More things abstract & almost psychadelic

Opportunities to photograph these wonderful ever-changing pits of earthy mush are becoming rare as the environmental standards are becoming tighter. These days it is more usual to use large removable tanks so you don't get to see the recycling drilling mud in all its glory. Here are some recent shots from where i was working in Queensland. These pits were only recycled water with no drilling muds added and it's the ground up rock that creates the wonderful froth and colours (metallic in the case of the very fine bright coal). Enjoy, (i certainly did, taking an awful lot of photos in between core runs .....every core run made a different effect in the pits.) And don't mention the cows.........

Jade from a new place in Australia

This is the beginning of a new adventure: the ultimate goal is setting up a small jade mine in the New England area of NSW. A collegue at work is the driving force for this project - he has been a successful opal miner at Lightening Ridge and has been keen to source other semi-precious to precious stones. So with a bit of good quality geology research we came up with a mention of a jade occurrence near Tamworth that did not appear to have been ever followed up........so off we went to have a bit of a look.........
                          

  ......................and we found something!

and it looks good, doesn't it?

This was made by a carver in Lightening Ridge from a small block about 3cm long by 2cm by 2cm. Quite a small piece that she has cleverly used to its best!
(Still a very long way to go to really have the mine happening though, but it is good to dream)

Rhonda and Greta are back.....thanks to some blogging tuition by Ali!!!

Today we have been experimenting with dyeing fabrics from avocado and learning how to make a simple skirt!

guess who!....love these garage windows!

Some more from LaPerouse

Just another picture from time spent around Bare Island at LaPa.
shows interesting colours from the algae and slime growing in a drying-up pool above the tide line.

The pinky colour is quite lovely

 This one shows beautifully colour banded bedding in the sandstone. The layers are only a few sand grains thick.

 And this one i just like. it's located in an overhang and slightly protected. kind of looks like people.......

Random Photographs no.2 Iceland flowers

This is not a great macro/still life shot by any means, but what a COLOUR!

These are Himalaya Blue Poppies growing in Iceland, at the Botanic Garden in Akureyri. This was from the June trip in 2012 that i did with Philip & Nikki.
The gardens there are absolutely lovely, especially in summer when most things are still in flower. Remember that spring is late and summer is short there.....the gardens are on the hill towards the top of town with gorgeous views across the fjord.

This photo is from Dettifoss on the same trip:

Dettifoss is a MASSIVE waterfall and last year in autumn i was there as well and had a most amazing & exhilarating time - standing so close on the other side of the canyon it felt like my brain was being given a complete clean-out! The sound of the water and the feeling of standing on the edge of immense power and the wind blown spray.....see one of my shots on the flickr site mentioned in previous post to see the snowy rocks at the top of the canyon.

But in summer the flowers are doing their thing, and i loved these daisy types. These are featuring in part of the embroidery Project and i will post the piece when it is finished in its third version, soon i hope.

Stella and i had a lovely time at LaPerouse and then all over sydney

While Stella was visiting Sydney during Easter holidays, we went down to have some fun with our cameras at LaPerouse and Bare Island, but we didn't even get across the bridge as there were so many things to see and photograph on the rock platform under the bridge.....
we were there for at least an hour before we had breakfast at one of the cafes, then we went off to see Greta and Sienna and Eli & brand new Millie and THEN we went off to look at cakes and bread and Newtown and Surry Hills and then we met up with Rhonda for dinner......it was one busy day but soooooo good........

nice colours in the sandstone

Stella can post her pictures now that she knows how to use bintfaden

Some of my photos on flickr and cows

i did say i would put the link up to the site i've set up on flickr. Do visit and enjoy.

 https://www.flickr.com/photos/alicole-sydney/


 and now for something completely different.....

here are some lovely creatures i met while in a paddock north of Tamworth

at first they ran away, but when we stood still at the gate they came charging back in the crazy way that cows do, but stopped about 20m away to just look at us. Love the way the big ones hung around at the back. 

And right next door where these lovely ladies. They wandered up to us at the gate for a bit of a goss and a pat.

ali

The PROJECT

the aim of the project is to create a very long narrative embroidery piece by piece from my photos. it will be in 2 parts: pt1 will be the Senkenberg and Pt 2 Iceland. 
this is the 1st installment, but not actually the first one made. i have to get some better photos before i post.

this is a close-up. i'm still deciding if i should leave the washaway on or not.........i kind of like the layered look.

image was from models doing a show on an intersection in Reykjavik, 2011

more to come
i am trying to do 1 a week and see if the project evolves                                               ali

Random photographs no 1

just an image to keep things rolling along here.
 - if i try too hard to make it significant there will be a year between posts, (specially as none of the others seem to do any!!! )

so here is Dyrhólaey  a lovely spot on the south coast of Iceland that we visited at both sunset and sunrise. i think this shot was a sunset.....but the memory is a bit fuzzy now. the idea was good but the photo is also a bit fuzzy, the  colours are nice though, and i haven't played with them either!

Dyrhólaey

 stunning sunset mood and ever so slightly wonky horizon....as usual......

ali

A hat called kitty-hat

showing off my new skill of crochet.....this hat was my first real go and i've made 3 now. one for me, one for the Niecelet and the one in the pictures below:

No.3 kitty- hat finished

          Done in a 10ply i think with colour added by an additional carrying thread in 2 ply

hat as worn

lady in hat looking at a lady in hat

 

                                                      The back view all rolled down.

My 1st version of the hat isn't quite finished as i can't decide about the trailing threads - do i embellish the surface with spirals or just hide them?

The pattern i used started out on rows 1 to 8 from a book, and they said "chunky" yarn. I thought 10ply was chunky, but it quickly became obvious that it isn't, so i just crocheted on until it fitted by adding increases after about the 8th row as an experiment and it seems to have worked! I can't follow a recipe and it looks like i can't follow a pattern either!

Next exciting installment will be the random increase/decrease flip-top mitts i did by the same method....... and after that there is the really wonky lava & lichen strip (not a scarf, guys, i don't wear scarves!).

CREDITS:

while i have attempted crochet a number of times in the last few years nothing has stuck. Linda tried with hyperbolic crochet and it was good but failed to stick in my mind; i tried a tute at a craft show with Nikki - didn't stick.........but THANKS to Amazing Anna i'm off and running (starting on a JUMPER for my next project!!)

ali

HRAUN BITAR = BERSERKJAHRAUN

                   A little bitty corner of Snæfellsnes:

If you take a small detour off road 54 you end up in the most magical place. Here are some photos to get started with.....

The lava is pretty new as you can see from a google earth image (just type in Berserkjahraun) and the cones are lovely and fresh too! The beautiful red plants are the ever present blue berries, which were a bit over their prime by this time (i was there in October).

Hraun bitar are very tasty little choclatey-coconutty-biscuity things. more on them later, but i translate them as LAVA BITES and they are yuuuummmmyyy.

It looks like i got the horizon wrong here but i didn't, it's just the weird lay of the land. The colours are what is really important of course.

The vegetation crawls up the slopes and looks like flames.

I was there on a typical overcast day, and sadly right in the middle of the day as it takes a couple of hours from reykjavik to get there, and of course there are too many wonderful things to see on the way.......so the light was not great and the sky was as flat a grey as could be and i recon it was a toasty 5 degrees............this is the road that you drive around on and my little hire car was just fine.

                                          i'm going back - anyone wanna join me?