I’ve only been able to read 2 of the 6 books purchased

Greetings those of a considerate demeanour,

A surprising week has now passed and I regret to report I have multiple complaints about the lockdown adventures we all recently experienced. *

Unaware of said lockdown until 3.15pm on ANNOUNCEMENT DAY, a quick reconnoitre of lockdown essentials in my abode augered very dark storms ahead. No books in the house I hadn’t already read and I was on the last 2 chapters of the book I was currently reading (see review this week.) Immediately, I hit panic mode and went straight off to the bookshop. Parking amid the other thousands was not an issue – if you have lived in Sydney and Melbourne, completely ignoring the black looks and hesitant tootles of more timid Adelaidians going about their business while you wait for a recalcitrant parker to slowly exit and let you into their spot is something you learn to do in a large city very quickly. Immune to scowls, I scored a park within easy walking distance of the excellent second hand bookshop on Goodwood Road. Six books later, and a strong recommendation to the bookshop owner for Garry Disher’s latest write, I left the store and thought about chocolate. Off to Haighs to encounter the rest of the city.

My complaints

These centre on the disappointing lack of lockdown. Always organised, I had it all planned out.  However, due to the early return to normalcy I’ve only been able to read 2 of the 6 books purchased and I haven’t finished my painting for the student exhibition at the Gallery (there’s one of those ghastly, giant, brown moth things in my studio so because I am moth lepidopterophobic I can’t go in there until it dies. (Butterflies are just fine.). It was also too hot outside so I didn’t finish painting the exterior window frames and I still have some of Haigh’s milk chocolate bullets left to force feed myself. What a fizzer!! I sense your sympathy for my plight already and you have not even finished reading this piece yet!

Every day. It was quiet. I could hear the jacaranda blossom falling.

 

 

However, I did get to play some music and brought out the good ole Country & Western girl CDs for a lonesome wing-ding with the kitchen mop in order to harmonise my way through what became the short stay of isolation. In so singing, I got to thinking about things that I know.

It’s a secret of course and whispered to me in complete confidence over herbal teas, the Gallery One community is frightfully lucky to have Dolly Parton’s sister as part of our own dahling cohort. Don’t tell anyone, definitely not the weekly papers, but Anne Wilson of your Committee and former G1 President, is actually Dolly Parton’s twin sister.

 

 

It’s so too absolutely I promise you, true!!! Like Dolly, Anne loves a sing and a wriggle. She loves to dance the yee haa and once upon a time used to pick banjos with her fingernails alongside her sister. It might even be said that Anne has helped Dolly with some of her girl power lyrics. However, to retain some anonymity and enjoy the peace of a private life, Anne has had to let go of falsies, botox and collagen fish kiss lips.

 

 

Anne has simply stuck to tooth whitening and piano accordion playing to differentiate between herself and Dolly when they catch up for sing-a-longs. But, I can see the sisterhood – I imagine you can see it too. But shssssh.

 

Read the Disclaimer

 

 

Gallery One Committee Meeting

Because the Chair was busy stocking up on loo paper, tissues and caviar at the supermarket on Wednesday of the lockdown announcement, the scheduled Committee meeting was postponed until this week. Back in the Gallery the excitement was a series of new designs for the new G1 logo from David Brown, who is the winner of the logo competition. The Committee has agreed on the design but we are currently exploring colour options. Once decided the new logo will be presented for all members to see.

Gavin, our Treasurer, noted we are down on income for the year so far. This relates to COVID so we are not panicking just yet.

 

 

Sanya advised that Mitcham Council has provided a grant so that Gallery One can run natural product workshops. The workshops are one day affairs and the first workshop to make natural soap is scheduled for December 14. The ingredients will be covered by the grant and participants get to take their soap-making adventures home. The cost is $15/person. My friends and relatives will smell so good next year!!!

 

 

Four workshops to learn to make natural beauty products (including mascara!) and cleaning products are also planned for the New Year, COVID conditions permitting.

The Phoenix Exhibition by Unley High School years 11 & 12 was well received. Unlike previous years, attendance at the Openings were strictly limited to the students and their families. Next year we hope you will all be able to enjoy the artworks produced and shown by Unley High School art students. We love them!

 

 

 

 

“He drove south along the floor of a shallow valley, undulating and partly cultivated hills on his left, a more dramatic and distant range on his right – blue today; scarred here and there by scrubby trees and shadows among erupted rocks, a foretaste of the Flinders Ranges, three hours further north. Following the custom of the locals, Hirsch lifted one finger from the steering wheel to greet the oncoming cars. Both of them. Nothing else moved, although he was travelling through a land poised for movement. Birds sitting as if snipped from tin, watched him from the power lines. Farmhouses crouched mutely behind cypress trees and farm vehicles immobile in paddocks, waiting for him to pass.”

A small taste of Disher’s writing about Tiverton and the surrounding countryside. Disher has the itch of the dry country north of Adelaide under his skin and spits it out in ink far better than most. His writing picks you up, takes you right there.

Garry Disher is a prolific writer who keeps on writing and improving. There are 3 novels in the Hirsch series: Bitter Wash Road, Peace and the new release, Consolation which are set with SA’s Flinders Ranges as a backdrop to all sorts of small town, big country, goings-on. Atmospheric with strong characters and multiple storylines, Disher keeps his readers on their toes from the outset. I highly recommend all books in this series: makes you want to hit the road and visit there very soon. I hope there is to be another Hirsch tale to feast upon.

 

Gallery One strongly supports Government initiatives, both State and Federal, to deal with the COVID19 pandemic.

 

 

 

 

Play the video here or watch on YouTube

Photos Credits:

Anne’s photos provided by Anne

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash No Nature No future

Photo by Thanos Pal on Unsplash Handing soap

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels Surrounded by Books

Photo by Hans Vivek on Unsplash Country duo