I am currently residing in Metung on the beautiful Gippsland Lakes in Victoria.  My family holidayed here between 1978 and 1990, and I returned in 1999 to find it little changed, but with better facilities and lovely coffee shops.  It is just the right place to be creative.

I am working on textiles but also making lovely blackboards as I play with my new fretsaw.  It is good to have space to work once again. 

I am now wintering in Coffs Harbour.  The beach at Sapphire is lovely and very relaxing.  I have made two hats while here, so I am not working very hard!  One was made for Corey, the baker at Smiths Gully.  It was inspired by Corey's Purple and Red hair.  I used First Edition Fibre's beautiful 22 micron merino wool, which felts beautifully.  In fact, I hardly ever dye my own fibre now as John and Allan's wool is so lovely to use, and so easy to pack in Bluebell the campervan when I am travelling.  I need to order some red fibre so I can show my red hat lady friends Vivienne and Joyce how to make their own hats when they visit me in Coffs during July.  The photos are of Corey's hat.  It will keep him warm while baking in the early hours in the Diamond Valley.

In six weeks Bluebell and Laura have covered around 6000 km together.  Firstly, the trip down from Brisbane, via Noosa, with a visit to the wild dolphins at Tin Can Bay, then down the east coast to Melbourne.  One week later we took off for Katoomba for the Blue Mountains Forum of TAFTA, for a two day Mark Making workshop with Liz Jeneid, then a four day felting workshop with Lizzie Houghton making a nuno jacket.  Wow, was that hard work!  Seems I made it harder for myself by taking 22 micron fibre rather than 18 micron which would have been better suited to my tissue silk.  So now my jacket is being further embellished with hand stitched beads just to make sure everything is securely anchored.  I doubt I will ever make a jacket this way again but it was certainly worth the experience.

One week back in Melbourne and Cameron and Lydia's house sustained a fire in the battery room which houses their solar batteries and related equipment.  This left them two weeks with no power whatsoever while the insurance company organised repairs.  Bluebell, Liza and I took off again, this time to Toora in South Gippsland to wait for power to be restored at Smiths Gully.  We're heading back tomorrow.

Bluebell has arrived.  Actually, we went and got her. 

Well, no, she really looks more like this:  Here she is with Lydia ......

But you can see the likeness.

Moving right Along...

The bank in Merrigum, my home for the past six years, has finally sold.  Lydia and I will fly to Brisbane later in March to take delivery of my motorhome.  Lydia is coming both for Moral Support, and also because she always drive a manual, and I have had an auto for the past 20 years!  The last thing I want is to drive out of the depot onto a busy Brisbane road and come to grief! 

Then we start building the new Studio in Smiths Gully, in the hills among the gumtrees, the kangaroos and resident wombat.