest news of the accelerating breakup of the Antarctic Ice shelf it is obvious that the warming process is far advanced. Too far for us to survive? Time will tell. Meanwhile the ridiculous wasters keep destroying, denying and generally ignoring the fact that we need to act as one to get thru what's coming.

Meanwhile I'm reading a book that fills me with joy.
Roger Deakin's Waterlog

I'm taken back to all the free swimming of my life.
Rivers, surf, lagoons, pools, creeks, dams and so on.

Drifting downstream on bubbling streams in Far North Queensland, only to find, on exiting, crocodile slides on the banks....oops!

Lilo-ing down Bell's Creek gorge canyons in the Blue Mountains in NSW.

Years of early morning laps in Sydney's Queenscliffe saltwater rock pool after running the 5 miles up Manly Beach & back.

The freezing cold dips into the Tamar River pools at the bottom of our cottage field at Hardstone Farm in Devon before and after my daughter Klea was born back in '66.

The raging force of the Himalayan snow-fed Ganges at Rishakesh .....then the eye-to-eye meeting the body-eating dolphin midstream of its'downstream turgid muddy polluted maninfestation at Varanasi. I broke all records to get back to the houseboat of louche stoned hippies who responded to my "omfg you should have seen it" freaking out as I threw myself back on board, with "Cool Man".

Countless naked dawn surfs on pristine surf beaches all along our Pacific coast here in Oz. Crystal aquamarine tubes catching the rising sun, dolphins in silhouette riding the waves in alongside me.

Bliss beyond bliss.

Mountain pools high up in the canyons of our old volcano, not called The Fridge for nothing!

Water has been the dominant presence in my life in so many ways, right up to the last real work I was able to do, surveying the rivers for appropriate vegetaion for restoration works by govt depts., Landcare & Councils & etc.

Now, lame, all I can do is live vicariously in the memories. How I long to swim in a saltwater rock pool just one more time.

I can dip in my creek, but that's about it for me now.

This book, Waterlog by Roger Deakin, such an erudite writer & dedicated swimmer & environmentalist is bringing back my love of water and so many memories.

I went to find him online but sadly found he died a couple of years back.

So I add this blog to the tributes to his ethos, spirit, energy.

In the Search I did find this site: SwimSallySwim Reading that has given me a new thrust and determination. I will swim again! Thank you Sally!

TIPPING POINT

2008-10-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

TIPPING POINT

BUCKY BOOGIES ON THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS

LIMITS TO GROWTH

PLAYING WITH INCENDIA.

I've been learning 3-D digital art in a new program, Incendia , in last months.
Go here to view the other results.

The above Incendia images are my comments on what's going down as we approach the climate change tipping point and weather the global financial crisis, or the comprehensive failure of extreme capitalism, as Kevin Rudd expresses it.

I watch with interest. Uncontrollable forces affecting every living thing on this planet.

How will it all pan out?

I am beyond expressing anything much about it all now, except thru my art, as I doubt we can do much except try to survive. The time for remedial action was last century when we could have averted a lot of the problems becoming catastrophic by addressing biosphere carrying capacity in better management of sustainable life support systems & population controls.

I think few realised that the threat was real and partied like there was no tomorrow.
The future is NOW.

My opinions, such as they are, are in previous posts. However action is all that counts and apart from being as minimalist as I can in my lifestyle here, I can do no more.

Good luck everyone.

Try to be kind & share the burden, not destroy eachother in some blighted Mad Max scenario.

Yes, we will survive, but will civilisation endure?

How will it all look in 100 years from now?

I am coping by creating art (aka selfish pleasures), and appreciating this extraordinary thing we call life, living in hope that our stupidity will not result in our annihilation.

While there is LIFE.......ah yes, but will we be part of it?

Is HOPE all we have now?

WINTER SOLSTICE OFFERINGS

2008-06-22T17:57:00.000-07:00

Here are two offerings to celebrate the
Winter Solstice, 2008.

*Chronicles d'Anu
A fractal fantasia.

*Anu Fractal Style
Have I created a "New Style" of fractal?
You be the judge.

...........................................................................................................

CHRONICLES D'ANU

Recently I've created a fantasia - a series of fractal images with attached brief fictions that link as the Chronicles d'Anu. Fantasy imaginings based on various episodes of my life's journey.

I posted the series on deviantART and some images are also on Flickr.

Chronicles d'Anu

SECRETS IN THE CAVE

ANCIENT MAGIC

WILDE EYE

MOONFLOWER

SCARLET PASSIONFLOWER

SPELLBOUND

SWAMP SECRETS

Hope like what you find as you browse these old Journals.

..................................................................................................

ANU STYLE OF FRACTAL

DeviantART's cmptrwhz recently posted an Apophysis tutorial for the Julian Chain. I played with it and came up with heaps of images & posted the ones you see below. He calls them a new style of fractal. Read about all that here.

The below are the "new Style" fractal images.

What do you think?

Witchy Brew

Caldron of Troubled Bubbles

Are these below also included in the "New Style" category?

Buddha Bowl

The Cherry Bowl

Cmptrwhz says not, the "New Style" having the brew in the bowl being the difference.

What do you think?

Enjoy,

Anu.

PEAK OIL

2008-05-23T16:45:00.000-07:00

Living in Interesting Times.

Image created by me in Apophysis

PEAK OIL

It's here, right now, and we are all faced with
Titanic-scale consequences.
Just how will it all play out?

Powerlessness.
An interesting concept.

We should have acted in the 70-80's,
but maybe nobody really believed
this scenario would come to pass.

The sudden awakening of the 00's
to the reality of the tsunami nature of the catastrophes
of over-population, inappropriate technology, profligate consumerism, greed,
power-hungry rulers who fiddle while Rome burns,
biosphere breakdown,
climate change, gross pollution on all levels,
(etc. etc., you know the litany),
is just too late.

Spaceship Earth has too many passengers,
is powered by polluting technologies
controlled by power mongers with agendas
that somehow don't include
the well-being of the passengers and crew.

But of course I/you/we know all this.

Now we reap the whirlwind.

Incoming!

Hold tight, it's going to be a bumpy ride folks.
Prepare for colateral damage.

FANTASTIC DIVERSIONS

2008-05-19T14:31:00.000-07:00

RECENT DIVERSIONS IN APOPHYSIS

Ancient Magic

Migaloo Singing

Secrets of the Cave

Full Moonrise over Rainbow Falls

All the above can be seen, with production details and, in some cases, a bit of prose poetry, in my deviantArt Gallery

I have been so sad. The disasters of the past weeks in Myanmar and China have been so appalling I haven't been able to stop crying at what I've been seeing on the news. So I have been diverting my mind creating fantasy art in Apophysis. Feeling so helpless, unable to do a thing to help, what else can I do except try to occupy my mind with the beauty within and without. There is enough being said about it all by others, so I'm not going into either horror here.

So I give you my art.

Ancient Magic was created in response to ideviant's extraordinary recent works, Sanctum Sanctorum and Illuminati Tablet , evoking old stones and fantasy myths. Unfortunately my attempts lacks the expertise of his works, but I was able to express something of my own fantasy myths, based on the Bradshaws, which would horrify my old Prehistory Rock Art prof no doubt! All done in the spirit of fantasy Michael I assure you. No, I don't believe in that twaddle, science is science, but I can have a bit of fun fantasising, can't I?

Meanwhile the champagne weather of late Autumn here is giving us endless beautiful clear sunny days reaching the mid 20's round middle of day, but crisply chilly in mornings and nights. The full moon in the cold crystalline air fills me with the joy of being alive, thankfully happy to be safe here in my mountain idyll in this wonderful Land of Oz, as I gaze into the universe and ponder It All.

SUNSPOTS and LAUGHTER

2008-04-15T16:53:00.000-07:00

HERE'S THE GOOD NEWS

Laughing Kookaburras - Dacelo novaeguineae.

She struggled thru the endless wet to feed her brood, begging for food every day at my kitchen window - see her in other pix by clicking kookaburra tag and here in my Flickr Anu Wilde World Set.

Today the laughter from the Native Tamarind tree (Diploglottis campbellii) brought me outside to record her successful breeding season as I see 3 juveniles and her mate with her, all cackling like crazy.

So I cackled back. Impossible to be sad with this mob around!

SUNSPOTS.

Yes a few spots of sun from time to time, but still showers most days.

The cooler weather has brought back my need to crochet again. Last winter I started on a granny square rug called Sunspots.
I put my cache of finished squares away in one of those ubiquitous plastic crates with the onset of the wet weather of early summer.

SUNSPOTS IN STORAGE

But I posted the details of its' creation on GrannyAlong. Today I revisited the site and saw another has come up with a similar pattern so I'm inspired to finish Sunspots, despite the fact that it hasn't stopped raining and the air is humid and moisture-laden. This bird-blind of a studio isn't conducive to a dry atmosphere, I'm surprised my computer functions sometimes.

I have been busy organizing in the world of Tapestry Crochet lately.
Met Megan Jack who makes extraordinary and beautiful hats.
Go to the Tapestry Crochet site (sidebar) to read about her and see other artists in this field I'm uncovering since I started the Flickr Tapestry Crochet group.

APOPHYTIS

I'm having a rest from fractals for a while. I think I've got the hang of Apophysis, enough to rest on my oars for a bit and gather back the shreds & threads of the life I once lived before the Apophytis virus took me over. My main fractal cache is on Flickr and Picasa if you want to see what I've done so far - see sidebar links.

I've never had an obsession before and now I can see why addicts' lives fall apart. Time to show who's the boss of this ship! The lure of something so beautiful, so attractive, that becomes so dangerous. Now I've had that experience and can see how others can be taken over by various traps life can present. Just watch the news and see the fallen and the falling. Hear the stories of the victims who could not resist that siren song. Just like overcoming smoking or drinking, it is a matter of finding inner resources, of recognizing a certain objectivity and exercising willpower. It's all to do with personal freedom. Unfortunately many don't know how imprisoned they are by their own stupidity. We are, each and every one of us, such flawed and fallible creatures.

THE VIEW OUTSIDE MY WINDOW!

Hello...
...the Very Big Snake digesting the 2nd last pademelon ....
....goodbye...!

Click on tag at side to see more of her.

EVEN MORE GOOD NEWS

Kevin the Reformer is showing us his stripes. What a powerhouse we have in him & his team. The last few weeks have shown his dazzling diplomatic form with his OS trip. Here in Oz we've seen, among a plethora of much-needed reforms and initiatives: work place reform, climate change, 2020 Summit, China (Olympics, Tibet & all THAT!). His latest coup is the appointment of the (first-ever) woman, Quentin Bryce, as our Queen's representative. Could be the last too, as Kevin, Julia and the Mob are openly declared Republicans and I feel we will be a republic before 2015, if not sooner.
Not a moment too soon for me.

MANDELMANIA

2008-03-16T02:27:00.000-07:00

While exploring an Apophysis tutorial for creating Wires and Tubes Fractals I found how to create the classic Mandelbrot in Apophysis 2.06c beta 3D Hack.

Here are a few:

MANDELMANIA

HOT MANDELBROT

CLASSIC MANDELBROT

The below was created with the same Wires & Tubes tutorial.

COOKING WITH GAS

Finding how to create these fractals has given me a lot of joy. Feel like I'm taking Apophysis fractals away from the types of images usually associated with this program, opening new possibilities. Keep wondering what will be the next amazement this extraordinary program will reveal as I continue this journey of discovery.

Life is Jesta Bowl of Cheeries

2008-03-08T13:13:00.000-08:00

Latest Apophysis fractals

THE CHERRY BOWL

CROCHET

TROPICAL FISH

Playing around on Apophysis is a fun & productive way of passing my last days.

The endless rain persists, but last week has seen champagne Autumn coolness kick in with showers early, giving spectacular misty dawns, followed by glorious mornings of sunshine before the clouds move in to bring more showers later & into the night. Gentle soft rain. Couldn't be better, for wet season weather.

Of course the insects are in full abundance, sandflies especially.
I've had a couple of scary spider bites that have made me very sick for a few days.

The flock pigeons have arrived, but their numbers so few it makes me weep.
Once the noise of hundreds, thousands, darkening the sun, was like a low F1-11 passing over treetops. Yesterday the flock numbered less than 20 birds.

The depletion of wildlife as our numbers increase and invade the last wild places is past critical, Researchers keep giving us the facts, but it's all fait accompli.

Like the coming climate change events, like our uncontrolled numbers impacting on the life support systems, unstoppable.

So we put it down to biosphere evolution. This is what happens. Watch and learn.
Doing anything is a shoulda, coulda. Back then, when we first became aware.
But few listened and those who shoulda & coulda didn't.
Fact is we didn't & now it is too late.

How do we stop the icecaps melting?
How do we stop the ocean conveyor belt currents changing?
How do we stop the populations expanding?
How do we control Mammon, pollution?

Oh yes, there are/were ways and all hands to the pumps, but, drat, too little, too late.

It coulda worked

It shoulda worked

But it ain't gunna work because the process is in motion.

Prepare for the culling.

The northern spring flowers and we in the south eat the fruits of autumn.

Enjoy the cherries.

CRYSTAL WHORLS

2008-02-25T03:52:00.000-08:00

This animation was created in Apophysis 2.06c 3D Hack.
Production details can be seen here on original flame .

NATIONAL SORRY DAY

2008-02-12T23:17:00.000-08:00

SORRY

A NEW BEGINNING

Today the people of Australia apologized to the Aboriginal people, the oldest living culture on the planet, for the wrongs inflicted upon them by the European settlers over the last 210 years.

Kevin Rudd, our humane and enlightened newly-elected Prime Minister, fulfilling his election promise, delivered the Apology to the Aboriginal people as his first task at the start of the first sitting of the 42nd Parliament in Canberra today.

Aboriginal tribal elders witnessed the event from the Public Gallery above.

Outside thousands of Aboriginal people and supporters from all cultures that make up our multicultural nation watched the proceedings on a giant screen. All around Australia people gathered to watch this historic moment that will transform our nation from this day forward.

I was in tears. Many were.

At the conclusion all members present rose in support. Their united voice said "Yeah".

Australia says Sorry.

This is a new beginning.
This is not an intellectual exercise,nor an empty condescending gesture.
Sorry is a word of substance with an agenda of positive action encoded within it.
Reconciliation will follow.

This is a core promise of national responsibility that goes beyond all posturing, petty politics & puerile attitudes.

The Commission that will follow will introduce constructively defined projects to improve the life of these people.

We have to come to terms with the past in order to embrace the future.

"Seize the Day," says Kevin. Let this day become a rare moment of national transformation. The real possibility of reconciliation of our indigenous people.

It brings the last two shameful centuries to a close and opens a new chapter that respectfully recognizes these ancient people, the original inhabitants, who have inhabited the Australian continent for >60,000 years......some estimates say twice that.

We cannot go back but we can go forward and not repeat past mistakes.

Minds wide open we can tackle the challenges that we will encounter as we go forward in this new chapter in our nation's story.

Nobody says it's an immediate cure, that suddenly everything wrong will miraculously come right.

But it is the first step in the healing process and will eventually lead to a healthier united Australian nation for the generations to come.

It is about decency and respect.

We will craft a new future from this day forward.

They no longer speak of boongs & blacks,
they talk of the Aboriginal people

Neville Bonner -1st Aboriginal MP

Images recorded from ABC TV 130208

LAST DAZE BEFORE CLIMATE CHANGE RAVE PARTY

2008-01-28T17:56:00.000-08:00

EVENT IN THE HATCHERY

............................

ANOTHER RANTING RAVE
FOR SUE

&
YOU

if you can bear it

!!

I'm afraid you wouldn't like me very much if I told you what I do with strays, but I do live on a wildlife reserve and domestic escapees wreak havoc. The wildlife has been seriously decimated by feral animals in the time I've lived here.

I grew up with a dog called AspadelladouchByTheSea (Aspy for short), 2 cats called Pinkle & Purr & later another called Black Magic. Later I bred myself an Arab stallion called Banzai (from Banjo out of Ayesha). I came from that kind of 'normal'.

But my travels showed me our impacts on ecosystems and when I came here I dedicated my life to conservation and righting the land-use wrongs, as this land had been ravaged by logging, bananas, cattle, pigs & goats by various different owners over 150 years since Euro settlement.

Feral animals were abundant. A big management problem as being close to a National Park which some people seem to think is the place to dump unwanted pets, plus having a next door so-called Wildlife Reserve, which then had caged animals, both native and exotic, so it was actually a zoo in effect. The captives frequently escaped.

Worst of all were the packs of hounds the local dairy farmers fed milk slops to after the milking and then let loose to roam the mountains in marauding packs.The idea was the hounds became tick-infested as they moved thru the bush and they developed immunity (or died horribly). When they returned for their milk slops they were milked for serum which was then sold to vets who used it to save their client's tick-affected pets.

Obviously a pack of hungry dogs hunting in the wilderness ate any animals they could, including the koalas, wallabies, possums & etc etc etc.

Fortunately those practices ceased n 90's when environmental groups lobbied and prohibitive laws were finally passed that recognized the values of native ecosystems conservation. But much damage had been done by then.

The wild dogs, descendants of those packs and dumped pets, came around after my scraps and howl in packs, very unnerving. They have been known to attack people so I keep my doors closed at night. Fortunately they are fewer these days.

Every now & again well-meaning neighbors, or the Parks Service, put down 1080 poisons baits & that gets a few of them. A horrible death I also have to endure as they don't always die quietly & tidily in distant unseen places.

Then carrion eaters dispose of the carcass. So the quolls, bandicoots, possums, skinks & other native wildlife that eat carrion die too. And the poison goes all they way down to the dung beetles & worms.

Cats are as much of a problem and much harder to eradicate. I saw a feral cat here a few weeks ago that was the size of a bobcat, very scarey. That was no sweet pretty kitty can tell you.

Once there were possums, quolls, bandicoots, pademelons, skinks, frogs, koalas, echidnas, snakes and the full array of inhabitants one would find in a healthy wet to dry sclerophyll forests & rainforest montaine ecosystem.

In the wet we just had I saw ONE frog. In the 80's the roar of their mating numbers around the ephemeral pools made it impossible to sleep some nights.

Then came the cane toads.

Then went the frogs, the snakes, the skinks, the bandicoots & all that used to predate on frogs & ate canetoads instead. Deadly poisonous creatures. I have one frozen in my freezer as speak. The only way to dispose of them is to burn them they are so toxic.

Now I feed the kookaburra so she can breed, because her food chain is severed. I don't like feeding wildlife, but must say when she turned up with 2 emergent nestlings last week I nearly cried with relief. But now what will THEY eat? They are a species of giant kingfisher & rely on streams for fish & amphibians & snakes,lizards & skinks to survive.The streams have been depleted thru kids throwing stones & turning over the rocks & taking whatever they fancy might be fun in a bottle, till it dies. Plus pollution from Park visitor impacts & increased settlement impacts on the riparian zones.

My grass used to be grazed by a herd of about 20 macropds of various species, wallabies & pademelons mostly. Now ONE pademelon timidly grazes, keeping right close to the edges near the surrounding bush.

Now I have to employ a man to cut the grass. That means machinery and the noise disturbs what other creatures there are, plus inadvertently killing the odd legless lizard, of which very few are left.I haven't seen a skink in several years and I used to have about 20 scooting around the studio & outside, very friendly,. They controlled the insect that wanted to live with me too..

Possums are now totally absent...gone...I used to have about 20 of about 4 different species.

Quolls are GONE, haven't seen one or heard one in 10 years.

I now have ONE koala where in 80's there were 20+, in the 90's there were 8 or so... now only ONE!! I heard it crying the other night, so sad, no reply to it's mating call this year when normally the screams of ecstasy would make yr hair stand on end for hours at a time. I called this place Koala Mountain Sanctuary & dedicated it to the conservation of the core population of koalas it then supported. It seems it will be a sad epitaph, not a statement of success. There will be no new generations. The dogs got them all except this last solitary male.

All this because of people letting their cats & dogs stray or dumping them.
It's not the animal's fault. It's people.

So I'm afraid I'm seriously unsentimental when I see the plight of these uncontrolled domestic ex-pets. Cats and dogs are very efficient hunters and because Australia's major large carnivorous predator is the introduced dingo, which only arrived around 4,000 years ago, most of the wildlife species don't have that necessary instinct to combat them, so they are just sitting ducks, so to speak.

I had a friend who worked in Diplomatic Corps & had just come back from a stint in Martinique,some years back now. She told me the wildlife on those Caribbean islands has been so decimated as to be reduced to very few species. It is the same world over.

Wherever we go with our baggage & friends, we destroy the very base of the systems that have evolved only by the full compliment of their native inhabitants. Take links from the chain and it all falls apart. We are a very uncomfortable species to be a part of.

I thought I was part of the solution, but find I am a very definite part of the problem.

So, sorry to rain on yr parade, but it would be hypocritical of me to nod, smile & wave when I feel so very much otherwise on this issue of saving strays.

Please don't take it personally, because I respect you and where you are coming from. I thought if I spelled out clearly what has happened here you could understand why I am of that opinion.

My brand of green is very deep ecology green.

I am beyond being aghast at what we do and have done, so now I just try to live as lightly on the planet as I possibly can and watch the movie.
I can't combat The Greater, the damage is done and we are now reaping the consequences of our mass stupidity.

Maybe we should write messages on the cave walls now...

Control our numbers,

Respect the life supporting resource base & its component working parts

Use appropriate non-polluting technology

So if there are any survivors they can at least have a few guidelines to a more successful sustainable management plan for our species' survival in its' next manifestation.

The weather has suddenly become full-blown beautiful diamond days summer.

Butterflies everywhere. At least they are still in abundance. Maybe because there are fewer birds to eat them!

I will try not to think of these things and return to fractalising to divert my mind in the creation of useless ephemeral images that are total self indulgence so I can post them on DA & Flickr & have 3 or 4 Commenters say cool or WOW or some such ego booster.

Ho Hum

STARSHIP HANGAR

Readying for the Voyage to next Goldilocks Planet

as

if

..............

TRUTH

2008-01-25T17:29:00.000-08:00

A SERMON TO MARK AUSTRALIA DAY 2008.

FOR SUE.

Wollumbin Dreaming

You say I traveled far to find the Truth, and I did, but it was not until I found my home here on the mountain that the Truth was finally revealed.

That was because I studied Biosphere Function, Evolution, Prehistory, Astronomy Physics & etc.

Letting go all notions of God & replacing mythology with scientific facts.

I felt at the time, and still do, that if we were to right the wrongs and establish a sustainable life supporting management plan for The Way Forward we had to understand the fundamental Truth about It All.

By which I mean the way the universe works to produce life on planets and what the mechanisms are that turn stardust into living consciousness in our perceiving minds.

Objectively and subjectively.

The organism in the midst of the conditions must understand what those conditions are that support its existence and functioning body and mind.

This was obviously a Huge Call for Little Me!

But the truth I have finally nutted out has finally revealed itself, sometimes steps of it in Eureka moments, sometimes in slow iceberg slides of consciousness awakenings & realizations over days & weeks that eventually showed me a new viewpoint when the iceberg righted itself & started floating.

I had to figure out time, motion, chemistry, planetary formation, evolution, anthropology, the anthropic principle, the anthropocentric viewpoint, socio political evolution thru his and her stories, the way human systems work, human migration patterns, rise & fall of civilizations,biosphere evolution itself.

The wholistic view of It All.

When a planet is Just Right For Life, it is called a Goldilocks planet. When we search the universe for planets, we seek those Goldilocks planets. But whether we will survive to ever explore another life supporting planet is now in serious doubt.

Consider This question:

How does biosphere evolution work?

How did that lumpy chunky fireball floating around the sun
turn stardust into a living watery biosphere envelope
populated by an integrated ecology of plants & animals
that support another (super?) species
that relies on all the rest for its existence
and has the ability to see itself in context
and the technology to maybe even translocate some core DNA to another Goldilocks planet
when the biosphere it has plundered collapses
under its uncontrolled population pressures and resource mismanagement?

And another question: What is that Sun?

Well, that was what I needed to know.

That was the truth I sought, beyond all the socio/political/religious human mythologies,beyond all this stuff about Chosen Ones,The Coming Messiah,The Son of God, The Pantheon of Gods, God the Supreme One, Buddha. & etc.

I had a discussion recently on the subject of Holy. I find such a concept rather precious. However I concede it has a place if it is translated into actions of respect and nurture.

In my Truth all concepts of Holy in terms of anthropocentric mythical beings have been replaced by the concept of the Holy Earth and the living biosphere that exists as it interacts with the Sun, the moon and space. Holy, to me, are the ecosystems such as the rainforests, riparian zones, wetlands, rivers, oceans, reefs, deserts, etc. and all those places where things exist that support and drive our precious life support system, the Biosphere.

I also regard all lifeforms, including human beings, and especially our children, as Holy. They are all Holy. To be respected, defended and supported in the best way we can. In the case of our human population, education as to the precious nature of life and existence is paramount.

Putting offerings on these holy altars by investing our energies in their sustainable future should be our species credo.

Now, slowly, some things are changing for the better, despite a lot of negative behaviors like war & crime,as the knowledge of this Truth which I find I now share with many, is getting to those who control the Power & the Energy systems and, most of all,the purse strings to get the action happening for a Sustainable Future.

But, alas, unfortunately, we are too late. Climate change is now upon us.

You wonder how much is passing cyclic change and how much is deep modification ?

It is both, but the deeper changes are now influencing the seasonal & cyclic events. We have been told to expect greater intensity and frequency of events. That has been evident as one hottest year on record builds on the last and the melting icecaps influence the global conveyor belt ocean currents, unleashing many complex reactions.

The biosphere systems are moving into new balances, skewing our life supports.

Here in Oz I have just experienced a small dose of what many others have experienced in varying forms of magnitude in recent weeks as floods drove people from their homes, killed livestock, destroyed crops and property over an area larger than GB.

My isolation of last weeks is now over, as a vital bridge was built today and at last I can access the wider world. I survived. As have many flood affected people. But at a cost.

As these incremental costs mount across the planet, pressures will build. How we handle what is to come is the big worry.

The Mad Max scenario of fuel wars and outlaws controlling through looting, fear and violence, could be one unthinkable stage of what is to come.

Human nature has cooperation inbuilt. Compassion, sacrifice for the greater good and all such laudable virtues are a recognizable part of being human.

However we all have the knowledge that when push comes to shove the less pleasant aspects of our nature start manifesting.

Avarice & greed overcome caring & sharing. Bullying and threats turn to violence and murder. Tribal feuds turn into genocide.

Climate change may wreak havoc, but will our survival depend on defeating our greatest enemy, ourselves?

This is the Truth I have found. It ends with a further question.

Change is the constant and we must adjust to the ever changing nature of existence.

Climate Victim.

2008-01-17T12:18:00.000-08:00

The endless rain enters the 17th week of wetness, (except for 3-4 sunny days mid-November 07) including a major flood event that came in a January 4th midnight cloudburst, causing huge damage all across district and 2nd highest flood on record.

About 570 mm in last 25 days. Over 22 inches on old scale.
But months of it before that.
A very wet wet season.

Bridge across creek at entrance after the mid night 280mm deluge of January 4, 2008.

Looking out across bridge towards main road entrance after the night's cloudburst of 040108.

Two weeks of bronchial flu, having to sleep in wet bed that got soaked in deluge & wet weather since plus too weak to move mattress anyway, and run out of clean sheets. Got myself to hospital when I felt like I was getting pneumonia. The good doctor gave me antibiotics and am on mend but still ill, it's slow. Couldn't talk for 5 days and it still hurts to cough. I cough a lot.

Everything is soaked & I have to sit with hot air blower on as I write to keep dry as the 100 percent humidity means I'm wet all the time. Have to use hair dryer on head every half hour or so to dry out hair.

Biting midges and mosquitoes mean mosquito coils... means inhaling toxic fumes... means aggravated spasms of painful coughing.

Other complications I won't go into here have turned my life from happy to miserable.

STRANDED!
The road collapse of 160108.
Luckily nobody was on the crossing.

Now a DISASTER as the road has suddenly collapsed where it crosses a 20m plus deep knife gully on my exit road and I'm stuck in, unable to get out for supplies. Being partly lame hasn't helped, especially as yesterday my dicky knee went out of joint and I can't walk very well at all. On the steep wet slippery rocks that constitute the paths between studio & bunkhouse this is a nightmare of inching along balancing umbrella, walking stick & whatever I'm trying to carry between houses.

Water pours around running over every surface in an endless sog, even when the rain eases. Where there is grass there is a swamp of mud and slime. Where there are rocks they are all slippery & slimey. Inside the houses all is moulds. Every bit of clothing, bedding, carpets damp & mouldy.

The endless wet has also meant can't get car in under shelter as it gets bogged at slushy entrance to carport. So it sits out in rain and is cranky to start & runs on 3 pots. At least I have it to get me as far as the washout, about 1 km from houses.

Have supplies to last a few more days and my road-sharing neighbors can bring me necessities, as they have a car on other side of the collapse, but that hardly solves the problem. Trying to overcome the anxiety, but eating & sleeping now difficult.

Must summon inner resources to solve the problem & release myself from this prison.

I keep wondering what can happen next. Is this the end? Will some miracle happen to get me to safe haven and my usual happy self again?

Even poor kookaburra can't fly she's so wet. When she tried to take off after I fed her she dropped into bushes and I had to rescue her & put her up onto a branch to give her elevation.
I hear her chuckling in the tree as I write.

Her message is:

LET'S LAUGH
NO POINT IN CRYING IS THERE!

THE GIFT OF WATER

2008-01-04T16:29:00.001-08:00

Flooded in as 16 weeks of grey wetness culminates in a cloudburst that dumps 185 mm (mostly in 2 hours). Roaring rushing waters surround me in this studio as I write.The gift of life. Very frightening tho, as the storm was in the middle of the night and lightning crashing far too close followed by deafening and numbing thunderclaps that left me stiff with shock. Petrified of landslides in such deluges, as I live on a scree slope which turns to one big waterfall after a couple of inches. House sized boulders perch uphill from studio. They rocked when I climbed them (years ago) so they are not exactly embedded & secure.

The following fractals, created in Apophysis, as per, have been inspired by all this water coming to us at last after such a long drought.

THE BIG SPLASH

WATER WORLD

WEB PORTAL

TWISTED TUBE STAR

All the above evolved from the one Tube-star-Twist script. Go here for all the production details.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2007-12-30T14:32:00.001-08:00

Wishing everyone the best for the coming year.

Myles the Magnificent

Myles sets the note for hope for the future, A young man just coming to grips with being a participant in our shared voyage on Spaceship Earth. Just returned from his first os trip & setting out on stage 2 in a few months.

So I've montaged a few of his travel pix & set them in environments he can aspire to next time, having had his first taste of Himalayan trekking & snowboarding in NZ.

The view out the door is what you see from the top of Everest on a clear day. The northern lights are in Greenland.

So there's a couple of extreme goals for you mate!

Meanwhile steady rain as east coast low stalls on Qld coast - will it become a cyclone? We haven't had one for a while. The rain has been falling for 15 weeks (except for a few sunny days mid-November). At last the springs are running and one fall flushed the system & the creeks briefly rose, so if it keeps up we may have welcome floods soon.

What a great way to start the New Year with the gift of WATER!

MAY 2008 BRING ALL THAT IS GOOD TO YOU.
POTENTIATE IT FROM YOUR INNER CORE OF BEING WITH GOODWILL TO ALL.

Evolution Thru Diversity

2007-12-15T03:06:00.000-08:00

Made this for a Competition in DeviantART, so thought I'd share it here too.

A compilation of a few fractals I've made since I recently started creating them again. Last time was 1992 with Fractint. Now I've found Apophysis my life has changed completely. As you see from the posts below, I'm very busy on my journey of discovery. Loving every minute. Feel like I've found the access code to Ali Baba's cave. Riches beyond belief.

Ivory Towers

2007-12-14T03:04:00.001-08:00

Enjoyed making this today.

Another wonder from Apophysis. This one came from a script I didn't write over a flame I didn't create using a gradient that isn't mine either. Production details here.

Such is Apophysis - the fractalist can create something unique from all the resources created and freely shared by others , thus even I can enjoy the privilege of presenting something like this to the world. Hope you like it.

IVORY TOWERS

It's still raining, the tanks are full, the creeks and rivers are up and running a'banka .

Pearls

2007-12-11T13:31:00.000-08:00

PEARLS

Playing around in Apophysis, still, of course, finding the mutations of the Biomorphica flame Spiral Galaxy endlessly fascinating. Thank you again Thomas Williams. I've been exploring his work. Love it all.

Came up with many usable results & decided I was in a pearly mood, so created pearls in PSCS2 & added them to the mutations.

Here are a couple of results. More on Flickr site.

Appy Apo

2007-12-09T13:29:00.001-08:00

Another day, another batch of Apophysis wonders emerges from my machine.

Trying for some silvery fx with some small success.

For this beautiful gradient I owe Biomorphica (Thomas Williams) for the gradient in his Spiral Galaxy flame .

See more of same series & production details on DevianTART & Flickr, via links on Anu Links on right side bar.

APOPHYSIS SILVER SERIES

SPIRIT OF CYBER CHRISTMAS

SINGING SILVER SILKY SONGS

THOTH

...........................................................

Beautiful endless wet weather.

Tank full, nightly boom crash opera dumping inches between 0100-0200 (a.m.) with close lightning crashing too close as I lie, resigned to fate's whims, in my mozzie-netted bed under the roaring tin roof in the haze of fine spray that permeates all. Today the heat of the day will dry all again.

It's definitely drought breaking. been going for weeks now on an almost daily basis & the forecast is weeks of it to come. I'm definitely NOT complaining. Daily baths are still a new delight for this old dolphin.

And here comes the Silly Season - ho ho ho, ha ha ha, he he he, hi hi hi, hu ...?

Hu is Anu. Love 2U2.

Homage to Escher

2007-12-04T18:13:00.001-08:00

Been working on a series of Escher-esq images in Apophysis 2.07beta based on 5spiralsInline flame of DeviantART's Fractal-Impact Mixed flame pack . Used the Super Susan script of Phoenixkeyblack, also from deviantART. Good site that!

Came up with a whole swag of images Escher would love. I do too. I keep thinking what he might have done with fractal generators like Apophysis. I am definitely a hobbit being carried on the backs of giants & wizards....wither....?

So here's a small sample from my series:

Homage to M.C. Escher

I'll leave them nameless. You can check out more of them on my Flickr & DevianART sites, click on links in Anu Links at right.

Good rain is falling, with the odd thunderstorm. Sandflies very bitey.

It seems like the people are finally working around the war lord mentalities that have dominated thinking & media noise for so long. Of course there's nothing like the terrifying scenario of rising sea levels to focus minds to mutual survival.

But still our numbers grow. Oz is now 21 million. Land of the Ruddites.

Somehow the population pressure/carrying capacity keeps being whited out of the equation. Doesn't it occur to the decision makers that less people means less pollution, less impacts on the biosphere? Ah yes...the elephant in the room. We don't want to go there, do we!

Anu Ruddy Day

2007-11-29T13:36:00.001-08:00

Last day of Spring 07. Hello summer! What will this summer bring......?

Below are some of my latest exercises on Apophysis.
I have found Perspective (at last, sigh some!)

A SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE

XANADU ARRIVAL

APPROACHING XANADU

TARGETING AFAR STAR

FLOWERS OF SPRING
Seeds form & disperse

WARPING THE PERFECT SPIRAL

STRAIGHT UP..... OR IS IT..... STRAIGHT DOWN......
LOL2U2

All credits go to the Wizards of Apophysis who can be found, mostly on deviantART site - see link top right under Anu Links

WIZARD SOUP

2007-11-26T12:48:00.001-08:00

Yesterday spent creating images with Apophysis 3D Hack using the 3D WizardSoup script by ulliroyal.

They reflect the optimism I feel with the Ruddslide victory.

Wizard flowers are rising, spreading the magic through our lives - Kyoto ratified, work choices sorted, health & education bettered, Aborigines getting a more humane deal AND the big "Sorry", climate change addressed in useful ways, good women in the top jobs at last.

The pain lifts away - a great flowering of the nation's potential is happening.
Humanity can flourish.

I think back to the arrogance of the barking would-be dictator who kept telling us how tough love was good for us, ignoring all the issues that had us in strait jackets under his regime.
He may have believed his lies, but we didn't.

Now the Emperor has no clothes, in fact he hasn't even got a seat. .
Good on you Maxine McKew! She showed him, didn't she!
How to dance home laughing all the way.

Howard, like all arrogant people, now learns the cost of hubris and will be eating humble pie for the rest of his days. It is one thing to be our longest serving P.M., it is quite another to be loved by the people. He will learn that saying sorry from the heart is the mark of a good person. He claimed to be one, but his actions said otherwise.

So these surreal flowers below are a reflection of how I see it all happening now, here in Oz, as Kevin Rudd , Julia Gillard and their team step up and start the challenging tasks of creating health, wisdom & happiness in the face of very grim global prospects ahead.

WIZARD FLOWERS RISING

This one below, created in Apophysis 2.07beta, came out of a DeviantART bubbles flames set with shaun-rules-4eva Simple Oils script run over 4th flame. Perhaps it reflects the cold hard jewels of those who would control us as hive slaves in an inhumane economically rationalised world.

ART OF DRAKKNESS

See more of these images on my Flickr pages.

Carried on the Shoulders of Giants

2007-11-24T14:45:00.000-08:00

My latest batch of Apophysis images. All of them owe more to the genius of the DeviantART crew than my Apophysis abilities.
Go here for the production details.

Julia's Star Flowers.

In honor of Julia Gillard
who today became our 1st woman Deputy Prime Minister.
Better times ahead!
Well done Julia!

Hear This!
It sings.

Wind of the Sun.

Kaeltyk Egg.
My version of Kaeltyk's flame.

ApoObsession
Nights of Apophysis can do this to you.

Today is K1.
The first day of Kevin. At last the country can become more humane under his guidance. The harshness of the last government did not create a happy population. Here's hoping Kevin, Julia and their team can right the wrongs and get us fulfilled in all we can be as a nation in the planetary arena. The coming trials of climate, economics, overpopulation and so much more beyond our control, will be a daunting challenge.

All good children go to Kevin! He's definitely one of the good guys. Get behind the new team and be part of the solution. Together we can do it.

Congratulations to all who helped make the change to a better Australia.

Cool

2007-11-22T12:51:00.001-08:00

WIRED FLOWER

It floats.

Other Universes in Apophysis

2007-11-19T05:11:00.001-08:00

Been in a fanciful surreal mood today so had a day of Photoshop and assembled these Apophysis flames I created from randoms, overlaid with scripts from various DeviantART artists (go there for production details).

Cybervers Swarming

Arcturus here We Come

Spideyverses Far Far Away

Well, it's what I call FUN.

..and we're climbing the stairway to Kevin....
4 days to Anu Oz

Apophysis Tutorials

2007-11-17T17:26:00.001-08:00

Been hard at work on Apophysis tutorials from the DeviantART site (see Anu Links) this last day or so. So much to learn in this amazing fractal generating tool. Obsession is the order of my daze.

I want to stress:

THIS IS NOT MY WORK!

Below is the result I got from the DragonWinter Flower Tutorial from the Apophysis chatroom I attended today.
Go here for that tutorial transcript.

DragonWinter (DeviantART) Flower Tutorial Result.

Below is the result of another DeviantART Apophysis tutorial by Claire Jones, entitled
RINGS2 & Julian Guide, downloadable as a pdf file from here

Night in the Jungle
My attempt at the Claire Jones Rings 2 Tutorial

I am very happy with these results....wouldn't you be?

Apophysis Rules

2007-11-15T17:20:00.000-08:00

More Apophysis, some better than others.

Rainbow Bridge to the Golden Road to Tomorrow

Something tells me I'll be embarrassed about this in due course -
somewhat lurid (=takky).

Fire Beast

Remembering Greece & rest of S.Europe & California recently.

Flowery, Flowery Night

Learning to make flowers w thanks to Gygrazok on DevianART

Pearly Spiral

Um...er...
..last light of a sulphrous sunset on a mystyTwysty Mt. Athos?

................................................................

All credits & production details are on DeviantART posts - go to Anu Links on side bar.

I am getting it...slowly......

Apophysis

2007-11-12T01:53:00.001-08:00

I've never been addicted to anything before. Suddenly I'm finding myself possessed by Apophysis, something so irresistible, so all devouring, pure fascinatio.

The following are some of my recent attempts to understand how Apophysis works.
The dog is still walking me.

These images only evolved via me due to various generous genius , mostly to be found on the DeviantART site. Cabin Tom, Claire Jones, Halcyon83, Ali, x-seraphin, Rozrr, shrapnlHunter, shortgreenpigg, shaun_rules_4eva, Sya, Saisao, exper, being just a few I owe more than I can say - scripts, flames, tutorials, gradients, tips and the art they produce themselves - all so inspirational.

The following I'd especially like to thank:

Mark Townsend for Apophysis
Erik Reckase for FLAM3
Joel Faber for tutorials and variations
Michael Faber for tutorials
Peter "Zueuk" Sdobnov for 3D and other variations
Piotr Borys for his 2.06 work
Elizabeth Tomchek for her scripts
Thomas Desloges for his scripts
Claire Jones for her tutorials
shaun_rules_4eva for his scripts, his art & just being the crazy spirit he is.

Thanks all of you.

I can't call these my own work, they all owe too much to the sources they evolved from. It's rather like saying you grew the fruit on a tree, when the tree grew the fruit , someone else planted & tended the tree for many years and you just harvested the latest crop

So I dedicate these to you, (above), the Wizards of Apophysis.

virginBlu

Eggs.
I ran the shortgreenpigg's Jelly Bean script over a random flame & twitched it.

Some Of All Fears.

Sun Star
Having fun in the sun of Valcali's flames.

If you want to see the work of the real Wizards of Apophysis, click on the deviantART link on sidebar on right.

Flaming Arrow

2007-10-31T18:53:00.000-07:00

FU 2

Another shaft thru what once was my heart, now polymorfd to the above holey bowl...
so yr arrow goes thru & on anon thru multiverses to maybe land on some lifeless alien asteroid & fizzle to extinction.
FU 2 is my response.

Fractal art needs no defense, no apology. It speaks to those with the intelligence to grok its amazement, its wonder, its magic. Those who think it's boring, samesamesame are just dodos. Move on into Anu World. Have some fun.

Full Moon,Tornado & the Laughing Bird of Chaos

2007-10-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

Oil crisis, threats of nuclear WW3, the Fire Beast ravages Californian coast, climate change events, interest rates, on & on the litany of horrors goes. The bird of Chaos hatches and we approach dark times.

Let us not lose sight of the Dream, sings some whacko on Rage as I type - images of the Rainbow Bridge to Tomorrow. Can you feeeeeeel it? Oh yeah...I can Feeeeeeel It.
So you jest gotta larf!!!!! Laugh, damn you, laugh.

Laugh at This

The full moon brought a real wotzit of a storm to the east coast which ripened into a tornado when it reached the caldera rim, ripping up Dunoon, destroying houses, the church and the primary school

Tornado ripping thru Dunoon

The Anglican church, or what's left of it. I saw what was coming and fled to my nice neighbors. The tornado of 2002 that ripped my place apart has left me traumatized - I just can't cope with storms like I used to. Fortunately the worst of it deflected along the caldera rim across the the ocean and missed us.

Got any scraps mum?
This over friendly kookaburra is now my regular evening visitor.

Stayed for a session on Apophysis. Ma Muse!

Today however he/she does what kookaburras do best & caught the poor legless lizard that lived in my woodpile. That big beak is not an ornament. Form and function!

This is a very intrusive bird. Sits on my shoulder & watches my every move - with a beak that big beside my face it is a little unnerving!

So that's Full Moon October 2007. Superpowers growling nuclear war, wild destructive weather and the Bird of Chaos has arrived amongst us. Hold on folks...it's a bumpy ride.

I came like Water, and like Wind I go. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam XXV111.

FRACTAL EXPLORATIONS

2007-10-23T06:25:00.001-07:00

Today I did the startup tutorial of Fractal Explorer, took the image to Photoshop, gave it the Mehdi kaleidoscope treatment and came up with 20 beautiful images, all in same color balances, but so different. Here are 3 of them:

Fractal Art

2007-10-22T22:04:00.000-07:00

Endless hours of delight as I learn new programs and techniques to create these fractal kaleidoscopes. The Fractal Links on side bar take you to some of my program and tutorial sources.

Mind Blowing Fractals

Comic Capers

Divine Geometry.

2007-10-21T15:28:00.001-07:00

More variations from one image, only this time I've discovered Mind Blowing Fractals, created images, taken them to Photoshop, played with colors & put them thru the Mehdi kaleidoscope Photoshop plug-in filter. Come up with hundreds of astounding images, each one a WOW gasp of delight. Next step is to animate them.

These ones are just a few from a set of 30, all from the one original MBFractal.

They take me back to the Alhambra, where the Moorish Divine Geometry and the sounds of water flowing and bubbling in fountains illuminated me at my deepest levels in an experience that still brings thrills in the remembrance.

This last image, part of the same set, is a cut-out mounted on gradient backgrounds.

More Mehdi kaleidoscopes

2007-10-20T05:35:00.000-07:00

Indigo

Kaleidoscopes.

2007-10-19T05:32:00.001-07:00

A few examples of kaleidoscopes I created today in Photoshop using the Mehdi kaleidoscope plug-in.

The following are variations on a theme, showing how different fx can be achieved from the one image using this plug-in on various settings. Endless fun!

Like them? See more on my Flickr pages.

Sun Ticks.

2007-10-16T14:38:00.000-07:00

Can't find any advanced Photoshop courses around here, so bought a good mag - Essential Photoshop Skills - and am teaching myself a few nifty extras.

A session of learning methods for basic kaleidoscopes produced this quickie below.

SUN TICKS

Created with Apophysis 2.06 3D Hack using Sya Paisley Flame and Tomcheck MarbleSpheres Script. Assembled in Photoshop.

O yaaaaas! I'm having FUN!!

Orchid & Iris

2007-10-13T22:03:00.001-07:00

Today the garden (read wilderness) gives me flowers, strange flowers with color similarities and contrasting odoriferous differences.

Meet the Creeping Day Iris.

This is a particularly strange iris that blooms 2 days a year in Spring, usually a few weeks apart.
An exotic weed in rainforest understory. Still tracking it's name & place of origin.

Creeping Day Iris around the bird bath.

It stays out for a day, then the flowers simply fold up & shows over folks, nothing to see here!

Creeping Day Iris flower fully open.

It spreads prolifically in the rainforest understory and it's amazing to see all these pregnant yellow buds suddenly appear all over like little candles in the evening gloom. After dawn next day they all begin to open simultaneously. By 0730 the forest has a sudden celebration of flowers looking back at you from everywhere.

From bud to fully open flower takes about a half hour.You can watch them moving. Very much living things. I'll time lapse them next time.

Macro CU of Creeping Day Iris flower pongy nectary.

Another interesting thing about them is their stench. Oh yes they smell BAD. Something must love em! But I forgive them, they are just XQZT!

Subject No. 2: A Vulnerable Orchid.

I also found this fragrant orchid in full flower. Below is an extreme macro closeup of the happy Hobbitty face of the 5 mm flower. Now this one has such a divine perfume I just swooned.

Peristeranthus hillii - orchid flower macro CU.

Go to Sydney Botanical Gardens Herbarium site to read all about them.

The palms are all in abundant flower too. Alexandra's, Bangalows, Cane palms, Chinese fan palms - 4 - 5 different species, Walking stick palsm, Royal palms, Date palms...the list goes on..I have so many. The difference this year is that many have come into flower for the first time, after 25 years!

Time to go take more pix!!

Experimental Compilation.

2007-10-11T04:02:00.001-07:00

Experimental compilation. Looks like a dog's dinner printed out, but better in dig. Posted it here to gauge fx & see how it works against the black. And for you to see of course. Works for me.

Based on an Apophysis creation. Made it as cover for the chronological list doc of my life events requested by Aunty.
Now.... for the rest of my life.......!

Super Storm Cell

2007-10-09T05:22:00.001-07:00

Big hail fell in the latest of the series of storms generated by this slow moving low pressure system we are in. The above shows what fell here this afternoon, not too serious.

BUT......

Lismore and Mullumbimby had huge damage with hailstones like cricket balls cannoning through windscreens and windows, breaking rooves, flooding stores & ruining stock.

This morning's event growled & boomed in the dawn. Must have had 5 big storms in last 2 days so far. There will be more to come.

THE TRIBAL ELDERS and the CYBER ARK.

2007-10-08T20:32:00.000-07:00

After my brother and I visited our Aunty and Uncle last weekend I decided I needed to record it for posterity in this Cyber Ark of human experiences. This is my Aunty, today, in her 80's, the eldest of my father's family line. Sorry Uncle but pix I took of you were too blurred - camera shake!

My Aunty

Below, this is my Aunty and Uncle when they were married in 1947, the year my brother was born. The beautiful Australian princess marries her handsome British pilot. They have just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, with congratulatory message from the Queen putting icing on the cake, so to speak.

The fairytale is real

The photo above is from my Nikon Coolpix S6 snappa, taken through glass onto framed tiny snapshot, then Photoshopped to resize & clean up. It isn't great but it hasn't come up too bad.

Charley

This handsome fellow is my father, my aunty's brother who fought to keep us all safe in the Middle East and New Guinea. This is taken after the war in 1955. He died in 1972.

Mama, me & Grandmama - 1940

This is my mother, aka Dawn Gold, carrying newborn me with Ivy, my grandma (my father & my aunty's mother), walking down Pitt St., Sydney in 1940. Caught by one of those prevalent street photographers of the day outside Repins Coffee Shop. Mama died in 2004. See Post below.

These are and/or were my tribal elders. Now my Aunt and Uncle are the sole representatives of their generation in my family. They are strong and hearty and will prove what healthy stock we are in their longevity. I bet they outlive me and my brother, both of us being in less than great shape at present. Stay tooned!

＼（‐＾▽＾‐）／

Had all the best intentions of creating more Apophysis digArt today, but got lost in the Magic Carpet of Memories Room after my aunty asked me to list the chronology of my life events. An interesting exercise that brought me to the Cyber Ark concept.

CYBER ARK

These pages and my Flickr pix are going to be around long after I'm gone (IF we survive the climate change biosphere breakdown crisis and I do mean IF, not when). Here I will be able to be accessed by those who come after, so it's a time capsule event. Hello y'all, just in case you have found me.

STORM SEASON IS HERE

View from studio south side yesterday evening as the first Big One blew in.
Green sky means hail.
It did, not here tho, but further east where it lay like carpets of snow.

Hail, lightning strobes, big sudden storms moving through quickly, not much rain. Suddenly the season has changed and it all feels dangerous. Memories of the 2002 tornado that wrecked the studio & garden. Another brewing, time to disconnect everything & put up storm blinds.

Julian's Visit

2007-10-07T02:46:00.001-07:00

The last few days has been very busy with visit from dearest bro Julian.

He showed me his pix of Charley, the beautiful sports boat he designed and built himself.

It gave me the idea to put it on Flickr, which grew into a bigger, better, idea of creating a sports boat group, mainly to showcase Australian Sports Boat competition racing. Australia has a slim showing on Flickr all round, so I thought I'd up the ante.

So I created a Flickr group for Sports Boats and put his best pix into it. Build it and they will come!

Julian and crew on Charley at Airlie Beach, 2006.

Next, on a trip up into Koala Mountain Sanctuary's upland regenerating old banana lands we had a wee car problem when the overgrown verge of the invisible track we were inching along gave way under right back wheel & it slid, tipped & came within a whisker of rolling down the steep slope. Not a scratch on it or us, but we had a long toddle back down mountain to get help as no mobile reception. Fortunately my good neighbor, Craig, Betty's son, came to rescue & towed it out easy peasy. Thanks Craig, you are such a good friend.

Craig attaching the tow chains to the Suzuki.

Following day was off to Brisbane early to visit our paternal aunty and uncle, both in their 80's. Had a feast of forbidden cholesterol fancy cakes with tea and looked at the family photos. Then I showed them this blog and my Flickr pages and gave them easy access links from their Favorites, so they can read all about their strange niece at their leisure.

Aunt and nephew reminiscing over the 60th Anniversary photos.

Hello Thea and Allen! Isn't the www just the most wonderful thing!

After that visit we made our way to Manly and the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron where the last boats were coming in from the day's race in the St. Helena Cup regatta. Julian caught up with his sailing mates while I took a lot of pix for the Sports Boat Flickr group. It was blowing a 25 knot black nor-easter and the boats had had wild rides, so there were lots of torrid tales being exchanged in the debriefs.

The view from Darling Point across Brisbane River mouth in hard 25 knot wind.

I have never seen so many masts, so many expensive sleek craft, all in one small marina. Talk about clusters.

This is a cluster of......?.......(finish this sentence).

There were capsizes, including RIP It Up loading on ute trailer above, and one, Vivace, owned by Julian's mate Sorensen, was demasted.

Vivace loading onto trailer after demasting.

I posted the bulk of the pix to Flickr Sports Boats group, then put a notice in the Forum of the Anarchy page Julian contributes to, where sailing news is exchanged. I think they are already responding with lots of visitors to the pix, altho no new members to the group yet. But I'm hoping they'll see the merits of the exercise and join Flickr & get their pix up in the group soon.

So an eventful few days with Julian. He's off driving back south now and life gets back to "normal", for whatever that means.

HELLO THE ENEMY

Meanwhile I've seen the reason most of my native animals have disappeared this year. I had thought it was cane toads, but there are hardly any of them now. No, this was a CAT.

It actually came into house while I was sitting quietly reading one night. It killed a large antichinus in the kitchen and left it on the back doorstep, uneaten. But I saw it again when driving down track and realized how huge it is. Size of a Bobcat. E-NORM-OUS!

So it's goodbye possums, koalas, quoll, snakes, skinks, echidnas, bandicoots, just to name a few of the now not present species that used to be here in healthy numbers.

They say there is one wild ex-domestic cat to every square kilometre of Australia. I have found the enemy has now arrived here and done what cats do. Hunt and kill native wildlife. Tell that to all those people who simper over pretty pussies.

Remembering Diana

2007-10-03T04:09:00.000-07:00

Paris Ritz Ring

A friend made this for me in the 70's from an old spoon found in an op shop.

I put it away for over fifteen years.

One day I got it out and mused over the memories of those days and put it on my table.

Imagine my shock when I turned on the TV and in a NewsFlash cutting thru the afternoon programs came the news of Diana's death after leaving the Paris Ritz on that fateful day.

I picked up that ring and held it tight. I swear I tingled all over!!

I wear it all the time now. It is something of a knuckle duster.
Every old lady needs one !

I'm posting this here on to mark the anniversary of her death.

I'm not a royal fan, but I couldn't help be drawn into her mythos after that curious bit of synchronicity.

FULL MOON, ORCHIDS & BETTY IS 86.

2007-09-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

SEPTEMBER FULL MOON

Is that a UFO bottom right?
Nah...just the 747 from Coolangatta to Sydney with headlights blazing as it does its big swooparound & heads south west from coast.

Celebrated Betty's 86th last night with veranda drinks & dinner watching full moon rise over caldera. Then showed her flickr & blogspot, explaining how, if her traveling clan posted to web, she'd be able to access their pix & diaries. I think she was impressed.

Gosh....I AM! It's such high magic this technology. Here's a good shot I got of her two days ago.

Betty is a hearty 86! Congratulations Betty!

A few more orchids have come into bloom.
This one is the Tongue orchid, Dendrobium linguaforme.

Tongue orchid

Below, this is the extravagant large raceme of the King orchid, Dendrobium speciosum. This year only 1 raceme, instead of the 6-12 it usually present. The other plants of this species, usually so abundant, have not flowered at all.

King Orchid

The drought has cut deep. This morning I harvested the solitary lemon my bush lemon beside studio gave me this year. Normally they are so abundant they litter the ground at this time and I'm busy preserving them or freezing the juice.

The fact that eastern states farmers are quitting their farms, committing suicide in frightening numbers, pulling up whole orchards, looking at totally failed crops & putting the sheep to graze off what has managed to come up but is unharvestable, is not getting through to a lot of people I think.

The implications are huge. Can we survive as a population from what the Ord River will provide?

Populate and Perish.

I'd like to congratulate my old friend from way back then, Karl Kruszelnicki , who is running for Senate under the Climate Change banner in next election.

DR. KARL FOR PRESIDENT !

Karl you are such an amazing man, always had great admiration for what you do & say. You simply MUST run for President eventually.

That's all she wrote....

Sto kalo.

TAPESTRY CROCHET

2007-09-24T15:21:00.000-07:00

This is to announce the advent of the new
Flickr Tapestry Crochet Group.

I hope it will flourish.
Already have 3 members after only 12 hours in existence.

If it were a temple then Carole Ventura is the resident guru/saint/mentor and the pix posted to its pool are the flowers on its altar.

The inspiration came about after prompting from Rufaro Crafty, my new Flickr friend, inquiring about the art of tapestry crochet.
Tapestry Crochet Flute Bag.

Further prompted, I dug out my original tapestry crochet Ayesha bag. It has been hanging on a hook in the studio for over 30 years and is showing its age. Aren't we all! So I Photoshopped the pic a bit and resampled it......

... and here it is, a bit faded, a bit tatty, but an old friend for me.

I learned tapestry crochet in Morocco sitting at the feet of Ayesha, one of the wives of the Berber sheikh who was my kind host. As I was traveling at the time I was impressed by the portable nature of the art. You can do it just about anywhere, sometimes even while walking. I made this bag to carry my flutes, yarns, hooks & drawing materials and dedicated it to her. As I look at it I am taken back to Imesswouane and Cap Rhir, south of Essaouira, on the Moroccan Atlantic coast, and see Ayesha again, her wise old kholled eyes glinting down at me as she quietly created her beautiful tapestry crochet hats.

Moroccan coast near Imesswouane and Cap Rhir
photo courtesy karolajnat

I hear the roar of the surf thundering against the mighty cliffs where the Atlas mountains drop into the Atlantic Ocean.

Orchids in the Moonlight

2007-09-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit sick of all the snakes. Now I have not one, but 2, Night tigers coiled looking at me. One in dressing room beside bunk, the other behind me as I type at my computer. Small inoffensive Antichinus catchers.

So I'm posting these orchids below to create a better view than scales, coils & snakes eyes.
Go here if you want to see the snakes.

Beautiful orchid in full flower

I had thought this was Sarcochilus falcata, but others who apparently know better, tell me it's an Asian soft-cane species. So I'll do the keying out and let you know. Meanwhile whatever it is, it is beautiful. One of the blessings I count. By full moon it will be in full bloom. Then I'll take a moonlit shot.

Dendrobium beckleri.
The Pencil Orchid.

An Australian native orchid outside my back door presenting very well,
despite, or perhaps because of, the drought.

Goodbye APEC, Hello Very Big Snake.

2007-09-15T04:51:00.000-07:00

wotULookinat....
my comment on APEC

............................................................

Anu (would-be) Friend

This is what Spring has brought to my bunkhouse bed....I think she's about 12 feet long.

During the colder months she hibernates right above my head in the ceiling. But now she's out n about & taken to enjoying the comforts of the foot of my bed. Outside the net thankfully!

uh ooh....busted...!!

please, not the big stick again.....

evicted !

She's becoming just a little too cosy. I respect that she's a wild animal. She's just shed her skin and is looking very sleek and glossy.

I just hope I'm not in for a repeat of her mating rituals of a few years ago when 11+ males formed an "amalgum" - a formation of coiled stacked snakes all on top of the female to keep her down.

This happened on the guest bunk in direct line of sight from my sleeping position - last thing I saw at night....strangely I actually did manage to sleep...none were aggressive to me, they ranged from about 6 to 13 feet long.

During the day I couldn't walk in the bunkhouse for the snakes lunging in territorials at each other, loops of them hanging from the rafters, on the beds, under chairs...it was quite an event.

Eventually I saw so many inside, and several blind ones outside in process of shedding their skins before joining the gang bang party, that I decided enuf was more than enuf & time to reclaim my territory. So I called an old buddy in who's son had just come back from studying King browns in the Centre and he and his mother relocated quite a few.

One enormous male remained. I decided to be brave & sort him myself but got fanged thru my hand. But he got the message and left after I threatened him with a big broom.

So now this one is getting too friendly. I don't want to relocate her, she's been around for forever here. Dilemma.

And so to bed....no doubt to wrangle her out of it first......I'm amazed I can actually sleep & dream pleasantly with a monster like this wanting to get personal...but I do.

Fortress City

2007-09-07T04:20:00.000-07:00

Satellites Above

This week APEC has taken over Sydney CBD. Sydney is in Lock Down.

Most of the citizens have exited, gone bush, upcountry, to the beach, the snow, or are just laying low at home waiting for it all to return to normal.

What we are observing, that is what we are permitted to see via the media, is very sobering. Why the nation's most populous city has to be shut down for this event is beyond me. Surely the whole shebang could have been staged elsewhere, away from population centers, so as not to incur the huge expense we all have to bear eventually.

Why not create a secure fortress in a remote outback conference center/resort, where the APEC leaders could be brought in & out by air. Where their every need could be catered for, where the main conference could be carried out in safety, well away from demonstrators, terrorists & other persons of interest that are attracted like flies to its' meat. For $300 million they could have built such a venue. It seems to me the whole thing is an exercise in stupidity. It knocks at least a week out of Sydney's economy on so many levels.

Just to remind us that the problems are right here in our own precincts, local towns are now getting CCTV street surveillance security cams.

Hello the Brave New World. Keep smiling, it's all for your benefit, blame the terrorists - you know, those who would destroy the fabric of our beautiful society. Do you see where all this is going?

I see sleepwalkers going like lambs to the slaughter. The trap is sprung, there is no way out. Protest and you are branded - one of Them. Either/Or. Yes/No. It's all so binary, no rainbows of options , all black or white.

So I just stay out of it all. It's all so harsh. A world of pain, of bullies, of violence , of people enslaved by debt and bureaucratic rat runs.

Kamertaj brings Anu to the Springs of the Muses.

For the last months I have been learning fractal art . It's my world, a world of beauty, peace, color and sweet harmony. A world of light and laughter.

So here I share with you some of my recent creations. You can see more on my Flickr site, just press on the link on right to go there.

The very good news is that the last week here has been gentle soft rain. A great start to Spring.

Stay safe, laugh a lot, be happy and make a better world, it's the only planet we've got.

SPRING !

2007-08-30T16:48:00.000-07:00

One of my treasures to celebrate Spring 2007.

Eclipse of the Blue Full Moon.

2007-08-28T21:29:00.000-07:00

The Dark Hand of Chaos

A dark vision has emerged as I create digital images in Agony, SaVaGery, Chaoscope, GIMP & other recently acquired digital imaging programs.

With the Equine flu, the Bird flu, the Greek & southern European fires, the horrors in Iraq, Afghanistan, the African atrocities & famine, the price of wheat, stock markets in crisis, major weather events...it goes on & on.....all giving me a sense of dread as to the future of beautiful planet Earth, it is no wonder my art has turned dark.

Does it help to keep saying positive things, to play the Pollyanna card, when it is quite obvious that things are less than good.

Maybe it's the eclipse of the full moon doing it to me.

I look outside, I feel the beautiful clear balmy spring weather after a week of excellent rains.
All is well here. Hard to be the happy camper knowing the pain so many are in from so many sources.

Que sera...

RAIN !

2007-08-27T15:17:00.000-07:00

FRACTAL ART

TIME SHIP

GUARDIANS OF THE JEWEL

At last the drought has broken & @ 170mm over 5 days gently soaking rain filled the tank. I've had my first bath since February, almost forgotten the joys of wallowing in water. How dirty was the water asked probing friends? Aha..crystal clear actually, because of my very basic bath in a tin shed with concrete floor I can do the Japanesy thing & wash outside the bath before getting in to soak. This is a good trick if you have limited water too, as you can use the bathwater 2 or 3 times.

But we were lucky here, the rain was gentle. Not so 2-300 km north on Sunshine coast where the East coast low dumped something in the order of 800-900mm in a couple of days, which, combined with a king tide, brought extreme flooding.

Next of course we have the Equine flu & paralysis of the horse breeding & racing in 5 states.

The fires in southern Europe, especially Greece, the typhoons in Taiwan & China, the storms in the mid USA, overall the planet is in apocalypse.

My own life has suddenly entered a hugely creative stage. I've been into Flickr in a BIG way, surfing around the tags & groups & images, finding many, many wonderful postings from members & getting to talk with a few by flickrmail.

Hi if you are one of my chat buddies ! You have been so inspirational.

From all this has come an amazing surge of the juices in me. I've returned to an old love of the late 80's & early 90's - Fractals !

I've found progs like Fractal eXtreme, Agony, Apophysis, Chaoscope & have been on yet another steeeeep learning curve of endless obsessive image creation, modifying & enhancing with Photoshop.

So here, above, are my first efforts.

Stay safe my friends

Art

2007-08-14T03:00:00.000-07:00

This beautiful 12-13 footer curled up under my window all night after I evicted it from treehouse bed. Strangely I did sleep well. It seemed quite obliging to move when nudged. It's living art.

This is Tony Armstrong's great sculpture of a Black bean pod & seed with fungi. It sits outside the Chillingham Community Center, in the north west of the caldera. He does such beautiful work.

WOW

2007-08-14T02:36:00.001-07:00

Tapestry crochet motif
from

WIP.

You can see lots more of my tapestry crochet and other yarn work here on on my Flickr Yarns Set or go to Tapestry Crochet Blogspot.

SPRING !

2007-08-08T15:46:00.001-07:00

Enjoy the peach blossom all buzzin' with bees.
Symbols of hope & renewal.

The first signs of spring. Our winter of 4-6 weeks is almost over. Hasn't rained since June 26th, the creek is down to last trickle & some neighbors have run out of water. Bushfires all around, mostly arson, or idiots whose pre-fireban period burnoffs got out of control. Why anyone would light fires when the countryside is tinder dry beats me. At least a recent slight change blew the smoke pall away, enough to give a blue sky in above shot. But today the air is a jaundiced yellow/khaki again.

Thinking of the whales surging along the coast on annual summer migration, just started. I can almost feel the whoosh and surge as they surface, breath & dive again.

Meanwhile Wollumbin's Fighting Chief of the North is a sleeping giant enveloped in a pall of smoke.

Dream On.

Dawn Gold

2007-08-02T19:14:00.001-07:00

In memory of my beautiful mama, Dawn Gold.

Born August 7, 1917, died March 27, 2004

Dawn Gold at 25
The operatic soprano.

Mama at 80.

Love forever.

What we are breathing

2007-08-02T01:55:00.000-07:00

Today I went out, took this shot above - I live in that pall of smoke. It's been 4-5 days of it.
Compare it with the shot of same view below, taken just 3 months ago.

This is all because some bloke thought he'd burn off & beat the official August 1st Fire Ban start, no thought apparently for the drought conditions, exacerbated by the sudden black frost last week. Coldest night for some 30 years.

Today it was 29 degrees C. Spring has started. If the winds start up we have big big problems.

Vale Marcia

2007-07-30T23:55:00.000-07:00

For Neryl.
In memory of my Aunty Marcia with love.

Full Moon July 07

2007-07-30T19:27:00.000-07:00

Full moon rose blood orange last night in smoke filled air. A lone wild dog howling & keening, A sense of time standing still.

Creeks down to last trickle. So dry. Choking on smoke lying in still air, can't see the mountain opposite for the pall. My eyes are streaming, coughing, blocked sinuses. Wake frequently in night choking, fearful that the fires, still some miles away on southern caldera rim, may have come closer.Still haven't had a bath since February. A hip bath when it rained a month or so ago, but as tank didn't fill I couldn't risk it, and have had to do with daily. bucket washes. Every drop gets reused.

But my problems are so small in comparison to what I see on Greek news. It seems the whole of central south Europe has had heat & fires, right down into the islands, Cyprus, the Turkish coast. And now South Africa too. I don't forget the war crimes in Iraq & Afghanistan

The bushfire season total fire ban starts tomorrow. It's bureaucracy gone mad. Why don't they declare these bans to suit the conditions, not the date ! Like the rivers, they are managed by states, not by ecosystems & catchments. When will we ever learn.

Meanwhile here is start of my latest project: SUN SPOTS, the dreaded granny squares, all so pretty, so clean. I wish I was. I think they are a reaction to my inability to keep myself & my abode as clean as I'd like in the face of stressed resources i.e. water.

Think I'll go up my mountain and sing on the moonrise tonight. Maybe the wild dogs will respond. This is what I call The Anvil, that time of deepest winter just before the hammer of Spring hits & all awakens for the new year of breeding, growth, renewal. The buds on the peach tree by the creek are just bursting. Spring will be next week. Hormones will activate, generating crazy behaviors, so watch out kids, it's all about to happen again!

Old Hats, New Directions

2007-07-27T15:58:00.002-07:00

Tapestry wool crochet Celtic hat.

Crown of the hat - an ancient Celtic sunwheel design.

A few new directions as I explore crochet granny square possibilities & learn new stitches. The backing on bottom image is part my knitted raw wool sampler.

Flickr site has all my yarnwork to date in the Yarns set.

Hiya Kaffe !

2007-07-27T15:34:00.000-07:00

This is my way of learning to knit, way back then.
A Kaffe Fassett pattern from his book: "Glorious Knitting".

It's mostly way too warm for this subtropical climate, but I found it the just right Goldilocks thing for that minus 3 degree centigrade morning last week.

Finding some great links to other yarn artists lately including the Crochet Ring which I'll add to blogroll soon.

DO go check out Flickr if you haven't already. It is such a good showcase and the maps make it really interesting.

Stay warm, stay cool !

Fire and Ice

2007-07-25T17:35:00.000-07:00

Recent unprecedented freezing weather is resolving to that beautiful clear warm pre-Spring balminess that makes life here such a joy.

But what is happening in the Europe, the floods, heatwaves, fires is horrendous.

Can't help thinking "what if" - what if there were sudden events when the rainfall or temperature produced off the scale results.

What if we had sudden 55-60 degree centigrade days. 2000 mm falls of rain?

The biosphere is reacting to the changes in the conveyor belt of ocean currents, which are influenced by the complex "world warming" impacts. How long before we are experiencing the really big nasties. Even England & Poland have had tornadoes recently.

One came thru my place in 2002 & ripped off everything above 25 feet height. The side of the house and all the verandas went. I now know what it is like to not be able to breathe while the banshees shriek & dust blinds your eyes. It cut a swathe about 40 feet wide from Casino, 100 km SW from here, across the caldera to my place. I went to check my nearest neighbors a mile away & they were unaware it had even happened, that's how precise & localised it was.

A few years ago, following a week of 38-40 degree C days, we had a 45 degree C day.
My neighbor & I fled our hot rock mountain side & sat in the ocean up to our necks for 9 hours. Even if we had wanted to we couldn't walk back to car across beach as sand was white hot.
What if it had gone to 55 that day?

How close to life support threshhold will these events go ?

Way beyond scarey.

I hear over 500 have died in the heatwave affecting Italy/Greece/Hungary area. We were told this as the 9th item on the news. The latest Iraq atrocities got 8th. The fact that our soldiers had killed someone in Afghanistan was about 3rd. Prime time was the PM stumbling as he walked on his vote seeking tour.

Apparently 500 dead far away, 80 dead a little closer but still not on our island, don't rate as importantly as whether or not John Howard is keeping his body balance, if not the nation's books as price rises in basic commodities send interest rates up & up & up again. It's all part of the Big Problem. Too many people, stressed resources, destructive climatic events.

More, more, produce, consume, breed. Keep it happening good citizens all.

Keep yr eye on the pointy end or you'll see the sharks feeding off the garbage astern.

I remember back in 70's someone saying we have evolved as a species now able to view its' own extinction in minute excruciating detail via the electronic media. Well I guess that's as long as electricity gets to them I guess someone, somewhere is working out how to bypass that too.

So just to show that I'm doing my bit for production quotas here's some crochet pix.

Goldilocks & Anu World

2007-07-17T15:21:00.000-07:00

Still busy researching yarn arts & artists. Found endless people & beautiful work thru Flickr & now have found to help organize my contributions to the cornucopia of work on display.

Here's my latest offerings, some pillow covers.

Created these with help of Flickr yarn artists' patterns. Working into new techniques & scrumble freeform crochet is my next Big Thing. Time to break out of confines of classic traditions & use the inspirations of Kaffe Fassett, Sylvia Cosh, James Walters, Sue Bradley & Jenny Dowde (not forgetting old bud Jenny Kee), to fly into Anu World of creativity.

Freezing cold. snow falling where snow hasn't fallen in last hundreds of years of record keeping.

Yes that biosphere breakdown is a happenin' & even our dodo P.M. is going on UTube to present the proposals to address climate change issues.

Ah, naivity reigns. What is coming is the result of what happened way back in the mid 20th century & before. Maybe reforms in energy use & pollution reduction will help in the long run but with so many of us swarming, consuming, polluting, I fear there will be a huge culling before it all slows down to a new Goldilocks life support system.

Who will survive? Will the oceans really rise & swallow coastal areas? Will we still have industrial areas to drive our civilization's technology? So many are in low lying areas.

Is it all too late or do we really have a chance?

It is all so interesting - the evolution of life on this Goldilocks planet. What we are and what we will become.

Let kindness and understanding rule as we hope for good outcomes in what seems a less than comfortable future.

Spread the love,

Anu.

Hi Hatz

2007-07-06T20:44:00.000-07:00

Found a site where imagination, talent & fun with mixed media make some very crazy headgear.

Go2:
http://www.beaniefest.org/
& look at the images in Past Festivals.

This is one of the images from that site.

There is also a Beanie Fest book full of these bizarre offerings in craft shops.

YARN WORLDS

2007-07-05T15:28:00.000-07:00

Been researching freeform & tapestry crochet & found a world of people who make extraordinary work. Some are so like my tapestry crochet & grid pattern knitting that I did a dance at finding like minded yarn artists who, a whole hemisphere away, have made things so like mine. Inspirational!

This is another hat I made for good friend Adi.

I've sent emails to some who have followed the Kaffe Fasset & Sylvia Cosh methods and various traditional ethnic work such as Peruvian, Mexican & old Celtic,Turkish, & Egyptian patterns & colors.

If you are reading this now I'd love to contact you to swap patterns & ideas & maybe just muse about crochet, knitting, color and/or the goings on around our planet these last months. I'll be fixing up the photos of my work for web publication so find that on my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/anua22a.

As I write a foraging band of 5 huge black yellow tailed cockatoos is scrawching above in the trees that hang over studio. Lots of crashing onto the tin roof right above my head as twigs and bark fall as they pull apart the deadwood looking for insects.Time to get out the camera. They are so HUGE! Today winter gales abate and its a day of champagne air and warm sun. A day to sit in sun and work on my next project.

Love to all
Anu.

Goldilocks and Granny's Best Friend

2007-06-11T15:03:00.001-07:00

Goldilocks and Granny’s Best Friend

One day, after coming back from a happy visit to her old friends the Four Bears, Goldilocks decided to take a short cut through the woods. The path passed by the cottage of Red Riding Hood’s old grandma and she decided to pay the old lady a visit.

Humming a happy little song she dawdled along, looking at amazing rare butterflies and some newly flowering orchids, just enjoying the pleasant walk on a fine sunny day.

As she passed through the woods she didn’t notice she was being watched.

But the Big bad Wolf had heard her humming and crept up on her. As she bent down to look at a particularly interesting ground orchid, the wolf jumped on her, savaging her badly.

Goldilocks, however, was quite strong and although badly injured, managed to get away from the wolf, beating it off with a big stick.

She limped into grandma’s house, and fell to the floor in a swoon.

Grandma tended to her wounds and when she regained consciousness, gave her a special herb tonic tea to restore her.

“Why, dear Goldilocks, whatever happened to you !” asked grandma.

“It was the Big bad Wolf grandma. It jumped on me. I didn’t see it until too late. It’s made quite a mess hasn’t it,” she moaned ruefully as she winced, trying to move her injured body. Anything she did was so painful. Her legs were all torn with deep gashes.

“Oh no Goldilocks, you are wrong ! ” exclaimed grandma. “No! Not Old Big Bad. It couldn’t be. It’s a real friend. Probably my best friend. Big Bad Wolf is so supportive, always brings me fresh killed rabbits and hares and the odd chicken. Walks with me to the edge of the woods to keep me company. No, Goldilocks, I think you are mistaken.”

“No, grandma, I am not mistaken at all. “replied Goldilocks, rather taken aback.
”If I were you I’d think about that best friend of yours. It’s a dangerous creature and one day it could just eat you up. Did you ever think that maybe its’ presents of good food are just to fatten you up for its’ own meal one day?”

Goldilocks groaned as she sat up and pulled on her coat.

“Oh that’s just fanciful nonsense. You must be delirious”, cried grandma, scowling angrily at Goldilocks.

“My dear grandma, you are not seeing the creature for its’ true nature. Red Riding Hood once told me it came sniffing around her one day out in the woods, but she ran away fast.” replied Goldilocks, wondering if the old lady was delusional.

“Yes, yes” sniffed grandma, turning away,” Red Riding Hood has always come with bad stories about Big bad Wolf. But she doesn’t know what a good creature it really is. It always tells me how worried it gets about her walking in those woods alone. It is a very concerned wolf, always telling me how it cares for others. I only know it as a supportive good friend. No, my dear Goldilocks, you are quite mistaken. I think you must have brought this on yourself, maybe you fell over into a thorny gully and have to put the blame on someone else or look foolish. You are telling naughty fibs. Now go home. I’m expecting company.”

Goldilocks limped back home, staying away from the woods. On her way she passed Red Riding Hood, who was horrified at seeing her old friend in such a state.

“Whatever happened to you?” she cried.

Goldilocks explained.

“Oh I’ve warned grandma so many times about that wolf, but she just won’t listen’” said Red Riding Hood.

Goldilocks got home and went to bed. She slept and slept and woke up some days later, still sore, but much refreshed. She felt like eating something nice and made a sweet current tea bun. As she made it she wondered how her friends the Four Bears were. So she packed up the bun in a picnic basket and went to visit them.

“Have you heard the news” said Mama Bear as she laid out high tea and sliced up the current bun.

“No, do tell.” said Goldilocks as she poured the tea for them all.

“Well it seems your friend Red Riding Hood has gone missing and when Eva, the woodsman’s wife went to her grandma’s house, grandma was in bed, all wrapped up and in her nightcap. She said she had a bad cold, and her gruff voice certainly sounded like she had a very bad throat, so Eva made her some hot lemon and honey. But as grandma reached out to take it, the cap slipped off and it wasn’t grandma at all. It was the Big Bad Wolf. Eva got a terrible fright and jumped back, knocking over the bedside lamp. She ran away from the cottage before the wolf, all tangled in the bedclothes, could catch her. When Eva got home and told the woodsman what had happened, they went back to the cottage together, but it had burned to the ground. So nobody knows what happened to Red Riding Hood, her grandma, or even the Big Bad Wolf. But I suppose it’s easy to guess.

Goldilocks looked down at her injured legs, tears running down her cheeks.

“I tried to warn them...” she faltered, but she couldn’t speak for the tears.

“My dear,” said Father Bear, munching on his current bun and looking reflectively out the window,” you just can’t tell some folk. They only find out the hard way. So here,” he added handing over a large clean hanky,” wipe your eyes. Try not to feel it. You managed to escape, be thankful. Just know you can only do so much to warn others of the dangers in this world.”

Little Bear slid off his chair and trundled over to Goldilocks and gave her a great big healing bear hug.

“Don’t cry Goldilocks,” he murmured, "you still have us”.

Goldilocks felt much better and hugged Baby Bear back.
Then they sat back and enjoyed their tea party.
Four friends together.

............
Love 2 U all
Anu.

BARGELLO

2007-06-07T19:03:00.000-07:00

Here's the cosy blanket I've just finished for Zeca:

Aurora

A baby blanket in Bargello style crochet.

Crochet. Double crochet (dc) worked into back loop of stitch below for rib fx.
8 ply wool (acrylics & wool blends only when colors not available in wool).
Create color graded stripes after style of Bargello embroidery.
Hook: 5mm.
Time for 1 row @ 10 mins. Total work time for main body of work: 21-22 hours (finishing extra). Size: Length: 130 cm or 4’3”. Width: 85 cm or 2’9.5” wide.

Pattern

Cast on 170 chains
Turn, ch2, sk1 & dc1 into back loop of 2nd dc below, dc2, (i.e. row starts with 4 dc if you count 2ch turning stitch as 1st stitch in new row)
dc2 in next st, 4dc, sk2, 4dc, 2dc in next st,
* 3dc, sk1, 3dc, 2dc in next st, 3dc, sk1, 3dc, 2dc in next st, 3dc, sk1,
5dc, (1dc, ch1, 1dc) in next st (top of peak), 5dc,
sk1, 3dc, 2dc in next st, 3dc, sk1, 3dc, 2dc in next st, 3dc, sk1, 3dc,
2dc in next st, 4dc, sk2, 4dc, 2dc in next st *,
repeat * to *
4dc to end of row.

Repeat rows using graded color stripes in manner of Bargello embroidery.

My own adaptation of Bargello crochet patterns found on web via Google Images/Bargello crochet.

.........................................................................

East coast lows brings much needed life liquid renewal to eastern Oz. But only 12 mm in rainguage here. Still hanging out for a bath...it's been months! Must get to ocean beach for a sand scrub soon.

19 black cockatoos screaching out from their mountain refugium heading for riparian foraging.
Currawongs in the foggy damp dawn. Now its sunshine & showers and the air is crystal champagne. More like spring. Hormones charging the breeding mechanism...pademelons hard at it under recent full moon. Ah...dem wuz der daze...

seeya

Anu.

2007-05-30T04:17:00.000-07:00

Rain - 15.5 mm in gauge today.
Has the drought broken really ?
Might be able to have a bath soon if it keeps up.
A Paradise riflebird is nesting among the palms in the "garden" (read wilderness) - a Green catbird calls in the dawn and bowerbirds & flock pigeons now visiting as the planet swings us into the winter weather cycles.
Still very warm altho the insects aren't as noisy, or bitey.
I am at peace, riding Kamertaj my windy mare.
This is a hat I made for my old friend Jo.
Love to you all.

War and Peace

2007-05-21T15:02:00.000-07:00

I ask for peace and harmony and get a download of verbal abuse.
Why can't people make love not war ?
Our time on this planet is so brief, so precious and I'm not wasting it by allowing negative people with destructive agendas to violate my beautiful reality.
Personal chemistry, the flow of endorphins, dopomine, seratonin, all governed by the meditation & mantras generating inner harmony. Give it a go.
Watch the flow as your inner being starts radiating joy as the body's reactions respond.
Soon you too will find it all and ride your windhorse above the dross to the springs of inspirations where you can fill your cup with the nectar of bliss.
Life is too short. Come into the light of peace and joy.
Here is our latest family addition.
Welcome baby Zeca to Terra, our Goldilocks planet.
And Happy 41st my beautiful Klea.
Love 2 U all
Anu

2007-04-18T21:03:00.000-07:00

the horror, the horror....when will it ever end, when will people be able to live happily, enjoy peace.

I turn on the news and what is happening in Baghdad, in Iraq in general, in Afghanistan, North Africa, Middle East - it's beyond grief, beyond words.

Our Australian news tells of 3 dead here, 5 dead there. Road fatalities, nursing & retirement home deaths, murders on the streets. Then, about 5th or 6 th item into the news we hear that 190 are dead today in Iraq with countless hundreds injured in just today's bombings.

We heard yesterday of the Virginnia Tech massacre, 30 plus dead and yes, horror, horror...but what about the daily horror the Iraqis suffer with that many and often so many more, massacred on a daily basis. Sickness. Souls who cannot see the reality of the beautiful life, the miracle of Terra.

I enjoy such beauty, such peace in my mountain sanctuary. I turn on the news and am presented with horror.

Do I shun the media, put my head beyond the ways of the other humans out there who are supposedly "my kind" ?? They are definitely NOT my kind of kind.

When, oh when will people wake up to the privilege of being alive on this planet, this precious life bubble miraculously, beautifully pulsing in time around that thing we call the sun.

Can we ever remove the terror from terra ?

Terrabubble, not terrorburble.

Helpless I watch civilisation destroy the miracle of life.

If only they could wake up and have the mother of all epiphanies..

meanwhile today's new visitor to my palm forest is the Catbird.
A simply awesome large irridescent bird that visits seasonally and delights me.
But nothing can stop the horror spilling over into even that innocent experience.

So here's the challenge of the day:

How to convince those who live by fear, violence, torture, vengeance and vile deaths that this life can be lived another way.

erhaps the realisation that paradise is here and not beond death might help.

Anu

2007-04-10T05:33:00.000-07:00

We've had such a poor 'wet" season this year, but still it gently rains every day and all is green.
But it isn't enough. No floods this season. Tanks running down and streams only gurgling with no full flows.
I have been thinking of how little wildlife is left now.
When I came here 30 years ago there were so many different pademelons & wallabies, snakes, frogs, spiders, beetles & bugs, possums, quoll, koalas, skinks and goannas.
But the cane toads and the dogs the people who live nearby seem to need have just decimated the populations.
Now I am lucky to see one wallaby, one python, one goanna. The possums are gone and of 8 koalas only one is left as far as I can determine. I get rid of every cane toad I find, but they still keep coming. I haven't seen a frog in a few years. Once the nights throbbed with their calls.

Biodiversity.

Who cares ? Who even understands what the word means !!

Goldilocks and the 4Bears

2007-03-09T19:06:00.000-08:00

Underground living appeals to me. On the right terrain of course.

Energy consumption is cut way back by the constant 22 degrees (or so) that underground housing maintains all year round.

I think we should move away from developing coastal estuaries, beaches, dunes below 5m and think of moving populations inland asap.

Anyone care to comment here ?

My wish for the day is that we can coexist in harmony. Reduce the pain. Increase our mutual respect in ways that don't involve fear. If only eh ?

Anu

Goldilocks & the 4Bears

2007-03-04T15:39:00.000-08:00

It's only when the pool has too many other people in it that the ecology suffers. What can we do ?
If we don't modify our numbers and impacts, nature will cull us painfully.
Any good ideas folks?
Love
Anu

2007-03-04T13:41:00.000-08:00

I hear that our planet is dying. It is NOT dying. Certainly the biosphere is being severely impacted by our inappropriate technology and pollution.

But it is our NUMBERS that drive the engine of that problem.

Surely we must address carrying capacity as well as lifeways and technology if we are to reach a better balance for the life support systems to function.

Don't shoot the messenger.

Love to Us All,

Anu.