Here there and everywhere

At the very last minute (well with less than 24 hours notice) Barry and I headed to Melbourne last week.  On return I worked out that in the previous 12 days we had been away for 7 of them which is unheard of in the past year or so.

It involved our first trip to an airport and our first flight, and our first time leaving the state in over 12 months.  All kind of interesting and odd. But it felt absolutely marvellous to do something spontaneous again!!!

We were work-working and visited the wonderful OurCommunity House in North Melbourne.  It is a co- working space for not for profit groups as well as the home of OurCommunity - a social enterprise which supports not for profits and grantmakers.

And it is FULL of art.

The absolute joy I get when I wander in, look arounds a corner, visit the toilets, go to the kitchen and in each of these places see a few pieces of work I have done and/or Barry has done is revitalising.  It is so good to see them being part of so many people's daily work lives.

One of my favourite books from my collaboration with Susan Bowers (Pas de Deux) Endure is on display in the entrance and on a ledge looking out onto Victoria St.

I like to think that as folk pass by they can read the words  "the paper burns, but the words fly away..." by rabbi Akiba Ben Joseph.

We returned tired, but so pleased that we could make it back over the border safely.  Melbourne was warm and sunny; and we returned to more mist and rain and grey. However that means that everything is rather lush and green and blooming amazingly.

We went for a walk on Saturday morning and stopped in our tracks when we spied this wee beautiful thing. So gorgeously framed by those wild colours!

And yes the rain has seen an abundance of fungi growing in the mulch on the gardens too. Little transparent parasols...

Saturday afternoon, we hosted the first of our Celebrating Books Maleny events - the return of The Big Book Club! We had around 70 folk there discussing the book The Last Migration by Charlotte McConachy in small groups (Called Migrations in the US I think); and then we were honoured to have Professor Rich Fuller as our guest and expert in the plenary session. If you check back on our website in a week or so you will be able to hear his amazing conversation with Sue, about migratory birds, habitat, extinction of species, climate change and more. Some sad, but also plenty positive.

We all loved the book discussion and learned so much from Rich; it was a wonderful afternoon and everybody left feeling invigorated and excited to gather with books again.

Our next event is streaming of the Sydney Writers' Festival (30 April - 2 May) and there are 6 fantastic sessions and we look forward to hanging out together, talking books and writing again soon!

In the interim however, I am happy to just go slow for a bit and regather and renew...