YARNS Summer Issue 01

EDITORIAL

Hi, I am Petra Jungmanova a Czech artist, author and curator living in the beautiful bush Capital of Australia, Canberra. Yarns Magazine is my creation. In the Czech Republic I was immersed in the creative arts, culture, adventure, and nature. When I came to establish my new life in Australia some 20 years ago, I was determined to discover and expand upon the things I love in this amazing and unique new world that unfolded before me.

The inspiration for the Magazine came from my love for adventure, travel, human stories, and connection to the land. I believe in the beauty and goodness in people, and that as we are the ultimate creators of our lives, we have the power to uplift each other. Added to this is my conviction of our need to learn to connect with and understand the collective experiences of indigenous communities around the world, as their stories become increasingly relevant to our lives today and for the future.

In Yarns we will all share stories of various dreamers, romantics, creatives, travellers, adventurers, and achievers from Australia and other cultures around the world. People who have ‘walked the walk’ and are telling their unique ways of experiencing life in their own way. Plus, we will be featuring places and things, that I feel complement these experiences.

This First Summer Edition contains a curated mix of stories from and about people, places, and things covering the tapestry of a ‘real’ life in Australia and places overseas.

Future editions which will come out quarterly.

Importantly, we at Yarns Magazine acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the Lands where we live, learn, work and play; and we pay our respects to them and their elders, past, present, and future.

Peace, love and happiness,

Petra

DISCLAIMER

All rights reserved. No part of this publication - YARNS Magazine (ISSN 2653-5343) may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any forms or by any means, including photocopying, or other direct or electronic methods, without the prior written permission of the Editor, except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted

by Copyright Law.

Editor PETRA JUNGMANOVA Contact details: +61 413 644 284 petra@yarns.today

CONTENTS

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Wobbeggong Winter Swimming Club

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Bungendore

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The Berry Tea Shop

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Beach Camping

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Joshua Bonson

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Christmas Tree Farm

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Mercedes Lopez Sauque

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Helm Wines

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Elizabeth Lee

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De Lancey’s

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Wayne Krause

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Chateau Mcely

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Junk & Disorderly Antiques

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The Outsider Gallery

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Heidi Marja Norman

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Brigita Hammell

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Mally Scruggs

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Hall Family Orchards

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Rainer Maria Rilke

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WOBBEGONG WINTER SWIMMING CLUB

Day 1 Petra: In December 2016, local John Stapleton decided to form a winter swimming club in Jervis Bay as there were no such clubs in the Shoalhaven area. A foundation meeting was held with eight people - John Stapleton, Kym Lees, Brian Probets, Steve Pryn, Fred Levy, Ken Stapleton, Don McRae and John Daly and the Club was formed. Over the next year the concept for the community-based club developed. So, at the inaugural meeting in the Vincentia Golf Club in 2017 an activity format was agreed: Sunday Race Days - featuring 50m. Handicap Freestyle, and 25m. Handicap Mixed Stroke events; with Race Days to take place on Huskisson Beach between May and September.

Later application was made to the Winter Swimming Association of Australia, and the club was accepted as the Jervis Bay Wobbegong Winter Swimming Club.

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With membership steadily increasing and being in a healthy environment, the successful future of the Wobbegongs seems assured. Particularly, as in 2020 it became a sub-club of Club Jervis Bay - a club that also promotes the activities of several other local community clubs and already is providing the Wobbegongs with considerable support.

I had the opportunity to meet, swim and talk with Steve Pryn, one of the founding members. His answers are bellow.

Petra: What is like to live in Jervis Bay? Steve: The Jervis Bay area is a wonderful place to live, a relaxed and pleasant lifestyle. Most communities still have that “village” feel about them, but this is gradually changing as the Princes Highway is slowly being upgraded, cutting down the

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travel time for Sydney visitors to reach here. There are supermarkets, medical and dental centres, cafes, nurseries nearby with Nowra and Ulladulla not too far away for other requirements.

Petra: What do you love about it most?

Steve: It is easy to become involved in the community here. There are many clubs from cycling, bushwalking, birdwatching, camera club, environmental groups, dancing and musical clubs, book clubs, swimming clubs, kayaking, I must have missed some too. Also, in the Shoalhaven we have bays, surf beaches, rivers and, behind us, the mountains. All are very accessible. Some stunning scenery, so many beautiful beaches, wildlife - all on your doorstep. Plus, from Nowra you can catch the train to Sydney or the airport.

Petra: When did you join the swimming club?

Steve: Our Winter Swimming Club was formed in 2017. Most of our original members were swimming in the bay or the sea-pool in Huskisson. John, our club president and an avid winter swimmer from his days up in Sydney, started the club. Now we have close to 100 members, not all are winter swimmers, but all belong and help support our club. During the winter, on Sunday mornings, we have our winter races which are always a lot of fun. Every morning, every day of the year, there are some of us down at our beach swimming.

Petra: What are the ages of your members?

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brave the cold winter water. I think our oldest member is well into her 80’s and still swimming with some style.

Petra: How does it feel to be able to go for a swim every day of the year?

Steve: You cannot be sure you can swim every day at “our” beach. Occasionally the conditions make it impossible to swim here, but around the bay, no matter the weather, there will be a beach that is swimmable. Our beach is very well sheltered from the prevalent westerly winds

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so it is not that often we can’t swim here.

We are so lucky to be able to swim every morning, no matter the weather, the conditions, we can have a swim.

I know I look forward to the morning swim. I may complain quite a bit at the initial entering of the water, it can be cold, but once you’re in it is so enjoyable. We try to find new ways to enjoy our swim lately. Like swimming a little with your eyes closed - you can hear the water, really feel the water and currents as you move a great feeling indeed!

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Petra: What do you like about the Winter swimming?

Steve: Being part of the club gives you the opportunity to meet like-minded people; share the experience of the cold, winter waters; after the swim talk of the fish you’ve spotted, the tiny warm patch you found down the beach, the dolphins sometimes very close, an occasional penguin who seems to have no fear of us.

Most importantly, though are the hot coffees after the swim!

It’s also great to welcome new members, many being nervous about swimming our beach and out of their comfort zone, but after a few months, think nothing of

swimming the whole length of the beach.

The swims in the winter cold (around 14 deg.C, with a few days down to 13 deg.C or lower) leave your body tingling, often shivering, but you become acclimatised.

It can be a battle to get in but after, you’re always glad you did.

We have a cold-water shower on the beach, but not often used in the winter!

The initial plunge into the water can make you gasp and take your breath away, but then you can gradually settle and swim with the cold not so noticeable for a while. Eventually though it is time to exit and warm up - makes you feel quite alive!

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Petra: What are the health benefits of regular swimming in the ocean?

Steve: I am not sure of the specific health benefits but, especially in the winter, you do feel good after an early morning swim. The morning exercise is a great way to start the day, easy on the body and relaxing. I can only speak now for myself, but I feel that cold water swimming (we do swim all year), greatly improves your immunity to colds and flu. Your breathing improves; muscular strength and stamina improve - no down sides at all! Plus, it makes you hungry and ready for a good breakfast.

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Petra: Can you describe the social benefits of being part of the club and the importance of connections?

Steve: Being part of a club allows you to meet other people, many with interests and hobbies that are quite unfamiliar. We have potters, painters, golfers, wood workers, beekeepers, gardeners, surfers, builders, teachers, a couple making cheeses, birdwatchers, cyclists - the list goes on. The members have had such different lives, different occupations – it’s always interesting. Being part of this group opens you mind to a world previously unknown - full of new friends and new activities to try.

Petra: How important is the swimming to your holistic wellbeing?

Steve: I’m not sure how to answer this being unsure of the meaning of “holistic”. However, I do know that often when I swim, I daydream (and slowly get slower and slower in the water). I think about something or nothing - but I gently relax, not trying to race or go faster - just enjoying the water. It’s hard to explain.

I know at each marker point in our swim, that my swim companions will be there waiting for me to catch up - a good feeling! I find the swimming calming; you’re just moving through the water. Sometimes there is a swell which you ride up and down. Sometimes it’s choppy, but you eventually get into a rhythm and just swim. You hope along the way to spot a fish, a ray, or dolphins which puts everyone into a great mood – happy!

Petra: Swimming and longevity?

Steve: We all hope that swimming will give us a better chance at living a little longer, but no matter what, it is such a great start to each day.

Wobbegong Winter Swimming Club: wobbegongs.weebly.com Facebook page: Jervis Bay Wobbegongs

For further information regarding the Winter Swimming Association of Australia please go to wsaainc.com

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BUNGENDORE

Day 2 Petra: Bungendore is a cute historical village, with a fascinating history dating back to 1837, located about 30 minutes from Canberra. It takes just under an hour for anyone to be transported to a different time by gently wandering through the streets which are dotted with numerous shops and restaurants, many in its historic buildings.

These days, the old character has been preserved mostly in two main streets while rest of the village rapidly grows in all directions. Bungendore has always a special connection with my family story in Australia.

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The famous Woodworks Café became a destination for many special birthday breakfasts; catch-ups with friends; the common stops on the way to the coast; and the source for yummy home-made relishes and jams. The French restaurant – Le Tres Bon, run by Josephine and Christophe, is world class and a must for anyone who has not tried true, traditional French cuisine

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It is great that an increasing number of talented artists and artisans are displaying their wares there now. One really caught my eye, the Little X Gallery run by the talented, Xanthe, where there is always something interesting and beautiful on a display. Most of the time you’ll find her sitting at her workbench working on the next jewellery creation. Even when working, she always has plenty of time to chat to anyone who visits. It really is a happy place.

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The rest of Bungendore is very sweet, and to me in a playful way, resembles a Lego village, with the old church, police station, oval, train station, and the somewhat intriguing cemetery!

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THE BERRY TEA SHOP

Day 3 Petra: I visited the beautiful Berry Tea Shop for the first time in December 2021 and was positively blown away by its romantic charm. Although I’m a regular to the South Coast area, I’m mostly on the beach and exploring the rocks and shoreline.

The iconic village of Berry is the perfect destination for a romantic adventure, or to just ‘slow down’. What’s better than a freshly brewed pot of tea with a delicious home-made cake? There’s a bit of Heaven here for everyone - simply by escaping the ‘big smoke’ and venturing into one of the most picturesque and fertile country-sides with its rolling hills by the sea; remote houses in the surrounding areas; and cute historical houses lining the town’s main streets. I always send all my friends to Berry to experience the country charm; hospitality at its best; and the various beautiful home décor shops and cafes.

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Being a huge tea lover myself, entering the beautifully decorated eclectic Tea Shop with shelves full of teas, teapots and teacups was quite a magical experience. It made me think of Alice in Wonderland! Also, luckily for me, Christmas-time made it look like a scene from some very romantic movie. In these unprecedent times, beauty, tradition and creature comforts are the way to go to slow down and connect with others!

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The Berry Tea Shop now offers over 48 varieties of tea since opening in June 2010, when the owners - Cliff and Paulina Collier, wanted to share their passion for the beautiful things in life amongst the green rolling hills of the Berry landscape.

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With a strong background in hospitality, they have created a truly unique experience for each visitor, as well as a treasured destination for people to return on a regular basis.

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It’s a busy place and as I didn’t book a table early enough, I ended up buying my favourite Russian Caravan Tea, and slice of carrot cake, recommended by the charming Paulina, to share with my son at home. As he ate all the icing, I must come back for a proper sit-down experience and invite a friend for a little afternoon soiree.

The Berry Tea Shop: The Berry Tea Shop: https://www.theberryteashop.com.au/ theberryteashop.com.au

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BEACH CAMPING

Day 4 Petra: I grew up camping with my family in the Czech Republic and like most families at that time under Communism, we would venture to various lakes with a large group of friends for a few weeks every Summer. So, I think it all started there for me - the need for adventure and privacy. Now camping has become an integral part of family life in Australia. In the digital age it’s a wonderful way to unplug from the overload of information on social media, as well as, to escape the increasingly unsettling daily local and world news.

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As I’m a creature of habit, most of my camping trips happen in my beloved Jervis Bay in the stunning Shoalhaven Shire of New South Wales. However, I also venture further south to the Eurobodalla Shire and places like Potato Point and Mystery Bay where I have also easy access to all the beautiful surrounding places like turquoise Narooma, or dreamy Tilba Tilba, nestled in the dramatic rolling hills.

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Potato Point has a wonderful camping spot near the beach where you can see the water and beach life literally from your bed. To experience the serenity of sunrise pouring in with the sound of the waves crashing on the beach is pretty special.

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The best thing about camping there though is the wildlife - the number of kangaroos that are not people shy is amazing. I still squeal with joy every time I see a kangaroo. So, having a whole bunch of them coming closer and being grass fed from your hands remains such a fun experience! Also, during one of my visits, I noticed an emu walking on the beach just in front of my tent!

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During the day I usually travel and explore my favourite places like driving to Tilba by the backway, passing the various farms, with the longest of driveways, as they sit on top of the hills. I have to buy cheese in the local dairy to be had with the mandatory evening fire.

I love to check out the cute farmers’ markets selling yummy organic food; bunches of fresh cut flowers; dreamcatchers; and lushes vegies. There is a wonderfully grounding atmosphere here, and this place remains a treasure for me, going back to my first road trips when I arrived in Australia in 2001 when absolutely everything was fresh, loud, and new.

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Narooma, the coastal town, reminds me of some mystical place from legends as sometimes a cloud appears to blend land, sky and sea. Every time I’m come down to cross the bridge over the azure waters, with all the life happening around, I feel like I have to pinch myself to confirm this is real. I love the hippie pizza shop, because the pizzas there are made with extra love! While, for some, it may not have the sophistication of towns closer to Sydney, it is a perfect place to escape with heaps of dreamy spots to explore. It’s also worth checking out the annual Oyster Festival. With its quaint cinema it seems there’s something for everyone.

Simply, I’d go back anytime just to be part of this wonderful part of the world.

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JOSHUA BONSON

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Day 4 Petra: Joshua Bonson is an amazing and renowned young Indigenous artist from Darwin in the Northern Territory. In this detailed and compelling interview, he gives a generous insight into his story, his family and his culture, as well as sound advice to fellow artists.

Petra: Please describe what kind of art you do and what inspires you.

Joshua: My artwork is described as ‘contemporary abstraction’.

Painting is the medium I have chosen to express my feelings towards my culture and where I fit in it. I use the motif of the saltwater crocodile, because it is the spiritual totem form which I draw, and was given to me by my grandfather and his people. I've been using my art practice; the different things that I've done; and people I've met - to try and figure out exactly culturally where I fit, or where my inspirations originate. My artistic style has evolved over the years from classic black and white designs, to bolder colours where I create thick and more pronounced layers and movement.

I guess cultural significance for my family was a bit lost because of all the stuff that was going on with children being taken away from their families in the past - the Stolen Generation. So, reconnecting with culture for me has been an ongoing journey. It's a question of personal growth and finding out where the different elements of my family originated; what their beliefs were; how I fit into that; and how it’s sort of moulded me as a person.

I like to be able to give back in whatever ways that I can. If ever I'm asked questions

by different people wanting to learn about what I know about culture and things like that, or even being more active with the local indigenous community, I am always available. I try to visit different communities around the NT whenever I’m able, and I would like to do this more often, just so I can get more of a look into how everything runs in a community. It's very different from the perception, often very negatively, portrayed in media.

Petra: When did your artistic career start?

Joshua: At the age of 17 – 18 and end of high school, I started painting because it had been an elective in school, and two of the artists, Angelina George and Prince of Wales (both famous artists), my mum was working with encouraged me to paint. At the same time, I was figuring out what it was that I wanted to create, and I became more wrapped in it. Then, an opportunity came up for me to learn.

So, straight out of high school I got selected as a finalist in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award - an award held yearly at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. I believe that at the time I was the youngest person to be accepted into the award. I felt: ‘this is alright; it’s a mild achievement’.

Petra: You were the youngest but also the first native Australian. So, it must have been two firsts!

Joshua: Well, it was good. I tried to sort of just expand my creative horizons and chat to the people that were there - very arty people. It was a whole new experience; a world to which I hadn't been exposed before.

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Although, before that I was being exposed to art because my mother was a Gallery Manager at a local art gallery up here, where she worked daily with prominent artists, indigenous artists. So really, I grew up with artists and artworks because of her relationships with them and I would have a chat to them while they were painting and see how they did their work. For example, Prince of Wales painted body marks onto canvas and Angelia George painted huge landscapes and flower paintings. I was surrounded by very creative people that were very culturally and spiritually strong. Positive influence and encouragement from these artists started very early on in my career.

Petra: Was it also because the sentiment in Indigenous culture is so strong about the storytelling, the continuity of the art, and teaching the younger generations. Were you encouraged to go, experience and continue with that through art?

Joshua: Yes, I was always encouraged to keep painting because of our culture and our stories. Now through the medium of painting I have been able to share my family stories with exhibitions shown in many galleries across Australia and the World.

I was always encouraged from the early days by my mum to try and learn as many stories as I could and then tell them through my art. So, it was definitely a strength having a close relationship with these Indigenous artists and having a chat to them. Growing up being surrounded by these artists’ stories on the walls of our home and looking at them, inspired me to keep going with my own art practice. I was very blessed to have known them.

Petra: It seems that really, you were always destined to be an artist, so what was your artistic dream?

Joshua: I wanted to be successful, but the success I wanted then is different to what I have now. At that time success was a stereotype - you'll grow up; have a career, a ridiculous amount of money, a big house, and a flashy car. It was a very analytical idea of success.

Whereas now I want to be wealthy in knowledge, in family, and I guess, just being happy.

I think doing what I want to do now has redefined me, like an awakening; not like being a teenager and doing what I want. Now it's doing something that makes me feel good where at the end day, I have a good night's sleep because I've done something and I felt good about what I’ve done, and at the moment, that's my art.

Petra: So, when you say ‘at the moment’, do you have other talents you wish to explore, like say sculpture, or is there another passion?

Joshua: Going forward after having a chat to some of the other artists that I met when I went to Sydney for a group exhibition opening, I’m planning on branching out from the painted medium to hopefully getting into more digital media. So, I’m thinking maybe making stencils for printing, or printing on t-shirts, or doing online work like graphic design. I’ll just wait and see how my ideas grow in this medium.

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‘Ocean Shades’, JB1051 160cm high x 120cm wide synthetic polymer paint on canvass 2020

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Skin, JB1052 20cm high x 100cm wide synthetic polymer paint on canvass 2020

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people could interact with the work and actually touch it and feel the scale, but big galleries don't like it when you touch the paintings.

Petra: You have been practicing more than 10 years. Does it feel like a long time, and how do you reflect on amazing career (so far)?

Joshua: I’m still living it, so it doesn’t really seem a long time. Admittedly though sometimes when I look back, I have to be reminded of the stuff that I've done outside of the art world where things carry on as normal. I haven't had cameras following me around 24 hours a day watching what sort of stuff that I get up to - that level of superficial fame, so I guess it’s why I need to be reminded.

In the last 10 plus years that I've been creating my artwork, I've had some amazing opportunities, met some amazing people, done amazing things, and had my work displayed and adored. So, if I take a moment to reflect, and even sometimes read over my own interviews, it sorts of blows my mind a little bit. I think: ‘okay, that’s so cool; that’s a thing I did, and I remember that’. However, ‘No’, I try not to get too bogged down, or too absorbed by those reflections.

I paint for myself - for my own creation story; and traveling through and seeing where I can wind up at the end. Really, I guess it's just been a blessing that I've had these awesome opportunities to meet people and get involved. It's great I have learnt so much about myself, my culture, and other people; to have made great friends, and been taken on this whirlwind tour of what art is.

So, I guess when I break it down, it can be

overwhelming. You can forget exactly where you are; where you came from; and what you've done, but then it's very important to make sure that you've got loyal and honest people around you. I have these people and they are just amazing.

They’re just like: ‘Hey, remember that, or you've got that’, and they keep my schedule up to date, reminding me to keep painting. They also remind me that: ‘you have a flight tomorrow morning to fly to Sydney’, because I almost forgot.

Surrounding yourself with good people not only helps you get through, but it also helps you, I guess, stay humble. You might walk around like you've got a light shining out of your head because you’re the coolest thing, and these are the people to say: ‘Hey man, remember you're good, but dial it back a bit’.

Petra: So, was this a by-product of you becoming famous? Did you have to quickly come up with some structure and support? Was it hard to ask for help?

Joshua: Well, not really, I mean I'm a pretty humble guy anyway. I'm not going to walk down the street in a mink coat; or expect people to know who I am, or free hotel rooms. That's not who I am, and hopefully, who I never will become.

So, ‘No’, my friends and close family have been there from the start and they stuck around despite of all the other stuff that’s been going on. I was lucky I didn't have to go looking for good people. They were just around me and raising me from the beginning anyway.

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supported me. Some were jealous of my fast success and could have helped me but never did. However, that’s ‘Ok’, I did it anyway, and have been so lucky in that light to have a mum, with all her experience, being able to guide me.

Petra: So, what does your mum think?

Joshua: Well, I think she's my biggest fan.

Also, she's my agent - the one who organises me to get work done if I'm in like, a bit of a slump, or not focused on producing works for an exhibition. Also, working in the art scene for as long as she has helped me notice things. She helped me get out of my shell when it came to talking to people about my artwork because in the beginning, I didn’t enjoy putting myself out there for people. I felt like if I put myself out there and they didn't like it, they're going to tell me, and I wouldn’t be able to handle that. So, she guided me – ‘just do it’; ‘just go out there, talk to them’. She encouraged me in those social situations where I had to be very vocal and self-promoting. So, again over time I got rid of that phobia. I am so thankful for that.

Petra: Do you get inspired by absolutely everything, or is it all connected to nature? Is there a common thread to your work?

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grounds and smoke, and the red to show the fires burning things, as well as using very rapid movements.

I find a lot of my inspiration from things that I see in nature and I'm fortunate enough to live in an area where nature changes almost as often as I feel my inspiration should - so convenient, and sort of amazing at the same time.!

Petra: Are you doing paintings on a really large scale?

Joshua: I do like to work on larger canvases, at least two and a half metres squared.

It lets me play with movement and different changing colours. Plus, my work gets a little bit hands-on, and doing that on smaller canvas doesn't quite get out the amount of energy that I need. So ‘Yes’, the bigger canvases suit me better, which is again why I think painting, or like moving myself to digital media will be perfect to have it be blown up to as big as I want it to be.

Petra: In your paintings, it's almost like the story is of equal significance with the painting itself. How much significance is the story in your art?

Joshua: Well, for most of the work that I do, it's more an emotional journey that I'm going on. Like something's happening, and I need to put it onto a canvas. The style of the application will change. I can come back to it next day, or two and see the application of the work and say: ‘Oh, okay.

So that's the Headspace I was in’. However, the story I like to portray is that of self-discovery and trying to connect with my land, the people, the spirit that I'm trying to figure out for myself, and where I'm going to go.

However, what I'm more trying to solicit with my work, I think, is a visual represen-

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tation of my emotional state at the time. A little bonus that helps with this is also talking to people and finding out what they think about the work. An example is the other day, I was talking to someone who could see faces in my work, pointing out where the different people were and the emotional things they saw.

Just hearing the stories of other people when they're looking at my work, and the different things they feel, pushes me to do another one because I want to hear more about what they say. It’s like creating an interactive piece, I think. I guess that's what I want to create, a piece where people learn more about themselves, me about myself, and where I want to go.

Petra: Are you drawn to figurative painting and the stories of creation through the traditional way of painting?

Joshua: Well, I'm always interested by it because I know a lot of the traditional artists. I know that there is always a rich story behind their work, and it’s one of the things I seek to find out. I've tried my hand at the different ‘dot‘ or ‘line’ paintings, but I always feel that because I haven't been raised that way, or raised with their culture alongside their beliefs, and their different stories, it would be more like their culture and their story, not mine. So, it would be a bit, I guess, like identity theft.

Petra: Finally, what's your view on artists, I wouldn't say wasting time, but being afraid and waiting for something to happen - procrastinating?

Joshua: There's another artist friend of mine who said: ‘Inspiration is bleeding, discipline is what you need’. That’s so true because inspiration comes in waves and can create some of the best work. If you're really buying into it, you ride the wave of inspiration, especially in times like a mind block, or where you can't think of anything. However, you need to make sure that you have the discipline to continue. Go outside and look at what you are supposed to be doing; have a go at it even if you don't like it. You can always come back and do something else. If you're always doing something, you're not getting stagnant.

I know that if I leave creating too long, I can forget where I was, or how to get back into that groove again. It can take a little while to fire ‘the coal engine’ back up and start producing something that I'm happy with. If I get angry at a canvas, then I can always change it later because, luckily, my work sort of promotes that sort of behaviour. I guess if I was to inspire another artist to keep going, it would probably be along the lines to ‘keep going because you'll find someone who will absolutely adore your work’.

Simply, if you have found enough creative joy in what you've done to make something, there will always be someone who will have the same amount of joy for the creation that you made. It’s just a matter of finding that person and even if again you feel like: ‘Oh, I'm not talented as I can't draw like that artist’; or ‘I can't create work like that artist’. Remember, those people who can draw, or create like that have had years of practice; or maybe you are just trying too hard on something that you don't actually enjoy - thus creating that negative stigma around you. So just: ‘be you’, that would be my inspirational quote of the day!

Joshua Bonson: https://www.joshuabonson.com.au/ joshuabonson.com.au

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CHRISTMAS TREE FARM

Day 6 Petra: At Christmas, we try to find the perfect tree for our house. This year, the first in our new house, we decided to broaden our quest and explore beyond the usual outlets in Canberra. Luckily, we found the Christmas Farm in the nearby town of Gundaroo and met the owner, Ziggy Kominek. This is his story and that of this unique farm.

Petra: Please tell me about your farm and how it started?

Ziggy: How it started – well I was able to retire early. My wife’s father owned two hundred acres and was running sheep. I started to get involved, as he was considering retirement, but was feeling my inexperience and so, with his help we continued running the farm to produce sheep for their wool.

Then when my wife inherited a third of her father's farm, I thought I'm going to find out what farming's all about. So, I went and completed an Advanced Employment Farm Management Diploma at the Goulburn TAFE in NSW. One of the subjects was Sunset and Sunrise Industries. Sunset Industries covered things like making horse-drawn coaches, whereas Sunrise Industries covered lavender and grape growing, plus wine making, and growing Christmas trees.

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After I finished an assignment on Christmas trees, I thought: ‘oh this is a good plan.’ So, I researched locally and found no one else was growing them. My next step was to plant the first lot of 3000 trees in a small plot near the front entrance to the farm. However, as Christmas trees don't mature for three years minimum, the next year I spent more money to plant another 3000 trees. I soon realized that if you're going to have a business that's going to continue you need to plant. So, in the third year, more expenditure on another 3000 trees. In the fourth year I tried to sell some of the trees, but although I had a good business plan, I had no marketing plan – so, sold maybe four trees. In the following year we sold around 700, despite spending a lot on advertising which in hindsight, was a waste of money!

Then, we had a few years of drought when I didn't plant anything and I thought: ‘Oh, with only seven hundred trees sold, it's not really a goer’. Even in the year following the drought I didn't plant more trees, but sales suddenly took off, fueled by ‘word of mouth’.

We haven't been able to keep up since. So, that's how we started in the business - purely by doing a course at Goulburn TAFE college.

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Petra: So, is your market mainly Canberra, or do you cover Goulburn and the Region as well?

Ziggy: For direct sales from the farm, it’s mainly to Canberrans. However, we also supply to wholesalers in Sydney and up and down the South Coast, including Wollongong. These clients usually come and buy by the truckload to re-sell at markets like the Sydney Markets, or in their own shops which are usually fruit and flower shops. We also have our own stores in Canberra, and we supply to charities like the RSPCA. Petra: What is life on the Christmas Tree Farm like?

Ziggy: Well, leading up to Christmas it's extremely busy for a month. We would have hundreds of cars coming-in. So, we would have eight to ten people working in the shed. In addition, there would be three on the bikes harvesting and collecting customers’ personally chosen trees; two netting the harvested trees; two carrying the trees; two feeding the trees in the field; one directing the team; and maybe, two directing traffic.

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After this period, although it's not busy with customers, you must be disciplined with your time as the trees need attention. Simply, you just don't plant them and harvest them! Over the next three and a half years, a lot of hard work is required.

After about a year’s growth, were you to look at a newly planted tree, you’d notice nothing (no branches) on the trunks up to around 20cm. from the ground. That's not natural as, if we left the trees untouched, they would grow branches from the ground up. That would mean we couldn't use a chainsaw to harvest; and clients couldn't put their trees into a stand, or bucket.

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So, the first thing we do is what we call ‘the Needles’. We hire people to take-off around 20cm. from the base of the tree. All the little needles, which would eventually grow into branches, and the branches themselves are removed - everything must go! Then a year later, the first ‘shaping’ is done.

If you were to look at a tree after ‘shaping’, it’s like we’ve taken to the tree with a slashing knife as we’ve gone around it! This is done twice a year - once after Christmas following the growing season, and once just before Christmas.

As trees in different plantations are ready for different years, timing is critical for the plantation that's ready for the current year. As we might have five different plantations growing at any one time, probably three of the five would get pruned twice a year until they're harvested. Simply, if you don't prune early enough, you don't have time to do them all. If you prune too early, the trees will go out of shape by Christmas, and if you do it too late, the branches won’t grow back in time, so then you don't get the nice green tips. That’s why year-round attention is critical.

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Additionally, there's a fair bit of other work we must do, like keeping the grass down because in its growth period, it competes with the trees. This year, for example, I've been slashing the grass every two weeks and I just can’t keep-up. However, if we don't keep the grass down, people can't get in and easily walk around, which we want to be, at least, a reasonably pleasant experience. Also, I have a contractor who comes and rips-up the ground in March; and then there’s some work in June when we plant the seedlings.

Petra: With all these Christmas trees around, does it still have a sentimental value for you?

Ziggy: Oh yes, we’ve always had a Christmas tree at home, but in the early days people didn't grow trees as ‘Christmas’ trees. Usually what they did was sell off-cuts from forestry, and so essentially what you got was just a branch. That’s usually what we had - a ‘Christmas’ tree branch. We would put this in a bucket with rocks and no water and three days later it was dead - but there would be three days before Christmas!

Now, people appreciate and want the ‘full-tree’ experience from the whole tree with its fragrance, to the ability to last the full festive season sitting, with water, in the new Christmas tree stands. So, if you look after them it can extend the life of a tree for say, a minimum of three, up to a maximum of about six, weeks.

Christmas Tree : Christmas TreeFarm Farm: https://christmastrees.net.au/ christmastree.net.au

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MERCEDES LOPEZ SAUQUE

Day 7 Petra: I love how Mercedes Lopez’s story celebrates all things beautiful and real. The things we share with our families; the passions born from shared life experiences; having the guts to move countries for a dream; and to be a fashion designer with completely unique work and live in Sydney – a truly beautiful adventure!

Mercedes: I have been influenced from an early age to admire craftsmanship and ‘one of a kind’ pieces. Going with my mum to antique shops and markets once a month became a part of my childhood. Poking around old bookstores to look for artwork catalogues was a frequent activity that I enjoyed. There was something about the idea of 'finding a treasure' that kept me motivated. To me, it felt like a game. I could also understand and empathise with what that small but curated collection meant to my mother. All the care she took to handle those pieces, and all the time she stared at them - displayed through the glass of her wooden cabinet.

Growing up, my admiration for the Art-Nouveau movement grew and became a strong passion. I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel a good deal and discoverer new places, and everywhere we went I had a good reason to look for more artwork. A trip to Paris in 2012 was a turning point in my life where I had a kind of epiphany.

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Back then, I had already discovered the jewellery work of French artist René Lalique and found the detailing of his pieces totally enchanting. On a freezing February Parisian day, those pieces I had adored and recorded in my mind for years from books were now in front of me at a museum - each one individually displayed in a glass cabinet. The organic and natural inspiration of his pieces; the laborious work of placing each diamond and gem individually on the intricate shape of a hair comb, bracelet, or pendant, was beyond delightful. It was the first time in my life I felt totally speechless and overwhelmed. I experienced a sensation of complete ecstasy and rejoicing through my eyes that I had never lived before. I looked up at my mum and found her in the same trance. We were connecting deeply and emotionally with our greatest passions.

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After being in a complete mode of self-introspection and silence, staring at those pieces for eternal minutes, I closed my eyes and whispered to myself: ''this moment is my most precious possession, and I want to keep it forever alive''. That deep appreciation of craftsmanship, antiques and unique pieces triggered my desire, years later, to create my own ‘slow fashion’ project.

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Today, I'm settled in the peaceful surroundings of the Northern Sydney beaches. I moved next to the sea to experience its calmness in all its splendour. Although I am still too far away from my home-country, Argentina; my family and beloved ones; and following a mix of uprooting, I have feelings of excitement for what new opportunities lie ahead. So now, I'm focused on conceiving my brand as a story. ''Cluny The Label'' is a genuine representation of me not just as a professional, but also holistically. It is where I conceive garments as unique pieces - an echo of my childhood memories. I design embroidered items that are inspired by the details of antique jewellery, or on an old facade at which I had the pleasure to stare. I found embroidery as a way to tell my story; to remember; and bring my past back to life.

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My work is not only focused on honouring craftsmanship, but also about remembrance and nostalgia. Remembrance to keep experiences alive; nostalgia for those times when things were conceived as unique; and when artisanal processes were the only way of creating objects. My garments are slowly and consciously made to be kept, cared for, and used as little treasures - just like a piece of jewellery.

They are not a mere piece of clothing. They are meaningful pieces that carry my message, voice, and story. I am certain that my designs are the most vivid representation of who I am; what I have learnt, felt and experienced during my life, my passions, and vulnerabilities; who surrounded me; and who I love.

If someday you wear one of my pieces, I want you to know you are wearing one of my most precious moments. I sincerely hope it brings back to life yours as well.

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HELM WINES

Day 8 Petra: Ken Helm, AM, amongst his many other interests and achievements, is one of the Founding Fathers of Cold Climate wines in the Canberra Region. He established and runs Helm Wines with his family where its beautiful vineyard, renowned award-winning winery, and cellar door sales can be found in the small, historic, former gold mining town of Murrumbateman - located just outside Canberra. Following Ken’s (and the other Founding Fathers’) pioneering ways in the 1970’s, the Region now boasts more than 20 boutique wineries that are achieving high recognition in both Australia and throughout the world. So, Murrumbateman is well worth a visit!

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Wine runs in Ken’s blood, being a fourth-generation descendant of German vinedressers from the Rhineland, who established vineyards near Albury and Rutherglen in Australia in the 1860s.

As I found when I wandered into the winery, a tasting with Ken is an all-round educational experience! For example, Ken developed his own 10 bottle paper transport box to fit in front of the car, and in the luggage compartment on a plane.

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Tastings are held in the historic and National Trust listed, Toual Public School House (built in 1888), which in its time was used also for meetings of the Temperance League, where locals signed the pledge against alcohol!

Even on its own, this fascinating place is worth a visit, with inside walls covered with historic images of students and teachers, as well as Ken’s wine stories and journey through the decades. I did not expect to be so blown away by such a tangible living history of one man and what he has achieved in, and beyond his passion for wine – locally, in Australia, and internationally.

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Curious, I asked Ken why his tastings were not accompanied by the common cheese platter, or other food, and he responded that he ‘purposefully focuses on wine tasting only without the food element’. I did find it very raw and refreshing to be in a place that celebrates the wine story only; it has a wonderful, elevating atmosphere. So, I asked Ken a few more brief questions: Petra: What really matters to you?

Ken: The family, enjoying life and assisting others.

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Petra: What brings you happiness?

Ken: Enjoying a nice bottle of wine with food and family.

Petra: What would you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Ken: Not having a bottle of wine to drink.

Petra: What would you change if you could?

Ken: The Federal Government!

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Petra: Which single word do you most identify with?

Ken: Thinking!

Helm Helm Wines: Wines: https://ww.helmwines.com.au/ helmwines.com.au

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ELIZABETH LEE

Day 9 Petra: Elizabeth Lee is a vibrant, committed, and compassionate local Canberra politician, whose family background, life story, and achievements are not typical of most of our politicians. Her story celebrates her journey to Canberra, creating a new home and becoming a leader in her new community. Here is her story, a love story of a different kind…

Once upon a time a love story would start like this…boy meets girl (in recent terms perhaps even called “meets a cutie’); they fall in love; they get married, and live happily ever after.

Our fairy tales are made of this; our rom-coms are made of this; and once upon a time, my aspiration of “love” was made of this.

As years draw lines on our faces and fill wisdom in our heads, we realise there is so much more to “love”.

I could write my own “meets a cutie” love story; I could write about my newfound love story of the moment my daughter was born…but, I choose today to write about my love for the city that made me who I am today.

My first “meeting” with Canberra was probably very similar to every kid in Australia (or at least every Aussie kid who grew up in the East Coast) – with a school excursion to visit the Capital - Parliament House, Australian War Memorial, Questacon…

This first meeting with Canberra was…meh…? Canberra was Canberra. I knew it was the Capital of Australia, but it was a pretty sterile, distant place for a young Asian kid growing up in Western Sydney.

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At 18, I made the big decision to make Canberra home – at least for a little while – when I made the move to study law at the Australian National University. Perhaps this was my “meet a cutie” moment with Canberra. It wasn’t the first meeting, but it was the defining meeting. It wasn’t love at first sight, and the first few years were definitely more of a love/hate relationship. I both loved and hated my newfound “freedom” of the first few years living away from home. I missed my family and friends; I missed the hustle and bustle of Sydney; and I missed coming home to a hot, home-cooked meal by mum.

In the first year, I was back in Sydney almost every second weekend. My social life still very much revolved around my Sydney friends. I was back for every birthday or milestone celebration, and I still had my own room at my parents’ house that remained exactly as I had left it.

A friend once told me that you become a true Canberran when you start defending Canberra to interstaters... and I remember a (Sydney) friend’s wedding where I was a bridesmaid and in being introduced to give a speech, the best-man MC joked that because I was from Canberra, people better speak slowly so I could keep up…and when I let out a sarcastic, “ha-ha, very funny” when I didn’t think it was funny…I realised I had started to fall in love with my new home city.

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Also, like when you move onto any new relationship, the first few months are a feeling of guilt – feeling like I am betraying my “first love” of Sydney…then when you move on, you start to notice things that you never noticed before about Canberra. Like how green it is; like how wide the streets are; like how friendly the people are.

When in the early stages you become the annoying one that won’t stop talking about your new love. Especially when I was travelling overseas, I would show-off about my home city; a city that is home to some of the brightest minds in the country; a city that has the resources of a big city with the heart of a small country town.

Then you settle into a comfortable sense of belonging and togetherness. I started giving up planned weekends in Sydney because there were things happening in Canberra that I didn’t want to miss. I started to get annoyed at the traffic and traffic noise whenever I did visit Sydney; and to yearn for the quiet and relaxed lifestyle of Canberra. I would do the annoying comparison: “It takes how long? But in Canberra that would only take 20 minutes!”

Now don’t get me wrong – like with any loving relationship, Canberra and I have our tiffs. For a few years in my 20s, I was waking-up every Monday morning at 5:15am to teach a 6am Body Combat class, and quite a few months of the year it wasn’t the easiest thing to do at -2 degrees. Also, you’d be hard pressed to find many places open after 6pm on a Sunday or Monday…

However, the good stuff definitely outweighs the little annoying stuff. I love

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Most of all, I love the opportunities that Canberra has given me over the last 23 years. From an 18-year-old first year law student, through to my aerobics instructor “hobby-that-turned-into-a-part-time-job-at-uni.”; my first job in the law (as a dictation typist in the summer holidays between first and second year law school); through to government and private practice, academia; and now politics; from bad and good boyfriends; through to a house with a not-so-white picket fence in the suburbs with a loving partner and toddler…my life has changed so much during my time in Canberra.

It is the place where I grew into a mature, professional adult making my contribution to the city I love.

It is the place where I met and fell in love with Nathan, and it is where we settled in our first home.

It is the place where I had my daughter who will always call it her birthplace.

Canberra – it’s not always easy to love you but I do.

Elizabeth Lee: https://www.elizabethlee.com.au/ elizabethlee.com.au

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Day 10 Petra: In my many beach visits to Jervis Bay on the South Coast of NSW I crossed paths with this fabulous creative duo Kara & Aaron. They live the ultimate fantasy ‘off-grid’ in the bush and work in their beautiful studio – De Lancey’s.

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Petra: What is the story of your shop and your way of approaching it as a shared creative space?

Kara & Aaron: De Lancey’s was conceived with the simple vision of an old fashioned ‘atelier’. An Atelier is an open workshop and retail space that gives people the opportunity to witness the ‘dying’ trade of leather and purchase directly from the craft-maker.

When the first ripples of the pandemic lockdown started in NSW, we were permitted the time to sublimate this vision and built the tiny shopfront - opening in Huskisson late October 2020.

The delight in the customer’s face is part of our payment, as we believe the relationship between the public and the makers has sadly been all but lost in our modern world.

Petra: What’s the dream?

Kara & Aaron: Many of the Indigenous languages don’t have a word for ‘work,’ so they have borrowed ours. We don’t like to think of our profession as ‘work’ - it sort of implies you’d rather be doing something else. Naturally we are not exempt from these feelings, but being our own masters gives us the liberty to put the tools down and walk away.

The dream is to continue managing a lifestyle that involves a healthy balance between ‘work’ and play. When it becomes difficult to distinguish between the two, you can be pretty sure you’re doing a good job of it.

Petra: What is it like to live in Jervis Bay and being part of the community?

Kara & Aaron: The natural environment in Jervis Bay has to be one of the most inspiring components of existing in this part of the world. It is absolutely breath-taking in beauty and primordial spirit. Although many parts of the Bay are seasonally empty due to the ‘BnB’ boom, there is a strong underlying community bound to this place in one way or another.

The long-time locals are important to the story we have to tell here. They inspire we younger locals to maintain beliefs and keep the Bay a protected and sacred place.

Petra: What shaped and inspired you on your creative life journey?

Kara & Aaron: We both had our own connections to art and creativity as young children - Aaron’s mother, being a folk musician, and father, a goat dairy farmer.

He grew up on a small holding, learning to live off the land. He found music and many of the crafts of yesteryear, including leatherwork, during his journeyman years away from university. When he finished his degree, he threw it over his shoulder and became a craftsman.

Both of Kara’s parents are artists - her mother is a Hungarian oil painter and father, a multidisciplinary craftsman and leather worker by trade. Tasmanian born, where she also grew up in the bush, living naturally. She trained with her father during her early twenties when she serendipitously met Aaron through an old friend. You can make up your own ending.

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We both knew that there would be no other way to exist without creating things with our hands. We were lucky to meet each other and carry the passion for art and natural living together.

Petra: Why is maintaining traditions important to you?

Kara & Aaron: Traditions exist for a reason. We can’t forget our history; it has shaped us.

We would not have survived without them. The old world and its traditions hold some of the most important and beautiful methods for living a humble life in our time.

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Petra: What are the pleasures of slow life?

Kara & Aaron: Enjoying the ability to sit amongst nature and sip your tea slowly. To bond with wildlife and witness the seasons - something that is only possible through permitting ‘time to be present’. To grow your own food, plus building, making soap and ‘singsongs’.

All these things require life to slow down and what pleasure! We could not imagine anything else!

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Petra: What really matters to you?

Kara & Aaron: Family, community, environment, love, presence.

Petra: What brings you happiness?

Kara & Aaron: Surfing at Caves Beach, Booderee, as the sun sets, the rocks turn pink, and there’s no one around except maybe a dolphin or two!

Making something for someone that they will truly value for a long time. Nobody makes heirlooms anymore! It is a gift to know one’s work has this purpose and can be valued for what it’s worth.

Petra: What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Kara & Aaron: The misery borne by those less fortunate. However, life is not without its reason and misery is only in the perception of the beholder.

Petra: What would you change if you could?

Kara & Aaron: A world with more balance.

Petra: Which single word do you most identify with?

Kara & Aaron: ‘Bing-bong’!

De Lancey’s: De Lancey’s: https: //www.dhupunuru.com/ dhupunuru.com

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WAYNE KRAUSE

Day 11 Petra: Wayne Krause is an indigenous artist from the Wiradjuri Language Group on the South Coast of NSW where he practices his own culture, and these are some of the stories he shared.

Petra: What’s the importance of the stories for you in your art?

Wayne: The importance of the story in my art is that the pieces contain a couple of different stories. One is the traditional cultural story which relates to Country; the other is the land and what is going on there. For example, I might paint an emu nesting. The painting might show the emu sitting and resting, but it would also show that she’s watching her babies. Both relate to the Country, but the painting would also show what Emus can eat and therefore how she’s educating her babies.

So, we can all see and learn from this.

Also, in my stories I like to show the land and the way it moves. Again, using the example painting, there would be a little bit of growth in this story, but there's not a lot. This is because where I come from, there used to be lots of trees; lots of growth about. Now they've been all ‘planted-out’. There’s less and less and less and so, fewer growth about. So, I show that in my stories as well.

Petra: I've noticed that the naked tree shows up in almost every picture. Is this the environmental message you put in your art?

Wayne: Yeah, don't let the Country become bare and dead and desolate. If we keep on going the way we’re going, we're going to find that the land is going to dry up and we don't want that! We want the land to come back with green growth. If we’re not careful, the way we're farming the land and cutting down the trees, we'll find ultimately that in the countries we love the most, no one will be living there!

Petra: It’s really sad to see where the environment is heading. I hear people who: don't believe in global warming and changes in the weather; and doubt that there are consequences to how we treat the planet. What do you think the role of art is in spreading awareness about these issues?

Wayne: I think it's very important. For me, the role of art is to show from the artist’s perspective what they're seeing. That's how, and why, I like to paint. I like to paint my cultural story, but also to tell about the land. So, if more people can see that, then they should realize also what’s happening.

Hopefully, this might make them go and think, but at least they they've seen it. If they never see, hear, or speak about it, they're never going to know about it.

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However, the land is changing and yeah, the environment is getting warmer and if you think about it we’re getting less water.

Think about the droughts, when a couple years ago some towns out west of New South Wales had to go and cart-in the water. Why, because it's too dry, and why is that? Because too many trees have been cut down; too much of the environment has been taken away, as well as too much underground water. So, I think that by showing them this through art and magazines and the like, the Yarns Magazine, it's going to help spread a bigger message.

way. It’s different to what I’ve been taught on the cave walls and in the traditional style.

I'll leave it to those who follow the traditional style for those actual stories to be done exactly that way. My stories are done in the way that I see as a better way to portray my stories for the present.

Petra: Also, you’ve been painting murals on buildings. Are they all in Queensland?

Wayne: All up in Queensland. In Eumundi, on the Sunshine Coast, I painted a café.

I've also painted a mural in the games room of the Pacific Paradise Resort where we painted out the whole inside. There was a stormy outlook, like looking from a cave, which was quite good. I quite enjoyed having done that stuff. As usual I incorporated my spirits

Petra: So, can you explain a little about the more common traditional Indigenous art to which most are more familiar?

Wayne: Well traditionally, the ‘dot art’ comes from the various ‘indigenous countries’ that spread throughout Australia where it was done by putting dots on the ground to show the land; the way the land moved; and the vegetation of the land.

That's the original intention behind the ‘dot art’. With our body paintings, the dots were mostly to show guys knowledge, or represent all the birds that you see as they go. But for the artwork that you see that came from the deserts back in the seventies, they were basically from the desert art, which was originally done on the ground, and then put onto canvas. It's still being done.

Petra: Would you mind telling a little bit more about the spirits, their meaning, and how you incorporate them?

Wayne: These are the spirits that I go and see. I see them when they're walking around me. I see them in different areas and places. I like to portray them with the person coming up in the back. They also show movement within my pictures. If I can show that the spirits are moving and alive in my pictures, then it's going to say well look - the spirits are everywhere. It doesn't matter where we are. They are spiriting here with us now, yeah. If I can show it in my paintings in this way, it’s my

Now when we talk about traditional, what is traditional? I see that I've been doing my stuff here for a long time, but society changes and the environment changes. So, when does that stuff become traditional? The art just mentioned is all that we've grown up with - it’s a part of my tradition. So, putting my traditional stuff from what my grandfathers have gone and taught me into my stuff, becomes traditional as time goes on.

So current stuff is still like traditional art there's traditional symbols and traditional artwork in there, and traditional stories with it, except that it's done in more of a way that I feel I can share that story better.

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Petra: Do you feel like you have a sort of peaceful and flowing life being connected to everything around you, physically and spiritually?

Wayne: As in peaceful, I wouldn't say it’s exactly peaceful because there's always things which you go on; things that you have to look at and deal with. You can see those things in a different light. Spiritually we are connected to everything. It doesn't matter what and where; the clothes I'm wearing; the car that you drive. We’re connected to everything; everything’s got spirit. Even though it is in a modern form, we’ve still got spirit.

You’ve just got to go and look at it as that way. For example, your car's your baby and it gets you about places. So, when your car’s sick, what are you going to do with it? You're going to go and fix it up aren't you; you’re going to go and do something to make it better. So, we do the same thing with folks. When we're sick, we go to the hospital; we're going to go to the doctor; or we going to do something else to get better. So, the spirit is everywhere. It doesn't matter where we're at.

Now my inspiration goes and comes from all those things.

Looking at the way the spirit goes and works with, and within the environment we live in; within the communities we live in.

It would be good to see more people going that way and understanding that that's the way that the spirit works because I believe the more we go that way, the more things will become harmonious.

But again, it's still just about how countries and people work. I think it doesn't matter where we're from, we're all connected. If all of our people, and when I say our people, then this time I say, everybody - no matter who we are; because we all come from the one place (although some of our people don't believe we come from here), no matter what nationality.

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Petra: What’s the importance for you to be part of a community that shares stories and passes them on, and the importance of them?

Wayne: Ah, it's very important to understand your connection to the story, and to under understand your relationship when you found that story is also very important because that story is all that we have. Without that story, we have nothing - so that story becomes us. We make that story as we go, and then put them into play every day. So as our lives go on, we are making our stories and as long as we keep the stories going our other generations will keep going too. We want them to be fulfilled with those stories because it helps life; it helps us to grow in life; and it helps us understand everything else around us in life. So, for the community to understand their stories is very important, they need to know where we're coming from and to where we're going.

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CHATEAU MCELY

Day 12 Petra: As both an Australian and Czech artist, I feel it is important for me to showcase elements from both my lives. This is the story of one of the places in the Czech Republic for a truly romantic escape - the Eco Hotel Chateau Mcely – the stuff of which dreams are made.

With my family life now in Australia, I have been able only to grab a few weeks during Winter to spend some Summertime in Czech visiting my family there. However, when my son was little, I did not want to travel without him to embark on little adventures visiting old familiar places, or to explore yet to be discovered new ones! Being away from Czech for most of the year, I found I have developed a different kind of appreciation and need for the beautiful fairy tale country where I was born and grew up.

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Petra: As both an Australian and Czech artist, I feel it is important for me to showcase elements from both my lives. This is the story of one of the places in the Czech Republic for a truly romantic escape - the Eco Hotel Chateau Mcely – the stuff of which dreams are made.

With my family life now in Australia, I have been able only to grab a few weeks during Winter to spend some Summertime in Czech visiting my family there.

However, when my son was little, I did not want to travel without him to embark on little adventures visiting old familiar places, or to explore yet to be discovered new ones! Being away from Czech for most of the year, I found I have developed a different kind of appreciation and need for the beautiful fairy tale country where I was born and grew up.

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On one such trip, I felt the need to be pampered, and for extreme privacy and serenity. This is how I found the now magnificent Chateau Mcely. The Chateau stands high above the surrounding countryside, just a short distance from Prague with magnificent distant views on one side and a romantic forest behind.

This historic Chateau has had a colourful and chequered history; some key events are: • the Chateau was constructed in 1653 by Count Jan Kristian of Valdstejn; • according to old records in 1849, the Virgin Mary appeared several times to three little girls in the small field between the Chateau and the historic 16th Century Baroque Church - nine years before a similar event in Lourdes (The Visions of the Virgin becoming known as the “Mcely Miracles”); • used as headquarters for the Nazis during WW2; then, • left dilapidated for many years and on the list of Endangered Monuments until 2001 when purchased by the current owner Inéz Cusumano; and, • magnificently restored to its current glory by Inez and her spouse, James, and re-birthed to open in 2006 as Chateau Mcely,

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Back to my visits, from first arrival, everything has been simply exquisite. Some of the personal things that I love about the Chateau are: it has its own herbal beauty range; the little lip balm with a positive note left on the bedside table; the fluffy white bathrobes; and custom-made functional ceramic objects placed throughout the living space and bathroom.

I love also quietly walking down the majestic staircase into the garden; sinking into the soft cushions of the most comfortable chairs; ordering a G&T before dinner; and watching the sun go down, and the families spending special time together. Another unique pleasure is wandering, wrapped up in my fluffy white bathrobe, on the narrow, winding path, through the wonderfully maintained gardens and past the lavender and hydrangeas, to the eco pool and the fabulous spa. An extra-long massage with a rose oil after is the cherry on top.

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I usually don’t devote enough time to a self-care, but in this beautiful tranquil place, it’s easy to let worries from the outside world disappear, and become immersed in a world of beauty, peace and serenity. Also, for me it’s always a time, while in my own company, to recharge and reflect on my life in Australia and dream up the next chapters.

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I can’t wait to be back with my family, and maybe try the one hundred candle dinner in the golden room for a change!

Chateau Chateau Mcely: Mcely: https://www.chateaumcely.cz/en chateaumcely.cz

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JUNK & DISORDERLY ANTIQUES

Day 13 Petra: When I came across an article about 16-year-old, Brodie Allen, I knew I had to meet him and capture the story of his beautiful new shop in picturesque Greenwell Point on the NSW South Coast. In these unprecedented times, it’s fantastic to see people carving a brand-new way for themselves.

Petra: What's the story of your shop?

Brodie: The old owners of the shop had been there for 10 years and decided it was time to retire and travel around Australia in their camper, i had been coming into the shop for years and I saw an opportunity to start my own business.

Petra: What’s your connection with the land and area?

Brodie: I was born and bred in the South Coast, and I've been here my whole life. It’s all I really know, and I don't plan on leaving anytime soon.

Petra: What inspired you to venture into this type of market?

Brodie: Growing up, my parents were always collecting and venturing out to find the next cool/unique item to add to their collection, I really just followed them and started getting my antique eyes honed-in at a young age.

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Petra: How do you perceive yourself compared with your peers?

Brodie: I don't see myself as being any different to the people around me; I've always felt myself as being on a ‘level playing field’.

Petra: What do you love most about your job?

Brodie: Probably the social aspect of it. I love interacting with new people every day; hearing their stories; where they come from; and how they come to be where they are now. When people come into my shop and find something that reminds them of another time, hearing things like ‘I haven't seen one of these since I was a kid’ - you see them light up a little inside.

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Petra: How important is the community?

Brodie: The community is the most important part, and with such a supportive community in my area, it really has had a positive impact on me.

Petra: How important is supporting local artists and creatives to you?

Brodie: It's one of the more important parts of the job, in my opinion, Whenever I get the chance to help out a local artist/creative, I always try my best to help them as much as possible. Without them, the world would be boring and bland!

Petra: Where do you see yourself in a few years?

Brodie: Same shop, same people, same attitude and maybe a house and a couple of nice cars!

Junk & Disorderly Antiques: https://m.facebook.com/Junk-And-Disorderly Junk & Disorderly Aniques: facebook.com/junk and disorderly antiques -Antiques-100210235837438/?_rdr

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THE OUTSIDER GALLERY

Day 14 Petra: The Outsider Gallery has been an important part of the Regional Canberra tapestry. This interview with artist Gunther er Deix celebrates the timeless value of his creative life journey and the ongoing impact of the Gallery.

Petra: I know you're a painter and you also had a fascinating story coming from Europe to Australia. So, how did you come to Australia?

Gunther: I flew to Melbourne as a chef, spent time in the Bonegilla Migrant Camp outside Wodonga, and then flew to Sydney where I started working. I found a flat in Paddington which was just up from the famous White City tennis courts and a house which later housed a gallery owned by the renowned Chandler Coventry. This became a landmark in Australian gallery history, but at that time, had little significance for me until I discovered art, refined my talents and many, many years later exhibited there!

Petra: How did you get interested in art?

Gunther: I was never interested in art having never visited a gallery in my life before coming to Australia. Actually, I didn't know art existed - I didn't even know anything about any artist!

So, when I came to Australia, I was still not interested in art. However, as I lived in Paddington, I got involved with people there and in Bondi who were poets and writers and musicians. So, by association

got a little bit interested, but didn't take myself too seriously as I was a chef.

Petra: What about writing and poetry?

Gunther: I used to write poetry and tried to write books, but as I couldn't spell properly, I felt there was no point.

Still, I just kept writing the same story and improving on it time and time again, but nothing ever came of it. However, I continued and told myself that I was going to be a writer. Then I looked at the stories I had written and showed them to my (now former) wife, but she hated them. So, in my time with her, I destroyed several typewriters and pipes, smashing them on the wall! Then, I thought to myself, there must be another way to be artistic and creative and so maybe I can change and that’s when I came up with the painting part.

Petra: So, when you were living in Paddington, were you aware about the cultural significance of the location?

Gunther: No, it was simply a flat where I started my new life alone in Australia. I worked in a psychiatric hospital for quite a few years as a chef and then in the city at what was then the Farmers / Grace Brothers Department Store. From there, I worked at the Bourbon and Beef Steak, then a famous Sydney nightclub. I was going all the time. In a way I was very unaware of what was going on around me. I was aware of music and trends and Day 14

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stuff like that. Then, I met my (former) wife and six months later we got married and we had two children, but the marriage wasn’t happy and after six years we separated, and I became a single parent to my two sons.

It was during the early part of this time that I started to dabble in art. It became quite an obsession - so much so that it created a very important desire for me to be a full-time artist. I was particularly affected by one of Australia’s most famous artists, Norman Lindsay, who lived in the Blue Mountains. Although we never met, it was a black and white reproduction of one of his works in a local newspaper, the (then) Daily Mirror, that on opening the page and looking at it, made me say to myself: ‘that’s what I want - to paint nudes!’

Petra: Turning to you as an experienced artist, I've noticed that a lot of artists cannot embrace the public. Why is that? Is it the fear of judgment?

Gunther: Yes, I think many are afraid of the public in a way. We hide away from the public and create in a room and then when we have all the work that we wanted to create, and we take it all and go to a gallery and hang it on the wall for everybody to come and criticize it. That's what we are afraid of as artists that we are being criticized and torn to pieces by those incredible critics - call them art critics; call them food critics. You know most art critics couldn't paint a picture to save their life.

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Petra: Did you have this fear and how did you overcome it?

Gunther: I initially had this fear. To explain how I overcame it, I must go back to one incident when we lived in Annandale. Because of this fear, when I first started to paint, I painted in the garage. In order to get rid of it, I took myself out into St. Johns Rd., the very busy street where we lived, and painted on the footpath. Sometimes in summer it was so hot, I would put ice-water in a baby bath and stand there with my feet in the water while I painted. The heavy traffic would go past and people would say things like: ‘Oh, what a lot of crap, why don't you give it up!’

Then, one day I painted the portrait of a guy who had a shop just around the corner. I had almost finished the painting when the wind blew, and it fell flat on its face. So, I had to scrap all the paint off and start all over again. Then dogs came along and peed on the work and cats came along and trampled all over it. Next ladies came along, and people who complained, because there was a school on the opposite footpath, that I was painting nudes. So, I took everything back into the garage. But that's how I got rid of my fear, I faced the public.

Petra: Also, it seems many artists don't really know how to sell themselves properly in the art world – so how did you do it?

Gunther: Yes, I agree. I don't paint pretty paintings or landscapes to order for people. I don't usually paint portraits, but if I do, it’s on my terms. So if people don't like them, they don't buy them and I keep them. I have never compromised with my work, my art ever. You know money was never an issue as I never had any! I'm not very familiar with social media, I'm a hands-on person. So, I had to face the public when I decided I had to promote myself in Bowral and Mittagong when I lived in Mittagong for 14 years.

As I didn’t have a car, I used to walk the seven km. from Mittagong to Bowral wearing a hat with feathers. That was my signature thing and I got to be known as the feather man, the hat man, and the heart man. We had a District Art Society which was pretty much important in local art and for local artists. However, I was always talking to the non-initiated, the lay-people. People who weren't interested in the ‘establishment’, because I was always on the footpath. I was always in the front of people, in their faces constantly.

Petra: That's a really romantic picture you painted about what it is to be a true Bohemian artist.

But you didn't need to be approved by anyone to be an artist. Is it the mistake that you think some artists make now? Is it part of what keeps them away from creating?

Gunther: Oh, I feel a lot do, but it's just part of life. Some people are able to stand firm and follow their own dream in their own way, while others just follow other people's dreams. They have a dream which merges with other people’s dreams, and that’s how they function. To me it’s like giving in and ‘going with the flow’. They paint for the public; I never paint it for the public I paint for myself.

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I believe there is an analogy between what the artist does and real life. Like in your art, you can change the brick building; you can change the picture - nothing is certain; nothing is fixed. In real life you create your own life story, be it good, bad or indifferent and if you understand that you can change it. I do it in my pictures; I do it in my things, drawings, etchings, whatever I do. This is creating my life and I live in it; I live in my creation. When you see my work, it’s like you are sitting in my brain, basically surrounded by my brain, whenever you, or anybody who comes here, sits in my brain, it's my soul.

I never went to art school, I never studied art. The only thing I ever studied was etching because you're dealing with acid. I did this for six months and then I stopped going there as I had held an exhibition prior to that and sold enough work to buy myself an etching press. It’s the press that's the important part because the more you print, the better you get at it. I felt I could do it best in my own studio, not at school, because in school there are other pupils. As I just wanted to print, I was too selfish. I was hogging the printing press all the time because I worked at home where I did my plates and then went to the school to print them all. So, nobody could get to the press which was obviously very selfish. That changed my thinking and so I went in another direction.

Petra: So which media do you prefer more – printing, or painting?

Gunther: The most important art form in my life is drawing. Drawing is number one.

I can draw anytime, anyplace anywhere.

Petra: Does it make you happy when you draw?

Gunther: I love it, let's put it that way. I don't know about happiness; happiness is a strange phenomenon in one’s head. You cannot be happy; you cannot become happy; you cannot aim for happiness; you can only end up in happiness, it's a state of being.

Petra: So, do you see creativity as a spiritual experience?

Gunther: Creativity is a spiritual experience and when I go back to the bush where I was for a time, I had some incredible experiences there spiritually. I was so desperate at times, because I didn't know what was going to happen. The things that I experienced they were just fantastic - it was magic. I don't create spiritual paintings as such, but spirituality is in my paintings everywhere; even in the nudes, because what's a nude - we are all born naked.

The Outsider Gallery: (02) 6236 6160

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HEIDI MARJA NORMAN

Day 15 Petra: Creative people can often face many challenges in their relationships as they try to develop and express their creativity. This is the story of Heidi Maris Norman who had to move across the other side of the world to achieve this. Ultimately, it is a story of love and hope.

Heidi: Yes, Love is exciting. Love comes in different ways. It has different shapes and forms. Sometimes Love comes into your life when you least expect it. It is a meeting that is so strong, one does not know what to do. That's how it was for me. It came into my life when I least expected it. I was not ready for a new boyfriend, and I did not expect that any man would enter my life either.

The year was 2018, I and my then-husband had struggled for several years. I had tried everything to keep us together because we had to be together for the sake of our children – ‘Right’? At least that was my truth. However, four days before my birthday, he said again that he wanted a divorce. It was one of the most crushing blows of my whole life. What would happen if I do not have him in my life? How would I manage without a permanent job; without a fixed income; and my business that was not going so well at the time? I wanted to have a summer vacation with our children first because I did not want them to suffer from our misunderstandings. So, I told him – ‘let's talk about it if we both still feel the same way after the vacation’. We went to Sweden for a camping trip from my native Finland with a couple of friends and I still noticed that the atmosphere between us was very tense. I did not like it.

My heart wanted to go somewhere else. I remember my sister telling me that August 4th is a ‘Love Heart Tantric Evening in Finland’ and she wanted me to join her and said to ‘not miss it for the world’. She said it was ‘magical’ because she had attended it before. So, I asked my (then) husband if we could go to Finland instead. He said: ‘No’! I asked if I could go. He said ‘Yes’, and even bought me the ticket to go. My daughter went with me, and my eldest son went with him to Norway. Everything went pretty well.

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I was with my sister for seven weeks. We did yoga every single day because, for me, yoga has been an incredibly important part of my life since I understood the magic of yoga. I also held yoga classes for neighbours in the garden. We did MediYoga which helps cleanse everything that is in our body and helps processing different issues. Then one day it struck me, I no longer missed my husband the way I did before. I realized he was right all along - we had grown apart. In meditation, I saw that he came in front of me, and I cut the ties between us. When I had done meditation before, he used to stand next to me - but this time it was different. I saw him walk out the door. However, it was not just he who walked away - over a hundred other people walked out at the same time. At that moment I realized that I was now ready for a divorce.

I was in the woods when I decided to really get a divorce. I was walking with my sister when I suddenly stopped in my tracks and confessed to her that I wanted to get a divorce.

It was now clear to me that our relationship had not been good for several years. My sister understood and told me that she had never seen me be so committed to my decisions before. We went home and I sat and played a little with the idea of the Law of Attraction. I had a thought that if he is not my husband anymore, then what do I look for in a man? Who is my dream man? I started to write down my thoughts, and I came up with a "good, warm, friendly, kind-hearted, easy-going, spiritual, easy to talk to" kind of man - a yogi.

August 4th came, and I went to the event that my sister had urged me to attend for a while. As we had been to a water park all day, I was not very keen on going, so I asked my sister if we could make the visit short because I was really tired.

It was then and there in that event that I met the one who crossed all the boxes that I had written down two days earlier. When our eyes met there was such a deep contact, and when our hearts met, mine burned. There was such warmth that I had never experienced before, and I am still overwhelmed by how strong this contact remains between us. We didn't speak at all that evening - just danced and held each other close. It was amazing because we didn't need to speak - our hearts spoke for us. I felt a deep magnetic attraction towards him that made me agree. I wanted to be close to his heart. I wanted to drown myself in his arms, and for the very first time in my life, I felt home, letting my heart be open and free. He asked for my phone number, but I did not give it to him. He was a bit shocked, but then I told him I'd rather take his phone number than giving mine.

He hurriedly ran for a pen and paper to write down his name and phone number. I went home after that magical event and went to bed smiling. Then in the middle of the night I woke up and felt the urge to send him a message, and as they say: ‘the rest is history’.

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BRIGITA HAMMELL

Day 16 Petra: I had the pleasure to interview a fellow Czech artist about her life in the Czech Republic and after moving to Australia. Brigita Hammell lives in a beautiful part of the NSW South Coast and the strong natural connection she has with the Region is reflected in her artwork.

Petra: What’s your inspiration and creative medium?

Brigita: Well my paintings and even sculptures are really all about people. I draw on moments from everyday life and on my own personal experiences. I've always been interested in people and more about their internal wall - what makes them be them. I like the way they interact with land, each other, pets, or objects around them; and I love to ‘watch their thoughts’.

The ‘thoughts’ are a big thing because as we age in our life, the thinking process also changes, which I observe. They are really the main influences in my work.

I suppose I am more confident as a sculptor because I actually started as, and was, a sculptor for many, many years. Painting just came afterwards. I think when you're creative you just cut into all different areas of art, but clay is very fundamental as a medium for me because that's how my love affair with art started. Now I really like to merge everything that I learned together.

Petra: You’re originally from the Czech Republic, so how did your love affair with art start there?

Brigita: Simply, but the detail is more complex! I was exposed to watching someone. I am an only child and my parents separated when I was about 10-years-old.

That's really when I started questioning my life and what I wanted to do in my life?

I'd been sent for a Summer holiday camp in Dresden for a couple of weeks and part of that involved a visit to a town called Misen which is very famous for the manufacturing of porcelain. There I saw an exhibition of how they produce pottery from scratch; the decorating, firing, and drying. It was a very intimate little venue and it just blew my mind.

I remember coming home and telling my mum: ‘Oh my God, this is where I want to go; this is really what I want to do’! So, that's where it all started. I have a few moments like that in my life. I started two years after that drawing lots and lots of faces all the time. I have little books with plenty of them and every page had a facial expression of someone and all the time, I was questioning why am I doing this?

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one was un-expected. He was an academic sculptor Zdenek Hosek and when he came I went to my bedroom; gathered all my little books with faces; and went to the living room. I listened to their conversation and then he approached me; had a look at my work; and we talked a little bit.

For him, it probably was an insignificant moment, but for me it was very significant moment in my life. It was at that point I connected thoughts of clay and faces, and it all merged together - I wanted to be a sculptor.

This was really the defining moment for me. After that mum always encouraged me artistically, and asked “where would you like to go and study?” When I was 14 I thought I'd apply to an Art School which specializes in pottery, and become a sculptor. I had to sit through a three-day exam and then wait patiently to see whether or not, I was accepted. Luckily I was, which was pretty good as they only took twelve children into the course. For me, this was a very big step because I had to leave home and move to boarding school. So for the first time I had to look after myself. I did art from morning to night because the school ran from eight to five every day and it was a very, very intensive program.

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When I graduated I wanted to continue sculpting and I decided to apply to UMPRUM. I did the tests but I wasn't accepted - they used to accept only one or two people a year. So I started working for the National Museum in the Department of Archeology. I worked as an illustrator and documented archaeological sites. This was good work, but it wasn't really feeding my soul. It wasn't feeding my eternal need to do something with my hands and create. So after I worked there for a couple of years, I decided to go and study at a Master School of Art and Design in Prague. I started, but unfortunately didn't finish as an Australian man stepped-in and we got married and decided to go and live in Australia.

We moved here in 1993, but my English was very poor. So I thought I'd give myself a year and apply to study at university. I did just that and I studied at the University of Wollongong in the Sculpture Department.

After I finished my schooling I really wanted to pursue the dream that I had when I was young which was to create. I wasn't interested in going to study further, I was interested only in being a full-time artist and that's what I'm still doing.

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Petra: You have had the best of both worlds. How has it inspired you, shaped your creativity?

Your new location is like a paradise on earth.

Brigita: Yes, that’s what I found in Australia. The University training really guided me to prepare myself to become a self-working person. However, most of my colleagues stayed within their fields and remained quite dedicated. So, unlike me, they didn't shift as much to different media, or categories of creativity. Yet, they are all following their passions; what they wanted to do.

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It's really also a matter of drive for me, as I did not see myself being anything else in my life. I've just thought that's my path, something I've never questioned. It’s something that I knew for certain. Australia is a beautiful land, but I grew up in Czech in the Jizera Mountains where I was always surrounded by mountains. Here, it is more about the ocean, but Gerringong is very hilly, so I get to look at my hills. I probably still prefer mountains more than the ocean.

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Land is actually one of the fundamental features of my work because I feel that it anchors us. It really determines how we live; how we walk; so many things. If you notice, you will find lots of individual figures in my work. People approach me and keep asking why they're all alone, and why they look so solitary? It's not solely about being alone. It's about being lonely. I believe that when you're lonely, you really listen to yourself. You really listen to your internal world, and become in-tune with your needs. That's what I'm trying to portray, because I'm so interested in emotion, and in what those people are experiencing in their life.

So for me, painting solitary figures seems very logical as I thoroughly enjoy it. I do my walks alone, and this just draws me in. I see important things about the land which is also really important to me. I have two children with my second being born here, so her roots are in Australia. This is very important for my story because I feel now I belong here.

Petra: Do you travel much?

Brigita: I do, last weekend I was in the Blue Mountains. I've got a very adventurous husband, so he always takes me to places because he thinks: ‘Oh, you can't just stay at home all the time, you have to get out’. But it's the life of an artist; it's the solitude to be at home and produce. I love how by the end of every day I can say: ‘Oh, I've actually produced something’, and that's what feeds my life.

So while I’m bit of a home-body, luckily I've got my other half who doesn't allow me just to sit at home.

Petra: How do you manage your creative isolation?

Brigita: I never really mind it, although I do feel a bit like a hermit after three or four days in the studio. I think: ‘Oh, I really need to get out!’ So I do my walks, and if I want to socialize, I socialize. However, I am very aware of my priorities and where I feel the most comfortable which is being surrounded by my art, and by people whom I love. I switch everything off when I'm at home. I love my own company and really, I never get bored. I don't know what boredom is.

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I think what I found in my work is it’s meditative. To me, when I go to the studio it's my ‘Zen’ space where I feel surrounded by calmness. So, it actually encourages me to go there more often and enjoy my work. Maybe because I spent lots of time alone as a child, I had lots of time to think and I've become used to that loneliness where my own thoughts are my company.

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Petra: On your creative journey, how do you get your ideas?

Brigita: In my paintings they just come. It feels very strange, like a channel to somewhere ‘up there’. I constantly get all these ideas, and I feel like I am a ‘medium’ and I just put them on a canvas. So, emotion is a really big part of my life, and I think most of the people who connect with my work can read the emotion within it. Simply, if I think about it, or if I'm trying to research; to get the ideas - it doesn't work. I have to wait until it comes to me.

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Petra: How important is confidence in the journey of an artist?

Brigita: I think confidence comes with age - at least that’s what I’ve found. My confidence came later in my life when I was in my twenties. It takes trust that it will come, but you just have to wait it out.

It's really a viking life, a waiting game.

However, not everyone is lucky enough to wait it all out. Another very important aspect of an artist’s life is you need to be surrounded by people who understand the creative process, because if you live with someone who doesn't, there is a very, very good chance that you're not going to withstand the waiting game.

With my husband it was funny, because when we married in my twenties, we had a deal. I told him if I made this dive and moved to Australia, it would be a massive sacrifice for my life because I'm an only child living with a single mum. I said he would have to let me create; educate myself; finish what I started. He said: ‘I got it, I will do that. I'll provide that for you’. So he understood that it's very, very important for both sides to understand this.

Brigita Hammell: instagram.com/Brigita Hammell

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MALY SCRUGGS

Day 17 Petra: When it comes to human stories of connection to a place, family, and being courageous enough to follow your dreams, former Cambodian Refugee, Maly Scruggs’ story turns into a real fairytale. Here she tells it all.

Maly: I’m a romantic at heart. I have always loved the idea of love - from watching all the Disney movies growing up; to reading romance books as a teen and into adulthood; and watching repeats of Meg Ryan classics such as ‘Sleepless in Seattle’, and ‘When Harry Met Sally’.

Growing up, my life felt very far from the stories I read and watched. My family and I moved to Australia after a year spent in a Thai Refugee camp. I was only a month old when we arrived. We were Cambodian Refugees who had fled the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge. Like many others - my parents, grandmother, brother and my sister suffered through four years of concentration camps, mass genocide and the loss of future generations. My dad alone lost his parents and nine siblings in that time. My mum lost her oldest sister and was separated for decades from her siblings.

The trauma my family has suffered will be felt for a lifetime and more.

I grew up in a predominantly White suburban neighborhood in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne. Being one of two Asian families in the community, we had our fair share of struggles with racism to being poor, but my family tolerated it. They loved their new home and country. Anything was better than starvation and death.

However, I found myself living two separate lives. The one in my household that was strict and demanded perfection in every aspect of life, where I was scrutinized about my appearance, my school grades, how I spoke, to whom I spoke, and what I was allowed to do. The other, where to my friends and the public, I was whatever I thought they wanted me to be.

As I grew into my teens, I became resentful of the things I was not allowed to do talk to boys, read books about love or romance, and go to mixed gender parties.

Also, I couldn’t bring friends over because I was sharing a room with my illiterate, non-English-speaking grandmother.

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Apparently, my grandmother’s father raised her and her siblings himself after her mother died at a young age. He forbade her to attend school in the case she learned to write love letters to boys. Rumour has it that she was the most beautiful young woman in her village and so he was overly protective of her. She ended marrying my late grandfather - a handsome, decorated soldier who fought with the French Foreign Legion. He passed away just after my parents wed and well before the war in Cambodia even started.

When I was 17, I was entered into a pageant. My mother could no longer tolerate my tomboy ways and felt it was right for me to be presented to society. Unexpectedly, I placed second and so was forced into the limelight. Much to my dismay (and disgust), I had marriage proposals from several families who saw me as an acceptable match for their sons. This carried on for a couple of years with one family owning a bakery and so giving us free bread weekly. When the matchmaking fell through, so did our carb!

By the late summer of 1999, I was 18 years old and waiting around for my first year of university to start. I had been accepted into the BA, Fashion course at RMIT. Getting into the fashion industry had always been my dream since I was a little girl.

My parents didn’t want me to go into a creative field, especially fashion. They wanted me to pursue an occupation like a doctor or pharmacist. Unluckily for them, fashion was in our genes. My mother trained as a dressmaker/tailor before the war, and my great uncle was an amazing tailor who had royalty and politicians as clientele. After coming home from her factory job, I would watch my mother in the evening cut and sew the most beautiful clothes for family and friends. Even though we had a turbulent relationship, she was, and still is, my inspiration.

One evening I came home to find my sister on the computer typing to her best friend who lived a few suburbs away. We had only just installed the internet in our house and the program she was using was called ICQ, the first instant messenger program I had ever seen! Growing up I was part of a pen-pal program and wrote to friends around the world. It was all by mail and there were times a letter would take 3-6 months to arrive. The ICQ program was a life changer to someone who was stuck at home most days. That night I created an account - a decision that altered the course of my life as I knew it.

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I’m a social person and like to meet people from all walks of life. I came across a name and bio - ‘20yr old, male, American’, that I thought would be interesting to contact. So, I wanted to say ‘hello’, but instead of pressing the button to respond, I accidentally pressed random and lost his account. At that time there were already millions of users, so the likelihood of getting him again randomly seemed very slim. I didn’t remember his ‘handle’ but remembered a quote he had written. As, my sister who sat beside me this whole time, was just as invested in getting his account back and so we commenced searching the net. After the second time of random searching, we decided that if it doesn’t come up on the third go, we will move on.

Fortunately, his ‘handle’ came up and without hesitation I asked: “Hi, how are you?” We spoke for eight hours that night. I learned that he was in the US Marine Corp. and was stationed in Okinawa, Japan (later returning to Hawaii where he was completing the rest of his 4-years active duty). We had the same CD collection and enjoyed similar topics. Somehow we found respective ‘ears’ that we felt comfortable enough to trust with our thoughts and secrets.

This was a time where the internet still ran on dial-up modems and there was no such thing as a camera on the computer. Also, there was no Facebook or Instagram to stalk for pictures, or even Google to find past information. All we had was conversation! Over the course of three months, we went from using ICQ daily to sending emails and the very expensive international calls from a pay phone.

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One day he asked me how I felt were he to use his last leave from base to travel to Melbourne to meet me. By this stage he knew my history and I, his, however, we still didn’t know what each other looked like. So, in agreement, he booked a ticket to visit. Once the ticket was purchased, we decided it was best to send pictures of ourselves. We used handheld cameras that required photo processing. So, we had our films developed and sent them to each other, but only to be opened when we both received them at the same time.

On opening his, I didn’t want to admit it, and never said a word, but I was already falling for this guy.

My sister and her best friend came with me to the airport to pick him up.

This was a time when you could sit at the gate. After a 7-hour delayed flight, the guy who walked through the door was exactly the same as the person in the pictures. That was when we met and fell in love. He returned overseas, completing his military service and was Honorably Discharged as a Sergeant.

Unbeknown to me, my mother was seeking advice from a psychic who told her that she should stop looking for a husband for me as I had already found him (information that was only shared with me decades later). My mother was thoroughly confused as I didn’t have a boyfriend. That night ‘shit hit the fan’ and I was kicked out of home for several months.

However, there is a happy ending to this story. My man returned to Australia for a visit at the request of my parents and ended up having the family fall in love with him, even inviting him to stay with us for the rest of his trip. I then travelled to the US to meet his family. As this was my first time on a plane that I could remember, I took my sister with me. When we left the USA, he came along too. He made the choice to study in Australia and give our relationship a chance. Two years later we got married. Thirteen years later we decided it was time to live closer to his family, so we moved to Portland, Oregon.

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Now, married for twenty years we have two beautiful American born sons (6 and 3) and a Canadian bred Scottie dog named Thane. Our adventure will continue as we start the next chapter by returning home to Australia in 2022.

Through the best of times and the most trying, I still love the idea of love. Trusting my heart has been my guiding light.

Thank you for letting me share my story.

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HALL FAMILY ORCHARDS

Day 18 Petra: Every year I wait with excitement, like many, for the start of our delicious Cherry Season. This year I decided to venture into a special, award winning, organic farm, focusing strongly on ‘regenerative’ farming, in the cute village of Wombat near Young in New South Wales.

Petra: What makes your farm so special?

Chris: We are a family farm and every aspect of the business involves all family members, which really is no different to any other family farm. However, we have flipped our approach from a conventional way of growing cherries to a regenerative farming approach that involves the elimination of chemicals and focusses on soil and tree health.

Petra: What is your background and how do you integrate it onto your farm?

Chris: I am a third-generation cherry farmer who has worked alongside my grandfather, Jaspar Hall, and father, Trevor Hall. Like many cherry farmers, I have the ‘lived’ experience by following in the footsteps of my grandfather and father.

I also have a Bachelor’s Degree in Horticultural Science. This has allowed me to push the limits when it comes to growing cherries by flipping from conventional ways of growing them with multiple control agents, to one that is ethically driven and chemical free. Subsequently, I have completed several postgraduate courses.

Lee has a Master’s Degree in Clinical and Forensic Psychology, and has spent many years working within NSW Heath and in private practice.

Petra: What are some of the unique processes involved in growing your cherries?

Chris: We are growing export quality cherries without the use of chemicals.

We use nutrition to develop a healthy tree that has its own immune systems capable of fighting off disease, insects, etc.

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Petra: What are your comments on traditional farming and approaches to working the land compared to yours?

Chris: We were growing our cherries the traditional way I was taught, and so thought that this was the way. It was not until I obtained my degree after leaving school, and coming back to the farm, that I started to see the importance of alternative methods. So I started to push the limits and experiment. I have continued to invest in learning new ways of growing cherries, especially the development of flavour and firmness. The most recent drought was a catalyst to accelerate change.

Chemical residue testing is something about which all food growers need to be mindful. Export markets are now testing for them, and validly restricting fruit grown with such chemicals as they are not good for human consumption. As a result, the markets will continue to reject fruit containing such residue and if farmers are not looking at ways of controlling fungus, insects, etc. without chemicals, they will see their markets reduce as consumers increasingly seek the healthier alternatives. At the end of the day, it is also about farming ethically without chemicals that are not approved for cherries, and growing cherries that are full of the nutritional benefits that made cherries famous.

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Petra: What about the impact of bees and wildflowers?

Chris: Biodiversity is essential. The wildflowers we plant around our orchard play an important part in encouraging beneficial insects which control the destructive insects such as aphids, earwigs, and cherry slugs. Beneficial insects include lady beetles, lace wings, predatory wasps just to name a few.

Bees have recently been introduced to the orchard on a full-time basis, not just to pollinate the cherries in September, but also, to pollinate a variety of plants throughout the year.

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Petra: What are you working on now?

Chris: We are continuing to build diversity both above ground, with more flora and fauna, and below ground, with beneficial microbes deep in the soil profile that will continue to increase the secondary metabolites in our fruit. Secondary metabolites are extremely important in building the immune systems in the fruit so we do not need to use chemicals. These immune boosting compounds can be passed onto us when we eat the fruit.

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The better the flavour of the cherries; the better they are for you. We have discovered the best way to get flavour is to follow Mother Nature’s natural process - the use of beneficial microbes above and below the soil, and not to kill them through the use of nasty chemicals.

Petra: What does a cherry famer’s day look like?

Chris: There are so many ongoing tasks to keep the days full during the year like: lots of pruning after harvest, and watering; making compost for next season’s crop; making and spreading worm compost extracts; and foliar fertilizing where nutrients might be found deficient.

Petra: What about the ‘joy’ of picking your own cherries?

Chris: We’re not sure if you would call it ‘joy’. However, it is a very popular experience with people driving from Sydney for the day to ‘U-Pick’ cherries. We introduced this feature to our customers as a unique experience in an Export Quality orchard. We have loyal customers who come each year at the same time to ‘U-Pick’ and numbers are increasing each year.

We have asked many customers why they chose this over having them professionally picked, hydrocooled and optically graded?

Responses have included that: it’s ‘a gift for family and friends, picked with love’, to ‘it’s a thing to do on the bucket list’!

Petra: What is your dream for spreading your work and farming knowledge?

Chris: In 2019 we won NSW Farmer of the Year – a joint initiative of NSW Farmers, The Land, Safe Work Australia, and NSW Department of Primary Industries. In the same year, we won the National Carbon Cocky Award for ‘Demonstrated Improvement in Carbon Management in Horticulture or Viticulture’, and we were a finalist in the National Carbon Award.

These have given us a platform to educate others on how we have changed our approach to growing cherries. Chris often speaks to others in the field, and we have several schools coming to the farm on field-trips to learn more about how we are changing our focus from ‘conventional’ to ‘regenerative’.

Hall Family Orchards: hallfamilyorchards.com.au

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RAINER MARIA RILKE

Day 19 Falling Stars Do you remember still the falling stars that like swift horses through the heavens raced and suddenly leaped across the hurdles of our wishes—do you recall? And we did make so many! For there were countless numbers of stars: each time we looked above we were astounded by the swiftness of their daring play, while in our hearts we felt safe and secure watching these brilliant bodies disintegrate, knowing somehow, we had survived their fall.

Buddha in Glory Centre of all centres, core of cores, almond self-enclosed, and growing sweet— all this universe, to the furthest stars all beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit.

Now you feel how nothing clings to you; your vast shell reaches into endless space, and there the rich, thick fluids rise and flow.

Illuminated in your infinite peace, a billion stars go spinning through the night, blazing high above your head.

But in you is the presence that will be, when all the stars are dead.

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Evening Love Song Ornamental clouds compose an evening love song; a road leaves evasively.

The new moon begins a new chapter of our nights, of those frail nights we stretch out and which mingle with these black horizontals.

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Evening The sky puts on the darkening blue coat held for it by a row of ancient trees; you watch: and the lands grow distant in your sight, one journeying to heaven, one that falls; and leave you, not at home in either one, not quite so still and dark as the darkened houses, not calling to eternity with the passion of what becomes a star each night, and rises; and leave you (inexpressibly to unravel) your life, with its immensity and fear, so that, now bounded, now immeasurable, it is alternately stone in you and star.

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Heartbeat Only mouths are we. Who sings the distant heart which safely exists in the centre of all things?

His giant heartbeat is diverted in us into little pulses. And his giant grief is, like his giant jubilation, far too great for us. And so we tear ourselves away from him time after time, remaining only mouths. But unexpectedly and secretly the giant heartbeat enters our being, so that we scream — —, and are transformed in being and in countenance.

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