Leaving

The house is ready for the sitter, we are almost packed and I am just finishing off the last computer bits.
Probably no posts but hope to have lots of sketches when I get back.

More sketches

To day we went ot a favorite beach and I took photos of wonderful waves coming in go to my other blog here to see them.
It has been wild and we have had quite a lot of rain, about a month late by my calculations but we really dont mind.
Freezing cold on the cliffs and no large walk as I am trying to keep my knee under control
Mason will be one while we are away so we delivered the rocking horse today, it is a very old Australian made one which is in not very good repair but all the children and the grand children have loved it and I decided that as Mason is the first great grand child he should have it.
He will probably catch his fingers in it and be terrified of it to start off with and then it will probably buck him off! The joys of baby hood.
Talking of babies we had Millie and her mother for dinner last night, Tab has to organise our watering while we are away because the person who does the dogs and will be in the house didnt think they could do it.
Any way Millie kept us very entertained last night and generally wrapped her grand parents around her little finger. She is just starting to talk and is very funny and certainly knows the word "No" with an emphatic shake of her head. Shame they grow up so quickly.
My Haiku tonight is another Basho and is a little like todays trip to the beaches.

Heavy waves crashing...
Silently
Over Sado
Flows Heaven's river.

Wild seas

At the moment we are having very wild weather and the seas have been rough and here I tried but I dont think very successfully to give the impression of what it looked like this morning. My scan came out with the colors looking a bit odd and not deep enough.
The second is again trying out some sketching practice.
I have these gorgeous great grand and grand children who are at this stage and I would love to sketch them more and give a good impression of what they are like.

More Haiku by Basho

A small hungry child
told to grind rice,
instead
gazes on moonlight.

Pen and ink practice

While in Adelaide the other day waiting for John I did a few exercises from Claudia Nice's book whose name I forget, something about sea any way and thought I should actually try to do a few more figures which was fun and then a wave breaking, not very good but it did re enforce some ideas I had.
I am taking a very small tin of watercolours with me and a couple of waterproof pens and a couple of small journals, so I will see what I come home with and what I have time to do.
Not long now and I am trying to get together most of what I think and hope I want. I may try to buy some paint stuff in either Paris or London, or perhaps both!
Of course the camera is going, just wish I could have afforded a new slightly higher powered camera but my small one will have to do.
My Haiku for today is again by Basho

On this well-worn stone
garlanded with
pinks of Spring...
O to drink and doze!

Doodle Dodo

I was in Adelaide yesterday all day and I am glad to say that my mother was almost back to her old self, no wheelchair but her walker and sparking with a man who seems to be in the area she is in.
John had two meetings way apart and I spent some time with a friend and did some doodling and sketching, this mad fellow was one of them.
I had lunch today with a friend, we dont get together nearly as much as we should, both involved more with family than we ever were when we had young children ourselves.
They tell us we could get some snow in the next day or so, I cant believe it and lots more rain but at least we didnt get the dust that Sydney and southern Queensland did.
Trying to get organised, we leave on Tuesday, not far off now.
Thinking about snow led me to this Haiku by Joso

Snow whispering down
all day long,
earth vanished
leaving only sky.

Possible sketches for lino cuts

I had a bad attack of reflux in the night, I love John's pasta but last night it did not like me and no medication worked so I was a bit flat today.
I had to go into town to get the mail and deliver some stuff to Gaby and then came home and ironed, boring but needed to be done.
The radio was full of dire warnings about thunderstorms and high winds all morning and other parts of the state certainly copped it but here we had a lot of rumbles, the power out for a few minutes twice, and lots of lovely rain.
So what with the ironing and generally tidying up I didnt have a lot of time and in fact the days are going fast, it is only 8 days before we leave and I am still fiddling around with stuff in my work room!
I cant quite get my head around the positive negative for the lino cuts so was trying out a few designs to see if I could do one of each and these were my initial sketches.
I dont know if I will have time to do them before I go but if I have a few minutes at least I can try.
It is back to winter here at the moment so perhaps this Haiku by Rokwa are appropriate.
Twice perhaps three times
the chimes of the river
changed...
Oh what a cold night!

We three owls

I have been printing my lino cut owls onto rusted fabric and as I sat having a cup of tea sketched up this lot who I thought were rather fun.
I have had a walk, dug holes in the garden and planted out some pots I have been meaning to do for ages. We are supposed to have a week of rain and dampness so I hope we do. Not sure what digging holes does to ones knee but here's hoping I havent made it worse.
I will put some of my photos of today on the other blog here.
As we walked along the beach today I thought this Haiku was appropriate, as usual the ones I like the best are by the master Basho.

Jewels of small shells
in ripples
of sand, tangled
with kelp and rubbish.

Leaves within leaves

We have had a good day and I have been given an early birthday present that is sending me off to look at more places to visit when we are in the UK. The book is called "In a Unicorn's Garden" and I am loving it, so glad I got it before we went away as there are places to see and visit all near where we are going in Northumberland and Yorkshire.
A very dear friend who has had a hip operation has his 70th Birthday tomorrow and we went to visit him and had lunch, saw through their lovely new house and drooled in envy. He always says he is older than me but only by a few days and I should show him the respect he deserves, which of course I dont.
We also went to the Native orchid show and I bought another dendrobium, I hope it does well for me.
So a day in Adelaide catching up and being social which is something we very rarely do.
Tonights Haiku is by Buson

What use now are twigs
but to sweep up
a litter
of fallen petals?

The goose and the weeping tree

One day I may write a children's book, but then again maybe I wont. I felt like sketching and this is what my imagination came up with.
Once we had lots and lots of geese who used to sit under our bedroom window in the orchard and keep us awake for half the night.
I like geese but I dont think I want them under the bedroom window any more.
It seems funny to hear the northern hemisphere blogger's talk about the end of summer and the early stages of autumn, here we are going from what could be a pretty brief spring into what we are being told could be a very hot summer, of course mother nature has a way of confounding the scientists and we may have a cool and wet summer, it has happened before, but if that happens often we have a scorching autumn!
We are never satisfied, although the rain we had yesterday was good and we are past the first half of September so maybe it will rain through to part of October. The year the children all got chicken pox,(or was it mumps?) and I finally went down with it as well it delayed our hay gathering which was good as it poured all through our normal hay time and we were the only ones around to actually have unspoilt hay, I think it did mean we were still bringing it in over Christmas. Those were the days of small bales, now we mostly put everything here into silage and I am lucky if I can score a few small bales for the ponies.
Today's Haiku is by Basho

He who climbs this hill
of flowers
finds here a shrine
to the kind goddess.

Doodle flower

I havent had time to do much lately but occasionally pick up a pen and try out another doodle.
Time seems to be going rather fast, today I went to Adelaide to see my mother and have my hair cut. After weeks in a wheel chair today my mother was sitting in a chair with her walker and was quite able to get around and hold a conversation, in fact she was quite cross that John hadnt come to see her.
I really do think that they try to get them into wheelchairs and then say they cant cope and have to go into the nursing home, in the last week two have gone into the nursing home and there are more wandering souls with no idea why they are there.
I found this Haiku in an old poetry book I have called 'The Worlds Love Poetry'
this is by Ukimashi who was a courtesan.

Too roomy to sit
Or lie - my mosquito net,
With my lover gone.

What a great image!

More lino cuts

I am having a lovely time doing these lino cuts, such a lot of fun and I do have to sketch them first so I suppose this is ok .
We had a lovely day today, still very windy but cooler and we went whale watching so if you want to catch up on that see my other blog here.
I dont think I realised just how many lino cuts I have hanging on the walls in this house, more than I thought any way. I have always liked them as they were a way of getting something by an artist but cheaper than say a watercolor or an oil painting.
Mine are pretty primitive but some of the ones I have are very detailed. I like primitive, but I can appreciate those who do the beautifully detailed ones.
I have no idea why I had never tried to do lino cuts before, something I had never seen done and I suppose I had never had the correct tools and I have to say that the easy cut stuff instead of lino is so much easier on my shoulders and hands, although I suppose they are perhaps not quite as crisp as lino.
Today's Haiku is by Buson, a bit enigmatic!

Spring rain falling.
On the roof a child's rag doll -
sodden.

Towards the neighbours

I did this sketch with the idea of using it as a base for a lino cut. I am a bit afraid it is too complicated but I will see how I go. The poplars still have not got their leaves so are easy to do.
I am in awe of the wood cuts that the Japanese did, I have several and to think that they were so little thought of they were used as wrapping paper at one time.
Another awful day today with high winds and far too hot for early September.
We went to watch another grand daughter play in her netball championships today and I came home with a dreadful bout of hay fever. They won their match and she was best on court so very well done.
Not feeling brilliant and nearly forgot the Haiku so here it is, no relevance to anything except it is plum blossom time. By Buson.

Plum blossom time.
Courtesans buying sashes
in their houses of pleasure.

lino cut

I thought I was being so clever with this, had made my monogram as well and then printed it upside down!
I seem to be into poppies but was relatively pleased at the way it has come out, even if the printing was a bit strange. I am very new to all of this but am having fun.
It has been a foul day here far too hot and terribly windy, more trees down across fences and in paddocks. John tells me that the mud has just been sand blasted off.
I find the Haiku I am doing today by Issa quite modern, but he lived between 1762 -1826.

The world is a dewdrop,
a dewdrop world...
it is, it is, it is what is...

Brunswick St Melbourne

I have been a bit lax with my sketching, I have had my boots on and been walking but not sketching.
At the moment the muse is not there.
I did this one while I was in Melbourne, that is weeks ago now.
Today I have been ironing and trying to get to the bottom of the basket, all is done now except a few table cloths, I have been so not wanting to do house work it isnt funny.
I keep having nightmares about being lost in the London transport system, I really must concentrate on Germany and Paris.
I dont know what happened to my nights of sleep, no waking and not many dreams, as I get older I seem to worry more and about what? Nothing important.
I had a beautiful long walk this morning, sun out and birds singing, I heard kookaburras, ducks, magpies, rosella parrots and a thrush. Only trouble was the walk was a bit too long and my knee has ached but it has to get used to it.
Issa is the author of my Haiku today.

Moorland grasses
swaying, swaying,
as spring passes.

Dead poppy seed heads in the garden

No they are not smoking and there is not a fire, I got a bit carried away with the background.
I seem to be having decidedly messy days at the moment, although yesterday we had a Grumpy Goddess get together in Adelaide which was great fun and they turned it into an early Birthday celebration for me.
We all sat around and worked at various projects and I now have a crow, some Christmas baubles and a pin cushion to finish.
My youngest daughter has just told me that she is re marrying on the 14th of November, not long after we get back from the UK, big excitement but it will be a lovely low key wedding on their property.
I am having lots of cold feet about this proposed trip but also excitement. I will be fine once I am on my way.
To nights Haiku is by Issa and the plum blossom here is just starting to flower.
The plum blossom's here.
"Shall I steal it?"
the moon is saying.

Simple shapes

There is nothing much in my sketchbook at the moment, not even any colour but I have been trying out a few things that maybe I can translate back into lino cuts when I have time so a tree and a pear.
I have been busy trying to get other stuff done and sketching has taken a back seat.
I also spent time with my grand daughter and great grandson as it will be his birthday after we leave at the end of the month. Only trouble is he has a cold so I hope I dont get it.
Still cold and showery so a good time to be doing stuff inside although if you look here at my other blog you will see that things are coming out in the garden.
tonight's Haiku is by Kyorai

Chanting and humming
gongs immerse
the green valley
in cool waves of air.

A bit of total silliness

Sometimes I dont feel like doing anything structured and need a bit of throwing paint around and total silliness and this slightly odd interpretation of a sunflower is it.
A far cry from a chinese hibiscus!
I think I needed some brightness as it is another dull and windy and rainy day. I really dont like wind.
I am also trying to do my lino cutting course and not getting terribly far with it, I have sort of finished some bits but I am being terribly slow.
My trips to Adelaide always seem to leave me with a feeling of frustration although I did finally find a closer art supply shop and got some more lino for this course.
My mother was quite bright yesterday and sometimes I wonder if what we are being told is spin or not.
This Haiku is by Kyoshi and although the Kyoshi I know is not this one it could well be.

This old hat, stolen
from a scarecrow...
How fiercely
the cold rain pelts it!