Party at Sage's

Party time next door at Sages. Sorry about the dark pics. He's on solar power so it's very dimly lit. But check out the gorgeous 'organic' house will ya. Lovely space. Lovely vibe. Great crew of people there too. Kinda wild and tribal. Very hearty. The drumming went on for hours. You can see Curt in two of the pics, one with him grooving on his Kamali drum and the other dancing...

Ready for action!

Curt's all decked out in his new slashing gear. We finally bought the 'kick-ass' whipper snipper with all the 'fruit'...all kinds of blades, even a chainsaw blade for slashing down saplings. You wouldn't believe how everythings grown with all this rain we've had...it was becoming quite clear that something radical needed to be used to keep the rainforest from reclaiming itself all over our house!

Oops

We've had weeks and weeks of rain, major flooding in the lower regions. It's starting to ease off now but still every day, rain. I love it because it keeps things cool in this summer heat. It wasn't like this last year though, or by all accounts, for the past ten years.
Anyhow, we were pretty stocked up avoiding having to go into town via the flooded areas on the really torrential rain days. But a couple of days ago, I almost drove the car off the edge of our long hillside driveway trying to avoid some vegetation that had fallen across the road, heavy with water. Two wheels were off the road! Curt came to the rescue thank heavens and mananaged to save the day, after a couple of hours of very gradual maneuvers using the jack. Phew! Three weeks to go and the men come to seal the road. That will be pure luxury!

Nine footer!

Look what our nine foot resident python dropped yesterday! He's not really 'resident', he just likes to crawl into the ceiling to get out of the rain. Then when the weather fines up, he wanders off again...leaving his skin behind him.

Happeeeeee Neeeeeewww Yeeeeeeear!

Wow, where did that year go??? For us it's been a huge year... Moving house yet again! But ahhhhh, soooooo very happy we did. Curt and I are just delighted to have found a place to be, a place that is both alive with life and soothing to the soul. A home where we truly feel at home.
For Curt it's been a year of fixing stuff, he's certainly been kept on his toes with all the jobs that needed doing and continue to unfold. He also bought a kombi, his new beloved! I love how he likes to start the motor just to hear it run! And that he's joined a kombi club here in Australia! Yayyy!
For me it's been a huge year building the clay business up. I've found a most enjoyable way to teach is by letting people come up one at a time and just going for it. It's a bit more of a challenge because we're flying by the seat of our pants...spontaneous lessons/techniques...switching from one clay to another...but so much fun and so wonderful to feel confident enough to teach this way, having really grounded in expertise over the last 7 years or so. And I totally love my studio with the view. Talk about making it easy to go to work! And then there's the fabulous people I've connected with along the way. Taking over the management of the aussiepolyclayers group and setting up a new forum has also been a highlight for me. I really love the polymer clay communities that I am a part of and it's my goal to continue to foster the generoisty and support that these groups are known for. Yup, it's been a really great year for me.
So...defintely there's been new life breathed into us with having come to a place inside us where we are happy with 'what is'....ofcourse, it helps if most of "the boxes ticked"...you know, in that list we all have till we do away with it!

I wanted to say a big thank you to my family and Curts family for their own generosity and support in all kinds of ways. We love you guys...and to all our friends and family, we wish you a very happy, healthy and peaceful year ahead.

All our love,
Mel and Curt and Wiggles (Shadow's nickname)

Mullumbimby town

It occurred to me that I hadn't put any pics up of the actual town of Mullumbimby. So here they are. The one of the bridge is Brunswick River bridge. The middle one is Mullumbimby town itself. And the top two shows our much talked about (and many an expletive made about!) crosswalks. Mullumbimby is the only town I know in Australia that has these weirdly (and dangerously) placed crosswalks...right on the intersections of our main road. Talk about causing havok as cars and trucks all converge (or make a break for it!) at the intersection, waiting for the pedastrians. Ofcourse, when you want to take a photo of this 'havoc', there's none to be seen! But you get the idea...

The flowers keep on coming...

This time it's the poincianna tree with it's bright red blooms. And the sunflowers have had their last hoorah, gonna knock their heads off and grow sunflower sprouts for our salads. Here's Curt getting a breathe of fresh air after the paint fume fun!