Last week this many books went to a Friends of the Library in Georgia. Today these four boxes went to Friends of the Library in Hayesville, NC.
And these three boxes will be dropped off to the Basketry and Weaving Studios at the Folk School. Two more cartons are waiting in the guest room for a friend to peruse and then pass on. The amount of dust on these books was testament to how much I really do not need them. Many more books that all related to book making, basket making and other crafts went to a school in Tennessee a year or so ago. Should have packed up more back then. But now I am down to just what our kids may want and then another call goes to those Friends of Libraries.
And this week I am in search of a framer for the finished Australian panel. It is 48 inches long and 6 inches high.
The beginning is going to Australia and landing in the bush.
Then it is all the bouncing of ideas in workshops and being with the basket makers in Tasmania.
And out to the Northern Territory and Uluru and the Kata Tjuta.
Next is the flight out to where Burke and Wills perished.
And finally flying home.
As you can see I always want to make the plane turn around but end up back home regardless.
Little emu tracks follow me across the panel. Maybe I can take a picture of the whole thing in its frame. I think I will hang it right over the small couch that I sit on while stitching and watching television with Lee.
The following is something I wrote after flying to Hawaii just to visit Australians many years ago. And it is still so true today as I remember that it was just a couple of months ago I started this stitched piece in the company of dear Australian friends using cloth and thread I bought with another.
What is it about the Australians
What is it about the Australians that seems to
bring out the best in those of us who are not?
In their company I am not a stranger
but pulled into their raucous interior.
Inhibitions and hesitations fall away.
They seem to hone in on the interior of a person
and do not see or hear how we are seeing and hearing.
To them we are all an equally appreciated
part of their whole.
We feel we belong
and belonging to an Aussie group
of fun-loving friends is definitely a good feeling.
Even when parted you will smile at the memory
of being together.
And you will hear them laugh
and feel their arms around you.
I will bring them out later in secret
when my own kind neglect to see inside me
and think I am someone else.
S. Webster
I am smiling now.
Til later.