Another mail box

I walked the other way this morning and this is another neighbours mail box. I got quite wet as I thought the rain had stopped but it mizzled and drizzled all day and was so cold. This is more like a normal winter, we have had so many abnormal ones lately but to feel cold and really get rugged up to go walking is rather nice.
We are supposed to have a couple of fine days but down here on the coast anything could happen.

Suburban mail box

I think this is a bit out of proportion but here it is, after most of the day in Adelaide I did manage this mail box.
a long day, but I think my mother enjoyed it, I took her with my younger daughter to lunch at a friends place, at nearly 95 she cant cope with being out for too long so a couple of hours was about it.
Apparently I am to be a grandmother again and she is to be a great grandmother for the 12th time. I will be a grandmother for the 11th time. I had hoped they would stop at 10 but new relationships sometimes mean new babies. They span from 22 to this one due in November.

the neighbours mail box

I did a series of photos of suburban letter boxes which I am working on slowly but as I walked yesterday I thought I really should do the neighbours down the road. Very rural as it should be, although there are some pretty strange ones around. I think even us rural types are getting into the bigger and better mail boxes. Ours of course is in the Post Office so no hope of drawing that.
It has suddenly got very cold about 10 degrees yesterday and I hope it is killing off all the wretched little bush flies that are around.

Oscar

I made a mess of his whiskers, but he was sitting as he so often does looking out of the bedroom window this morning and as normally he doesnt stay in one place for very long I drew him, a huge orange cat. I wasnt very pleased with him last night as he scratched me, he hasnt done that for ages but he hates the rain and although he only goes out for about an hour in the morning and again at night he likes that bit of outside and every time he looks lately it has been pouring with rain so refuses to go.

This mornings walk

I was quite pleased with this until I put the rainbow in, then I couldnt get rid of it I will know next time.
We walked with friends from the Yilki Store to Whalers on the walking/bike track in drizzle and mist and then this rainbow appeared and the Bluff was in a bit of light and very green.
We got wet legs but a warming cup of coffee and some very naughty cake made us all feel better. We walked back in sunshine.
A pleasant morning, a lot of rain today and the paddocks are getting very wet and slippery but it is so nice to come back to a warm house and the smell of bread baking.

Old car

I took a photo of this old car at our friends property at Mambray Creek while I was walking one morning and it seemed the ideal start for my walking but not always sketching what I see while I am on that days walk. I have taken dozens of photos in the last year of buildings or things I wanted to paint but havent had time, now is the ideal time to do it.
Lets face it here we probably have about 8 months of the year when it is practical to do plein air work, in winter it is so wet and in summer can be far too hot.
My football team lost dismally, John and I went to the hardware shop together and got some onion seedlings, I have done some textile stuff and the lamb shanks are on braising slowly.
John has spent a fun day harrying the white cockies, two sorts, the big whites and corellas, we estimate there are about 600 in two flocks on the property, and keeping the calves and anything else from the grain they are fed, an expense we dont need after all the other problems this year. the delights of farming.

Our House

It has become something of a tradition amongst the walkers, Julie, Alison, myself and now Hashi to on our last day of the year sketch our house. So here is mine, it is not easy to do as from no where could I see the whole house, it is on a rise and is surrounded in trees and shrubs. The large pink tree is the Liquidamber which is still retaining some leaves, I was surprised as with the drought so many deciduous trees lost their leaves early.
As I said yesterday I will continue with this but perhaps not with the worry of posting every day. I have learnt a lot made good friends and tried to improve my work, with Julie's lovely pictures to give me the incentive to improve and Alisons delightful vignettes of suburban life, especially after dark Which gave me ideas of what to draw when I got bored with seeing the same things, it is amazing how differently you look at things and i had fun with the gate series. Now I will do more of the houses and mailboxes that I photographed or sketched too quickly to use or they were not relevant to that day, so I hope with not such a mad rush to get out and sketch and walk the dogs I can hone my skills even more.
It has been a very interesting year and I feel I know a bit more about Canberra about Julies bit of England and I am learning about Hashi's life in Los Angeles, where else but via the net could so diverse a collection of people come together. Thank you for letting me be a part of it all.