Showcase 7

Ian Breakspear, Medical Herbalist.

In any profession, there are people who stand out, just from sheer competence. The kind of practitioner that you want to see, no matter whether their specialisation is directly applicable to you or not, simply because you know they'll be able to help. Ian's one of those people; or he's always seemed so to me. He was my first herbs lecturers, many many years ago. These days he is lecturing at the University of Western Sydney, as well as being on the board of the National Herbalists Association, and running his own private herbal practice - Wholmed. (I did the clinic photography for his site many years ago, so don't hold the quality of the pics against me.)

He was also the person who taught me an appreciation for good chocolate, by the way, as well as being one of the standards I aspired to reach when I was still in private naturopathic practice. Go Ian!

Showcase 6

Sepervivum calcareum, by Xole

What do I say about Xole? A brilliant writer and roleplaying game designer (check out the game she and her husband Mr Fluffy are running at this year's Phenomenon), photographer, artist, and all-round clever person. She writes two blogs - Averted Vision and A Succulent Obsession; today's picture is from the latter. She has far too many talents to list, blast her; and she's another person whom I'm proud to be able to call a friend.

Showcase 4

Butterfly effect, by Michael - www.butterflytransformation.com

Some of you know my partner Michael. He's an IT person, hypnotherapist, life coach and martial artist... among many other things. One of his strongest beliefs is that we can improve the way we live if we're willing to change the way we think. To help people do this - in this case, to help people lose weight and keep it off, while feeling better about themselves, he's started a free program - the Butterfly Effect.

It's only new, and the community is still growing, but it's a damn fine thing to do. Check it out!

Showcase 4

Abstract Swan, by Christina.

I miss Christina. She's a dear friend, originally from Melbourne, and now in Holland. As well as taking gorgeous pictures, she's a talented botanist, and one of the sweetest people I know. She's also the person who, when I was complaining about the problems of crutches in the rain, found me my miracle poncho (it's actually a Dutch design for bike riders, but it works well for cripples, too) - and replaced it when some bastard stole it.

She says: "The picture is of a swan on a lake near my old house in Enschede. I just loved the feathers against the dark water. I like taking photos of things where it takes a little while to figure out what it is if you don't have any information. "

Showcase 3

Mark's Aardvarque chocolate.

You've heard me talk about Aardvarque before, but it deserves another mention. I'll spare you the spiel again, and just say YUM.

Showcase 2

Pete's arts.

Meet Pete. Pete is a Flickr friend of mine. He's a talented amateur photographer, collector of musical instruments,and, I now discover, an artist.(This photo is his, by the way, not mine) He's also a nice guy and an intelligent conversationalist; what more could you ask for?

YOu can see more of Pete's photographic work over on his Flickr page.

More administration...

Since I was disorganised before I left the country, there are still a couple of spots left if anyone would like to show off their amazing creativity.

If you've made something or done something that you're proud of, email me at my travelling email of merricat @ geocities.com and share it with the rest of us!

Showcase 1

Bronwen's wire crochet.

Bronwen is amazingly talented, although she doesn't seem to realise it. It was she and her partner Benji who turned up at my place one evening to make the Baba Yaga shadow puppets and hide in my fireplace giggling to use them.(Benji needs to email me a certain picture asap - merricat @ geocities.com, Benj!) She has a penetratingly intelligent mind, and an endless creativity. She also crochets the most lovely wool and yarn creations - and extends that to jewellery.

It was a little hard coming up with only one item to photograph - but we chose this one. I'm shockingly ignorant of the talent required to create it, but I can easily admire it's beauty!

Theme for the week starting whenever I can get my proverbial into gear...

..is SHOWCASE.

Well. I seem to be a little bit shockingly behind in posting - my apologies!

This is actually the first time I've managed to get to an internet terminal - one of the hotels we stayed in one night did have net access, but by the time we got there, I was too tired and a bit too sore to actually make use of it, and the next morning we left once we'd breakfasted to hop on the bus out here to Penang.

Penang is lovely, by the way - much busier than I remember from seven years ago, but that's unsurprising. I'm planning on a 'Malaysia' theme when I get time to actually process the images I'm taking, so you can all vicariously share the fun.

In the meantime, I'm going to try and set up a post or so to automatically post, but Blogger's auto-post feature is still in draft - here's hoping it works!

It's all about you

As some of you know, I'm going on holiday at the end of the month to Malaysia. And while I will be taking plenty of photos, I won't have any way of editing them, or possibly even uploading them. Which creates a bit of a problem with themes, don't you think?

But I just had a brainwave. For the two weeks I'm away, I'll be running a new theme - Showcase. I know some very talented and creative people keep an eye on Tree in Forest, so I figured I 'd give you a chance to show off.

Showcase will be about you - if you have something you've created; whether it's photography, or graphic art, or poetry, or recipes, I'd like you to make a post to share it. I've seen some gorgeous art from some of you - why not share it with everyone?

There are seven posts available, and I'd really like to see a variety of things being showcased. If you'd like to claim a post (or more than one, if there's the option), comment or email me, and we'll work it out.

I have, of course, left things to the last minute, so y'all have one week to let me know. So get cracking!