Shells.

A pencil sketch of some shells I had picked up a day or so ago. Not brilliant but something to play with.

Black and white from my sketchbook

I have been really slack and havent posted to this blog as much as I would like, my back valley seasons one is used more at the moment. I havent had a lot of time to sketch or draw, and certainly no painting. I find that my shoulder is not terribly comfortable and painting at the moment is not a top priority. Too much to do pre Christmas, as usual and we will be on the Island before our usual time and home for Christmas so its a bit of a muddle. I sat last night with a pencil, then pen and did this little design, wall paper perhaps? Any way at least it was doing something. I have to have the shoulder replaced but I will not have it done until next April, too many workshops on that I have organised until then, I can more or less manage the pain unless I do something silly, like moving a bed and mattress, which I did but these things have to be done. I am still slowly trying to clean out cupboards etc, the farm is on the market but if and when it will sell who knows. We may be able to keep the farmhouse and a few acres (sorry, showing my age, hectares) but at the moment it is all rather in the lap of the gods. Up until yesterday we hadnt had much rain to speak of for months and going into summer everything has dried off, we did have about 12 mm over the last few days, which was great, but things are still awfully dry looking and apart from filling the rain water tanks a bit and helping the dams its too late for some pasture. Although for some reason the garden is looking better than it has for years. Perhaps because John is watering it and not me!

black and white

The crows have babies and are quite often around the house where I put out food for the dog, I just felt like a bit of black and white play last night, dont seem to be able to settle to a lot and the squiggly trees just came from no where. We had some misty drizzle this morning but hardly enough to measure. To day is the Melbourne Cup, the race that stops the Nation, so they say. Sometimes I go to a lunch with friends but today I will sit quietly and watch the race here on the television. There is a grey I quite like.

Sandra Brownlee workshop

I was incredibly privileged to have a 5 day workshop held almost locally over at Goolwa, so every day was an adventure, first getting there early in the morning and then again home at night, and during the day it was the best workshop I think I have ever had. Relaxed, lots of poetry reading, sewing a line drawn as we walked, going a block down to the river and listening to what we heard and drawing what we saw. Then writing about it afterwards. India flint and her side kick Ros produced wonderful meals out of the shed, we became a cohesive collection of women doing things we enjoyed.These are my river drawings. I am still recovering and have had another small play in my notebook today. yesterday it was hot and windy and there were fires, not close but one man died, today it is cold and windy. I was supposed to go to our Welsh Pony Show but 2 hours driving and another 2 back was more than I could face. I think a small nap might be in order!