Big pear!

I'd been wanting to make a big pear for ages, ever since I made a felted tree in 2015 for the National Folk Festival.



I like to visit my tree every year at the Festival. This year I was thrilled to walk past while a toddler was spontaneously hugging it... so later I had to get a photo of me hugging it. (It's always been a particularly huggable tree.)

Way back in 2015 at the time I was making the tree for the festival's bollard cover competition, things were not going well with our dog. Looking back, I think I finished and delivered the tree just a few days before we reached the decision to have her put down. So I was feeling sad, scared and stressed. I had a couple of very late nights finishing the tree. The night before it was to be delivered, I remember just sitting back in my chair holding it, trying to summon the energy to get up to go to bed. The tree was just the right size to be quite comforting to hug.

I really wasn't keen to say goodbye to it forever and wasn't entirely convinced that the festival would  keep and use the bollard covers in future years, so I sewed in a label with my name and number and noted on my entry form that they could contact me if they were getting rid of it in future, or if it needed mending. As it turns out, they have continued to use them every year since - this year is the fifth so far.

And now I am ok with them keeping it! But the appeal of a big cuddly felted thing inspired me to make something on a similar scale. It just took a while to get around to it.

Of course this pear is not actually on the same scale at all - it's the opposite, a small fruit made big instead of a big tree made smaller. But the end result is a sort of similar-sized object. (Though I  do consider this a prototype and want to try again and maybe make a bigger one).

I knitted and felted it months ago and was convinced it was a failure. Normally I like my felted fabric to hardly show the stitches at all. This was knitted with very bulky yarn and it just wasn't possible to 'disappear' the stitches. I also wasn't able to knit it in the round like I normally do, so it had a big seam up the side as well. It had to sit in time out for a long time before I decided that it might actually work and deserved to come out in public. So then I some time into the finishing work, improving the appearance of the seam, stuffing it with scrap fabric (as a result it is quite weighty) and making and sewing in a giant stalk.

Then I brought it along to the Suitcase Rummage with me last Sunday - not for sale, just to hang out with the other pears, and for hugging in the cold foggy weather.

God speed the vessel that carries me back

It's not long til the National Folk Festival at Easter! But first, a run-down of Womadelaide 2019.



FRIDAY



Khruangbin - I only stopped in for a little while to take some photos. One of the things that has changed with this festival in the past few years is the propotion of 'one-show-only' acts. There are so many that they are often programmed up against each other in the same time slots. I have a feeling this may be happening across the festival scene, perhaps in part because there are more festivals and more opportunities for touring acts to make the most of their time in Australia.



Kaait - Only arrived for the end of her set and she was impressive. See, I am probably a bit too willing to stay for only a few songs of one act so I can catch a bit of another. I miss the days when attending for the full three (later four) days meant you would pretty much get to see every act - or you could fall in love with a new favourite and follow them around all weekend.



Gwenno - I was curious and keen to see Gwenno. She sings in Welsh and Cornish - she grew up with a Cornish-speaking father and a Welsh-speaking mother - and has a background as pop singer. (Wikipedia also reveals she was trained in Irish dancing and was part of the Riverdance cast). The music was dreamy and a bit psychedelic.



Christine & The Queens - possibly the best show of the weekend, certainly up there in the top few. It was equally about the pop music and the dancers, who strutted and swaggered, hands in pockets, playing with how gender is performed, none more fluidly than "Chris" herself.

SATURDAY



Sona Jobarteh - I also wasn't there for a whole set (and this isn't a great photo) and I think I meant to get to a full set later in the weekend but failed. I'm sad about that missed opportunity, as she and the band were really good, and I loved seeing a woman playing the kora. Allegedly she is the first woman to play kora professionally.



My Baby - this electric violin sounded really good (they don't always).



Liz Phair - I was keen for this, I usually get into the 90's rock thing, although I had never really listened to Liz Phair specifically. Stayed for only a little while, as it wasn't really working for me.



Amjad Ali Khan - playing with his two sons, all on sarod.



DuOuD - one of my favourite acts this year. Two electric ouds (sometimes one acoustic) and lots of samples and loops.



Yohai Cohen Quintet - this was an interesting transition straight from DuOud to another oud-based act but a much different style. A nice late night, sit down, chilled out set.

SUNDAY

5AngryMen - The Bells - I thought there was going to be a more interesting angle to this but wasn't even inspired to take photos. The set was clever - a large circular frame with ropes that look like bell-pulls hanging from bungee cords. The men pull on the ropes in time with recorded bell music, and of course theatrical hijinks ensue. Fun for the kids sitting at the edge of the circle when they lean out hard on those ropes and almost run into people. But I think I am over the 'group of wacky men dressed in black and lots of eyeliner' style of theatre. Maybe I was rolling my eyes too hard to follow the storyline?

Silkroad Ensemble - No photos, but this was a really enjoyable show with a diverse group of musicians.



Tara Tiba - Perth-based Iranian singer with a diverse range and playing with Cuban musicians. She was marvellous.





Maalem Hamid El Kasri - from Morocco and Master of the guembri, a three-stringed bass lute.



The Maes, with Monique Clare. Not sure how I have missed ever seeing the Maes before, but I'm sure I will again. Monique is a Stringmania tutor.



Angelique Kidjo - I wish I had gotten closer for photos but I would have had to plan ahead for that. Angelique is always brilliant. Total diva, great suit, very energetic. I was really curious about her Talking Heads material (she did an album which covers 'Remain in Light' in its entirety). Wasn't entirely convinced by those songs live but I do want to hear the album. For one or two songs she invited a whole lot of artists from backstage to come on stage and dance. It looked like a really fun party.

MONDAY





Sharon Shannon Band - I met up with quite a few friends at the festival but we tend to go our separate ways a lot of the time. This was one set that most of us went to together. It was so much fun! I had seen their show in Canberra a week or so before, but loved them that much more in the festival setting. Sharon is such great band leader. She works with a lot of different singers and musicians and seems so generous in putting others forward for recognition. She was touring with Susan O'Neill, a young Irish folk/blues singer with an incredible voice (and she plays trumpet too), who made a splash at the National last year.

The percussionist in the photo above is Greg Sheehan, who taught rhythm at Stringmania last year and will be back this year too. The dancer is an artist from another band who was watching the show backstage.

Maarja Nuut & Ruum

No photos but I really enjoyed this set from the Estonian duo, 'folk-tronica' with more samples and fiddle with looping pedal and atmospheric vocals.



Mojo Juju - was fabulous in quite a small venue with a lot of people in the audience. I wish I had seen the whole set but I had arranged to meet friends to say goodbye for the weekend at the next set...



The Correspondents - English electro-swing duo. They had played once earlier in the weekend and then came back in place of another act cancelled due to illness. This was a really fun show to watch and to photograph. Mr Bruce is a super-energetic performer and dancer.

I know that the clubs are weapons of war

Perhaps it seems bizarre, but I am still working on a final couple of blog posts about our 2017 trip to (mainly) the UK. It's probably a good thing I don't go overseas too often! It's a shame it has taken me so long but it's still worth it to me - like putting together your photo albums in the old days.

All the photos in this post are from our first of a couple of days in Barcelona. But I think the real Barcelona post is to come. This is just some scattered thoughts about the risks we face travelling out in the world these days, or indeed, staying at home. Going to places of worship in Christchurch, or perhaps walking in the Melbourne CBD, to give a couple of recent examples.



August 2017. As we arrived in London and were checking in to our hotel we heard about a shocking vehicle attack on pedestrians on la Rambla in Barcelona. I guess we are both relatively non-anxious people, at least when it comes to travel. We did agree it was good that we still had about three weeks to go before we were planning to head to Barcelona. In fact we hadn't booked that leg of our journey yet but we had plans to briefly meet up with friends there and I don't think we considered dropping those plans or going elsewhere.



There were no issues during the 2.5 days we were in Catalonia. We rushed around and saw a lot. They weren't my favourite days of the trip - partly because I caught the cold Kam had finally shaken off. Even so, it was a good time.



Later, not too long after we left London the second time - I think it was just around the time we arrived home in Australia - a bomb exploded on a District line train at Parsons Green. This is very close to our home away from home in London, close to family, and it happened at a station we passed through many times during our time in London.





And then a little while later, on 1 October 2017, there was further violence in Barcelona with police suppression of the Catalan independence referendum. When this happened, I just thought 'ok, we happened to time our Barcelona visit pretty well'. We managed to walk La Rambla many times without even encountering a pickpocket - just many incredible statue performers and plenty of sellers of tacky souvenirs, and beer stashed in mysterious places.



Different kinds of violent incidents can happen anywhere. Some are organised terrorism and others more like a lone copycat. And of course the police/protest violence is different again.

There are always risks. I know that London was a target of lots of attacks thanks to the Irish Troubles in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. But it does feel like things have really changed since my first trips overseas in the early 2000's. This was brought home to me on this trip when we had to wait with hordes of people lining up outside to have our bags checked before entering the British Museum. It just seemed so weird, but I should have known better, I guess. And of course I know very well that even with these small inconveniences, as an 'unthreatening' white woman I move easily and with tons of privilege through airports and other spaces that can be extremely difficult for others.

A place in the winter for dignity

2-3 September 2017 - Finally! After our lovely day trip down south we finally got to grips with Glasgow. First order of business was the Riverside Museum, as Uncle Tim was very keen to see it - he is a transport historian and this is a transport museum.



Lots to see here though I didn't take a lot of photos. A couple of the displays we came across first were about road safety, with a crashed motorcycle and also the smashed up car below.



Later we had some wandering time. Good for taking in a bit of everything that was going on.














This was outside Glasgow School of Art. I think the charring must be from the 2014 fire, as we were there in mid-2017, before the more recent June 2018 fire (sad).

More Buchanan street.




And on our last day we also spent some time in the small and lovely Gallery of Modern Art. I was captivated by Beryl Cook.





'By the Clyde'



These fish were in the window of a cafe where we had breakfast.