Be like a bird ... outstretch your wings.

 

Begin the journey of learning something new!

 

🕊️ Just fly 🕊️...

 

as you never know where your wings will take you!!

 

~ Paula St L 2022 🌻

 

 

"I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in."

 

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

 

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Paula's Reading Nook for 2025!

January: Loving Nature: Towards an Ecology of Emotion - By Kay Milton

February: The Soul of a Tree: A Woodworker's Reflections - By George Nakashima

March: Chinese Flower Painting Techniques - By Stephen Cassettari

April: Care of Australian Wildlife: For Gardeners, Landholders and Wildlife Carers - By Erna Walraven

May: Hush - By Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

June: The Far Reaches of Human Nature - By Abraham H. Maslow

July: Folk Witchcraft: A Guide to Lore, Land, and the Familiar Spirit for the Solitary Practitioner - By Roger J. Horne

August: Emma Kunz: Artist, Researcher, Healer (Monograph) - By Anton C. Meier et al.

September: The Secret Lives of Colour - By Cassie St Clair

October: The Space Between Our Ears: How the Brain Represents Visual Space - By Michael J. Morgan

November: Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behaviour - By David R. Hawkins

December: What's Your Grief Lists to Help You Through Any Loss - By Eleanor Haley and Litsa Williams

 

Children's Bookshelf for 2025!

January: I Am Odd I Am New - By Benjamin Giroux

February: The Lost Girl - By Ambelin Kwaymullina

March: Creative Crafts: Practical Techniques for all Junior Craftspeople - By Moira Butterfield

April: Magic Beach - by Alison Lester

May: How the Birds got their Colours: An Aboriginal Story - by Mary Albert

June: Dear Wild Child: You Carry Your Home Inside You - by Wallace J. Nichols and Wallace Grayce Nichols

July: The Cats' Pawbook - by Katie and Sam Carey

August: The Great Big Book of Feelings - by Mary Hoffman

September: Thank you Rain - by Sally Morgan

October: The River - by Sally Morgan

November: Make Meatballs Sing: The Life and Art of Sister Corita Kent - by Matthew Burgess

December: Oh, The Places You'll Go - By Dr. Seuss

 

Try your local library for a copy. 

If the book is not available, request an inter-library loan or suggest a purchase!

Best wishes, Paula 🌻

 

 

JUNE 2026 

Learning by Heart:

Teachings to Free the Creative Spirit

By Corita Kent and Jan Steward

Published 2008

Check out this link to learn a little more about this inspiring educator and visionary artist, Corita.

Find out more about the book here, browse her collection, and Ten Rules.

Watch a video series inspired by Corita Kent and Jan Steward's book,

"Learning by Heart: Teachings to Free the Creative Spirit" here.

 

An excerpt from the book:

"Spaces"

"We are accustomed to looking at objects. 

We need to become accustomed to seeing spaces between and around objects as if they, too, were solid.

Seeing spaces can free us from deadly assumptions.

Spaces can help us understand where connections are made.

Spaces and objects are not that different—some space may be wood and some space may be flowers.

We can learn not to think where wood is, space is not, or where the wood is not, space is.

Assignment

Many books about drawing use a chair as the object to be drawn around.

A chair, with its many spaces between legs and arms, allows the background to come through.

Draw with elaborate detail the space you see around and through your favourite chair.

The chair is no longer something to sit on.

It's sole purpose now is to serve as a boundary for your interest.

If you want to draw the chair shown below, do it in three different ways: 

Draw the spaces.

Do a contour drawing.

Draw only the ornamentation, not the outline.

Make up three more ways to draw this chair."

 

Art does not reproduce the visible, 

but makes the visible that which is not easily seen.

~ Kimon Nikolaides

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Updated 19-06-2026

 📚  Children's Bookshelf!  📚 

 

MAY 2026 

The Peasant Prince

The True Story of Mao's Last Dancer

By Li Cunxin

Published 2007

 Watch and listen to the story here. 

Check out this link to find out more about this remarkable and hauntingly beautiful illustrated children's book that is based on Li Cunxin's extraordinary life.

Learn more about the author (and dancer) Li Cunxin here (and here), and the illustrator Anne Spudvilas here. Spudvilas' illustration of a Prince process is incredibly inspiring!

There is an interesting page at the end of the book about what China was like in the 1960's when Li's story began.

 

Below is an excerpt from this inspirational book:

"Some time ago, in a remote village in northern China, a small peasant boy lived with his parents

and six brothers in a tiny brick house. They were very poor.

On the bleak farming lands around his village, the boy would often fly a homemade kite.

It was a gift from his beloved father.

That small boy was me, and my story begins with that kite.

On one bitterly cold day, near our home in Qingdao,

I tied some 'paper wishes' to my kite and my father helped me fly it up into the sky.

The kite soared like a bird and my hopes and wishes went with it.

Then he sat down beside me, as he always did, and told me a story.

I loved all his stories but my favourite one was this...

'Once upon a time, a little frog lived in a deep, dark well.

It was his only home.

One day, he met a frog from the world above, 'Come down and play with me!' begged the frog in the well.

The frog from the world above laughed.

'My world up here is much bigger!'

The frog in the well was very annoyed, so he told his father what he'd heard.

'My son,' his father said with a sad heart, 'I have heard there is a bigger and better world up there.

But our life is here, in the well. There is no way we can get out.'

'I want to see what is out there!' cried the little frog. But even though he jumped and hopped, the well was just too deep.

'It is no use, my son,' said his father.

'I have tried all my life to get out.'

Still, the little frog kept on trying to escape from that deep, dark well...'"

                           

🪁🐸🩰 

Updated 24-05-2026