LAZY SUNDAY AFTERNOON

I DID A FEW HOURS - trawling the net for reference photos of aboriginal boys, camels, cameleers, flash floods, central australian lizards and small marsupials, eagles talons.   a bit of sketching too then i just gave in to the urge to take the banana lounge out onto the front lawn and read.  i don't do that often enough

MORE PRINTING

YESTERDAY JUST DISAPPEARED - i don't know where it went although i was doing things, work things, emailing, phoning,  hassling the insurance company about my replacement camera. i've been totally disenchanted with AAMI who've been so terrific with past claims for camera and flooded floor replacement.

i dropped my camera about 6 weeks ago and since then despite about 4 phone calls and four emails from me, including sending a report of damage that i had to get in melbourne, i haven't heard one word from them unless i called them.

so yesterday i got stuck in and now i should have an updated version of my beloved canon next week, it's en route.   can't wait, i haven't taken a lot of photos because i just can't take to this fuji camera i bought.   it feels like a foreigner.

new cal pics 

i think this would be rene, getting creative in the bike shop :0)

sakura time - the cherry blossoms are out

BACK TO WORK

my second day at the art vault,  wading through the endless folders on the PC - trying to navigate a non-mac environment.   I'll sort it out though, just in a new place and i need time to find how everything works.  at the end of the day i met friend di  and we had dinner at the brewery and watched a free film upstairs, about Andy Goldworthy.  I just love his work

above, i actually saw him with his team working on these stone domes at the washington national gallery when i  was there in 2004.   

this serpentine wall

crosses under a highway,

threads its way through 

the trees and disappears

into the sea

- beautiful 

\

SATISFYING DAY

I'VE DECIDED to walk into wentworth to get the paper every day, i've got to start getting regular exercise.   so i did today and met brad (who sold me the house) on his morning walk,  ashley, another cadell st resident who told me about a free exercise class, and dropped in to see local artist marg whyte who's moved in at the other end of cadell st.  we've decided to play scrabble every now and then.

got home and picked up my wonderful bosch electric saw and went to town on the garden, chopped up a small dead tree, got rid of all the old iceberg standards, straggly old dry sage so it'll regenerate, low hanging branches on the rubber tree, there are piles everywhere.

the afternoon was spent playing with watercolour on the prints i've been working on, it's all going well.  

terry the pump man dropped in and cleared my blocked grease trap for me, kitchen sink gunk was overflowing out under the carport, very yucky.   he let me know he'd made the new spanner for me, now i can undo the filter on the pump and clean it myself.   YAY  independence.  i hated having to ring terry all the time to get him to do it.  the new spanner has a very long metal handle which gives me a really good grip  :0)

THE CAL-MEISTER

SUNDAY AT WANGUMMA

A DAY WITH DONNIE, PETER AND BUDDY
it's about 40 mins to wangumma and you pass the wentworth airport on the way. it was the annual get together of local plane owners today, lots of lovely little 2-seaters  on the tarmac

the 'bong' or billabong at wangumma has been drained for six months, part of some water management scheme.   now it's dried out enough to walk across to the island opposite donnie and peter's lovely old red brick house.  slightly spongy underfoot, the cracked surface is covered in beautiful animal and bird prints and the billabong bed looks like a lunar landscape

we walked on the bed of the 'bong',  explored

the island, then had a game of scrabble as is the tradition. it's a wonderful place to spend a day.

           fabulous rust

 lovely still lifes in the homestead kitchen

SATURDAY VISIT

THE WEATHER here has changed to autumn, cool mornings and beautiful warm days - it's a lovely time of year anywhere and here, after a stinging summer, it's doubly so.

THESE GRAVEVINES WILL BE RED SOON

I've been printmaking the last couple of days and had a surprise visit from glenda lewin from melbourne who was visiting family in mildura.   glenda and her sister-in-law di were in wentworth so called up to see me in all my inky glory.  a head full of hair dye wrapped in gladwrap and hidden under a beret too :0)       glenda bought these two prints from my exhibition, which i'd taken down the day before.  very pleasing

CHANGING SETTING

HI EVERYONE who reads this blog - i'm going to change the settings to keep out 'anonymous' comments - so much junk mail it's driving me mad.   i'll change in a few days, so if you find you can't access me,  please let me know on my gmail email account.    hopefully you all know it.
cheers anne

QUIZ

WHAT'S THIS?

the other side of this :0)

  couldn't resist 'em

PRINTING AGAIN

I'M REALLY ENJOYING the making of these sample images for the publisher.   i really hope i can do the book this way, it feels right and takes me far from my usual children's book work.

scratching the image

in lightly first - i'd

like to do more with

these loose lines too.

lots of playing

to do

i've been doing these

on the dining room

table then printing

out in the garage. the

whole house feels

like a studio.  it's

cool tonight, tomorrow

will be another good

printing day.

HOME AGAIN

LATE HOME on the train and here at home up and on the train again in the dark.  lots of photo opportunities though and lovely weather back here

 a huge liner was easing out of circular quay while we sipped our prosecco, always a wonderful sight

this is a favorite view from the oyster bar,  a gathering of terrificly shaped rooves, spires, chimneys and windows and a good bit of signage thrown in

arriving at summer hill station about 9ish

next morning - opposite platform

halfway to the airport, central station