Sketching faces

 While cleaning up a bed room I found a Japanese magazine left by a student and sat while I watched a bit of football and sketched from a few pages.
different and fun.
We have had a bit of rain, not enough to say it is the start of the season, but I hope it will be a start.
We have had a busy few days, I sat with a friend on the desk at our Mix It Up exhibition over at Yankalilla on Friday and then went up to Pt Willunga for a lovely lunch with friends.
Yesterday John went to collect grandson Will from the plane from Melbourne and I went to the market.
today we went to walk but it was too wet and this afternoon I went to deliver some eggs to Millie, Mason is busy so I will have to wait.
Will has been helping clean out stables and now I think possibly the milking.
He is now 13 and very tall, and very good looking. We dont see him often so dont really know him so it will be lovely to spend time with him, even if we are probably rather boring.
I am downloading some free knitting patterns, not sure if I will ever knit them up but we will see. I need to get on with something.
I hope every one is having a safe and enjoyable Easter.

The Green Lily

 This alocasia has the most wonderful scent.
It reminds me of my mother who always had a plant in her garden.
It burns off with the frosts in winter but is laways in flower through mid to late summer and now into autumn.The perfume wafts through the whole house.
And it is green with great big leaves, although I picked the smallest I could find to bring inside.
Showers and wind and a lot cooler today, I just wish the showers would keep on but we are due for a couple of warm days later in the week, and then a promise of more showers.

A new book

After days of procrastination I finally sat down this morning and sort of got this little book together using coptic stitch.
Three books and some notes came out and although I made a small boo boo that I didnt notice until I had finished, it holds together and does what it should do, eg opens flat.
I cant believe it took me so long to gather my courage and get going with it.
It is a small collection of odds and ends and back ground pieces I have had lying around for ages.
Not sure what I will do with it.
I have all these books on how to bind books and although basically they say the same thing it is all done slightly differently. I did this stitch years ago with Adele Otteridge in my first forum class at Horsham and although I got out the notes and my sample books I still wasnt sure if I was doing the right thing.
Any way success at last.
It is cold!! I have had to find some warm clothes, I know it wont last but it is lovely to feel that I have to put on some clothes not take them off.
We havent had much rain though, about 2mm.

Faces

 Playing with faces in my sketchbook last night, I think I am starting to learn how to make a bit of a disaster look better.
I wasnt at all happy with the central face but played with it and it was marginally better.
I began in pencil and then used pen and inktense pencils.
I dont know where I am going with these but they fill in some time and do mean that I am sketching, something.
So much cooler today but a pretty warm night and I didnt sleep well, now all I want to do is sleep but there are things to be done.

Not my usual colours

 Once more I am playing in my sketchbook, and trying out letters again.
Not terribly well but it keeps me amused in this horrible weather.
 This has layers of colour with a final layer sprayed through a stencil, you cant see the glitter and shine of the lovely spray I used but I can.
It has been in the high 30 degrees C for days and very muggy as well.
Today it is very windy, very hot but not so humid and there is an out of control bushfire burning a few ks to the west of us, not close enough to be of any worry at the moment but we are due for a wind change, I am sure we are far enough away but fires are always a worry.
We were up early this morning and walked on the beach, it was surprisingly warm even at that early hour as out here we had thank goodness had a cool night and it was cooler at home than on the beach.
At least without the high humidity the air conditioner is working better.
I have stewed plums, made bread and a potato salad for dinner, and the house is reasonably clean,(the only way to get through hot weather is to work!) so I do feel that I can go and do a bit more playing, thinking of a small book but need to do some more work on backgrounds.

Heat play

 It is hot and humid and our airconditioner is an evaporitive one so isnt much use in these conditions, a fan at least moves some air around so after getting household tasks done I sat in my chair by the fan and played a little bit.
I am not much good at lettering so decided to have a play, then didnt know what to do with the rest of the page in my sketchbook so dancing girls and flowers appeared.
About all I am up for at the moment but at least I am trying to get back to a sketch a day.
I cant see any rain for a while although the met bureau keeps on telling us we will get some. They have been telling us that for weeks.

Black and white

 We are home from Queensland, from the wet to the dry, hot and horrid.
We walked for a little while on the beach this morning, I have walked max around the farm since we got home and had to go and turn on hoses in my very dry and parched garden. Only some of it gets watered and other bits are looking terribly sad. We are heading for almost 40 decrees early next week, and this is supposed to be autumn.
With daylight saving still in place it is dark early in the morning and then the heat goes on until so late and this wont finish until the end of the first week in April.
We certainly noticed the difference up north where there is no daylight saving.
so a black and white sketch of long shadows and gum leaves. Actually I rather like its stark simplicity.
 I am still trying to get a bit of sketching done but with the way the weather is there is not a lot of motivation and not sure why but my joints once more dont like me so I am crawling around like an old woman, which I suppose I am but I dont want to be.
Not helped by traumas on the farm, who in their right mind would be a dairy farmer? but if we cant survive there will be no fresh milk in Australia, and if there is it will either be trucked long distances or from overseas and who would want to drink milk from China.
It has been proved over and over again that pure fresh milk, not low fat is the best for you but no one listenes and now I see there is something called almond milk, no doubt with heaps of added calcium as there is in so called soy milk.
Sorry about the rant.