Welcome to Another Weekend Coffee Share!
I have spent much of the last couple of years apologizing for being absent on my blog and now my writings are very scant and a lot of the more meaningful stuff has been buried in the distant past. I am also very short of storage and upgrading is very expensive so this has also really slowed me down.
Much of this year has slowed down on the blogging front due to our trip to Europe and somehow it’s been taking me forever to write up my travel journal, sort and print up my photos. I did start up a travel blog with a view of uploading I guess an online journal, but I didn’t get past the first post. Indeed, I have been so bogged down in our first week in Ireland which I absolutely loved, that I haven’t even scratched the surface of our time in France or Germany. I have both Irish and German heritage and that’s just magnified and complicated trying to write up our travels.
Another distraction from my blogging and writing up about our trip, has been my involvement in art. While I have had passionate spurts at art in the past, it really took off at the start of last year (2024). This was part of a bigger mission to find my tribe after I felt much of my social circle had dried up following our extensive covid lockdowns here in Australia, which were also compounded for me by my acute autoimmune disease. My kids also grew up, left school and a lot of incidental contact with close friends dried up as their activities stopped. I also had a few close friends pass away. I am an extroverted extrovert and so I need a fairly extensive social circle. Well, it seems I need a fairly extensive social circle just to get a few people to turn up what with people being so busy, it usually isn’t the same ones who turn up either. Anyway, I started going to art openings and would meet people there, and then there were events at the local bookshop and what has become the main string to my bow… jazz on Wednesday nights put on by the OB3. I also joined an art program for people with disabilities at the local Gosford Regional Gallery called Studio Gossie. That provided a series of art workshops conducted by local artists in printing, oil painting, ceramics etc. Through all of this, along with our involvement at Church, I am finally starting to resurrect myself. Yes, it does feel like I am rising from the dead.
Anyway, this time of year has become a busy art time for me. Last year, I entered a Mental Health Art Exhibition locally and I also sent my artwork from there down to a disability art competition in Sydney where it received a Highly Commended and a $100 voucher. I had a bit of a three month lull in my art after returning from our trip and had wondered whether I’d reached the end of the road with art, but suddenly with the competitions back in the wings, I was up and running again and working like a trojan to get complex mixed-media pieces finished in time. Then, on top of that, I was asked to give an artist talk at the opening for our Studio Gossie Exhibition yesterday. Thankfully, I started working on that a few weeks ago, because it took a lot longer than expected to glue the bits of my story together. However, I was really pleased with it and with the turn out. I might also be conducting an art workshop at the gallery in a few weeks. I am quite stunned about the opportunities which are opening up. I am not even thinking of selling any of my artworks at this stage. I am still learning, growing and experimenting and I am not willing to part with them. There is not “yet” at this stage.
Well, it is Spring for us here in Australia and while your leaves are changing colour and falling from the trees, everything is sprouting here and the beautiful jacarandas are out. Spring is better than ever here this year as our daughter has taken over our dreadfully neglected garden, ripping most of it out and planting thousands of seeds, tubers etc. We now have the makings of a thriving veggie patch, have eaten some of our homegrown lettuce and we’re just starting to see the first of the flowers appear. We had a few tulips, and now we have lilies, cosmos and I’m not sure what the rest of them are. This has been a wonderful project for her, as she is studying floristry and doing work experience one day a week with a local florist. As you may recall, she had tried going into ballet full time, and she’s back at the local studio.
So, now I’ll finally ask you how you’re going. Sorry, for rudely asking you at the end after chatting non-stop about my own affairs, but after being gone for so long, I thought I’d better offer an explanation.
So, I’d love to hear from you and hope you are well.
Best wishes,
Rowena
PS Here’s a photo of my feet enjoying Pearl Beach and the wonderful view!
Beyond the Flow 