YESTERDAY

MY FIRST CLASS at the art vault - a group of students from Sea Lake brought their linocuts to run through the large etching press. they had some really lovely images and we played around with a bit of chine colle, using bits of japanese papers i'd brought along. 









above - chloe, jamie, grace and niamh is the art vault back gallery

left  niamh with her  print, half 'scream' half freddie kruger - strong and edgy

MARTIN came over for dinner and put up the blinds on the verandah for me, now it looks like a breezy outdoor room, very nice.   we went for a birdspotting drive down to the lagoon, a very pretty place just down the end of cadell st.  full of waterbirds. it was that lovely time of evening when the light was soft and golden and we both got some great pics.  i just enjoyed exploring a new place close to home, walking distance.

THESE PICS are martin's from the day at hattah lakes - the beautiful parrots and the wren - and from last night at Thegoa Lagoon near my place.

This beautiful spoonbill in flight is a new sight for me - i saw the first one ever only a couple of days  ago when i first walked up towards the lagoon



PHOTOS BELOW are my bird shots - i got some nice ones but they seem a bit below par when i see the incredible detail martin can get with his fantastic camera :0|

the thegoa lagoon is a wonderful setting for photos, some amazing scraggly trees, great shapes and twisted branches, i'm waiting for my drawing paper to arrive from magnani papers, then i'm going to get into some serious drawing.

HATTAH LAKES -

sigh, i think i have to remove the date altogether - previous post is actually saturday.

TODAY IS SUNDAY and it's been good - a very early start and a drive into mildura at 6.30 to meet martin at the art vault, then a drive out to hattah lakes, about 40 minutes away through great australian landscape and terrific cool overcast weather with a really fresh breeze, so refreshing after the heat and humidity of the last few
days. it's great to be driven for a change - so good to actually hang out the window and really see everything. great skies on the way in

Martin   was on the hunt for birds,  camera perched on his lap.  i was happy to look at everything and it was great to be out in the landscape with my sketchbook and camera.

it was a perfect opportunity  to really look at what grows naturally here, the wonderful colours of the saltbush and other things that i've yet to identify.  off to the native plant nursery with a few contraband souvenirs.

my bird photos are a bit sad and the battery died late morning, but i'm looking forward

to see martin's shots, we saw some fabulously colourful parrots, simply luminous.

this is a lookout at a place called waperol?  something with a 'w'  :0|     fantastic 360 deg views

What a nice day, i'm home now and it's after three, i was going to spend the rest of the day installing hose fittings, but bugger it - i think i'll just lie down and familiarise myself with Inspector Rebus, i'm starting from early in the series and reading them all, if i like'em.   love the tv series with john hannah

look at this gorgeous thing -

i've never seen a flowering

gum this colour, it was literally

glowing pink,  a big

spreading tree near

hattah lake

SO EXCITING - we drove down to the lake and walked down to photograph these beautiful young trees growing along the shoreline, to discover about 100 pelicans in the middle of the lake beyond.   highlight of the morning 

crazy shot - what's happening on the left there?

Now i'm waiting to see martin's bird pics, he took heaps so i'll post some when
he's sorted them out.

When i arrived home i couldn't help but be impressed by

my humungous bougainvillea, thank god it's growing in 

a place where i don't have to trim it

A REALLY NICE DAY

WELL IT WASN'T TO START WITH  I had a fit of the glooms this morning feeling isolated and unmotivated.  but i got of my big fat a--- and headed into mildura to buy yet more hose attachments, and dropped into the art vault to see martin.

at the end of the day we headed down to etiwanda wetlands just five minutes out of town to see the waterbirds there.  i didn't even know it existed.
but before that i visited the cemetery  looking for angels and madonnas, what a rewarding trip that was.

i think these beautiful angels will become big drawings one day - i've been
collecting angels and madonnas for a few years now.





























so after an hour or so at the cemetery, martin and i headed down to the wetland to
photograph birds and for me, also water reflections.

The fabulous darter - those wings are just magnificent, like an extravagant opera coat

waiting . . .  waiting for that reed warbler

THEN - food time and martin cooked the most delicious pork roast, 

talk about crackling!  Stefano - eat your heart out

How good is this - early christmas :0)

A MOST GORGEOUS SUNSET -   'pink at night shepherd's delight"  does that mean it won't rain tomorrow??

FRANGIPANI

YES it's all mine  -   i can't believe i have my own frangipani tree

CORRECT DATE?

 i haven't seen the day on this post yet, but if it's correct then superblogger beamsteria
is the one to thank.  

AH YES  it's been a pretty  good day on the river - a cool and breezy evening and rain, lovely

RAIN IT'S DIVINE!

WELL  today's been a day of water - first brendan arriving to run through with me the thousand questions i had written in my little black book about the system he's installed,  things happening like hoses popping off the taps in the middle of the night and flooding the driveway,  big punctures appearing in hoses,  sprinklers still being on in the morning when they should've turned off
automatically  -   all things that had me so strung out this morning i was distracted while having
a much need swim at 7 a.m. -  thank god that pool is open early, only 3 mornings a week tho.  anyway
brendan had answers to everything so we'll see how things develop.  

here he is -  and that's the company -  early days yet but the system's in place so hopefully everything'll be greening up soon without too many more hiccups

SO NOW i'm suddenly becoming acquainted with such things as connectors, nut and tails, turf valves and keys, turbo keys, W10's, you name it . . .   hose fittings and connectors ad infinitum :0)

FIRST DROPS  this afternoon as i was doing the nine letter word, the rain's continued into the evening, it smells lovely

STILL THURSDAY

you know you haven't got enough to do when you're watching bridget jones' diary and zooming in on the crystals in your chandelier  -   colours are pretty nice though :0)

IT'S ACTUALLY THURSDAY

I'd love to know how to change that incorrect automatic date that pops up at the beginning of each blog.

it was hot hot hot - it's an interesting thing to be here on the river, surrounded by 1.5 acres, under a big wide roof looking way up and down the murray.

after living for 11 years in a small apartment on the second floor, apartments on three
sides and above and below, virtually insulated from the weather - looking at the weather was just a spectator sport,  amazing skies and storms passed by as though they were being seen on a big screen.

but here the weather is very much around me,  the heat beats down on the roof and  permeates the house and this afternoon as a wind change took place the whole sky and river became a brownish dull colour, the wind whipped through the trees just outside, leaves and bark blowing against the house making a wild whistling noise - and a mess!  (that exclamation mark is just for you doug mcleod  :0).

it's passed now and without a drop of rain sad to say, down south it's raining - i know.
now the river has turned a lovely dark silver as twilight settles in.

pics from today

these are the first magpies i've seen at the birdbath, one very young one

dust coming up the river, i still can't get used to being on the nsw side, it feels like being upside down - i always expect the weather to be coming from the opposite direction

HOSES HOSES EVERYWHERE

IT'S GOING TO BE 38 today so i've been out early watering and changing hoses to try and maximise the automatic watering that happens at night.  lots of scratches on my arms, but lots of fun foraging around in the undergrowth and finding even more hose

infrastructure that's been hidden by the falling leaves and ground cover.  little by little

things are being put in place and upgraded.  another trip to bunnings hose fittings dept coming up. 

OK, SOME PHOTOs :0)

i spent yesterday afternoon, after my head had been overstuffed with watering information - on getting
out all the prints done by friends, and framing them up ready to decide where they'll go.   i've been accumulating them for years, now they'll be on display for me and my visitors to enjoy.

gorgeous prints by janet goldman, bridget farmer, mat roberts (sorry mat, can't read the signature very
well,  elizabeth barnett, kirrily hammond, katharine hattam, libby letcher, anne mcmaster

google them, they all have wonderful work



i also found my little concertina book of my family, monoprints i did taken from an old group photo,it's been wrapped up for years, time it was out on the sideboard

that's my dad in the middle and on the cover, then his sister and various cousins.  he's about the same age as i was when he died aged 48.  

NO PHOTOS TODAY

Brendan's been here finishing of the watering system, my god - i think i'll need a licence to drive it, a computerised box to contend with.   it's probably all very straightforward once i get used to it -  and it does mean i don't have to run up and down the drive (maybe 200 metres) to check the hoses, back turn on the pump then back up front again to make sure the hoses are working, lots of to-ing and fro-ing, and at least i HAVE water out there after five days without it. 
Now i just have battle with hoses that have jumped off their taps, i went out last night
to check that the timing program had kicked in,  all was well.  next time i went out the hose was loose and water was absolutely gushing down the drive.  and i didn't know how
to turn it off with the program running.   bloody hell, one thing after another.

HOWEVER, it's wednesday now and i'm off to a ladies' xmas lunch in at stefano's cafe
bakery, then a swim at the big outdoor pool.   that'll fix me up :0)