Veronika Wild

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC   Our New Nature Strip Program   After a frustrating Saturday with the bank continually timing me out, I spent Sunday morning helping a neighbour remove 2m high blackberries from the nature strip. I must say our local council has hit on a genius way to do less with more.  Must have gotten the idea from the self -checkouts at the supermarkets. We do all the work and they still charge us the same or in this case, $300 a year more.  The council has now made residents responsible for nature strips near their homes which they claim will save around $200,000 a year. Though they promise to do more about roadside verges and roundabouts and the presentation of streets, it does have me wondering what they’ll think of next. Will we soon have to fill our own potholes or replace the globes in streetlights and be charged extra for that as well? We’ll wait and see. So long as it isn’t for other frivolous purchases s...

  Speaking of well - dressed trees, I saw some others down near the hospital recently – the hospital which has been in the process of being rebuilt forever.  It didn't take long to discover that there was a whole street of these It seems that our Guerrilla Knitters have been hard at work. Again, I thought wouldn’t it be better to have used the yarn to make a couple of blanket squares or maybe some hats and scarves, but then, thinking of the poor sods trapped in hospital beds up above, maybe it was a good use for a bit of wool. It certainly brightened up a rather dull day and made me look at my surroundings more closely. Love those anonymous knitters. What a shame that their work is so ephemeral. Look at the detail in these!

The old look  - messy and uncoordinated Bidencope’s Lane backs onto what was once one of the most exclusive shops in town with an international reputation for its hats and a core business providing uniforms for soldiers, police and firemen.   Joseph Bidencope, a tailor, had begun it in 1877 and although carried on by successive generations, it was finally sold in 1977. Since then new upmarket shops have opened around the front facing Murray Street, but the rear of the premises had been neglected and were a prime target for taggers and graffiti artists.   The mix of styles, the different ages and quality of the work, plus the fact that it usually had to be carried out in haste and in secret – the Council has strict policies about graffiti, meant that the end result looked messy and a bit sad, rather than uplifting.  A bit of @lukansmith There is a mix of bold design and whimsical with many famous street artists represented This yea...

Lovely Legs - the Guerilla Knitters strike again! While we were enjoying our morning tea on Friday and looking across at the former Christmas tree, I remembered that in its last incarnation, Hobart’s Guerrilla Knitters had covered it in knitted stars and hearts. Obviously they were still going because a tree on the way to the Square had also been kitted out in vibrant colours and I had seen the same thing in Geeveston recently.   It’s not just a Tasmanian phenomenon either. There are excellent examples of what can only be termed yarn sculpture in Guilford in Western Australia and also in Hurstbridge, Victoria, where a full steam train has been created on a fence at the Station in memory of the days when apple orchards were the reason for its existence. For more amazing examples of yarn art see Wiki , Pinterest or some of Lori Zimmer's collection. The Guerrilla Knitters have been busy in Geeveston too Not surprisingly Geeveston's Yarn and Craft store also...