Playing with elephants

The friend we stayed with in Northern Victoria comes from a circus family and one of his loves are the elephants. His house had lovely elephant things in it. The second sketch is of a clay baby elephant, it was gorgeous and my sketch doesnt really do it justice.
so from there I went to playing, not anatomically correct at all but a fun bit of play while I was recovering from a few over the top days.
I came home feeling wonderful I think one of the symptoms of the meds I am on says 'euphoric'! So I have walked, cleaned, tidied up and generally made myself a bit over tired today.
Now I am sitting sketching and having a bit of catch up sit down time.
John has been fishing, some nice fish for dinner tomorrow, tonights is pasta and is organised, but I think we are both pretty tired.
A beautiful couple of days, rain at night and then warm and sunny so the weeds will start if I am not careful. I am having a gentle wander down to the stables and pulling some grass and thistles as I go for the ponies. That should keep me a bit on top if I do it regularly, well until Spring finally hits and then I wont be able to keep up.

Hearts and flowers

This is my thank you to all the kind thoughts and words that have been sent to me.
The aches are going but I think the change of meds maybe contributing to a general tiredness and fuzzines so I havent done a huge amount today but being me I cant do nothing, so these hearts and flowers were born as a sort of thank you to every one.
Bloggers are the best!

Mad birds

I am still not doing a huge amount and now the new meds I am on make me sleepy!
I did manage to do a few birds, referring to Carla Sonheims Drawing Lab book, such a lovely book when you cant do much else.
I had a blood test this morning, in by 7.45 and it was -3degrees and the valley had frost almost up to the top of the hills.
It was COLD!
I am hoping this may shed more light on why I ache so, we are now thinking maybe polymyalga which at least if it is can be curable in the long term.
I really dont want to feel like this forever, I feel about 100!!
I will drop in to my blogs when I can and thank you to those who have sent lovely messages.

Eco dyeing equipment

This is on our side verandah, I wish I had time to do some more but just at the moment all the stuff is waiting for me to get at it again.
My old gas bbq and not a copper pot but a brass one as well as an old aluminium pot, I need to find a copper one if I can, one with a handle I can use. I do have a kettle I suppose I could use that.
Very cold here, a frost this morning and I dont think again it has got much over 10 degrees C, a proper winter, but I am not coping with it as well as usual.
I will be a bit hit and miss with my blogging as I need to be motivated to sketch and I havent much to motivate me at the moment.
Dont want to moan so just wont be around as much as usual.

Home from Queensland

I have been a bit slow at getting sketches done. I didnt feel terribly well while we were away, although we managed to get a lot done and fill our time pretty well. Sketching became something that was very hard to find time to do.
I did manage to do this huge terracotta pot with leaves and lilies in while having a coffee at the Ferry Road Markets, a great place for coffee and fresh vegetables.
We also went to Brisbane and saw the Torres Strait Exhibition in both the Museum and the Gallery of Modern Art, a fantastic visit and I really loved these masks, and figures, the hat was made of turtle shell and was wonderfully grotesque. I have the book but these were done in the museum with about a million screaming children as it was school holidays.
The book of the exhibition is a really good reference for this area, not cheap and heavy! but it is not easy to get good reference books except when museums or art galleries do this sort of thing.
We are now home, and it didnt get over 10degrees C all day yesterday, a bit better today or I am getting used to it, but we have had some drizzle.
I have managed, slowly, to get a few things tidied up, but find early mornings and night the worst, aching joints are no fun at all, there were times when I could barely walk but I feel a bit better now I am home. I decided the only way to bet back to a bit of normality was to do things slowly, exercise as much as I can but not over do it and rest, as bed is no good at least my chair is a bit more comfortable.
I am re reading Jean Auel's Earths Children series, as I need to be a bit more up to date with her new book out, so they are keeping me amused. Not that I have the new book, I am waiting for the paperback version!

From our hotel window in Brisbane

Bit of a wonky photo, that is the trouble with having to take photos.
I havent really had a lot of time to do any sketching but yesterday we were up in Brisbane for the night to see Dr Zhivago, the musical and I had a few minutes in a comfortable chair. I have no idea what I was sketching but buildings are always satisfying to do.
We had a lovely visit to Brisbane, we took the city ferries both yesterday and today to explore the city from a different angle, and I didnt have to walk too much. We saw some evidence of the January, devastating floods, but although there is still a lot of cleaning up going on, mostly things looked almost normal, at least the area we saw.
The musical was great with some lovely voices and worked well, I wasnt sure how they would do it but it was done well.
We went to see various exhibitions at the Museum and Art Centres, but perhaps more of that tomorrow.
See photos on my other blog, see the side bar.

Croton leaves

I have had these leaves in my sketchbook for ages waiting for me to find time to sketch them. finally!
I think I went a bit overboard with colour and water using inktense pencils and a water brush.
It is so hard to get the very odd combinations of colours that they have in their leaves.
I am not having a lot of time to sketch but there are plenty of photos in my other blog (on the side bar).
We are relaxing and being tourists, part of Saturday and Sunday was spent visiting friends in Toowoomba and we have been out for dinner a lot and generally socialising and catching up with things.
Our hostess has gone down with a nasty cold, just hope we dont get it, probably down a bit looking after us having just got home from a golf trip to South Africa.
I am happy just being in a different place and the reports from home are that it is wet and cold and miserable, here it is sunny and very pleasant.
Welcome to my new followers, I hope this blog isnt too boring!