this growlery of sorts

A glimpse into my Sydney Covid Cosy Corner

Will COVID19 change the way we live our days? Certainly for me it has, with my husband BBA, two sons and two dogs in Brisbane, onother son in Melbourne and me in Sydney. Luckily I have a gorgeous 4 year old granddaughter who loves to visit me and lives in the next Sydney suburb, and a beautiful daughter who drinks tea with me on a regular basis, and a son in law who likes good red wine. So it is certainly not a hard life by any means, but it is so different from what I imagined. I was happily returning to Brisbane after doing a two week self-monitored isolation in Orange before I crossed the Qld border (remember when rural NSW was not a hot spot?) “All good” I thought, with several jobs lined up in Brisbane on my return. We know that is not what happened. Queensland closed its borders to the whole of NSW preventing my return.

Luckily many of the jobs I had lined up have been transferred online which is so encouraging in this insecure landscape. We have to learn new ways of communicating, new ways of reading body language through a screen, deeper understandings of the nuances, tones, pace, colour, texture etc. of our Zoom companions. My biggest challenge this month is directing a show through Zoom. The show is called “How to Spell Love” and will premiere at the new Metro Arts as part of the Brisbane Festival. The Performer/Creator/Writer is the amazing Anisa Nandaula.

So, I’ve decided to fall in love with Zoom. With Zoom I think I am more inclined to share things: rather than in my previous life where I would think “I’ll send those later when I get home” (and perhaps forget), now I am already on the computer, so it is more likely I will do so immediately. A small win I know, but I feel it is a win. No travel, so no wasted hours. Home made coffee. Home made tea. Good heater. Thick socks. Music. Flowers. …you know. You have it too.

So I thought, lets make this Zoom world work even better. And so I have begun to plan some online workshops. I don’t usually post on Instagram (I think I will change that!) but I decided to post about these workshops the other day, and one of our family’s dearest friends commented with a reference to Dicken’s Bleak House and his Growlery (that place of refuge when one is not feeling inclined). Even though I have called this series “Cosy Covid Corner” (saccharine yes, deliberate yes… and for those of us who dislike artificial sweetners, it is to be called 3C), perhaps I should have called it COVID’S Growlery! It seems so appropriate…a place we can ‘growl’ together as we recreate ourselves for our future.

Regardless of its name, be it 3C or Covid’s Growlery, this series of Zoom workshops will be held over a period of four weeks. They will begin at the end of the fabulous Brisbane Festival, on 21st September, 2020.

There are multiple times you can join, however I only want four people in each class to ensure intimacy and the opporutnity to make lasting friendships and lasting change.

The times of workshops are as follows:

ZOOM Monday Morning: Sept. 21st 10-11.30am for four weeks

ZOOM Monday Late Afternoon: Sept.21st 4-5.30pm for four weeks

ZOOM Tuesday Afternoon: Sept. 22nd 2-3.30pm for four weeks

ZOOM Wednesday Night: Sept. 23rd 7-8.30pm for four weeks

ZOOM Thursday Afternoon: Sept. 24th 2-3.30pm for four weeks

ZOOM Friday Morning: Sept.25th 10-11.30am for four weeks

ZOOM Saturday Morning: PLEASE NOTE SATURDAY W/S BEGINS OCTOBER 3, 2020 10-11.30am for four weeks

You can easily work out that there are only 28 places. Presently I have 23 people who have registered interest… so please contact me “as soon as” so that you can claim one of the four spots left.

COST: I have kept this as low as possible to make it manageable for our sector:

$90.00 for four weeks, which is $22.50 each workshop.

I have started a Facebook Group called “COSY COVID CORNER” (3C), which will develop into a resource for all of us as we redefine, and re-create our Future Selves through creative conversations, creative drawing, collaging, and creative writing. We will begin to grow the rituals of meditation, mindfulness, creative practice and reflective practice and journalling. We will drink chai together, and as Aussies love to say “shoot the breeze”.

I can’t wait to start. September 21st 2020 seems a long way away, but it is only ‘tomorrow’. Do you find COVID time seems to fly just that little bit faster? I do. The days bleed into weeks…and we are 6 months in, and it feels like yesterday that I was in a Brisbane studio, working with actors, going home, then sitting in my garden with BBA and my dogs.

I will leave you with an image of my “newly” iso garden. Now I am in Sydney for the foreseeable future, I am growing another iso garden, with the help of colleague

Scottie Witt. Scottie is one of Australia’s leading fight choregraphers, as well as a performer/clown/lecturer etc. Right now he is a COVID garden designer. Thank you Scottie!

May Sarton, a brilliant writer and gardener loved her garden, and writes

“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everythign that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace”

May Sarton also wrote this…it seems so applicable to our work together:

“Help us to be every faithful gardeners of the spirit, who know that without darkness nothing comes to birth, and without light nothing flowers”