Sketching the walk

I walked for an hour or so today and this the next bit on from the quick walk, rockier and more scrub with long beach and the sandhills in the back ground.
Really lovely to do on your own, I suppose you would get sick of it eventually but not for the time we are here, I even spotted the fellows off Rabbit Island, I know because they rang to say they were coming in, and I had to tell them to get a few more fish as we froze the last lot for Oscar!
I have been playing with stuff that I am doing on a couple of on line classes. Cutting up paper, foiling and sewing.
The weather has changed again and it is overcast but no wind and a bit warmer and looks like a few more good days.

Chrysanthemums

These bright little things are growing over the road and I collected a few to put in the tiny jug to replace the gum flowers.
Rather a damp day, I have been playing with background papers but not really doing a lot.

Windy day

I am not sure how well this depicts the wind that is howling outside.
There are people with dogs being blown along the road outside,
I walked earlier and although it was sheltered amongst the trees and shrubs along the Oyster walk but when I got to the beach at the end I was almost blown over.
We are out to lunch again today as M has a Birthday this week but if the weather is good the boys will be out fishing.
No fishing today! So lunch at the Oyster Beds as been organised.
Yesterday we went into Pt Lincoln and took a friend who has become a widow since last trip out to lunch at the very nice Delocoline winery. Her husband was larger than life and is missed, always a larrikan.
She seems to be coping well.
Sun, wind and the occasional heavy scud coming through.

Sketches

The first is just a face I did while waiting to be called to help with dinner. I havent sketched a face for ages and although her eyes are a bit odd on the whole I rather like her.
We went to the big morning tea this morning at the community hall, this is to raise money for cancer research and the locals turn up in force and all the stuff is donated and there are some very good cake makers amongst them. We met up with a few people and had a great morning. The local school did some skits from Grease which was fun, they certainly were not shy and got into it all with great enthusiasm.
We came home full of cake and didnt really want lunch so I sat and sketched the view from where I was sitting. There are so many of these little rocky points covered in a bit of vegetation and wonderful limestone rocks, the land is the other side of the narrow channel that we look out onto.
The weather has got colder today, no sun and a bit of wind.
We will go for a walk later but today, after a slightly disturbed night (too much squid I think!) I feel a bit tired.

Clouds and a bit of fun

The clouds here have been magnificent, I am hopeless at painting them but thought I would have a play at sketching, pen on paper.
I also had a bit of fun last night doing a 'pretend I am there' sketch.
Today I walked this morning, washed and then went out for a glorious lunch sitting on friends front veranda, home made pizza, salad and a lovely white wine.
We came home feeling we needed a sleep, but havent.
It has been a gloriously sunny day warm, no wind and high clouds around but not over us. Too good for the start of winter.

A jug of flowers

Just to prove I can do things other than in black and white.
I am really not terribly good at flowers but this morning I walked for about 2 hours, with my knee not really liking me. The other two walked for 3 but rang a husband to collect them!
Any way I walked and took photos and picked three tiny flower heads off the only gums that were flowering, I think none are native to the area but I may be wrong.
The yellow was really more of a creamy white with a touch of green.
I made a bit of a mess of the coloured ones, but the first is watercolour on not terribly good paper, then a graphitint drawing in my sketchbook and then again in my sketchbook one using mostly inktense pencils with water from a water brush.
It was interesting to do the same subject in different ways. Certainly the composition probably could have been better.
A bit of drizzle around on my walk. but now some sun and not much wind.
The fellows have at least been supplying us with fresh fish, although only just, they dont like us having the good fish as that is frozen and goes home with us.
Sounds like squid and snook for dinner tonight, they have just rung in to say they are going to see if they can get a few more crabs as well.
I have been trying to make a photographic record of the old shacks that are left, another is being demolished to day.

Rainy day

This is more or less the view from our window.
We walked this morning, a lovely long walk and had tea with an unexpected friend, a lovely 83 year old very fit, ex school teacher who had come over to her holiday cottage to conduct some tai chi lessons with another friend who is an expert. we didnt know that she was over.
Just as we got back down came the rain and it teemed.
Luckily the fellows took no notice of the forecast and went out fishing in the boat and have just rung in to say they have bagged out on whiring, have several other fish as well as more squid and will stop to see if they can catch a few more crabs!
We eat well.
Some more embroidery done, although I am not quite so happy with this lot.
Just wish the 83 year old in this party wouldnt turn his radio on quite so loudly at 4.30 in the morning.

Sketchbook play

It has been a cold windy and wet day, and I have been mostly messing around with a bit of this and that.
These are some of what I have been doing, as well as painting background papers and ome embroidery.
Despite the weather the fellows have been out fishing all day. Not sure what they have , yes I am they have 2 tiny fish fillets and a crab each! They are cold and damp.
I am begining to have fun playing with figures, rather stylised but fun to play around with.
It is teeming with rain again, just as well we walked when we did.
Lovely to see the rain, I hope we are getting some at home.
Relaxing.

The Path

Directly opposite our rented house is part of the Oyster walk with this lovely she oak and infront a seat to sit with a glass of wine and salute the setting sun over the water of the bay.
We arrived a bit later than we intended to yesterday after a full days driving and then getting food in Pt Lincoln and on to Coffin Bay.
Stuff unloaded, beds made and a late meal of oysters straight from the sea, a bbq of various meats, a salad with good wine and so to bed.
Another lovely morning, sun shining and the fishermen off while we walked.
A lazy day of catch up.
This was sketched from the balcony after lunch.

Imaginary flower sketch

I sat with an aching back and wanting to sketch, I do not know where this came from or what it is but here it is, some imaginary flower, that may not be from my imagination at all.
We are off tomorrow to Coffin Bay on the West Coast of South Australia near Pt Lincoln.
A wonderful place where the fellows fish and M and I walk and talk and sew and read and catch up with friends.
The only trouble is... getting ready to go, the cat to the cattery (not done yet) food for the dogs to be bought for the house sitter, not done yet either, nor is the chook food collected, these are the last minute things to do later this afternoon.
I have made 2 different types of biscuits, a cake, some bread and started to pack all the things I want to take with me. They are more important than clothes.
I have to pack clothes for 2 seasons, with any luck it will be wet and cold but then again it may not be, so mostly stuff for around the house but a few bits in case we go out. Then there is the bedding and finally what we need to take from the house so we dont have to buy it, as well as pack up the bread maker. Those hungry fishermen like fresh bread for their lunch.
Not finished yet so I had better go and write up the lists.
I will be taking the small notebook and possibly the printer (the men need to know about the weather and the tides!) so I will still be in touch.
My Haiku for today is by a woman called Hisajo Sugita.
In a day of chrysanthemums
I shake and comb my wet hair
Letting the drops fall.

A rock sculpture

I have been having fun making these little piles of rocks in my garden.
Having brought back rocks that I have picked up for ever, now I know what to do with them!
The top ones wobble and sometimes fall off but that is the fun of the things.
I also brought back that bit of wood which is leaning over my pile from the beach the other day.
Lots of hopeful looking clouds, but unfortunately still dry.
I wish this Haiku was correct, it is by Shiki.
Ho, for the May rains!
frogs swim
in through my open
door for a visit!

The Bluff and grasses

I noted this down when we were walking along the Kings Beach cliffs last week and did a better rendition today while I was waiting for my back to stop hurting.
John had gone off and although I could have gone too it was official business for him and I would have been a ring in.
Any way I needed to do a lot around the house today, I hope that all the walking and standing I did is as much as a walk on a beach.
I washed, sheets were changed, alot of tidying up was done, I needed to work out what I was taking away with me this time.
Some photo copying got done.
I searched and searched and finally found the golden syrup for a cake I was making, the clothes are in off the line, the chooks have new hay in their nest boxes, the cat is fed and so are the dogs.
I watered the pots.
I havent really done all that I wanted to do but my back is telling me in no uncertain manner to stop.
Thank goodness it is John's turn to cook tonight!
A haiku again by Basho, I am really disappointed with these translations but here goes.
On the dead limb
squats a crow -
autumn night.

Welcome home Jessica Watson

I couldnt find any photos that are not copyright but if you google her name you will find out about this wonderful 16 year old who sailed for 7 months around the world on her own.
An amazingly confident young woman, I know that todays sailing isnt as difficult as it once was, she blogged, she rang home she skyped but she was still on her own in a tiny 34 foot yacht in huge seas, with some incredible adventures to tell and I watched this afternoon almost in tears at the courage of this very young woman.
I felt for her too, as after 7 months all she probably wanted to do was sneak in and spend time with her parents before having a huge reception, instead she got the reception first, hardly able to stand straight after all that time on her boat. She came in through big seas and rough weather through the heads at Sydney and then had to negotioate through a huge flotilla of boats. She admitted that she really would have liked to have turned round and gone out to sea again.
I wish her well for her future.
I could not imagine doing that at her age.

Lonely Pelican

I made a bit of a mess of his beak, but never mind.
I love our great black and white birds, when Lake Eyre floods in the center of Australia up they fly to breed, there are always a few around the river and the sea.
This one was just standing at the mouth of our little river which had broken through to the sea. I think he was hoping for a fish to swim by.
Still no rain to speak of, I have hoses back on today.
I did manage to let the old chooks out and the old pug, try as he might, couldnt find a way to get in to them.
They may be safe for a little while. I know John doesnt want to kill them, but they are eating lots of expensive food so if they can find some themselves it would be a help. They havent laid an egg for weeks now and they really are old!!
My short haiku tonight is another of Basho's
Early autumn -
rice field, ocean,
one green.

Design for a lopsided mug

We walked, it drizzled, the wind blew, my mother has a single room in the high care area of the nursing home, dark and facing south but at least it is not a double.
I will see her tomorrow but she doesnt move until Friday.
We are not sure how we came to get a single room but it was worth all the messing around, I guess they dont think she will last much longer.
They dont know my mother.

An owl for Mothers Day

My youngest daughter gave me this really cute little owl for mother's day. I collect owls and she always manages to find me one that is a bit different.
We had a lovely day yesterday, breakfast in the morning, a walk along the cliffs to Kings Beach and then lunch in the scrub at Tab and John's property. All set up with tables and chairs, and Johns more elderly parents, Tab, Gaby Millie and Mason, I seemed to spend a lot of time keeping the 'nappy gang' happy, Johns sister and all the girls and Gaby's Wade so a good gathering in about the farthest part of their property.
Probably the most social mothers day I have ever had.
The boys all rang and it was a stunningly beautiful day.
But we need the rain desperately.
My mother didnt have a terribly good day but more on that tomorrow.
My Haiku tonight is by Joso.
In a wayside shrine,
a hungry owl
hoots and hides,
so bright is the moon!

Sketchbook scenes

The first one of a young Norfolk Island Pine was done this morning after our walk and while waiting for my coffee, we walked along the beach at the Bay but there was a lot of seaweed and the tide was in so not really much of a walk.
I have been setting up a small bench by the back door to do some metal work on and I think what I have finally done will work. I have also planted some sprouting little onions, but the ground is so dry it is unbelievable.
the second sketch I did of a family at play on the beach in Queensland. Two smalls who I think were twins mother and Dad trying to take photos. They kept moving so this had to be very hurried.
So all in all I think a bit more done today and I feel a bit more in the real world, brought down with a bump by my sister who rang to say that she thinks they will have to put Mummy into the high care area of the nursing home.
Not looking forward to that.
This Haiku by Basho perhaps is pertinent.
Visiting tombs,
white-hairs bow
over canes.

A very bad sketch of my fish

The colouring on this should be much much stronger and the scan came out even after manipulation, much too light.
I really love this fish I bought on Bribie Island, and I am sorry Caroline but I cant work out who made it, the signature is not good.
Any way feeling I needed something quick to sketch in between feeling I cant do anything I stood in the sun room and did this.
I really cant get enthused at the moment I need a goal I think and as we are off again for 2 weeks near the end of the month all I can think about is what to take with me to do and how will I organise everything, again, house sitter, cat to cattery, and this is the fishing trip, could be wet and cold, although I dont fish I usually try to take lots to do. This time I feel a bit stymied.
Instead of carrying on about it here is another of Basho's Haiku.
First winter rain-
I plod on.
Traveller, my name.

Sometimes.

I have this urge every so often to just throw some colour around and see what happens. I was cleaning up yesterday and came across some old Caran D'ache neocolor pastels and wondered if they were water soluble. I dont think so but then they were bought on our first trip to Europe in 1971! Any way I played with them and then added over the top some Kohinoor watercolours which have also been sitting around for quite some time and so my penchent for tall houses and flowers came to the for again!
I dont think I was allowed to play with paints much as a child and as I start to enter my second childhood(?) here I am playing again.
I have finally caught up with a few things, some ironing is done and John has shirts for the trip to Adelaide tomorrow, it has rained hooray! and is cold and we have a fire.
For some unknown reason I am swanning around in my gypsy skirt which isnt terribly warm, but it is what I felt like wearing.
Having fun reading India Flint's dyeing book and wondering what I can wrap before all the leaves on the deciduous trees have dropped and what fabric I have that might be suitable.
I dont really have a project in mind at the moment and so some serious thought needs to go into that, although Dale Rollerson of The Thread Studio is about to start her new on line class Gilding the Lily which I am sure is going to be fun.
I will from now on be using the Basho Haiku from my new book, which I should have bought from any where but Angus & Robertson as it cost me a fortune, and I could have got it for about $US8!!!
Any way from On love and Barley.
Violets-
how precious on
a mountain path.

sketchbook page

I am home.
I am terribly tired. So here is a fun page from my sketchbook.m I was thinking about Robyn Gordon's wonderful carved panels and started off with some of her shapes and sort of went from there. Go to Robyn's blog from my side bar.
The piled stones we saw in Queensland on a river bed, I love the idea of different shapes of stones piled on top of each other.
We arrived back from our few days in Melbourne, after Queensland late on Friday night.
I washed and tidied and put away and shopped all day yesterday.
Today was our Welsh Foal Show, we did very well but I did not want to get out of bed so left late, and then got terribly lost and arrived feeling even more tired and quite sick. A good hour plus away from home and lots of traffic.
Here is a bit from my new book of Haiku from Basho
Poet grieving over
shivering monkeys,
what of this child
cast out in autumn wind?