Choo Choo Train etegami.

I have been busy today making a couple of etegami to send to Japan to be included in a 'traveling' exhibition. My friend Shungo passed on an invitation to send three etegami which will be displayed in a commuter train in Gunma prefecture. I am thrilled!
My very first native Japanese correspondent, Hatsue Chiba was the organizer of this event in past years but sadly she fell ill and now it has passed into other hands.

I have decided to make one rather 'cheezy' Aussie one featuring my favourite kangaroo mailperson (she has a pouch!), hoping it will appeal to the commuters and another with my favourite summer flower the frangipani, hoping to cheer them in the cold weather. The third one is an etegami I made some time ago of an emu, a cheeky,pugnacious and inquisitive Australian animal with a very direct gaze, maybe he will shock the travelers out of their morning sleepiness.

Are we there yet?

Much as I deplore the commercialization of our holidays and the 'celebration creep' that sees  Valentine's day  merchandise displayed almost immediately after Christmas only to be followed  by fluffy bunnies heralding Easter, I have been moved to make a couple of etegami to send to friends even though it is  weeks away. I could argue that a handmade card is non-commercial but I have to admit that I am just as sucked in as most people by the hype. Another excuse also to make a stamp.
I was a bit dismayed that the new stamp pad I purchased with the assurance that I could paint over it is a complete failure, one drop of paint and the stamped image bleeds so I have resorted to pastels to colour the image.
Another reason to make a Valentine this year is that Debbie has put out a call for cards on her mailart gallery HERE which will be posted next month.

The quote on the second card I found in a book,"People of the Book" by an Australian author Geraldine Brooks,an author who came to fiction through her many experiences as an overseas correspondent. In an interview she was asked where the quote came from but was unable to attribute it, I am sure it is a pearl of wisdom from a wise person. The Prof liked the card (he usually just grunts when shown them) for the wheat stamp, he being a plant geneticist who has been very involved with the wheat industry. As I type I am listening to a book called "Wheat Belly" which trashes wheat as a food and blames all of the ills of modern man on the 'nasty' grain which has been meddled with by scientists! He is not amused! Don't even get me started on "Gluten Free".

"Green grow the persimmons Oh"

Checking on the fruit on the persimmon tree in the front garden has become a daily ritual. I am looking for the first blush of colour that will tell me that I must gird my loins to take up the fight against the pests who would deprive me of this luscious fruit.
Sadly the only blush to be seen so far has been on my own cheek when I see some of the misshapen fruit  the tree has produced this year (see previous entry).
It always surprises me when someone says they don't  like persimmons but I suspect their aversion is due to "mouth feel". "mouth feel" is a technical term used in the food industry to describe the feel of food in your mouth (imaginative little beggars aren't they?)  Some people describe the flesh as slimy but to me it is manna and I am marking the weeks 'till they are luscious and rosy orange and melt in your mouth.
Until then dear reader I will content myself with my fantasies and a kind of etegami countdown (and an admonition to myself)!

Just a little Willendorf moment

One of my most prized possessions is the persimmon tree in my front garden, every year it produces masses of fruit which is shared between the fruit bats, the fruit fly and us.
One of the really delightful things about this tree is that it occasionally goes a little crazy and produces fruits like this, a perfect replica of the Venus of Willendorf. I could not wait until it ripened to a fleshly hue as those aforementioned pests may carry her off prematurely and that would be a shame.

The original venus looks like this...

 

I have had a delightful day, a visit from son and granddaughters, the weather is cool, the man came about the nasty smell of sewage permeating the house (it was a blocked drain in the street)...ahhh, I love civilization! Then I spent a lovely afternoon carving a Scotch thistle stamp and making an etegami to wish my Scottish friends a good trip.
I have as usual mangled the words of the poet and I apologize to the shades of the great Robbie Burns.