BeautyScope 279: Fluffy heads

 

pale pink forest

a day's march

through beauty

 

Ali Baba musical memories

Greetings gorgeous ones!

I want to share some photos from one of my highlights at high school.

We did the musical "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves". This was a high class production for our little PNG school. We were coached by a director who had been a professional actor before she was a wife of an MAF pilot (Missionary Aviation Fellowship - the mission organisation my parents worked for). The flats were painted from cardboard boxes by a professional set designer who happened to be visiting his sister in PNG at the time! Or at least that is my memory of it.

I was Morgiana, the slave heroine. (Second from left in back row with pink veil) My sister was the captain of the robber band ...played to the hilt from all her 6' 2" height! (First from left in back row with red turban and beard).

People hid in the urns and eavesdropped, then had boiling oil poured on them to kill them! Blood thirsty!

 

On the second night I lost my voice and couldn't hit the top note in my solo in the finale. My sister, who has a similar voice, was standing next to me with a beard, so she did it for me as we prearranged.

Noone noticed!

Gorgeous costumes leant to us by very generous Sikh parents. I remember mine was wondrous silk.

The famous scene where I kill my sister not with the dagger I hold, but with the curse I uttered many years before. She is doing a stage dive for which she had much coaching, how to fall from her great height. They carried her off and I couldn't watch, I always got the giggles because she was so long she sagged and dragged on the ground.

I think I was trying to look implacable! Sister against sister!

Do you have favourite theatrical memories?

Love,

Jazzy Jack

 

Ponder poem on separation

 

I need time alone as I need water, but with a highly anxious child, this can be difficult.

As we spend more time together, the kids and I, we are also inevitably exploring being apart.

Do you like time alone?

Here is my ponder poem on this subject.

 

parting

leaving

moving away

we are all individuals

living our dance

on this earth

we may feel close to others

for a time

but that will change

we can only really live

our own lives

and share it with others

 

as we inevitably

spend time apart

we can see it

as time to explore new avenues

which we can share

when we return

depths will be found

as we allow ourselves

time apart

to respect ourselves

to forge bonds

with ourselves

leaving a child

to manage on their own

can support and nourish them

can strengthen their internal ability

to stand up for themselves

to say I can do this!

and the parent

also has their courage tested

leaving their child

trusting them

trusting that those around

will care for their precious one

the parent finds

they are required

to withstand

the painful stretching

of those bonds

almost to breaking point

 

but which when required

will be found to have strengthened

and thickened

allowing even faster

and more significant

rebound

 

let's celebrate our soulful dance

this interweaving

this interlocking puzzle

together we are an amazing picture

of so many beings

connecting apart

Love,

Jazzy Jack

Art by Mr Actor

 

Natural dyeing

Greetings!

As I mentioned in this post, I've been doing some dyeing with natural substances inspired by India Flint's luscious book Second Skin.

At first they all turned out a bit muddy, but slowly I started getting results as I read more and understood fabric types, mordants and processes.

Below is the first successful dye that I manipulated and played with as I went along. This involved pieces of silk, eucalyptus leaves, rusty screws, ash from the fireplace and boiling.

I like how this depicts the move from the natural leafy world to the mechanised one.

I liked this so much I have hung it in my kitchen on a twig. Mind you, the twig is the star in my eyes!

I love how it blows with the wind.

Here I am in my silky shirt once more, playing camouflage against the tree trunk.

And a close up I promised for Melanie of Bag and a Beret. Love the organic ironing?!

Another piece of silk I picked up at our Bus Depot Markets from a Japanese stall. It was reduced due to being stained...from $22 to $8! Little did he realise how many marks it would soon have!

I cooked eucalyptus leaves and masked it with wood so I ended up with little window pane squares. I love how the dye picked up the cloud weave in the fabric.

This is now hanging in my laundry window to be admired!

I've also played with some old silk scarves. These were a plain orangey tan. Now they look much more interesting!

This was in the same dye bath and picked up some tan dye I suspect, along with some onion leaves and copper pennies. Love the green from the copper!

So you can see I'm having a blast!

I have some red onion and red cabbage, and salty fabric with rusty objects currently cooking in the cauldron as I write!

But no matter what I do, I can't hope to achieve the effortless results nature paints on our driveways after a storm.

Eucalyptus trees really are magic!

Til next time, enjoy your creating!

Love,

Jazzy Jack

 

BeautyScope 278: Grassy moment

Sometimes I think I could just take photos of grasses for the rest of the year and be content.

They fill something in my aesthetic soul. I think it's the line. In the following photos I was enjoying the backlit flowers/grassheads.

 

browning grasses

swaying gracefully

haloed fuzzy heads

shining bright

bending slightly

courtly shadows

gentle, stately

crowned by light

 

Linking to Wednesday Around the World

 

March of time

Over Christmas I was so privileged to spend some time with my parents, accompanied by Mr Actor.

As we took our morning walk around their retirement complex he took some photos. I wish you could hear the bell birds chiming with abandon. A constant soundtrack at their place.

I must say I was taken aback at the following photo as I noticed the march of time across my neck and the example of my parents lined up beside me giving an idea of where I was heading.

But then I looked again, and I saw the photo from another angle.

How privileged to take a walk with my parents.

What a lovely shot of the generations lined up.

Didn't Mr Actor capture us well.

How lovely to see the world from his point of view.

I love my parents dearly and think they look wonderful, so ergo ipso etc. I do too!

We all periodically have moments where we have a double take and realise what we actually look like. Where we need a moment for our mind's self image to catch up with reality.

This was one of those moments for me.

 

I've recently become enamoured with India Flint and have been reading her book Second Skin about all things fabric, eco and dyeing.

So I've been experimenting with some fabric and leaves.

Here I am in my grey silk blouse which I customised with some gum leaf prints. Can you see the brown prints?

Mum stood me in front of the tree to see the similarity. I almost disappear! Glamorous camouflage!

I also love this linen skirt I found recently at my secondhand store. So interesting with diagonal shapes and dangly beads.

More on natural dyeing in this post.

All photos by Mr Actor.

Til next time, keep creating.

Love,

Jazzy Jack

PS I have my parents' permission to use their image and talk about aging,

a reality that comes to us all...if we are lucky :-)

 

BeautyScope 277: Wisteria seedpod

Wisteria don't just have flowers. I adore their seedpods too. Don't you?

Reminds me a little of a waterslide.

Can't you imagine the ants in the rain!

curling around

you release your seed

smooth and spent

swinging in the wind

you hang, a bauble

a perfect spiral

 

BeautyScope 276: Beauty in quiet greys

I am embracing greys and greyed off colours lately. How about you?

 

gently, quietly

behind the scenes

fuzzy, softly focused

more felt than seen

subtly, whispering

where have you been?

 

Linking with Our Beautiful World - Favourite

 

This little light ...

There is a light shining in our life...actually more than one!

Here are our Christmas candles in front of our antique chiming clock which fills our house with sublime music. These photos were taken with my new to me Canon 1200D. My first DSLR camera. A gift to myself for all the work I've done this year. It only has a kit lens and I'm still learning all the buttons, but it still takes better macro shots so I see some fun times ahead!

 

This year holds some pretty special potential as we have decided to continue homeschooling not just Mr Actor but Mr Artist is trying it out for first term as well. I'm really looking forward to the change in our life that not rushing back and forth to school will bring.

 

Mr Actor and I have been on the FODMAP diet for a few months now, and finding it very beneficial. So much so that he has gained back all the lost weight and is now workingh on muscle development...a chin-up is the current goal!

So we head away from the Sun as you head towards it after the Summer/Winter solstice. It's always a bittersweet moment for me, although the true heat is still to come.

I am focussing on the statement "It is what it is, and I am what I am" to help me accept my foibles and try not to control people and circumstances too much, thus exhausting myself.

I am trying to just accept and move on without too many head miles. Not something that comes naturally AT ALL!

I feel the need to focus on the shine in my sons and my family. Concentrate on the beauty that beams from them if I hone in on it. Suddenly difficulties fall away as I let go of perfection...perfection in schooling, in emotions, in outcomes, in behaviour. I focus on what is and accept that, knowing these things will work their way through in time without fussing from me.

My kids are extreeemely capable as all kids are if only I will trust them. Didn't they learn a difficult gymnastic trick like walking, and learning a whole language without much help from me?

I focus on the positive qualities and refuse to become negative and down in the dumps about perceived differences and disabilities. This is something parents I've met can get in a panic about, myself included. Why set our special kids up to be measured by an external standard which leaves them falling short and focussing on negativity and stress. Let's celebrate their specialness, their uniqueness and run with that.

I believe in them and their spark.

Wouldn't we all love others to do that to us?

I believe in your spark also.

Til next time, keep on creating!

Love,

Jazzy Jack

 

 

 

Christmas outfit

Just a quick glance at my Christmas outfit photographed so beautifully by Mr Actor on the bush track behind my sister's house in Sydney, where we had a gorgeous Christmas feast. Thanks Sis!

Evidence of recent bushfire.

I handstitched this dress to be a stage outfit but couldn't perform at the last minute, so decided to stage it at Christmas lunch!

Closeup of the silver sparkly fabric and the massive-costume-statement-can't-miss-it necklace!

(Most people said the fabric looked like chainmail)

It was a bit more tenty than I planned as the fabric stretches so much, but it was light and drapey enough to be cool in the heat. The sparkles lift it.

A fun outfit that had many positive comments! And we did enjoy our bush walk...to walk off the first course ready for desert!

Hope you are all nicely recovered from any overindulgence ;-)

'Til next time, keep on creating!

Love,

Jazzy Jack

Linking up with I Will Wear What I Like because I do!

 

BeautyScope 275: Tree fern portholes

doot doo doo dooly doot

flute for a giant?

mouths agape

lips pursed

imagine the music...!