The art of keeping busy

Just read an interesting article in Review in Weekend Australian. I think why it hits home is that I can identify with it so readily on a personal front familywise. Andrew Lindsay said "many people just don't understand that, yes, music and performing and painting and writing fiction are all real jobs, what one does for a living." "All the artists I know are keeping very busy indeed, even though their works are sometimes hard to quantify, and thus are just not included in the gross domestic product."
There seems to be this peception that artists, just because they are doing something they love actually don't work, where in fact most of us work very hard and long hours without receiving the secure pay cheque at the end. We rely solely on others to appreciate our work and then purchase it, mostly at a cost far below its expense in time. Yes we all love what we do and thus spend long hours 'working'.

Now here comes more of Nicholas for the Southerners!
This was a wet day organized at Napranum. There were so many small children and not a tear in sight - everyone was having so much fun getting wet and mushy.
This time of year the Cooktown orchids are out at Pennefather Beach. These are some in my yard - no comparison to the beach though - its just thousands of orchids along the kilometers of foreshore. A stunning sight.

This is one of our resident rainforest frogs. He lives in one of my pottery totem poles.

Nicholas just loves prunes - all nice and sticky on his face and in his curls!Forever the Ham. I can remember Nicholas's uncle just loving things on his head. I think he is loving his new house soooo much, as well as mum and dad.