From the river to the bay: AT LAST! BACK TO THE BLOG

AUTHOR PHIL KETTLE asked me to launch his new series of small books for boys, illustrated by descendent of frederick mcCubbin, david mcCubbin. Sacred Heart primary school turned it on for us with 400 highly energetic kids, it was fun. Phil and I are thinking about having a children's literature festival up here

BACK HOME the willy wagtails have a nest somewhere, they're ferociously dive bombing the magpie when he walks around on the lawn. they also defend against kites, kookaburras and the very big goanna, they're fearless

ERNIE RETURNS!!

TERRIBLE PIC but it was dark, i heard loud crackling

in the shrubbery as i put out the rubbish, sounded like

something big so i stood and listened. and there he

was (or she) walking across my back garden across the

lawn and down the river bank. i grabbed the camera

and blindly took flash photos. it's the first time i've

seen him in about four years, in which time he's dug

up half the front lawn and rearranged the paving

under my barbecue braziers

a visit to sue's beautiful sanctuary of a garden

sue and derek's amazing wisteria from the deck outside the bedroom

another lovely sunset

the superb fairy wrens are breeding, there are at least four males popping around on the lawn outside and lots of females. no
variegated wrens (with a splash of orange) so far this year

one of the feisy little willy wagtails

the team at the NSW Standard, our little local paper. they celebrated
40 years last week and invited me along because of my photo
contributions i guess. i usually provide pics of any big events and have a 'bird of the week' pic

SPEAKING OF BIRDS dear old marg has been knitting tea cosies of Australian Cockatoos and decided that this year her annual calendar would feature them and asked me to do the photos. so we had a shoot moving from her place to the lawns at lock 10 and up to my place, holding them up on the end of broom handles in shrubbery,
balancing them on branches with a variety of backgrounds. a funny
day and a full day, from 11 till 5. i was stuffed!

while we were shooting at the lock the swans went by with a beautiful new brood

finished off at my place,
had to get the river in
at least one shot.
marg's amazing, she's
almost blind, has
difficulty walking,
her husband malcolm
died only about 5
months ago and she
barrels on undaunted.

down on the riverbank

just a circle on two sticks really!

I love these rows of palm trees at merbein, strangely exotic

STUMPIES'S BACK! and i have a new small

goanna, seen in a tree yesterday

THE KINGFISHERS have returned for the summer, i saw them on
the murray/darling island yesterday, none at my place yet but they
come every year.

the
the garden - my daisies are spreading, i want more and more

still working on self portraits, i've entered the rick amor and now i'm reworking all the others, enjoying painting when i get the time. i've
had a few airbnb people, and other things to do like (groan) redoing my website, what a chore.

had a g&t at fossey's with sonja last week, steve the owner showed me their new canned g&t's using my artwork of the . . . hmm not sure which flowers these were, ah - desert lime (she said, reading the can) nice design, you can't can lime flavour though

our favorite tasting paddle, mountain pepperberry,
saltbush and kaffir lime

not sure how
to get this video
to work here,
can't be bothered
trying right now.
i've seen ernie
three times in
the past week,
such a cutie

last sunday was the country music festival so there was a market day in Darling Street. the makers had some stalls, it was bloody cold with a stiff breeze all morning and we were on the shady side of the street. but i sold about 20 books and my airbnb visitor bought six more :0) i like a bag full of cash

dorothy adair with her handcrafted flutes and flute/walking sticks
made from local bamboo - some from my garden. also felted
characters and some photographic work

this stall had the most amazing vegies and flowers