Christmas ideas - support a local artist

Blackfisharts Gallery is a new place where i have been placing artworks made available and selling now.  It is being regularly updated as i find, record and load artworks. 

A few artworks are up on blackfisharts tasmania site -  there are paintings across media such as acrylic, oil, pastel featuring abstracts, pears and landscape.

and prints, most being one of a kind monoprints or digital. 

Textiles are new to the site - years of slow stitching at night culminate in wall hangings such as these. 

The section Collage includes the textiles due to the way they are worked - a few analogue collages are loaded on the site.

Turos Teszta (cream cheese pasta) - Hungarian recipe

Turos Teszta - pasta with cream cheese

I love the simplicity of this dish that speaks of winter comfort.  My mum taught me this recipe in my teens when my sister and I had to take turns to cook each weekend.- it is usually made with fettuccini, bacon, sour cream and cream cheese.

I made this dish last night and have, over the. years, adapted it to bring in a range of extras. i dont use a measure and go by quantities i want for the number of people, adjusting the additions accordingly with regard to balance and taste.  

This recipe is well-suited to being a vegetarian dish by leaving out the bacon and sausage and adding other vegetables.  Questions? ask away.

INGREDIENTS

• Fettuccini - i used Guzzi egg fettuccini (half a pack)
• smoked bacon - chopped into squares
• chorizo - chopped into half circles
• red onion - thinly sliced 
• carrot - chopped into squares or half circles
• mushroom - chopped into small squares
• broccoli tops - finely chopped
• cream cheese - i used 200gms * cottage cheese can be used
• sour cream - i used 200gm

METHOD

• put on a pot of water to boil
• prepare red onion, carrot and mushroom by chopping them into squares or thin circles/half circles and place into hot oil in a fry pan.
• move on to chop the bacon into squares and chorizo into circles and add to the frypan
• add fettuccini and salt to boiling water in pot, cook until al dente and drain
• place cream cheese in microwave until softened
• stir sour cream into the softened cream cheese
• fold the cooked fettuccini into the cream cheese mix then stir in vegetables until well mixed
• stir in most of the finely chopped broccoli
• serve in a bowl with a sprinkling of finely chopped broccoli on top

Jó étvágyat!  

(i wish you good appetite)

Out and About Spring happening

Baby turbo chooks happening all over the place .. these live outside the studio - they started with 6 and unfortunately lost 2 to goshawks.  These 4 have been doing okay - the image was taken 2 weeks ago.  We have kept fallen trees along the edge of the creek which is providing shelter and hiding spots for them.  so good. so cute.

Did you know we have a youtube channel that has a playlist for monthly diary walk arounds and living with fauna (among others). - here's one.  October diary walk 2025 

and this one (September creek after rains)

 

#anyexcuse to take The Diva for a drive

Happy Birthday to V - i took him on a mystery tour encompassing 1.5 hours drive one way, that he guessed just 15 minutes from leaving home.

Seahorse World at Beauty Point - a lovely drive, new vistas to take in and  Aussie eats beginning to our trip - pie and sausage roll. stopped at Exeter Bakery enroute.

We keep getting the signage wrong in taking photos - happy birthday V

The Diva - #anyexcuse 

Spring joy is fast becoming the most stressful time of year

 

Normally we would not see the daily machinations of the native hens (turbo chooks) that live with us however, we have a pair of turbo chooks that have set up house on our front lawn - they have been there for 3 years and have not yet grown their babies to adulthood.  

Its fast becoming the most stressful time of the year for us.  This poor little bundle was picked up by a goshawk, turbo chook mum and i went hollering across the hill and the hawk dropped the chick. If it were not for the talons i wonder if the chick would have survived.  She is now buried under a shrub.  

This little one (above) was part of 6 day old chicks and as of today we are down to 4with one that is hopping having hurt a leg.  Today has been the most stressful as goshawks have come and gone and now a crow has noticed the little one that is not walking well. Mum has chased it away twice and it is just upsetting to think of the battle these little ones endure daily.

a short video here of the turbo babies a couple of days before.

In the chase for simiplicity it becomes complex - where to find me

 if you follow me you may know that i am in the studio every day and work across media including collage, painting, slow stitching, photomedia, printmaking and poetry.

The image above is from my exhibition held at the Wilderness Gallery Cradle Mountain a couple of years ago - acrylic & gesso on paper.  90x110cm framed in a simple genuine hardwood (eucalypt). Images of the works in the exhibition can be seen here.

With over 120 published works of poetry I have created and am slowly bringing the site up to date here. Writing is a big part of my arts practice and poetry is an extension of that writing.  I enjoy mostly short form such as haiku, haiga, haibun, tanka and some free verse. I was fortunate to be a part of a fabulous forum, in the day when there were forums, where some of the world's top poets in short form guided new poets like myself through the maze of information and bias of the various forms. This kind of support in writing and being published was key to the growth of new poets coming through.  I feel most fortunate.  

My site of artworks, blackfishartstasmania, hosts a gallery of works and workshops for sale as well as exhibitions my works have been in and artist statements.  The site is new, and i am tentative, so updating this site is taking time, but it is being done.

There is also my 'studio work' site which talks mainly about works in progress, #getaways, the works of other artists and general musings of this artist, working every day, living in (and loving) Tasmania.

last but not least, this site 'Regents Park' contains the aritst's lifestyle having moved recently to a country property in Tasmania where everything is new to me, new discoveries, learning to live with wildlife proper (turbo chooks, a resident eel, tiger snakes, bandicoots, platypus as well as dairy cow in retirement. #Snowcone.

 In the chase for simiplicity it becomes complex.

oh ... dont forget we have a youtube channel too

and my instagram

I appreciate you being here .... let me know where i can find you - let me know what you think - let me know you visit.    Gina

Sunday musing pre workshop

 Its a beautiful Spring day here - intermittent showers with sunny moments in between.  The Camellia which was planted before we came is in full flower again.  Unusually, i think, its turned two-tone - quite lovely.

The studio is lovely and clean - V & I mopped the floor a week ago - huge job (18x12 metres in and around tables and benches) and i swept it up this morning in readiness for our workshop.  A small group (as i like it) and a day of making this book and this one.

I dont have workshops often as i work a lot on my own projects but i do enjoy when i hold them. Usually they are held in winter or winter's end but i am open to any time of year if groups organise themselves - bring 1 or 2 friends with you and email me your dates if you wish to have a workshop. I have placed the book workshops here.

Updated my poetry site a little yesterday - big job - onward with regular updates to post in one place all my (mainly published) poetry but also some of my favourites.

SIGNS of Spring (again)

The birds, in mobs, are racing around, chasing, being chased, singing and heralding. The creek is high from recent rains, chinese cabbage and brocoli have bolted, the mini nectarine is already in full flower and if there was any doubt at all .....   the wattles are out.

and then there is #Snowcone ... such a sweet girl - our dairy cow in retirement 

find her on our youtube channel here ... and check out this hilarious one where she got out and i had not a clue what to do ! 

took this new addition for a spin today #classic

a lovely surprise  - a great excuse now for regular #brunchdates 

love this car ... lunch at the Raspberry Farm was so good. and the little walk around afterwards was enjoyable in lovely surrounds. 

lovely Rainy Days this month - remembering the flood !

July and we have been experiencing many days and night of rain. we needed it as the paddocks had got very dry, turning wheat coloured over summer.  it only took a couple of days of rain to return to green again and we get these little visitors at night.    image below - link refers to info on the little brown tree frog.

and it was such a nice surprise to find, online, the sound it makes - surprise because i always assumed THIS sound was crickets but it is actually the little brown tree frog. 

It was October (i think) 2022 when the creek flooded - a once in 7 year flood (apparently) ... there is a playlist of flood videos that happened in 2022 on our you tube

hoping it is is indeed once in 7 years ... or longer - we will be fine as the house is up the hill but the studio got flooded and that took 6 weeks to clean up !

love this idea - recipe

recently moved to the country and more natural ways to clean and what is disposed of is top of mind ...we have water tanks and a septic tank which requires gentle cleaning products for it to work well.

a walk by the creek

on a recent walk discovered this lovely flowering - Fatsia Japonica - i wrote about it here.  a winter flowering.  look forward to seeing how big it gets - apparently quite large and wide.

i took photos of this particular part of the creek, from the bridge and came back at night to take shots of around the same area, from the bridge.  

still discovering things along our journey here -the creek has filled a little since we have been getting regular rains - the paddocks have greened over and the wallabies are gathering in large groups during the night to chomp on the grass.

check out this video on youtube of blackfish in the creek 

and i am doing monthly videos (just started this year) - we have been here 3 years and i began the monthly vids so i can notice the differences and changes each year.

looking back - Archie & Kimba (cute ginger alert)

THEN & NOW. Archie on the left and Kimba on the right (in both images)

They came to us as a pair after we lost Harry - a beautiful boy that was with us for a short time (2 years) - a bold, cheeky, independent ginger that was cross eyed, pigeon toed, highly talkative and much loved.   THIS IS HARRY (below)

and so the twins arrived ... Archie and Kimba - such beautiful little souls that have been with us for 4 years now having come to us as very tiny little beings. 

check out the cat run that was built for them - including the early days and planning - the full playlist here - my list of must haves was room to move outside, in the sun, with shelter and trees.   #livingwithcats #countryliving