Dear Charlie...

To finally bring Charlie to film is wonderful to say the least - and a lot of other things...

A song I wrote on the pianola in Mum's lounge room,

after Sarah told me she liked said name...

Charlie has been my muse, my tragic creature, my real life & imagined hero...

And now he is my latest film-clip-video-baby adventure!

I want to thank Kate, Sarah, Anna & "Scottwell behind the mirror"

• for attention to everything important,
• artistic ability unsurpassed;
• enthusiasm {for my foolish schemes} galore!
• And just really, more thank you's than a day could hold for letting me prance around {like a big curvaceous purple woman in front of camera} all day!

What paradise would be - to do such all day, everyday anon!

Songsmith {and friends} xx

Adventuring for Arts sake...

Not behind the lens today, but in front of it...

On the set of a new film clip...

Among long green grasses, and the plentiful, purple, poisonous Patterson...

The lens flattered me (a miracle of science!)

And provoked me -

Ever eager am I to show you the adventure, and the art we began making today...

{All photos today taken by the wonderful Anna}

Shell xx

From where I sit...

Once I heard Michael Jackson say - (when asked what he thought about on stage) answered;

'Oh no! You don't think - if you think about it you'll only lose your nerve..!'

And so I have found a job where I am allowed just to feel,

Required to be emotional!

& paid to be outrageous!

Bliss!

Songsmith xx

A Fair, and a Ball!

I'm off to a spring fair today to support The Salvos. The difference for me is, I get to be the face of it! Fittingly, I'm up there next to the clown!

I also baked some donations for the cake stall.

And will later be singing my little heart out for them all before dashing away to sound check for a high brow ball in town tonight.

ps: I love my job!

Songsmith xx

Power my lamp...

Aside from you -

{for coming} Here...

These are some of the small things

that power my lamp

out from darkness,

and through the day-to-days, the todays, and the everyday-ness of this uncertain Earth,

Where life is so good,

I want to cry.

{Photos by Emma}

The soundtrack of this particular day

is this...

Sing with me.

Songsmith xx

Away too long...

Apologies.

I've been silent in this space too long of late. So where have I? What have I? I hear you inquire?

I've been watering and examining my upcoming apricots - perhaps close range photography will improve them? I've also been further digging in the post rain, soft soil around my house, making garden beds, pulling weeds, thinking about things, and sort of "discovering" another part of myself I knew not was there - the gardner.

The physical work of it is wonderful, I love to really stagger away from the shoveling, long after my back and surrounding muscles have asked me to. I somehow seem to crave exhaustion! But really, I am discovering more of myself as I learn this new skill... And working the ground with my shovel, my feet and my two hands is somehow making me even closer to wondrous Hillview...

On Friday I came home from the fruit market to find a package on my door step.

Addressed to me in the most AMAZING way by the Divine and Darling Kerri!

I can only say that I have been given a treasure! It's a small screen print on canvas, and has the pure spirit of it's maker around it... Upon my opening, I looked, and these two little birds winked at me, and said that I was to use them as inspiration for the wall above my piano where I have been meaning to arrange a selection of inspiring pieces of art to look upon while I am writing playing and arranging.

I have to say, I am always thrilled and amazed by the way inspiration flows and simply grows through the artists I have met in this blogging place. Thank you Kerri. Touched, delighted and honored am I!

I have also been observing pink sunsets; and capturing them for display here... Meaning so truly to make each of these pictures and subjects into posts of their own all week. But my days have been long, and I am feeling the pressure of four children all the more with my friend away for work all week. Especially with one of them sick overnight...

But certainly on the mend with a smile like this on his lovely {burning up} face - and his cousin over for a compassionate visit! I couldn't resist taking a photo of them looking so cute!

I have indeed been away too long, but intend in future not to let the noise in my head make for silence on the screen.

Shell xx

Soul Train!

Okay, I can only say this:

I caught my husband making this JibJab ecard this

afternoon - so for a bit of fun I thought I'd pass the groove

on to all you cool cats out there!

*still giggling*

Shell xx

Veggie Songs!

My friend and I are on a sort of week-off-together-before-he-goes-to-China thing, and it has been just great! The weather however has been misery itself, with fierce cold wind, rain and today even hail! But we were not about to let minute factors like that that keep us indoors...

Instead, we turned over, and replanted our veggie patch for a new season of growth and hopefully much plentifulness!

I took delight in planting these beautiful baby veggies, enjoyed getting my hands dirty, my hair gritty, and all in the name of fresh home grown food - to further our {living} dream of the Good Life...

{Gosh, this could be an album cover for my veggie songs!!}

Shell xx

Scenes from Saturday night...

Forward:

{Is is not possible for me to explain the amount of hours the collage that lies here beneath has taken to create!}

Saturday was a hard days night, for The Tullys. We performed at the wedding ceremony and reception of a bride who happened to be one of my close friends from school, in Canberra about twelve years ago.

It's funny when you see someone again - even funnier when for me I have, since walking the school corridors with her, become a Christian, been married myself, given birth {four times, mind you!} and, generally - non-specifically speaking - grown up.

Singing for her, and her about-to-be-husband as she walked down the aisle was a wonderful mixture of happiness, graciousness, and terror that I simply HAD to get the song right! Well I did get it right, and her smiles to me across the crowded terrace were an instant confirmation of that.

I shed a little tear during the pivotal moment of the reception, when the bride and groom grace the dance floor together for the first, momentous dance. Again, it was when she looked at me, her arms and graceful figure against her new husband in waltz hold, with such a smile and a gratitude as we played and I sang, their special song.

Lots of bands look down their noses at the good ole' wedding gig. But we have always seen it as a chance to serve through our music. Remembering that they will remember this day forever. And through this act of service we too have been so blessed by the people we have met, the places we have been, and the music/magic we made there.

I raise my glass to my dear friend, and her new husband! Hoorah!

Songsmith xx

Last Whisper of Winter

A rainbow.

My favourite tree.

Heavy blue skies.

-and a farewell to the last of whisper, of winter.

Shell xx

A blogger's dedication...

{I'd like to dedicate this post to the three winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2009}

...For making the technology of digital photography a reality to all of us folk in the blog world, and everywhere on the www.

The communicative, and artistic opportunities are made excitingly, endless thanks to such genius - and I feel a duty to thank them from my {down under} speck of blogspot - where, without digital photography, {provided by this beautiful baby} - I wouldn't be able to so often convey how I feel, who I am, and where I am, from my lens, to you dear reader!

In celebration, I took a little walk this afternoon with my fancy digital camera, on this most bleak, cold and grey Canberra day.

And I am posting the following pictures in honour of technological blessings, and with thanksgiving for such darn cleverness!

Bless you Nobel Prize winning men! You've helped make our beautiful, vast world, small enough to see it all, through anyone's eyes.

Shell xx

The Sonnet...

Late night poetry

is the sound of my own whispering voice

reading by lamp light...

to peaceful, passionate, or even tragic images

I will mull over

while falling asleep

It is the feeling,

of hearing the Holy Spirit beside me-

I can almost tell what creative endeavor is coming next...

It is Sunday breakfast!

Lemons and sugar, rasp- and strawberries in the morn!

Over a pot of Earl Grey,

-a buttermilk pancake

-four babies playing

-smiles from my best friend

-gentle rain out of doors

-sweet thoughts of a blessed week gone by...

and always

the poetry

the sonnet

the spring

the songs

the friends

and Spirit

to my heart

to my mind.

Shell xx