\nOn Sunday morning, after putting away the market fruit and veg, I hunkered down with Richard Feidler’s last ‘Conversations<\/a>‘ for the year and simple got to it.
\nDon’t know whether it is Richard’s voice?.. but engaging with this program does settle me – to the extent that I really quite enjoyed the slow decoration making.<\/p>\n
Once the gingerbread is made I get to stand back from the decorating. The pressure is off.
\nI no longer make up proper royal icing with fresh colours – the continual assistance needed in controlling the icing bags makes it too painful.
\nLast year I discovered tubes of coloured icing at the supermarket and the ease of these worked again this year.
\nOn Sunday night when George arrived the question was – can we do the gingerbread?
\nWhen Esther arrived the question was repeated.
\nThey were excited and it was lovely to behold.<\/p>\n
A table was covered with newspaper and baking paper and the kiddos got to it. The theme for the week<\/strong> that I preferred to the dominant seasonal cheer\/hard slog…the voice in my noggin all week…… was solitude<\/em>. The two books that I have been reading, Agnes Martin, Her life and Art by Nancy Princenthal and Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton have had lovely parallels\u00a0 – not the least of which is the necessity of time spent alone.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The big non-christmas task this week<\/strong> was to get the animals ready to applique on Tim and Kellet’s quilt. We also held the last photo shoot for the year. By the end of the week I needed to still finish the animal appliques and to shop for veg, make a frozen desert and gingerbread<\/em> with a Sunday night deadline. I decided to forgo the trip down to our little house and get stuck in to these tasks. The bonus of my stay-at-home altruism was the joy of solitude.
\nSome of the adults too – so the quality and themes are both free-ranging.
\nGeorge and Esther focused beautifully and even through their speciality was squeezing the icing into piles…at least the piles were on the gingerbread.<\/em>
\nThis icing ritual is one that my kids have been involved with all their lives, and we are carrying it on down the line. What started as the cheapest way possible to decorate a real\/dead Xmas tree in our first home has come a very long way.<\/p>\n
\nI have a need for it regularly.
\nTime alone centres me, grounds me, and makes my brain fly….<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/agnes-martin-solitude.jpg\")
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\nLast year I came across, and then devoured, Plant Dreaming Deep by May Sarton and a recent chance conversation with a friend about that book came with her offer to lend me more of Sarton’s works.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/week-50-11.jpg\")
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<\/a>These treasures arrived around the same time as my birthday stack and I was excitedly overwhelmed<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\nFirst …draw the animals.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/timkellets-quilt-12.jpg\")
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\nI did so with reference to the now seemingly ‘old fashioned’ reference files of magazine cuttings I have added to over the years.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/timkellets-quilt-14.jpg\")
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\nI then moved to google images of sheep, chooks, cows, horses, pigs, cat and dogs in various poses.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/timkellets-quilt-15.jpg\")
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\nThe usually ‘totally unaware of what is happening in the studio’ bloke actually noticed and was impressed with my farmyard array which put a big smile on my face.
\nIt came with the comment – is that what you do in here? Something that seems totally hilarious to me after all these years – but that independence\/unawareness does have grand advantages….
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/timkellets-quilt-16.jpg\")
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\nI think that these sessions too are food for the soul. Those that have work to photograph get to, in turn, see each others new work in detail. We devour it and we do it slowly.
\nI have learnt an enormous amount<\/em> working with my friend Bewley over many years, a gem of a bloke who is a brilliant photographer. I feel extraordinarily lucky to be able to nab him, to team up with him and in turn to share him and our teamwork with others.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/timkellets-quilt-17.jpg\")
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\nThe decision was tempered…the delight I feel when we decamp there and change our view of living versus the chance to start Xmas week under control<\/em> ….as well as having some hope, a tiny bit of hope, that I won’t have to be back in the studio in a panic in the days before we head to the wedding.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/timkellets-quilt-18.jpg\")
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\nThe calm and the timelessness of it.
\nBeing centered and not distracted.
\nBeing free to work to my own timetable.
\nThe peace was<\/em> shattered for a few hours as Miff needed to sleep between night shifts and her bloke needed a place to escape to. A few hours of delightful dancing and singing and being free with Flick and Esther was actually a lovely break that increased my capacity to achieve after they left.<\/p>\n
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