Kate's garden

I did this very quickly yesterday morning while I was still at Kate's, a part of her courtyard that when you are inside you can see from her sitting room and her doll creating room. I did this from outside.
Spent most of the day cleaning up after yesterdays gale force winds. We had nearly 7 mm of rain overnight and it is cool and pleasant today, now we all feel tired after the battering we got yesterday.
Pop into my other blog (in the links) and see what else has been affecting us (horse flu).

Adelaide airport

I am home from my 3 days in Adelaide very tired but it was fun. This was sketched while I was waiting at the airport to collect cloth dollmaker Patti Culea who I was having lessons with and who I was looking after for a few days.
The city and hills in the background and odd bits of planes and walkways, a hasty sketch but actually does give the impression from the airport.
A dreadful day on Monday, high temperatures and gale force winds, ditto for today but hotter, we broke records for August temperatures and it is so dry it is dreadfully worrying. Not any rain to speak of forecast for at least another week as well.
I have watered the pots and now have a bad case of hay fever, runny eyes and nose.
I dont know when my doll will be finished but finished she will be eventually. A doll that really couldnt be finished in a 2 day workshop as there is so much beading to do but it was fun and we had a lovely few days. I collect her on Sunday and then we will have a few days together before she heads east again.

Wright Island and the Bluff

I went walking along the bay this morning after dropping John off as he was going fishing. It was such a beautiful morning I sat and sketched this and I walked for about an hour so came home feeling very virtuous. Now I ache what with yesterday heaving pots around and todays long walk!
I have planted the lettuce and got together most of the stuff for tomorrow, I am doing a doll making class, something I havent done for ages and dont really feel ready for it.
I will be in Adelaide until Thursday so dont expect much from me as I wont have the computer.

Near my back door

Today John and I got stuck into cleaning up the pots and surroundings that are near, well opposite the back door. There is an area with a rainwater tank that was desperately needing the jasmine cut back and then the garage and then a couple of cages, one large one which has the bantams in it and one smaller one that odd pots get put into.
Well I can now hardly move and John is not much better but the whole area looks ready for summer now so I stood by the door and did a quick sketch which I then threw some paint at. The odd looking bird is a terracotta penguin with a silly look on his face who I love.
The pots are mostly succulents and herbs as it gets very hot there in summer. There is also a pencil pine in a huge pot, my Mediterranean garden.
A full on day but nice to have at least that bit of the garden organised.

Boats on the river at Frankston

I was hoping to have time to paint today but what with shopping and cleaning the day ran away so I sketched these boats instead. Again taken from a photo and I would like to translate it into paint.
I had a lovely walk this evening out past the mare and foal and the fillies, collected an interesting rock and a feather, still quite warm, no rain although there were some black clouds.
We are back to being in a worrying time of year, we would like rain every week, and one big one but it looks as if that wont happen.

Melbourne city street

I spent a long and tiring day in Adelaide yesterday, a report on my mother is in my other blog.
The foal is out with its mother and drinking well and cavorting as only foals do.
I spent a lot of time today washing and ironing and tidying the house, still not vacuumed tho', I hate vacuuming.
I wanted to do something a bit different and needed to get back to the watercolours, I can dash of a sketch very quickly but paint is a different matter. I had taken a photo of this scene while we were in Melbourne and want to practice doing street scenes a bit more. At least the perspective is sort of there.

The vegetable garden

We had a foal born this morning and I wasnt fast enough to get them together and as this was a first foal Mum wasnt keen on letting her child nurse so after we had given the filly a drink I sat outside and watched her for an hour or so to see if she could nurse on her own. So I sat in the vegetable garden and sketched what was there while keeping an eye on what proved to be an uncooperative mother.
We got her into a yard and made sure she had a drink every 2 hours until she could drink on her own and without her mother knocking her out of the way.
A much better prognosis than the last foal and this is a gorgeous filly.

Store Corner

This is another fairly quick sketch done at Encounter Bay in the area that used to be known as Store Corner.
The Norfolk Island pines are typically planted around the foreshore
Pen in my small sketchbook.

Quick breakfast sketch

This morning we went into Victor to have breakfast at Whalers. Something I have wanted to do for ages and it was cold, still and fun. We met up with friends and my pregnant daughter whose partner is away and daughters with their father.
The view was magnificent, lots of people had obviously decided to go fishing, cycling, walking dogs etc or like us having breakfast.
A great way to catch up and we had a walk afterwards as well.
This was quickly done while we were waiting for the others to arrive.

My Japanese Bantams

I would like to thank every one who has sent good wishes for the rather depressing time I am having at the moment, it is a great help.
I sat outside trying to get some sort of likeness to my bantams, they are really sweet and cluck around and the rooster has the silliest crow, very high pitched. I think I made the hen look a bit like a strange wren but they are short and compact and low to the ground with long tails, in the rooster. He is white with odd bits of black and the hens are all varying colours from pure white to grey, speckled grey, light grey etc. I am very fond of them. I keep trying to draw birds and I love all the paintings of chooks and never seem to get them right. I will keep on trying.

The road to Littley's

I had to do something today as I feel that I am really not getting anything done when I dont paint something. So after a long day in Adelaide I came home and painted this, there are supposed to be puddles in the road but i dont know how to do them, and I was too tired to work it out.
A hectic couple of days, I did put something about it in my Back Valley seasons blog, and today visited my mother, who looks pretty spaced out, we sat and talked for a couple of hours, difficult to find new things to say but I managed it. I am really cross with this doctor of hers and especially after I checked out the drugs he is giving her, but not much we can do until we find another doctor, although we have told him to take her off them. They are for mental patients and on googling them I dont think they are for 95 year olds with senile dementia.
Unfortunatly trying to find a doctor who will visit nursing homes is almost impossible and most of the clinics around there are closed. What I need is someone with an in but I am not sure how easy that will be.
What hope is there for us as we get to that stage. I would like to go in my own way in my own time, not be kept alive for the sake of it. The more of us who grow older and older the worse it will be.

Japonica

I had a rotten day today, we had to put down a new born foal who had deformed back legs. One of those things that occasionally happens when you breed animals but horrid all the same.
I was also swanning around in a long skirt as I have had a boil at the top of my leg, which has finally come to a head and burst but pants are uncomfortable and the band aids I had been using have set up an allergic reaction to my skin. So not a happy chappie today.
I found time to do this rather nothing pen and wash of some japonica which I had picked from the garden and put into one of our friend Rob's rather lovely celadon glaze pots.

The bar at the Anchorage

After a lovely walk out to Kings Beach this morning we came back to warm up and have a coffee at the Anchorage. I dont usually sit where I can see the bar and had fun drawing it.
A nautical theme of course, shaped like a sailing ship, small probably a whaler with a fake diving helmet on the prow.
The coffee is good and having waited for john to collect me while he went to the optometrist I froze even though I was standing in the sun as the wind was so cold.
I have been cleaning out my work room all afternoon, one more room to go, but I think I will probably make a mess again before Patti comes.
I have just got a really good book called Finding your Own Visual Language by Dunnawold, Benn and Morgan. A really good design book and I am looking foreward to trying out some of their exercises.

The Bluff and Wright island

A messy sort of day, John was repairing cracks in the sitting room so that it doesnt look as though the house will fall on our heads when Patti Culea is here.
I tried to get my dolls body done for the class and found I didnt have enough pimatex to make the body so that was put on hold.
I was also going through magazines some to throw out, some to keep, this house is probably cracking under the weight of magazines.
I also managed a short walk and the hens gave me 3 eggs after none yesterday.
It is cold and no rain and the birds are enjoying the feeder I have been filling again, first the waxbills and then the rosellas, such lovely colours.
Late in the day I began this quick watercolour of the Bay, I took the photo over the week end, and there w as a flat oily looking sea with a few lazy looking waves and a high tide so not much beach. I am not sure if this is better or worse than the others I have been doing. To get a sea one is pleased with is not easy. Infact water is not easy.
I have also been composing a letter to the nursing home my mother is in, as without our knowledge the doctor has doubled the dose of ante depressents again, after being told to take her off them as that is the cause of the problems. The fact that she may have been a bit aggressive is another side of the matter, at almost 95 you would think that would not be a problem. Aaaagh!!!

Gallardias

These flowers which I think were gallardias were nestled right by the fence on the walk way to the beach when I was walking yesterday. A quick sketch and painted today. I am not sure if my spelling of their name is correct or not.
A busy day today, Over to collect the old pram that I had used for the children and various others have used as well. It is one of those beautifully sprung English ones, in rather the worse for wear condition now but Tabby and John seem to think they can get it up again. Cost us a fortune when we bought it.
It was in a friends shed at Pt Willunga and the difference between there and here was amazing, blue skies, calm sea, here it was still wet and drizzly.
With the pram we also collected the bike I bought last summer and havent seen since. It still hasnt made it home but will soon. Now for a helmet.

Near Kent Reserve

After this mornings walk a painting this afternoon.
Strong winds and lumpy seas but blue sky. The contrasts between the grasses and the samphire were lovely this morning so that is what I have tried to capture, a bit of artistic license here too.
I am glad I have finally managed to get something onto paper that looks reasonable. I have been frustrated all week, trying out strange things that havent quite worked.
I have a cloth doll body to make and she is not enthusing me either.
I think I will go and watch the football!

Birds

I brought this owl home to identify it, road kill on the side of the road, such a waste it was quite beautiful and its feathers were so soft. I think it is a Boobook owl as that is the most common one we hear around here at night going Morepork, morepork. Now in my garden decently buried.
I havent felt much like sketching for the last few days, and havent had much time any way. We have had gale force winds for days which always upsets me any way, and the soil is drying out and not enough rain with it, none today a worry for the season again.
So I am into simple and easy and am trying to draw, sketch birds and this was my effort today, most of the others were decidedly crappy.
The worry of my mother has got to me rather this week, one wonders who will look after us.

From inside a cafe looking out

This was in Melbourne at a nice cafe that we went to by a river near Frankstone we were at a table that allowed me to draw the view out of the door and down some steps. Again a rough sketch to I hope turn into something a bit more.
A very busy day yesterday and again today as I will be in Adelaide all day.

Beach Huts at Mornington

This was a quick sketch of these wonderfully quirky beach huts at Mornington in Victoria. I also took photos and hope to turn it into a painting at some later stage when I have time. It was freezing cold with a wind blowing from the antarctic I think so not a lot of standing around.
My mother had a short spell in hospital yesterday, I wont repeat it but it is in my other blog, Back Valley seasons which is in the links. I do wish I could work out how to link in the blog but I dont have time to research it.

Cheltenham railway Station

I have very quickly put this sketch up as the computer is off to be fixed and it was the only other sketch that I had scanned. takes so long at the moment. While on our many trips on the train I had time to draw the "other side" of the station, which is actually the more interesting old building. Weatherboard with a tile roof.

Back from Melbourne

These pink lillies were really all I managed to finish when it came to sketching, they were on the counter in the kitchen and were very lovely.
We had a great week, it was lovely to catch up with Simon and Marguerite and the children, although they were all at work or school during the day we managed a walk one afternoon and a baby sitting night. During the day we went off and explored the city and our surroundings using a seniors ticket on the railway which was ridiculously cheap for an all day ticket. We did one long drive. I will try to get more sketches up this week although I am heading to Adelaide to see my mother tomorrow and another busy day on Wednesday. So much for housework!!
The computer had a hissy fit while we were away too and although it was sort of fixed so John could do some business transactions it wouldnt do a lot of what I wanted it to do and logging on to blogger was a nightmare so I stopped trying.