Does No One Else Hear This?

Monday, October 31, 2011

Does No One Else Hear This?

I heard it again last night.
In those grey gauze moments just before sleep, a distant sound. Or was it just outside my bolted window? A laugh? Or a cackle? I couldn’t be sure. Listening, listening, till the beat of my heart hurt my head. I pulled the covers up over my eyes and lay still as sleep, thinking.
Does no one else hear this?
All week long, just around midnight, strange sounds. Echoes of half forgotten conversations, snippets of laughter from those long disappeared into the mist. Rustlings. Murmurings. A whirling susurrus scratching at the garden gate. From deep in the trees, sounds of feather-soled footfalls cracking old leaves, inching closer and closer, ever nearer, to my door.
As each orange afternoon hands over the day to the night, a long finger of ice traces my spine.
I see faces in the candle flame - hear incantations in the trees.
I jump at the tea kettle’s whistle.
November will come, I tell myself. It will weave the now threadbare veil tightly and these visitors will vanish to mist. No longer will the will-o-the-wisp follow me, footstep by footstep, down the darkened hallway, its light casting unspeakable shadows upon the wall. This robed coven will fly from my rooftop, its shadow melting back to a flock of black crows.
I will open my window at midnight and all will be quiet.
No more will I catch the bleached discordant notes drifting out from the midst of the trees. No longer will I glimpse the swirl of an embroidered hem waltzing underneath the old oaks.
But for now, I wait.
With twisty hands and tapping foot, I sit.
I strain my ears for the step on the walk, for the knock on the door that I know will come.
I wait.
And I listen.
For Halloween.

PS ....

I just had to add these two rooms to this post ....

.... pretty great, don't you think?
 found here via here

SNOW IN NEW YORK !!!

Sunday, October 30, 2011
My beautiful friend, who is spending two months in New York sent me this photo today ...
I'm so happy she gets to see snow on her first trip to New York !!!

HAPPY WEEKEND

Friday, October 28, 2011
HAPPY WEEKEND
XXX

sorry not sure where I found this pic

NICE SPACE

Thursday, October 27, 2011
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcCTrBMXpxbyyURfPdsGsjlVe-85xMK88RGx035oh4HfnJ9d4x7BDu2ogUP73qNcJn-WVY1MFYSToOBu-nYrtVm7nqg0zsI8NJH-rZC-A_DPrhCbQG0MaXc-q68cij09Nr6kloNVRYYXU/s1600/Picnik%252Bcollage4.jpg
Loving the sofa !!!
via here

The Owner of Autumn


The Owner of Autumn

Down here in the south, the camellias often bloom in February. Like boutonnieres for snowmen, they fill the grey air with remembered colour, heralds of the cold-ending season at the door. In March, the perfume of confederate jasmine is as heady on the cobblestones of Savannah as the open doors of Guerlain on the Champs Elysees. The tulips appear in April, painterly swaths of yellow and pink. And there comes a perfect day in May when the whole of creation declares that the bluebird south surely owns the season of Spring.

But if your soul looks for Autumn - the autumn of legend - full of orange pumpkins and white ghosts, Pendleton blanketed hillsides of colour, red red apples and cold-nosed dogs, chowders, spiced cider and pie, the crash of the sea against a cold rocky coast - then you must set your course for the northeast, for that’s where it certainly lives.

On the way to Maine, I stopped off in Portsmouth, New Hampshire to find twenty foot tall jack-o-lantern men surrounding the town square. They grinned malevolently down at the top of my head, their long black fingers reaching out for my coat as I passed. I sat in a cafe window and watched as one crimson maple leaf caught the hem of a breeze, floating down the orange street in search of the harbour.

In Camden, Maine, after a waterfront cup of clam chowder, I wandered gold leafed streets that glistened like jewelry in a fine mist of rain. I met the smile of a wet Bernese Mountain Dog. As tall as my waist, with velvet ears. I brought back a sack of local apples and made an apple pie that afternoon, rolling out pie crust whilst gazing out at a lake whose face was encircled by the maple leaf scarf of fall.

Just as one day was ending, I drove out to the tip of a fir green peninsula to find Castine just as I’d left her, glowing pink in the last rays of the sun. Grand weathered houses still stand on the headland. Their windows, like the eyes of the sea captains who built them, stare out past the wind-whipped waves to the horizon beyond. As the sun dips under the rose coloured sea, little white lights begin to glow in the windows of the charcoal grey houses and the October wind whistles past my ear like a tea kettle. It isn’t difficult to imagine Hawthorne’s poor Hepzibah Pyncheon drawing a curtain in her seven-gabled house. Or to hear the faraway hoofbeats of the headless horseman as he rides closer and closer to where I stand.
I began to think of home.

I have brought back as much of that fabled autumnal spirit as I could carry.
The Songwriter is now fashioning twenty foot tall pumpkin men for our garden, and I am baking pies.
But I know if I want the genuine article, it does exist.
At the top eastern tip of this country.
In Maine.

Painting above: Village Square, Castine Maine by Tom Nicholas
Find more of his work HERE

ONE CLEVER TWELVE YEAR OLD

Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Let me introduce you to the works of my little friend Kenya ....
Kenya has just celebrated her 12th birthday and recently moved back to Australia after living in the USA for the past six years .... (to say she is happy to be back in Australia is probably a bit of an understatement) .... Kenya left Sydney when she was in Kindergarten, so it's lovely for her to be back, starting a new school, making new friends and exploring her home town through her much older (and very wise) eyes !!!

When I first visited Kenya and her lovely mum Georgina in their apartment (Georgina has the always inspiring BRYDIEBROWN blog) I fell in love with the little sculpture in the first pic (before I even knew Kenya had made it) ... isn't he just adorable, I've already put my order in for one !!!
Not to mention this divine paper mache donkey, which Georgina has very cleverly mounted on the wall .....

.... and this girl even makes jewelry,
each bead on this necklace is handmade from clay then baked hard and threaded on leather string ...
Oh, and she even has her own blog .....

The divine Miss Kenya  ...
One clever twelve year old indeed !!! 

PLANT LOVE

Monday, October 24, 2011
This plant got me all inspired to plant some more succulents on the weekend ....
I like these little ones on the deck the best .....




and they are such low maintenance plants, which I must say I like ....

and kind of teaming with the garden theme .... 
when I was in Sydney on Wednesday I called into the Koskela pop up shop and bought a few goodies .... (thanks for the tip Georgina)
I can't remember the last time I have actually bought anything (art and magazines excluded) I've been making a conscious effort not to spend money .... but I just had to have a splurge on these goodies, I'm always a sucker for beautiful wooden brushes  .... 

and I couldn't resist these secateurs .... plus Koskela put your goodies in the most divine bags made from recycled newspapers,
always a bonus !!!


  But my favorite addition has to be this plant my daughter bought for me, isn't it lovely, and I'm sure it will be much longer lasting than cut flowers in this hot weather .....

I think summer may well and truly be here in our part of the world, not sure how I'm feeling about that !!!

A LITTLE VISIT

Sunday, October 23, 2011
You may remember our little foal Edie from this post ....
then a bit more of an update here ...
today we visited her at her "holiday home" ... she has been staying at a friends property for the last couple of months and my is she growing up fast !!!

    I know nothing about horses, but my husband assures me her "holiday" away from her mother is for the best, something to do with weaning and gaining independence ...
and a new hairstyle by the looks of it !!!

She seems content and has made friends with some of the the other horses and even one of the little dogs.
The girls who look after her say she is the smartest horse there ....

  but it was still hard saying goodbye ....
can't wait to have her back at my mum's house (where she lives) ....
which hopefully will happen in a couple of weeks.
       We miss you little Edie !!!

FRIDAY FAVORITES

Friday, October 21, 2011
This very pretty blouse ....
 via here

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBspUmLvqka0PPPbx4_-7NdDmVbv59c56WpvQtjrAigbe72O4CAePDayCZBTLPSbmRs2GhwEak7RLN-d_jsmQJ8n6uWyn5f4u5AKe-AIBs9d2NhU4F4Rup_w0VBQzVwEKduVtNcBuVqu6W/s1600/unsung_heros_couch.jpg
this sofa and art works ....
via here

.... and the little Parisian dog in this feature,
he reminds me of my Elvis !!!


 This beautiful work ... read more about it here
found via here

these very good looking sandwiches ....
via here


and so loving this little girl ....


 whose mum found her having a great time with the cornstarch .....


.... you couldn't be angry with that face could you !!!
via here

 Looking forward to seeing this play tonight at Belvoir Theatre ... I love Susie Porter !!!

Hope you have a great weekend
... any plans ?
XXX

An October Engagement

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

An October Engagement

He likes to give magic at Christmas. Antique bronze kaleidoscopes, first edition fairy tales, hand painted lockets.
Like most writers, he sees the world uniquely, finding the greatest meaning sitting unnoticed between the lines.
He sees humour in the the prosaic, beauty in the commonplace.
He makes me laugh.
He checks the locks and slays the bugs.
And I feel safe when I’m with him.
He loves The Beatles and Saint-Saens Organ Symphony #3.
He reels me in whenever I drift too far out to sea and cuts me loose when I need to fly.
I once caught him singing to Apple as he brushed her black coat.
If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco

You're gonna meet some gentle people there
Apple hates being brushed. She wiggles and squirms, rolls on her back and bats the brush with her paws. But that afternoon, she lay as still and calm as sleep. I’ll never hear that old song in the same way again.

As teenagers, we were best friends. And then when we were older, on a gold October day, we went on a picnic to a mountain lake. He asked me to marry him. For years I had planned, as every girl does, how I would react to this question if it were ever put to me. I intended to respond as I imagined Grace Kelly would ... softly saying, “Let me think about it overnight”. Instead, I grinned like Christmas and said, “Of course”.
That was many years ago, and every year since, on the same day in October, we pack a picnic lunch and head back to the same mountain lake. We've never missed a year.
And I still say “Of Course”.

OH MY !!!

How great is this Bubble Tank by Psalt Design ... 
hope the fish isn't scared of heights !!!
found via here

RACHEL PAPO

Tuesday, October 18, 2011
  I found these photographs by the very talented Rachel Papo 
 from her "Desperately Perfect" project as beautiful as
they were disturbing  ....






















this is an excerpt by Rachel about the project ....

"This project is a look into the lives of a group of adolescents who, in their hope for a better, wider life, spend the majority of their youth in fierce competition. Based on my own memories of being a ballet student for nine years of my childhood, never being the best in class, these images emphasize the emotional side of these children’s uncompromising reality. They stretch their bodies further every day, desperate to stand out, while constantly being encouraged by their instructors to be uniform—identical to one another. Engaged in endless repetition of physical phrases, these students obsessively strive for a level of perfection that is always out of reach". 
Read more here

Found via here 

LOVE IT !!!

Monday, October 17, 2011
So loving the addition of this beautiful pantry to this already lovely
Tasmanian kitchen ....







via here

WEEKEND FIND

Sunday, October 16, 2011
 I found this nice little plant at a car boot sale on the weekend ... you may remember this post .... not quite as wonderful as those but lovely all the same ....

.... and even nicer with my little Anna-Wili Robin keeping it company. 
Hope you had a nice weekend
XXX

The Car

Saturday, October 15, 2011


The Car

I learned to drive in a car longer than a big city block. A Pontiac Star Chief - an automobile of such preposterous size that it enabled the driver to appear both ridiculous and courageous simultaneously. My father was my driving instructor and I can still see him, crouched like a wet cat in the passenger seat, wide-eyed and unblinking, ready to spring into action at the first indication that I might slam on the accelerator and head straight for the nearest cliff. Of course, there were no cliffs around the shopping center parking lot where he held our Sunday afternoon lessons. Just asphalt as far as the eye could see, this being in the day when shops closed on Sundays, you see. (Where DO kids learn to drive these days?) I can’t really blame him for approaching this rolling schoolroom with trepidation, as I would imagine the sight of one’s child behind the wheel for the first time would have to chill the blood a bit. He was stalwart, however, and from him I learned to yield to the right at stop signs, to turn into a skid should I ever be unfortunate enough to be in the middle of one, and to never.... and I mean never... pick up a hitchhiker.

But even with Daddy’s devoted teaching, I still failed my first driving test. Oh, I did fine on the driving part. It was in the area of parking where I ran into a spot of trouble. Well, you just try and parallel park the QE2 and see how well you do. Personally, I consider it not a feat, but a miracle, that I managed to pass second time out. But pass I did, receiving a plasticine driver’s license emblazoned with my photograph, wide-eyed and unblinking, in the upper left hand corner.
Along with that long-coveted driving license came the good news that the old Pontiac Star Chief, leaf green and long as the Nile, was now to belong to me and, in an instant, my dream of zipping along city streets with the cool grace of a Charlie’s Angel was rudely replaced with a now more realistic mental picture of Angela Lansbury attempting to steer that big four-poster in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. But the prospect of vehicular independence trumped any vanity I might have possessed at sixteen, so I held my head high, grabbed hold of that hula-hoop sized steering wheel, rolled down those plate glass windows, and hit the road.
No doubt as a result of that first over-elongated auto, I have driven tiny cars ever since. Zippy and close to the road, these are the cars I most love to drive. I am not at home in a SUV. I consider the Hummer to be manufactured chiefly for those wishing to compensate for unhappy childhoods or unsatisfactory appendages. Peugeots, Renaults, Bristol Blenheims. These are the cars that I try to rent whenever I’m across the pond, but it is difficult to find their like back here in the states.
Recently my tiny car, old but beloved, was put in the hospital for a faulty transmission, necessitating a visit to the rental car counter. Just as the salesmen was about to hand over the keys to a rather humdrum Chevrolet, he suddenly cocked his head and fixed me with a questioning stare.
You know”, he said,
I think I’ve got something that would suit your personality a bit better.
Come with me.
He grabbed up another set of keys and we proceeded to the parking lot where I soon found myself standing in front of the car of my dreams - just in, with only 64 miles on the odometer. Tiny and zippy, to be sure, but oh, it was so much more. I could see in an instant, this was not mere transportation.
This was a ticket to another time - a passport to an age of Hermes scarves and white sunglasses.
Canfora sandals, limoncellos, and Nat King Cole.
This was the brand-new Fiat 500.
I kept that rental car for a couple of weeks, the longest test drive ever. I drove it at night and in the rain. On the fast expressway and twisty rural roads. It was comfortable for two furry dogs as well as for a six foot one Songwriter and his two acoustic guitars. I hated to turn it back in when my car was all well.
So.
Reader, I bought one.
Life is short and I could not resist.
Parallel parking is now a breeze!
And I think my driving instructor would love it.
Edward certainly does.



FRIDAY FAVORITES

Friday, October 14, 2011
This gorgeous cloud .... 
  via here

these chairs ....
via here



.... and these felt crows (I want one !!!)
found via here

Loving these ....
more here
 

and these giant scrabble letters ....
 via Dee

.... and what a cute beanie.
via here

This Fig and Ricotta Galette looks a bit yummy ....
found via here
.... and is anyone watching The Slap on the ABC ?
 I'm loving it so far ... 
 
.... unfortunately I haven't read the book yet,
(must get my hands on a copy) the Author Christos Tsiolkas 
is a very interesting man ... loved this interview with him on Sunday night.

Yippee it's Friday !!!
Hope you have a great weekend 
XXX