Causes for Celebration

There is a lot of catching up to be done on this blog. It seems to me that a very good place to start is our celebratory evening at Carboni’s Italian Kitchen in Ballarat on 28 November, a personal “thanksgiving” meal marking the return to good health, the end of an era and the start of a new one. 

A toast to all the friends who’ve supported me on my journey over the past two years, especially my wonderful partner, Shane Jones, who took the above photo. 

I don’t want to give the impression that all I do is imbibe Prosecco (although it certainly must look that way). In my defence, there has been a lot to celebrate lately.

Directly above and below: last Sunday afternoon’s post-theatre drinks in the bar of Her Majesty’s, my favourite Melbourne theatre, watched over by the venerable Barry Humphries and Stephen Fry.  We had just attended a matinee of Hamilton, a thoughtful and generous birthday gift from Shane. Neither of us was entirely sure the musical lived up to all the hype. But it had its moments and we still a enjoyed splendid afternoon.

Finally, A snapshot from last night’s memorable farewell celebration for Sue Westwood, Business Manager of Melbourne Athenaeum Library  for the past 13 years. (Photo credit: Shane Jones).

Sue was instrumental in appointing me as Artist-in-Residence at the library in 2018, a happy and extremely productive experience I’ll always remember fondly. Under Sue’s auspices, the library was the first public institution to acquire my artist book, Leaves of Absence.

It was lovely to see many familiar faces and terrific to catch up with Patricia Cornelius, the Playwright in Residence during my time there, and to meet Melissa Reeves, the library’s 2021 Playwright in Residence.

Wishing Sue all the best for the future. She has promised to keep in touch and I will most certainly hold her to that!

A landmark birthday

Thank you all so much for the warm birthday wishes I received yesterday. They meant the world - I’m truly blessed to have so many wonderful friends. It’s not every day a girl turns 70. Huge thanks to my love and life partner, Shane Jones, not just for making the day especially memorable, but for his strength and support, particularly over the past 12 months. I couldn’t have managed a quarter of what I’ve achieved without him. Needless to add, Alice was on hand to help us celebrate. Although Shane and I did get out and about (our very full day was sandwiched between breakfast at the Yacht Club on Lake Wendouree and dinner at historic Craig’s Hotel) these photos were snapped in our upstairs cinema room. The flowers are from Sue and Barbara, two very dear friends in London. For health reasons, I’m not supposed to be going overboard with cake, so we comprised with two cupcakes. They are rather dwarfed by the candles - after all, 70 is a big number. 

A true Renaissance man, Shane has been studying guitar and musical composition over the past year. As a surprise birthday gift, he composed a short, exquisite work for guitar, Deborah’s Pictures, and commissioned his music teacher, guitar virtuoso Daniel Nistico, to perform the work against a backdrop of my prints and paintings, thanks to the wonders of technology. Directly below is a fragment of the music, followed by a screenshot of the recital. The link to Daniel’s superb performance is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdCwXi3bdLI 

Thanks again, everyone.

Now we are three

Today is Alice’s third birthday. That makes it nearly three years since Shane made the famous pronouncement, “I don’t want another cat, Deb.” And we know how that turned out.

Happy Birthday, Alice! 

December 11 celebrations

Settlement of my house in Bradshaw Street on December 11 (see previous post) coincided with a visit to Eureka Street from two Melbourne friends, Anne and Nathan Moshinsky. They are among several people we initially met through our mutual friend, Ross Campbell, with whom we share a love of film. (Leigh Hobbs is another - see the final photo below). Not surprisingly, Nathan and Anne were especially drawn to the cinema room on the first floor. We'd originally planned to go out for brunch. But no one wanted to leave, so we celebrated in our new home.

All artworks in the cinema room, including the trompe l'oeil painting of a figure in a doorway on the lefthand side, top, and the easel painting above, centre, are by Shane Jones.

Shane and Nathan (who is also a keen painter) were soon immersed in an in-depth discussion about art. Note Alice's attempts to distract them. When all else fails, she finds that clawking the sofa never fails to achieve the desired response.

Later that day, Shane and I drove to Melbourne for screenings of The Long Day Closes and The Neon Bible at Melbourne Cinematheque, both of which are part of the current Terrence Davies season. (Davies is one of our favourite directors). December 11 is also the birthday of my gorgeous sister-in-law, Patricia Gillard (pictured below, right) and we met her for a celebratory drink beforehand. We were briefly joined, via a series of happy coincidences, by our dear friend, Leigh Hobbs (second from right).

All in all, it was a memorable day.