FRESH AIR

NO ARTWORK TODAY,  no grant writing, no mounting of work or editing of pics - i spent the day outside, painting the pinboard in my print studio white, and cleaning up around the garden. it was a lovely sunny day. i went for a bike ride up to Thegoa Lagoon and into town for the paper and did a bit more work removing raised slate tiles from the kitchen floor.  Sawed off some more of the branches of the fallen tree, trimmed back the wisteria, took some frangipani cuttings, weeded, filled in the holes left by terry and brendan who have been digging looking for a leak.   A satisfying day.
More pump trouble though, poor terry had to go in the river twice trying to find the problem.  as he was about to go in the second time, after some swearing, i escaped to yoga.


down along the river

CHILLY SUNDAY

IT'S BEEN GREY AND COLD so another indoor day.  i must get out and really clean up the yard though.  tomorrow.  hopefully it'll be a bit sunny.  this weather makes my gloomy.
All the work's mounted for the show so i'll have an outdoor day tomorrow.


bringing in the washing at sunset, this was the view over the fence

BRRRRR

JUST BEEN LISTENING to the weather on the radio, gusty strong winds, low temperatures, maybe rain (hope so).   sounds like an indoor day to me,  i've got to finish mounting my work and hopefully i'll finish it today so i can get back to the 'ted' book tomorrow.  I do worry about branches falling on the house in this weather, it's not good to hear those trees blowing around.  :0+

END OF THE WEEK

YESTERDAY  was a crappy day - cold, windy, i was grumpy and feeling housebound and stressed  - trying to get everything done for the exhibition of  'village' artwork, contacting press,  getting confused by the three separate dates, july 2 -  exhibition opens,  july 19 - official book launch and july 20 - workshop.  AND worrying that i didn't have enough matte board to actually cut mattes for and mount all the 17 pieces.  and no car to get any more back to wentworth.

TODAY - everything's ok, it's still cold and windy, but i got a lot of mattes cut last night and realised i had enough board, got all the rest of the graphic work done and spent today in mildura doing a radio interview this afternoon (big plug for the show, workshop etc) and delivered invitations around town, plus had a catch up with the artvault crew, a great trip in and out on the good old bus and now i'm cookin' up a storm in the oven.  dropped in to see michael at the library to make sure he can do the launch, he can.  and called in to collins booksellers to check that they'll have books in for the launch.  

phew, time for some time on the couch with the telly.

walking around mildura today - fabulous clouds 

on the way to the bus this morning     wood ducks at the lock

ON THE BUS  another good trip, last day of school and one of the kids got on dressed as a super hero - Bee?? great mask that looked like a yellow transformer, and matching 3D vest.  all the kids were buzzy, getting ready for the holidays

best value around

      coming home tonight, the sky's always amazing

i've just joined a website where we observe bird activity in our birdbath for a month, reporting species of bird, what they do and add a photo if we get one.  today's bird - a crested pigeon, such cute birds.  no pic though

Mildura arts identity Helen Vivian, director of Palimpsest, the
biennial arts festival.   she came in an bought one of Mahdi Chandler's
beautiful hand dyed scarves.  i lust after these in the art vault, but
they're $230 each :0{

HOORAY I'M BACK

GOOGLE!    GRRRR   i had a 'phishy' email and google disabled my email and my blog. i felt like both arms were cut off.  now it's back but i still can't receive emails into my own mail inbox, have not idea how to restore that.  i hate all this stuff.  
anyway, that was tuesday, this is thursday

yesterday my trip on the bus was a ripper - i was doing the 9 letter word in the age and the little boy next to me, about 8 y.o. said 'we do those at school' so he - kenny - and his friend shaniah and i spent the whole tripping trying to get to 'good'. didn't quite make it and couldn't get the 9 letter word but it was fun.

 working madly to finish my current book, it's getting there.  i made a tiny dummy, it's only about 4cm high.
also studying aboriginal faces for the boy, i'm not happy with what i've done so far, so i'll do him again - i know what i want him to look like, it's just an unfamiliar face for me to be painting.  
and ted's been going through hell modelling for the rest of the book, he's very patient though

FOGGY MORNING

I CAN'T SEE the opposite bank at 8a.m. this sunday morning.

TERMITES

TERMITES are rife up here - it's one of the worst areas in australia. it was time for a check and i was dreading the result, but after watching Peter do a thorough room to room and also check the trees and outbuildings, i got the thumbs up, all fine.   AND he got under the house and said the stumps are all in A1 condition too.   how good is that?

i've heard horror stories from friends who've had whole walls replaced so it was with a huge sigh of relief that i received peter's final comments.

PRODUCTIVE DAY

FEELING  BETTER - I  think at last my cold is going away, my head's starting to feel almost human and i've been producing some work, a double spread of the book yesterday and another today.    tidied up the garage to see how it looks for printmaking classes, and put up  the two long tables i got at bunnings.

also walked into town, visited marg whyte, our local artist down the road,  did a lot of watering and generally i'm feeling like i'm getting somewhere, feeling good

inviting little spot out the front

                                Gavin next door

walking into town past the cemetery

the fabulous darter - one of the best birds here

i love this sculpture on marg's front porch

showing marg my latest book as she works at Ruby's Cargo, the local art/craft shop

SATURDAY

AH, another good day - the weather has been sublime, glassy water on the river in the mornings, foggy yesterday, clear and gorgeous today.  not a breath of wind, blue skies - what's not to like?

this was the
view when
i opened
the bedroom
curtains
yesterday

 

looks like
they're building
a boat ramp
on the 
opposite bank 

















i want to have a go at knitting this, i'll just make up the pattern, looks pretty straightforward but i love the way the stitch allows that drape.

my little man  xx

ON THE BUS

I'm going to include an 'on the bus' section into this blog for the six months i'm not driving in Victoria.  I've loved the bus, it's full of school kids in the morning, 80's music playing over the pa, and the buses have huge windows, so sitting back, watching the countryside go by, listening to the general buzz of voices and taking photos out the window when i'm not doing the crossword - well, its all good and comfortable as well.  and no watching the speedo.
on a wednesday the bus is full of schoolkids, but today's the first day i caught the bus on a thursday - welfare day so there were stack of adults.
I sat next to donald.  He's a 93 year old who lives at dareton, he has a cleft palate that means it's extremely difficult to understand him, but he's a dear old man and with some effort i got the gist of most of what he told me. i've never met him before but i knew of him because he comes in to the art vault. i've heard him from the next room.   one of our residents, steph bolt, went out to photograph him and his house and its wonderful front yard.  he remembers her fondly
Donald's house in on the main road as you drive through Dareton, he's lived there since the 80's and the front yard is full of whirligigs and moving garden ornaments he's made.  all painted white and bright primary colours, all whizzing around and moving in the breeze.   I challenge anyone to drive past and not smile.


YESTERDAY MORNING  the sun was coming up just as i walked past the bridge to the bustop, 7.45

off we go through curlwaa, coomealla, dareton, mourqoui (that's not right) and buronga, over the bridge and into victoria to mildura, about 40 minutes

the back of a lavishly upholstered seat

it's still like 
autumn here, 
beautiful leaves 
on the trees, 
mild sunny 
weather, the 
days have been 
just perfect.

ROBERT being interviewed by the ABC in front of one of his paintings today

GOING HOME ON THE BUS LAST NIGHT, A JEWEL LIKE ABSTRACT 

IMAGE OF THE DRIVER IN HIS SEAT - LOVE THESE COLOURS

THIS MORNING,  GORGEOUS PINK LIGHT 

this lovely young guy made me yummo tomatoes on toast with rocket for brekky at the cafe bakery

I had  a really nice day in mildura today, an appointment in town at 11.30 so i had to fill in time since the bus arrived at 8.30.  delivered a bottle of wine called 'the guilty' to gavan, the lawyer who helped me with my driving court case.  lots of op shopping, a few other things i needed to do. then some time working at the art vault, a catch up with donnie and penny - and a meeting at the art vault, all in leisurely time with lots of walking involved, a completely different pace for me which felt good.

Current resident Katy Mutton and John Hart, who's come from Megalo Print workshop in Canberra to work with her

Katy's son Louis,  a funny articulate little 5 year old

shots from the bustop

this funny little
grotto sits on
the centre grassy
area that runs
the full length
of Deakin Ave

the water tower, a landmark and now converted into an interesting apartment


crossing the buronga bridge