ANOTHER STINKER

POOR OLD GARDEN is looking dry, i spent the day in mildura doing things and went to see Philomena again, i really like that film.  packing now to drive down to the grampians tomorrow. i've checked the cfa site, all looks fine. no fire bans or windy weather.   i'll leave about 6 to avoid the heat. it's stifling.

my wisteria thinks it's october, it's flowering again. only one of them - i have five

this is all that's left of the foodworks supermarket in deakin ave. it was absolutely burned to the ground last week, it was a large old supermarket, now it's just a pile of twisted metal.

warm

WARM WARM EVERY DAY into the foreseeable future. early  morning and late evening watering and staying indoors most of the day.  i've been mounting the work for my march show at Artback. 26 works done - with mattes and mounted on foamcore.  only a few more to go and i think i'll do a really big drawing.   i headed into mildura in the afternoon for a game of scrabble with the girls. don't want
to feel too housebound.  

LOOK AT THIS  :0{

WATER PROBLEMS AGAIN!

IT'S 40 deg today,  i'm sitting in front of the fan with the evaporative cooler going -jkyuugiiiii  still warm.
and the bloody watering system is playing up -  one of the hose cycles isn't coming on, and the next one has almost no pressure. i don't know what's going on, brendan the water guy was supposed to be coming this afternoon but i think he probably went home early.  
i have to get it sorted before i go to melbourne,  in fact straight away, the lawn will dry up completely.
i just stayed inside all day and cut mattes for my exhibition, and started drawing the face of the swan queen, trying to work her out.


two of the monoprints i mounted today

Murray/Darling Dreaming   

The Murray at Gol Gol

A HOT DAY IN THE STUDIO

39 DEG yesterday and i printed for two hours from 2-4pm   it was really hot and sweat was dripping off my eyebrows onto the inside of my glasses lens but i printed 9 etchings and it was ok.  i think a return to the trendsetting towelling sweatbands of the late 70's is the go.
niece claire and her husband mal visited in the morning, lovely to have them here. and late afternoon peter lancaster and eliza (they're here working at the art vault) came out for dinner.  casual - bought chook and salads and icecream and fruit,  easy.   we spent a lot of time outside as the sun went down, a lovely evening

these lovely little kayaks glided by this morning, they look like river dwelling backpackers to me.     i love the little sails on their boats

IT'S SO GOOD

to head out to the print studio
and have everthing set up and
read to go.  in the warm weather
i'll print in the mornings.
this year will be a time of figuring
out how to structure my days
i think.

TWO NEW COZZIES

above  -  'Catwoman'

right  -  ?  any suggestions?

the lovely eliza on the
riverbank at sunset


right - peter hiding in
the shadows

something strange
has happened to this
photo in the transferring
over from iPhoto. i
can't get it to reproduce
in it's original form.
anyway, you get the
idea - sunset on the
murray with a glass
of red

WHOO HOO

MY PRESS HAS BEEN CHRISTENED! i had a good day, early gardening, off to the gym, sorted the house out a bit then headed out to the print studio.  it feels good, doors wide open on to the garden, it was a nice day, hot but ok.
it all needed a good clean, dust here is a problem.   but it's all looking good now and i've got a print to show for my efforts.   more this week.  :0)   i'm happy

Julie becomes minnie mouse in front of a geoffrey ricardo

Eliza in

sci-fi

mode

Would you buy a used car from this man??   shocking pic of peter - but
that's my stone in front of them.

ART VAULT

FRIDAY  I  had a day of printing at the Art Vault.    Peter Lancaster and Eliza are in town, everyone had lithographic stones awaiting printing,  those two are going to have a busy week.   they've prepared a stone for me to do a main a noir print,  it'll be a first for me, something new and exciting to try.

would you buy a car from this man??   shocking pic of pete, pretty
funny though.     that's my stone right there :0)

                   ELIZA IN SCI-FI MODE

julie as mickey mouse

 

right across the road, the best butcher in the world.
scotch fillets to die for

SATURDAY - HOME ALONE

Time to start serious planning for the show here in march - it'll need to be up on Feb 27 so i've been writing a press release, putting photos together and designing an invitation.   Works i've done since living here, work from the Art Vault show and a lot of new monoprints and some drawings.

I'VE GOT A MOUSE :o(

i've suspected that there was a mouse here for a couple of weeks and while fran was here we found evidence in the spare room.  i've heard scratchings which sound like they're coming from my wardrobe but haven't found anything.

then this morning i heard scratching again and got up. on the floor at the bottom of the wardrobe door was a screwed up tissue, as i watched something from the inside was pulling it up into the wardrobe. when i opened the door i found this ugg boot filled with ripped up newspaper.  the beginning of a very neat warm nest    -  yikes

so i left three mousetraps around that spot when i went off to print.   got home to find a mouse in the trap.  so it'll remain to be seen if there are more.   

TRENTHAM

FRAN'S LAST DAY - we had a great lunch at trentham estate, food was as good as ever.  i even took pics, not something i do too often but it looked good too.  then we went to the movies to see Philomena, i got the time wrong so we ended up seeing the Book Thief  (again, for me). then home for
a sit out on the verandah in the warm twilight.

 rare lamb with broadbean, pea and mint salad   mmmmmm!!

 blue faced honeyeaters love cleaning up the tables outside

creme brulee and
pavlova, both delicious

fran and i have done innumerable xwords and cryptics in the past four days. finished them too :0)

it's friday morning, fran's leaving and i'm off to print all day. it's trying to rain but i don't think it's really going to happen.   same old same old

FRIDAY EVENING 
a good day of printing. peter lancaster and eliza are here to print lithographs, it seems everyone here is busy making art on stones.  Peter's prepared a stone for me to do a lithograph using the main a noir technique, bringing the lights out of the dark.  I'm looking forward to trying it.

here they are - eliza and pete looking like a comedy duo

julie does mickey

across the road

from the art vault

- best butcher in

the world,

tassone's

LAST NIGHT ON THE DARLING

PICS from the twilight cruise last night,  it was absolutely delightful.  a soft warm evening - we set off at 6.30, had fish'n'chips on board with a light beer and cruised up the river for a couple of hours.  fran and i sat up the front on deck.  the river was like a mirror, reflections were beautiful and there was entertainment for the last 1/2 hour by the owners of the river cruiser, they were really good and the whole evening was terrific.

the road home from lock 10

TWILIGHT CRUISE

FRAN and I   had a pretty easy day yesterday, a walk into wentworth to book the twilight cruise up the darling river, buy the paper and generally have a look around. crosswords, scrabble, a film on telly.  before fran arrived i finished painting the bathroom so apart from one light fitting, it's done and i'm happy.  also bought a couple of great plastic woven mats for the back porch.  now if i can just get the second bathroom done i'm pretty happy with the house.  except for my mouse !   yes, i have a little pest and a trap set last night to hopefully do away with it.  

this little landscaped feature
at the junction park amuses
me - i'm standing on the
special spot to take the pic
of fran sitting in front of
the slope that's landscaped
to join up with the view
to houses across the road,
the real rooves and trees
finish the picture in mulch
that's been made on the hill

my new
floor in
the back
porch -
woven
plastic
that
feels
nice
underfoot

a nice blank wall in the bathroom - what will i hang there?

i'm thinking of painting the window frame a colour

the night before - a glass of wine on the river bank after sunset, 

very nice

sunrise yesterday morning