Yankalilla Ag show grid

Today John and I went to the Ynakalilla Agricultural Show, we have a couple of local shows and unfortunatly I will be in Adelaide for our really local one.
I thought I would have a go at doing a grid of what took my fancy. A shearing demonstration, a champion ram, an exhibit of stationary engines, a blow up boat, a pony in harness, A demonstration of ? some sort of Japanese martial art, A family talking and a stall with umbrellas, there were lots of umbrellas. Grids are fun but I had trouble with the pencil smudging. I hope if you click on it you can see a larger picture.
My grand daughter took out the Supreme hack of Show with her galloway hack which was unexpected as when I saw him he was misbehaving badly! Although not in the ring. We did a circuit and saw lots of stalls talked to friends, bought a geranium and a rubber hammer (dont ask!) and came home to a late lunch and another foal, born while we were away, a pale chestnut colt, I am not enthused by colts although I know that as geldings they sell readily.
We had to come home early as we are cutting the first of our silage and John was wanting to keep an eye on how it was all going.

Not a sketch a collage

I walked the dogs tonight and felt guilty that I hadnt had time for a sketch,( I was dodging cows with the pug bitch barking at them and nearly getting her head kicked off!) when I found this round thingy at the bottom left of this collage. I was also thinking desperatly of what "contrasting elements" the theme for the class I am taking next week meant. Any way I brought it home and took it into my work room when the dried elm leaf from last autumn fell out of a book I was moving. I looked at the rusted paper I had made last year and another bit of hand made paper and so my collage was born. Not sure if it relates to contrasting elements or what I will call it,-out in space - perhaps.
It was fun to do.
My day was full of shopping, blood tests, phone calls and thinking what I need and trying to find the things on the list for the class next week.
I am glad I dont have a small child as well.

Road signs

The EDM challenge for road signs sent me wandering up the road to have a look at this one, we have so many kangaroos I am surprised it only says for the next 7 kms. Wretched things pop up all over the place and infront of your car making a very nasty mess.
Our road is a very country road but I am surprised at how many different signs we have, children crossing (school bus) horses being ridden, curves, narrow bridges, no elderly crossing yet!!
I hope this blog entry doesnt appear 3 times, I deleted the ones on my Back Valley seasons blog and they are still there.

pavement cracks and repairs

Sorry this is pretty wimpy but I am full of hay fever and feeling as though I have lead weights attached to my feet.
Not getting things done at all but I am still out walking the dogs and this one was done while I was in Victor shopping, I was getting a bit desperate to do something and thought of Alison. I found this repair work really quite interesting although now I have it up on the screen infront of me I think it looks pretty ordinary.
I am struggling at the moment to sketch everyday, the walking is ok so you may find me not contributing as much as I should. I am off to Adelaide on Monday for a week long textile class with Jae Maries from the UK and am having problems focusing on my requirements list!

Local Church

Oh dear my lines seem to be getting less perpendicular than ever! I did the first one on the spot and tried to fix the second one when I got home, with very little time as usual. I really need to have that time.
Any way this is St Augustines the Church of England Church in Victor, a very odd little church with a square tower and oddly put together and tiny, doesnt fit a generous funeral crowd, last one we went to we had to sit out in the church hall and listen to a badly recorded service.
I will never forget going to a wedding of a friends daughter there where she (the bride) had a stand up fight with the minister at the doorway!
I think we also went to a couple of ordinations of ministers there, the one I liked best was when the bishop was wired for sound and put his hat (mitre?) on the chair folded up and sat on it! (This was when John was Mayor we went to all sorts of odd things as representatives of the community, not church goers ourselves all the religions invited us in.)
Any way I may have another go at this one some time later but I am not pleased with the way it came out. Perhaps if I sit more to the side it would be better but it isnt sited on the road very well at all, another road comes in behind you and the Church itself is on a curve
Must look up when it was built.
It has a celtic cross on top which is interesting, wnich is why I have another funny blob on the lower one, was trying to get it right first, silly me..

Now there are two

This morning brought another foal, a colt this time, still a Section B Welsh but from Nancy, Nell's half sister and by Rivington Sunmist. Bay I think but could be dun. Any way a couple of lovely foals sothat is a good start.
At least ponies are a change to landscapes!

New Foal

When I woke up and went for my walk early this morning this is what I saw. Sorry about the tree on the back of the page coming through and this is why I dont draw my ponies, I do a woeful job. Any way Rivington Nell Welsh Section B had a filly foal this morning, chestnut going grey by Panteg Gambler's Luck Section B. Her first foal. Not the one I was expecting to see either, her half sister Nancy has been bagged up for weeks and yesterday was wandering around looking uncomfortable while Nell was happily grazing, Nancy is a lot older and has had more foals so is not as easy to tell when she will foal, we run the mares with the stallons and although we have aproximate dates you are never quite sure and like humans they can be 3 weeks early or 3 weeks late.
I am not moving more than I have to as the ripped muscle in my side is giving me curry.

Post and rocks

Well I recognise the post but not the rocks, I overworked them and now they dont look like much at all. These rocks have a lot of red from the iron on them and are all piled up on top of each other.
I am having what I hope may be a quiet week until the girls, Celina and Gaby come on Friday. Not seeing my mother this week I need to recover a bit. I pulled a muscle in my side gardening yesterday and it hurts to breathe heavily.
Stupid thing to do, but there we are, we do stupid things.
From 30 degrees C yesterday to 18 today back to a fire and a bit of damp drizzle, nice if we had some decent rain. we are getting high winds and fronts are going past but not much in them. Still it is better than the heat.

Sleepy lizard

This is the fellow we saw on Sunday, he was about a foot long and is a type of giant skink, a very old type of lizard, mybe his ancestors were around when the dinosaurs were about.
Wet and windy and a lot cooler today, not good for standing still and my walks are divided into bits as I have to walk the in season bitch and then the ravening dogs.
I have also been hard at it in the garden and I am sure wheeling huge barrow loads of weeds must help my fitness.

Walk the bluff to Kings Beach car park

I know I should not be puting up a photo or doing the walk I did yesterday, but it is much nicer than the boring one I did today with the dogs and which I do everyday. My tonal sketch is what I could see and the photo is the actual. Lovely lovely scenes of my beloved sea.
Very hot today and I wasnt game to walk the dogs along the old road for fear of snakes, if we get cooler weather I will do that again, but my greatest love is to walk by the sea.
I have been enjoying trying my hand at these pencil sketches and finding that they are easier the more I do.

Oops!

That last post was supposed to be on my Back Valley seasons blog. Dont know how that happened except I had problems with blogger and posting. Sorry.

/sunday walk

Another Sunday walk, this time from the Bluff towards Kings Beach, a wonderful day, too hot of course but not for walking or enjoying the views, the first one was towards the Bluff with Surfers but I was trying to catch the waves and white horses as the wind blew the top of the waves back the second one was a bit further along, the sea was a wonderful shade of blue and I was facing the other way. We found a sleepy lizard which I will load tomorrow, they are such fascinating animals. You are glad to be alive and able to walk on days like this and to live in an area where this is so close to home.
We came home and I played in the garden, repotting some tomato seedlings and some chilii seedlings, a few pots I have bought and weeding in the walled garden which needs an awful lot of work. Well one wheelbarrow load done. Hoses on.
One bitch in season and she is about a month early, not much fun as I have two clamouring male dogs and I was hoping to have her desexed before this happened.
We had whiting(which John caught) in parcels of oiled foil with lemon (from the tree), parsley (from the garden), salt and pepper and some lemon myrtle and chilli blend, very nice, with freshly picked broad beans just cooked with butter and a touch of lemon juice and pepper, followed by some lovely cheese and washed down with white wine. Dont tell my Doctor, not very cholestorol friendly (the cheese).
A good day.

Old shed

John and I went wandering today, the native orchid show in Adelaide, drove a peugot to see how it handled in case we want to buy it, went to McLaren Vale to have lunch and this was what I saw while waiting for him to pay, a very battered galvanised iron shed. Walked the dogs out when I got home after watering the pots, very hot today.

Encounter Bay

I was so fed up this afternoon that I took the Toyota into Victor and walked along the bike trail, we have a wonderful walking/biking trail that runs from Victor Harbor to Goolwa and you can pick up bits of it whenever you like. I walked towards the Bluff and Wright Island and although I have done this before I think its a slightly different view. A beautiful day infact
Fun to throw a bit of paint around again.

Dead gum tree

I am not feeling 100% today, but I did walk this morning while I was feeding the horses again, didnt start feeling awful until I decided to put a tall stack together and it seemed to have a very strong smell, so I developed a head ache and felt giddy and sick. I am still staggering around trying to get some things done, like dishes etc.
I saw this dead gum in a neighbours paddock and was very taken with the miriad of branches that were there, I had taken its photograph thank goodness so I sat in the sun room drawing it, its not exactly like the photo but does give the impression of what it looked like.
Such a shame, I dont know if the stock ringbarked it or what, we are having the same problems in some of our paddocks although one of my favorites that died the galahs absolutely ripped into and ringbarked it about 15 ft up.

Walking the old road

I walked the old road again this morning and this gate caught my eye so I did a pencil sketch. I had my camera with me as there were some lovely shadows across the track which I hope to do something with later, but not quite as sharp as yesterday as there is some cloud around today.
While I was walking mindlessly back I saw a black snake whose photo I took which I will put up on my other blog, but he didnt take very kindly to having his photo taken and flattened his head and neck like a little cobra. I was glad that Jake had not seen him and went past on the other side of the track as he hates snakes and is likely to attack them and at this time when they first coe out they can be very agressive.

Bromeliad

What you might ask has this to do with my walking and sketching? Well it is a sketch and although this is the one flowering in my sun room at the moment I did see one of these when I went walking around the nursery today.
Actually I walked at least three times today as I looked in the mirror and didnt like what I saw. I walked the dogs, I walked all around the shops on my trip into town and I walked along the "old" road and I did sketch something there but Jake put up the neighbours cattle and wouldnt come back so I didnt take that any further I was too busy getting him back to the toyota.
The old road is the one that was flooded the night I went into labour with my youngest son and we nearly didnt get to the hospital in time. Several years later they put the new road up the hill and I dont think the old road has flooded much since.

Normanville

Today John and I went over to Normanville and had a very long and pleasant walk, lots of cowries to find and other shells.
This is where as a child we always went in the summer, a beautiful calm day on the gulf side of the peninsular.
Stunning views and sparkly seas.
I was pretending that I was Julie on a Greek Island.

Peacock feather

I found this feather on my walk today, it is a last year moult wing feather and I didnt think I could draw it but surprised myself.
I was really pleased with it as once more I had very little time. Adelaide today to a Cloth Doll and Decorative Art exhibition which was very good and I hope they do well.
I drove up and back in about 5 hours but came home tired, listened to my favorite football team win their prelim finals match Hooray.
Champagne with dinner tonight to celebrate the Supreme Welsh win at Adelaide Royal Show today by a yearling filly I have bred and leased out. She is a little Section A Welsh Mountain. I am now sad I wasnt there to see it but the doll people had asked that I go to their show.

Palm tree

While flying around in Victor shopping today I stopped to have a break and outside the window was this palm tree with all its leaves chopped off and all these lights and darks it was fascinating.
Pouring with rain still and I have friends for dinner tonight so this is rushed. I have a feeling I have sketched this tree before, but I dont know if it is up so it is all I had time to do.

Iris and forget me not

aThis is the first of the Iris to come out, I forget its name but it always gives me lovely early blooms and with the forget me nots also coming out it was too nice not to sketch. I will curse the forget me nots in another couple of months as they will cling to me and be transferred all around the garden but now when they are fresh and lovely they look stunning.
Done in a mix of watercolour pencils.
I am walking, just finding the same trees and grass rather boring to sketch and we have had rather a lot of rain (hooray!) so I am back to getting wet again.
Not like Julie Oakleys lovely blog at the moment, full of Greek sunshine.

EDM challenge A body of water

Amazing how when you are asked to pick someone up at 4.oo on the dot it becomes a lot later. i did this while waiting for John and walking for 1/2 an hour along the sea front at Victor. So I hope it is both my EDM challenge and my walk as well.
Over 19mm of rain last night, the best since April.

Pot plants

This is a small painting I did of the pots opposite my back door. The nasturtiums are showing their little yellow faces, not many but enough to say that warmer weather is coming. I walked the dogs out to the far gate, thank goodness we have had over 7 mm and that has freshened the paddock up after the hot dry couple of days.
My pony did well at Adelaide Royal, a 2nd in the leading rein class, she worked her way up from 6th place to 2nd in a huge class which was a thrill.

Clouds

Not a lot of time to draw or paint, it was also damp and rainy but I did have time to do these clouds, they were roaring across the sky and not at all easy to define them as they just kept on changing and so did the colours, the odd patch of blue with dark grey, yellow and purple/pink.

Adelaide Royal Show

Ok this is a bit childlike but then going to the show is rather like going back in time to your childhood. I love the show but increasingly dont like the crowds.
My pony got 3rd in her class and one we bred but is owned by someone else was 1st so that was good.
I saw my nephew and his dogs and my partner in pugs the other Penny but they hadnt been judged yet.
I bought two native orchids and three succulents.
I walked miles as the dogs are one end, the flowers another and the horses another.
We came home and had lunch at Whalers on the sea and negated the good we had done walking by eating and drinking. Lovely.

Today

Well if you look at Back Valley Seasons blog you will see that I had an awful day. The first sketch is what my evening walks will be all about, looking under the pregnant mares to see if their udders look like this.
Usually that means they will foal fairly soon, but not always.
The second sketch is obviously me being tired,(eg its not at all good!) this was a little grey Kestrel who was hovering over the native rat holes I had just negotiated with my dicky knee, to hold the Welsh Cob mare belonging to my daughter who had managed to get into the wrong paddock. While waiting for John to get a heavier pair of bolt cuutters to open the gates we needed to get her in and out of this little kestrel was hovering and swooping a few metres away from me.
Oh boy am I tired tonight, I have walked miles.