BATTENING DOWN

TODAY IS THE BEGINNING of a hot hot week, in the 40's every day till saturday.  I think i'll set up my paints in the loungeroom and work in the house on some self portraits, maybe a small still life.

AFTER THE BARBIE on Sunday i had christmas drinks here, lace tablecloths ironed, three tables set up, the yard all cleaned, house and windows washed.  quite a few people couldn't come so there were about 10 of us and everyone just congregated on the verandah.  it was really warm, about 36 so we needed shade. so
all my ironing was for nought :-(   good to see everyone, martin came even though he'd just had christmas lunch at julie's, sonja's looking terrific.   everyone was gone by 8 and the sunset over the river was beautiful, i sat out for a while with some of the christmas punch

the wrens are 
a daily delight
- there are so many young
one's, so tiny and a soft
light brown, bobbing about
in twos and threes. quite
a few blue ones too









I've been posting old pics of the geelong dance scene in the 60's
and as a result, i've had contact from mary schofield who i think was the secretary of mr. porter, the manager of Brights when we worked there.  she sent me this great old pic of one of the fashion
parades, this is exactly the time of was there, in advertising.

Pauline Blokeeras (?)Mary's second from left, she had the most ravishing glossy mahogany hair, then darling ray, fashion manage maxine in black, till from menswear, lizzie young and margaret clarke.

I'VE FINALLY FINISHED working on my updated website, it's taken weeks and weeks of going through the print drawers, counting work, photographing some, sizing the photos for the web, adding them with all their details, size etc     Worse than bookkeeping!  but it's all set up for sales and i'm happy with the layout now

i'm pleased that i have hi res pics of all the chinese faces i did, i'm going to advertise them as giclee prints

 

finally got out for a walk,
i've been terrible, have to
get back into it but it
won't be this week
unless i get up super
early.  this beautiful
young kite was sitting
up in the big tree
across the road, it's a
favorite spot for the
kites, they must a good
view from up there.

swallows

down

on the

fallen trees

FACE OFF between willy and kev,  the wagtails nest is only about 1 metre away and they don't let the kingfishers near it, although i'm sure there's nothing in it.

THE FULL MOON has been beautiful, just enough cloud around to give it extra atmosphere

    the yellow rosellas, also a daily delight

VISITORS

HOME FROM 
THE SOUTH

to lots of visitors, 

animal and 

human

birchip bakery 

vanilla slice for

the journey home  

:0)

the sunset really turned it on for me 

when i arrived back

Aileen and Max - two days of reminiscing about school days and dances with max quietly washing dishes, cleaning up, cooking, he's a gem :0)   great to have so much time with them both.

we had lunch in the sun, went to the movies, bbq on the deck, talk over brekky :0)   lovely!

Martin's back for his annual residency at the Art Vault, he and trish came out for lunch yesterday, great to see him and get to know Trish better

the goanna decided
to make an appearance
about 20 minutes after
martin's car drove out
the gate

                                 polishing off the delicious
                                 ginger cake aileen made

i love this little friarbird, i hadn't seen them before i moved here

A WEEK AWAY

bought this very cute plant pot for
vicki as a thank you for many stays

NOT MUCH WIFI on a week away.  I drove down to melbourne on nov 28 for a fabulous, energy packed weekend of drawing at the Melbourne Art Room in Footscray.  i stayed three nights with vicki.


 We had a full saturday of being filled to the brim with insights into the drawing practice of Godwin Bradbeer, John Wolseley, Jo Lane, Nic Plowman, Cameron Robbins and Gosia Wdolsarckz (i just made that up from memory, sorry gosia)
we were saturated and exhausted and inspired by the end of the day and collapsed with takeaways.

SUNDAY was literally drawing all day, transcribing  black and white photocopies (cut into 1" squares) up to around 70x70cm black pastel and charcoal.  as each square was finished they were assembled on the wall in numbered order and gradually our individual abstract drawings joined to become a huge copy of a masterpiece. very exhausting (again) and terrific.  it was a great day and we were covered in black from head to foot :0)

copying this tiny section onto a large
square sheet of paper

             
                                  black pastel everywhere!!

assembling the individual drawings

a well earned cocktail

 Monday travelled to Geelong and stayed with denise. we headed into town tuesday for lunch at Ceruggia (?) and visited Chris Taranto in his new place the Continental (out of hours)

DOWN TO TORQUAY wednesday to stay with Jen Dalton in jan juc, a nice night at home, scrabble and drinks  :0)   then a walk along the beach with sister jen and mockie thursday before heading to the grampians on the way home.

         
               a nice walk along Spring Creek from jen's to jen's

a walk around helen's garden

couldn't believe this shot of the pardalote.  it's amazing to watch it flying straight into this small hold (about 20c size) 





ERNIE'S BACK digging up the lawn at a rate of knots!!  very cute though so he's forgiven

 the willy wagtail has a nest outside the loungeroom window

 a new acquisition, a painting of helen's, bottom centre. 

CHRISTMAS - fun decorating the tree the last couple of days, dear friends aileen and max were here friday for two days and martin and trish came for lunch yesterday.  it's going to be 43 today so i'm off to the movies this afternoon.