The old year was a very good one for me and 2006 is setting up to be even better. I hope everybody else has a great year too and for those of you for whom things aren’t quite so wonderful – I trust that things will improve.

Christmas worked out better than I could have hoped, family and friends made it memorable and a real pleasure. I had a tree this year and found that decorating it and the house was more fun than I expected. My brother Grant helped us string lights inside and out. We still have twinkling lights running up and down the passage from the front door to the kitchen.

I’ve neglected the weblog but I’m getting back into the swing now that the festive season has settled down. Today is too hot to do any real work. We’ve been experiencing a heatwave that looks likely to continue for another week or so. I’m a cold weather person so I’m not enjoying it. The laptop and I have retired to the kitchen where the air conditioner is churning out air that is relatively less hot than the rest of the house.

We’ve also been having some really ferocious (mercifully brief) electrical storms some evenings and a recent storm was definitely one for the scrapbook (if only I’d managed to get a picture of it.) Imagine this; Thatch and myself watching television in the lounge room, the windows and blinds open to catch what little breeze might happen by.

The mingled smell of rain and the sea drifted in as my attention was directed outside the house by the sound of fireworks thumping in the distance. A luminous thread of lightening etched its way down the suddenly inky black sky and hit the road with a house shaking crack and an explosion of light, metres from where I was watching.

As the first drops of rain spattered down my first thought was to find the cat. Thatch opened the front door and Molly dived in as Thatch went out. He thought that a firework had gone off course and was checking for fires. He hadn’t seen what I had.

After several long minutes of wandering arond the perimeter of the garden, satisfying himself that nothing was amiss he finally came back undercover while I paced and scanned the sky, sure that another bolt would follow the first.

Then from behind the dubious security of the front screen door I watched the wind whip the rain into a roiling mist driven sideways along the road. By the time I walked to the back door, the kitchen floor was awash.

I checked the road surface the following morning for signs of where the lightening had struck, but I found nothing.

On with the show. Today I would like to direct you to the Digital Scriptorium
“Digital Scriptorium is an image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts, intended to unite scattered resources from many institutions into an international tool for teaching and scholarly research.”

This is a mixed bag of manuscripts, some in pretty poor condition and the option of a larger detailed image is not always offered. Browsing however will uncover some beautiful calligraphy and the odd illuminated piece.

Another collection worth viewing is the Cary Collection at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Not just their illuminated manuscripts but also their examples of early printing are fascinating.

A site to delight the eye and to spend far too much time at is the National Library of the Netherlands.

Now for those into typography, the following link to the typeworkshop.com features all manner of type design displayed as anything from three dimensional installations to line dancing cowgirls. Some very creative efforts have been achieved.

A bit of eye candy. Cambridge in Colour. This comes under the heading of “Have digital camera will take spiffy pictures” category. These are gorgeous images taken with a digital camera using long exposure times. The site also includes an ongoing series of tutorials on digital photography. The images are also available for sale as prints.

On a completely different subject altogether, I spent the day with my very good friend Eva who is managing an antique centre, coffee shop and soon to be wine bar in the lovely town of Lancefield Victoria. You will hear more about this place as it develops. The owner Mark, and Eva are working hard to make the place a hub for quality antiques, great food, and entertainment. Mark has spent the last four years repairing and preserving the three storey heritage property called Macedonia House built in 1889 or 1899 depending on which source you read. I’ll check the date.

I will be studying graphic design part-time at the Australian Academy of Design for the next six years. Yes, I did get into the course that I wanted. Despite self doubt I even got positive and encouraging feedback for my portfolio and I can only get better from here on in.

I leave you with a picture of some of the “Web Skills” class of 2005 that I attended at the Academy. From left to right, Ginny (teacher), Sue, Phil, Jools, Jim and Derek. Taken on the final night when we viewed our efforts and then partied.

See you next time,
Logging off,
Jools