This arrived in the mail today

A lovely and exciting book. I am doing 6 days with Sandy Webster at the Grampians textile school in March and I cant wait. My problem is it is so hot and dry trying to find soil to use in our class is not going to be easy. Where there is a will (and possibly John!) there is a way.

Its been a while

Summer heat can be as unmanageable as winter cold. We have done quite a bit of early beach walking and these are a couple of the odds and ends I have been collecting, the broken whelk had a lovely feel to it and the cone shells always fascinate me. Sketched while sitting in front of the fan on a hot and muggy day. It is still hot and muggy and I am off to Adelaide tomorrow to do a couple of workshops. I seem to have an enormous amount of 'stuff' to take with me. I hope I will be staying up but if I get too tired I may come home. This is summer, more tiring than I like. Could it be being in my mid seventies having an affect. I hope not.

After the fire

These are the sort of pictures we are seeing on our tv screens every night. Horrendous. 36 houses lost so far, still no power or water for so many of the people who have managed to get back to their so far unburnt houses. A very nasty day today very hot with much stronger winds. Not nice down here and I constantly walk from one side of the house to the other looking for smoke. Perhaps we will get some relief from the heat and some promised rain. the show for Sunday has been postponed. Very sensibly I think as even if the weather has cooled down and it has rained there are still people with ponies in those areas and who wants to go to a show under these circumstances. To keep busy in the heat I am tidying drawers!

Pencil sketches

I cant exactly say that pencil scans as well as when I sketch in pen, but sometimes it is whatever is handy. At the moment just trying to keep my hand in. The weather is hot and now getting rather humid. The fires raging in the Adelaide hills are not really any better, tomorrow is forcast to be just as hot and with stronger winds but with a hope of some rain over the next few days as well. We are walking early, doing what we have to and then not doing much at all. to me it seems very waste full but I am still embroidering next years Christmas ornaments while I can. John is doing lots of watering while we still have water and I have been potting up more plants, not sure if it is to take with me if we have to sell everything, or just to take my mind off things. I do not like heat and my feet ache, the air con is a help but not the complete answer as evaporative ones dont like it much over 38 degrees and if it is humid makes things worse. Sometimes I think the fan is just as good. So long as you dont move too much or go out in the heat. Things get fed a lot later than normal too and some dont like it at all! Bring on autumn, says she and we have only just got into summer.