Diabolical Clay

I am linking up with Shae at Yay for Home’s,”Things I Know,” meme again this week.

Things I know this week are:

I know that if you tell a politician’s office staff that you get your news bytes from twitter they will treat you like you are a nutter.

I know that if I then write a blog post about how stabby that made me, the numerous hits from the parliamentary library and various other government departments in Canberra will amuse me no end.

I know that if you google “Dick Adams” my open letter to Dick Adams features fairly highly in the search rankings and that amuses me as well.

I know that thinking too deeply about politicians also makes me stabby.

I know that today is Friday and I promised my grand daughter that I would take her to the museum today so I had better get my shit together and turn off the internet.

An alternate title to this post could well be Dick Adams staff don’t care about his constituents opinions.

Dear Mr Adams,

Yesterday I decided to ring your office in Perth, Tasmania and voice my concerns about the offshore processing of refugees.

Your own website Mr Adams clearly states that

My priority as the Member for Lyons is to listen to the community and work in the best interests of all my constituents.

As your local Federal Member of Parliament, please feel free to seek assistance from me if you have any enquiries in your particular area.  My priority is dealing with those issues that are directly related with Federal Government such as Centrelink, Veterans Affairs, Health, Immigration, Superannuation to name a few.  I know there are other issues that cross all government boundaries and I am happy to help with those as well.

So I felt pretty confident that I could ring your office, politely tell you that I was concerned about the offshore processing of refugees and then I could happily go about my business, secure in the knowledge that my federal member was listening to me.

What I didn’t expect Mr Adams was your female staff member to be extremely condescending and dismissive of my concerns. I did not expect to be rudely asked where I had received my information about the governments refugee policy. I certainly did not expect to hear a tone of condescension and incredulity when I told your staff member that I receive my information about current affairs via twitter.

Twitter? She scoffed, as if I had just said I received my news bytes via the fairy telegram service at the bottom of the garden.

That was the end of the conversation as far as the office lady was concerned, I could hear the derision and laughter in her voice as she dismissed me as another bleeding heart, lefty, greenie nutter.

And that stung.

Way to go Mr Adams.

I would like to remind you Mr Adams that it is the 21st century. It is also the 21st century in Tasmania.

I use twitter as my main means of information gathering about all world events.

I tweeted my displeasure at your offices condescension and dismissal of my concerns to my 3000 + followers

My tweet was then retweeted by two twitter friends within Tasmania with a combined following of 4000 + people.

You do the maths Mr Adams, three people in Tasmania with a follow count of 7000+ people between them, tweeting the one message.

That is a lot of fairies at the bottom of a lot of gardens.

Yours in despair,

Kim Ponds Rock

Southern Midlands.

Happy Fathers day to all those fathers out there and HAPPY SPRING to me. We have had blues skies and slightly warmer days and joy of joys the birds are nesting.

I have pardalotes digging  a nest burrow near my front door which makes me extraordinarily happy.

The honey eaters are busily gathering cobwebs from the outside of  my windows and under the eaves of the back door. I haven’t managed to photograph the honeyeaters yet as they are seriously fast and flitty.

I was really surprised when a pair of Welcome swallows flew into the studio on Friday.  As we are up in the hills and have a much later spring than those down in the lowlands, the swallows used to always arrive on Veronica’s birthday  in early November. Each year they would arrive a little bit earlier until it wasn’t uncommon to see them up here flitting around hunting insects in the first week of October. To see the swallows this early is amazing as they are a month ahead of schedule.

Last year the swallows made a nest underneath the sisalation in the roof of the studio. At the time the studio was still being fitted out as a proper work space and it didn’t really matter if I left the roller door open for them to come and go. This year it will be a different matter as it is a proper working studio now and the swallows and I will have to work out how best to share the space.

I took these photos last summer.

I took this photo as I was at the sink doing the dishes. The glass in my kitchen window is very old and it has given this photo a lovely wavy effect. This is a Green Rosella eating the flowers on my flowering currant.

The forest Ravens are having their annual turf war in the skies above my house. There seems to be a small patch of sky that is very desirable and three opposing groups of Ravens are busily chasing each other out of this piece of sky. I love watching the Ravens but they are another bird that are very hard to photograph as they are seriously wary of The Spouse and fly away at great speed whenever he goes outside.

Each group has a sentinel in a tree watching out for danger as well as providing a Dennis Cometti style running commentary on the action in the sky.

The Blurb

I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selections” title.

Link back here to me.

Easy Peasy.

This week I am linking up with Shae from Yay for Home for her “Things I Know” weekly meme.

Which is so simple it is beautiful, all I need to do is share the things I know and link back to Shae and check out the other bloggers that are joining in.

I know that I have been meaning to join in with this meme for months now but I keep on forgetting that it is on a Friday. Time just slips through my fingers as the days race by merging into one another, and I always think I will join in next week. Next week is finally here and I dreamed about writing this post last night.

I know that the internet is full of  lovely people that come out of the ether at the perfect time and give me heart. Tim is one of these people, he sent me an email in response to my, “Cardboard has no soul” post. Tim’s simple words and beautiful photo of his cardboard sculpture cheered me up no end, after a particularly cutting comment had floored me. Tim’s email put a lid on the looming pit of depression that had been in front of me, threatening to swallow me up and I am seriously pleased that Tim spent those few minutes writing to me.

you must cram the soul back in2 the cardboard….from the lost souls of the trees,.., like a forgotten secret hidden in a shoebox deep under your bed………..

I know that an angry post blasting a bullying troll, full of swear words and written in haste will get more comments and page views than the much more important post written about dolphins being slaughtered but I don’t really know why.

I know that since my mum died I have struggled with depression but I don’t like to talk about it for fear that if Iacknowledge it, the depression will win and suck me into a pit of doom.

I know that small things make me incredibly happy and the sight of two pardalotes digging a nest into the bank, close to my front door made my chest swell with delight and I skipped around the house having little *squee* moments.

I know that depending on my mood I call myself a potter, ceramic artist or ceramist but it all means the same thing. I turn mud into art and get exceedingly messy while I am doing just that.

Thanks Shae for this opportunity to share some of the things I know

I didn’t want to watch the documentary, The Cove. It wasn’t high on my agenda as ideal background noise as I faffed about on the computer after a long day at work.

But inertia won as I was loathe to get up from the coach to find the remote.

So I finally watched The Cove because I was too knackered to change the channel.

I don’t know how to describe how I am feeling today.

I think I am in a little bit of shock still.

The film was very distressing

Even though I knew the dolphin slaughter was coming I was unprepared for the psychic impact of hearing the dolphins distress.

The sound of dolphins screaming isn’t easy to ignore.

I honestly dont know if I have the energy to focus on dolphins as well as all the other horrible things we do as a species.

We have a long list of awfulness to our names.

The Australian Kangaroo cull comes to mind then there is the factory farming of domestic animals.

We can also own up to the practice of shooting Brumbies from helicopters.

Designer pets and puppy farms. Sharks caught soley for their fins and then thrown back into the sea alive.

Poisoning of our wildlife with the horrific 1080 poison.

The list goes on and on.

But for the moment I am trying not to listen to the echoes of dying dolphins in the back of my psyche.

You can watch the cove on ivew if you missed it.

You can donate to Save Japans Dolphins

Or you can google any of the other appalling things that I have mentioned here and then come back and tell me what you think we can do.

I don’t know what I am going to do as I haven’t had a deep think about it yet.

Our planet is at tipping point. The ocean is in crisis.

Where the fuck do we think our grandchildren are going to live if not here on this dying planet?

We need to find some solutions today people. Not tomorrow.

Otherwise we wont have a tomorrow.

I am rushing to publish this edition of Sunday Selections before I have to race out the door and spend the day in the Off Centre Gallery.

Here is a sunset especially for Jientje from Heaven is in Belgium.

Jientje sent me a lovely piece of handmade lace that she made that was inspired by the Tasmanian sky.

This next set of three were all taken last summer. These are gum leaf skeletonizer caterpillars. They are poisonous and will spit at you but I quite like the cranky little things.

The Blurb.

I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selections” title.

Link back here to me.

Easy Peasy.

Is Bianca Blackhall.

I quickly snapped a couple of photos of Bianca’s work through the glass at the Off Centre Micro Gallery as I was keen to share this young artists work.

I think Bianca Blackhall will be an artist to watch out for in the future.

Bianca writes,

This art is my examination of modern culture and the garbled cross overs of belief, opinion and lifestyles.

I am amused and horrified by the contradictions of our society.

This art is the product of that examination

Enjoy it.

Bianca’s work will be on show at the Off Centre’s Micro Gallery, ground floor, Salamanca Arts Centre until Wednesday the 31st of August.

Please mouse over the images to read the title of Bianca’s work.

Otherwise my head might just explode and that would be very fucking messy.

Some people are just arseholes. There is nothing you can do about their inherent arseholiness other than stand by with your mouth agape and wonder where on earth they learned their low life skills.

Australia, the lucky country, the land of the fair go, home of the tall poppy syndrome.

Where if you start to shine a bit brighter than all the other stars out there some lowlife will always come along and decide to start throwing a bit of mud.

anonymously of course

*sigh*

Well,
what can I say. firstly congrats on the wedding, Really, you drug your child at 3 am with panadol, didnt you watch today tonights segment on the effects of medicating our children for a “good” nights sleep, oh thats right you have sold out to ACA and Kellogs for a measly few words on allergy free breakfast. Luckily – you didnt make an “idiot” of yourself.

Selling out? Where on earth has all this talk about selling out come from? Veronica has always had advertising on her blog and has always worked with brands.

Drugging her child? For fucks sake.  Amy was sick. You use paracetamol to reduce fever you idiot. You of all people should know that.

I am seriously grumpy today internet. Mainly because I am 99% certain I know who the anonymous arsehat is and that makes me very sad as well.

I am going to play in the garden today because I need to have my hands in the soil. I need to earth myself so that all the negativity is absorbed by the universe instead of fizzling around inside my head and fucking up my balance. And if you scoff at that as old hippy nonsense well then anonymous that is your loss and I advise you to remember that Mammon is a poor excuse for a  god.

I really should follow my own advice to Veronica when dealing with arseholes, which is to stand a little taller, square your shoulders and be secretly pleased that you chose today to wear your teflon shirt so that the shit these arseholes fling, just slides right off.

But I am having a bit of trouble with that advice right now.

Deadshits.

I have been getting increasingly annoyed with the level of spam that I have been bombarded with lately. So I thought I would republish a post I originally published in 2008.

Let’s talk about sex.

My spam emails have been giving me a bit of a giggle lately. I have been intrigued by catchy little lines like this gem:-

MALE FEATURE WORTHY OF CASANOVA!

Of course I then opened the email to read this. “Don’t you want to spend your life suffering from your moderate love luger?”

Well no actually, I don’t and more to the point, how exactly does one suffer from a moderate love luger hmmm?

Then there was this, “Love tool deserving of a titan” with the following promise.

“You’ll cause her eyebrows to raise, when you pull out your newly upgraded love gun!”

I think I would do more than raise my eyebrows if  The Spouse’s penis had suddenly turned into a gun.

Another reference to a ‘love luger’ promised, “As it grows longer, she will beg of you to penetrate her flower!”

Ok, so if I am not mistaken, penises  are guns, whilst vaginas are pretty flowers.

So now I can just casually mention to The Spouse that my flower needs shooting, and I don’t even need to say the word sex anymore. I could even yell it out loudly in public, “Jeffreeey shoot my flower” and casual passers by would just think  that I was having issues with the roses.

I just raced out to the shed, camera in hand and demanded that Jeffrey shoot my flower.

Here is his reaction.

Yes, he is looking at me like I am a total nutter.

Rightio now back to the emails.

Then we have the miracle cures.    Add 2 inches to your dick size easily with just 2 pills of our formula per day.

At least this one called a penis a dick, I was getting a bit tired of lugers.

There were promises of permanent huge enlargements of your erect penis. Wouldn’t you get a bit tired with a permanently erect penis even if it was huge?  Well it would be fun initially but I am sure that it would be a bit of a nuisance after a while and if the penis is as large as these miracle pills promise, well then there is a very real danger of slamming your penis in the car door or schwacking it accidentally or even *gasp* receiving a black eye from your own penis.

Phew I am glad I only have a flower.