Manna Hill

I am nopt sure what this is but we stopped at Manna Hill to take some photos and it caught my eye, maybe a mine head, maybe a bore I am not sure.
I feel a lot better today.
But maybe madness has set in as I spent the whole day defrosting the freezer, on a freezing cold day, but at least it is done and at the same time while waiting for ice to melt I tidied up my work room, I got one table cleared, then another, then began on the bed, and now none are clear!
I hope to get it all sorted tomorrow.
I think the rearranging will make things look better, I just wish I hadnt started on collage as I have so much paper now even though I did throw out a lot.
No I will not keep all that stuff!!
Of course my back is now telling me it doesnt approve, hope it is ok tomorrow.

Back to a 2nd childhood!

I am still full of cold and although I have managed to do a few cleaning jobs around the house I get very short of breath if I do too much (like shopping this morning) and then I get bad tempered.
Not a good look.
So I have been playing with anything that comes into my head and the bird scene is one, any child could do this and this is about as much as I am able to do.
I had been playing with a few other simple prints using the meat trays and the one I had done to take to Broken Hill as a demo I couldnt find so made another, not as good but it was really only to show what you can do if pressed for time and money.
I could have done a better job of printing this one.
We have had the best rain for the year last night and this morning, but it is cold which is aggravating my poor nose, I need to tidy my work room so I can find things but everytime I bend down my nose streams so it is taking longer than I would like it to.
Perhaps tomorrow it will have gone.
A cold day,
a streaming nose,
oh woe is me.
The fire beckons.

Argent St, Broken Hill

The little scribble on the other page was of the wrought iron on one of the buildings.
We sat and had coffee on a corner and I looked down to the Post Office and other buildings and the rather incongruence of palm trees, but thenperhaps they were desert palms.
Soldiering on, still not better, in fact coughing more but I am doing a few things as well so I guess I cant expect miracles where colds are concerned.

Seeds, print and draw

Over at Sophie Munn's blog here there is a homage to seed, calling for artists and textile artists to send a postcard to the Botanical Gardens in Brisbane.
Have a look at her blog and see what it is all about.
I am not sure that I will do anything but I have been playing around with both drawing and using the simple printing done with meat trays to see what happens.
I am still full of cold and this filled in a few quiet hours, but as I said, will I take it further?I do feel a bit better but certainly not as good as I would like to be.

Seeds, the beginning of life,
small capsules ,
from which
so much emerges.

Prints from Broken Hill

I have a terrible cold and feel well terrible, but I thought even though these are not mine that it would be fun to put up two prints that I bought in Broken Hill.
They are a father and daughter, first Pro Hart, who is not alive any more but has a fabulous gallery there and the flowers are his daughter Julie Hart, she does a lot of the other paintings very like her father but I rather liked these flowers.
Pro was renowned for his dragonflies, ants and his caricatures of life around Broken Hill.
I am off to bed my head is splitting and my throat is aching.

The sculpture park, Broken Hill

I didnt have a lot of time to sketch, and I am still terribly tired after my 8 hour marathon drive yesterday but I did do this one of part of the view from the car park and some of the sculpture shapes.
A wonderful trip, lots of fun, saw many things loved the country, the weather was lovely the people were fantastic.
Just a shame it is so far away.
Hope to fill you in more tomorrow and the photos are starting to appear on my other blog.

Is it a scribble?

Well no its peas, I have some growing in a tub by the back door close handy so the pea cocks dont eat them, although they have been eying them off and they have eaten down a tub I had full of bulbs that had just started to throw out leaves, I dont think I thought they would eat ranunculi but they have.
Very cold, very windy, gale warnings today and it is blowing again tonight.
We hope for rain.
No blogging for a while, I may get the notebook to do its thing while I am in Broken Hill but then again it may not.
I will be in Adelaide tomorrow night and see my mother.
I have just watched Julia and Julie on a video, lovely film, especially some of the shots of Paris, and the bits about blogging and recipes and food.
Remember Paris?
The seven story buildings,
the cafe, and the coffee?
People watching.

Fantasy Land

I never know quite what my pen is going to do but here is a bit of nonsense.
I quite like it, not straight, leaning, perhaps a bit Italian.
Terribly cold this morning and I had to wait until the sun had melted the ice from the frost before I had a shower as we had no water at all.
A good excuse to stay warm in bed.
Then the clouds came up, I hate it when that happens as the day stays cold and miserable.
Thank heavens for a fire.
Frosty mornings,
water frozen,
blackbirds singing.
It is warm in bed.

Sketches

We had a wonderful walk along Parsons Beach this morning and if you want to see the photos go to my other blog on the side bar.
I had fun last night while tv doing a few quick sketches from photos, and I painted them today when I had a couple of spare minutes. The girls, should be 4 and a rooster but not in the photo I took, and the fungi we saw the other day growing in a crack in the gutter.
We had a really hard frost last night, no water in the bathroom but a lovely sunny day today.
I am busy busy, trying to get everything into the least number of bags to take to Broken Hill. After all I do have two other passengers and they and their luggage has to fit in somewhere.
I think we will have another frost tonight, it is getting cold out here already.
Walking the beach
at Parsons.
Sun and surf and yellow sand
fishermen and surfers,
hopeful.

World Cup nonsense

While watching the news about the World Cup, here is a bit of sketching done while images were flashing past on the screen.
A walk this morning, friends for dinner tonight.
this is all I have time for.
Thanks to all who put encouraging posts on my blog.
Photos on my other blog.
The world is in turmoil
and what for?
Soccer's world Cup
in South Africa.

Bad spelling and good goose bad goose

Well I have had a very mixed week, not terribly pleasant in parts and I have a sense of foreboding about my mother. It is never pleasant when ones sister writes you a nasty letter but I hope we can move on.
I am not getting anything done except cleaning the house, although I did see Millie and Gaby and Tabby briefly today and finally got the brass sort of polished, so both the silver and brass twinkles in the fire light, but I know it really isnt properly done.
I played with the fish last night, and then discovered that I cant spell! Pretty typical but there you are.
I had cramp in the middle of the night last night and drew the geese without my glasses and with a pen that didnt want to draw, so the beak on the front one is all wrong. Although the one peering underneath doesnt look quite so bad.
Considering that my eye sight without my glasses is pretty woeful and I cant see a thing out of my left eye I suppose it could have been worse.
So I am trying to get together all the stuff for Broken Hill and wondering if I can get there at all.
We have a holiday week end this one coming and I do hope John and I can go for a walk.
There is nothing in the garden to photograph and I am running out of things to draw, write about, the lot. Sometimes I wonder why I even do it, is anyone out there reading?
No I am just feeling sorry for myself, not sleeping at all well and really wanting a bit of me time to get into my workrooms.
Sitting alone at 2 am
wishing the cramp in my leg
would go,
drawing.

Tree with owls and pots

Just to prove that I am home and playing a bit.
Actually it has been several days of trying to get the house in order, with only two in it I am constantly being amazed at how filthy it gets.
It has rained, it is now cold and wet and of course people will track mud and wet into the house. Sometimes I wonder why I wash the floors.
Any way, after a day of 'deep cleaning'. in other words not flicking a duster around but actually dusting everything in the house I needed a break and this is what came out of my head!
If I only had some cupboards a lot of stuff would go into them. John thinks a garage sale would be more appropriate.
This is a huge, inconvenient house with far too much stuff in it. I have just added a heap of new shells and rocks, what a dill!
Winter rains
mud on floors
a new beginning.

Last sketches

We head for home tomorrow, a good 9 hour trip by the time we have stopped for lunch and fuel, so I am slowly packing but it is a simply stunning day, too good to be inside for long.
This morning we went into the Coffin Bay national Park and went throgh tp Golden Beach and walked down.
The correa was in flower every where and although this is a pretty poor sketch at least I did something.
We came back and had a coffee and a bit of lemon merangue pie between us at the oyster beds and I sketched the next one from where we were sitting outside, I really didnt want to move.
We had a lovely meal and catch up with friends last night at the yacht club, they have only just returned from overseas so it was great to see them.
As we walked out to go home, John and Iwere walking there were three kangaroos feeding on the lawn in front, my camera didnt do a good job of taking a photo.
Well back to a bit more packing, we want to get off early tomorrow and will have to clean the house before we go.

A bit of light sketching

Last evening I walked down to the boat ramp to see if the boys had come in and also to jot down a few more names of shacks, how do you like Searenity? or perhaps the oddly named Cheers.
Any way I thought it was about time I sketched a boat of some kind and this one caught my eye., from there I wandered back, sketching the lone pelican waiting for some one to clean their fish a bit past the boat ramp, and then saw this amazing sight just down from where we are of a line up of shags and two pelicans on the little jetty, there were some sea gulls as well but they tended to fly off while the others just moved their necks around.
To day is glorious, I went into Pt Lincoln early and wandered around finding all the op shops I could, for about $10 or less I got a wonderful haul of junk that may have a use, nothing was over $1 and a lot were either free or 50 cents I was wrapped, you dont see those prices ar home.
We are out to dinner tonight, and so I am about to go for a walk.

shell and water

Sue and M went for a walk yesterday on long beach and brought back this lovely whelk shell which I sketched.
Yesterday I walked along the oyster track and this morning I walked the other way.
I am having a lot of trouble with my knee, I think maybe it is all the stairs but then I have also been told that that should strenghthen it. I dont know but I am not managing things as well as I would like. My knee support on and painkillers the joys of getting old.
Today was washing of a sort day(by that I mean several loads but odds and ends) and although cloudy we are having a nice amount of sunshine as well.
I love these fish cleaning tables, wherever there is room in front of a shack there is a table, it is pretty obvious who are the mad keen fishermen.
I have been having fun noting down some of the shack names, there are the obvious like The Shack, given to a new and huge house! We are in Pebbles, pretty mundane, but then friends have one called Sea Urchin and there is of course Seagulls. More to come as I walk the road instead of the track.