Sun Ticks.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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 !

One of my treasures to celebrate Spring 2007.

Eclipse of the Blue Full Moon.

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 !

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

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

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 !

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

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

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.