Stone work at Geelong Grammar

This was a hasty sketch done while waiting for dinner. It is part of the stone cloister that is between the church and another part of the building. There was a cold wind blowing in from the bay so very quickly done.
I had a lovely week away but came home to visitors, who are very good friends but a house in a mess. I have washed floors and done a few things while waiting to see if my grand daughter has gone into labor or not.
A week away at a Fibre Forum is great fun, totally exhausting and rather uplifting, you come home with new friends and lots of new ideas.
Geelong grammar is set in one of the loveliest positions overlooking Corio Bay and is a lovely place to walk around and if one had time, sketch, I took lots of photos and hope to do something from them. There is very little time to just sit and relax during day light hours!!
The main problem is the at least 9 hour drive to and from it.

While waiting for the Physio

I had a few minutes up my sleeve when I went into Victor this morning and parked the car by the sea and did a quick sketch. It was very rough but Wright Island and the Bluff were over the water and one of the huge old palm trees that line the shore caught my eye.
After the gales and wet weather it was nice not to be buffeted around it is still cold.
My back feels marginally better after my visit to the physio this morning.

Last night

A bit more excitement than I needed last night, a fire started in my grand daughters bedroom in the house on the property that my daughter and son in law live in. Luckily it was confined to the one bedroom. Unluckily her precious cat was in the room.
About 5 fire appliances, 2 police cars, at least one ambulance as well as other assorted fire vehicles.
No one had been in the house for several hours and as far as we can work out a not on but not unplugged blow heater started the blaze.
The house is a dreadful mess after black acrid smoke went through it, and nothing very salvageable left in the bedroom.
This is a not very good sketch of what I remember.

The Breakaways

Another painting of the Breakaways, called that because they looked as if they broke away from the northern Flinders Ranges, or so I was told.
Rain last night and a warm north wind this morning, I am full of hay fever and no sleep as John has an upper respiratory tract thing and snored all night!
I just love the different colours in these old hills.

The Breakaway Ranges South Australia

I sketched this very typical mesa formation as we went to the Breakaway's north of Coober Pedy, I just loved this area with its colours of ochre and talc and red dust and black formations. It is an area where the aborigines traded the coloured soils which are used in important ceremonies.
This is where Mad Max and Priscilla Queen of the Desert were filmed and we found, after about 15 years star spangles that had fallen off her dress. I must have another look at that film.
Still having problems with a foal I found late whose mother had rejected it, 2 hourly feed but the mare is finally calming down and letting it drink. I feel rather as if I have been run over, the nights have been hell.

The big Winch Coober Pedy

I drew this while sitting on the patio at the conference, our motel was on the other side of this, we were told we could walk up and over but it wasnt open, so a long walk for nothing.
A disastrous day today, the girls up at the show, first one foal who was pinched by another mare, and then one I had somehow missed whose mother doesnt want to know it.
I am tired and I ache all over and I dont know what will happen to the second foal, the first was succesfully reunited with her mother but this last one has me beat.

Red Sandhills

I drew this from the bus as we were going towards William Creek and painted it later.
This is what so much of the drive out was like, red sandhills and in places a bit of sparse bush, after about 10 years of drought there is not much.
These odd little rock cairns were all along the side of the road, some were circles, some looked like Stonehenge, I presume the grader drivers had been having fun at lunch stops on the way. Huge miles of unmade roads to grade in this country. Some areas were filling with bulldust and were going to be interesting to get through in a few weeks/days time.
It is as easy to get bogged in dry sand as in wet.

William Creek

this not at all good sketch was done under great difficulty, too many things to hang on to and no where to put stuff down. I did it in the early morning waiting for those who were going on the bus to get themselves organised.
It was done from the gymkana grounds looking over the airstrip to the town. All got too wet and so went misty and hazy on me, but the color of the earth in front is right.
We had the most incredible experience, going from the sea last week end to this on Wednesday night, we flew up to Coober Pedy and were then bussed 2 hours out to William Creek, population 3, there is a pub and the largest cattle station in the world, Anna Creek not far down the road.
We watched calf roping and bare back steer (heifer) riding and slept in tents and had good company food and drink and music.
Off early the next morning back to Coober Pedy and those who were conferencing did that and those of us who were not went on a fantastic trip to The Breakaways. More on that later.

Second Valley sketch

It was freezing cold and blowing a gale with rain when we went with the museum geologist to Second Valley, about half an hour from here.
So this is a small sketch I did and then I took lots of photos. If you go to my back valley seasons blog you will see why we were there.
Complaints from a friend that I am not sketching much, well no I am doing a few other things at the moment, and I am not able to do everything even though I try to.