Meetings, elevenses and such

The mystery object photographed in the post below is a hand-stitched camel saddle. Amazing. There was a display of tools for the making of saddles as part of the museum exhibition. There was a wooden round-headed hammer-type tool particularly for pounding the straw stuffing smooth.


On Monday, I found more 'parades' to walk around. The trees are impressive now when most of their leaves are around my feet, they must be glorious in spring time. Then Mary collected me and dropped me at Omnibus Books for a meeting with Dyan Blacklock. I heard Dyan comment at one of the Reading Matters sessions about the way Omnibus archive. She expressed concern about the longevity of electronic storage methods. I'd meant to ask her about that, but it must have been about the only question I forgot to ask. She's given me some books for my boys, but I think I might read them too. One is by John Heffernan, whose 'more than gold' I'm enjoying reading at the apartment. John was a Fellow in 2005.

After the meeting, Mary and I had afternoon tea before she dropped me back at the apartment. I will be travelling to the same general area on Wednesday to meet with the chair of the Pedal Prix organisation. I'd considered walking, but now realise it's a bit far!

Today there was a morning tea 'Elevenses' at Tin Cat Cafe, a sort of farewell because the end of my Fellowship is approaching. There were people I've met in my time here and several new faces, a lovely gathering. I spoke about my experience here and also read two poems, 'Iceberg' and 'How to Grow a Flower'.

There were several 'Fellows' present and they shared their experiences. Elizabeth Hutchins has just returned from her Fellowship in Brisbane where she takes credit for breaking their drought...there was 62mm rain in the day or so following her arrival. Well done Elizabeth!