A short break, followed by a lot of activity

I spent the weekend before last in Hobart for a conference and while we were kept busy most of the time, I did have a room with a wonderful view of the water including Constitution Dock where the Sydney to Hobart yacht race finishes around the end of December. It's the smaller dock on the right, not the larger one straight ahead.

This was the view from my window on what at first glance seemed to be the 16^th floor, but since there was nothing between Mezzanine and 10 and no 13^th floor, was much closer to the 8^th floor.  Nothing wrong with the view and I suspect the room rate is much higher around race time.

We had an expedition up the river by ferry to MONA – Museum of Old and New Art.  It’s a new privately funded gallery set up by David Walsh who according to the publicity, made his fortune gambling and then used it to build MONA. Fantastic building  built down into the cliff with lots of exposed stone.  Most interesting range of exhibits, some more confronting than others, but not many textiles.  There was a bench covered with what appeared to be a felted fabric with lots of mohair locks hanging from the surface, it growled as you went past it.

The conference ended with a dinner on Sunday night and I was on a late afternoon plane home on Monday – about 90 minutes later than it should have been as it turned out.  I spent Monday exploring the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery as well as the local shops.   Hobart is the base for the Antarctic program and there were some excellent displays especially about some of the early expeditions.  The people on those expeditions must have been really tough to survive the conditions with the very basic protective clothing from the time but I was pleased to see that the Mawson expedition had taken their trusty Singer treadle machine with them.  I suspect for repairs rather  than dressmaking.

Once I arrived home there was a lot of weaving activity to get the works in progress out from under wraps and finished in time for the show but all was eventually completed, packed and posted on time.  More about those next time

Helen