The Path
Tag: communicating creatively
Natural Desire
Summer Beauties
Well, it’s been the best Spring/Summer for blooming Cacti flowers that I’ve had in quite a few years!
Here are a couple of more beauties…
The series of 3 images is from a Notocactus variation, and the Yellow flower is from an Echinopsis variation.
At the end of the flowering season I shall put together a post showing all the flowers that have bloomed from my Cacti and Succulents this time around.
Looking forward to the next beauty!
Written by David Johnson
15 December 2022
Rediscovery…
Towards Sundown
The Organic Artist
Last weekend on our anniversary celebration, I picked a book at a store in Berrima, N.S.W. called, ‘Six Impossible Things. Last year, I purchased a double-glass inkwell at the store and was delighted to see that they had moved to bigger premises.
Erica owns the store and is very helpful. I picked up a Postal dip pen nib and the book below.
The book seemed way too interesting to leave on the shelf. A few weeks back I was talking to a gallery director in Camden and he gave me a reed and showed me how to cut it so it could be used as a dip pen. Looking at my attempt I think I have more practice ahead of me. Oh well, something is worth doing badly until one becomes better at it.
In my limited look at the book since it appears to go a lot deeper into the technical details of creating such tools. I’m looking forward to exploring it more and having some more Arty fun!
Written by David Johnson
29 November 2022
Orange & Yellow
Say ‘Hello’ to my latest Cacti flowers, from my Parodia Mairanana!
I was walking up the side of the house (that we just moved to) and something caught the corner of my eye…it was the gorgeous colour of these flowers.
My Cacti and Succulents (before we moved) had grown to 160 plants. Some of them were duplicates, most not and I have realised that my hobby was getting out of hand. We intend to buy a house next year, however, after the latest move I have come to the conclusion that I need to downsize my collection.
We had a garage sale before moving and I sold/offloaded about 50 plants, reducing my collection to 110. This is still a lot of plants to move, particularly when you consider the size of some of the plants and the pots.
I am going to bite the bullet and pick out my favourite say, 30 plants and have another garage sale.
I also think that I am going to change direction slightly in terms I what future Cacti and Succulent plants I will buy, i.e., I think I will aim for the smaller, flowering plants. There will still be some columnar plants but mainly smaller Ball-type ones.
Written by David Johnson
28 November 2022
Berkeleouw’s Book Barn Treasure
As part of celebrating the anniversary of the very first time we went out to dinner (19 November 1994), we always pay a visit for a couple of hours to Berkeleouw’s Book Barn at Berrima.
Susan and I are bookworms and there is nothing better for bookworms than visiting a bookshop. Although the Book Barn has some new books, it predominantly has used books, which is part of what keeps us coming back.
This visit saw me purchase the following books:
I always seem to come away with at least one Poetry book, and in the last few years the Poetry books have outnumbered the Art-related books, but not this year.
The two Chinese Art-related books jumped out at me as next weekend, I am attending a workshop that is being run by Jo Wong Artist, who is also the new President of the Macarthur Art Group that will be joining shortly.
‘Poetry Now’ is actually a book of Poems where the authors were born within the first 30-40 years of the 20th Century and /Great Artists Explained’ was simply too good a book to leave on the shelf!
I look forward in the coming weeks to grab a cuppa and sit down and investigate all these books more.
Written by David Johnson
27 November 2022
Serene Green
A Day To Relax…
Today, Susan and I went down to Berrima, which is about 1 hour’s drive South of where we live, to celebrate 28 years since we went out to dinner for the first time way back on 19 November 1994. We were a week late in celebrating as we were moving house last week.
After all that has been happening in the last 4-5 months, it was delightful to get away for the day and relax.
As is normal, the first stop is Berkeleouw’s Book Barn which houses approximately 100,000 books. It used to be, however, the help the business survive, they kept a reduced amount of books and added Wedding Receptions, a cafe/restaurant, accommodation, and wine tasting to the business.
We spent just under two hours there and (in a separate post) I’ll talk about the books I purchased.
After Berkeleouws, we had a delicious lunch at Josh’s Cafe and Restaurant which is located in the actual town of Berrima. We have been eating there for many years and are always delighted with the food, service, and atmosphere.
From there, we ventured into a few shops (as we normally do), including ‘Mrs. OldBucks’ (jams, sauces, honey, teas, etc), ‘Six Impossible Things’ (various boutique items including writing materials, dip pens, ink, journals, books, and other tourist-inspired goodies). Our last stop was ‘Sticky Beaks Vintage Emporium which consists of a number of smaller antique sellers within a larger shop.
All-in-all a very relaxing day that helped us celebrate one of the most special days in our lives!
Looking forward to next year’s celebration!
Written by David Johnson
26 November 2022
Communicating Creatively 