Wednesday 30 April 2014

RAIN RAIN RAIN

IT BUCKETED DOWN all day yesterday and i spent a pleasant day paring down my story about sonja.  it's pretty well done and i think it's working.    I've sent it off to auntie denise for a cut and polish, some comment at least.  it's due friday.

maggies enjoy the damp - one real, one wood


rainclouds over the lock, what a sight.  everything's beautifully soaked.

Tuesday 29 April 2014

SISTERS


freddie took this shot of jenny and i having a peaceful 
doze on the Rothbury riverboat on easter weekend


A BIT OF FLUFF

I took a 'thelma' selfie in
my new sunglasses - 
it's a facebook challenge
to past art vault artist-in-
residence sophie gralton
who has photos of herself
posted in innumerable
pairs of huge trendy
glasses.

these tortoiseshell babies
were bought for only 
$6 at the menindi 
supermarket on the
pooncarie road trip
back from broken hill.
over to you, sophie.

Monday 28 April 2014

BROKEN HILL AGAIN

I FORGOT to post the street sign pics, the whackiest names i've seen for a long time









A DAY OF WRITING

A GOOD DAY - spent the morning working on the article on Sonja and met her for lunch at stefano's for some extra material. her story of being put into welfare and being brought up in white foster homes is heartbreaking, i'm going to be a mess listening to the tape again tomorrow.  Sonja's lovely, she must be very strong.


                             sonja in at the art vault in front of a cherry hood watercolour

SUNNYBUN ARRIVES

I PICKED UP SUNNY at the airport 9.30 friday morning, it was great that her flights give us a good weekend together to head off to broken hill. we had friday at home and just conked out completely - slept and read out in the glorious autumn sun on the riverbank. we had dinner at home and an early night, a game of scrabble too of course.  it's just lovely to have her here again.

an absolutely lazy lazy day - and perfect weatherSATURDAY, OFF TO BROKEN HILL

bluey's on the ball, checking out the road ahead

surprisingly we had light rain almost all day, not enough to spoil anything though
we got to broken hill around midday, had a classic counter lunch at the Theatre Royal pub - steak of course. then checked into the Palace Hotel, an amazing place, i'll let the pictures tell the story.




i've just put a whole stack
of photos on here - this
hotel is so mad and fun
i couldn't decide what to
leave out.
we loved it, our room was
small and crummy with a
bathroom across the hall (just
like home really) with the
classic brown wardrobe, a
tiny old telly, but doors out
onto the biggest, longest
gorgeous verandah you've 
ever seen.














WE VISITED the regional gallery, house in a wonderful old building originally Sully's Emporium, two levels of great rooms and beautiful old mahogany balustrading, lots of diverse work and a real energy unlike our lacklustre mildura arts centre



I was really pleased to find
that almost the whole town
centre is original - buildings
mostly local stone and some
wonderful public buildings
and pubs. 
loved this wall art - we're not sure what it's meant to be, it was also on the main signage for this building which i think was employment maybe?


 the pub buildings are great,
i loved the green of these
tiles




the cemetery is
huge and full
of wonderful
graves and
statues, some
very sad ones
too






                               this grave was very small, so sad




SUNDAY   up before dawn to drive home through pooncarie.  we could've visited the menindi lakes but it was a rough road, quite a lot of emus, and we just headed home to do some things before sunny's evening flight. we were buggared basically,  too much fun :0)

a gps check before getting up, sunny in her flash new
dimmey's jamies, we both scored bigtime, 40% off storewide.





our room, crummy decor,
fake wood panelling and
window frames in faux
woodgrain paint that 
looked like thick poly-
urethane varnish, eeuw.
tiny telly, old brown
wardrobe,   it was just
what i'd imagined.  beds
were comfy and the 
verandah was just
spectacular

    the view from the verandah - a huge stone hill topped with these
   crazy new buildings



Add caption


   
   trying to channel thelma and louise,  more like her maj and kate :0)

   emus just run every which way when they're spooked so driving back on the unmade
   roads looking out for emus and roos was an exercise in 'alert but no alarmed'






this bloke was just unloading a huge murray
cod as we pulled up to the pooncarie pitstop
for a sandwich


then we headed home and had a chill out afternoon, lunch in the sun
out on the riverbank and sadly, off to the airport to say goodbye to my
darling daughter  :0{      A lovely weekend