PAST HALF WAY !!

Every tapestry weaver either loves or loathes a deadline! I am now pleased to report that I am past half way on my tapestry for the Land Exhibition to be held in Canberra as a part of the Tapestry 2008 the Fine Art of Weaving Symposium. The Australian National University has information brochures on there website for planned events and workshops for the symposium here. Yesterday I received conformation that I have a place in Anio Kajaniei's masterclass. I am looking forward to the workshop as I greatly admire her work. Anio's tapestries are like beautiful delicate drawings and have a wonderful innocence about them. You don't often see tapestries that are like pencil drawings and have a limited use of colour.

The title of the tapestry is 'Dancing Orchid's and Grampians Fire's ' In January 2006 we suffered fires that destroyed half of the Grampians National park in the area where I live. You can read a past post about it here. Areas of the park are slowly regenerating and families are rebuilding. The mountains in the tapestry is the view of the Grampians as I see it from the front of my house. The Spider Orchids are rare and grow in the Ironbarks forest beside my home. These photo's of the Grampians fire were taken by Gerard a few weeks after the fires.


You can see by the photo's how hot the fires were as the park was reduced to charcoal. These fires were at the height of summer and we received an unusual inch of rain the week that the fires were declared under control.The heat from the fire and the rain prompted areas of the park to re shoot in these tufts of green grasses.

Although the ground looks like sand in the photo's it is actually ash from the fires.


These photo's were taken in 2005 from the top of Boronia Peak after it took Gerard and I about 2 hours in the heat to walk to the top! Boronia Peak overlooks the valley and the township of Halls Gap.

From the top of Boronia Peak looking up towards Lake Belfield. Years of drought has reduced the lake to a puddle. Water from Lake Belfield is sent to the Mallee Region for use by farmers as the area has a low rainfall.To give you some idea of the magnitude of these fires, EVERY part of the Grampians that you can see in this photo apart from Boronia Peak itself was consumed by the flames.

The fires destroyed all the vegetation in it's path.
These are the Wonderland Ranges with the township of Halls Gap in the valley below.

The township of Halls Gap, even though this photo was taken a month after the fires you can see that all the vehicles are still carrying fire fighting equipment as the fires smouldered for weeks and were still a big threat in the area as they could easily ignite again. I have strong ties to the Grampians and have never lived anywhere that I cannot see the mountains. I worked for 18 years in Halls Gap, so I have seen the mountains in all that nature has to offer from snow to mists, fires and floods, rainbows that go up the mountains for miles and once over 2 nights, the Aurora Australis which I shall never forget it is so rare and spectacular.

These are the Spider Orchids that grow in the Ironbarks Forest. They are becoming very rare and are small and difficult to find.

Spider Orchids only flower for a few short weeks in September, the beginning of our spring.

From this photo you can see that the orchids are small and easy to miss.

So, as you can see I feel a strong sense of belonging to this land and the environment around where I live.