On the 5th December Red Dragonflies, Vanessa Proctor, Cynthia Rowe, Barbara Fisher and Dawn Bruce, met for a ginko of the Great Masters Exhibition at the NSW Art Gallery. Members Beverley George and Lesley Walter were unable to attend and were sorely missed.
After the ginko, lunch was enjoyed on the café patio and haiku writing exercises read and workshopped. Small Christmas gifts and good wishes for the 2016 writing year were exchanged over coffee.
Dawn Bruce
The Red Dragonflies Haiku group met on Saturday, 12th September at 11.30 am at member Lesley Walter’s home for their 2015 spring gathering. Cynthia Rowe, Dawn Bruce, Vanessa Proctor and Barbara Fisher were present. Apology from Beverley George, whose husband is ill. As usual there were some challenging exercises set by convenor Vanessa, which stimulated many fresh and interesting responses, and included much discussion and laughter. The meeting concluded at 2.30 pm.
Barbara Fisher
The large beach-side studio of artists Jocelyn Maugham and Robin Norling at Patonga was the inspiring meeting-place for the Red Dragonflies in summer 2014. We were free not only to wander the galleries admiring the diversity of artwork, making notes, but also to climb the stairs to the giant studio, sidestepping buckets of paint and drip cloths, brushes soaking, easels and stools; a chaise longue for posing. Continue reading “Red Dragonflies Summer Meeting and Ginko December 12th, 2014”
The spring meeting of the Red Dragonflies was held on Saturday 25th October at Dawn Bruce’s home in St. Leonards. Dawn kindly met us at the garage entrance so that we could all go up in the internal lift together.
To a background view of early-blooming jacaranda and distant Blue Mountains, Vanessa Proctor led members Beverley George, Cynthia Rowe, Barbara Fisher and Dawn in a productive afternoon. Lesley Walter sent her apologies. Vanessa had given the group a challenging and erudite set of exercises, which produced some interesting haiku. The meeting was, as always, convivial, and given that the themes were historically and artistically inspired, extremely informative. Thank you, Vanessa and thank you, Dawn!
Cynthia Rowe
The Red Dragonflies, with the inclusion of guest, Bill Tibben, held their winter meeting on Saturday 19th July at Vanessa Proctor’s home. With the smells of freshly baked bread and buttermilk cake with passionfruit icing wafting about us, we workshopped our pre-set exercises which had presented the usual challenge, i.e. to compose original haiku on topics including a night in the country, a winter plant, and International Friendship Day.
The Red Dragonflies had a rewarding autumn meeting kindly hosted by Lesley Walter and her husband Terry. As well as Lesley, Barbara Fisher, Beverley George and Vanessa Proctor attended. The atmosphere was convivial as we sampled a delicious variety of cakes, drank Terry’s excellent coffee and discussed haiku over an overflowing haiku bowl. Haiku for discussion were on the subjects of migrating birds, families and home-grown food. As always, topics for the haiku bowl were individually chosen and varied from travel to the streets of Sydney and from lighthouses to rabbits.
Vanessa Proctor
The Red Dragonflies gathered on Saturday 12th April on a rainy afternoon at Barbara Fisher’s home for our autumn meeting. All members were present. Over cups of tea and coffee and some spectacular cake made by Barbara, we workshopped poems on topics ranging from family pets, to the night sky, to the subject of happiness. Interestingly, the poems on happiness were all written in a particularly clear and accessible way and resonated strongly with our own personal experience of happiness. We left the meeting fulfilled after an afternoon of good company, good food and excellent poetry.
Vanessa Proctor
The Red Dragonflies met at Mosman for their Christmas get together on Saturday 9th November. We went on a short ginko around the harbour foreshore, enjoying superb views across to Sydney Heads and Watsons Bay.
Australian Haiku Society 