Some moments from here and there...

We have had some lovely blue sky days, and some soft grey days.

On the blue sky days we try hard to get as much washing done as possible, and here is my Dad and me soaking up the sun after a marathon waking effort!

Not sure if it is the same seagull, bt it is the same roof on two different days!

 

A dazzling shimmering sunshiny moment on our morning walk.

Looking across the road to the fields with some lambs and the gorse in bloom.

A grey day was the day for a drive to talking and tongue and there is beauty in the softness of grey as well.

And Spring is making an appearance...

A visit to the Melness cemetery showed me a memorial with a list of heroes; and one heroine, from WWI. I have never seen a nurse recognised on a Memorial before and thought it was truly marvellous!

White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney

We had a great day in the city when we wandered with our friend Karen (she of the magnificent Library at Green Square) to White Rabbit Gallery.

The Gallery is contemporary, glorious, staffed by wonderful people and shows the astonishing personal collection of Judith Neilson.

The exhibitions are in place for about 5-6 months so there is the opportunity to go back again and again if needed.

This exhibition is called Shuo Shu - stories reveal themselves to those who are open.

The exhibition is curated so that you start on the top floor and wend your way down - three floors and each floor is dedicated to a particular element of storytelling.

These rocks by Gu Wenda, are hand carved with intentionally hybridised calligraphic characters wrapping around them. The twenty four stones represent the seasons of the ancient Chinese lunisolar calendar. The artist suggests that the work reflects on our modern distance from the cycles of the natural world. It was awe-inspiring and so beautifully presented in this darkened room. One could wander inside the circle, around the circle, between the stones...

Also on this floor was the work of Yang Wei-Lin. She likes literature, but says " I cannot use words for writing, they give me too much pressure". And so she turns to textile art to tell stories in another language.

The middle floor inspired me least; but I did fall quietly in love with these painted panels by Chen Danqing..

The ground floor simply took my breath away.  We wandered into it first and got completely absorbed, and then learned that we should start at the top. I had no idea what the exhibition was about when we arrived, we just moved in to this space and I was stunned into silence.  A moment of clarity and I realised what they were!

I was kind of thrilled that we got a second look at them when we arrived at the ground floor after our travels down.

Density 1-6 by Liu Wei have the appearance of stone but...they are made from compressed textbooks that have been cut into smooth, minimalist shapes. Simply stunning.

And for scale here I am, in a photo Karen took.

And here we both are in front of the globe. Still masking up in public...

Armadale Horizons

Whenever we visit the cottage, we try to do a walk to the cove every morning.  It has to be pretty bad weather for us to pike it - we don our many layers and our waterproof troos and head off intrepidly!

On our most recent visit, we took a lot of photos of the water and the sky and the horizon.  I chose to stand in the same spot each day and photograph the same horizon at the same magnification.  Or pretty much the same.

On return I have been playing with what to do with them; how to present them or show them and it has been a dreamy time staring into that horizon.

I selected 42 photos and printed them all out onto individual sheets  of matte photo paper.  They looked great on the dining table and the kitchen bench.

I am mesmerised by the individual nature of each and every one of them - even grey misty mornings look different.

So I have gathered them up and layered them with tissue paper between them and they can now sit and quietly let me know what they might become.

In between times I printed them all out on cheap paper, in a smaller size and wondered how they would present if I placed them next to each other. A really quick cut and past job.

Because the photos are square, Barry suggested I try 36 of the 42 in a square format. So I did, but couldn't quite work out why I wasn't finding the square and the grid calming like I usually do.

I think it was because it didn't actually look square because of the horizontal lines the sea was forming. I did love the way the lines appear and offer another element to the whole thing.

42 has  quite a few nice divisions 6x7, 7x6, 2x21, 3x14... and I think I like the 14x3 version.

I could do cheap and cheerful cuttingand pasting whilst watching the tennis - photos taken at night on the floor.

I am now trying to imagine what they might be printed on, and again, what they might become. 

To compare and contrast in a way, the valley was astonishing at 5.30am yesterday.  Layer and layers of clouds and a tiny strip of blue. Sublime.

And barely a mountain in sight!

hearts here and there...

Before we went away I looked around the block and spent time with the hearts we have at home.

As we travelled I kept an eye out for other hearts in the landscape and found them here and there...

We found one in the gate of a park in Thurso...

On our daily walk to the cove we discovered this rope - just resting there like this.  No fiddling or playing around with it was needed; it was simply a perfect heart awaiting us...

We visited Orkney and the Vintage Paper Company, and as we wandered the streets of Stromness, this set of stacked stone hearts caught my eye.

A hand blown glass heart at Whaligoe Steps cafe.

A heart woven into a doormat at Cromarty Arts Trust.

A heart as graffiti on the inside of a chapel ruin in Cromarty

Heart on a headstone in Cromarty Cemetery.

And as we circle round to home again, a collection of heart rocks, stones and pebbles at the front door of the cottage. Collected along our way from coves and beaches nearby, they welcome us home when we visit.

 Hearts at home...

A last little bit with letters

Before we headed off form the Highlands, we had one of the most beautiful days.  After misty and mizzly days, we woke to a clear sky. The wind stayed down and the big blue sky stayed all day.

One of our neighbours said the old folk used the expression "a day between weathers" to describe it, and it was perfectly so.

Which worked for me because I had hoped to be able to touch up the sign to the Armadale Beach  before we left and I thought I had missed my chance.

So over I went and using a rather dodgy and el cheapo paintbrush touched up the sign so it can be slightly more visible for folk. I had checked with locals that it was OK to do it before I began...

It was beautifully weathered, but not all that functional.

So my 'tools' were laid out next to me...

And my 'ladder' was placed beneath the signpost (OH&S nightmare for sure).

You can begin to see the contrast between the old and the new. And that sky!!!!!!!

One side finished.

No shots of the other side because it was right into the sun.

It was so bright, it was bizarre.  But you can now read the sign from a distance which we hope will help guide folk more easily to the beautiful beautiful beach...

It feels nice to have been able to contribute a very small wee thing to the village which has been so welcoming to us.