I'VE LOST MY KEYS!!

WHERE CAN THEY BE ??  i got home night before last having travelled on the bus, went to meet friends at the pub and had two wines.  drove home, unloaded the car and immediately started doing 100 things at once, packing, sorting art supplies, finishing a watercolour sketch that had to be finished, getting tea, tidying the house and leaving instructions for Val, a cleaner i'm getting to help me clean up
for my housesitters.   Just came in and stayed in.
Yesterday when i was ready to drive to the bustop - no keys.  i've turned the house (now tidy and clean) upside down, wandered round outside, looked thru the car and heaven know's where else i can search.  :0\    it's going to occupy me all day when i should be doing other things. if i have to get a new car key it'll cost about $700!!  thank god i've got plenty of housekeys.



TUESDAY MORNING saw this gorgeous fella on top of a tree on the way
to get some photocopying done

dear rob, out there first thing getting everything
ready for another art vault day

got the tradies bus home, talk about a bunch of chinwaggers  -  non-stop, cars cars cars

tues night
EDI meets the locals,  friend and yoga teach 
Sal's  daughter edi is a livewire, this is a 
typical night at the pub

 sweet man at another table, she'd never

met him before  :0)

YESTERDAY MORNING after the key debacle i rang and organised a lift in with a friend. walking up the drive these lovely crested pigeons were soaking up the sun

being driven home, a chance to photograph the setting sun

NO POSTING

I'VE BEEN REMISS - somehow when i go to work for the day, the old blog gets missed, up too early and to the couch for a vege out when i get home.
Just spent tuesday wednesday at the art vault getting stuff done ahead of time to fill in for when i'm away,  whoo hoo, it's thursday now and i fly to armidale on saturday morning :0)
Helen Chamberlin (my publisher of old) and her sisters are arriving tonight to housesit.
weather has been superb, nights not cold any more and days just glorious sunshine, blue skies and no wind.  i'd better give the garden a super water today and position hoses so the girls can just turn on the pump every few days.

latest print for my book, the last page - i like the way the edginess of the print
medium takes the cuteness away, hard to do a pic like this without it being saccharine

A VISIT TO WENTY P.S.

WORKSHOPS at Wenty on Monday - three sessions, all day.  It's good to get acquainted with the local principal and teachers and kids.  the workshops were fine, good kids.  they have a great vegie garden and chooks - stephanie alexander is to be applauded for her gardens in schools projects - wonderful!

meet tyrone, the model for my
current picture book, so glad i met
him and his mum was a teacher's aide
so permission and photographs were
done immediately - serendipity :0)

                                i love the eyes on this cat

 I held a portrait workshop at the end of the day, these girls did portraits of each other, they're holding their own likeness, not bad

A SATURDAY KIND OF SATURDAY

WHAT A NICE DAY a complete contrast to yesterday - i took a walk to artback for brekky and just stopped to take photos wherever i saw them.  had coffee with the locals, in the sun, and walked back about 1.30 to sit out on the deck in the sun - a beautiful warm day - and did some drawing.  a new friend call in with her two funny staffies and now i'm watching two favorite movies, roman holiday and sunset boulevard.  

one of my favorite eucalypts, out in flower everywhere up here now

stopped at the lock to watch a houseboat going through

 i love my zoom lens

- spot the pelican.

here he is

I stopped to watch this pair of swans and realised that one of them is making a nest in this hollow stump.  he was dipping his head down and picking up wet grass and placing it around himself.    cygnets in spring?  :0)

brekky in the sun at artback

chinwaggers, steve and paul with bill the star working dog

sam burke, yoga teacher and marg, our local identity :0)

on the way home

the old convent schoolhouse, part of marg's place in cadell st

complete with corrugated iron nun   :0)

This fabulous car passed me and then i came across it at the lock.  i saw a man sitting alone having his lunch so i went down and asked him about it.  half an hour later i knew the whole story,  it's the most beautiful thing, with cream upholstery piped in red.  about 40 years old and absolutely immaculate.

new friend sam's funny dog lottie

GRANT'S IN!

What a day- on the computer nearly all day,  hunched over trying to make sense of the Australia Council online application form.  Thank god the ozcouncil staff are always there on the phone to walk you through it and keep you sane.  So my application got away about 4 o'clock   :0)

then i had a lovely visit from Phil Gwynne and his wife Eliza and two girls who curled up under the furry rug and watched telly.  we sat outside and watched the sun go down over a trentham wine or three.  great to see them,  Phil was chairing one of the panels i was on in Bali,  at the Ubud Writers Festival.  What a great time that was, they live in Ubud and are here visiting and doing a few school visits.

the girls, happy with food, a furry rug and cartoons on the tv

CAL'S FIRST INJURY

NOW HE'S WALKING he can fall, his first nose scrape pictured below.    family pics don't change over the decades do they?