Small book and RAK

I made a small accordion book and I have been playing with tea bags, small bits of paint, just using pen and pencil so I decided to put them all together yesterday. a lot of fun. On my other blog here I have a play it forward random acts of kindness (RAK) going, if you care to look I will choose the first 5 people to comment on that post and ask for their name and address and then at some time through the year I will send a small piece of either art work in either fabric or paint. I would love to have 5 people to send to through the year. All you have to do is play it forward, eg say that you will also do this, cant be too hard, just something small and fun and put it up on your blog. It is much cooler here today but I am a little on edge as I keep hearing planes and helicopters in the distance, I hope no idiot has started a fire, they are still trying to contain the ones we already have alight. It has been a terrible week with such heat, at one stage I really wasnt sure I was coping all that well. today I almost, almost! need a jumper. We live in a difficult part of the world at times. I am still having problems loading photos from picasa, it was ok for a couple of days but is now not working and loading from my other picture source is not easy and I am having to re learn how to do it. Hope this one comes up.

Too hot to do much

So I sat under the fan and did a bit of sketching practice.
the weather is awful, hot and humid, thundery, lightening strikes caused lots of fires and there is one far enough but only just from us.
we havent been quite as hot as Adelaide but certainly hot enough.
Rather like the rooster head, then I practiced people and tried to put them in a street scape.
Too hot to get the paints out. All this is pencil.
I did manage some ironing, early but now, everything will get fed late tonight.

Back on blogger

I havent been able to load pictures to my blog from picasa for several days, so at last I am back, not that this is a great post!
It is getting very hot here nearly 40C today and getting hotter over the next few days, we hope for no power outages and no fires.
Yesterday I went to a Welsh youngstock show about an hour and a half away, the day was warming up, the judges were a bit slow and we had 7 ponies there, we did well, 10 champions and 4 supremes in 2 rings but I was tired and so decided to leave early.
As my notes say, if you can read them (double click to enlarge) the car ran out of power and I pulled to the side of the road and called the RAA, and I sat there for a good half hour, and sketched the grasses on the side of the road.
An hour later I was, thank goodness on my way again, he thought it was the alternator, I wasnt out of petrol but low so he put more petrol in the tank and with the instructions, if those red lights come on again, stop and ring the RAA again, thank heaven whatever he had done had fixed the problem and I got home, tired, worried and with a head ache.
John was fishing so no help, the girls all at the show and not answering phones, so no help, I dont very often have break downs but my dear old car is just that, getting a bit older, so today she is in being looked at.
I am so grateful to the RAA guy, he did a great job and I was so glad I decided to leave early and that I had found a bit of shade by the road side and even a bit of a breeze.
Scary though!

Thank you carla Sonheim

 I always seem to bring Carla's little book Drawing Lab when I go on holidays, sometimes I use it sometimes I dont but as today has been one full of aches and pains I have had fun first copying the top sketch and then playing around with silly birds etc and my aquarelle pencils.
It has been a good way to keep me amused, in between packing up, we leave early tomorrow morning, I hate leaving but have to confess that for the first time I am missing my comfortable bed and chair.
We did go for a walk this morning so I am keeping up the exercise, but although I thought we hadnt eaten very much yesterday my tummy and reflux played up so I didnt sleep at all well.
Its a b... getting old!

Merry Christmas

 I think we must be getting old as we dont seem to want to eat too much or even do a lot!
I painted, not very well this vase of strelizia and agapanthus, both of which grow in the garden here on the Island, both originally South African. I also had some fun painting on something that is I think akin to deli paper, here it is multix bake, takes some things well and others differently.
Any way I had fun experimenting.
This morning we had a lovely beach walk and John had a try at fishing but he wasnt as lucky as the asian gentleman we met at the base of the cliffs who was so excited at his first fish, a very nice salmon. I didnt mind, although I love salmon as we have far more food here than we need.
John is playing pool against himself, I am not sure if J1 or J2 is winning!
I hope every one is having as nice a day as we are, the weather here couldnt be better and it is such a shame we only have another full day here before we head home and reality!

Old shearing shed at Dudley winery

This looks a bit messy but we had a lovely lunch yesterday at the dudley winery and while waiting I sketched the old shearing shed and then painted it this morning.
I have been playing with paint for most of the day'
Lovely and relaxing.
A beautiful day with a sharp little breeze, we go out for christmas drinks this evening.

At last a little bit of paint fun

 We are over at Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island and finally I have managed a little bit of painting.
We left to come over on Thursday, a day of extreme heat, 43.6 degrees C or I think around 109 F, we packed up, were on the midday ferry and arrived at a very hot house to unpack. I was so tired I didnt even look at our suitcase.Friday was a bit cooler in the morning and we went over to Kingscote to shop and have lunch and call into a few friends, in the afternoon the wind came up and thunder etc, gale force winds forced the afternoon ferry to stop and it went on all night so we didnt do a lot,.
Yesterday it rained all morning but in the afternoon we went to a couple of favorite galleries and had afternoon tea with friends.
It was Johns birthday, 76!! We are getting old, as well as 2 other family members who had birthdays back home, 3 generations on the same day.
We had a lovely dinner at the pub and wandered home, watched a dvd, well John did I am reading Monsoon heavens cant remember the author but loving it.
Today we had a wonderful morning, John fished in the chapman river and caught a bream which we will eat tonight and I sketched and painted, it drizzled rather but it was so nice to sit and try to get on paper what I was looking at. I have a new large flat water pen which was fun to play with.
the first sketch is what I could see from the sitting room, my tiny Christmas tree and beyond the wharf and ferry.
From the Chapman we went to Antechamber bay, John tried to fish but there was a lot of weed so he gave up and I went walking, my feet really loved being in sand after being cooped up in shoes for so long and my knee seemed to like it.
We thought we might have lunch out but the place was packed so we came home for a late "gourmet" salad of haloumi cheese, smoked salmon, some fresh samphire we had picked on our way home, pickled octopus and the usual greens. A glass of wine followed by a small piece of Christmas cake while listening to Bryn Terfels Simple Gifts cd, what more could you want.
I am off to have a small snooze before making dinner tonight, vietnamese chicken. We have so much food we seem to do nothing but eat.