Table decoration

Here is my last sketch for awhile. It is the leaves and flowers I collected to go on the table for our dinner at Coffin Bay, the red is correa.
I am now home and after an 8 hour drive arrived home last night to all the unpacking and today I have washed and shopped and I thought John was out for dinner and suddenly the meeting was cancelled.

Small collection from the beach

Bits of wood plastic and shells.
I suppose I should have collectd some sea weed and sponges but they tend to smell.
Oh and a small key I bought at the antique shop.
Our last day and as we will be packing up and leaving early tomorrow no blog.
A lovely and too short a time away.

Gunyah sand hills

I did this on our beach walk in the National Park, again in the small sketchbook which doesnt like being cropped.
Very windy yesterday so the fellows went and fished off this area bringing home salmon trout which they have smoked.
John took me for a short drive for pancackes at a local farm which has diversified and has a small cafe and also sells pork, lots of black pigs!

Rocks near Golden Beach

I am having a few problems trying to crop the photos in my small sketchbook, so sorry about the edges.
We went into
Coffin Bay Park yesterday and drove along to Golden Beach and walked but while the others walked miles my knees didnt much like the soft sand so I did some beach combing and had to sketch with my paints as I forgot to check my tiny painting bag and I didnt have a pen or pencil.
It was a good exercise in trying to get it right.

Coffee at Coffin Bay

This is the view fom the Oyster
Beds where we had coffee the other morning.
Pots of succulents, cray pots and the Bay with boats and the hills behind.
Bliss.

Coffin Bay

Opposite the house we are renting there is a seat on the Oyster walk. From where I was standing itis framed by trees. The sheoak on the right is in flower so a wondwrful gold haze over the whole tree.
There was aan elderly couple sitting looking at the view.
Not very well done but does give some idea.
Not a lot of time to paint and the photos are not as good as the scanner to put up and this tiny machine takes some getting used to.
We are eating lots of fish and the fellows are having great success, we girls are being caught up in the social whirl of this tiny community. We are regarded almost as locals as we come every year, today it is the BIG MORNING TEA which raises money for charity and is always well attended.

The crane and the blackboy

I have had very little time to paint but this has been lurking in my head since the walk on Saturday when we saw a lot of birds and then a painting I saw in a winery on Sunday so this is sort of a Brolga but not really, after the ones I saw in Queensland, lovely big birds, with an aboriginal story behind them of a maiden being turned into a brolga, so then the idea of the balckboy or Yacca occurred to me, these are also called grass trees but here we always called them blackboys, which is probably totally politically incorrect but when they are in flower with a black base and tall brown head and green skirt I can imagine that the early settlers thought there was a similarity.
I think if you click on it you will see that it isnt just a big white bird but the grey shading didnt seem to want to show up. Well I have just looked and the grey on his wings and tail and breast are not showing, sometimes I dont like what my scanner seems to miss out.

Near William Creek

I have been looking at photos of the trip to Cooberpedy last year and have been trying to get a feel for the very red sand hills and the blue green vegetation.
Since then they have had rain and I have no doubt things look very different.
They say that Lake Eyre is filling and I would love to see it but I dont think that that will happen.

Doodles from my sketchbook

I have had very little time to paint but I do keep my sketchbook by my chair at night and these are a few doodles and thoughts to use for future textile stuff.
If I ever get time that is.
Look at what I have been doing on my Back Valley seasons blog in the side bar.