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AnneLawsonArt Melbourne My art work Odds and Ends

Time for an update

Last time I wrote I was settling back into Stage 3 lockdown. Unfortunately case numbers in Melbourne are not flattening, and there is talk about going into Stage 4. That will be a new world, because things weren’t that strict last time around. However, we have to get the numbers down.

And really, for me, it doesn’t make a lot of difference. I am only making brief forays into shops for food and often a walk up the street for take away coffee. I can get food delivered, and can forgo the coffee 😩. I have a backyard that needs lots of work and plenty in the house to keep me out of mischief. My heart goes out to the others who are not in my position, and unfortunately there are so many of them at the moment.

Also I wrote about the public housing towers. Residents in eight of the nine towers are now at Stage 3 ~ able to go out for food, exercise, work and care. However one tower had to be kept in strict quarantine as it was deemed that residents were either positive or a close contact of those who were. They are, apparently well supported. I am not sure what level of care is being taken in other towers around Melbourne.

But enough of the virus!

The other day I received three delightful treats in my letter box. The first was a card from my Mum, who lives on the other side of town. We often write to each other. Then there were two lovely protea flowers. I must have a secret admirer, as I have no idea who they were from.

The third was even more special. It was a parcel from Catherine in New Zealand. She blogs at Random Thoughts from a Non-Warped Mind and Catherine: the Maker. She constantly amazes me with the things she makes, and this parcel was full of joyful creations.

A treasure trove of goodies from Catherine

You can see the range of goodies ~ cards, notebooks, fabric squares, knitted delights, hand embroidered pieces, papers embellished and printed. How blessed am I? And blown away by her generosity, and talent.

It is a while since I have told you anything of my art, aside from my Stitch-A-Long sewing. I have been better at keeping my newsletter readers more up-to-date; if you want to be in the know you can sign up for my vaguely fortnightly newsletter. There will be a new one in the next day or two, where I will be writing in more detail about tearing paper.

While it took me a while to get going, lately I have been busy with arty things, especially any thing to do with paper:

Gelli plate printing

Collaging

Folding paper

And now tearing and sewing paper (More on this in my newsletter.)

It is good to have a place to escape into, isn’t it?

As you can tell from the fancy dropped capital letters and the little separating dots, I have been playing with the new WordPress editor. I only have one whinge. In the old system I could upload photos straight from Google photos. Now I have to download them into iPhotos and then upload them. Am I missing the magic button that will save me a few steps? Any ideas?

By anne54

Botanic artist

30 replies on “Time for an update”

What a gorgeously visual post, I’m blown away by your fabulous colours! I’m glad the news from the towers is more hopeful, I’ve been thinking a lot about what their life must be like, and I’m both horrified and grateful…. I can’t help you about the photos, I invariably upload my phone photos into iPhoto because I want to fiddle about with them before putting them in my posts, plus it’s a way of backing them up without relying on Google to look after them for me.

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The lovely thing about writing about creative things is that there are lots of interesting and colourful photos. It is good to know that the people in the towers are now just like the rest of us. There were many cases, so it was the right thing to do….just maybe the wrong way to go about it.

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I hate to tell you Anne, but on wordpress reader your text is the same old wp text. I love all the crafty stuff you got sent from NZ, what a wonderful surprise !
I feel for the people cooped up in the towers. Why has this outbreak taken off, do you think? What’s the weather like. It’s “winter” there(not like a European winter, I suppose), so are people in doors more? Or have they relaxed social distancing?

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Those goodies from Catherine were a delight!
Your question about the virus is one the epidemiologists have been pondering too, and I am not sure they have an answer at the moment. It seems that the initial spread came from mismanagement of security protocols in the hotels were overseas travellers were staying. In other words a security person or two caught the virus from travellers and took it home. It was just as restrictions were easing and so people could gather. Apparently there were family get-togethers with not so good social distancing, who too it to other family gatherings, and so it goes.
I wonder whether Winter plays a part too. It’s colder in Melbourne than other parts. Winter is not a feature in the spectacular rise of infections in the US, so really, I don’t know!

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Thank you for your lengthy reply. I am always trying to get a picture of what’sgoing on around the world. I read an article in the Washington Post this morning, basically it said that they didnt think that the BLM protests had spread the disease too much as the protests were outdoors and a lot of the protestors wore masks, how ever they thought that states had opened up too quickly after lockdown and that had spread it. I see friends and families around here ignoring social distancing in a very worrying fashion. I had this idea that the lift may well have helped spread the virus in the towers, I have an idea that an infected lift button had helped SARS in Hong Kong, I think?

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I like to try to understand too. I agree that is the virus spread after lockdowns were eased. Here a complacency set in. Our numbers had been very low, so I think we felt rather smug at dodging the bullet. The virus has certainly taught us hubris! At least now there is a lot more mask wearing. The lifts in the towers were a worry for everyone. They are old, small and very poorly cleaned. I am hoping that at least the cleaning has changed in the last few weeks.

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I hope so too. The strange thing is that thousands have died in the UK (maybe as many as 60,000) and yet people are still complacent. I think the media has a lot to do with downplaying it all. They made such a fuss when the first person died and now they casually mention 100 plus people died today. It is less widespread in Wales but it hard to get hold of daily infection rates to gauge the risk. I wear a mask when ever I am in a shop, dentist, hospital although I am in a minority.

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Meeks is great, isn’t she? A talented IT whizz, as well as a wonderful author. I would have said I will ask her, but I see from her rep below that she doesn’t have the answer. Thanks for the links. I will check out the first one.

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I can’t help with the new WP either. I am just about managing to do what I used to do but a bit slower because I have to think and remember! Lots of lovely things to look at in your post and at present my head feels bursting with things I want to try inspired by you and others. I just need more time! I’m secretly hoping to extend lockdown a bit longer so I have an excuse to be selfish!

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Well I have nothing to do in theory! How long should it take to tidy the house when only I live in it, and walk the dogs? But like you it slips through my fingers and there are just so many things I want to have a go at!

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I think the Offspring and I have been in what amounts to stage 4 restrictions for months so it won’t mean much to us either. But for people in tiny flats? -shiver-
I honestly believe Dan Andrews would be better off just coming right our and making masks compulsory in public. If everyone wore one we wouldn’t need to go into harsher lockdowns. Ah well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see but it’s not looking good.
I’m so glad you’ve been creative. It’s hard, but being able to work on beautiful things is another advantage we mustn’t waste. -hugs-

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Add children and remote learning into those tiny flats…..😱
I agree about the masks. We should be wearing them to enter any shop or public transport. A friend who has to catch public transport to work everyday told me of her routine ~ mask, no touching, using her elbow to press buttons, sitting away from others and surfaces. When she arrives at work she washes her mask in hot water and dries it on the heater for the return journey. I am heartened when I hear of people like Jennie who are taking such precautions.

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That’s wonderful. Please tell Jennie that she’s one of my heroes. If everyone were like her, we wouldn’t be in this awful mess now.

I was watching The Drum [ABC] last night and a former head of the RSL was almost boasting about not wearing a mask and happily shaking hands because he considered the risk minimal. I was literally shouting at the TV ‘Risk to whom you moron?’
And guess what? He’s in his [early?] 40’s, ex army, clearly fit and NOT stupid.
He’s like the poster boy for the macho idiots in our society. “She’ll be right”, “I’m ok, mate”.

Sorry, Anne. I’m like a volcano these days, anger constantly simmering under the surface. 😦

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I saw him too, and was outraged by his statements and actions. Then he had the gaul to imply that shaking hands was a natural, man-thing. However, I liked Susan Ryan’s opinion that it was good to pull back on hugging. I am not fond of hugging people I only vaguely know!
And venting is good! Feel free to do it anytime here!

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what I’m finding “interesting” across the ditch is the “hand cleaning issue” – apparently that’s part of Level 1. I’ve always had wet wipes and sanitizer in my outing bag/travel….but of course now do more “hand wiping”

I rarely see anyone else (other than some bus drivers) taking their little something out and using it. I do it at odd times on my walkabouts… I will stop reach into my side bag pocket and just squeeze some out and spend a few minutes with it…and I have another cloth if there is a sticky residue. If I’m going to eat something, same again…plus I have wet wipes for same reason.

A lady at my Wed group said it was dangerous to keep using them I said something like “well what are you going to do when you eat, here …?” she didn’t have a solution, and promptly changed the subject… I ditch the wipes/tissues into bins and then have travel tissues as well…

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Yes, Susan Ryan was very good value. I just wish the host had called James Brown out on his behaviour. How hard would it have been to ask him whether he was worried about infecting others?
Anyway, venting seems to be second nature at the moment so apologies in advance! Btw so relieved to see the new cases drop to ‘just’ 217.

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Catherine from NZ and yes that’s the batch of goodies I mailed to Anne – it took a little longer than the guy at the Post-shop said but it’s now there. I kept finding things to tuck into the standard posting plasticy envelope…some items from when I was a weaver, as well as more current things.

Having endured severe lockdown for near on 6 weeks earlier on I understand how you would feel about going down that avenue.I wanted to mail the package a month before I did, but I couldn’t – Post-shops were not deemed essential!

I’ve not completely recovered from that but in a way, I’ve changed a lot of what I want to do…

We are now at Level 1, but anyone coming in via travel are “not” they have enter the gov’t quarantine, be subjected to testing and abide by the laws. Yes gov’t passed a law, already a few absconders have found themselves sent to jail! These returnees have created a new population number, we are now over 5 million inhabitants.

Of ART which is actually so important for all of US, I’ve done a lot of quite different things…and then got into sifting/sorting out…and now this w/end doing some “splashing of paint” because of something I was doing at one point with the paint kit, that I’ve talked about in my blog….and I was keen to try it out on other types of paper. It’s drying in my wet-paint room (aka laundry)

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While I have privately thanked you, I wanted to do so publicly, Catherine. Your kindness and generosity was a real boost, and still brings a smile to my face.
I have been thinking about your L4 restrictions. 6 weeks is a long time, but obviously very effective. Just don’t let any virus leak out of the quarantine hotels!
Have fun playing with your paint this weekend. I am going to tear and sew paper, and think about how I can tear paper to make effective vegetation. (But if I don’t get out of bed the day will be gone!)

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Fabulous gift from Catherine. She is a special friend 🙂 She really outdid herself with her package – the colors, the warmth and your work…always a treat to read your posts. Love the paper art! Stay well and safe – hugs

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What a beautiful gift from Catherine. And wonderfully timed… here we go again… I believe NSW is going to follow Victoria with an increase in infections, many of which have been acquired at pubs and clubs whose industry body shouted loudest for restrictions to be lifted. Sigh. Like Meeks, we have continued our limited lifestyle… couldn’t quite believe the spin that we’d escaped so lightly. So lovely to see you creating and your creations. I’m slowly emerging from post-study catch up and crafting a new day-to-day but the hours slip by too quickly which I am grateful for at the same time, and to have so many things to occupy me. I feel for the people whose living circumstances are more circumscribed and less easy.

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