Indulge me in the alliteration of this title! This will be a mixed bag of tumbled thoughts starting with The Art of Storytelling. This morning I took three of my grand-daughters to a Terrapin Puppet performance called Love at our beautiful Theatre Royal. Not sure about the girls, they were all very quiet, but I absolutely loved it! As I sat there entranced by the skill of the two actors and Oslo the endearing puppet, I was caught up in the magic of theatre and the art of good storytelling. Just two actors, Oslo and some clever mixed media effects told so many different stories all linked by the theme Love.
I found myself comparing it to what we do on Louisa’s Walk – Chris plays multiple characters as they did. We use simple effects including mime as they did. The result is very engaging in both Love and Louisa’s Walk. The message is very memorable. Finnegan Kruckemeyer (the author of Love) is a very talented writer.
Our application to join the SmART Map produced by Arts Tasmania was recently rejected because it was felt we were not really theatre but more “Animated Storytelling”. In my opinion the very best theatre is exactly that – animated storytelling.
And now to swallows (don’t you love this modern tendency to break the rules and start sentences – even paragraphs – with “and”?) I was once told by a farmer’s wife, who knows about these things, that our lovely Welcome Swallows return in the first week of September. I was delighted to see them flitting around near my home at Blackmans Bay beach last week and then, on the same day, at the Cascades Female Factory. Whenever I see the appliqued birds on the Rajah Quilt I think of swallows though I am not sure if this is what they are meant to be. Welcome Swallows – aptly named.
So to Spring. Is it your favourite season? Apart from the wind I think it is probably mine. I can’t wait to get out to the garden after the winter slumber and get my hands really dirty. I plant things much too early and have to replace them a bit further down the track after the soil has properly warmed up but I don’t care! The Cascades Gardens through which we wander on Louisa’s Walk is particularly beautiful in this season; magnolias, azaleas, rhododendrons, blossom, it’s all there for your eyes to feast upon. Come on Louisa’s Walk, bring your camera and enjoy.
Spring is a Beautiful Time in the Cascade Gardens
