March Offering

This will be short post, mainly to let you know that I have put quite a few events onto the "Events" page, and have made a start to the Home & Garden page. I had quite a few problems with the blogger, trying to put pictures onto the pages. I quess it is being a little temperamental today. Anyway, the writing is there and I'll try to sort out the pictures when we are in town next.

The big event is the Pierre Bensusan concert and masterclass at the end of March. 2 years ago he came to Deloraine as part of his Australia tour (which went Sydney, Melbourne, Deloraine, National Folk Festival Canberra!!!). He did two performances on the night as the first performance had quickly sold out! In other words, if you don't want to miss out on hearing, arguably, the best guitarist in the world, then get your tickets as soon as you can.

Jacque and I went to a concert in Launceston last weekend. It was called "An Afternoon with Mozart" and was a prelude to the Launceston Player's "Amadeus" in April. If our afternoon is anything to go by, the musical proper will be terrific, and is highly recommended by us.

Where I have been able to, I have linked websites to the event, so that you can find out further details, and in most cases,even book your tickets.

Finally, sorry I couldn't get the garden photos onto the page. It really is looking great at the moment and I was looking forward to sharing it with you. Next week maybe?

Take care.

John & Jacque

Stop Press

We'll be updating properly soon, but wanted to let you know that the Destination Deloraine website is now up and running. Some of the pages are still under construction, but it is already infinitely better than any other promotion site of our beautiful town and region. Please pass on the address to all your contacts and friends. Thanks. www.deloraine.org.au  This address is also in our links.
See you at the Deloraine Market on Saturday 4th Feb.
John

HAPPY NEW YEAR

We hope you had a good festive season and that 2012 is a great year for you.

Our Christmas was quiet, deliberately so, but still pretty busy. There were two markets in December so for the second one just before Christmas we went seasonal. Jacque spent a long time making Christmas bunting from her stash of Christmas fabrics. They looked great on the stall.

As you know we had got in quite a few Christmas CDs too. We still have some left, so if we can’t shift them soon, they will make good presents for next year! It really was good to catch up with so many of the people we know from around here, and some from further afield too. There was a real buzz at the market though numbers were not great. That is the same for the whole of Tasmania at the moment, but hopefully, should we survive the Mayan end of the world as we know it, things should pick up. It seems strange to me that such a beautiful, barely populated, but very active culturally, place should have so few visitors. I know that to many people around the world Tasmania is just a small land locked country in the middle of Africa, but in reality, it is easily accessible by air or by car ferry. Get over here! Jacque had recently finished a clay planter called “Rose” and had only displayed it for a few minutes when friends of ours bought it as a Christmas present. It was so new that we hadn’t even had time to take a photo of it, but hopefully Susan, whose East Meander home it now adorns, will take a photo of it in situ for us. The next Deloraine market is on Saturday 4^th Feb and we plan to have an additional, adjoining stall for me to have books, CDs and musical instruments. Should be interesting!

Just before Christmas we went to Jacque’s work Christmas dinner in Hobart. What a treat that was for us, not only meeting all of Jacque’s colleagues and  the Association board, but I also had the chance to catch up with Cary Lewincamp at the Salamanca Market. This is a very large waterside market in Hobart which happens every Saturday morning. I get such delight from standing next to Cary and listening to him playing his guitar (best in the world in my opinion) with the best bratwurst outside of Germany in hand! It was great to hear and buy Cary’s latest album, “Home”. The sound is very similar to an earlier album called “The Sky in Your Eyes” which I once had to privilege to play for Helen Clark, the then Prime Minister of New Zealand, and the queen of the Maori. They liked it too!

We gave ourselves a Bohemian Arts end of year lunch at Burnie, at a fish restaurant which is so close to the beach, in winter it gets lapped by the waves. As the first officer of the flight which took us to Tasmania for our second holiday said “Best fish and chips in Australia” and they were. We still miss Scotland’s haddock and cod, though when we left in ’96 the North Sea was already nearly empty.

A lot of our time over the holidays was spent in the garden. Here are some pictures, although the labyrinth ones didn’t quite join up. It was the best I could do up a ladder leaning against a tree!

The Labyrinth

Fragrant Nook

Towards the "Red Bed"

Esmerelda & I  (I'm on the right!)

 

Next month I will rearrange the blog so that we have a page for “Home and Garden” to show you more of where we live and what we spend a lot of our time doing.

We are also getting around again, and enjoying Tasmania. On New Years Day we went to the north west corner which we had been saving up, and had a look at Smithton and Arthur River. They are again beautiful though I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so agricultural. It was really nice to meet Mandy in Fabric Parcel, a new fabric and quilting shop in Wynyard. Yesterday we had a run into Launceston, firstly to check out the Esk Market, and as the rain stopped at lunchtime, went to City Park to have our lunch and listen to the Chordwainers. They are a musical group who play leather instruments, creating a quite medieval sound but with their own ethnic slant. City Park will be hosting musical events every Sunday lunchtime throughout summer. It is a lovely spot to sit and picnic. As the rain still held off we went to the lavender farm at Bridestowe, for their open day.



Bridestowe Lavender Farm



An added bonus was to sit and enjoy some live music there (which we didn’t know was on!). Two of the quartet (called Underwood) were Kate & Daniel so it was really good to not only listen to their lovely music but also to catch up with them. We didn’t need to go to the Cygnet Folk Festival as the best music was up here.

Finally, thank you to everyone who responded so positively to this blog, and to all who sent us Christmas e-cards and letters. There were a few delightful surprises! Happy Hogmanay to you all.

December 2011 News

It has now been a couple of months since we updated the Blog. Sorry about that but it has been a bit all on. The garden has taken a lot of our time. As we get to the end of the Southern Hemisphere spring, everything grows at a tremendous rate which is fine for the things we have planted, but sadly weeds and grass are not exempt from the same spring characteristics. Jacque has been busy firstly with her entry into the first Australian Hoffman Quilt Challenge. Jacque’s quilt was on of 7 which were on display at the Tasmanian Art and Craft Fair at the beginning of November, and it has now winged its way across the ditch (Tasman Sea!) to Geraldine on South Island New Zealand where it is at the moment showing. 

It was great to meet the Kiwi Hoffman Challenge organisers at the Craft Fair.

For those who don’t know, the big annual craft fair in Deloraine is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, attracting over 30, 000 people to the town for the weekend. Sadly, few of these people head away from the fair itself, to see what Deloraine has to offer. This year, to encourage people into town, each of the businesses in the High Street collaborated with an artist to exhibit work in their window or place of business. Jacque got together with the florist, Heather, and with the help of Jilli and Pauline who happened to be passing by, put together a very attractive display. 

We’re not really sure that the plan worked as numbers of visitors are really down anyway this year, but it didn’t matter anyway as it was a great opportunity for artists to gain some more exposure.

We have been going to the Tin Shed Pottery quite a bit more frequently, Jacque to do her clay work and me for music with Wal. We’ll show you some photos of Jacque’s latest works when we get them, but I’m afraid I can’t give you a sample of the music. You’ll just have to take my word that it is great stuff. If you don’t believe me come along to the Tin Shed one week and be amazed!

It has also been a couple of months of celebration. Jacque &  I celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary, but we kept it a pretty low key affair, finishing off with fish & chips at Hawley Beach. It was tasty, quiet & romantic!

Finally for this instalment, Jacque has just got herself a proper job! Well it was her turn!!!

She is now a Family Advocate for the Association for Children with Disability, covering the whole of northern Tasmania including Flinders and Cape Barren Islands. She has only just started so we’ll let you know how she gets on down the track.

Well, that’s about it for this entry. I have put some December events onto the events page if you want to check them out. We really wouldn’t  want you to miss something good. Take care, and more again soon.

The added photos are of some orchids which Jacque has been growing in our greenhouse.

Deloraine Market

Hello everyone. Just a quick post to let you know that we will be at the Deloraine Market this Saturday
(1st October), so if there are any art materials, gifts, greetings cards, CDs etc etc which you are in need of, come along and see us. Hopefully now that we have our 2 acre garden much more under control,and planted up with vegies, we should have a bit more time to keep our blog up to date. I particularly want the Events page to become more meaningful, and to update the photos on the Deloraine page. Incidentally, one of the photos (Moonrise over Quamby Bluff) got into the Examiner, and I won a poster size print of it. Looks great.

Up and running!

Well, we're just about settled into our new way of life, but as somebodies law states, our time is filling up fast, and will soon be overflowing, again! It is great working from home and we have been just as busy as when we were in the studio, but not committed to being tied to a place geographically or chronologically.

Jacque was busy as August closed, finishing a quilt for the Hoffman Challenge which is being run in Australia for the first time this year. It is being judged soon but winners won't be announced until the annual Tasmanian Craft Fair, at the end of October.

 As well as quilting and gardening, we have been busy setting up for our first market stall at the beginning of September. We had a great time (& busy time) at the market, and it was lovely to catch up with so many people we hadn't seen for months, and to meet so many new folk. We sold a lot of art materials and greetings cards which was great, but remember, we can order anything which anybody wants, just call us on
6369 5410 and we can get you what you want.

Jacque at the Deloraine market (first Saturday of the month)

The day after the market we went up the mountains to the opening of a new gallery. It is at River Willow Retreat on the Lakes Highway, Golden Valley, just up from the Tigerhill Cafe. Nick and Deb have done a wonderful job with the gallery, and all the very varied art works look superb. Well done you two!

River, Willow (aka Nick & Deb) & Jacque

It is a lovely spot for anything, let alone a gallery! It has beautiful views from the Great Western Tiers (the mountains for those outside of Tassie!) looking over  a valley, and Deloraine. In the near future Nick & Deb are going to be opening a tea rooms as well. What a trip out that would be. Jacque has a few of her paintings here, and clay works at Galendor Art & Essence in Sheffield . As I write this she is also putting some clay works (Anne & the Lava Lantern) into the Deloraine Creative Studios. They too are doing a great job, and it is fast becoming a great venue for art & craft and it also has excellent space for all sorts of workshops. Keep up the good work.

Well, that's about it for now. Thank you all for your continued support & warm encouragement. We really do appreciate it. Thank you too, for old mates who have got in touch through this Blogspot. It has been good to hear from you.

We will be at the Deloraine Market again on the first Saturday of October. If we don't see you before, see you there!

All Change!!!

If you check out our contact details you will notice that we have relocated to our home in Meander. After 3 years of being at 90 Emu Bay Road we have decided that we would base ourselves at home, though things can, and probably will, change in the fullness of time.

It is a bit sad at the moment as our signs are being taken down, but at the same time we are very excited about the changes which are taking place. For the first time in 3 years we will not be bound by "shop hours" or by a specific geographical location, so with the increase in flexibility, we are not sure exactly what the future will bring, but it should be interesting.

You will still be able to keep up with whatever it is we are up to through the blogspot, but we will also be having a stall at the Deloraine market on the first Saturday of each month, starting in September. We will also be setting things up to do workshops, both in art & clay (Jacque) and perhaps cryptic crosswords, chess or guitar (John).

We will still be selling art materials, cards, CDs and art books, so if there is anything you need, don't hesitate to get in touch, either by phone, +61 (03) 6369 5410 or by
e-mail bohemianartsdeloraine@gmail.com or mobile 0419 639 703. We will be checking our e-mails most weeks but not every day. When the NBN goes in in Deloraine we may well sort out our internet at home, but at the moment, being in the mountains, our internet is unpredictable and very, very slow!

So, a new chapter starts for us. Thank you to everyone who has supported us so well over the last 3 years, and we hope that we can still be of service for the next 3!

Take care of yourselves and please do keep in touch.

John & Jacque