gooseflesh

"Know thyself"

Learning how to draw has been a cathartic experience. A healing journey.

At first it was all about the technique. Such a long process and a struggle..... to will the hand to make the right mark.

In the beginning, as I was drawing, I was talking to myself. The thoughts running through my mind took me by surprise. Going to drawing classes was frightening and wonderful at the same time. Having others look at my work was like baring my soul. That's when learning to draw became more about learning about myself. Learning to think abstractly came as an epiphany. I stopped talking to myself, my sense of time disappeared and I felt free. Akin to meditation.

I'm still learning.......

50,000 VISITS

Photo by Ken Heyman, The World's Family. ISBN 0-908610-19-X

Life is good............

Thank you all for visiting Gooseflesh and your kind and generous comments. Your words mean so much to me and are incredibly encouraging.
I have attempted to reply to you all but have failed miserably........... therefore I've decided to make a little something special to the 51,001st visitor who leaves a comment.

20.08.07......... Congratulations Magnusmog! You're the 51,001st visitor who left a comment.

The Original Beat Poets

How incredible!

There are small pockets of remnant rainforests (cabbage palms and treeferns etc.) close to my home in suburban Sydney. They act as wildlife corridors and are full of....... ringtail and brushtail possums, bandicoots, parrots, owls, flying foxes, water-dragons, frogs and snakes. I have had a family of three Tawny Frogmouths nesting in my garden for the last few years, Mamma, Pappa and new baby. They're very strange looking birds: a big wide mouth and little whiskers.

Bandicoots

Rainbow Lorikeets

Koalas.

Illustrations from The Australian Fauna and Flora drawings 1801-1820 by Ferdinand Bauer

A few days ago I was puzzled by a humming noise and thought it was a hard drive on the blink. After consulting The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds, by Peter, Pat and Raoul Slater, I realized the sound came from the Tawny Frogmouths........"a soft but penetrating oom-oom-oom...".

Other bird Beat poetry in my garden......

tink-tink; pseet-it; tock-swit-it. (Eastern Rosella),

pee-o-wit; nasal clut (Magpie-lark),

grut-grut cris grut (Drongo),

chock; cheery-boob; falling chung chung chung (White-eared Honey-eater).

This last week I have been very busy designing and renovating a garden with an impenetrable rainforest next door (I'm a Horticulturist/Gardenmaker a couple of days a week). A wonderful, old and overgrown garden full of old-fashioned plants. Many different species of orchids, bulbs, bromeliads, gingers and ground covers have been revealed under the truckloads of weeds. Whilst there, in amongst it all, I noticed the unmistakeable and my favourite Australian bird song...... a loud flute-like warbling and whisper song from the Magpie.

and the Whimsical Coral Garden has been started...........