Hangin' Out With Doggies

31/10/2024

Stories By The Sea at Killcare Beach Kiosk on Mondays. All welcome, including doggies - because storytelling is for everyone, all ages, not just for children.

Thank you soooooo much Lisa Doolan and Lola for showing me a far better way of doing things. And thank you also to all my invisible friends who showed up as well. Life is much richer knowing how rich and deep life is - as Kevin the Sheep so artfully showed us yesterday.

🙏🍂😊🐞❣

28/10/2024

After chatting to some parents, 3.30-4.30 Tuesday and/or Thursday afternoons is best for this truly delightful thing of reading books to children - and to the mothers and fathers who bring them, seeing as reading aloud is one of those simple pleasures in life we all benefit from.

About me: I'm a past librarian, a current art therapist/writer/ reader/artist, a great lover of books and good writing [the very best writing and art is often to be found in kid's books]. I have a current Working With Children Check.

Cost: $10/child, negotiable if you're on a fixed income. First session is this Thursday. Please PM me if you're interested.

The first book we'll be reading is The House of Happy Spirits, a children's book inspired by the Austrian artist, architect, ecologist, philosopher, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, written and illustrated by Geraldine Elschner and Lucie Vandevelde. Hundertwasser is an inspiration in soooooo many ways, including his love of colour and intelligent, earth-loving design.

All welcome. Many thanks, Karen 🐞😊🍂🐣🐦🦄

24/10/2024

22/10/2024

Imagine how stunning this will be printed on metal. Aluminium will allow the vibrancy of the colour to bounce off the walls of your beautiful home when the sun shines through your windows onto this work of art.

Contact me if you're interested in purchasing this artwork.

30/09/2024

All my artworks are for sale, printed at sizes to suit your home and your pocket, on photography paper or Arches. Without my name splashed across the top, one must be just a little bit subtle. 😊

08/09/2024

And sometimes ... today, for example [which was actually yesterday and will be tomorrow] - we have to make the best of a bad bargain, as my Mum used to say, and choose our battles wisely as other wise human beings have advised me, and just pull up your big girl panties, as my friend, Jax, is so fond of saying.

And to look at time and timing and the seasons of things.

Timing: the choice, judgement, or control of when something should be done - e.g. one of the secrets of cricket is good timing.

We shall see ...🐞🍂😎🐦❣🌱🙏🐾💦🌟

24/07/2024

PhoebeBell & Señor Meerkat, having a gentle waking into the world - celebrating having been chewed up and spat out by the WW and turning it into a flower to munch on instead. As one does, as one must. And then a walk in the world with Villain in Levin and Ghost Doggie Ricky, courtesy of Villain's lovely owner, Mark.

16/07/2024

Tomorrow is one year since Ricky, much loved doggie of Lucy, and my best doggie friend, went to meet Dog-God.

He's no doubt been sniffing everything imaginable, with his 76 thousand extra sniffery senses than other doggies. Being part beagle, part foxie, 100% himself, a free spirit, wandering where he will, loved by all. Well, mostly all ...

Such a very great joy to have known you, my friend. I miss you. I love you. Thank you for bringing me home and for bringing me to NZ, this stunningly beautiful country. We will light a Jewish memorial candle for you, which will burn for 24 hours. Such a beautiful way to remember and honour you for the great doggie you are. 🙏🥀🐕🐾

06/07/2024

Bright & beautiful birdies on Bell's ball in Wreys Bush, NZ.

27/05/2024

I'm very happy to announce that, courtesy of the lovely DDeborah Buckleyand AAurora Klimowicz I'll be conducting poetry workshops at their beautiful home, AAngel Sussurriin Yarramalong when I get back from NZ [Nzud].

Below is a poem I wrote many moons ago, after my mother died and I thought all my dreams had died with her and I half wanted to die too.

I dedicated Woman of Dreams to my Mum and to Sr Agnes Hopper who taught me science at EEx-students of St Joseph’s College. Lochinvar, NSW as strong women who encouraged others to pursue and achieve their dreams. And to survive life when it gets hard, when we feel we've lost everything dear to us. Which is never true - there's always more love and beauty and good people in the world, even when we've lost those we love the most. 🎷🧩🕊🦋🫧

~ Woman of Dreams ~

There once was a woman,
from a far away place,
from a time long ago,
who dreamt herself old with dreams of regret,
dreamt herself a figure of ice with dreams of fear,
dreamt herself a statue of stone with dreams of hate
and dreamt herself dead with dreams of lost love.

There once was a woman,
not in a far away place,
nor from a time long ago,
who dreamt herself young with dreams of love,
dreamt herself bold with dreams of possibilities,
dreamt herself whole with dreams of children
and dreamt herself alive with dreams of adventure.

There once was a woman,
who was both you and both me,
she dreamt wild dreams,
impossible dreams, unlikely dreams,
silly, crazy, mad dreams.

And she wove them all together,
with fine thread and long string,
with bright coloured ribbon,
with wishes, with prayers,
with words and with song.

She dreamt all her dreams,
she watched them all grow,
played with them like kittens,
stroked them like small puppies,
sang to them like baby birds,
and fed them like children.

She planted her dreams,
nurtured her dreams,
moulded and sculpted and carved her dreams,
out of the bare rock of existence,
the warm earth of her life,
the force of her soul
and the love from her heart.

This woman -
this dreamer of dreams,
who is both you and both me,
she dreamt her dreams
... and she moved softly towards them.

© Karen Adler, 1998

06/05/2024

* Hi lovely humans. I'm going to NZ for 4 months, 1st June-1st October. I'm subletting my beautiful little nest in Wagstaffe while I'm away.

It's fully furnished, spacious, colourful, one bedroom + an art/sewing room that doubles as an office, a verandah that works as an outdoor studio space. The rent is $650/fortnight including bills. I'm asking for a 4 week bond + references. I love living here so I'm careful about who I'll sublet to. I need someone who'll love and respect this space as I do and make it their home while I'm away.

Please PM me if you're interested.
🙏🍂🐞🐦🌱🥀

*Update:
The lovely Jocelyn who was going to sublet unfortunately can't. Several people contacted me but I can't find your names. If you're still interested, pls PM me.

05/05/2024

Though I walk through the valley of death ... eek ... no, that seems a wee bit melodramatic ... anyways, thoughts and prayers as per all US presidents who say exactly that after every school shooting ... oops, also a bit dark ... alternatively as my ever-eloquent, let's-not-waste-words brother, Desie, says, 'there there, you'll be fine' ... pls wish me good luck, good vibes, healing bubbles, white light, fingers and all other bits crossed , virgins sacrificed etc for today's very minor [i like to emphasise the 'minor' side of this, lest i scare the crap out of myself] operation ... thanks everyone who's already called me and calmed me and cared and Margaret who's loaned me tiny little Buddy - Danyavad xx

And gratitude also for all the women and men and children who came out in the cold, grey day to yesterday's March for Women. It was a wonderful thing to see and be part of. And yes, actions need to follow words.

19/02/2024

Thank you Jeannie Lawson for introducing me to Ginninderra Press. They've been delightful people to deal with, have taken the terror out of putting my poetry collection out into the world. Stephen Matthews, in particular, is a joy. And I love that this is their ethos:

'We believe that all people – not just a privileged few – have a right to participate actively in cultural creation rather than just being passive consumers of mass media. Our culture is revitalised and enriched when everyone is encouraged to fulfil their creative potential and diminished when that creative potential is stifled or thwarted. We love to observe the transformative possibilities for people when they see their work published and acknowledged. Getting published can and does change lives.'

And thank you also, to Coast Community News for this article celebrating the birth of my book - not necessarily the birth of God. It's good to be able to tell the difference. 😊🙏❣

28/01/2024

Gratitude ... for surviving the pitfalls of my own mind ... and for all the people who've encouraged me and supported me when I've been drowning in self-doubt and loss of faith. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I hope some of you can come to my poetry book launch at Killcare Beach Kiosk. But if you can't be there on the day, I'd love it if you'd contemplate buying a copy of Giving Birth to God.

Pitcher Plants and Pitfall Traps*
[with thanks to David Attenborough]

And how will I save myself this morning?

I will use my lifeline into the past ->
Be thankful for small mercies,
be grateful for small miracles,
my mother often told me.

So I give thanks
that I’m not the hapless fly
an unfortunate passerby
supping sweet nectar
at the lip of the pitcher plant
all abuzz with pleasure and delight
all innocent, not yet forlorn
celebrating my good luck
not giving a f**k
thanking Beelzebub -
my Lord of the flies -
for my great happenstance
doing my little happy dance
on the lip of the pitcher plant.

That slippery slope
all bright-coloured
and narrow-ridged
and sweet nectar-laden
coated with smooth wax
too smooth for even the hairy legs
of the grateful, thanks-giving fly
to grab hold
to hold within its grasp
its footing on the slippery slope
the bright-coloured
enticing
pheromone-laden
lip Of the pitcher plant.

Little pitchers have big ears
my sainted mother also said
my sainted mother now long dead
Saint Mum
- as I once ruefully said -
to my not-yet-sainted Dad
who was not-yet dead.

The fly, scrabbling madly for a foothold,
slips
- inevitably -
Into the open maw below
full with flesh-dissolving liquid
rich in enzymes
ever-waiting, ever-ready
to receive unto itself
another sacrifice
live and sated
with food
Free-given
left at the threshold
On the slippery lip
Of the ever-generous pitcher plant.

Live and sated with sweet nectar
but now sad and fat with regret
the fly loses its grip
looses its hold
On its reality
free falls into the abyss
dissolves into its bliss -
Saint Fly
Saint Beelzebub -
both saint and sinner
human-like in this manner
in these matters
of life and of death.
©Karen Adler, 2022

*The Tropical Pitcher Plant, or Nepenthes, is a highly complex and refined bug catcher. They are carnivorous plants that eat insects, trapping them using modified leaves known as pitfall traps, which are vase-shaped and filled with nectar that acts as a digestive fluid. Prey is drawn into the pitcher traps and digested by the plant's enzymes.

https://www.ginninderrapress.com.au/store.php?catalog/search/karen+adler/date/1

10/01/2024

I made this beautiful little creature last night. art is always what I turn to when i need some answers. and i always do - find answers, that is - even when i don't really expect to or when i'm making something purely for the pleasure of making and designing and choosing elements, collage-like in the process of layering, cutting and pasting and making disparate parts into a coherent whole. it always amazes me what the resulting piece says - to me, from me, about me. it *always* surprises me! isn't that a truly amazing thing?

danyavad from the very bottom of my heart.
🙏❣🕊😊🐾🍂🐦🦋🪶

03/01/2024

And some mornings, you just need to find an old and blurry photo to remind you of the sheer delight in being alive and being part of life ... Tongan children at Emerald Multicultural Festival, 2011

31/12/2023

To whom it may concern,

I wish to highly recommend Karen Adler as a home sitter. Karen was kind enough to look after our home and our much adored Airedale dog while we were recently overseas for two weeks. Our home was well taken care of and our dog was walked, fed and loved in our absence. We would most certainly use Karen's services again in the future.

Kind regards,
Franki Pollick
..

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

We are pleased to speak on behalf of Karen Adler who house-sat for us and cared for our two golden retrievers during our recent trip up to Queensland. We found Karen to be a very reliable woman who kept in contact with us during our travels and who maintained the house in its spick-and-span condition as well as exercise the dogs. We have arranged for Karen to house sit for us again and have no hesitation in recommending her to anyone seeking a reliable and responsible house-sitter. Should anyone require further information, please contact us on 0427 385 112.

Peter & Judy White
...

Karen Adler house sat for us in January 2011.

She was also responsible for the care of our much loved pooch, Lottie, who adores attention and walks. Karen excelled.

Karen was perfect for the job. Certainly the house and garden were maintained but for us and most importantly we had absolute faith in Karen to care for the dog.

Her qualities are numerous. She is reliable and responsible. I believe Karen also has the maturity and life experiences to cope with difficulties if they should arise. She is respectful of others possessions and privacy. She listens carefully to directions and strives at all times to fulfil the expectations of the position.

I have no hesitation in recommending Karen as a housesitter/pet-carer.

Merridy Childs

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