I hope this finds you in good health.
We will be having a hot day here today, 41 celcius predicted. I have given a few tender plants in the garden a trickle of water to help them through the day, and whilst there, I picked these lovely bunches of grapes:

Bounty of grape

I decided they would look nice on that vintage plate. I am hereby deciding that I will not be doing a lino print of a bunch of grapes. I am too awful at cutting small circles out of lino. However at some point I would like a simplified version of the plate design to appear in one of my pictures.
I love looking at and then eating stuff of those plates. I got them from an op shop last year, and have enjoyed them every day, wondering about their history, knowing they have one.

I am not an air-conditioner person (don’t have one) so there will be a lot of ice-block drinks and possibly a trip to the shopping centre air-conditioning today!

Take good care of yourselves,
Meg

a new season begins

I have also for lunch (is this getting too bad telling you my lunch? I hope not, it’s in here for the environmental/social statement) a chick pea patty from the local Farmers Market. I was already enamoured with the Farmers Market. Now I am also reading “Animal Vegetable Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver (you can get it at amazon.com, that’s where I got it), and have been reminded that for every calorie we intake of food, it has taken 10 calories of fossil fuel etc for the transport, packaging, middle persons, etc. So I am trying to buy food locally a little bit more.

Best of all fruits, vegetables and wonder to you,
Meg

Thanks for your patience. I have been away and am just returned. I have dealt with the majority of the dozens of emails that arrived whilst I was away, and wanted to say “Hi” to you guys before I collapse and sleep.

Not a lot of running, on-line-fun or art-making has been going on for me this week. However, I did manage to be a little bit green by staying for one of the nights at a lovely eco-hostel in the Grampians, at Halls Gap. It was a bit of a shame to have to move on so quickly, but suffice to say some of my favourite aspects of life were in play there: community-building, being amongst nature’s beauty (Aussie bushland) and stepping lightly on the earth (ecological building design in action). I will post some photos when I get them developed. Funny old me… I used film! (When film is obsolete, what will I use for travel packs of shampoo and conditioner? Right now I use little plastic film containers.)

Take good care,
Kind regards,
Meg

Three things I am grateful for, right now:

1. Bokashi compost. First batch dug into garden today. Will let you know in about a month how this develops
2. The sewerage system. I am so grateful that I don’t have to process my own by-products, although I would love to be able to be responsible like that one day. Like, having a composting toilet or something
3. The Council takes away our rubbish. I would be wading through it otherwise. I do my best with putting out recycling, doing composting, and throwing away the least that I can, but really, the garbage men keep the place livable still

Stay green, but not mean.
Meg

I hope you have had an interesting and happy week.

I have been off-line and off-computer for a few days with false alarm technical problems (the technicians couldn’t duplicate the problem (embarassing!)). The good part is that all is well now. The more challenging part is that I will have to wait to buy more supplies for printmaking.

Have finished making the artwork panel for the LiveTown signboard, and am dying to take a pic for you. Will borrow a (digital) camera over the weekend. The event is not far away so excitement and plans are in the air.

Those of you in America may be interested to know that etown will be doing some live taping (of their show and including a ThinkTank) from the Rothbury music festival. The site looks great, check it out.

Hope you are well.
Cheers, Meg

PS Hope you noticed (and like) my new banner artwork. I still have small adjustments to make.
Also today I have simplified my site (tangerine epiphany dot com) in content and look.

As I mentioned I have been pottering around on the net following green links, and came across this video (GreenLiving blog pointed it out). Al Gore’s updated Climate Change talk is about 25 minutes long. I found it inspiring and positive. He does say we need to act, and suggests that we can rise to the challenge.

I said I would give you the LiveTown Club link when there was content, well now there is! I guest blogged on it too! How fun is that? (I tells ya, it was fun).

Thanks for reading,
Meg