During the holidays, I have had time to collect some of my art work and digital experiments of 2005 and put them up on the Sibagraphics Art Gallery.

Some of the digital art is inspired by natural features and plants growing in the gardens here and others are purely imaginative.

There are also some e-cards for you to send to your friends on various occasions. Enjoy!

Some more new wallpaper for download - a kookaburra and a magpie, photographed at Lake Baroon near Montville on the Blackall Range, where we were lucky enough to enjoy our Christmas lunch with good friends.

In between margaritas, strawberry champagne, turkey breast, prawns, peach melba and chocolate, we cooled off in the dam.

To celebrate the summer season, new desktop wallpaper of roses and cattleya orchids have been added.

Our garden is an exotic explosion of colour and beauty during summer, with irises flowering first, followed by roses and finally the orchids reveal themselves for their yearly display.

Two of the featured roses however are from a friend’s garden - they are classical old english roses.

It’s not often I feel compelled to add quotes from a priest to my blog, however Father Peter Hansen, the parish priest at Our Lady’s Church, Craigieburn, affected me profoundly with his homily to Caleb Nguyen Tuong Van.

“There are some voices - I believe no more than a minority - who call for vengeance and retribution, because of what Van had done. But these voices belong to people who do not understand the fundamental truth that human beings can change, can move from a life that does harm, to one that does good. I say to these people, if you build a world upon the so-called values of retribution and vengeance, then you will build a world in which some people will always seek to take drugs, because you will build a world of such unbearable harshness that people will do anything to escape it. But if, instead, we build a world based on values of tolerance and forgiveness, on remorse and atonement, on compassion and mercy, then we will be building a world which has no need of the culture of death, which heroin, like capital punishment, represents.”

Father Hansen’s words offer hope for a revival of decent, caring, cooperative values in our present retrograde, barbaric, desperately competitive society where even so-called democratic countries blatantly exhibit classic symptoms of oppressive totalitarianism.

I’d include some large pharmaceutical companies, the legal drug dealers, and their political pushers who often have direct financial interests in them, as part of that culture of death as well. Perhaps it is not surprising then, that it seems to be those same politicians who also peddle the ‘necessity’ for capital punishment and other abhorrent means of social control.

Sunshine Coast wedding celebrant, Wendy Tebble now has a new site featuring easy navigation with expandable hierachical menus, clean lean validated code achieved with CSS.

Along with wedding ceremonies, Wendy offers naming ceremonies, renewal of vows and commitment ceremonies.

Exciting news from accomplished Noosa artist, Ian Grieve - he has been appointed as a peer assessor and expert advisor for Arts Queensland grant applications.

“This programme benefits lots of artists in regional Queensland in particular,” Ian says. “The grants are intended to reward creativity and innovation most of all.” Read more at Ian’s press gallery on his site where you can also view examples of his paintings and sculptures.

Dominique Finney’s new book, “The Wellness Zone”, was launched at Montville on December 4th by a party of enthusiastic well-wishers.

Dominique was pleased to announce that Brumby Books have now taken on distribution of the book to retailers throughout Australia and New Zealand.

To find out more about “The Wellness Zone”, visit the Medicine Room.

Talented body art specialist, Ria Clauss aka Rainbow, has some new photos on her site of her visit to the World Body Painting Festival in Austria this year.

Her music box ballerina and Punisher exhibits are outstanding.

Jon Neilson’s exhibition of photo art at Art Nuvo Gallery, Buderim, has been extended until Saturday 3rd December …. don’t miss his visions of Untamed Blue which encompass art collected from his travels in Mexico, Alaska, New Zealand and Australia.

Eclectic stuff for connoisseurs of the fine arts!

Offering master built homes for sale or built on your own land, Huba Developments are experts in the building industry on the Sunshine Coast.

The new Huba site features a front flash animation, targeted copy, clean XHTML and advanced CSS coding throughout for optimal loading and search engine interfacing.

For efficient internet telephony, all that is needed is the free program from http://www.skype.com, either a mike and speakers or preferably a headset mike, available from your nearest electronics store. Plug in the headset mike to one of the speaker outs and the mike out with similar colours connecting and you’re set.

Search for friends, and add me too

The official launch of health writer and herbalist, Dominique Finney’s new book “The Wellness Zone” is on Sunday, December 4th from 2pm to 6pm at the Montville Village Green, St. Marys Hall Montville. Popular blues, latin and jazz band, the Chardonnay Sippers will entertain revellers with their lively music. Book launchers will also be treated to a performance by keyboard player, Richard Goldsworthy.

Dominique is promising some fantastic prizes to be won at the event. For more information about the book launch, or to order a copy, visit the Medicine Room.

Don’t miss the work of award winning photographer, Jon Neilson, at the Art Nuvo Gallery, Buderim from November 25 to 2 December.

You can preview art works from his exhibition at his Photo Art site.

For my birthday, Miyuki and Aki from Ninderry Manor Luxury Bed and Breakfast Retreat gave me a lovely Phalaenopsis orchid which I quickly photographed to share as desktop wallpaper.

Our new Jessika rose has proved prolific this spring and its sumptious blooms are also available for download.

Linda Hari Scholes is a professional Noosa wedding celebrant with a flair for conducting ceremonies tailored to your individual requirements. Linda has assumed ownership of the Noosa Celebrant site from Lynette Gordon, who has now moved her marriage officiant business to Sydney.

The new site is themed around roses … and I have used photos of the delightful Delbard Matisse roses growing in my garden for the background and icons. The site also features XHTML coding and advanced CSS techniques.