being in one place...

 

edible chrysanthemums from my neglected winter garden....
ahhh how I love my funny little home and farm and garden

In a couple of days time I have to head off on my annual university pilgrimage.... now I know I shouldn't whine, I only have to go to my uni for a few days every year (happy dance!) BUT (ahhh me)  it's a loooooong trip (almost 1400kms round trip - mostly through the bush....  as I've told before ). And Churchill (township that houses the Gippsland campus of Monash Uni) is mighty COLD this time of year... And then there's the whole thing about leaving our little kidlins behind for my long suffering partner to care for (ahhh poor FP.... as if having a dairy herd to milk twice daily and almost 100 calves to feed wasn't enough work...). AND THEN there's the biggest issue of all for me (yep - even bigger than the kiddie guilt trips) - Going to uni means I have to leave my creek home...  even though its only a few days, I have a hard time both physically and mentally when I'm parted from my creek home. 

Indeed it's very hard for me to convey exactly how it feels to be so thoroughly connected to a place that being parted from it induces a physically experienced wrench. As a teenager, desperate for her life to truly begin (and as any ambitious teenager from a small town will tell you - life actually takes place somewhere, anywhere else... preferably far far away... and like all my school mates, I was eager to rush off and conquer the world - to travel to far flung places, to experience REAL life), there is no way I could anticipate how absolutely I would become attached to my home-place. (It came as little surprise to me when I realised recently I haven't been away from my creek home for any longer than a few days at a time since 1995)....

My attachment to my funny little creek-farm-home has influenced every single part of my life - and that of course includes my arts practice.

I've been thinking about my work and my arty path recently - and it was interesting for me to read a post from my bloggy friend Sara (where she expressed some of her current arty angst) ... its nice to feel that you're not the only one who questions what it is to have an 'art career' far from the city lights .... (hmmm I think I see another blog post topic - 'on having an Arty Kareer in the Kountry' - but that will have to wait for when I get back )

Right now I'm preparing my arty presentation (20-30mins formal-ish chat about current work, which is followed by 20mins Q&A by fellow students and uni lecturers....... its not as icky as it sounds because we are all v. supportive of each other), I've made a big batch of pumpkin soup and popped it in the freezer so I can take it with me on the looooooong road trip (mmmmm nice warm homemade soup for all the bedraggled troops as they wander onto campus late sunday evening), I've washed my favourite woolen beanies and tights, started packing up some of my booky arty creations for show and tell, and loaded my car i-pod with a collection of interesting podcasts (I recently discovered bookbinding now and book artists and poets podcasts.... that should help the driving hours pass more enjoyably)

And of course I've prepared some book sections so that I can work on my current BIG book project while I'm far from home....

 

Maybe if I keep my fingers busy I won't miss my creek home so much.... that's the plan anyway....


ahhhhh me - I'm feeling the pain of impending separation already!


(I'll never be a world traveller!)


....