Beaumaris yatch club

I did this on sunday morning after a lovely walk from the house through leafy back streets and down over the sandhill, and past some pretty expensive and exclusive houses. The yatch club is only minutes away and being Sunday morning was a hive of activity with children and boats so i had a lovely time sitting on a rock and sketching as well as taking some photos. I have to say there was also a huge number of dogs and dog walkers.
I may put a few more of these up as they are so different to my boring daily walks,and now really battling the flies. No rain and not much prospect of rain and the dams so John tells me are emptying fast again.
I am still feeling not 100% right and am so glad I managed to get home without being ill again, unfortunatly I am not working at full capacity and the house when I got home needs some help!
The washing is all done but boy I dont know what one fellow and a cat can do to make quite such a mess.

Wills favorite picture

I am home from my visit to Melbourne, blotted my copybook by being ill on the Sunday and feeling a bit precious ever since.
The house is in complete uproar over there as the builders etc etc were in doing bathrooms and painting and the kitchen cupboards and there was mess and dirt until they left on Friday night and we could have a relatively clean house for the week end. I was ok as I was in the office up the back.
This was looking at the back door and being selective in what I drew! It was pleasant under the pergola but most of the rest of the garden, apart from the pool resembled a builders dump.
It will look fantastic when it is finished tho.

Gum tree

I made a bit of a mess of its leaves but the trunk isnt too bad. Julie suggested i looked at things with different shadows etc, I have been meaning to look harder at our gums, perhaps there is another series coming up but they are harder to do than you think.
I will be away from early tomorrow to late on Monday as i will be in Melbourne, think I said that last night, not sure, visiting the family, I never seem to have much time to do things when I am there so hope a few sketches will surface.
I am a bit worried as my back after yesterday's physio is killing me and has been all day, it is a touchy part of me and the thought of dragging my suitcase and stuff around to where I meet my DIL is worrying me a bit. Sounds as if I will not get to the quilt show tomorrow, will have to be Friday.

Adelaide

Blogger wouldnt let me in this morning, or else we were having a few hiccups with the computers. We were in Adelaide yesterday. This was done at a friends house while I sheltered from the heat looking to her outside seating area, the weather forecast was wrong and instead of a cooler change it was stinking hot, still hot when we left around 9.30.
John had a couple of meetings and then was giving a talk about the old family home at Stonyfell for the Burnside historical Society. As I was manning the laptop and doing the photos to go with his speach there was no time for sketching.
I did see my mother and bought some stuff for the course I am doing in April then waited over an hour for John to finish his meeting and was wilting in the heat even if I did find a shady tree.
Ok for those who live and work in Adelaide, not for those of us who have to make a day of it. I feel totally not with it today.
Have just finished reading 'The First Lady' by Michael Dobbs, a good read and insight in to all the nasty bits of politics. I can draw parralells here in both State and Federal.

Wright Island

After a dreadful night and morning we finally got the cool change and the temperature dropped to 21 degrees, just makes you want to sleep! Any way in the late afternoon we went in for a walk along the road at the base of the Bluff to the jetty where we used to dive in the early days, then walked back and had a coffee.
I did a quick sketch of Wright Island, another diving haunt, from the new deck of the place we used to like but now its gone all modern I am not so sure about. Coffee could have been better too, but the view is stunning.

Dark blue Plumbago

I have several of the ordinary blue plumbago and ages ago I bought this much nicer darker blue one and this year it has really taken off.
It is so hot that walking is almost out of the question so I have been doing my exercises inside instead.
I hope we may go into Victor for a walk this evening but as it was between 42 and 44 degrees in there a bit after 3 this afternoon, it may not be all that pleasant.
Hence the blue plumbago as I had to paint something and these are on the wrought iron on the front terrace. I suppose I could have said I had walked and no one but I would have known.

Wet the beds

These little dandelions, daisies, what ever, we call wet the bed, and are not good if the ponies eat them as they develop some sort of pseudo string halt. I dont mind them if they are not near the ponies and there was a very cheerful collection of them by the dam in a damp place this morning when I went to do the feeds. I am hot and bothered and sticky and nasty at the moment as i have just come back from my walk, hot and steamy out there. tomorrow they are still forecasting 40. Oh heck its too hot and bothery.

Derelict House

I havent done a lot today, a visit to the physio has set up a few other bits of my back that dont like me so I am hibertnating. Its awfully hot outside any way. this house is opposite the new Police Station and has been half pulled down for ages. We had to stop at the police station again for something john forgot to tell tham when he reported the accident yesterday so I made a very hurried sketch.I am about to feed ponies and walk dogs but I think it will be a short walk. I really dont cope very well in the heat.

Crunch!

I am feeling sore and sorry, this is what happened this morning while we were in Adelaide, John driving and minding his own business and a light truck with a bull bar came out of a side street on North Terrace, in the centre of the city and crunched my side. my neck and back, never good at the best of times are feeling decidedly uncomfortable, possible physio tomorrow, we will see. I was a real wimp and had to have a coffee and baguette in a corner in a quiet cafe to recover.
Poor old John his Valentines day in tatters. Heaven knows this is a bit more of my kangaroo crunch and more. I am off to bed.

Flowering shrubs at the bowling club

I came across this bright little collection of flowers in a corner of the bowlng club as I was racing around Victor. No one was playing bowls but they have the best location, right on the sea front, probably hard to keep things alive with the salt but these were doing well.
Heating up supposed to be 40's over the week end. I feel tired just thinking about it.
Hot and sticky this morning, I came in red faced from feeding, no air con in the old toyota tray top.

A lovely day

I was up early this morning and feeds were done and off with John to Goolwa where he had a meeting at 9 am. I took the car and went looking for boats and sat and sketched, more boats, sketched this one has the Hindmarsh island Bridge in the back ground, this bridge created so much controvosy before it was built, mostly due to rent a crowd aborigines, ah well, it is now built and a lovely looking bridge it is too.
I wandered the town, bought the odd bit and piece, and then walked on the beach, which is a surf beach, it was a stunning morning.
When John had finished we went back to Victor to collect mail etc and had a baguette and coffee before coming home, if this is sort of retirement bring it on.
One of my grand daughters 15th Birthday so over to see her and give her her present, she hadnt been the best child today so her mother wasnt pleased with her, so what is new with teenagers!
Collected a grand son from the school bus as his mother was collecting his father from the plane after delivering Nell to Armidale university. It is as usuall all go.

Cloud over the end of the valley

This morning we woke to wind, so John couldnt go fishing, and a damp and drizzly morning with low cloud obscuring the western end. A tinge of green is showing on the cleared paddocks, the rampart of pines on the right and scrub in the middle.
We had a lovely dinner last night and we managed to sit outside for all of it, although it got a bit cold and jackets were worn towards the end, just as well it wasnt lunch today which had been the original idea.
I made carrot and orange soup which we have never had before and it was delicious, then lamb shanks in chicken and lemon and wine stock with thyme and rosemary, roasted veg and a salad, I forgot to buy beans! Then fresh peaches off our lovely self sown peach tree with cream and or ice cream and cheese if any one was still hungry!
And very good wines. Much easier outside as not such a mess to clean up.

Big Grey Aloe

This is the big grey arizona (I think) Aloe, they are flowering all around the district at the moment. I havent had much time to do anything today, except clean up and think about what to feed the friends who I have asked for dinner, I dont feel at all ready so I had better go and get glasses out and plates, we cant work out wether to have it inside or out as the weather is cool and cant make up its mind, so if I have everything ready then a decision can be made when they come. After all they are old friends.

Shopping

I had a full on day yesterday from feeding ponies really early to Adelaide and discovering my mother is down with a stomach thing again. this is the third time and I am not happy, John had a meeting in town which is why I went. we got home late after what was to me a largely wasted day and while shopping when we got home saw this rather odd looking young man, dressed a bit like a pirate, bandanna, wasp waist, etc, only had time to race out to the car and try to remember what he looked like.
Home to feed up and race back into a low cost, noisyand sort of ok eating place I have never been too but it was packed to farewell my granddaughter Nell who is leaving this mornng early to drive with her father to Armidale in central NSW where she is going to University.
I dont know how Alison and Julie manage to get their sketches up every day, some days it is just too hard.

4 am this morning

I cant say that life is ever dull on a dairy farm. At 4 am John leapt from bed opened the blind and muttered I thought so, demanded the torch and rushed out saying half the ..... herd is in the orchard then yelled at me a bit later to get out and block them off so there we were in our yukatas and sandals looking a right pair of idiots with cows dementedly rushing around with their tails in the air saying isnt this fun, arnt we naughty, we shouldnt be here but ...
I nearly got knocked over in the rush and the dairyman is oblivious to the fact that a gate wasnt closed and is still pushing them in.So this is my very bad sketch of him and the cows, so no wonder I felt tired all day.

Our 48th Wedding anniversary

The painted sketch is what I saw at lunch today, out for our wedding anniversary celebration, too much to drink and a reasonable lunch at our once favorite coffee stop which has had some renovations done, which may or may not be for the better. Any way the huge aloes were flowering and there was a glimpse of sea and islands.
Thought you might like to see what we looked like then, he was 21 and I was 19, much skinnier, no beard or grey hairs on him or me! If you want a bit more go to my backvalley seasons blogspot.
Amazing that after all that time he is still my best friend and we can still enjoy each other.

Kings Beach

I made a total hash of this one, very windy and after my walk I stood and did a quick painting of this but my waves looked all wrong, I painted into wet paint tried to retrieve it and got too late. Lets say it is a study of the sky and forget the rest!
So cold today I am wearing a windcheater, ridiculous.
About to feed my ponies and walk the dogs, have to be early tonight as it s the start of my beading term and John has an overlapping meeting so we have to try and get dinner at the right moment.

Cool clouds

Well that is what they are supposed to be, they hung around the hill for most of the day and then came over a couple of hours ago.
Very hot in Adelaide apparently but we had a pleasant day all day.
Actually it was so nice I walked twice and this last one when I took the dogs I got positively cold in shorts and t shirt.
John was off to meetings all day today, I am so used to having him around I get a bit lonely but I did good things today, washed the floors, did some washing and got on with some more of my textile stuff and those walks.
Of course there is still a huge pile of ironing yet to do oh well cant do everything!

Canna

I walked early this morning, we had fog and couldnt even see the bottom of the orchard but it burnt off quickly.
I did this canna in its pot when I got back it has such mad bright leaves and a bright orange flower, it was so hot even then that the paint dried too quickly so I have some bits of background that are over painted.
John is off fishing and I see that at the moment, 2 pm it is 41 degrees in Adelaide on the weather station on the computer.
My house is now hot too and the air conditioner doesnt work all that well out where my computer is, better under John's but somehow I couldnt get the scans to come up there, typical that the male gets the best place to work, none of my work places are cool when it is like this.

Beach Walk

At about 5 this evening I suggested to John that we went into Encounter Bay and walked along the cycle/walking track, which we did. It was lovely, a lot cooler than here and we walked back along the beach, lots of families, children, snorkelers, some tiny sailing boats.
Gone for over an hour and then home to dinner, I have now had far to much red wine, thought I could have that and some nice cheese because I have walked. Not good thinking at all, my weight is not doing what it should.
Have just had a call from a friend who I was going to see tomorrow while John was fishing, hoping for a walk along another beach, to say that a mutual friend has just had a heart attack, I think ok, but I should not have had that cheese.
Any way no walk and it will be about 40 degrees tomorrow so probably better I am at home.

Band stand

It has suddenly got very hot, about 35 degrees when I went into Victor this afternoon to shop.Met a friend for coffee and walked around the town as I had a shady parking spot, got quite hot and bothered doing it and stood in the shade of a tree with all my shopping around my feet trying to sketch this in a hurry. So it is pretty crappy, somehow I have got the right hand side all wrong, but this is todays contribution, done under extreme pressure.
This is a modern band stand, I think we have had at least 3 goes at something in the same place, at one stage it wasnt even a band stand at all. we used to have the Christmas carols around it with the band in it but we have now gone all commercial and have a large truck on a bigger area of lawn, not nearly such fun.

More beach, river and island

It is getting hotter and stickier so as John had to go into Vicotr i took my watercolour pad and box of colours and did another bit of Granite Island and the mouth of the Inman river, not as good as the last one but at least I did get a painting done.
I had cramps in the leg all night last night so a bit flat today and didnt get a lot done.