BIRDBATH ENCOUNTER

I was looking through the window and this beautiful ringneck parrot was intrigued by two noisy miners having a bath.  one flew off before i could get the camera but this one hung in there trying to have another dip while being bemused and uncertain about his colourful visitor.    I never tire of the shenanigans going on in the birdbaths around the garden 

BLUEY AT MY WINDOW

i was sitting in the loungeroom when this little wren landed on an upended log and saw his reflection.  i'm sure he thought he saw a rival,  the birds are getting pretty active with the approach of spring and the fine sunny weather :0)

LOCKDOWN CONTINUES

LOCKDOWN really hasn't made a lot of difference to me but i did have the experience of driving through the barriers and showing my cross border permit to an army guy in camouflage.

and now i'm off to spotlight today, not for wool but for fabrics to try making a mask or two.   if they work i'll send them to sunny, although i hear that pipecleaners are selling out already. they're needed to shape around the bridge of the nose.  who would've thought we'd be doing these things back in february when the year was stretching ahead, full of possibilities.  i'm so sad that sunny's first baby comes at this time which intrudes on the joy and tiredness of having a new baby in the house.  

little popsie is doing nicely, 'chubbing up' as sunny puts it.

hat knitted by great aunt jen

LOCKDOWN IN JAPAN  -  rene and family are doing alright, the kids are at kinder and school having temps taken as they enter, wearing masks out in the public spaces.   Looks like mara is into dresses, so i'm going to sew her a couple.

    the family has a new car, a VW small SUV style wagon.   cal's 

    overdue for a haircut, rene's cutting his own.

latest pics, etta is 3.2 kg, almost ready to go into a sling :0)  life will become easier for sunny

i'm busy knitting - this time for me, lovely bendigo wool with alpaca and silk so it's very nice to the touch.  making this up as i go along, knitting, pulling out,  knitting, pulling out.   trial and error.

birdie visitors,  a face-off between the kooka, happily sitting on the clothesline minding its own business and a willie, determined that he had to go

FOGGY MORNINGS, WARM SUNNY DAYS THIS WEEK

 morning walk.   this ring-neck parrot preceded me along the footpath for a block.  usually they're in pairs and are up high and quite skittish.  this one walked and flew a few meters ahead of me and played on the wire fence.  Made me think he's been in captivity for a while. 

more birds - taken at home during the week

a gorgeous new neighbour

gavin and jenny next door have an adorable new heeler, Maddie.   she's the chubbiest cuddliest little pup, i'm going to love having her
to chat to on morning walks when she's allowed out into the front yard.  right now she's safely out the back.  gavin's concerned about theft and hawks

I WENT FOR A 2 HOUR WALK yesterday, maybe long, exploring across the road out into the saltbush and up to Thegoa Lagoon, hoping to find a variegated wren or a white winged wren.  instead i found this pretty little grey fantail, hard to photograph because it just doesn't sit still and i'm a long way off.  but here it is

AFTER I GOT BACK it was a toss up between weeding the iris garden or mosaicing a little table.  i have two of these, will do both.  the recessed metal top lifts off, they'll be handy for outdoor tables.  Kmart, $15.  

using two coasters, one had cracked and i'd like them in a place where i see them more, i love the green one, gorgeous colours

I'll buy charcoal grout today, it'll pull together ok.  the other one will be more white, cream, mirror and soft green.  and one piece of china i found on my walk through the saltbush.   there used to be a settlement there in the '30's while the weir and lock were being built.

LOCKDOWN CONTINUES

A LARGE AREA AROUND NORTH EAST MELBOURNE is in full lockdown and the NSW/Victoria border is closed but now we find that border communities can apply online for a permit to cross over and it's easy - i went online and printed out a permit in about 5 minutes.  it lasts two weeks before i need reapply.  that's fine with me.
weather is sunny and mild, i met di for a coffee at the pub this morning.  talked to sunny, rene and friends in the last few days. all seems fine.   i hope they get on top of the virus this time, it feels a bit  shaky but the vic government is working hard.  i don't know how poor old premier dan andrews keeps on going, he's worked so hard.

here on the confluence, the birds are unperturbed.

  i left the hoses on too long yesterday and the variegated wrens appeared, i rarely see them so it was a treat to sit on the verandah and watch them darting in and out of the puddles

LOCKDOWN ON THE BORDER

VICTORIA / NEW SOUTH WALES border is closed - it was the topic de jour at the pub last night,  friend helen says she thinks they'll create bubbles  e.g. albury/wodonga   mildura/wentworth, for towns that are close and interdependent.  i hope so.  i only got to go to the cinema for the first time since early march.  David Copperfield - i liked it and loved being back in a theatre - sunday morning, only three people there :0)  just the way i like it.

so i won't be seeing little etta in 3D again for at least 6 weeks, maybe more.   sunny's just sent some pics though, i'll have to make do.

sunny's looking pretty damn good for
3 o'clock in the morning!

HOME AGAIN

I HAD A GOOD FEW DAYS away, an afternoon and a morning walk with sunny, luke and etta, then down to torquay to stay with gail and catch up with friends.  just a quick visit, Melbourne suburbs close to sunny's are in lockdown again as a response to a new outbreak of covid cases so i feel i should lay low again for a while.  great to see everyone and i had a good trip home broken by an overnight stay in st arnaud again.   i like La Cochon Rose,  just a plain old motel room with 70's tiles in the bathroom, but the town is lovely and the old pub at the front where the owners live is a beautiful building.

now i'm staying warm, knitting, bingeing on god knows what and looking out at the garden thinking ' maybe i should . . . '

i bought a bootful of art supplies in geelong on june 29, i need some deductions!   lots of new oil paints, some stretched linen canvases and a roll of primed cotton duck.   i'll start with a little oil of etta :0)

nice to be home - the wood duck is chattering away down on the fallen trees, i think they're searching for a nesting hollow

Yesterday was a low key opening of HOME2020,  local artists were invited to submit 20 photos accompanied by 20 words, taken in May during lockdown.

FULL MOON last night

I'VE MET ETTA!!

DID A QUICK TRIP down to Melbourne to see sunny, etta and luke. broke my trip each way with a overnighter in a motel, a good one in bendigo opposite the lake, i'll stay there again.  the Happy Wanderer :0)   visited the gallery to see edna robertson's beautiful paintings from her time in paris early last century.

the vines were in full late season splendour as i left

 a foggy morning in bendigo, i had a walk around the lake

 the bendigo gallery - during lockdown a maximum of twenty people in each 2 hour time slot

i took this photo

to keep as 

inspiration, 

i must have

another go at

still life.

  

a lovely surprise, as i sat in the sun at the gallery anna and craig appeared at my table, still on their drive around victoria


YAY  i finally meet etta, tiny treasure