Blue wren

Beak a bit long, but quickly done.
Very hot here today, worse tomorrow. Out to lunch, a lovely meal at the
Green Man at Ashbourne, catching up with old friends, one of whom is not well, J hadnt seen them for 4 years and we are old skiing mates so lots to catch up on.
I dont think my waist line will ever recover!
Off to find a cool spot by the fan, this is not a cool spot and I am dripping.

Finally

For almost all of the time we have been on the Island we havent had much of a view of the mainland but finally today everything cleared.
Where we are the bay turns and the mainland looks as if it is joined but it isnt and huge ships sail, well motor up the gulf to Adelaide. This afternoon a lovely catermeran sailed in and is achored in the bay.
Much cooler today until the sun came out.
We managed to walk on three beaches today and now most of the packing up is done for an early start on the ferry in the morning.
I have a sneaking suspicion that there is more to take home than we brought with us!
Sad to go again, but lots to do when we get home.
May not post for a day or two, depending on what time I have.

Xmas morning

A walk on a lonely beach, a visit to a lonely lighthouse, no one around.
Overcast but not too cold.
Home for a light lunch. (with wine!!)
Roast duck tonight.
Carols on the cd and the absolutely lovely Jackie Lawson Advent calendar, sent by a dear friend to watch and listen to all through.
What a perfect start to a day.
A good friend to enjoy it all with us.
We are so lucky.
I hope you are too.

Seasons greetings

Have a lovely, joyous day with all your loved ones.

Lunch today

We had a long walk along Antechamber Bay this morning and called in to a newly opened cellar door outlet for the Dudley wines, and stayed to have a bottle of rose and a cheese platter looking at this incredible view.
Must be one of the best in the world.
A sketch and the photo, the mainland very vaguely in the distance.
A lovely day.

Sketches

The top one was while we were at lunch yesterday at Rustic blue, looking across at a lovely old farm gate with a dam in the distance.
The second one was in Kingscote on monday, having lunch at rogers deli is a tradition when we are on the Island, on the footpath, almost on the street you meet all sorts of people.
I have so far had a slow day, J and J played 9 holes of golf and after a wine at lunch,( here, we need to eat some food!) proceeded to nap for about 2 hours.
Friends in for dinner tonight, I cook, J cleans up after me, a good arrangement. I have sorted what we will have, roast pork and veg and red cabbage, we will all probably get indigestion but who cares.

Agapanthus

Summer and Kangaroo Island to me mean sun, sea and agapanthus.
There are white and blue ones in the garden framing the view of the sea and this year they are magnificent. So a painting had to be done, there is also a lovely little blue and white chinese vase which sets them off well.
Lots of photos have been taken and the odd scrappy sketch but we have been pretty busy, wandering the Island, friends in for drinks ( which went on for hours!).
Today we went to the raptor display, getting up close and personal to kestrels and falcons and a wedge tail eagle as well as some beautiful owls (who are not raptors).
Lunch in a pleasant spot and a walk along a pristine beach, a few shells collected and home to recover!
It is Johns birthday so we are out to the pub tonight. We rang Sarah in New Zealand to wish her a happy Birthday, sounds as if they have been having a lovely time and I facebooked Fenella, the three generations of birthdays on the same day can sometimes be interesting.
Well off to lead a bit more of this hard life!

Cave art

I have been re reading Jean Auell's books and felt the need to make some cave art, but on paper.
Fun but not terribly good.

What you do while waiting for the duty doctor to see you.

I was in there for well over an hour today and so I sat and sketched, anything to keep me amused.
They think the toe looks better!! I hope so this silver stuff does seem to work.
We went out to dinner last night, a dairy thing but held at the Mt Compass Golf Club I had never been there before, quite interesting and I certainly didnt know there were so many houses there, or that they all went mad with Christmas lights! No photos unfortunately. Built on swamp and sandhills it must be interesting to garden as all the houses are on the hill.
Another cake under way so another tick on the list but a few more days of baking.
We are supposed to get some rain tonight, I hope so, we are very dry.

A selection of birds

The bottom one is not taking my pen from the paper so is a 'silly bird'.
I am feeling a bit off today so after a busy morning, including dropping and breaking a jar of chocolate thousands on the floor (great fun to clean up!) I sat and finally did a bit of sketching. I havent sketched for days and need to.
I have been wrapping Christmas presents and trying to make sense of what I have, the fact that there are several family members with birthdays just before Christmas doesnt help either.
With almost no money to spare this year it has been a struggle to find things for all but the smallest members of the family. They are the fun ones I gather stuff for through the year.
With so many of my grandchildren either teens or in their twenties it is hard to know what to get.
We are supposed to go out to dinner tonight, I was supposed to go with John to a volunteers thing as well but have decided not to go to that dinner will be as much as I can do, standing is a problem.
Hope you like the sketches, I had fun doing them.

Another female study

A back view this time, that way I dont have to do a face! Another one where I am fiddling with shape and color
Not such a good day today, a change in the weather and dropping another mg of cortisone and I am back to aching and shaking. I think it will be better in a day or so.
Yesterday we went to Adelaide and saw Gaby and poor little Mason, she was hoping he would come home today but it may be a few more days, for some reason they dont want the local doctors to deal with him. So he is now throwing toys at his poor mother who also desperatley wants to go home.
I supose it means he may be getting better.
Not only has he had the skin graft to contend with but he also had high temperatures and they think a virus and had to have a lung X ray as he was coughing so much.
Such a worry.
So I paint and sew and try to keep busy.

Too much hair and a bit too wide eyed.

This is one of my cloth doll faces, I was again playing with a face and form but ended up going back to how I paint my faces. I am not sure how I managed to put so much hair around her, but it was a fun exercise in getting paint to paper.
I am learning quite alot from these exercises so there may be more.
At 1.30 this morning we had a call from the police to say that one grandson had rolled his car and they couldnt contact his parents and the grandson was ok but in Flinders Hospital. We couldnt raise his parents either so a rather disturbed night ensued. We did finally get through to them and he is apparently rather bruised and lacerated but nothing major wrong. It may teach him to not drive so fast, at 17 they think they are invincible.
Poor Gaby is having problems with Mason who wants to take off his bandages and doesnt want to stay still. I do feel for her although family are rallying around.
It is cold and damp and yet when I went to plant out some seedlings the earth a few cm's down was as dry as dry. Not a lot of rain and quite a lot of wind.
At least the house is clean, finally, so I can go back to making it grubby again.
Still making Christmas presents.
Have a lovely week end, not sure about mine John goes fishing tomorrow.

Little owl

I saw something like this some where, not sure where but had a few minutes between cleaning out cupboards, ugh what a job, and sewing more birds.
The cupboard cleaning had to be done, there are still more to do, but oh boy its difficult when you cant kneel and getting up off the floor is difficult.
For some reason I am aching again today.
I loved the little fat look of this guy, he was an experiment, possibly more later.
Young Mason is giving his poor mother the run around, I am going up tomorrow so I am taking her a large bag of craft stuff so she can do something while she is up there.
He has to have a skin graft tomorrow so she is in a panic and it is so far from home and she is bored to tears but cant leave him. Not sleeping either and she says the food is pretty strange and she has to buy it. Poor child.
Her partner is in WA and we are all down here.
I have packed stamps, paper, sketchbooks, pencils, paints,glue, scissors, wool, buttons, sewing stuff, not that she sews but she might be so bored she will learn, beads etc. I just hope Mason doesnt swallow any! Put it all in a big zippered bag so I hope she can keep it out of his reach. Apparently he keeps escaping from his room, as any 3 year old would.
I worry for her.
Back to trying to get some semblance of order in my life.

Playing with paint

Very hot and sticky today. This morning I pulled a heap of forget me nots and other weeds. I love the forget me nots when they are fresh but once they die off they get pulled, managing to usually get seeds all over me as well, so a new lot will start.
I also got out the outdoor furniture and washed it and set it up.
By then I needed a rest so I collected the watercolours and went to work, slowly, one layer at a time. It is so long since I did something like this I had almost forgotten how.
I only play paint so I dont pull my paintings apart and think what and where I could do better. to me that takes all the enjoyment I get out of painting away.
mMy hands shake when I am trying to do detail hence a few splodges.
Its not Julia.

Rhino statue

This magnificent rhino statue was under a tree in Marks garden and while we waited for him to come home I sat and drew it.
( We made good time driving over and were a bit earlier than I thought we would be)
We went over to North East Victoria on Friday and came home on Monday with a filly in the float. A good 10 1/2 hour trip each way.
Had a lovely few days, Sarah had to judge at a pony show on the Sunday. We went down to the very good Violet Town Market on the Saturday, enjoyed good food, good company and a lovely setting. Saw magnificent ponies and came home tired but refreshed as well.
Now catching up here.

Shell

Not brilliant, another sit and draw something from memory.
I had my dressing on my toe changed today and it is now feeling worse than before, although they assure me it is improving. I have such a busy few days ahead I am not sure how I will cope.
Back tomorrow I hope.

Being a bit silly

I have had a 'thing' cut off the bottom of my big toe and I am struggling to walk. Had a huge day yesterday a 2 hour drive up and another 2 hours back to the big SA Welsh Pony Show. The drive is horrendous, through the scenic Adelaide hills and mostly at 80 kph but my lovely yearling cream filly had a tremendous show with my grand daughter and daughter showing her for Supreme Section B Welsh and Best Youngstock, couldnt expect better from such a baby.
But by the time I got home, luckily it was my left foot so I didnt have to use it, my foot was killing me and I was so tired.
So these strange things were born, a mythical animal, which was such fun I almost didnt know where to stop, and then some one said that a collection of jellyfish was called a Slap of Jellyfish so I just had to sketch a slap of them I had never heard that term before.
We also had a foal born yesterday that either I missed or was born after I went to look in the early hours of the morning, and another this morning, I have no idea what sex they are, my eyes are not terribly good and i cant catch either of them but they are both fit and healthy. Most important that the mares have dropped their after birth and the foals are drinking which they both seem to be doing.
Very hot and sticky yesterday, much nicer today.
Off to put my foot up, hope you had a good week end.

Ardrossan Silos

Oh dear I am sorry about the blue splodge, I am not sure where that came from.
A very quick sketch of the cliffs and Silo at Ardrossan.
I am having a wonkyt few days so this is the best I can do at the m oment.
Really it is just to say I am in the land of the living but struggling a bit. Nothing bad, just the affects of dropping down another mg of cortisone. Leaves me feeling shaky for a day or so.
Hope I will be back shortly, but I have put some photos up on my other blog here.

Home from Tiddy Widdy

What a name! It is a small holiday/retirement area south of Ardrossan on Yorke Peninsular. A bit over three hours drive from here. The biggest hassle is going through Adelaide from one side to the other. I had an easy run through leaving around 9.30 and getting home a bit before 1. Hot and sticky so thank goodness for the airconditioner.
I had an hours walk on the beach and saw the early fisherman coming home on a glassy sea and this wonderful red cliffs with the Ardrossan silos further on. I may try to paint these later but didnt have time or my paints and the flies even so early (7am) were fearsom.
I had a lovely few days, walked every day, op shopped, made little fabric birds and flowers and generally played, ate well, stayed up late and had fun.
I think the best was standing on the veranda or sitting inside and having the sea constantly in front of you.
Some wonderful sunsets too, I didnt have a lot of time to sketch, but I did manage these two, there were wonderful roses in the garden and the great aloe had flowered and was just to the left of the house.
So lots of photos which I may translate into paint or sketdch.

Watercolor and Inktense pencils

I needed to throw a bit of colour around, so this is the result, a bit of pencil wandering, some water color on top, then another bit of drawing and finished off with the pencils. I love the intensity of color that they give.
I havent done much in the way of sketch or paint for a few days, it has been damp and hot, then cold, still damp, everything is dripping and the garden is growing and looking like a jungle.
We went to a combined friends 70th Birthday celebration yesterday, new and old friends and it was lovely, relaxing and the food was good.
Over the week end our Rivington Welsh Pony Stud did very well with some we own and many we have sold doing very well in three states. Not only that but in all the sections of the stud book as well and not just led either but in dressage and ridden, leading rein and Show hunter.
It is so lovely when something like that happens and their owners all let you know, one of the good things about facebook.

Beach combing

We had a simply lovely walk this morning, see here and although this was with my boots it is not exactly with my sketchbook but I came home with a few odds and ends and bound them together with a flax leaf and hung it by the back door until it falls off.
I had seen the ones I think it was Gwen Hedley had done for Ally Pally and decided to see what I could find.
Not a huge amount actually as we have had some quite high tides which had swept the beach clean of sand and debris.
Just finished watching the dvd of The girl with the dragon Tattoo, not an exactly nice film but then the book wasnt either but was incredibly well done, sub titles or not.
I am finding that some blogs are coming up with strange photos etc instead of the usual header ande blog, which I dont like, I think this is on newer blogs.
I didnt like on mine the feature for slide show and found that if I went into settings and format there was a place for me to say I didnt want it. If you go to blogger buzz it explains it under some weird name. I do wish they wouldnt change things without asking. Under the old system I could enlarge the photos and I couldnt work out how to do this on the slide show. Any way the old format looks much cleaner.
Just my two cents worth.