No Photos

I have just paid for some more photo storage space, it takes about 24 hours to go through they tell me.
I am off to Melbourne early tomorrow morning, well I hope Virgin Blue have their computers fixed but I do have a boarding pass and a seat number!
Probably wont post until I get home, either Saturday or Sunday. I have left John with lots to eat so he and the animals should be ok.
Dont forget to comment to go into the Give away by the end of October the 4th.
I am mostly packed and ready to go, layers as I am not sure what the weather will do to me.
My Haiku is an adaption of one by Basho
First spring rain-
I plod on
Traveller, my name.

Coffee and a bunch of flowers

Well this is interesting because blogger tells me on my other blog that I have to pay for more photos while I can still load onto this one.
I havent time to go on with looking at this but in that case there may be a new blog appearing. I will spend some time on it tomorrow, I think it is about how much space there is on the picasa web albums.
I like blogger on the whole so maybe ... We will see.
I have had a pretty quiet couple of days, reading sewing drawing, nothing exciting.
I am going to Melbourne on Thursday, only for a few days, I will be home on Saturday night.
A few Birthdays in the offing, Mason's second on Thursday, then mine on the 4th (have you left a comment for the giveaway?) and then Will's on the 7th.
I may not blog tomorrow, it depends on how much time I have.

Birthday Giveaway and Sketchbook project pages

It is my Birthday on the 4th of October and as I have missed my blog anniversaries etc I thought I would do a giveaway. So any one who comments between now and the 4th of October will go in the draw. It is also on my other blog here.
I may divide this up if I get a few people commenting. It has mostly textile stuff but a gelatin print as well.
I have had a worrying time about what to put in my book for the Sketchbook project as the paper is not terribly good so I have been sticking stuff in. drawing around them. sticking pages together. My theme was 'If you lived here'.
I just hope it is acceptable, it does look rather as if almost anything goes.
Warmer and the sun is out, I must go and pull some weeds before they grow 'as high as an elephants eye'!
Here is Issa's Haiku for today
One man and one fly
buzzing together
in one big bare
sunny room...

Yesterday at Willunga

John had a meeting yesterday at Willunga and I had some shopping to do further towards Adelaide, I was allowed an hour but thought I would allow myself a bit more than that. It was actually almost two hours so I sat in the car and sketched the top of this building while I waited. I am not sure if it was always part of one of the hotels but looked more like a shop at the front. I just liked the arch and the windows and brick against stone.
We havent done a great deal, I have been pulling weeds and my back and knee have been telling me off, I had to do the weeks shopping so not a lot of time for much else. At least one garden bed looks a lot better but there are a lot more to do.
It is still cold although we did have a little bit of sun today.
This Haiku is by Ransetsu.
Out of one wintry
twig, one bud,
one blossom's worth
of warmth at long last!

Orchid and a Hufflepup

The first is a painting I did of the orchid in my sunroom, the colours have not come through terribly well.
The other , the Hufflepup, is a new pet for Carla Sonheim, I am doing her The Art of Silliness on line class which is huge fun but I am not getting a lot of it done due to other interruptions but I did manage to sit and do this little fellow
I spent a lot of the morning trying to cut back a huge and unwieldy sage bush that had managed to outgrow its location so sitting doing something silly was fun.
We were also asked to do a haiku describing the contents of our medicine chest, mine is not quite that but here goes.
Medicine chest,
Where is the elastoplast?
I dont know!

Poppies

Another small watercolour of poppy seed heads and field poppy flowers, the seed heads I have to confess are from my big poppy (somnifera I think).
At least doing these small things is something I can do when I have a few minutes and is more or less keeping my hand in.
I saw a large fox in the vegetable garden this morning, heading towards my fowl house, John was out with the shot gun but coudnt find him. In broad day light, I ask you. I need a new agile dog, not the old ones who cant see hear or smell!
No wonder I keep on losing the hens.
Still damp and drizzly but the garden and spring blossom is looking magnificent, would just love a couple of blue sky days.
A day of house cleaning, and some more tidying, still more to do but it is not as bad as it was.
Another Basho Haiku, I dont like these translations as much as those in my other book.
Mirroring each other,
white narcissi,
paper screen.

Sunflowers and etchings

I am still playing with small samples, my leaves have no definition, perhaps I should start painting leaves to get my colours right.
I quite liked this cheerful little rendition but boy am I ever going to get it right?
The etchings are the ones we saw at the Art Gallery from an exhibition entitled A beautiful Line Italian prints from Mantega to Piranesi.
The first is a detail of 'The portico with a lantern' by Canaletto (1697 - 1768).
The second is a detail of 'Circe with companions of Ulysses changed into animals" by Castiglione (1609 - 1651).
I loved the fine lines and could have spent more time at this exhibition.
A drizzly and damp day again today, I think I am recovering from yesterdays activity. I did have an early physio appointment and a neighbour from down the road came to quizz John about standing for Council, nominations have to be in tomorrow.
With Spring still thinking it is winter this Haiku by Basho gives me some hope.
On this well-worn stone
Garlanded with
pinks of Spring...
O to drink and doze!

Forget me nots

I am back to a small watercolour each day, I hope, I felt that as these are all through my garden at the moment, and I will need to get to them and pull them out soon before wherever I walk I spread them on my pants, my socks, you name it.
I love the blue haze that spreads over my garden at this time of the year, and you dont notice the weeds, but a bit later, I curse them!
I have had a very productive day clearing stuff up. I am going to need to move stuff out of my work room whose photo is on my other blog, when visitors arrive and I decided to get on and make a start.
Now I am back to aching but do feel as if I can manage things a bit better.
Still more stuff to do but at least I have one clear space!
All the pony photos have gone over to Sarah to go through and put on her computer, stacks and stacks of them so I now have two clear shelves, well I did have! At least you can see the floor and the old printer has gone. I feel good but this house really is stacked to the ceilings with stuff and I dont know that I will ever use it.
Our wisteria is coming into bloom so I thought this little Haiku by Naito Joso was appropriate.
Under the rock
where I sit,
legs folded,
a wisteria blossoms.

A really lovely day

I wont repeat it all as I have put a lot about today on my other blog (see the side bar).
We went up toAdelaide to see the Rupert Bunny exhibition at the Adelaide art gallery, and this is one of the paintings I liked, he did a lot of portraits of his wife but on the other blog there are such lovely ones.
We also went to the Botanic Gardens and I did this pretty sketchy sketch of a very old Red Gum log that had been brought into the gardens from else where I think they thought it had died at 500 years old and was over 1000 years old.
My camera is not letting me upload photos and I took a photo of what they said about it so I will have to wait until I see it to read about it!
I had a pretty miserable couple of days with a tummy wog and wasnt sure how I would cope today, but cope I did and it was so relaxing and really lovely.
Wonderful when that happens.
Oh and Weaver, if you are reading this, you asked what books people would take on a desert Island. I would certainly take my lovely copy of the complete works of Shakespeare and probably Chaucer as well, I think they would keep me busy for many many months.
No haiku, I have to go and get dinner ready or we will never eat!

Buttercups and ghost prints

I found a few buttercups in the wet area of the orchard today so here they are, not as bright as I had hoped, my limited fix program doesnt always do a good job but another small painting for today.
I spent the morning printing gelatin prints, first on cloth which I havent scanned and then the ghost prints onto watercolour paper. They are really quite interesting and fun to do. I used plant leaves from the garden and some drawings I had transferred to light card and cut out.
A heavy shower of rain has just fallen, a helicopter has flown overhead, possibly to check the power lines, it is cold again, we go from mild to cold at the moment.
We had another foal last night, I am not sure how many we are expecting at least 15 to 20, depending on who actually got in foal, she dithered around all day yesterday and finally had it at about 8.30. a whopping big cream Section B welsh colt. The mother was a maiden so we were a bit concerned as she seemed to think she was going to have it for a day or so.
Another busy day, no house work of course but I have had fun and a lovely walk around the base of the Bluff.
A lovely haiku by Shiki
After a shower,
the clearing sky
smells faintly
of hawthorne blossoms.

More flower power

These paintings are tiny, I dont seem to want to get my head around something too big and I am trying to get one a day done so that I re enforce what I should know about watercolours!
I have finally, after the last one got taken in the post , got my black sketchbook for the sketchbook project, rather late but I am having a bit of fun with it. I chose If you live here as I felt that would let me have pretty free rein on doing what I wanted to. I know others have said the pages are thin and difficult, I am not sure what others have done, I must do a bit of research but at the moment I am resorting to painting, and some printing of my paintings and sticking them in.
We will see. I feel I need to know how to draw or paint a cow, after all the paddocks are full of them, but I find animals not at all easy!!
We had more rain last night, the paddocks are soggy again and the rain water tanks are overflowing and the subsoil must be full and I hope the dams and springs are replenishing as well.
I dont seem to be getting a lot done, or at least not a lot finished and I am being terribly slow about it but this renewed cold and wet weather has set off my aching joints again, and I just know that suddenly it will get hot and I wont like that either!
My haiku for today is by Shiki, I love the mental picture this brings, memories of Japan.
Beyond the temple
and the garden lanterns,
swans
afloat and asleep...

Elements of design

Well that is what the heading of this bit of my watercolour book said. My scan has not come out very well as there was more background on this.
A bit of nonsense.
I lost a mare today, one who had foaled so my daughter is now rearing an orphan foal, all very disheartening especially as we dont know exactly what the cause was.
One of the facts of life when you breed animals of any sort. We have to make quite sure that this little fellow doesnt get too cheeky, much better that he doesnt see humans as something to bite and kick. A fine line between teaching the right and the wrong things.
I have had a full on day and it is late so I am off to bed. I dont think I have a haiku for this.

More practice and gelatin prints

I have done another small practice piece using a dry brush this time, some bits are ok.
I spent a bit of time making some more gelatin prints, I cut out some shapes, picked some maidenhair fern from the garden and away I went.
I couldnt find my roller so these were done with foam paintbrushes, but I am not sure if I like the stripes that are left.
It is a different effect any way.
A lovely sunny morning so we walked along the beach but both of us are a bit lame at the moment, my knee is still playing up and John has some stitches on his thigh that are at the pulling stage.
So a sea Haiku by Buson.
Tides of the spring sea,
tide after indolent tide
drifting
on and on ...

Daisy practice

I had to identify my mother on Wednesday and had a rather 'off' day yesterday. I have a feeling this may happen a bit more than usual.
We had two foals born yesterday, in the wet and although they are ok I dont like it when it is so boggy underfoot for the foals and we have no where else at the moment to foal them down.
I did walk in the evening last night and felt better for it.
The plums are flowering and although the weeds are going mad, so are the bulbs and spring flowers.
So I decided to have a go at something simple, and try using the masking fluid which I dont normally use, it certainly helps with white and when i get the hang of it I might find it useful but I am afraid I was taught to paint without it.
John took me for an 'airing' as he says this morning and we walked around the point at Pt Elliot and saw two whales and a seal, all impossible to photograph but it was a lovely walk.
Photos on my other blog.
My Haiku is by Shiki.
He is unknown,
the poet who sings
this greatest
of all songs - Spring!

A little bit more practice

I had a busy day, we finally saw a bit of sun so I managed to get a lot of washing on the line.
In between doing that and various other things I sat down to do a bit more watercolour practice, this was using a limited palette and was a nice little exercise on washes.
This Haiku by Basho.
The oak tree stands
noble on the hill
even in
cherry blossom time.

Thank you and its wet, wet, wet!

Thank you to all who sent messages via my blog.
I think all is sort of back to normal now, if anything could be called normal.
I feel that the blogging world is a fabulous place, full of people you have never met sending thoughts and saying nice things.
I am still washing, going through some of my mothers things, and doing catch up house work. John was out and so not wandering in and out and under my feet so the floors finally got a good washing, of course he came home and didnt take off his boots so there are footmarks all over them. I blame the fact that his mother died when he was young for the not taking off of boots in the house. I thought I caught him young enough but I have never managed to get him to do it, when we were in Japan it was a real battle to get him to remember.
Any way in the middle of all the domestic chaos I managed to make for myself I did this wet in wet apple, that is why it looks fuzzy around the edges, and probably doesnt look like an apple but I am trying to do more painting, even if they are small.
The earthquake in Christchurch, one of my favorite cities sounds terrible and my thoughts go out to all those who were caught up in it, we experienced a 7 point something when we were at Queenstown skiing and that was scary but no buildings came tumbling down or roads opened up.
My haiku tonight is by Kyoroku,
Around the glowing coals
of a brazier,
old men tell tales
of earthquakes.

The waiting is over

My Mother died just after 11pm on Friday night.
I am sad I will not see her again, but glad that the last few months are now over.
She had a wonderful life, and was just a few weeks short of her 98th Birthday.
The last few days were absolutely horrible both for her and us.
I can now remember her as the vibrant elegant woman she was, not what she had become through no fault of her own.
I am all for euthanasia after this.
We will celebrate her life later in October I think, if it ever stops raining and we can get onto the area she wanted her ashes scattered.
I am sorting clothes and the few bits and pieces that she had left.
Remembering.

Waiting

The nursing home rang to say that my mother is in the last stages of her life.
I saw her yesterday and she didnt know what was really going on around her, which was good but I felt terrible.
I cant settle and I feel far more upset than I thought I would be.
She wont make her 98th birthday, and her quality of live is zilch, we have know that this will happen but ...